Lisa Overman, A Healed Heart

Photo By Fiancailles Flickr

Security is a perception. We are never completely safe, our situations just seem safe. We bask in the contentment of seeming safety. It’s only when disaster strikes, jobs are lost, finances are compromised or our health is jeapordized that we realize what felt safe was simply a perception. Our real security comes from within, in feeling and trusting the spirit of God in our life. It’s God’s prescence in our life that brings a true sense of feeling secure.

It doesn’t mean we wont lose our job or suffer loss, we very well may, just as I did. My belief and trust in God didn’t keep my parents from dying of cancer. What it did do is give me the strength to survive, to move through the worst pain I’d ever experienced in my life. There were hours and days when my life seemed too painful to go on. The pain of my mother’s loss was debilitating, devestating and I couldn’t even pick up the pieces. Death felt in those moments preferable to the intense pain of grief and loss I was feeling.

Losing our sense of security in the world, a job for many, my mother for me, often feels like the end of the world; and it is the end of the world we’ve been living. Our sense of protection and security is stripped away. We are left vulnerable, exposed and wondering how we can possibly go on, how we will support ourselves. Who will be there for us in our darkest hours?

At first it seems as if no one is there. It feels as if we’ve been abandoned, at least it did for me. The spirit of God is always with us, sometimes our pain is simply so deep we can’t even comprehend that we have support. I certainly couldn’t. My perception has deepened and today I realize in my darkest pain I was supported and you will be too. It may not be evident at all times but in small moments, in calm silence it will show its self and I pray you will realize you are supported.

Clouds By Dareha Photo Flickr

Gratitude is our best asset in times of challenge. When we feel overwhelmed with what is expected of us, with our ability to provide for ourselves and our family staying grateful for what we’ve already created and accomplished is very important. Gratitude aligns our us with our spirit, gratitude lifts our energy and shifts our body energy to a dimension of universal love that best serves our body, life and spirit.

It isn’t complicated, simply put it means awake with grateful thoughts for what you already have in your life. The person you love, the family you draw near, the bills you’ve been able to pay, the car you drive, the house or apartment you’ve made your own. Focus a thought of deep gratitude for each gift of your life. Spirit likes a grateful attitude. Living in gratitude daily shifts your energy in such a way as to draw more good into your life.

I know in these tough times it isn’t always easy to be grateful. I too have hours when I feel less grateful than I should. At times I allow fear or challenge to overcome me. My constant and remaining struggle of paying for two houses, when one hasn’t sold has me at times feeling as if I’m being drown by it all. It is truly overwhelming. What I’ve learned through my own challenge is that gratitude really really works.

The other day I was feeling quite grateful for money that spirit provided me with in an unexpected way. It wasn’t a lot, but I was grateful. I focused my thoughts over that afternoon in gratitude. Thanking spirit for providing me another small means of support. Interestingly the next day after focusing on gratitude and really thanking spirit for what I had received, more abundance came my way, nearly doubling the amount I had received the day before. It was a moment of realizing gratitude is key, gratitude is the shift our attitude needs to bring more abundance to our lives. Gratitude is key in shifting a life, your life, any life. Live and work in gratitude. Find ten minutes when you wake up and before you go to sleep to focus your thoughts on what you are grateful for. Each day allow that list to grow, thinking of all you truly have to be grateful for. Namaste.

Photo Credit: Flickr By: Fensterbme

As I prepare to ring in the New Year there is much to contemplate. I think of my 2008 experiences and what life has brought me. I contemplate where I am, where I have come from and what comes next with the start of a new year.

There has been much to be grateful for in 2008. Many wonderful moments have filled my 2008, with a wonderful man in my life and a website I’m deeply proud of. I’ve reached a place of loving my life and being truly at peace with the direction my life is taking as a writer and healer. At moments there have been big doses of challenge with a house for sale, a relationship, and getting my website going in the direction I desire, while continuing to work toward a published book. There are moments that I really have to go within. When I have to refocus my energy in gratitude. In the darkest moments I try to reflect on what I have survived, what I have healed and how grateful I am to have reached this place of healing in my life.

2008 has been a blessed year for me in so many ways, I feel grateful every day for the life I have, for the gifts I have been given. I know an attitude of gratitude is the way to go. That isn’t always easy, but I focus and refocus as I need to, because I find when I focus on the gratitude and the good in my life I feel so much better. I feel energized and I feel supported by spirit at those times.

As I begin 2009 I will keep my attitude focused on gratitude and make time to contemplate, pray and meditate. I know making time for my spirit and my spiritual practices is the way to go. I have a great life. I wake up every day grateful, feeling very blessed. As I go to sleep tonight, knowing I will awake to a new year I will say a prayer of thanks for what 2008 has brought me and look forward with anticipation of all I can create with the dawning of a new year. May each of your lives be filled with love and the blessings of a New Year!