A Higher Power of My Own Understanding

[Guest guest]

Transcendent Spiritual Beings having

a human experience - an index of web pages

We are not sinful, shameful human creatures

who have to somehow earn Spirituality. We are Spiritual Beings having

a human experience.

"My own personal Spiritual belief system is one form of spirituality.

It is certainly not the only one. Mine works for me very well in

helping me to have a relationship with life that allows me to be happier

today. It is not necessary for you to accept my belief system in

order for you to use the tools, techniques, and perspectives that I have

developed for emotional healing / codependency recovery / inner child integration."

The dramatic success and expansion of AA facilitated

the spread of a radically revolutionary idea which has traditionally, in

Western Civilization, been considered heresy. This was not a new idea but

rather a reintroduction and clarification of an old idea, coupled with

a formula for practical application of the concept into day-to-day human

life experience.

This revolutionary idea was that an unconditionally

Loving Higher Power exists with whom the individual being can personally

communicate. A Higher Power that is so powerful that it has no need to

judge the humans it created because this Universal Force is powerful enough

to ensure that everything unfolds perfectly from a Cosmic Perspective.

This reintroduction of the revolutionary concept

of an accessible Loving God has been clarified to specifically include

the concept that the individual being can define this Universal Force according

to his/her own understanding, and can develop a personal, intimate relationship

with this Higher Power.

In other words, no one is needed as an intermediary

between you and your creator. No outside agency has the right to impose

upon you its definition of God.

The spread of Alcoholics Anonymous, and the other

Anonymous programs which sprang out of AA, is the widest and most effective

dissemination of this radical revolutionary concept that has ever occurred

in Western Civilization.

Mystics, gnostics, and certain "primitive" peoples

have, throughout recorded human history, understood the Truth in this concept

- but the "organized religions" of urban-based civilizations have persecuted,

tortured, and crucified any messengers or groups of people who believed

in a Loving, personal God or Goddess - because it threatened the power

of those organized religions' control over the masses and therefore their

very existence.

(Text in this color is used for quotes from

Codependence: The Dance of Wounded Souls by Burney)

My personal belief is that we are Spiritual Beings

having a human experience that is unfolding perfectly from a Cosmic perspective

- with no accidents, coincidences, or mistakes. I consider Spirituality

to be a word that describes one's relationship with life - and anyone,

regardless of religious belief or lack of it (who is not completely closed

minded), can apply the approach I share on this web site and in my book,

to help them transform their experience of life into an easier, more Loving

and enjoyable journey. - BurneyA Higher Power of My Own Understanding

The Spiritual belief system detailed on this web site and in my book can

be incorporated into any open-minded individual's personal beliefs.

It is a belief system that allows for the possibility that maybe there

is an Unconditionally Loving Higher Power - a God-Force, Goddess Energy,

Great Spirit, whatever it is called - which is powerful enough to insure

that everything is unfolding perfectly from a Cosmic Perspective.

That everything happens for a reason - there are no accidents, no coincidences,

no mistakes.

It would be possible for someone to use the tools and techniques contained

herein - for inner child healing and setting internal boundaries - to change

some of their codependent/reactive behavior patterns and work on healing

their childhood emotional wounds without a Spiritual belief system underlying

the work. It would be possible, but in my view would be kind of silly.

Spirituality is all about relationships. One's relationship to self,

to others, to the environment, to life in general. A Spiritual belief

system is simply a container for holding all our other relationships.

Why not have one that is large enough to hold it all.

In my personal recovery, I found that I needed a Spiritual container

large enough to allow for the possibility that I was not a flawed, shameful

being. I searched until I found some logical, rational means to explain

life in a way that would allow me to start letting go of the shame I was

carrying and start learning how to be Loving to myself.

For me it became a simple choice: either there is a higher purpose

to this life experience or there is not. If there is not, then I

don't want to play. So, I chose to believe that there is a Spiritual

purpose and meaning to life. And choosing to believe in a Loving

Higher Power has transformed my life from an ordeal to be endured to an

adventure that is exciting and Joyous much of the time.

The bottom line for me is that it works for me, it is functional, for

me to believe that there is Spiritual purpose and meaning to life.

It works to make my life experience happier today. - Burney

Life is not some kind of test, that if we fail,

we will be punished. We are not human creatures who are being punished

by an avenging god. We are not trapped in some kind of tragic place

out of which we have to earn our way by doing the "right" things.

We are Spiritual Beings having a human experience.

We are here to learn. We are here to go through this process that

is life. We are here to feel these feelings.

"My own personal Spiritual belief system is one form of spirituality.

It is certainly not the only one. Mine works for me very well in

helping me to have a relationship with life that allows me to be happier

today. It is not necessary for you to accept my belief system in

order for you to use the tools, techniques, and perspectives that I have

developed for emotional healing / codependence recovery / inner child integration.

For the purposes of this discussion of spiritual integration, I would

now define what I refer to as a Spiritual Awakening in the quote above,

as: being open to a larger perspective - awakening from being trapped

in a limiting perspective. In this regard, spiritual would be a qualifier,

an adjective, that describes the quality of one's relationship with life.

This adjective, spiritual, would be (in my definition) a word describing

an expanded level of consciousness. A level of consciousness, of

awareness, that is expansive and inclusive and facilitates personal growth

- as opposed to limited, exclusive, rigid, and inhibiting growth, development,

and alternative view points.

By this definition, any religion that claims to be the chosen one, that

excludes alternative perspectives or certain people, is not spiritual."

The Recovery Process for inner child healing

- spiritual integration

Who we are, are transcendent Spiritual Beings

who are part of the ONENESS that is the God-Force. We always have

been and always will be. We are perfect in our Spiritual Essence.

We are perfectly where we are supposed to be on our Spiritual Path.

And from a human perspective we will never be able to do "human" perfectly

- which is perfect.

We have been trying to do "human" perfectly

according to a false belief system in order to "get Spiritual." It

does not work. It's dysfunctional and backwards. It is not

bad or wrong or shameful - it is the best we have known how to do life

until now.

Joy2MeU pages that are focused

directly on 's Spiritual belief system:

Spiritual Beings having a human experience.

This

is the polar opposite of the beliefs which underlie Civilization

- it changes the whole game of life.

Mystical Metaphysical Spirituality

- Quotes from 's book about Spirituality.

"In

order to make any progress in learning to Love and trust ourselves we need

to have a Spiritual belief system that supports the possibility that we

are unconditionally Loved. This is vital in helping us to stop shaming

and judging ourselves."

A Kinder, Gentler, Cosmic

Spirituality - A Spiritual

Paradigm that promotes Love - that endorses relaxing and enJoying life.

Some more quotes. "The God-Force is

powerful enough to get us to where we are supposed to be with or without

our help! We do not have the power to screw up the Great Spirits

plan."

Truth vs emotional truth -

Intuitive messages from our Soul can often feel the same as emotional reactions

from our wounded inner children. "What

we feel is our "emotional truth" and it does not necessarily

have anything to do with either facts or Truth with a capital "T" - especially

when we our reacting out of an age of our inner child."

Loving and Nurturing self - A

column about Loving and Nurturing self - thru stopping the shame and judgment.

"Those

times when we feel like we are "falling apart," "losing it," going to pieces,"

are the times when we are growing."

Powerlessness & Empowerment -

An article about how admitting powerlessness can lead to empowerment

- why the 12 steps work. "It is by recognizing

that we are powerless to control our life experiences out of ego-self that

we can access the power out of True Self, Spiritual Self. By surrendering

the illusion of ego control we can reconnect with our Higher Selves."

(The following two pages are being replaced by the

series The Miracle of The Twelve Step Recovery

Process which contain all the information on these two pages.)

The Twelve Steps - The

12 Steps provide a formula for integrating the Spiritual into the physical.

Page includes several version of steps. "What

helped me was when someone told me that surrender didn't mean I was a loser,

it just meant that I was smart enough to join the winning side."

The Twelve Steps, different interpretations

- four different versions of the 12 steps from different sources.

My favorite is the Twelve Steps for Kids. "By

using these steps, I've become a new person. I don't have to feel

alone anymore, and I can help others."

Spirituality for Agnostics

and Atheists - The first of a series of articles focusing on spirituality

from different perspectives. "You have

an absolute right to believe that life has no meaning or purpose - or that

the purpose of life is suffering and penance for some mythical sin of mankind

- whatever you choose to believe. But if we reject even looking at

any alternative perspectives, then what we are empowering is ignorance."

The Recovery Process for inner child healing

- spiritual integration - a unique

article in that it is part of two different series of articles. "So,

spiritual integration in this sense, is our relationship with the whole

of the horizontal dance of life. It is very helpful to have a sense

of spirituality, a relationship with the dance of life, that helps us to

start being able to find some balance in our life."

(These pages above are linked

together so that you may go from one to the next in the order listed -

as are the ones below.)

October 2003, I am adding a series of my

articles originally published Suite101 that are focused

on how to apply the Serenity Prayer in our lives.

Discernment

- The Wisdom to Know the Difference in Serenity Prayer - First in a

series of articles focused on the Serenity Prayer and having the wisdom

and discernment to recognize the things that we have the power to change.

"Discernment is about learning to separate truth from lies, illusion from

reality, fantasy from facts. It is about learning the difference

between: emotional truth and Spiritual Truth; emotional impulse

and intuitive guidance; being victimized and feeling like a victim."

Serenity - Accepting the things we

cannot change - This article is focused on practicing the Serenity

Prayer by accepting life events instead of creating a lot of artificial

stress by freaking out because we are not in control. "By

learning to be discerning enough to accept the things I cannot change,

I am able to change something that is in my power to change - my attitude

towards the things I can not change."

Intellectual

Discernment - focused within - This one is focused on the importance

of starting to practice intellectual discernment so that we can start changing

the attitudes and beliefs that are setting us up to have a dysfunctional

perspective of life. "We have the power

to choose a different intellectual paradigm to define our life. That

is what working the twelve steps can do for us - cause a paradigm shift

our relationship with life."

Emotional

Discernment - taking power away from the fear - This article is focused

upon practicing emotional discernment in order to take power away from

codependent fear. "We all have reactive

emotional "buttons" - an internal emotional mine field - that cause us

to have intense emotional reactions when a button is pushed, when one of

the unhealed wounds in our psyche gets activated. Other people, life

events, an old song, etc., can trigger these emotional wounds."

Intellectual Discernment

- shutting up the critical voice - This one is focused upon practicing

intellectual discernment in order to take power away from the critical

parent voice in our minds. "In order

to stop being the victim of our self and our wounding it is vital to start

setting boundaries with that critical parent voice - to start learning

how to stop the inner child abuse that is part of the disease dynamic."

Emotional Discernment

- Watch how you speak - Words have power. The ways in which

we express ourselves can reinforce feelings of victimization and be disempowering.

"When

we make statements like: "I am angry."; "I'm very hurt";

etc.; we are stating that the feeling is who we are. The feeling

is not who we are."

Intellectual Discernment

- "have to" and the Holiday Season - When we use words like should

or "have to" - as in I have to spend the Holidays with my family - we are

setting ourselves up to feel like a victim and be resentful. "So,

if you spend time with your family during the Holidays because you "have

to," you are not being Loving."

Emotional Discernment

- disarming the emotional mine field within - It is vital to start

to recognize that we don't have to be powerless over the our emotional

wounds - the buttons that get pushed that cause us to react to extremes.

"When

one of our inner child wounds is activated, it feels like our total being

- our total reality. It feels like the feeling we are experiencing

is our total truth. It is not."

Intellectual Discernment

- Choices, not "shoulds" - By learning how to stop empowering dysfunctional

"shoulds" and "have tos" in our programming we can learn to stop reacting

to life and start taking responsibility - having the ability-to-respond.

"We

can change our relationship with self and life by starting to own that

we have choices, instead of sabotaging ourselves because we are rebelling

against the critical parent voice in our head telling us what we "should"

do."