"Just another ordinary miracle today."

Ok, this is kind of weird, I know, but I think it's SO cool! So I've been reading these books... I read one called A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson, and one called The Power by Rhonda Byrne. (Both very fantastic and life-changing, and I don't think it was a coincidence that I read them one right after the other.) The message that I got from reading these two books was that everything you think, feel, and do comes back to you, negative things and positive things. If you're a grouch then the negativity comes back to you somehow, but if you love, then you receive the love back in the form of great things because love creates miracles. Basically, you have more power over your life than you think, and it's wonderful. In the middle of reading the second book, I did a little experiment.

For most of life, I have had a recurring nightmare. It's not always the same dream, but the elements are the same. And I'm sure they come from some repressed memories or feelings or some other crazy psychological whatever, and maybe they shouldn't have effected me as much as they did, but the point is they were a strong, negative...thing...in my life that I've been trying to get rid of. WELL, one of the suggestions that The Power has is that you be grateful about something that is negative to you, and you will make it a positive thing, which attracts more positive things, and makes the once negative thing go away. Anyone else thinking Ether 12:27? "...for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." Then I'm just going to throw in Galatians 5:6, just for fun, "...but faith which worketh by love." Loving is a form of faith. By loving what God has given us, (people in our life, circumstances in our life, things in our life, all of it) are we not also loving God and thus showing our faith in him?

So, in the middle of reading this book, I had a particularly crazy one of these nightmares, and I woke up totally stressed out 'cause they're scary, 'cause I want them to go away and I keep having them, 'cause it feels real to me even though I know it's not, 'cause I dream quite vividly (always have, just ask my mom), and because I let them make me feel like a horrible person. Before I even got out of bed I, for some reason, (part of the miracle) thought about being grateful, so here's the experiment: I listed about a dozen things about those dreams that I was honestly grateful for: that they're not real, that I wake up and can choose to think about something else, etc. And about half-way through my list I realized that these dreams were never going to be a problem ever again. I had just given enough love towards them that they were no longer scary, no longer as real to me, and if I have them I can remember that feeling of gratefulness and love and can move on to the happy stuff in my life really quickly. Then, since I'm not thinking about them being scary and thinking about wanting them to go away, which makes them stick around, I also knew I would soon stop having those dreams altogether. And for THAT I'm super grateful, which adds to the love that will come back to me, and it's exciting to know that I can change something like that with really not too much effort on my part. And I can't even tell you how instantly that all happened, how big a deal this is for me, how excited and happy I am, how much I thought about how happy I was the rest of the day, or how much it spilled over into the rest of my week. That, my friends, IS a miracle. And I know the same kinds of things can happen in your lives too. Try your own experiment. And if you need some help thinking differently, send me a message, I'll help you out. I told you, it's weird, but it works, and I am happier for it. Just think, if I gave love to EVERYTHING like I gave love to those nightmares, then there wouldn't BE any negativity in my life, only really great things that I love. Sounds dreamy, right? (No pun intended)  :)

Whenever I start thinking about this stuff, for some reason I get The Beatles stuck in my head, "...it's easy! All you need is love..." And for the record, I haven't had any nightmares, at all, of any kind, in a month. That's pretty huge.  :)