One of my "spiritual gurus" is Marianne Williamson. Her book, Return to Love, helped me be more loving and compassionate to myself. It took me back from the brink of suicide in 1996. She is incredibly brilliant. And below is an exerpt of her writing about taking care of one's self.
According to A Course in Miracles, five minutes spent with God’s Spirit in the morning guarantees He will be in charge of our thought forms throughout the day. Each morning we can begin with spiritual confidence, surrendering to God’s will and praying that our eyes be opened to the miracles He has planned for us. Each day can be a glorious canvas painted by the hand of God, and we pray for eyes with which to see it.
Every morning, visualize and pray for divine right order: If you are a teacher, for instance, bear witness with your inner eye to an angel, or Jesus, or Buddha, wrapping his arms around every child in your class, then allow your mind to hold that image for five minutes or more. See God’s Light around your coworkers, your neighbors, your children, your spouse. Whatever it is you will be doing with your day – whatever your workplace or activity – consciously bless the people you’ll meet, as well as those you don’t even know. Remember to include those you don’t like as well as those you do. Allow yourself to imagine, while in a prayerful, meditative state, the life you most long to experience. Then bless that image, and surround it with light.
Now you can leave the house smiling, because you’ve placed your future in the hands of God. You’ve helped set the universe on a harmonious trajectory. Every day we have a chance to re-create life, for ourselves and others, reshaping our energies with the thoughts we think, just as we reshape our bodies with physical exercise. Bless the house in which you wake, and the people who also sleep there. Bless your city and your country and your world. Bless everyone you will meet today. Bless everyone else who is driving along the freeway with you. Ask that your mind be filled with light, that you might be a channel for God’s love. You cannot do this regularly in a committed way and feel like your life has no purpose. When you give love you will feel love. That is Law.
Some days are harder than others, to be sure. Perhaps some of your mornings have gone like this: "There is no way I can do this. I’m supposed to go to Chicago, and my daughter is having her dance recital tonight. If I can’t get home on the three o’clock flight, which I probably won’t because my meeting isn’t until one, then I will miss her recital and be a terrible parent."
Now commit this truth to memory: There is no problem that holiness will not solve. No matter what the problem is no matter how big or small, important or unimportant, you are entitled to a miracle because you are a child of God.
Using only our mortal minds, we have very little power to fix anything. The world is full of confusion, it is moving too fast, and the demands of parenthood, career, economics, and health are proving too stressful for almost everyone. But you’re equipped with more than just your mortal mind. Within each of us there is a divine mind, the Mind of God. It is always there, with no exception, to work whatever miracle is necessary to lift us above the limitations of the world.
In A Course in Miracles, it is written, "Prayer is the conduit of miracles." There is no prayer too big or too small that we should withhold it from God.
So try this instead, on such a morning: "Dear God, please give me a miracle. I don’t know how I’m going to go to Chicago and still get back to my daughter’s recital. This life is so full of stress, dear God. Please take my day and plan it for me. Thank you, God. Amen."
Everything in the universe is of concern to God, since He loves everything as one. If you’re too stressed, then you’re not fully alive, and your problem is therefore very much God’s business. If you’re not fully alive, then you’re not being who you were born to be or living the life you are meant to live. If you’re not living the life you are meant to live, then you’re not doing on this earth what you’re intended to do – you’re failing to take part in the unfolding drama of infinite good, which is the spirit of God. If you’re not being the parent you are capable of being, then another child is set up to fail. Why wouldn’t a loving God wish to correct that situation? We are told in A Course in Miracles that we do not ask God for too much, but for too little. Every need we have should be placed in His hands.
The moment a mistake – any deviation from love – occurs, a perfect, all-knowing God has already planned a correction. All we have to do is ask that it be revealed to us. "Dear God, please show me a miracle."
We take spiritual responsibility for our day when we pray that it be blessed. More than the way we look, more than the clothes in our closet, more than whether or not our papers are organized, this simple request – that our lives be reflections of an eternal love – releases us from the confines of yesterday and frees us to unlimited possibilities today. Every single morning we can receive from the universe an entirely new day, in every sense of the word. Our ego will screech, "Denial!" should we have the audacity to consider the possibility of a radically new life today. Yet that’s exactly what is available to us, and courage lies in claming it.
Every morning, consider doing this: Light a candle. Sit down. Close your eyes. Be with God.
There are many different prayer and meditation techniques, and they are all paths to God. It matters not which path we walk to Him, but only that we walk it. In whatever way suits you, talk to God.
Dear God,
I give you this morning.
Please take away
My despair of yesterday.
Help me to forgive the things
That caused me pain
And would keep me bound.
Help me to begin again.
Please bless my path
And illumine my mind.
I surrender to You
The day ahead.
Please bless every person
And situation
I will encounter.
Make me who You would have me be,
That I might do as You would have me do.
Please enter my heart
And remove all anger,
Fear and pain.
Renew my soul
And free my spirit.
Thank you, God,
For this day.
Amen.
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