Creativity, Gratitude, and the Gift

Being a creative person, I regularly invite creativity into my life. In short, I “ask” for creativity to show up. I’m receptive to it. This morning as I was inviting creativity in (and as I was allowing it to), it occurred to me that this is how we create our lives. Before we can hope to have any success, it’s a good idea to excuse our ego from the equation. This morning I thought, “OK Ego, I hereby relieve you of any responsibility to protect me from the outcome of what I’m going to do.”  As it turned out, that opened the door to creativity and here’s what came forth as a result…

If it’s true that we’re here to have the best (most enjoyable) experience that we can, then it makes sense that we would attract those experiences by intent. First we find a thing, then as we focus on it, the law of attraction is set into motion by our intent; to attract it, we then need to take some action, make a call, set up a meeting. So first we get an idea, which comes from the ether, then by taking action in the physical material world, we set a process into motion, which will allow the object of our desire (intent) to show up in our lives. When the desired outcome is achieved, it is important to recognize it, be thankful for it, as well as to infuse it with all the goodness and creative intent that we put into the effort of attracting it in the first place.

By infusing each interaction with that creative essence, we give it our unique energy, that essence of excellence, if you will. That bit of magic, that pure creative spirit, infused into a moment or interaction allows our efforts and intentions to fly, to permeate both physical and spiritual worlds, thereby allowing us to connect with our Higher Self our greatest good or calling if you will, and with those we serve (share the experience). We then “lather, rinse, repeat” for the most excellent life experience and continue to be grateful and thankful – celebrating each experience as a little victory on our journey to accomplishing what we came here to do.

We identify our gift; we give thanks for that gift; we share the gift; and we are thankful for what we receive as a result of having shared the gift; we repeat. This, to me, is having a fulfilling and enriching experience. As we do this, we replicate it and we get better and better at it.

So for a performing musician, the scenario might go something like this: we have identified our gift, we want to share that gift with others in the hope that they will enjoy our gift. In sharing, we each receive something, the performer, enjoys the experience of performing (sharing the gift), the audience enjoys the experience of receiving the gift. Very simple, there is a desire (intent) to perform (share the gift). In order to perform, a musician must first hone his/her skills, practicing the material, the instrument, putting together lists of songs which can be arranged into “sets” which can be performed at venues. More action is required, by assembling audio and video recordings with which to share and attract people to listen. Next, to seek places to perform and then take action, by making phone calls, securing gigs and ultimately performing those gigs.

There are a lot of musicians out there and we find ourselves listening to others which our egos label as “competition”. This causes so many to lose heart, we tell ourselves that we’re not as good as they are, we’re not quite ready, need more practice, no one will hire us, they don’t return my calls, my photo looks silly or a gazillion other negative thoughts. These negative thoughts are placed into our consciousness by our ego in trying to protect us. Our ego’s job is to keep us safe, not get hurt, which is all well and good with the fight or flight circumstance. But sometimes we need to face those fears, maybe we’re scared of not doing a good job, sounding or looking “silly” or “not as good” as the other guy; maybe it’s just simple stage fright or feeling like we’ll disappoint or in my case, we remember  a parent saying we can never make a living doing that. All ego all perfectly irrelevant. SO the all important first step is getting out of our own way, so that we can take the action steps required to propel us toward into that all-powerful life experience.

 

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The Essence of Excellence Part 3

It stopped, so I asked two questions…

Will we have an RV? The future is not set in one way or another. You create your destiny through your wish and commitment (faith). The more you want it, the more likely it is to happen.

Will telecommuting work out for me/us? Again, the future is not set. You will attract the right situation, the one that serves you best at the time when you need it. But understand that things will be changing and you will be presented with decisions to make – always choose the one that resonates with your Higher purpose.

Implement

Three days ago when I began spilling these word out on the page, I really had no idea where it would lead. It was a blog entry that ended up being a little personal journey. My hope and wish is that by sharing this little slice of personal insight will help someone else do the same. And if one or ten people get something from this, then share it my writing has not been in vain.

As I read over my little short story, I realized that much like my blog entries, it reads like a self-improvement guide. The thing about self-help books, articles, videos, programs on tape, CD etc. that has always bugged me, is that they either don’t give any concrete action steps or what they do give is vague and left to the student to figure out. The special thing about this read is that it’s true, the actions we implemented are documented, as are the results. And while we continue upon our journey, we will continue to share with our readers how we’re progressing. So please by all means follow our blog and our website (www.higher-self-improvement.com )

The How-To Steps

So let’s wrap it up in a nice neat bow so that anyone who reads can understand, carry out and reap the rewards as we have. Ready?

As you move forward in your life re-label Judgment; and instead of “hating” something say “it’s not my favorite.” This is a basic and important step. Look at it this way: if Judgment and hate are the ultimate negative and love is the ultimate positive, the going from “I hate” to “it’s not my favorite”, gets you from the ultimate negative, halfway to the ultimate positive. That’s a HUGE step and paradigm shift number one. Earl Nightingale said A is for Attitude, our attitude towards others determines their attitude towards us. The best exercise for this to me is to breathe in gratefulness and thankfulness and breathe out judgment and negativity. Do this every day for at least ten breaths.

Re-label other negative thoughts, feelings and emotions so that they no longer hold power over you. Go from, flipping the jerk off who cut you off in traffic, to “wow, I guess he’s in much more of a hurry that I am”. This is also known as “walk a mile in my shoes”. By putting others first, we give them space to be themselves and as we put out that kind of energy, we grow and consciousness follows. Learn to call a “problem” or “challenge” an “opportunity”, this allows you to be more open to possibilities. If you keep the door closed by identifying it as a closed door, how could you ever expect it to open? I like to say “how can you get told yes if you don’t ask”? This is an exercise you’ll need to pay constant attention to, it will be slow going at first, but play it like you play a game all day every day and you will notice progress. You will see your life start to soften and it will seem that things come to you more easily, with grace and no stress attached.

Realize that a miracle is a prayer answered and be grateful and thankful for every one. We tend to think of miracles as turning water into wine or walking on water. But isn’t the birth of a baby a miracle? What about thinking of an old friend or relative and then having the phone ring and it be them on the other end of the line? How about love? What about the bond you have with your pet? What about a tree that grows from a simple seed? Think about what you pray for and ask of live and what you expect. When the things you’ve been working toward in your life manifest themselves; acknowledge it, praise it, celebrate it and give thanks for it.

Understand how to clear your mind. Diana Robinson said “Prayer is when you talk to God; meditation is when you listen to God.” Understanding the difference, even embracing the notion that there is a difference will be more difficult for some than for others, but it is important. When I took Dale Carnegie’s Management Training I was taught to “talk 30 and listen 70”. If you’re doing all the talking, you’ll never hear the message that you are meant to receive. There is no right or wrong way to pray or to meditate, just remember to ask when you’re praying and be as specific as possible and listen when you’re meditating. Deepak’s brother Sanjiv Chopra said “if you can’t spend twenty minutes a day meditating, do it twice”.

Take action. Let’s face it, we pretty much know what to do, the difficulty come in the doing. The saying goes “if it were easy, everyone would be doing it”. Notice that doing requires action. Maybe we’re uncomfortable doing a thing, in which case our ego will come up with a million reasons (excuses) to not do it. Fear is your enemy and fear is placed there by your ego to “save” you from failure. The fact is you will never succeed if you never try. We’re all guilty, lose the fear, take a chance and DO SOMETHING. The more you do, the easier it becomes and when it becomes easy, we’re not so stiff and stilted, then we allow success to settle in and around us.

When presented with options, choose the one that resonates with your higher self. This may require us to give something up. It’s like the breathing exercise, we need to let go of the judgment and negativity to make room for the gratefulness and thankfulness. Our ego or “common sense” will often over rule or short-circuit our instinct to go with what “feels” right. There is no right or wrong choice, but one is more resonant than the other. Choosing the least resonant may secure our instant gratification, but we will still need to “learn” to get to the next level. This learning means that we have not mastered an idea or concept. In that event life will continue to offer opportunities that will test us until we get it right.

Summary

I would liken the essence of excellence to a concentrated ball of very powerful energy. Concentrated, tiny, dense and powerful. Visualize a pinhead sized droplet of this pure raw creative energy that we all can get access to anytime we want. We have an inherent ability to manage the elements of this energy in such a way as to manifest things in our life. We know we have the ability to use it, but somehow we’ve lost the understanding of how to use and ultimately leverage it to our useful advantage. By realizing (remembering) that this energy is there, we can consciously begin to “direct” it in our physical and energetic footprint.

The space we occupy here in physical material reality is miniscule in proportion to the space we occupy from an energetic standpoint. We might liken our physical footprint to a grain of sand and our energetic footprint to the entire planet. At that level, we can begin to comprehend just how important every thought and action we take in the physical is amplified in the energetic or ethereal plane. As we begin to grasp these concepts, we can get our head around the possibility that we have more “control” over things than we realize. In fact we have to become aware to be responsible for the ability and thereby the consequences of our thoughts and actions. Clearly, from a collective standpoint, we have not been doing that, hence things in physical material reality seem so out of balance. But as each of us begins to realize that as people we can and do make a difference, we can act and think differently, not only toward others, but toward our selves. Marianne Williamson put it so well in her piece on fear …

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

To me, this is the essence of who we are, why we’re here and it is the solution to resolve all of our issues and differences. Take some time, do the exercises and become conscious of the fact that collectively as well as individually, we shape our experience and our world.

Namaste

 

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The Essence of Excellence…Part 2 of Three

Day 1

On my way to work the other morning, I identified 5 or 6 of those that happened in just the previous day alone: Getting to spend a few extra minutes visiting with my spouse in the morning and how special it was; just these little things that happen, but are so pure, so innocent, so real and filled with so much joy.

Day 2

The following morning, I asked to pick up where the “moment” or download dropped off. First, I paid attention to my breathing and knowing I needed to clear my mind, I decided to inhale gratitude and thanks and exhale all judgment and negativity. As I did this, I focused on the mantra, and, after less than ten breaths, I became quiet and allowed myself to simply be and enjoy that part of my commute, becoming one with the moment, fully involved, fully engaged in it, appreciating it for what it was: a gift. After taking it all in, truly taking it in, I asked my angels to engage in whatever form of pure intelligent energy exchange or thought, download, intuition whatever and I waited…

There was a low fog that morning in the beautiful Mountains North Georgia, quiet, cool and dark. As I made my way over to Yellow Creek Road, I felt a stillness come over me. Even though I was driving, everything somehow seemed to stop. At that moment, I had a knowing or feeling of deep intuition, an answer to a question that said clearly, “it’s all happening now.” Clearly, this was a reference to the night before when we’d been talking about how everything seemed to happen at once. The voice came again: “It’s coalescing, building into a crescendo that will culminate into the pinnacle of what you have been looking for.” The journey would not be over. I didn’t get that feeling; rather, the journey would finally seem more “on track.” WOW, that was awesome. It continued, “Your path will be clearly set out and you may follow, as you have foreseen.”

I drove for awhile, letting this settle in on me, being totally in thought and dwelling with that Higher Self, listening for more and trying to maintain contact. The commute had disappeared. I was on autopilot. I came to a clearing, a flat pasture on both sides of the road with a low lazy haze covering both sides. The sun was rising, giving a beautiful orange-red glow to the East and, as I surveyed the awesome view, I realized there were no other cars on the road, so I slowed to a stop. I picked up my cell phone to record this scene, but the phone was completely dead. A voice said, “Everything happens at once and this moment is for you.” WHAT?! This is SO BEAUTIFUL; please turn on cell phone, please. But it was not to be and I knew it, so I started back on my commute. “Your journey is not over, but you’re on the right path.” Yeah, I reckon I am; the moment was so inspiring, and I’ll always remember it.

As I continued to drive, thoughts began to stream, as they tend to do. I began thinking about our plans to get out and get gigs, performing possibly with a band, possibly not. And I began to think that we’d been practicing, but realized how many “obstacles” we’d been faced with. Over just the last three years we’d experienced four surgeries between the two of us, chemotherapy, depression, anxiety, an overall feeling of having been beaten. Yet, through all of that, we allowed the love to keep us on track.

While going through all that, we continued to sing and practice new material and talk about local gigs, the touring, looking at RVs and where we might play. Most recently, we’d been taking steps to actually get the gigs, something we’d just not had the energy to do until now. We had experienced a LOT of rejection, to the point where we were beaten down again. This was the same “everything happens at once” feeling, but in a negative way. Then we realized that the rejection was a message from the You-niverse – don’t settle for the low end gigs, go for the upscale gigs! Boom, like that, a clear message that we were on the right track, but maybe needed to change our resonance to match what we were looking for. After all, we were looking to actually make a living at this, not simply live in a van down by the river!

The Universe had once again given us the answer. You are not a victim of circumstance, indeed quite the opposite, you have the talent and the personalities to do what you love AND make a difference in people’s lives with your music.

“It all happens at once” can be taken in different ways. One way evokes a feeling of sadness and overwhelm. Another way has the culmination of “everything you’ve been working toward” feel to it. We were being given an opportunity to choose. I had a flash of someone interviewing us, asking, “tell us how you overcame your obstacles”

First, using NLP, do three things: realize, visualize, re-label. Realize that we are the total sum of our experiences. Visualize “movies” in the mind that change how we might have reacted in certain situations or how we might have perceived things differently. And finally, re-label – instead of “hating” something, re-label it as “it’s not my favorite.” This was the beginning of change and it started many years ago.

Second, be open and honest. A friend of mine said, “Doing the right thing is not always the easy thing, but it’s always the right thing.” That stuck with me and I used that as a mantra. After having re-married, I introduced “improve self/help others” as our mantra, because it just seemed to fit.

Lastly, we knew we were in rebuild mode when we married. I had resources at the time that were dwindling. Even so, we continued to pay all our obligations, which was doing the right thing. As we went through the subsequent “failures” — foreclosures, loss of employment, even bankruptcy topped off with disease and sickness, we kept our mantra, remained true to each other and continued to do the right thing, knowing it would pay off and we would rebound. And even as we were going through all that, we managed to experience some “wins.” We landed in great houses, we got great deals and we were able to pay the bills, thanks to answered prayers.

We shifted our paradigm, first by re-labeling “challenge” as “opportunity,” and second, by defining a miracle as an “answered prayer.”. We prayed for opportunities and we were grateful and thankful for all the miracles in our life. We were rewarded, we were challenged, we overcame obstacles and we gave thanks, all the while being grateful for ALL of it.

Day 3

I did the breathing exercise, breathing in gratitude and thanks and exhaling judgment and negativity. My mind settled and a calm came over me. I invited my angels and guides to come to me and direct me to a conversation with my Higher Self. And I waited. And I waited. Trying to keep my mind clear, I concentrated on nature, the plants, the mountains, the trees. As I topped the hill where I’d seen the beautiful sunrise the morning before, I noticed an 8-point buck on the side of the road, ready to cross in front of me. He looked, then turned back and headed into the woods. As the woods gave way to the pastureland, I once again saw a medium, but low fog across both sides of the road. This time in the middle of the road, half-way to the other side, the fog ran across the road. I realized how truly beautiful it was, but did not stop, because there was a car behind me. When I got to the other side, where the woods and houses picked up again, I felt sad and I heard, “Why did you not stop?” I didn’t stop, because there was a car behind me, I answered. “You missed an opportunity” was the response. And I felt like I had betrayed myself.

Some time passed and when I hit the first stop sign, this message came to me:

“Your faith in God and in the Universe, is faith in yourself; this is your strength. The more you commit to that faith, the stronger it becomes. You will find that letting go of some “security” and embracing your creative spirit will reap rewards and dividends you have been missing. By replacing one with the other you will ultimately meet greater “success” (as you define it) and experience much more happiness, contentment and joy in your life. This is your mission; to implement the steps, do the exercises and rituals for prayer and meditation daily without fail and with full faith and commitment. Take the actions needed to accomplish what you seek. Understand and know that the actions you take will resonate in the right situations, which will open more opportunities. Continue doing the right thing, focusing on the best outcome and share what you have learned with all who will listen.

Your understanding and implementation of Universal Laws is part of your spiritual and creative gift. You will attract and be attracted to the right situations, events and venues. Do not worry or become discouraged when things do not seem to be working out. Just remain true to the steps and take each opportunity as it comes, always looking for the next. Always be ready to perform, practice regularly and expand your repertoire. Your commitment will be rewarded

.”

 

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The Essence of Excellence

(This is the first installment of three….)

 

It occurred to me that every lifetime has moments of clarity, moments of excellence, so pure and so intense that they make an indelible mark on one’s life. This excellence, the “Ah-Ha moments” or otherwise life-changing events or thoughts clearly come from somewhere else.

When asked, people often say it came out of the blue; it came while I was sleeping; I just woke up with the answer; I had a daydream, or any other list of seemingly inexplicable “coincidental” experiences. This is pure creativity: This is the “knowing,” sometimes called a “gut feeling” or intuition. We all have it; in fact it’s the same thing that connects us all.

We’re all conscious, but where do thoughts come from? Do thoughts come from the brain or for somewhere “else?” Science has proven that the brain is a storage device which holds all the records of our life. The brain actually records what happened, how we felt, reacted and what we did in every situation that we’re involved in from infancy on. So if the brain is a storage device, where does creative thought come from? Answer: it comes from “out there.” This is Science confirming the “somewhere else” statement above.

I began thinking that, if these perfectly pure creative thoughts come from “out there,” then aren’t we all capable of accessing them? The answer is yes. And we can do that through many means. Meditation, relaxation and visualization are the most common methods of accessing the ether. Many other modalities exist, such as NLP, Tapping, Energy Healing, Clearing; the list is exhaustive. So, how do we tap into this collective pool of potential that is “out there?”

The essence of excellence is to first slow down and ultimately stop the constant chatter and cross-talk that is going on between our two ears. Once we free our mind, we gain a much clearer view of what is available to us. Then, as if by magic, the thing we need, the answer, idea, solution, path, definition or whatever else we may be seeking at that time, can come to us. This is implementing the Law of Attraction. And what’s really cool (or scary) is, we’re all doing it all the time! The scary part is, we’re doing it all the time and most of us don’t even know it.

We are creating this reality, based on learned behaviors and often false assumptions, and not consciously accessing what is available to us, coming to our own conclusions, shifting paradigms and killing the false assumptions and learned responses.

If we stop and think about an entire year, there is always some one thing that is so wonderfully perfect and profound, that it actually changes the direction or pattern in our lives. In fact , when we stop to think about it, every one of us has one of these moments every lifetime and really every year.

Now, consider that some are fortunate to have more than one of the “once in a lifetime altering moments,” either in a lifetime or in a single year. If just one person had multiple experiences like this in a year or even a lifetime, we might call that person special or delusional. But, since multiple people across time have experienced many of the moments in a year, we realize that we are all capable of it. Now, when we stop and closely look at each month, each week and even each DAY … there are these little glimpses of this essence all around us all the time. EVERY DAY and in every HOUR, we have these experiences. And, if we look, we will see that most of the time, we’re simply not paying attention. Following are some examples:

(Installment 2 is next.)

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Perspective and Non-judgment

 

 

If we’re doing this, we’re likely not doing that.

So, when we find ourselves floundering, being unsuccessful, stuck or overwhelmed, it might be good to take stock of our situation.

Often, our perspective prevents us from seeing what we need to do and what action to take. Perspective is generally a learned response to a situation based on our experience. For example, maybe you were afraid of clowns or a snakes when you were young. Because you were afraid, you labeled the clown or the snake as “scary,” so you developed an aversion and your response is forever to be afraid of clowns or snakes.

To help us identify what action to take, it’s good to use conflict resolution techniques to help us identify what the obstacles are.

A good place to start would be to have a non-judgmental conversation with ourselves to determine if a change of perspective might be helpful.  This conversation is non-judgmental in that we allow ourselves to remain open to possibilities or alternative outcomes and means of accomplishing things.

Once we are in an open state of mind, we move beyond the ego and our learned response/perspective into a more comfortable and creative space. This allows us to identify what we are doing, then, conversely, what we’re not doing.

If we replace the action that is preventing us from progressing with something different, we will likely produce the desired outcome or result.

“If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.”

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Start With Where You Are and Make the Best of It

On the commute to work  this morning, I started thinking about how, rather than being hopeful for results, we should anticipate results. Take commuting for example; we leave home for a destination (work), and we expect to arrive at work (anticipated result).

As a general rule of thumb, we achieve the anticipated result.  However, when it comes to our dreams and our personal goals, more times than not, we fall short.

It struck me that if we were as expectant in life about the accomplishment of our personal desires, dreams and goals as we are about our commute to work, we’d but MUCH happier and successful overall.

SO why do we not?

First, we have trained ourselves to be “numb” in the commuting process. For example, there are distractions: I’m hungry; I’ll stop for breakfast; That car just cut me off!; Why doesn’t that guy let me in?; Man, I hope I’m not late; Wow, that’s a great song on the radio; I really don’t like the way my hair turned out today; It goes on ad nauseum. This is what we call being on autopilot; we’re so used to the mundane task of commuting that we disregard its significance, thereby disallowing for the fact that we are accomplishing a goal.

Let’s step back and look at the larger picture for a minute. Earl Nightingale said that success can be defined as “the progressive realization of a worthy goal.”  He also said that a successful day is a string of successes put together; hence. a successful life would be a string of successful days.

All makes sense, right?

So, if we begin each day with a successful commute, why would we not anticipate being successful in each task? An artist may look at each brush stroke as a success, with many hundreds or thousands of brush strokes strung together to make a beautiful work of art. A clerical person may choose to look at each completed file as a success, so that a string of completed files would make for a successful day.  Or, they could look at it as drudgery.

In his book, The Science of Success, Wallace D. Wattles says that we should start with where we are and make the best of it.  By beginning where we are and achieving many successes along the way, we remain on a path of success.  Most will agree that this is not rocket science; it’s plain and simple common knowledge.

Then why do we resist our own success?

The answer is that our opinion of ourselves tends to be tainted by our environment.  Our self-talk, therefore, our self-confidence, resonates in the low register because of negative thoughts and negative influences of others around us.  For example:  I had a terrible weekend; I wish I didn’t have to spend all day Saturday mowing the lawn; If only I had more time to do “x”; on and on it goes. We allow the environment to control our thoughts and thereby direct our life, rather than taking control and navigating life consciously.

So how can we change all that? By being present in each moment and not allowing the subconscious self to take control.

When we realize that we’re being successful, we attract success to ourselves. This leads to a richer more fulfilled existence and we begin to thrive rather than survive.  By being present, we control our thoughts and perceptions and can interact with them in a positive and compassionate manner, resulting in “success.”  The universe will respond to this as surely as it responds to our anticipation of a successful daily commute.

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Embracing Abundance

Time to embrace abundance.

Time to let go of lack and limitation, replacing fear with love.

We rise above into our celestial selves, no longer individual units of consciousness, but, rather, Divine Unified Presence.

The expansion of awareness, beyond limited emotions, thoughts and perceptions –Up through each level of awareness we travel, until we break free of the ego, transcending learned limitations. We become a vehicle for pure consciousness – the true self, the Higher Self.

Be guided by the flow of light and energy of an expanded awareness.

It’s not about what we have; it’s about what we do–and what we do with what we have.

So what do we have?

God given talent, ability, creativity and a purpose.

Our calling is the highest order of service. As we give to others, we become open to receive the gifts of our fruits of labor.

We work, and most would define work as doing something for which we get paid, in order to pay bills, nothing more, nothing less. We trade dollars for hours. We live someone else’s truth, based on what we’ve been taught and what we’ve learned.

When we remember who we are, divine, sacred spiritual beings, we can realize a greater truth, which is that we need not trade dollars for hours to “survive;” instead, by answering our calling, we can thrive.

No greater purpose can be served than to be of service to others. Remember talent, ability, creativity and purpose all emanate from the universal consciousness. Utilizing our talent and creativity to serve others is the divine path to our purpose.

And what should we expect in return? What do we “get” for this “work” or service/purpose? The answer is that we get an opportunity to exist here in causal reality, to experience joy, love, hope, and goodness, OR to experience the darker, more negative side, if that is what we choose. We’ve come here to have the best experience we can have, and in doing so, co-create our reality with God.

As we remember that we are divine and sacred beings, we realize that we can manifest anything in physical, material reality we desire, by simply putting our mind to the task of focusing on what is possible as opposed to what “seems” to actually be happening.

We would do well to remember too, that others see us differently than we see ourselves. Being our own judge and jury, we “see” the negative within ourselves and therefore point it out in our self-talk. Often what we say to ourselves is blow out of proportion to what is real and true or false all together. By shifting to a kinder gentler empathetic perception of how other see us, we can come into alignment with the truth of who we really are.

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Self-Love

Sensitivity, Compassion, Support, Reassurance – these are all attributes of love. Most of us pride ourselves on having these traits or at the very least aspire to have them. Many of us have them and are ready to display them to others.

Often, we fall short when it comes to application of these traits to ourselves. How is it that we can be so compassionate toward others, even strangers, but be so judgmental of ourselves? We have been brought up in a world where things are labeled “good” or “bad.” We see “good” things happening to “bad” people and we wonder how that can be so? We see “bad” things happening to “good” people and we wonder, how can that be so?

We are trained from an early age to judge things as good or bad, primarily to prevent us from being harmed.  “Don’t touch that Johnny, you’ll get burned”; “Don’t climb up there Susan, you’ll fall down and break your neck!,” just to give a couple of examples. We are taught to be perfectionists by our parents, teachers and mentors– “Now play that over and over until you get it right,” or “You need to spend less time watching TV and more time doing your homework if you ever want to amount to anything.”  You get the drift; these are normal, rational people trying to “teach” us what is right and how at least to aspire to our highest purpose. They even tell us we cannot go easy on ourselves, because, well, “life is so competitive,” and if you want to get ahead, the only way to success is to “work harder and smarter than the other guy.”

We hear it from some of our sports coaches and from some of our life coaches and we take life seriously.  After all, this is our opportunity to realize our highest purpose, therefore, we want to be sure and “get it right.”

And so we take these things and translate them into our heads as gospel. I need to do this or that in order to be a success. I don’t need to do that if I ever want to get ahead.

And in doing so, we fail miserably at reminding ourselves of the truth.

And we do that because we’ve forgotten what the truth is.

We’re all constantly looking for that truth too and we all already know what it is. The biggest, most forgotten truth is that we are all children of God, made in His/Her image, part of the God Consciousness, the Singularity, all part of the cosmic stuff that is Creation itself. We are all a chip off the Universal block, as it were. We are all worthy, all perfect by design, all sacred and we all matter.

But we forget to tell ourselves these things. Although we know down deep in our core that they are true, we forget.

 Why do we forget? It is easier not to have to put forth the effort it takes to be our perfect-selves, isn’t it?

It’s easier to blame ourselves, because it’s our own fault that we are the way we are, isn’t it?

It’s easier to hold ourselves down because frankly, we don’t want to be accountable and we don’t REALLY want to “have it all” because that just wouldn’t be right in the eyes of the Lord.

HOGWASH! We spend hours on end making up stories to fool ourselves into believing the lie that man constructed that says there is limited supply and that having “the good life” is only for a privileged few. Our egos have bought into the whole, “I’m not worthy” fallacy hook, line and sinker.

Well I’m here to tell you it just ain’t so!

You, reading this, were attracted to this because you need to hear it – you are perfect, you are worthy and you truly can have it all. You can, because that’s why you’re here. God wants you to have the best experience you can possibly have while here in physical reality.

But, before we can get to that place where we all want to be, we have to learn all over again, that which we knew as children; that which is perfect and unconditional love. A state of such absolute positive energy, faith and knowing, a state of euphoric happiness and gratitude, that to realize it would literally lift us up.

This is Self-love.  It is perfect love.  It is the place where our true selves, our higher selves reside. It is a place we run from, because we have bought into the great lie that is we aren’t attractive enough, thin enough, nice enough, popular enough or whatever else we deem in our mind that we don’t have (but everyone else has) and so we shrink away from the light.

Spend some time thinking about the promise God made: “I am with you always.” When we begin to realize why we’re here, what the realization of our highest purpose and potential is, we can begin to see that indeed, we are capable of allowing some love in for “us” from “us.”

It is important for us to have positive self-thoughts such as, “I am as attractive as anyone else,” or “I am as thin as anyone else” or at the very least “I am capable of making decisions which will positively affect my results in life.”

That’s actually easier than telling ourselves a lie and going through life miserable, because we’re looking for a truth that we already know. We are capable of being more than what we give ourselves credit for. Via Con Dios!

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Don’t Be A Resource, Be THE Source!

After having listened to an interview with Neale Donald Walsh last night, it came to me this morning:  “Don’t be a resource, be THE source.” Define The Source as God, The Creator, The Universe and us being a channel for that Source.

In my career, I’ve always been about “value-added selling,” an industry term meaning to bring something to the table other than price, often referred to in marketing circles as a “unique selling position.”  I would liken the unique selling position to being a resource: “Rather than being a marketing guy, I’m here to help you solve your problem,” or “Don’t think of me as a salesman, but instead as a consultant, with many, many years industry experience.” These are common approaches used in marketing anything from vacuum cleaners to financial services.

Being a resource is a great thing and a proven sales technique. But the world is changing. Remember 20 years ago when personal computers were just beginning to catch on; then 5 years after that the Internet? Then cell phones, now smart phones? A unique selling position was all well and good for the Fuller Brush Man, but the world is drastically different now.  Being a resource doesn’t bring much value anymore, because anyone can hop onto Google or YouTube and learn anything about anything.  Suddenly, everyone is a perceived “expert.” There are plenty of resources on the Internet – I bet your “Favorites” folder is full of them.

So, how do we go from being a resource, to being THE source? Think about it – THE source would be an expert in the field, something like your wingman. A wingman is there to bounce stuff off of, see what works, what makes sense and what’s a waste of time. A wingman might be a friend, sibling or significant other. But what if you did like Norman Vincent Peale suggests in, “The Power of Positive Thinking” and had God as your wingman? Take a moment to process that; what if God were my wingman? What could I accomplish? What would be possible? How different would my life be?

The truth is, we all have access to God as our Wingman; we simply forget the promise, “I am with you always.” In this day of gadgetry and broadband, it’s easy to forget who we are and in doing so, we lose connection with the Great Beyond–that other dimension which is timeless and endless. But if we want to differentiate ourselves from the crowd and be THE source, what better way than to invite The REAL Source of all to be our Wingman? “God as our business partner” as Peale put it.

I suspect most would agree that given the opportunity to bring a unique selling position to the playing field or to bring God as your Wingman, we’d much rather have the latter. It’s not a stretch really, to imagine God right there in the passenger seat of the car with you; “Well Sir, what do you thing about this?” and wait for the answer. That’s what Neale Donald Walsh did when writing his “Conversations With God.”

We all have that connection, as Marianne Williams so eloquently puts it:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, Our presence automatically liberates others.

If we practice connecting with God, it will come; and when it does, it can transform our lives. As we each transform, we become part of the Collective Consciousness shift that is taking place all around the world. Connect with it, channel it, be it and send it back out.  And don’t be just a resource–You’re so much more powerful than that.

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The World is Waiting for Your Greatness

The entire world is waiting for you to be successful at what you love doing. This is the message I received this morning.

Think about your Higher Self or whatever name you give to that part of you that is one with God and the Universe. That is pure energy and it is creative energy. In fact, that energy will actually attract to you the very thing that you are looking for. So, when you are doing your creative thing, you are sending out an energy like a signal, a beaming light into the Universe that says, “Hey, look over here at what I’m creating!” and the Universe begins to put into action the seemingly insignificant elements that might be serendipitous or coincidental at first, but will happen more and more often as we continue to be our creative selves. If you need scientific evidence of the Law of Attraction, read “The Intention Experiment,” by Lynne McTaggart. Remember, the entire world is waiting for you to be successful at what you love doing.
Here’s another thing that is important to remember: The Law of Karma, i.e., the law of reaping and sowing, you get what you give, cause and effect, etc. In putting your creativity “out there” in the ether, you’re sowing the seeds that will blossom into that ultimate success.

Everyone has talent; most people know exactly what it is, and doing it on a consistent basis and remaining in the “flow” of its energy is the best feeling one can experience. Being in the flow thereby gives one a great sense of worthiness and confidence, also called faith. Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see”. Having faith comes with some other labels we use as well: commitment, perseverance, determination. How many articles or books have you read about successful people who all say that “sticking to it” or “refusing to lose” was what it took to be successful? The entire world is waiting for you to be successful at what you love doing.

“Why would the entire world be waiting on me,” you ask? Well, think of it this way. Let’s say you’re a painter. You paint with enthusiasm and energy; you bring your energy to this painting, which someone sees and purchases. They are not only supporting you, but they do so because they are inspired by your talent and LOVE the product (read outcome or output). That painting inspires your customer to make a beautiful piece of jewelry, into which they pour love and positive pure energy. The piece is purchased by a struggling songwriter, who is inspired to write a beautiful piece with soring melodies and emotional harmonies, so beautiful it attracts a recording artist to record it for the entire world to hear. As so it goes. Even if the entire world doesn’t see the picture or hear the song, think about how many artists are very successful without much recognition. How may million-selling songs in this country have hardly any air time in other parts of the world? Still, someone, somewhere gets inspired – creativity truly is the seed for success. The entire world is waiting for you to be successful at what you love doing.

Now, think about potential. Think about possibility. When we think about how we perceive possibility and potential, we can see that if we shift our perception about what is possible, we can get into a more positive state of mind, which puts us in the flow or in tune with our Higher Selves. Have all the beautiful songs already been written? No. So, is it possible that I could write the most beautiful song in the world? Yes. Do I have the potential meaning, the training, background and je ne sais quoi to write this beautiful piece? Yes, I do. If your answer to that last question is no, then simply continue your training, be committed and it will come.

If you’re a spiritual person, you know and understand that all we really need is between our two ears. We possess, or have access to, all that has ever been and all that will ever be by connecting with our Higher Selves. The Akashic Records, out of body experiences, and lucid dreaming provide fertile creative experience and understanding that is available to all through meditation. Simply put, we make a contract with our Higher Self that says something like, “I am committed to this (enter desired outcome) and I call on God and the Universe to allow me to express my creativity in the way that best suits my intended outcome.” By making this soul contract, you circumvent the Ego and go directly to the Source. And that Source is the most powerful energy in the known Universe.

So, if the entire world is waiting for us to be successful at what we love doing, why are we struggling? What doesn’t everyone simply do what they came for? The answer is what I call fear conditioning. We have analysis paralysis and are so scared of failure, scared of looking silly, disappointing ourselves or others, we’re not good enough, talented enough, smart enough, or attractive enough, that we can’t support ourselves or maintain any level of success, assuming we ever achieve it in the first place.

Simply put, we are so down on ourselves that we don’t allow for the possibility that maybe, just maybe, there is the potential that we can realize our greatness. We are constantly telling ourselves that “we need this in order to succeed,” we fail to understand that we had what we needed all along and we should get started and stay on task until we begin to see some progress. And once we have that progress, we continue to pour creative energy into it.

We all have distractions in life; “…it moves pretty fast” to quote Ferris Bueller. We have PTA and kids and cars that need to go to the shop and Sunday School and we have vacations wherein we need to get a lot of fun in before it’s over. We stress over work, job career, we smoke and drink to relieve the stress, when it actually makes the stress worse! Maybe, just maybe we should slow down, get in the flow and breathe, then with quiet resolution, make this soul contract and release these other things, to the extent that we can and make a little time to commit to fulfilling our greatest potential. We all have greatness inherent, for we are the sons and daughters of God.

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