I loved reading The Universe Has Your Back by Gabrielle Bernstein and devoured it within a few days. Here are some of the nuggets that stood out for me.
Resistance to being happy
"We are resistant to being happy."
Sigmund Freud noticed to the phenomenon of resistance when his patients didn't get better. In a dream, he found that a patient was not improving because he resisted improving. Freud then dedicated his career to analyse this behaviour.
Gabrielle Bernstein emphasizes that we have to acknowledge our resistance first to overcome it.
Surrender to the loving energy of the Universe
Being on a spiritual path means to surrender to the loving energy of the Universe as often as possible and not buying into the teacher of fear.
"Being in union with the Universe is like an awesome dance where you trust your partner so much that you just surrender to the beat of the music."
We are the dreamers of our dreams - in a good and bad way. Perception is projection, which means the stories we tell ourselves become our reality.
We create our reality through the filters we have when information hits our brain. These filters are our past experiences and what our parents have told us.
"We are not responsible what our eyes are seeing. We are responsible for how we perceive what we are seeing."
What are your limiting beliefs?
Most people have been brought up with the belief that life needs to be a struggle and hardship; that without pain we can't achieve anything. In other words, we are telling ourselves the story that pain has a purpose.
The author encourages us to flip that story into: My purpose is to be joyful.
I am ready to learn through love.
We are always guided even if it doesn't feel like it.
The benefits of meditation
Understand the power of joy and empower your intentions through meditation.
Change your questions. Instead of whinging why this or that has happened to you, change your focus to
- What can I learn from this?
- How can I find joy in this?
- How can I create more joy in my life?
- What would happen if you were more playful and have more fun?
Obstacles are detours in the right direction.
So, change your energy to change your life! Attention goes where energy flows.
Have a vision where you want to go, how you want to live.
Think it, feel it, believe it.
The author emphasizes that we are either channelling fear or we are channelling the voice of love. Through meditation, we immediately lock into our connection to love and surrender to higher wisdom.
She further suggests an attitude of walking through life conjuring up the feelings we want to feel so that the manifestation process begins and the Universe can deliver what we desire.
Don't obsess about the outcome; focus on how you want to feel.
Miracles happen when we are in sync with the Universe
When we get in sync with the Universe, we start experiencing many miracles and mysterious synchronicities.
So focus your attention on love and joy, be grateful for what you have and you will attract more of it. You open the floodgates to receive miracles, as Gabrielle Bernstein puts it.
Practise gratitude daily
Your relationship with the Universe is an ongoing conversation. Use the word Thank You often.
Create a faith statement to help you access your commitment to the Universe, commit to it and say it out loud several times a day.
Gabby challenges us to think about how different our life would be if we were fully committed to love, if we began the day with meditation, a prayer, and journaling.
"Tuning in to the love of the Universe lowers our stress levels, restores cells, and reorganizes our energy."
One of my boundaries is to have daily me-time first thing in the morning where I meditate, journal or read. And I don't want to be disturbed during this hour.
I loved this quote from A Course in Miracles: "We should be grateful for all situations that make us the most uncomfortable, because without them we would not know there is something unhealed in us."
Surrender to the guidance of the Universe
The author reminds us that one of the biggest challenges is to surrender to the guidance of the Universe. The more we let fear dominate and try to control the outcome of our plans, the more we struggle. A controlling attitude blocks the flow of abundance towards us. Faith and grace, on the other hand, pave the way for abundance in our life.
The trick is to listen to our bodies, intuition and the energy of love to guide us.
This is not about giving up or goals or vision but to release them to the Universe trusting that it will orchestrate everything in perfect time and space.
For daily inspiration on your spiritual journey, download the card deck with the same name. I love it!
Who else loved this book and why?