The Super
Powers (From Higher Power)
True Higher
Power, presence, and wisdom also entails unconditional love, as from a
loving parent or friend; totally unselfish, a true servant, leader, and
protector. This love can be considered a super power, and more than able to
overcome crippling anger, hate, jealousy, and other problems in the world. We
believe there are many of these “super powers” available to us, such as peace,
joy, beauty, one-ness, wholeness, and holiness. These can aid us on the intimate and ultimate level as we focus and meditate on them in the realm of their absolute,
pure, and perfect nature on the spiritual level, but also on the relative level
as we seek out, embrace, and enjoy the these and other
“super” blessings in or lives and world.
This is
where we may come into communion with them through communion with our Higher
Power, Oversoul, and Great Spirit. We can also embrace and enact them on
the relative level as we see them at large and in action through-out the world
and in our daily lives. Nature is a good example, as peace, love, joy, beauty,
and so on are self-evident in the workings and wonders of mother/father nature.
For more on accessing and utilizing Higher Powered super powers in your life
please see the Super Powers
Sanity File.
Prayer and
Meditation
Too often
love and goodness can seem far, far away, but there is no blessing 2.0, we are
all equally and outrageously blessed at all times and in all places. It is when
we take time in prayer and meditation, we hear a still small voice calling us
from deep within. This is the voice of our True Self, True Home, and Higher
Power. Prayer and meditation are a key to this all-important connection and
very helpful ways to experience true grace. To learn more please look to the
Sanity Files on prayer
and meditation.
Self Forgiveness and Love
It is very easy for us to feel bad about ourselves because we haven’t got it
all figured out by now and gotten it all together. The fact is the modern world
is so complicated, difficult, and crowded that most people are struggling and
suffer from anxiety, loneliness, inadequacy, and depression. Brene Brown tells us ours is the most in debt, depressed, medicated, and obese society ever. This is another
reason a good relationship with our Higher Power is so important. Through
prayer, meditation, journaling, and other paths we can come to see and feel our
Higher Power as a loving friend that created, sustains, and supports us despite any worldly conditions, and
knows everything about us in intimate detail.
Building Your Sanity Files
All these
paths to our Higher Power allow us access to all the power, presence, wisdom,
beauty, and other aspects of The Infinite. It’s like a computer, as
nothing is going to happen until it gets plugged into a power source, gets
turned on, and boots up to a good application. Prayer, meditation, journaling, nature, and other paths are how we
can get plugged in, turned on, and working. Unfortunately, all too often the negativity and dysfunction of life corrupt us like computer files, so building your own “Sanity
Files” and finding your own Higher Power (source) is all important and necessary to deal with the problems and difficulties of life.
A Power Greater
For those
that have a real problem with the idea of God, or Higher Power, some find "A
Power Greater" works for them. For many, that "Power Greater" is
their recovery or support group, or a loving family member or friend who
exemplifies God's infinite power, presence, and wisdom in tangible ways. We
often find these people are our angels and God's eyes and ears, hands, and
feet. For a short post click
here.
Inner Child
Since our
view of our Higher Power good or bad was created and cemented as a child by the example our parents set, our
childhood is another very important place to slowly work to understand and
transform ourselves and our situation. For help in this endeavor, we recommend
the Inner
Child Sanity File. Here we can recapture the creative, authentic,
joyful, playful, imaginative, and loving child often hidden deep inside.
As wonderful an idea as this seems, we must be cautious, as the inner child may
be holding onto intense anger, fear, grief, and sadness that can overwhelm us
if we aren't ready. This is good reason to have a Loving Higher Power and Inner
Parent to hold our hand and help us face the difficulties of our past. It also
helps to recognize that our transgressors were most often also wounded as
children and longing for love and closure. This is not to condone their
behavior, but to allow a measure of forgiveness to lessen our burden.
Inner Parent
Another
amazing source of kindness, caring, and love for us is our own Inner Parent.
Just like our concept of a Higher Power, the inner voice and opinion of
ourselves was inherited from our parents and other authority figures, so
healing this internal entity is also of the great importance as many parents
were highly critical, neglectful, or abusive in response to their upbringing or
difficult life situations. For help in this essential endeavor we recommend
the Inner
Parent Sanity File.
Once this also crucial relationship is recovered, it is as if a loving Higher
Power takes our hand on one side and a Loving Inner Parent can takes our other
hand to guide us on to discover, tend, and recover from our dis-ease,
disorders, and dysfunction to enjoy a fully functioning, loving, and satisfying
life. This journey will not be fast, easy, or painless, but you are worth it! As
we build a loving relationship with our Higher Power, Inner Parent, and Inner
Child, we find places we can go to rest and recover our mental, physical, and
spiritual joy, vitality, and vigor.
Nature Sanity File
Nature is
also saving grace for us as we so much cherish time spent in nature. Everything in
the wild feels blessed, sacred, and holy. Wherever we look we see great beauty,
love, and peace. Often when we share this aspect of our recovery, people tell
us how much nature means to them too. Nature is a symphony, a work of art, and
a feast all at once, and for all the senses. For more "natural"
healing see the Mother/Father
Nature Sanity File
Healing Community
If the
concepts of Inner Child and Inner Parent are foreign to you or a bit confusing,
check out the Twelve
Step Recovery Sanity File for clarity and inspiration. Alone we are on
some level deeply flawed, broken corrupt, tainted, fallen, and tarnished. Yet
on an even deeper level infinitely blessed, divine, and perfect. Twelve Step is
a great way to find and build a loving and supportive community, a new family
of choice (rather than chance) that is willing to help us find, nurture, and
welcome our True Self. We find this path incredibly healing and healthy, so urge
you to take a good look.
If we can come to a place where we see Higher Power as the benevolent presence
behind creation, we can find forgiveness for our anxious worries and look past
the chaos, sorrows, and ugliness of the world to rest in the immense love,
peace, joy, and beauty that is always there for us. Trying to go it alone is
very common, and often why we feel so much loneliness and strife. Spending time
with wise and loving family, friends, and therapists can be very helpful in building friendships and
interpersonal bonds that help and heal us in many ways.
Your Inner Hero
Another
"personae" we also recognize as a part of our human nature is the
courageous, powerful, and perhaps best part of us that we recommend you explore in
the Hero's
Journey Sanity File. This aspect of our True Self stands up for us,
gives unconditionally, and bravely fights for what is right. This inner hero
has many super powers such as love, kindness, and compassion. Again, these
powers are not self-powered, but "higher powered" through an intimate and
reverent relationship with our Higher Power.
Your True Self
These
relationships are pivotal keys to having a safe, welcoming, and nurturing place
to move forward in our lives with joy, purpose, and passion. We find we can
alternate back and forth between Mother Nature, Higher Power, our Inner Wonder
Child, Adult, Loving Inner Parent, and Inner Hero as needed to live a full and
complete life. We have many wonderful parts as Walt Whitman stated in his poem Song of Myself, "I am large, I contain multitudes".
Taken together, all of these aspects of our basic nature constitute what can be seen
as the True Self, the whole and complete self that can relate to life in any
possible way. For more on this exciting and fulfilling way of looking at the
ourselves, please check out the
True Self
Sanity File. You may find other aspects of your True Self you wish to add, and we say go for it! This model is one that works for us, but what is most
important is what works for
you.
Perhaps the best part of us is on our knees praying for
God's will for us and the power to carry it out. God's will, God's power, not
ours. We strive to become a better person by being vigilant, by staying awake to our True Self in alignment with Higher Power. It can be hard in the
beginning like changing any habit or strengthening muscles, but once we learn
to really get into the flow of grace, we can rest, rest in God, and learn on god's strength, power, compassion, and wisdom.
Conversations with God
Another
super tool for getting in touch with Higher Power is Journaling (Sanity
File). We write out all our doings, issues, and struggles good and bad. We find
it takes the weight off our shoulders, hearts, and minds to leave it on the
pages. This can also be true of prayer, meditation, and all our
"conversations" with God. All journaling takes is a simple spiral bound notebook
from most any store. Some prefer fancy leather bound and engraved journals, but
this can feel intimidating, so might hold back the flow.
As we journal, we imagine speaking with a best friend. An incredible friend who
created, sustains, and supports us year to year, day to day, and moment to
moment on every level from the amazing functioning of body and mind, to the
laws and seasons of nature. Some have written dozens of journals, and so
created an excellent relationship with their maker they feel deeply. Just a few
lines a day or week can lead to great inner peace.
Some might find it silly to "talk" to God in this way, but we don't
have to imagine Higher Power as understanding our words specifically, yet can
still believe there is an understanding of the intention, and meaning. It's
like when we talk to our babies, pets, plants, and other things. There is an
energy and spirit there we feel they get on some level. Not by the words, but
from a deeper pre-verbal place. Even if our plants, pets, or Higher Power don't
get the good energy, we do!
Ancient Eastern Wisdom
The Eastern
Wisdom Sanity File explores how our minds create and control our reality.
For this reason, we are wise to understand how our minds function so that we
can master our minds rather than have our minds be our master. This is also
covered in the prayer and meditation files, but Eastern wisdom adds the benefit of
thousands of years of insight, learning, and practice.
This path teaches that us that we must first tame our minds to then train and
transform it with the ultimate goal of acquiring a "Sacred Outlook".
This is real transformation, to see the hand and spirit of God in everyone and
everything. To look into every face and see the face of God, and to gaze back
into God's eyes with confidence that the greatest good and highest law is at
work at all times, in all places, and in all things, however screwed up and
awful things may appear.
Middle Eastern Wisdom
The Middle
Eastern Sanity File looks the the positive attributes of Christ
consciousness and celebrates the ecstatic beauty and liberation of the poetry
of the Sufi philosopher and Muslim scholar Rumi (Jalal ad-Din Mohammed Rumi).
We hope to expand this file soon.
Western Wisdom
Of the
course the west has added much wisdom, insight, and healing from Socrates,
Plato, and Aristotle, on to modern thinkers such as Erick Erickson, Joseph
Campbell, and Abraham Maslow, to living legends of Matthew Fox, Eckhart Tolle,
and Brene Brown. To access these and other westerners, please check out
the Western
Wisdom Sanity File.
Sacred Science
God's
fingerprints are all over creation, and we so much enjoy sharing ways that we
have seen the "evidence". A great way to see how God has woven
infinite intelligence, beauty, and wonder into the natural world is to check
out Sacred
Geometry. Science has unraveled this mystery for us, all the way back
to the beginning of creation, Artists and musicians have also been engaging
mind and heart to inspire us to embrace and cherish our dear mother earth and
our wild and beautiful individual natures.
It's All About Love
Seeing how
beautiful and hospitable the universe is for life and humans, we see our Higher
Power as loving also. A flight of imagination took our focus and emphasis on
love to the extreme, considering Love Force as
the fundamental and unifying theory of the universe. It may be a stretch of the
imagination, but a fun and interesting one we hope you find enjoyable and
inspiring.
Music - More Than a Feeling
The Music Sanity File has
a section just for Higher Power and Love with many wonderful songs to share and
enjoy. It is one of the most beautiful, touching, and powerful ways we can stir
our passions to really feel the love, peace, joy and other emotions that help
us be happy. We highly recommend making your own music files and adding to them regularly as new songs come out and classics are rediscovered. Ours are sorted into files of love, Higher Power, every day, rock,
relaxing, inspire, blues, dance, joyous, and best songs to fit our mood and
need.
Super Sayings and Slogans
Sayings and slogans are short pithy statements that can say a lot in just a few words. This is another great tool to have so, we highly recommend jotting down your favorites and building your own super sayings and slogans file today. The Super
Sayings and Slogans Sanity File has our favorites and has parts dedicated
to Higher Power listed just after the LOVE and FIRE (passion) sections. Many of
the other Sanity Files and posts also have aspects of Higher Power in them as
all are connected and interrelated in many ways.
"Today
my birth is fruitful. My human life is justified. Today I am born into the
family of the enlightened ones." Shantideva