GRUDGES HIDE YOUR BEAUTY

Holding on to grudges usually makes people feel powerful and strong. In fact, however, holding on to grudges is a sign of weakness that can be overcome. Grudges are rooted in darkness, and they edge God out. They result in a low spirit and are a waste of time.

Grudges are errors. With a willingness to let them go, we receive rich spiritual assistance and peace. Recently a friend posted the following on his Facebook page: "Holding a grudge is letting someone live rent free in your head."

When our heart is stuffed with grudges and can't hold any more, they then fill our mind as well. When our heart and mind are filled with grievances, they then move to fill up our stomachs.

The only way to let them go is through opening our heart to release them. We may protest and say, "But, my heart is already open." But I ask you, how can you tell if your heart is open or closed? If you carry sorrow, anger, jealousy, or hatred, I'm sorry to say, your heart is closed. On the other hand, if your day is filled with love, joy, peace, and happiness, this is a sign of an open heart. It is that simple.

The exercise for opening the heart, the love exercise, practiced faithfully, is the start to creating a beautiful, open heart.

EXERCISES FOR AWAKENING
EXERCISES FOR NEW STUDENTS PARTICIPATING IN AN ONGOING STUDY GROUP IN A COURSE IN MIRACLES (ACIM), (PREPARED BY SANDRA ALTMAN)

Exercise 1 (Connecting with Power)

The most important exercise that you will ever do in your life is the one described. This exercise teaches you how to cooperate with the law of love, which in turn activates and releases divine love into your awareness and into your life. As you begin to change on the inside, the door of your heart cracks open and the healing power of divine love gently makes its way into your life. With continued practice the door opens more and more. When the energy of love begins to fully express within you, fear finally falls away from you. You simply begin to see through it and it is no more. Divine love links you with the Spirit of the universe, and the experience of unity is a prerequisite to your entering into the higher life. As you practice loving, a quantum shift occurs, and suddenly you realize that you love everyone, everywhere. Through loving, you connect to the Whole. Divine love is the soul and power of the universe, and whatever it touches it transforms.

EXERCISE FOR OPENING THE HEART
(ACTIVATES THE FIRST STEP FOR AWAKENING)

First of all, feel the emotion of love in your heart. It can be love for a person or a pet, or love for the beauty of the mountains or the ocean. It really doesn't matter – just feel the love. Second, once you feel the love, then think love down into your heart and send it out through your heart to whomever is in your presence. It may be to someone in a car in front of you, someone on the street, someone in your office or school, or someone in the grocery store. Put aside your ideas of who is lovable and who is not lovable. Without judgment, love them just the way they are. Love the essence of their being. At first, send love to strangers or to those who are on the periphery of your life – the ones whom you never thought were important for you to love.

When you send love at first, you will probably not think anything is working because it won't feel to you as if you are actually loving the people to whom you are sending it. Most likely you don't know what unconditional love feels like. Allow yourself to be open to discover the power of impersonal divine love. The only love that you have known is conditional love, which is filled with emotion, judgment, and attachment. Since divine love doesn't feel like human love, you may think nothing is happening. However, if you are doing the exercise, inner changes are beginning to take place. It is important that you continue doing the inner work and keep trying not to get discouraged if you don't notice instant results. Again, just as it takes time to build a muscle, it takes time to open a heart. As you trust that something is working, eventually the changes will be revealed to you. Once more, be sure to feel "love" in your heart, and then think "love" down through your heart and send it out to a stranger. It might help you to think of a beam of love going forth from your heart. You simply feel love in your heart first and then think it out through your heart. Remember, if you think love through your head without first feeling the emotion of love in your heart, the exercise will be merely intellectual. It won't carry with it the power to open the door of your heart.

The process of feeling the love in your heart and then thinking it through your heart is beginning to link your heart to your head so that you may achieve true understanding. This activity helps you center within when you go on to more advanced exercises. When your heart and head work together, your thoughts and your words begin to have power, but this comes with practice and dedication. It can take from six weeks to six months, or even longer, to open your heart. This depends completely on how willing you are to do the heart-opening exercise and how often you do it. Only this one exercise is necessary. It is both easy and sufficient. How much energy you put into it will make all the difference. The more you do it, the sooner you will see the results in your life. Practice until it becomes a habit; practice until divine love captures your whole heart. Now begin practicing the opening of the heart exercise. Practice at least 15 minutes a day.

Once your heart is opened, it is just the beginning. As you learn to live through your heart, it continues to expand to be spacious enough to handle unlimited amounts of love. To handle unlimited amounts of love translates into how full and rich our lives become, how often miracles occur and how spiritually awakened we are. (The ego will fight you on doing the exercise. It will tell you you don't need to do it; it will tell you it's not working. It will tell you it is foolish to love strangers when you don't even have time to love your loved ones. It lies – don't listen.)

When your heart is open it will eventually begin to feel as if you are loving everyone. You will begin to feel a unity with every person and with all of nature. When this happens you will get your first conscious glimpse of divine love working through your life. You will begin to understand the nature of impersonal love and become familiar with how it feels. The feeling of unity is one of the first signs reinforcing that the foundation for your life is shifting to love. You will know of these things only through your own experiences.

The more you learn to love, the more miracles will occur in your life. Because God is love, as you release true love through your heart you release the power of God to work in and through your life. With the opening of your heart comes the Light, and life in the midst of miracles becomes both a natural and expected way of living.

Excerpt from ILLUMINATION: A Journey in the Light (pages 83-85) by Sandra Altman.

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