Lesson 5: Be Conscious of Your Consciousness

"Know what is right, and then do it."

This was the theme of one our speakers in church yesterday. He had been asked to talk about his experiences of joining the church, and I believe he said this is something his father used to tell him.

I am always amazed at the congruousness of life--how once you are awakened to the fact that everything in life is connected, you see it everywhere.

Today's lesson, as always, was something I needed to hear. It spoke to exactly what has been going on in my life. On page 6 we read, "We do far too little thinking and way too much doing. Our conscious mind will always have something to keep us occupied. There are a million tasks to divert our attention. There's another thing to do every time you turn around. But take a moment. Stop reacting to the endless bombardment of events and demands and face yourself. Look inside...It's not what you do, but how you think."

There are a million tasks to divert our attention. How true! In fact, it was these million tasks that sent me to the hospital three short years ago.

I still need to be reminded to take time to focus on what is really important and to "stop reacting to the endless bombardment of events and demands." Living stress-free is a choice,and we must choose it every day.

The exercise today is to spend 10 minutes focussing clearly. Take a deep breath. Let go of any tension. Focus on supportive thoughts.

I was grateful that I had already done that this morning. In fact, I have decided to do it every morning, and I will post here what comes up for me. I'm calling it Daily Gratitude.

You see, I realized the other day that I had been doing gratitude all wrong. In my mind, and occasionally on paper, I had been saying, "I am so grateful for this, I am so grateful for that..." But by phrasing it this way, the focus has always been on me. What we should do instead is bring the focus outside of ourselves and acknowledge the hand of the Universe (or God, or Heavenly Father, however you choose to name it) in bringing us all that we desire. So now I am saying "Thank you for this...thank you for that..." I did it for the first time this morning, and it was so powerful.

I also added something that I learned from Stuart Lichtman. Stuart teaches how to effectively communicate with our subconscious mind so that it will bring us precisely what we want. He teaches that we need to reinforce the good things by saying, "Yes, more of that please." That way you are giving positive feedback for the things you have already received and want more of.

As I said, the exercise this morning was so powerful--I am looking forward to doing it every morning!

As it says in Beyond Freedom, "we do far too much thinking and way too much doing." We must stop and think first about what we want to do that will help us achieve our goals. Only then should we act and move toward them.

Or, as our speaker yesterday said, "Know what is right, and then do it."