Choose with Faith not Fear
A major excitement this week was successfully obtaining a VPN for my laptop, after many failed attempts with numerous VPN companies. For $10 a month I now sign into a server located in New York City which allows me access to US television, which means I get Hulu back! This is awesome for so many reasons but good today because it led me to the topic of this blog. “May your choices reflect hope and not fear.” The word ‘faith’ is stronger than the word hope, so I am going to use it instead.
The context for the conversation is the actual desire to live the idea of our being spiritual and living from our spiritual identity rather than the ego or our purely human identity. Faith is of the Spirit and fear is of the Ego. Living from the insight of spiritual discernment will almost certainly assure that you continue to move in the direction of soulful fulfillment rather than egoic disappointment. Choosing with faith will almost certainly get you off the hamster-wheel of continuing to make the same mistakes.
Socrates said long ago, “An unexamined life is not worth living” which is meaningful within the conversation about the raising of personal and global consciousness. The awakening of a human being gives life value, purpose and meaning. I no longer even think it lofty! An awakened human being is merely one who has moved out of the past, into the present moment, examined the conditioned self and moved into a state of ever-increasing awareness of being more than our bodies and belongings.
My personal as well as professional work as a spiritual teacher and life coach in the world has to do with living life from a place of spiritual power – not powerlessness. I am passionate about authenticity and freedom and strive always to feel that I am living my deepest path – not a path that has been established for me by outside influences, judgments, or mandates. Since the age of 50, I have been striving to end up on my deathbed satisfied, fulfilled and complete – defined by something within me, call it what you will, not by my parents or the government.
A part of the examination of your life might be to explore whether you make the choices you inevitably must make in life from a place of fear or a place of faith. I am not sure it is easy but certainly worthwhile.
I am an expert of choosing with faith. I was tested last year! In December 2021, 30 days after my left hip replacement. 27 days after an ischemic stroke, my sisters went back to their respective homes, and I was alone in my beautiful house in Southwest Florida. I had abruptly lost my capacity to walk, to work, to drive. I truly was kind of at my wits end. What kept going through my mind is what was said to me by one of the nurses in the Neuro-Ward at Gulf Coast Hospital. She danced and pranced in one day, detecting my deflated state of being and proceeded to cheerfully remind me that God had me and that whatever was going on, I was on God’s time now. She said something to the effect that my hip and my stroke were nothing for God so just put on my dancing shoes and earrings and keep on keeping on.
I realized in that desperate December of 2021 that if I was ever going to demonstrate the truth of the principles I taught, if I was ever going to walk the walk of faith again, it was now. I didn’t really know if I would ever walk properly again. I had just learned about the ‘critical occlusion’ in my brain, I did not know if I was a ticking time bomb for another stroke. I had reluctantly agreed to take medication to thin my blood and lower my cholesterol doing my part to avoid a future situation. I was tested 6 weeks after the stroke and cleared to drive – a kind of miracle all by itself. When I searched my heart and contemplated the possibility of a shortened survival time – I chose to move forward with radical faith. I released life in Southwest Florida. I sold my house and everything in it. I sold my car. I opened a virtual mail repository, sent 4 boxes to a friend, and I brought whatever was left to South Africa. That as on April 1st of 2022. I do not regret the choice to do that even a little. I know that I can always buy another house and car. I can purchase a TV, couch or a new pair of jeans at any time.
Granted, my choice was somewhat radical. I do not have children. I do have a decent social security check each month and a bit of a nest-egg. I was relatively free to be a bit radical. But the value of choosing from faith over fear applies to all choices - big and small.
How can you participate in the inquiry? Begin simply by becoming aware of the choices you are making and what the mind-set is behind the choice. If you choose and feel puny, anxious, confused or any other feeling that isn’t a ‘good’ feeling, you might look to see if you capitulated to someone or to an old idea about life and what is possible for you. You might be breaking what Don Miguel Ruiz called our ‘inner rule book’. These inner rules are mostly not of our own choosing but ones we adopted without question from the domestication we received as children. Often, even if making a new positive and good choice, the breaking of those rules can leave us feeling like we are doing something wrong. Could be something as simple as not making your bed in the morning or forgetting to brush your teeth. Or something as major about taking a new job or getting in or out of a relationship!
To find your authentic path and voice you might need to move through the discomfort of a new choice. To choose out of faith rather than fear can mean that you disappoint a friend, a mate, a parent, sibling, or your own inner critic.
A question you might ask yourself as you navigate your options is, “What do I really want in this situation and why am afraid to choose it?” or “If I really knew for sure that I am supported, maintained, and sustained by a benevolent and willing universe, what would I choose right now?”
Start with awareness. Then take some baby-steps in choosing with faith on some small thing. God only knows where that might lead you!
It is June 17th, 2022.
I am walking perfectly, and all is brilliantly well.
Love, Denise
A major excitement this week was successfully obtaining a VPN for my laptop, after many failed attempts with numerous VPN companies. For $10 a month I now sign into a server located in New York City which allows me access to US television, which means I get Hulu back! This is awesome for so many reasons but good today because it led me to the topic of this blog. “May your choices reflect hope and not fear.” The word ‘faith’ is stronger than the word hope, so I am going to use it instead.
The context for the conversation is the actual desire to live the idea of our being spiritual and living from our spiritual identity rather than the ego or our purely human identity. Faith is of the Spirit and fear is of the Ego. Living from the insight of spiritual discernment will almost certainly assure that you continue to move in the direction of soulful fulfillment rather than egoic disappointment. Choosing with faith will almost certainly get you off the hamster-wheel of continuing to make the same mistakes.
Socrates said long ago, “An unexamined life is not worth living” which is meaningful within the conversation about the raising of personal and global consciousness. The awakening of a human being gives life value, purpose and meaning. I no longer even think it lofty! An awakened human being is merely one who has moved out of the past, into the present moment, examined the conditioned self and moved into a state of ever-increasing awareness of being more than our bodies and belongings.
My personal as well as professional work as a spiritual teacher and life coach in the world has to do with living life from a place of spiritual power – not powerlessness. I am passionate about authenticity and freedom and strive always to feel that I am living my deepest path – not a path that has been established for me by outside influences, judgments, or mandates. Since the age of 50, I have been striving to end up on my deathbed satisfied, fulfilled and complete – defined by something within me, call it what you will, not by my mother or the government.
A part of the examination of your life might be to explore whether your make the choices you inevitably must make in life from a place of fear or a place of faith. I am not sure it is easy but certainly worthwhile.
I am an expert of choosing with faith. I was tested last year! In December 2021, 30 days after my left hip replacement. 27 days after an ischemic stroke, my sisters went back to their respective homes, and I was alone in my beautiful house in Southwest Florida. I had abruptly lost my capacity to walk, to work, to drive. I truly was kind of at my wits end. What kept going through my mind is what was said to me by one of the nurses in the neuro ward at Gulf Coast Hospital. She danced and pranced in one day, detecting my state of being and proceeded to cheerfully remind me that God had me and that whatever was going on, I was on God’s time now. She said something to the effect that my hip and my stroke were nothing for God so just put on my dancing shoes and earrings and keep on keeping on.
I realized in that desperate December of 2021 that if I was ever going to demonstrate the truth of the principles I taught, if I was ever going to walk the walk of faith again, it was now. I didn’t really know if I would ever walk properly again. I had just learned of the ‘critical occlusion’ in my brain, I did not know if I was a ticking time bomb for another stroke. I had reluctantly agreed to take medication to thin my blood and lower my cholesterol doing my part to avoid a future situation. I was tested 6 weeks after the stroke and cleared to drive – a kind of miracle all by itself. When I searched my heart and contemplated the possibility of a shortened survival time – I chose to move forward with radical faith. I released life in Southwest Florida. I sold my house and everything in it. I sold my car. I opened a virtual mail repository, sent 4 boxes to a friend, and I brought whatever was left to South Africa. That as on April 1st of 2022. I do not regret the choice to do that even a little. I know that I can always buy another house and car. I can purchase a TV, couch or a new pair of jeans at any time.
Granted, my choice was somewhat radical. I do not have children. I do have a decent social security check each month and a bit of a nest-egg. I was relatively free to be a bit radical. But the value of choosing from faith over fear applies to all choices - big and small.
How can you participate in the inquiry? Begin simply by becoming aware of the choices you are making and what the mind-set is behind the choice. If you choose and feel puny, anxious, confused or any other feeling that isn’t a ‘good’ feeling, you might look to see if you capitulated to someone or an old idea. You might be breaking what Don Miguel Ruiz called our ‘inner rule book’. These inner rules are mostly not of our own choosing but ones we adopted without question from the domestication we received as children. Often, even if making a new positive and good choice, the breaking of those rules can leave us feeling like we are doing something wrong. Could be something as simple as not making your bed in the morning or forgetting to brush your teeth.
To find your authentic path and voice you might need to move through the discomfort of a new choice. To choose out of faith rather than fear can mean that you disappoint a friend, a mate, a parent, sibling, or your own inner critic.
A question you might ask yourself as you navigate your options is, “What do I really want in this situation and why am afraid to choose it?” or “If I really knew for sure that I am supported, maintained, and sustained by a benevolent and willing universe, what would I choose in this situation?”
Start with awareness. Then take some baby-steps in choosing with faith on some small thing. God only knows where that might lead you!
It is June 17th, 2022.
I am walking perfectly, and all is well.
Love, Denise
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