Gazing in the Mirror

November 8 - Fully Embracing Life

When this Inner Grace
takes over and goes before
us to make the crooked
places straight and does
all things for us, then we
have entered a period of
life called living by Grace.
~ Joel Goldsmith

Thoughts are things, and
an active thought will provide
an active condition for good
or evil.
~ Ernest Holmes

Last night my daily spiritual reading of the Science of Mind magazine's Daily Guides actually reached into my home and impacted my older son and husband as well. No I did not give them any "spirituality" lessons. On Nov 1st the Daily Guides author for this month in 2012 mentioned a movie with Jim Carrey called "The Yes Man". I had never heard of this movie but her synopsis was intriguing so I ordered this from our movie supplier Netflix. Last night that movie was our evening entertainment and all of us laughed heartily at its antics. Since the last few days have been personally very intense for me the opportunity to truly lighten up for a couple of hours was welcome.

The movie begins with a man who is living a very hum-drum life. He doesn't interact with his friends very often though they are always pushing him to join them. He vegges out alone at home watching rented videos. He has a job that bores him and during which he is often surfing the net for stimulation. In truth he is just like many people these days. One day an old acquaintance shows up out of the blue. A wild and crazy guy. He gives Carrey, who's name is Carl in the movie, a flyer to a self-improvement seminar.

That sequence of him attending the seminar is hilarious and the caricature of the charismatic leader is part snake oil salesman and the peer pressure of being in a crowd all grooving along to the same energetic vibration will be familiar to anyone who has ever attended such a conference, as I did in June of 2009 at Celebrate Your Life in Chicago. Having so many people in the same vibratory groove does cause an energy that affects each individual and it is impossible not to notice it. As Carl is resistant to the "programming", the leader comes down to him and hypnotically imparts into his mind a suggestion which he terms a "covenant", a binding agreement made by Carl in the presence of witnesses – including a curse if Carl tries to go against the admonition to say "Yes" to everything that life sends his way.

Carl's life begins to change to something quite exciting from that moment on. Even what appear to be unfortunate or unpleasant circumstances align him with happy outcomes. When he tries to go against that admonition to say "Yes" all manner of extremely bad experiences begin to cascade upon him. So he finds that his life is now very interesting and good things are happening to him. So it also is when one begins to discover the power of their thoughts and their ability to impact the outcomes of their life. Even though it doesn't always seem to end happily with a long enough view it all works out on behalf of the individual's highest good.

There is yet one more important lesson that Carl must learn and that lesson comes quite painfully in the midst of a blossoming love affair with a woman who is equally unique and receptive to life's experiences, as well as beautiful. That learning takes place during the midst of an unpleasant experience when the couple is taken in for questioning due to being suspected of terrorism (and all of Carl's antics at saying "Yes" are interpreted by law enforcement darkly). Carl's close friend is an attorney and is able to get Carl released by sharing the information that he is only following this admonition to say "Yes" to everything Life brings his way. This causes his new love interest to question his authentic love for her and they become unfortunately estranged.

Carl hijacks the charismatic leader and implores him to take the covenant away from him. The leader admits to the illusion he performed for the sake of his seminar audience while explaining that the truth is that embracing Life does bring vitality and excitement but that even though learning to embrace whatever life brings is the first step in changing one's life for the better, it is also necessary to learn how to set boundaries and discover when to say "No" to whatever is deemed undesirable for the self. That second part is the next step in mastering life's variety. Carl is able to reconcile the contrasting tensions and learns to choose whether to say yes or no to experiences. He finds that he is more often in "control" of his own responses to life. This movie is an excellent representation of living one's metaphysics.

~ perspective

I am open to all of the
experiences of my life and
therefore I say yes or no
intentionally.
I do not only understand
cause and effect intellectually
but I apply the principles to
the day-to-day experiences
of my life in order to learn
the truth about the impact
of my beliefs.
I know that there is a "power"
in Life that I can consciously
use for my own good and I use
this power to learn about what
I am made up of.
I am confident about facing
whatever life brings my way and
I find it empowering to come out
on the other side of even the most
uncomfortable of circumstances.
I realize that the authentic me is
important to the wholeness of the
world and I am willing to live that
self to the best of my understanding.

#boredom #boundaries #curse #experience #laughter #lessons #resistance #romance #suggestion #terrorism