Dear Universe, what would you have me know today?
How Elizabeth Gilbert is teaching thousands her version of a two-way prayer called Letters to Love.
photo by Freepik
Welcome. I’m so grateful you’re in our community. As we navigate this leg of our life journey, we must look to our teachers, elders, and those we trust to guide us through the new world. We all need to build a spiritual practice to help ground and nurture us in times of fear and overwhelm.
My goal is to help you eliminate what is blocking you from being the fullest expression of yourself. It’s all mindset. That’s right! There’s only a thought or belief between you and your dream.
I’ll share my experience of surviving three unimaginable traumas and growing from them using mindset and spiritual practices.
One thing I know for sure is that to become resilient, you must manage your mindset.
This topic will be the primary focus of my teaching in 2025. At the end of this article, you’ll find a PS section where I share details about my upcoming women’s coaching circle in January.
XO, Sherold
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Elizabeth Gilbert introduced her followers on Substack last year to what she now calls Letters From Love, a practice where you ask and receive guidance from a higher power or the God of your understanding. Liz calls God Love. Twenty years ago, in the worst and loneliest hour of her darkest night, Liz reached out into the void for comfort, and a voice replied, "I’m right here.”
Since last year, Gilbert has been teaching 150,000 of us how to talk to Love.
This technique has helped me feel better and happier about myself, so I wanted to share it with you.
It’s a beautiful process that can be done anytime and doesn’t take long.
Below Liz’s example is the Alcoholics Anonymous version of the two-step prayer. Liz is open about being in AA and talks about how these two practices are similar. I researched AA’s Two-way Prayer on Youtube and have two beautiful videos about how to ask and then to receive. I love this practice, and if you want to feel better about yourself, start now. I’m going to keep it part of my daily practice.
How to Write a Letter From Love:
This is an excerpt from Liz’s newsletter this week, where she goes back to the basics about how to write a letter to love.
This week we’re getting reacquainted with our trusty standby, the original, tried-and-true question that we can always pose once we’ve quieted our minds and bodies and feel ready to download a letter: Dear Love, what would you have me know today?
If you are feeling challenged by a particular problem and you’re wanting a more guided response, that works too. You can ask as specific a question as you like; one of the beautiful things about this system is that — aside from being accessible around the clock, for free! — it is infinitely customizable, so go ahead and make it your own.
I hope you will give this a whirl and notice how you feel afterward.
How to practice AA’s two-way prayer:
From AA’s How to Practice Two-Way Prayer:
Commit to practicing a Quiet Time for a minimum of five to ten minutes daily for 30 days.
Practice it each morning. Get up earlier if necessary, and if you miss a morning, that’s OK; begin counting the thirty days over again!
If you do this for thirty days in a row, you’ll make it a practice for the rest of your life.
Choose a sacred space—a quiet place where you can be alone. It should be comfortable and inviting. If possible, reserve it only for prayer.
You can buy a notebook to write down your thoughts. Please have it ready when you begin.
Sit in a comfortable, upright posture.
Remember into whose Presence you are entering.
Read a short passage from a source of literature that is sacred to you.
• Breathe deeply two or three times - let go of all tension and worry with each outward breath. (Add any other relaxation techniques, prayers, petitions or practices you find helpful.)
• Write a very honest question that captures your real need. If you have a problem that’s troubling you where you really need God’s guidance, briefly write it and ask.
Here are some examples from AA:
1. God, I’ve tried getting clean and sober before – please tell me what I need to do that’s different this time. (If you’re already sober, look at other addictions or behaviors in your life that have you stuck and ask for guidance with them.)
2. Heavenly Father, I feel so alone and separated from you and from others, please help me feel your presence.
3. Father or Mother God, I’m withdrawing/isolating again - moving further away from my spouse (or my child).
Please tell me what to do.
4. Lord Jesus (or Spirit, or My Creator), I need your guidance today as I face _______. Please show me the way so I can do your will. (Notice the different names being used for God. Choose the name that feels right for you. If you are struggling to find a name, start with “Unknown God” or “God, if you exist.”)
How to Practice AA’s Two-Way Prayer
Start by writing a term of endearment: “Sweet Pea,” “My child,” or “My precious,” or some other term of endearment that a loving Father-Mother God might use when speaking to their beloved.
• Listen for God’s Voice. If the connection isn’t immediate and words do not come into your mind, use your active imagination, especially when you’re first making conscious contact:
Say to yourself, “If God were to speak to me, this is what God, or Love, or Divine Wisdom might say:”_____________
• Write the words that come into your mind. Try not to edit them. Only listen and write.
• If thoughts come that you think are not from God, write them down anyway. Put them in brackets if you like, and try to re-focus on listening for God’s Voice.
In time, you will come to distinguish God’s Voice more clearly from the raucous voices of the ego.
Stop writing when it becomes strained.
Feel the closeness of God as you experience conscious contact.
Following your Guidance: You may find that their writings contain some particular spiritual guidance for you, or yours may for them.
Check your guidance. Do you know if it passes the test?
Is it Honest, Pure, Unselfish and Loving?
Act on your guidance – but only if it passes the test – and check with others listening to God if it is a significant move.
SOME HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dr. Bob and the Good Old-Timers tells of the 1938 report written by Frank Amos and sent to John D. Rockefeller after he studied the new recovery movement. Amos reported, “The A.A. members of that time did not consider meetings necessary to maintain sobriety. They were simply ‘desirable.’ Morning devotion and ‘quiet time,’ however, were musts.” (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers p.136)
Bill Wilson: “I sort of always felt that something was lost from A.A. when we stopped emphasizing the morning meditation.” Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers (p. 178)
• In Dr. Bob’s last major talk in Detroit, Michigan, in 1948, he identified some of the spiritual principles that kept him and other A.A. Pioneers sober:
“We were convinced that the answer to our problems was in the Good Book. To some of us older ones, the parts that we found absolutely essential were the Sermon on the Mount, the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, and the Book of James. … The Four Absolutes, as we called them, were the only yardsticks we had in the early days, before the Steps. I think the Absolutes still hold good and can be extremely helpful. I have found at times that a question arises, and I want to do the right thing, but the answer is not obvious; almost always, if I measure my decision carefully by the yardsticks of absolute honesty, absolute unselfishness, absolute purity, and absolute love, and it checks up pretty well with those four, then my answer can’t be very far out of the way….”
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