Introduction:
This is an activity based on a spiritual growth technique given to us by Sharon Porter and Kaye Cooper in their Joyful Living Program. Following an exploration of higher values at a retreat at Belton, Texas in the spring of 2011, Sharon related a dreamlike insight she had during the night. Her insight was that higher values (character virtues of deity) are alive and vibrant. They are full of spiritual energy. They are not just words. They have an ability to move about among people, to grow, to express themselves.
“ Alive” means values grow, mature, act, and adapt. Here’s an analogy that helps me understand what “alive” means. Compare a photograph of a puppy to the actual presence of an active and friendly puppy. The picture is fixed, cute and unchanging, not alive. It is a pretty piece of paper, but you can’t have much of a relationship with a picture. The puppy itself is affectionate, interactive, and full of activity, surprise, and joy. It is alive in an extremely good way. So in my analogy, values are alive, charged with energy and interactive like the puppy only they are alive in mind and in spiritual experience, rather than in material experience.
Sharon led us in a brief activity in which we imagined ourselves soaking in a warm tub full of the value “gratitude.” What follows is my effort to make a longer imagining out of Sharon’s exercise. The intent is to allow the spirit within to make the value “gratitude” more real, alive and vivid while we are immersed (soaking) in its energy. While we soak, we will think about and feel the spiritual power of gratitude. We are using our imagination to open our awareness, but the mind/spirit energy is real, not imaginary.
Imagining:
Relax. Breathe normally but deeply. Breathe out tension. Breathe in relaxation. Feel your body relax. Breathe again and again. You are now present and attentive on three real levels. Your relaxed body is present. Your mind is here. You are spiritually present. You are now relaxed in body, attentive in mind and alert in your spirit to engage in contact with the spirit of everything that is.
You are in a beautiful room carved entirely out of one huge piece of translucent, warm white crystal. There is soft light suffusing everything. In the middle of the room is a bathing pool carved out of the same stone and decorated on its edges with carvings of vines and flowers. On the wall on one side of the pool is a list of available values and spiritual practices you may select for your soak. You reach for the list and touch the word “gratitude” and instantly the pool is full of pale lavender colored light which is transparent and sparkling with flashes of white and silver. You place your finger in the pool. You are faintly aware of feelings of calm, peace, gentleness, and fullness. The pool is entirely safe and totally inviting. Your urge is to immerse yourself completely in this energy of gratitude. You are alone, you are safe.
You slip into the pool. As your body touches the light in the pool, the light melts into you. You absorb it. The light is pure spiritual energy filtering into the spaces between the cells in your body. You feel thankful and generously blessed. Your sense of self becomes positive and you grasp that Spirit regards you as worthy of her love and her nurture. You are treasured, cherished, and adored. Now soak and
- Feel grateful that Spirit has faith in you to progress in nobility of character and feel how she loves you.
- Feel thankful for the many unearned gifts you are constantly immersed in.
- Feel generously blessed.
- Feel cherished, treasured, and adored.
- Soak in the love, blessing, and generosity of Spirit.
[Pause 15 sec]
The ennobling energy of gratitude is yours to use forever. It will lead you to be more gracious, generous, and forgiving. This power, along with life and all that life involves for eternity, are Spirt’s gifts to you. Enjoy and use the spirit energy that continues to resonate clearly in your soul. Live fully in spirit. Soak eternally in the living, changing, growing power of gratitude.
Bill’s Book of Values at BillsBooks”N”Beyond.com provides lists of higher values you might soak in. Meantime here is a short list of values to soak in. Enjoy!
Generosity, Love, Service, Forgiveness, Tolerance, Patience, Loyalty, Courage, Trustworthiness, Mercy, Honesty
