Holy Shift

In 2018, pastor and author Rob Bell toured England and the US doing a speaking tour he titled "The Holy Shift Tour." Rob uses a lot of comedy in his preaching (thus the title) as he teaches of a loving God. His goal of this tour was to help people shift their thinking of God, the Bible, faith, and the cosmos...away from fear and toward seeing the amazing in everything.

My inspiration for today's practice comes from the moment that I saw the title of his talk last year. The words "Holy Shift" caught my attention. Before I saw his description of the tour, I started thinking about, 'what is a "holy shift?"' I formed my own definition and the more I thought about it, the more it became a mindfulness practice for me. Now, I want to share that with you so you can experiment with it this week.

Holy Shift
Before every thought, word, or action, we have an opportunity to make a choice: Which word will I choose, which thought will I think, and what behavior will I choose next?

The opportunity comes in a split second, such a small amount of time that sometimes we are unconscious of it and proceed without choosing carefully.

This practice is to remind us to pause to consider if our thought, word, or action is holy or something other than holy.

What is holy? It is different for each of us, but here are some other words to think about as you form your definition: soulful, sacred, divine, love, compassion, kindness, spiritual, peaceful.

The idea of a holy shift is to consider shifting out of habit, thoughtlessness, fear, frustration, anger, scarcity, jealousy, competition, comparison, or judgement. And, shift into love, compassion, kindness, abundance, generosity, encouragement, and trust.

To practice this, we first begin with a pause....a thought before the thought. An interruption to mindlessness. A moment to consider what you are about to do.

The pause is the observing of yourself.

Then you consider your motivation or intention...and if it doesn't feel holy to you, then make a shift.

Here are some shifts to get you started:

Judgement - shift to Grace
Anger - shift to Compassion
Frustration - shift to Patience
Comparison - shift to Connection
Competition - shift to Enough
Jealousy - shift to Curiosity
Worry - shift to Peace
Complaint - shift to Gratitude

Do you see how the words on the right feel like they transcend the yuck of the words on the left? That is a holy shift.

Making a slight shift of our thinking, word choices, and behaviors can radically shift our actions and results.

This week, try it out. Move toward greater, sacred, evolved, and holy thinking. You literally raise your energetic vibration when you make this shift. And when you are shifting into the holy, you naturally attract people and experiences that offer you more peace, joy, and compassion.

"When you forgive someone, when you are generous, when you withhold judgement, and you love, when you stand up for injustice - you are in that moment bringing heaven to earth." - Rob Bell

Try making holy shifts this week as much as you can. It truly is life changing for you and it benefits everyone around you too! 

Living into the holy is something we might not ever master, but the more we practice it, the more natural it becomes to shift towards holy.

Sending you love,

P.S. You can read more about Rob Bell at robbell.com