from a talk by Vernon Howard
I’m going to read out loud another one of the exercises in the series of Practical Exercises For Inner harmony. This one is called, Start Your Day Right. I will now read the exercise entitled, Start Your Day Right. Start your day in an upward direction, and the rest of the day will follow the uphill path. Here are three methods. (A) When you begin to awaken, do not let yourself fall back into another minute or two of sleep. Do the opposite. Stay awake and deliberately force yourself out of bed. This will give you a mild but healthy jolt. (B) As you slide out of bed, be conscious of the exact moment when your foot touches the floor. Feel the weight of your foot against the rug. This is an interesting experience that will help keep you conscious of other small daily events. (C) As you walk away from the bed, notice everything possible about yourself. Notice that you might feel drowsy or depressed, or uncertain. Then actually shake your head as an act of shaking the sleepiness from your life. These three methods make your actions conscious. And conscious action is true power.
If it seems difficult to work against your usual habits, remember this spiritual law. Do things the easy way, and you perpetuate the hard life. But do things the hard way, and you finally come to the easy life.
Vernon Howard’s exercises can only truly be understood by doing them. There are many lessons to be learned from failing to do them thoroughly. That’s right; seeing yourself fail shows you how to succeed. The inner sleep is deep and doesn’t want you to discover your sleepy ways of plodding through life. I know this sounds too fantastic that there is something higher than what we have known all of our years, but it is so. So many secrets will be shown to anyone who earnestly wants to escape this crazy world riddled with contradictions. We even start to believe we are crazy for seeing what is not right. I want to encourage anyone who feels even a slight stirring that maybe there is something else. Vernon encouraged me always to go deeper inside myself, and I’m eternally grateful for his leadership and guidance.
Great messages Lisa & Steve. Thank you!
This “getting out of bed” exercise will show you what you value, you will be surprised, but if you can take it, you will make it. You will be shocked at what you are hiding from yourself. You will also be so glad that these truths about you get exposed. You see the solution when you see what the problem truly is. The good news continues as more lessons come. This is the real adventure that human beings should take. Trying to prove you are right when you are wrong gets you nowhere but trying to prove you are right once again. When you are arguing inside, this is hell. You always have a choice to live in Heaven or Hell.
‘Do the opposite. Stay awake and deliberately force yourself out of bed. This will give you a mild but healthy jolt.’ Thankyou for this healthy reminder. This really is the last thing I want to do. Thank goodness Vernon Howard gives the encouragement and guidance to me to look in the places I don’t want to look.