In the Trenches - By Dawn Green

I was talking to someone yesterday who said to me “I’m really in the trenches lately, and I was feeling so great.  I can’t figure out what’s going on!” He said that after some time of feeling light and peaceful, he seemed to have lost the experience and life was feeling like a struggle again..  He said ”Where is the me that was so happy a few days ago?”
 
If you sometimes find yourself in a similar spot, here are 4 tools that I have found effective in helping to change direction:

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1.  Ask yourself  ”Have I felt this way before?”  For me, the answer is always yes, it is a place my mind goes to by habit, and a a signal to me that I have put aside what is most important to me, to go joy-riding with the ego.  The asking of this question leads me to begin the shift in a different direction.  It is then easy for me to go on to the next step:
 
2.  Use self –inquiry, a tool to check to see where you have been allowing your ego to lead. The Choose Again 6 Step Process is a tool I use here.  Use it to clear the upset from your mind and re=align with the Truth.
 
3.  The next question I find helpful is: “How is my morning reading going?”  I spend some time every morning shortly after I wake reading an inspirational book or article. This helps to set the tone for my day, and reminds me of what my day if for. 
 
Often if I’m experiencing a slump, I see that somewhere in the last few days, I’ve put aside my morning reading in favour of reading a newspaper or catching up on something I left undone the day before.  I then take a few minutes when I can to enjoy some inspirational reading, and I’m ready to re-start my morning practice the next day.
 
4.  Lastly, I check in with myself : “How is the morning meditation going?”  Again, I may see, just in the asking, that I have been letting meditation time slide or rushing it a bit, and missing the experience of peace that it brings me  I take a few minutes as soon as I can to meditate then, and I am clear in my intention to re-start my practice the next morning.  Note:  It is not necessary to meditate for a long periods of time in the morning.  In my experience, it is more important to look honestly at how much time I can fit into my morning for mediation, and to do that, consistently and with devotion, even if it is only 10 minutes.
 
Have fun playing with these tools, and remember:
 
“The purpose of time is to enable you to learn how to use time constructively.”
ACIM

​By Dawn Green