Embracing the contrast (May 2006)

My spiritual friend Catherine recently said something that blew my mind. Actually, it's like anything-----we know it, forget it, and when someone tells it back to us, we go  "WOW, that is AWESOME".
 
She talked about an idea that Abraham calls "contrast". This means when you are having the exact opposite experience of what you would prefer.  So often when we are "having a contrast day", we hate it, want to fix it, change it, get over it, erase it, blah, blah,blah. There is always some sort of judgment in there. "It shouldn't be happening", "I hate when this happens", "I'm very unevolved for this to be happening", etc..
 
So my friend said: "if you embrace the contrast, you accelerate your growth. Don't resist the contrast". Another way of saying this is: "Everything leads to betterment."
 
So when we soften around something, like softening around the muscle tightness when you are in a difficult yoga pose, we release the resistance and the body can again move. 
 
All of a sudden I remembered a huge contrast in my life.
 
When I was dancing in New York, I was a very unhappy person with a lot of problems. Let's just leave it at that!  I met an amazing guy named Danny, (who is my friend to this day), and I shared my suffering with him.  He came to my little, tiny, bleak, dark apartment with all the bars and locks on the door, and brought me a book by Adam Smith called "Powers of the Mind".  In this book, it listed all the "new age" courses out there and Danny said: "You must take the EST training." I vividly remember that I had $500. I had a leather coat made for $250 and saved the other $250 for the training. At that time there was a waiting list. I put myself on the list and waited and waited and waited. When I took that class my entire life changed in the most remarkable ways. I can never ever explain that. Then over the years, I became a "seminar junkie" and took all kinds of amazing classes, read a book a week, exposed myself to the most advanced disciplines and along the way, cured myself of a heap of problems.
 
Now here I am, a spiritual teacher!!! I am blessed with an awesome memory and when teaching can put together so many pieces of all these disciplines.
 
So that story to me really does explain how everything leads to betterment. Had I not been in deep spiritual and psychological trouble, I would never have ended up where I am today.
 
Affirm often:
I now embrace the contrast in my life. I do not resist and my life is accelerating in growth, wisdom and beauty!!
 
Sincerely,  Joni

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