Activate Your Within

If you watch network television, you know that there are many advertisements for pharmaceuticals. It seems that at least every other commercial proclaims the benefits of some drug and encourages us to ask our doctors about how we might benefit from them. As if it weren’t enough that they attempt to convince us that we need the medication, they then frighten us with the list of potential side effects. While I do have my opinions about the gross profiteering of the pharmaceutical industry, I fully respect medical science. I know that many lives are enhanced and saved with medications. This post is not about that. It is about an inspiration I received from one such commercial a while back.

Although it has since changed, a medication which stimulates the body’s natural ability to produce insulin for the treatment of diabetes at one time used the slogan, “Activate Your Within.” Every time I saw that commercial, I smiled. I thought it was the perfect prescription, not only for this disease, but for all that ails us.

At this time, as we are all called to respond to the reality that is COVID-19, I encourage us to use “Activate Your Within” as the prescription that will, more than anything else, help us to navigate these uncertain times.

We are being asked to adjust our daily living. In some cases, we are being required to make changes. Most in-person meetings are no longer happening. Travel is being restricted. Restaurants and other places where people gather are closing. Some cities have instituted curfews, and some are requiring people to stay inside except for absolute necessities. It is an unprecedented time in our country, indeed in the world.

Rather than getting caught up in fear or in resistance, our best course of action is to “Active Our Within.” We can take advantage of this time of social distancing to go within to connect with the Life Energy that is moving in, through and as us. As Paul said, it is the Life in which we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). It is the Life that lives and moves and has its being as each of us.

We can view this time as a global call to remove our focus from the things of the world and focus our minds and hearts within. We have been storing up “treasures on the earth” for far too long. It is now time for us to remember the teaching of our way shower, Jesus, and “store up our treasures in heaven,” and begin to fill our hearts with the things that are eternal, such as love, compassion, and empathy. ¹

I encourage us to, rather than thinking of ourselves as isolated, consider social distancing as being cloistered. We can make this a sacred time of connecting with the God of our understanding and with our higher selves. We can make this a time to “Activate Our Within.”

Cloistering ourselves from the clamoring of the world around us and “activating our within” strengthens us in body, mind and spirit. It reduces the body’s stress response which weakens the immune system. It can help to restore the body to its natural state of homeostasis. It can support us in clearing our minds of the negative chatter that we are bombarded with from the media on an hourly basis. As we “Activate Our Within,” we restore our minds and open to divine inspiration. As Unity minister, author and teacher, Eric Butterworth, says in this book, The Universe is Calling,

“The key is to know your oneness, and ideas will come rushing, streaming, and pouring into you from all sides, while you sit quiet.”

We also fortify ourselves in spirit as we remember our Truth as expression of the One Life of God in human form. When we know our Truth, we are set free from the fears of the world. We recognize, claim and realize the eternality of our ‘I AM’ as we “Activate Our Within.” As Scripture tells us, “Greater is [that] which is in you than [that] which is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

We don’t require medication to “Activate Our Within.” We do that through prayer, meditation, and contemplation.

• Start by turning off the television or radio.
• Take a deep breath.
• Allow the flow of breath to remind you that you are always in the flow of Divine Life.
• Release attachment to the outer and bring all of your attention into the moment.
• Center your awareness in the heart.
• Feel your heart beat.
• Imagine the Life that is beating your heart.
• Consciously connect with that Life.
• It is that impulse of Life that lives as all creation.
• You are enfolded in It.
• It is in you. It is you.
• You have now “Activate Your Within.”
• It has always been active: It is now active as your consciousness.
• Focus on that which is within you, as you.
• Invite divine ideas to fill your mind.
• Open your heart to new inspiration.
• This is the key to spiritual healing.
• Take the inspired action.
• Trust that you are guided by a Higher Mind.

“Activate Your Within” and know that this is the One Source of all that you need in every moment.

¹ Matthew 6:19-21