Printed in the Conscious Creation Journal
April-May 2000, Issue 11
Self-Appreciation & Forgiveness
by Omni, channeled by John Payne
If there were nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine subjects upon which we could speak, and if you were to ask us out of which of all these subjects was the most important, we would say to you, with an absolute knowing, without a shadow of doubt, or the twinkling of a second thought, that self-appreciation is the most important topic of all. Self-appreciation is the key to your spiritual growth, to enlightenment, to humanity’s problems; it is the solution to everything that is considered a problem.
For many, many generations you have been taught that self-appreciation is haughty and arrogant and not fitting. You have been told to keep your selves small and not to think too highly of yourself for you are unworthy of such adoration and recognition. I come to you with a different message, we say to you, that it is time for you to appreciate yourself and that without self appreciation, all the other things that you are striving for, will either elude you, or simply remain a struggle.
As you learn to love and appreciate who you are and what you have to offer the world, all the qualities that you are looking to develop, such as patience, acceptance, love, compassion, caring and strength will be yours. As we everything, that which is within you, is reflected outside of you. That, which you feel, manifests in your world. Therefore, if you want to develop love, patience and compassion, it is love of self, patience with self and compassion for self that first must be developed. Does it not make complete sense to you when we say: you can only give what you already have. If you have little love for yourself, then you will not be in a position to offer authentic love (acceptance) to another. You will offer ingratiation perhaps, telling yourself that you are loving and kind, but when you give love, there must be a two-way flow. The flow must come from an open heart, a heart that is open also for the giver. Many of you, who focus on giving, find it difficult to receive. In doing so, it is like using up the energy in a battery. The more you give the more of your own energy that you are giving away. When you re open to receive, you then become a conduit for the Universe, a channel for love. Pure Universal love, the love of God, begins to flow through you. This love, this energy, is the source of all life, and as you become this channel, it feeds you, sustains you, keeps you in health and well being, and allows abundance to flow freely into your life.
Self-Appreciation is about saying: I accept myself exactly as I am. It is also about acknowledging your unique gifts. Your world is full of artists, healers, writers, great chefs, and architects, teachers and, miracle makers who are yet to be discovered. They have not yet been discovered because you have not allowed yourself to shine. Within each of you is a highly creative, highly skilled being, just waiting to be discovered. Many of you catch glimpses of this in moments of inspiration, but then most of you immediately begin to compare yourself to others and tell yourself that their work or creation is of much more value.
Self-appreciation is not about putting another down, or thinking yourself better than another. It is about acknowledging the greater part of yourself, the part of yourself that is tapped into Universal knowledge and power and can create miracles. It is about acknowledging the truth of who you are. The truth of who you are is simple, you are a child of the divine, more than that even, you are the divine.
Somewhere along the line, many of you got the idea that you were here in order to prove yourself worthy of god or some other higher authority. This is not the case, you are here through the expression of your free will and you came forth into this plane of existence in order to create.
The Earth poses some unique challenges. It would appear that there is much evidence to suggest that you are alone and not connected to the power of the universe. But this is exactly why you chose to come here. It was a challenge that you delighted in taking. You are not here on probation; you will not be let go from this place for good behaviour. You are not here waiting for the chance to go somewhere better. Let us say to you very clearly that when your heart is filled with self-appreciation, it will govern what you draw to yourself, it will govern your experience of the world and how you relate to others. So let us say to you that then, when you are fully in self-appreciation, you will have the most delicious experience in the known Universe. You will be physically focused and your heart will be fully open to the love of the universe, and God’s love will stream through you, using you as a channel for all that is great. There is no greater experience than this one, to be physical and spiritual simultaneously. This is why your planet is so populated, for many, many souls are wanting this experience, and self-appreciation is the key.
When you look at the great teachers, how did they get to that position? How did the Buddha and the Christ get to that position? It was through self-appreciation. It is only through loving and accepting yourself that open yourself to the love of God. For God can only give you that which you are prepared to give unto yourself. There is no higher truth than that.
Exercising Self Appreciation
In addition to understanding self-appreciation intellectually, it is important to exercise it daily. Take a pen and paper, and do this at least 3 times per week, and note down at least 7 things that you appreciate yourself for.
Once you have done this, look at how many things are action oriented and how many things are qualities. Action oriented statements are I am a good cook, qualities are I am generous. Humans have become such action oriented beings that many of your believe that you have very little value unless you are doing something. When you begin to acknowledge the qualities you have, to see who you are, not what you are doing, you begin to get a different picture of yourself. With this new picture you begin to clearly see how you are able to express, and indeed do express, all of the divine qualities that you feel that you must strive to develop. Cease all the struggle, allow yourself to be, and be who you are, not who you think you ought to be. For you will discover that you are already many of the things you think you ought to be.
A Universal principle tells us that that which you focus on grows. Focus on self-appreciation and acknowledging all your fine qualities, then these qualities, by virtue of your increased attention to them, will automatically grow. The principles of manifesting apply universally, irrespective of whether it is a new car or a more developed quality of generosity or patience that you seek to create.
Forgiveness – Remembering the Truth of Who You Really Are
The act of forgiveness is not about saying that it is ok what the other person did or said, it is truly about remembering who you are. So many of you put so much energy into resisting the things that you do not want, you forget that you are indeed creator. There is nothing that is outside of yourself that can exert itself against you. Everything that is in your experience is there owing to your attention to it. If you remember the times when you have been hurt and nurture and talk about that hurt, then more of the same pain will be delivered unto you. If you remember betrayal, then more will be delivered unto you, if you remember abandonment, then more will be delivered unto you.
That, which you think, creates your experience of life. Yes, we hear your voice when you say, but I was hurt, I was abandoned and I was betrayed, how can I deny that and we say to you that you are creator and once you acknowledge that you drew these experiences to yourself, then you can also know that you have the undeniable power to draw new, more fulfilling, joyful experiences unto yourself. For as you think, so you experience. Think about failure, it will be yours, think about pain, it will be yours, think about betrayal, and it will be yours.
When you are unable to forgive another, in fact what you are doing is denying your own power, your own power as creator, and handing over to them. What you are saying is that you are subject to the will of another, to the actions and words of another and that you have no will of your own. In reality, you are a powerful being, an eternal soul, who has been given the free will and unlimited power to create what you want.
When you are unable to forgive, it means that you have changed the truth of who you are. It is not those who have moved against you that have changed the truth of who you are. You have allowed their actions to tell you that you are something else than a powerful child of the divine.
Once you remember, and seek to remember who you truly are, then forgiveness will become second nature, for you will truly understand that nothing can exert itself against you, that the only things that come to you are those things that you yourself have drawn through your thinking. In knowing this, you will also know that you have a choice. A choice as to how you are going to think, as to how you are going to think about yourself, believe about yourself, a choice as to whether or not you will choose to love and accept yourself and acknowledge yourself in self appreciation.
Forgiveness is about remembering who you are. If you have not forgiven, then you have not remembered that you are loved beyond all measure.
(c) 2000, John Payne. Published in the April-May 2000 issue of the Conscious Creation Journal. (Feel free to copy this for personal use only. Please include this copyright notice.) http://www.consciouscreation.com
For more Omni, click here: http://www.spiritweb.org/Spirit/omni.html Email John Payne at info@four-principles.com