Revealing Your Essence!
Have you ever been reminded to “appreciate what you have” or have you tried using a gratitude journal? My husband and I have been looking at some of the more common issues that keep people from living in their true essence and one of the most surprising deceptions (and distractions) that we found are appreciation and gratitude! Consider the following information because if we do not truly see where we are at then it is usually hard to experience our conscious desires consistently. Resisting or denying where we are tends to keep us in some form of denial of our true beingness!
So, what about appreciation and gratitude? We have convinced ourselves that we should be grateful, and shouldn’t we? Nope. Why not you ask? 
Because appreciation and gratitude are actually considered to be “negative” because they stem from fear and lack. I was stunned when I heard this from Bridget (“Isness”) because we are taught to appreciate what we have instead of complaining about what we do not have. When it was explained, I was told that appreciation and gratitude are actually forms of “relief”. When we experience relief, we are relieved because we have a fear (or concern) about something not coming into our experience (lack). For example, I had a student ask me, “Aren’t you grateful that your husband appreciates you?” I thought about it for a moment, and responded with, “Yeah, I’m relieved because I feel loved. If I weren’t appreciated, I would probably feel unloved.” Another example would be getting unexpected money from somewhere, feeling “good” about it, or grateful, could be coming from an underlying fear of not having enough (which is fear & lack).
I realize it sounds odd, especially because of the logic we have used to apply gratitude and appreciation, but the next time that you find yourself grateful, replace that word in your head for “relieved” and see what you notice! Then look for the fear that might be sitting there! And remember that these experiences are not wrong or bad, but understanding what is what can truly help to bring out your personal power!
The act of focusing on what we are grateful for is just a form of denial of where we are currently because if we were in our true essence, believe it or not, we would just be joyful… and grateful wouldn’t even occur to us. “If we are not experiencing love to the grandest degree, then we are in some form of resistance to it.”
Denial: The realization of fear more than love
Fear: The illusion of the absence of God & love
Resistance: Pretending that you & God are not all powerful & that imperfection exists
Resistance, is like denial because just as denial is more fear than love, fear is an illusion of no God or love. Can you see how we give our power away? Seeing the fear & lack behind the drive to be appreciative is actually extremely helpful because then you can start to have realizations about the fear & lack which would allow your experiences to start to change!
Other tidbits of interest:
Guilt: an expectation of rejection (fearing being blamed which is the circumstance but expecting rejection from the person who may blame you…rejection being the experience).
Worry: an expectation of failure
Judgment: the denial of a need (consider self-judgments too)
Need: The illusion that you are alone & are not all powerful
Looking at your expectations (and even writing them out so that you are clear on them) can lead you to see what the drive is…because expectations also stem from fear & lack. Don’t be fooled by the idea that if you look at or consider your fear, you will create more of it because that is not true. Be aware of yourself and allow yourself to call a spade a spade, because that is where your power sits. We are all in some kind of illusion (denial) because our essence is abundance and love. Unveiling the denial of that essence is part of our journey! The denial (or what it is composed of, worry, judgment, etc.) is not bad, is just is. Seeing it, and hopefully any identifications you may have made with it, can help you release the limitations that create your experiences and TAKE BACK YOUR POWER!
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Many blessings!
Jennifer Tavana
586-255-6685
Hypnotherapist, Channel, Instructor
