There have been several Universal “nods” since I made definite my intention to go on the Camino pilgrimage in Spain. I told you about my son deciding to go with me — my heart has been light ever since. There are no wavering thoughts now about whether or not to go … I sit easy with going. I've watched the Universe open its floodgates and pour benevolence into our lives before as the result of aligning with It through intention and decision. And again this time, the blessings are just as profound. Within days of making the decision to go, we sold some property … and my share of the profit, as it turns out, will be just about exactly what is needed to cover the trip. Perfect! It's like once the decision was made, the doors of approval and welcome opened on all fronts.
A few mornings after I decided to go, I was in my study looking for a particular reference and came across a book called “Power Through Constructive Thought”. It was written in 1955 by Emmet Fox, a Christian metaphysicist who taught a method called “scientific prayer”. I opened the book to the middle of a chapter titled, “The Seven Day Mental Diet”, and read these words:
“This then is your prescription: For seven days you must not allow yourself to dwell for a single moment on any kind of negative thought. You must watch yourself for a whole week as a cat watches a mouse, and you must not under any pretense allow your mind to dwell on any thought that is not positive, constructive, optimistic, kind. This discipline will be so strenous that you could not maintain it consciously for much more than a week … by that time the habit of positive thinking will begin to be established. Some extraordinary changes for the better will have come into your life, encouraging you enormously, and then the future will take care of itself….
But the seven days are going to be strenous… . Mere physical fasting would be child's play in comparison ….”

In reading the words, it occurred to me that an assignment for my pilgrimage had been placed in my hands, that is, if I wanted to accept the challenge. But, what better time than during a spiritual pilgrimage to take on such a fast? I recognize that this is not something to be taken on lightly; as a matter of fact, I realized that I was going to need to prepare my mind for the task at hand using the same focused intention and discipline needed to condition the body.
So since then I've been “drilling” for this ardous challenge by assigning myself short periods of intense observation; by watching my thoughts with the idea of consciously offering up any negative thought that appears before I attach to it. Immediately upon identifying a thought as negative I practice “upgrading” the thought to a higher frequency or I simply shift my attention to something else altogether – something positive.
For instance … recently, while on my morning walk, I caught a fear thought running in the form of angst about Hepatitis C … “Maybe I'm getting more sick and won't be able to go in July….”, Having noticed it, I then practiced turning awareness away from the negative by asking the question “How else could I see think about this?” Immediately a thought came about how perfect the timing of my bout over the Christmas holidays with hepatits actually had been … Source had used HCV as a messenger and motivator. In the hands of Source everything becomes a tool for consciousness!
I'd decided back in the early fall that the way I would know whether or not I was really serious about treking in Spain was if I saw myself actually motivated to prepare physically for the long walk (we'll be walking up to 13 mountainous miles a day). And, well … by early December I had not made any real progress towards physical readiness at all! As a matter of fact, I was going away from health not towards it. That is until my bout with liver distress got my attention! Then, suddenly, I was REAL motivated! I began to be more careful about what I ate, which resulted in shedding the extra weight I'd been carrying and I also started exercising more regularly; walking and training with a personal trainer, all in order to feel better. Suddenly I saw that I WAS preparing to walk the pilgrimage … and that HCV had provided the motive for doing it! I turned the fear thought about Hepatitis into gratitude for it just by recognizing it as a motivating “nod” of encouragement from the Universe.
So I am now preparing not only physically but also mentally through what I am calling “Observer-self drills” … where I consciously watch my thoughts in order to pick up on negative ones which I then explore ways to transform into a higher frequency.
Fox gave me some ideas for how to go about mentally preparing in the same book I mentioned earlier (“Power through Constructive Thought”), in his description of a form of scientific prayer that he calls “the golden key”. He describes it like this: when we find ourselves dwelling heavily on some problem or person we're anxious about, we take the sitation into prayer where we acknowledge it but then turn our full and total attention to our relationship with Source. He recommends that we forget about the problem and instead meditate only on what we know, experience and feel when we are sitting in the Presence of Source. Don't allow even a glance over our shoulder back at the issue …. This is a beautiful way of transforming the lower frequency of worry and resentment into a higher vibration. We simply point to the issue and then hold open the door to the mediating Energy of Source, that which in Christianity is called Christ. Christ represents the mediating life force that steps down the High Voltage of Source, making it possible for mere mortals to have a personal relationship with Something that would otherwise be beyond our ability to comprehend, much less relate to. Perhaps this is the real meaning of the Christian doctrine that says that we must accept Christ as a personal Savior … What is really being relayed here is that The Christ Energy is the only way to know the Father because Christ is the Mediating Energy. The actuality of Source is way beyond our comprehension… therefore we have been provided with a Mediator — the Christ Energy, that ever stands at the door of our being, waiting to be recognized, accepted and invited in. This is what is meant when we are told that we only need to accept Christ… not earn His acceptance through deeds or personal (ego) effort, but simply allow Him in so that He can pour His healing power into every nook and cranny of our lives. This Universal Flow remedies every problem without our having to do a thing except get ourselves out of the way. And when we are busy trying to be good enough to deserve It, we are in actuality blocking the door. There is nothing that must be done except get out of the way. Contemplate on That and watch your life issues dissolve. This Universal Radiating Life Force is available and free to each and every one of us in the same way that the Sun freely shines upon us all, sinner and saint alike. All we need to do is acknowledge and accept the Gift. I accept.

I see me in you
and I am beautiful ….
When I see us, I see Source,
and we dissolve….
Then there is Nothing …
… Only One ..
–Lynne