It's Easter Sunday today. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote "'Twas Easter-Sunday. The full-blossomed trees filled all the air with fragrance and with joy." The very first Easter taught us this: That life never ends and love never dies. Easter is the demonstration that life is essentially spiritual and timeless.
For those who need a quick refresher, Easter is the final day of the Christian Holy Week which begins with Palm Sunday to signify when Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem, leading to Good Friday to honour Christ's death by crucifixion; then ending with Easter Sunday to commemorate the Resurrection of Jesus. For many Christians, Easter also marks the joyous conclusion to Lent, a season of devoted prayer and fasting. The holiday is a time to give thanks to Christ after He gave the ultimate sacrifice for our sins to grant eternal life to those who believe in Him.
This Easter season reminds us that unconditional love always conquers self-obsession and hatred, forgiveness always conquers judgement, justice always conquers vengeance, kindness always conquers cruelty, and humility always conquer ego and pride. In the Bible in Acts 3:15 it states: "You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead."
In 1 Corinthians 16:14 it states that "Let everything you do be done in love." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote that "Our Lord has written the promise of Resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in Springtime."No Winter lasts forever; no Spring skips its turn. Every enduring night is followed by a blazing new dawn. The Resurrection is a reminder that, as Jesus said, the 'Kingdom of God' is within you.
Victor Hugo wrote that "Dawn and Resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is the same as as the survival of the soul." As it says in Matthew 5:16 "Let your light shine before others."
Clarence W. Hall wrote that "If Easter says anything to us today, it says this: You can put Truth in a grave but it won't stay there." Pablo Neruda wrote "You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming." Henri Matisse wrote that "There are always flowers for those who want to see them."
Siobhan Shaw wrote that "The Easter egg symbolises our ability to break out of the hardened, protective shell we've surrounded ourselves with that limits our thoughts and beliefs. As we break open our hearts and minds we discover a transformation to new, life enhancing thoughts and beliefs."
Jesus was a historical figure: Of that there is no doubt. Christianity rests on whether the Resurrection was real. Yet the Bible is really a collection of psychological metaphors. Resurrection symbolises our transformation, and as such it is very real.
Thank God for your Resurrection; Welcome back!
Yet, does life feel pretty overwhelming right now, that you have nothing but problems, and that everyone appears to be against you? You are not alone: We all feel the same. Are you feeling like you have been crucified, and that there is nothing to look forward to? Stop playing the victim. Your healing is your responsibility. In the Bible in Luke 14:27 it states: "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple." In other words, if you claim some kind of false victim status, seeking conflict, you cannot transform and resurrect your Self.
Relinquish shame. You have nothing to be ashamed about. That’s just your childhood trauma talking in lies. In Hebrews 12:2 it says: "Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of Faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
In Mark 8:31 it states: "Then Jesus began to teach his Disciples: 'The Human One must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and the legal experts, and be killed, and then, after three days, rise from the dead.'" You are innocent: Everything else is just narrative, opinion, ill-informed judgement, and projection. In John 19:5-6 it says: "When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, 'Here is the man!' As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, 'Crucify! Crucify!' But Pilate answered, 'You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.'"
In Matthew 20:18-19 it states: "We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!" In John 11:25-26 it states: "Jesus said to her, 'I am the Resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?'" You have only died a psychological death, so that your cup may be filled again. Your psyche was simply due for a little overdue Spring-cleaning.
It's time for your Resurrection. In Philippians 3:10 it says: "I want to know Christ - yes, to know the power of his Resurrection. This reminds me of Albert Einstein's quote "I want to know the mind of God, the rest is details." In 1 Corinthians 1:18 it states: "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."
In Romans 6:8-11 it states: "Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus."
The only thing to be delivered from is your own fear. Your current reality is just an illusion. Career ruin, fear, financial disaster, addiction, relationship challenges, whatever you think your problems are, they are just a web of illusion. You create the web every morning when you don't meditate. You bring all your fears from the past with you. You pick up your phone, check your messages, emails, socials, check the news, drink that coffee. You start the day, not anew, but harassed, angry, afraid. You shower, wash off the day before, but you forget to meditate, where you wash off the fears from your mind.
You only have one real problem. You have forgotten who you truly are. Again, the only thing that you need to be delivered from is your own fear. You forgot who you are because of your conditioned mind. We all do it. Until we wake up. Until we remember that we are the child of God, and that there is no miracle that we cannot perform. This is not ego, it's truth. Einstein says so. Enlightenment is moving away from body identification to spirit identification. We need to move to a spiritual (which just means looking inside for the answers) view being the crux of our identity. We are not separate from anything else. Your only problem in life is your separation from God, from energy, from miracles, or whatever you want to call it.
You need to slow down. Empty your mind. Einstein said "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." Lean into, and surrender to, your Resurrection...
Our wounds made us forget who we are. We are in victim mode. The concentration on the brokenness is not the healing. We are whole, unbroken. We have healed our wounds, through therapy, or connection. Crucifixion is the fear that undermines the love. Look at your crucifixion but don’t dwell on it. Fear has had its way with you. It’s irrelevant now. It doesn't serve you any more. The lions are long gone. The new energy is Resurrection. If we stand in the midst of fear and pro-claim the Resurrection, then we are standing in the midst of darkness and claiming peace and love. Only love is real. Nothing that is not love is real. Doubt, fear, and pain are all constructs of the illusion of our conditioned mind. They are constructions of your terrified ego. Don't worry, we all do it. Even that worry you are having right now is a construct of your mind. They are just a hallucination. The answer is to just stop hallucinating. Wake up from the unhappy dream by turning it into a happy dream and then wake up to Truth and reality. Remember who you are. You are a limitless, innocent child of the divine.
Release the fear. Place in your subconscious mind the you that has returned. Therapy is great at looking at the past and making you feel better temporarily, but it just makes you very articulate about how messed up you are. We need to move on. I have been there. I know where you are. I hear you. I feel your pain. It's time to move on - it's not real. It’s not my job to create the Olly that is not messed up. I have in me and my mind the blueprint that my ego refuses to see. My file is on my computer. My mortal mind can’t get me there. But, you are the child of God, Christ. Pray to be shown the divine choice for each moment. The Resurrection: The world that was cut off from you as a child, through your traumas and your conditioned mind. You will be miraculously reconstituted. Do not underestimate the ego’s darkness and it's desperate attempts to survive. Have Faith. You are here to be the light in the darkness. Miracles will happen: It's not a question of if. They will! You are not a wave hallucinating that it is separate from other waves. When your mind changes it changes other minds. God's relation to us is total power. Oneness. Prayer is the conduit of miracles. You will see.
Think positive. Be present. Create space. Be an empty vessel of transformation. Have your heart open. Respond; don't react. Miracles happen around you. Meditation takes yesterday's stress off your mind. Like a morning shower. 5 mins with the Holy Spirit every morning means the Holy Spirit will make all your choices so that they are divine choices. Remind yourself that you were asleep, unconscious, insane. Let the Holy Spirit take over. Release your life to miracles. Stand for light without judging the dark. Righteous means 'right use' of the mind. You can say about those that are still asleep, unconscious, full of drama, "I hope they will wake up". That’s all. No demonisation. NO judgement, even if they have judged you. It's just the projection of their demons on you. Share your light. There is a difference between transcendence in Resurrection and denial of the human condition during crucifixion. We have a split mind: One part is in the fear; The other is not experiencing this drama. The cross is where the human experience and the spirit cross. The human side shows compassion. The spirit holds that a miracle that is possible here.
We must change from negative to positive thinking. Cause and effect: That’s a Natural Law. God doesn’t interfere with his own Laws. If we only think love then love will return to us. We must change our own thoughts based on fear to those based on love. Think family, compassion, peace, love. Guilt = fear. Love = innocence. Compassion. We are all innocent of the human condition, and all share it. It is our choice to Resurrect. Choose your Higher Self. Be a teacher of God who shows love and compassion.
This journey has awoken me to the human condition and that we are not separate from each other as the separated self. That is the key to miracles - to dispel the separation. "God's will be done" is the same as asking that love permeates the consciousness of everyone involved in my life. Be more loving. "What is the divine choice here?" is the same as asking "What is the loving choice here?" The only problem is that you have become dissociated from the truth of your BEing - that you are one with God. Be love. Christ is the idea of the Christ within you. The perfect, unbroken you within you. Identify your Self as the child of God. There is nothing your holiness cannot do. Your holiness is your wholeness. Love as God loves.
So, we are all one - we have the human condition. We need a shift in perception from fear to love. I am willing to stand in the realm of the miraculous. Are you? The you will shift from a fear-based consciousness (Crucifixion, ego and darkness) to love-based consciousness (what is true, life, love = Resurrection). My light will shine with presence so that others' light can shine. Miracles will arrive from conviction and with emotional authority.
In John 14:6: "Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the Truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'" In 1 Thessalonians 4:14 it states: "For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him." It's time to wake up, transform, and be resurrected to the real you. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 it states: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"
We become the light of BEing with daily meditative practice, by telling our Truth, facing and integrating our shadow, being immune to negativity and projection by others, finding our true Self, finding our purpose, being a beacon of light and a mirror, with love and gratitude, and expanding our consciousness through presence. Shine on!
As it says in the Book of Isaiah 6:8 "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”"
As Friedrich Nietzsche, the great philosopher, wrote in 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra' "I say unto you: One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. I say unto you: you still have chaos in yourselves." Always remember that the elements that made you were forged in the crucible of the stars. Be full of wonder and awe for you are wonder and awe. You are a Phoenix rising from the ashes; a blazing fire lit from the ember of your former life; you are order arising from the chaos...
As Ram Dass, the Harvard clinical psychologist turned spiritual Master, meditated upon in 'Sit Around The Fire':
Ram Dass, East Forest and Jon Hopkins: 'Sit around the fire"
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I am very pleased to meet you. Thank you for reading this far. I very much look forward to connecting with the highest version of you, to seeing your highest possibility, and to our conversations. Please do contact me via my website for a free connection call and a free experience of coaching.
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Olly Alexander Branford MBBS, MA(Cantab), PhD
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I have a Bachelor's degree in Natural Sciences from Trinity College, Cambridge; a Master's Degree in Philosophy from Trinity College, Cambridge; a PhD Doctorate in Scientific Research from University College London (UCL); a Medical Degree (MD/MBBS) from The Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, London and have been a doctor and reconstructive trauma and cancer surgeon in London for 20 years. I have published over 50 peer reviewed scientific journal articles, have been an associate editor and frequent scientific faculty member, and am the author of several scientific books. I have been awarded my Diploma in Transformative Life Coaching in London, which has International Coaching Federation (ICF) Accreditation, as well as the UK Association for Coaching (AC), and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC). I have been on my own transformative journey full time for four years and I am ready to be your guide to you finding out who you really are and how the world works.