Beca Lewis's Blog: Beca's Blog, page 22
March 16, 2015
When You Hit A Foggy Patch: Look For Omnipresent Love - The Shift To Spiritual Perception
As we drove to work one morning, we were celebrating the fact that it was a beautiful sunny spring day. Suddenly it wasn’t. Within seconds, we were surrounded by fog. We could see less than twenty feet in front of us.
Cars slowed down, car lights flicked on, and everyone became alert and careful as they continued to drive. Within minutes, we had driven out of the fog, and once again it was a beautiful sunny spring day.
Isn’t life like this?
We are happily living a fulfilling and abundant life and then without warning our wealth, our health, our love, or our happiness seems to disappear. What is the difference between hitting the fog on the road and hitting the fog in our lives? Nothing except our point of view and state of mind — and that is everything.
Here’s what we don’t think when we hit fog in the road. “Yikes, everything in the world is gone. What must I do to bring it back?”
It never occurs to us to think this way. We know for certain that the world as we know it has been only momentarily hidden. This point of view results in a state of mind of caution, patience, and gratefulness.
We take the action of slowing down, turning on headlights, and carefully driving until we are out of the fog. We don’t have the state of mind that we are responsible to bring the world back. We don’t accept the fear, panic, responsibility, and ego that accompanies that state of mind.
Fog in our lives does not change the fact that all we need is present now; it hides it from view.
When we shine the light of a point of view that nothing has changed, that omnipresent Love is filling all space and omnipotent Mind is constantly providing for us, the fog lifts to reveal what has never been lost.
This is what makes spiritual perception appear to produce practical results.
Years ago I was balancing my checkbook and discovered that I had about $200 less in my bank than I thought I had. Immediately I panicked.
Problems, like fog, had appeared so often in my life at that time that my state of mind was, “Oh no, not again.” I was full of fear and felt responsible for the mistake. I began to act from my ego. I started thinking that since I caused the problem I must have to do something to fix it.
As I walked home from the bank my state of mind relaxed enough to think from a spiritual point of view of omnipresent Love.
As I did so, it occurred to me that I should check my statement again. When I did, I discovered that the bank had credited a $200 deposit as only $2.00. The fog had lifted and revealed that nothing had changed.
Fog is a mist. In our life it is a mist that clouds over Truth. It is a misperception. It doesn’t matter what the need may appear to be — whether it is money, health, love, companionship, or happiness. The truth is that all that we need is present, always has been, and always will be.
Our perception produces, filters, our viewpoint of the world that we live in. It doesn’t create it. Our perception, our point of view, reveals to us only what we believe to be reality.
As people all over the world appear to struggle in a fog, we have a practical solution. We can drive with our headlights of clarity on high beam. We can shift our state of mind and point of view to Truth.
We can remember that fog will lift, and the world will appear as it has been all along; perfect, abundant, safe, and joyful.
The post When You Hit A Foggy Patch: Look For Omnipresent Love by Beca Lewis appeared first on The Shift To Spiritual Perception.
When You Hit A Foggy Patch: Look For Omnipresent Love
As we drove to work one morning, we were celebrating the fact that it was a beautiful sunny spring day. Suddenly it wasn’t. Within seconds, we were surrounded by fog. We could see less than twenty feet in front of us.
Cars slowed down, car lights flicked on, and everyone became alert and careful as they continued to drive. Within minutes, we had driven out of the fog, and once again it was a beautiful sunny spring day.
Isn’t life like this?
We are happily living a fulfilling and abundant life and then without warning our wealth, our health, our love, or our happiness seems to disappear. What is the difference between hitting the fog on the road and hitting the fog in our lives? Nothing except our point of view and state of mind — and that is everything.
Here’s what we don’t think when we hit fog in the road. “Yikes, everything in the world is gone. What must I do to bring it back?”
It never occurs to us to think this way. We know for certain that the world as we know it has been only momentarily hidden. This point of view results in a state of mind of caution, patience, and gratefulness.
We take the action of slowing down, turning on headlights, and carefully driving until we are out of the fog. We don’t have the state of mind that we are responsible to bring the world back. We don’t accept the fear, panic, responsibility, and ego that accompanies that state of mind.
Fog in our lives does not change the fact that all we need is present now; it hides it from view.
When we shine the light of a point of view that nothing has changed, that omnipresent Love is filling all space and omnipotent Mind is constantly providing for us, the fog lifts to reveal what has never been lost.
This is what makes spiritual perception appear to produce practical results.
Years ago I was balancing my checkbook and discovered that I had about $200 less in my bank than I thought I had. Immediately I panicked.
Problems, like fog, had appeared so often in my life at that time that my state of mind was, “Oh no, not again.” I was full of fear and felt responsible for the mistake. I began to act from my ego. I started thinking that since I caused the problem I must have to do something to fix it.
As I walked home from the bank my state of mind relaxed enough to think from a spiritual point of view of omnipresent Love.
As I did so, it occurred to me that I should check my statement again. When I did, I discovered that the bank had credited a $200 deposit as only $2.00. The fog had lifted and revealed that nothing had changed.
Fog is a mist. In our life it is a mist that clouds over Truth. It is a misperception. It doesn’t matter what the need may appear to be — whether it is money, health, love, companionship, or happiness. The truth is that all that we need is present, always has been, and always will be.
Our perception produces, filters, our viewpoint of the world that we live in. It doesn’t create it. Our perception, our point of view, reveals to us only what we believe to be reality.
As people all over the world appear to struggle in a fog, we have a practical solution. We can drive with our headlights of clarity on high beam. We can shift our state of mind and point of view to Truth.
We can remember that fog will lift, and the world will appear as it has been all along; perfect, abundant, safe, and joyful.
The post When You Hit A Foggy Patch: Look For Omnipresent Love appeared first on The Shift.
March 1, 2015
Everything Present is Present As God Only - The Shift To Spiritual Perception
Everything that is present is present as God only. John Hargreaves
We might understand this idea better if we use the word energy. It’s not accurate, and I will get back to that, but it is a helpful analogy. It enables us to wrap our head around the idea that everything present is present as God only.
When we hear the idea said this way, “Everything is energy expressing itself,” a little click takes place. “Sure, that’s what it is,” we say to ourselves.
The sun sinking into the ocean is energy, the wind, the waves, the birds flying overhead. The tiny flowers, the huge trees, the person standing on the corner waving a sign, the one riding in the car beside me; all energy expressed.
We can also wrap our head around the idea that energy never comes or goes, it just changes form.
When I am looking out my window at the maple tree standing tall and proud, with its spring buds just beginning to show, while at the same time watching the wood in our wood stove burn to release heat, I can begin to see that it is energy being expressed in at least two of its forms, but it is still present.
Which means I might be able to put aside judgment about anything being better than another. It’s just energy expressed differently.
Now that we have gotten this far, now that we have a glimpse into the idea that nothing is better than another, that one form of expression is just that, a different form of expression of the same thing; let’s update to the next level of understanding.
Energy is a symbol of a higher Truth. The reason it isn’t THE Truth is so simple. Energy is matter. It is not, not; let me say it again for myself, not Spirit. Energy and Spirit are not interchangeable. Energy is a symbol that enables us to begin to grasp the larger Truth, but it is not Spirit.
We know energy exists in the material because we can measure it. In fact, that’s something that we do all the time. We measure energy. How much energy output, how much it weighs, how far does it travel, what does it look like.
No matter how big the measurement is, like a galaxy, or how small, like a quark, we can measure it.
Spirit is not measurable. It is not contained in a form. It doesn’t have size, shape, or distance.
Hey, if we can’t understand quantum physics, an advanced form of measuring energy – and no one can – we can forgive ourselves for not understanding Spirit.
On the other hand, that’s the joy of it. We can’t. And yet we can experience it.
Haven’t we all, at least once, had the passing, but profound, experience of no matter, just Spirit. It is that moment that we rightly cling to knowing it is Truth. It is invisible, but experienced, if but briefly, as a tiny part of the whole of Spirit.
It should be enough to inspire us to begin to let go of trying to hold Spirit within the grasp of matter. We can let go of trying to make Spirit into energy so we can control it. Isn’t that crazy? The idea trying to control the Thinker! Ah, so silly.
Instead, it would be so much more fun, so much more freeing, if we stopped trying to visualize a better human life.
Sure, we can within the framework of the story that we are human and measurable energy. But, how much more rewarding it would be if, at least once a day, let go of the measurement. If we let go of the trying to figure it out. Let go of fitting and squashing Spirit into what we know, and simply felt being one with the One that is doing the thinking.
The idea that in the moment we would feel the I Am as us, might propel us to that moment of letting go more often.
This doesn’t mean we don’t fully enjoy every single expression of “energy” we know. Flowers, trees, food, people
In fact, we enjoy them with greater appreciation because we are no longer comparing, or measuring. We know, that although they appear as energy to us, they actually are the expression of God, Spirit.
How glorious and freeing is that! “Ye shall know the Truth and it shall make ye free.”* Oh yeah, let’s choose that. Let’s go forth into the freedom of non-measurable Spirit.
*John 8:32
The post Everything Present is Present As God Only by Beca Lewis appeared first on The Shift To Spiritual Perception.
Everything Present is Present As God Only
Everything that is present is present as God only. John Hargreaves
We might understand this idea better if we use the word energy. It’s not accurate, and I will get back to that, but it is a helpful analogy. It enables us to wrap our head around the idea that everything present is present as God only.
When we hear the idea said this way, “Everything is energy expressing itself,” a little click takes place. “Sure, that’s what it is,” we say to ourselves.
The sun sinking into the ocean is energy, the wind, the waves, the birds flying overhead. The tiny flowers, the huge trees, the person standing on the corner waving a sign, the one riding in the car beside me; all energy expressed.
We can also wrap our head around the idea that energy never comes or goes, it just changes form.
When I am looking out my window at the maple tree standing tall and proud, with its spring buds just beginning to show, while at the same time watching the wood in our wood stove burn to release heat, I can begin to see that it is energy being expressed in at least two of its forms, but it is still present.
Which means I might be able to put aside judgment about anything being better than another. It’s just energy expressed differently.
Now that we have gotten this far, now that we have a glimpse into the idea that nothing is better than another, that one form of expression is just that, a different form of expression of the same thing; let’s update to the next level of understanding.
Energy is a symbol of a higher Truth. The reason it isn’t THE Truth is so simple. Energy is matter. It is not, not; let me say it again for myself, not Spirit. Energy and Spirit are not interchangeable. Energy is a symbol that enables us to begin to grasp the larger Truth, but it is not Spirit.
We know energy exists in the material because we can measure it. In fact, that’s something that we do all the time. We measure energy. How much energy output, how much it weighs, how far does it travel, what does it look like.
No matter how big the measurement is, like a galaxy, or how small, like a quark, we can measure it.
Spirit is not measurable. It is not contained in a form. It doesn’t have size, shape, or distance.
Hey, if we can’t understand quantum physics, an advanced form of measuring energy – and no one can – we can forgive ourselves for not understanding Spirit.
On the other hand, that’s the joy of it. We can’t. And yet we can experience it.
Haven’t we all, at least once, had the passing, but profound, experience of no matter, just Spirit. It is that moment that we rightly cling to knowing it is Truth. It is invisible, but experienced, if but briefly, as a tiny part of the whole of Spirit.
It should be enough to inspire us to begin to let go of trying to hold Spirit within the grasp of matter. We can let go of trying to make Spirit into energy so we can control it. Isn’t that crazy? The idea trying to control the Thinker! Ah, so silly.
Instead, it would be so much more fun, so much more freeing, if we stopped trying to visualize a better human life.
Sure, we can within the framework of the story that we are human and measurable energy. But, how much more rewarding it would be if, at least once a day, let go of the measurement. If we let go of the trying to figure it out. Let go of fitting and squashing Spirit into what we know, and simply felt being one with the One that is doing the thinking.
The idea that in the moment we would feel the I Am as us, might propel us to that moment of letting go more often.
This doesn’t mean we don’t fully enjoy every single expression of “energy” we know. Flowers, trees, food, people
In fact, we enjoy them with greater appreciation because we are no longer comparing, or measuring. We know, that although they appear as energy to us, they actually are the expression of God, Spirit.
How glorious and freeing is that! “Ye shall know the Truth and it shall make ye free.”* Oh yeah, let’s choose that. Let’s go forth into the freedom of non-measurable Spirit.
*John 8:32
The post Everything Present is Present As God Only appeared first on The Shift.
February 16, 2015
Does That Mean We Are Supposed To Follow? - The Shift To Spiritual Perception
A famous choreographer had come to UCLA to mount one of her dances for the annual spring concert at Royce Hall. It was something we looked forward to; the chance for us student dancers to work with professionals.
Of course that meant we had to audition. As in most auditions, the choreographer demonstrated a dance phrase, and then we had to dance it back for her.
As I watched her I thought, “That’s a strange way to do that, but hey, if that’s her style, I’ll go with it.” So I did. I didn’t fully dance the movement because the choreographer didn’t. In fact she appeared clumsy to me, so I was clumsy.
I didn’t make the cut. Afterward one of my dance friends asked me why I danced that way, didn’t I feel well. “No, that wasn’t it.” I said, “I was copying her.”
Her laughter told me what I should have known. Just because she didn’t dance it well, didn’t mean we weren’t supposed to.
This long ago memory came back to me recently when I found myself doing it again. Not in an audition, but in a class. I was following the teacher instead of doing what I knew how to do. Instead of pushing myself to my own limits, I was staying within hers.
It made me stop and wonder if I was doing that in life. Was I following what others were doing, instead of following what I know.
There is so much information these days about everything. Everyone has an opinion about how things work. But, what if we have outgrown some of those ideas. Should we still be following others who haven’t yet learned what we have learned?
Since everyone is on their own path with their own timing, it is not about making others wrong.
It is about knowing our own path, and our own timing.
Too many people don’t fully live life. They just get by. Some people feel that it is okay to fake their way through life, or not care about others, or do things just for money and not for the good of all.
Does that mean we are supposed to follow them?
Of course not. We have to follow our highest understanding of the right thing to do, and the right way to do it. As we grow in wisdom, our understanding should also grow. Which means that what was right for us last week, may not be the best idea for us this week.
Looking back, I realize what was important about that audition. Perhaps even if I would have done my best, I still would not have been chosen. But, I would have known I did my best.
Better was the time I wasn’t picked for a dance because the choreographer said my unique style didn’t fit the dance he was designing.
And that’s what I am thinking life should be about. Always do our best, even if it means not following someone else’s way of doing it. Stick with our unique expression of ourselves, even if it means that we won’t always fit in.
It’s wonderful that there are so many choices about how to live life, and do things we want to do, but not all of them are for each of us. We have to keep an open heart and mind, while maintaining a clear focus on the life choices that suit us best.
And if we make a wrong choice, or we discover that we have learned what we needed to learn, instead of hanging out with guilt, remorse, or wishing, we can easily move to the next choice.
I have always loved Wayne Gretzky’s quote, “You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.” It’s a wonderful quote at face value.
But it is even more wonderful when we take into account the thousands of hours he spent practicing so that each shot has the best possible chance of succeeding. Hours spent finding the way to do it best in his own unique style.
He also said, “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”
Both feel like a wonderful life lesson to me!
The post Does That Mean We Are Supposed To Follow? by Beca Lewis appeared first on The Shift To Spiritual Perception.
Does That Mean We Are Supposed To Follow?
A famous choreographer had come to UCLA to mount one of her dances for the annual spring concert at Royce Hall. It was something we looked forward to; the chance for us student dancers to work with professionals.
Of course that meant we had to audition. As in most auditions, the choreographer demonstrated a dance phrase, and then we had to dance it back for her.
As I watched her I thought, “That’s a strange way to do that, but hey, if that’s her style, I’ll go with it.” So I did. I didn’t fully dance the movement because the choreographer didn’t. In fact she appeared clumsy to me, so I was clumsy.
I didn’t make the cut. Afterward one of my dance friends asked me why I danced that way, didn’t I feel well. “No, that wasn’t it.” I said, “I was copying her.”
Her laughter told me what I should have known. Just because she didn’t dance it well, didn’t mean we weren’t supposed to.
This long ago memory came back to me recently when I found myself doing it again. Not in an audition, but in a class. I was following the teacher instead of doing what I knew how to do. Instead of pushing myself to my own limits, I was staying within hers.
It made me stop and wonder if I was doing that in life. Was I following what others were doing, instead of following what I know.
There is so much information these days about everything. Everyone has an opinion about how things work. But, what if we have outgrown some of those ideas. Should we still be following others who haven’t yet learned what we have learned?
Since everyone is on their own path with their own timing, it is not about making others wrong.
It is about knowing our own path, and our own timing.
Too many people don’t fully live life. They just get by. Some people feel that it is okay to fake their way through life, or not care about others, or do things just for money and not for the good of all.
Does that mean we are supposed to follow them?
Of course not. We have to follow our highest understanding of the right thing to do, and the right way to do it. As we grow in wisdom, our understanding should also grow. Which means that what was right for us last week, may not be the best idea for us this week.
Looking back, I realize what was important about that audition. Perhaps even if I would have done my best, I still would not have been chosen. But, I would have known I did my best.
Better was the time I wasn’t picked for a dance because the choreographer said my unique style didn’t fit the dance he was designing.
And that’s what I am thinking life should be about. Always do our best, even if it means not following someone else’s way of doing it. Stick with our unique expression of ourselves, even if it means that we won’t always fit in.
It’s wonderful that there are so many choices about how to live life, and do things we want to do, but not all of them are for each of us. We have to keep an open heart and mind, while maintaining a clear focus on the life choices that suit us best.
And if we make a wrong choice, or we discover that we have learned what we needed to learn, instead of hanging out with guilt, remorse, or wishing, we can easily move to the next choice.
I have always loved Wayne Gretzky’s quote, “You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.” It’s a wonderful quote at face value.
But it is even more wonderful when we take into account the thousands of hours he spent practicing so that each shot has the best possible chance of succeeding. Hours spent finding the way to do it best in his own unique style.
He also said, “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”
Both feel like a wonderful life lesson to me!
The post Does That Mean We Are Supposed To Follow? appeared first on The Shift.
February 1, 2015
Feel Free To Rewrite Your Life Story - The Shift To Spiritual Perception
I love stories. When I was really little I would go to bed extra early on Sunday nights, and snuggle down under the covers to listen to The Shadow.
Once I learned to read, I read everything I could get my hands on. I was lucky. My dad was an English professor, and filled the house with stacks of books. I did a lot of story reading.
The glory days have returned. Since the entry of a Kindle into my life a few years ago, any book I want is just seconds away. I am back to reading every chance I get. I love stories. I love stories well told.
When I don’t like the story being told, I stop reading it; and if I really don’t like it, I delete it.
Living as humans, we can’t get away from stories. Our lives are a series of stories. The difference is, we keep forgetting we are able, and free to, rewrite, or delete any part of any life story that we don’t like.
Just as I don’t have to finish a book I don’t like, we don’t have to live out a story that we don’t like, or no longer suits us.
In his book On Writing, Stephen King said, “When you write, you tell yourself a story, when you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are NOT the story.”
Do you see it? Do you see how this can be applied to our own life story?
We have been telling a story all our life about our life. Now that we are old enough to notice (it’s not about age) we can take things out of the story that are NOT the story we want to tell.
As in all things, it is easier to see a life story when it is someone else’s. How many times have we fallen prey to talking about the drama that people live, and wonder why they do. Sometimes it is out of caring about the other person, but often it is because we all love stories.
The most gracious thing we can do for each other is not to buy into, or download into our own life – the way I download a story into my kindle – anything that does not advance a good life story no matter whose it is.
We can stop applying old family stories, or heredity stories, or disaster stories to, and about, our children, whether they are ours directly or not. Who wants to burden them with a story that doesn’t have the best possible story line?
Do we need to have our children grow up to be just like us? Why? Don’t we love them more than that?
This is actually the bigger question. How much do we love ourselves and others. Let’s love enough to stop spreading stories of lack and greed, fear and struggle.
Prophets taught us with stories, or parables. It’s how we learn. Christ Jesus, the master parable teller, told stories about how to shift our life story. He told stories about using our talents, being free, helping those sheep who have strayed, and welcoming back prodigal sons.
Every prophet gives us stories about how to shift our life stories to ones with intelligent and loved based premises.
We are free to rewrite any life story that does not work for us anymore, even if it did at one point.
Let’s end with something else Stephen King said, “It’s best to go on to some other area, where the deposits of talent may be richer and the fun quotient higher.”
Come on now, could that be any clearer about our life?
Shut the book on stories that don’t work. Rewrite the ones that need to be edited. Delete the ones that don’t serve the good of mankind.
Time’s a waisting, start the rewriting now!
PS
Every book I write is actually about how to shift your life story. However, there is one that is specifically on breaking a life statements that don’t work for you. You can get it on Amazon here.
The post Feel Free To Rewrite Your Life Story by Beca Lewis appeared first on The Shift To Spiritual Perception.
Feel Free To Rewrite Your Life Story
January 18, 2015
How To Stop Believing Lies - The Shift To Spiritual Perception
I was listening to an NPR show in which a hacker was describing the process he goes through to hack into theApple iPhone. It struck me how similar it is to what happens in our lives.
The way to keep hackers out of computer code, can also be applied to our life code, and anything that attempts to hack the joy in our lives.
A computer hacker scans code looking for a mistake. It could be as small as not putting in a semi colon. That mistake becomes his door into the rest of the code. From there, depending on how skilled he is, he can do anything with the code – and the performance of the phone – that he wants to.
In our lives there are hackers. Actually, there is only one hacker, who after hacking a person and turning them into someone that does their bidding, uses them to move on to the next person. Yes, I know, this sounds like a horror flick, or an alien invasion movie.
However, once we understand what is happening, unlike the victims in movies, we can remove the hacker from our lives. The first step is to know it is there.
When I say there is only one hacker, I mean there is only one lie, and one liar. That lie is that there is a power other than good, and only one liar spreading that lie, which is sometimes called evil. I think calling it a hacker keeps the emotion out of it, and in this case, that’s a good thing.
Here’s what life code hacking looks like. Having found a mistake in our code (a belief that allows it in), it suggests ideas to us about life in general, and about ourselves.
I don’t know how hard it is to stop a computer code hacker, but I do know that it can be easy to stop a life code hacker.
First, we recognize that ideas and decisions that do not stem from the heart, from compassion, from trust in the power of good, are not our thoughts. They are the lies of the one liar.
Once we recognize this fact we can face and replace the lies. And that is the second step in ridding ourselves of the one liar.
Instead of listening to, and following its suggestions, we can dissolve it like the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz.
But, instead of water, we dissolve it with the absolute conviction that the only power it has is the one we give it by believing its lies.
With the one liar in control we all act differently. Under the effect of the lie, some of us become depressed. Others become angry. Some withdraw from their life and potential, others pour everything into become successful at the expense of others.
You would think this was a different hacker, or lie, for each person.It’s not. It’s just one with many faces. And that makes it easy.
The Lord’s Prayer has a simple solution. First the decision, “Deliver us from evil.” Or another way of saying it, which clearly states our request, “Deliver us from the evil one.”*
That’s our request. We have seen the results of being controlled by a power other than good. We see the evil that results. We see hunger, greed, corruption, and fear which are all the outcome of a hacked life code, all the outcome of believing and acting as if it was true, of a power other than good.
We want to be delivered from it.
The next phrase in the Lord’s prayer is the answer. It can’t happen, it can’t remain, it must leave, it will dissolve, when we stand in the Truth that “Thine is the power, the glory, for ever and ever.” Or “For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, all Truth, Love over all and All.”*
Finally, we find the break in our code, and fix it.
We don’t stay and play with the claim of evil. We don’t open our doors to it. We close up beliefs in ourselves that we are not the child of the One Father Mother. We are not children of humans. We are the expression of Life. We are the action of Love.
This consistent awareness of the Truth of our Being, will eliminate any way for the hacker, the one liar, to enter our thoughts and suggest what is not true. It’s our job. Close the door, clean up the code, we have life to live and love to give.
*From Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy
The post How To Stop Believing Lies by Beca Lewis appeared first on The Shift To Spiritual Perception.
