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Hidden Gifts, YOUR VIBRATIONS Vol. 2, No. 11 - 11.08
A few weeks ago, I wrote what I am sure was an inspired and eloquent newsletter about the hidden gifts that difficult situations hold for us. And guess what? My computer died pretty much as I typed in the last period. Poof! It was all gone! I suppose this is the time to come out and tell you that everything I write about is absolutely relevant to my life. When I wrote about abundance, I found myself living with another bout of poverty-consciousness. When I wrote about fear, I wound up wanting to hide in the cupboard, trying to avoid the defiant stare of the successful version of myself. And there I was again, meaning to write about the pre-election news and the economy and other uglies, and winding up with a dead computer. Well, now that my computer is back up and running, I can share more about hidden gifts with you, although eloquence is rare on the second round! The truth is that the computer's early death brought me many hidden gifts, actually, they are too many to count. One is that I got a chance to start a beautiful and truly inspiring book that had been on my shelf for the longest time, Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life, by Gregg Levoy. You know living as my authentic self, and helping you do the same is what really moves me. Well, I haven't finished it, but so far, this book is really getting to the heart of the issue! I'm loving it, and you probably would, too! My secret to enjoying the hidden gifts in life is Reiki! If not for a couple of emergency Reiki treatments, I would have been too stressed to even remember they might be there! Sometimes it takes some centering to center myself! And Reiki definitely helps center me enough to do any other centering work I care to do afterwards. And when the things that feel bad, or the yuckiness, as my sister would say, is just too much, when it's so thick that it coats your vision, then a spiritual retreat to FIND the hidden gifts, is the other secret. It's so much fun: a playful, heartfelt quest for gifts! How can you not raise your vibrations when hunting for gifts? WHERE THE HIDDEN GIFTS ARE FOUNDI haven't really stopped to explain what I mean by hidden gifts. They are the things that you experience, learn or receive, that could only have come to you because of something that you initially (or maybe always) perceived as negative, like your computer dying right after you put in hours of work that had not been backed up! Or like the economy slowing down enough for you to notice it in your pocket. I believe there must be a muscle for finding hidden gifts, because the more you do it, the better you get at it. The most important part, of course, is remembering to look! (That's where Reiki, meditation, grounding come in handy.) And once you do, you can find them throughout your day, like the slow driver in front of you all the way to work, or your partner who is in a snippy mood, or that hole in your pocket. Can you see the gifts already there, waiting to be discovered? That slow driver is your chance to remember to S-L-O-W down! Maybe that will finally inspire you to rethink your schedule, to prioritize so that you can take things slow and enjoy what you do instead of rushing all the time. And your partner who is acting funky? Here is your opportunity to actively choose the experience you will have: is this going to be an arguing day, a run-and-hide day? Or is this a day when you can see how much everything changes if you choose to look at your partner as their best self instead of the small self acting up right now? And that hole in your pocket? Don't even get me started on the questions it can open up for you! Do you need to change your priorities? Or find another job? Or get your entire self, from your spirit to your physical body into alignment? Do you need to do a mini-spiritual retreat? Really, everything that we experience holds meaning for us. Everything, but especially everything challenging, is a chance to check in with our Authentic, True Self and ask what we need to do now to align our life with it more fully! I know, finding the hidden gifts is not always easy, and it can't always take the edge off of what we have to go through. But it makes the landscape on the way more welcoming, and the journey easier to embrace! And, truth be told, the more you look for gifts, the more you find. Call it the law of attraction, call it spirit or destiny or just wishful thinking, call it whatever you like. If you look for gifts, you will find them, and feel joyful and grateful for them. YOUR STORY OF HIDDEN GIFTSTake a quick moment to center yourself here. Breathe deep and bring your consciousness to your body. Feel your breath nourish it. Now take a look back on your life. Start when you were little, when you faced your first challenges, as far back as you can remember and tell yourself the story of your life. But this time, let the idea of hidden gifts frame the story for you. Look at the hard knocks, the times you fell, the great disappointments. And let yourself remember how much they brought you, remember how much of who you, in the best sense, came from those circumstances, which once you may have called disasters, but today can also be recognized as opportunities. Write them down in a list. I know you don't have to retell your life story to yourself to recognize this is true. But there is something powerful and important about making this list. When you look at it, when you see how long it can get, then you can remember, really remember, not just know that you have the information, but remember deeply that you have done this many times and, more importantly, that you have been the recipient of countless gifts, large and small, that have enriched your life and shaped you into the person that you are now! Then you can truly remember how blessed you are! Wishing you peace and joy always, About the Author
©2008 Andrea Friedmann. All rights reserved. |
