Willingness is the key to happiness!

Willingness is the foundation on which A Course in Miracles is built. It is the only building material we are asked to supply.

The heart flowers on my website are reminders for willingness.  We so often forget that the Course actually asks very little of us.  We’re the ones that like to complicate things!

Willingness is the precursor to positive change. The Course teaches us that we only need a teeny tiny bit of willingness for massive miracles to happen.  We simply connect with our willingness to see things differently, and then offer that willingness to our Inner Guide (aka the Holy Spirit or Inner Teacher).  What we exchange our willingness for, is a miracle – a shift in perception.

This handing of our perceptions over to our Inner Guide is the basis of forgiveness.  A simple definition of forgiveness is something that is “for giving” to the Holy Spirit. According to the Course, we of ourselves don’t know the true meaning of forgiveness, which has to do with looking past something that hasn’t actually happened.  We need our Inner Guide’s help in this process, because it certainly seems like a lot of s**t IS really happening!

“Where is my willingness and how do I find it?”

Often times, if we are open and honest with ourselves, we might notice that we are NOT willing to let go of a grudge, to see something differently, or to forgive.  We are stuck in our way of seeing things, and have put up a block to truth and peace. We want it our way! Chances are, we also feel our peace fade away.

Just a tiny bit of willingness is all that we need to connect with in order for a shift to happen.

If I am feeling clear that I really don’t want to hand something to my Inner Guide, there is a process that helps me find my willingness, however removed from the present it may be.  So I ask myself the question, “Am I willing to see this differently?”  If the answer is “no,” the next question is, “Am I willing to be willing to see this differently?”  Even then, sometimes the answer might still be “no” because resistance to forgiveness is too strong.  Keep taking it back a level until the tiniest bit of willingness is found… “Am I willing to be willing to be willing to see this differently?” “Yes!” Ahh… there is the tiny bit of willingness.  That is all that is needed.  The lengthy question itself may sound silly, but it works!  Touch that tiny bit of willingness, and keep turning that bit of willingness over to the Holy Spirit.  When we’re ready for the shift to happen, it will.