By Lydia Wilson
For The Bali Times

KEROBOKAN ~ To continue this creating prosperity series, I would like to share with you what I know about the Power of Surrender and the Power of Gratitude.

There are times when we have tried everything to get or to manifest the things we wish for, but nothing happens and nothing seems to work. We have tried our best, but the block is still there.

In this case, I would like to suggest that perhaps you might like to surrender yourself to the Greater Power of the Universe. To surrender means to let go and let God decide for us what is best and to trust that everything happens for a reason, that all things will be granted in Divine timing. When we surrender, we let go of our Ego’s fears and we let the Spirit take over. This is the time when the true power of the Spirit will emerge from within.

I would like to share with you what I experienced recently in the hope that it may also inspire you.

It’s been 10 years since I have wanted to write a book to relate what I have learned in my journey of life. But every time I tried to write it, I stumbled into a mental block. I didn’t know the reason why, but my excuse was that perhaps it was because English was not my native language, so it was difficult for me to write in English.

Then I thought perhaps I should have a ghost writer to help me. So back in 2004, while I was living in Tokyo, one of my American hypnotherapy students kindly offered to help me write it, and I gratefully accepted. We began the book, but after writing a few pages, I started to get the mental block again, and the project was halted.

After I moved to Bali in 2007, another American friend of mine said she would help me. It went smoothly for a while; then the mental block came back. Since then, every time I thought of writing the book, I started to feel lazy and completely unmotivated.

I couldn’t understand this mental block. I felt angry with myself for not being able to continue with the project. Then I had an idea that I should start by writing small articles in a newspaper or magazine, so that perhaps it would help me write the book later on. But it seemed that no matter how hard I tried, that just didn’t work either.

It was later that I discovered I had a deep-seated fear of expressing myself to people for fear of punishment. It happened during a self-induced regression when I was given to lions in an arena in Roman times, for being a Christian. I noticed I was quite vocal of my beliefs then, and that it wasn’t because of my willingness to help others but came from the feeling of self-righteousness and for my Ego’s self-aggrandisement. Seeing this made me realize it was the reason for the mental block. My true reason wasn’t because of my English but my fears of being judged and be killed again. Writing and sharing my views on what I have learned in this life with the public would expose me to others who could judge me or disagree with me and who could harm me again. For my subconscious, which wants to protect me, that’s scary.

Even though I saw it and cleared the fear, for months I still couldn’t write my book. I felt frustrated and disappointed in myself because of it. Three months ago I was alone in my room feeling upset with myself for not being able to write. I felt so bad that in the end I admitted defeat and surrendered myself to the Greater power and accepted that if I was meant to write a book, it would happen at Divine timing and if I was not meant to, I surrendered and let it go completely. Then a “miracle” happened. It was the next morning that I received a very short email from the managing editor of The Bali Times. It said: “I was wondering if you might like to write a series on what you do for our newspaper.”

I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Several questions came to mind. How did he know me? And why did he choose me, a complete beginner and an inexperienced writer who had never written a single article for any publication? It felt so weird and scary yet so exciting. I gathered my courage and fearfully but gratefully I accepted his offer and now here I am. With each article I have written, I can feel that I am gaining the confidence to finally write the book. I surrender and have faith that if it’s meant to be published, I will also find the publisher who will one day publish it.

The Power of Gratitude – Being grateful with what we have and with what we have achieved so far brings us into harmony with the Creative forces of the Universe. It brings us the feeling of peace and happiness. It also creates a transformation within our heart and in our mind to attract all the abundances of health, wealth, friendships, great career and love into our life. Gratefulness opens our hearts it reconditions our mind to the idea of living in abundance. Gratitude keeps us in tune with the Universe and connects us to our creative force.

We sometimes take things for granted; we often forget the blessings of what we have been given. We have eyes to see the beauty of the world. Without them we would be living in a dark world without knowing what everything looked like; we have a bed to sleep on at night, for without it we would be sleeping on a cold, hard floor. Instead we often focus our mind on the things we don’t have and feel bad about how unlucky we are.

What would it feel like if we didn’t have hands or fingers, or even little things such as a glass to drink our water from, a pillow to support our head when we sleep, or even a lighter to light our gas cooker with when we need to cook? When we appreciate and are grateful for all the things we have that help make our life easier and more colourful, we will also feel rich and blessed. It will also bring about “prosperity Consciousness” within us.

When we live without a thankful heart, we become bitter, dissatisfied and disgruntled with our life’s situation and condition. It also creates “poverty consciousness,” which blocks the flow of the prosperity abundances into our lives.

Close your eyes now and think of the things that you feel you are lacking of now. How do you feel? Does your stomach or chest tighten up? Or does your head feel heavy and numb? Or do you start to feel tension in your head? What would you feel like after two days or perhaps a week of constantly feeling this? And what do you think would happen in your life, then?

Now try this, too: Close your eyes again and say it loudly or quietly: I thank you for my eyes, for they give me the ability to see all the wonderful things around me. Now imagine what it feels like to have them? How do you feel? Does your heart feel lighter? Do you feel blessed and grateful that you have them?

Life is about balance. It is good to be dissatisfied with what we don’t have, for it motivates us to get things, yet it is also great to be thankful for what we have and what we have achieved – for it gives us the ability to live with joy and contentment.

Thank you for reading this article, for without you there is no point in me writing.

Till next week, love and light.

Lydia Wilson is a transpersonal hypnotherapist and trainer based in Kerobokan, Bali. If you have a question you would like answered in this column, write to Lydia at bluelight7@gmail.com. For more go to www.bluelight7.com.