Your Family Is Your Spiritual Classroom

As fall settles in and we prepare to change the clocks here in the USA,  I feel like we’re hurtling toward the holidays, and I notice something happening. People are becoming anxious about family gatherings. The anticipation of difficult relatives, political differences, old grievances. The dread of ancient patterns of pain repeating.

But what if I told you this anxiety is actually pointing you toward your greatest opportunity for awakening?

The Classroom You Can’t Skip

A Course in Miracles tells us: “Only your brothers can teach you what you are, for your learning is the result of what you taught them.” Your family members? They’re not just relatives. They’re our teachers, our mirrors, our path to remembering who we really are.

I know this intimately. My birthday often falls on Thanksgiving. For years, this confluence of birthday and family time brought up every trigger imaginable. Arguments and resentments. Hurt feelings. That sense of not being seen or valued.  Excruciating emotional pain and despair.

Around this time I would begin to feel an inner darkness descend.

The Shift That Changes Everything

Here’s what helped me see it correctly: Every family trigger is showing me where I’m still believing lies about myself. When I feel unseen, I’m believing I’m not valuable. When I feel criticized, I’m believing I’m not good enough.

But none of these beliefs are true. They’re just old stories waiting to be healed.

Now I prepare for family time differently.  I’m not worried. I don’t brace for impact. I don’t prepare to be disappointed, I prepare to see Christ in my brothers and sisters. I get ready to practice what I teach. And you know what? My students tell me the most beautiful stories:

“This is the first Thanksgiving I’ve spent with my family in years, and I’m actually excited!”

“I had so many miraculous shifts with my family. This year, when we stepped on old landmines, I gave them to the Holy Spirit and instead of exploding we had a healing, I had a healing.  I know that old stuff is done.”

Your Holiday Preparation

“If your brothers are part of you, will you accept them?” This question from the Course is your holiday meditation. Because accepting them means accepting yourself. Rejecting them means rejecting yourself.

In Masterful Living, we practice this acceptance daily. We learn to see every difficult relative as a gateway to our own healing.

This year, what if you approached the holidays as a spiritual retreat?

What if every family gathering was an opportunity to practice seeing only love?

Your family is waiting to teach you who you really are. The question is: Are you willing to remember?

In my Quantum Counseling Training Intensive, the main thing we work on is eliminating worthiness issues so that people can live their calling, help more people, be more prosperous and share their gifts and talents in ways that are profoundly healing to themselves and others.

My next Quantum Counseling Training Intensive begins Friday, October 31.

This intensive training is for you if:

• You have an interest in seeing if spiritual counseling is a possible career for you.
• You’d like to improve your counseling and compassionate listening skills.
• You’d just like to build your confidence and Self-esteem.
• You’d like to increase your intuition.
• You’d like to get continuing education or licensing units.