Living In The Gift12/18/18
An acquaintance of mine started talking about Charles Eisenstein and his courses. Digging further, I found an underappreciated wealth of peace available.
You've likely never heard of him, and by no means is he a "master" (nor does he claim to be). And yet he has been blessed with a unique perspective; one that many of us could really benefit from. Living In The Gift This is a course he offers, available through application on his website. It's currently ongoing, and is still being developed (and evolving with audience participation), yet even in the first few audios his perspective gently shifts the mind to a new world around us. He suggests that life is a gift, and not simply in the biblical sense. Rather that we were given life without earning it: the air we breathe, the food and water readily available for our survival, etc. Even being born was a gift, whether we believe it was deserved or not. Many of us (yes, I'm guilty too) sometimes take for granted the perspective of life as a burden, completely ignoring the miraculous circumstances that led up to this moment and beyond. Taking on this new perspective of life as a gift makes everything look different. |
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A More Beautiful World
That's the perspective he engenders in his book (pictured above), The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible. In it, he posits how small actions can have far reaching effects on the world, especially in regard to separatism and despair. Having the courage to be the best version of yourself you can be, he reveals has the potential to change the world - one bit at a time.
When your experiences, both good and bad, are regarded as gifts rather than curses, we are ultimately more free to connect and interconnect. Looking from the perspective of 'life as a gift,' has the amazing ability to not only jump start a cycle of giving, but also has a profound effect on receiving.
Living In The Getting
For many of us, there's a tendency to want more. We want more money, more health, more attractiveness, more fun, more joy, more experience. I'd say that way of thinking is "living in the getting," where we focus on what we want to get. We understandably believe if we don't think about what we want, we will have less (or worse, nothing at all).
Switching to the view of life as a gift, however, you'll start seeing what you've been receiving already. The desire for more doesn't disappear - it's transformed. Instead of trying to fill a void of lack, the "wants" are icing on the cake. After awhile, the desire for personally satisfying experiences overlaps with more giving, and it's difficult to see where one ends and the other begins.
But don't take my word for it. Try it out for yourself, either by taking the course or reading the book yourself (links above). Keep a healthy dose of skepticism and see what happens!
That's the perspective he engenders in his book (pictured above), The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible. In it, he posits how small actions can have far reaching effects on the world, especially in regard to separatism and despair. Having the courage to be the best version of yourself you can be, he reveals has the potential to change the world - one bit at a time.
When your experiences, both good and bad, are regarded as gifts rather than curses, we are ultimately more free to connect and interconnect. Looking from the perspective of 'life as a gift,' has the amazing ability to not only jump start a cycle of giving, but also has a profound effect on receiving.
Living In The Getting
For many of us, there's a tendency to want more. We want more money, more health, more attractiveness, more fun, more joy, more experience. I'd say that way of thinking is "living in the getting," where we focus on what we want to get. We understandably believe if we don't think about what we want, we will have less (or worse, nothing at all).
Switching to the view of life as a gift, however, you'll start seeing what you've been receiving already. The desire for more doesn't disappear - it's transformed. Instead of trying to fill a void of lack, the "wants" are icing on the cake. After awhile, the desire for personally satisfying experiences overlaps with more giving, and it's difficult to see where one ends and the other begins.
But don't take my word for it. Try it out for yourself, either by taking the course or reading the book yourself (links above). Keep a healthy dose of skepticism and see what happens!