Don't Keep your Blessings to Yourself

by Joyce-Anne Locking

This is the time of year to consider all the blessings and gifts we have. Blessings, also know as spiritual gifts, are like flowers. They need to be picked up, and placed on an open space to be admired and enjoyed. As they are, seeds are planted and more production takes place. If gifts such as these are left unused, we soon stop practising them and lose our ability to keep them in shape. Spiritual gifts, like blessings, need to be maintained daily. To do this, we must learn to hear our own creative voice. Listen to what your heart is telling you. What are the things you like most and enjoy spending time on.

Silence is the first step. Try setting aside a half hour or half day to experience silence. This is the time spiritual gifts begin to take root. Are your true values being expressed through your present lifestyle? Thoughts, like magnets, attract the life path chosen daily by decisions we make on how to spend our time. When we trust ourselves to follow our dreams and dare to do what really matters most to us, we begin a brickroad type of journey. Step by step, we start to build a significant way to the future. Everything that occurs in your life is directly influenced by these three power sources: thoughts, words and actions. These are the ingredients that shape the direction your life takes. Given the chance to spend quality time with yourself, you naturally begin to choose ways to spend your time doing things to replenish yourself in spirit. Inner security is more powerful than outer security, in that it is created in stillness. It really does matter how we use our minds. Focus on positive experiences.

Make your emotional, physical and spiritual well-being your top priority. Oftentimes, we are much too demanding or critical of ourselves. The way we speak to ourselves in our own thought process is crucial. If your way of thinking does not support your dreams or goals, mentally shift your thoughts to something that does. Retrain your mind to trust yourself. Be aware of what you tell yourself. It is important to make a shift in "self-talk." Change everything into the present tense and you begin to grasp the vision of your life in the present moment. Challenge yourself to change how you look to the future. Try to believe that you can expect to follow your bliss through the entire years ahead. Change the way you look at things. Honour your spirit, the true you. Protect your time and energy by being more selective about what you choose.

When you allow your life to serve the purpose of reflecting your true values, true blessings and gifts, you will easily be on the way to fulfilling your dreams. Start doing some of the things you really consider valueable time passers. These may be things you just don't seem to be able to find time to do. Plan a few minutes each day or week to begin a personal project doing one such activity. Use your gifts. If you enjoy what you are doing and begin to express it, find a way to offer this to others for say an hour a week, or month, and other people will enjoy it too. Spiritual gifts are blessings, and like flowers, if we don't pick them up, and reseed them, they die.