So, what it comes down to is this, choose to find reasons why a Higher Power exists or find reasons why it doesn’t. It’s a choice. Or if you do not want to believe in a Higher Power, Buddhism can be great for you because the result of such practice is the same… happiness, joy and peace. Again, it’s a choice. Do you want to do the work or not? There are many people, including me, who initially rebelled against a source of help only to later believe. If you want money, you go to work, whether you like it or not. If you want to be thin, you don’t eat Devil Dogs, whether you like it or not. If you want to be happy, joyous & free, you do the work, you believe in a God or practice yoga or Buddhism or whatever floats your boat, but you must do the work if you want the results. If you don’t care much about being happy, joyous & free, then you keep going as usual. If you want change you have to change. Simple, like it or not. You don’t have to like it or even believe in it 100%, you just need to try. Eventually, maybe after many years, you will most likely think and feel differently and like the results. I know many people who struggle with the concept of God but they keep at living the spiritual life because they don’t like the alternative. So, there are many options in which to choose. Which do you choose… the one that results in peace and happiness or the one that doesn’t? It is your choice.

Above is the common, partial version of the prayer as written by its supposed author Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr.

Below is the version adapted by Alcoholics Anonymous and other twelve step programs which was based on Dr. Niebuhr’s version.

The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

The Serenity Prayer, when applied, will aid you in your quest for peace and happiness. The prayers can be used by anyone with faith in a Higher Power or God. The prayers do not need to be specific to a particular religion to be used effectively although the author was a Protestant. I’ll let the prayers speak for themselves.

Do you ever feel as if you can’t turn off your mind and thoughts? Does your mind race preventing you from falling asleep or staying focused on a particular task? Does your mind run on and on to the point where you can’t take it anymore and you wish it would just stop?

Many years ago, this was me. I am happy to say that without medication, through spiritual and psychological training and practice my mind is quite the opposite today. I reveal this information to offer hope to those who suffer from a racing mind. I am not a doctor so I will not offer medical advice and am not suggesting that you stop taking any medication that  was subscribed to you by your doctor. What I am sharing with you is my personal experience with such issues as well as the experiences of others whom I know, who have also experienced similar changes though similar practices.

This slowing down of the mind can happen gradually by changing how we live. Quite often our mind races with regretful thoughts of our wrongful actions. So, start living right and make better decisions resulting in better actions. All of the posts on this site are related to right living and self-improvement.

Many of our racing thoughts may be attributed to our fears. When we live in fear our mind can be consumed with such fears making it difficult to experience a peaceful mind. I have written many posts that discuss fear and its opposite, faith, such as “Let’s Talk About God” and “Letting Go” that may help you to alleviate your fears. To begin practicing this faith in a Higher Power, I would suggest praying when you get up in the morning and at night before you go to bed. If your faith is limited, pray anyway, even if you don’t think it will help. You do not have to believe that anyone is listening and if you do, that’s OK too. What is important in your morning prayers is to decide to put your life in God’s care or in other words, deciding to trust in the way your life will unfold on that day. Of course, you will need to do your best to behave accordingly as your actions can impact your day. You must do all of the footwork necessary on any given day then you need to let go of the results, as you do not have control over other people and what life has in store for you next, acknowledging that living right and doing the necessary footwork can impact life’s results. Besides, you have nothing to worry about because you made a decision in the morning to let your Higher Power run the show. Someone once told me that my life is none of my business. Are you beginning to understand just how much peace there is in trusting in a Higher Power? Not necessarily trusting that everything is going to be great, but trusting in The Way It Is. Please read all of my posts on fear and faith to gather more information that may aid you in your quest for faith and see the Helpful Links page for additional information. During your evening prayers, express gratitude for your blessings that day. These are very brief prayers that can have a dramatic affect on your peace of mind and overall spiritual well-being.

Before or after your evening prayers, I would suggest doing a brief inventory of yourself for that day acknowledging both your right and wrong actions. Continue to do what you did right that day, improving where you can and learning from what you did wrong and try not to repeat such wrong behaviors in the future. We want to learn from our inventories so that we can be better people, continuously improving our thoughts and actions. The more we do what is right, the more peace of mind we will have.

Meditation is another great method you can use to begin to slow and calm your mind. However, this is a vast topic so I will write separate posts about various types of meditation. Anyway, you will find meditation more difficult if you are not living Right. So in summary, you’ll need to live right, work on developing your faith in a Higher Power, pray and perform daily inventories of yourself. If you honestly practice these principles, I would suspect that your mind will begin to slow down and stop racing.

I wish you a peaceful mind.

Well, guess what I found on the carpet this morning? Yup, a BIG ugly spider! I was given the opportunity to practice what I preached by transporting the spider outdoors. FYI, I am not one of those people who pick up insects in their hands and think that they are fascinating, so saving the spider was not particularly pleasant for me

I’ve heard that Einstein was a fairly smart guy What do you think… is “coincidence God’s way of remaining anonymous”?

This is not that complicated. If grasping and a lack of acceptance of the way life is causes much of our suffering, then not grasping and accepting life as it is should relieve us of that suffering. Extremely simple, but simple and easy are not the same.

If we wish to be free from fear, we need to learn to let go of that which we covet. How do we do that? The first time I heard the phrase, let go, I asked myself, “let go of what and to whom”? I learned that I needed to let go of my will, my desires and my life to the care of a Higher Power. I first needed to have faith in a Higher Power before I could entrust my life to It, so this faith had to come first. I discuss finding faith in other posts and I have listed other sources that may help you with your faith on the Helpful Links page. You may also find assistance through various advertisers on this site.

Once you possess enough faith in a Higher Power or God if you like, you can begin to let go. You can let go in prayer and meditation and throughout the course of the day. Whenever you feel the desire to control someone or a situation that cannot realistically be controlled by you, let go and trust that everything will work out the way it is supposed to. When you feel afraid of losing someone you love or something that you possess, let go knowing there is a Greater Force in charge and that that Force is not you. Bringing such fear to our lives and the lives of others in not beneficial to anyone involved. Let go!

The more we learn to let go of our life and everything and everyone in it, the more peaceful and happy we become. Letting go doesn’t imply not caring or loving, on the contrary. The less fear we bring to a relationship with another person or to a situation, the more we can fully appreciate that person or situation as we are not influenced by fear. Our feelings and decisions will be healthy and pure. Our love and compassion for others will flourish and grow because we are not filled with self-centered fear. Take a deep breath and exhale slowly. Doesn’t this sound like a great way to live?

Ok, so how do we get this faith? I am sure many of you already have a faith of some sort in a Higher Power or God. From my experience, faith takes work. Maybe you need to put more effort into your religious or spiritual practice. I cannot tell you what to believe and no one can have faith for you. I have included some helpful links on this site that may aid you in your search for faith or help you to strengthen yours.

I believe that faith in God is a personal experience. Being told to believe in a specific God and follow a particular set of rules, without asking why, never worked for me. Discovering a Higher Power of my own understanding and later finding a religion that accepted my beliefs and inspired me to improve and grow spiritually… now that worked for me. My faith has changed through the years, and I allow it to change and progress. My belief in a Higher Power today is much different than it was ten years ago. I do not allow myself not to believe. If my belief system is no longer working, I need to find another one. I cannot afford not to have faith in God, for all of the above reasons.

I will offer one example of a type of belief in a Higher Power that I would imagine could work for many. Let’s say that you don’t believe in a God Almighty, Jesus or The Holy Trinity and you don’t know where else to turn. Surely you can agree that you are not God and that Something created, caused or is in some way responsible for all that is… this world, this solar system, this universe and so on. We’re here right, the earth and beyond? Let’s not waste time trying to figure out how everything was created but just know that it was and that there is some Force or Power that is the cause. I am not saying that this Force need be a God in your image or that It needs to hear your prayers or even that It cares what happens down here. I am just saying that there is some type of Universal Force that started everything and keeps everything going. Maybe it’s purely scientific. This is just one approach that may help some of you.

You may be thinking…so if I believe in this Universal Force example, what exactly am I having faith in? Who do I pray to? Who is going to answer my prayers? Well, in the example above I offered a different faith approach to that of the standard God Almighty. This method of faith varies in the sense that you would not be expecting to have your prayers answered in the traditional sense. You would be praying to relieve yourself of self, to let go of your wants and desires, to let go of the control, which you don’t actually have anyway. You would be having faith in what is, understanding that things just happen and they are out of your control, so why not accept? You need not be confused about what sort of God would allow all the bad in the world to occur because your faith is in the way things are, there wouldn’t be one God pulling the strings. You just need to know that there is something more powerful than you and you can trust that Force to do what It’s going to do, so why not just let go to It?

I’m not telling you that your belief in God or a Higher Power must be this way or that this form of faith is right and yours is wrong. I am simply offering it as an option, an alternative to aid those who are not content with their current faith in God or who are seeking another way, for whatever reason.

Perhaps you already have a strong faith in God, practice an organized religion and rely on that God for support. Or maybe you were raised Catholic, Protestant or Jewish but no longer connect to such a belief system and don’t see another way. Maybe you used to have a strong faith in God but for various reasons, lost that faith or are angry at God. Or maybe you never believed in a Higher Power at all. Whatever your belief is or isn’t, as long as you are not harming others, I do not pass judgment. There are those who do judge other’s beliefs and believe that their way is the only way and everyone else is dammed. Thank God this is my blog and I have sole comment moderation power so no one else here will need to read any judging

Let me explain why it is so important to have faith in a Higher Power or God. When there is ultimate faith, there can be no fear. Since we’re all human beings, we probably will never experience constant, unwavering faith so, there will be fears. We have fear, whether we recognize it or not. I’m guessing that most people are often afraid and don’t realize it. Many times fear presents itself subtly and shows itself through our shortcomings or character flaws. It shows itself in how we react, cope and handle life’s everyday situations. When I am not right with my faith, I do not roll with life’s everyday occurrences. I fight more and accept less. It could be something rather insignificant such as, I have to wait in line at the store or someone cuts me off on the road or the TV goes out…well, that’s not insignificant When I am right spiritually, I accept life as it comes much easier than when my spiritual condition is suffering.

As I mentioned, many of our shortcomings are fear based. So, the less faith we have, the more fear we have. The more fear we have, the more faults we have. The more faults we have, the more difficult it is to be in our own bodies and for others to be around us.

If we have faith in a Greater Power, we will trust what is and what will be. We will not fear the way life unfolds, even when life doesn’t go our way. We will have faith that everything is happening the way it is supposed to happen or we will simply be able to accept the way it is. This trust translates to acceptance and when we accept, there is peace. When there is peace, there is happiness. Make sense?

In regards to fear and shortcomings, the same principles apply. The more faith we have, the less fear we have. The less fear we have, the fewer faults we have. The fewer faults we have, the more peaceful we become. The more peaceful we are, the happier we are. Simple, right?

This will conclude Part I of this post. See Get Faith for the conclusion.