Often people approach spiritual hypnotherapy with the hope that they will receive the answer to the question – what is the purpose of my life? Many hope that the answer will give them a sense of direction for their external life – what career to pursue, what life change to make, what to plan for retirement.
The answer often surprises but from my perspective delights regardless of how it is expressed. My favorite articulation is when the spirit guides answer to love and be love.
Five simple words that are easy and lovely to hear but not necessarily easy to implement.
It’s easy to love your favorite people be they relatives or friends. It’s a lot harder to love people who hold beliefs that are directly opposite to yours. Possibly the best examples of this, are people who victimize others, who wage war against innocents, or who deny others what they assume they are entitled to. Other examples of those who might be difficult to love are people who do things that you believe are horrible or despicable. While we might differ in who fits that last description, we are possibly equally challenged loving them.
It’s not only easy to love your favorite people, for most it is automatic. Which begs the question, how do you learn to love people who you really don’t like or whose beliefs or behaviors you can’t accept? In truth, it’s quite a challenge.
If you understand that you are a spark of the Divine, then it follows that everyone else is also a spark of the Divine. Some may be inclined to dismiss this assertion but it is nonetheless true, which underscores the challenge.
Over the years I have worked hard on this challenge. As some know, I spent over three decades in my first career working on behalf of the victimized and disenfranchised. From that vantage point, there were many to villainize.
In the last decade, I have come to accept that even the seeming villains play important roles in the unfolding of the Divine plan. While I wish it to be different and I don’t claim to truly understand the intricacies, I can accept this as truth. Doing so, has brought me closer to overcoming the challenge of loving those who I used to disdain. I now look at humanity as playing billions of roles in an incredibly intricate Divine play called – life on earth. It is at once a comedy, tragedy, love story, mystery and farce.
I have found prayer to be a great coping mechanism. When I find myself simmering over a perceived violation or injustice, I pray. I pray for the victims and then the victimizer. When I see widespread greed and selfishness, I pray for compassion to increase. When I am despondent over the shaky trajectory of civilization, I broaden my appeal, and pray for all of us to be saved from ourselves!
My strategy for learning to love without exception is a work in progress. I suspect that this means that it will remain on my life purpose To Do List for future incarnations. It’s a good thing that eternity is a very long time because as we all know, some of us are slow learners.
Joanne
