GIVE ME PURPOSE

"As a man thinketh in his heart so is he." (Prov. 23:7)

2009-09-19T06:17:00.000-07:00

THE LAW OF THINKING by Dr. Raymond Holliwell

"As a man thinketh in his heart so is he." (Prov. 23:7)

To the average person, Life is an enigma, a deep mystery, a complex, an incomprehensible problem, or appears so, but it is very simple if one holds the key. Mystery is only another name for ignorance; all things are mysteries when they are not understood, but when we understand life, it no longer appears mysterious.

Man is a progressive being, a creature of constant growth, before whom lies an illimitable ocean of progress to be navigated and conquered only by development and culture of his inherent powers. The progress of the individual is largely determined by his ruling mental state, because the mind is the basic factor and governing power in the entire life of man. Attention should be given to the pre-dominant mental state, for it will regulate the action and direction of all one's forces, faculties and powers, the sum total of which will inevitably determine many particular experiences and the personal fate.

The ruling state of mind is made up of various mental attitudes which the individual adopts towards things, events, and life in general. If his attitudes are broad in mind, optimistic in tone, and true to life, his predominant mental state will correspond and exhibit a highly constructive and progressive tendency. As almost all the forces of the personality function through the conscious mind in one way or another, and as the daily mental and physical acts are largely controlled by the conscious mind, it is obvious that the leading mental state will determine the direction in which the powers of the individual are to proceed.

If his ruling mental state is upward bound, that is, aspiring, harmonious, and positive, all his forces will be directed into constructive channels; but if his state of mind is downward in tendency, that is, discordant and negative, then almost all his forces will be misdirected.

It is evident, therefore, that of all the factors which regulate the life and experience of man, none perhaps exercise a greater influence than the ruling state of mind. Mental attitudes are the result of ideas, and these have their origin in points of view therefore, by seeking true and natural points of view, one may secure the best and most superior ideas, and these in turn will determine the predominating state of mind.

We are prone to believe more than what we see. The evidences of the senses are the only facts that some accept, but now we shall realize more and more that it is what we believe that determines what we shall see. In other words, believing is seeing. More defeats and failures are due to mental blindness than to moral deviations. If one lived only by physical sight, his world would be very small. It is said of a bug that its world is only as large as the size of the leaf on which it lives, and many times it does not live long enough to consume the whole leaf. With man, if he lived according to the senses, the largest sense he possessed would be that of sight. Thus our whole world would extend only as far as we could see.

If we believed in the testimony of our eyes, we would accept many conditions that are not true. For example, if you look down a railroad track, you will observe that at a certain distance the two tracks converge at one point. This is not true. Have you ever stood on the boardwalk and watched a ship slowly sink into the sea as it sailed away? That ship wasn't sinking; our eyes tell us falsely. When you are worried over some obstacle or problem, just remind yourself that it may be purely an illusion of the senses, that it may not be true at all, according to the Law.

Did you know that you don't even see with your eyes? Your eyes are like a pair of windows; at the back, of the window there is a reflector and this reflector, in turn, forms an image of what you see and sets up a wave current. This wave current follows along thin wires called nerves. This relays the image back to the brain. Here at the brain it is referred to the memory center. If the picture is a common one our memory accepts it readily, but if we are looking upon some new picture, some new scene, our memory does not recognize it, and then we must repeat the picture over and over many times until it makes a lasting impression. Therefore, we do not see with our eyes; we see with our mind.

Thought is a subtle element; although it is invisible to the physical sight, it is an actual force or substance, as real as electricity, light, heat, water or even stone. We are surrounded by a vast ocean of thought stuff through which our thoughts pass like currents of electricity, or tiny streaks of light or musical waves. You can flash your thoughts from pole to pole, completely around the world many times in less than a single second. Scientists tell us that thought is compared with the speed of light. They tell us our thoughts travel at the rate of 186,000 miles per second. Our thought travels 930,000 times faster than the sound of our voice. No other force or power in the universe yet known is as great or as quick. It is a proven fact, scientifically, that the mind is a battery of force, the greatest of any known element.

It is an unlimited force; your power to think is inexhaustible, yet there is not one in a thousand who may be fully aware of the possibilities of his thought power. We are mere babes in handling it. As we grow in understanding and in the right use of thought, we will learn to banish our ills, to establish good in every form we may desire. It is our power to think that determines our state of living. As one is able to think, he generates a power that travels far and near, and this power sets up a radiation which becomes individual as he determines it. Our thoughts affect our welfare, and often affect others we think of. The kind of thoughts we register on our memories or habitually think attracts the same kind of conditions.

If we take the thought of success and keep it in mind, the thought elements will be attracted, for "like attracts like." We are mentally drawn to the universal thought currents of success, and these thought currents of success are existent all around us. We will psychically contact minds who think along the same lines, and later such minds will be brought into our lives. Therefore, successful minded people help success to come to them. That is how successful living is founded.

The Law of mind is in perpetual operation, and it works both ways. Persons who dwell on thoughts of failure or poverty will gravitate toward like conditions; they, in turn, will draw to them people who accept failure and poverty. On the other hand, we can think on positive conditions, on success and plenty, and in the same manner, enjoy full and plenty. What the mind holds within takes its form in the outer world.

Some think that we must deal with two forces; that is, to attract the good we must do away with the bad, but this is not true. For example; if we are cold, we do not work with cold and heat alike in order to get warm. We build a fire, and as we gather around that fire we enjoy the heat that is extended from it and become warm. As we build up warmth, the cold disappears, for cold is the absence of heat. To be warm, we give our whole thought to those things which tend to create warmth; we ignore the cold in thinking of heat and bring forth heat. Prosperity and poverty are not two things; they are merely two sides of one and the same thing. They are but one power, rightly or wrongly used. We cannot think of plenty and then worry about the unfavorable conditions that may seem apparent. We think about plenty, and as we think of it, lack, its opposite, will become absorbed or disappear. All our thoughts must be directed to that one thing which we desire in order that our desire may be fulfilled. Our method is not manipulating two powers, not dealing with good and evil, right and wrong, prosperity and poverty, but as we follow the Law of Good and dwell upon that which is good we shall bring to pass all good things.

The mind force is creating continually like fertile soil. Nature does not differentiate between the seed of a weed and that of a flower. She produces and causes both seeds to grow. The same energy is used for both, and so it is with the mind. The mind creates either good or bad. Your ideas determine which is to be created.

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The above article is from an excellent new Audio-eBook entitled "WORKING WITH THE LAW" by Dr. Raymond Holliwell.

"One of the Clearest and Simplest to Understand Books on the Law of Attraction Ever Written - A Timeless Classic in its Field."

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Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be. - Henry David Thoreau

2009-07-29T04:58:00.000-07:00

Typical resolutions consist of activities that require some teeth-pulling. Exercise more. Eat better. Stop smoking. These are things we don’t really want to do. These are the resolutions we make and break every year, minutes after writing them down. Instead, we should make resolutions for things we want to do. Make resolutions to do things that you didn’t do enough of or didn’t get to last year. Have you been delaying a trip to Europe? Do you want to spend more time with your family and friends? Make resolutions for things that will make you happy, and you’ll be more motivated to commit to them.

There are five basic things to consider when deciding on your resolutions:

Time
Reflect on what you’re doing with your time, and ask yourself whether things need to be readjusted. Make time to do the things that you really want to do—spend time with your loved ones, make a phone call instead of sending a quick birthday wish in an email, write, read, take a bubble bath. There’ll never be enough time to do everything, but there’ll always enough time to do what’s really important (yes, a bubble bath is important!).

Money
Like time, the inability to manage money is often due to perspective. If you value saving more than spending, you will save more and spend less. Decide what you really want to use your money for. Instead of making the resolution simply to “spend less,” “save more,” or “pay credit cards down,” make a specific goal. Set a goal of x amount of dollars to go on that trip. Know exactly how much you are trying to save each month (realistically!), rather than making an arbitrary end of the year amount or vague statement of where you want your finances to be eventually. It’s easier to put off saving until tomorrow when you don’t have a specific number you are working towards.

Work
Consider the direction of your career. Since you spend most of your day working, you better be doing something you like. Is this what you really want to do? Will this particular job lead you to where you want to be? Don’t get stuck in a place that doesn’t satisfy your aspirations for yourself. Resolve to take your career into your own hands, no matter how scary it might seem.

Connections
Having supportive and fulfilling relationships will do more for your well being than any kind of “success” in your career or money in your bank account. Resolve to spend more time with the people you love and who love you, give freely, offer help, and be gracious.

Health
Your health will be what allows you to pursue any of the things mentioned above. If you have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, low energy, or any other ailments, then eating better and getting more exercise has to be a priority. Don’t resolve to stop smoking because you’re “supposed” to. Do it because you value your health and understand that your well being is important to those you love.

I hope your 2009/2010 resolutions will be a list of things that make you very happy. Have fun doing them!

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Develop Your Leadership Potential

2009-07-08T17:18:00.000-07:00

Want to have some fun? Go to the book section of Amazon.com,
enter the keyword "leadership" and see how many hits you get.
The last time I did this I got over 18,200 hits. Eighteen thousand
two hundred! Why is there so much material on this one subject?
The law of supply and demand would say it is because people are
buying it. But I suspect there are other, more subtle reasons.

One of those reasons is the underlying belief that leadership can
be taught. With enough training, anybody can be a leader. The theory
is that leaders are made, not born. Or are they?

The other day a woman told me that she sees definite leadership traits
in her son. I asked her how old he was. "Six," she replied. Too
young to have been through any leadership training. So are
leaders born or made? The answer is both.

The problem is that we often get fuzzy about what can and cannot be
taught, and at the heart of the fuzziness is the difference between
talent and skill.

Talent is what we do well naturally. It is our bent. Talents are inborn,
and can be discovered and developed. They cannot be taught. However,
skills can. Skills are simply how to do something. They are learned
and transferable. When we confuse talent and skill, we set ourselves
up for disappointing expectations from training.

What does this have to do with developing leaders? Everything. For
example, the ability to create vision and strategy is a key leadership
trait. Some people have a talent for it. They do it naturally
and continually. Others don’t. Both can learn some skills that will
help them do it better. The difference is that the one with the
corresponding talent can be excellent at it, while the other
one can be adequate at best. Talent is required for excellence.
Who wants more "adequate" leaders?

Here’s the bottom line for developing your leadership potential:
become the leader you are designed to be. Discover your natural
motivational talents, and build on them. Volunteer for assignments
and training that complement your natural giftedness. Get on the
track to excellence by aligning your development with your talents.

There are all types of leaders. Some rouse and inspire. Some organize.
Some are strategic, and some tactical. Some spot opportunities, and
some protect against disaster. All are needed in this world
of ours.

What’s the best type of leader to be? The type you were designed to be.

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Two Parts Hydrogen, One part Talent

2009-07-01T04:35:00.000-07:00

Hydrogen and oxygen are distinctly different elements,
but sometimes they combine to form water. Something similar
is true for motivation and talent.

Motivation is what we LIKE to do naturally. Talent is what
we DO well naturally. They can exist independently, but when
they combine, they create something special. They create
motivated talents.

People often are naturally good at something (talented), but it
just doesn’t turn them on. For example, Heather is good with
numbers, but she doesn’t go out of her way to find tasks calling
for that talent. Most people have such talents. But then there
are those talents that we really enjoy using. These are the
motivated talents, and this is where the magic is.

We use motivated talents every chance we get. Most of the time
we don’t even think about it. For example, Larry has a motivated
talent for conversation, and he naturally engages both friends and
strangers in dialog. He doesn’t consciously determine to do so;
it just happens. It’s natural and unforced. He enjoys it, and
he’s good at it. That’s the hallmark of a motivated talent.

Motivated talents tend to be irrepressible. They find expression.
In fact, if you’ve ever tried to stifle a motivated talent (either
yours or someone else’s) it probably felt like you were trying
to hold two dozen ping pong balls under water at the same time.
Motivated talents pop out, even if no one else is asking for them.
And doesn’t that make sense? After all, it’s what we do well
AND enjoy.

Well then, wouldn’t the ideal job be one where you can use your
motivated talents daily and get paid for it? Absolutely! But
more on that later.

What are your natural motivations?

A Fast Ball by Babe Ruth?

2009-06-11T07:05:00.000-07:00

Did you know that Babe Ruth, a famous baseball player, was
once a pitcher? At one point he made the deliberate decision
to stop pitching so he could focus on batting. He took a lot
of heat for his decision because he was a GOOD pitcher. He
stuck with his decision though because he knew he had the
motivation to be a GREAT batter.

Often the difference between being good and being great
is making adjustments that allow you to spend more of your
time developing your greatest strengths.

Ever had an annual performance review where the first part
was about the wonderful things you did that year, but then
the focus quickly shifted to a discussion about shoring up
your weaknesses? It’s an all-too-common scenario. And it’s
probably a waste of time.

The "fix your weaknesses" school believes that with enough
discipline, determination and training, anyone can do anything.
Unfortunately, it confuses weaknesses and limitations. Weaknesses
reflect a lack of skill (how to do something) or knowledge (what
you know). Weaknesses can be overcome by education, training,
experience and practice. On the other hand, limitations reflect
a lack of motivation (what you do well naturally). These really
can’t be overcome, because new motivations can’t be acquired.
In fact, if a person has low motivation in a particular area,
spelling for example, there is very little likelihood that he
or she will ever be a great speller. The best they will be is
adequate. Who wants to be adequate?

It’s a much better idea to build on your strengths.

If you want to move up from being good to being great, know
what your talents and motivations are, and build on them.
Why? Because you will develop what you do best and enjoy
most. These are your strengths, and they are yours for life.
You can build on them, and they won't let you down. Think about
it: what would your life be like if you got paid to do what you
do best and truly enjoy? Awesome, isn’t it?

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Practice to Consistently Produce

2009-06-10T20:47:00.000-07:00

Every now and then you encounter someone who demonstrates
excellence on the job. It might be an exceptional waitress
who anticipates your every need. Or a manager who generates
both high performance and loyalty in his teams. It could be a
teacher with a knack for unlocking the desire to learn in each
student. Excellence, true excellence, is something we prize
but seldom see. It’s a joy to encounter someone who is truly
excellent at what they do. Why is that so rare? More
importantly, how can you become known as a man or woman who
consistently demonstrates excellence?

One comment that is heard time and again about those who demonstrate
excellence is, "He/she is a natural at it." They don’t seem to
struggle to be excellent; it just flows. That is always a sign of
motivation, and therein lies the first key: Motivation is required
for excellence.

Motivation is what we like to do naturally. It’s like being right
or left-handed. We don’t even think about it. We just write. The
same is true for people known for excellence. They have a group of
motivations that work in concert to help them perform at a higher
level. Like all motivations, these were inborn and are as much a
part of them as being blue-eyed or tall.

But there is a second key: Motivation can be developed. People who
demonstrate excellence have identified their motivations and worked
hard to develop them. They have added knowledge, skill, experience
and practice to consistently produce at the highest levels.

By the way, there is a flip side to these two keys, and it is
this: The best we can be with low motivation is adequate. No
matter how hard we work and desire it, in the long run we will
never be excellent at something without high levels of motivation
in that area. In other words, if we toil in areas where we have low
motivation, we resign ourselves to mediocrity.

Who wants to be mediocre? Who wants to be known as "adequate?"
Wouldn’t you rather have a shot at excellence? The first step to
unlocking your excellence is to know what you do well naturally.
What are your motivations?

Well...what are they?

I am blessed and I bless you.

Blessings are Blessings

2009-06-10T08:02:00.000-07:00

Were it not for the technological advances made in global
communications, delivering this lesson to you in whatever
particular place in the world you happen to inhabit might be
difficult. Thanks to the world-wide web, the internet and email,
however, we now have high-speed access to a previously undreamed-of
world of connectivity and can now literally "reach out and touch"
people spread all across the planet. But as remarkable as this new
connection to the world is, it cannot hold a candle to the speed
and ease with which a blessing can reach out to touch and transform.

The more practiced we become with the art of blessing, the more
aware we are of the truth of our being and the Divine way in which
we are so fully connected to the world around us. We discover a
willingness, many of us for the first time, to listen to our soul
and follow its guidance, and with each blessing we send forth, the
world of which we are a part undergoes a subtle yet undeniable
change. It becomes brighter, smoother, softer and infinitely more
sweet.

Notice I described the change occuring in our world as "subtle".
The fact is that, though they can be, the changes wrought by our
blessings are rarely ostentatious, dramatic or filled with any
sense of the spiritually glamorous. As David Spangler writes,
"Real blessings in everyday life are more like peasants than
nobles, they move and mingle with the commonality of our daily
experiences, sometimes going unnoticed or unrecognized for what
they are."

Blessings are blessings in whatever form they take. Our job is not
to question whether one act of blessing is greater than another,
nor is it to judge ourselves as being more or less capable of
blessing than someone else. Our job is to bless in whatever
ordinary way feels good to us and to keep on blessing for the sheer
joy the act of blessing brings.

And when we do this, when we practice the art of blessing everyone
and everything in our lives in whatever sweet and simple fashion
feels best to us, then with a swiftness that technology, no matter
how advanced it might become, can never match, our ordinary
blessings connect us to the Divine and make it possible for us to
see our universe in a whole and extraordinary new way.

And in reality, whether its peasant-born or noble in its rank, a
blessing need do nothing else. It has done the job it was meant to
do the moment it changes the way we view the world.

Changing us, you see, is what blessing others is really all about.

Today's affirmation:

"In the every day and ordinary, blessings abound."

Today's quote:

"In approaching the art of blessing, it's important to understand
that we are really entering a territory that is different from the
one we navigate through most of our daily lives. We are shifting to
a way of looking at the world and at ourselves that is unusual in
our mainstream society. This is not a magical or esoteric
perspective. It's simply a way of understanding the ordinariness
of the sacred and the sacredness of the ordinary."

-- David Spangler

Honor the Sacredness of every Single Moment

2009-06-02T08:40:00.000-07:00

Most of us spend a lot of time in yesterday and tomorrow. We spend
so much time either regretting the things that have happened or
dreading what might come, that we are often apt to neglect this
particular moment entirely. And actually, right now is the only
moment we have. A moment ago, for instance, you clicked on the
link to open this message. That moment is already gone and there is
nothing you can do to get it back. And before you finish this
sentence you will be in the future. In actuality, the only
moment you can ever know is RIGHT NOW. This is the one that counts.
This is your blessed moment.

At this moment your physical body is probably resting in a
comfortable chair or at your desk. The conscious and subconscious
mind are in turn reading and digesting these words. But since the
subconscious mind doesn't understand time, it's not paying any
attention to the time you are taking to read this.

That's because time is really nothing more than a mental construct
we use for moving things through space. Our subconscious mind
knows nothing about it, doesn't understand it, and won't comply
with it. Our subconscious mind knows and understands nothing but
NOW.

The conscious mind, however, considers time to be both real and,
unless trained otherwise, in short supply. It runs to and fro,
from the past to future and back again, stopping rarely to fully
examine the present moment and choosing, instead, to dart from one
scattered thought to the next. While the subconscious stays put in
NOW, the conscious mind is free to scurry about like an unruly
child and unless we teach it to stay put, will do just that. This
unruliness, when pitted against a subconscious that wants to stay
in the moment, can cause a mental battle that leaves us, at the
end of the day, feeling exhausted and tension-filled. Having spent
our days fighting our way through the clutter and debris of our
past and future thinking, it's no wonder we so often feel like life
is passing us by. Since we've been paying so little attention to
it, it really is.

So how do we keep our conscious minds from all this unruly
behavior? The key is in learning to focus fully on what we are
doing in any given moment. By paying attention to NOW. First, we
must decide that no matter what is happening, we will give it our
undivided attention, and then we commit to that decision. We bless
each moment by being fully present in it.

This is not as difficult as it might at first seem, but it does
take practice. By giving the present moment due diligence,
however, you will soon see the results in clearer thinking, greater
originality, and getting more accomplished without any sense of
strain or fatigue. By centering your thinking and emotional energy
in one spot, you'll feel renewed, regenerated and reborn. You will
no longer be living in the past; you will no longer be racing into
the future. You will be living RIGHT NOW, in this precious, eternal
and ever-present moment.

This doesn't mean you cannot plan for the future or remember the
past. It simply means that when you do either, you are fully
conscious of doing so. You willingly venture into past or future
thinking instead of being dragged there by a cluttered mind.

Since time is a mental concept and fully created by you, you can
create as much of it as you need. The universe is never in a hurry,
so why should you be? Just as it did this morning, the sun will
rise on time tomorrow. Look on any calendar to see when the moon is
next scheduled to appear, and you can rest assured it will peek
over the horizon the very moment it is slated to do so. Everything
in this universe, you see, runs with majestic, orderly, quiet
precision. So can you. There is no need to rush. You have all the
time in the world. You only need to retrain your mind to remember
this truth.

To do so, begin by taking a deep breath and then center your entire
mind on this moment. This is usually easy to do for a few seconds,
and then other thoughts start clamoring for your attention. Don't
be concerned. This is normal. As soon as you feel yourself being
pulled away from the present, just gently break away from the
thought pattern that is pulling you away and come back to this
moment. No matter what thoughts may be demanding your attention,
quiet them down, again and again returning to here and now.

Now, throughout the day, whenever you find your thoughts wandering
away from what you are doing at any given moment, gently pull them
back again, just as you did in this mini-meditation. Become fully
aware of what you are doing as you are doing it. If you are washing
dishes, for instance, put your whole mind to it. Notice the silky
feel of the warm, soapy water. Feel the smooth, squeaky cleanness
of each dish as it is washed. Commit yourself wholly to what you
are doing. Be reverent of it. Honor it by giving it your full
attention. At first it may be a bit difficult. You may venture off
into the past or future for several minutes before you realize
you've left the present. You may begin doing other things in your
mind instead of paying attention to what you are doing now. You may
even leave what you are doing physically to go start something
else. When this happens, simply return your full awareness and
your physical being to the moment at hand and imagine that you are
filling this perfect moment and this perfect action with light and
love and peace. By blessing it in this way, you will be training
your mind to honor the sacredness of every single moment and every
single action.

Again, don't worry or chide yourself when your mind wanders. As you
continue with this practice, you will find your mind wandering less
and less, your awareness growing more attuned to the moment you are
in. For now, simply bless the moment and return your attention to
it as quickly as you discover you have wandered.

Today's affirmation:

"Past and present are only in the mind. I am now. I am blessed."

Today's quote:

"If you are waiting for anything in order to live and love without
holding back, then you suffer. Every moment is the most important
moment of your life. No future time is better than now to let down
your guard and love."

-- David Deida

Are You Listening to the Big You or the Little You

2009-05-31T14:04:00.000-07:00

In the last decade or so the popularity of personal life and
spiritual coaches, counselors, therapists, healers and meditation
teachers has literally skyrocketed. A primary reason, I think, is
because we live in a society so geared toward encouraging
distraction and developing the external that until we feel stressed
to the point of having no other option, we spend little to no time
trying to learn who we are. We are self-un-aware, having no real
sense of who we are, what we are or where we are. By the time we
get around to trying to find out, the idea is filled with such
trepidation, we immediately seek professional help.

And that's certainly understandable. Getting to know ourselves can
be scary, exciting and downright depressing all in the same moment.
If we want to be able to fully embrace the very best life has to
offer, however, if we truly do want to walk the Blessing Way path
so that we can not only be a blessing, but experience all the
abundant blessings life has to offer, we must develop a sense of
self-awareness. We must connect with who we really are. We truly
must.

Of course, that doesn't mean total self awareness is going to
develop overnight. Learning to recognize the signals our inner
selves give us takes practice, but the practice is easy, and when
we incorporate blessing into the process, it becomes a fun, light
and absolutely joyous endeavor.

That's because blessing allows us to happily accept difficult
situations whenever and however they arise. We don't have to grit
our teeth and pretend that everything is a-okay while our insides
our churning and our fears are rising. We remain at peace,
steadfast in our knowledge that a seed of benefit is hidden within
the experience and, now germinated by our blessing, will sprout
and bloom.

Consider a minor problem. Let's say for the purpose of
demonstration, that your computer is not working as it should and
you can feel your irritation growing by the second. While you know
that the problem is not major, it's still just aggravating enough
to make you feel unsettled, as though you hit a minor rapid on the
stream of life. You feeling out of kilter with life and not sure
how to get back into alignment.

Begin by blessing the computer and accepting that the beyond the
faulty work performance being currently displayed, there's a
benefit. You may not be certain yet what it is, but you can trust
that it is there, just the same. This like everything else in your
life deserves a GOOD label because good will come out of it. Take
a deep breath and begin making statements like, "I don't know what
the blessing is, but I know it's here somewhere," and in your
mind's eye, see the computer working perfectly as it should. As you
do this, peace will begin to fill every cell and molecule of your
body. Imagine yourself diving into the center of a deep and
tranquil pool. Feel the peace surrounding you.

Now, take another deep breath, and imagine that your Inner Self, a
beautiful being of radiant light and wisdom is standing beside this
pool. Ask this higher part of you, this holy and sacred Self, to
disclose the reason for the computer malfunction, (or the reason
for any minor problem you might be experiencing) and then listen
quietly for the answer to come. It may come as a memory, a
suggestion from someone else, an inner knowing or a simple hunch.
Just wait and listen.

Try often throughout the day to communicate with your Inner
Guidance this way. Ask and then listen. This will open up an avenue
of communication between the "little" you and the big YOU. And
that, my friend, is a blessing in and of itself.

Today's affirmation:

"I ask my Inner Being and my Inner Being answers."

Today's quote:

"We need to ask ourselves honest, powerful and searching questions
in order to stimulate our inner growth."

-- David Vennells, from "Everything is a
Blessing"

/

Don't Check the Classifieds

2009-05-27T19:25:00.000-07:00

Since the dawn of time, philosophers, sages and mystics have been
advising us that if we really want to make things happen in
our lives, we need to look within. That's usually not the first
place we take a peek, however, when we want to create change
in our lives. If we decide we want a new career, or a new home, or
even a new world, for instance, we're more apt to check
the classifieds, tap into our network of friends, or join an
organization than we are to venture into the great unknown of Inner
Spirit. Maybe we'll look within later, we promise ourselves, after
we've run out of other options. But first, there simply must be
something we can do.

Blessing is that something. The process of blessing serves as a
bridge between our need to do and our ability to be. Blessing helps
us tap into the unseen creative processes that
bring change into our lives and the lives of those around us by
providing us an opportunity to look more closely at any given
experience and then determine what it is trying to communicate to
us. The act of blessing allows us to acknowledge that we, in
partnership with the Divine, create our world from the inside out.
Ultimately, through the process of blessing the world around us, we
become consciously aware of what is happening on the inside. Simply
put, blessing causes us to look within.

An act of unconditional giving, blessing also acquaints us with
that most Sacred part of ourselves. The energy of a blessing
unfolds from within our imaginings to expand outward into the
experience we envision. We are able to observe both how we connect
with Spirit and how that connection changes the world around us.
Blessing makes us keenly aware of our part in the transformational
process.

Quiet your mind for a few minutes and tap into your Inner Being.
Imagine yourself being "plugged in" into all the wisdom and power
in the universe and then envision that with every breath you take
the connection grows stronger. Just being aware of the power
within us is a blessing in itself. Take a deep breath now and feel
how blessed you are.

Today's affirmation:

"I am centered and connected to my inner spirit. I am blessed."

Today's quote:

"Affirmation of life is the spiritual act by which man ceases to
live unreflectively and begins to devote himself to his life with
reverence in order to raise it to its true value. To affirm life is
to deepen, to make more inward, and to exalt the will to live."

-- Albert Schweitzer

/

"No matter what may happen today, I can bless."

2009-05-11T04:19:00.000-07:00

My friend Jimmy is a candle maker. A very good candle maker. So good,
in fact, that his incredibly scented and beautifully designed soy
candles are sold in posh stores all over the world. Jimmy is not
only a candle maker. He is a successful one.

Ask Jimmy the secret of his success, and he'll tell you its the
blessing, because almost since the day he began his candle making
business well more than a decade ago, Jimmy has gone about the
business of blessing his candles. Daily he, along with other
members of his staff, pours love and peace and healing into each
candle being created, imagining the blessings settling into each
jar along with the wax and fragrance. Jimmy understands that this
is a world of energy and when we put good energy into something,
good energy naturally comes out.

And sometimes that good energy comes out in the most unexpected
ways. A few years ago, while utterly content making and blessing
his candles, Jimmy wasn't prepared for the dynamic change about to
occur in his life. He walked into work one morning only to find he
no longer had a company. His board of directors, thinking merely
blessing a business into success was not a savvy marketing plan,
had voted him out.

This is where Jimmy could have gotten really, really angry and
probably no one would have blamed him. But instead of fuming and
fussing and flying into what most would have considered a clearly
justified rage, Jimmy went on a cruise. He relaxed, emptied himself
of every hurtful judgment and then, once the cruise was over,
moved on to create a new company from scratch, blessing it just as
he had the first. Soon the new company was doing better than the
old.

That's how blessing works. It takes the sting out. It turns the
totally impossible into infinite possibility and transforms tragedy
into triumph and it does so quickly and without fuss or muss. When
we go about the daily business of blessing, we literally weave the
best possible outcome into every situation in our lives. Blessing
puts us in a good place.

Begin to develop a blessing business plan. Ask yourself ways you
can incorporate more blessing into the daily business of living and
then record the answers come to mind in your Blessing Way Journal.
And most importantly, once you've figured out new ways to bless,
then do it. It's nice to think about blessing someone or something.
It's infinitely nicer to bless.

Today's affirmation:

"No matter what may happen today, I can bless."

Today's quote:

"The great blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach;
but we shut our eyes, and, like people in the dark, we fall foul
upon the very thing we search for, without finding it."

-- Seneca

/

Change Your Life in a Heartbeat

2009-05-05T04:33:00.000-07:00

In order to bless others, we must step away from the busyness of
our world and into a place of neutrality. Sufi poet Rumi eloquently
invites us there with these words...

"Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a
field. I will meet you there."

Intuitively, at least, most of us are aware that feelings like
love and joy, gratitude and appreciation have a positive impact on
our bodies while unresolved anger, hurt and guilt have the opposite
effect. It makes sense, therefore, to find a way to transform those
experiences that hurt us into experiences that do not. That's where
blessing comes in.

In his book, "Secrets of the Lost Mode of Prayer" author Gregg
Braden defines blessing as an "emotional lubricant", because, like
a healing balm, it allows us to free the hurtful and unresolved
emotions we feel rather than stuffing them down inside where, like
acid, they only serve to erode and embitter. "To lubricate our
emotions, "Braden writes, "we must acknowledge (bless) all aspects
of those hurtful things: such as those who suffer, the cause of the
suffering and those who witness the outcome.

"I often find at this point in any discussion of what a blessing
is," he continues, "that it's important to be very clear about what
it is not. When we bless someone who's hurt us, clearly we aren't
suggesting that what has happened is okay or that we'd like it to
happen again. Blessing doesn't condone or make excuses for any
atrocity or act of suffering. It doesn't put a stamp of approval on
a hurtful event, or suggest that we would ever choose to
re-experience it.

"What blessing does do is free us from our painful experiences. It
acknowledges that those events, whatever they were, have occurred.
When we do so, our feelings about those experiences move through
our bodies instead of getting stuck inside them. In this way,
blessing is the key to reaching Rumi's field beyond wrongdoing and
right doing. Blessing is the key to accessing the space between. It
temporarily suspends our hurt long enough so that we can replace it
with another feeling.

"...the single act of blessing gives you the power to change your
life," Braden adds. "And it does so in a heartbeat! When we can
make our choices and offer our prayers from a place of strength and
clarity, rather than from the weakness of rage and hurt, something
wonderful begins to happen.

"Sounds too simple to work? Such a powerful tool can be as simple
or as difficult as we choose to make it. The reason that blessing
works so well is easy to understand. It's impossible to judge
something while we're blessing it at the same time. Our minds won't
allow us to do both things at once."

How can you expect me to bless the person who has
singlehandedly made my life a living hell for the past six months?

The question is a good one and the answer deceptively simple. When
life hurts, we can deal with the pain by replaying the hurtful act
or situation over and over again in our minds, or stuffing it deep
down inside where silently and insidiously it continues to eat away
at our emotional core until it eventually destroys us completely.
Or we can choose to heal by simply acknowledging the hurt and then
letting it go, moving on with life with the understanding that we
are far greater than whatever pain we might feel in any given
moment. The choice is ours. And, as Braden points out, "If we
choose the healing, blessing is the path."

The truth is that the "living hell" is not
the result of what someone else did , but of her reaction to what
someone else did. chose to accept the actions of
the other person as having happened and then determined to move
beyond it, to that field beyond wrong and right doing of which Rumi
speaks.
It is our thinking that determines the rightness or
wrongness of any given situation as much as the situation itself.
And even if, in our thinking, we determine that something bad has
happened, we are still given the option of holding it to us in the
form of unresolved emotion or letting it go and moving on toward
life.

When we bless, we make the second choice. Essentially, we say "OK,
this really awful thing has happened. But as long as I keep
thinking about it, rehashing it in my mind, retelling it to any and
all who will listen, then it will keep on happening. And I don't
want that. So, instead, I am going to bless this entire experience
and every person in it and then I'm going to let it go. I am going
to accept that it has happened, determined that with my blessing
something beneficial will rise out of it, and then I am going to
move on with my life, because I really, truly am far bigger than
this thing that has happened to me. I will prevail.

" And I am also going to bless the perpetrator of this situation
because if I don't, that means I am still sitting in judgment over
him, still labeling him as "bad" and unworthy of a blessing, and as
long as I do that, I am caught in my own act of condemnation just
as surely as he is. So, instead, I choose to free us both. He is
blessed. I am blessed, We are blessed. And in this way, I am
choosing freedom from every hell this experience would bring me and
fully embracing whatever slice of heaven it holds, instead."

In order to do this, we must first be willing to confront our own
inner belief systems. We may find ourselves faced with questioning
an entire life-time of conditioning and old worn-out thought forms
that tell us we must get even, defeat every foe and right every
wrong, In order to move beyond these barriers to blessing we have
to get to the point where we are ready to choose healing above all
else. When we are finally willing to give up all the old beliefs
and judgments that have kept us trapped, the the true blessing work
can begin.

Quietly confront your own inner belief system. Ask yourself if you
are honestly willing to suspend every judgment, every condemnation,
every necessity to make the world go "your way". Today's
affirmation allows you to pose the question simply and directly.
Repeat the affirmation, and then wait for the answer to arise from
within. Record your answer and any subsequent questions, doubts or
concerns it may to mind in your Blessing Way Journal. There are no
right or wrong answers to this question or to any of the questions
posed in the Blessing Way Challenge. The purpose of this exercise,
as well as all others is simply to make
you more aware of where you are in your own thinking processes, so
please do not fret. Just answer the question as honestly as you can
and record the answer and any other thoughts it might bring to mind.

Today's affirmation:

"What if I am willing to bless my world, no matter what I see?"

Today's quote:

"The key to the success of blessing is that it acknowledges
everything from the one who hurts, to the one who is hurting."

-- Gregg Braden

/

Grab Your Keys and Take a Drive

2009-04-27T04:40:00.000-07:00

Make a "blessing run." If you have to travel anywhere today,
whether by plane, train, subway, car, cab, bus or boat, use this
travel time to bless those around you. Leave no one in your
immediate surroundings untouched by a blessing. Do this for the
entire duration of your trip and afterward record any thoughts,
feelings and experiences that are the direct result of exercise in
blessing. If you do not have to travel anywhere to day, then simply
save this exercise for when you do, and in the interim, spend time
blessing your home, your neighborhood, your community, your region,
your country, your world, and everyone in it. Then record the
results in your Blessing Way Journal.

Today's affirmation:

"I love to bless my world."

Today's quote:

"The man who sows wrong thoughts and deeds and prays that God will
bless him is in the position of a farmer who, having sown tares,
asks God to bring forth for him a harvest of wheat."

-- James Allen

/

Tax Time a Blessing?

2009-04-21T04:19:00.000-07:00

Today's lesson is taken from the beautiful book, "The Gentle Art of
Blessing."

Blessing whatever we do is a fresh, wonderful way of staying
centered, of being present to the present -- the present moment,
present place and environment, present activity, present
circumstance, -- the bus we are on, the subway we travel in, the
meal we are eating, the person to whom we are talking, the child
with whom we play (including the one inside us), the persons with
whom we work, etc.

For a person who is unemployed, for instance, blessing will open
up extraordinary employment opportunities! You can become
self-employed anywhere blessing others, and this very practice
could open doors that could ultimately lead to gainful employment.

And why not bless every payment you make -- including, yes, your
taxes! Have you ever thought of the fact that every time you make a
payment, you represent the abundance of the universe to someone?
Most of us enjoy receiving money -- be it our pay check, a gift, an
unexpected windfall, whatever. So why not make giving money
something of equal enjoyment and fun as receiving it? Why not start
blessing the payments you make? Only the intellect separates
"giving" from "receiving" because it so desperately needs to label
everything and fit all experiences into neat little cubbyholes!
In reality, both are expressions of the infinite abundance of good
in the universe. Hence they are, in fact, exactly the same thing.

The more you get into the gentle art of blessing, the more you will
find meaningful ways to express it. A friend of mine,
the minute he gets up, stands next to his bed and blesses his wife
as she sleeps (he is an early riser). He sends her blessings of
protection each day, he blesses her in her innocence, her perfect
health, above all her divinity and her perfection. "And having
gotten off to such a good start, I send her blessings all through
the day," he adds.

If you are a teacher, for instance, why not get to class early and
bless each of the children, thinking of each one of them by name
and blessing them in a specific way? Miracles will happen. Just
try. A friend of mine who is an adult trainer blesses all who take
his courses before he even meets them. If you are a farmer, why
not bless your cows, geese and chickens, your fields and nature?

I am far from the goal of constant blessing....I am still very much
a beginner on the spiritual path. But the little I have learned is
so utterly exciting, I can't wait to graduate to grade school, and
one day -- why not -- to college, university...and beyond.

written by Pierre Pradervand

Choose an object, a person, a place, or a situation you would like
to bless and spend a few minutes pouring your heart, your mind and
your soul into the act of blessing. When you have finished, observe
how you feel about what you have just blessed and about how your
feel about yourself. Document your observations in your Blessing
Way Journal.

Today's affirmation:

"In every sacred moment, I leave a blessing."

Today's quote:

"To bless is to acknowledge the omnipresent, universal beauty
hidden from material eyes; it is to activate the law of attraction
which, from the furthest reaches of the universe, will bring into
your life exactly what you need to experience and enjoy."

-- Pierre Pradervand, "The Gentle Art of
Blessing"

/

Forgive Your Trespassers

2009-04-15T04:09:00.000-07:00

Think of a difficult person currently in your life or one who has
caused you trouble in the past. Find a quiet spot and take a few
minutes to calm your mind and settle into a feeling of being
connected to your inner spirit. Now bring the difficult person into
your thoughts and imagine this person as a small child, somewhere
between three and six years of age. Look deeply into his or her
eyes and see the hurt and pain residing there. All this child wants
is your love and compassion. That's really all he or she has ever
wanted. Reach out your arms and take him or her into your arms and
let this little child know how much your love it, how very much you
care. Comfort this child and let him or her know you will always be
here. Do this until you begin to feel the child's longings
subsiding, and you sense that his or her little body is being
filled with peace and love.

Now wrap this mental image in love, place it in your heart and then
imagine your heart filling with shimmering light that grows and
expands until it touches every corner of the universe. Feel the
warmth this love light brings to your heart center, and become
aware of new sensation of softness and gentleness enveloping you.
This child is now safely cradled in the center of all the love you
have within you. Now feel this love flowing from your heart to the
heart of the individual as he or she is today. Either aloud or to
yourself, say simply, "May you be blessed," and sense that on some
level this person hears your blessing and is instantly comforted by
it.*

Take a deep breath, release the image and step back into the
current moment. Your blessing has been sent forth.

Today's affirmation:

"There is so much love in my heart that I can heal the world."

Today's quote:

"Some experiences are easy to let go and some we have to chip away
at, until suddenly one day they let go and dissolve."

-- Louise Hay

* Today's exercise, affirmation are all taken or adapted from Louise
Hay's book, "You Can Heal Your Life."

/

Never Judge a Day by it's Weather

2009-04-07T04:41:00.000-07:00

Close your eyes and smile. Now let that smile spread throughout
your body, saturating every organ, every muscle, every bone,
soaking into your pores until every single ounce of you is smiling.
Just imagine that every cell and molecule that makes up your body,
even your DNA strands, are all happy and smiling and filled with
well-being and joy. Just smile all over and let yourself really,
really, really feel it. Now send it forth, wrapped in a blessing,
knowing that just like a ray of sunshine, it will go forward to
warm the heart of the recipient, spreading out to cheer, uplift and
inspire all who are touched by it.

Today's affirmation:

"My smile is a blessing."

Today's quote:

"On a gloomy, rainy morning, it came little eight-year-old Tommy's
turn to say the blessing at breakfast. 'We thank Thee for this
beautiful day,' he prayed. His mother asked him why he said that
when the day was anything but beautiful. 'Mother,' said he, with
rare wisdom, 'never judge a day by its weather.'"

-- Author Unknown"

/

Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others

2009-03-21T09:46:00.000-07:00

Choose an object or a space that you would like to bless, close
your eyes and imagine a connection between you and the object or
space being established. It may be that you will visualize a golden
cord connecting you, or perhaps you'll see a field of light
surrounding you and then expanding to surround the object or space
you have chosen to bless. Just use whatever imagery or technique
works best for you and/or seems appropriate at the moment. You need
only be able to feel some kind of connection between yourself and
the target of your blessing.

Now imagine this light or energy surrounding, transforming, healing
and impregnating the space or object with love and light and
healing. It does not take long to send forth this kind of
blessing, no more than a few seconds, at most, and you'll know you
have completed the blessing process when you feel your energy or
attention toward it begin to wane. As it does, imagine that all
the light you have sent out being drawn back into you, filling your
heart and being absorbed by your physical body. Now simply give
thanks that the space or object is blessed, allow yourself a deep,
cleansing breath, and then return to your normal activity. As you
again become aware of your physical surroundings you may notice
that you feel refreshed and re-energized, or that you feel calmer,
more at peace or more centered than prior to the blessing. That's
because blessing brings us into immediate harmony with our world.
In this way, we are instantly made aware that it is impossible to
bless and not be blessed in return.

For optimum results, and especially if this is a space or object
that is dear to you, you may want to practice this blessing
exercise daily.

Today's affirmation:

"As I bless the world around me I am blessed in return."

Today's quote:

"The easiest way to 'bless' something is to simply give God thanks
for it! "

-- Author Unknown

/

In Blessing Others I Am Blessed

2009-03-17T08:41:00.000-07:00

Have you ever tried to tell someone how to walk? If so, you've probably discovered that trying to explain how to put one foot before the other and

move forward is not all that easy. Trying to fully explain a process that is, in essence, simplicity itself, tends to make it sound much more complicated than it is.

That's because walking is an intensely personal act and none of us walks alike. Nor do we walk the same way all the time. We may saunter or speed walk; walk with our toes out or our toes in; place the weight on the ball of the foot first or on the heel first; step lightly on tiptoe or with the heaviness of a march. There is no one way that works the same way every time for everyone.

Blessing, too, in an intensely personal process with no one generic method that will work every time for every person, object or situation. In the next few days, however, we will be exploring various ways you may incorporate the simple act of blessing into your own life. Please understand that none of the ways suggested is the "be all and end all" of blessing. These are simply suggestions of ways that may appeal to you or, ideally, spark the idea for a technique that works especially well for you.

The important thing to remember is that when we bless, whether we are calling upon the Sacred and Divine to pour forth its richness, or we are simply setting an intention of good for the subject of our blessing, we first must step into our imagining and feeling nature.

We do not physically see a difference, we imagine it. We do not physically recognize the arc of love going from our heart to the heart of the one we bless, we feel the love being sent from one heart to the other. Through our imaginations and our feelings we change our energy state, charging it with good and then sending that good forth. That is what a blessing does. That is how a blessing works.

In its purest state, the act of blessing removes us from our little selves, taking us away from all the petty concerns and grievances that clamor for our attention and into the light of Inner Spirit where our own thoughts and opinions dissolve into nothingness, replaced by a willingness to allow the best to be for ourselves, for others and for our world.

In this first blessing exercise, we will be releasing the target of our blessing from the fetters of a complicated world. It is a sweet and cleansing blessing that will serve to benefit all concerned.
Please note that for the sake of simplicity only, I will be referring to the target of the blessing in the masculine form.

Today's exercise:

Think of someone you know well and would like to bless. With your eyes closed, imagine this person standing before you in the center of a cluttered and chaotic space. This clutter and chaos represents all the thoughts and feelings and judgments this person has about his own life, as well as all the thoughts, feelings and opinions you and others now hold or have held concerning him. Now imagine a shimmering light filling the space the subject of your blessing is standing in, and as it does so, all the clutter dissolves away, leaving the space around him clear and clean and open. No longer pressed by the complexity of his own thought forms and those of others, he is now free to stretch and grow and become all his larger Self would have him be.

Stay with this vision in your mind for a few seconds, or as long as it feels good for you to do so, and then release the image by saying either to yourself or aloud, "May you be so blessed." Now open your eyes, take a deep breath and step back into full awareness of your surroundings.

Note: As the dispatcher of this blessing, your task is not to imagine the future you would have him occupy, but to simply imagine him able to occupy an open place of potentiality that will free him to do and be exactly what he longs to do and be, whatever that might be.

Today's affirmation:

"In blessing others, I am blessed"

Today's quote:

"To make the choice to bless, to make the effort to bless (which may simply be the act of getting myself out of the way) is to align with a higher energy state in which the blessing can 'do itself' so to speak, and I'm energized, blessed and raised up in response."

-- David Spangler, Blessing, The Art and Practice"

Parable Text from the Gospel of Mark (KJV)

2009-03-16T04:34:00.000-07:00

Behold, there went out a sower to sow: And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some a hundred. And he said unto them, He that has ears to hear, let him hear.

And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable. And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables? The sower soweth the word. And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended. And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.

/

The Law of Attraction

2009-03-08T12:09:00.000-07:00

Explore the idea of calling
everything in our lives "good." Today, we'll talk about
why this is so important and what actually happens when we perceive
the people and the things around us as all good.
And hopefully, you'll have a greater
understanding of why it really is better to bless.

Have you ever noticed that when you're happy, you feel light and
when you're unhappy or fearful, you feel heavy? We
even use terms like "heavy-hearted" to describe our feelings when
we're sad or troubled or concerned, and "light-
hearted" when we're happy, joy-filled and carefree. There's a
reason for this. And it has to do with vibrations.

You've no doubt heard before that we live in a vibrational
universe. Despite its appearance, our world is not solid at all,
but consists of countless waves and particles of energy, each
vibrating at a frequency that draws and binds similar energy
particles and waves, which eventually coalesce to become the
objects we perceive to be solid and dense.

It's not just the world and objects around us that are giving off
this illusion of solidity. There is nothing really solid about
us, either. We look and feel and taste and sound solid and
substantial because our senses interpret energy vibrations and
frequencies in a certain way that is translated and accepted into
our thought processes as solidity. We interpret
everything else the same way. And we do so without giving it a jot
or tittle of conscious thought.

It's not just people and objects that vibrate, though. Thoughts
and feelings and words do too. In fact, every thought you
think and every word you speak carries with it a vibration. Even
the most fleeting thought, lingering in your mind for no
more than a millisecond, will vibrate at a certain frequency that
will attract to or be drawn to other similar frequencies.

Every emotional and feeling state you experience changes the
vibrational frequency you are sending out to the world.
Like two ends of a scale, the vibrations emitted by sadness, fear,
anger or hatred are of a much denser, lower frequency than the one
emitted when you are experiencing feelings of happiness or love or
serenity.

To make this easier to understand, let's imagine a vibrational
scale with love on the high end and fear on the lower. (We're using
love and fear because, as the Course in Miracles teaches, these are
the only two "real" emotions and every other emotion we experience
is a derivative of one or the other.) Let's further say that on a
standard run-of-the-mill kind of day, your emotions are romping all
over the place, running the gamut from one end of the scale to the
other. You find yourself upset with your spouse before going to
work, but are delighted a couple of hours later when your boss
okays your raise. Then later in the day you get into a minor
confrontation with a co-worker, leaving you frustrated and
irritated. On the way home from work, you get pulled over for
speeding and your stomach tightens because you know one more
speeding ticket is going to cause your insurance rates to sky
rocket. But the traffic officer decides against ticketing you and
gives you just a warning, instead and you feel immediate relief.
By the end of the day, your emotions have run up and down the
scale a dozen times or more and as you prepare for bed, you realize
you're exhausted, feeling as if you've been on an emotional roller
coaster ride the whole day long. You're certainly not alone. In
fact, most folks live in this kind of emotional state.

Naturally, because your vibration is changing on a moment-by-moment
basis, the frequencies you send out are going to be
erratic, and what you will experience as a result will feel far
less than perfect. Because of this vibrational free-for-all,
you may find yourself surrounded by clutter or even chaos -- or
worse -- depending upon the dominant trend of your
feelings.

That's because the conditions in your life do not exist as
independent entities. They arise out your emotional and feeling
state. Contrary to what you may have always believed, conditions in
your life are not the cause of your emotional state;
they are the effect of it. If you want to change the conditions in
your life, you have to change the way you think and feel
first.

Naturally, when you make a conscious decision to perceive
everything in your world -- even those things you do not
understand -- as good, then your vibration tends to linger on the
higher end of the scale. Because of this change in
perception, you find yourself feeling freer, lighter, more loving
and with a greater sense of well-being.

And every single time you bless another person, situation and
object in your life, your emotional vibration will not only move to
the higher end of the scale, it will actually insure that you are
blessed in return. Why? Because as your vibrational frequency
changes, it will go out and find people, things and situations that
match it and bring them back to you. For the good you send out,
good will be returned to you.

In metaphysical circles, this is known as the law of attraction in
action. There's been a great deal of discussion about the

law of attraction in the last couple of years, especially since the
publication of the "Secret", but in reality there is nothing
secretive about any of this. Mystics, sages and philosophers have
been telling us about these basic life principles since the dawn of
mankind. Jesus spoke of it over 2000 years ago in his Sermon on the
Mount when he said we should "seek the kingdom" first. Seek God:
find "the good" and then everything else will be "added unto you."
Before Jesus, Buddha taught the same principle when he spoke of
right mindfulness. And in one form or another, it has been a basic
teaching in every major religion since time began.

Like speed limit laws that apply to even that unmarked stretch of
highway out in the middle of nowhere, these same
fundamental life "laws" apply now and have always applied, whether
we know about them or not. When we do begin to
understand them, however, and adhere to them, life simply works
better. Not because we're doing anything special, but
because we're working with life instead of operating contrary to
it.

That is the beauty of blessing. It takes us from a place of
judgment and condemnation into a realm of "right mindedness"
and allows us to immediately shift our vibration to the highest
possible state, that of unconditional love.

Today's exercise:

Just as the fingers move up and down the keyboard when a piano
student practices scales, in today's exercise, you'll let
your thoughts move up and down the emotional keyboard and then
record your observations in your Blessing Way Journal.

First, you'll need to find a quiet place where you can "tune in" to
your feelings for a few moments. Take a few deep
breaths and quiet your mind. Pay attention to how you feel right
now and on a scale from one to ten, with one being the
lowest and ten being the highest vibration, determine where your
vibrational frequency is at the moment.

Now, purposely think about something that will lower your
vibration. It can be something that saddens you, makes
you angry, or engenders fear. It can be something you find
troubling now, or have in the past. Don't spend a great deal of
time thinking about it, just long enough to allow yourself to feel
an emotional response. You may notice that your body feels
slightly heavier, or a small knot begins to build in your stomach.
You may feel a slight building of tension in your neck or
shoulders, or a slight drop in your energy level resulting in
slumped shoulders or a down turned mouth. Because you won't be
spending a great deal of time on this exercise, the changes will
most likely be quite subtle, but noticeable nonetheless. Once you've
observed the changes in your body and the way you feel, record the
responses in your journal.

Now, work your way to the opposite end of the vibrational scale by
thinking the sweetest, purest, most delightful
thought you can conjure. Spend a few minutes reliving a beautiful
moment in your past, or creating one for your future,
or even better, think of someone -- yourself, for instance -- you
can bless with unconditional love and do so. Just as you
did before, notice the changes in your emotional and feeling
response and record them in your journal.

Completing this exercise not only tunes you into your own
vibrational scale, but makes you aware of just how easily and
quickly it can be changed. Try to develop a habit of consciously
checking this scale often by simply asking yourself "how
do I feel now?" Whenever you realize your vibration is hovering at
the low end of the scale, bring it back up with a
change in mindset. My personal favorite way of increasing my own
vibrational frequency is to take a quick Blessing
Breather and then bless my spirit, my body and my world with love,
joy and peace. Once I begin to feel my heart filling
with love and peace, I imagine it flowing out from me to bless the
entire world and everyone in it. This takes only a few
seconds, but serves as an immediate "upper", no matter how often I
do it.

Today's affirmation:

"My entire being vibrates with love and joy and peace. I am truly
blessed."

Today's quote:

"One of the greatest needs this planet has for healing is blessing.
It is under blessed. Under blessed reality is like empty calories.

A blessing enhances possibilities for good. Like an enzyme for
growth, like a catalyst in a chemical process, blessings serve to
help a living process surmount the barriers that obstruct it."

-- Zalman Schachter-Shalomi , from "Jewish With Feeling "

/

The True Path to Success

2009-03-04T07:57:00.000-08:00

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

-- Ephesians 3:20-21

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God's world is a perfect world

2009-03-04T04:27:00.000-08:00

Some question the idea of labeling every person, situation and
object in our lives as good. "Are you saying that if my house burns
to the ground, I'm supposed to ignore the fact that I know longer
have a roof over my head and just pretend that everything is
gloriously fine and dandy anyway?"

The answer is a resounding NO! I am no suggesting that you deny any
experience at all. The blessing process is not one of denial, it is
one of acknowledging and embracing and accepting. What I am
suggesting is simply that you refrain from judgment.

Whenever we judge anything, we tend to place a negative
interpretation on it. We judge it as bad or evil or wrong and, in
so doing, obscure whatever good might be inherent in it. If you
decide, for instance that because your house has burned the ground,
the quality of your life has been totally diminished, then you've
judged the experience as a bad thing. And in so doing, you've
essentially placed a limitation on the amount of good you're
willing to let rise out of the situation. What good does come forth
will first have to push past the mental barriers your judgment has
placed on it. The time it takes for the positive aspects of the
experience to be revealed will be totally dependent upon how much
negativity you allow to build up around the situation. Essentially,
you keep your own good from happening by your refusal to see it.

We do the same thing every time we pick up a newspaper or watch a
television newscast and decide that the reports we've read about
various people and events are bad. We place a judgment on them and
feed into the negative energy already surrounding each situation.
And sadly, because we live in a world where what we focus upon
increases, our willingness to see only the negative aspects of any
situation give it the energy it needs to continue.

That doesn't mean we're supposed to go around pretending that
everything is wonderful and our world is trouble-free, however.
It just means that we must be willing to refrain from categorizing
the experiences and people outside ourselves in only negative
terms. It means that we must be willing to look at every
challenging experience, person and experience in our lives and tell
ourselves, "There is good in here somewhere. And I will find it."

Most importantly, seeking the blessing inherent in all things
brings us into alignment with our Spiritual selves. It makes us
feel whole and centered and at peace without ourselves and the
world. In acknowledging the good, we discover the divinity within
ourselves and we open ourselves to grace.

Today's exercise:
Your task for today
is to look for the blessing. Pick any challenging situation
occurring in your life right now and determine to find the blessing
-- the goodness -- within it. Instead of focusing on its negative
aspects, choose instead, to focus on any good that might come out
of it. This may call for some creative thinking on your part,
especially if you've picked a situation that you have, in the past,
already determined to be particularly troubling. Make up your
mind, however, that the good will reveal itself to you and then
mentally examine the situation from every side, twisting and
turning it in your mind as if you were looking at every side of a
Rubik's cube.

Once you've spent a bit of time pondering the situation, then
record three aspects of the situation that you consider to be good
in your Blessing Way Journal. It may be that the only good you can
determine is that "This will not last forever." or "This is
serving to remind me of what I don't want in my life," or you may
discover an aspect of far greater value than you might ever have
thought possible. But until you intentionally seek out the good in
any given situation you will never know. This exercise gives you an
opportunity to find out.

Today's affirmation:

"I am surrounded by blessings and I am determined to see them."

Today's quote:

"God's world is a perfect world. It is not without trials and
lessons, but it is only our human judgments that create the
illusion that God's world -- the world we are living in -- is
imperfect."

-- John Morton, from "The Blessings Already Are"

/

Become Conscious Beings

2009-03-01T05:53:00.000-08:00

Begin limiting the mental
labels you place on all the persons, places, situations and things
in your life down to one: The label of GOOD.
Spend the next 30 days considering that every circumstance and
situation, every interaction, every place you go and everything you
see has the potential to be good.

Like the word "bad", the word "good", however, is an exclusive
word. Usually, when we use one, we exclude the other, and we keep
the line between the two tightly drawn. By determining, however, to
label everything as good, we smudge the line between the two, and
allow our thoughts and our blessings to be inclusive of everything
inside and outside our lives -- both that we have, in the past,
called good and that we would have once labeled bad.

As writer and teacher Walter Starcke points out, everything we
experience has a purpose for being present in our lives or it
wouldn't be there. Even the roughest spots in our lives serve a
purpose. We have these experiences in order to reveal, as Starcke
points out, "something that would make us become more fully
conscious beings."

Our problem, however, is that more often than not, we label
something as bad, or unpleasant or unwanted and then push it as far
away from us as we can, refusing to even think about it. Especially
those of us who have followed the teachings of the positive thought
movement. We try constantly to remove ourselves completely from
every negative. In so doing, however, we literally shut ourselves
off from the information the negativity has come to reveal. In the
end this doesn't help us at all. By ignoring the negative, we don't
even get rid of it, because it will keep returning again and
again, through repeated experiences, until we are finally willing
to look past the mask of negativity to discover its purpose for
being in our lives.

When we realize, however, that anything included in our awareness
-- the good, the bad and the ugly -- is present because it has
information to depart, then the information can come forth and the
so-called negative or bad experience, it's purpose fulfilled, can
easily dissolve away.

Labeling everything good helps us do that. We are not refusing to
acknowledge it. We are simply allowing ourselves to accept that
perhaps there is more too it than we, at first, are able to see.
We recognize this aspect and honor it by naming it good. Through
determining that every person, place and experience in our lives
has a beneficial reason for being there, we open ourselves to
discovering its purpose. We become totally inclusive, excluding no
thing, and open ourselves to whatever information the difficult
person or situation has come to give. By our willingness to call it
all good, we release the hold our resistance would have on the
experience and we allow it to go away, its divine purpose in our
lives having been fulfilled. And because of our willingness, we
become better, stronger, surer, wiser for having allowed the
information in. We benefit. We are blessed in return.

Think of three separate experiences in your past that you
originally determined to be bad, or difficult or uncomfortable, and
then later realized a benefit from. It may have been a difficult
person who taught you unconditional love, or a serious illness
that led you to discover your inner strength, or any number of
experiences or situations from which you gained valuable
information which helped you to grow and change and move closer to
being the person you want to be.

Write about these experiences in your Blessing Way Journal and then
throughout the day, as time permits, further contemplate this idea
that every experience and person that life brings you is a good
thing. Not judging, not fearing, not worrying over... just
accepting that each person and experience contains a benefit or
would not be present in your life.

This is a simple exercise, so try your best to keep it that way.
Don't try to complicate it by adding "but" and "if"to it. Just
determine it all good and move on.

The purpose of these exercises is to help you realize that the line
between good and bad is not as straight and sharp as perhaps you
once believed it to be As you explore the benefits in what you once
labeled negative experiences, and realize that good has always been
present, the line will blur even more and you'll begin find
yourself less willing to pass exclusive judgments on your world.

Today's affirmation:

"I am willing to see the good in every experience."

Today's quote:

"We will never become free of evil by telling ourselves that it
does not exist or that it has no power, but we will become free if
we destroy our old concept of evil as a power apart from the divine
process of life. The only way we can do that is to become aware
that a creative polarity exists in life that is necessary for the
evolution of spiritual growth. In that light there is neither good
nor bad but something beyond both that we call God."

--Walter Starcke

/

By paying attention you bring yourself into existence

2009-02-22T06:26:00.000-08:00

How you see the people, places and circumstances around you is
a choice, a conscious choice you make. Countless times a day, your
brain takes in information regarding every encounter and you decide
exactly what to make of it. To make these decisions you rely
heavily on past experience, likes and dislikes, and feelings. And,
if you're like almost everyone else, you place a mental label on
every person and situation you encounter. It is that label that
helps form your perception of and reaction to every person, place
and thing in your life.
I am asking you, not to stop the labeling
process completely, but to limit yourself to one mental label for
every person, situation and thing. The label will always be the
same: GOOD. No matter who you meet or interact with, no matter what
circumstances and situations arise in your life, no matter where
you go or what you see; for the next 30 days, I want you to label
it good.

That can be a tall order, I know. We get pretty set in our way of
looking at things, and to be told we need to change and look at
everything the same way is a large pill to swallow. And if you've
been relying heavily on your own perceptions, the idea of letting
them go can even be unsettling.

Right now I'd like you to spend the next few minutes
looking around the room you are in. Realize that nothing in this
room is exactly as you have always perceived it to be. Pick out
five or six items in the room, preferably items you care little
about or those about which you've formed no opinion at all. Now
look at the item and say, "This is good." Don't spend much with
any one item. Just call it good and move on to the next, spending
no more than 30 or 40 seconds for the entire exercise. But make
certain that you pick several items and that with each one, you
call it good.

Once you've finished, sit back for a moment and think about being
surrounded by all this goodness. Realizing for the first time that
everything around you is good, can be a delicious experience if you
allow it to be. Contemplate this idea of living in this limitless
sea of goodness and then write down whatever thoughts pop in your
head in your new Blessing Way Journal.

Just play with the idea. Have fun with it. Laugh. Sing.
Dance. Let your spirit soar and the joy within your being free.
This is how you celebrate goodness. And you have so much goodness
to celebrate. You are surrounded by it.

/

Walk the Talk

2009-02-20T04:24:00.000-08:00

There is a story about Naropa, an 11th century Indian yogi who was,
one day, approached by an old hag. Knowing him to be one of India's
greatest Buddhist teachers, she boldly asked him if he understood
all the words in the large book he was reading. He answered smugly
in the affirmative, and the old woman danced and laughed with glee.
Then she asked if he understood every instruction in the book, and
again, Naropa answered affirmatively. This time, however, the old
woman's face darkened with a scowl, and she flew into an immediate
rage, pointing a finger at him and accusing him of being a liar and
a hypocrite. It is said Naropa was forever changed by the encounter
because he inwardly knew he'd been "caught in the act." He did know
the words, this was true, and from this knowledge, he could teach,
and brilliantly so. But he had not yet wholly experienced the
teachings in his heart, and therefore, could not fully understand
that which he taught.

"I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing;
therefore, choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live."

Deuteronomy 30:19

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Burning Desire

2009-02-17T13:28:00.000-08:00

Believe with all of your heart that you will do what you were made to do. When the mind has once formed the habit of holding cheerful, happy, prosperous pictures, it will not be easy to form the opposite habit.

It does not matter how improbable or how far away this realization may seem, or how dark the prospects may be, if we visualize them as best we can, as vividly as possible, hold tenaciously to them and vigorously struggle to attain them, they will gradually become actualized, realized in the life. But a desire, a longing without endeavor, a yearning abandoned or held indifferently will vanish without realization.

It is only when desire is crystallized into resolve, however, that it is effective.

Think and say only that which you wish to become true.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the outline of the image itself; the real substance, not merely a mental image. What we believe is coming to us is a tremendous creative motive. Your whole thought current must be set in the direction of your life purpose.

Whatever comes to us in life, we create first in our mentality.

/

DO NOT FEAR POVERTY

2009-02-15T16:08:00.000-08:00

Here is an article which will benefit you greatly in the coming year. Please share it with your friends and loved ones.

THE ROAD TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM

One of the keys to financial freedom is to create a "Golden Goose" where you can eventually live off the "eggs".

It was Aesop, who told a tale with a moral core in The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs. A man and his wife had the good fortune to possess a goose that laid a golden egg every day. For a while they were happy and lived well, but then they became impatient with how quickly they were accumulating their wealth. So they thought that if the goose could lay such a fine egg of gold, it must be lined with the precious metal. If they cut the goose open, they could get the gold all at once. Of course we all know what happened, the goose was just a goose and there was no gold inside. For Aesop, the moral of the story was much wants more and loses all. There is also a hidden message in this tale, - true gold comes from the process of creating.

Look after your Golden Goose. Never Mistake the Egg as the Gift. We have become a society that values things more than people. It is often joked, tongue-in-cheek that you are only as good as your last accomplishment. That is the ultimate lie. We are not a collection of the things that we do, the sale that we make, or the goal that is conquered. You are the gift. You are the Golden Goose. The egg is just the last thing you created.

Wherever you are right now in your life, please stop for a moment and hear this truth. The true gold lies not in the outcome or accomplishment, it is in the process of creating. When you give yourself a little space and care for the Golden Goose inside you, you will once again lay a golden egg. Don’t worry, there is nowhere to go, you have everything you need for the blissful life you desire. You just forgot where the true gold lives — inside of you.

Financial independence is a journey. And like any journey, if a person wants to travel from where they are to where they want to be, they need to know where they are starting from, where they want to be going, and the options of how to get there. And if they've never been there before, they need a map, even if it's only used as a reference for when they lose their way or the planned road is temporarily or permanently closed.

What people are looking for is a roadmap to prosperity. That roadmap will differ from family to family and individual to individual. Each family has its own situation, needs, values, priorities and definitions of financial freedom. Furthermore, families and individuals want to educate themselves in how money works without being dependent on their bank, their insurance agent, or even their financial adviser. They want to be able to make their own choices for their own journey. And most want "enlightened" financial freedom - to achieve abundance without compromising their integrity, their values, their happiness or their friends. They want to understand basic financial principles so that they can develop "golden eggs" from their own financial freedom "goose".

Happily, there is a ready-made formula to feed your Golden Goose to the point of rapid delivery of a magical stream of golden eggs through the creation of a "Prosperity Consciousness."

Prosperity Consciousness is based on the idea that our thoughts create the reality we see and experience on a daily basis. By using a specific set of tools, we can root out the negative thinking which is causing us to experience lack and transform our lives on all levels and attract a bounty of abundance.

STEPS ALONG THE WAY

1. Set aside at least twenty minutes a day to study and visualize your new life.

2. Buy a loose leaf binder and label it "Dreams Unlimited." This is where you will workshop the life you are creating for yourself and get clear on what you really want. This will be the place where you write your affirmations, make notes about the process, collect uplifting quotes, make collages of the things you are manifesting, and keep track of the things you accomplish.

3. Develop an affirmation for yourself based on what you are attempting to attract into your life. It should be present tense and contain only positive statements. An example would be "I am rich beyond my wildest dreams."

4. Write out your affirmation at least ten times a day and put it in your notebook. When you are tempted to dwell on the negative, repeat it silently over and over in your head while you take deep breaths.

5. Ignore the naysayers, dream killers, and negative people who tell you that it can't be done. If someone else has ever done it before, then you can too.

6. Spend a few quiet minutes every day breathing deeply and visualizing your goal as already completed. Picture exactly how you want it to be, but be willing to accept something better. Don't limit yourself.

7. Read books on creative visualization, prosperity consciousness, and positive thinking.

8. Live "as if." If a circumstance in your life is not how you want it, withdraw your attention from it. Whatever you focus on expands. Live as if all of your dreams are a reality now.

9. "Follow your bliss." Experience the joy life offers at every turn if you know how to look for it. Share your love where ever you can. Wear comfortable clothes in colors that you love. Drink a wonderful cup of tea and watch a sunset. Do only that which brings you joy.

10. Let it go. Trust that the Universe has heard your request and is doing everything It can to bring it about. Forget about it. Don't worry or fret. Live in the moment and watch how all of your needs are met. When you lose faith, call on your childlike resources and pretend.

SOME TIPS TO HELP YOU ON YOUR JOURNEY

* Whatever you focus on expands. Focus on the money you *do* have, the things you *do* know, the people who *do* love you, etc, and ignore the rest.

* You have only one life to live. Live it free of misery, negative ideas and people, and choose to take control of what you experience now.

* You have an infinite untapped power that will guide you and direct you if you allow it to.

* Trust your Inner Guide.

* Take quiet time every day.

* "You'll see it when you believe it." Let go of negative programming.

* The only limits that exist for you are the ones you create.

* The things you want will come to you when you are ready. If you are stressing and struggling you are literally pushing them away.

* Relax! ‘Working against the clock doesn't make for considered thought.’ ‘More haste, less speed.

/

GIVE ME PURPOSE

2009-01-04T08:38:00.000-08:00

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

- John Lennon