Never lose the courage to take risk. You are immortal. You can never be hurt.
Sometimes the lessons learned seem simple or obvious, yet they must be learned by our hearts, at the deepest levels, not only by our intellects. Direct experience, often through regressions, can provide an avenue to the heart.
Barbara was going through a detailed and deeply felt past life in the American South during the second half of the nineteenth century.
She remembered the large white house where she lived with her mother in the aftermath of the American Civil War and the hardship they endured there. She remembered a happier time from later in that life when she was married, with two young children, and living in a different house. I moved her to the last day of that lifetime.
"I'm old…my hands have spots on them…brown spots on my hands, and the skin is very soft."
"Is there anyone around?" I asked
"My son is with me…my daughter is there…she's by the doorway, she's looking at me. She's sad," Barbara lamented in a whisper. "I don't want her to be sad."
"She died, floating above the old body she left behind."
"How do you feel now?" I inquired.
"Better" she answered in a stronger voice. "I can see them in the room. I can see the woman in the bed," she added, observing her former body. "She has white hair, and she's wrinkly…I feel very peaceful…I feel like I'm floating…floating."
She was enjoying this peaceful place. Before awakening her, I asked her to take a long look at her daughter and her son, to see if she recognized them as anyone in her present life as Barbara.
"I got a sense the daughter is a niece that I have now by the name of Rebecca…it was weird…I feel the connection that that daughter is now her."
I reminded Barbara that we often come around again and again with the same people, even though our relationships may change. This is one way we learn here in the physical state.
After floating above her withered old body, she was able to review that lifetime, its affluent beginnings, the devastation after the Civil War, and happy family life that followed. One lesson stood out above the others.
"To slow down and to appreciate what you have around you," Barbara said emphatically.
Once again, although the lesson applies specifically to her, it also applies to all of us. There is so much beauty, so much truth and love around us, but we so rarely slow down enough to notice, to appreciate. Sometimes it takes a tragedy or a great loss to remind us, but quickly we seem to fall back into the same old rut.
Slow down and smell the flowers is the modern version of Barbara's lesson. Enjoy the fruits of this beautiful garden. It is not enough that your intellect, your head, understands this. Your heart must, also, and your daily thoughts and actions must show that your heart truly knows.
Sit or lie comfortably and close your eyes. Take a few relaxing breaths and let all the tightness and discomfort leave your body.
Remember those times when your eyes misted with tears of happiness and joy. Perhaps you unselfishly helped another human being. Perhaps somebody, unasked and unexpectedly, reached out to help you. Perhaps you were reading a book or watching a movie or witnessing a scene where lives were being touched by love.
Take your time. Your heart is opening.
Whenever your eyes will up with tears of joy, carefully stop and observe. What are you witnessing? Why does this touch you? What is missing in your life?
Now you have a strong clue about which modifications are needed to bring more joy, more happiness, more peace into your life.
It is well known that happiness comes from within. Happiness is an inner state. You will not miraculously become happy if someone else changes, or if the outside world changes, but only if you change. You must see with a larger perspective. Someone else may point the way, give you techniques, but that is all others can do. The rest is up to you.
It is not wrong, sinful or unspiritual to be happy and to have fun. You cannot graduate from this school until you learn to be joyful.
Mother Teresa wrote, "I am sure that if we all understand the Golden Rule - that God is Love and that He has created us for greater things, to love and be loved - we would then love one another as He has loved each one of us. True love is a giving until it hurts. It is not how much we give - but how much love we put into the giving.
Therefore it is necessary to pray - the fruit of prayer is deepening of Faith - the fruit of Faith is Love - Love in action is Service - and so acts of Love are acts of Peace - and this is the living of the Golden Rule.
Love one another as God loves each one of us."
I do not agree that true love is a giving until it hurts, because there is too much joy in such giving. Any hurt would be quickly soothed. But the rest is pure wisdom. If everyone were to follow Mother Teresa's simple prescription, violence and war would disappear, and peace would reign over the world.
At an inner, psychological level people would feel this peace also. Fears would diminish and disappear, since love dissolves fear. Without fear, we could accomplish what we came here to accomplish. We would also be happier. The walls we hide behind would evaporate because we would not need to insulate ourselves emotionally if we did not fear. We could open ourselves to the energy of love.