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Disasters can remind us to brush up on our disaster preparedness skills, even if they don't impact us (perhaps preferably if they don't impact us). Fires, floods and earthquakes all look different, but the tools we need to emerge from them successfully are largely the same. Being prepared for a disaster can be as involved as learning some first aid and CPR at a Red Cross, or as simple as knowing where the emergency exits are in your home or workplace, but it's all invaluable information when we need it most.
Something else that's invaluable in almost any emergency is a disaster kit or go bag, a handy collection of items you can grab and take when you have to leave in a hurry. There are multiple resources for how to build one. Some authorities recommend building a very practical kit, including a radio, flash light, tools and personal hygiene supplies. Another approach is the “six Ps”: people and pets; papers and phones; prescriptions; pictures and irreplaceables; personal computer; and “plasic”—that is, credit cards and cash. At the same time, everyone's go bag is going to look different because everyone's needs are different. Still, some of the more common elements will be bottled water, nonperishable food, a first aid kit and copies of important documents. What matters most is that the kit or go bag, whatever it contains, is ready before an emergency happens.
Spiritual practice functions like a metaphysical disaster kit. We keep up a spiritual practice now so that we're not scrambling to achieve its virtues after we already need them. In other words, when we need to be calm, empathetic, connected, thoughtful and seek meaning, we've already practiced inner peace, compassion, fellowship, mindfulness and consciousness expansion. And those virtues can be valuable in times of either spiritual, emotional or physical distress. In fact, another aspect of having a spiritual practice now is recognizing that, even in physical crises, people also need psychic support because we all have psychic identity.
One of the most significant things to practice is positiveness—not because being positive is the most useful in any situation, but because it can guide us to the other benefits of spiritual practice. The Christian Institute's founder Hanna Jacob Doumette described positiveness as the knowledge that we are truly one with God, and so it is the understanding that the forces and resources of the universe are working in our ultimate favor.
Mr. Doumette noted that positiveness is a form of motion. It is movement that is directed forward and upward, toward the unfoldment and ascension of the self. Through the realization of our oneness with God, we better recognize the good in life. When we recognize that goodness, we can naturally see more: the blessings that surround us, solutions beyond problems, possibilities beyond what is now. We move forward into that greater vision, and we are led to faith, hope, higher truth, spiritual strength, interconnectedness and individual well-being. All those encounters start with being positive about the outcome.
Mr. Doumette also contrasted positiveness with fear, which is a negative form of motion. Fear drives us backward, downward and ultimately into isolation—separate from others and separate from God. Fear stunts our growth and locks us in a place of stagnation. When we move into fear, solutions remain shadowy, and possibility hardens into apathy and nihilism. However, while fear limits us, positiveness opens us up and helps us see more, all the better if we have practiced being prepared to perceive and attain.
Positiveness is not simply wishful thinking. It is purposeful, proactive, creative, quickening and actualizing. Like any spiritual practice, being positive is not passive but active. Being positive begins with perceiving solutions and support, divine presence, possibilities and personal growth; being positive further stimulates us toward achieving those goals, recognizing they are constantly refining, and helping us attain both fully mastered self and closeness to the Divine.
Let us pray:
Dear God,
On the darkest of nights,
Your Light is there.
At the coldest of times,
Your Warmth is there.
In the emptiest of spaces,
Your Presence is there.
May we never forget that truth.
May we be positive enough to push forward,
And may we push forward into positiveness.
May Your Light illuminate the strength, peace and wisdom that await us;
May Your Warmth comfort us while we unfold;
And may Your Presence surround us,
All while we move into positive knowing, feeling and seeing.
Amen.
“When one believes in and practices righteousness, justice, universal goodness, brotherhood and peace, he fulfills the laws of positiveness and paves the road to mastery and overcomes fear. Positiveness is the living knowledge that one is a part of God, that all of the truth, might, and resources of life are the foundations of his being and the motivating power of his thoughts, will and action.” - Hanna Jacob Doumette, “Positiveness and Fear”