Feelings are our prayer to the Universe by Peggy O'Neal
An important element to the eventual success of anything we do is the feeling quality we bring to the activity. Yet, many of us pay very little, if any attention, to what we feel. We often have to be still to notice, smile. Instead, we stay busy, turn on the television, get on the phone, get on email and aren’t aware of our experience.
As I paused to write this, shut my eyes to allow ideas to come to me, I immediately felt an experience along the lines of “doing something wrong.” I didn’t realize I was feeling that way until I stopped and took my attention away from my thoughts.
I decided this would be a good topic for the week.
Many of us want something better in our lives, i.e., more loving relationships, better teamwork at the office, to be happier at work, happier at home, more money, a better job or more possibility on the job.
As we bring to mind our desires and put our attention on the emotion that also arises, we may feel lack or worry or fear or “that will never happen.”
(We don’t really need a particular word for it; in fact, it can actually be better not to have an exact word. Why? When we attach a word to the feeling, we energize it even more and give it more substance. Instead, we can notice whether in general the feeling is aligned with what we say we want or not.)
If the feeling is not aligned, we want to do what we can to bring our energy and emotion more in alignment with that heart’s desire.
If we’re in physical pain this can be challenging for sure. So, the first thing is to attend to the pain and then as best we can move our energy and focus even just a little more in the direction of what it is we say we want.
We are energetic beings, meaning we are made of energy, and we are always exchanging our energy and our information with the energy and information of the field with which we are One. That includes other people.
If we feel downtrodden, angry, resentful we are sending out that energy. Our emotions and energy are actually our prayers to the Universe. Our words can influence the feeling we emit, but the feeling overrides any words that aren’t the same as the feeling. Whatever energy and emotion we send to the Universe is what the Universe responds to. If I’m afraid, the energy sent is fear and that is the equivalent of an invitation to bring me more fear.
Bottom line: before we take any action or have any conversation, it is good to pause and observe our experience. If what we feel is not aligned with what we would like to accomplish with the action or conversation, we want to stay put until we can realign our feelings to be at least closer to the emotional and energetic qualities that we want when the result manifests.
This can be challenging because sometimes we want these different outcomes in order to feel happier, wealthier, freer, more love.
We think if we have that result, we will then feel happier, more peaceful, more loving, and so on in some way.
We are more likely to be successful in any endeavor when whatever we want to feel as a result, we begin with that feeling. Or at least bring ourselves closer to it.
How do you do that?
- You can talk to yourself. It could be, “This will all work out,” for example. This is not positive thinking but saying something to yourself that you know is true.
- You can focus on the feeling you want and generate it from within.
- You can do something that you think helps you feel the way you want (in actuality the feeling was already there; we have just been conditioned to believe that the event or the person was the cause of the emotion we want.)
- You can also withdraw your attention from your thoughts, feelings, the behavior of others. Notice that your attention is on your thoughts, feelings, or the other person, and that that focus is “taking you away” from a sense of calm. You can actually say to yourself, “I withdraw my attention from this situation (or person or feeling).” Or “I turn my attention away…”. Or “I remove my attention …”. This doesn’t mean you withdraw yourself from the situation; you still participate fully but withdraw your attention from what is taking you away from your inner well-being.
- Your inner well-being is your knowing that you are Awareness, Consciousness, Source, i.e., your essential nature. You can return there by noticing that you are aware. Notice that you are aware of your thoughts and/or emotions. Then notice that you are aware of that awareness. Another way to say that it is to notice that you know that you are aware of your thoughts.
You are reading these words right now. And, you know that you are reading them. Notice also that you knew that you knew. THAT knowing never changes, is always present, is your essential nature. It has always been with you. It has never changed. What you are aware of is always changing: experiences, thoughts, events, people, emotions. But the awareness of the experiences, thoughts, events, people, emotions is always present, not changing according to the circumstances.
In my experience, what I’ve suggested can be challenging.
If you feel intense fear, anger, anxiety, and so on, it can take a while to bring your experience to a place of calm or other experience that supports what you want. The alternative is to know that you are probably inviting more of those experiences into your life if you don’t pause and adjust before you act or speak.
How does this align with nondual* teachings? Although our essential nature is fulfilled, happy, loving, peaceful and free, we have seemingly veiled that over with beliefs, patterned feelings and behaviors. While we continue to allow those “veils” to release by working with emotions and returning to our essential nature, we can at the same time intentionally shift our emotional state. There is nothing inconsistent.
* Nonduality is the realization that although we seem to experience a separation between ourselves and other people, animals, nature and objects, that there is a single reality, a relatedness, infinite and indivisible, the nature of which is pure Awareness, or Consciousness, Divine Spirit, Infinite Intelligence, the Universe or Source, and that the existence of all people, animals, nature and objects originates from this Source.
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We are in the midst of a paradigm shift that is fundamentally changing our knowing of and relationship with reality. We are being asked to know who we truly are and to express that knowing in our relationships, activities, conversations and being. My dream is that millions of us live aligned with our essential nature, beginning now.
With love,
Peggy