Lesson 21: Ongoing Healthy Practices for Self Love
Forgive Yourself and Start Fresh
by Mary Hayes Grieco
Lesson 21: Ongoing Healthy Practices for Self Love
QUESTION: What is the very best healthy practice for me to do?
ANSWER: The one that you actually will do, because you enjoy it so much.
Do you love sitting for meditation? By all means, do it! But no? You are honestly very bored and restless and fantasizing walking in the woods with your dog?
Perhaps you should do that one instead.
There are many, many ways of exercising loving self discipline to bring yourself more and more present to the goodness of your basic self, and to foster your awareness of the Higher Self, and the Divine Source.
My favorite thing is to mix it up and have some variety – do something good for each level of my person, each day: physical, emotional, mental, energetic. Here’s a sample of the “menu” I choose from.
Physical Level – A workout exercise, cleaning, beautifying a space, dressing well, cooking a seasonal soup, getting body work, getting my hands in dirt, watching an animal, doing a handcraft.
Emotional Level – Receiving good attention from a friend, doing forgiveness work, attending a 12 Step Meeting, being close with a partner, making love, having a good laugh, having a good cry, nurturing a child (maybe it’s the Inner Child), expressing some art or a creative interest.
Mental Level – Living a positive affirmation, enjoying a good read, participating in an invigorating discussion or a respectful argument, communicating an idea in writing, sitting or walking meditation, prayer.
Subtle Energy Level – Hanging out with someone who’s lively and inspiring (and avoiding people who suck my energy dry); supporting my system with a homeopathic remedy or a flower remedy; visiting a water source – river, lake, waterfall; eating fresh food; getting Reiki energy healing; taking some space to empty out; grounding myself; and performing good energy hygiene to remain serene in my personal space.
Synthesis Happens! when I pick one thing from each level to do, and really do it. One day at a time, with consistency and variety.
Suggestion: Make your own menu, with items for each level of your being, and chart your own self-love course each day.
Physical_______________________________________
Emotional______________________________________
Mental_________________________________________
Energy_________________________________________
Spiritual______________________________________
Inspired Intention
“Just for today,
I will choose and do the healthy practices that I LOVE –
This will help me to be relaxed, loving, vital, and PRESENT
to my glorious self and my glorious world!”
Forgiveness: A spiritual practice to use for a lifetime!
As we reach the conclusion of this course, I hope that you are feeling palpably lighter, more connected to yourself and to Life, and aware of the profound value of forgiveness, as the healer of our wounds and the bringer of the experience of self love.
There are a few things in life that seem to be part of the curriculum for every human being. One of them is the skillful use of our free will, to create our reality. The other is the practice of forgiveness, which keeps us in the flow of life, and in harmony with ourselves and others.
Similarly to the Course in Miracles, it can be said about the lessons of forgiveness:
“The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance.”
If you’d like to go deeper into forgiveness studies, including learning how to forgive others, visit www.forgivenesstraining.com, read my book Unconditional Forgiveness>> or attend the next Wonderful Forgiveness Weekend.
You will learn to turn effortlessly to the practices of forgiving self and others again … and again. Life is life-y, full of wonder yet replete with change and loss, and surprising challenges. None of it is our fault and little of it is entirely within our control, and nothing is personal. It’s just life. I hope you will know the trust, curiosity, and joy of the willing student.
I wish you all the best!
from Unconditional Forgiveness
by Mary Hayes Grieco
As I complete this book and reflect on twenty-five years of my commitment to the path of unconditional forgiveness and the Eight Steps to Freedom, I can’t claim sainthood or full enlightenment. What is true now is that I wake up most days in a state of pleasant anticipation, glad to be here. Life is good—difficult at times, but good. Everything I need is in front of me or right next to me. I can’t blame anyone, including myself, for the things I don’t prefer. It’s enough in a day to do the next right thing. If I don’t know what that is, I pay attention to my breathing and whatever beauty is available until the next right thing shows up. It usually comes as an opportunity to share some kindness or loyalty with another human being.
There is no need for unnecessary drama, because everyday life is glorious, ordinary, and gritty enough on its own. The part of me that was a frightened child is nestled safely at home in my heart—well loved, well tended, and well guided moment by moment. No matter how ordinary, noisy, and intense my current scene is, God’s presence is knit into it and wrapped all around it like a cushion of unconditional love and quietude.
As my teacher Edith said to me once from the mountaintop of all her life experiences, “We don’t know why they did that, dear. . . . In fact, dear, we don’t know anything at all.” The peaceful twinkle with which that wise woman spoke that one sentence taught me more than anything else she said during our years together. She showed me that wisdom comes when you realize that, even if you don’t know anything for sure, life is fine. Even if you don’t know what is going to happen in the next moment, you are safe and whole, at home in the Universe. When you walk out into the day and, as Rumi said, “be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder” and know that whatever life presents you, you will find the good in it, you have received the full gift of living the path of unconditional forgiveness.
I thank Thee O Heavenly Spirit
Because Thou hast put me
At a source of running streams,
At a living spring in a land of drought,
Watering an eternal garden of wonders,
The Tree of Life, mystery of mysteries,
Growing everlasting branches for eternal planting
To sink their roots into The Stream of Life
From an eternal Source.
From the Thanksgiving Psalms
of the Dead Sea Scrolls, VI (iii, 19–36)
- Illustrations by Lois Imogen Rhomberg Visit Lois at www.loisrhomberg.com