FEELING DIVINE, RECIEVING THE BLESSINGS

Image: Cho Gi-Seok for Vogue Korea

Here’s the thing about the New Thought Movement leaders of the twentieth century that we love so much here at Benshen HQ—they really, truly had good intentions to help us think positively and create a new reality for ourselves. However, they often liked to spiritual bypass. Many believed that on the way to get to all the best that life has to offer, any negativity only muddied up us reaching our dreams.

Over here at Benshen.co, we celebrate and understand the nuance of it all. See, training the mind to lean towards gratitude, affirmations, pleasure, opportunity, seeing everything as a lesson or blessing, etc. is an ART and a practice that we’ve seen time and again shift perspectives and realities. In the same breath, when life’s journey is taking you for a RIDE—and we’ve all been there—it’s not about shutting down those thoughts and pretending nothing is going on while throwing something positive over it in order to deny what's happening.

It’s about learning to hold two truths at once; acknowledging what’s pissing us off, see what is the lesson and where is there an opportunity for growth, AND reaching deep for gratitude, blessings, and training the mind to mold a new reality we are excited to participate in.

In this newsletter, we’ll visit the 1910 essay from Wallace D. Wattles, to remind us to steer our focus toward the Divine and allow our mind to dwell on the Superior, while we also pepper in a few tools for a healthy dose of honesty for levity and practical balance. The result is a practice that can help wring out what’s not serving us while also creating a lucid pathway for blessings to come THROUGH.

Image: Gestuz AW21

“REACH FOR THE DIVINE,
AND THE DIVINE REACHES BACK”

From The Science of Getting Rich, Wallace D. Wattles, 1910

“The grateful outreaching of your mind in thankful praise to the Supreme is a liberation or expenditure of force. It cannot fail to reach that to which it is addressed, and the reaction is an instantaneous movement toward you. And if your gratitude is strong and constant, the reaction in Divine Substance will be strong and continuous; the movement of the things you want will be always toward you…"

Image: Hand, Gerardo Vizmanos

Image: Cy Twombly, Galleria La Tartaruga, Roma, 1968

THE DES(SERT) SHOP IS NOW OPEN

Hi Everyone! Desirée here. After loving our IG LIVE Q+A sessions on Instagram, I’ve decided to begin a column of sorts for the next 100 days. The Q+A column will be an opportunity for me to do something I moved to NY 15 years ago at the teeny bopper age of 17: write. I’ve done a lot of talking the last few years and very little writing—it was once a dream that has since gotten a little lost along the way. So, ask away— and as always, everything will remain anonymous—and let’s share the tea together. This Q was perfect for this week's newsletter…

Q: How do you know if you're repressing emotions?

A: I think we're all suppressing or repressing emotions to some degree—we're afraid to say something because we don't want to be rejected or let someone down, we don't express ourselves because we want to fit in, we push grief and sadness down because it's "heavy" and so on... I think there's a fine balance between—this is not the time and place for this, "I'm gonna tend to my heart and feelings later when I have the right space" (which doesn't ALWAYS work - but for example if you're at work and having very strong emotions over something non-work related, it may be a safe space to attend to those feelings at home in the evening or with a friend) AND just straight up bypassing emotions—trying to be tough all the time or spiritual bypassing which is when we try to affirm it away or positive think it away. Affirmations and all the rest are TOOLS to move into a new future but we do not use them to deny our past. My mentor gave me an exercise years ago which I always loved in times of need and have recommended it often. Spend five minutes a day writing about everything you're pissed off about. (I did it in the morning for 5 mins a day for a month at one point.) At first I didn't know what to write. By a week in, five minutes wasn't enough time. It was such a powerful clearing - sometimes we don't even understand our emotions or where they're coming from so it's a good space to just vent it and get it all out, rip it up and say thank you for teaching. For the deeper stuff, I’ve seen my mentor once a week for 12 years now and I recently began EMDR therapy after losing a best friend in 2020. I'm a huge fan of therapy and having a safe space to process life because, well, life is really a fucking ride sometimes. The exercise is awesome if anyone wants to give it a go. Let me know how it works for you.