On Saturday, March 10, 2012, I attended my second annual retreat at the Center for Spiritual Living – Capistrano Valley.
I made my decision based on my previous year’s experience, one that transformed my thinking, but also, being new to the center in 2011, I was surrounded by people who truly had my highest good at heart.
It was a feeling I hadn’t felt before and one that I needed at that point of my life. I left the 2011 retreat a new person and reveled in the thought that once one uplevels Spiritually, they never go back to the “old” level, which had not produced the greatest results in my own personal life.
As I walked into the 2012 retreat themed: Waves of Awakening – On Sacred Shores I expected a lot. I expected much of the same results as I had the prior year.
Dr. Maxine Kaye delivered intense, yet humorous exercises and dialogue that allowed us to deeply understand that everything in life is “sacred, but not serious.” Meaning…everything is sacred in that it holds meaning in our life, but yet, it’s not serious. No matter how bad it may seem, there is something to be learned, yet it, too, shall pass.
I left the retreat with two major takeaways:
- How far I’d come in only one year. At last year’s retreat, I was a mess. I “rolled” into the Center with many circumstantial challenges about a month prior. I felt at ease to learn and release the “crud” that was going on within me, thus creating the “crud” going on outside of me and creating my “cruddy” circumstances. In only one year since then, I realized how transformed of a person I have become. My life is completely different as a result of learning the lessons taught at CSLCV, implementing them daily into my life, taking advantage of classes offered so I can truly learn the ins and outs of this great philosophy, and giving of my time to the Center.
- Be careful what you “wish” for. I mean that with all the positivity in the world. As I looked back a year, I truly decided to “test” this new-found philosophy of Science of Mind…(new to me, not new to the world). I set a few intentions for the year ahead of me, held true to the vision, emotion and action to allowing those intentions to occur, and EVERY one did. As I looked back on the demonstrations of the previous year, I realized how powerful one’s mind is, therefore, I am now extremely careful with the thoughts that I allow to “rent” space in my mind. I have “wished” for things in the past. Things, that quite honestly, were for an increased life for me, but not necessarily for all involved, and it didn’t make for a really abundant life. Now, I think in terms of increasing my own life for the best of all involved, and I will say, it makes for a much more satisfying life.
With much gratitude, I extend my thanks to the committee who organized the event and delivered another transformational day for our members.
I’m already excited to see what the next year will bring!