Inspirational author Vernon Howard wrote, "Would you be worried over a $300 house payment if you had $3,000,000 in the bank? Spiritually, that is the way it can be for you."
We can use our energy in one of two ways. We can use it to battle stress and anxiety, or we can use it to awaken MORE energy.
Here's proof this is so: When you're having a good day, things don't bother you like they do when you're having a stressful day. The same event can happen on each day, and you react differently.
Why is that? It's because on a good day your energy levels are up. On a bad day your energy levels are depleted. The answer is simple: More energy!
Energy Secret #1: The resistance to the disturbance
IS the disturbance.
This is an amazing secret a "Dark Cloud" (hereafter called a DC) doesn't want you to know. What is a DC? It is simply a negative person or a temporary negativity within yourself. A DC is not a producer of energy, but a consumer. And guess whose energy it is after?
A DC wants you engaged, resisting, fighting, having mental debates with him or her. The last thing a DC wants is to be ignored! We're not talking about denial or escape. You know the DC is there; you simply choose to place your attention elsewhere.
Picture a DC tossing you a rope. If you catch it, he can control you. While you're holding on he can pull you around. But when you let go of the rope, you free yourself.
There's a power you can tap into that's a billion times stronger than resistance. It's UNDERSTANDING. You can understand DCs out of existence!
Energy Secret #2: Stop trying to please people
who can't be pleased.
Gaining insight into tricksters is a highly intelligent and profitable thing to do. This wisdom saves you endless energy that you can redirect to unlocking even more.
Here's a quote from from Vernon Howard's 50 Ways to See Through People (see The Spiritual Vitality Course):
"Don't feel guilty about seeing through people. Feel delighted. You will know what every truly happy and healthy person knows, which is this: Insight into charlatanism is a definite first step toward a life that is authentically higher, genuinely spiritual. Diligence toward the discovery of deception is part of the upward path. So persist in spite of everything that presently appears to be an obstacle. You are in the right place. You are doing the right thing."
You see, it is not selfish to live your life as you see fit. It is only selfish to demand that others live their life as you see fit.
Are there people around you demanding that you live your life as THEY see fit? Inwardly, don't stress and anxiety demand that you live as THEY see fit? There is a new way. It is within you now and you CAN discover it.
Which leads us to:
Energy Secret #3: Your demands are the
electrical outlets DCs tap. Release your
demands and cheerful energy circulates
and expands within.
Great energy is lost in demanding that a DC stop throwing his or her negative ropes. They're not going to. You have no control over what the "dark clouds" decide to do. However, they are not the problem.
Then what is? Your demand that a DC act on a higher level of life and insight than he or she now occupies. Demanding mature behavior from immature people is a huge waste of energy -- it wears you down and gives you nothing. Don't go by this insight to quickly. It can dissolve a ton of stress!
Vernon Howard reveals the obvious, which is sometimes the most difficult to see. Demands are the tools of old habits that want to continue to "live" at your expense. It's a cleverly concealed way the false self creates the friction it needs to continue to "exist." Something is draining your energy. Don't you think its time to get past "positive thinking" and "soothing spirituality" and get to the root of it?
The path to true happiness is not to deny the negative, but to face it and understand it. Then, authentic love and peace dawns within.
Energy Secret #4: The more difficult it is
to remember and apply a spiritual principle,
the more energy and benefit there is to you
when you do.
Picture yourself in traffic jam. It's an all too common experience for all of us who drive. You're tense and stressful. You're late for an appointment. Suddenly, right in the middle of this experience, your awareness sparks to life. You let go of your grip on the wheel. You relax your diaphram and breath deeply and easily. You look around. A beautiful bird flies by! In this higher state of awareness you notice it! Ten seconds earlier the self-enclosed stress state would have hidden the beautiful bird from you.
When you remember yourself when things are hectic and difficult, you discover that in quiet moments a new peace starts to flow through your heart and mind. You can snap the spell, and there's nothing DCs within or without can do about it. You'll deny them the energy they have consumed at your expense for so long. They'll holler (as we say in the south) for awhile, but so what!
Energy Secret #5: Learn and prosper by
granting yourself all the space you need
to experiment and make mistakes.
Nothing wastes energy like self-condemnation. To really learn you must dare to attempt the difficult. Hard as it is, you must step out of all familiar and cozy patterns. And to do that, you must give yourself space to be awkward at first! This is a crucial principle for your spiritual growth. Its importance cannot be overemphasized.
Imagine the relief (and excitement) when you discover precisely how to recover instantly from any mistake, learn the lesson and move on, a better person than ever!
Think deeply on these principles. They hold endless encouragement and value for you.
Tom Russell is the author of Several eBooks, including "The Power of Vertical Thinking" and "Seven Secrets to Light Up Your Essence." He is the host of http://www.SuperWisdom.com and the editor of the SuperWisdom E-zine, read biweekly by more than 20,000 people in 42 countries. He assists professional salespeople, entrepreneurs and home based business owners live with greater energy, creativity and spiritual insight. He has been interviewed on more than 200 radio and TV talk shows. Tom's website focuses on the practical wisdom of best-selling author Vernon Howard.