- Epictetus
- Gary Zukav, The Heart of the Soul
Spotlight: Living the Song of Your Soul by Anisa Aven
Christmas day following my high school graduation,
I was mischievously eager to announce that I was moving to California. After
waiting patiently for the perfect moment, I announced, "I have been accepted
into the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. I am moving to California to become
a professional actress." I braced myself for the inevitable, whirly
confrontation. However, I was not prepared for this: “Congratulations! We always
knew you'd be moving to California one day." I was dumbfounded! "What? What do
you mean you always knew? Why didn't anyone tell me?”
It seemed that everyone but me had accepted and expected my
life purpose to include living in California and pursuing an acting career. I
simply didn't have the confidence to listen to that little voice inside my heart
that everyone else seemed to hear so clearly. All I heard was, "What if I don't
make it? What if I'm not pretty enough? What if I fail?”
The words we speak and the thoughts we entertain are either the
air that fans or the water that extinguishes the flames of our dreams. Choose
wisely and you can create a more conscious, deliberate life; a life in harmony
with the song that your soul sings - a life in harmony with your life's purpose.
Our life purpose is always calling us. It's that little whisper
we hear when we have an important decision to make. It's that little intuitive
inkling that says "yes" when others around us are saying "no." It's that loud
emptiness that we feel when we know we've made a decision for all the wrong
reasons. Our life purpose is unfolding and guiding us whether we realize it or
not and if we listen more intentionally we can hear the song that our soul is
singing, calling us, guiding us, encouraging us to courageously and boldly
accept the call.
My acceptance into the Academy was not a coincidence but was
carefully orchestrated by the Divine. Every event in our lives will ALWAYS be
the logical culmination of all that we have desired, dwelled upon and thought
about prior to the event.
If you have ever thought to yourself, “I feel like something's
missing. I'm supposed to be doing something different with my life”, then you've
felt the inner burning sensation that flames over and over in your mind, “What
am I supposed to be doing with my life?!”
There is something more, and fortunately, you can intentionally
fan the flames by being willing to accept that you are already on the path; by
being willing to ask for guidance, and by being willing to listen, act, and
trust the process.
When I set out for California, I was certain I would be a
famous actress. Then it happened. My theatre history teacher dropped the bomb,
“you’re not pretty enough to be a lead actress and you get a C in my class.” I
thought surely she’s wrong! Then, the next bomb was dropped when I was cast in
my first film: “We’ve changed the script and you have to take off your
clothes.” I couldn’t do it.
Five years, six apartments, two fiancées, 4 jobs, and two
businesses later, I realized that I didn't want to act.
"Yikes! Now what? Why did I come here if I wasn't supposed to
be an actress? This was all wrong. I was on the wrong path this entire time.” I
thought.
I now know that acting school was precisely what I required to
create the confidence that supports my current speaking, writing and
life-coaching career. It was even Divine Intervention that inspired my history
teacher to speak her mind, and Divine Intervention that rewrote the script on my
one “big break”!
I had no way of knowing that my "calling" was to come later and
that first I had to educate and prepare myself. I am so very thankful now. The
process and the path were perfect regardless of whether I was able to see it at
the time.
You too are already living your life purpose. All that you’ve
learned, experienced, and know is already in alignment with your path and
purpose. Those hard-knocks that you’ve endured? Part of your life’s purpose.
That special talent that you have? Part of your life’s path. That passion that
explodes whenever you talk about that certain subject? Part of what you were
born to do.
Living the song that our soul sings means harmonizing with our
natural inheritance of abundance and peacefully flowing with the exquisite
orchestration of life. As we choose to live consciously, boldly, willingly, and
courageously - we not only uplift ourselves but we also inspire others to find
their path and purpose as well. A world filled with on purpose beings is a world
of joy; a world of peace; a world of harmony and prosperity. Listen to the call
and help our planet manifest its final victory song - the song of a billion
souls singing in harmony with the world's path and purpose. About the author:
A Second Helping: The Joy of Spirit by Margaret Paul, Ph.D.
We have all been taught that we will be happy when
we: find our soulmate, make money, work at something we love. Or, we will be
happy and fulfilled when we have a house, have a child, do service. Yet I have
worked with people who have and do all of the above and are still not happy, and
I know of people who have little or none of the above and are frequently
joyful.
You might try to find your joy with substances such as alcohol or
drugs, but I have never met anyone using these substances whose energy was truly
joyful. You might try to find your joy through getting love from others, or
through sacrificing yourself and caretaking others, but I have never met anyone
who was a taker or caretaker who was truly joyful. So, what creates
joy?
Joy is not the result of what you do. Rather, you can find your
soulmate, make money, work at something you love, have a house, have a child, or
do service with or without joy. Joy is a state of being that enters your heart
when you are open to learning and taking loving care of yourself.
Joy,
like love and truth, is a gift of Spirit. Joy, love and truth enter your being
when your heart is open. Joy is the feeling of exuberance and oneness that
envelopes you once you have opened to feeling your pain, learning from it, and
moving through it. Joy cannot enter your heart when you are protected against
your pain. When you protect against your pain, you close your heart to avoid the
pain, and joy cannot enter a closed heart. Thus, joy is the result of doing your
inner work to learn to keep your heart open.
Sometimes I am amazed by
this feeling of joy. I used to think that my joy would come from good things
happening outside of myself. I certainly love for good things to happen, but
often I find myself feeling great joy even when nothing is happening!
I
feel joy when my Inner Child feels loved by me, important to me, cherished by
me, seen by me, valued by me. I feel joy when I attend to my wants and needs,
saying "no" to others when I mean no, and "yes" to others when I mean yes. I
feel joy when my Inner Child feels safe inside, knowing that I am taking care of
her, knowing that I am connecting with my spiritual Guidance each moment so that
we are not alone.
Joy is your birthright. It's what makes life worth
living. Once you taste it, you will want more and more of it. Yet too many
people stay stuck in their safety zone, thinking that protecting against pain
and trying to get love is what will make them safe and happy. But do you really
feel safe inside? Are your protections really working to create safety within?
If you are willing to be honest with yourself and see that your protections
aren't working, then maybe you will open your heart and embrace your pain, with
a deep desire to learn what you may be doing that is causing it, so that you can
feel the joy of Spirit.
About the author:
 |
Margaret Paul, Ph.D. is the best-selling
author and co-author of eight books, including "Do I Have To Give Up Me To
Be Loved By You?", "Do I Have To Give Up Me To Be Loved By My Kids?",
"Healing Your Aloneness","Inner Bonding", and "Do I Have To Give Up Me To
Be Loved By God?" Visit her web site for a FREE Inner Bonding course: http://www.innerbonding.com or send
an email to margaret@innerbonding.com
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I appreciate your kind words, Kathy. Your comment about "we all need what you are doing" is most applicable to myself, who needs it more than most. Knowing that there are others who benefit from what I write for myself is heartwarming. But rather than filling up your inbox, you could go to the big yellow thing at the top of this message, click it and browse the website 'til you've had enough. All the back issues of Friday's Inspiration are there!
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Feature: Humming Along with a Familiar Tune
In the deepest reaches of my soul there is a constant song. It is not one that is possible to write down on a musical score, as a songwriter and lyricist would do, no never that! It is not a song that will ever be heard aloud from my lips, I am certain, because that would be a poor shadow of its true majesty.
How can I know it, how can I learn of the words and the melody? My inner eyes see only the faintest form and shape; only its vibrations are sensed rather than heard. Would that I could memorize the tune, could I but know the words by rote!
It is a song composed by an inner me, in moments of stillness. It is written upon windless silence, void of the noisiness of the world, buffed and polished by that which is True. It is the orchestration of my dreams and aspirations; it is the soaring harmony of Love, the counterpoise of my innocence with my awakening and my awareness.
It sounds like the booming of thunder and the gentle whispering sigh of a child asleep; the clamor of the hurricane wind and the sweet birdsong in the glen; the crash of cymbals and the softest tinkling of wind chimes; the roar of a waterfall and the unheeded, unheard but constant hum and hiss of the Universe as it expands and expands and expands into infiniteness...
It is Love, Truth, Justice, Compassion, Understanding, and a hundred-thousand other voices singing the Great Concordance in the most perfect of harmonies. It is the voice of The Creator, all around, and there is within me a single string, vibrating in sympathetic resonance.
All I can do is hum along.
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