fear – Pam Grout

The mysterious case of top-secret collusion

November 10, 2017 18 Comments

“Nobody’s ego or belief systems are of any value to society at all. The world is neither good nor bad nor defective, nor is it in need of help or modification. Its appearance is only a projection of one’s own mind. No such world exists.”–David R. Hawkins
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My mom was a pianist and church organist which meant the soundtrack of my childhood was hymns and Broadway tunes.

One of my favorites to sing came from the musical, “Annie Get Your Gun.” Annie Oakley and Frank Butler, playing one-upmanship, sang “Anything you can do I can do better. I can do anything better than you.”

I think of that song whenever I think about J.C. You know the cute guy with the beard and sandals that, according to the Bible, told us point blank that “Any miracle he can do, we can do better. We can do any miracle better than him.”

So far, I’ve yet to walk on the Sea of Galilee or turn water into my favorite glass of Cabernet, but neither activities reside on the top ten of my bucket list.

I’m more motivated by miracles of love, where people who used to hate each other realize they don’t. Or where some limiting belief that kept me stuck in an old pattern gets turned into a whole new possibility.

So why has it taken us so long to embrace J.C.’s exhortations to perform miracles?

One simple reason. We’ve spent the last 2000 years colluding with our egos, getting our intel from that little voice in our head that tells us we’re powerless and that it’s better to play it safe.

The ego is a crafty mother that has been yanking our chains for too long. It’s loud and it lies and it dishes up the fake news that we are nothing but crumbling bodies destined to die horrible deaths.

It tells us that other people are scary. That we must protect ourselves.

But it’s all smoke and mirrors.

It’s time, guys. We’ve got to quit colluding with the ego. We’ve got to quit colluding with our wounds, with our problems.

Instead, we must join forces with the light, the love, the creativity and the beauty inside each and every one of us.

And, as I like to say on Fridays, have the best weekend of your life.

Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the just-released, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.
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What to do with the ongoing antics of your mind

September 27, 2017 19 Comments

“You’ll be fine. Feeling unsure and lost is part of the path. Don’t avoid it. See what those feelings are showing you. Take a breath. You’ll be okay. Even if you don’t feel okay all the time.” ― Louis C.K.

I just had an amazing session with Martha Creek. She’s a teacher, a spiritual life coach and a beautiful human being. She asked me to speak at next week’s Affiliated New Thought conference. Which is a really cool honor except for one tiny little thing.

It terrifies me. For the last week, I’ve been fretting about it, procrastinating the preparations and well, feeling like I would do everyone an enormous favor if I just backed out, ran away, canceled this commitment I made many months ago.

In other words, as Martha so generously pointed out, I’ve been having normal human thoughts.

Our brains churn up thoughts. It’s what brains do. By some estimates, the average human mind regurgitates 60,000 to 90,000 thoughts per day.

As Martha reminded me, it’s the mind’s operating system. It’s reality. The war begins when we pluck a particular thought out of the normal litany and declare it to be “a problem.”

It’s when we set up a framework of good and bad that the stress begins. Having fear is the most normal thing in the world. As Elizabeth Gilbert once said, “I know fear’s social security number and its mother’s maiden name.”

When we make a thought wrong (say, my particular thought that I’m not worthy to speak to all these New Thought gurus) is when it owns us.

What if it’s okay to have fear? What if I didn’t make myself wrong for having these thoughts? What if I simply recognized that there’s nothing bad or unnatural going on here?

Fear is a pretty standard 45 in the jukebox of every human mind. As Martha reminded me, I can always put a period at the end of those thoughts. I’m afraid. Period. I think I can’t speak. Period.

It’s only when I start adding humiliating extra clauses (I’m afraid and that means there’s something wrong with me, I’m panicking and that means I’m inferior, I’m terrified and that means I should just run away) that it grows into an insurmountable thorn bush.

So thank you, Martha Creek and thank you to my perfectly normal, enterprising little mind for delivering the perfect intel at the perfect time.

Standing on stage with your pants down

September 19, 2014 12 Comments

“Adventures don’t begin until you get into the forest. That first step is an act of faith.”—Mickey Hart

Launching a new book is like standing on stage with your pants down. You feel kinda vulnerable, wondering if anyone’s gonna like it.

Even after 17 books, I totally relate to Maya Angelou who once said, “Each time I write a book, every time I face that yellow pad, I think, “Uh, oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody and they’re going to find me out.”

So thank you everybody for “finding me out” and supporting me anyway. All your oh-so awesome emails, your congratulations, your “likes” have really rocked my world.

I cannot tell you how much it means.

And if you’re still not sick of me, stop by Facebook on Monday from 3 to 4 pm EST for a chat on the Hay House website.

Now, get out there and have the best weekend of your life.

To get it started, here’s one of my favorite videos, for those who haven’t seen it in a while. I interviewed Matt years ago for one of my National Geographic books.

I dare anyone to watch it without breaking into a smile.

Pam Grout is the author of 17 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the just -released sequel, E-Cubed, 9 More Experiments that Prove Mirth, Magic and Merriment is your Full-time Gig.

Don’t face reality. Change reality.

December 4, 2012 No Comments

“What keeps the world in chains but your beliefs?”

–A Course in Miracles

Every town has one. The mumbling guy on the street. The woman in all-black who frequents coffee shops carrying a three-foot cross. Those intriguing characters that always make you wonder. In Lawrence, Kansas, where I live, we have a whole contingency of such characters. Dennis, who typically wears a Spiderman outfit, never leaves home without his “daughter” Cheryl, a plastic doll he either carries or pushes in a stroller. Over the years, Cheryl has “grown up” from a baby doll to a bigger doll until now she’s the size of a storefront mannequin which, in truth, she actually is.

Pranksters kidnapped Cheryl the other day and the local police force, taking it quite seriously, put out an A.P.B., which thankfully resulted in an immediate recovery. Dennis and Cheryl are local celebrities. Dennis even has his own fanpage on Facebook.

The point I’m trying to make is that Dennis is no different than the rest of us. His world, although a slight deviation from what’s considered normal, is very real to him. Just as the world we’ve made up in our minds is very real to us. But both—Dennis’ world and the world we “see” and believe in with such a tenacious grip—is fiction. Neither constitutes Reality.

Reality, according to physicists who study these things, is that we are all connected. We are all one. In fact, the biggest secret in the world is we all really love each other.

We only “see” this other reality, this separate, divided, ugly world, because we imagine it to be that way. Illusions are as strong in their effects as is truth.

Because we continue to repeat and believe in the world we see on the six o’clock news, we continue to see the all hell-breaking-loose world of destruction and limits. Because dodging minefields is our source of vision, we continue to see a world of doom. Through our rote insistence on fear, we have created a fearful world.

But it’s no more real than the world of Dennis.

We have enslaved the world with our fears, doubts and miseries. By simply changing our vision, by imagining what “could be” instead of believing in “what we think is” we can literally change the world. The inner always creates the outer.

Instead of swimming in the insane culture-wide obsession with pathology, we should revel in the endless flood of miracles.

Isn’t it time to give up the world we keep re-running in our mind, to overthrow the status quo? A new more imaginative and free world is possible. But we must retrain ourselves to look through optimistic eyes. To say “thank you” and recognize all the beauty and largesse in our lives.