Advice For Life

Free E-books on Manifesting Happiness

keleiter — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 12:07:06 +0000

As a Man Thinketh

The Power of Gratitude

The Master Mindset, Strategies for Deliberate Attraction

Think and Grow Rich

How to Change Your Life Around in 30 Days

The Law of Success

Spiritual Marketing

Life’s Currency

keleiter — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:43:00 +0000

If you are never scared, embarresed or hurt, it means you never take any chances. -Julia Sorel

In an interview in the New York Times about ten years ago, Oprah Winfrey, who is a very spiritual person, said, “I don’t think that the expression that we’re not given more than we can handle refers to just the tragedies in our lives. If you can’t handle the good stuff, if you can’t handle money, or a good relationship, or success, you’re not going to get it. It will only be given to you when you can handle it.”

When I read this, I thought, woah- the good things as well as the bad? Almost immediately there was a deep inner shift in my reality and I “got it”. I don’t think I would have been able to write Simple Abundance without the awareness that we have to push past our comfort zone to handle the good as well as the bad in life. Once we were going to set the world on fire. But over the years we’ve buried many a precious dream. It’s no wonder that we’ll need courage to retrace our steps. But “courage is the price that life extracts for granting peace.” the pilot Amelia Earhart reminds us. Courage is the currency in which we pay for life. It requires enormous courage to look truth straight in the eye and accept it as your reality, to bless a situation because there is a hidden gift in it for you.

A friend of mine knew the great undersea explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Once, when Cousteau was about to address the United Nations, he gave my friend a preview of what he was going to tell the assembly- that it takes enormous courage to clean up the enviroment, to stop polluting the seas, but that we always pay for a lack of courage.

I love that thought, which sometimes gives me the courage to act when the task is difficult. It takes great love and courage to excavate buried dreams. We can not change our past choices now, but we can build on them, we can redirect them. We can take them into consideration as we ponder new choices. Perhaps a long buried dream still calls to you from a road you chose not to take. If so, stop telling yourself that it’s too late. The delay of your dreams does not mean that they have been denied. Perhaps now you have the wisdom to make alterations in your dream so that it can come true.

Perhaps you are brave enough to accept the pleasure and commitment it could bring. We can stop waiting for life to become perfect and start working with what we’ve got to make it as satisfying as we can. We can accept, bless, give thanks, and get going.”

-Sarah Ban Breathnach

From “The Simple Abundance Compainion” By Sarah BanBreathnach

Life: The Ultimate Creation

keleiter — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 01:36:44 +0000

Life: The Ultimate Creation

by Teri Harris Saa

Living is a creative process and life the ultimate creation. You may be accustomed to thinking of art in all of its varied forms such as writing, painting, sculpting as creative, but did you ever stop to think that life, your life, is your foremost creative project? And that it is the project in which your most creative potential as well as your biggest creative challenge lies? Your life is your ultimate creation and how you create it depends upon your thoughts.

Ponder this, nothing created by humanity ever existed that was not first a thought. The mystical, philosophical and scientific masters of life have been telling us this for centuries. In the past they speculated about, but have now proven the underlying principle of creation, the Law of Cause and Effect. This law states that everything that exists is an outcome or effect of an initiating cause and points out that the initiating cause is thought.
Thought comes before form. Thought comes before action. Thought is creative. And your thoughts create your life.
Thought and the external environment:
A study done by Masaru Emoto, a Japanese researcher, and published in his book, The Message from Water , gives us indisputable evidence of the power of thought to affect our physical environment. In this important work, Mr. Emoto shows us the effect of human thought on the molecular structure of water. He proves that water changes form in response to thought.
To accomplish this, Mr. Emoto sent thoughts of love to a bottle of water, froze the water then photographed the ice crystals that formed. He then allowed the water in the bottle to melt; directed thoughts of hate to it, refroze it and again photographed the ice crystals. The crystals that formed after receiving thoughts of love were beautiful, clear and symmetrical. The ones formed after receiving thoughts of hate were misshapen, dense and ugly. Your body, as well as this planet, is over seventy percent water. What kinds of thoughts are you sending to it? What are you creating?
We have scientific proof that thought causes water to change form, but how does thought affect change in other things? The answer is simple when you look closely at water and its underlying structure. Two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen make up a molecule of water. Is thought affecting only the molecule as a whole? No. It is affecting the atoms that make up the molecule and it is the response of these atoms, which then creates form.
The purpose of atoms and their smaller atomic particles is to express life in form and it is the creative vibration of thought, which directs the form taken by atoms.
Therefore, to create the life you want it is important to become conscious of your thoughts.

Thought and the internal environment:
There is a world within – a world of thought, beliefs, feelings and power. You are the creator of this inner universe, and this inner universe is the creative center of your thoughts. This inner world is the origin of all that you are, all that you do and all that you experience. This inner universe is where your life takes form.
The whole of your life experience is simply an outer manifestation of your inner thoughts. If you look deeply into this statement, you will understand that it is true, because what you think, you eventually come to believe. What you believe, you expect to experience. What you think, believe and expect influences your behaviors. And what you think, believe and expect as well as how you behave, form the experiences of your life. You are the creator of your life. So, be careful what you think. Every thought is creative. Every thought is important.

Use the power of thought to create:
Take your first step into conscious creation. Try this simple technique.
Find a spot where you can sit comfortably, but erect, a quiet spot where you will be undisturbed for ten minutes.
Take a couple of deep relaxing breaths, close your eyes and focus your attention inward.
Choose an object, a simple object on which you can easy focus. Perhaps a piece of fruit or a fire engine, a certain flower or an animal. The object you choose is not important, but it must be easy for you to visualize.
Now for the next ten minutes, focus all of your attention on the thought and mental creation of this object.
Visualize the object as clearly as you can. Start by seeing it as if it was a photograph, flat and two-dimensional.
Next, fill it out. Give it width, depth and texture. See it three dimensionally. Make it as visually real as possible. Add as much internal sensation as you can. Feel it, hear it and even smell it, all internally. Create this object in your mind. Make it as “real” as you can using only the power of your thoughts.
Finally, release your mental image, open your eyes and go about your day.
Notice how long it takes for the object to show up in your life
The world within your mind, the world of thought is your world of initiating cause and the physical outer world is merely the effect of your thoughts.

You create your life, it does not create you. You have the power to choose your experiences.
You have the power to choose your thoughts, choose them wisely and create the life you desire.

Teri Harris Saa developed and teaches The Art of Conscious Creation, a self-creation process, which brings psychology and spirituality together. Look for her new book, The Wisdom Chronicles, An Everywoman’s Awakening to Her Purpose, published by Moment Point Press and in stores in April 2003. Visit her web site at www.ArtofConsciousCreation.com.

Joy, How to make it last..

keleiter — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 07:02:37 +0000

How we think and what we do can intensify, even prolong, the best moments in life. Here’s how to tune in to the small stuff and reap huge rewards!
By Siri Carpenter, Prevention

Rose Theis is the consummate amateur athlete. Some might call her a machine. At age 46, she is an Ironman triathlete, an experienced marathoner, and a year-round bicyclist—a notable feat for a resident of Madison, WI, where the winters are no joke.
In the summer, she thinks nothing of awakening before dawn for a swim in the cool waters of Madison’s Lake Monona. She isn’t stopped by minor pains or by driving rains. But a school of muskies jumping upstream to spawn…a clump of magnolias spreading their flowering arms… a hot pink sunrise looming over a glassy lake—those are pleasures worth stopping for.

Theis understands implicitly what Loyola University Chicago social psychologist Fred B. Bryant, PhD, wishes he could impart to all of us: Finding joy means opening yourself up to it. The value of taking time to appreciate positive experiences seems obvious—trite, even. Yet it’s a skill that few people have mastered. The reason is simple: We’re busy, and we have a lot on our minds. There’ll always be other sunrises, we say to ourselves, but if we don’t hit the shower soon, we’ll never beat the traffic to work. Under the weight of our daily responsibilities and worries, we reflexively tune out the fleeting, spontaneous events that can happen at any time and that, if we let them, could bring us deeper joy and greater health.

For more than 20 years, Bryant has worked to understand what he terms mindful savoring: the things we think and do to intensify or prolong positive feelings. “We all know people who are like this,” Bryant says. “They’re the life of the party, and they’re the first people you want to turn to when something good happens. What is their gift?” Across the different cultures that Bryant has studied, women tend to possess this skill more often than do men.

Mindful savoring doesn’t only enhance our feeling of well-being, Bryant notes. It may also improve health. A substantial body of related research indicates that people with a sunnier outlook about growing older recover more quickly from illness and live longer—7 1/2 years on average, according to a large Yale University study—than people who have bleaker views. People who scored highest on a test Bryant designed that measures savoring ability also reported fewer illnesses.
Needless to say, it’s easiest to appreciate the good when fortune leans in our favor. But when we’re ill or anxious or beset by tragedy, savoring positive events is all the more important. Happiness, Bryant says, broadens our perspective and helps us recognize ways to cope with adversity. “Bad things will come—we can’t avoid them,” he says. As many a poet has written, joy is fleeting, and elusive. “But if you know how, you can go hunting for it, and you can make it last.”

Here are 10 surefire strategies that Bryant says everyone can use to discover pleasure and satisfaction in everyday moments:

1. Share positive feelings
Let your children know how great it feels to spend time with them. Tell your spouse about the compliment your boss paid you. E-mail your best friend to tell her how fondly you remember the camping trip you took last year, and include a silly picture. Sharing happy memories and experiences with others—or even simply anticipating doing so—is one of the most powerful and effective ways to prolong and magnify joy, Bryant’s research shows. “It helps sustain emotions that would otherwise fade,” he says. Affirming connections with others, he adds, is “the glue that holds people together.”

2. Build memories
Take mental photographs of memorable moments that you can draw on later. Recall vivid, specific events, and pinpoint what brought you joy. Do you love your red wool scarf because it’s stylish and warm, or because its smell reminds you of your childhood romps in the snow? Just be careful not to overanalyze and lose the wonder of the moment. What you want, says University of Virginia social psychologist Timothy D. Wilson, PhD, is to dissect your experiences just enough to appreciate how they’ve helped form you and then get back to simply living them. Interjecting mystery into happy moments—reflecting on what’s surprising or hard to understand about them, for example—can strengthen their power. “If you analyze special times in a way that makes them seem ordinary or predictable, then you don’t necessarily get as much benefit,” Wilson says.

3. Congratulate yourself
Take pride in a hard won accomplishment. If you spent a year sweating at the gym to reach a fitness goal, bask in your success—and share it with others. Self-congratulation doesn’t come easily to everyone. “A lot of people have trouble basking in an accomplishment because they feel that they shouldn’t toot their own horns or rest on their laurels,” Bryant says. It’s a fine line between joyous self-congratulation and shameless self-promotion, but don’t worry: You’ll know if you’re crossing it.

4. Fine tune your senses
Close your eyes while you roll a square of dark chocolate over your tongue or fill your lungs with salty sea air or eavesdrop on your grandchildren’s play and laughter. Shutting out some sensory stimuli while concentrating on others can heighten your enjoyment of positive experiences—particularly those that are short-lived.

5. Compare downward
Comparing upward makes us feel deprived, but comparing downward can heighten enjoyment. Think about how things could be worse—or how things used to be worse. Just keep it light—you don’t have to relive your cancer diagnosis or revel in a neighbor’s misfortune. Simply take note: Is today sunnier than promised? Are you fitter than you were a year ago?

6. Get absorbed
Some joyful moments seem to call for conscious reflection and dissection. At other times, we savor best when we simply immerse ourselves in the present moment, without deliberate analysis or judgment. Listen to your favorite music with headphones in a dark room. Lose yourself in a novel. Set aside enough time on the weekend for your favorite hobby so you can attain a level of absorption known as the “flow” state.

7. Fake it till you make it
Putting on a happy face—even if you don’t feel like it—actually induces greater happiness, says Bryant. So be exuberant. Don’t just eat the best peach of the season—luxuriate in every lip smacking mouthful. Laugh aloud at the movies. Smile at yourself in the mirror. After all, he says, “a surefire way to kill joy is to suppress it.”

8. Seize the moment
Some positive events come and go quickly—a surprise toast to your accomplishments at work, your daughter’s sweet 16 party. It seems obvious that the more quickly a positive experience evaporates, the more difficult it is to savor. Yet paradoxically, Bryant has found, reminding ourselves that time is fleeting and joy transitory prompts us to seize positive moments while they last.

9. Avoid killjoy thinking
The world has enough pessimists. Short circuit negative thoughts that can only dampen enjoyment, such as self recriminations or worries about others’ perceptions. When you find yourself awash in happiness, give it space to grow—don’t ruminate about why you don’t deserve this good thing, what could go wrong, how things could be better. Consciously make the decision to embrace joy.

10. Say thank you
Cultivate an “attitude of gratitude,” Bryant says. Pinpoint what you’re happy about—a party invitation, a patch of shade—and acknowledge its source. It’s not always necessary to outwardly express gratitude, Bryant notes, but saying “thank you” to a friend, a stranger, or the universe deepens our happiness by making us more aware of it.

Source

I Love You Just The Way You Were

keleiter — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 03:44:31 +0000

I LOVE YOU JUST THE WAY YOU WERE
By Martha Beck

You’ve lost weight. Or you’re marrying the man of your dreams. Or you’re studying Chinese and planning a trip to Beijing. Why is everybody in your life acting so weird? Martha Beck tells how to deal with the people who just can’t let go of the old you.

Imagine this: You’re putting together a nifty jigsaw puzzle—say, your favorite Elvis montage painting on black velvet—when one of the pieces suddenly morphs into an entirely different shape. Aside from the unnerving quantum-mechanical implications of this event, you’ve got a problem—the surrounding pieces no longer fit. You could try to alter those pieces (a troubling prospect, since it will require distorting all the ones around them) or give up on the puzzle entirely—unless, of course, you could get the little sucker to resume its former shape and size.

This sort of situation arises in every human life. We live in social systems—families and neighborhoods, offices and nations—that call for continuous, complex interconnection. Any person who undergoes a dramatic shift creates a ripple effect, requiring change from others around her. The fact that you’re reading this suggests that you’re inclined toward personal growth. I’m guessing you’ve been this way for years, whether it’s a trait you celebrate every day or a dirty secret you ruminate over while churning butter with your Amish kinfolk. The problem, as you may have noticed, is that not everyone you know, love, or work with is overjoyed to tread the path of change along with you.

Because we are a species that fears the unknown, most people reject the continuous transformation that is human reality and try to lock others into predictable behavior. “Promise me that you’ll never change,” lovers whisper to one another, though only a model from Madame Tussauds Wax Museum could keep such an enormous promise. In short, anyone who thinks new thoughts or does new deeds is likely to garner disapproval and criticism from someone.

How to Handle a Change-Back Attack

Women who are undergoing changes are likely to experience “change back” messages from their nearest and dearest. The messages come in many forms: sabotage, cold silence, shouted insults, refusal to cooperate. But all convey just one idea: “I don’t like what you’ve done. Go back to being the way you were.” This might seem baffling in the face of positive achievements like losing weight, falling in love, or learning new ideas.

But change-back attackers aren’t really thinking about the person they’re pressuring. They’re fighting for their lives—or at least life as they know it. These people are motivated not only by their own fear of change but by the pressure of other “puzzle pieces” that surround them. The force of a change-back attack has the weight of all those relationships. Resist successfully, and you may end up affecting people you’ll never meet.
First, a basic attitude adjustment: Most people who are on the receiving end of change-back messages go into fits of guilt or defensiveness, then revert to familiar behaviors. This, of course, is exactly what the disgruntled party wants. Part of every personal evolution strategy should be a determination to greet these messages with pride and joy, as a sure sign you’re making progress. Call a friend, a therapist, a fellow self-improvement devotee, and report the good news: “Guess what? I just got six blowbacks in one conversation! I must really be making progress!” Once you’ve made this attitudinal shift, you’re ready for a systematic defense.

Begin Your Systematic Defense

Step 1: Pay respectful attention.
When someone launches a change-back attack against you, refrain from resisting or submitting; just pay attention. Remember that whether you realize it or not, your actions may be forcing this friend to either make personal alterations or give up on “fitting” with you. Noticing their fear may calm you, and this may go a long way toward calming them.

If someone comes at you with a direct, obstreperous argument, try these unexpected, attentive responses: “Tell me.” “I’m listening.” “I hear you.” “Say a little bit more on that.” Attentiveness is a mobile, fluid stance that allows you to observe and respond without sustaining much damage. As Mark Twain said about doing right, it will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

Step 2: Take time to find your truth.
So you’ve paid attention. You know that the bag of bacon cheeseburgers on the table is just evidence that your loving husband is afraid he’ll lose you. You’ve listened calmly as your angry teenager or judgmental parent lambasted you for your new achievements. Find a private moment for yourself. Now breathe and relax. Recall the chain of events that motivated your metamorphosis in the first place: the fat, the loneliness, the illumination. Honestly consider the feedback you’ve just received. Maybe it feels absolutely right; if so, reverse course. Maybe it’s partly right. Fine, alter your direction. Or maybe the complaint is just plain wrong. In that case, you must keep going, trusting that the best gift you can offer others is the resolute embrace of your own truth.

Step 3: State your position for the record.
If your change-back attacker is sober and in a reasonably receptive frame of mind, you may want to respond to her argument. Even when you’re dealing with a nasty, non-communicative person, stating your position may be a powerful step in your own development. It may not make the slightest impression on your unrelenting foes, but hearing the truth spoken in your own voice can clear your head and buoy your heart, at which point you’ll have won the battle.

Vanquish Your Change-Back Attackers

Step 4: Unconditional Love
There’s a secret weapon in the change wars, one that can fill the gaps and soften the edges of our constantly morphing identities—and I don’t mean leaving your whole social system or forcing others to conform to you at every moment in time. The answer is unconditional love, and I encourage you to use it with ruthless abandon.

You’ll know you’ve vanquished your change-back attackers when you can love them completely without agreeing with them at all. You can’t force this feeling—it will happen naturally when you’re ready—but when it strikes, express it, without acquiescing to others’ verbal jabs. Doing this cheerfully and unabashedly will confound your average saboteurs by giving them nothing to oppose.

At best, this approach will cause your adversaries to stop, ponder, and perhaps feel less scared of making their own improvements. At worst, it will render you flexible, able to fit in with many people and social systems without getting stuck in any one position. The more you claim your own destiny, the easier it will be to love unconditionally. The more you love, the more comfortably you’ll fit in with all sorts of people. Ultimately, situations that once brought on horrendous change-back attacks, that once appeared to you as utterly unworkable puzzles, may end up barely fazing you at all.

From the May 2005issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.
www.oprah.com

Peace begins at home..

keleiter — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 07:40:06 +0000

Peace Begins at Home

by Laura V. Hyde

“All minds are joined. Therefore, all healing is self-healing. Our inner peace will, of itself, pass to others once we accept it for ourselves.” –Gerald G. Jampolsky

Many years ago, I heard someone state that it’s impossible to have a healthy or successful life if one’s home is lacking peace and harmony. Immediately, that rang true for me. For how can one be a messenger of peace if drama, chaos, and grievances co-exist within one’s home-the very foundation where one’s physical, spiritual and emotional being resides? I’ve met people who have prided themselves for taking political action toward world peace and people who have served on religious committees for world healing. And believe it or not, some of these same people have not addressed the anger simmering beneath the surface of their own families, or sought to heal the resentments within their own minds.

A few years ago I was having a discussion with a group of women who were involved in a task force committed to world peace. As the discussion ensued, a couple of the women began to express how unhappy they were with their husband’s behavior at home. The sharing soon turned into a full-fledged gripe session and I walked away wondering how “world peace” was going to be accomplished by people who seemed more focused on the shortcomings of a family member?

What is the “emotional climate” of your home? Home truly is where the heart resides and the emotional condition of one’s heart determines the well-being of one’s home life and the amount of peace one can truly express into the world. If we are withholding love, blaming or accusing those closest to us, then how effectively can we be bearers of peace? Or for that matter, how can we be of service in any meaningful way?

Another example comes to mind from a “peace march” I recently witnessed in a nearby town. As I was driving down one of the main streets, I noticed that hundreds of people had gathered, proudly and passionately carrying signs speaking out against war and several of our political leaders. While I appreciated the demonstrator’s willingness to speak their truth, I began to think that real change, real peace, occurs at home…with us.

A Course in Miracles teaches, “Peace is clearly an internal matter. It must begin with your own thoughts then extend outward.” During this time of upheaval, uncertainty and impending war, we naturally want to stop the violence and hostility. Most of us want to see it stop “out there,” and so we focus on what the boss, government, community, and so forth, must do differently. Yet the truth remains that the world outside of us stems from our inner condition. Peace “out there” will only occur to the extent that we heal our own violent, angry, judgmental and victim-oriented thoughts.

Your thoughts are powerful beyond measure. They affect everyone around you, including those you will never meet. The genuine healer is one who sees drama, pain and upset, yet is willing to use the power of her mind to hold to the light behind the darkness; the growth within the event. People who do this are genuine miracle-workers for they choose to see the truth. They don’t allow the outer circumstances to deter them from what is really happening behind mere physical appearances.

Peace is an inside job and it begins with you and me. Mary Manin Morrissey once affirmed, “When we stop merely tolerating life and begin to embrace it, when we release grudges and are willing to bury grievances, when we truly heal what ails our soul, and when we begin to live in truth, we find an innate holiness. We learn that every disorder seeks order, all dis-ease can find ease, and no anguish is beyond peace.”

So, whatever is happening in your home, or occurring within the world, if you truly want to be a messenger of peace and contribute to healing, practice the following exercise and watch as peace gently soothes your mind and soul:

1) Search your mind for anger-provoking situations, upsetting personalities or events, or anything else in which you are harboring unloving thoughts or feelings. Begin with the situations and people closest to your heart.

2) Note them as informally as possible and let them arise one-by-one, repeating to yourself, “I could see peace in this situation [or with this person] instead of what I now see.”

3) Keep repeating the choice for peace until you feel some sense of relief, then go to the next level of healing by repeating, “I am willing to see peace in this situation instead of what I now see.”

4) Next, deepen your sense of inner peace by repeating, “I choose to see peace in this situation instead of what I now see.”

5) Finally, allow yourself to fully surrender by repeating, “Through the eyes of Love, I see only peace in this situation.”

Authentic Success

keleiter — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 09:08:53 +0000

Authentic Success

Authentic success is never having to tell yourself or those you love “maybe next year”. Authentic success is knowing that if today were your last day on Earth, you would leave without regret. Authentic success is feeling focused and serene when you work, not fragmented. It’s knowing that you’ve done the best that you possibly can, no matter what circumstances you’ve faced. It’s knowing in your soul that the best you can do is all you can do. And the the best you can do is always enough.
Authentic success is accepting your limitations, making peace with your past, and reveling in your passions so that your future may unfold according to a divine plan.
Authentic success is not just money in the bank but a contented heart and peace of mind. Authentic success is paying your bills with ease, taking care of all your needs and the needs of those you love, Indulging in some wants and having enough left over to save and share.
Authentic success is feeling good about who you are, appreciating where you’ve been, celebrating your achievements, and honoring the distance you’ve already come. It is reachig the point where being is more important then doing. It is a steady persuit of a dream. It is realizing that no matter how long it takes for a dream to come true in the physical world, no day is ever wasted. It is valuing inner, as well as outer, labor.
Authentic success is knowing how simply abundant your life is exactly as it is today. Authentic success is being so grateful for the many blessings bestowed on you and yours that you can share your portion with others.
Authentic success is living each day with a heat overflowing.

From “Simple Abundance” By Sarah Ban Breathnach

The Power of Visualization

keleiter — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 03:55:44 +0000

Harnessing The Power of Visualizations to Create the Reality You Desire
by Rita Milios, MSW

Do you feel that you control your own future? Or do you dream of changes you’d like to make in your life, yet you don’t quite know how to make them happen?
Many of us don’t realize that the key to controlling our outer lives begins by controlling our inner lives–our mental state. It is said that “attitude is everything”, and this is essentially true because attitude precedes action. Before we do it, we must first think it, desire it, plan it….and believe in it. Whatever our goal, holding the vision of that goal and “energizing” it with a positive attitude that assumes success is the key to eventual success.
Visualizations and affirmations are two “mind tools” that can help you hold a vision and create an attitude that will lead you to your goal. Visualization is the process of creating pictures in your mind. Affirmation is the process of repeating a positive message to yourself. Both are potent, positive mental tools that can be learned and used by anyone.
Visualization works because it creates belief, belief that can alter the circumstances of your life. With visualization, you “speak” directly to your inner, subconscious mind, bypassing the censorship of the logical, conscious mind. Your subconscious mind “thinks” in pictures, and you can reach the programming levels of your subconscious mind quickly and easily with visualization. Visualization is an idea, a thought form, in picture. By starting with a picture, you take a shortcut directly into your subconscious. No words have to be “translated” from conscious (“left–brain”) language to subconscious (“right–brain”) language. You deliver a simple, clear, direct message right into your subconscious mind.
Visualization is a bit of mental “trickery.” You are, in effect, tricking your subconscious into believing that an event has occurred when it has not. Your subconscious mind does not rationalize. It takes whatever you give it as “truth.” If you consistently picture yourself as having already achieved your goal, your subconscious mind soon believes that it is so. Then, in order to balance your inner and outer reality, your subconscious sets into motion any events or circumstances necessary to create in the physical realm that which you believe in your mind to be true. The fact that you only “imagined” the outcome of your goal does not matter. In your mind (as in space) there is no past, present, or future. Just because you pictured having achieved your goal before you did it, does not matter to your subconscious. If you can make the scene real, you can believe in it. And once you believe in it, it tends to come true.
Numerous studies have been done on visualization, assessing its effect on the performance of athletes, on the ability of students to recall information, and its effect on certain healing processes. From these studies and from the experiences of countless people, we have evidence of the powerful role that visualization can play in our lives.

Steps to Better Visualizations
The key to using visualization effectively is to make the pictures, the scenes in your mind, real. Add all the action, energy, and emotion you can muster to the movies in your mind. The more they appear and feel real to you, the more certainly you are creating their (future) reality.
Start by visualizing in the proper place. Close your eyes and “look” inside your mind. What do you see? Total blackness, probably. Now start to imagine a scene in your mind. Where in your head is this scene taking place?
For many people, visualizations are pictured somewhere in the area of the forehead, often right between the eyebrows. While this is OK, it is more effective to move your mind–movies out away from your head. Picturing your scene between your eyes takes more concentration because your eyes instinctively follow your inward gaze. It is better to move your mind’s movie screen out about six inches from your face. This allows you to be more relaxed, and to have more spontaneous, creative images. Using this focal point, try the exercise below.

“Practice” Visualizations
Close your eyes and image a movie screen (or if you prefer, a blackboard) about six inches away from your face and up a couple inches above your eyes.
First imagine (or “draw”) on your screen or blackboard a geometric figure, a square, circle, or triangle. Keep visualizing this figure over and over for about twenty seconds. Each time your mind wanders, simply bring it back, reproducing the same image over and over. Repeat this exercise with the other two geometric figures.
Then imagine on your mental screen or blackboard a figure, a stick figure or a figure like the Pillsbury doughboy. You do not need to get details. (Most people don’t really see details like hair and eyes on their figures.) In fact, when you “see” an image or visualization, it is in the form of a thought–picture, a sort of mix between an actual image and just the thought of that image. Don’t expect pictures like those on television. Trying too hard to get a “good” visualization will hamper your results. Sometimes you “sense” an image more than you actually see it.
Now scan your figure with your mental eye. Note the size, shape, and sex of the mental body. Note any feelings or impressions you have about it. Then imagine this body slowly starting to become active, and to move. It might start to walk, jog, or play basketball, whatever.
Next, bring another figure into the picture. On your mental screen, see a second figure interacting with the first. Have them talk, shake hands, become animated and argue or laugh together. Practice creating these and other pictures in your mind until you can comfortably imagine and visualize many types of scenes fully and vividly.

Visualizing Special Goals
It is a good idea to create a time every day to mentally send out your visualized goals. Often people do it just before they fall off to sleep. Another good time is shortly after awakening in the morning, before you start your day. You can add impetus to your visualizations by accompanying them with affirmations, or positive statements, that also reflect your goal. Following are some specific visualizations for a variety of goals.

Visualizations for Health
Picture yourself on your mental screen, seeing yourself at your healthy best. Imagine yourself strong, vital and active as you repeat to yourself several positive affirmations for health (suggested below).
If there are any areas in your body that need attention, imagine each area specifically, seeing it whole, perfect and healed of whatever ailment it once had. Make an affirmation that the ailment is now healed. You might imagine a healing light permeating every cell of the affected area. Then, see yourself joyfully experiencing freedom from this ailment. Move the body part freely and breathe deeply to show that the body part is no longer affected. End the visualization by giving thanks for your perfect health. You can also do these visualizations for others, imaging them on your mental screen.

Visualizations for Prosperity
See yourself experiencing your prosperity and wealth. What kinds of possessions would you have? What would your bank statement look like? Visualize yourself using and enjoying your prosperity. Also, (and this is very important) visualize the good that will come from your increased prosperity. What positive ways will you use your money?
Perhaps you have plans to help others in some way. Visualize this happening. Any time you use your increased prosperity to help others, you increase your potential for prosperity becoming a permanent part of your life. Your attitude about prosperity and plenty increases your wealth. Think of money as freedom, as a tool to help you do what you do best. Use your prosperity wisely, and more will come to you. Think of your wealth as freedom, security, and added power to help others. When you want to create prosperity, attitude really is everything.

Visualizations for Success
Picture the success you desire in specific, positive images. See yourself performing a service of your choice that others need and appreciate. See yourself being congratulated and praised for your good work. Imagine that you have a never–ending supply of people who value and want your services. See yourself enjoying your work, feeling proud and happy that you can provide this worthwhile service.
If you are not happy with your present job, see yourself working and doing the kinds of things you would really like to be doing. Imagine yourself in the type of environment you feel best–at home, at an office, outside, working alone, or working with others. Then give thanks for this new and wonderful job (and you do not have to know exactly what this job is–you can leave that up to the universe). See yourself depositing a paycheck into your bank account. This check shows the amount of money that you need and desire from your work.

Visualizations for Happiness
Imagine the kinds of things that you want and need to be truly happy in your life. Affirm that you have these things in your life as you visualize them. See yourself and your loved ones interacting in loving, pleasant ways. Visualize a peaceful scene where your best wishes have come true. Give thanks for the happiness in your life.

Visualizations for Emotional Healing
Not only can you “program” goals and desires with your visualizations, you can “reprogram” old hurts and change old nonproductive, limiting attitudes. The following techniques, described further in my book, Tools for Transformation, can help you positively transform your emotional state. However, if your scars are buried very deeply, or are related to a particularly traumatic event, you may want to seek professional help in facilitating your personal transformation. You can tell when you are too upset to work with a visualization, or when you get “stuck” and nothing seems to work, that you might have gone as far as you can alone. There is nothing wrong with seeking help form qualified professionals for your mental and emotional life. Use your own intuition to guide you.

Small Child Visualization
This visualization is especially good for reprogramming very old beliefs and attitudes. In it you “meet” yourself as you were when you were a child. You then go back to an old feeling or problem and mentally visualize its solution by you, the adult, taking the child’s problem and mentally releasing it (a good releasing image is to visualize the problem being dissolved by a bright, golden sun, or to see your adult self placing the problem in a hot air balloon and letting it go). Even if you don’t know the exact problem, by tapping into anxieties, fears or negative feelings, you can still get in touch with the mental program associated with those feelings and release it.
You may want to go through this visualization several times, each time dealing with a new problem or feeling. An especially difficult problem may take several repeated visualizations to clear out all of the negative energy associated with the original mental program. Just follow your intuitive feelings. They will tell you when you have repeated a visualization enough times. You will know also if a sense of peace comes over you during the visualization, or you experience the cessation of a specific anxiety.

Love Energy Visualization
You can use the technique of visualizing universal energy in certain colors to quickly send added energy to yourself and others. Imagining sending a particular color allows you to “shortcut” a longer visualization, as you “assign” a certain color to represent an intent. Using a color in place of an entire visualization or affirmation is a quick, easy way to do this.
For instance, I “assign” the color pink to stand for love. Any time I want to send out love or to add loving feelings to a situation or event, I simply imagine that I am surrounding the person or the situation with a beautiful, soft pink light, or a pink cloud. Instead of going through a long visualization or affirmation expressing my intention to send love, I simply think, “I send you pink light.”
It is amazing the effect this simple exercise can have. A client came in one day and excitedly said, “That pink light business really works! My husband has started paying attention to me again. We’ve never been happier.” Sending him pink light was the only change she had made in her dealings with her husband. Similarly, several different clients have related how they used the pink light to help them overcome problems with people at work. One woman became best friends with a person she had previously quarreled with and had resented for six years.
Of course, visualizing a color by itself does nothing. It is the change in attitude that is associated with the intention that we assign to the color that is important. This is what works wonders. When we change our attitude, our focus, to love, our interactions change. In addition, I truly do believe that when we ask for extra loving energy from the universe, we get it.

Visualizations and Healing
You can use colors to designate other forms of energy, as well. In the case of healing, it is especially easy to believe that an extra measure of energy comes from lovingly asking for it.
A healing green light apparently helped a former student overcome a lifelong case of asthma. She had had severe asthma since she was a small child, over twenty–five years. She took medication every day. During my class Miracles of the Mind, we imagined a healing green light permeating our bodies. This student focused specifically on the area of her lungs.
The next day the student had a doctor’s appointment. She was to try out a new drug. It was the middle of July, a time when she was especially vulnerable to asthma attacks. The doctor had asked her to go off her medication for a day so she could try the new drug. She had been worried that this might lead to an attack, but she felt good when she entered the office that day.
The doctor tested her breathing capacity and he was amazed. It was unusually good. In fact, it was so good that he could not put her on the new medication. The doctor asked the student to run up and down the stairs to try to bring on an attack. But even this did not cause her asthma to flare up. For the first time in over twenty five years, the woman was off medication, and breathing better than ever before.
This was over ten years ago. The woman has been able to stay off medication. She only needs medication occasionally, when conditions are especially bad. Before, she would normally have been hospitalized on such occasions.
Was it the green healing light that healed the woman of her asthma? Again, we can never be sure. But it was the only thing she did differently. And she believes it was the cause. The woman continues to use the green healing light for herself and others.
Other colors can be designated to denote the intention of sending a certain kind of energy to ourselves or to others. Try using orange light to send a calming, relaxing effect. Blue light is often used to designate spiritual energy. Purple often signifies psychic energy or transmutation, the changing from one form of energy to another. For instance, if you want to change a negative situation into a more positive one, imagine purple light surrounding it, transmuting the negative energy to positive. Yellow is often considered the color of high spiritual knowledge. Use it to ask for wisdom or intellectual energy. White light is all the colors combined. White light denotes the Light itself, the love, the energy of the universe. You might surround yourself, your family, your home, your friends with white light to denote a request for strength, guidance and protection.

Adding Affirmations
Using affirmations (positive statements that we repeat to ourselves in a positive way) and visualization together is like a “double whammy” for creating belief in your desired goal. One or the other alone will work, but by using the two together, your success will come easier and faster. Affirmations, through repetition, reach your subconscious mind and leave a deep impression. Repeated statements work as if they were creating a groove in a record. The more the repetition, the deeper the groove, and the more long lasting its effect. With affirmations you choose statements to repeat over and over again throughout the day, positive statements that are beneficial to you. You can use affirmations to plant positive seeds in your subconscious concerning any area of your life, such as health, success, happiness or even prosperity and wealth.

Here are a few keys to creating great affirmations, affirmations that work.

1) Keep it simple. State your affirmation in the most concise, precise, simple language possible.

2) Keep it positive. Use positive statements only. Avoid words like not, won’t, etc.

3) Keep it in the now. Always make affirmations in the present tense.

I offer below some suggestions for simple affirmations. But don’t be afraid to make up your own affirmations. Your own affirmations have your own special touch, they ring a special bell within your subconscious mind. Don’t hesitate to take a “standard” affirmation, such as these I suggest, and make it your own. Change it to make it feel right for you. Just keep in mind the three key points listed above.

Affirmations for Health

• I am whole, healthy and healed.

• All my bodies – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual are perfectly aligned.

• I am filled with the healing energy of the Light.

• I am in perfect health.

• I release all need for illness or injury to my body.

• I release all negatives from the genetic coding of my body.

Affirmations for Success

• All my goals are realized.

• I am successful in every way.

• Every day I am more successful.

• I meet every challenge knowing that I will be successful.

Affirmations for Happiness

• All my dreams have become a reality.

• I find joy in everything I do.

• My life is abundant with joy.

• Peace, happiness and love are mine.

Affirmations for Prosperity

• I have all the money I need to bring everything I need and desire into my life.

• A constant abundance of prosperity is mine.

• I give valuable service to my fellow humans, and I am rewarded abundantly.

• I am blessed with abundance.

A word about affirmations and belief: Use only affirmations that your subconscious mind can believe. If you are 300 pounds, don’t make an affirmation that states, “I am 120 pounds. I am a size 6.” It will probably be too difficult for your subconscious to believe this. It is too different from your original experience and belief.
You don’t have to give up your goal, however. Instead, use the “day–by–day, inch–by–inch” method. Your affirmation might state, “Every day I am getting thinner. Every day I am closer to my goal of 120 pound s.” Then, when you do get close, you can change your affirmation to, “I am 120 pounds.” Then your subconscious will accept it.

The Rule of Threes
Affirmations work in three ways. It is best to make use of all three avenues to set your thoughts into motion.
Speak your affirmations each day.
Write your affirmations down. Keep the written message where you can see it regularly.
Visualize your affirmations as living pictures of your goal having already been achieved.
Use affirmations and visualizations together to visualize your desired goal while you repeat an affirmation for it. Create a scene in your mind where you see yourself already having achieved your goal. See yourself doing what you would be doing, saying what you would be saying, feeling what you would be feeling. Affirm in a short, positive statement that this vision is your reality. In this way, you can begin to create the reality you desire.

Rita Milios, MSW, LISW is a licensed psychotherapist and spiritual teacher with more than twenty years experience providing spirituality education, intuitive training and guidance for people seeking to develop their inner wisdom. Author of Tools for Transformation, Dream Journal and other books and audiotapes, Rita has led seminars and workshops on the topics of dreams, meditation, intuition, visualization, creativity, emotional literacy and self-development. She has worked with lay people, businesses, educational audiences and associations. Rita’s intuitive training and pathwork can be experienced through individual sessions or as part of a group training and development package.
For information about workshops or books, write to Rita at rita@milios.net.
Found at www.soulfulliving.com

Divine Discontent

keleiter — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 22:02:44 +0000

An Excerpt from
“Simple Abundance”
by
Sarah Ban Breathnach

Divine Discontent: Learning to Live by Your Own Lights

Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: “You are accepted.”
Paul Johannes Tillich

When we practice switching on the “spiritual electricity” that Julia Cameron speaks of in her wonderful book, The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, what should we expect? More energy and inspiration, amazing and delightful coincidences, and the ability to accomplish goals with grace? Yes, certainly. That has, at least, been my experience.

But one thing you might not expect–one thing that might throw you–is how dissatisfied you may feel when the Power is not present, when you are in the dark and left to your own devices because you forgot to turn the switch on. I have learned that asking is the only way to activate spiritual electricity. It is always there for me, but I always have to ask for it.

The dissatisfaction you can feel when the switch is off manifests itself in different ways. Suddenly you don’t like any room in your house. Decorating mistakes from past lives haunt you. Your clothes don’t fit or look right on you anymore. You’re bored with the meals you’re cooking. You’re sick of opening the front hall closet and covering your head. But worse, that expansive, even giddy hopefulness that came from starting to integrate gratitude into your life gives way to restless discontent. You begin to think that the Simple Abundance path might work for some women, but it’s not right for you. Hold on. As the English historian Dame Cicely Veronica Wedgwood points out,”Discontent and disorder [are] signs of energy and hope, not of despair.”

What is going on is part of the process. I call it Divine Discontent. It is the grit in the oyster before the pearl. This creative second chance is when we come into our own. When we finally claim our own lives and wrestle our futures from fate. When we learn how to spin straw into gold. When we realize gratefully that we can live by our own lights if we access the Power.

Ask for it. Claim it. Today.

Sarah Ban Breathnach
www.simpleabundance.com

Your new begining…

keleiter — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 04:37:41 +0000

TODAY IS YOUR NEW BEGINNING…

Every morning is a fresh beginning. Every day is the world made new. Today is a new day. Today is my world made new. I have lived all my life up to this moment, to come to this day. This moment- this day- is as good as any moment in all eternity. I shall make of this day- each moment of this day- a heaven on earth. This day is my opportunity.
-Dan Custer

Today is your opportunity to begin a new week with a more optimistic attitude. You can break away from the past and look forward to a future that will fulfill you in new, positive way.
Yet this is also the day whe the good intentions and hopes you dreamed of yesterday will meet the reality of your world as it is. Chances are, the rest of the world hasn’t spent any time thinking about ways to make life easier for you! Your plans and goals will be tested in ways you never imagined- from the negative situations and people you encounter to your own thoughts and behavior patterns that may block your progress.

EVERYDAY YOU ARE ON YOUR WAY..

Each and every day you are on the way to becoming the person you were meant to be. Every day brings you closer to reaching your potential, your hopes, and your wishes on a thousand stars. Each day gives you a new opportunity to me the miracle that you are.
You are wished all the wonders that you seek.
You are given the chances to put yesterday behind you and to keep only the lessons you ahve learned from the past. You are provided with all the possibilities that can possibily come to this one day…and to find a way to honor all those things you want to last forever.

Make yourself so proud! Make choices that are compassionate and loving and right. Learn the power of saying “no” to those wrong things and “yes!” to a mor beautiful life.
Remember: A life well lived is simply a compilation of days well spent. So treasure the tremendous value of the moments right before your eyes. Reach out for the prizes you seek, and get a little closer to them with every setting sun.

Make this one day a journey of love and achievement, gently powered by all the powers of understanding, commitment and hope. Be healthy, happy, and continually rewarded for doing things that you know in you heart…are right.

May you discover every joy that wants to come true for you…on your precious journey through life.
-Douglas Pagels