Surrender

Surrender in a spiritual sense does not mean giving up or giving in. It means that you ask your Higher Power to use you as an instrument. Surrender doesn't let you off the hook. You still need to make decisions and take actions. For most of us, it doesn't mean that you don a robe and take religious vows.

It means that you live your true purpose -- that you develop and use the talents and gifts you have been given. It means that you set aside the fearful voices of the ego and trust in that purpose and in the guidance that you receive. It means that you approach the world in terms of what you can give to it, with less concern about what you can get.

The Higher Power doesn't do things for you. It does through you and as you.

William Frank Diedrich, author of
The Road Home: The Journey Beyond the Spiritual Quick Fix.
http://adults-at-work.com

Two intentions

We choose between one of two intentions:
1.  To face our fears and move through them toward greater love and freedom,
feeling our feelings and letting them go, discarding the false images we have of ourselves.


2.  To cover up our fears through defensiveness, manipulation, projection, guilt, repressing feelings, pretending, etc.

The first leads us toward true adulthood, and inner strength. The second, toward perpetual childhood, victimhood and looking to the outside world for satisfaction.

The adult within you awaits your willingness to grow and your will to move forward.

William Frank Diedrich, author of
Adults at Work,
http://adults-at-work.com

Inner Voice

Spiritual intelligence is different than everyday mental intelligence.  Every day intelligence draws upon what is already in your brain and your ability to make connections. Spiritual Intelligence is intuition, inspiration, and creativity. It comes from emptying your mind for a moment and allowing the knowing to come through you.

It is the great idea you never thought of before. It's an instant of understanding of what is going on without being told. It's knowing what to do and when. It's knowing to continue forward even though you don't know what to do -- because you trust that you will know when the time is right.

You set the stage for spiritual intelligence through prayer, meditation, art, music, dance, or contemplation. You set aside your opinions and judgements and hear the Inner Voice -- the still, small voice. Spiritual intelligence is the ability to choose between the voice of the ego, and the Inner Voice.

William Frank Diedrich
author of The Road Home and
Adults at Work,
http://adults-at-work.com

Who are you being?

Who are you being when you post on Facebook? Do you bring us love, laughter, joy, wisdom, or profound thoughts? Or, do you bring ranting and complaining?  What effects does your post create?

You are a center of influence and every thought, emotion, and word you convey has an effect. You promote love or you promote fear. You offer joy or you offer pain. You are either giving love or asking for it. Whatever you post, we learn something about you.

No advice or judgment here. Just think about it. Who are you being?


William Frank Diedrich
author of Beyond Blaming and Adults at Work
http://adults-at-work.com/Books.php

Identities

We have each created identities within our minds and have tricked ourselves into believing that's who we are. If one of your identities is "I'm not good enough" as in I'm not good enough to be loved, to be attracted to, to be competent at my work, to be accepted by certain other people -- then that identity is triggered whenever the appropriate stimulus shows up. For example, if you see an attractive person, but you have identified with "I'm not good enough", then your brain and body will respond with fearful emotion. You will automatically think and behave in ways to prove to this person and yourself that you aren't good enough for her/him.

Our combined created identities make up the ego, the false self. You transcend these identities by allowing yourself to feel them without judgment or repression, then turning them over to your Higher Self/Spirit/God/Inner Being for correction. The problem is not in your ability or inability to be attractive. It is in your own illusions of unattractiveness. You have used your power to make yourself powerless. Now use it to reclaim who you really are.
William Frank Diedrich, author of The Road Home and Adults at Work: How Individuals and Organizations Can Grow Up.  Found at http://adults-at-work.com

Making the shift

Life's challenges have weighed heavily of late. I recognize that my circumstances are of my own making. They always are. Also I recognized that the gaps we see in life between ourselves and others, between ourselves and good health, between ourselves and financial well-being, between ourselves and joy -- are really manifestations of the gap we create between ourselves and God (Spirit, True Self, Higher Self, etc)

Our "troubles" serve a dual purpose. The purpose driven by ego is to keep us in fear and perpetuate the drama as a single, separated self defined by our own problems and issues. The purpose driven by Spirit is to see the opportunity to close the gap between ourselves and God (Higher Self).

As I lay in bed last night, I came to a place in my mind where nothing was more important to me than closing that gap. I wanted connection with my Source, my True Self (God) more than anything. As I  contemplated and prayed for this connection I began to feel pure joy, seemingly bubbling up from within me. I lay in bed ecstatic, happy, content, and confident that life is working out just fine.

I looked again at my so-called challenges and all I could think was "Thank you" Thank you for this instant where I have forgotten my "needs" and I have seen the big picture  -- that everything happening in my life makes sense -- that it is helping me in letting go of my personal will and accepting a Higher Will.

Now it is the next day, and as my ego resumes its chatter, I find myself immensely dissatisfied with "the same old stuff." I want what i felt last night. It's not that I desire to walk around in bliss all day -- what I want is that confidence, that surety, that total lack of fear and presence of love that I experienced for several minutes last night. Writing this helps to bring it back. If you have read this far -- I hope this helps you.  Blessings, William Frank Diedrich

http://adults-at-work.com

Not my will

The idea of Spiritual Intelligence is: "Not my will, but Your will be done." We are surrendering our ego mind and its urges to a higher mind, however you see that Higher Power. Listen.

Quoted from Chapter 18 -- The Inner Voice: Spiritual Intelligence
in Adults at Work: How Individuals and Organizations Can Grow Up
http://adults-at-work.com