Home Articles posted by Jacquie Verbeek

Jacquie Verbeek

  • A Course In Miracles, Mental health, Spiritual Development

    Starting a New Life

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    Moving to a faraway place

    Since moving last October, 250 miles away from my previous home county for the last 35 years, to Cornwall in the farthest South-West of England, and moving in to my new home on my birthday, it’s been an interesting six months of mixed emotions. I’m sure most people have been experiencing mixed emotions during the pandemic, and the following are a few of my thoughts and experiences, with my spiritual practice as my main support. #MixedEmotions

    Lockdown #1 had ended whilst I was still living in Surrey. Restaurants had re-opened in the Summer, 2020, and I was seeing my friends openly again, so on the day I left with my son, who lives at home with me, we thought everything would stay open in Cornwall and I could start establishing a new life for myself.

    We were up and away nice and early to meet my daughter Frances, who’s lived in Cornwall for the last six years having returned from a decade living in Sydney. We met up for my Birthday Breakfast at a lovely pub, and we had versions of a cooked Full English Breakfast. Frances handed me a gift and instructed me to “open this one first”. It contained a pretty “It’s My Birthday!” sash which I was had to: “Wear it all day!” So I dutifully obeyed and twelve hours’ later it had ripped and had been taped back together with not-so-attractive brown packing tape! #Happy and #Exhausted!

    Emotions and Expectations

    Plans to build a new life for myself by joining social groups, and yoga and meditation classes in my new hometown so I could start meeting like-minded people, and start spiritual groups myself, were all quickly put on hold in November 2020 when England was plunged into a Lockdown Tier system, and then into full Lockdown #2 immediately after Christmas. I was so annoyed at that point! I was just about to meet and have lunch with a group of women in my Soroptimist International Club when it was cancelled – I am not a fan of Lockdown as it has been so detrimental to so many friends’ physical and mental health. I was #Angry!

    My hopes and plans of spending frequent quality time with Frances were dashed, and she discovered she was pregnant with her first baby only ten days after I moved, and so she was confined to quarters (spending a lot of time feeling nauseous!) and instead of shopping trips, business breakfasts and lunches and long walks together, we have been communicating in much the same way as if I was still living 250 miles away back in Surrey! But, I have to admit, with a few more meetings than when she lived in Australia for ten years! I was #Frustrated!

    However, I started attending the nearest Unitarian Church to me, (in Plymouth which is 65 miles away), for their Sunday morning Zoom services and other evening meetings such as their lovely, contemplative Heart & Soul services and their more poetic and lively Congregational gatherings. I’ve really enjoyed these as I love poetry. But I knew at some point I would have to move on from my previous Unitarian church in Surrey, who were also Zooming their Sunday services, but it happened sooner than I thought because I was drawn to meet local Unitarians. I’m only sorry I’m an hour and a half’s drive from Plymouth! Cornwall is a long county, but I was #Happy yet #Undecided.

    A Warm Welcome!

    My 250 mile move has been eased by receiving a lovely warm welcome from both the Unitarians and from the St Austell & District Soroptimist International Club that I transferred to from my previous Surrey Club. But again, due to Lockdown, all meetings have been on Zoom and I’m really missing the company of the members in person, especially like-minded women to form working friendships with. #Lonely.

    Luckily, I’ve been blessed with the friendship of a delightful 86 year old Soroptimist, Mary, who is a long-time Rambler/hiker and with her Bijon Frise, Monty, has been leading me down many country footpaths around the area. Mary is a retired Community Midwife and knows all the local routes, and there’s usually someone we bump in to that she knows on every walk! #Blessed!

    Childhood Trauma

    I was sent to boarding school when I was 7½ years old and often any sadness I feel goes back to my childhood experience and memories. But the mind-training course I’m studying, A Course in Miracles, explains the true cause of our sadness and any guilt is because subconsciously we think we’ve separated from our Source, which we haven’t. #Sadness.

    Therefore, once this is realised, I will never feel lonely again, because we are One Mind. I’m also blessed with good friends in Surrey and beyond and a loving family – and all I have to do is “pick up the phone” to speak to them. Do you find that at low times we don’t feel like calling a friend? I do, but I find it really helps and we never know how much we might be cheering someone else up too! #Supported.

    My Spiritual Practice

    I’m blessed with having a strong spiritual practice of True Forgiveness which gives me peace of mind, but it doesn’t stop emotions coming up, such as sadness and loneliness, (particularly when things haven’t worked out as I’d planned for my move!), and I’ve felt lonely despite having my family close by – one can’t help one’s emotions until we’ve completely healed our minds. I’ve even felt angry recently, which is quite a new emotion for me! #Blessed. #Sadness. #Loneliness. #Anger!

    I’ve learnt, however, to acknowledge my emotions and try to understand what the causes are, beneath the immediate worldly reasons. Usually, the immediate reason is signalling a deeper meaning in our subconscious or from a past life, and once I’ve worked out what they are, I can then work on forgiving and releasing the emotion – ie healing the causes.  #Understanding. #Release. #Healing.

    So, although my emotions have been more pronounced since moving to Cornwall, (Lockdown in Surrey wasn’t too bad because I knew the area and had good friends locally), I am blessed with being able to let them go and let God in! Thank goodness for my teachers – Margaret, Maitreya, Jesus and his channel, Helen Schucman, and all my wonderful teachers including my children. #Blessed! #Happy! #Grateful!

    We are never truly alone.

    With love, as ever

    Jacquie

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  • A Course In Miracles, Mental health, Spiritual Development

    Our spiritual journey and levels of awareness

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    There’s a specific path we meander along when we are proactively journeying along our spiritual path. There are certain Levels of Awareness we pass through.

    Maitreya gave these six levels celestial names, and although other teachers have given them different names, and may have five or seven levels, they all explain a similar metaphysical reason for how we progress – or not!

    The Ten Spiritual Laws which you received when you signed up to my newsletter, were also given by Ascended Master Maitreya who my teacher, Margaret, deep-trance channelled until she passed away in 2016. When I attended my first course with her in 2003, I was taught how we go through these levels, usually progressing three steps forward and taking two steps backwards! It’s not an easy path to choose – but the rewards will be fantastic! And there are no defining lines between these levels, you’ll see yourself in them as you read through, and you may fit into two or even three different levels. They are given as a guide, to show you that there is a progression.

    The first Level of Awareness is Ordinary – man in the street, blissfully unaware, getting on with life until he or she experiences something quite major that jolts them out of Ordinary. It might be a personal tragedy like the loss of a loved one; or major hormonal changes such as puberty, at which time they will start to ask questions and move into:

    The second Level, which is Lunar – this is when our interest in metaphysics is piqued and we start reading books and attending courses. We become aware that there is something else, other than the physical. We become aware of our minds.

    Our questions might be along the lines of: Who is God? What’s the point of life? Why am I here? Why do bad things happen to me/my nice friends? Why did my loved one die too soon? Why did God let that happen to me? Why aren’t my prayers answered?

    You’ll start nosing around the Mind Body Spirit sections in bookshops and will attend courses. You will question your beliefs – one thing leads to another, and we will move into:

    The third Level – Solar. In Solar you may start working part-time as a healer, or join a Spiritual Circle or group and start to work with Spirit, learning to work with different energies. You become very enthusiastic to learn and help others as you become more aware of synchronicities and miracles.

    The fourth Level is Stellar when you will be taken out of your life-long comfort zone. You will start to work for Spirit as a healer, teacher or therapist but this is when your ego starts to put your doubts and fears in front of you so that you can face them, learn from then and overcome them. This is how we grow.

    Your Ego Self will try to impede your growth. It will do anything to hinder you and keep you in your comfort zone. This is why most people do not progress past SOLAR.

    The fifth Level is Cosmic when our egos are determined not to lose control. It comes out fighting as it’s been Top Dog all of your life and doesn’t going to stop now. It doesn’t want you to progress towards your spiritual goals, but your faith, determination and hard work WILL see you through.

    As we raise our vibration we start to give things away that we don’t want. You may stop smoking, drinking, and doing things that you don’t like. You begin to speak your truth quietly and clearly and truly become your own person. You let go of old habits and change your conditioned beliefs.

    You will go through a ‘cardboard phase’ in Cosmic, when things you love don’t mean anything to you anymore.

    And the sixth and final is Universal when we start to experience the Love of Spirit and the Ultimate Being / God and have some moving experiences which are hard to put into words. Your ego will remain with you until you die, but by moving into this phase you will know exactly What You Are.

    When you have finally overcome your fears by working through your lessons, you re-awaken in God / the Ultimate Being. You will have a continual feeling of peace and joy. You will find the happiness you seek.

    I go into more detail about these levels in my Beginners Metaphysics Course, so as I say in my newsletters – “That’s All Folks!”

    With love as ever

    Jacquie

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  • A Course In Miracles, Spiritual Development

    ACIM Lesson 79 – Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.

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    After reading A Course in Miracles Lesson 79 to my WhatsApp group, I did as instructed and asked, “Spirit, what is the one problem?” And this was His reply:

    “You feel guilty because you think you have separated from God and you’re sad about that. Your deep feeling of sadness is ultimately based on that, and all your life “lessons” in this life have been based around separation and abandonment. If you consider all your sadness and relationships, it is those that have caused your feelings of rejection, abandonment and sadness.

    These worldly problems have all been set up to offer you a healing opportunity. Being left at boarding school at a young age was deliberately a big lesson, and all the others followed until you realized you had to simply forgive them (the people and events). And when you realized that you have NEVER separated from God and are not alone, you have just been FEELING that because all of the people in this lifetime “left” you (each in a different way).

    Forgive these people (your brothers and sisters) because they contracted with you to act out in this Script for you to learn this major lesson in your evolvement. People you sincerely trusted: your parents, your sister, your husband, your best friend Maureen, your best friend Susan, your teenage friend Keith who’s blocked you on Facebook (ha ha!), your children when they moved to the other side of the world, and your various boyfriends.

    Note that none of these abandonments was through hatred of you. Your teacher, Ascended Master Maitreya taught you, “not to take things personally”, which is at the bottom of your list of Ten Spiritual Laws, and as it has served you well, you teach this to others.

    Indeed, your parents loved you, your sister loves you, your husband loved you, Maureen and Susan loved you, Keith doesn’t know it because he is full of fear, but he loves you. He certainly doesn’t hate you; they are simply afraid of your openness with your spirituality.

    Your children love you and all those boyfriends loved you – indeed not one told you he didn’t. They all had their reasons for not remaining with you – all different and many.”

    Me: “OK, thank you Spirit, so what is the answer?”

    “Forgiveness.

    Forgiveness heals because you have recognized, at last, that you have not and never will be separate from God.

    Forgiveness heals because you have realized that the world is an illusion, a dream in which you can choose to remain stuck in your worldly beliefs or you can release yourself, and be free and at peace.

    Forgiveness heals because you now know you are not guilty of anything, because you have truly not sinned.

    In God there is only Love.

    Forgiveness heals because you know you are not actually here, you are dreaming this life just as you dream at night, and you are awakened to the fact that you are acting out a Script (your Script) to learn this lesson of abandonment.

    Forgiveness heals because Holy Spirit knows what’s in your heart, He knows what is in your mind, your thoughts, and that your intention is to let go, to love all and wake up to the knowledge you are in God, with God, in Love and never were anything BUT Love,

    Continue practising Forgiveness for all minor upsets and use it to finally clear and heal all the major upsets in your Script (this lifetime).

    Well done for telling your sister you wouldn’t do her Tai Chi class next term because you wouldn’t have had the courage to voice that previously because you’d have been worried about how she would react.

    You have also recently learned, and put into practice, not only “speaking your truth” but also recognizing that how others respond to anything you tell them is NOT your responsibility, but theirs.

    Well done.”

    Me: “Thank you Spirit!”

    If you’d like to join my WhatsApp group in which I am reading ACIM’s daily Workbook Lessons, please use the Contact Page – also to ask me any questions you have about this blog, forgiveness or A Course in Miracles, thank you.

    With love as ever,

    Jacquie

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  • A Course In Miracles, Mental health, Spiritual Development

    Love holds no grievances

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    Spiritual tools

    When I find myself in an awkward situation, or having an upsetting conversation with family or a friend, before reacting with my knee-jerk human emotional response of annoyance or frustration, I catch myself and ask, “What would Jesus do now?”

    The Jesus I’m referring to is the Jesus of my childhood, the really nice man who did kind things in The Bible’s New Testament. (I always thought Jesus was an old man when I was little, but he passed away in his 30s!) I was raised as a Christian and attended weekly church services from the age of 7 to 14 years old – I expect some of you can relate to this type of Christian upbringing. I had to go because I was at boarding school, although in the holidays and when I became a “day girl” and permanently lived at home again, I only went to church at Easter and Christmas with my parents, although I went to a Christian youth group called S.N.A.T.E. (Sunday Night At Eight!) principally to meet boys!

    However, I liked Jesus as a child and now I love him as a student of A Course in Miracles, which He dictated to His  channel, Helen Schucman in the 1960s – so I’ve gone full circle and am back with Jesus again! Ain’t life strange?! Well, it was obviously meant to be.

    For me, God and Jesus are synonymous with Love. God is Love, and therefore Jesus is Love too. And Love holds no grievances. When I connect to my innate Love I feel at peace and joyous, and feel nothing to do with grievances, anger or any sense of loss or separation.

    I love Ascended Master Maitreya too, and studying with His amazing channel Margaret McElroy in 2003-2005, I learnt so much and still use His wisdom in my life and work today. In this article, I’d like to share with you some of the thought processes I’ve used on my journey of re-awakening to Love and learning to forgive and release grievances.

    I’ve used this collection of affirmations on many occasions, and I hope you might find them useful too:

    “I let go of my past, I let go of my worries, I am positive about my future.”

    Affirmations need to be said (and repeated many times) in the present tense, as if the thing you want to change in your sub-conscious mind has already happened.

    “I move forward positively.”

    “I love and forgive everyone, including myself, so that I heal my past wounds and become at peaceful in this lifetime.”

    “I release all feelings of regret, resentment and anger.”

    “I am patient and I practice forgiveness at every opportunity” – although practising forgiveness after the event and for childhood events works perfectly well. This is Quantum or Radical Forgiveness, rather than worldly forgiveness in which we blame ourselves or someone else for doing wrong.

    “I let go of all my conditioning hidden in my sub-conscious mind, so my transformation is amazing and I become a pure channel for Spirit.”

    “I connect to Love, to Spirit, as often as I can so it becomes habitual.”

    LOVE IS ALL THERE IS.

    LOVE HOLDS NO GRIEVANCES.

    An example might be:- “I forgive my relatives for upsetting me although I know they’re mirroring what is in my sub-conscious mind, so I forgive myself too.” It’s usually our nearest and dearest who give us healing opportunities!

    I always end my affirmations and my chats with Spirit with a simple: “Thank you Spirit!” And that simple “thanks” always makes me smile – and THAT’S what I call a miracle!

    Have fun with it. This work isn’t meant to be hard, it’s only US that makes it hard. Spirit is always laughing! Maitreya taught me that.

    Feel free to leave a comment  below or send me a message on my Contact Page if you’d like to.

    With love, as ever

    Jacquie

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  • Mental health, Spiritual Development

    Is this world a dream?

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    Are we dreaming this world? Are we human beings or are we spiritual beings having a physical experience?

    To wake up to Who We Truly Are usually takes us many years because we’re so accustomed to being human. From the day we were born we’ve been having physical feelings – hunger, crying, cuddles from our parents, being breast-fed by our mothers – all very tangible.

    But as you’re reading this, I think I can safely assume you have been wondering if being human isn’t all there is to life, and that you’ve been asking yourself and other people questions about the meaning of life, what your purpose is, and that you’ve been trying to understand what death and reincarnation really is all about. I certainly have!

    I started asking these questions in my 20s, but was distracted for a decade or so bringing up my children and working full-time, but one of the first books I bought in the mid 1990s was “The Truth In The Light – an investigation of over 300 Near-Death Experiences”, by Peter and Elizabeth Fenwick. Peter was President of the British branch of the International Association for Near-Death Studies which was fascinating.

    I’ve always been open-minded, which has stood me in good stead, and I’ve never simply accepted what teachers or authors have told me or written without fully understanding and knowing for myself what was true for me – ie what my Truth is.

    I’m sure you can share your journey of discover about how you first started off looking for your Truth – when did you first start asking questions, and where has your path taken you? Do leave a comment below if you would like to share your story.

    “The Truth In The Light” refers to “The Tibetan Book of the Living and Dying”, by Sogyal Rinpoche, who likens the Buddhist view of dying to a near-death experience, which is another book well worth reading.

    Recently I watched a 2018 interview with David Icke on TalkRadio, a London radio station which has a YouTube channel, and when asked what started him off on his spiritual quest, David said it was when he came across a book called “Mind to Mind” by Betty Shine in the late 1980s. I came across it in the 1990s and it was a fascinating and  brilliant introduction to using our minds. Betty was ahead of her time – she also wrote “Mind Magic” and “Mind Waves”, and David was lucky enough to visit Betty Shine for a reading and healing. Since then, David said he feels “a presence” that I know to be Spirit, although he doesn’t name it – he just says he feels a consciousness and that he follows his intuition.

    So, is this a dream? Yes I believe so. I know I’m spirit and although I think I have “my” mind, we actually share One Mind and I’m here now in human form on the Earth plane to have the opportunity to heal my mind by learning the lessons from both my childhood and those buried in my subconscious brought in from former lifetimes. The lessons which emerged for me, triggered in the mid 2000s by a major separation from my children, were separation and abandonment issues. I’ve now mainly healed them, but am still tested to a lesser degree when people leave or a relationship breaks down. My metaphysics teacher, Margaret McElroy taught me that we would continue to be tested until we had fully healed, or learned that lesson.

    But I know now that I am never separate from God, from our Source, from Love, and our One Mind. Plus I’ve learned how to hear and communicate with Spirit, so I never feel alone. That’s not to say I don’t miss the company of other people during Lockdown! And that’s because I’m having a human experience, as Jacquie in this incarnation, and touch and laughing with friends is important to me – I’m an extrovert as I have Leo ascending!

    So, yes I’m dreaming my human experience but I’m making the most of it and my time on Earth to heal. I do that by remembering Who I Really Am and by practising forgiveness. Knowing that the world is an illusion doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate it, and seeing it through the eyes of Love makes it a peaceful and joyous place to be – for now!

    With love, as ever

    Jacquie

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  • Events

    How can we find Inner Peace and True Happiness?

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    Our purpose on the Earth plane is to get back in touch with our true spirit, to re-awaken in God. That is the only place we will find true peace and inner happiness – “that passes all understanding”.

    Worldly events and material things bought with money bring happiness – but all those things bring only temporary happiness. For example, we go to a friend’s wedding and have a lovely day, everyone’s looking their best and are happy for the couple who are in love, and weddings are usually happy events. But looking behind the scenes, and we will find nervousness, doubt even (am I marrying the right person?), and usually the stress of organising the event carries on through the day. I’ve known a bride and her mother both taking Valium on the morning of her wedding! And my then husband-to-be was up at dawn pacing the gardens of the hotel because he couldn’t sleep!

    Many people use alcohol and drugs as sticking plasters to cover their unhappiness, often leading to addiction. Other people create bad habits such as using retail therapy to hide behind their unhappiness, which can lead to hording material belongings. I think, although it can be fun, making collections of antiques or shells is a form of addiction, because we’re clinging to material things to hide behind instead of addressing our thoughts. I speak from experience!

    However, the only way to find inner peace is to address our emotional and mental baggage gathered through this life and from our past lives. (We live 1000s of lifetimes until we become enlightened.) And understanding that our individual issues are caused by either a childhood trauma or a relationship breakdown, for example, is a good starting point. Being willing to put in the personal development work is the only way to truly find inner peace.

    Often people say to me, “Well that’s not easy,” and no, I’m afraid it’s not easy. But this life ain’t exactly easy is it? We all have problems and suffer in one way or another and we got ourselves in to this mess, so we have to put in the work to get ourselves out of it! If, you want to – and that’s the big question. Do you really want to find inner peace?

    If you are reading this, I’m going to assume you have some interest in doing so. You will be at a place on your life path where you realise there is something better than what this world offers.

    And, if it’s any encouragement, I’ve done the work and if I can do it … you can!

    I’m not claiming to be enlightened but I’ve addressed my childhood trauma and my resulting fear of being alone. I’ve

     

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  • Mental health, Spiritual Development

    YOU are your OWN Healer

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    Jacquie Verbeek

    Christmas is nearly upon us – it comes round every year! And although it is a happy occasion for many, it can also bring up lots of deep and unaddressed emotions and can be a lonely time of the year when normal routine ceases and many find themselves at home alone, and will do this year because of the world-wide pandemic.

    People who are experiencing anxiety, who are distressed or depressed need to take control of their minds, and I would like to share some techniques to do so in this article, which will lead to your own healing.

    Maitreya called the place where bad thoughts come from our chattering mind, where the lower self abides; Buddhists call it the monkey mind; and others refer to it as the Ego mind or Ego belief system – whatever you call it, whatever it’s called is irrelevant – it’s the negative part of our thought system that goes on and on and on making us doubtful, distressed, anxious, endlessly worried and depressed.

    • Stop caring about “what other people think of you”. It doesn’t matter two hoots (as my mother used to say!) what anybody else thinks of you and your behaviour. A friend of mine says she has to get out of bed before 9am to open her curtains because she’s worried about her neighbours thinking less of her.
    • But they’re probably thinking, “lucky woman to be able to have a lie in today!” We never know what someone else is thinking, so please don’t waste YOUR time worrying about it and usually making up elaborate stories about what they might be thinking! What a “waste of your energy”, as Margaret* used to say!
    • Focus on what makes you happy and do these things on a regular basis… do you like to dance? Yes? So dance in your kitchen (kitchen floors are often the best for Twisting!) If you enjoy reading, writing, drawing, walking by the sea or in Nature – do it! What are you waiting for? Enjoy yourself!
    • Stop waiting for your partner to treat you properly – or worse make you happy. Ask them for what you want. Don’t expect them to be able to read your mind just because you live together. Although it is up to YOU to find your own inner happiness, not your loved ones.
    • Ask yourself if your relationship is based on its “potential” or “the reality”? If you’re forever waiting for your partner to treat you properly – they probably never will if they’re not now, and not unless YOU ask them to do certain things for you.
    • There’s no reason not to care for someone, of course, but try and stop making excuses for why your partner is not loving you properly. If you’re not happy and know in your heart that things won’t change, leave.
    • To calm your chattering mind, take up a spiritual practice or discipline so you have a daily reminder to focus on your spiritual side.
    • Set up a Morning Practice of Meditation, Prayer, Yoga, Tai Chi, chanting and most importantly keeping a Journal.
    • Study a spiritual book like A Course in Miracles – it has a Workbook of 365 lessons which you could start on 1st January 2021. I do it every year and it gets better and better each year as my perception changes.
    • Do the exercises in Louise Hay’s book, You Can Heal Your Life, with a view to keeping your mind (thoughts) and body healthy.
    • Plan to do a Spiritual Development course or workshop in 2021 – please see my website for details of mine courses, based on Maitreya’s teachings.
    • Buy yourself a Gratitude Journal or Self Care Playbook from The Happi Empire – created by Frances, a student of Margaret’s and Maitreya.

    You are your own healer. It’s up to each one of us to take control and be responsible for our own minds, our own thoughts.

    If you find yourself in an anxious state, distressed or depressed, grieving, etc, please try not to let yourself spiral down a dark hole. I did that and it became a nightmare and a very difficult place to climb out of. Instead, talk to Spirit, ask your Spirit Guide, Guardian Angel or Holy Spirit to give you guidance. Have an Astrology reading – I can recommend a brilliant intuitive Astrologer.

    Always stay in touch with someone who cares, please don’t isolate yourself, which I also did. Talking to a someone is a good way to start talking about your crazy thoughts – and please know that it is quite normal to have crazy thoughts, and also to have suicidal ideations. You are NOT alone.

    And most importantly, as Ascended Master Maitreya taught me,”DON’T TAKE THINGS PERSONALLY” – and I will add DON’T TAKE YOUR OWN THOUGHTS PERSONALLY! Our thoughts can lie to us when they come from our lower self, our ego mind.

    If you have any comments or thoughts, please do get in touch.

    With love, as ever

    Jacquie

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  • A Course In Miracles, Mental health, Spiritual Development

    What is Forgiveness? From A Course in Miracles.

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    From Part II of The Workbook of A Course in Miracles published by Foundation for Inner Peace

    What is Forgiveness? Page 401

    Para 1 –

    1. Forgiveness recognizes what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred.
    2. It does not pardon sins and make them real
    3. It sees there was no sin.
    4. And in that view are all your sins forgiven.
    5. What is sin, except a false idea about God’s Son? (ie each one of us)
    6. Forgiveness merely sees its falsity, and therefore lets it go.
    7. What then is free to take its place is now the Will of God.

    Para 2 –

    1. An unforgiving thought is one which makes a judgment that I will not raise to doubt, although it is not true.
    2. The mind is closed, and will not be released.
    3. The thought protects projection, tightening its chains, so that distortions are more veiled, and more obscure; less easily accessible to doubt, and further kept from reason.
    4. What can come between a fixed projection and the aim that it has chosen as its wanted goal?

    Para 3 –

    1. An unforgiving thought does many things.
    2. In frantic action it pursues its goal, twisting and overturning what it sees as interfering with its chosen path.
    3. Distortion is its purpose, and the means by which it would accomplish it as well.
    4. It sets about its furious attempts to smash reality, without concern for anything that would appear to pose a contradiction to its point of view.

    Para 4 –

    1. Forgiveness, on the other hand, is still, and quietly does nothing.
    2. It offends no aspect of reality, nor seeks to twist it to appearance it likes.
    3. It merely looks, and waits, and judges not.
    4. He who would not forgive must judge, for he must justify his failure to forgive.
    5. But he who would forgive himself must learn to welcome truth exactly as it is.

    Para 5 –

    1. Do nothing, then, and let forgiveness show you what to do, through Him Who is your Guide, your Saviour and Protector, strong in hope, and certain of your ultimate success.
    2. He has forgiven you already, for such is His function, given Him by God.
    3. Now must you share His function, and forgive whom He has saved, whose sinlessness He sees, and whom He honours as the Son of God. (ie All of us!)

    I practice Forgiveness throughout my day and it has changed my life. It healed my mind when I was living in fear (known as depression and anxiety in the world). Forgiveness healed my childhood trauma of abandonment and rejection, and therefore the fear of being alone.

    If you want to know how to practice Forgiveness or have any questions about this essay from A Course in Miracles and would like further explanation, eg the very first point, please do get in touch.

    With love, as ever

    Jacquie

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  • A Course In Miracles, Mental health, Spiritual Development

    How we self-sabotage our spiritual practices

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    How often have you been getting along nicely with your spiritual reading and practice when you get interrupted? It might be by something as simple as a bad cold and you feel rough for a few days, so you take time out to have a “duvet day” because you feel poorly and don’t want to do anything except watch daytime TV and eat chocolate to console yourself!

    Or it might be something more time-consuming such as a trip away or having a friend to stay so your routine gets disrupted and you almost forget that you had this good thing going prior to their visit!

    Or worse, you might get made redundant, or have a relationship breakdown, or have a challenging situation with a family member. You get completely thrown off track and your spiritual progress gets put back or worse – ignored!

    It might be that one of your major life lessons comes up to the surface for healing and that can also stop us in our tracks – it’s not always the ego, it can be a previous trauma coming up to be healed which may seem horrific at the time, but if you can forgive and release these emotional traumas you will be able to breakthrough and heal them – but they can, of course, throw us off track from our good spiritual practices.

    Our egos love to trip us up and will find many ways to do so – this is how we self-sabotage! It can be very much “three steps forward and two steps back”.

    Self-sabotaging is what we also tend to do on a low-key daily basis – we allow ourselves to be distracted from focusing on our thoughts because we want to go out shopping, meet a friend or watch TV. Socialising and relaxation are essential of course, but if we allow ourselves to become so busy being “human doings” instead of human beings, it will be your ego’s way of distracting you from your beneficial spiritual practice. Our egos will also distract us from leading a healthy lifestyle or a disciplined exercise routine. The ego will do anything and everything it can to keep us from progressing – it continually self-sabotages us, so be on your guard!

    The solution

    Start listening to your thoughts. Learn to not only listen but to distinguish your ego thoughts from your intuitive thoughts – these comes direct from Spirit and will always take you on the right and happiest path. Whereas our distracting, negative and anxious thoughts are ego-driven – they’re lies! Lies and damn lies! Thoughts that make you feel angry, resentful and upset in any way – including anxious thoughts – are of the ego. On the other hand, our intuitive thoughts are peaceful, happy and light-hearted. You can actually feel the difference in your body.

    Have a go. It’s fun! And don’t beat yourself up if you think, “I can’t do it”, because THAT’S a lying ego thought. If you want to receive intuitive guidance, you will succeed. It’s how I was taught by Maitreya, so if I can do it so can you!

    Say “No” to self-sabotage today!

    With love, as ever

    Jacquie

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  • A Course In Miracles, Spiritual Development

    We never really die!

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    We don’t die – we simply pass away from this lifetime. Death is simply a passing from this life to the world of Spirit. Those of us left behind in the world are the sad ones, mourning the loss of our loved ones, but they will have definitely moved on to a loving, peaceful ‘heavenly’ dimension. It was simply their time to leave this lifetime.

    I wrote a little bit about loss and grief in the Empty Nesting blog. This article is to let you know that when we leave these physical bodies – we pass to the Spirit world where we meet with wiser beings who metaphorically hold our hand and take us on a journey into the Light. (This is different to when we become enlightened and merge with the Oneness known as God – at that stage we leave our soul and individual mind behind.)

    Reviewing the life we just left

    With these wise beings in the world of Spirit, we review the life we just lived. In my current life it would be as an English woman called Jacquie, but in another of my thousands of lifetimes I might have been a Chinese man or a Norwegian woman – and this process happens between each of our lifetimes. So, a bit like in a cinema, I would be shown my life on the big screen – warts and all – I would see the challenges I faced in this lifetime and how I dealt with them. The people I related to and what those interactions were like, and then, remembering that “time” is only a worldly concept and not a part of being in Spirit, I would choose my path for my next incarnation including who my parents will be and which challenges I want to have so I can continue to grow and heal.

    My goal is to become enlightened, so I’m trying to evolve as Jesus and Buddha did – to take two well-known souls who mastered their lives – and it is said that when we review our lives in this “cinema” or Hall of Mirrors, we are very keen to do better in our next lifetime so we can continue to achieve our goals.

    Souls that have been mentally disturbed and take their own lives, or people unexpectedly killed in accidents or by freaks of Nature are very much comforted when they pass over. We go to a place of peace because it’s only the physical world that is painful and unkind. The world of Spirit is loving and peaceful. It’s said that souls love being there but choose to reincarnate on Earth because this is such a beautiful planet. There are other dense planets where we could reincarnate – but I am going to stick with the old familiar world we inhabit at the moment!

    When Dad “died”

    When my father passed over, I knew he was comfortable about dying and we both knew where he was going, so I did not grieve his leaving (although I naturally miss him!) I was actually relieved because he had been suffering with cancer. I sent him Reiki healing for his onward journey and found myself naturally looking up into the corner of the room which is where I felt him to be, rather than at his spiritless corpse he’d left on the bed. A few months’ later, through an excellent Medium (please ask me for her details if you want them), Dad thanked me for giving him Reiki at the time of his transition, and I recommend to anyone who is attuned to Reiki to do the same thing. The Medium hadn’t known any of the details of how I dealt with my father’s passing – so it was very comforting to receive Dad’s message through her.

    “What happens when we die?”

    This was my main question when I started actively on my spiritual path in the 90s, and after many years of research and personal experience, I have the answers I was looking for. Indeed, even prior to that, in the 70s I bought a book about near death experiences (NDEs) which was full of documented accounts from people who were thought to have died but came back to life. These NDEs more often than not show people that there is definitely another dimension – the world of Spirit – and they talk about a loving place beyond our imagination. This is my experience when I connect to Holy Spirit – pure joy and Light and Love and laughter!

    So when you next experience grief, of course deal with your emotions, but with the knowledge that your loved one is not suffering anymore and is in a place of peace and love, I hope you will find it easier to grieve. I found great comfort was gained from my reading with the Medium, it really was most beneficial – which is why Mediums do that job for us.

    Do ask questions about what I’ve talked about in this blog – I’m happy to discuss anything with you!

    With love, as ever

    Jacquie

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