For basically all my life I have placed my focus outside of myself … where it really doesn’t matter and does no good (or at least very little). Trying to get others to like me by trivial means like what I wear, how much I know, how fun I can be, how nice I am, whether I follow social etiquette or how many laughs I can elicit … all the emphasis here is on what everyone else around me thinks.

The problem is that their thoughts are all completely unique to them … their upbringing, environment and personal makeup that I have no clue about. If you think about it, each person is their own unique island of opinions and assessments … every one of us are totally original and different.

Are you beginning to get an idea for how utterly ridiculous it is to try and gain inner fulfillment by trying to manipulate everyone else’s opinions of you. How could we ever strategically predict what every person will think or do? Talk about a waste of energy!

Whatever anyone else around me thinks … is their own issue to work through. I have no responsibility for what they think, do or espouse. The same is true for me … my own opinions are just that, and they are mine to deal with.

Opinions are far more powerful than I ever was aware of … we base our whole lives on opinions. Not just others’ opinions of us either … nope, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Where opinions truly gain power is in your own head … failure, weak, ugly, stupid … whatever your personal mantra is, we all have one.

Most of them come from events in our childhood … and then we just keep bouncing them around in our heads like some sort of endless pinball game for the rest of our lives. To actually STOP doing this takes a great deal of work, practice, awareness and concentration … and time, lots and lots of time.

Try it … think of one of those awful words your inner voice says to you when you have done something to set it off. Think of how many times you have heard that mantra, and how it makes you feel every time you do. Now … stop it.

Doesn’t work, does it?

That’s because these thoughts are the deepest habits you have in your entire life. In order to change those thoughts you have to put in just as much work and practice to not only break those habitual neuropathways, but create new ones that bring fulfillment and healing.

It can seem overwhelming and discouraging at times, I know.

The fact is though that you are presented with a perpetual fork in the road … to walk the path of change, or the path of the same. I would say it’s actually a Divine requisition to first become conscious of this fork and then make the decision that brings you closer to God.

Every day, everywhere you go during that day, you are generating opinions of others and of yourself. You are choosing to either cling to the mentality that creates your own suffering (being spiritually disconnected), or you are choosing to generate a new way of being that brings peace and contentment into your life (being spiritually connected).

We don’t want to see it either … these thoughts have become SO engrained that they seem normal … you are actually addicted to them. They are the structures you have based your whole life on … if you let them crumble, what happens to you?

That is the great test … which pill will you choose to swallow?

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– pic from The Matrix.

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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.

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