Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Finding Neverland

Last night I was doing some reading, and I came across a letter. When I read, I’m reading to learn, and in alot of cases to grow as a person.I really contemplate what I’m reading, and whether or not it applies in my life, and if I can learn anything from it. I have always thought myself to be very open and honest with my kids, but I learned last night, that perhaps I have not been so honest. We don’t lie to our children, but we do hide things from them that might cause them to see us as less than perfect. Perhaps in order to maintain our credibility,perhaps to keep from being wounded should they draw a negative opinion of us, who knows why.

As I was reading last night I came across a letter written by a father to his son, and I want to share it with you today this letter moved me in such a way that I will never forget it. This is a letter of courage, and it goes far beyond honesty

Finding neverland

This was written for a Son and then the understanding that it was written also for the writer, for the neighbor and for anyone who has wondered. It was written for all of us who have experienced regret, loss or the pursuit of something not really known. It is for all of us that it is posted here. It is for all of us who believe that some things in our lives need to be discovered or found. It is for all of us who know loss, know suffering, know pain but also for those who have lived the opposite. It is for all of us who are sad and for all of us who are happy.and the letter says...

I wish that I was a better father. I wish that I could have been a better Dad to you and am so sorry that I was not. It is my hope that these words that I write to you now are taken inside your heart. Only through understanding will you give yourself a good life. Without delving into my past let's look at all people, all over the world but especially here in this country. Most of us learn too late the lessons of what is eventually a very short life. We look to other things to make us feel. We look to other things to make us believe in ourselves and then in a great moment of hindsight discover that these are the things that blinded us to begin with. It is the reason many of the elders in this country express regret for their lives, including your dad.People talk all the time about wanting to be happy. People have said that they want to find peace and happiness. This is the first of many deceptions. These are deceptions that I have engaged in as well. I have spent many years like so many others looking for that happiness and only recently found that happiness is not something that you can find . . . it is or it is not. It’s so very simple that the realization escapes so many of us until it is far too late and we find that what we had all along we wasted trying to find it.Many of us - - - all of us experience sadness and depression. Sometimes it is something genetic. Sometimes it is something that we live as a choice. We choose to blind ourselves to what we have and instead look at the outside world and our lives as the cause of this sadness. It's okay to be sad, it's okay to be depressed but not to be either without reason. When we are doing something that we enjoy, feeling the touch of a loved one or the joy of a first warm spring day after a cold and dark winter sadness and depression are last on the list. We've put those thoughts and feelings into a locker in our hearts. These feelings do not even enter reality when these and many other times like it happen. And then there are the other times when we allow those feelings to gain a foothold, sometimes that foothold will become a mountain that eventually we refuse to scale. We lose those thoughts of the touch of a loved one or of that warm spring day or jumping into the ocean to play in the waves. We feel as though life has no purpose and fall into a tradition of doing things by the numbers. We wake, eat, go to work. We come home driving as quickly as possible to eat dinner and then spend our evenings in front of a television or completing mundane everyday tasks till the time comes to once again set the alarm for another day exactly like the day before. And as sad as this sounds it is also necessary, it is necessary to eat, to sleep and to find some solice in the comforts that we are allowed. We need to be productive, to work so that we can eat, live and buy that alarm clock so that we can do it all over again. We are given time off of our jobs on weekends when we try to shove all kinds of happiness into one or two short days where many follow the same path as they do at their jobs and at home only they replace the "things" they do with "things" they do that they feel bring them happiness or make it easier not to be sad.Yet, this and all these "things" are nothing but illusions. If they were not then these moments of sadness and moments of happiness would never need a gauge. They would never need to be scaled among all the other things in our lives.You cannot, nor can anyone else find happiness. Happiness is not lost, it is not a goal, it is not a lost treasure. It is a state of being. It is unfortunately a choice that many do not choose. They would rather say for decades that they have to find it. That it's lost and we've not found the road map to get to the destination. Being happy is just that. It is being happy. We surround ourselves with things that we think at the time will enhance that feeling. But like a new car after that new car smell wears off it is just a car. This is how many of us view happiness, as some time controlled thing that appears and disappears at random depending on the things that we have.There are only two facts about human life. The first is that you and others like you and I were born. That in whatever way and form we exist. The second fact is that human life ends in death and that time between in not determined. There is no absolute guarantee that tomorrow will offer the same opportunities as today. Those of us that have witnessed death personally with a death in the family most times fail to see the grace in the time we get on the earth. Those of us who have witnessed death of a comrade in arms in war sometimes forget the grace of life that was granted when others around them have fallen. Some of us finally learn that our lives are entirely up to us. We fail to see that this is the way it is from the very moment we are able to choose. Some of us never learn till that moment when we know we are taking that last breath. I believe in that moment the feeling that we have most is regret. I believe in that moment that we truly understand the concepts of could have, should have and would have. I believe that at this moment people wish for a second chance.You know from living with me since you were little that I have lived most of my life unhappy. You know from living with me that I have had far too many moments of sadness. Languishing as I did in my little world and finding fault in so many things that I felt slighted on.All I can say now is shame on me, shame on me for believing that it was the plan of others to make me sad, shame on me for believing that others owed me happiness. It is not a permanent shame however son. It is a choice I no longer make. I can certainly be unhappy if I choose to believe the illusions of life. But I choose now to look at what I do have. I have many things that more people than not, don't have. I can walk on my own legs and have all my capacities of sight, hearing, speech and smell. I have all my extremities and have the use of them. I can eat and eat well. I can go to the bathroom and have a fantastic ability to turn a switch to get light and heat. I can see the sunshine and know by the smell in the air that winter is now long gone for another year. I can express my thoughts. I have a computer and you would be very surprised to find out how many do not. I can make myself a cup of tea and relax in front of the television and watch a movie that I choose. I have these and so many other things. Others have far more this is true and many, many more have far less. I do know that this is not the best situation that I could have right now but am happy that I could have far less. I am somewhat sad that I want to move forward but not sad in knowing that I have made a choice to be here for the now. If I awake tomorrow the choice may change and my options along with it.You, I and everyone else are granted these choices as all on this planet we given life through birth. Today many that were alive yesterday are not today. Their choice has been removed by the only other fact about life, death.We own nothing in this life not even life itself. We borrow and use it for a short time. Houses that we own will eventually be owned by someone else doing what we were doing. Material possession eventually breaks, rots and disappears. These are the illusions we surround ourselves with. Remember happiness is not an illusion, it is not tangible, it is something that you either want to be or do not want to be. It is not a road that you have to travel nor is it a goal that you strive for. It simply is.I will hope that you can take this to heart and mind. I will hope that you will understand that you will be rather than not. I will hope that you can truly understand that it's okay sometimes to be sad but being sad for the right reason, not for the act of sadness.I will hope that this letter finds you smiling if only knowing that here today the wind is blowing and even though spring is a short moment away it feels like winter does not want to let go. I will hope that you can understand how much time I have wasted looking for happiness and truly learned to understand it's not something that's lost, hence it is not to be found. It simply is a state of mind, a state of being.I have squandered many given gifts, I have taken advantage of time, been selfish about spending time with those I care for. I have done some really crappy things. But I also can smile for the legacy that I leave when it is my turn for that 2nd fact. I can smile because of you, your brothers and sisters. I can smile that despite that crappy past in certain ways I was still offered enormous gifts and one of the most special gifts was the day you became fact number one! I am honored to be able to say you are my son. I am humbled by the man you are becoming and the strength of will and intellect you possess. As time passes I have thought what could have been if I had chosen a different path but then none of you in this current form would be a part of life, of that first fact. If someone told me today I could go back in time and become Bill Gates' partner in forming Windows and Microsoft and that in my future I would be a multi-billionaire. That anything that is now would not be remembered. That I would never know you, as you would not exist I would refuse. I do know you! There is not a value of money or material things that would persuade me to choose this alternate path.Be happy, embrace the ability to read and write. Engage in life in all forms. Enjoy that moment when you first open your eyes to know that for that moment the second fact of this life has been eluded. Give to others of yourself because you can. Do what is, "just" knowing that it is the right thing to do, despite what others may feel or believe. Smile because you can, because you are healthy. When you live in this way many will not understand and will avoid you. They will not avoid you because there is something wrong with you! They do so because they live in that illusion. What you will find if you embrace this kind of spirit that there are others like you. They will see that you are healthy, not just physically but in all ways. When you enter into relationships with friends or significant others they will be long lasting rather than fleeting. You will leave an imprint with everyone you touch. For any soul this is an imprint that is the longest lasting and one that will offer others the opportunity to understand joy and a "just" life.I know I have probably rambled more than I should, more words that may have been needed but then you are my blood and I do know how much of a mallet it takes to knock an ideal into your skull.Know that I love you in more ways then a simple word can describe.DadAuthor's Bio I am just a person, hopefully a human being who can offer a "soap opera" of life experience to give others an option for change. Remember, anyone can show you other doorways. You would want to say "thank-you" for that when no thanks

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The Two Faces of Awareness

Yesterday towards the end of the call Liza made a statement that brought up the subject of awareness.

Awareness is a great topic and it deserves some dedicated attention.

Also before the end of this call I’m going to promise you two things that I want you to carry away with you, and remember forever. I don’t take or make promises lightly, if I promise anything that means it is an absolute fact.

Awareness in the best possible term means we have learned the process, we know what to do and what not to do daily that will interrupt or interfere in using the law of attraction to reshape our lives, we have become consciously aware of our thoughts, our vibration and how to keep our energy attracting positively in our lives.

Once you have entered into a conscious consistent state of awareness it could be said that you are on the path to living an enlightened life. Enlightenment is something that many people think they have achieved but few actually have there are the Dee Pak Chopra’s of the world that are truly living and teaching enlightenment, I personally think it takes years to achieve a state of enlightenment.

Awareness should be your constant companion, just like self. Every second of every day you should be aware of your thoughts and actions, and the absolute power they have in your lives. Awareness is your ally and will become key to achieving the results in your personal and professional endeavors.

However awareness like many other emotions, such as negativity have the power to be a very dark influence in your process, in order to separate the two we will refer to the dark side of awareness as hyper awareness, conscious awareness is good, hyper awareness is bad.

Hyper awareness could be an occasional or constant force working against us. If you are hyper aware you would be aware of everything that’s wrong in your life. Go back and think about this, we get what we ask for, and we ask for it by thinking about, focusing on, or lending our attention to…therefore if you suffer from hyper awareness, you are focusing your thoughts on what’s wrong, rather than what’s right, by focusing your thoughts on what’s wrong that awareness is working in full force to deliver more of the same. Not only are you thinking about all that’s wrong, and ordering up some more, you are at the same time experiencing or creating the negative emotions that stem from being in a state of hyper awareness, stress, worry, negativity.

Promise number one…

I promise you that you are going to have disappointments, things are going to be wrong, and things are going to go wrong. If you are living and breathing things are going to happen that will immediately completely dominate your focus, and send you in to a state of hyper awareness. It’s what you do when you get there that matters. Accept that things are going to occur that will make you unhappy, cause you stress, and make you worry, then commit to overcoming these things quickly, by learning to analyze that which requires action on your part and that which does not. I think you will find that most of the things that occur are going to require little or no action on your part to quickly resolve to move past them.

Spend your time there and these problems become the forefront of you thoughts, they demand your focus and the creative process begins, once this occurs you have taken negativity into your conscious awareness, and remember by doing this you have just agreed that you want some more…and trust me… you will get it.

We have talked about holding patterns before and the number one way to get stuck in a bad place is to enter into a state of hyper awareness, and to allow that negative situation to begin to grow more and more of the same.

So how do we move past hyper awareness? In order to do this you have to analyze the situation, you all know I’m a big fan of list making. When faced with a problem try to itemize the situation list item one two and three, or nine or ten depending on the magnitude of the situation, but line by line list what the exact breakdown of the situation is. Once you have written that list go back and cross off everything on the list that requires zero action on your part, what things on the list can you do absolutely nothing about. The list just got a whole lot shorter, in some cases the items left will be things you are already working on , if that’s the case cross them off, and the list gets shorter. Now what’s left, if there is anything left would be things that you can do to change the situation. Now make a new list what action you need to take to resolve what’s left on the list, if you can’t come up with anything, cross it off.

The objective is to create a plan to resolve anything that may have caused you to enter into a state of hyper awareness in order for you to be able to put things in perspective and move past it knowing with confidence there is no need to worry, stress, or spend a lot of time thinking about something negative.

We know that in due time all things will pass, in years what happened today won’t matter. Because it’s human nature to problem solve or to become absorbed in all that is wrong we have a tendency to look at the magnitude of the entire situation, in many cases it may be more than one situation, but by contemplating the whole big ugly thing we become over whelmed, we become hyper aware, and then we start to experience the physical and emotional results of hyper awareness, not one good thing comes from it, just a whole lot more of the same bad stuff.

It’s always easier said than done, at least it sounds that way. Once you learn to recognize when situations occur that are causing you to focus on the bad rather than the good, it’s time for you to act quickly to break down the situation, put things in perspective, and reduce the magnitude of the situation.

The hardest thing for me to learn has been to accept that somethings occur that I can’t do anything about . I knew there was nothing I could do to change it, but I would hold on to it anyway. If there’s nothing that will change it today, there is nothing that will change it tomorrow, accept that and move on.

By accepting and moving on, we are able to let it go, when we let things go, we also move past all of the negative thoughts and feelings that are associated with the situation, then and only then do we regain the ability to re-enter the state of conscious awareness, a state of constantly creating all that is good.

We have talked before about internalization, it’s a big deal because all that could be wrong in our lives ceases to exist lest we internalize it. Everything is external (or an outside influence), it happens outside of our thoughts feelings and emotions. It is not until we begin to think about that which is wrong that we begin to internalize it, it is only by thinking about it that it becomes a powerful detraction in our life capable of derailing our progress.

My second promise…

I promise that nothing that occurs externally can ever hurt you, it is harmless until you choose to internalize it by lending you attention to it, it is only then that you give it the power to harm you physically or emotionally. It is only then that is has the power to change your destiny.
This is pretty much a fundamental principal of life, but I’m going to validate it even though if we really thought about it our common sense would say it’s so.

Think about it, do you feel emotional pain while your sleeping? No, you would only feel it if you were not sleeping because you were thinking about it.

Everything exists in our lives because we choose to internalize it by allowing it to exist. Would we intentionally allow pain to exist in our lives? Of course we would’nt, not intentionally, but because we choose to think about that which is painful we are agreeing to internalize it, we are allowing it to exist and allowing it to cause us stress, worry, anxiety, frustration. But the truth is without thought…all things cease to exist. Meaning they remain harmless, things that you are not thinking about are not causing you pain, or bringing you harm, if you are not internalizing your problems, they are not manifesting. By refusing to think about that which you cannot change it has zero power to create negative emotions,which attract more negativity, or for that matter to manifest one single thing that you do not welcome into your life. It is only that which we “feel” that has the power to create. Remember to choose is to allow…

Monday, April 27, 2009

Life Is Like A Garden

Life Is Like A Garden...
I hope everyone had a great weekend, and enjoyed their Friday off… This weekend I was out and about and almost everywhere I went people were planting their gardens. I started thinking how like a garden creating our lives actually is. When you think about it, the first step to planting your garden is to decide what you want to grow and how much of it. Just like life, the seeds we choose represent goals that we set, what we want the end outcome to be.

The second and most important step to gardening is clearing away the existing growth, No one could grow a thing if they simply put seeds on top of the ground, very quickly the grass and weeds would overpower young vulnerable seedlings.

Just like life, when we start to want or need change the very first thing we have to do is remove the existing growth, get rid of any and all things that might threaten the healthy growth of your garden.

Most people do this by tilling the garden area, turning everything under and then you rake over the garden to get any existing roots that might be left behind, and get them out of the way otherwise they take root and grow again, resulting once again in the possibility that they may affect the healthy growth of your garden.

It is impossible to get them all, I don’t garden anymore but I used to have a huge garden every year, then my kids grew up got married, and have gardens of their own so I have an abundant supply of anything I might grow without the intensive care that a garden requires. So you’re going to rake back over the garden to remove as much opportunity for bad to take root and grow as you can.

A lot like life what would be left behind is a memory of what was there…that we choose not to allow to continue to exist.

After you have tilled and raked your garden you decide what you want to grow where, doing this is like visualizing the end outcome in your creation process. Typically you visualize what needs the most care, what space is required, and lay out your garden accordingly.

One thing that always amazed me is the fact that if you plant the hot peppers beside the sweet peppers, the sweet peppers become hot, why don’t the hot peppers become sweet. In comparison is that like the power struggle between positive and negative thoughts, do the hot peppers represent the presence of negativity in your garden, and the more you tend to and fertilize that negativity it continues to grow and thrive, and can pollute your garden? I think so. Planting the hot peppers one row away from the sweet peppers will completely eliminate the chance of this happening, so in the garden of your life, separate the negativity and keep it far from all that should grow to be sweet.

You have to fertilize your garden, just like goals, things you want to change, you have to feed your plants what they need to grow and thrive.

Gardening is very labor intensive. When I was a kid I used to laugh at my Dad when every night after supper he would take hoe in hand and go “check” the garden , like life at that age, I thought the garden would just grow…check what for crying out loud, the seeds are planted shouldn't they just grow?
The truth is they will do just that, those seeds will sprout and they will indeed grow but…so will all the other stuff left behind when we tilled the garden, as sure as the seeds will grow when left unchecked, and unattended to so the weeds will grow as well…

In your garden you have three choices the first and worst choice being to allow the weeds to grow, which would be like allowing negativity to exist in the garden of your life when in the end you want the outcome to show the fruits of your labor, with a bountiful harvest. By taking this approach the garden will quickly become overrun by the existence of the weeds, which we fertilized when we planted the seeds in our garden and your fruit will perish, you can wade through the weeds and you will harvest virtually nothing in the end. The amount of time and energy invested in choosing your seeds, or setting your goals will provide you nothing in the end.
The second choice would be to occasionally hoe your garden, what happens in this case is that you have to work much harder on the occasions that you tend your plantings, because the weeds are more plentiful and require more effort to remove. In the end your garden will struggle to survive against the presence of weeds, or negativity, your garden will bear fruit, but it will be sparse, and fall short of the desired outcome. By allowing yourself to loose sight of your goals,and only tend to them occasionally your goals struggle to thrive, success can come but it will be much more difficult getting there.

The best choice of course would be to check the garden. Checking your garden everyday will give you the opportunity to maintain a space free of weeds and harmful growth because you will be able to remove it as it occurs, while it’s young and weak. Long before it takes firm root and begins to grow rapidly. Checking your garden everyday and removing anything that might be harmful to the growing environment will result in a clean growing space, much less labor intensive, with a much more bountiful harvest, in the end the garden you envisioned will emerge, thriving and healthy, and will bare all the fruit of your labor.

Checking your garden, would be much the same as taking daily inventory in our lives, never allowing negativity to take root, and affect the goals we set for ourselves or to slow the process of achieving these goals. By doing this the end result will be exactly as we imagined it to be, success will be plentiful, and your garden will bare fruit in abundance.

In my opinion there was never a more perfect time to choose your seeds, remove the weeds, plant your garden, and check it daily…Decide what you want, clear your mind of negativity, set your goals, and work towards them everyday.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Leaving The Twhirl Behind

Have you ever felt like you just want out of the twhirl? Perhaps it's a conversation at the water fountain or that you are just tired of dealing with people who see the glass half empty. Maybe something has triggered you, and you find yourself focusing on the junk rather than the possibilities.

With all the changes happening around us it's no wonder that many people are feeling this way. From our struggling economy to the increase in our need to "pack" our days full of activity just to get ahead, you may be feeling the pressure.So often in our lives, we find ourselves in situations that don't feel good, and our natural instinct is to "react" rather than stay in a place of choice. We may engage in an argument that doesn't serve us, or jump to conclusions that aren't based in truth.

No matter how or when it happens it is important to remember that it doesn't have to be that way.It is important not to forget that you have the power to take a step back and decide if and how you want to participate in what is going on around you. Each of us has the ability to choose to be a part of something or not. We can choose not to get involved in situations that take us off track.

We have the power to decide where to place our energy & how we will focus on taking action in ways that work in our lives.So the next time you want out of the twhirl, remember to do the following:·

Take a step back and determine what it is in your life that is taking you off track·

Explore where you are wasting time & energy in ways that are not healthy or empowering·

Choose to change the way in which you participate in the activities, relationships and thought processes that aren't serving you Most importantly, know that you have the ability to participate in your life in a way that will move you forward and have you reaching your dreams; all you have to do is make a conscious choice to do so.

At some point in our lives we have all had our favorite pet, once you’ve experienced this nothing else ever compares. Last night, for whatever reason I was thinking back to my favorite pet, he crosses my mind from time to time, and is always nice remembering him. My favorite pet was Burt, a big ole chocolate lab, which was the offspring of the “Hooper” of “Hooper’s Sporting goods” Burt was beyond a dog, way beyond a dog, he had been through obedience training, but he was born smart, he was one of the rare animals who seemed to understand everything, and even in his older years he celebrated life, remained playful, and had such a wonderful loving spirit.

On hot summer days I would see Burt in the yard trying to make the best of a day with no breeze and little relief from the heat, and out of guilt or sympathy whichever was the case, I would drop everything Grab a Frisbee, drop the tail gate on the truck, and without hesitation in he would go. We would drive down to the lake, and I would sail that Frisbee out across the water and no matter how far it went Burt would happily swim for it and return it ready to go again. I could take him any where he was so obedient and well behaved that I never had to worry how he might respond in any situation.

We would sometimes spend hours at the lake, whenever we left we would drive up to this drive in restaurant called Blue’s it was a dive, that was open seasonally, and all they offered was curb service or a picnic table, I always ordered two cheeseburgers, one for me and one for Burt, he would start barking and going nuts the moment he saw the restaurant, he would watch as the car hops came in and out waiting for his turn, I used to watch him in the rear view mirror, and I felt kind of bad when they went in another direction because he looked crushed, but I think he always knew his time was coming.

Occasionally the car hop was brave enough to hand Burt his burger, but most of the time I had to hand it through the back glass, and in one gulp it was gone.

I always used to think those were the best days of Burt’s life, but last night for the first time I think I realized, those were actually the best days of my life. Days spent with Burt were days where my companionship was appreciated, days where I was the recipient of nothing but gratitude, approval, and acceptance. Every decision I made was the right decision as far as Burt was concerned.

My point in sharing this is it is entirely possible to experience the best days of your life anytime you choose, but you do have to choose, I don’t think they just happen. I mean there are days that just occur as a matter of happenstance, and they turn out to be one of the best days of our lives and it’s always nice when that happens. But what’s even nicer is when we learn to create the best days ever as a matter of choice.

If I were your employer, and you had been working especially hard, and I said you know Mary I’ve noticed how hard you’ve been working lately, and I would like to pay you to take a day off, you would gladly accept that.

I can’t imagine Mary saying “ I love my job sooo much I’m going to forfeit my paid day off and just work instead” Where the real question comes in is not whether or not you would accept the paid day off, but what would you do with it? How many of us would seize the opportunity to make it the best day ever?

What I suspect we would do is anything but unplug, in our minds we would be thinking that we were doing what we wanted to do, but I think in reality we would be doing what needed to be done, could be laundry, could be washing the car, and while it is true we would feel fairly good be paid for accomplishing things that needed to be done, I don’t think that our spirit would benefit as much as if we did what we truly wanted to.

When was the last time you did, for an entire day exactly what you wanted to? Some would say well, I do what I want to everyday, so if you’re thinking that ask yourself this question, was yesterday one of the best days of your life? No? Why not?

Guys, I could tell you to take a day for yourself, but I wonder how many people would actually know what taking a day for yourself would mean? I mean for years I thought my days with Burt were the best days of his life, and I didn’t realize they were some of the best days of my life, because I didn’t recognize what the best day of my life would be like.

I have taken it upon myself to design an outline in order to describe what could become one of the best days of your life. It could be spontaneous but I think it would be better if planned. So start by writing your itinerary, what time you will begin and what time it will end, fill this day with yourself, make this day about everything that you like to do, or think you would like to do.

Leave your cell phone at home, or turn it off. Disconnect from anything and anyone that will rob you of the time you have set aside for your day, perhaps you might pack a picnic, if you choose to spend your best day away from your house, not what you have in the fridge, but whatever is your favorite lunch, go to your favorite place, or all your favorite places, and determine how much time you will spend at that place, or go to a place that you always thought you would like to go, I mean you have the whole day, plan it in advance, and really plan it around you, and what you want to do, once you have your itinerary stick to it, but most of all enjoy every single second, all you are really doing is spending time away from any controlling factors that could cause you not to have the best day ever.

This is different than thinking you always spend days with yourself; in this case you are looking for exclusivity, having the day all to yourself.

I have decided to take a sick day…a sick of everything day, or maybe I could call it taking a Burt day, maybe a me day, it doesn’t matter what I call it, or what you want to call it, what matters is that we take one.

I choose Friday, Friday is a good day it’s our community day, the day that is all about you, so it’s a perfect day to plan the best day ever. I can’t make you take it, but I can say if you have a long list of things that need to be done, and it seems that you never get it done, then I would think you could be overwhelmed.

There is no harm in stealing a day out of many to disappear, or hide from the World, you deserve it. I think everyone would be quite surprised how good they would feel, and how much clarity they would gain by truly unplugging from anything and everything for one day.

I believe that we are turning a corner, and very soon are going to become very busy, I think now is the perfect time to take a breather and realign ourselves with our thoughts, our goals, and most of all our purpose, and these are all things we can expect to become much more clear to us, if we can capture the opportunity to dedicate one day to what is important to us.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Become a Miracle Maker In Your Life

This is the lesson I prepared for yesterday’s call which was the 100th Daily Dose of Good call Throughout the last 100 hours several things have remained the same, our community has remained a small close nit community of courageous people who came here ready to tackle daily stress, overcome challenges in their personal and professional lives, people who were ready to grasp success and to grow in every aspect of their lives. The one thing that has changed is together we have grown, we have shared, cared and supported each other day in and day out. Many people spend a lifetime in search of the knowledge caring and support that we have in our community.

I personally have learned so much from you guys mainly how to give more of myself, and most importantly that Hope, Dreams, good will, and desire still exist and have value in a troubled World. Thanks guys, you make this a great place to be.

Let me start today by asking a question…

How would you feel if you were to suddenly become responsible for changing the World? Most of us would entertain the idea for about 30 seconds before proclaiming defeat in light of the magnitude of this responsibility.

While any one of us would quickly resist this responsibility there are thousands of World leaders who are simultaneously working to do exactly that, Presidents, Ambassadors, Prime Ministers, Members of the United Nations, Spiritual leaders, and the list goes on and on.

The good news is…we can relax because luckily our role in changing the world is to simply take responsibility for changing ourselves that too could feel as though it would take a miracle for some.

So today we are going to talk about

How to be a Miracle maker in your life, create the change you desire

Here's a fascinating secret about miracles: You can't necessarily always place an order for magic at will, but you can deliberately create the conditions -- environment, atmosphere and attitude -- that make miracles a thousand times more likely to occur. Want to know how you can create a miracle-friendly world? Here are a few practical steps you can take, to help you bring magic into your relationships, body, finances and more!

Your ability to Make Miracles is in direct proportion to your willingness to:

1. Tell yourself more truth about the situation you want to transform

The more honest you are about where you're really at, the more personal power you have to realize your dreams. By aligning yourself accurately with what is real, you retrieve all of the life force you've invested in holding together false situations and relationships. This re-captured energy then attracts the goals you desire. In this universe what's congruent gets the energy. What's not congruent doesn't get the energy. Where aren't you being honest or accurate about some aspect of your life? What truth about your life is right now safe, timely, helpful, nurturing and liberating for you to acknowledge to yourself?

2. Act "outside the box"

All magic occurs beyond the boundaries of your current belief system. What obstacles lie between you and moving outside your "comfort zone?" Where could you let your vision for your life be more outrageous? More fun? More of what you really want?

3. Withdraw from collective mass consciousness

Step beyond general consensus to remove the limits of what's possible for you to have. Many people have changed society -- and had fun -- by doing "what couldn't be done." You can too. When you withdraw your energy field from the energy field of the tribal collective agreement, you can create outside that agreement. Be "in the world, but not of it." Where in your life could you step a little further outside of mass consciousness thinking?

4. Use the Law of Attraction: Energize what you love with gratitude

Our magnetic field of energy is always (all ways) attracting exactly what we need to create our heart's desires. Discover the ancient wisdom of multiplying what you have with deep thankfulness. As you pour the vibration of appreciation into the love, health, prosperity and joy that you already have, this vibration will magnetize more of the same to you. It's the physics of the Universe. What aspects of your life could you right now be genuinely grateful for?

5. Experience "concrete, physical" reality as energy

When we choose to experience so-called "solid" things as the vibrational energy -- fields of energy -- that they actually are, these aspects of our reality become infinitely more malleable and flexible in responding to our intentions. Where are you willing right now to open to experiencing your body -- and other people, conditions, animals, rocks, emotions -- as an energy field (a life force whose flow is dynamic) rather than as fixed, static, solid objects?

6. Reclaim your Personal Power

Are you energizing ideas and activities and maintaining relationships that no longer serve you? When you choose to invest in those relationships and situations that do feed your dreams, you regain tremendous personal power. When you choose to call back your spirit from the people, ideas and activities that no longer serve you, you regain tremendous personal power to invest in those relationships and situations that do feed your dreams. What are you tolerating, avoiding or denying in your life right now? Where are you compromising, sacrificing or settling for something less than what you really want? Where could you invest your time, energy and attention that would really serve you?

7. Relax your grip on your belief system

When you release your vise grip on the rigid, fixed beliefs you inherited from society, the things can shift that need to shift for something new, fresh, wonderful and miraculous to happen to you. What are your beliefs about how life operates? How important are these beliefs to your survival, identity, reputation (which is no more than a need for approval) and sense of worth? In what areas of your life could you right now relax your need to control the exact functioning of the people and events around you?

8. Build Your Chi – Your Internal Life Force Energy

Our free attention, time and energy are the lifeblood of our ability to create and attract what we desire in life. The more we consciously manage and steward these natural assets, the more we can build a reservoir and reserve of miracle-producing power. Where could you be more accessible to energy-giving situations and people? Where could you be more inaccessible to energy-draining situations and people? How can you naturally and easily "build your internal life force chi" through activities that are fun for you? What in your life are you not experiencing as an adventure?

9. Connect directly with Spirit

Your soul is in charge of your life! Your spirit has been running the show from behind the stage curtain since the beginning of time. Open a direct line to the wonders, wisdom, support and guidance of your own brilliant soul plan. How do you meditate or pray? Is it as effective as you would like?

10. Align your personality with your soul

When you're aligned with your true intentions in being here this lifetime, prosperity flows automatically with no effort or doingness. Align your everyday lifestyle with your soul vision and receive all the support, energy and love you need—and begin to enjoy the ride! What actions could you take that would bring your life more in accord with your life purpose? What changes could you make to be more authentic in your life?

11. Allow yourself to receive from Spirit

The primary joy and purpose of our spirit friends – God, the Ascended Masters, guardian angels, spirit guides, nature divas, spirit animals –whatever you call them their purpose is to assist us to reach our life goals. Do you regularly ask for assistance, and let in love and energy from your other dimensional allies?

12. Embrace your Shadow

What you choose not to see, you can't change. What weaknesses, faults, fears and shortcomings do you feel you have -- socially, physically, spiritually, romantically, financially, sexually? Are you willing to open up to your soul's point of view on your so-called "dark side"?

13. Hang with people who nurture you

By your own pre-arranged conscious design, old soulmates deliver messages to you that trigger timely awareness, and awakening. What people and environments are not entirely safe, supportive or inspiring for you to be with? Where could you refuse to let another be reckless with your heart? Where could you be less reckless with another's heart? Where could you celebrate the success of others?

14. Listen to your body

Our body is a natural feedback system to keep us abreast of how well we are dealing with the pressures and demands of life. What lessons is your body reflecting to you? What wake-up calls from your body have you been denying? What's the weight you are carrying around? What's your body dying to tell you?

15. Follow the guiding signs and synchronicities Spirit gives you everyday

Our soul is always (in all ways) trying to steer us toward our goals. We live in an interactive, responsive universe that is designed to fulfill our deepest dreams -- if we would only play along! Allow your intuition to guide you to the forms and vehicles that will empower your spirit to express fully. What messages and signals has the Universe been sending you that you have been ignoring, misinterpreting, or are afraid to act on?

16. Choose to be innocent (free) of the past: Welcome surprise and serendipity

Open the door to more magic, meaning and money in your world by learning to suspend skepticism and conditioned responses. Learn to surf through the surprises of life, instead of being swept away by them. Where could you approach your goals with more flexibility, openness and sense of play?

17. Feng-shui your life: Give yourself a "spaceshift"

Feng-shui is the ancient art of consciously managing matter and energy within space. By intuitively re-arranging the elements of your daily life, you create the space to nurture the freedom, opportunities and effectiveness you desire. By clearing out the old, dead elements of your life, you create a natural vacuum and an unblocked channel for fresh, new energy and ideas to come into your private and professional life. How could you unblock your energy now? Where can you re-arrange the ways you live your everyday life in a fresh, new, intuitive way?

18. Live your life as an experiment

Consider your life as the latest -- and greatest -- experiment by human consciousness to express Heaven on Earth -- or just to have fun playing in the 3rd dimension. Where could you lighten up, celebrate and have more humor in your approach to living?

I think that was a pretty good recap of most of the things we have covered on our daily dose of good calls, one thing we know for sure is there is truth in these messages, many of us have grown, and have experienced wonderful changes in our lives, simply because we chose to become more aware, and more open to accepting our true human potential as an infinite source of power to change, create, and attract all of that which we desire most in our lives.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

New School Network Marketing and the Law of Attraction

New School network marketing and the Universal Law of Attraction

Over the past few years there has been an increased amount of publicity on the Universal Law of Attraction especially after the release of the bestselling book “The Secret”.

The interesting thing about the Law of Attraction is that it is just as real as The Law of Gravity and your life is affected by it every day no matter if you realize it or not.

If you pay attention to this…

You may actually be able to attract more Prosperity instead of Lack into your life and especially within your network marketing business

FACT #1:
The Universal Law if Attraction is always working (hence otherwise it would not be true to call it a Law); and everyone is affected by it in some way all the time.

FACT #2
According to The Law of Attraction, as a person you will attract into your personal life experience that with which you are in vibrational harmony.

In other words there is a direct correlation or connection between what you are vibrating through both your thoughts and emotions with the actual circumstances and results you are attracting in your life.

This is very important to understand in order to attract Prosperity into your life because everything is created through energetic vibration.In essence this is the major Master Key to enjoying a happy and prosperous life.

THINK your favorite radio station….
For example whenever you feel like listening to your favorite station, you set your tuner to your station’s specific numbers/letters on your radio, which is also tuned in to a specific vibrational match on your radio.

So even though there are many different radio stations all broadcasting simultaneously out there every moment of the day, you are not aware of them and essentially they do not become part of your experience until you actually tune in and change the station.

Here’s the deal…
The same principle applies to attracting Prosperity. Even if you want to become prosperous, if your thoughts are on debt and lack, this is what will keep showing up in your life.
In other words---YOU will attract whatever you focus on, believe in and you are in vibrational harmony with be it positive or negative.
REMEMBER THIS:
The Universal Law of Attraction doesn’t necessarily respond to what you may want, e.g. Prosperity, Abundance and happiness etc, but only to the energy and vibration you are sending out based upon what you focus on with your thoughts and emotions.

In a nutshell
One of the hardest things for most people to do is keeping a positive mental attitude especially in the mist of so much negativity all around.

However the unfortunate reality is… The very act of focusing your thoughts on what you don’t want such as debt, bad relationships or lack of money, you unwittingly also attract more of the same into your life.

There are two magnetic energy fields all around us and one is positive and the other is negative. You determine which one you will plug into with your thoughts just like you can make the choice of cold or hot water by turning the right water knob.

The first step in using the Law of Attraction to attract more Prosperity is Awareness.
Here is what I call The Prosperity Formula or the Hidden Order of the Prosperous.

Be-Do-Have...

This Prosperity formula translates to mean that in essence if YOU want to have more in life, then YOU must do more, and in order to do more, YOU must first Become more.

In other words the Master Key to Prosperity, you must find a way to change the way you are being based upon your thoughts and positive, prosperous way of thinking.
So always think about what you do want and develop the awareness that Prosperity is a choice and abundance is available to all.

Also in the game of life there is both positive and negative magnetic energy all around you, and YOU win or lose simply by the one YOU chose.So why is it that as Network marketers we seem to rely more on The Law of Attraction than the rest of the world? Why are we more receptive to the whole theory? I mean are we REALLY that different? Yes and No.

I’m going to try to sum it up like this. In the general population, the population of stuck in a rut status quo people see the video “ The Secret” and they say oh, ok that was interesting, then they try to apply what they have learned in their own lives, so let’s say they start with their job. The job they hate. Even if they don’t hate it have you ever noticed any speaker talking to the general work force will always note that they should be attracting a NEW job, or a Promotion, this tells me that as far as most people out there the emotion surrounding their employment is one of discontentment they hate their jobs!

Well when I was in Corporate America I loved my job, but I didn’t love the people, being responsible for my store budget was never the issue, but being responsible for every single employee was the issue, the number of employees varied by season, but at any given time there was between 80 and 120 employees in the building, and each and every one of them came to work every single day wearing their life issues on their shirt sleeve.

Mary’s dog died, John’s wife left, Fred’s car broke down, and on and on and on. I was able to teach them that when they walked out that door they left the store in the store, but I could never teach them to leave their life in the parking lot.

For me there was no promotion that would change that, and there was no job that would be any different. Stress, as a result of being surrounded by people with so much negativity, or life injury was in escapable. I declared myself physiologically unemployable.

So when you take these people, those who actually have a job and you introduce them to the Law of Attraction, you are going to give them hope for change, but you cannot eliminate the emotional barriers that stand in their way.

The biggie…a steady paycheck, how would anyone be able to attract a new job by clinging to the SAME PAYCHECK? They can’t because by holding on they are effectively saying “I need this” “I want this” “This is enough” got to have it got to have it ect, and you know what? It’s all true the do need it, they do want it, and it is enough, so they are sending out a message that nothing needs to change, even when seeking a promotion not knowing whether or not it’s coming causes them to cling to the same old paycheck again, a definite road block.

We know now that they don’t have to give up their job, or their paycheck, I mean if it’s paying the bills why would you, how could you? But…they do have to be willing to, they have to be willing to see beyond what is without attachment to what will be in order to manifest any degree of change in their situation, but no one is telling them this.

It’s different for us, not because we are so different, mainly because we don’t have the paycheck, we are not clinging to what is, we are manifesting what will be, we do this because the potential like a carrot is very clearly promoted in our Industry, in every business that carrot, or potential for earnings is straight up front, so we clearly see what we are working towards and what we should be visualizing in our future, and we do this without clinging to what is…our vision is always on the maximum potential.

But…there is also a flaw in this as well, top Industry owners are now capitalizing on the law of attraction to lure people from one place to the other, and that’s fine except for one very important thing, and that is what they are NOT telling you. What they are not telling you is how disruptive this is to your process, they are content with moving you from one place to the other, they really don’t care if you find success or not, you are just going to have to take my word on this, they DO NOT CARE.

By traveling hither and yon, or chasing their Rainbows you will never ever be able to attract prosperity, this is a fact. The reason being is that you are constantly in pursuit, therefore the message you are sending out is one of definite indecision, it’s just as powerful as being completely unaware of your ability to create change in your life, it’s as powerful as if you got up every morning and declared to the Universe “I don’t know what I want” “I don’t know where I’m going” and “I don’t know how I’m going to get there” how is it that anyone who has any degree of knowledge wouldn’t know this? The Universe responds to question marks with…absolutely nothing!

There are a lot of really great opportunities, great opportunities to apply your knowledge and create exactly what you want in life, however, you have to make a decision, plant yourself, and stay there, it is only then that you can truly being to create focus, and send very definitive messages that clearly identify not only what you want you want, but that you know how you’re going to get there, where it’s going to come from. The bottom line is this, every time you make a change you are starting your process all over again.

The most important thing is this, it really doesn’t matter where you go if you are going there chasing the carrot, it does matter how you perceived where you are, how you feel, if you feel good about the potential, the people, or any aspect of where you are, stay there, grow there and manifest there. If you FEEL good about it creating success and prosperity will come easily. Remember you can’t fool the Universe, if there is one hint of gee I wonder if this is going to be like all the rest? Or one question mark, nothing is going to change.

One thing I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt is that I feel good, very good about where I am. Not only that but I can’t even count the reason why I feel good about it because there are so many. I guess one of the biggest reasons is because the majority of people here…feel good about being here…they feel good about where they are…and they feel even better about where they are going, who cares if it’s taking a while to get there, creating in our lives has been happening… it continues to happen …and the most important thing of all is the fact that the Universe delivers on good…and where we are now we are surrounded by good…selfless good intention towards other people is the absolute foundation of Every Month A Million…and that is POWERFUL stuff.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Understanding Intuitiveness

As I mentioned yesterday we are going to talk about coping with intuitiveness, and bringing your inner knowledge into a relationship effectively, we have to start by understanding intuition, while we all have the undeniable knowledge that it exists, we should understand what it is in order to learn to trust, or rely on it.

The Law of Attraction and the Ultradian Rest Response

You see, there is a great difference between ‘thinking’ and ‘knowing’. Thinking is a purely intellectual activity. It mainly takes place as electrochemical processes in your body and brain.

‘Knowing’ on the other hand, transcends intellect. It is what is often called ‘intuition’. Intuition is often defined as ‘immediate knowing’, without the conscious use of reasoning. There is no sequence of thoughts following up on each other leading to an outcome. It’s just there, instantly. Bang! You suddenly get it. “Aha!” It appears to be stemming from a whole different source of awareness compared to the ‘rational mind’ or intellect that we tend to use so much in our lives.

There are five basic senses that we acknowledge which are what we hear, see, smell, taste and touch; we know that they exist because we rely on them every second of everyday.

Intuition, could be said to be part of another set of senses, that exist in every human being, some are just more apt to rely on intuitiveness than others. A sub-sense so to speak that also exists is what’s known as the flight or fight response, understand that this is called a response because although it begins from a place of inner knowing or sensing an uncomfortable or dangerous situation it evokes a physical effect in your body beyond knowing, the physical response includes an increased heart rate, and preparation for all muscle groups that would literally be needed to “flee” to physically prepare to meet an increased demand.

There is a lot more to that but that is the simplified explanation. My point is that this begins with intuitiveness or inner knowing that is strong enough to create a physical response in your body.

This would also explain why when you have an unusually stressful day you experience a stiff neck or other achy muscles, you can’t argue with science, but you can understand it, and understand it in a way that allows you to use it to your benefit. One thing that is important to note is while science agrees that the body changes physically as a result of the fight or flight syndrome they do support the presence of intuitive, even though we see the connection science will never endorse what is not measurable.

In our modern societies, we find ourselves under so much pressure to ignore intuition and to rationalize everything that happens. We’d rather go with our ‘heads’ than go with our ‘hearts’. We learn that from an early age in our education system, which puts the main focus on the left part of the brain, the intellectual and analytical part. As a consequence, if you’re like most people, you tend to ‘over-rationalize’ everything. You regularly get the feeling that you want to do something, and it really makes your heart sing. But then your intellect rears its ugly head, and suppresses the ‘intuitive knowing’ you just experienced by using the limiting thoughts and emotions that have been dominating your being and thinking for long. You start to think and feel things like: “Oh dear, who am I to think I can do that?”“Oh my, what will my mother say?”“Goodness, what will the boys at the bar think if I do that?”“Dear me, my parents will get angry for not doing something with my education…”“That can’t be right.

Scientists say that this is not true. Who am I to think otherwise?” Thoughts like this have ruled most people for all their lives and forced them into submission. The repetition that has been going on for years has created ‘habits’ to go with the ‘head’ all the time instead of the ‘heart’. The moment you have intuitive knowing and your heart starts to sing, you immediately begin to doubt it and you’re pulled back into line. “I can’t do that, it’s not responsible. What about my job?”“I’d love to do this, but…”“If I could ever do this… Nah, I can’t do that. I must have gone mad.”“What will the neighbors think?” You’re systematically pulled in line, back to the image of artificially imposed norms of what ‘society’ or others think you are supposed to be. It is ignoring the deepest core of yourself, and the intelligence of the magnitude that you are deep inside.

When you look at it this way, it’s not a surprise that your intuition is often at odds with what you think. The intuitive knowing stems from a source that has a much greater overview, the bigger picture. It sees what the ‘knowing’ and associated action will lead to. The rational intellect always has a limited perspective that is quite likely even colored by societal and religious ‘norms’, or ‘bad memories’ of certain events, which itself are often limited interpretations of what were actually stepping stones into a whole new reality.

Ernest Rossi, Ph.D., is an internationally renowned psychotherapist, teacher, and pioneer in the field of mind/body healing. In his book The Psychobiology of Mind/Body Healing, he describes how during an ultradian rest response your body goes into a mode that makes you more receptive to the unconscious parts of your being: “This is the time when it is easiest to access our own intuition, your own internal imagery. Thoughts are most likely to be closer to the unconscious. This is a time when the unconscious wants all the energy it can get. If you train yourself to just watch and observe and not intrude, you are going to fall into what is called ‘reverie’ or ‘hypnagogic state’, what I call its more naturally intuitive state.

”So when do you ‘know’ instead of just ‘think’? How can you distinguish? Well, it’s largely a feeling, but Dr. Laurie Nadel gives you some hints in her book Sixth Sense: Unlocking Your Ultimate Mind Power: “Do you find yourself losing concentration during certain times of the day? Perhaps it comes as a sudden touch of fatigue, or a subtle mental fuzziness. All of a sudden, you feel droopy. Your eyes may tear. You can’t stop yawning, or you sigh. Maybe you find yourself staring out the window, your mind far away from the tasks at hand. If somebody speaks to you, you find yourself startled by the sound of a voice. Or you don’t understand what was said the first time and ask the speaker to repeat himself.

”According to Dr. Nadel, these are signs that your body is entering the ultradian rest response. At times that this occurs, your body is most attuned to your intuition, as the four main regulatory systems of your body (endocrine system, autonomic nervous system, immune system and neuropeptides in your brain) align to the unconscious, greater or higher levels of yourself. This is not something uncommon. Everyone experiences this all the time, probably daily. The trick is to recognize it. Even some of the greatest minds in modern history accepted the importance of intuition: Albert Einstein said “The only real valuable thing is intuition.” Henri Poincare’ (one of France’s greatest mathematicians and theoretical physicists) said “It is by logic that we prove, but by intuition that we discover.

”According to Dr. Nagel, ignoring the signals of the ultradian rest response or trying to suppress them can cause you to become irritable, uncomfortable, and even depressed. However, she emphasizes that if you allow them and flow with them, they can be moments of great inspiration.

Here’s what she says: “This is the best time to take a break rather than forcing yourself to push through the fatigue. You can think of it as your intuition break, time to take a deep breath, close your eyes, and allow impressions from your intuitive right hemisphere [right brain] to flow through your mind. You are working on a project and would like help from your intuition, this is the time to ask for it. It is also a good time to meditate.” Meditation is not a must. All you need to do is trust your intuition and listen to your inspirations.

True enough, you are blessed with an intellectual mind too. But it shouldn’t dominate your intuitive knowing and suppress it.

The thing is that ‘attraction’ doesn’t happen like things just falling out of the sky right on your lap. It often works through inspirations to do something or go somewhere. Your inspirations and hunches point you towards things you can do to bring about the changes in your life that you desire. Ignore them, and you won’t ‘attract’ what you want. But follow along with them, and magic happens. And finally, always realize this… ‘Intuitive knowing’ can be unique to the knower, which is you. What may feel good for you, doesn’t have to feel good for others.

Everyone is unique. You will be inspired to do something that is best for you, and that matches what you want. That can be totally different from anyone else. Besides, not everyone wants the same thing, at least if everyone would follow their true ‘wants’, not the ‘wants’ imposed by the image of what others think you should want. No one should judge or ridicule what another feels is good for him or her, as long as the person never seeks to impose anything on anyone else. That is the freedom of life we need, that will change everyone’s life radically, and the whole world with it.

Although we should never be judged or ridiculed for what we feel, we will more often than not completely ignore that which comes intuitively because we feel we will be judged. The truth is in many cases you would be. There are times when we find it would be acceptable to allow intuitiveness into our conversations or relationships and we tend to identify those times by playing the woman’s intuition, or the mother’s intuition cards, why is it we feel the need to validate what we are feeling with these statements? Why is it not enough to just rely on our intuition without feeling the need to justify it by playing recognizable cards hoping for acceptance of that which is normal, natural, and everyone has it? Why don’t we just say…because I know that’s why?

I have always been much more intuitive than I wanted to be, there was a time when it worked for me, my children were young, and I could, and would say it’s mothers intuition that’s how I know. But as they became older it didn’t work so well they became aware that I couldn’t prove my feelings to be a fact, and although they too had periods of intuitiveness they knew in an argument or discussion feelings of knowing would not, could not ever incriminate them. Therefore they denied the accuracy of “I just know”, now something important happened in the mean time, as young adults they have validated mother’s intuition, they joke about it, how they got busted every time by Mother’s intuition, evil intuition, but when the intuition card comes into play they still rely heavily on the fact that it cannot be proven accurate. In other words they trust it when it’s working for them but will disprove it if it’s working against them.

So how do we learn to communicate in our relationships when we have periods of intuitiveness, in other words what would you do, or say if your child wanted to go out on a Friday night and for whatever reason you had an uneasy feeling about it?

Your left logical side of your Brain would say this is not intuition, it stems from fear based on knowledge of what could happen. Years ago my Son wanted to go cliff diving with some friends one Saturday afternoon, my intuition immediately told me that for whatever reason this was a very bad idea, so I said “no” my Son was 17 at the time, had a car had a license, and for all practical purposes I knew had he decided to go he could go. I used all the typical mother responses, because I said so, no, no, don’t ask me again, and it went on and on, until finally I decided to go with it, and said “look Son, I just don’t want you to go, I have an uneasy feeling about the whole thing, and I just do not want you to go” his face told me he accepted what I felt, and he did not go. It is true that it could have been fear based on the knowledge that it was dangerous, fear of what could happen, in the end it doesn’t matter, what matters is that I was able to sell him on my belief.

I have said before that above all else we have to trust and believe in ourselves in order to create in our lives. Is intuitiveness a universal response to what you want? Is this inner knowing a method of guiding you in the direction that you have chosen? I believe so, and if this is true, then we have to find away to incorporate our intuitive responses into our relationships with those who are co creating in our lives, and we have to rely on intuition to guide us in the right direction, first by acknowledgement that it exists, and is a valid decision making response. Second by calling a spade a spade, and avoid trying to sugar coat it by denying that what you are saying is based on a knowledge that you simply can’t explain.

The most effective delivery of intuitive thinking would be to say to your child, or your spouse, or whoever “look, I can’t explain it, but I just know this is a bad idea. Or Look, I can’t explain it but it feels like the right thing to do”. Like all other things, once you believe and trust yourself, when faced with a situation where you need to communicate with someone based on your intuition your conviction will show through. You have to do this in spite of the fact that technically science is not on your side, and technically it does not could not and will not hold water in a discussion. It is always what you believe that changes everything, when you trust yourself, trust your feelings, and your inner knowing, your conviction, your belief will be all the validation your knowing needs to be accepted in the co-creating process.

Never shy away from what you know…always validate that knowing with belief and conviction, the more you come to rely on your intuitiveness, the more intuitive you become, the more intuitive you become the more you are allowing your inner self to assist you in creating that which you desire most.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Are You Landscaping with Love

Today Lori started by sharing a quote: She did change one of the words to make it more appropriate content for the call, the quote is..

Mud in a box, no matter how pretty the paper, or how big the bow…will never be more than mud.

And that quote was by Anthony Craig Darnell…Her Brother

Then she went on to tell us about her Easter ......

Yesterday my Brother and I spent the afternoon with Granny, we planted her a flower bed, now let me say this in our minds it was a flower bed, her birdbath, and 5 roses surrounded by some stones, when we got there we told her “Granny we’re going to build you a flower bed for Easter”…Two hours into the project Granny declared that a miracle had happened in her life, that she woke up this morning with the same old yard but she was going to bed with a rose garden. When love is the landscaper a flower bed, can become a rose garden, the only real miracle that happened yesterday is that Granny was there to see her Rose Garden.

When we finished our project we sat on the porch with Granny to enjoy a glass of tea and admire our handiwork, a friend of my Brothers stopped by and the topic turned to relationships, based on the fact that love turned a flower bed into a rose garden.

My Brother made a very valuable assessment when he said I wish I knew what happened to the days when people brought more to a relationship than their opinion. Anymore it seems like people have nothing more to offer, nothing to give of themselves just their opinion. He said sometimes I want to say when did your opinion become all you feel you have to offer of yourself? Followed by the quote.

Mud in a box, no matter how pretty the paper, or how big the bow…will never be more than mud.

Then he said take my sister for example, by comparison you could say she’s a brown bag of confetti never concerned about the presentation, always concerned about the content, and she never fails to make you feel good about something.

We all had a good laugh, but I really put some thought into this, when comparing the two one is no more valuable than the other, mud and confetti would have to be very similar in actual value, but the effect regardless of the presentation is completely different a box of mud might evoke a “what the??” Response and I can’t imagine that the response would be favorable; where as the brown bag of confetti…would put a smile on anyone’s face. That would kind of be like a party in a bag.

I think it’s important that we ask ourselves are we a box of mud in our relationships or a brown bag of confetti?

Without a doubt communication is the key to effective and lasting change in our relationships. I believe that my Brother is right, not only have we become people, who bring nothing more than our opinions to our relationships, but we are also allowing ourselves to be surrounded by people who bring nothing more than their opinion into our relationship, I believe this happened under the radar because I hadn’t even considered it until now.

Quality conversation which is the basis for good quality relationships is undeniably the biggest challenge we face, too often we are poised with our opinion rather than poised to bring love, compassion and understanding into the relationship…or confetti.

One thing we know for sure is there is only one way to change our relationship with other people, and that is to change ourselves. Changing ourselves is the only thing we can ever do. When I look back on the most explosive disagreements I ever had with my husband or my children, I can see now that they were a direct result of me coming forward with my opinion, I can see how I met with resistance, see I think a lot of times when someone offers their opinion in our minds were thinking that we didn’t ask for it. Which reminds us of that saying if I wanted your opinion I would have asked for it, there is probably a select group of people in our lives that we would actually say this too…most we would not.

So why if we feel that way would we expect anyone to accept our opinions when we throw them out there? We should expect the same result, should we not?

What can we expect to see if we change ourselves, if we replace our opinions with confetti which represents Love, compassion, and understanding, would we meet with less rejection? I believe so.

Change always starts with us; this is true in every aspect of our lives and every aspect of our relationships, not just the areas of our choosing…we change in order to create change.

Making a change in regard to how we approach our relationships is the only way to create the response in others that we desire. We should learn to love our way into conversation rather than opinion our way in.

When given the choice of bringing our opinions to a relationship, a box of mud, or bringing confetti I think we would evoke a more positive response with confetti. It is a choice we make.The bottom line is we all have value and substance to bring to our relationships I think the key to change in our relationships lies in the presentation. Which is what we choose it to be, a beautifully wrapped package of mud, or the brown bag special? Change begins with us, and ends with the manifestation of change in others.

We create quality relationships through our actions first, the pace at which our relationships grow is based on our approach as well, and how often we can remember that we have more, so much more than our opinions to offer.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Living Your Perfect Body Now

I read a couple of quotes this morning. The first being a quote by Albert Einstein who said “I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

Think about this, if visualization is one of the keys to creating anything we desire, and visualization begins with the imagination then can we not create anything? We can imagine anything by tapping into all the visual images stored in our mind to create the perfect picture, a very real picture of anything we desire. We can create anything that we can imagine.

Deepak Chopra said “In order to change the printout of the body, we must learn to rewrite the software of the mind.”

Michael Thurmond is probably one of the most recognized trainers in the country. He is the creator of the 6 week body make over. One of the physical training methods he uses most is resistance training.

Resistance bands are relatively inexpensive very effective tools in the world of core muscle definition. Basically a giant rubber band in a world of Bow flexes, and other high end equipment that you can build your home gym around.

I’m not a fitness expert, but I have been told that the basic concept of building muscle definition starts with breaking down the tissue, or causing injury, and then the recovery process begins. I guess that’s where the no pain, no gain expression comes from. In my mind the very thought of this is beyond comprehension.

However, I was watching an infomercial early one morning, and I really began to grasp the concept of resistance bands, and why they are such an effective training tool. See resistance bands, giant rubber bands when used correctly allow you to connect using your mind to the core muscle you are looking to define. I believe one of the reasons Michael Thurmond is such an effective trainer is because he is an expert in the mind body connection, by using a resistance band as a tool he can actually teach people to use their minds to zero in on the core muscle group to maximize their results in a very short period of time without tremendous discomfort.

Visualization once again is the key to change, only in this example it’s applying your attention to change within the body. In order to change the printout of the body, we must learn to rewrite the software of the mind. The mind body connection is key in your desire to live in the perfect body now.

Another validation would be hypnosis; there are now very effective audio materials that professional hypnotists have made available in mp3 format for people to overcome just about any challenge, such as smoking, and eating disorders, the science behind hypnosis which I find amazing is that they are actually applying technique to re programming the brain, or rewriting the software of the mind. Literally creating a new belief in your mind, and once the belief is reprogrammed it becomes your reality. The change in your belief becomes your result.

Mind body connection. No matter what physical changes have occurred in your body they can be reversed. I have a friend who lost I think it was somewhere around 30 pounds a few years back, and remarkably enough she did this by writing her ideal weight, or at least what she wanted to weigh on index cards, and she put them in various places around her house, now the funny thing is all of the cards were turned over except the one on the fridge, but it didn’t matter because all they said was a number, 128, she didn’t have to see it because she didn’t see the card, she saw the number in her mind, the card only served to remind her of her goal. To this day she says that was the easiest thing she ever did. She never focused on what she had to do to get there, she just knew she would, and the cards served the purpose of keeping that goal in the forethought of her mind.

The one thing you have to know is there is always the beautiful body within, it never goes anywhere, it’s always there waiting.

One way to reconnect with that body is based on the same theory as resistance bands, the ability to mentally feel that sculpture, to think inward instead of outward, because therein lies the secret to uncovering what is already there.

Remember we approach everything from the inside out, not the other way around, everything on the outside, is outside influence, and it serves very little purpose in us creating our desires.

Even though my friends cards were on the outside, her belief was on the inside and the only purpose, just like a vision board that they served was as a reminder of what she needed to focus her mind or attention on.

Weight loss is a trillion dollar a year industry, but yet time and time again we hear testimonials that people tried everything and nothing worked. Finally something came along that did, I personally believe the only thing that really changed was their belief for some reason they believed more in the results that could be achieved with one product over another, not that it was really more effective, or that it really did anything more than another, but the sales pitch was right, the psychology was well written and their belief based on actually some very crafty wording, it was the change in their belief that actually created the results.

Body sculpting, or body revisualization is a technique that works along the lines as resistance bands, body sculpting is learning to effectively feel the inner body you desire, if you can relax and clear your mind you can do body sculpting exercises. Body sculpting is simply the ability to feel what lies behind the surface of what is to be able to think inwardly and sculpt or trace the lines of that which you desire. To use your imagination to mentally trace the size and shape of your body. When you begin the process of doing this you are training your mind to see yourself in this way, as a result your beliefs will become altered, and other habits that have perhaps resulted in a change that is less than what you desire will become altered as well. The more you do this the easier it becomes, you are simply feeling it real.

Amazingly enough this can actually work outwardly as well, if you want to grow the size of your body you can trace or sculpt beyond the surface of what is.

Our minds are the most wondrous things in the universe, yet for hundreds of years we have become content with using a very small portion our minds to guide us through the process of daily living, and have chosen to ignore our infinite human potential that each of us possess.

The one thing that above all else you have to come to terms with is that you can have anything and everything you desire, an infinite list of change and growth is achievable once you accept your potential and commit to using more of it to change that which is less than you desire

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

The Art Of Allowing


The art of allowing
I read a quote last night that I wanted to share."A great attitude does much more than turn on the lights in our worlds; it seems to magically connect us to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before we changed."- Earl NightingaleIf you wanted to date this quote you would have to go way back, back beyond the secret to a time when the laws of quantum Physics we just coming into hard core play.To break this down we have to dissect the quote in to smaller groups of words,"A great attitude does much more than turn on the lights in our worlds; it seems to magically connect us to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before we changed."- Earl NightingaleStart with a great attitude, we know that our attitude stems from our convictions or beliefs; if you believe something as you should it becomes impossible to have a bad attitude towards that belief, even when you believe something negative your attitude is not bad, it becomes one of acceptance, an attitude of accepting things for what they are.By having a great attitude you are definitely exhibiting a positive belief then according to the quote it seems to magically connect us…to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before we changedSerendipitous means wondrous, inspired, or fortuitous and all of these things were absent before we changed.So basically what is being said here is that with attitude, which is positive thinking, we seem to become magically connected to all sorts of serendipitous, which are wondrous, Inspired fortuitous opportunities, and this all occurred as a result of a change in our thinking.Now when you hear the quote, "A great attitude does much more than turn on the lights in our worlds; it seems to magically connect us to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before we changed." You cannot over look the validation in this message; this message confirms that by changing us we magically open up a world of infinite possibilitiesLast night I was on the phone with my Brother for two hours, and during our conversation he said you are amazing, the truth is we are all amazing, every one of us. Where the problem comes in is that many people have an inability to accept the fact that they are amazing. I told him, all I do, all I ever do is what I’m supposed to do.What he actually did was call my attention to the fact that although we are all amazing beings, only a select few are actually living an amazing life, only a few are doing what they are supposed to do. The reason why we get recognized for being amazing is because our cause and our actions stand out in a crowd. The True believers are the minority. Which is the opposite of how it should be.When it comes to the Law of Attraction, there is nothing to master, and nothing to learn, all you are doing is observing what has existed since the beginning of time, the way our Universe yields results to us based on our beliefs and convictions. It has always worked in your life, for the good or for the bad, based on your true belief, and the depth or strength of that belief.However the Law of allowing is something that must be learned, the reason true believers stand out in a crowd as being amazing is because they have mastered the art of allowing, it is this group of people that know how to live and create with the right attitude, an attitude becomes a way of life, and your attitude stems from your belief, in order to allow good, you have to do good, feel good and be good, you have to have your brothers back, give when you can give, in order to get when you can get.When we have mastered the art of allowing, so how do we know when we have mastered the art of allowing? It’s simple, when you can give your most prized possession to your worst enemy, or the person who would for all practical purposes deserve it least, you are the master of allowing, then and only then can any and all things come to you. As I said before this doesn’t mean you have to give away your most prized possession what it simply means is you have to exist knowing you could do it.If we hold our material possessions in such a high regard that we can’t possibly part with them, we are sending out a very definite message that we want to keep exactly what we have, we want nothing more, and we just want to keep things exactly as we are.That message is in direct conflict with the art of allowing, you see in our world we have to give to get, the only thing is we are not talking about physicality, we are talking about attitude, or belief, you don’t have to give away your most prized possession but the ability to give it away the belief that you can must become the core of what you belief, in order to affectively create, you must be able to affectively give, in your mind while you must be thankful and grateful for that which you have you must also maintain a separation from those things, disconnecting emotionally from your most prized possessions allows you to receive more, cling to what you have, and it will always be what you have.One exercise to test where you are emotionally in your ability to allow is simple it sounds simple but having done it; especially in this day and age it can be very challenging for some. You do not have to do this, this is simply evaluating your ability to be open to allowing.We are not talking about what you actually do we are talking about what you can do, and affirming that you are positioned with an attitude or belief that will allow you to receive.Put an amount of money, cash in an unmarked envelope, no identification what so ever, and send it to anyone you know that might need it. You do not have to be literally aware of their need, for instance if you know someone perhaps that just lost their job, and has a Family that would be an ideal candidate; you must be able to look past your personal opinion of this person, in other words if you know two people who have equal need, or you believe to have need, and you like one more than the other, or you feel one to be more deserving to further test your abilities you would send to the person whom you liked least, this is a real test. You don’t have to even do it, all you have to do is to know that you can.When you start thinking about doing this you may begin to feel uncomfortable, I never said how much money so it is not that which is causing discomfort, what is making you uncomfortable more often than not is the idea that you are doing something good or amazing and you are doing it without the ability to be recognized, that the physical act of doing this would not be known as an action that you took….however when your beliefs are as they should be, you will know without a doubt that you are being recognized by the only force that matters in your life, and that is the all knowing world around you that responds serendipitously to your attitude, your beliefs, and your actions.The amazing thing is it responds exactly the same whether you do this or not, it will respond exactly the same to your belief or ability to give, as it does the actual action of giving. And that is precisely why "A great attitude does much more than turn on the lights in our worlds; it seems to magically connect us to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before we changed."- Earl Nightingale

The Buck Stops Here

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Does the buck stop with you? Are you willing to take responsibility for your life and your actions? President Harry Truman used to have sign on his desk that said, "The Buck Stops Here."Meaning? That he was taking personal responsibility for all of this thoughts, words and actions.Most of us would be under the mistaken idea that if we are living our lives then we are absolutely taking responsibility for our life. This may be true, one way to know for sure would be if things are still not as you would have them to be, if you still have things in your life, or feelings that you wish you could eliminate then it is possible you have yet to gain control of your present circumstance.Today, we are going to talk about accepting responsibility for your present situation in order to open up your possibility for growth. Sometimes we have to literally clear the way to achievement.Most people spend their majority of time thinking about the past or the future. Very few people actually live in the present moment. Oh, we do live in the moment when we remind ourselves to do so! That's why it feels good to exercise, to participate in sports, to laugh; these are all things we are aware of at the present moment.I’ve said before that what really matters most in our creation process is what is happening in the here and now, and that the past is the past and it is only recreated in our minds when we choose to recreate it by lending attention to it, or rethinking the things that have happened in the past, things that have no affect on our future what so ever, unless we choose to allow them to affect our future. We can learn how to let go of our past and focus on living in the now. We can to take ownership of our present circumstance and take responsibility for our life, and we can start today. We can do this by entering into a contract with ourselves.Letting go of our past is a key ingredient of living a happy abundant life!Agree that after today, the buck stops here, with you...and me.When we start to take responsibility for ourselves, our lives, and our situation, we can begin the journey to successfully creating our future.When we blame others for our present situation, we are giving our power away.....the power to continue to affectively create in our current life, our current situation or circumstance. We have to take ownership of our lives! By taking ownership, we are now affectively creating our life the way we want it to be, not the way it is. We are creating a life of our choosing, not what someone else chooses for us!By now we should all understand how we arrived at our current situation. How our thoughts led us to our words and actions which ultimately created our results. When we blame others that means we are allowing them to control our lives.Here's the great news...since you created how your life looks, you can change it!It is time to forgive ourselves and start the journey to creating the results we deserve. Starting today, our lives do not have to be a list of excuses, our life can become a statement!When we begin to start to live in the solution and not the problem, our life starts to slowly transform. We begin to attract solution oriented people and not people filled with drama.We become the change and lead the way for our friends and family to follow the example we set. By changing ourselves, it allows others to witness our growth and shows them that they, too can make changes.In order to do this, we must take responsibility and start to create our future today.At one time or the other we have all lost a sale, said the wrong thing to a friend, wished we could take back words we said to our child or made a mistake that we didn't forgive ourselves for? We may still be thinking about it today, (Even though it might have happened years ago.)We cannot change our past, but we can transform our future.Don't you see? It all starts with you........."To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you."Louis B. SmedesExerciseIn order to take responsibility for your life, you must first take a personal inventory of where you are right now. This will allow you to free yourself from your own negative treadmill of thoughts. It is time to let the monkey chatter in your head go!Write below the things you are willing to be responsible for in your life.Example:I am willing to be responsible for:My marriageMy childrenBeing a good role modelBeing a coach and trainerBuilding a powerful, helpful websiteMy moneyetc...Use separate sheet of paper if necessary.I accept responsibility for all things I create.1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.Read this affirmation below, sign, date, and print this out to read to yourself. Let it be your guide.From this today forward. I will accept responsibility for my results. I understand that the beginning of attracting greatness is to accept the responsibility of my thoughts, words and actions. I realize that the buck stops with me. I free myself to move into a bigger, brighter future of my own choosing. I am choosing greatness in my life today.___________________________________ ___________________Signed Date

Monday, April 6, 2009

How much Love can we stand?

Increasing your capacity for Love…How much love can we stand? You know its funny how we don’t always seek to find more of what’s good for us, what grows us spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Along with Gratitude Love is one of the most acceptable matches to the Universal Law of attraction, an emotion most likely to bring you into alignment with the universe or to create a vibrational match. We all know that when aligned with the Universe we are postured to receive, so creating that alignment is imperative to our success, or ability to receive which are one and the same. Yet we don’t always search for ways to increase or amplify our vibration through love, more often than not we choose to do this through Gratitude, when an abundance of Love is available in every moment, no matter how bad things may get, as long as we are present to receive it.

I don’t think that giving and receiving are things that just happen. I believe that these are occurrences that we create, and we do that through our own actions or through application. One way to receive more of that which will create perfect alignment is to choose a quiet place and focus on your natural breathing rhythm. With each inhale, imagine that you are taking in all the Love of the Universe directly into your own heart. With each exhale imagine sending all that Love directly from your own heart right back to its infinite source… Breath in Love…Breath out Love. If you practice this heart meditation for just a few weeks you will find that not only does your capacity for love grow by leaps and bounds but you are creating a more acceptable state of alignment with the Universe, and with that alignment you are creating the ability to receive. Breathing in is receiving, and breathing out is giving, and we all know that in order to receive we have to give. 2009 is underway and this is a year of great change, I think we all sense that enormous change is going to occur, and I believe that there is also an opportunity for personal and spiritual change as well.

The answer to the question how much love can we stand? Are questions we have to ask ourselves…How much change can we stand? How much can we stand to receive? How much success is enough? And that list goes on and on. Practical application of giving and receiving Love, and creating perfect alignment with the Universe is breathing Love in, and breathing it out…giving and receiving that which in itself is one of the most sought after vibrational matches we can achieve.