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April 2, 2020
You are standing at the fork in the road.
We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence, and its only end. —Benjamin Disraeli
Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart desires must come to you. —Shakti Gawain
The first premise of this course is this: Life is a creative process and our thoughts, beliefs, assumptions, choices, actions, and words are the tools that we use to invent our experiences and our circumstances.
There is little sense in attempting to change external conditions, you must first change inner beliefs, then outer conditions will change accordingly. —Brian Adams
PREMISE #2
We have a say in our own destiny through the intent...
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Although the lives we are living may seem headed in a particular direction, with a predictable outcome, we can, at any time, alter the likely course of our lives through setting a strong and clear intention. The second premise, then, is: We have the ability to create circumstances and opportunities in our lives by setting...
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PREMISE #3
The issues in our relationships are mirroring back to us our internal issues with ourselves. If we are having difficulty sustaining loving, nurturing, and committed relationships, the place to look is at your relationship with yourself. Ask yourself: In what ways are you failing to love, nurture, and commit to yourself? The third premise, therefore, is: Life consists of what a person is thinking about all day. —Ralph Waldo Emerson When you alter your relationship with yourself, your external world will alter accordingly.
When you alter your internal landscape, you effortlessly and authentically adjust your external behaviors, and life will begin occurring differently.
Every issue, belief, attitude, or assumption is precisely the issue that stands between you and your relationship to another human being; and between you and yourself. —Gita Bellin
HOW TO DO THIS COURSE When the word God is used . . . you may substitute the thought good orderly direction or flow. It is not [my] intent . . . to engage in explaining, debating, or defining that flow. You do not need to understand electricity to use it. —Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way
COURSE SUPPLY LIST Journal Drawing paper Cardboard and/or other backing for collage Drawing markers and/or crayons Modeling clay (optional) Scissors Glue Matches Magazines and/or other resources for pictures and images Highlighter
If all you can do is crawl, start crawling. —Rumi
If you do the course as written, it will take you seven weeks to complete. I have a preference for doing it this way, straight through with one lesson a day for forty-nine days.
If grass can grow through cement, love can find you at every time in your life. —Cher
This isn’t about being perfect. This is about growing and stretching yourself. It’s about discarding things that no longer work for you and embracing things that do. This is the bottom line.
The course is comprehensive, traveling through an abundance of subjects. Some of these will be more relevant for you than others. The “hot” issues, the ones you discover you need to work on some more, should be notated and returned to later. Not everything is going to be healed in a day. You are engaged in a process. Please trust it. Much of the value of the course has to do with its ability to bring clarity regarding your particular blocks to love. Make note also of those practices that you find especially helpful, so that you can incorporate them into your life after you’ve completed the
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A word of caution. The course can be intense at times. I will warn you as best I can when these times are coming up. However, if you’ve been the victim of abuse, which includes neglect and emotional mistreatment, as well as verbal, physical, and sexual abuse, you may find that you need extra support to move through the feelings of anxiety and fear that may arise as you expand your availability to love. Psychotherapy is a wonderful place to get this extra support, and if you are not in therapy at this time, I suggest that you pay attention to yourself and be willing to speak to a professional
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How much longer will you go on letting your energy sleep? How much longer are you going to stay oblivious of the immensity of yourself? —Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh Take heart, truth and happiness will get you in the end. You can’t lose in this game. Have fun. —John and Lyn St. Clair Thomas
Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak whispers the o’er - fraught heart, and bids it break. —William Shakespeare
And you don’t have to be perfect before, during, or after doing this course. Just stay authentic and risk telling the truth—first to yourself and then to others, because that’s where the healing happens.
One has just to be oneself. That’s my basic message. The moment you accept yourself as you are, all burdens, all mountainous burdens simply disappear. Then life is a sheer joy, a festival of lights. —Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
Spiritual partnership implies a goal of encouraging and supporting the unfolding of each other’s soul’s reasons for being here in the first place.
“What wisdom have you gained in this lifetime?” and the second was: “How have you expanded your capacity to love?”
your task is to grow yourself healthier and stronger in order to create a space for a remarkable love to enter your life.
As long as we are acting out the wounds of our childhood and in reaction to the disappointments of our past, we will most likely remain frustrated and unfulfilled in our attempts to actualize love in our lives. However, once we have done the work to heal ourselves, it then becomes possible for us to bring the best of who we are to others.
In return, we will draw in those who are willing and able to bring the best...
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In order to attract an extraordinary love and then preserve a relationship distinguished by respect and kindness, we must first face our fears and come to terms with our woundedness. We must cultivate our ability to fluidly express the characteristics of love in all of our encounters.
It’s important to realize that we do not need to be with a partner in order to begin expanding our ability to give and receive love. We simply need the willingness to start by opening ourselves to the opportunities of love that surround us today.
The Eight Human Talents, yoga instructor Gurmukh,
A human being is a part of the whole . . . . He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of . . . consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. —Albert Einstein
As a culture we are well versed in growing ourselves in material value but terribly undernourished in recognizing the opportunities we have to give and receive love.
These opportunities come our way constantly. Yet we often do not even acknowledge them, let alone allow ourselves to seize upon them. If we did, we would walk through life with a profound experience of connectedness and well-being.
At times, cultivating an awareness of our interconnectedness with those around us will put us in direct opposition to our current cultural values and social mores.
Often, in a materialistic culture such as ours, a person is valued in terms of their net worth and an encounter is valued in terms of its networking potential. This creates a vast void in the hearts of those of us who are living in this society. For we are relating to one another as though people were objects. Our disconnectedness from one another is no small matter and must be considered when we look at how alone many of us feel and how desperately we are longing for love.
LL
In his book Ethics for the New Millennium, the Dalai Lama speaks extensively about the connection between Western culture and feelings of alienation and loneliness that are so pervasive today.
“I am connected to everyone and everything.”
A strange passion is moving in my head. My heart has become a bird Which searches in the sky. Every part of me goes in different directions. Is it really so That the one I love is everywhere? —Rumi
“I am connected to everyone and everything.”
It is in the shelter of each other that the people live. —Irish proverb
Love comforteth like sunshine after rain. —William Shakespeare
Love requires that we give up a certain degree of autonomy and allow ourselves to become unguarded and accessible. Love is about feeding one another. It is about coming to rely on this exchange and to depend upon it for our health and well-being. Loving relationships must include the ability to be vulnerable enough to depend upon someone.
I understand that many of us are carrying around unhealed wounds from the past that occur in the present as neediness. We feel as though we have to hide our needs, fearing that they will engulf anyone who gets too close. Yet in our efforts not to appear inappropriately needy, many of us have tried to shut down our needs entirely.
Begin cultivating relationships with people who are able and willing to respond lovingly toward you when you ask for what you need, instead of staying with people who don’t and hoping that they will change.
A woman needs to feel heard and tended to in a relationship. Ideally, she needs to be noticed, wanted, and adored. She needs to feel treasured by her man and she needs a partner who demonstrates that he cares about her feelings. She needs someone who will anticipate her wishes and take action to fulfill them, even before she thinks to ask. She needs her partner to keep his word to her. She needs him to be someone she can count on, someone who will do his best to make her feel secure.
Men, on the other hand, need to feel needed. A man will thrive when he feels appreciated by his partner and when he is acknowledged for his accomplishments. Too often, women remember to acknowledge a man for his big accomplishments but forget the little things that he does each day to make her happy. He needs to be acknowledged for these little things, too. He needs to be accepted just the way he is. He will thrive if he feels admired, authentically liked, and respected. A loving partner who encourages and inspires him will bring out the best in him.
It’s important to identify what we need so that we can adequately assess who we should, or should not, open our hearts to. It’s important that we don’t judge ourselves or make ourselves wrong for having the needs that we have. Until you can take full responsibility for what you want and need in a relationship, you may waste a lot of your time with people who either...
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I’m inviting you to continue in your quest for romantic union from a foundation of love rather than fear.
