Are You Choosing Heaven?

Heaven on Earth is a choice you must make, not a place you must find. (-Wayne Dyer)

This quote from Wayne Dyer sums up why we have misery in our lives. It is our perception about our situation that makes it miserable, not the situation itself. By choosing to look at the events of our lives as gifts, knowing that the Universe (God) will provide us exactly what we need in each step, we will overcome any problems and have Heaven on a daily basis. By focusing instead on the misery - as so many people choose to do, as our media chooses to do, as our leaders or ministers choose to do - we stay in the place of misery...our own Hell. Heaven is there for us all the time, we just choose not to see it.

We all have "problems" in our lives. They are merely avenues for us to learn something more quickly, gifts that help us to move forward in our spiritual awareness at a faster pace. By seeing these obstacles as gifts, we take their power away and reclaim our own. As soon as our perception changes, so does the situation. As soon as we decide not to let the misery own us, but instead to use it to make us stronger, that misery loses any strength it has over our lives.

I have, for most of my life, been a person who sees "the glass half full" and have generally had a positive outlook on life, knowing that hardship has its benefits and that everything happens for a reason. In the same way that exercising our bodies, even though it is unpleasant at times, makes us physically stronger and healthier, exercising our inner strength to overcome obstacles makes us mentally and emotionally stronger, unless we let the hardship defeat us. Yet, even with the positive attitude or awareness, I sometimes fall into the negative trap as well, and I always notice that when I head in that direction, it is so easy to let it spiral; but when I snap out of it, everything is suddenly okay and solutions appear that I had not thought about. When I give the negative issue less merit, it has less strength. It is sometimes hard to remember this in the moment, but I am working on it, and I have noticed great improvement in my recovery speed and my ability to "choose Heaven" again with less delay. It truly is a choice, and one the we must remind ourselves to make each and every day until it becomes the only way we live.

Most of us know individuals who seem to cling to misery like a child clings to a security blanket, not wanting to let go of their excuses because it might require that they actually be accountable for their own happiness, their own Heaven. They want to find happiness, or have it find them, rather than just choosing it. Sometimes, being around these individuals keeps us in their low energy, causes us to not to choose our own Heaven, but we have to learn to detach from others' misery just as we have to detach from our own. Misery may love company, but it cannot make us happy or help us choose heaven. We must choose to move beyond misery, whether it is our own misery, or that of those around us.

If you would like to let go of your misery and choose Heaven on Earth, make a list of the good things in your life and be grateful for them. Then (and this is the harder part) make another list of the bad things or the difficulties you have faced...AND BE GRATEFUL FOR THEM. Alongside each item on your list, note something that you gained from it (i.e. "I became stronger"...."losing that job opened me up to finding a better one (or helped me reassess my life/career".... "that person treating me badly helped me see that I needed to move on from that relationship".

This process of being grateful for the negative events sets us free from their hold on us, liberating us from the misery we are clinging to, even if in subtle ways. It is a truly empowering process, and one that is so potent that it can change your life, helping you receive more positive events. Let go of your misery and choose Heaven - choose to see perfection. It will diffuse every thing that is negative in your life.