I seek to create heaven on earth – both in my inner and outer life. I feel heaven easily when I’m in a beautiful place, listening to inspiring music, in nature, eating delicious food, spending time with friends or family, looking into the eyes of one of God’s creatures, being creative and the list goes on…
It is, of course, more challenging to feel heaven when I have to generate the feelings solely from within, but it is totally doable, and well worth the effort!
While there are many belief systems that say one must forgo earthly pleasures to access the treasures of the soul and the bliss of heaven, I disagree. I believe we can use the feelng of earthly pleasures to help us learn to reliably tune into the blissful, loving feelings from within.
My human joys uplift my spirit, but they also help me train my mind to more easily recognize and attune to energies of love, joy, expansion, and connection so I can call these up from within when life itself doesn’t offer them easily.
For example, I love beautiful surroundings, but I’ve stayed at some pretty un-beautiful hotels in the past. In one, I was on the treadmill in the hotel’s old, dull gray gym, working hard to exercise my body, and even harder to exercise my mind. In this unpleasant environment, I challenged myself to find a feeling of expansion. Suddenly I noticed a patch of bright blue in an otherwise dull print on the wall and was instantly transported as it reminded me of the expansive Arizona sky. Now, knowing that feelingof expansion by heart, I can find it inside, even in the ugliest places.
Same goes for love. When I cannot find it externally, I share it. I simply sit and call up the feeling from within by thinking of anyone or anything I love. I imagine myself wildly in love with life and life loving me right back. Pretty soon those feelings you get when you first fall in love come up from inside and I’m filled to the brim and spilling over. We can create our own chemical brain cocktails simply by memory, and suddenly we shift our energy field as well to feel that heavenly love we live and breathe within.
I call up feelings of connection when I focus on anything or anyone with appreciation and simply begin to notice all their good points – be it a tree or a human being. Suddenly I feel as if I’m in communion with it, or them.
At first it takes work to train the mind to find the heavenly feelings within.I’ve had some pretty dark times in my life. I’ve been dumped, betrayed, lied to, criticized, had my character defamed, been deathly ill, etc. In those times it took willpower to shift my mind from the “earthbound” reality, as the angels call it, to something more heavenly.
It took shifting my thoughts little by little, by degrees, slowly but surely, to something – anything – more loving. With practice, this became easier and easier. I felt I’d finally achieved a degree of control over my mind last year when I found individuals I cared about were speaking ill of me behind my back and all I could feel was compassion for the pain that drove their unpleasant behaviors.
Heaven really is accessible from within. It is found in the moment we discover a way to feel loved or loving, connected, joyful, or at least grateful. It is found in the smallest memory of something good, and in the deepest moments of appreciation.
It is found when we grant ourselves external circumstances that delight us and when we can call up thoughts inside that can create this joy and love as well. Heaven, as the angels say, isn’t so much a place as a state of being. We only enjoy it more intensely when we die, only because our mental blocks to seeing and receiving love drop away as we return home and we find ourselves in our most natural state of being, being and living in love!
Here are a few pointers to help you feel a more heavenly life, right here and now…
1. Grant yourself external experiences that make you feel heavenly.
It is natural to want to surround yourself with things, people, and situations that easily inspire you to feel good. Go for it! Get food that delight your senses. Surround yourself with comfortable textures and colors. This doesn’t have to cost a lot. When I worked as an engineer a few happy photos on my desk transported me into bliss in an otherwise dull cubicle.
Think of these external things as “training wheels” – they help you find that feeling of love and joy that feels heavenly.
2. Challenge yourself to look for things to appreciate and feel good about no matter where you are
The next step is to challenge yourself to find things to love and appreciate even when it isn’t easy. Sitting in an ice cold conference room in dull engineering meetings, I challenged myself to focus on people’s good points, or on anything beautiful. When faced with angry people I challenge myself to imagine the love in their soul that must lie beneath such frustration. When in ugly environments I challenge myself to look for anything beautiful – even a color or door handle!
By seeking that which we can feel good about it, we find it more easily, and better yet, we train our minds to become strong in their quest for positive feelings, rather than falling lazily into conditioned negative thought patterns.
3. Now Practice calling up good feelings even when your external world doesn’t easily trigger them
Next time you have a big bill, are dealing with an unpleasant person, are upset or worried, see if you can find heavenly feelings within. This is not easy. You first have to interrupt yourself or distract yourself from the negative feelings. Use your “training wheels” first. Look at something beautiful. Listen to some beautiful music. Eat something nourishing.
Now sit quietly, preferably alone. Recall something or someone that made you feel loved, secure, happy… whatever heavenly feeling you are in need of. If you can’t find a memory, imagine something that makes you feel that way. Really keep working with your mind to create thoughts that give you the heavenly feeling you want inside of yourself.
Your mind is yours. Train it and you’ll reclaim it.
If you are angry, remember a time you were in love, a time you felt peace, or imagine being at peace with the person who upset you. Imagine their hurting soul and imagine having compassion. If you can’t do that think thoughts of compassion for yourself. Do what it takes to remember or imagine someting that makes you feel peaceful. It will take willpower to keep refocusing the mind on something better than what is being presented to you, but you can do it.
If you are worried, remember a time you felt secure. Imagine that the situation or relationship is resolved. Find that feeling. It lives inside of you.
If you are sick, it takes willpower to remember or imagine a time you felt well. When I got sick a few weeks ago I imagined hiking my favorite trail. In my mind, I walked four miles feeling healthy, strong, and thrilled with life. I was well in two days!
Creating heavenly situations in the external world is fun!
Looking for something heavenly in mundane or unpleasant circumstances takes effort and creativity.
However the real mastery occurs when we learn to use our minds as a tool, to think good thoughts, that inspire good feelings. It isn’t always easy, I know! But it can be done, and when you practice it long enough, you can more easily find heaven within…
… and that of course allows you to more quickly receive help from the universe in creating a heavenly external life!
This week go for it. Create a little more heaven in your external life. Look for a little move heaven in the mundane. Then dive within and see if you can dredge up heavenly feelings without an external reason. Imagine you’re in love with life and life loves you right back.
This is an exercise program for the mind… and the more you practice, the more wonderful it feels!
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