Blessing: How to Get Started in 9 Simple Steps – Part 2

Last week, I started a series of essays which teaches people how to do formal blessings. I hope all of you have put the past few days to good use, and practiced as much as possible! 🙂

(And if you’re new to the series and haven’t read the first part, you might wanna rectify that now.)

As promised, today we’ll tackle the next steps on the path. Before we start, though, two things:

First, and just in case you haven’t realized this yourself: Steps 1, 2 and 3 are all you need to perform fully functioning blessings. That’s the basic technique, and it works just fine – although, of course, things will become easier and more powerful with a bit of practice.

I.e. Steps 4 to 9 aren’t absolutely necessary, and in theory you could stop reading right here. However, I suggest you do read ahead (and also follow along with your practice!!), as the following steps will cover some helpful additions to the basic version of your blessings.

(Plus, if you continue to practice along for the next few essays, chances are much better that you’ll actually make blessings a continuous part of your life. 😉 )

The second thing before we proceed with Step 4 is some basic housekeeping:

Troubleshooting Steps 1 and 2

I hope most of you didn’t have any major issues with your practice of the first steps. But just in case you’ve run into any problems, this is the section for you (and if you haven’t, you can skip down to Step 4 below).

For Step 1, if you have encountered any issues, they are most likely due to your own feelings, thoughts, your worldview or view of yourself, your memories, beliefs, etc.

In this case, the best remedy is to push through: Simply bless objects, according to the instructions in Step 1, as often as possible, ideally several times a day. Do this until you don’t feel awkward anymore, or no longer like an impostor, or whatever else has been giving you grief.

This might be hard because it triggers exactly the stuff which has been giving you trouble, but it really is the only way past these things – and at the same time, it might also give you some interesting insights into your own emotional and thought patterns, and might give you the chance to overcome some old issues.

The only other problem I could imagine with Step 1, which is not related to personal issues, might be physical problems, e.g. if somebody can’t lift their arms high enough to achieve a classical blessing position.

If this should be the case for you, simply hold your arms and hands in whatever position is comfortable for you. Ideally, your palms will point towards the object of your blessing, but if you can’t even do that, then hold your hands in whatever way you can and feels right for you.

Seriously: don’t sweat it, and don’t hurt your body blessing others. It’s fine – the divine energies will get your intention, and will know where to go.

For Step 2, any potential issues will tell you a lot about yourself, if you’re listening. 😉

Seriously, though: Some people have problems connecting with others, or with their own feelings, or with their own love or care or loving energy. None of that is a biggie, btw – and if you happen to be one of these people, well, so what? A lot of others are in the same boat as you, so it’s not as if you’re something special. 😉

As always, just do the best you can in this step. Seriously. It doesn’t matter how “good” you are – just that you do what you can.

Your blessings will work just fine even if you aren’t perfect. (I’m far from perfect, and it doesn’t seem to affects my blessings!)

These divine energies will catch your intention. Just put as much care, attention or appreciation for the blessed object into your blessing as you can, and stop second-guessing yourself at each step! You’re doing well. 🙂

(Besides, there will be improvements with this Step 2 over time. They might be subtle, and you might not even notice at first, until one day you realize just how much has changed. Just give it time, and don’t fret more than you absolutely have to…)

Now that we’ve hopefully cleared up the most pressing issues, let’s tackle the next step on your path:

Step 4: Use other phrases

In Step 4, we’re leaving the kiddie pool behind (learning to swim is a bit hard as long as the water is just knee-deep, after all!), and dip our toes into one of the larger pools. Don’t worry, though, it’s still the one for the non-swimmers – you won’t drown here. 😉

In Step 1, I gave you a simple phrase to use: “May you be blessed.”. In this step, we’ll go beyond that simple phrase. Why? Well, first to give you more options. And secondly, as some astute readers might have noticed, the phrase “may you be blessed” is somewhat non-descript. Almost passive, as if you yourself aren’t really involved.

I chose that phrase deliberately for the first step, since I figured it would be meek enough to not trigger much emotional resistance in most people. 😉

But since you’ve by now overcome a lot of said internal resistance through your practice of Steps 1 and 2, it’s time to tackle the next level…

Below are a few other phrases of blessing. Some are from a different angle, and some are more assertive and put your own role somewhat more into the spotlight. Some of them might flow easily for you, and some might be really hard. Still, I suggest you try each of them at least a few times. Pay particular attention to the ones which make you feel uncomfortable – becoming aware of this is a gift, and there a some lessons to be learned there.

So, here we go:

• “I bless you.”
• “X, may you be blessed.”
• “X, I bless you.”
• “May you be blessed with health and good things.”
• “May you be blessed, X.”
• “X, I bless you. May you have a blessed day/week.”
• “X, be blessed.”
• “X, please accept my blessings.”
• “May your life be blessed.”
• “X, may you be blessed with Y.”

(Obviously, replace “X” with a suitable name or term for the object of your blessing, and “Y” with a suitable intention.)

Just give these phrases a try (and give each of them a chance). You might discover new favourites, or at the very least, you’ll expand your repertoire!

You can wait until you’ve worked your way through these phrases before you proceed to Step 5, or you can incorporate these variants into the next steps as you move along, the choice is yours!

As for the upcoming Step 5, this won’t be for everyone, as you’ll see in a minute. If this step doesn’t appeal to you, there is no harm in skipping it – just practice with the phrases from Step 4 and then hop straight on to Step 6.

Step 5: Bless divine beings

Nope, the title of this section is very much not a grammatical mistake. 😉 Lemme explain…

So far, you’ve blessed things which didn’t really object, and which you couldn’t really ask. From office printers to butterflies… the interaction with the objects of your blessings will have been minimal for most of you.

In this step, we’re going to change that. At some point, you’ll have to start blessing beings who are conscious of your blessings, who might reciprocate, and who might have an opinion about being blessed.

But at the same time, blessing other humans can be hard. And by that, I don’t mean the blessing act in itself, but a. the pesky thing about getting consent, and b. loads of internal issues which might come up: feeling inadequate, or feeling silly or stupid, thinking about what they might think about you, fears about your offer being rejected, uncertainty about how to phrase your offer in the first place, etc etc.

At some point, we’ll tackle that part – but not today. 🙂 Today, we’ll do something which is so much easier…

Today, as the section title suggests, we’re going to bless divine beings: gods, angels, saints, and the like.

I suppose that quite a few of you will now think I’ve lost my marbles, and I can’t blame you. After all, why would a deity need the blessings of some measly humans?

Well, the point isn’t if they need it (although, who are we to decide?). The point is that if you have any relationship at all with a benevolent divine being, may that be a god or goddess, an angel, a saint, or anything like that, they might have an interest in your well-being and your spiritual development. I also believe that quite a few gods and other divine beings are generally interested in bringing more positive energies into this material world.

If you offer them a blessing, and they take you up on this offer, you give them a chance to support your spiritual development, and to bring more divine energies into the world.

Which is all well and good, but… why would you offer blessings to a divine being?

Now that is simple: First and foremost, for practice. And secondly, if you have a relationship with a divine being, this will give you a chance to reciprocate at least a bit, and to broaden your relationship.

Unfortunately, in practical terms, you’re somewhat on your own in Step 5, since I can’t know which divine beings you have a relationship with, and what kind of relationship that is.

Hence I suggest that you talk to your deity, angel, saint, etc of choice (prayer comes to mind here…). Ask them if it’d be ok for you to bless them. It’s up to you whether you want to phrase this as a simple offer, or whether you want to discuss that you’re practicing, and would appreciate the opportunity.

It’s also up to you to “listen” to the answer. If you have an existing relationship with a divine being, you might have a good idea of how that answer could come your way.

If you’re interested in trying this step and don’t have a standing relationship with a god etc, but there is a deity or other divine being which you’d be comfortable approaching, I suggest telling them that you’re new to all this, and aren’t sure if you’ll understand their reply – they might be willing to accommodate you a bit by giving you a really clear signal.

If you’re generally willing to try this, but have no clue whom to approach, there are certain divine beings who have a reputation as being rather approachable and friendly to humans. Hermes, the Virgin Mary (the Theotokos), or Ganesha coming to mind, but I’m sure there are others. If any of them appeals to you, you might want to give it a try.

In general, the “reply” or consent from a divine being can come in very different forms. If you don’t know what to look out for, one positive reply might be something related to the blessing itself, e.g. a tingling or warmth in your hands, as if they are “warming up” for a blessing.

Either way, if you give this a try, be open for answers, and stay relaxed. If you don’t get a reply (or at least none that you understand), or if the reply is a “no”, then just move on for now. You can come back to this option at any time.

So… this is it for today. These two steps, plus any catching up you have to do from last week, will give you enough material to practice until the next installment in this series goes up on Monday, July 29th. (And I hope you’ll put it all to good use and practice a lot! 🙂 ).

Until then, I’m looking forward to any questions, anecdotes, suggestions, or other comments you might have – simply share them with us below.

See you next week! 🙂

P.S.: This should go without saying, but please feel free to share this essay series with other people who are interested in developing a blessing practice, or simply in trying it out.

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Image: Nick Moore on Unsplash