Neale Donald Walsch found himself with an amazing job in broadcasting at the age of 19, and by 21, he was a programming director. Walsch always made more money than he needed and had a lot of friends and loved ones. But by the age of 50, things suddenly turned south.
His health, career and relationships began to fall apart – all at the same time – and he found himself living on the street for a year. He got divorced, and had an automobile accident that left him with a broken neck. As he explains it, his life went “from bad to worse.” However, looking back on it now, he knows “it was the greatest thing that could ever happen to me,” he said during a live Webcast by Evolving Wisdom called “The 3 Secrets to Ending the Struggle and Making Your Life Work.”
One night, sitting in the dark, Walsch said he called out to God and asked what he had done to deserve this pain. He began to write down questions he wanted answers to, and suddenly he heard a voice over his right shoulder say, “Do you really want answers to all of these questions or are you just venting?” He answered, “yes,” and began to write all the thoughts that came into his mind.
“I wanted to write it all out because I wanted to have a record of it [since] the experience was so profound,” he said At the time Walsch thought he was just keeping a personal journal, but eventually the words he channeled became the best-selling book “Conversations With God.”
More importantly, Walsh began applying what he was learning in his own life, and it immediately began to change. He saw a “rapid shift” in his health, relationships and financial stability, and the same is true for many who have read his books and applied its teachings.
However, Walsch recently encountered a friend who was in need of help. She told him she had read his books, as well as those by other authors, and although she had tried to apply it to her life, nothing seemed to be working for her.
“She began to cry, and said she didn’t believe in this stuff anymore because nothing was working for her,” said Walsch. “That is how the three secrets of life emerged from me – the three biggest secrets I learned in my conversations with God.”
These secrets are:
- Your growth process is complete.
- There is nothing wrong in your life, nor has there ever been.
- You are not alone.
Your Growth Process is Complete “Your growth was never necessary to begin with,” Walsh explained in the live webcast. “You were completely evolved when you came here at the moment of your birth. You were born in a state of utter perfection. If you want to see it, look into the eyes of a baby – nothing is wanted and nothing is needed.”
He continued: “The purpose of life is not to become more than you are, but to be more of who you were the moment you arrived.”
The problem is many of us believe the purpose of life is to evolve into something greater, or to acquire more wisdom, clarity or physical things. But there is nothing we have to do or be in order to express who we are, said Walsch.
“The process works in reverse. We are not here to acquire, but to give. Your job is not to get better and become more of who you are, but to demonstrate who you are right now so that God might know itself experientially through the expression of life in every one of its forms, including the form that we call you.”
What Walsch discovered was through giving to others what he wanted to receive – as though he already had it – he would then obtain what he wanted. “Be the Source” became the guiding principle of his life.
“I would give someone money even though I didn’t have much. I would say to myself, ‘what if I had enough and that was so much, I could give it away.’ So I began to give it away,” he said. “I did the same with relationships and compassion. I found people who wanted the same things I wanted and decided to be the source of it. Suddenly, I found those same things flowing through me.”
He discovered his purpose was not to have things for himself, but to give it away. “When your purpose is to give it away, the universe suppliers you with an unlimited amount of it because it knows there are so many people who are in need of it. That is the secret to all the masters from Jesus to Buddha. Their initial motivation was not to gather it all for themselves, but to be a flow through for others,” Walsch explained. “If you have 30 cents in your pocket, find someone that needs a dime and give it to them.”
Nothing is Wrong in Your Life, Nor Has it Ever Been – Walsch explained everything in our lives is going perfectly even though we think it is not. The secret here is to turn frustration into celebration because what we resist persists and what we look at through the eyes of the soul will disappear.
“Many will say ‘it’s nice to say its perfect, but it doesn’t feel perfect to me,’” Walsch commented. “Suppose you decided you were the light. God would say ‘great now how would you know you are the light if there was not darkness. I will surround you with darkness, but when you are in the darkness, don’t curse it – use it so you may know who you really are.’”
The best way to deal with darkness in life is to turn to gratitude. “Gratitude is the attitude,” Walsch said. “Your job is to be thankful or every circumstance and condition in life because its all perfectly created.”
He reminded listeners that if they want to express themselves as kindness, compassion, forgiveness and love, they need the opposite conditions first. If they are to practice forgiveness, they need someone to forgive.
When we judge, resist or make circumstances in our lives wrong, problems become insurmountable. But by accepting, and even being grateful for them, we have the opportunity to demonstrate who we really are at our core, Walsch explained.
Suffering will continue as long as we say we do not want it, or deny the gift it carries with it. We are pushing away the conditions that will help us. “Stop condemning the things that look like they are going wrong in your life and use them in the recreation of who you really are,” he said.
You are Not Alone – Most people believe they are alone, and that is what makes the circumstances of life intolerable, according to Walsch, who said emotional loneliness is one of the biggest problems facing humanity today.
“Almost any experience in life can be tolerated if we can imagine we are in a shared space with another,” he noted. “We are all one and never alone in the sense that everything else is a part of us. We know that at the cellular level. The impulse of life it to merge with other life. You are already merged but when you don’t know that, then you have an e-mer-gency.”
God, the divine, a higher power, or whatever name is given to it, exists everywhere and all the time. The awareness that divinity is with us, part of us, and surrounding us, allows us to feel we are not alone.
“The biggest insight is that God is always with me and never apart from me, and that I can talk to and communicate and access God, and I can be aware of and receive assistance any time I wish,” he explained.
Once we understand we are connected to all things, we will find a sense of peace, and it will be easier to deal with the challenging moments of life, said Walsch. We will look at life in a whole different way and find an inner serenity we never dreamed possible.
“These things can be found through meditation, prayer or other spiritual practice, but I’m talking about having those experiences in your every day life,” he said. “All of life turns out to be a meditation, and all of life turns out to be a prayer.”
Walsch explained that once we understand and apply these three secrets, all we want will be given to us. “God said, ‘your life has nothing to do with you. It has to do with everyone whose life you touched,” said Walsch.
His new book, “The Only Thing That Matters”, will be released this month – Oct. 16, 2012, but is available for preorder now.