Hi mikec!
mikec wrote: ↑Fri Mar 29, 2024 2:30 am
Hi all. I'm not sure why I'm posting because for the first time since discovering the teachings in 2007, my faith in Abraham's teachings has been shaken.
Dearest one, I applaud you for asking for help!
I want to state before any of my answers, that I could have written this almost exact post, hundreds of times! Just so that you know- NO, YOU ARE NOT "THE ONLY ONE"!!!! I have been there and done that, and I admit- in my darkest hours, I still go there when I don't catch myself!
and ITS OK.
Which is the very first advice (and you probably know it anyway): Don't allow momentum on your "dark moments". As Abe advice, when you feel rotten, then don't think, don't talk, don't post on social media, don't wallow in it... don't do
anything. Go into your bed and SHUT UP AND CHILL OUT.
I know! So much easier said than done. But to stop the unwanted momentum, and instead chill (or meditate, or sleep, or distract in ANY way that works for you) is the very first rule (and so many people miss it and wonder why they are living in the mud, so to speak). But when you have slipped- and you did, we all do!- THEN BE NICE TO YOURSELF.
It is not the end of the world. You just are in misery (=OOTV) for some while, where your brain doesn't work, you only CAN see it all distorted, and all your wisdom is out of the window. That's all. Dust yourself off, and go back ITV!
No big deal.
Since first listening to the recordings in 2007, I've made every stride and effort to make them work for me
For me, it was 2009.
and am still coming up with empty bank accounts at the end of each month. I know someone will be tempted to point out that I used the word "effort", which indicates that I'm trying too hard,
...wich MIGHT be the case!
("We love you very very much!")
but at the same time, I can say with certainty that I completely understand every aspect of the teachings VIVIDLY. I could easily coach people on this, if I could back it up.
*I* DO teach people, even I'm in no way "perfect". Which, to be honest- we all never will be.
I think, here is one of the reasons you "fail": You seem to come from the (old) paradigm, that you need to be above the problems to be "good". And if you are not, you belong under a rock, and please don't crawl out and have an opinion, and CERTAINLY, don't teach.
This was (and maybe still is) one of the hangups that *I* discovered, and even they claim to be sooo positive, spiritual people can be incredibly cruel and mean in pointing out that "you are not good enough yet". Which also, hints to a probability that we IN OURSELF may still have the tendency to judge ourselves as not (yet?) good enough.
All of this is a thing that comes up big times in step 4.
(if any of my words are causing questionmarks, please look into the Forum-dictionary
viewtopic.php?p=2695#p2695, or the quote-section for clarification! I am speaking not necessarily to you mikec as an oldtimer, but to every newbie who reads here, as well).
In step 4 (=you became a master of step 3, meaning you REALLY understand how this teachings work and you wholeheartedly apply them),
you know how to avoid pains that were your "normal" before you got so good at this. But you are not yet really grounded in UNCONDITIONAL LOVE (that would be step 5). And you tend to club yourself over the head when you do things "wrong" (and you very exactly know when that happens). And in this awareness of what you are doing wrong or not good enough, you attract (duh!) those mean sharks that sniff blood and like to attack, because being mean feels better to them than feeling disempowered.
And so I guess- you might have attracted some sharks (or, if you are lucky, just your own harsh judgement) that really has/have hurt you, and who indicats this deeply sensed fear within you that you would need to be perfect, before you can expect big payoffs.
Which is not true. But it IS a very common fear in people who have come far "and gave things their everything". And of course, it holds you back, BIG TIMES.
I know I've probably asked for more wealth than all the top richest people in the world combined given that my situation hasn't changed, but I have yet to allow anything more than a trickle of evidence from time to time.
High 5 again!
So, a REALLY big question gives you REALLY big indicators, when you don't allow it's solution. Aka, it makes for REALLY feeling lousy, when you are not in UNCONDITIONAL self-love.
More recently, I had an "a-ha" moment about just relaxing and letting it flow. This was nearly a month ago and since then, I haven't worried about money at all. I've been optimistic. I've trusted that it's coming. I've read books. I've done exercises and practices. I've had Abraham on in the background daily. I've been expecting it and excited for it every day for weeks, but I've also been very Zen about virtually everything in that time. I've felt consistently great and I haven't given any attention to "what is"...at all. And yet, my bank account just went into the negative again because I'm not "receiving" anything - only "earning."
At this point, I am beyond frustrated.
I SOOOOO hear you!!!
I SO hear you. Please understand that I hear you!
AND: It is normal that we have ups and lows. (It will always be this way). So when you did this positive practice, as you say (and I completely believe you that you did it VERY well, and that you believe even you did it "perfectly"!) -then your moment-to-moment-outcome would be joy, satisfaction, feeling certain, feeling happy, feeling thankful. ...Was it?
If it was (and I think it must have been!) then, for heavens sake don't trample it, as you do here!!!
If it wasn't- then none of what you say makes sense. You simply
can not practice ease and joy and unconditional happiness and end up with being frustrated beyond words!
But certainly, you can have had a very good month, where you realllly have felt good (with some fear peppered in, this time or the other- that it might not work again. Which is normal, and nothing bad per se!). And then, this fear got just a little bigger. And even bigger. And so, you looked at your bank-account, and then you pondered that this realllllly never before had worked- and off you went into a full blown downspiral. (been there, done that hundreds of times, myself). And then, in THIS moment, or in being "realistic" and looking back at this moment) you take the "snapshot" of "how I am doing", and come here and post about it.
You didn't, when you adored the sunset! You didn't when you laid on your couch and enjoyed music, and felt blessed and at one with the world. You didn't take this "snapshot of how-you-are doing", when you felt deeply thankful to be alive.
No- you went with the old-paradigm-trait to "keep charge" and be "brutally honest", and took your snapshot so to speak when you felt really rotten.
There is an Abe quote where Abe cite Jesus, who says that he had SUCH an amazing life! His life was filled with magic and wonders, love, mastery, greatness and strength. But people choose as "his symbol" the one, where he felt MOST ROTTEN and terrible and abandoned: The cross. Yep, humans have a tendency to do that!
Please: Stop it. Look at what you HAVE achieved!
The fear, depression, doubts that you have overcome (at least, in the most times).
The stability, that you gained (most of the time).
The humor and joy and wisdom, that you feel (mostly, or even just much of the time) in regards to "issues and problems".
If you have given it all you got as you say (and I believe you in it!), there must be TONS of this good stuff! Look there. Find all of THAT! It is as "honest" as taking the snapshot into the darkest corner. Make lists of what you are proud of! Of what you could clarify!
Take a knee and make the emotional successes, and the small stuff, count- and TALK ABOUT THAT, instead!
In the old Forum was a women who impressed me. She is a millionaire today, but she started out very poor, living in a trailer-park. She said, her life changed around when she -authentically, no lipservice- started to APPRECIATE WHAT WAS. So, her journey towards abundance started by
APPRECIATING the holes in the floor of her trailer.
This whole "Abe-game" is SO simple, but not easy at all. In playing it, we all discover layers over layers of well buried resistances that we had no ideas are still reigning us, in mighty ways. I still peel the onion, too, and again- I think, this might never end. And -again- it is NOT necessary to be "perfect" for us, to deserve and to GET our stuff, big or small! But we come from this deeply ingrained belief, that we have to pay the price of doing it right. And so- it costs us the ease of steady, lighthearted, "unearned" joyful manifestation.
I see people say it took them nearly a decade to get it and were then flooded with their wealth, but I've been at this for nearly two decades and my bank account still won't go above whatever I "earn," hence, my frustration and wondering if there's something stuck that simply won't ever budge. Am I the only one that this just doesn't work for, despite feeling a resonance with it? What on Earth is holding me back for so long??
In a time, Abe stressed the joke of overdramatically yelling, mocking us humans: "WHAT AM I DOING WROOOOOONG????" -
THAT is what you do wrong!
-You look at it from the stance that you would not be good (enough).
But maybe... everything is going very very right? Maybe you made a steady, slow, but mighty progress, that you could not have achieved in any other way? Maybe you WANTED it this way?
I listened to a segment where a seasoned Aber asked, like you, how it can be that she got a very rare and almost incurable cancer- WHILE she is an Abe-teacher and therapeut, who REALLY knows all the stuff, and who really gives it her all.
Abe answered: "You wanted to achieve a miracle. So that you finally can fully BELIEVE it, once you "did it". And so, you created a VERY hard to solve problem." Abe explained, that she really looked for this big, bold, impressive momentum, that would teach others, as well- because people often just believe in big dramatic evidence, not so much in the small "easy" random joy of flowing.
We all come with unique preferences. I know, that *I* want to make a "big splash", and 15 years of intense Abe-practice, and 50 years of deliberate quest for wanting to understand how life really works (including years of depression and a full Burn-Out and being disabled in the aftermath), are a price I truly love to pay. maybe this applies in some way, to you as well? (and of course: We CAN have it easier!)
At this point, I don't even want to be rich. I just want my bills paid and a little extra money to take a road trip here and there with my toddler.
Sure. Whatever soothes you!
And once you achieved unconditional (!) selflove, you will get it ALL. In buckets! -I am absolutely certain of that. Maybe my knowing is a bit infectious to you as well-? And hopefully, it gives you a bit of inspiration. All the very best to you! Enjoy EASTER- pun intended!