Changing Our Nature

Left to our own devices, changing our nature or perhaps more accurately growing beyond it, is problematic. Consider the smoker who decides to quit, yet keeps a pack of cigarettes handy just in case the craving becomes too great or the alcoholic who swears off but continues to frequent their favorite watering hole because that is where their “friends” are. Now I am sure someone has quit smoking, drugs or drinking in this manner, but it is clear that this path is fraught with impediments to success and more smoking, drug abuse and drinking is usually the outcome. Why do something hard like riding out cravings when relief is a match, drink, pill, line, toke, fix, etc away, and life can feel pretty dreary, especially when all our “friends” are having a “good” time.

This type of thinking, though most egregious in someone who suffers from addiction, touches virtually everyone. Consider the diets, the exercise pledges or any vow made that was sabotaged by that "deserved" treat, feeling too tired to exercise, choosing to be overwhelmed by the changes the new path requires instead of sticking to them until they become habit. Just like the addict or alcoholic, we meant it when we vowed to change, but quickly drifted back into the familiar, comfortable well trod modes of thinking and living which preceded that vow to change in the first place!

No person or circumstance can force anyone to permanently change from without. The desire to change must come from within, and it must be desired with fervor. We hold the key to freedom, yet so many desire change, yet sabotage themselves from the start. Simple but not easy, a price must be paid, and that price is the surrendering of self. We must be willing to go to any lengths to embrace a new way of living if we truly wish to change, to grow in spirituality, our have our consciousness raised. Living on the Spiritual Basis, practicing a new set of values and principles we will be set free, free of the bondage of self, free of destructive thinking and actions; our essential nature changed, our consciousness raised, altered, in truth, for all eternity.

© Vincent Lee Jones Living In Spirit All Rights Reserved

Miracles Of Recovery, The Secret, Wayne Dyer, Recovery, Addiction, Zen, Emmet Fox, Opioids, Four Agreements, Chopra, Heroin, Einstein, AA, Healing Path, Law Of Attraction

Asleep At The Switch

© Vincent Lee Jones Living In Spirit All Rights Reserved

Miracles Of Recovery, The Secret, Wayne Dyer, Recovery, Addiction, Zen, Emmet Fox, Opioids, Four Agreements, Chopra, Heroin, Einstein, AA, Healing Path, Law Of Attraction

Asleep At The Switch

 If you are not a student of history, become one. There truly is nothing new under the sun when it comes to human interaction. Read headlines from 70 years ago and if it were not for some archaic words and the names of the players they are virtually indistinguishable from today’s. Peel back another 100 years and you will find the same. Articles and editorials on health care, immigration, taxes, war, political infighting, politicians attacking one another, protests in the streets, ads for all manner of “miracle” cures, medicines, and diets etc. We are destined to repeat the past when we fail to recognize it. Nothing changes if nothing changes. When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

We all know or have met people with closed minds, essentially sleepwalking through life, usually finding them at family gatherings and the workplace. They have little or no interest in any new information or considering a differing point of view. They are “set” in their ways, curiosity long dead. Living on the Spiritual Basis requires us to be open-minded, to be open to fresh winds of thought, considering all points of view dispassionately, curious to learn and grow regardless of our chronological age or circumstances. To be clear: Living in the Light does not mean these fresh winds necessarily blow away our beliefs or change our opinions, though they may, but it is a demonstration of open-mindedness, compassion for those we may disagree with for they, like us, are children of the Most High. One of the measures of an individual's spiritual condition is how they treat their fellows, but of these measures how we treat those we find disagreeable is paramount.

Do not allow yourself to “fall asleep at the switch” mentally. Keep your consciousness switched on by praying and meditating daily to be shown God’s will and how you may be of service to your fellows. Keep your faith lively, your connection to the divine open, for by doing so we grow and gently prod those slumbering around us. Whether they choose to rouse themselves is their demonstration, ours is to serve as a consistent example of Living in the Light, regardless and often in spite of any and all criticism.

© Vincent Lee Jones Living In Spirit All Rights Reserved

Miracles Of Recovery, The Secret, Wayne Dyer, Recovery, Addiction, Zen, Emmet Fox, Opioids, Four Agreements, Chopra, Heroin, Einstein, AA, Healing Path, Law Of Attraction