Be Intentional in Associations

I completely agree that it makes such a profound difference to surround ourselves with positive influence. How do we balance this concept with reaching out to those who are struggling, or not on a high vibe? I strongly feel that "inspired" or "high vibe" people should not abandon them. For me, I need to firstly be aware of who is who, and then be aware of the ratio, and then be aware of who are the necessary sheep for me to be involved with and which ones I can trust to someone else's care (whom they will find on their own). 

Also, separate from ministering, sometimes we attract a certain social circle. We need to be aware of our limiting beliefs and why we might be doing so. Several years back, I found myself surrounded by idle, "drama queen" or otherwise low-vibe type of friends. After a lot of drama with a string of these friends in a row, I asked myself "Why am I friends with these people? Why am I attracting them?" and received the answer that I needed to work on my self esteem and gain the spiritual knowledge that I was worthy of good company. So I prayed for this. There was one woman in particular that I desired a friendship with—I even referred to her as "out of my league." But I started making some efforts and before long we had a great friendship and I was even able to mentor her in business matters (imagine that! I had something to offer to someone who was "out of my league"!) and from then on, all the low-vibe people fell out of my life and I continued to attract more wonderful, inspiring friends. It completely changed me!

Some of us who are overly compassionate just need to be aware of our own tendencies to surround ourself with people we feel sorry for, in the name of "helping" them, but all we are doing is feeding our own limiting belief of our low self worth. Contrary to our belief, that really isn't a high vibration to offer them. Pity is not a service for anybody. Form friendships with people you truly respect and admire. Stretch yourself and make some contacts with people who are out of your league, and pray to know you're worthy to be their associate. 

...and then continue to serve and love those who are less fortunate ❤️❤️ ... in ways that actually benefit the both of you. Find ways to respect and admire them sincerely—after all, we all have Divinity within us. But draw the boundary before it begins to sap you! You will know by how you feel after you've been around them. A true service—true compassion—will lift you and bring you closer to the Spirit. So even if the person themself isn't inspiring, the Spirit of true, appropriate service will be!

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Creation and Rest

My son had a sick day yesterday and spent it lying on the couch. Today he told me he felt like he wasted a day because he didn't do anything. I responded "Rest is not a waste! Your body accomplished so much today!"

Secondly, I had a conversation with someone recently about how it's normal and good to experience some downtime after a surge of creation. This may be physical creation such as childbirth or any mental, social, emotional exertion. It's okay for us to withdraw from a project or a relationship and take a break. In 2018 I was super busy with a couple highly involved projects. And with both projects, I felt it come to an end, and it was OK to let it go.

After God created the Earth, He rested. Even God needs downtime! Rest and recuperation is a Divine concept.

And then a third witness came to me today, a friend sharing on Facebook about   stillness. How important it is to stop our busy energy and just be still! 

Rest can be taken one day out of the week, or a weeklong vacation out of the year, or a morning meditation each day. For me, with children, my best bet is smaller, more frequent blocks. Like 5 minutes every hour, just turn the noise off and breathe. But I think we need to work all of these variations in. 

Another thing to ponder is that we have multiple components to ourself and they all need rest in different ways or different seasons. Sometimes we might even build one aspect of our lives in order to rest from a different one—such as working out to get a break from studying, or the opposite, reading a book to get a break from physical activity! Sometimes we need to take a break from our internal world and go be with people; other times we need to push pause on our social life and spend some time alone.

Also, being reminded of this concept allowed me to have grace for myself since I haven't been as "productive" as I like to be in a while. I'm like my little boy saying "Ugh all I did this last year was lay around growing a baby and now caring for her. I feel like I got nothing done!" And I need to remember, you got plenty done and you are doing something amazing. 

A time and a season for everything. Make sure to get those seasons of rest and stillness, whatever that might look like for you.

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