THANKS GIVING AS A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE!

I love to start my day with Thanksgiving. I believe as we count our good fortunes it attracts blessings.  Al would say what we give our attention multiplies.  I also like to count my blessings during times of challenge and emotional distress. It changes the channel from counting disturbances to counting joys.  I typically start my morning with “Thank you Father for a day.”  I am then thankful for birds that sing as I watch them fly through the sanctuary skies against a backdrop of beautiful mountains.

I am thoughtful of the magnificence of nature and the amazing power of Divine Forces to create and shape our material reality giving me the benefit of each breath. I am thankful for a hot cup of good coffee and I celebrate life with dogs and friends.  I can never count all my blessings is my conclusion once I start counting.

I also like the words of of Dr Emmet Fox, the Divine Scientist, who indicates “bless a thing and it will bless you; curse a thing and it will curse you.”  Thus, I am always blessing my day, my weather, my business affairs, my personal relationships… while endeavoring to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative… not always such an easy gig, in today’s world. However, since I believe clear thoughts coupled with strong emotions shape our reality, I must choose to program my mind for success.  I have multiple phrases that I use to switch gears and move my mind to a higher level when it devolves into negative thinking. You might try adding some of these positive spiritual phrases into your consciousness if you start to experience depression or other negative emotions:

God is Love.

God is Love and he who loves is of God.

I AM the LIGHT going to meet the light; only goodness shall result.

Centered in Peace and Love, everything else is illusion.

Find your favorite spiritual literature and read it to “change the channel”

One of my favorites is the 23rd Psalm.

A seed version is “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

I also like to replace thoughts of lack with “God is my Source.”

Let us also note the power of the spoken word. If you look at the roots of many religions we see that in the beginning was the word, and as it moved it created.  One favorite creation myth is related to Thoth the god of wisdom, writing, and magick in some of the Egyptian pantheons. In the beginning was the greyness and then the great grey heron appeared and gave forth its CAW and separated the grey skies from the grey oceans. Remember your words have power and our words have power. Words take thoughts and makes them present in physical reality.  Our brother Al Manning had so many good words, uplifting and encouraging… and chants to shape reality.  Let us put our good words into action: FREEDOM, HEALING, LOVE, PROSPERITY for you and me our friends and families… so mote it be! Thanks always for your love, friendship and help as we turn to the light and endeavor to make things better and better.