Tian Dayton

Today I will not avoid an inner hell in order to live constantly in heaven. When I refuse my deepest fears and nightmares, I keep the best of my inner life at bay as well. The demons that I fear the most gain life while I hold them in the darkness within me. When I face them fully and bring them into the light they shrivel up and die. Part of my
psychic and spiritual growth lies in my willingness to know all – all that is outside and all that is within. Running from any part of me creates distance from my soul – if I wish to walk a spiritual path and come closer to myself, I need to face all that is there. There is nothing ugly about me if I hold it in the light of compassion, love and forgiveness; no hell on earth or within me is more powerful ultimately than love.

I wil1 face fully what is inside of me.

Hell has three gates: lust, anger and greed.
Bhagavadgita

I will not shrink from experiencing the ups and downs of my life. In the little disequilibriations of the day, soul energy is activated. Today I will pay attention. Rather than “get over it,” I will “get into it.” I will lengthen the moment of contact with my own individual soul. I get to know soul, cultivate and work with it in my own life by paying attention. My reactions, likes and dislikes map out my journey toward self. When I follow my own bliss, as it were, I am following me – I am moving in a direction of my own leaning, where more of me will be available to grow with and into; I am going with the flow of my own inner being and working with my intuitive self, the self that leads me toward soul.

I cultivate my own soul.

Every day, every more or less average human individual experiences the appearance of this energy in its most  embryonic stage. Whenever there is pain or contradiction, this energy of the soul is released or “activated.”
Jacob Needleman from “The Soul” by Phil Cousineau

Today I realize that negativity has a psychic life of its own. When I focus on it and think about it, I am nurturing and allowing it to grow strong and formidable in my life. Negativity is real and it feeds on strength and goodness. Today I am stronger than that which is not of God. I align myself with the wisdom, power and beauty of a Higher Force, and I truly believe that light and love can make a friend of darkness. Where there are problems in my life, I will rise to my full strength. I move into my own heart, center myself in prayer and align myself with a loving universe.

I am stronger in love than negativity.

A little neglect may breed great mischief- For want of a nail, the shoe was lost; And for want of a horse, the rider was lost. Benjamin Franklin

My life is a journey, it is my story. Though it may not be recorded in history books, it has mythic proportions for me and for those close to me. Sharing personal stories enrich those who come after me. I am inspired and led by the stories of my elders. Family stories have special meaning because I feel the right to identify with them. They help me to know my own personal history, to write the book of my life. Each person in my family has traveled on his or her own journey, own vision quest. Hearing about how my relatives have sought meaning helps me have the courage to seek my own. The trail that they have blazed feels like mine to walk on and then to bequeath to my progeny.

I will listen to and share family stories.

In short, the soul-journey resembles very much the sort of adventure one encounters in folk lore and myth. According to archaic view, all men apparently had the chance to become a sort of Odysseus, whether they liked it or not.
Paul Zweig

Today when life gets rough, I will remind myself that I am not in it alone – someone besides me understands and sees and I can turn to that power within me at any moment to lighten my own burden. I learn in program to begin each day by turning my troubles over to a higher source. This is what I will do today. Before I act out of fear and anxiety and deepen whatever problems I am in the midst of, I will release them into the loving and wiser hands of a universal wisdom. Even if I don’t believe and trust that anything can improve, the mere act of turning over will lift me up.

I look to a higher source for help.

Experience is the worst teacher; it gives the test before presenting the lesson.
Vernon Law