Family Movies
The Family Movie nights are scheduled
for
the third Friday of each month.
For the month of January (18th), the movie
will be What’s Bugging Seth.
The lead character of this quirky, romantic comedy is
hearing impaired and trying to navigate a career, love,
and friendship while also battling his own internal
beliefs about failure and success. This film bring to the
forefront many issues about disabilities,
their gifts and their challenges, reminding
us that in the end, we each need
to strive for our best life, never settling
for anything less, no matter what our circumstances.
(95 minutes)
The movie for February is scheduled for
the 15th. I will send a reminder out a week
before letting you know what the movie
will be.
Cost: Love Offering, ($1.00 suggested).
Please bring your own snack and drink
if you want anything.
Happy New Year!
A Course In Miracles
Starting January 2, 2008, we will begin
anew in the book:
A Course In Miracles (ACIM).
Perhaps the greatest spiritual work of the twentieth
century, the Course is devoted to teaching us about
who we are, about our relationships with
one another and about our relationship to our Creator.
This course is an incredibly beautiful
and lucid
exploration of the complexities of the human mind
and soul, leading to a deeper understanding of
human psychology and new clarity about human living
and relationships.
And it can produce positive changes in its readers
beyond what may be realized in contemporary
therapies because it employs the power of the
Soul in a daily process of healing.
Ultimately, this course is about becoming
happy and
at peace. And it really works, as the lives of
countless students testify.
This course can become a turning point
in your life
as it has for many.
What seemed complex before becomes simple.
What was confusing is now completely clear.
And what was frightening may now be seen in a new
light of hope.
In the words of the Course, itself:
“The knowledge which illuminates rather than
obscures
is the knowledge which not only SETS you
free, but
which also shows you clearly that you ARE free.”
A Course In Miracles Discussion group
meets
the first Wednesday of each month.
We take turns reading from ACIM and then
discuss how it pertains to our daily lives.
We can meet more often if the members would like.
Please join us on this exciting adventure to a happier
and more peaceful life.
We meet from 7 – 9 P.M.
Cost is just a Love Offering.
Happy Valentine's Day!
The
Healing Zone and Bookstore
January and February 2008 Newsletter
Hello Everyone!
The New Year is traditionally a time when we want to ‘start anew’. We
want to change old habits or create new ones. I believe the only way to
do that is through loving yourself. We can’t change because someone else
wants us to. We create change by loving ourselves exactly as we are!
The following is an excerpt from How To Love Yourself,
by Louise Hay.
Louise Hay has been my mentor for over 20 years. She is a simple, down-to-earth
person who simply makes sense to me! I hope you enjoy and learn from her
words.
Anyone who studies A Course In Miracles knows it teaches
to forgive and love thy self. We need to love our neighbor and we need
to love our self.
We tend to resist loving ourselves.
If you want to love yourself, you might start with
these 10 steps:
If you practice consistently, it’s amazing
the changes we can make in our lives.
1. Stop all criticism! You have been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t changed anything. Accept yourself exactly as you are. Be okay with where you are. You can make changes. You don’t have to be a bad person to make changes; you can be okay and make changes. When you approve of yourself, your changes are positive. When you criticize yourself, the changes become negative. Choose thoughts that are nurturing and uplifting, and supportive to you.
2. Don’t scare yourself! Stop terrorizing yourself with frightful thoughts because all you do is make any situation worse. We create the worse possible scenarios. These frightening thoughts are negative affirmations. Find an image of something you like perhaps a sport, a beautiful scene like a waterfall, or a child you really love. Use that as a substitute image; pick that as your ‘switch-to’ image. Every time a frightening thought comes up, switch to your comforting thought. If you keep doing that, you can change your thoughts. It takes practice!
3. Be gentle, kind and patient with yourself. A good example of the power of patience is a garden. It begins with a patch of dirt. You till the dirt, plant the seeds, water it, give it sunshine, nourishment and loving attention. It doesn’t seem like any thing is happening at first but with patience things change. Your garden will grow. Your mind is like a garden. You select the seeds or thoughts to plant in your mind. Plant thoughts in fertile soil of your subconscious mind where they get nurtured and can grow. You’re learning new ways of thinking, be gentle and kind and patient. Remember, resistance is part of the process of making changes. Watch for the weeds! They are old negative thoughts. Pluck them out as quickly as you can! Treat yourself as someone you really like. You don’t have to be perfected, be patient. When you first begin to do something new, it never ‘feels’ right, but with practice, it becomes normal and natural. Love yourself a little more each day.
4. Be kind to your mind. Self-hatred is really
only hating the thoughts you have about yourself. You don’t want to hate
yourself for having thoughts. You gently want to change your thoughts.
You ARE worth loving! We do not have to earn love. We have the right to
love because we exist. Every thought we think and every word we speak
is an affirmation. Far too often they are negative and we’re not aware
our words and thoughts are shaping out future and our experiences. Think
of your thoughts as “building” you up instead of “beating” you up. So
many of us have a habit of beating ourselves up with our thoughts. Thinking
well of ourselves is an act of kindness that pays enormous dividends.
Learn the difference between responsibility and blame. Responsibility
is making a conscious choice of how you will respond to a situation or
idea. What sort of thoughts will you choose? How or what can you learn
from an experience? Blame is making you wrong for having certain thoughts
or experiences. Blame creates guilt, guilt seeks punishment, and punishment
creates pain. Respond to yourself and to life in a loving way. Relaxation
is essential to the healing process. Close your eyes and take two or three
deep breathes and just release all fear and tension. Say to yourself “I
love you, all is well”.
You might meditate or use positive visualization to relax. (Feel free to call me if you need any help with these.)
5. Praise yourself. Criticism breaks down the inner spirit and praise builds it up. Tell yourself how well you’re doing with every little thing. Allow yourself to accept good whether you think you deserve it or not. What is it you feel you deserve? Do you deserve love and joy and all that is good? Or do you feel deep down that you deserve nothing? Why? Where did that message come from? Are you willing to let it go? What are you willing to put in its place? What different message would you put there?
6. Support yourself. Reach out to friends and allow them to help you. It really is being strong to ask for help when you need it. If you can’t find a support group for what you want, you could start your own. If you do it with love in your heart, your group will grow.
7. Be loving to your negative. You created every single negative pattern, every negative habit, every thing you have in your life to fulfill a need. Everybody has made negative choices in the past—we all have. However, nobody is stuck with them. The good news is you always have choice. You can choose again and you can always choose to let go of the old pattern and choose a different and more supportive and nourishing thought. Letting go of the old negative pattern with love, allows you to move into the new positive pattern with ease. Punishing yourself with thoughts like I hate this job or I hate this relationship or whatever, keeps you tied to what you hate and it doesn’t allow anything new and different to come into your life. You want to release with love and allow the new stuff to come in. When you love yourself and you find yourself in the midst of a negative situation, say to yourself, I’m willing to release the pattern in my consciousness that contributed to this condition. Then you might say a positive affirmation, like, “I really deserve only good in my life.” Remember, no matter what is going on in your life, you are never wrong! You are always doing the best you can until you find better ways to handle situations. Humor is another powerful releasing tool when it comes to holding on to negative too long. Lighten up!
8. Take care of your body. It’s the house you live in. You might find exercise you enjoy—something that’s fun to do. Watch what you put in to your body. Drug abuse is so prevalent on the planet. If you’re into drugs, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person, it just means you haven’t found a more positive way of fulfilling your needs. We take drugs to escape our feelings and it all begins with not loving ourselves and not appreciating who we are. Food is a fuel for our body to help create new cells to give us good energy. Notice what gives you good energy and what doesn’t. There are lots of alternative therapies to help us take care of our bodies, such as acupuncture, massage, reflexology, aromatherapy, herbology, homeopathy, and sound therapy.
9. Mirror work is great!
So many people have changed their lives by looking in the mirror and saying
“I love you; I really, really love you!” At first it may bring up sadness,
anger or fear, but if we continue doing this, our inner energy begins
to shift, letting go of destructive thoughts and behavior and accepting
ourselves as naturally lovable. First thing in the morning, look in the
mirror and say, “I love you, what can I do today to make you happy?”
Listen to what you hear. You may not get many messages to begin with because
you may not know how to respond to a kind loving thought. Begin to learn
to trust yourself. Events come and go but the love you have for yourself
is constant and the most important thing in your life. Do forgiveness
work in the mirror. Look into your own eyes and forgive yourself for not
being what you think you need to be. You might say, “I forgive and I am
forgiven”. You can talk to other people in the mirror. We all want other’s
love and approval as well as our own love and approval.
10. Just be willing to learn to love yourself.
Once you learn to love and accept yourself exactly as you are, you can
begin to love and accept others exactly as they are. We can’t change other
people, we can only change ourselves. Love yourself enough so that you’re
not brought down by people who are negative. They have a right to what
they think and what they want to do for themselves. Just love yourself
and move away from the negative. When we change our own negative thoughts,
we find that we are treated differently. The quickest way to change any
problem in our lives is to love who we are! The vibrations we sent out
are different and the way people react is also different. We can’t be
healed and whole unless we really love who we are. So ask yourself, are
you willing to love yourself? When we really love ourselves, we can not
hurt ourselves and we can not hurt another person. That to me is the answer
to inner peace and world peace. Unconditional love is the goal I think
we’re all here for. When you leave this planet, the only thing you take
with you is your capacity to love.
Please call, send an email, or visit our store to reserve your place if you are planing to attend any lectures or classes, make an appointment for treatments or consultations.
Love and blessings,
Sandy