Foundations 12c: Use the Forces

We now come to the last of what I consider the Foundational Forces of the Mind. From what has been described, it is pretty apparent how they can be considered “foundational.” Again, there are more to be explored and experienced but these are a great way to get started.

Spiritual lifestyles and paths are not easy ways out of life or living. People who lead spiritual lives are not expecting miracles and easy fixes. We learn of these tools to help us navigate life to ensure we have the most enriched and fulfilling life possible.

I once saw, on a social media platform, a person asked, “Do older people in spirituality exhibit regret later in life?” I thought through the question briefly and thought about all the people I have learned from directly or indirectly. The people I know of who are older than me and have walked in spirituality much longer than I have. I confidently answered the question, “No, they do not.” There is a certain freedom we experience the longer we walk a spiritual path. Freedom from guilt, regret, remorse, etc. 

There is an inherent light or aura that pulsates from within themselves. This quality creates a magnetism and awe in others who come to them seeking guidance. People do this because they recognize something different about “spiritual” elders, something they are missing in their lives. 

When a person walks a spiritual path for long enough they come to a point where they experience Gratitude. They realize the deep truth of Gratitude and how to exhibit it daily. Knowing it is a Force of the Mind is very different from utilizing it as a Force of the Mind. Forgiveness, Understanding, and Trust take time to put into rhythmic, or ritualistic, practice. Each one stands on its own but can help the others to be more effective. Forgiveness can help us to understand more clearly. Understanding can help us see the qualities of others. Trust can help us to realize the roles others play in our lives and when we need to forgive them or ourselves. It is not just a circular pattern though, I encourage you to explore the different combinations you can make with each.

Gratitude, though, is a deeper Force of the Mind. It requires the use of those first three to be able to work with it. Most people believe that gratitude is simply being thankful. Thankfulness is one tiny piece of the puzzle. Gratitude has gotten the buzzword treatment same as love, trust, forgive, spiritual, etc. People go into this mindset of, “Oh, all I need to have a spiritual lifestyle is ‘said buzzwords.’” Then they walk around professing these words without actually taking the time to understand them or be actionable with them. 

“I am grateful for my home.” Why are you grateful for your home?

“I am grateful for my job.” Why are you grateful for your job?

“I am grateful for my family.” Why are you grateful for your family?

Asking the question, “Why,” after each of those statements has gotten me some mixed results from people. Some go into long dissertations trying to prove their gratitude, but not to me, to themselves. Others stumble for a minute and say, “I just am,” or, “Because I am supposed to be.”

That is thankfulness, not gratitude. 

Gratitude has a few moving parts to it. As I said, you need the first three Forces of the Mind to act on Gratitude. Understanding allows us to see all of the parts moving in sync around us. How we are connected to each part and how we maintain our autonomy without getting lost in those connections. Trust allows us to grow with ourselves and with others. We learn to form partnerships gaining assistance from those with strengths we do not have ourselves. We learn to recognize the strengths we have and how to allow ourselves to strive for what we want out of life rather than feeling defeated and empty. Forgiveness frees us from things that limit us or distract us from our goals and desires. Gratitude is recognizing what we have, what we need, and what we want.

Gratitude is more than just the “good” things in your life. It honors the challenging things too. That job you state you’re grateful for, what happens if you lose it or something changes to make it a curse instead of a blessing? That house you’re grateful for, what happens if something major breaks and costs a lot of money to fix or you start to realize you want more or less room? You’re grateful for your family until you have a major disagreement and need to step away from them. For most people, when challenges come along gratitude seems to go out the window. True gratitude is there for the challenges though.

Gratitude for What We Have

Overall, it's “easy” to see what we have if we just look. That’s why gratitude is not just about being thankful. If it was that easy I would not be taking the time to go into depth about it. I would be following the masses and saying, “Be thankful for what you have to show gratitude.” But being thankful and being grateful are two different things. 

Thanfulness is the first part of Gratitude as we already mentioned. We look around us at what we have and we express our thankfulness. Just being thankful for the sake of being thankful is not deep though. We use Understanding to discern the reasons that we should be thankful for the things we have. We also need to go beyond just the physical “things” or “people”. We have our health, our will to survive, our breath, and so many intangible things, concepts, or ideas which we should express thankfulness for. We ask the question “why” when we find something we are thankful for. Why am I thankful? We get through that outer layer and start to pick things apart. 

For example, I am thankful for my family. It has not been the easiest or smoothest relationship. There has been abuse, mental and physical. There has been much fighting and headbutting. There have been distances and boundaries. There have been times of quiet and deep emotional conversations. I have had to cover a lot of memories in forgiveness. I have had to realize my tone when speaking with them to not trigger them. I have had to recognize the small victories I have had in our relationship while accepting their victories. Our relationship has grown and become stronger over time and now when I say I am thankful for my family it is because I understand and trust them. I know what I can talk to them about and what I can’t. I know what views I can be challenged by to help my growth. I know that being around my family can be stressful and induce anxiety but that builds my resilience and patience. 

Being thankful and moving towards grateful means we look at every angle and realize there are more than just simple acts to be thankful for. We say, “thank you,” to people for things like holding a door open or complimenting us. Does that mean we are grateful to them? Not really, because it was a simple act that we don’t have a deep connection to other than a moment of kindness expressed towards us. Thankfulness can be instinctual and pass in a moment. Rarely does it reach deep into your heart and pull out emotions. 

Gratitude for What We Need

The second part of Gratitude is what we need. This is usually where gratitude is lost because we tend to think that being thankful for what we have is enough. What about what we no longer have? You see, we focus on “lack” or “removal” as a negative thing, and because of that connotation, we forget to be grateful for what we don’t have. We forget that sometimes what we need is to do without. 

Or, we need what we do have and nothing more. We seem to always want more more more. Do we need more though? Need in terms of gratitude is recognizing what we need to have and what we do not need. 

I had an apartment with a stressful, anxiety-inducing roommate. I lost that and was homeless for about a year. During that time I stayed with a few friends, reclaimed my peace, and released the stress and trauma of that previous living situation. I found my new apartment, moved in, and now have a peaceful home without roommates. The space is my own and I determine what is allowed in or not. I had a decent-paying job but it caused a lot of stress and anxiety. I would cry sometimes when going to work or when leaving. I fought tooth and nail to make the job work and fight through the pain. When I got cut during a massive company layoff and was removed from that workplace, my friends were all saying, “How are you so calm and cheerful now? You were so stressed and now you’re the one singing, ‘Don’t worry, be happy,’ while we are the ones stressing out. I don’t have a car at the time of writing this. The job I have now doesn’t pay as well as the last and if I did have a car I wouldn’t be able to afford the note, insurance, or gas to pay for it. I would also be on the road all the time spending money I really shouldn’t. The job I have pays the bills I need to be paid.  

We like to equate Gratitude with the seemingly good things in life and forget that loss is sometimes necessary. We should absolutely show Gratitude for having what we need. We also must remember that the things taken from us are taken for a reason. We need to utilize Gratitude in these moments because when we lack understanding of why things are removed we gravitate towards projecting anger, bitterness, or petulance. That longer paragraph above shows a lot of things that were removed from my life and at the moment there was a brief flash of irritation at each. There’s no need to deny the emotions we feel in the moment. I didn’t sit and wallow in those emotions though. I looked for reasons why those removals would benefit my life rather than sit and cry, “Woe is me.” I moved on from them and thrive now from lacking the stress those things brought. 

Gratitude helps us realize what has been holding us back sometimes and how it is okay to let things go. Enjoy what was for the time it lasted and move on to the next adventures in life. Show gratitude that what is no longer building you up has been removed. It was needed to continue along your path. If thankfulness is the value of what we have, appreciation is the value we assign to what we need. We appreciate having what we need and we appreciate the removal of what we do not need.

Gratitude for What We Want

The final key to Gratitude is utilizing it for what we want. How can we be grateful for what we don’t have or need? It's simple really, when we show Gratitude for our desires we are laying a claim on them. We are making a declaration to the universe itself that says, “This is what I want and I am grateful for when it manifests and the road I have to travel for that manifestation.” This is a two-fold approach.

1. We are stating what we want. Long-term or short-term goals aren’t necessary to dwell on. The point is we are making it known this is what we want. Declaration.

2. We are stating we are willing to be open to the work and opportunities needed to achieve these goals. Dedication.

Declarations are powerful and create a sense of ownership. Most often people will kind of talk about their dreams or goals, but then hide it behind other things. They adopt limiting beliefs like not knowing what it will take to achieve their goals or saying they want something but they don’t feel “good enough.” When a person has had enough of being downtrodden they usually break through all of the limiting beliefs with a declaration. This declaration overpowers the adopted beliefs because it is a summoning of their power. Summoning your power will always banish the limiting statements others have lumped on you. 

Like when you are a child and singing along to your favorite song, someone may have said to stop because they didn’t like your singing. Those things linger and stop you from becoming a singer. Singing is a talent though and acquirable through practice. When we declare, “I want to sing,” those previous statements from childhood cannot hold any longer. 

Dedication is the follow-through after making a declaration. Above I said people don’t know what to do or how to make their dreams into reality. The first step is research. Look it up. We live in an amazing age with information in our pockets. And if you have been exercising Understanding and Trust you get better at discernment. Discernment is how we sift through the information presented to us and learn what does and does not serve us. While there may be an overload of information to discern, that doesn’t mean there isn’t healthy information too. One thing I look for is commonalities and then follow up with experimentation. If information raises more questions, research those questions. Follow the rabbit holes and make your judgments. Once you have the information, create a game plan and follow it.

Declarations and Dedications are how we show gratitude for the things we want. Acceptance is how we utilize gratitude for what we want. We accept ahead of time that our declaration will be heard and returned to us. We accept that if we open ourselves to the process through dedication we make it easier for our declaration to be realized.

Here is where people tend to get off course though. They make declarations but do not do the work to receive the return. Think of it like an investment. Once you make a declaration, you have invested in your future in the universe. The universe will hear this and return with an answer. The answer could be a resounding, “Yes! And here it is!” More often you will get a, “No, now is not the right time. You need a few more tools in your utility belt first.” 

The universe doesn’t typically say, “No, never.” It more often says, “No, not right now.” The reason for that is that if you go from zero to peak the only way to go from there is back down. If instead, you listen to the answers of the universe, you will realize that when you make a declaration you getting little bricks. These bricks are to be laid in specific spaces to build a foundation that you can stand on. Let’s stick with singers as an example of this. Lady Gaga spent years studying music before she released any of her own. She built stability that created amazing success. Rebecca Black on the other hand released one song and became ridiculed mercilessly. She did not understand how to be stable in a music career nor did she have the extensive training as someone like Lady Gaga. She still makes music but it is not nearly the resounding success as others. 

That can be applied to any field though. Vincent van Gogh’s paintings were not considered masterpieces till long after he died for another example.  How do we avoid tragedy? We make our declarations, accept that our desires will be met, remain open to possibilities and opportunities to guide us toward our goal, and dedicate ourselves to whatever is necessary for our goal to manifest. We do all of this in Gratitude because when we make a declaration of our desires we already know it will manifest. And we show gratitude for each nugget or stepping stone given to us along the way.

Thankfulness, Appreciation, and Acceptance are three values that go into the Force of Gratitude. Forgiveness helps us to let go of what we no longer need. Understanding helps us know what we should be thankful and appreciative of. Trust helps us accept ourselves and our ability to manifest our desires. It all works hand in hand with the Mind. The Mind is a swirling storm constantly going through all of these types of thoughts. When we can recognize the different workings we can begin to have conscious control over these. We begin to “see” the threads of our lives and where the knots and tangles are.

Utilizing the Forces of the Mind we undo these knots and tangles. We then begin to weave the threads the way we see fit. Instead of a tangled ball, we begin to create a beautiful rich fabric of our lives. Gratitude is one of the most powerful Forces of the Mind. It's wonderful when utilized to its fullest potential. Gratitude, when experienced at its height, can bring the most proud of people to their knees. When that dream is finally realized. When things are falling in place just right. When the problems are finally gone. While there are tears of joy, people are more often overcome with tears of gratitude. They just don’t always recognize it as such because they only think of it in terms of thankfulness. 

I am grateful for you sticking with me through this three-part mini-series of Forces of the Mind. If you have been reading along it shows me that something I have been saying is resonating with you. This tells me that my desire to demystify the mystical is coming true. 

Coming next is “protection” which is going to be a pretty large topic that I will try to condense. Until then, I hope you have a fantastic week!