“Jen the Jinxed” feels overwhelmed by obstacles: health problems, financial concerns, relationship traumas. Can I turn this one around? Does a bear do its business in the woods?!? Did you doubt even for a second?!!???

Dear Spirit,

For years I have had a run of incredible bad luck in my life and a great deal of trauma in regard to my health and relationships as well as financially. I know that all these challenges are there to help me grow spiritually but sometimes I feel like shouting “enough already”. I am rapidly losing my confidence in life and have come to expect that only bad things will ever happen to me from now on.

Help!

Love, Jen the Jinxed

Dear Jinxed,

Oh, Sweetheart…I can’t emphasize this enough: As you think, so you become. For your own sweet sake, Darling, you must stop believing that what happens to you is bad. What if, for one second, you trusted in God and considered that everything that happens to you is good? Perhaps these obstacles are God giving you what you need in order to bring to the Highest. It’s all a matter of perspective, so why not choose a more positive outlook?

Try to see it this way: you may not have everything you want right now but you have what you need, and a lot more. For instance, your finances, inadequate as you perceive them to be, allow you to have a computer, with a modem and an ISP account, from which you e-mailed me. So again, it’s all a matter of perspective. Some would say you are rich. Ask a young lady from the slums of Soweto if the first thing she thinks about needing is a computer.

About health: you think that sickness is bad. Perhaps sickness is just “what is,” a manifestation of God, part of the cosmic dance of Shiva. People get sick, it’s the human condition. I have a thyroid problem which causes me to gain weight so rapidly that a week after a Loehmann’s shopping spree and no cheating on the diet, I can’t even wear my new orange pants suit anymore. Still, I don’t complain; maybe it’s for the good. Maybe I didn’t look so hot in that outfit.

Then there’s the stock market thing; my Al lost most of our retirement money what with his speculating and the recent downturn. I could complain and worry about that, but I can also give a few more Meditation Retreats and make it up somehow, meanwhile spreading joy and teachings to dozens of seekers all over Brooklyn. Also, maybe my thyroid condition and my husband’s stocks make me cry out to my guru more, which invokes his loving presence…isn’t that a good thing?

I don’t mean to be Swami Pollyanna, Darling, but my guru Shri Schmattaji made it so clear to me that what’s behind all the kvetching is absolute abundance and love. If we’d only stop once and awhile and look at our true nature, the Awareness behind the “I,” we’d see that we are rich, we are lucky, we are loved, we are the happiness we seek already. That’s why it’s important to make friends with the mind. That the mind tells us we’re needy isn’t a bad mind; it’s just asking for a little attention, that’s all. So be kind to it and tell it “There, there, baby. It’s not as you think it is, everything’s going to be okay.” Because everything really is okay. How do we know? Because it’s God’s Will, and S/He knows what S/He’s doing.

In case that didn’t penetrate, let me do the compassionate guru thing and tell you, “There, there, Jen. You’re not jinxed, you’re blessed. I love you and you’re going to be okay.”

And I mean it.

Hugs and kisses.

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