The things you can do when you’re not “smart” enough to know you can’t

You know, there’s a lot of wisdom in not being smart enough to know you “can’t” do something.

 I want you to write down all the goals and desires you honestly feel you can accomplish. These are usually the things you would like to do, places you would like to go, or people you would like to meet. These will be the ones you talk to your friends and acquaintances about. Maybe it’s taking a trip to another country. Maybe it’s getting in shape and loosing those ten pounds. Maybe it’s a financial goal say for instance paying off your mortgage. Place each of these items on a list labeled “I Can”.

Now take a second piece of paper with the words “I can’t” at the top. These are where your dreams go. “Wait a minute!” you may say. I have already done that on my other list. May I offer to you that you did not. You see dreams aren’t dreams if they are “possible”. Dreams are not something that you do. Dreams are something that you are. The dreams I am talking about are the ones that you do not tell everyone else in the coffee room at work. They are not the ones that embody the pictures of far off exotic places you would love to go that adorn your office walls.

These are the ones you tell no one about. Sometimes not even yourself. These are the ones that creep into your mind when you aren’t paying attention. The ones you are almost afraid to contemplate because as you allow the images to manifest in your mind you know deep down that they will always be nothing more than dreams. Fanciful visions that will never come to pass. So you bury them deep into your sub-consciousness, frankly because it’s safer that way. .

Let me tell you something about dreams. For some dreams are the stuff of which movies are created and books are written. Play’s are inspired and performed.

May I, with as much respect as I can muster, say to you that while that is a lovely vision it is simply not fact.  Dreams are nothing more than foreshadows of a future that could be.  Even more than being a possibility they can even manifest into probability and even inevitability.

The only spark they require from you is a simply act of faith. A choice. Nothing more. Nothing less. Just a choice. But before you do, know this. The act of choosing is the spark that ignites the infinite power source locked in the realms of the universe simply waiting to be unleashed. Your choice is the act that lights the fires of creation that will literally begin to re-shape all of eternity around you. So you say “What! The entire universe reshapes itself! Just for me? I am not anyone special. At least not that the whole world revolves around me. “

Yes you are. Many people will try through their outward behaviors to create a world that revolves around them so they may feel powerful and safe. Not that that’s a bad thing. It’s just that sometimes we go about it the wrong way.  Choose inside first. Rather than try and reshape your surroundings with your own strength why not simply release your dreams to the universe and choose to believe you are as wonderful as you think (or hope) you are. Many times we confuse this with arrogance or self centeredness. When we try and reshape our external surroundings that’s exactly what it is. We try to create an external environment and will cause us to feel a certain way inside.

There’s nothing wrong with this approach we just have it backwards. Choose who you are inside. Take your dreams out of the closet, unwrap them from the colorful glitter paper and ribbons you’ve used to hide them away for so long. Look at them and say “I am that”. Those of you who have watched the Moses Code movie will understand the power in those words.

Then, actively begin to look, and search for, external evidence to confirm your statement of belief. Don’t try and create them, simply watch for them. They will be there. Maybe not in the form of lightening from a clear blue sky but they will be there. Maybe in a passing billboard, or a song on the radio, or the chance words of an acquaintance. They are simply the universe’s way of saying “I am here”.

When we start to see the extraordinary in the ordinary, the ordinary becomes extraordinary.

It’s time to remember who you are. And act upon it.

So who’s the angel anyway?

As I type this I’m sitting in one of the most spiritual places I know – Tim Hortons! <grin> As I gaze around me at the people filing in and out with coffee in hand I notice the young couple sitting beside me. A lovely young lady sharing a bagel with a friend or family member. He obviously has some mental challenges that he wakes up to, and I’m sure walks through, every day. As they converse she gently watches him helping him arrange his drink when he needs it. They talk and they laugh.

And I ask myself “Who’s the angel anyway?”

I always tell my students that I can pretty much guarantee their journeys won’t always be easy but I can unequivocally assure them that they will always be worth it. My mind floats back to a time years ago when I was presented with an opportunity to practice this in a very real way. I remember it as clear as if it were yesterday. A series of events had brought me to a most interesting place. One that many of you have may be been in yourself. I was in many ways in a place of darkness. Instigated by external circumstances but created within my mind and encompassing my heart. I had been challenged, maligned and accused. I was so tired. The voices in my mind screamed to me “Why don’t you quit! Haven’t you have enough? You know if you quite right now that so many of these adversities would dissipate?” In that moment every cell of my body felt physical pain. Especially considering I knew it was true.

And then the most amazing thing happened. Beneath all this a voice said to me. “You now have the wonderful opportunity to choose once again which way you will go. If you stop growing and helping and sharing what you have learnt with all those who have come through your doors it will probably get easier. At least for a moment. At least it will appear that way. However, I also say to you that the initial relief from what you are not experiencing has a cost attached to it that is simply too much to pay. Also know that in every moment of your time on this earth you have the opportunity to choose. It’s really very simple. Will you choose to live? Or die.”

In that moment. Even though my mind, my logic, the pain in my heart screamed no. I said in a quite voice “Yes.” What’s even more amazing is that nothing changed. At least not externally. The pain and the conundrum of voices were still there. Yet despite that I kept going. All I could do was put one foot after the other. So many times that’s all you have to do.

I forced myself to continue on my errands one of which led me to a pet store. The Healing Center now has an official mascot. A beard dragon by the name of Vince… yes, he’s a lizard! As I walked in the store I was greeted by the owner. He was an interesting sort. He looked like the kind of guy you’d expect to have a lizard store. As he showed me through the variety of aquariums and containers containing every sort of creature you could think of he off handedly make a remark about a minor conflict with an earlier customer.  It was nothing of real consequence. I can’t even frankly remember how it came up. If I reminded him of the event now he would undoubtedly not even remember. But I do. Like it happened yesterday. I remember the other customers in the store.  I remember the exact kind of weather we were having that day. I remember each and every one of the tanks, aquariums, and variety of accessories and supplies. Because in, and through, his remake came the answer to my torment.

It wasn’t what he said that was so important. I actually can’t remember his exact words. If anyone else had been they never would have recognized the immeasurable value in his words. They weren’t meant for them. They were meant for me. From that very moment the clouds over my heart and mind began to lift. As I drove back to Red Deer I knew that things were going to be alright. I was grateful, and proud of myself, that in that moment of decision I choose once again to live. And that very choice set in motion the events that transpired a few short hours later through the owner of lizard store.

And I ask myself, “Who’s the Angel Anyway?”

In conclusion I offer a suggestion. In those times, and we’ve all had them, when we look to the Heavens and with a voice louder that we could ever utter from our lips because it comes from our hearts we shout out “Why!” We implore whoever is listening to help us walk through the challenge that’s ahead of us. From the depths of our bellies we know that without some type of divine intervention we will not survive another day. We gaze upward waiting for the answer. Waiting for a way out or a way through.  I offer this thought. Rather that looking up; look out. So many times our answer comes not from above. Not from the splitting of the skies or rumbling of the earth but from the guy who pumps your gas or delivers your paper, who serves you your coffee, who’s standing behind you in the line up at the grocery store.

And the next time you share a kind word with a stranger, or compliment a waitress on the good job they’re doing think of this. What if you are the answer to their greatest need?

Ask yourself. In that moment “Who’s the Angel Anyway?”

When do you feel?

Many times we are asked how we feel. Almost without fail the response will be related to how we physically feel and not how we emotionally feel. I think this is a profound commentary on how little we pay attention to emotions. What we are really feeling. Not those pat answers like “not bad”, “getting by”, “fine”, and the other assortment of response we have stored on the shelves of our subconscious from which we haphazardly pick one when presented with the query. The more I grow and develop on this journey called “life” the more I’m realizing that emotions are a foundational key through which we can either open, or seal, the doorway through which our futures lie.

 

I propose a small experiment. Get comfortable, close your eyes, and take some nice deep breaths. Remember to breathe with your abdomen so allow you stomach to extend a little bit to allow you to fill your lungs completely with air and then relax and allow the air to release through your nose and mouth. Allow your mind to float back to an event in your past that has an emotional impact. It could be positive or negative. If it happens to be a negative one don’t feel you have to allow yourself to be overwhelmed by it. The point here is to only allow you to noticeably feel an emotion.

 

Now ask yourself a question.  “When am I feeling this emotion”? Herein lays the key. Even though the event you are remembering could have happened ten days or ten years ago you can only feel an emotion in the present moment (now). You cannot feel in the past or even in the future. You can only feel right here, right now.

Our memories and our emotions are not intrinsically connected. The memory is a trigger, which causes us to feel the emotion that was felt when the initial event happened in the present moment. 

 

We cannot change the past. Right, wrong, or otherwise what has happened has happened. We also cannot control the future. After all it hasn’t even happened yet. The emotions we feel when we think of events in our future are simply responses to a trigger. Not different than the past just in opposite directions. The only thing we can change is what we are feeling in the present moment.

 

The good news is all we have to do is change what we are feeling in the present moment. We don’t have to magically undo the past or circumvent events in our future. What we have the amazing opportunity to do is change the emotions we are feeling in the present moment which are triggered by the event.

 

It may appear like I’ve only succeeded in defining the problem and not the solution. I believe if you stop and allow what I’m proposed to sink into your soul you will realize, as I have, that it is indeed the solution. More importantly it is the key to your freedom and the restoration of your power.

 

Sometimes bad things happen to good people. I wish it wasn’t so however all of us can attest to this fact as we allow our memories to walk through the injustices and even abuses that we have experienced. So many, through no fault of our own. Once your realize the full impact of what I am saying you will begin to realize that you truly are not a victim. You are not powerless. Even though the impacts of what you have experienced may currently be paralyzing you and have mired you on the sidelines of your live it doesn’t have to continue. We cannot change the past. That is true. We cannot change the future. That is true as well. We can however change the present. This is where our power lies. This is where we can invoke our power to choose.

 

The past is not your fault. It is your responsibility. You are the owner of your present moment. Nobody can take that from you. Because of this you can begin to release the emotions attached to those triggers and in doing so allow you body to return to its natural state of health and wellness.

 

The roadmaps to this place of release are varied and many. As many of you know we keep very busy at The Healing Centre teaching and treating with Reiki. I personally have seen countless individuals regain their power through the two of us joining as a team during a session and together bringing those emotions from the darkness of fear into the light of or present moment awareness and watching them gracefully and powerful dissipate into thin air. Is it easy? Absolutely not! Is it worth it? A thousand times I will say a resounding yes!

 

I suggest a couple of very goods books that I have found immensely helpful in reaching and maintaining present moment awareness and releasing emotions.

 

Emotional Alchemy by Tara Bennett-Goleman

The Sedona Method by Hale Dwoskin

One night in the woods

I often take walks in the late evening as a form of meditation. For me meditation is really about a state of awareness more than a physical activity. I have had the privilege of meeting so many wonderful people who have attended our weekly meditation gatherings who have shared with me how beneficial they have been for them and how much they look forward to coming each week. I always try to share with them that that “feeling” they experience at our gatherings is not unique to there. That experience of reacquainting themselves with that place inside each of us that’s at perfect peace and perfect stillness is accessible anytime anywhere. In those moments, among a group of people of like-mindedness, our shared energies foster a place where we can touch that easier. Very quickly our spirit remembers and the journey from outer illusion to inner reality becomes easier.  It is in the spirit of this that I present the following.

 

 

All there is is Love. It is the originator, the giver of life essence, and the ultimate destination of everyone and everything. All there is is Love.

 

So what is Love? Our culture has created a myriad of definitions and connotations of what love is. Mainstream media, religions, retailers, and even phone companies have hopped on the bandwagon to construct their own version of what they would have us believe Love is. Any many of us have bought into their self-promoting intentions. Love is not an organization. It is not a doctrine. It is not a philosophy. It is not something you read on the inside of a greeting card or watch on the late night movies our parents forbid us from watching when we were younger.

 

So what is Love? Here’s the secret. Love cannot be described. It cannot be communicated. It can only be experienced.

 

Love is death. Love is Fear. Love is rebirth. All there is is love.

 

It was quite late in the evening as I walked following my usual route which, as was my habit, concluded in a small opening surrounded by towering mature trees. In the center of the clearing was a small hill that obviously been man made and undoubtedly was a great source of pleasure during the winter as children would slide and tumble down it’s gentle slopes.

 

I would often stand on the hill and allow myself to simply feel. We spend so much time thinking and so little feeling. I had stood on the hill many times before and as I closed my eyes I imagined myself standing in the middle of a large amphitheater with the moon as my spotlight and the grass and trees as my audience and teachers. To our logical mind this makes no sense. In many respects that’s the key to understanding. There is a time and place for our “common sense” but there are also those moments when it simply cannot contain the experience that’s presented to us.

 

The past days and weeks had been an interesting one for me. With many new experiences, both internally and external, I had often allowed my mind to contemplate how and why my present, and future, were presenting themselves in the manner they were.

 

Then it started. It began as a tiny trickling of images, thoughts, and emotions but quickly grew to a raging torrent. My mind began to reel as it was engulfed with stimulus it could never contain or control. In what seemed like an instance my mind and heart were locked in a vicious tug of war. The gentle tugging in my heart that I had gotten used to feeling was starting to build and grow in intensity.

 

In that moment when my heart truly felt physical pain as the confluence of emotions, memories, hopes I dared not entertain, dreams I sealed so far away because they seemed so incredulous engulfed me like a flood.

 

In that moment when my heart cried out for relief. In that space outside of time. I pleaded to my creator and all of creation to take this away from me because it felt like my heart would explode and shatter into a thousand pieces. A still, small, and yet endlessly powerful voice said to me with words beyond my understanding “Then let it break.” How can this be? My mind was reeling trying to analyze and organization this seemingly life ending suggestion. My heart stretched and groaned as the immense pressure was continuing to build inside me. I shouted to myself to set it aside. This was crazy. I needed to resist. I needed to come back to reality. Why was I feeling what I was feeling? The thoughts and emotions were too fearful and beautiful for me to dare to allow them to fully enter my mind. And beneath the battle zone of thoughts and emotions raging inside my mind and body. The voice calmly said, “Let it break.”

 

As the moments manifested into what seemed like hours the battle continued. I would experience short periods of relief as they would recede further back into my subconscious and I would quickly gasp for air like a drowning man who momentary breaks through the surface of the water to draw in a breath of air in a futile attempt to save himself. Then just as quickly as they retreated they would assault me with a new wave of advancement and my heart would twist and writhe in pain

 

All the while the voice said to me “Let it break”.

 

In the din of the raging onslaught something began to change. Maybe it was the words that were said but looking back now I realize it origninate from  the source from where they came. Something inside me buried deep beneath my thoughts and my emotions. Something so intimate that even now I cannot craft the words to describe it.

 

The choice was presented to me. I was standing at a precipice gazing down at a gorge that descended forever. It was a choice from which there would be turning back. Once I took the step that would thrust me into the unknown. A step that looking through my conscious eyes would shirley kill me. And yet I had a choice. Which voice would I listen to? The voice of reason that arose from years of indoctrination and programming. Or the still small voice that said “Let your heart break”. My mind twisted and contorted in agony as the desire to jump began to build and confront the pre-conceived notions and rules and does and don’ts head on.

 

Then in a twinkling of an eye it became crystal clear. Both were correct. The voice told me to jump. My mind screamed in my ear that I would die should I choose this folly. They were both right. If I jumped, and allowed my heart to break I would die. However, in giving up my life I would gain it. It still didn’t add up. Did not make sense.  But that didn’t seem to matter. Not now. In an act of surrender I spoke to whoever, or whatever was listening and said, “I surrender. I choose to release my heart and allow the raging forces inside it to shatter it into a thousand pieces.

 

And I died. And in that exact instant, as I watched the broken shards of my heart disappear into nothingness. I was re-born. Or maybe born for the first time. At that point it didn’t matter. At that point nothing mattered.

 

In that instance my heart transformed into that which cannot be describe only experienced. I was suddenly so much more expansive than the limiting perimeters of my physical body. In that moment I knew all things are possible. In that moment I understood a fresh and anew the illusion that separation was. In that moment I could feel the coolness of the dew on grass beneath my feet and at the same time I stretched into the vastness of space and touched the stars.

 

In our western world built on separation, competition, envy, and an assortment of self defeating concepts we have this innate ability and desire to accumulate, store and hoard. It’s understandable really. We live in a society that’s asleep.

 

I know that this is a direct assault on your reasoning and intellect but I share this with as much sincerity and integrity I can muster. Freedom does not come in gathering, hoarding. It comes in releasing. Everything.

 

The entire universe is conspiring for you. There is a power that knows no bounds that is available to you in every moment. You hold the key. It is the power of choice. By your choices you unleashed the awesome creative power of Love. After all all there is is Love.

 

Today I present you with a choice. For some this is exactly where you are at in this moment in time. For others this may be a prelude to what your future will bring. I’m not asking or expecting anything from you. Simply offering a choice.

 

And it is this. Do you choose to fuel your fears, live in a mind set of lack and not enough? Creating your future through toiling and struggling under your own power. Or do you choose to give it all up. Notice I didn’t say give up. I said give it all up. Release your dreams, your challenges, and your struggles. Just let it go. It can be scary. I know. But it is also a doorway to  a freedom that you’ve maybe never felt before.

 

Love is all there is. Love is Fear. Love is Power. Everything originates from Love. There is nowhere Love is not. When you choose to give it all up you plunge yourself into a sea of the same creative force that birthed the universes and cause each blade of grass to grow.

 

The choice is always yours.

Restoring our relationship with fear

On September 22, in Red Deer, Alberta, a group of people will participant in a seminar where they will learn that the awesome power of fear can be literally transformed into an unstoppable force which will propel them into the manifestation of their dreams.

 

Those who participate will be forever changed.

 

Are you going to be one of them?

 

Often the first response I receive when I tell people about the fire walk is a perplexed look coming across their face and the inevitable question “Why do you walk on fire?”

 

In the past I must admit I would, on occasion, struggle for words that could accurately communicate what drew me to the fire and the changes I’ve experienced since. After a time of reflection on the fundamental changes in my attitudes about my capabilities and myself I’ve constructed the following.

 

The fire walk has nothing to do with fire. It has everything to do with fear. Fear is the common denominator in every one of us. We have all felt fear. Now remember fear wears many masks. Low self esteem, rejection, depression, anger, and many other emotions and limiting personal belief systems have their roots in fear. Many of us do not like to admit we ever feel afraid. After all in our western society, and especially for us males, fear is too often perceived as a sign of weakness.

 

Fear has power. We have all felt it. At times it manifests in to an uncomfortable stirring in the pit of our stomachs. Other times it clamps on our heart in a death like grip and literally paralyzes on the spot. I know. I’ve been there. But here’s the secret. Even though I still feel fear I now have the opportunity, and ability, to respond differently than before. Now, instead of allowing fear to be a millstone around my neck I can choose to use it’s inherent power to propel me forward.

 

The real freedom comes, not in not feeling the fear, but embracing it and in that moment transforming it to power. In so many ways fear is our friend and not our enemy. It is our biggest cheerleader. It is where our power lies. It is the doorway through which we transcend our perceived limitations and enter into a world filled with possibilities and promise. It is the opportunity to become everything we are designed to be. 

 

 

That is why I walk on fire.

 

Through the information provided in the seminar and the fire walk experience I now know that instead of running from fear I can turn and embrace it as the friend that it is and together step forward into the future I know I always desired but so many times thought I would never achieve.

 

When you stand at the precipice of the glowing bed of coals, feel the fear, and use that energy to take the first step onto the welcoming embers before you. In that moment you know. Beyond a shadow of a doubt. That you are changed.

 

That is why I walk on fire.

The story of the beach ball

I hurt my lower back once. I hurt it slightly during a work out session at the gym and didn’t let it heal properly before going to my full fitness regime and kept re-injuring it. After a few cycles my back finally said “Enough is enough!” and gave out. My sciatic nerve in my right leg would, without warning, and with confounding regularity spasm and shoot pain from my hip down to my lower leg. Sitting for as little as 15 minutes caused pain and spasms to shoot down my legs and twist and contort my lower back and hips. Walking was a potential catastrophe and walking upright was pretty much out of the question. I can remember watching people do all the simple tasks we often take for granitite, walking across the room, bending over to pick up small objects, and even comfortably sitting in chair, and feeling so removed from them. At times even envious. So separate. So different. My daily activities centered around how much pain I was feeling and how much mobility I had. It wasn’t if I would have pain but how much. In an amazingly short period of time my life began to revolve around my injury. I started to become my injury. It was an unwanted companion that was always there and never left my side. Not even for a minute.

That was then. This is now. The pain is gone. My strength is back. All is well. How I got there is a story for another time. Needless to say when I found the key that unlocked the door to my return to my natural state of wellness it a short trip.

You’re are, by design, a healthy, complete, individual. You are not designed to be unwell. The pain, disease, or sickness you may feel today is not part of you. Notice I say that “The” pain is gone and “My” strength is back. The pain you may feel does not belong to you. It is not who you are. It is not who you were designed to be. I know it feels that way sometimes – maybe all the time – but I tell you it is not who you are.

Remember how when you were a kid you would be playing at the lake or swimming pool and would take a beach ball and try and hold it under water? It was quite the task to submerge it completely and an even harder one to keep it there. Inevitably it would slip out from your grasp and pop up to the surface and peacefully bob around almost smiling back at you and your failed attempt to confine it. If you could get a couple of your friends to help you hold the beach ball under water is was much easier. If you had enough you could actually keep it there. But as one friend and then another let go of the ball it got harder to keep submerged and before you knew it slipped from your grasp and up to the surface it went.

So you say “If health and wellness is my natural state why am I sick?” The answer is obstructions. Your picture perfect health, wellness, happiness, and peace are your birthright. Your life is not designed to be one of pain and restrictions but one of freedom and growth. Once those obstructions are released your return to your natural state of health and wellness is as simple as the beach ball bobbing to the surface of the water.

When I was enduring life with my back injury I constantly tried different avenues to try recover my health or even to alleviate the symptoms. In a short period of time I had received a host of treatments and a variety of “diagnosis” on what was wrong and what I could expect from each treatment and how close I may get to complete health.

You may have heard this rhetoric before. And you’ve been trying. And trying and trying and trying. And sometimes you’re frankly tired of trying and seemingly getting no where. I know how you feel. I know how it feels to be searching and searching for relief. And each time you’re presented with a new therapy or technique you think maybe this is the one.  So you try. And you come away maybe feeling a bit better and more often than not with less dollars in your wallet. And you think to yourself “Is this it? Is this the one that will make the difference”. And maybe it does. And maybe it doesn’t. And you may go through a day or two of relief. And maybe not. And maybe you say to yourself “Will I ever get better?”. And maybe you say to yourself “I’m really tired of trying. Maybe this is how it’s going to be. Maybe this is as good as it gets.” I have one thing to say to you.

Don’t quit. Don’t ever quit. It’s there. It maybe closer than you know.

I know what it’s like. In the whole scheme of things my injuries were ridiculously minor compared to what many of you are going through. But the emotions are familiar.

I finish with the television show “Survivor”. The other night I was watched two teams compete in an event where they had a pulley assembly which a large empty bucket on one end and a little platform where someone would sit on the other. The objective was for team members to go fill up little cans with water and come back and dump it in the large bucket. When the bucket got heavy enough it would counterbalance the platform causing it to rise up and allow the person sitting on it to grab a flag and win. Right up until the last small bucket of water the platform didn’t move an inch. But when the last small bucket of water was emptied into the large one up the platform went.

Don’t quit trying. Maybe you’re only one small bucket away from removing that last obstacle and popping up to the surface and the health and wellness that is yours. And always has been. And when you find that key. The one that unlocks the door to your future. It’s a short trip to the surface. And you quickly forget the pain and discomfort you felt. But not the experience. Then you can share with others your journey to wellness. And you can encourage them. And you can tell them “don’t quit”.

It happened to me. At our weekly meditation group I routinely see people release pain and discomfort. I see it in the people that I treat. It’s there. It may be right in front of you. You may be only one small bucket away. Don’t quit. You are far too important and have too much to offer this world.  

Get off your butt and do nothing

I’ve just finished teaching a Reiki Level One and Two workshop and as always spent two days “emphasizing” (AKA harping <g>) the importance of application.

It is never what you know, or more accurately, have memorized. All the courses, workshops, seminars, audio tapes in the world will have a very insignificant real world effective if you don’t apply them.

The good news is that today we have access to teachers and resources from around the world. The Internet has opened up an infinite library of other people’s wisdom for us to embrace. Main stream bookstores are constantly expanding their shelf space to incorporate more books on enlightening our minds and healing our bodies, and changing our world. Still, each of them are the sharing of some one else’s wisdom.

Someone’s wisdom is not your wisdom.

It becomes yours when you apply it your life. Today, tomorrow, and every tomorrow after that. As you apply these techniques it will gestate and give birth in due time to your wisdom. Your experience. Your truth.

Today, as a matter of fact, right now. Think of one snippet of information you have received, one simple truth, one powerful technique. Contemplate upon it. Roll it around in the theatre of your mind. Observe it from every angle.

Get off your butt and do nothing with it. Simply be with it. Allow it to become your mantra for the next 24 hours.

And then. go out and apply it. Right now. Today. In this moment. Find out for yourself what it really means to you. real world, hard core. Not what it means to someone else. Not what it means to me but what it means to you.

This will take work, consistency, and persistence. I can assure you this will not be easy. You can take solace in the fact that it wasn’t for any of the writers and speakers that you first heard it from. So count yourself in good company.

You will be tempted, when it may seem to get tedious or uncomfortable or frankly just plane hard to let go and go search for the next “silver bullet” that will magically transform your life experience.

But you don’t have to go searching anywhere. It is already right there in your hands.

Now go out and see if you can prove me wrong. Follow the suggestion I have shared here. It’s the same one I do my best to follow everyday.

So go ahead, try and prove me wrong.

I dare ya! <g>

Some days are harder than others

The process of mastering, or more accurately managing, your experience of life is very much a process and not a destination. You do NOT master your life experience and arrive at this place where you now have it all together. No more work. Yes, can kick back and simply be the master of your domain…. Yeah right! Blah, blah, blah! <g> Life is a classroom of mastery. Today was one of those days for me.

I found myself quite some distance from my “Zen” place today. Frustrated about the present and the future. Annoyed (yes, that’s the polite word for it) at some of my recent experiences, projecting more unfulfilled experiences in the future… you know the drill.

Since I launched into choosing to have my life be a full time adventure in creating my world from the inside out I have gathering many tools to use when managing moments just like these.

One of the most powerful, yet simple, and often the most difficult to apply is this motto.

“I am totally, one hundred percent, responsible for my experience”

Often times, like the one I had this morning, applying this technique really sucks. We’re frustrated, angry, and a whole host of other icky things. We have been wronged, or maligned, or treated unfairly, and on and on and on.

We are definitely not responsible and it sure as hell is not our fault. (I wonder if the word hell will make it through the spam filters …..)

The first step in returning to a inner environment of peace, confidence, clear headed thinking and inspired actions is to completely remove the word “blame” from this exercise.

It seems us humans have a huge need to blame a person, place, thing, or event for our present experience. As soon as we dole out blame we are giving control of our present experience away. The next time you have blamed pay attention to how you physical feel. In that very moment. Do you feel at peace in your mind and relaxed in your body? I’m thinking not.

I’ll make the statement again.

“I am totally, one hundred percent, responsible for my experience”

With blame  out of the way let’s look a little closer at what that action statement means.

You are stating a simple, yet powerful truth. In this moment, regardless of who, how, or what has created the unpleasantness you have the power to choose what you will think and feel. You, no one else. Just you.

It is not your fault. There is no one or nothing to blame. It is simply this moment. I’ll add a few words to complete this mantra.

“I am totally, one hundred percent, responsible for the thoughts I choose to nurture, the feelings I choose to embrace, and the actions I will take in this moment which will create my experience”

It’s just that simple, not always easy, but just that simple.

The illusion of permanence

The Illusion of Permanence

I know it’s a crazy title but you just have  to admit after seeing it you just HAD to read this right? <grin>

It is, however, an accurate statement.

Think about the last time you had a cold,  flu, toothache or headache or some other physical uncomfortableness. Was there a moment, usually right in the middle, where it felt like you would never get better? It was like “Oh Gawd I feel so gross. It’s like I’ve had this forever and it feels like it will never leave!”  And then, in due course in time our body heals itself and the pain and discomfort is gone. As a matter of fact while we can remember what it felt like we literary cannot recreate the physical pain. Thank goodness for that!

That same impermanence marinates our entire physical world. Everything is changing. All the time. There are never two identical moments. Our bodies are recreating multitudes of new cells and discarding old ones. The earth is in a slightly different position in it’s orbit. A tree grows. An insect that was alive in the morning is gone by nightfall. And on and on.

Everything in our physical world is in the constant process of change and evolution.

But sometimes we forget and we fall under the curse of the illusion of permanence.

We look at our temporal physical circumstances. Especially those aspects which we don’t like, and in the deep recesses of our powerful creative mind we choose to attempt to change a hard core law of physics that states that everything changes.

Everything.

We often believe, and rely on it, when we have an ache or pain and at the same time choose to slip into the belief that other aspects will never change.

In the end I think all we really need to know at times is that everything is going to be okay. That even though it may look and feel pretty crappy right now it will not last forever and things will work out. And they will. However when we decide they will always be this way, or more accurately we are afraid they will always be this way, we can make the journey from limited to limitless more arduous than it has to be.

So, no matter what your external world looks like in this moment. Know that it is always changing and things will get better.

Trust in the process; which is so much easier said than done. But it is possible. Little by little. Step by step.

Listen to the predicates

Most of you that know me are well aware I think about the weirdest things. That’s why you are all so often in my thoughts. <g>

So today I was thinking about Predicates. You know, the kind in sentences. Each sentence has a subject (what we are talking about) and a predicate (what we’re saying about the thing we are talking about)

Lost you yet? Stick with me, it gets better.

I was contemplating how we create our external experience that we call life and more importantly how we think about it and then project that thought into future experiences. For those of you who practice the variety of manifesting processes, the most well know being The Secret) you are well versed in visualizing, affirmations, intentions, etc.

You are also undoubtedly aware of the importance of whether you are looking at things from a place of lack (less than) or abundance (more than). Within the previous sentence is a really cool learning I experienced today about how to simply discern which side of the fence you are on at any given moment.

As you listen to your thoughts and internal dialog pay attention not so much to what you are thinking about but what you are thinking about what you are thinking about. Read that sentence fast three times! <g>

Maybe an example will clarify.

If you are looking at the number on the bottom of your bank statement, what  are you thinking about it? When you are looking at yourself in the mirror and measuring the size of your middle, what you thinking about it? If you wish you could take a vacation to Egypt pay attention to the dialog detailing what you are thinking about Egypt.

The Law of Attraction does not so much see the Subject of a sentence or thought.(Egypt) as it does with what you are thinking about it; the Predicate of a sentence or thought.

Is the Predicate thought about your bank account balance one that says “Wow, look how much money I have saved in this last month”. Or is it “I have saved and saved and still can’t seem to get ahead.” The first is a statement of more than enough the latter one of less than enough. Those are the action words of the universe, not what you are thinking about but what you are thinking; about what you are thinking about.

Transforming our thought processes is most assuredly a life long adventure that begins with awareness. Listen to the Predicates of your life. They are the action words. As your awareness increases so does your ability to choose something different.

And that’s when everything changes.