Why I Pray In The Shower

To be perfect is to be entirely without any flaws, defects, or shortcomings. I know I’m nowhere near being perfect as a person, and that I never will be in this lifetime. I try not to worry too much about my imperfections though, or the spiritual imperfections I also have. I realize that part of spiritual growth is knowing I will always need to grow and that having imperfections both spiritually and as a person is a part of who I am. I don’t necessarily like having them, and I certainly don’t like seeing them in other people, but because I have learned to love myself unconditionally I am slowly learning to love others unconditionally too. Now having imperfections doesn’t give any of us the right to act in ways that hurt people, nor should it be used as an excuse for when we do. But if we honestly keep striving for personal and spiritual growth even when we fall far short of being perfect, it’s still possible to love ourselves and be be happy with who we are. An unconditional love for ourselves that holds the promise of loving others in the same way no matter what their imperfections may be.

Share and Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Tags: creating our path, Happiness, self love, spiritual growth, spiritual imperfection, unconditional love

Despite all the things in my sobriety that have helped me to believe in myself, I have been feeling somewhat fearful and sad the past few weeks. It began with some worry I felt about my book not gaining the attention I had hoped it would and letting the negative effects of the news media bring me down. To add to this, I also started to realize just how hard it is to gain the kind of notoriety needed to help others at a higher level. I’m not saying I want to be the next Dalai Lama or a male Oprah, nor am I saying I want to be another one of the many self-help gurus out there. I just want the chance to reach the many people that I know I can help with my book and my beliefs in life. What added even more to the emotions I’m feeling is seeing people that have received varying degrees of celebrity acting out in crazy and often nasty ways, who don’t seem to care about helping others. I don’t mean to judge anyone here, and I want people to do what makes them happy in life, but I can’t deny the frustration and sometimes anger I feel when I see the often negative and meaningless things some people do. These things can’t be helpful to anyone and has more of an affect on people’s well being than we think. I do believe there are many people out there who agree with me, and I promise I haven’t lost hope in achieving what I want to do in life, but it’s been a tougher road for me than I originally thought it was going to be. I just need to continue doing the things that got me this far on the path I began when I decided to get sober and not give up. I also know that as long as I stay true to myself and my beliefs, and not let the negativity of the world bring me down, I’ll be all right.

Share and Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Tags: creating our path, faith, Happiness, helping others, overcoming doubts and fears

Some people believe we’re put on a path at birth that leads to our destiny, and while I believe we are here for a reason, I also believe I’ve had a lot to do with creating my own path in life, especially in my sobriety. There have been several books written about having the power to create our lives the way we want them to be. Most of them basically claim that we can create our own happiness by getting everything we want in life like more money, a bigger home, and other material things. One even professed that nothing is impossible, and whatever we can dream of can be ours once we know the secret. The book that stands out the most to me, however, doesn’t do this. It was published in 1932 which is long before any of these other books were even around. It’s called Sermon on the Mount by Emmet Fox, and it doesn’t talk about creating happiness through materialistic gains. Instead, it explains what the key to success in life is, and how it can be obtained. My happiness in life came about through a continual striving for personal and spiritual growth, but I will say I was fortunate to find this book at a time when I didn’t have a whole lot of faith in myself, or a god. Fortunately, today whenever I let doubts creep in about my future and my ability to create it the way I would like it to be, I know everything will be all right.  This is because success in life for me isn’t creating wealth and material things to make me happy, but creating the type of happiness that these things can’t bring which is true happiness. My definition of true happiness is loving ourselves enough to be happy with who we are. I wrote in my book how I eventually became happy with who I was, and I also wrote about something else that helped me to be happy with myself. “On the days when my belief in a creator and myself are strong, I feel an inner joy that’s different from any other happiness I experience.”  This too is part of having true happiness, and no amount of material wealth can replace it.

Share and Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Tags: creating our path, emmet fox, personal and spiritual growth, true happiness

I recently began rethinking my belief about us all being one. It was becoming more evident to me that some of us, like myself for example, are actually quite different and others even unique.  However, after doing more research on what really does make us all one, I still stand by my belief.  Although we are in fact truly all different because of the many varieties and combinations of genes we have, we still all have genes, and every one of us is made up of the same matter. Now if I’ve confused you it wasn’t my intention, and I’ll admit this “we’re all one” thing can be hard to understand and except.  But if we have faith that there is some kind of God that created life and the Universe for a reason, then it makes sense that there’s a reason why we’re all made of the same matter and all have genes. Something else that makes me believe we are all one and also requires faith in a creator is our ability to change who we are.  Although it’s estimated that 50 percent of our genes are passed down from generation to generation and some can affect our health and even happiness, we don’t have to be a product of those genes.  I slowly changed who I was by changing my thought processes and found that thinking differently and more positively in life helped me become a happier person. I also believe that thinking more positive and taking care of ourselves through diet and exercise can help us avoid many of the health problems that our parents or grandparents had. I really do believe we’re all one, and although some people purposely try to be different and unique like some of the “celebrities” we see for example, I believe we’re all special, and all a part of the same creator I call God.

Share and Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Tags: creator, god, Happiness, heredity, matter, science, the happiness gene, uniqueness