psgrout

The Home Depot of Spiritual Practice

January 25, 2018 24 Comments

“Do not bend reality to your tiny experience or limit its purpose to your little personal thoughts.”—A Course in Miracles

The universe is kinda like Home Depot, offering an unlimited selection of tools to further my good.

ACIM Lesson 25 (I do not know what anything is for) assures me that every single person, every single thing that happens is in my best interest.

And since my best interest right now is to head to pickleball, I’m going to re-run one of my favorite posts from 2013. Enjoy!

Hans Schultz is the fictional sergeant to Colonel Wilhelm Klink in the old TV series, Hogan’s Heroes.

Even though Schultz knew about the shenanigans of the Allied POW’s who were running Special Operations from Stalag 13, he was famous for proclaiming to his inept colonel, “I know nothing” in a clipped, German accent.

I repeat that line (complete with the accent) quite often. In fact, it has become an important piece of my spiritual practice.

I have learned that any time I think I’ve figured something out, any time I believe I’ve found the route to this intention or that dream, I promptly proceed to get in my own way.

My understanding is sorely limited. But when “I know nothing,” like Hans Schultz, I leave the gates wide open for blessings to rush in.

Last week, for example, I got an incredible response to my first post on The Daily Love. It’s a popular website run by Mastin Kipp, a young entrepreneur who recently appeared on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday as one of the Next Generation thought leaders.

I happened to catch that episode, looked him up and discovered that, lo and behold, he grew up in my hometown. I decided that I wanted to write for The Daily Love and I did everything I could think of to interest Mastin in my “brilliant wisdom.” I even wrote an article about him in the local Lawrence magazine. I mean, c’mon, we talked in person.

Those initial pitches? That initial scheme I came up with for getting on The Daily Love? Futile. Nada. Didn’t work.

However, when I let go of my plan, repeated the Hans Schultz “I know nothing” and forgot all about it (“Set it and forget it” is a new mantra of mine), Madeline Giles, the editor of The Daily Love or the Love Curator, as she’s known, contacted me.

Out of the blue, she wrote to me, said she liked my new book and wondered if I’d be up for contributing to The Daily Love.

So, Hans Schultz, thank you for proving that inspiration and important spiritual practices can come from anywhere.

Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her new book, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.

Putting on my big girl panties

January 24, 2018 32 Comments

“Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they’re yours.” – Richard Bach
12hide
When I was a kid, I loved playing hide-and-go-seek. One of us would be “it” and the rest of us would hide in mom’s closet, underneath the coffee table or, if we were playing outside, behind the neighbor’s shed.

The whole point was to find someone who wasn’t really missing. One exuberant “olly-olly-oxen-free” was all it took to reunite all the players.

ACIM Lesson 24 contends: I do not perceive my own best interests.

The world we perceive is like a game of hide-and-go-seek. We think we’re here to find all the things that are missing.

We think our best interest is to spend our lives looking for problems and devising plans to make them right. We think our best interest is to follow seven steps to financial freedom or three steps to being highly effective or to mastering the perfect bod.

In other words, we perceive problems, limitations, things that need fixing.

But what if our best interest is to recognize that nothing is missing? To admit that it only appears missing because we spend our time looking for it.

When I say, “I want this,” it makes the assumption I don’t already have it.

When I say, I need to be healthier or more spiritual, I embark on a journey to find the very things that are already my birthright.

It is only my decision to seek something that makes me perceive that it’s concealed.

Course in Miracles reminds us that we already have all the love, all the abundance, all the joy we need. And at any time, we can quit playing pretend and just say “thank you!”

As Robert Scheinfield says, “We are all quantum special effects animators.

I can pretend to be lacking. Profess the need to be skinnier. Or wealthier. Or shacking up with Mr. Right.

Or I can acknowledge that I’m the one who made the obstacle course. And call olly-olly-oxen-free.

And with that I’ll end with this excerpt from E-Cubed:

Peter Jackson was paid $20 million for the script of King Kong.

You’re not getting paid to create drama, so methinks it’s time to write a different script.

Here’s how:

1.Give yourself an Academy Award for the amazing “drama” you’ve created thus far. In a world that brims with beauty and plenitude, the fact that you have been able to create such a convincing “story” of lack and struggle is truly an accomplishment. The special effects you have employed to overlook the world’s unending largesse are truly mind-bending. Take a bow and ask yourself, “If I have been this successful at creating separation and pain (and believe me, we’re all worthy of gold medals), then what else might I create with a little imagination?”

2. Use the feeling for rocket fuel. Once you get it that everything is your creation, you can use that intense feeling to propel you into a different story. The only reason you’re still starring in the same, worn-out show (it should have been canceled in 1998 when Seinfeld went off the air) is because you’ve pitched a tent. You’ve completely forgotten that there are lots of other destinations on the map. Because you endlessly harp about where you are and what’s going wrong, you’ve driven in the stakes. At any time, you can move to a different location, a different story, a different reality.

3. Zip it up. You may not like the site of your present tent, but there is no need to tell the world about it. No matter where you’re camped, there are blessings and miracles nearby. Instead of bellyaching about the script, the campsite, the life you’re currently experiencing, focus in on everything that’s going right. Once you begin to use your laser superpowers for possibilities, miracles, and joy, you will suddenly find yourself on a whole new stage, accepting a whole new Oscar.

It’s you, boo!

January 23, 2018 73 Comments

“There’s a difference between knowing the path. And walking the path.”—Morpheus, The Matrix

Cause And Effect

I simply must start today with shout-outs, high fives and fist bumps. You, dear readers, have been the fuel that has kept me blogging each day.

Still not entirely sure I’ll keep going. (I have upcoming travel writing assignments, speaking gigs, etc), but for now I’m pumped to keep sharing my thoughts.

Please keep in mind they’re just my thoughts and that there are a gazillion paths toward the light. A Course in Miracles is one of many.

That being said…

ACIM Lesson 23 may be the best news yet. It offers the secret key to the ocean of love that all these spiritual practices keep promising. It offers escape from the closed psychological structure that most humans have developed, the psychological structure that causes our pain, our problems.

It says: I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts. If you haven’t been clicking the links I’ve added, this might be the time to start. This one is definitely worth reading.

It succinctly explains that cause and effect is the organizing principle of the universe.

It says point blank, “There is no point in lamenting the world. There is no point in trying to change it.”

The world is merely an effect of my thoughts. That’s worth repeating. My thoughts and beliefs about the world are its cause. In quantum physics, it’s called the observer effect.

So while there’s no point in fighting to change the world, there is HUGE BENEFIT in changing my thoughts. That’s why this daily practice is so important. Why Morpheus said, there’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.

Like it or not, I am the image maker of the world. This is shout-it-from-the-rooftop exciting because all I have to do is change my thoughts and beliefs. The world, once I do, changes automatically. Beautiful experiences rise up. Joy, beauty, love and peace show up.

It’s also worth mentioning that–despite what all the self-help books and all the therapy sessions tell us–even changing our thoughts and beliefs is a simple matter of asking for help. Your good is already cued up. It’s waiting. All you gotta do is let go of any belief that a) it’s hard and b) that you have to do it yourself.

The universe is waiting, my friends, eagerly excited about interacting with you, blessing you, guiding you.

Can I get a big “Wahoo!”

No longer using my thoughts to attack myself

January 22, 2018 14 Comments

“If beating ourselves up worked, we’d all be thin, rich and happy by now.”—Cheryl Richardson dancing_queen_by_jazza403-d4o2nrk

My friend, Anita Moorjani, wrote an amazing book called Dying to Be Me. It’s about her four-year bout with cancer and the NDE (near death experience) that completely revolutionized her ideas about life and death.

I can’t remember if this part is in the book or not, but after she returned from the other side and quickly began healing from the stage four lymphoma that had ravaged her body, she got out of bed (she’d been unable to walk for months before), shuffled into the bathroom and nearly fell over in shock when she saw her withered frame staring at her from the mirror. She looked herself straight in the eye and made this solemn vow: “I will NEVER do this to you again.”

Until she got cancer, Anita says she was afraid of everything. Like so many of us, she was a people pleaser. She worked hard to be liked, to be a “good person,” to be spiritual, to be a good employee. She tried to eat right. In fact, she says she worried constantly about microwaves, plastic containers, red meat, getting, you guessed it, cancer.

In other words, she was the poster child for Lesson 22 of ACIM: What I see is a form of vengeance.

At first read, this sounds pretty harsh, but when you hear stories like Anita’s or the story of Evy McDonald (which I shared last month and you can access here), you realize how vengeful we often are…especially in our judgments of ourselves. I know I would never dream of speaking to anyone the way I so often speak to myself.

Later in this lesson, we celebrate the joyous news that our countless fears and critical thoughts are not real. We learn that we can escape.

Anita had to die and go to what we call heaven to realize this precious truth. We get to do it today by simply asking help in seeing life differently.

And in case you’re wondering, here are a couple rules that Anita lives by today:

1. Don’t take life seriously.
2. Eat chocolate.
3. Realize YOUR OWN MAGNIFICENCE!!
4. Eat more chocolate.
5. Enjoy life and do what brings you joy.
6. Laugh at yourself every single day.
7. Start each day listening to “Dancing Queen” and singing along with it

And with that I’m signing off from Lincoln Street.

Let’s build a brand new table

January 21, 2018 12 Comments

“You are a creative genius who came here to express yourself.”—Esther Hicks

1e2

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog my intention for everyone (no exceptions) to get a seat at the table.

But I decided an even better intention is to build a whole new table. Which sorta leads to Lesson 21: I am determined to see things differently.

The old table is like that old gum I also mentioned yesterday. It’s old news. Its juice has been sucked out, it’s basically been-there-done-that-no-thanks.

The old table is reductionist, judgmental, a know-it-all. And it’s likely to have the same number of seats, just different players.

At the new table, we attend to the bigger, non-visible world. We trust that it’s every bit as alive as the material world. We have faith that the new story, the inclusive, everyone belongs story is really just a matter of re-engineering reality.

And we know that we have the power to do it. We know we can envision a different reality.

It doesn’t even have to be hard. Unless we choose to see it that way.

I herby resolve to quit staring at the old reality, to quit treating it as if it’s a circus freak show.

It’s only there because I and a lot of other people on Planet Earth have put our attention upon it. When we resist and oppose and throw our hands in the air, we basically give our energy to the old gum. We say to the universe “more please.”

I want my new table to be expansive, to recognize unlimited possibilities and ongoing creation.

We are here, you guys, to expand, to create. Not just art, but all the time. In all ways. As the subtitle on my latest book suggests, we are here to ignite our daring, audacious, creative side.

Today, as we are determined to see things differently, let us know that true creation, new creation is why we’re here.

P.S. Whoever drew this cute little illustration of E-Squared, thank you–I absolutely LOVE IT!!!

Why I’m march/dancing for everyone—no exceptions

January 20, 2018 50 Comments

“If I can’t dance to it, it’s not my revolution.” ― Emma Goldman

You better believe I’m heading soon to my local women’s march. Although I intend to dance, rather than march my way along the route.

And rather than be against anyone or anything, I’m FOR unity, peace, love, joy for all.

I’m dancing for the oppressed AND the oppressor, for the bullied AND the bully.

Because here’s the thing. You can’t leave anyone out of the equation. Otherwise, you’re still going to have the same old equation

Lesson 20 in ACIM is simple. I am determined to see.

It asks me to step up my game. I’m asked to remember my intention a couple times every hour, to apply my desire to see to every situation. And I’m asked not to give in to resentment or opposition.

Opposition only perpetuates the old paradigm of winners and losers, of somebody being left out of the equation.

Remember the story I told a couple blogs ago about the Bangladeshi store clerk who decided to forgive the swastika-tattooed vigilante who shot him? What he discovered, when he became “determined to see” is that his shooter had come from broken parents, broken schools, a broken prison system. He grew up knowing that if his mom had been able to scrape together just 50 more bucks, she’d have aborted him. Is it any wonder he might have a slight bit of anger and resentment?

Someone also sent me an inspiring story about Sarah Silverman, the comedian, who instead of resisting and opposing a troll on twitter who called her a cunt, decided to befriend him. He opened up, confessed he’d been sexually abused and had tremendous back pain, and well, she helped him (through her massive twitter presence) find a support group, a doctor and the money to pay for it. As of last report, he’d started a GoFundMe campaign to help others.

Like Esther Hicks says, “What we see now is like old gum with all the juice chewed out of it.”

It is time for us to see and create a radically new vision, one where everyone wins, everyone gets a seat at the table. And for that I dance.

A Course in Miracles explained in 11 words

January 19, 2018 44 Comments

“Your being by nature is joy.”—Mooji

My motto is “smooth and easy.”

My signature party game (a practice I teach in my workshops) has two simple steps.

For those new to the party, here’s a link that explains it.

And as for the Course–while it seems really dense at times and bogged down in words–it can be summed up like this:

The universe has your back and everything’s going to be okay.

Everything else is just a big ruse that we, in our misguided thoughts, sent scouts out to retrieve from the field of infinite potentiality. In the Course, we learn to send scouts (AKA our beliefs, those all-powerful vibrating waves) in search of different things.

By practicing the lessons, we begin to “get it” that joy is our natural state. We begin to realize that fun is our guiding light and feeling good is our purpose. We even go so far to recognize that joy is why we’re here.

Lesson 19 is I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts

To reiterate yesterday, everything I think is being broadcast out to everyone on the planet. So when I allow my natural state of joy to emerge, my beautiful broadcast of happiness literally uplifts the world.

The same hum of joy resides in you. Sharing it is an important public service.

Since so many new folks have recently subscribed to this blog, I’m going to repost one of my all-time favorite YouTubes. It’s joyful proof that we are one. Or as Andrew Zimmern says, “The great thing about traveling is you begin to realize that people in grass skirts and people who speak in clicks are just like you.”

We’re all in this together

January 18, 2018 10 Comments

“It is all about love and how we all are connected.”— Mark Wahlberg
we-are-all-one-quote-1

Ellen Pompeo (you probably know here as Meredith Grey) just became the highest-paid actress on a television drama. As of her recent contract, she walks away with $575,000 for every episode. Not bad for a kid from a blue-collar Boston suburb whose mom died of an overdose when she was just 5.

So what does this have to do with Lesson 18 of A Course in Miracles.
I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my seeing.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Pompeo said she became empowered through watching Shonda Rhimes, the creator of Grey’s Anatomy, become comfortable with her power. As Shonda shook off the shackles of the old paradigm (of not being worthy, of not being paid as well as her male counterparts), Ellen was able to do it, too.

And that’s just the beginning of not being alone in experiencing the effects of our perceptions.

In fact, the majority of our interactions with others occur in the nonphysical realm. All those thoughts you think you’re privately keeping to yourself? They’re not really private. You might as well be bellowing them over an intercom. Subtly, everyone is getting the message anyway.

Whether aware of it or not, you are connected to this giant data base of energy and are constantly exchanging energy, not only with those in your inner circle, but with every other being on the planet.

In E-Squared, I called it the 101 Dalmatians Principle.

The cool thing about being connected to everything and everyone in the universe is that you can use it to brighten the world. When you generate uplifting thoughts about someone, it contributes favorably to his or her energy. Conversely, when you judge others, even if you keep it to yourself, you affect their energy and weigh down the quality of your interactions.

You can literally uplift your world by lasering love, blessings, peace, and other high-frequency emotions to the people in your life. Our differences, as huge as we make them out to be, are superficial and meaningless. And it’s time we let them go.

Every day should be devoted to miracles

January 17, 2018 7 Comments

“You’re here and you’re breathing and you get to take part in the ongoing creation of the world.”—Rob Bell
lesson 17
My self-created job title is fielder of miracles. Although I don’t have a catcher’s mitt, I do have a very capable in-box that works even better. Ever since writing E-Squared, people have been lobbing really cool miracles stories my way….

…proving Lesson 17:

I see no neutral things.

This lesson delves further into a spiritual law that’s as reliable as gravity. You magnetize into your life whatever those non-neutral thoughts focus upon.

As it says right up front, this lesson is another step in identifying cause and effect as it operates in the world. And with that, I’ll put you in the capable hands of my inbox:

Message #1: Dear Pam: I wrote last fall to tell you about a mind-blowing experience I had from my first experience with one of the exercises in “E-Squared.” Since then, as I have continued to explore your ideas and delved in to “E-Cubed,” my life has become ever more joyful and rich. One of my greatest realizations from your writings is that I don’t need things to be a certain way in order to be happy. I now read a chapter daily and keep a gratitude journal, as well as continue to try out different exercises here and there. It’s been wonderful. THANK YOU!

I had a similar life change when I read “You Can Heal Your Life” by Louise Hay back in the 1980s. You are like the new Louise to me – which obviously is one of the greatest compliments that could be paid.

The latest “reward” from having taken your writings to heart – I teach art at the college level, and when I moved during the fall 2016 semester, I left the university I had been teaching at for the previous 14 years. Throughout 2017 I tried and tried to find a similar position in my area, but was told over and over by sympathetic department chairs that they had no openings, that their enrollment was down, and that there were other adjuncts with more seniority than me. I almost lost heart, but when I started reading your books in fall 2017, I kept in mind that the universe has abundant offerings and timing, and I kept doing energy exercises and writing in my gratitude journal (and playing “Happy” by Pharrell Williams every day). On January 1, I received 2 job offers!

Message #2: Pam. I’ve had your E squared book on my shelf for a while but recently saw your Thank & Grow Rich book on audible. I recently quit working as a radio presenter & am now a freelance voiceover artist. It’s fun but scary & my boyfriend & I decided, now I’m not tied to a radio job, to take 6 weeks out & travel. I have been really nervous about losing my client base but also thought now or never. Then, Sod’s law, I get an awesome retainer gig voicing showbiz news videos for a big YouTube channel. I took it but worried they would ditch me when they heard I was taking 6 weeks out.

After listening Thank & Grow Rich like 3/4 times, I started reading E squared. I did experiment 1 at the weekend which gave the universe til 728pm Monday night to give me a blessing. Today I got a call for the guys at this YouTube channel saying they have a lot of other projects on right now & would I mind waiting until mid March to start up again (I leave the UK next Sunday until mid March!) & on top of that, would I like some on camera work too when it starts up again, & they’d like to pay me to do their social media. I thought “is this my gift?” but wasn’t convinced. Then I saw my Physio for an ongoing back issue this afternoon. He asked how my freelancing was going. I told him about the gig & he said he wasn’t one for believing in miracles or the universe but that that was definitely fate. I just wanted to let you know.

It felt kind of spooky too that I’d picked up your E squared book at an airport a few years ago but never read it. Then noticed it on the shelf as I was telling my boyfriend about you and your other books. I didn’t realise I owned another book by you.

Thanks so much for your wonderful books & entertaining writing.

And thank you, friends, for helping me rewrite the story of the world.

Like a room without a roof

January 16, 2018 24 Comments

“My whole life has been an effort to find freedom—freedom from myself, freedom from my own fears.”—Helen Mirren
happy

As a journalist, I was taught that the lede (the opening paragraph) of any story is my big chance to catch a reader’s attention. Tell them who, what, where, when and how—right up front.

Course in Miracles doesn’t do that. It tills the soil, prepares us slowly for the insanely radical notion that we’re not so much “observing reality” as we are creating it.

A few people have commented on the difficulty of previous lessons. A theme of sorts has emerged—How in the heck can I possibly believe my thoughts are meaningless?

So I’ll try to explain:

Any thought that falls into one of the following categories is basically meaningless:

Life is hard.
I’m separate and all alone.
I’m limited.
There’s not enough to go around.
I have to struggle.
I’m not worthy.

Every thought that falls into one of these categories is meaningless . It’s simply NOT TRUE. It only appears that way because we secretly (or not so secretly) put our attention there.

The first few lessons of the Course serve as a giant eraser to gently remove those meaningless thoughts. Then, there’s space to focus on all the things that actually ARE true.

Things like ease and grace, being connected to everything, experiencing great abundance, seeing that who I am is love, recognizing that my role here on Planet Earth is to be a big giant light to illuminate the dark places.

Lesson 16 (I have no neutral thoughts) is meant to dispel the belief that your thoughts have no effect. It goes so far as to say that there is NO EXCEPTION to this fact. And furthermore, every thought either furthers the illusion (the meaningless) or it furthers your role as creative light bulb.

I can’t stress enough how exciting this lesson is. We, my friends, no longer have to cope with what we observe out there. We don’t have to face reality. We get to create reality.

And with that, I’m signing off with one of my all-time favorite songs.