Here are some short (never before heard) Q&A samples I did for my radio resume, Enjoy!
http://su.pr/34GbaY
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Don't Let Fear Stop Manifestation
ear is perhaps the BIGGEST block to Manifestations of all kind, Wealth, relationship, health and abundance in general. As always, fear and doubt go hand-in-hand especially when it comes to Wealth Manifestations.
I am going to explain this in detail, because I want to show you how you can apply the trinity system (the conscious mind, the
subconscious mind, and your belief in your higher self) to handle fear.
BUT, let me clear something first.
How we HANDLE fear is what can either multiply Manifestations or just roll them back and block them. In fact, once you master the HANDLING of fear, you will start manifesting GREAT things in your life, by LEAPS AND BOUNDS. I absolutely GAURANTEE that.
So, let's examine fear for a moment and after I will explain why (at the end I will summarize)
What is fear and what is it trying to tell you?
Fear is a message to you, saying:
"I think you are not prepared for what's coming!"
This message is not a bad message on its own. It's simply a message. In fact, it can be very helpful at times.
BUT
Now, how you respond to this message is going to make all the difference in the world. There are different ways that you can respond to the message of fear, but only one of them leads to great manifestations.
Here they are:
Some people take the power of this message and turn it into worry. How? They take it inside and internalize it . What does that do? You guessed it! That impresses your subconscious mind remember: subconscious mind is impacted by strong emotions
and feelings. Worrisome images and negative thoughts will only impress your subconscious mind and manifest more of them.
And, of course, you don't want that...
So firstly, DON'T push the fear deep down and turn it into worry and negative emotions. That may even lead to depression and major blocks to manifestations. So, what should you do?
Since you don't want to impress the subconscious mind with negative thoughts, instead of internalizing the fear, you should externalize it. Use your conscious mind to take action. Let the conscious mind deal with it, NOT the subconscious mind.
Remember:
Always, impress your subconscious mind with JOYFUL feelings only, and protect it from negative emotions. Now, you may ask "How do I use my conscious mind to deal with fear?" Valid question!
There are two ways that you can use your conscious mind to deal with fear, and only one of these two leads to great manifestations. Some people externalize the fear and take action BUT, they do it destructively by being aggressive or angry. I'd say an absolute NO-NO to that. That may give some people temporary relief, but it's not socially acceptable and most important, it does not address the message that fear had in the first place, which was "I don't think you are prepared!"
So finally, here's the BEST response:
Take Action Constructively. That means that you should see what it is that you think you need to do to be prepared? And take concrete steps. That's the BEST way to erase fears without impacting your subconscious mind with worry images. So, in handling fear you should use your conscious mind. After all, That's all fear was trying to tell you: "You think you are not prepared". Once you recognize that and address it, it will go away.
Every time, fear starts showing its face, call it! "OK, you are trying to tell me I am not prepared?" and then take action towards
preparation. It'll go away when you recognize its message and take action. Also, believing in your Higher Self while taking action, makes your fears smaller and smaller and farther away.
Now, the next level is to go even deeper into the advanced level and address the preparation. That's where you can unleash the power of the subconscious mind...
Authors Details: Dr E
I am going to explain this in detail, because I want to show you how you can apply the trinity system (the conscious mind, the
subconscious mind, and your belief in your higher self) to handle fear.
BUT, let me clear something first.
How we HANDLE fear is what can either multiply Manifestations or just roll them back and block them. In fact, once you master the HANDLING of fear, you will start manifesting GREAT things in your life, by LEAPS AND BOUNDS. I absolutely GAURANTEE that.
So, let's examine fear for a moment and after I will explain why (at the end I will summarize)
What is fear and what is it trying to tell you?
Fear is a message to you, saying:
"I think you are not prepared for what's coming!"
This message is not a bad message on its own. It's simply a message. In fact, it can be very helpful at times.
BUT
Now, how you respond to this message is going to make all the difference in the world. There are different ways that you can respond to the message of fear, but only one of them leads to great manifestations.
Here they are:
Some people take the power of this message and turn it into worry. How? They take it inside and internalize it . What does that do? You guessed it! That impresses your subconscious mind remember: subconscious mind is impacted by strong emotions
and feelings. Worrisome images and negative thoughts will only impress your subconscious mind and manifest more of them.
And, of course, you don't want that...
So firstly, DON'T push the fear deep down and turn it into worry and negative emotions. That may even lead to depression and major blocks to manifestations. So, what should you do?
Since you don't want to impress the subconscious mind with negative thoughts, instead of internalizing the fear, you should externalize it. Use your conscious mind to take action. Let the conscious mind deal with it, NOT the subconscious mind.
Remember:
Always, impress your subconscious mind with JOYFUL feelings only, and protect it from negative emotions. Now, you may ask "How do I use my conscious mind to deal with fear?" Valid question!
There are two ways that you can use your conscious mind to deal with fear, and only one of these two leads to great manifestations. Some people externalize the fear and take action BUT, they do it destructively by being aggressive or angry. I'd say an absolute NO-NO to that. That may give some people temporary relief, but it's not socially acceptable and most important, it does not address the message that fear had in the first place, which was "I don't think you are prepared!"
So finally, here's the BEST response:
Take Action Constructively. That means that you should see what it is that you think you need to do to be prepared? And take concrete steps. That's the BEST way to erase fears without impacting your subconscious mind with worry images. So, in handling fear you should use your conscious mind. After all, That's all fear was trying to tell you: "You think you are not prepared". Once you recognize that and address it, it will go away.
Every time, fear starts showing its face, call it! "OK, you are trying to tell me I am not prepared?" and then take action towards
preparation. It'll go away when you recognize its message and take action. Also, believing in your Higher Self while taking action, makes your fears smaller and smaller and farther away.
Now, the next level is to go even deeper into the advanced level and address the preparation. That's where you can unleash the power of the subconscious mind...
Authors Details: Dr E
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
My bf is a bit possessive (when he was little his father left him, obviously thats the reason) and we had a few fights over that. Except that we have a great time together. Is there anything I can do to solve this? How to react ?
Answered here: Rise UP with B. Dave Walters Ep. 21: Men, Women, 3 steps to True Love and SEX! http://ping.fm/Z2SU8
What would be the best way to start an amazing conversation with a girl online
Answered here: Rise UP with B. Dave Walters Ep. 21: Men, Women, 3 steps to True Love and SEX! http://ping.fm/Z2SU8
Monday, July 25, 2011
16 Mantras For Building Financial Wealth
16 Mantras for Building Financial Wealth
Everyone wants financial wealth, but most of us do not have anyone to guide us down this road. Even if we stumble upon a mentor, most of us may think it's a scam. Most of us have beliefs that keep us struggling financially; "the more I can save the richer I will become"; "building good credit is more important than how I use it"; "if I stay with my job for 10 years I will be rich"; "the rich are greedy and take advantage of others"; "I am not smart enough to be rich"; "if I work hard for my boss I will be greatly rewarded"; "I would have to work non-stop to become rich"; "I have to give up what I love to become rich". All of these beliefs are true from a certain perspective, namely yours! Most of these negative beliefs have been forced on us as children and are constantly reinforced by friends, family, news and even sitcoms. Personal, deep-seeded beliefs are what separate the top 10% from the bottom 90% in this country. Below are some mantras for financial wealth to think about every day in order to replace those negative beliefs:
1. I only use credit for my business and investments.
2. I buy toys (even new cars) when I have the CASH to pay for them.
3. Every penny in the bank is stagnant.
4. Every penny put in my business will multiply exponentially.
5. I learn more from failure than success.
6. The more failures I have, the closer I am to success.
7. Money "left over" is more important than "how much I make".
8. I minimize expenses to increase cash flow.
9. My job/career will make others wealthy, not just me.
10. I always put customers success before my own; generosity = wealth
11. My passions fuel my business and money will follow.
12. My mind is my greatest obstacle.
13. I expand my mind to reach lofty goals (write them down).
14. I will research books and the internet to improve my business and investments.
15. I can be who ever I want to be.
16. Money is easy to find.
Most people will strongly resist and even feel offended by these new beliefs. Many quickly start thinking of reasons for defending their current situation even before they finish reading each mantra. Of course, this defensive response is why very few of us become rich. Excuses are easier to find then solutions. Immense changes in how we define ourselves is required. Many of the wealthy got to where they are because they faced such desperate situations, i.e. homelessness, that they were forced to completely change their perceptions of themselves and life in general.
A false sense of security in your job is your greatest obstacle, but if you consciously take hold of these mantra's everyday until you finally can accept them, you will start changing your belief system about wealth. Most importantly, every day think of realistic ways that you can apply each mantra to your life and life goals.
Authors Details: Financial Wealth - Jason Parsons
Everyone wants financial wealth, but most of us do not have anyone to guide us down this road. Even if we stumble upon a mentor, most of us may think it's a scam. Most of us have beliefs that keep us struggling financially; "the more I can save the richer I will become"; "building good credit is more important than how I use it"; "if I stay with my job for 10 years I will be rich"; "the rich are greedy and take advantage of others"; "I am not smart enough to be rich"; "if I work hard for my boss I will be greatly rewarded"; "I would have to work non-stop to become rich"; "I have to give up what I love to become rich". All of these beliefs are true from a certain perspective, namely yours! Most of these negative beliefs have been forced on us as children and are constantly reinforced by friends, family, news and even sitcoms. Personal, deep-seeded beliefs are what separate the top 10% from the bottom 90% in this country. Below are some mantras for financial wealth to think about every day in order to replace those negative beliefs:
1. I only use credit for my business and investments.
2. I buy toys (even new cars) when I have the CASH to pay for them.
3. Every penny in the bank is stagnant.
4. Every penny put in my business will multiply exponentially.
5. I learn more from failure than success.
6. The more failures I have, the closer I am to success.
7. Money "left over" is more important than "how much I make".
8. I minimize expenses to increase cash flow.
9. My job/career will make others wealthy, not just me.
10. I always put customers success before my own; generosity = wealth
11. My passions fuel my business and money will follow.
12. My mind is my greatest obstacle.
13. I expand my mind to reach lofty goals (write them down).
14. I will research books and the internet to improve my business and investments.
15. I can be who ever I want to be.
16. Money is easy to find.
Most people will strongly resist and even feel offended by these new beliefs. Many quickly start thinking of reasons for defending their current situation even before they finish reading each mantra. Of course, this defensive response is why very few of us become rich. Excuses are easier to find then solutions. Immense changes in how we define ourselves is required. Many of the wealthy got to where they are because they faced such desperate situations, i.e. homelessness, that they were forced to completely change their perceptions of themselves and life in general.
A false sense of security in your job is your greatest obstacle, but if you consciously take hold of these mantra's everyday until you finally can accept them, you will start changing your belief system about wealth. Most importantly, every day think of realistic ways that you can apply each mantra to your life and life goals.
Authors Details: Financial Wealth - Jason Parsons
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Prosperity, Truth, Love and Energy.
What is prosperity?
How can you be more prosperous?
Why do people have trouble with prosperity? Many of you automatically think of prosperity as something primarily financial. However, this is simply not so. Prosperity encompasses much more than money.
In fact prosperity is synonymous with self-esteem. Prosperity is manifesting what you feel you are worth.
It is success by your standards: it could mean lying in the sun for an hour a day without having to feel you should be somewhere else; knowing that you can lie there and congratulate yourself on having your life so well handled that lying in the sun is a celebration.
Prosperity or havingness (the ability to have) is a pervasive thing. You limit your success according what you think you are worth. This occurs unconsciously and it so happens that you have that level of success or richness of relationships that matches your self-esteem.
Imagine a family with low self-esteem winning a million dollars in a lottery. Within twelve months it is all gone and they are back to the old lifestyle. They couldn't have that level of success because their self-esteem was not high enough. Their energy level could not contain the huge increase. Limits to prosperity are imposed by the false personality and come from fear. There are real and specific fears of what may happen to you if you have high, high havingness.
For instance, people kill other people for their possessions. If you don't have much you won't get killed. One can look at the specific fears in your conscious mind and dispose of them. The converse of this is that if you love yourself then all things are possible. So, prosperity is about feeling worthy enough to have life be the way you want it.
On this account prosperity fills lack; lack of time, lack of things, lack of relationships, lack of love, lack of creativity, and so on. Prosperity is then about having an abundance of anything you wish you had more of, including more spiritual insight.
Prosperity and Higher Centers
Spiritual prosperity, as with spiritual power, has to do with being in higher centers, gaining that distanced perspective on yourself and your life to see how it all fits together. It is about feeling a sense of oneness with other people. Not surprisingly, prosperity is a matter of how you handle the three components of the higher centers and of the universe -- truth, love, and energy.
Truth The focus of higher intellectual center is truth. Prosperity is a matter of having truth in your life. You can tell the truth to your friends and family and they can tell the truth to you. This is the prosperity that truth bestows. When you have told the truth and have heard the truth you can then act on it. You can then decide what relationships you want in your life. When you tell yourself the truth about your job, you can decide to change it or to keep it. Having done this weeding out you are automatically a more powerful person. You are not spending time with people you don't want to, so you have more time and more energy. In short you have higher havingness. Having seen where you fit in, you can then see the whole, and open yourself up as a spirit without boundaries to your guides, channeling, and connectedness, and away from pain, fear, and suffering. From this space you can make powerful choices.
Love Remember that higher emotional center manifests unconditional love. Prosperity is dependent on having more love in your life. It is about feeling that you deserve it and loving yourself enough to let yourself have it. Fear blocks higher havingness levels and the remedy is learning how to love yourself. Love yourself and all things are possible.
Energy Prosperity is about having the energy to manifest what you want. The energetic quality of the higher moving center makes the integration of truth and love possible. When truth and love work together in your life, you can become as prosperous as you wish. Remember the example of the family with low self esteem who could not take advantage of their good fortune. The energy of higher moving center raises your capacity to have, do, and be more.
Becoming More Prosperous
In order to become more prosperous in an integrated way, balance is required. There must be inspiration, expression, action, and assimilation. Inspiration needs action. Action needs expression. Expression requires assimilation first, and so on. All are interrelated. Each axis must come into play. When satisfying prosperity is blocked, usually one of these four axes have not come into play. Imagine that you are inspired by a vision of what you want your life to be like. You assimilate the vision and express it to other people. However without a plan of action it is unlikely that your vision will manifest to any degree. Likewise if you go into action without an inspirational vision you will probably only manifest chaos.
What To Do
The following is a pragmatic step-by-step approach to having, doing, and being more in your life.
Work out exactly what you want and write it down as a series of goals. Create positive affirmations about these, stating them in present terms, as "I am now enjoying wonderful health and good relationships." This will instantly bring up the negative beliefs that have held you back in this area. Those beliefs can then be listed, acknowledged, and let go of. New positive affirmations can take the place of each one.
Regularly visualize mentally being the way you want to, having what you want, doing what you want. Persist in doing this despite current circumstances and absence of immediate results. It takes time for thoughts to manifest on the physical plane. Make a plan of how to meet the goals. Check off each step as accomplished.
Limitations to Prosperity
Know what your comfort zone is. Pushing beyond your comfort zone and having more can be quite uncomfortable, believe it or not. Do you truly want another forty thousand a year? Do you truly want a committed love relationship? Are you prepared to handle whatever discomfort comes with it? Ask yourself first? "Can I have it?"
· too much
· comfort zone
· too little
Look at what you have to give up to get above the comfort zone limits of your ego. List the items. Look at how other people rely on you to not increase your havingness. If you do it, they will have to look at theirs because they are often competitive. This may make them angry with you. You need to give up the belief that you can't have it.
Note that your ego simply wants to be right.
There are two attitudes to money:
Spend now and trust - make the space for it. (positive)
Expense control - governed by the fear of running out (negative)
Note that these work in a kind of dynamic tension with one another. One does not work without the other. Look at the structure of the universe. Does anything run out? No, it doesn't. The law of the universe is that it will replace whatever you spend. What you sow you shall reap.
Look at your experience. You can run low on things and stay there, but you never actually run out. You never actually starve to death unless you have specifically chosen an environment to promote this experience. You can trust in this process. One of the governing principles of this teaching is neutrality, that is, not hanging on to things. There may be pleasures, sadness, money, or whatever. The aim is to experience them as they occur. Let them in and let them out. Often people dealing in huge sums of money work no harder than those in menial jobs. The energy input is the same. The difference is in the mental tapes they play. Their beliefs about money are different. One believes you have to work hard for a little of it. The other believes you can have lots of it for relatively little effort. They make it fun. They don't seek to hold on to money. They are philosophical about it. They work hard at working out what they want, and persist until they get there.
Authors Details: José Stevens
José Stevens, Ph.D., is the founder of Essence Psychology and lectures internationally on essence and personality, shamanism, and prosperity. He is the author of Tao To Earth and Transforming Your Dragons and Secrets of Shamanism.
How can you be more prosperous?
Why do people have trouble with prosperity? Many of you automatically think of prosperity as something primarily financial. However, this is simply not so. Prosperity encompasses much more than money.
In fact prosperity is synonymous with self-esteem. Prosperity is manifesting what you feel you are worth.
It is success by your standards: it could mean lying in the sun for an hour a day without having to feel you should be somewhere else; knowing that you can lie there and congratulate yourself on having your life so well handled that lying in the sun is a celebration.
Prosperity or havingness (the ability to have) is a pervasive thing. You limit your success according what you think you are worth. This occurs unconsciously and it so happens that you have that level of success or richness of relationships that matches your self-esteem.
Imagine a family with low self-esteem winning a million dollars in a lottery. Within twelve months it is all gone and they are back to the old lifestyle. They couldn't have that level of success because their self-esteem was not high enough. Their energy level could not contain the huge increase. Limits to prosperity are imposed by the false personality and come from fear. There are real and specific fears of what may happen to you if you have high, high havingness.
For instance, people kill other people for their possessions. If you don't have much you won't get killed. One can look at the specific fears in your conscious mind and dispose of them. The converse of this is that if you love yourself then all things are possible. So, prosperity is about feeling worthy enough to have life be the way you want it.
On this account prosperity fills lack; lack of time, lack of things, lack of relationships, lack of love, lack of creativity, and so on. Prosperity is then about having an abundance of anything you wish you had more of, including more spiritual insight.
Prosperity and Higher Centers
Spiritual prosperity, as with spiritual power, has to do with being in higher centers, gaining that distanced perspective on yourself and your life to see how it all fits together. It is about feeling a sense of oneness with other people. Not surprisingly, prosperity is a matter of how you handle the three components of the higher centers and of the universe -- truth, love, and energy.
Truth The focus of higher intellectual center is truth. Prosperity is a matter of having truth in your life. You can tell the truth to your friends and family and they can tell the truth to you. This is the prosperity that truth bestows. When you have told the truth and have heard the truth you can then act on it. You can then decide what relationships you want in your life. When you tell yourself the truth about your job, you can decide to change it or to keep it. Having done this weeding out you are automatically a more powerful person. You are not spending time with people you don't want to, so you have more time and more energy. In short you have higher havingness. Having seen where you fit in, you can then see the whole, and open yourself up as a spirit without boundaries to your guides, channeling, and connectedness, and away from pain, fear, and suffering. From this space you can make powerful choices.
Love Remember that higher emotional center manifests unconditional love. Prosperity is dependent on having more love in your life. It is about feeling that you deserve it and loving yourself enough to let yourself have it. Fear blocks higher havingness levels and the remedy is learning how to love yourself. Love yourself and all things are possible.
Energy Prosperity is about having the energy to manifest what you want. The energetic quality of the higher moving center makes the integration of truth and love possible. When truth and love work together in your life, you can become as prosperous as you wish. Remember the example of the family with low self esteem who could not take advantage of their good fortune. The energy of higher moving center raises your capacity to have, do, and be more.
Becoming More Prosperous
In order to become more prosperous in an integrated way, balance is required. There must be inspiration, expression, action, and assimilation. Inspiration needs action. Action needs expression. Expression requires assimilation first, and so on. All are interrelated. Each axis must come into play. When satisfying prosperity is blocked, usually one of these four axes have not come into play. Imagine that you are inspired by a vision of what you want your life to be like. You assimilate the vision and express it to other people. However without a plan of action it is unlikely that your vision will manifest to any degree. Likewise if you go into action without an inspirational vision you will probably only manifest chaos.
What To Do
The following is a pragmatic step-by-step approach to having, doing, and being more in your life.
Work out exactly what you want and write it down as a series of goals. Create positive affirmations about these, stating them in present terms, as "I am now enjoying wonderful health and good relationships." This will instantly bring up the negative beliefs that have held you back in this area. Those beliefs can then be listed, acknowledged, and let go of. New positive affirmations can take the place of each one.
Regularly visualize mentally being the way you want to, having what you want, doing what you want. Persist in doing this despite current circumstances and absence of immediate results. It takes time for thoughts to manifest on the physical plane. Make a plan of how to meet the goals. Check off each step as accomplished.
Limitations to Prosperity
Know what your comfort zone is. Pushing beyond your comfort zone and having more can be quite uncomfortable, believe it or not. Do you truly want another forty thousand a year? Do you truly want a committed love relationship? Are you prepared to handle whatever discomfort comes with it? Ask yourself first? "Can I have it?"
· too much
· comfort zone
· too little
Look at what you have to give up to get above the comfort zone limits of your ego. List the items. Look at how other people rely on you to not increase your havingness. If you do it, they will have to look at theirs because they are often competitive. This may make them angry with you. You need to give up the belief that you can't have it.
Note that your ego simply wants to be right.
There are two attitudes to money:
Spend now and trust - make the space for it. (positive)
Expense control - governed by the fear of running out (negative)
Note that these work in a kind of dynamic tension with one another. One does not work without the other. Look at the structure of the universe. Does anything run out? No, it doesn't. The law of the universe is that it will replace whatever you spend. What you sow you shall reap.
Look at your experience. You can run low on things and stay there, but you never actually run out. You never actually starve to death unless you have specifically chosen an environment to promote this experience. You can trust in this process. One of the governing principles of this teaching is neutrality, that is, not hanging on to things. There may be pleasures, sadness, money, or whatever. The aim is to experience them as they occur. Let them in and let them out. Often people dealing in huge sums of money work no harder than those in menial jobs. The energy input is the same. The difference is in the mental tapes they play. Their beliefs about money are different. One believes you have to work hard for a little of it. The other believes you can have lots of it for relatively little effort. They make it fun. They don't seek to hold on to money. They are philosophical about it. They work hard at working out what they want, and persist until they get there.
Authors Details: José Stevens
José Stevens, Ph.D., is the founder of Essence Psychology and lectures internationally on essence and personality, shamanism, and prosperity. He is the author of Tao To Earth and Transforming Your Dragons and Secrets of Shamanism.
Kind words from a close friend (Ladies must read!)
(This is something a friend of mine posted on a forum we both participate in...if she changed and overcame her obstacles, you can, too!)
Hey Girls!
This is such a great thread! I've loved reading about all of you, and feel so fortunate to be in a guild with so many amazing women!
I was actually hesitant on posting anything (me hesitant to say something... weird right?) because as many of you know I'm a pretty open and flirty person, but when it comes to talking about my personal life I'm actually quite the opposite. But I feel like all of you have shared a part of your lives with us, and I would feel honored to share a piece of mine. :) This is a bit of a story, so get comfy!
My life currently isn't too terribly exciting... I'm sort of in "me" mode, doing things to take care of myself and make myself happy. I just turned 30 in May and recently got out of a 5 year long abusive relationship. He wasn't ever physical, but sometimes words and actions can be just as painful. After about a year together I thought he was going to be the person I'd spend my entire life with, and then suddenly I got really sick. I'm still going to doctors to this day to try to figure out what exactly is wrong with me, because they don't really know. I have asthma like symptoms (wheezing, coughing, lung pain, difficulty breathing, etc.) but after testing they discovered I don't have asthma. It makes it very difficult and painful for me to be very active, since the symptoms usually present themselves with strenuous activity.
When I became sick, my boyfriend (who I was living with, we had bought a house together) started to turn into a different person. Instead of being supportive and helpful, he saw this sickness as a sign of weakness in me, and began treating me differently. He stopped being caring and supportive, and instead would put me down and say things to make me feel bad about myself. He also shortly after began cheating on me with an ex girlfriend which I always suspected, but never actually confirmed until shortly before I left him. I would find things like receipts to hotels, inappropriate text messages and phone calls, and him not coming home because he was "working late". He would always have an excuse and for whatever reason I tried to believe it, but deep inside I had a feeling that he was lying. All of this worry and tension made me even more sick and distrusting, which in turn made our relationship even more unhealthy.
Things progressively became worse and worse until I finally started to believe I had become the person he was telling me I was... worthless, unmotivated, unattractive and that nobody else would ever want me. I started to shut myself off from all my friends and family, embarrassed of the person I had become. I let this go on for several years, thinking that I was trapped and had no way of taking care of myself on my own. Everything declined in my life and I hit a very low spot, becoming very depressed and thinking about suicide frequently.
I started playing World of Warcraft which became an escape from my life. I created a character (G___, who I still play today) that was the version of me who I loved and once was. With the people I met online I could be myself and they loved me for me. This of course wasn't very healthy either... because I was just ignoring the issues in my life. Then one day I met a friend in my guild at the time (The Royal Order), a character named _____. Some of you may know him in this guild as Dave. :) What you may not know about him, is that he saved my life.
Dave is a life coach and he took an interest in me, and I eventually opened up to him. We became very close friends and he helped me gain the courage to leave this horrible situation, and get out on my own. Being on my own for the first time in so many years was very difficult, but with his support and encouragement I was finally able to have the breakthroughs I needed to begin loving myself again. It was not easy and quite bleak at times, but it's amazing what you can do when you really put your mind to it, and when you have someone in your life to help and support you. Being able to accept that you need help is the probably the hardest part. Once you do, and once you really start to believe in yourself, you can do anything.
So I guess that is where I am today. I'm taking a day at a time, learning to love myself again and trying to do things that I enjoy, and surround myself with people who care about me. I'm still fairly closed off in my personal life, but I'm trying to get back in touch with friends and get out and enjoy life more. I had to leave my last job for several different reasons, but is where I met my ex and he still worked there, so I knew I couldn't stay. I'm in web design, development and support, working specifically with Microsoft SharePoint. I have a new job now doing the same kind of work with a small Australian company that I love. Aussies are great people, very true, open and honest, and have helped me open up more as well.
I know this story is pretty long and personal, but being able to tell it is also a part of my road to recovery. Sharing this with you I hope will inspire and encourage you to always do what's best for you, and never let anyone put you down and tell you can't do anything. I never understood what it meant to be in an abusive relationship, and how women could stay there for so long and put up with it. You don't ever really know unless you're in the situation, and I unfortunately learned that lesson the hard way. Now I only hope that I can start to share my message with other women and encourage them to leave abusive relationships, and become the beautiful, strong woman that they are.
Lastly I would also like to mention that I too am an animal lover... hehe :) I have an orange tabby named Murphy and he's my best buddy, and has been through everything with me. He's on my lap now, and that's where he usually is when I'm playing WoW. I joined Defiant last October when I actively started playing WoW again. Olcan (I still think of him as Slaine) invited me since I had played with him back in The Royal Order, and met him around the same time I met Dave. I'm happy to have found a home here in Defiant, and have had the privilege to meet all of you wonderful women.
Please feel free to chat with me anytime in game, I'd love to talk to you all more and get to know you. I've learned from firsthand experience that the friendships you make in life, whether it's someone you meet at church or in a video game, can be very important and very meaningful. I think we're lucky to have a family here in Defiant, as dysfunctional as it may be at times... it really is like a family. :) Take care of yourselves, I love you guys!
Hey Girls!
This is such a great thread! I've loved reading about all of you, and feel so fortunate to be in a guild with so many amazing women!
I was actually hesitant on posting anything (me hesitant to say something... weird right?) because as many of you know I'm a pretty open and flirty person, but when it comes to talking about my personal life I'm actually quite the opposite. But I feel like all of you have shared a part of your lives with us, and I would feel honored to share a piece of mine. :) This is a bit of a story, so get comfy!
My life currently isn't too terribly exciting... I'm sort of in "me" mode, doing things to take care of myself and make myself happy. I just turned 30 in May and recently got out of a 5 year long abusive relationship. He wasn't ever physical, but sometimes words and actions can be just as painful. After about a year together I thought he was going to be the person I'd spend my entire life with, and then suddenly I got really sick. I'm still going to doctors to this day to try to figure out what exactly is wrong with me, because they don't really know. I have asthma like symptoms (wheezing, coughing, lung pain, difficulty breathing, etc.) but after testing they discovered I don't have asthma. It makes it very difficult and painful for me to be very active, since the symptoms usually present themselves with strenuous activity.
When I became sick, my boyfriend (who I was living with, we had bought a house together) started to turn into a different person. Instead of being supportive and helpful, he saw this sickness as a sign of weakness in me, and began treating me differently. He stopped being caring and supportive, and instead would put me down and say things to make me feel bad about myself. He also shortly after began cheating on me with an ex girlfriend which I always suspected, but never actually confirmed until shortly before I left him. I would find things like receipts to hotels, inappropriate text messages and phone calls, and him not coming home because he was "working late". He would always have an excuse and for whatever reason I tried to believe it, but deep inside I had a feeling that he was lying. All of this worry and tension made me even more sick and distrusting, which in turn made our relationship even more unhealthy.
Things progressively became worse and worse until I finally started to believe I had become the person he was telling me I was... worthless, unmotivated, unattractive and that nobody else would ever want me. I started to shut myself off from all my friends and family, embarrassed of the person I had become. I let this go on for several years, thinking that I was trapped and had no way of taking care of myself on my own. Everything declined in my life and I hit a very low spot, becoming very depressed and thinking about suicide frequently.
I started playing World of Warcraft which became an escape from my life. I created a character (G___, who I still play today) that was the version of me who I loved and once was. With the people I met online I could be myself and they loved me for me. This of course wasn't very healthy either... because I was just ignoring the issues in my life. Then one day I met a friend in my guild at the time (The Royal Order), a character named _____. Some of you may know him in this guild as Dave. :) What you may not know about him, is that he saved my life.
Dave is a life coach and he took an interest in me, and I eventually opened up to him. We became very close friends and he helped me gain the courage to leave this horrible situation, and get out on my own. Being on my own for the first time in so many years was very difficult, but with his support and encouragement I was finally able to have the breakthroughs I needed to begin loving myself again. It was not easy and quite bleak at times, but it's amazing what you can do when you really put your mind to it, and when you have someone in your life to help and support you. Being able to accept that you need help is the probably the hardest part. Once you do, and once you really start to believe in yourself, you can do anything.
So I guess that is where I am today. I'm taking a day at a time, learning to love myself again and trying to do things that I enjoy, and surround myself with people who care about me. I'm still fairly closed off in my personal life, but I'm trying to get back in touch with friends and get out and enjoy life more. I had to leave my last job for several different reasons, but is where I met my ex and he still worked there, so I knew I couldn't stay. I'm in web design, development and support, working specifically with Microsoft SharePoint. I have a new job now doing the same kind of work with a small Australian company that I love. Aussies are great people, very true, open and honest, and have helped me open up more as well.
I know this story is pretty long and personal, but being able to tell it is also a part of my road to recovery. Sharing this with you I hope will inspire and encourage you to always do what's best for you, and never let anyone put you down and tell you can't do anything. I never understood what it meant to be in an abusive relationship, and how women could stay there for so long and put up with it. You don't ever really know unless you're in the situation, and I unfortunately learned that lesson the hard way. Now I only hope that I can start to share my message with other women and encourage them to leave abusive relationships, and become the beautiful, strong woman that they are.
Lastly I would also like to mention that I too am an animal lover... hehe :) I have an orange tabby named Murphy and he's my best buddy, and has been through everything with me. He's on my lap now, and that's where he usually is when I'm playing WoW. I joined Defiant last October when I actively started playing WoW again. Olcan (I still think of him as Slaine) invited me since I had played with him back in The Royal Order, and met him around the same time I met Dave. I'm happy to have found a home here in Defiant, and have had the privilege to meet all of you wonderful women.
Please feel free to chat with me anytime in game, I'd love to talk to you all more and get to know you. I've learned from firsthand experience that the friendships you make in life, whether it's someone you meet at church or in a video game, can be very important and very meaningful. I think we're lucky to have a family here in Defiant, as dysfunctional as it may be at times... it really is like a family. :) Take care of yourselves, I love you guys!
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Un-forgiveness ? The Love of Fear and the Fear of love
Un-forgiveness – The Love of Fear and the Fear of love
“The first corrective step in undoing the error is to know first that the conflict is an expression of fear. Say to yourself that you must somehow have chosen not to love, or the fear could not have arisen. Then the whole process of correction becomes nothing more than a series of pragmatic steps in the larger process of accepting the Atonement as the remedy. These steps may be summarized in this way:
Know first that this is fear.
Fear arises from lack of love.
The only remedy for lack of love is perfect love.
Perfect love is the Atonement.” ACIM T-2.VI.7
Forgiveness is the key to freedom. It unlocks the heavy chains of guilt and sin that we have made real. Many of us have heard this and yet, we experience difficulties in forgiving someone for what we think they did? Why?
At the level of form, in this ego based dream we are all experiencing, there are many seeming reasons, all of them, just places where we hide our self attack in others. Essentially we have forgotten that we are one and that all the events this world seems to throw at us are merely our projections of unconscious guilt coming back to attack us.
We give each person and offense a name. Each different in intensity in terms of the pain and suffering they caused us!
Each seeming attack is in fact a sacred opportunity to forgive ourselves for wanting illusion to be real; to forgive ourselves for thinking that we are un-deserving of love, guilty and therefore, deserving of punishment.
We have to wake up to the realization that there is no one else in the room. We’re it, playing all these roles, in an attempt to make separation and specialness real!
ACIM teaches us that we cannot forgive what we have made real!(Noukie can you find this quote?) If the act was real then so must the so-called perpetrator be.
A seeming hurdle to forgiveness is the trust we place in the “I” we believe we are. This “I” is the separated self, the ego, the will apart from God. This I, we call our self is incapable of forgiving. So if we (the ego “I”), are trying to forgive someone, it will be impossible because this ego “I” has an agenda – to perpetuate separation and duality to make itself God. It believes that salvation comes from seeing itself as innocent by seeing others as guilty. It believes that attack and defense are justified.
This ego tells us that our safety lies in our own hands. There is a fear of loss in letting go that accompanies the thought of forgiveness. It tells us that we need to remain in control, after all, “Look what happened the last time we gave over control?” What it doesn’t want us to do is question why we got hurt last time? Enquiry would reveal that we did give over control but to who…was it to the Teacher within or was it to another, someone outside of us? Did we get hurt because we set ourselves up by giving over control of your happiness etc to someone else? Did we also then set the other up by making up the scenario that would eventually lead to our getting hurt? In fact, have we projected all our previous hurtful situations in an insane attempt to prove our innocence through our victimhood? Have we used a seeming other to attack ourselves? Yes! We have all done this and continue to do this until we undo the ego.
The ego will tell us that letting go will mean loss but when we let go and give over our hurt and suffering and fear of loss to the Universal Inspiration, the only loss is of the ego itself… hence its fear and unwillingness to let go.
Guilt is another hidden weapon of the ego to keep us from forgiving. If we can’t forgive ourselves for what we though we did in the past, how can we ever forgive someone else? We use this guilt to separate ourelves and to imprison another. We want the other to apologize first before we can forgive them. Here we see projection at work in all its glory. The ego seeks forgiveness from outside itself in the vain attempt to prove this world’s existence and our innocence through our victimhood within it. Always innocence comes at the price of suffering.
In many cases, we know at some level that we set up the scenario of hurt, that we projected our self attack thoughts onto another to play the role out of hurting us but we simply do not want to acknowledge this as we would have to forgive the seeming other wouldn’t we? So we keep it hidden from our self and direct our anger at the seeming other in the name of un-forgivness.
When we have a hard time forgiving, there is always a fear to look within. The ego believes that if we did, we would be lost because we would find all these unforgivable ‘sins’ that would make us clearly unworthy of forgiveness. In fact, looking within will only reveal our sinlessness. All that ever happened is that we made an error or three but no sins. What makes our mistakes seem so serious and sinful is our refusal to let them go to the Universal Inspiration. We hold onto our mistakes, trying to make them into sins so that we can fulfill the ego’s desire for us to be unworthy.
If we could just let go of the need to judge our mistakes and allow Him who knows us to have our mistakes, we would experience real peace instead of the illusory peace we keep seeking outside ourselves. All we have to do is let the light of the Universal Inspiration shine them away and they are gone. In truth we didn’t even make a mistake because we are still home, safe, complete and whole. God doesn’t need our forgiveness but here at the level of form, we need forgiveness as our way of handing over our misperceptions to the Source. It’s only after we have let go and handed over our seeming sins that we experience as true, the statement that there was nothing to forgive. It is only after we let go and surrender our hurt and anger to the Universal Inspiration that we discover we have always been innocent and so has our brother.
As we forgive another, we realize we are really forgiving ourselves for using our brother to project our unconscious guilt. We can then truly see our brother as sinless and great healing takes place as we allow the miracle of healing of our perception to take place.
Where this takes us is to that place of grace. The place within where all our ancient hates melt away in the realization that we have not sinned, that our brother too is innocent and that in seeing his innocence, we see ours. Here can Perfect Love return. Here is our Atonement.
Authors Details: Tomas Vieira
“The first corrective step in undoing the error is to know first that the conflict is an expression of fear. Say to yourself that you must somehow have chosen not to love, or the fear could not have arisen. Then the whole process of correction becomes nothing more than a series of pragmatic steps in the larger process of accepting the Atonement as the remedy. These steps may be summarized in this way:
Know first that this is fear.
Fear arises from lack of love.
The only remedy for lack of love is perfect love.
Perfect love is the Atonement.” ACIM T-2.VI.7
Forgiveness is the key to freedom. It unlocks the heavy chains of guilt and sin that we have made real. Many of us have heard this and yet, we experience difficulties in forgiving someone for what we think they did? Why?
At the level of form, in this ego based dream we are all experiencing, there are many seeming reasons, all of them, just places where we hide our self attack in others. Essentially we have forgotten that we are one and that all the events this world seems to throw at us are merely our projections of unconscious guilt coming back to attack us.
We give each person and offense a name. Each different in intensity in terms of the pain and suffering they caused us!
Each seeming attack is in fact a sacred opportunity to forgive ourselves for wanting illusion to be real; to forgive ourselves for thinking that we are un-deserving of love, guilty and therefore, deserving of punishment.
We have to wake up to the realization that there is no one else in the room. We’re it, playing all these roles, in an attempt to make separation and specialness real!
ACIM teaches us that we cannot forgive what we have made real!(Noukie can you find this quote?) If the act was real then so must the so-called perpetrator be.
A seeming hurdle to forgiveness is the trust we place in the “I” we believe we are. This “I” is the separated self, the ego, the will apart from God. This I, we call our self is incapable of forgiving. So if we (the ego “I”), are trying to forgive someone, it will be impossible because this ego “I” has an agenda – to perpetuate separation and duality to make itself God. It believes that salvation comes from seeing itself as innocent by seeing others as guilty. It believes that attack and defense are justified.
This ego tells us that our safety lies in our own hands. There is a fear of loss in letting go that accompanies the thought of forgiveness. It tells us that we need to remain in control, after all, “Look what happened the last time we gave over control?” What it doesn’t want us to do is question why we got hurt last time? Enquiry would reveal that we did give over control but to who…was it to the Teacher within or was it to another, someone outside of us? Did we get hurt because we set ourselves up by giving over control of your happiness etc to someone else? Did we also then set the other up by making up the scenario that would eventually lead to our getting hurt? In fact, have we projected all our previous hurtful situations in an insane attempt to prove our innocence through our victimhood? Have we used a seeming other to attack ourselves? Yes! We have all done this and continue to do this until we undo the ego.
The ego will tell us that letting go will mean loss but when we let go and give over our hurt and suffering and fear of loss to the Universal Inspiration, the only loss is of the ego itself… hence its fear and unwillingness to let go.
Guilt is another hidden weapon of the ego to keep us from forgiving. If we can’t forgive ourselves for what we though we did in the past, how can we ever forgive someone else? We use this guilt to separate ourelves and to imprison another. We want the other to apologize first before we can forgive them. Here we see projection at work in all its glory. The ego seeks forgiveness from outside itself in the vain attempt to prove this world’s existence and our innocence through our victimhood within it. Always innocence comes at the price of suffering.
In many cases, we know at some level that we set up the scenario of hurt, that we projected our self attack thoughts onto another to play the role out of hurting us but we simply do not want to acknowledge this as we would have to forgive the seeming other wouldn’t we? So we keep it hidden from our self and direct our anger at the seeming other in the name of un-forgivness.
When we have a hard time forgiving, there is always a fear to look within. The ego believes that if we did, we would be lost because we would find all these unforgivable ‘sins’ that would make us clearly unworthy of forgiveness. In fact, looking within will only reveal our sinlessness. All that ever happened is that we made an error or three but no sins. What makes our mistakes seem so serious and sinful is our refusal to let them go to the Universal Inspiration. We hold onto our mistakes, trying to make them into sins so that we can fulfill the ego’s desire for us to be unworthy.
If we could just let go of the need to judge our mistakes and allow Him who knows us to have our mistakes, we would experience real peace instead of the illusory peace we keep seeking outside ourselves. All we have to do is let the light of the Universal Inspiration shine them away and they are gone. In truth we didn’t even make a mistake because we are still home, safe, complete and whole. God doesn’t need our forgiveness but here at the level of form, we need forgiveness as our way of handing over our misperceptions to the Source. It’s only after we have let go and handed over our seeming sins that we experience as true, the statement that there was nothing to forgive. It is only after we let go and surrender our hurt and anger to the Universal Inspiration that we discover we have always been innocent and so has our brother.
As we forgive another, we realize we are really forgiving ourselves for using our brother to project our unconscious guilt. We can then truly see our brother as sinless and great healing takes place as we allow the miracle of healing of our perception to take place.
Where this takes us is to that place of grace. The place within where all our ancient hates melt away in the realization that we have not sinned, that our brother too is innocent and that in seeing his innocence, we see ours. Here can Perfect Love return. Here is our Atonement.
Authors Details: Tomas Vieira
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Relaxation Techniques
Relaxation Techniques
Stress is a serious business. The subject is often in the news: we know that it causes the loss of more working days than physical illness and can lead to serious conditions of the heart and other organs. Stress is taken so seriously these days that employers have a legal duty of care towards their employees.
The media put far less emphasis on the natural antidote to stress: relaxation. It might be useful to remind ourselves what relaxation actually means. Far from merely being the absence of tension, relaxing actually requires a positive act of will. Just as a composer writes rests - indicating silence - as carefully as the notes played by musicians, so we need to decide when to relax and how to do so. Just think of the expression 'To compose yourself'.
Relaxation Techniques That Help
We know of many techniques and disciplines, some of them very ancient, that help us to relax. Meditation has been described as 'Increasing the distance between thoughts', a way of emptying the mind of its usual chatter, regret, worry and aspiration. Yoga can help us to achieve a similar inner calm through focusing on the body and how it breathes. In both cases, the emphasis is actively on focusing our attention on the here and now, rather than reflecting on the past or thinking ahead.
As with any other conscious decision, we need to focus on what we are doing if we want to succeed - and here, for many of us, lies the difficulty. If we want to benefit from these disciplines, not only do we need to endure the slow process of learning new techniques that feel strange and unfamiliar before enjoying the benefits, we also have to overcome an instinctive objection from our own bodies.
What Tension Does
The trouble is that when we are experiencing stress we become tense: our muscles tighten and adrenaline and cortisol flow through our systems, making it even harder to relax. Even sitting in a quiet darkened room doesn’t guarantee success – if your mind is buzzing you’ll feel over stimulated. It's easy to understand why we seek easier, more instant ways to calm down. That's why we sometimes confuse relaxation with distraction - especially in a time when so many distractions are available.
Relaxation Techniques - What Does Or Doesn’t Relax Us
'I feel stressed out tonight. Let's just relax in front of the TV.' Unfortunately, most television programmes are designed to engage us by arousing our interest in some way. The sound tracks are especially effective in stimulating us emotionally, so that the net result of our attempts to 'switch off' turn out to be merely 'changing channels' with our attention. We swap one set of stimuli for another - and we have even less control over the content than when we are wrestling with all the details of our own over-busy lives.
The Active Choice Relaxation Techniques
So: relaxation is an active choice, but it can seem too difficult and time-consuming to learn how to use the techniques that work. How can we actively choose to relax easily and effectively? William Congreve wrote ‘Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.’ and throughout history gentle music has been a favourite way to change the way we feel. This is because the vibrations that reach our ears do more than just please us as they cause our own internal rhythms, like heartbeat and brain activity, to synchronise with the music.
If you have ever tried turning off the sound track of a scary movie you know how flat it can seem with only pictures to keep the mood going. Anyone who has seen what happens to baby boomers at a party when someone plays a Rolling Stones record has experienced the power of music to move people.
Music As A Relaxation Technique
Naturally, the result depends on the type of music being played. A growing number of composers are choosing to focus mainly on the effect their music has on the listener. In the 1960s a series of 'mood music' albums appeared, followed in the 1970s by British artist Brian Eno's invention of the term 'ambient music' to describe the subtle, mood-invoking albums he created. The emphasis in this type of music is on the listener, not the artist ~ a very different approach from most productions. My own experience is relevant here as I spent more than twenty five years doing my best to capture the audience's attention as a session musician, performer and bandleader before getting involved with hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming as a way of helping people to live the kind of lives they really want.
New Role
It was while exploring how to combine music with these ways of helping people that I realised the difference in emphasis: in my new musical role I was no longer centre stage ~ in fact, if the listener was aware of me then I wasn't doing my job. It surprised me how much more difficult it can be to produce music so subtle that the listener is largely unaware of it, yet so effective that it relaxes him or her every time.
Self Treatment
As I researched what had already been done I found a fascinating range of different techniques, all contributing to the power of gentle music to soothe and calm us. These approaches can be combined to create truly effective musical solutions to the everyday problems caused by stress. This kind of self-treatment is a welcome alternative to pharmaceuticals, being very effective and extremely safe. Some hospitals have found that when they play the right kind of music their pain-killing medication bill goes down, in some cases to half its former level.
In the 1960s, a popular idea was that music could change the world. For us as individuals, that now seems to be true – at least on a personal level.
Authors Details: Relaxation Techniques - Graham Smith is a musician
Stress is a serious business. The subject is often in the news: we know that it causes the loss of more working days than physical illness and can lead to serious conditions of the heart and other organs. Stress is taken so seriously these days that employers have a legal duty of care towards their employees.
The media put far less emphasis on the natural antidote to stress: relaxation. It might be useful to remind ourselves what relaxation actually means. Far from merely being the absence of tension, relaxing actually requires a positive act of will. Just as a composer writes rests - indicating silence - as carefully as the notes played by musicians, so we need to decide when to relax and how to do so. Just think of the expression 'To compose yourself'.
Relaxation Techniques That Help
We know of many techniques and disciplines, some of them very ancient, that help us to relax. Meditation has been described as 'Increasing the distance between thoughts', a way of emptying the mind of its usual chatter, regret, worry and aspiration. Yoga can help us to achieve a similar inner calm through focusing on the body and how it breathes. In both cases, the emphasis is actively on focusing our attention on the here and now, rather than reflecting on the past or thinking ahead.
As with any other conscious decision, we need to focus on what we are doing if we want to succeed - and here, for many of us, lies the difficulty. If we want to benefit from these disciplines, not only do we need to endure the slow process of learning new techniques that feel strange and unfamiliar before enjoying the benefits, we also have to overcome an instinctive objection from our own bodies.
What Tension Does
The trouble is that when we are experiencing stress we become tense: our muscles tighten and adrenaline and cortisol flow through our systems, making it even harder to relax. Even sitting in a quiet darkened room doesn’t guarantee success – if your mind is buzzing you’ll feel over stimulated. It's easy to understand why we seek easier, more instant ways to calm down. That's why we sometimes confuse relaxation with distraction - especially in a time when so many distractions are available.
Relaxation Techniques - What Does Or Doesn’t Relax Us
'I feel stressed out tonight. Let's just relax in front of the TV.' Unfortunately, most television programmes are designed to engage us by arousing our interest in some way. The sound tracks are especially effective in stimulating us emotionally, so that the net result of our attempts to 'switch off' turn out to be merely 'changing channels' with our attention. We swap one set of stimuli for another - and we have even less control over the content than when we are wrestling with all the details of our own over-busy lives.
The Active Choice Relaxation Techniques
So: relaxation is an active choice, but it can seem too difficult and time-consuming to learn how to use the techniques that work. How can we actively choose to relax easily and effectively? William Congreve wrote ‘Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.’ and throughout history gentle music has been a favourite way to change the way we feel. This is because the vibrations that reach our ears do more than just please us as they cause our own internal rhythms, like heartbeat and brain activity, to synchronise with the music.
If you have ever tried turning off the sound track of a scary movie you know how flat it can seem with only pictures to keep the mood going. Anyone who has seen what happens to baby boomers at a party when someone plays a Rolling Stones record has experienced the power of music to move people.
Music As A Relaxation Technique
Naturally, the result depends on the type of music being played. A growing number of composers are choosing to focus mainly on the effect their music has on the listener. In the 1960s a series of 'mood music' albums appeared, followed in the 1970s by British artist Brian Eno's invention of the term 'ambient music' to describe the subtle, mood-invoking albums he created. The emphasis in this type of music is on the listener, not the artist ~ a very different approach from most productions. My own experience is relevant here as I spent more than twenty five years doing my best to capture the audience's attention as a session musician, performer and bandleader before getting involved with hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming as a way of helping people to live the kind of lives they really want.
New Role
It was while exploring how to combine music with these ways of helping people that I realised the difference in emphasis: in my new musical role I was no longer centre stage ~ in fact, if the listener was aware of me then I wasn't doing my job. It surprised me how much more difficult it can be to produce music so subtle that the listener is largely unaware of it, yet so effective that it relaxes him or her every time.
Self Treatment
As I researched what had already been done I found a fascinating range of different techniques, all contributing to the power of gentle music to soothe and calm us. These approaches can be combined to create truly effective musical solutions to the everyday problems caused by stress. This kind of self-treatment is a welcome alternative to pharmaceuticals, being very effective and extremely safe. Some hospitals have found that when they play the right kind of music their pain-killing medication bill goes down, in some cases to half its former level.
In the 1960s, a popular idea was that music could change the world. For us as individuals, that now seems to be true – at least on a personal level.
Authors Details: Relaxation Techniques - Graham Smith is a musician
Monday, July 18, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Spiritual Guidance From Dreams
Many of us take our dreams for granted, not realizing that the dream state is actually an expanded state of consciousness. Due to the fact that the ego lets go of a lot of the control it normally exercises during the day, we become more open to healing forces that help us to regain balance mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually as we dream.
There are many different schools of thought regarding the meaning and use of dreams - I call the dreamwork I teach the Esoteric Dream School since I believe that humans are spiritual beings, here on an evolutionary journey. I believe we have a higher self, that part of ourselves which is more enlightened and is the one constant at the core of our different lifetimes.
Our higher selves often work with us through our dreams - healing, advising, encouraging, and sometimes warning us of coming dangers. It is also possible to receive great spiritual gifts and knowledge in the form of visionary dreams. In the shamanic tradition for example, it is known that a developing healer can be initated as a shaman and given specific healing powers in the dream state. Such dreams are life transforming.
Anyone who desires to derive spiritual guidance and more conscious benefit from their dreams can achieve that goal. When I started in 1986, I could not remember much...an occasional clearer dream, otherwise just nonsensical fragments. Once I made the decision to start keeping track of them new insights about consciousness appeared from the very start. Today, I remember my dreams most nights and am able to apply the information they give me to my everyday life. I am also able to assist others, not only as a dream interpreter, but as a dream traveler, searching out and gaining information for various problems they request help with.
There are 3 basic steps to becoming a proficient dreamer if you consider yourself inexperienced.
1) REMEMBER YOUR DREAMS
Start to record your dreams. Have a journal - for that purpose only - by your bedside and write down the very first dream fragment you experience. It does not matter whether or not it seems important. By getting the journal and devoting time to this activity, you are sending a message to your consciousness that you are more interested in your dreams. This will automatically increase your ability to remember.
Write page numbers in your journal so you can make your own index of content. Don't forget the date, make a few short notes about what you were doing that day, and whether or not there were any other influences, such as a full or new moon. As time goes by, you will observe certain patterns to your dreaming that will assist you in understanding their meaning.
If you are still having difficulty remembering your dreams, give yourself positive suggestions mentally a few times just before falling asleep. Examples of such suggestions are "When I wake up in the morning, I will remember my dreams." or "Tonight I will take a photo of the most important part of my dreams and remember it when I wake up." In the morning I will often use the following suggestion before arising if I am having trouble with recall: "I can and I will remember my dreams."
Another important aspect of writing down your dreams is that often you will understand the meaning spontaneously as you write. The same effect can be acheived by sharing your dream with a friend or dreamwork partner who is willing to listen.
2) LEARN DREAM SYMBOLS
In order to be able to start interpreting the symbols your mind is using to communicate with you, you can start by using a symbol lexicon or even a dictionary. There are various dream interpretation books on the market. Some are excellent. But a word of caution here: I have found many dream lists that are superficial and superstitious...written on a "parlor room" level if you will. Be selective. In the end, a symbol has the meaning that your consciousness applies to it and there is most certainly a cultural influence to be accounted for. However, there are many universal themes in our dreams that are common to all humans on the planet, and these themes can be discussed and further explored during dreamwork classes. Other topics to be covered in class are the different types of dreams such as nightmares, clairvoyance, teaching, healing, mirror, etc.
3) PROGRAM YOUR DREAMTIME
As you become a more proficient dreamer, you can eventually learn to program your dreamtime to get advice on a particular question, to visit other places*, or to enter a state of lucid dreaming, which means that you are aware of the fact that you are dreaming while you are dreaming. This is achieved by giving yourself appropriate suggestions before falling asleep.
(*In the dream state the ordinary rules of physics do not apply...our spirit can actually leave the body and visit other places, other dimensions, other ages since we step out of the time/space zone in dreams. The dream state also allows us to communicate with those closest to us who have passed over.)
One of mankind's greatest fears is that he is alone in the universe, abandoned to fateful forces of destruction. My dreams have time and time again totally and irrevocably convinced me that just the opposite is true. We are watched over, guided and supported through all of life's trials and tribulations. Dream miracles have become a part of my daily life! I encourage and invite you to start your dream journal today and to become more acquainted with how your dream consciousness is speaking with you so that you can experience your own dream miracles!
Authors Details: Spiritual Guidance From Dreams - Judith Bourque
There are many different schools of thought regarding the meaning and use of dreams - I call the dreamwork I teach the Esoteric Dream School since I believe that humans are spiritual beings, here on an evolutionary journey. I believe we have a higher self, that part of ourselves which is more enlightened and is the one constant at the core of our different lifetimes.
Our higher selves often work with us through our dreams - healing, advising, encouraging, and sometimes warning us of coming dangers. It is also possible to receive great spiritual gifts and knowledge in the form of visionary dreams. In the shamanic tradition for example, it is known that a developing healer can be initated as a shaman and given specific healing powers in the dream state. Such dreams are life transforming.
Anyone who desires to derive spiritual guidance and more conscious benefit from their dreams can achieve that goal. When I started in 1986, I could not remember much...an occasional clearer dream, otherwise just nonsensical fragments. Once I made the decision to start keeping track of them new insights about consciousness appeared from the very start. Today, I remember my dreams most nights and am able to apply the information they give me to my everyday life. I am also able to assist others, not only as a dream interpreter, but as a dream traveler, searching out and gaining information for various problems they request help with.
There are 3 basic steps to becoming a proficient dreamer if you consider yourself inexperienced.
1) REMEMBER YOUR DREAMS
Start to record your dreams. Have a journal - for that purpose only - by your bedside and write down the very first dream fragment you experience. It does not matter whether or not it seems important. By getting the journal and devoting time to this activity, you are sending a message to your consciousness that you are more interested in your dreams. This will automatically increase your ability to remember.
Write page numbers in your journal so you can make your own index of content. Don't forget the date, make a few short notes about what you were doing that day, and whether or not there were any other influences, such as a full or new moon. As time goes by, you will observe certain patterns to your dreaming that will assist you in understanding their meaning.
If you are still having difficulty remembering your dreams, give yourself positive suggestions mentally a few times just before falling asleep. Examples of such suggestions are "When I wake up in the morning, I will remember my dreams." or "Tonight I will take a photo of the most important part of my dreams and remember it when I wake up." In the morning I will often use the following suggestion before arising if I am having trouble with recall: "I can and I will remember my dreams."
Another important aspect of writing down your dreams is that often you will understand the meaning spontaneously as you write. The same effect can be acheived by sharing your dream with a friend or dreamwork partner who is willing to listen.
2) LEARN DREAM SYMBOLS
In order to be able to start interpreting the symbols your mind is using to communicate with you, you can start by using a symbol lexicon or even a dictionary. There are various dream interpretation books on the market. Some are excellent. But a word of caution here: I have found many dream lists that are superficial and superstitious...written on a "parlor room" level if you will. Be selective. In the end, a symbol has the meaning that your consciousness applies to it and there is most certainly a cultural influence to be accounted for. However, there are many universal themes in our dreams that are common to all humans on the planet, and these themes can be discussed and further explored during dreamwork classes. Other topics to be covered in class are the different types of dreams such as nightmares, clairvoyance, teaching, healing, mirror, etc.
3) PROGRAM YOUR DREAMTIME
As you become a more proficient dreamer, you can eventually learn to program your dreamtime to get advice on a particular question, to visit other places*, or to enter a state of lucid dreaming, which means that you are aware of the fact that you are dreaming while you are dreaming. This is achieved by giving yourself appropriate suggestions before falling asleep.
(*In the dream state the ordinary rules of physics do not apply...our spirit can actually leave the body and visit other places, other dimensions, other ages since we step out of the time/space zone in dreams. The dream state also allows us to communicate with those closest to us who have passed over.)
One of mankind's greatest fears is that he is alone in the universe, abandoned to fateful forces of destruction. My dreams have time and time again totally and irrevocably convinced me that just the opposite is true. We are watched over, guided and supported through all of life's trials and tribulations. Dream miracles have become a part of my daily life! I encourage and invite you to start your dream journal today and to become more acquainted with how your dream consciousness is speaking with you so that you can experience your own dream miracles!
Authors Details: Spiritual Guidance From Dreams - Judith Bourque
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
A Meditation for Prosperity.
Prosperity is the attitude that you can have what you want in this universe
The purpose of the universe is to enable you to learn. Prosperity is the attitude that you can have what you want in this universe. Therefore prosperity is one of the things you are here to learn.
Here is a meditation that facilitates that learning.
Sit quietly, close your eyes and be aware of your body, your thoughts, and your feelings. Put all those things to one side. Think of a quantity of energy. This may be easiest in monetary terms such as an annual salary. Or you can think of it as a quantity of love, or a measure of getting the most out of life. Draw that amount of energy out of the earth and up into your feet.
Be aware of reprogramming the very cells of your body to a higher level of havingness. Move the energy up your legs to your torso. Pay special attention to the joints, such as ankles and knees. Energy tends to stick in the joints. Eventually move the energy up through your head and imagine it as a fountain pouring out of the top of your head. Let the energy cascade down the outside all around you at about a one to two foot radius. Pay special attention to your back. As this energy flow hits the ground draw it around and in again to your feet. Now increase the amount to a higher level - for example think of raising your worth as a salary.
Check to see if you feel comfortable with this higher level. If it is uncomfortable, lower it to where it is comfortable. The aim however is to gradually get it higher and higher. So draw in that increased amount of energy into your feet and up through your body. Be aware now of the overall circulation of energy and let it circulate for a few minutes. Finally seal off your feet and your head and when you feel complete, draw the meditation to a close.
This meditation can in fact be done several times during the day fairly quickly. You can do it while jogging, or sitting in a car in traffic, or sitting at a desk, or while walking. It is a powerful meditation and strongly recommended. Within weeks or at most months you will notice results.
Authors Details: José Stevens
The purpose of the universe is to enable you to learn. Prosperity is the attitude that you can have what you want in this universe. Therefore prosperity is one of the things you are here to learn.
Here is a meditation that facilitates that learning.
Sit quietly, close your eyes and be aware of your body, your thoughts, and your feelings. Put all those things to one side. Think of a quantity of energy. This may be easiest in monetary terms such as an annual salary. Or you can think of it as a quantity of love, or a measure of getting the most out of life. Draw that amount of energy out of the earth and up into your feet.
Be aware of reprogramming the very cells of your body to a higher level of havingness. Move the energy up your legs to your torso. Pay special attention to the joints, such as ankles and knees. Energy tends to stick in the joints. Eventually move the energy up through your head and imagine it as a fountain pouring out of the top of your head. Let the energy cascade down the outside all around you at about a one to two foot radius. Pay special attention to your back. As this energy flow hits the ground draw it around and in again to your feet. Now increase the amount to a higher level - for example think of raising your worth as a salary.
Check to see if you feel comfortable with this higher level. If it is uncomfortable, lower it to where it is comfortable. The aim however is to gradually get it higher and higher. So draw in that increased amount of energy into your feet and up through your body. Be aware now of the overall circulation of energy and let it circulate for a few minutes. Finally seal off your feet and your head and when you feel complete, draw the meditation to a close.
This meditation can in fact be done several times during the day fairly quickly. You can do it while jogging, or sitting in a car in traffic, or sitting at a desk, or while walking. It is a powerful meditation and strongly recommended. Within weeks or at most months you will notice results.
Authors Details: José Stevens
Rise UP with B. Dave Walters Ep. 20 recording:
How to feel happy, and how to understand what your dreams mean
http://ping.fm/dbw5u
How to feel happy, and how to understand what your dreams mean
http://ping.fm/dbw5u
Sunday, July 10, 2011
7 Steps to Self Agape (Love)
Remember that the goal of this teaching is to facilitate the lessons of unconditional love and acceptance. There is no possibility of accomplishing this toward others if you have not first learned how to unconditionally accept yourself.
Here are seven steps to lead you in that direction.
1. Trust in your perceptivity.
2. Ruthless truthfulness with yourself.
3. Acknowledging that the world and those in it are perfect and making a commitment to be tolerant.
4. Allow yourself your own power and constant choice to be appropriate with it.
5. Erasing fear and the chief negative feature to live in gentleness and joy.
6. Truly experiencing surrender and therefore power and control, which leads to the true integration of personality and essence. This allows you to fully experience the physical plane as well as the truth, love, and beauty of the other planes.
7. Humility
1. Trust in your perceptivity.
The first step to self-agape has to do with developing your ability to perceive. Perceiving is not thinking about, nor is it figuring out or scrutinizing. Remember that perceptivity is a function of your emotional center and that perception is a feeling. This is the ability to size up the truth of a situation, experience, or person by instantly and emotionally sensing what is so about them. You might walk into a business meeting where a number of people are present and you can instantly perceive whom you can trust and whom you should be careful about. You can instantly perceive as well whether you are going to get anywhere with this team or whether you are going to waste time and money with them. The aphorism "Don't guess, perceive", applies to this step.
This is an important way to look at perceptivity. Your society does not encourage people to follow and trust their own intuitions and perceptions. Characteristically older souls, because of their experience, have inherently good perceptivity skills. The problem tends to be that older souls lose confidence in their perceptivity when they live in a young soul society that places a low value on intuition and perception. Thus, this first step to self-agape is to trust and develop the skill of perception.
2. Ruthless truthfulness with yourself.
The second step to self-agape encourages you to be completely honest with yourself. Ruthless truthfulness means the courage to state what is so about yourself and your perceptions at any one time. This truthfulness does not have so much to do with perceiving as it does with telling the truth about what you perceived. Often you perceive accurately but then deny what you saw, or distort is so much that the truth becomes unrecognizable. You may accurately assess that the business team gathered is a bad mix of personalities and that your endeavors will come to grief. However, if you should slide to the negative poles of your overleaves and become, for example, ingratiating, you may deny to yourself and the others your original perception. You will act as if everything is fine and proceed foolishly into a mess.
Knowing and telling the truth, however, can be tricky. Because the truth is unique for each individual, one person's truth is another person's lie. In addition, truth is not always constant but changes as the soul matures and gains experience. The truth for a baby soul is different from the truth for a mature soul. The truth for a baby soul is that law, order, and obedience to authority are the most necessary ingredients to live a good life. The truth for a mature soul is that individual search and questioning of authority is necessary for a good life. Ruthless truthfulness is a form of compassion and need not be seen as a way of putting oneself down or being self-deprecating. Being self-truthful is not beating yourself up but seeing in a detached way what the reality is and what must be done.
3. Acknowledging that the world and the people in it are perfect and making a commitment to be tolerant.
The third step focuses on acknowledging that people are perfect the way they are. Perfect means that each person is following his or her own path just the way that they should. In other words, every person is learning their lessons in his or her chosen ways. The important lesson one person is learning may be the important lesson that another person learned ten lifetimes ago or will learn three lifetimes from now. Therefore perfection does not have to be a high ideal or look like your pictures of what the world is supposed to be, but in fact what is. The concept of perfection in "what is" has always been one of the most difficult for students to understand. You may ask, how can the world be perfect if there is killing, war, famine, and disease? How can so-and-so be perfect if he lies, cheats, and steals from me? Should I do nothing, then, to correct or stop these things?
The answer is paradoxical. Yes, all these things are being perfectly done and everyone is learning their lessons exactly the way they had hoped (on an essence level, of course). However, part of this perfection is that when you perceive injustice you perfectly move to correct it. Therefore physical reality is a game that everyone gets to play, the unjust and the just, and in the illusion of time one will eventually become the other, and the game continues.
4. Allow yourself your own power and the constant choice to be appropriate with it.
Personal power is the result of telling the truth. Telling the truth gives you presence, and presence is perceived as power. Being appropriate with power is a unique task for each individual. The more powerful a person is, the simpler the message. The philosophical writings of young souls are often lengthy, complex, and difficult to read. The message of old souls tends to be far simpler. The teachings and concepts of Jesus Christ are immensely powerful and are phrased in the simplest possible terms, as in the parables and in statements such as "Love your neighbor as yourself." The Buddha taught the eightfold path based on the simple truth that to crave is to suffer. Meher Baba said, "Don't worry, be happy." What could be simpler?
5. Erase fear and your chief negative feature to live in gentleness and joy.
Attention and awareness are the chief tools for erasing fear. Fear is a by-product of the false personality and when you shift your identification away from the false personality and toward essence you automatically begin to dissolve fear. All seven chief features -- self-destruction, greed, self-deprecation, arrogance, martyrdom, impatience, and stubbornness are based on fears. A major life task each lifetime is to erase the neutralizing effect of the chief feature so that you can reach your goal. When you are realizing your life goal, whether it is acceptance or growth, you feel the joy of essence work. The experience of joy always leads to gentleness.
6. Truly experiencing surrender and therefore power and control.
This allows you to fully experience the physical plane as well as the truth, love, and beauty of the other planes. As you can see, step six contains a paradox, calling on you to experience surrender while at the same time experiencing personal power. You need to be able to hold this contradiction at one and the same time in order to be in control. In one sense, surrender means no longer resisting the events and experiences of the physical plane. Surrender does not mean giving up, but embracing essence-directed lessons and opportunities. When you stop resisting being in a body and the karma that accompanies it, you begin to rapidly accelerate your spiritual growth. As you accelerate you become more powerful because you learn to fear nothing. Spiritual growth allows you to access the higher centers -- higher intellectual, higher emotional, and higher moving. As you begin to open up to the higher centers you begin to experience the truth, love, and beauty of all the planes within the Tao.
7. Humility
This seventh step is the experience of completion after you have mastered the first six steps. The seventh step allows you to let go of attachment to that achievement and this neutrality is expressed as humility.
Authors Details: José Stevens
José Stevens, Ph.D., is the founder of Essence Psychology and lectures internationally on essence and personality, shamanism, and prosperity. He is the author of Tao To Earth and Transforming Your Dragons and Secrets of Shamanism.
Here are seven steps to lead you in that direction.
1. Trust in your perceptivity.
2. Ruthless truthfulness with yourself.
3. Acknowledging that the world and those in it are perfect and making a commitment to be tolerant.
4. Allow yourself your own power and constant choice to be appropriate with it.
5. Erasing fear and the chief negative feature to live in gentleness and joy.
6. Truly experiencing surrender and therefore power and control, which leads to the true integration of personality and essence. This allows you to fully experience the physical plane as well as the truth, love, and beauty of the other planes.
7. Humility
1. Trust in your perceptivity.
The first step to self-agape has to do with developing your ability to perceive. Perceiving is not thinking about, nor is it figuring out or scrutinizing. Remember that perceptivity is a function of your emotional center and that perception is a feeling. This is the ability to size up the truth of a situation, experience, or person by instantly and emotionally sensing what is so about them. You might walk into a business meeting where a number of people are present and you can instantly perceive whom you can trust and whom you should be careful about. You can instantly perceive as well whether you are going to get anywhere with this team or whether you are going to waste time and money with them. The aphorism "Don't guess, perceive", applies to this step.
This is an important way to look at perceptivity. Your society does not encourage people to follow and trust their own intuitions and perceptions. Characteristically older souls, because of their experience, have inherently good perceptivity skills. The problem tends to be that older souls lose confidence in their perceptivity when they live in a young soul society that places a low value on intuition and perception. Thus, this first step to self-agape is to trust and develop the skill of perception.
2. Ruthless truthfulness with yourself.
The second step to self-agape encourages you to be completely honest with yourself. Ruthless truthfulness means the courage to state what is so about yourself and your perceptions at any one time. This truthfulness does not have so much to do with perceiving as it does with telling the truth about what you perceived. Often you perceive accurately but then deny what you saw, or distort is so much that the truth becomes unrecognizable. You may accurately assess that the business team gathered is a bad mix of personalities and that your endeavors will come to grief. However, if you should slide to the negative poles of your overleaves and become, for example, ingratiating, you may deny to yourself and the others your original perception. You will act as if everything is fine and proceed foolishly into a mess.
Knowing and telling the truth, however, can be tricky. Because the truth is unique for each individual, one person's truth is another person's lie. In addition, truth is not always constant but changes as the soul matures and gains experience. The truth for a baby soul is different from the truth for a mature soul. The truth for a baby soul is that law, order, and obedience to authority are the most necessary ingredients to live a good life. The truth for a mature soul is that individual search and questioning of authority is necessary for a good life. Ruthless truthfulness is a form of compassion and need not be seen as a way of putting oneself down or being self-deprecating. Being self-truthful is not beating yourself up but seeing in a detached way what the reality is and what must be done.
3. Acknowledging that the world and the people in it are perfect and making a commitment to be tolerant.
The third step focuses on acknowledging that people are perfect the way they are. Perfect means that each person is following his or her own path just the way that they should. In other words, every person is learning their lessons in his or her chosen ways. The important lesson one person is learning may be the important lesson that another person learned ten lifetimes ago or will learn three lifetimes from now. Therefore perfection does not have to be a high ideal or look like your pictures of what the world is supposed to be, but in fact what is. The concept of perfection in "what is" has always been one of the most difficult for students to understand. You may ask, how can the world be perfect if there is killing, war, famine, and disease? How can so-and-so be perfect if he lies, cheats, and steals from me? Should I do nothing, then, to correct or stop these things?
The answer is paradoxical. Yes, all these things are being perfectly done and everyone is learning their lessons exactly the way they had hoped (on an essence level, of course). However, part of this perfection is that when you perceive injustice you perfectly move to correct it. Therefore physical reality is a game that everyone gets to play, the unjust and the just, and in the illusion of time one will eventually become the other, and the game continues.
4. Allow yourself your own power and the constant choice to be appropriate with it.
Personal power is the result of telling the truth. Telling the truth gives you presence, and presence is perceived as power. Being appropriate with power is a unique task for each individual. The more powerful a person is, the simpler the message. The philosophical writings of young souls are often lengthy, complex, and difficult to read. The message of old souls tends to be far simpler. The teachings and concepts of Jesus Christ are immensely powerful and are phrased in the simplest possible terms, as in the parables and in statements such as "Love your neighbor as yourself." The Buddha taught the eightfold path based on the simple truth that to crave is to suffer. Meher Baba said, "Don't worry, be happy." What could be simpler?
5. Erase fear and your chief negative feature to live in gentleness and joy.
Attention and awareness are the chief tools for erasing fear. Fear is a by-product of the false personality and when you shift your identification away from the false personality and toward essence you automatically begin to dissolve fear. All seven chief features -- self-destruction, greed, self-deprecation, arrogance, martyrdom, impatience, and stubbornness are based on fears. A major life task each lifetime is to erase the neutralizing effect of the chief feature so that you can reach your goal. When you are realizing your life goal, whether it is acceptance or growth, you feel the joy of essence work. The experience of joy always leads to gentleness.
6. Truly experiencing surrender and therefore power and control.
This allows you to fully experience the physical plane as well as the truth, love, and beauty of the other planes. As you can see, step six contains a paradox, calling on you to experience surrender while at the same time experiencing personal power. You need to be able to hold this contradiction at one and the same time in order to be in control. In one sense, surrender means no longer resisting the events and experiences of the physical plane. Surrender does not mean giving up, but embracing essence-directed lessons and opportunities. When you stop resisting being in a body and the karma that accompanies it, you begin to rapidly accelerate your spiritual growth. As you accelerate you become more powerful because you learn to fear nothing. Spiritual growth allows you to access the higher centers -- higher intellectual, higher emotional, and higher moving. As you begin to open up to the higher centers you begin to experience the truth, love, and beauty of all the planes within the Tao.
7. Humility
This seventh step is the experience of completion after you have mastered the first six steps. The seventh step allows you to let go of attachment to that achievement and this neutrality is expressed as humility.
Authors Details: José Stevens
José Stevens, Ph.D., is the founder of Essence Psychology and lectures internationally on essence and personality, shamanism, and prosperity. He is the author of Tao To Earth and Transforming Your Dragons and Secrets of Shamanism.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Rise UP with B. Dave Walters Episode 19 recording: How to master the Law of Attraction! http://ping.fm/TBjU1
Rise UP with B Dave Walters starts at 1 am PST/8 am GMT
Tonight: using The Law of Attraction
Listen live at http://ping.fm/KaKU9
Tonight: using The Law of Attraction
Listen live at http://ping.fm/KaKU9
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Saturday, July 2, 2011
This is cooool!
“I’ve created my profile at about.me! Check me out: http://ping.fm/4l527 and sign up at http://about.me.”
“I’ve created my profile at about.me! Check me out: http://ping.fm/4l527 and sign up at http://about.me.”
Being Spiritual
Being Spiritual - Becoming Spiritual & Performing Miracles
This article presents 8 beliefs & practices to cultivate in order to manifest miracles in our life.
Becoming a spiritual being is synonymous with becoming a miracle worker and knowing the bliss of real magic. The differences between people who are non-spiritual, or "physical only", and those whom I call spiritual beings are dramatic. I use the terms spiritual and non-spiritual in the sense that a spiritual being has a conscious awareness of both the physical and the invisible dimension, while the non-spiritual being is only aware of the physical domain. Neither category, as I use them, implies atheism or religious orientation in any way. The non-spiritual person is not incorrect or bad because he or she experiences the world only in a physical manner.
Below are 12 beliefs and practices for you to cultivate as you develop your abilities to manifest miracles in your life. Becoming a spiritual being as outlined here is an all-out necessity if real magic is your objective in this lifetime.
1. The non-spiritual being lives exclusively within the five senses, believing that if you cannot see, touch, smell, hear, or taste something, then that something simply doesn't exist. The spiritual being knows that beyond the five physical senses, there are other senses we use to experience the world of form.
As you work toward becoming a spiritual being as well as a physical being, you begin to live more and more consciously within the invisible realm. You begin to know that there are senses beyond this physical world. Even though you cannot perceive it through one of the five senses, you know that you are a soul with a body, and that your soul is beyond limits and defies birth and death. It is not governed by any of the rules and regulations that govern the physical universe. To be a spiritual being means that you allow yourself the option of being multi-sensory. Hence a whole new world opens up. As Gary Zukav writes in The Seat of the Soul, "The experiences of the multi-sensory human are less limited than the experiences of the five-sensory human. They provide more opportunities for growth and development and more opportunities to avoid unnecessary difficulties."
2. The non-spiritual being believes we are alone in the universe. The spiritual being knows he or she is never alone.
A spiritual being is comfortable with the idea of having teachers, observers, and divine guidance available at any time. If we believe we are souls with bodies rather than bodies with souls, then the invisible, eternal part of ourselves is always available to us for assistance. Once this belief is firm and unshakable it can never be doubted, regardless of the rational arguments of those who live exclusively in the physical world. For some this is called intense prayer, for others it is universal, omnipresent intelligence or force, and for others it is spiritual guidance. It matters not what you call this higher self or how you spell it, since it is beyond definitions, labels, and language itself.
For the non-spiritual being this is all hogwash. We show up on Earth, we have one life to live and no one has any ghosts around or within to help out. This is a physical-only universe to the non-spiritual being and the goal is to manipulate and control the physical world. The spiritual being sees the physical world as an arena for growth and learning with the specific purpose of serving and evolving into higher levels of love. Non-spiritual beings accept the existence of a supreme being or God, not as a universal force that is within us but as a separate power that will someday hold us accountable. They do not see themselves as having assistance or a higher self, unless they have the kind of direct experience of divine presence recorded by St. Paul or St. Francis of Assisi. Spiritual beings simply know, through their personal experience of having been in contact with their own divine guidance, that they are not alone, and that they can use that guidance to become miracle makers in their lives.
3. The non-spiritual being is focused on external power. The spiritual being is focused on personal empowerment.
External power is located in the dominance of and control over the physical world. This is the power of war and military might, the power of laws and organization, the power of business and stock market games. This is the power of controlling all that is external to the self. The non-spiritual being is focused on this external power. By contrast, the spiritual being is focused on empowering himself and others to higher and higher levels of consciousness and achievement. The use of force over another is not a possibility for the spiritual being. He or she is not interested in collecting power, but rather in helping others to live in harmony and to experience real magic. This is a power of love that does not judge others. There is no hostility or anger in this kind of power. It is true empowerment to know that one can live in the world with others who have differing points of view and have no need to control or vanquish them as victims. A spiritual being knows the enormous power that comes with the ability to manipulate the physical world with one's mind.
A mind at peace, a mind centered and not focused on harming others, is stronger than any physical force in the universe. The entire philosophy of aikido and the Oriental martial arts is based not on external power over the opponent, but on becoming at one with that external energy to remove the threat. Empowerment is the inner joy of knowing that external force is not necessary to be at harmony with oneself. To the non-spiritual being, no other way is known. One must constantly be ready for war. Even though the spiritual masters to whom they often pledge allegiance speak against such use of power, the non-spiritual being simply cannot see other alternatives
4. The non-spiritual being feels separated and distinct from all others, a being unto himself. The spiritual being knows that he is connected to all others and lives his life as if each person he meets shares being human with him.
When a person feels separate from all others he becomes more self-centered and much less concerned about the problems of others. He may feel some sympathy for people starving in another part of the world, but that person's daily approach is, "It's not my problem." The splintered personality, the non-spiritual being, is focused more on his own problems, and often feels that other human beings are either in his way or trying to get what he wants and so he must "do in" the other guy, before he gets done in himself.
The spiritual being knows that we are all connected, and he is able to see the fullness of God in each person with whom he makes contact. This sense of connection eliminates much of the inner conflict that the non-spiritual being experiences as he constantly judges others, categorizes them according to physical appearances and behaviors, and then proceeds to find ways to either ignore or take advantage of them for his own benefit. Being connected means that the need for conflict and confrontation is eliminated. Knowing that the same invisible force that flows through himself flows through all others allows the spiritual being to truly live the golden rule. The spiritual being thinks, "How I am treating others is essentially how I am treating myself, and vice versa." The meaning of "love thy neighbor as thyself" is clear to the spiritual being, while it is considered nonsense by the non-spiritual being. Negative judgment is not possible when one feels connected to all others. The spiritual being knows that he cannot define another by his judgments, that he only defines himself as a judgmental person.
5. The non-spiritual being believes exclusively in a cause/effect interpretation of life. The spiritual being knows that there is a higher power working in the universe beyond mere cause and effect. The non-spiritual being lives exclusively in the physical world, where cause and effect rule. If one plants a seed (cause), he will see the result (effect). If one is hungry, he will seek food. If one is angry, he will vent that anger. This is indeed a rational and logical way to think and behave, since the third law of motion for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction is always operating in the physical universe.
The spiritual being goes beyond Newton's physics and lives in an entirely different realm. The spiritual being knows that thoughts come out of nothingness, and that in our dream state (one-third of our entire physical lives), where we are in pure thought, cause and effect play no role whatsoever.
6. The non-spiritual being is motivated by achievement, performance and acquisitions. The spiritual being is motivated by ethics, serenity and quality of life.
For the non-spiritual person, the focus is on learning for the purpose of high grades, getting ahead, and acquiring possessions. The purpose of athletics is competition. Success is measured in external labels such as position, rank, bank accounts, and awards. These are all very much a part of our culture, and certainly not objects to be scorned, they simply are not the focus of the spiritual being's life. For the spiritual being, success is achieved by aligning oneself with one's purpose, which is not measured by performance or acquisitions. The spiritual being knows that these external things flow into one's life in sufficient amounts and that they arrive as a result of living purposefully. The spiritual being knows that living purposefully involves serving in a loving fashion. Mother Teresa, who has spent many years of her life caring for the most downtrodden among us in the slums of Calcutta, defined purpose this way in "For the Love of God:"
"The fruit of love is service, which is compassion in action. Religion has nothing to do with compassion. It is our love for God that is the main thing, because we have all been created for the sole purpose to love and be loved."
It is in ways such as this that the spiritual being's inner and outer reality is experienced. It is not necessary to become a saint ministering to the impoverished to become a spiritual being. One simply must know that there is much more to life than achievement, performance and acquisitions, and that the measure of a life is not in what is accumulated, but rather in what is given to others. Living ethically, morally and serenely while being aligned with a spiritual purpose is at the core of his being. Real magic cannot be experienced when your focus is on getting more for yourself, particularly if it is at the expense of others. When you experience a sense of serenity and quality about your life, knowing your mind is what creates such a state, you will also know that from such a state of mind flows miracle-making magic
7. The non-spiritual being has no place within his awareness for the practice of meditation. The spiritual being cannot imagine life without it.
For the non-spiritual being, the idea of looking quietly within oneself and sitting alone for any period of time repeating a mantra, emptying one's mind, and seeking answers by aligning oneself with one's Higher Self borders on lunacy. For this person, answers are sought by working hard, struggling, persevering, setting goals, reaching those goals and setting new ones and competing in a dog-eat-dog world.
The spiritual being knows about the enormous power of the practice of meditation. He knows meditation makes him more alert and able to think more clearly. He knows the very special effect meditation has in relieving stress and tension.
Spiritual people know, by virtue of having been there and experienced it firsthand, that one can get divine guidance by becoming peaceful and quiet, and asking for answers. They know they are multidimensional and that the invisible mind can be tapped at higher and higher levels through meditation, or whatever you want to call the practice of being alone and emptying your mind of the frenetic thoughts that occupy so much of daily life. They know that in deep meditation one can leave the body and enter a sphere of magic that is as blissful a state as any drug could temporarily provide.
For the non-spiritual being this is perceived as an escape from reality, but for the spiritual being it is an introduction to a whole new reality, a reality that includes an opening in life that will lead to miracle making.
8. For the non-spiritual being, the concept of intuition can be reduced to a hunch or a haphazard thought that accidentally pops into one's head on occasion. For the spiritual being, intuition is far more than a hunch. It is viewed as guidance or as God talking, and this inner insight is never taken lightly or ignored.
You know from your own experience that when you ignore your intuitive proddings, you end up regretting it or having to "learn the hard way".
To the non-spiritual person, intuition is completely unpredictable and occurs in random happenstance. It is often ignored or shunned in favor of behaving in habitual ways. The spiritual being strives to increase consciousness concerning his intuition. He pays attention to invisible messages and knows deep within that there is something working that is much more than a coincidence.
Spiritual beings have an awareness of the nonphysical world and are not stuck exclusively in a universe restricted to the functioning of their five senses. Hence all thoughts, invisible though they may be, are something to pay attention to. But intuition is much more than a thought about something, it is almost as if one is receiving a gentle prod to behave in a certain way or to avoid something that might be dangerous or unhealthy. Although inexplicable, our intuition is truly a factor of our lives.
For the non-spiritual person, this seems to be merely a hunch and nothing to study or become more attuned to. The non-spiritual person thinks, "It will pass. It is just my mind at work in its disorderly way " For the spiritual person, these inner intuitive expressions are almost like having a dialogue with God.
Authors Details: Dr. Wayne Dyer
This article presents 8 beliefs & practices to cultivate in order to manifest miracles in our life.
Becoming a spiritual being is synonymous with becoming a miracle worker and knowing the bliss of real magic. The differences between people who are non-spiritual, or "physical only", and those whom I call spiritual beings are dramatic. I use the terms spiritual and non-spiritual in the sense that a spiritual being has a conscious awareness of both the physical and the invisible dimension, while the non-spiritual being is only aware of the physical domain. Neither category, as I use them, implies atheism or religious orientation in any way. The non-spiritual person is not incorrect or bad because he or she experiences the world only in a physical manner.
Below are 12 beliefs and practices for you to cultivate as you develop your abilities to manifest miracles in your life. Becoming a spiritual being as outlined here is an all-out necessity if real magic is your objective in this lifetime.
1. The non-spiritual being lives exclusively within the five senses, believing that if you cannot see, touch, smell, hear, or taste something, then that something simply doesn't exist. The spiritual being knows that beyond the five physical senses, there are other senses we use to experience the world of form.
As you work toward becoming a spiritual being as well as a physical being, you begin to live more and more consciously within the invisible realm. You begin to know that there are senses beyond this physical world. Even though you cannot perceive it through one of the five senses, you know that you are a soul with a body, and that your soul is beyond limits and defies birth and death. It is not governed by any of the rules and regulations that govern the physical universe. To be a spiritual being means that you allow yourself the option of being multi-sensory. Hence a whole new world opens up. As Gary Zukav writes in The Seat of the Soul, "The experiences of the multi-sensory human are less limited than the experiences of the five-sensory human. They provide more opportunities for growth and development and more opportunities to avoid unnecessary difficulties."
2. The non-spiritual being believes we are alone in the universe. The spiritual being knows he or she is never alone.
A spiritual being is comfortable with the idea of having teachers, observers, and divine guidance available at any time. If we believe we are souls with bodies rather than bodies with souls, then the invisible, eternal part of ourselves is always available to us for assistance. Once this belief is firm and unshakable it can never be doubted, regardless of the rational arguments of those who live exclusively in the physical world. For some this is called intense prayer, for others it is universal, omnipresent intelligence or force, and for others it is spiritual guidance. It matters not what you call this higher self or how you spell it, since it is beyond definitions, labels, and language itself.
For the non-spiritual being this is all hogwash. We show up on Earth, we have one life to live and no one has any ghosts around or within to help out. This is a physical-only universe to the non-spiritual being and the goal is to manipulate and control the physical world. The spiritual being sees the physical world as an arena for growth and learning with the specific purpose of serving and evolving into higher levels of love. Non-spiritual beings accept the existence of a supreme being or God, not as a universal force that is within us but as a separate power that will someday hold us accountable. They do not see themselves as having assistance or a higher self, unless they have the kind of direct experience of divine presence recorded by St. Paul or St. Francis of Assisi. Spiritual beings simply know, through their personal experience of having been in contact with their own divine guidance, that they are not alone, and that they can use that guidance to become miracle makers in their lives.
3. The non-spiritual being is focused on external power. The spiritual being is focused on personal empowerment.
External power is located in the dominance of and control over the physical world. This is the power of war and military might, the power of laws and organization, the power of business and stock market games. This is the power of controlling all that is external to the self. The non-spiritual being is focused on this external power. By contrast, the spiritual being is focused on empowering himself and others to higher and higher levels of consciousness and achievement. The use of force over another is not a possibility for the spiritual being. He or she is not interested in collecting power, but rather in helping others to live in harmony and to experience real magic. This is a power of love that does not judge others. There is no hostility or anger in this kind of power. It is true empowerment to know that one can live in the world with others who have differing points of view and have no need to control or vanquish them as victims. A spiritual being knows the enormous power that comes with the ability to manipulate the physical world with one's mind.
A mind at peace, a mind centered and not focused on harming others, is stronger than any physical force in the universe. The entire philosophy of aikido and the Oriental martial arts is based not on external power over the opponent, but on becoming at one with that external energy to remove the threat. Empowerment is the inner joy of knowing that external force is not necessary to be at harmony with oneself. To the non-spiritual being, no other way is known. One must constantly be ready for war. Even though the spiritual masters to whom they often pledge allegiance speak against such use of power, the non-spiritual being simply cannot see other alternatives
4. The non-spiritual being feels separated and distinct from all others, a being unto himself. The spiritual being knows that he is connected to all others and lives his life as if each person he meets shares being human with him.
When a person feels separate from all others he becomes more self-centered and much less concerned about the problems of others. He may feel some sympathy for people starving in another part of the world, but that person's daily approach is, "It's not my problem." The splintered personality, the non-spiritual being, is focused more on his own problems, and often feels that other human beings are either in his way or trying to get what he wants and so he must "do in" the other guy, before he gets done in himself.
The spiritual being knows that we are all connected, and he is able to see the fullness of God in each person with whom he makes contact. This sense of connection eliminates much of the inner conflict that the non-spiritual being experiences as he constantly judges others, categorizes them according to physical appearances and behaviors, and then proceeds to find ways to either ignore or take advantage of them for his own benefit. Being connected means that the need for conflict and confrontation is eliminated. Knowing that the same invisible force that flows through himself flows through all others allows the spiritual being to truly live the golden rule. The spiritual being thinks, "How I am treating others is essentially how I am treating myself, and vice versa." The meaning of "love thy neighbor as thyself" is clear to the spiritual being, while it is considered nonsense by the non-spiritual being. Negative judgment is not possible when one feels connected to all others. The spiritual being knows that he cannot define another by his judgments, that he only defines himself as a judgmental person.
5. The non-spiritual being believes exclusively in a cause/effect interpretation of life. The spiritual being knows that there is a higher power working in the universe beyond mere cause and effect. The non-spiritual being lives exclusively in the physical world, where cause and effect rule. If one plants a seed (cause), he will see the result (effect). If one is hungry, he will seek food. If one is angry, he will vent that anger. This is indeed a rational and logical way to think and behave, since the third law of motion for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction is always operating in the physical universe.
The spiritual being goes beyond Newton's physics and lives in an entirely different realm. The spiritual being knows that thoughts come out of nothingness, and that in our dream state (one-third of our entire physical lives), where we are in pure thought, cause and effect play no role whatsoever.
6. The non-spiritual being is motivated by achievement, performance and acquisitions. The spiritual being is motivated by ethics, serenity and quality of life.
For the non-spiritual person, the focus is on learning for the purpose of high grades, getting ahead, and acquiring possessions. The purpose of athletics is competition. Success is measured in external labels such as position, rank, bank accounts, and awards. These are all very much a part of our culture, and certainly not objects to be scorned, they simply are not the focus of the spiritual being's life. For the spiritual being, success is achieved by aligning oneself with one's purpose, which is not measured by performance or acquisitions. The spiritual being knows that these external things flow into one's life in sufficient amounts and that they arrive as a result of living purposefully. The spiritual being knows that living purposefully involves serving in a loving fashion. Mother Teresa, who has spent many years of her life caring for the most downtrodden among us in the slums of Calcutta, defined purpose this way in "For the Love of God:"
"The fruit of love is service, which is compassion in action. Religion has nothing to do with compassion. It is our love for God that is the main thing, because we have all been created for the sole purpose to love and be loved."
It is in ways such as this that the spiritual being's inner and outer reality is experienced. It is not necessary to become a saint ministering to the impoverished to become a spiritual being. One simply must know that there is much more to life than achievement, performance and acquisitions, and that the measure of a life is not in what is accumulated, but rather in what is given to others. Living ethically, morally and serenely while being aligned with a spiritual purpose is at the core of his being. Real magic cannot be experienced when your focus is on getting more for yourself, particularly if it is at the expense of others. When you experience a sense of serenity and quality about your life, knowing your mind is what creates such a state, you will also know that from such a state of mind flows miracle-making magic
7. The non-spiritual being has no place within his awareness for the practice of meditation. The spiritual being cannot imagine life without it.
For the non-spiritual being, the idea of looking quietly within oneself and sitting alone for any period of time repeating a mantra, emptying one's mind, and seeking answers by aligning oneself with one's Higher Self borders on lunacy. For this person, answers are sought by working hard, struggling, persevering, setting goals, reaching those goals and setting new ones and competing in a dog-eat-dog world.
The spiritual being knows about the enormous power of the practice of meditation. He knows meditation makes him more alert and able to think more clearly. He knows the very special effect meditation has in relieving stress and tension.
Spiritual people know, by virtue of having been there and experienced it firsthand, that one can get divine guidance by becoming peaceful and quiet, and asking for answers. They know they are multidimensional and that the invisible mind can be tapped at higher and higher levels through meditation, or whatever you want to call the practice of being alone and emptying your mind of the frenetic thoughts that occupy so much of daily life. They know that in deep meditation one can leave the body and enter a sphere of magic that is as blissful a state as any drug could temporarily provide.
For the non-spiritual being this is perceived as an escape from reality, but for the spiritual being it is an introduction to a whole new reality, a reality that includes an opening in life that will lead to miracle making.
8. For the non-spiritual being, the concept of intuition can be reduced to a hunch or a haphazard thought that accidentally pops into one's head on occasion. For the spiritual being, intuition is far more than a hunch. It is viewed as guidance or as God talking, and this inner insight is never taken lightly or ignored.
You know from your own experience that when you ignore your intuitive proddings, you end up regretting it or having to "learn the hard way".
To the non-spiritual person, intuition is completely unpredictable and occurs in random happenstance. It is often ignored or shunned in favor of behaving in habitual ways. The spiritual being strives to increase consciousness concerning his intuition. He pays attention to invisible messages and knows deep within that there is something working that is much more than a coincidence.
Spiritual beings have an awareness of the nonphysical world and are not stuck exclusively in a universe restricted to the functioning of their five senses. Hence all thoughts, invisible though they may be, are something to pay attention to. But intuition is much more than a thought about something, it is almost as if one is receiving a gentle prod to behave in a certain way or to avoid something that might be dangerous or unhealthy. Although inexplicable, our intuition is truly a factor of our lives.
For the non-spiritual person, this seems to be merely a hunch and nothing to study or become more attuned to. The non-spiritual person thinks, "It will pass. It is just my mind at work in its disorderly way " For the spiritual person, these inner intuitive expressions are almost like having a dialogue with God.
Authors Details: Dr. Wayne Dyer
Friday, July 1, 2011
Don't Hold Back (What holds you back? Find out here...)
Don't hold back! Have you ever had a terrific idea which you didn't act on? Of course you have. I don't mean anything fancy either. Nothing earth-shattering. Just a plain old-fashioned good idea which would have made you more money. But you didn't get moving on it.
Oh well.
I have a friend I'll call James. James is an independent management consultant and a deep, creative thinker. I have great respect for his abilities to understand his clients and develop unique solutions for them. But he isn't very successful. His business is ok, but hardly booming--and certainly not where he says he'd like it to be. He works with interesting people--just never enough of them. And aside from soliciting referrals, he does nothing to increase his overall practice.
The funny thing is, this guy has more brilliant ideas about how to build his business than anyone I know. The problem is he doesn't implement any of them. James is just one of those people who stops before he ever gets started.
So much for James. What about you?
Do you have more ideas than action steps? Why don't you just get going?
I encounter this issue often with people who have tons of great ideas about what to do next, that never get implemented. And they want to know why.
Have you thought about what stops you from acting on ideas or programs which could bring rich rewards?
I have, and I think there are several simple reasons.
Don't hold back
1. Lack of an inspiring, motivating purpose
Why should we do anything? Why indeed! That missing why is called purpose. Without a strong purpose the urgent things take over. The ringing telephone takes over. "You've Got Mail" takes over. The knock at the door takes over. Inertia takes over.
In physics we learn that it takes additional energy to break free of inertia. A powerful purpose adds that energy. Energy that organizes your actions, and brings the important things to the fore. To break free of the inertia of your current routine, you need an inspiring purpose.
2. No clear vision
Imagine yourself at a six-way intersection in a fog so thick you can't see a single landmark. You can't even read the road signs. Which way will you go? If you do pick a direction, will you be confident about setting out, or will you proceed slowly, hoping for the fog to clear a bit before you pick up the pace?
Everybody wants to go somewhere--at least everybody in business does. But without a clear vision you can't see where you want to go. And if you don't see it, you won't proceed aggressively and confidently on a course toward it-- whatever it is--will you? So even if you craft a plan--to take you...somewhere, you aren't likely to execute it. At least not anytime soon.
3. Not willing to make sacrifices or do the work
You already have more than enough to do, and whatever else you take on means something has to be set aside. Sacrifice means giving up something of value for something of even greater value. Which means there is something more valuable to sacrifice for. And you haven't clarified what that 'something' is. Or maybe you aren't sure that it is worth it.
In this same category I put: giving up free time, relaxation time, play time, or whatever. But it always comes down to sacrifice, and the big question is, is it worth it. (By the way, I plead guilty to this one. There are times when I feel I have something important to accomplish, I just don't feel it's important enough to get off the couch for. What gets me moving is reciting the litany of purpose: "Why did I feel it was important? And what will happen because of that? And why is THAT important? And so on.)
If you are certain something will work, there is no risk and you will likely take action. On the other hand, if you are uncertain--and most things are uncertain to some degree--you wonder if it the risk is worth it.
So what do you believe? Do you believe your actions will pay off or not? If you aren't sure, how much effort will you put into it? Will you hesitate? Postpone? Procrastinate? Go at half-speed?
Or maybe 'it' will work, in someone's hands, but you don't believe it will work in yours. In other words, you lack of confidence that you can get it done, and the risk is too great.
Each of these issues can be addressed by having a powerful purpose--and an inspiring set goals to achieve. When these are strong enough, they make the potential reward that much bigger and alter the risk-reward ratio in favor of action.
5. Fear
Sometimes it comes down to fear. You have a vision and a purpose, and you think the risks are acceptable. But what if it doesn't work out. Then what? That's fear. It won't work out the way you want it to. What will you be left with then? Or even worse, not only will it not work out, but something bad will come as a result of it.
6. Everything else
You just have other things to do. Like what? Like the day- to-day stuff of running your business or doing your job. You can't just keep piling it on, can you? No, you can't. The question is, are the things you are already doing all worth while? Should some of it be delegated? Should some of it be dumped, or put on the back burner?
Once again, you must weight what you are already doing against your purpose and goals. If your existing action set is effectively driving you towards your goals, there's no need to do more. But if you aren't moving sure-footedly in that direction, then you need to shift things around and make room for what will.
You may have to realign your priorities, and reevaluate your options so that your available time and energy is dedicated to moving you in the right direction.
What about you? Don't hold back. What stops you? Any one of these six things can hold you back, or it may be a combination of things. Once you identify what stops you, it is much easier to address and get moving. Now you can transform your ideas into an action plan.
Authors Details: Don't Hold Back - Paul Lemberg
Oh well.
I have a friend I'll call James. James is an independent management consultant and a deep, creative thinker. I have great respect for his abilities to understand his clients and develop unique solutions for them. But he isn't very successful. His business is ok, but hardly booming--and certainly not where he says he'd like it to be. He works with interesting people--just never enough of them. And aside from soliciting referrals, he does nothing to increase his overall practice.
The funny thing is, this guy has more brilliant ideas about how to build his business than anyone I know. The problem is he doesn't implement any of them. James is just one of those people who stops before he ever gets started.
So much for James. What about you?
Do you have more ideas than action steps? Why don't you just get going?
I encounter this issue often with people who have tons of great ideas about what to do next, that never get implemented. And they want to know why.
Have you thought about what stops you from acting on ideas or programs which could bring rich rewards?
I have, and I think there are several simple reasons.
Don't hold back
1. Lack of an inspiring, motivating purpose
Why should we do anything? Why indeed! That missing why is called purpose. Without a strong purpose the urgent things take over. The ringing telephone takes over. "You've Got Mail" takes over. The knock at the door takes over. Inertia takes over.
In physics we learn that it takes additional energy to break free of inertia. A powerful purpose adds that energy. Energy that organizes your actions, and brings the important things to the fore. To break free of the inertia of your current routine, you need an inspiring purpose.
2. No clear vision
Imagine yourself at a six-way intersection in a fog so thick you can't see a single landmark. You can't even read the road signs. Which way will you go? If you do pick a direction, will you be confident about setting out, or will you proceed slowly, hoping for the fog to clear a bit before you pick up the pace?
Everybody wants to go somewhere--at least everybody in business does. But without a clear vision you can't see where you want to go. And if you don't see it, you won't proceed aggressively and confidently on a course toward it-- whatever it is--will you? So even if you craft a plan--to take you...somewhere, you aren't likely to execute it. At least not anytime soon.
3. Not willing to make sacrifices or do the work
You already have more than enough to do, and whatever else you take on means something has to be set aside. Sacrifice means giving up something of value for something of even greater value. Which means there is something more valuable to sacrifice for. And you haven't clarified what that 'something' is. Or maybe you aren't sure that it is worth it.
In this same category I put: giving up free time, relaxation time, play time, or whatever. But it always comes down to sacrifice, and the big question is, is it worth it. (By the way, I plead guilty to this one. There are times when I feel I have something important to accomplish, I just don't feel it's important enough to get off the couch for. What gets me moving is reciting the litany of purpose: "Why did I feel it was important? And what will happen because of that? And why is THAT important? And so on.)
If you are certain something will work, there is no risk and you will likely take action. On the other hand, if you are uncertain--and most things are uncertain to some degree--you wonder if it the risk is worth it.
So what do you believe? Do you believe your actions will pay off or not? If you aren't sure, how much effort will you put into it? Will you hesitate? Postpone? Procrastinate? Go at half-speed?
Or maybe 'it' will work, in someone's hands, but you don't believe it will work in yours. In other words, you lack of confidence that you can get it done, and the risk is too great.
Each of these issues can be addressed by having a powerful purpose--and an inspiring set goals to achieve. When these are strong enough, they make the potential reward that much bigger and alter the risk-reward ratio in favor of action.
5. Fear
Sometimes it comes down to fear. You have a vision and a purpose, and you think the risks are acceptable. But what if it doesn't work out. Then what? That's fear. It won't work out the way you want it to. What will you be left with then? Or even worse, not only will it not work out, but something bad will come as a result of it.
6. Everything else
You just have other things to do. Like what? Like the day- to-day stuff of running your business or doing your job. You can't just keep piling it on, can you? No, you can't. The question is, are the things you are already doing all worth while? Should some of it be delegated? Should some of it be dumped, or put on the back burner?
Once again, you must weight what you are already doing against your purpose and goals. If your existing action set is effectively driving you towards your goals, there's no need to do more. But if you aren't moving sure-footedly in that direction, then you need to shift things around and make room for what will.
You may have to realign your priorities, and reevaluate your options so that your available time and energy is dedicated to moving you in the right direction.
What about you? Don't hold back. What stops you? Any one of these six things can hold you back, or it may be a combination of things. Once you identify what stops you, it is much easier to address and get moving. Now you can transform your ideas into an action plan.
Authors Details: Don't Hold Back - Paul Lemberg
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