Celebrating Victories, Celebrating Failures

The mind that celebrates is the mind that is open for more to celebrate. In a spirit of humble gratitude, it is much easier to dream, to intend, and to take the next action. Being an active participant in our continued bliss is a choice, a habit, a productive state.

Like attracts like. This simple statement illustrates the crux of the Law of Attraction. As we move to a place where we feel the feeling, the true feeling, of thankfulness, we move to the place where receiving is much easier. To dream a thing is easy, to intend, a little less easy, to actually receive it, the least easy.

This is because we are human. We move from emotional state to emotional state, largely affected by outside influences. When I am in a place of quiet meditation, having set aside my thoughts of lack and desire, when I am in that quiet place of gratitude, it's relatively easy to dream of and believe in manifesting that which I desire. But, when I leave the safety of my quiet contentment and venture out into the real world, connecting with real people, it's not quite so easy to maintain my faith in the actualization of my dreams.

It is for this reason it is imperative that we habituate the practice of celebrating our victories. Celebrating creates, automatically, feelings of gratitude, of contentment, of a sense that all is well in the world. And from that place of peace, it's much easier to receive further and future gifts as well as the fruits of our efforts.

We have to let go of the thought, of the belief, that celebration is not a good use of our time. If we don't take the time to enjoy and celebrate what we create, what we receive, what we have, and what we give, what then is the purpose of having or accomplishing it?

Personally, I've had to release some deeply ingrained thought patterns. One was the idea that to celebrate or to rest was laziness. It's sometimes difficult to let go of these old patterns. They're sometimes based, at least in part, in truth. Were I to spend too much time in celebration, perhaps that would not be so good either, as it would leave little time for action, for the business of creation.

The fact that it's based on some truth (at some level) coupled by the fact that it's truly ingrained (there are many layers of this thought that have been there most all of my life) can tend to make releasing it difficult.

Or... perhaps that's just another lie my ego tells me. The real truth is that it's easy to release that or any thought. Virtually every spiritual tradition teaches us that anything is possible.

What's been very helpful to me in releasing is to immerse my mind in the opposite thought. If I am afraid, I immerse myself and others in love. If confused, I find and create peace in my environment and self.

And if I'm crippled in a lie of the ego, I revel and laugh in glorious celebration of the truth. The truth is that I am enough, that I am free, that I am loved and loving, and that abundance seeks me as I seek it.

I celebrate the victories to learn to celebrate. I celebrate to attract more victories. I celebrate to wash away the thoughts of illusion, of lack, of laziness, of sloth, of anything that is not aligned with my true nature of love, peace, and wise awareness.

Celebration becomes a new habit. Celebration becomes deeply engrained. And the old thoughts of fear simply fade away.

This doesn't always happen overnight. Sometimes we slip back into old thoughts. Sometimes we're nudged. And sometimes our failures tempt us to believe the old programming.

We do the best we can to celebrate every moment, whether because of abundance, or because of the lessons our thoughts of illusion can teach. We celebrate victories, large and small, and we celebrate, with whatever level of enthusiasm we can muster, each failure.

• Can you remember some of the things you accomplished yesterday?

• How many of them did you celebrate?

• Can you see how your celebration might motivate both you and others?

• Are you willing to see that your apparent failures are potential teachers and celebrate them as well?

• Are you a force of enthusiasm or a beacon of lack to the people in your life?