Friday, November 10, 2006

All healing comes about through self-love

We need to love every part of ourselves unconditionally first before others will love us the way we wish them to.

All of us encounter minor or major challenges as we move through life but quite often the negative, discordant energy we create during these times gets trapped in our emotional and mental bodies. The experiences teach us what we need to learn and grow but we need to release any guilt, resentment or general negativity about these challenges to be free and happy now.

The point of power is in the present moment. All great spiritual texts speak of living and being in the present moment. Quite often we are trapped in the prisons of our minds, stuck in the past or the future… fear of the present leads to thinking constantly about the future, a time when everything will be alright.

We cannot change what has happened to us in the past but we can change how we feel about it in the present moment. If something has upset you in the past, don’t give it a second thought. Quite literally, don’t give it another thought. You will move from being stuck in the past to the present moment and you will start to be free.

If you are going through a tough time, do your best accept the challenges that life has brought your way. This will allow you to move through them with the minimum amount of suffering. Resistance merely causes tension in your body and mind and prolongs the challenge by offering negative energy to fuel it.

Yesterday’s thoughts have created today’s reality and today’s repetitive thoughts are creating your future. The mind is a tool, so learn to use it wisely. Fill it with valuable information that can serve you. Seek out good books and have quality conversations that empower you. What are you choosing to fill your mind with?

The stronger the thought, the more impact it will have on shaping your reality. Can we measure a thought? Is there an instrument that will tell us how strong a thought is? In today’s world, science cannot provide us with one but you already have an inbuilt system which allows you to know this.

An emotion represents energy (e) moving (motion) through us. It is the emotion you feel when thinking a particular thought that determines how strong it is.

Love and joy are high vibrations which create powerful, helpful thoughts. Likewise, hatred, despair or anger are low vibrations which create powerful, destructive thoughts.

Do not worry if you feel anger or despair though. Simply recognise it and let it go. The more you practice, the easier it will become.

Reclaim your power, tame the wild beast that is your mind, and enjoy the blessings that life has to offer you, in the here and now.

Friday, August 04, 2006

Seeing beyond the illusion

If life is “maya” (illusion), and we can choose how we experience the illusion, then why do we so often choose to let worry sabotage our dreams and true desires?

Much of the answer is due to past and present programming, especially social and cultural. The other is due to the observation cycle and the law of attraction. Remember that the law of attraction gives you more of what you give your attention, energy and focus to, whether wanted or unwanted.

Have you ever noticed that when an important part of your life (health, love, job etc) is going really well, the knock-on effect it has on all the other areas? Equally, have you noticed that when an important aspect of your life is going badly, it has the capacity to create havoc in other areas also?

Can we break the observation cycle when things are seemingly going wrong and causing all areas of our lives to feel unstable? The answer is definitely yes! The key is to realise that life is an illusion, a contextual field which allows us to give birth to new desires and the subsequent manifestations of those desires. We merely need to choose to "see" the opposite of what we are experiencing, should our present reality be far removed from our desires.

This is not self-denial. Rather, this is about raising your vision and allowing yourself to see clearly despite the darkness.

In the film “What the bleep do we know”, it showed quantum scientists conducting an experiment where they asked their subjects to look at a certain object, then to close their eyes are visualise the same object. In both instances, exactly the same parts of the brain lit up. There was no difference!

So, if you imagine your reality as you would like it to be, your mind cannot tell the difference!! The more real you can make your experience in your mind, the quicker it will manifest.

Allow yourself to feel the experience, really FEEL it. The touchstone of all of life is how you feel at any given moment in time. Your feelings determine your vibrational set point and what you are attracting into your life. If you can synchronise your body and mind, the result will be a rapid manifestation of your desires.

Remember that you deserve to live an abundant life. The universe does not recognise or acknowledge lack, unless you do! The law of life is the law of abundance! Therefore, if you are receiving additional sums of money or financial reward, remember that you are not depriving anyone else of their share. Don’t buy into scarcity thinking!

Be confident about what you want to achieve. Try to get a sense of how it would feel to live your dream and fulfil your deepest needs and desires. Value yourself and what you have to offer to society.

Once you start to use creative visualisation as part of your every day life, you will get inner prompts to take action. Follow this guidance and you can also seek the advice of wise friends and people who have walked the path you wish to take.

Make a decision to commit to your dream and choose a different reality! Not making a decision is like making a decision for everything to remain the same.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Our relationships to everyone and everything

When we think of relationships we usually think of our relationships to other people and our partners, family and friends spring to mind. However, we all have relationships with everything in our lives. Our home, the place where we work, the food we eat, the water we drink, and the sunlight and the moonlight which bless us with invisible healing energy, and so on and so forth.

It is how we see our relationships that determines the unfolding of each, with each allowing us to define ourselves fully. Relationships, especially our most intimate ones, allow us to see all of ourselves (the good and the bad), and to recognise those parts of ourselves that we need to work on.

Why do we allow ourselves to be plagued by jealousy and insecurity? Focusing on what one brings to the relationship, rather than what one gets from it, is the best remedy for this type of inner angst.

Being confident about who we are and where we are going in life is attractive. Being needy is not. This is not a criticism but merely an observation. If we are being needy, then it because we are looking to the other person to complete us in some way, or we are dependent on them for our sense of self, neither of which they can do.

Any relationship should be like the ebb and flow of the tide; sometimes you give and sometimes you receive. If you are giving too much, that is not beneficial to you and you will probably end up resenting the other who is “taking” from you all the time; if you are receiving much more than you are giving, that is not healthy either.

What about your relationship with your food? Do you carefully select your food, trusting your intuition and take your time to enjoy it. Or do you get through the day snacking on not-so-healthy foods and gobble down everything without really appreciating the energy and vitality that mother earth is providing you with?

Are you taking enough time to rest and appreciate your body’s natural rhythms? Or are you cramming in too much, not able to unwind and relax, and hence feeling low on energy most of the time?

Pause for a moment and take the time to listen to your inner voice. You can turn things around in a relatively short space of time.

The desire to improve your lifestyle choices should be a natural one, not one that feels alien to you. In this way, should you revert back to old programmed patterns that aren't serving you, you will recognise it more quickly than the time before, and be able to switch back to a more balanced, healthy and productive way of living.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Look within to change your experience of life

Each of us has one or more gifts that we bring with us into this lifetime and it is our Divine right to experience the unique unfolding of our latent talents in a beautiful way from the core of our being.

Sometimes this can flash across our conscious minds from the superconscious but because most of us have been conditioned to accept our present reality without questioning it, we have unwittingly subdued our freedom to be who we really are in order to fit into the society around us.

This wouldn’t be so bad if that society led us to the inner peace, joy, love and happiness that we all desire. Unfortunately, it usually doesn’t.

If you are willing to explore deep within, you may find old wounds that have not been healed and a certain amount of fear which might hinder you from taking the necessary steps to empower your life and move you in the right direction. Fear is self-created, quite often unconsciously.

Spiritual, non-invasive therapies such as Reiki, Spiritual Response Therapy and Aura-Soma work beyond the physical, at the soul level, and can help you realise a better and more meaningful life by altering your perspective.

Through altering your perspective, you shift your perception and change your experience. Elementary quantum physics says that it is not possible to separate the observer and the observed and that the notion of an “objective reality” is an oxymoron.

Your seed is already planted in the garden, beneath the soil, waiting for the right conditions to germinate. The ground has to be prepared: the stones and weeds need clearing, the earth has to be turned and the nutrients introduced. Once you start to shift your consciousness and are able to see clearly from within, your life experiences will naturally begin to improve in beautiful ways.

You are a co-creator of your universe. Know that and be free.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Inspiring quotes

"Thought control is the highest form of prayer. Therefore, think only on good things and righteous. Dwell not in negativity and darkness. And even in moments when things look bleak – especially in those moments – see only perfection, express only gratefulness, and then imagine only what manifestation of perfection you choose next."
Conversations With God, Neale Donald Walsch

"If you have the ability to imagine it, or even to think about it, this Universe has the ability and the resources to deliver it fully unto you."
The Teachings of Abraham (Ask And It Is Given)

"God's delays are not God's denials."
Robert H Schuller

"Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future."
Robert H Schuller

"Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth - that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves, too."
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

"The key to bringing something into your experience that you desire is to achieve vibrational harmony with what you desire."
The Teachings of Abraham (Ask And It Is Given)

"All human actions are motivated at their deepest level by one of two emotions - fear or love. In truth there are only two emotions - only two words in the language of the soul. These are the opposite ends of the great polarity, the Alpha and the Omega, which allow the system you call 'relativity' to be."
Conversations with God, Neale Donald Walsch

"Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe."
St. Augustine

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. "
Albert Einstein

"Happiness is not created as a result of certain conditions. Certain conditions are created as a result of happiness... This statement holds true for every other state of being as well." Communion with God, Neale Donald Walsch

"The quality of your consciousness at this moment is what shapes the future."
Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

Monday, May 01, 2006

Coping with negative emotions

Life often pushes us past our comfort zones and the challenge is to be comfortable with our vulnerabilities. There is no such thing as right or wrong, so it's certainly not wrong to feel sad or angry, or experience any other negative emotion. Indeed, it is a natural and inherent part of being human.

The only proviso is that we should not feel negative emotions constantly, all the time. After all, we are here to experience the positive ones too.

Many times in our lives we are faced with challenges which deeply affect us on all levels of our being - physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. For example, a life-threatening illness, a serious accident, the breakup of an intimate relationship, or the death of a loved one will cause us to feel unbalanced for a greater or lesser time and we may have the acute sense that our world is falling apart.

Failure to accept a situation is really what causes our suffering. We can sometimes control external realities but often we cannot. In all cases, however, we can try to control how we feel and behave in relation to what is happening.

If we use the analogy of driving a car, if you hit an oil slick and go into a skid and you focus your attention on the nearest brick wall or lamp post, that is exactly what you will hit. If, despite the skid, you are able to focus on the road, you will most likely avoid crashing or any serious injury.

Sometimes in life, we go into a skid and too many of us focus on the wall. The next time life is throwing you a few challenges, dig deep and absolutely refuse to focus on the 'bad' situation. Divert your attention to a positive outcome. Think just one positive thought and hang on to it until you start to feel yourself lift out of the depression. Throw your shoulders back, stick your chest out, head straight and laugh or shout to get yourself out of the downward spiral.

Remember that the mind affects the body, but that the body also affects the mind.

Immediately, when your life is turning upside down, go and grab a pen and piece of paper. Any pen, any piece of paper. Write down what is working in your life, what you are grateful for, what is making you happy. Then read it over and over and over, until you impregnate your mind with a surge of positivity. Like thoughts coalesce.

Do not struggle against the situation because you will be struggling against the universe. Ask, how can I change my view? Ask, how can I feel differently about this? Ask, what can I learn from this? You may wish for things to be different but remember that everything is perfectly ordered at each moment of your life. It may not seem so but many times, the universe provides opportunities for growth through difficult circumstances. The quicker you can focus on the good, the quicker your adversity will change. If you re-act, this means that you are acting out of previous experience(s) and you will miss the opportunity. If you start to flip that positive switch you will re-create your circumstances anew.

It is the meaning we choose to give to each event in our lives that determines the eventual outcome.

Look within yourself and know that you have the power to move through any situation. It would be very wise to meditate for ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes in the evening, especially when your life is in disarray. It is within the silence that your inner voice will speak to you and where you will find inner strength and courage and, ultimately, peace. We live in a sanitized society, where we are given images of people practising yoga and meditation in peaceful surroundings. So, we naturally believe this is a precondition of engaging in such activities.

This is a terrible shame because all great spiritual teachers know the value of meditation, especially for finding the answers to difficult questions and life situations.

Do not beat yourself up if you find yourself falling apart at the seams - give yourself permission to be fully human and be gentle with yourself. Forgive yourself, as well as the situation, and you will be one step closer to peace.

Friday, March 17, 2006

Intimate relationships

If we accept the idea that we are created from the Divine, the One, then it is only natural that we should seek to remember our Divine Heritage and want to, once again, unite with our Source of Being. One of the primary ways of doing this is through our relationships with others, and especially through our intimate relationships.

Men are one part of the equation and the women are the other. We are naturally attracted to the “opposite sex” and physical love, especially sex, is a result of our desire to be “one” with the Divine. You might question why there are same sex relationships and the answer lies beyond the exterior; within each man there is yin (female), and within each woman there is yang (male). Therefore one “man” might be very female in his manner and being and another “woman” might be very male in her manner and being.

Whether an opposite sex relationship or a same sex relationship, it is observable today that our “love” for the other is not love in the highest sense that it can be, especially in the West. We are needy in our affections, rather than enjoying the act of loving without the need for anything, and we often expect them to make us happy or even to make us complete.

It is important to realise that no one can make you happy or complete. Other people can give you cause for happiness but only you can find joy and peace, within yourself.

It is often when two people enter into a relationship, with unrealistic expectations about what the other can do for them, that it turns “sour”. This either happens quickly, or slowly, depending on the underlying expectations. Sometimes, the two individuals will be very good at concealing their true feelings and will happily act in the manner that their partner wants, until they feel they are safe to reveal their true identity and their expectations. The irony is that all this often happens unconsciously.

So, when we enter yet another “disastrous” relationship (it’s the same person, just the face has changed), we fail to see why this has occurred. The relationships you attract are always determined by your feelings and thoughts, which causes you to send out vibrations to the universe and draw to yourself vibrations of a similar kind.

Your thoughts, and the way you feel (which is to say your sponsoring thought - the thought behind the original thought!) is the point of your attraction, and will determine the people, places, circumstances and events that you attract into your life.

Monday, March 13, 2006

The gift of imagination

The gift of imagination. Are you using it enough?

Imagination is the key to transformation and the manifestation of your heart's desires, so rather than being a waste of time, it is actually a productive use of time. Most of us are so used to the negative conditioning imposed upon us by society that we have long forgotten how to bring our desires to fruition through the power of intent and consistent focus.

Remember that your intention (i.e. the reason why you do something) gives birth to change, and that your focused attention waters the seed of intention and allows it to grow and blossom into the living, breathing manifestation that you see with your mind's eye.

People are usually dismissive of visualisation techniques because they merely try them for a day, perhaps a week at the most, and give up before the miracle occurs. Have you done this?

If you can keep visualising and make your reality almost tangible, then the unwritten laws of the universe will bring your desires to you, and more. Be as detailed as possible. Whether it is a dream home, or car, or holiday, acquire cuttings from magazines or the internet, and stick them in a box, which you should label as your "dream box". Keep reviewing the material whenever you feel happy. Be playful. Having fun is the key!

Avoid going through the cuttings in your dream box if you feel negative because it will probably heighten your sense of "not having" your desire and cancel out a lot of the good work you have done.

Keep your mind open and fill it with beautiful thoughts, often.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Cycles of rest and activity

It seems that many of us are beginning to engage in activities that promote rest and relaxation of the body and mind. More and more, people are attending yoga or pilates classes, practising tai chi, going for regular "tune-ups" by seeing a masseuse, aromatherapist, reflexologist or Reiki practitioner, or visiting health spas and being pampered for a whole day or weekend.

We are learning to reconnect with inner selves and this is very important right now, since we are healing. Through healing ourselves, we are also touching/influencing those around us and helping them.

However, there are periods when we tend to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of day to day life, and forget that resting is critical to enjoying our day and tapping into unique gifts and talents that lie buried within us. Moreover, it is difficult to interact and relate to others when the body and mind are tired. Negative feelings tend to infiltrate our consciousness more easily when we lack proper rest and nourishment.

Nature gives us strong clues as to how to behave. If you look at any plant or animal, you will see it has natural cycles of rest and activity and adheres to these cycles instinctively. As human beings, we have forgotten how to tap into our natural rhythms because we are pressured by society and by ourselves.

A good way of tapping back into our true nature is to practise daily meditation. Unfortunately, most people have distorted ideas about what it means to meditate; they believe you have to be in a particular type of position, quite often used by advanced yogis, and that a single meditation has no value unless it is practised for many hours.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The only requirements are that you feel comfortable, with your head and neck aligned. Lying down in bed, face up, first thing in the morning would be just fine. Usually, first thing in the morning is a very good time to practice since your conscious mind is normally quiet and free from the clutter of thoughts that arise during other parts of the day.

Put one hand on your belly and the other hand on your heart. If your mind is already noisy and a million things have flooded into it, that's okay. Just tell it to be quiet and put all your cares and worries aside. Just for ten minutes. Then concentrate on your breathing, nothing else. Breathe in through your nose, filling your belly first and then pushing the breath up into the top part of your chest, and then out through your nose or mouth.

Don't breathe in through your mouth. After all, you don't eat through your nose, do you?

As you breathe in, visualise brilliant white light coming in through your nose and filling your belly and then, from there, running all through your body. When you breathe out, imagine breathing out darkness and any impurities from your body.

Just ten minutes. Get up ten minutes early to do this and do this every day for ninety days, and your life will begin to change. The results are cumulative, however, so you can't expect good results if you only practice this for a few days and then give up.

Make time for yourself and practice breathing. Breath is life.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Where's your focus?

Whether you are working at a job, or you are running your own business, take time out periodically to ask yourself "how can I best serve others through what I do?"

If you are part of a team, try to get a high level view of the goals of the team. It is very good to focus on your role and to excel at that but it is also important to understand the wider implications of your work. Doing this will allow you to see aspects of your work in a different light and improve it accordingly, in line with the greater whole.

People will notice as you shift your vibration upwards, and both you and the team will reap the rewards in due time.

You may encounter resistance within yourself as you seek to go beyond your programmed way of thinking. Thoughts such as "why should I bother?", "I don't get paid enough", may surface. If you decide to acknowledge and weed out these thoughts, you will see that you will get more fulfilment from your work, people will respond to you and appreciate you better. Actually, you will be setting off a chain of events that will allow you to attract the raise you want. If your current boss is unwillingly to see the value you have to offer, someone else undoubtedly will, in due time.

You may also encounter resistance in the "real" world. Quite often, people around you are living in a fog and ruled by their egos and will assume that you are just in it for yourself and trying to "prove" something. They may confront you and try to sabotage your valiant efforts to think and act differently. In fact, the outer response to your change is valid, since you are "clearing" negativity from within and the outer world is mirroring this change.

Patience and perseverance is the key. The more relaxed you can be, the more the situation will dissolve by itself.

If you are working independently, for example as a small business owner, you still need to focus on others and your greatest challenge will be to overcome the usual worries that are commonplace as you seek to create both wealth and independence. If you start finding yourself doubting yourself or worrying that not enough money is materialising, start asking yourself "what do I want and what am I seeking to achieve?"

Worrying that the market is bad, or there aren't enough clients is a sign that you are sabotaging any positive currents you have set up and your desires will be delayed. Remember that your results are determined by your thoughts, nothing else.

"Statistics" and "facts" are based on the external, and on realities already created. You can choose, at any moment it time, how tomorrow will be. What will you choose? If you still believe in the negative stories around you, find the exception and concentrate on that. How many times have you heard about a "lucky" business person making lots of money in a "bad" market? If we could have looked behind the scenes, at the thoughts and the actions of that person, we would undoubtedly have seen positive thoughts and strong belief which caused circumstances and events to manifest a positive result.

Practice visualisation techniques and "see yourself" meeting your customers' or clients' needs. Get the happy feeling of the situation. Your imagination is a powerful tool and your results will change the more you can tap into this wonderful source of energy and power. Remember that the purpose of any business, small or large, is to solve other people's problems. The focus is not you.

It is important that you achieve the wealth and inner fulfilment you desire to create as well, so focus your mind upon the results you want to achieve but, in the long run, the results you achieve are a consequence of your desire to help others.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

The reactive mind

Quite often, we absorb into our life experiences what one may term "negative" conditioning. So, instead of looking at each life situation uniquely and viewing it without judgement, we tend to react according to the residue that has been left in our mind.

If you can recognise that your mind is re-acting (that is to say acting out the experience again), this awareness alone will allow you to eventually transcend negative reactions that might be causing you to suffer unnecessarily in your life right now. It is only through the vehicle of the soul, and through living consciously, that you can create a new experience and transcend the karma of natural law.

We each have an emotional body and mental body, which are separate from and yet intertwined with the physical, which act as storehouses for both "good" and "bad" thoughts.

Negative thoughts that seep into our minds cause us to generate negative emotions, which then feed the original thought to create a monster over which we seem to have little control. An emotion represents the energy behind a thought and it is precisely this energy that affects you, on all levels of your being. If your emotion is sufficiently energised by a strong feeling, it has that much more power.

The key to releasing yourself from a downward spiral is to observe yourself without judgement. Often, we "beat ourselves up" because we have observed something within us that we do not like but this is counter-productive because, once again, we are causing ourselves yet more pain and more negativity. The cycle can only be broken by rising above the lower vibration.

Forgiveness is key. If you want to start experiencing a more stress-free life, then you must pay the price. The price is forgiveness, both of yourself and the situation(s) you find yourself in.
This does not mean you are condoning the action of another who has perhaps acted unjustly towards you, but it does mean that you can free yourself from the mind games that destroy your peace of mind.

Blessing a situation, and forgiving the other person(s), raises your vibration and your point of attraction.

You might find it hard to do at first, so don't condemn yourself if you find you have to play out all the negative thoughts that cascade into your mind before realising that you have, in fact, created your own internal tension.

If you realise all of this, even long after the event has passed, you are that much closer to changing who you are. The first step is simply awareness.

Remember: What you resist, persists. What you look at (without judgement, accepting what is), dissolves.