In meditating on facing one’s fears today (from my prior post, “The thing you fear“) I actually found myself thinking about the things that I hope for more than what I fear … a testament to overcoming fears, but that was just the first step.  As I focused on my greatest hopes and desires, that feeling of clenching in my heart chakra told me that I was closing myself; shutting myself down.

It made me consider that, in my quest to overcome any and all fears, I neglected to seek out my hopes equally.  Your hopes and fears are always tied together.  The greatest love in your life will, at some point, also produce some of the greatest pain in your life … the depths of pain come from loving just that much.  We can shut ourselves down to experience less pain … but then we lose the joy in living as well.

“Living on the edge” truthfully means living life to the fullest … embracing your hopes and dreams, while accepting that in doing so you will go through some equal swings to the back end of that pendulum.

I personally have found victory in overcoming my fears by accepting them; allowing them to be, letting them go, and then allowing myself to move forward free of any fear-based reactions.

The same thing is true with out hopes … first though we have to actually ALLOW them to be.  Most often we shoot our hopes down before we can ever actually pursue them: the person of your dreams, the job that seems unattainable, spiritual enlightenment, etc.  Why is this?  Well, partially we fear the rejection of others; that we’ll be ridiculed for being so ostentatious as to actually believe we can make our dreams become reality.  The deeper core of it though is that if we really embrace our dreams … we are going to the farthest ends of hope and joy that we possibly can.

We are afraid of the pain that will one day arrive, and so we sabotage our dreams … that way, such depths of pain will never be known.  Problem solved.

Except that you’ll never forgive yourself for giving up … and you’ll never know that level of happiness … ever.

The only way to truly overcome our fears is not only to accept the fears … but to also embrace our greatest dreams, no matter the consequence.  Bad things will happen to you in life, regardless … you can either be happy by pursuing your dreams, and sure have some deep pain as a consequence … or you can never be truly happy, and miserable when the events that are out of your control happen.

Set that pendulum swinging … pursue your dreams … don’t just stop time to avoid pain.  The likelihood is that God gave you those dreams for a purpose.

——-

Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!

There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.

By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Southern California, Northern California,Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach