111 Days of Love – Day 4 – Today I Wake with Joy
Thank you for all the wonderful questions about the emergency protocol from yesterday’s post! You are helping me to write a better blog article. I will go back and add more information to the article in response to the questions.
Today Let’s Talk About How to Wake with Joy Even When Everything Seems to Be Going “Wrong”
Over my years as an empowerment coach and healer, I have collected hundreds of wonderful tools and techniques for making our lives happier and freer. During these 111 Days of Love, I intend to share a wide variety of these tools and techniques with you.
Never are these tools and techniques more vitally important than when we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death. After 40 days and nights of sheer terror walking with Harvey the Cat through the valley of the shadow of death … I knew it was time to go beyond mere triage to a happier and more empowered state of being.
Because, yes, this ordeal had worn me down. I arrived home from overseas expecting finally to get some rest and have a lovely summer. Instead, within a few hours of arriving in San Francisco, we were plunged into a 40 days and 40 nights continuous nightmare. In rapid succession, we dealt with straddle thrombus, vets telling us there was no hope, paralysis from the waist down, severe respiratory infection, severe congestive heart failure, two emergency hospital stays, extreme respiratory distress, panic attacks, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, extreme weight loss, Harvey the Cat scratching his eyes and face until they bled, significant financial setbacks … and the list goes on and on …
To say that I was extremely stressed out really does not capture how excruciating this ordeal was. It was easily the most horrific 40 days and 40 nights of my entire lifetime.
By the time we had hit 40 days and nights of non-stop intense traumas, I noticed feeling fearful of going to sleep at night and fearful of waking in the morning. I was in a constant state of hyper-vigilance and post-traumatic stress disorder.
I needed to do something powerful to break myself out of this fearful energy pattern. And that’s when I landed on this passage from A Course in Miracles. This is another simple and highly effective tool we can turn to in times of fear and desperation.
Today I Wake with Joy
This passage is from Lesson 284 in the Workbook of A Course in Miracles:
“Today I wake with joy, expecting but the happy things of God to come to me. I ask but them to come, and realize my invitation will be answered by the thoughts to which it has been sent by me. And I will ask for only joyous things the instant I accept my holiness. For what would be the use of pain to me, what purpose would my suffering fulfill, and how would grief and loss avail me if insanity departs from me today, and I accept my holiness instead?”
– A Course in Miracles, Lesson 284
I began repeating this “wake with joy” mantra every night before I went to bed, setting the intention for the next morning.
Today I wake with joy, expecting but the happy things of God to come to me. I ask but them to come, and realize my invitation will be answered by the thoughts to which it has been sent by me.
And then in the mornings, before I got out of bed, I reminded myself to say the “wake with joy” mantra again.
I noticed that this “wake with joy” mantra set the right intention for beginning to have a more peaceful and happier day. It was also helping me begin to have more restful sleep.
I noticed feeling joy in unlikely ways. I would be standing in the kitchen making Harvey the Cat’s food, or making a cappuccino, and I would suddenly feel joy for no specific reason. Or joy in being able to serve Harvey the Cat during his convalescence.
As I repeated this Wake with Joy mantra on a daily basis, I found more and more small things to feel joyful about. Harvey’s breathing improved. Harvey no longer needed the diuretic because his lungs stopped filling with fluid. Harvey using his scratching post, building some strength back in his legs. Harvey jumping up to the window sill to check out the birds in the mornings.
I noticed that I was feeling drawn to open heart-centered books that I studied years earlier, like Marshall Rosenberg’s Non-Violent Communication book. I got an empathy buddy again, and that brought more joy.
Ultimately, this led me to begin recording the 30-Day Gratitude Challenge, which we will be releasing soon.
The Wake with Joy mantra was only one of hundreds of tools and techniques that I gratefully drew upon during this crisis. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I used pretty much every principle that I teach in my 15-Week Miracle Coaching program, to save Harvey the Cat’s life.
I wanted to share this one on the blog though, because like the emergency protocol, it’s simple and easy, and anyone can use it starting immediately.
Today I wake with joy, expecting but the happy things of God to come to me. I ask but them to come, and realize my invitation will be answered by the thoughts to which it has been sent by me. And I will ask for only joyous things the instant I accept my holiness. For what would be the use of pain to me, what purpose would my suffering fulfill, and how would grief and loss avail me if insanity departs from me today, and I accept my holiness instead?
Let me know how it goes for you, using the Wake with Joy mantra.
Join Us Every Day Until Christmas for 111 Days of Love
We hope you enjoyed Day 3 of 111 Days of Love.
Each day until Christmas Day we will be sharing inspiring quotations and powerful lessons in love that I learned after my near-death experience in 2006. These teachings ultimately became the foundation of my acclaimed 15-Week Miracle Coaching Program.
We have a brand new Facebook group for 111 Days of Love – Join us now.
We also intend to provide deeper coverage and transformation tools as part of my ongoing Gold membership. Join us now and get the maximum benefit from 111 Days of Love.
We will also be launching the brand new 30-Day Gratitude Challenge … stay tuned for details about that by getting on our newsletter list here.
Join our newsletter list for 111 Days of Love … sign up for my free gift of the first three days of the 30-Day Abundance Challenge here:
http://tapsmarter.com/abundance-challenge/ …
and remember to confirm your subscription or you’ll miss out on these amazing 111 Days of Love.
We will be sharing amazing quotations, lessons in love that I learned along the years of this journey, inspiring stories, powerful transformation videos, and much, much more …
Look forward to seeing you on this wonderful journey into 111 Days of Love.
Love,
Someone once told me that when we wake up, we do have some control over that day. We can look at each decision in a positive way or otherwise. The day usually turns out depending on that outcome.
When ever I go to bed, I always say to myself that I should wake up with a positive attitude & full of joy. I know it is not going to be the same every day, but if you stay positive then you can make it happen.
Since I have been battling fibromyalgia for about two years now some days I often wonder what my purpose is. It is very frustrating to be in pain all day long. I get brief times when my pain is limited but more often than not, I’m in excruciating pain. I always try to think of Job in the bible. I know he struggled just like I am, yet God had a purpose for him. I am thankful for my blogs. Without them, I know I would be I’m a deeper state of depression. I also rely on my faith in God to get me through it. I do look forward to going home to sit at the feet of Jesus when he is ready to take me. I look forward to that day because I know he will free me from my pain. It is that hope that keeps a fire burning.
Hi Uplifting,
Ah, thanks for sharing so authentically your journey. It brings tears to my eyes to imagine the intensity of the pain you are experiencing. And although I did not have fibromyalgia, I did once have chronic pain all over much of my body. There’s not much to say about it, except that it really sucked.
I feel sadness that the pain is so severe you would wish to leave us, though I can imagine when there is no relief from the pain how that option would definitely seem appealing. I do want to share that as I got deeper and deeper into energy healing and my spiritual path, most of my pain has disappeared. I had chronic knee pain for example that didn’t respond to surgery and stopped responding to pain killers. I was shoveling four Advil (yikes) just to blunt the edge of it when I skied.
Well, lo and behold, after a few years of this energy healing, that knee pain just disappeared. I never thought that was possible. I also had chronic shoulder and back pain, had to sit in weird ergonomic chairs and have weird ergonomic keyboards and still was in pain all the time. Once in a while the right shoulder will flare up a bit, but mostly that pain is gone too.
I know other people too who have found release from their chronic pain of various kinds through the energy healing and spiritual path. I guess I share this only to say, maybe there is hope of finding release from pain even here.
Love,
Erika
I think if you tell yourself you’re going to have a great day, then you will! (Or at least a better one.)
I love turning to warm-hearted books when stressed
It’s sometimes difficult to look for a silver lining when the clouds are really dark. But you know what, have a positive outlook in life helps you wake up with joy in the morning. Every single day.
I think Christianity itself is founded in joy found in the Lord. When I went through a crisis of my own, I found that asking God to remind me of his love for me and listening for his response made a difference. Joy is ours when we seek the source of joy — for me, that is in Christ.
I always set out to be happy and make the best out of a situation. It doesn’t always work, but hey, I try.