Tag Archives: abundance

Prospering in Your Calling

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Most of us experience this interesting dilemma in life: can we follow our calling and put all of our energy into it, or do we need to follow our calling on the side after working the job that pays our bills? Or further still, do we need to put off our calling until after retirement from the career from which we have made our living?

While there are no easy answers to these questions as they are very personal to each individual, I will share a couple spiritual principles that have the possibility to free us from this dilemma.

The first spiritual principle of prosperity is that we have an unlimited divine Source. For most of us, this principle is just a theory, or an ultimate reality that has little bearing on our day-to-day experience. We give thanks for the abundance we experience, but still feel a great deal of limitation.

The salient question becomes, how does this spiritual principle of unlimited prosperity become our reality? Firstly, like any principle, we must practice it. Practicing it means delving deeply into it, asking how do I connect to this principle. Do I even believe in the principle?

Our connection to the first principle brings us to the second important prosperity principle: the law of circulation. This second principle is keenly related to the first. In knowing that we have an unlimited divine source, we put ourselves in the flow of that source by becoming like that source and freely giving of our own resources.

In the Christian religion that principle is known as tithing. While tithing may have gotten a bad reputation depending on how it was applied in various settings, the law of circulation, upon which it is based, is solid.

Tithing specifically refers to giving ten percent of the first fruits of our labor. That is, we put ten percent of all money we make back into circulation, ideally toward that which supports the highest divine use. It is up to each of us personally to discern the highest divine use. The key is that we are giving back unselfishly and without expectation of anything in return.

For many, if they are not currently practicing the law of circulation, ten percent feels out of reach. Others may question whether it needs to be ten percent. I found that the best way to start is by simply acknowledging that there is a law of circulation and beginning to play with it at whatever level of giving feels comfortable. Then pay attention to how you feel and what you begin to experience.

When we practice the law of circulation with love and openness, our relationship to it will evolve naturally. When we begin to see that we feel more prosperous and more free with our money, we naturally might consider giving more. When we begin to experience the relationship between the law of circulation and being in the flow with our unlimited source, there is a natural tendency toward giving more. We don’t have to force it or try to figure it out.

And perhaps most importantly, we don’t have to believe what anyone else says about the law of circulation (including this author). We can try it out for ourselves. When trying it out, however, we want to be sure to do it with an open heart and mind, and truly practice it. If we are skeptical, it helps if we start with an amount of giving that feels comfortable.

Why not give it a try? It is possible that practicing the law of circulation is just the thing that will make 2016 your most prosperous year ever.

Enjoy the journey.

Gratitude: Path to Greater Abundance

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Ernest Holmes, Founder of the Science of Mind philosophy, called gratitude “the motive power which attracts and magnifies the hidden potentialities of life.” In life, we often give thanks after receiving something good, but this principle that Holmes refers to suggests that gratitude actually helps create and attract the good we want in our lives. It therefore calls on us to give thanks first, before receiving the good.

While one may think “I’ll be grateful when I have more,” perhaps it is the opposite, that one will have more when one is more grateful for what is already had.

One minister of the Science of Mind teaching would remark, upon seeing someone taking very good care of a modest home, “that person will soon have a more elaborate home,” if they want it. When we give thanks for what we have we place ourselves in the consciousness of abundance.

Another New Thought teacher gave the counter example of someone who picks up a new suit from the dry cleaners and then, while looking at the sparkling suit, notices a little speck and gets upset about the speck. It is easy in life for our attention to go toward what is not working. Of course, with the law of attraction, if our attention is on our complaints, we expand our experience of things about which to complain.

Personally, in 1994 I was laid off from a company. On the day that we were told our department was being dissolved, those of us affected were brought into a room with a human resources staff member. She told us she knew how we felt and that we must be devastated. While perhaps I did feel a little rattled by the news, I found myself blurting out “no, I feel relieved.” After all, it had been a very dysfunctional company that many of us did not enjoy. I decided to be grateful for being set free.

As a result, I ended up taking the most amazing trip of my life just a few weeks later. The opportunity presented itself for me to travel to South Africa to witness the first fully democratic elections in the country with Nelson Mandela being elected President. After the election, there was a ceremony that literally allowed me to witness the birth of a new country. I stood there in awe as the old flag was lowered, and the flag of the new country was raised.

An Estonian proverb says “Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.” Gratitude is a now thing, rather than something we experience when something good happens. Gratitude is a state of being that not only allows us to fully experience and appreciate each moment, but it also expands our capacity to attract more good in our lives.

When we realize that, ultimately, all things work together for our good, and then we remember the creative power of gratitude, we can even give thanks when things don’t seem to be going well.

The invitation today is to realize and remember all for which we have to be grateful, to give thanks moment by moment, and to live in a state of gratitude. Oh, and watch how this enhances our lives!

Enjoy the journey.

How to Manifest Anything

Do the ideas around manifesting talked about in New Thought spiritual circles ever feel “woo woo” to you? They certainly did for me at one time. I remember meeting a woman named Lena when I first came into a New Thought community some 21 years ago. Lena spoke with absolute conviction about her prayers, so much so that at first I thought she was arrogant. “How could she be so sure?” I thought.

The beauty of affirmative prayer is that we learn the power of our words in prayer, and, even more so, the power of our words spoken with conviction and with a deep felt sense. We learn that there is a universal subjectivity that is always receiving our thought stream whether we are consciously praying or not. Who would have thought that Aunt Mabel was so right when she implored us to be mindful of what we say?

It turns out that our words are very powerful; creative, in fact. We are co-creators of our lives with universal spirit. How we look at life and talk about it, and what we believe about ourselves and life is utterly important in determining the overall content of our experiences in life. Those thoughts and beliefs that have strong feelings associated with them are the ones that have the most power to manifest in form in our lives as something that directly corresponds to the thoughts and beliefs.

The discovery that our thoughts, beliefs, and words have power is what led to the development of affirmative prayer. After all, if our words have power, then it behooves us to harness them for something good, rather than just allow our unconscious thought streams to create our experience.

Here’s how to consciously use your thoughts, words, and consciousness with affirmative prayer:

Step 1 (Recognition): Recognize that there is one power and intelligence that moves and creates everything. That one impulse is animated and expressed as love in action.

Step 2 (Unification): Know that you are one with the one power and intelligence. Allow yourself to feel the significance of the truth that infinite power and intelligence reside within you, that the love within you aligns you with divine creative intelligence.

Step 3 (Realization/Declaration): Speak your word affirmatively and in the present tense, accepting and claiming that which you want as an already accomplished fact in your life.

Step 4 (Thanksgiving): Give thanks for the one creative power that is operating in your life. Give thanks for your awareness. Give thanks for the manifestation of what you have declared in step 3.

Step 5 (Release): Release your words of prayer to the universal subjective creative medium that receives the words you have impressed upon it and makes them manifest.

The steps above are from the Science of Mind philosophy of Ernest Holmes and are the basic structure of Spiritual Mind Treatment, the type of affirmative prayer taught by Holmes.

Affirmative Prayer Example

I close by offering you a sample prayer that you can repeat to yourself. This is a prayer for prosperity. Speak it with feeling and conviction.

I recognize that there is only one power with no opposite. This one power moves with infinite intelligence. It is love in action. It is the creative intelligence that created the entire universe and all that is.

I am one with this infinite power, intelligence, and love. My very life and being is an expression of the one divine life that moves through and as all that is.

In the consciousness of oneness, I speak my word. I declare and know that there is no lack or scarcity in the infinite divine life, and that this is also my truth. I am one with the source of all abundance and prosperity and I now accept abundance in my finances and in all areas of my life. I am prospered in all that I do. Divine perfect action takes place through me and all around me. I am in the flow of life. I have money to meet my needs, to share, and to spare.

I am so grateful for this truth, for my awareness, and for all of the abundance I am experiencing in my life.

In gratitude, I release my words to the universal subjective medium of life, knowing it is done as I have declared. I let it be. All is well. And so it is. Amen.


Enjoy the journey.

Is Forgiveness the Answer to Your Challenge?

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by Gregory Toole

As I was searching keywords on my blogs of the past two years, surprisingly I found that I had not written about forgiveness, a topic my first spiritual teacher had at the core of her teaching. Rev. Elouise Oliver would ask students who came to her with any issue, “Who do you need to forgive?” Whether the issue was a health challenge, an off-track relationship, or a financial difficulty, the question was always the same, “Who do you need to forgive?”

Lack of forgiveness manifests itself in a wide variety of ways in our lives. One thing we can be sure of is that it will manifest itself in some unpleasant form, eventually. Essentially, lack of forgiveness is holding onto resentment for a prolonged period of time. It does not mean we never get angry or never feel resentful. These are normal emotions experienced temporarily by healthy people.

There was another minister who told the story of a woman in a wheelchair who showed up to a foundational spiritual class. She told the minister that she wanted to walk again. Upon reflection, he told the woman that they would start their healing work with the practice of forgiveness. Much to the minister’s wonder, the woman said she’d rather stay in a wheelchair than forgive. Apparently there was some deep hurt she was unwilling to let go of. Whether she would have walked again is unknown, but the story points to how much we can become attached to anger and resentment.

Usually when we refuse to forgive it is because we mistakenly believe that forgiveness is for the benefit of the other person. While the other person may derive some benefit from our forgiveness, the primary beneficiary of forgiveness is the one doing the forgiving. It is we who engage in the practice of forgiveness who are freed from the negative effects of holding onto anger and resentment.

Another common misperception about forgiveness is that we are condoning the behaviors that led to the feelings of anger, betrayal, or resentment. This is not true at all. The behavior itself may have been reprehensible. The question is, are we going to hold ourselves in a prison because we believe we are justified in our anger. Holding onto resentment has been compared to drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

We are responsible for keeping our own energy field open and flowing with love. No doubt, people will do things to us, sometimes horrible things, and yet it is up to us in the longer term whether we will allow anything to pollute our energy field. Keeping love flowing in our energy field maintains us in the flow of divine goodness, such as prosperity, health, and loving relationships. Holding onto anger and resentment has the opposite effect, eventually causing blockage in our energy field, and therefore blockage in our connection to source energy.

In short, holding onto anger and resentment for prolonged periods of time will begin to manifest as poor health, shortages in our financial affairs, unfulfilling relationships, or all of these. The master teacher, Jesus, is quoted in Matthew 5:25, “Agree with thine adversary quickly,” which to me is a message of forgiveness. Keeping our energy field clean maintains us in the flow of divine harmony and wholeness.

The choice is clear. Let us begin today to open up the channels of love more fully. Let us forgive easily and enjoy life to its fullest.

Enjoy the journey.

Next week: The Practice of Forgiveness (how to do it)

Prosperity Secret: The Magic of Giving

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by Gregory Toole

The word “secret” is in the title because the truth of the law of circulation is hidden or mysterious to many. The law of circulation occurs much like breathing. We exhale so that we may inhale again. None of us would consider only inhaling. We must give of our breath, which then also frees us to receive the next breath. The law of circulation works like this with money, time, talents, and most anything else.

The secret is to give with a joyful heart, without any concern about getting anything in return. The funny thing is we will get something in return, but that is not something for us to be concerned about. That is simply the result of the law of circulation working automatically and being invoked every time we give unconditionally.

My sweetest experience with the law of circulation occurred several years ago with a swift demonstration. I had just completed a workshop that was already paid for. I decided that I would tithe to the presenter anyway because I had received so much value from what she offered. As I went to retrieve my checkbook, a funny thought popped into my mind. I thought, “Isn’t it funny how happy I am to give this money, and how I have no need to get anything in return, and yet there is this law of circulation, and I will, in fact, get something in return.” It gave me a chuckle, and then I went about writing my check.

I handed the check to the workshop presenter and no sooner than I could take a step or two, a man I knew handed me an envelope that appeared to contain a check. I opened the envelope and there was a tithe check to me in appreciation for some writing I had done, and it was much larger than the tithe check I had just written, by orders of magnitude. My heart was full of gratitude as I was reminded once again that we cannot out-give our divine source. What we give joyfully and freely is always returned back to us multiplied many times.

We do encounter people who appear to be prosperous and do not seem to be participating with the law of circulation through joyful giving. But how often do we also hear of people who do not feel prosperous, no matter how much money they make, who speak of strain and struggle in making their money and also in maintaining it?

If it is freedom we seek with our money and in our life, then giving freely, joyfully, and generously is the way to go. That includes our time, money, and talents, but we don’t want to make the mistake of substituting one for the other. Pay attention to where there is resistance in giving and that is the most important place to give in that moment. For example, if we are very willing to give our time, but not our money, we may ask, why do I not feel free with money? No matter how much money we acquire in that mindset, we will never feel that it is enough.

If it is our time or talents that that we are resistant to give, then we may similarly ask what is it that doesn’t allow us to be free with those, because we won’t be able to fully enjoy and be free with our time or talents either if we are unwilling to share them freely.

When we really understand the law of circulation, it truly frees us to enjoy all of our prosperity, and we become the most generous of givers because we are free from the idea that giving could cause a shortage for ourselves.

The invitation this day is to give all you have joyfully and generously, without any expectation of anything in return. Then have fun watching the many ways that the universe gives right back to you many times over.

Enjoy the journey.

Ten Reasons You Were Born to Prosper

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10. Divine ideas are constantly moving through you.

9. You are one with all the abundance of the universe.

8. There are spiritual principles you can align with to create unlimited prosperity.

7. You are loved by life.

6. Contained within you is the seed of greatness.

5. Your intentions are powerful.

4. Your vibration of love is a magnet for abundance.

3. All that you give puts you in the flow of abundance.

2. You are one of a kind, absolutely unique.

1. You have an infinite divine source that you may tap any time.

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