Taking Responsibility For Your Destiny

Blessing Every Step of Your Journey

p. 237 - You Have Chosen to Remember: A Journey from Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy by James Blanchard Cisneros.

"I expect to pass through life but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now and not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."

- William Penn

You have the free will to either bless every step of your journey or to be annoyed and frustrated by them. The physical manifestation and expression of your mind allows you to see where you are in your development. If you have a peaceful mind, you will create peaceful experiences. Peaceful experiences are, more often than not, a result of having a peaceful mind. If you have a chaotic mind, you will create chaotic experiences. More often than not, chaotic experiences are a result of having a chaotic mind. When you bless each step, you acknowledge it as a useful part of your journey and, in turn, you receive peace. When you are annoyed and frustrated by a step, you create tension and anxiety which leads to stress.

Some people treat positive experiences in their lives as gifts, not as lessons. The same people have the tendency to treat negative experiences in their lives as lessons and not as gifts. Some say it is a gift if you learned a lesson. But if you do not learn a recognizable lesson from what you perceive to be a negative experience, is it still a gift? Sure it is! It is a gift regardless of whether you learned the lesson or not, because the experience itself has brought you one step closer to recognizing what it is trying to offer. Because of the experience, you are now a step closer to "getting it," and because you are now a step closer to "getting it" it was helpful and useful in getting you to the next step. As a result, it could be considered a gift.

Let's use an example of taking a flight from Miami to New York. For argument's sake, let's divide the trip into three parts, which include the ride from your home to the airport, the journey from the airport entrance to the gate of departure and the flight itself. You might perceive the most important part of the trip to be the flight itself, but you first need to get to the airport, go through the check-in counter and then to the departure gate. The walk from the airport's entrance to the check-in counter to the departure gate might be the shortest distance, but it could also be the most taxing and stressful part of the journey. All of these are necessary steps to get you to New York. Some steps might seem more important than others, but you need all of them in order to get where you want to go. And it is only by taking all of the steps that you will be able to reach your destination. On the surface, you might see the trip from the airport's entrance to your departure gate as the least important part of the trip, but it is still as necessary as the other two components of the trip. Regardless of which part of the trip you perceive as most stressful, it is still necessary and useful in helping you reach your destination. You can choose to see each part of your journey as useful and be thankful for having completed it, or you can choose to see it as stressful.

The plane ride, like all other parts of the journey, can be as stressful as you make it. On any given airplane, those on board experience different levels of stress, no matter how stable or unstable the plane ride is. Even when statistics show that flying is many times safer than driving, most people consider the plane ride more stressful than the car ride to the airport. For many, the level of stress during the flight itself has little to do with the statistical reality, but relates to how safe those on board perceive themselves to be. As you and others may have trained yourself to be fearful on planes, so too can you train yourself to be peaceful during any flight. You can, on any and every part of your journey, choose to be at peace, or you can choose to experience fear and stress. Focus your mind on what you wish to experience. Please understand that it is your choice, and that ultimately, it has little to do with the physical manifestation and more to do with how you choose to react to it.

The point is that you are exactly where you need to be and you are there because of everything you have experienced. My friend, every moment you have experienced is a gift you have offered yourself. Regardless of whether you perceived it as a lesson or not, all experiences have made you who you are today.

One thing I can guarantee is that you are headed in the right direction, because it is literally impossible to do otherwise. Bless every moment you have and are experiencing. Bless every positive and negative experience; bless every positive and negative moment.
 

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of the great spiritual / self development book You Have Chosen to Remember: A Journey from Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy by James Blanchard Cisneros.