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OVERVIEW
Julia Cameron says true spiritual prosperity is an attitude – it is a choice we make. Choosing prosperity is another opportunity to choose the Divine. From your home to your relationships to your spending patterns, “cleaning house” creates space for your dreams and desires to manifest as a clear expression of Spirit. Join us this Sunday to rewrite your money story and continue our exploration of The Prosperous Heart.
TRANSCRIPTION
This transcription was auto-generated, please excuse typos, errors and omissions.
CLEANING HOUSE with Rev. Linda Jackson
Rev. Linda Jackson (00:00):
Wow, just keeps getting better around here. So we have a lot to be grateful for here, and I know a lot of you are in the room because we have our meeting today, and I’m so grateful for that as we sort of hold the vision for what’s possible. And before I jump into our conversation on the prosperous heart, which is our October and November theme, I just want to acknowledge the context of the world around us. I’ve had some conversations around this and it’s a little bit of a tricky dance for the people who get up here, right? I mean, we have all the fear-based media and the divisive stuff out there, and I don’t need to name all of the wars and the natural and unnatural disasters without going down the rabbit hole on that. I just think it’s important to acknowledge it and be grateful for our community coming together and to hold the truth in the midst of all of that.
(01:10):
And it may be even to acknowledge that we’re privileged to be here, that we have the opportunity to sit here and do this. And again, it’s a little tricky balance for the people who get up here. We don’t want to not acknowledge it, but our job is to lift our consciousness, to speak truth to the conditions. And as we focus on prosperity under the circumstances with everything going on, prosperity could seem like a superficial conversation. But I ask you to reconsider, I ask you to think of this as a deep and profound conversation, a life-changing conversation, a world changing conversation. So in the book, Julia Cameron’s book, the Prosperous Heart, I’m stepping on chords here in the Prosperous Heart book. She says that true spiritual prosperity is a mindset. It’s an attitude and a choice that we make. And choosing prosperity is choosing the divine.
(02:27):
And this is a powerful way that you and I, that we can have an impact on not only our personal experience of financial flow, but how we impact the world, how we see the world, how we experience the world. We get to speak truth to the conditions, to choose the divine in the midst of the conditions. Because throughout history there have always been conflicts. And it invariably stems from people believing they’re separate from people thinking that they have something to lose. They’re afraid of losing something or being bent on getting theirs, something to gain. So I’m inviting us to step out of what Earnest Holmes called race consciousness. And that has a different connotation today. So what he meant by race consciousness is the collective human race consciousness. So I’m inviting us to step out of collective consciousness and refuse to believe the lie of separation.
(03:39):
We are living in the effects of our past choices, our own choices in the choices of the collective. And our power is our choice. We get to keep choosing, we get to influence the collective to choose again and again and again. So are we choosing peace? Are we choosing life and love? Are we choosing a prosperous heart? And we have to do this regardless of what we see in front of us. And I’m not suggesting that we bury our heads in the sand. I’m saying we speak truth to it, we rise above it and we take action from that consciousness.
(04:37):
And at a base level, and I apologize because most everyone in the room knows what we teach and everyone online I’m sure, but just in case there’s a new person listening at a base level, we teach that there is a universal mind and that we are each individual expressions of it. And that as we open, we receive guidance as our inner voice, as our intuition. And I’m going to just pause there for a second because I thought if you have any doubt of that, then you treat that you affirm that we have to start wherever our doubt is so affirming that I am guided, that I am directed, that I am sourced, that I am one, convincing ourselves if we have to. And Darryl spoke about denials last week, denying limitation, denying fear, denying false power. And again, not denying the experience itself because that can feel abusive to the people who are in it, but denying that that experience has any power, that the truth is greater, the truth in back of it, and that we can lift ourselves into a higher idea of what is possible.
(05:43):
So turning away from collective consciousness to remember spiritual truth. And the first step is we have to lift ourselves out of the condition. So we align ourselves with spirit, we our thoughts, feelings, words and actions into the law that always says yes, it’s impartial. It just says yes. It doesn’t say, wait, I think you’re feeling a lot of injustice and suffering here, but I think you really want peace. So I’ll give you peace. No, it’s says yes to whatever you’re ruminating, whatever energy you’re putting out. So remembering to clear that, to hold the high watch, to step into high consciousness, we have to get our minds right and our feelings right? That’s our work.
(06:34):
So this applies to every aspect of our lives. And the question is, what are you putting out there from the reading by Earnest Holmes, does the thing I wish to do express more life, more happiness, more peace to myself, and at the same time harm No one. If it does, it is right. It is not selfish and the reading goes on. But if it is done at the expense of anyone, then to that degree we are making a wrong use of the law at the expense of anyone, we are making the wrong use of the law. So what is good for one is good for all. It can be no other way. There is no us or them. There is only us. There’s only we. There’s only the one. And the law always says yes, and it’s done as we believe. So I am inviting you to reconsider this conversation.
(07:37):
Whether we’re applying this to our finances, our work, our life purpose, our relationships, or divisive politics or war, this has to stay in the forefront of our minds. You are a unique individual expression of the infinite. You are here to fully express the divine as only you can express it. Nobody else can express the divine like you. And you’re either choosing the divine and allowing yourself to be that full expression or you’re not. And Julia Cameron says, the opposite of prosperity is not poverty. The opposite of prosperity is anxiety. So are you contracted, anxious or at ease?
(08:28):
Are you internally at war or at peace? Anxiety is the internal war. It is a misuse of our power. Cameron tells us prosperity is a mindset, an attitude, a choice we make. Are you choosing prosperity? Are you choosing the divine? And the C S l practitioner workbook, it reads the relationship we have with the money. I’m sorry, the relationship we have with money is a reflection of the relationship we have with God. So they’re not too farfetched, incongruent ideas. It’s one and the same. Our money is just another way of God expressing through us concerns about lack of money. Notice it’s the same reason that people start wars. It stems from a belief in separation from God.
(09:38):
I belief in separation from the abundant flow of life. In every moment, in every second, we have the opportunity to choose again, choose the divine, choose the divine. So our money is just another way. So I’m going to invite you just to take that in for a moment. And as I read this statement, notice what’s there for you. Your relationship with money reflects your relationship to God or spirit. Just notice what’s there. Your relationship with money reflects your relationship to spirit. And if money is another way, you express the divine, are you choosing full expression?
(10:41):
Are you choosing to fully express the divine in every area of your life? So I am really appreciating Julia Cameron and the prosperous heart. I took her artist way course the first time, maybe 15 plus years ago, some of the same exercises, the personal and money inventories to uncover your beliefs and attitudes toward money. So I had to come to this content in the prosperous heart with a beginner’s mind because if I say I’ve already done that, I did that work before. I’ve taken the artist way class several times, I don’t need to do this. If I think I already know, then there’s no room for growth. We can always go deeper and each time we come with a new consciousness, a new mindset, and we can possibly reveal even deeper growth. So we’ve covered so far, money myths, having enough trusting.
(11:52):
We’ve been looking at spending habits and creating clarity and learning that prosperity doesn’t come with a certain dollar amount. Having enough looks different for everyone. And it’s tied to what you believe. It’s tied to your beliefs and it changes over time. Cameron says, and I’m paraphrasing, that we use the familiar worry about money as a distraction. We get so used to being distracted by our worries about money or our fears of not enough or how we’re going to have to navigate this over here to make that happen. The distraction of stress over money with statements, we don’t have enough or didn’t have enough or one day might not have enough. So she’s doing past, present, and future, all the ways we worry. And that when we stop that we find that we are complete in this moment. We’re okay. We might have the anxiousness or be scared or feel excited, all the human feelings, the human experience. But when we let go of the stress or the anxiety, we find we are enough and that we have enough.
(13:13):
So it’s not about how much you have in the bank, it’s about understanding your own worth. We’ve been applying these tools and I understand there are some of you going through the course that Reverend Amy is facilitating and I think maybe some others that are following along in the book. And I’m kind of curious, the pages, the counting, the abstaining from debting, taking walks and timeouts, how is that going? Anybody? Anybody having an experience of the morning pages? The morning pages for me are like a cultivation of intuition, an opportunity to allow that stream of consciousness and to allow spirit to speak and move through me. And that idea of counting, now that one’s a little harder for me. I kind of tend to keep things gray and fuzzy. But when we keep things gray and fuzzy, our money is gray and fuzzy and there are people who are right on it, they’ve got it, but then they’ve got some other area that they have to work through. I am debt free. I love that. That’s easy for me right now. It wasn’t always. So we all have our areas and that morning pages walking in the taking the timeouts. To me, those are all three ways of really connecting with the divine. Remembering the divine, really communing and finding what our guidance is.
(14:51):
Those are opportunities to choose the divine and the anti debting or whatever she calls it. And the counting. Those are for clarity. This gives us clarity. So we’re in chapter four now and we’re on cleaning house. And this is from literal house cleaning, getting rid of things, clearing things out to our relationships, our spending patterns and cleaning house literally and figuratively opens up space and we can rewrite our money stories, we can become available to be fuller expressions of spirit. And it’s funny, I’m never surprised how this works out. I love that the universe otherwise known as Amy in this case, handed me this topic, house cleaning. It was not. I know, I know, but it’s just so perfect. It happens all the time, right? Thank you. I appreciate the left through me. Yes, through me. So this idea of house cleaning back in 2018, I spent time with my brother clearing out my other brother’s home after he passed away.
(16:16):
And his house was, it was painful. He had been sick for a long time. It was a difficult job. And he had really held onto things sort of a mild hoarding situation. And it was so yuck having to go through it and so heartfelt, seeing what he held onto and what was important to him and what he made meaning out of. But the big thing that I took away from that was when you hold onto things, they get destroyed. The energy gets stagnant. If you can put them back out, maybe it’s recycling or just throwing them away, but some things can be put back into use.
(17:14):
And within the year after that, I sold my house. I mean, that had a huge impact on me. And I’m like, I am clearing some of my stuff out. I don’t want my kids, I don’t want anybody to have to do what I just had to do. And I got rid of so much stuff and it was a dance – feeling into it, letting go, doing all the things, and ultimately letting go was freeing. I found I had more energy, I had more life, I felt more free. And just a few months ago, we cleared my mom’s house. So this cleaning house, very appropriate for me. And it’s really a process, especially if you’re sentimental and as an empath, feeling other people’s energy in the stuff, it becomes tricky. Intersect that with being a maker. I see the potential in all things. I’m like, oh, I could make this or I could do that, or this could be that. And I really don’t like having to buy something over again if I had it once – it’s like, let me just keep it. I might be able to use it. So that’s a whole thing. I don’t like wasting. I digress a bit, but maybe there’s someone out there who can relate to that. Some of us just have a harder time with minimalism than others.
(18:49):
So I cleared out and downsized my life. And now after clearing my mom’s place, I find myself with all this random stuff in my home that I brought home from her place… and a storage unit! Mind you, the storage unit was for the furniture that I took from my brother’s place. It was my mom and dad’s when I grew up. And I love it. It’s really cool. Haywood Wakefield, mid-century modern. There’s a whole group of people out there who would want it. My family thought I was nuts. And I’m like, no, somebody’s going to want this.
(19:32):
But I got the storage unit because I needed a minute. I could clear the house and just have a place to put the stuff that I didn’t have to make a decision right then. It was a lot in that moment. So I promised myself at that time that I wouldn’t keep the unit for more than six months, that was reasonable. But there was a mental weight to it. And so the timing of The Prosperous Heart was perfect. I was at about my five month mark when we started into this. So I started to do my inner work to choose the divine, to commune, to check in, to get my guidance. And I felt into it. The idea of keeping the furniture felt heavy, the extra boxes of stuff also a weight. So my action came from there.
And that’s also in this chapter, she talks about the three A’s having awareness. So we’ve got all the clarity and then acceptance, like noticing what’s my responsibility in it and then taking action from there. And I went through that without really fully intending to, it just sort of occurred for me… That getting related to the furniture, and feeling into it and knowing that what I really wanted was somebody to love it. I just wanted somebody who would value it and appreciate having it. I didn’t need to have it myself. And this dual purpose of eliminating that storage unit sets that furniture free and also eliminates another $80 a month that I’m paying on a storage unit in northwest Indiana that I’m not even looking at maybe once every four months or something.
So feeling into this, that furniture had been my parents and then my brother’s, and it had some really cool design characteristics to it. And I see Michael’s nodding his head. He knows he’s seen it. We’ve talked about it. So this is pushing all my buttons, right? My creative part that loves those cool, the tambour doors that kind of rolled around the side and these little interesting knobs and all these sliding panels. And the empath in me, because it was my parents and then my brothers and I’m feeling all their energy in it. And the sentimental button is pushed too. My brother and I used to play with that furniture when we were kids. We made it into a pharmacy, all these doors and cabinets. It was so cool. You could make it anything.
(22:12):
So I had to do my inner work and I got clear it was time to let it go. And I’ve been told that I have a similar process to Marie Kondo. So I’m just saying more than one person can download the same kind of idea. Because what has been working for me is that I really feel into it. And I feel, does my energy go up or down? Does it feel heavy or does it feel light? If it feels heavy, it’s mine to release. If it goes up, then there’s more good for me. And again, I got clear. I just wanted someone else to love having it. And so I have this bless it, thank it, let it go thing. And with that clarity, I wound up selling it very quickly and covered the cost of the storage unit for those past five months. And the rental truck, it was fabulous. I mean, I didn’t make a bunch of money, but kind of a breakeven. It’s good. And the beautiful thing is the young woman loved those tambour sliding doors just as much as I do. So I know it’s in good hands, right? She’s going to breathe new life into it instead of it sitting in a storage unit, getting musty and old and worn out and having to be thrown away in 10 years, and I’ve spent thousands of dollars on a storage unit! Which happens.
So cleaning house, it’s getting into right relationship with the divine, right relationship with my stuff, right relationship with myself. And letting go is freeing, energetically loosening the weight, opening ourselves to flow. Prosperity is a choice we make. Choosing prosperity is choosing the divine. And it’s up to us to raise our consciousness. Not only do we impact our own personal financial flow, we impact the world as we choose the divine in the midst of all the conditions in our personal life and in the world around us. When we spend time in that unification, remembering our oneness. And it’s tricky because even talking about oneness creates that duality. The prac students and I have been talking about this quite a bit, talking about oneness creates duality. You have to experience it. You have to turn within, you have to commune with the divine, and remember, this is the Truth. This can be a very duality based illusion we’re living in.
(25:02):
The greatest gift we can give to the world is practicing and remembering our oneness and living with a prosperous heart in flow, allowing the divine to express through us in every way. So I invite you to turn within as I close.
Jjust taking a moment to remember the truth, aligning with the infinite, with the love, the peace, the power, the prosperity that is our true nature, cultivating within the remembering of spirit as our nature right here, right now, remembering that we exist for self-expression, for the expression of spirit as us. Let us express spirit fully and freely as only we can express it. Each of us a divine perfect individual expression of spirit.
(26:23):
And let us ask, does the thing I wish to do express more life, more happiness, more peace to myself, and at the same time harm no one? If it does, it is right. Let us lift our consciousness. Let us neutralize fear. Let us neutralize that belief in separation. Remembering our true oneness, not just with the divine, but with all beings everywhere expanding. And I affirm our minds be transformed to truly be an expanded container for good, for what is possible, for peace, for prosperity, focusing on the energy of love that brings peace, especially to those areas of the world that are impacted by conflict of any kind. Love, peace, harmony, true prosperity. I bless us as bringers of peace, bringers of love. Cultivating the high vibration of the divine within, creating a new collective consciousness. Say this with me. Prosperity begins with me. I have a prosperous heart. I am prosperous. Peace begins with me. I am peace. I bring peace. I am love. I bring love. I choose the divine. No matter what I choose the divine first. I bring peace, love, and prosperity to the world. And so it is.
(28:48):
Thank you.