Letting go of sadness.
In This Issue...
Notes from Neale
The CwG Reader
The Calendar
Notes from Neale...
My dear friends...
I made a comment here last week that everything "bad" that is occurring in our collective and individual lives---from the earthquake in Chile to the terrible explosion in the mine in West Virginia---is part of a Larger Process by which All of Life evolves.
I know that it is very difficult to see that "silver lining" when you are one of the people whose husband or wife or child died in one of those tragedies...and so I want to talk this week about the process of grieving, and how that can be affected and facilitated by moving to higher and higher levels of spiritual awareness.
Grief is one of the Five Natural Emotions. The others are: Fear, Anger, Envy, and Love. These emotions were given to us as gifts. They are tools that, if used well, can help us all to move through this life and remain physically and mentally healthy. But the trick is, these emotions must not be withheld.
Grief that is repressed will turn into a very unnatural emotion: chronic depression. Therefore, when I talk with anyone about the process of grief, the first thing I tell them is, "feel it. For heaven sake, feel it. If you are experiencing grief, allow yourself to express it."
I say this because many people-perhaps most people-hide their grief, or at the very least, try very hard to control it, to hold it in, to repress it. This only guarantees that it will linger all the longer.
So the first thing to do about grief is to let it out. Cry it out, scream it out (in a healthy way, not in the form of abuse of another), bang it out (I have encouraged people to use a baton, or some other instrument with which they can hit a big pillow. A baseball bat works wonders on an told tire. A compressor hose can also be powerful, used on some old telephone books.
Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross used to say that every hospital should have not just a chapel, where one goes to be quiet, to pray or just sit in peace, but also a screaming room, where one could go to scream out one's grief. But no, she would say, what they do in hospitals is give the person who is grieving over the death of a loved one a sedative and send them home.
One of the problems in our society, Dr. Ross used to say, is that we are taught to sedate all of our Natural Emotions. Even love. With the result that these emotions are repressed, leading, as I mentioned above, to very unnatural emotions. Repressed fear will turn into panic. Simply envy, when repressed, will turn into jealousy. Repressed anger will turn into rage. And repressed love will turn into possessiveness.
So, advice #1 on grief: Let it out. Find a friend, go to your pastor, minister, rabbi or ulama, check out a grief-and-loss counselor, get to an emotional support group...find someone with whom to let it out.
Next week---Advice #2: spiritual healing for a wounded heart.
Love and Hugs,
Neale.
A MARVELOUS OPPORTUNITY
I believe that the Conversations with God material can change people's lives and change the world. Many people who have read the material agree with me, and yearn to know how they can more effectively share this information with others. They want to become teachers and messengers of The New Spirituality. But how do you effectively and clearly share these remarkable messages in a way that helps other people to "get" them?That's what the Conversations with God Foundation's CwG DEEP STUDY PROGRAM is all about. For three highly concentrated days a tiny handful of participants (never more than 30, usually less than 20) sit down together with CwG author Neale Donald Walsch and question the heck out of him, exploring and discussing every major message in CwG, and hearing directly from Neale how to most effectively teach it.
This remarkable event is clearly not for everyone. It is for those very few who feel so moved by this material that they wish to share it with others. Perhaps in a study group as its facilitator, perhaps in a workshop as its presenter, perhaps in a lecture or informal talk as its source. Maybe just in a private conversation with family and friends.
If you feel called to bring the CwG message forward in your sphere of influence, and want to make sure you know what you're talking about, and make sure you know how to most effectively present what you are talking about, this unique program is for you.
The next CwG Deep Study session will be May 10, 11, 12. Neale offers this program only once or twice a year, so if this feels like something you would like to do, it would be good to call now to get more information about it or to register for one of the few places left.
Call Will Richardson, educational programs registrar, at 352-442-2244. He'll have all the information you need. And if you are ready to register and prefer to do so on line CLICK HERE.
The CwG Reader
Further explorations of the Conversations with God material from the author
Neale Donald Walsch through the years has given hundreds of talks and written scores of articles revolving around the messages he received in his Conversations with God. Now, every seven days, we will present in this space a transcript or reprint of those presentations. We invite you to Copy and Save each one of them, creating a personal a collection of contemporary and uplifting spiritual thought which you may reference at any time. We hope you will find this a constant source of insight and inspiration.
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This week's offering: Neale's lead article written for the ReCreation Foundation's Weekly Bulletin the first week of April, 2003.
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When I was a child I heard, every spring, the familiar refrain: "April showers bring May flowers." I didn't recognize the gift that I was being given in that little wisdom for many years. I thought that it was just a nice little rhyme. Now I understand the deeper insight.
Throughout life we find ourselves subjected to what Shakespeare called "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." We have our ups and our downs, our hills and our valleys, our celebrations and our sorrows. What I didn't know as a younger person is that the valleys were necessary in order for the hills to have any meaning.
I'm a little older now, and one advantage to having grown older is the added wisdom and increased awareness which has come to me. So let me tell you what I've noticed through the years. Not nearly the number of things that I thought would hurt me-and perhaps damage me forever-have done any such thing. In fact, a startling number of these "bad things" have turned out, in the end, to have been the greatest gifts.
Perhaps more importantly, I've come to see clearly that without any "downs" at all in my life, the "ups" would mean nothing. It is Contrast that creates the Context within which anything at all can be known Experientially.
Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, the extraordinary thinker, scientist and writer (quoted, coincidentally, in the writing just above this) has put it this way: Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms, you would never see the beauty of their carvings.
I just wanted to pass on that wisdom today, as we experience this fourth month of our no-longer-so-new year. If Life is presenting you with showers right now, just know, just trust, that there will be flowers. Nothing happens to us by chance, there are no accidents, and there is no such thing as coincidence. Everything proceeds in God's Universe in perfect order.
Therefore, thank God for everything that is occurring, no matter what it is. This is the secret of Mastery in Living.
Although this bulletin is totally free to anyone who signs up, the Foundation does rely on contributions for us to continue our work. If you would care to make a donation to help us in our work, please click here.
The Calendar
A look at events at which Neale Donald Walsch will share the message of Conversations with God in the weeks ahead. You can learn more about the work of the ReCreation Foundation at these events...and on its official website, www.cwg.org, as well.
NOTE: Not all events are sponsored by the ReCreation Foundation, but because all of the events move forward the message of Conversations with God, which is the mission of the Foundation, the Foundation is pleased to inform you of them.
Click on each event for more information:
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A 3 Day Intensive Medford, Oregon Contact: 352-442-2244 - ndwsupport@gmail.com |
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Three days of intense study of the major points of CwG Ashland Oregon Contact: Will at 352-442-2244 - will@cwg.org |
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Tokyo, Japan Contact: +81 3 5272 3113 - naoki@sunmark.co.jp |
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Post-Conference Workshop Chicago, IL |
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3 Day Intensive - July 29th -Aug 1st 2010 Southern Oregon Contact: 352-442-2244 - support@nealedonaldwalsch.com |
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London, England |
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Amsterdam, The Netherlands Contact: +31 653 294 701 - Thom.Schouten@heartmedia.nl |
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Scottsdale, AZ Contact: 877-300-7352 |
Productions |
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