Enlivening the Twelve Comforts

I birth wondrous innocence.

I speak living questions.

I hear quiet wisdom

I feel tender self-compassion.

I express myself with courageous authenticity.

I embrace my limitations.

I recognize my essential needs.

I activate my inner resolve.

I enliven my imaginations.

I perceive my inner freedom.

I radiate universal love.

I unite with cosmic harmonies.

When your soul perceives and understands these twelve comforts, all the other work of finding, knowing and becoming a fully manifest imagination of Self has a ever-present core. 

I imagine the Spiritual Hierarchies provided us with these comforts as their gifts at our birth. But we must open these gifts and energize them. We must bring them to life!

Does Your Soul Need Comforting?

At times, when you think about yourself do you find thoughts that feel too emotional, too sensitive and too scattered? Do you feel unable to create and sustain an empowered, focused enthusiasm? Do you long for a vision of who you are that goes beyond a pretty picture or a story with a happy ending?  In other words, do you long for for the comfort of deep felt and lasting integrity, authenticity and courage? Do you long to feel at one with yourself in your soul.

Comfort is a consciousness or sense of self with a capacity for right relationships, for being grounded, strong and flexible, for feeling free to be and evolve spiritually, morally and practically. When my thinking comes close to truth, I am comfortable. When my feeling life reveals moral beauty, I am comfortable in myself. When my will manifests in deeds that do no harm and provide goodness, I am comfortable. 

Comfort is soothing, strengthening and consolidating. It awakens equanimity, courage and wholeness.

Stop reading this right now and make a list of when and why you feel comfortable or uncomfortable in your soul.

Everything I do in my work as a writer, a mentor, a designer of inner development courses and workshops finds its motive in making others comfortable in their consciousness, in how they imagine and express their Self.

Let’s look at happiness vs comfort. Happiness is a fragile and temporary state. Wisdom is lasting comfort. A few individuals of extremely sanguine temperament, may always be positive. No matter how badly their feet hurt they keep dancing, but most of us, don’t trust or expect happiness to last and when our feet start killing us, we sit down to take the load off and we seek the comfort of transcendent purpose and meaning.  We are not looking for a day at the beach, a bikini-perfect appearance or an invitation to the Ball. We want to be the highest, most fruitful, constantly evolving, harmonious, badass self.

The Twelve Soul Comforts that were inspired during the Holy Nights 2016/17 can be used as affirmations that you speak every morning when you wake up. Powerful!

But if you want to cultivate and nurture the living presence of these soul comforts in your sense of self, you will want to devote your attention to each one, thinking deeply, contemplating with wonder, imagining with delight, and questioning and conversing with courage. You will want to enroll in Enlivening the Twelve Comforts.

I have designed and offered many workshops and courses over the years. I truly believe that this is the most magical of the courses. I  believe this is because it is a direct inspiration from the Holy Nights.  If you do the work, my heart assures you, you will find more comfort in your soul.

The Design for Enlivening the Comforts

Beginning with the January Full Moon, we will begin to Enliven the Twelve  Comforts. One Comfort for each four week cycle.  Four weeks of inner work, exploring and enlivening our experience of the Comfort. Seeing how we find consolation, strength and consolidation with each one. 

Here is the design for our work for the twelve reflective gatherings:

Beginning on Saturday, February 3 at Noon Eastern, 9AM Pacific, and every four weeks for twelve cycles, we will meet together via teleseminar.  I will present some thoughts on the Comfort and then we will have a Q&A /conversation. The teleseminar will be 60-90 minutes long. You will access the teleseminar here on the Imagine Self Academy. I will send you the logistics...it's simple. Each teleseminar will be recorded.

You will find 4 prompts to inspire your inner work each week.  Every prompt will ask you to notice, investigate, appreciate and express how the Comfort lives in your soul.

If you spend one hour each week on the comfort, your inner life will find tremendous benefit and the comfort will be more alive spiritually, morally and practically. Through this activity, you will go deeper into each Comfort than you imagine possible.  

I LLLLLOOOOVVVE how your questions can elicit such reactions from parts of me. They niggle, they unzip, they make parts of me shake, they challenge and I get busy with what is true and living again. I am less brittle, less rigid, less hidden each time I do this work with you. Thank you!

Cez Manila, Phillippines, a Deepening the Twelve Comforts participant.

The Prompts

A prompt assists and encourages a thought, word or deed for a particular context or circumstance. It is the spark that lights the fire.

Biographical prompts:  I will offer several biographical perspectives to consider. It is important to see where in your biography you experienced or lacked the experience of each comfort. 

Metaphorical prompts:  The metaphors will be offered to give you a new and different perspective on the Comfort. Using the metaphors will give you a surprising freedom.

Conversation prompts: You will also be asked to have a conversation about the comfort with another person in your life. The comforted soul is confident in speaking to others about soul matters. Having to converse with another about each comfort will be a wonderful experience. These conversations will let you see how each comfort works in relationship to others. These conversations do not carry performance expectations...they are merely a practice and a further exploration.

Contemplative prompts: These are the inspirations that will come as we move through the Comforts.  Each of you can suggest a prompt for the whole community.

I found the 12 Comforts doing to my self-sense and soul-seeking and what I imagine that to be, from day-to-day, what it set out to do with LJ at the helm. It confirmed what I was born knowing, that the Universe is on my side and there is love as IT'S ultimate meaning, if we would only let go of our false egoism and impossible 'petty' dreams. Existence is God's, 'the gods' 'BIG DREAM and we have to find our way to play our part in that, as best we can. LJ was such a great navigator on our behalf on this wider sea.  

Stephen Johnson, UK, a Deepening the Twelve Soul Comforts participant

and More

You will have the opportunity to share your experience of each week and engage with each other through the discussion forum. This activity builds a living community that surrounds the world.  You begin to care about the other participants and they begin to care about you.  Also the activity of describing your personal work and struggles and insights, sharing pictures and poems, expressing questions and responding to others brings so much active love. 

You will have direct access to me via the discussion forum or personal email.  If you would like a private conversation with me, just let me know.  As much as I wanted to respond to many of your rich, heartfelt posts, my focus on the next Comfort did not give me the time or the attention to do so.  With a four-week focus on each Comfort, I will be able to engage much more. 

Additional materials, such as essays, charts, diagrams, etc,  to support the reflections will be provided.

Cost and Dates

The cost of the program is $28 a month for 12 months. Payment is set up on a subscription basis and you will automatically be charged each month for total of twelve  payments. You can cancel the subscription at any time, but you will lose access to all course content.  

If you need to send me a check, please email me. lynnjericho@gmail.com.

 If this amount creates a financial burden for you, please email me with what you can afford even if that is nothing. I want all those with the desire to deepen their understanding of the Twelve Comforts to be able to participate fully.

February 3     I Unite with Cosmic Harmonies

March 3   IRadiate Universal Love

March 31   IPerceive My Inner Freedom

April 28    IEnliven My Imaginations 

May 26    I Activate My Inner Resolve 

June  23    I Recognize My Essential Needs

July 21    I Embrace My Limitations 

August 18    I Express Myself with Courageous Authenticity

September 15    I Feel Tender Self-Compassion

October  13    I Hear Quiet Wisdom

November 10   I Speak Living Questions 

December 8    I Birth Wondrous Innocence.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please email me: lynnjericho@gmail.com