Love Is All That Matters
I am not a constant, rigorous, and structured meditator. But I absolutely must meditate at least once daily. Even though it may only be 10 or 15 minutes of breathing exercises, stillness, and centering prayer. I begin each day, before I even get out of bed, calling on my Divine Team. My Higher-Self, my guardians and spiritual path artisans. I go through a small list of affirmations, and I wrap it up with three things. One, I AM safe. Two, I AM eternal. And three, I AM filled with love ... love is all there is. All else is illusion.
Just as I often lack the patience to sit down and finish one complete book at a time (I'm currently reading 5 or 10 at the same time) ... I too, often lack the discipline to sit down and meditate as often as I should and as long as I should. But that does not mean that the benefits have escaped me.
I have been through periods in my life when I have had deep and prolonged meditations, out of which have come powerful and even life-changing insights. And equally I have been through other periods where my life just simply gets way to busy and I’m running in a million different directions.
That’s when we find ourselves in the old Catch 22. The times when meditation can benefit us the most, may also be the times that it is hardest to make the time for it. Nonetheless, I receive inspiration multiple times daily. Powerful insight and deep meanings of every day things and events. I am always writing. I just sit down and it flows abundantly.
All of this, ever since I had an NDE on the morning of 12/28/2014. It is as if I had left whole and complete, and then came back fragmented ... and have been trying to gather the pieces back together. But I touched my Higher-Self in the process. I reached the clouds of higher consciousness. And after multiple surgeries, and excruciating recovery pain, I eventually entered the realm of anxiety and panic attacks after being diagnosed with PTSD. I thought I was having a heart attack and dying. It was, and is, a horrible affliction to contend with. So now, my meditation, and quiet down time is even more important now than it ever was.
My meditation routine is pretty simple. I sit in my bed, or a soft chair, on and I begin to focus on my breath. Most would sit on a floor, yoga mat, or pillow, but I have a bad back. After I begin to focus on my breath, it does not take me long to get into a steady rhythm as I breathe in and out. As I dive deeper through the different brain waves, sometimes, if one of my dogs climbs in a joins me, it's almost as if I can feel the dog's energy field connecting with mine and I can actually feel a deeper spiritual connection. This simple scenario is my constant reminder that we are all one, that all creatures on this Earth are connected. Everything is Oneness in this one giant organism that we call the universe.
Now, after a steady period of focusing on my breath, in and out ... inspiration and expiration, I am able to gradually reaches a state where my breathing begins to slow down, almost to a seeming halt ... very shallow, and I begin to become unaware of it. And then the powerful surges of energy come. Simultaneously, I can feel myself diving deeper within and my consciousness being elevated to a higher state of awareness; a state in which I suddenly have a stronger sense of knowing, a state from which clarity and insights often are revealed to me. I get flashes of light even with my eyes closed. Sometimes, I see shadows of images. I can't make out what they are ... they're almost like silhouettes.
Tonight, the goal will be the same before I go to sleep. Peace, quiet, solitude - NO TV - 528hz music will play on my iPod all night. I will listen to guided meditation, then doze off to sleep. I will repeat in my mins "love is all that matters." "I AM safe and healthy." I affirm that which I want to manifest, not that which I do not want.
When I talk of LOVE, I am talking about Universal love: The love that encompasses all things. The love that connects me to my dogs as I meditate; the love that connects us to people across the globe who are grieving after a horrible tragedy; the love that wells up inside of us at the sight of a newborn baby; the love that overcomes us when we see ocean waves crashing passionately against the shoreline.
This type of Love is everywhere, and it is everything. Not only is it within each one of us, but it IS each one of us, whether we feel it or not. It has the capacity to awaken us, to move us to our core, or humble us to our knees. It has the capacity to transform us. It is all that matters. For my Christian friends, God is love ... therefore ... love is God. It can be no other way. ALL is Source Energy emanating from Source, and AS Source.
Love reaches out and grabs you by the soul strings. But on Social Media where I have multiple blogs, I am constantly struck by responses that are in disagreement with my own thoughts and experiences. These people comment that “people are selfish” and that “they do not care about others.” My first emotion is always empathy.
For I too have at times in my life felt exactly what this person has expressed. I am certain that we all have at one time or another. Whether we’ve been hurt or betrayed by a friend or family member, or been trampled on in our careers, most of us can relate to feeling this way. I used to feel this way a lot more than I do now. And this is where the meditation has changed my life.
Meditation has the power to change our thought patterns and our brain chemistry. It can literally create new positive pathways or synapses. By maintaining a regular practice over time, we begin to notice that things that once bothered, upset or even enraged us, suddenly do not anymore.
In fact often we can surprise ourselves by not even being remotely ruffled when something negative happens to us. I continue to delight in this surprise in my own life. The longer I meditate the more I am amazed at how I have this new-found capacity to rise above whatever malice or negativity is being directed at me; I have developed a better ability to let it wash right over me and not get me wet. I delight in finding the straight line that runs through the center of the ups and downs.
I have found that when my life hits a rough patch - as it has many times - and I find myself back in the midst of turmoil or distress, I will simply return to the peace and tranquility of meditation. This is what Jesus meant in the book of Matthew when he said "go into your closet and pray, for your Fathers already knows what you need and you will be rewarded in secret." The "Father" ... or Source ... is within you, constantly knowing what is best for you, and knowing your desires. To go into your closet is to go within you ... he also said close the door ... meaning eliminate the distractions.
When we meditate, we go within and we connect with something deep inside of ourselves, a bottomless well of Universal love that is connected to all things, to all beings, to Earth and Spirit. This is our Higher-Self, our Guardian Angel, our Spirit and Soul re-connecting to the home we once shared.
So while it is almost certain that we will have bad days and fall on hard times, sometimes at the hand of other people who may or may not be bad-intentioned ... it is up to us to decide how we respond to it. At a time on the Earth when there is more turmoil and division than we’ve seen in a very long time, it is more important than ever that we can all develop this capacity to rise above negativity, anger and fear.
So I invite you to learn to meditate and return to your own origin of consciousness: go within, touch the bliss of divine consciousness that is the connecting force between all beings on this Earth and beyond. Seek out peace and light. And never forget that love IS all that matters. All else is merely a tool to show you what LOVE really IS.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Just a thought ...
~Justin Taylor. ORDM., OCP., DM.
My thanks to Jeannie Page.
