Do you look at the price tags when you are shopping? I do. It’s a habit. If I want a certain dress, I look at it and see if I think it is worth the price that is asked. Sometimes the answer is yes, and sometimes no. The other day, I paid $9 for a loaf of gluten-free bread. I later stated, I wouldn’t by that again. It wasn’t worth it.

Something that has changed for me, and it is the idea that “can’t I afford this?” If I want something, truly want it and I believe I can have it, then I know in the heart of me that the universe will pay that price tag, no matter what it is. That is, I must have the mental equivalent of that price tag. My mental price tags are constantly growing.

I haven’t always felt this way. I spent much of my early life looking at price tags with longing. I remember my mother waiting until Christmas Eve to buy our Christmas tree. She waited until then because the trees were cheaper.  She had no reason to do that; her husband was a doctor. In fact, I always remember my mother as one who was frugal about everything. Perhaps, it is because she was a baby from the Depression era. I’m sure a little of that brushed off on me, until I made the conscious choice to change my consciousness.

I wonder how many of us are always looking for the cheapest deal. I would be dishonest if I said I didn’t do that; and yet, lately, I’ve been thinking about that, too. Why am I looking for the cheapest deal or trying to get the most out of a sale or service, and then in the same breath saying I want people to pay me more for my service? It is a contradiction and the truth is what we reflect out into the world comes back to us. Life moves in circles and we receive what we give. If we are living our lives to just get by or to give the least amount, then that is our reflection. Now, I do not run out rushing about just spending money without the consciousness to back it. I know where my consciousness is and I must start right where I am and move it in increments, always moving forward.

Yes, everything comes with a price and the price we pay is governed by our belief. Through quantum physics, we know that energy is always changing and shifting. It is our thoughts and feelings that bring us back our desires and create our lives. Although we might try to change things in the 3-D world, if we want the change to be lasting, it must take place in the Field or what we call the One Mind, Source God. The many mystics have taught this for eons, so it is nothing new, really.

As Ernest Holmes wrote, “We are immersed in an Infinite intelligence that receives the impress of our thought and acts upon it.” When we come to understand and accept this one simple truth, our whole lives will change, for we will know that the place we need to work is in the unseen or the mental field. Please do not interpret what I am saying as all you need to do is sit on the couch and think good thoughts and make things appear out of thin air. What I am saying is that I begin in the mental field and change my consciousness about whatever it is that I want to change in the material world. I must truly look at myself and why I think the way I’m thinking and then change the way I am thinking by changing my beliefs. I do this through Spiritual Mind Treatment, mediation and using affirmations.

We are vibrating right now and our vibration is all about feeling moving out from here and bringing our intentions back to us at exactly the same level as that vibration. When I am angry, I meet anger. When I am in lack, I meet lack. When I am telling myself that I am unhealthy, I create more reasons to be unhealthy. We cannot escape the power of our consciousness.

For example, what if instead of thinking everything is going wrong in our lives or looking for the cheapest way to live our lives, instead we gave gratitude for all that we have and focused on everything that is going right? I know, through experience, that if we did just that, everything in our lives would shift for the better.

As I said, I have not always thought this way. In fact, I have lived rather unconsciously, blaming my outside conditions for the condition of my life. When I lived in Los Angeles there were lots of reasons to buy into the lack-consciousness of many of us who were actors. It’s hard to make it as an actor in Los Angeles was one of our most popular ballads we sang. And so it was. Here on Kaua`i, many of us talk on and on about how hard it is to find a house to rent or buy. And, so it is!

So, the first place to start is to remember who we are. We cannot progress any further than our self-concept. Loving ourselves always comes first. In the Science of Mind, Dr. Holmes tells of the practice of the early spiritual initiates who were told to cross their hands over their chests and repeat the mantra “Wonderful, Wonderful me!” It seems that the journey of self-love is as old as our planet is.

We can move energy in the direction of our choosing. We can think greater thoughts and therefore have greater lives. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is done unto us as we believe. However, sometimes we do not want to accept this because it puts all the responsibility on our shoulders.

I am sold on this idea of paying for my life in full, and not by compromise but by thinking the highest and best for myself and living from that place. My mental coinage is always about self-worth.

Good comes with a price that must be paid with mental coinage. Yes, we must sacrifice our old ways of thinking. We can’t pray for more money because just by doing so we are affirming that we do not have it. We can’t pray for love, for praying for it is telling the Universe that we think that it is outside of ourselves.

When we can understand that we already have it all, we will see golden highways where there was once only dirt. We will know love, where we only felt loneliness.

Everything comes with the price of sacrificing our old worn-out belief system, and replacing it with a belief in the Magnificence of our True Nature. It can feel quite expensive to give up everything we once believed in; however, the reward is equally expensive. We do not have to wait for the sale items to receive our good; there is enough for all of us and it is all here right where we are.

If we think this thought is too big to conceive right now, that’s okay. Just start where you are and think a little higher every day. Push your envelope of consciousness. Give a little more out even if it is just a penny. Open up to receive a little more even if it is just finding a penny. The goal is expansion and we all have to start where we are. There is nothing to be ashamed of and everything to love about ourselves.

I love this journey and when I accept that it is an eternal one, it makes it even more fun. I am grateful that I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have the ability to change my consciousness and therefore change my life, anytime I choose to do so.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita