Humanity’s attention is focused much too frequently on time—an intense, frustrating, and very distractive aspect of the illusion that tends to draw you back into it. That is why relaxing breaks, time-out, and your periods of meditation are so important. They help you to disconnect temporarily and experience peace. Peace is your natural state, and to encourage its presence in your life, using whatever methods work for you personally, is essential for your well-being and spiritual progress.
The variety of methods available to you is enormous, because in your illusory, separated state your individual needs and preferences can never be identical to another’s. So do not get trapped in methods that are presented by others as the ultimate, perfect, or only one. Trust your intuition, your spiritual guidance, and then use what works for you. If you are having difficulty finding one that works, it can be helpful to talk about it with a like-minded friend who can listen without offering an opinion unless you ask for one, because talking to a good listener frequently helps you to perceive things more clearly and access your inner guidance or intuition. Listening to the opinions, frequently misguided, of others can prevent you from getting in touch with your own inner knowing and leaves you feeling inadequate or incompetent.
Each one of you has a vast store of spiritual knowledge available to you at all times, although it is often rather difficult for you to access until you find the method of relaxing and being at peace that works for you. It can be as simple as taking a short break and smoking a cigarette (if you happen to be a smoker), or as intense as martial-arts training or running a marathon. What you enjoy doing that quietens your mind, removes the stress of deadlines and appointment-juggling, and brings you moments of peace is the way to go. If you are a smoker, do not allow the strong negative, cultural judgments of non-smokers, ex-smokers, and health junkies to influence you if smoking works for you. If you truly want to stop smoking, then you will when the appropriate moment arrives. Remember that everyone has habits they judge to be bad or inappropriate and that they use to shame and manipulate themselves, instead of accepting them for what they are — learning experiences — that they might like to shed in the future when the time is right. Being down on yourselves continually is destructive, damaging, and distracting. You are who you are, with a multitude of aspects, abilities, and competences as well as other aspects you dislike, disapprove of or reject. But every aspect of you has a purpose that, at a deeper level of your being, you chose for the lessons you wanted to learn.
Never forget that every single one of you is infinitely loved and cherished by our divine Father, who created you all as perfect beings of Light. Your personal sense of inadequacy, dissatisfaction, or worthlessness is quite unjustified and is a major distraction that can prevent you from accepting the fact that you are a divine, lovable and totally irreplaceable part of God, always, and in every moment. Decide and learn to accept yourselves, warts and all, as God does, and enjoy the wonderful sense of peace it brings you, knowing that it is God’s Will for you.
With so very much love, Saul.
