I see this so often with people I’m counseling: they have illusions and delusions about life, about themselves, about their partners, about their co-workers.
Sometimes it sounds like this:
Oh, they really love me. They really do. They just have things they’re working through.
Sometimes it sounds like this:
That person is ruining my life. That person is making everything so hard for me. That person is working against me constantly.
Both are pictures we’ve painted. We don’t often know what the truth is.
If we’re feeling challenged, if we’re not at peace – the truth is seeking to burst through our awareness.
If we’ll allow it.
Here’s what I’ve come to know about the pictures we paint: they become our complete and total locked-in belief about things. Then we can’t see anything else but what affirms the picture we made.
There can be all kinds of signs that refute the picture, yet we’ll interpret them as affirming the picture. Until we’re willing to really love.
Love dissolves and resolves the attachments we have to the picture we painted.
That’s the mechanism. That’s the whole thing.
Not analysis. Not figuring out who was right. Not winning the argument with ourselves about whether they really love us or really don’t.
Love.
The picture we’ve painted is our interpretation and the meaning we’ve made of it. That’s where all the pain comes from.
The escape isn’t to repaint the picture better. The escape is to put down the brush.
I’d been painting these pictures for years. About my partners. About my co-workers. About my family. About myself. The pictures got more detailed, more locked-in, more concretized.
Then I started practicing one thing: I’d notice the picture, and I’d hand it over.
Higher Holy Spirit Self, I see I’ve painted a picture here. I’m willing to release my attachment to it. I’d like to see what’s really going on.
That’s the prayer.
Sometimes the picture dissolved fast. Sometimes it took weeks. The willingness was always what moved it. Willingness brings Freedom.
IN-PERSON EVENT – Quantum Counseling Training Intensive in July – If you have an interest in training to be a spiritual counselor or simply doing some dealing work to open up your intuition and improve your relationships, I’ve been offering a professional training intensive for the last 15 years. This year we’re doing the training intensive – open to anyone whether or not you have any interest in becoming a counselor – the Quantum Counseling Training Intensive in Asheville NC Sunday, July 12th to Saturday, July 18th with Jennifer Hadley and Mark Anthony Lord, as well as Guest Teachers Alan Cohen, Jon Mundy and Lisa Natoli joining us online – register soon so you can qualify for early-bird bonuses please click here now for more info.
THIS WEEKEND – 2 Free Forgiveness Workshops, Saturday, June 20th & Sunday, June 21st Father’s Day weekend. Please join me and we’ll have a deep and profound healing together. Feel free to invite friends and loved ones. Save My Spot – Free Forgiveness Workshop
Self-sabotage shows up in so many ways. For some of us it’s procrastination, putting off the very thing that would help us most. For others it’s playing small, holding back our gifts, getting in our own way right when things start going well, or being so hard on ourselves that nothing we do ever feels good enough. And for many of us it’s self-medication, reaching for food, a drink, the phone, or busyness to escape how we’re feeling. The forms are endless, but here’s what I’ve come to know: it’s never really about the behavior, it’s about the beliefs underneath it, and those we can heal at the root. That’s why I’d love for you to join me for my End My Self-Sabotage Challenge, beginning Sunday, June 28. We’ll bring these patterns out of the dark and into the Light together, in a community where there’s no judgment, only Love. The first week is my gift to you, so come and experience it for yourself. Trust your intuition. If it’s right for you right now, you’ll know.
LATEST PODCAST EPISODE: Forgiving Our Fathers My father and I used to have intense arguments. Slamming doors. Years of it. I carried a story for a long time that something was wrong with me, and I’m guessing you’ve carried something similar. With Father’s Day coming up, I sat with A Course in Miracles Text Chapter 1 and let myself walk back through it. What I found surprised me. What if the practice we keep hoping our parents will hand us is one we get to use ourselves, today?
