Grace is a beautiful word. No-one could ever be insulted if it were used to describe them. Grace could be defined as a smoothness and elegance in your way of being; being courteous and full of good will. We, as humans, have access to this level of gracefulness at any given moment. It isn’t reserved for the elite, or spiritual people who live their lives in solitude or religious communities. It’s just a choice, the same as every other choice, between fear and love.
When we choose to look at our lives through a loving lens, it becomes very difficult not to be graceful, peaceful and ultimately, happy. Yet choosing love is something that still eludes many of us.
Here’s a little trick I learned a long time ago, and remind myself of frequently. In EVERY new moment, we get to start over. If we chose fear a moment ago, we can choose love in this moment. It doesn’t matter how many moments we’ve been stuck choosing fear or anger or hurt, we can move forward and choose love. The thing that holds us back from choosing love in this moment, is the guilt and anger we have for choosing fear in the past. So we stay stuck in the fearful moments rather than letting them go. You don’t have to earn your right to be happy. It’s yours for the taking. Even if you’ve made huge mistakes in your past, you still get to choose again. How long are you going to keep punishing yourself for? When will it be enough?
There’s one mantra which, I swear, has the power to shift your consciousness in miraculous ways, and it’s in English, so you get to pronounce it correctly and understand it (unlike some of the Sanskrit ones I share!). It’s from A Course in Miracles, and it’s simply, ‘I forgive myself, and I choose to see this differently.’ Every time you catch yourself outside of grace, outside of love, outside of happiness or outside of peace, say this to yourself. In every new moment you don’t feel great, say this to yourself. You don’t have to mean it, or even think you deserve forgiveness (or maybe you don’t think you need it), just say it with an openness to receive a more loving perspective. You may say it for a few weeks before you start to notice the shifts that have been occurring around you but please trust me, they’ll be happening, and you’ll gradually be moving into a state of grace, peace and happiness.