The Stain of Complaining

November 19, 2012

The other evening, a very good friend and I were sitting around the living room, listening to music and talking about our life experiences. We were connecting deeply, and as the night went on, we both fell asleep on the couch. I was so amazingly content — beautiful music playing, cozy living room, lovely company and wonderful conversation. I felt myself rising to a very high vibration — love and appreciation — and I stayed there for a long time, basking, feeling warm, and connecting to my intuition…

My friend was very comfortable on the couch, I could tell. I was too, but suddenly, I felt like my back was cold — it wasn’t covered by any blanket and there must have been a slight draft from somewhere. From my place of pure, clear appreciation, came the stain of complaining. It was positively palpable — I could taste it in the air. It was like those cheesy stain remover info-mercials where they add deep blue and red dye to a clear container of water — the dye churns. My complaining was colouring my mood and I could feel it as clearly as if I was standing outside in the rain. It churned.

I adjusted my position to get warmer and more comfortable, but the mood did not lift immediately. I laid there, thinking about the startling effect my complaining was having on my body. My happy, glowing feeling was gone. I was just back on the couch, mostly comfortable. I felt like I was in my body again — I had been flying so high, I had been somewhat unaware of my physicality for a while. I felt very concrete, but not grounded. It’s difficult to explain.

The effect on my mind was just as obvious. The lighthearted, clear feeling I had been basking in was gone. I was cloudy, confused, even anxious… all from one little complaint. I had a hard time shaking that feeling of complaining, and I even, very briefly, started judging my friend for being comfortable when I was not. Thankfully, since I am in the habit of being aware of my thoughts, I nipped that in the bud — what a ridiculous thing to be jealous of! But that is what complaining does to you — it makes you jealous, cloudy, confused and frustrated, and since I had been feeling so great before, the contrast of those icky feelings was striking.

Of my body, mind and spirit, my spirit was affected the least. Since I was so aware, I didn’t let the complaining go on too long. I let the feeling pass through me, and resettled into a happier state. I keep coming back to the analogy of a cork on water — you have to work quite hard to keep it down. We are the same — when we stop judging ourselves harshly, putting ourselves down or thinking thoughts of lack, we immediately rise up and start to float again. You and I have an invincible spirit, and the very simple, quick act of breathing and coming back to the moment, feeling the goodness of this moment, lets us rise again.

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Stop Telling Negative Stories

November 18, 2012

The other day, I spent two hours with a Frenchman. He was originally from Quebec, actually, although he didn’t seem to be proud of that fact any more — in his opinion, most Quebecers were slime. Actually, he’d been spited by people in every province in Canada, it seemed, at various work places and on the street.

This incredibly unlucky fellow told me, in non-chronological order, his entire life story. And what a life he’d had! According to him, if you work in the oil patch, you’ll never get paid on time. If you work for farmers, you’ll be paid on time, but most of them don’t speak English (they mixed it up with various European languages). He had complaints about basically every industry, job or ethnicity he had ever worked for, including heated warnings about several specific individuals. It only sounded like he had one or two good employers over all those years. Although, initially, I was compassionately listening to his life story, it seemed like a lot of complaining to me. Later on, I was listening with fascination, not about his story, but about how his attitude — his vibration — was coming true in his life! It was so crystal clear to me that his angry demeanour was manifesting in his physical life everywhere he went.

Another man I have met recently was telling me about a certain injustice that he witnessed. It was obviously a huge source of frustration, and I initially thought that it had just happened. Not so. The situation had unfolded months before, but the way he told the story, it sounded like yesterday.

Have you ever heard the saying

“A sad story should never be retold.”

I wonder what would happen if we changed the way we tell stories to others? What if we made a pact with ourselves to allow one week to retell a negative story and after that to never speak of it again? During that week, we could go hoarse retelling it, but after that, we had to bite our lip and tell a neutral (factual) or happy story instead. There would be no limit in how long or how many times you could retell a purely* happy story.

Want to join me in this experiment? Clearly, if you have a very serious skeleton, you will probably need more than a week to process it properly, in particular if you are in counseling about it. But for smaller, everyday stuff, or negative stories not directly involving us, that story would have to die — or change drastically — after a week. If you can convert it into a happy story, then keep it rolling!

*For the no-ending clause to apply, the story must have no villains, no victims, and be completely free of sarcasm/cynicism. 🙂

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Hearing from Your Intuition (Part 4)

October 18, 2012

I mentioned centering yourself in Part 1, but felt I should expand on that some more. I would like to “de-mystify” some aspects of centering yourself and explain some new-agey-sounding terms in plain English.

Calming Down

The initial way to think of centering yourself is just to calm down. You can do this any time by taking a few deep, conscious breaths. What do I mean by “conscious”? Just be aware you are doing it. Think and pay attention to how your body feels while you breathe. Do nothing else for a second. Breathe… This is the first and vital step to calming down.

Pause and ask yourself what you were just thinking about. If you don’t know, that’s okay. If you can recall it, now see how it was making you feel. Was that train of thought making you feel good (excited, energized, happy) or bad (stressed, tense, worried). These “feelings” can be either mental/emotional (such as frustrated or depressed) or physical (tension in the neck, stomach uneasy). Now you have become aware of how your thoughts make you feel!

If those thoughts are particularly strong, you might want to have a “wave experience” as I describe in my book (chapter 19). This will help you pass through the emotions and gain some insight about them.

To connect with your intuition, continue “centering yourself.” Some physical things people like to do include putting both feet on the ground, sitting cross-legged, or laying flat on their backs. Some like to do this to increase their connect to the ground, kind of like grounding an electrical circuit. Others like to connect to Mother Earth. If you do it the same way every time, this helps “program” your body for connecting to your intuition.

Keep breathing all the while. Okay, that might sound obvious because if you stopped breathing, you’d die, but believe it or not, I need to mention it. We often hold our breaths without realizing it, or breathe in shallow, quick breaths. Taking slow, deep breaths does something to our bodies — something that helps us slow down, focus, and reconnect to the present moment. That’s why activities like singing and sports feel so great — we are breathing deeply, and paying attention to the moment in either to hit that note perfectly or score that point.

Your mood will probably improve simply as a result of these actions. If you feel sort of “neutral,” consciously think about something that makes you feel good — like remembering a pure, happy memory or a time when you felt really great. If you focus strongly on these happy thoughts for a minute or so, you will really start to feel great. This is what people mean when they say they are “raising their vibration.” It is a conscious decision to feel better by thinking thoughts that make you feel better. You may also want to tell yourself something that you know will perk you up. If you are living a very stressful life, you can also take advantage of classic de-stressing techniques like taking a hot bubble bath, lighting candles, getting a massage, going for a walk in a park or other natural area to appreciate nature, etc.

Of course, there is no guarantee that following these steps will help you connect to your intuition, but they vastly increase the odds. One last thing: be ready to receive and write down (or record in audio) the inspiration you receive! Keep a note book by your bedside, in your purse or bag, or in your vehicle. Be ready to open a simple text editor to type in your computer.

My favourite way to “make notes” is to talk into a small audio recorder, especially while I am driving alone. It has 2-button operation, so it’s very quick and easy. When I get an idea, I grab it and start talking!

I hope you have found this series on hearing from your intuition helpful! If it has touched you, please leave a comment!

 
– The “Hearing from Your Intuition Series” –
Hearing from Your Intuition (Part 1) Feel the Answer | Hearing from Your Intuition (Part 2) Tapping Your Imagination | Hearing from Your Intuition (Part 3) Detailed Messages/Knowing | Hearing from Your Intuition (Part 4) Centering Yourself

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Hearing from Your Intuition (Part 3)

October 17, 2012

Intuition is how your higher self speaks to you. It is a message or a feeling about what action to take to follow the best course of action for you. What sort of “best course of action?” The action that will help you thrive or grow the most, to help you fulfill your destiny or become a more enlightened being. Sometimes, it is the biggest “stretch” — it might involve major change or facing a fear. But isn’t that always where we grow the most?! 🙂

Detailed Messages/Knowing

The most powerful way that you can hear from your intuition is in a specific message from your higher self. This is usually more complicated than “yes” or “no,” and might be a detailed message or more of a “knowing.” You might:
– out of the blue have an idea about how to proceed on a problem
– feel like you just found your life’s purpose
– learn about something new and feel uncannily drawn to it
– suddenly know what you should do next
– feel amazingly inspired to do something
– feel like you know that you will have all the resources you need to take this inspired action.

From my experience, this type of divine inspiration can strike at any time, and the more you listen to it, the more frequently it happens. I bet you can think of a time when this happened — when you suddenly just KNEW what to do. For me, this inspiration often comes first thing in the morning (or even before I am fully awake), so I try to keep a note pad nearby so I can jot down the idea.

Here are a few things that can make it happen quicker:
1. Acknowledge that you have intuition, and make it known — write it down in your journal, on a markerboard, vision board or wherever — that you want to connect to it more.
2. Tell someone (verbally, out loud) that you want to hear from your intuition and that you think you will get an answer to such-and-such (next course of action) soon.
3. As you try to solve some “problem,” rather than struggling for the answer, imagine you are loading all the data into an “intuition computer” — just collecting data, and waiting for the computer to spit out the answer. Let go of the struggle.
4. Pay attention to slight nudges/hunches. Feel the urge to take a different route home after work? Do it. Thinking about someone and wondering if you should call them? Do it.
5. Challenge yourself to do something outside your comfort zone, and then trust that you will have the resources to do it successfully. (For me, this was a 7-day solo kayak trip, and that is the first time I received a VERY clear message from my intuition. I have not been the same since!)

In general, our reality is a result of
– what kinds of thoughts we think
– what kinds of words we say, and
– what we do.

So, if you want your reality to include you hearing from your intuition, you can think about it (acknowledge/imagine, step 1 and 3 above), talk about it (step 2 above), and do things about it (step 4 and 5).

 
– The “Hearing from Your Intuition Series” –
Hearing from Your Intuition (Part 1) Feel the Answer | Hearing from Your Intuition (Part 2) Tapping Your Imagination | Hearing from Your Intuition (Part 3) Detailed Messages/Knowing | Hearing from Your Intuition (Part 4) Centering Yourself

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Hearing from Your Intuition (Part 2)

October 16, 2012

Let’s look at some other ways you can hear from that subtle but important force, intuition. (Part 1 is here if you missed it.)

Tapping Your Imagination

Another way to get in touch with your intuition is to use your imagination. Imagination is another one of those things that science just can’t explain, like intuition. The two can work hand in hand — let’s look at how.

Suppose you are considering taking some action, be it changing jobs, moving to a new town, whatever. Sit down and imagine, from start to finish, in as much detail as possible, the outcome of that action. Imagine that you are fully integrated into the new situation — that perhaps 4 to 6 months have passed since the big change. Are you happy? Do you like the picture you see? How do you feel now? If you feel anxious, make sure that you’ve imagined the situation long enough into the future to get over the initial stress of the change. Let’s look at an example.

Suppose you are thinking of breaking up with your boyfriend. Imagine what life would be like without him — imagine going through a period of sadness, loneliness or stress at first, and then imagine your life after that. Really try to picture what it would be like. What kinds of things would you do in your spare time? Would you be happy? Would you ultimately regret it? If your imagination leans towards eventually feeling happier and more independent, that’s your answer. If your imagination leans towards regretting the decision, then that’s your insight. Try exploring other places your imagination might take you… if you regret it, why? Is there any solution where you don’t regret it? What can you do to make your relationship better then?

If you really feel uneasy about the answer you get, then perhaps there is a lot of fear clouding your vision or colouring your imagination. This isn’t a black-and-white science! But this can certainly be an option to try.

Be aware that if your natural tendency is for negative fantasizing — what I call “apocalypsing” in Love Your Skeletons — then you’ll need to make extra effort to see this pretend reality positively. If you simply can’t, then take it as a sign, but not a big one.

Remember, you can also use your imagination to create a new reality, so while tapping into your imagination, you will also be forging the future at the same time. If you want to imagine a different outcome than the one you seem to be headed towards, do some focused, detailed, super-clear visioning and you will create that outcome instead. This type of imagination feels different; it feels empowered instead of receptive.

Come back tomorrow for Part 3!

 
– The “Hearing from Your Intuition Series” –
Hearing from Your Intuition (Part 1) Feel the Answer | Hearing from Your Intuition (Part 2) Tapping Your Imagination | Hearing from Your Intuition (Part 3) Detailed Messages/Knowing | Hearing from Your Intuition (Part 4) Centering Yourself

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Hearing from Your Intuition (Part 1)

October 15, 2012

For some, hearing from their intuition is easy, but for many, it is so foreign, they don’t even know where to start. So, I thought I would give some ideas from my experience about how intuition speaks.

Let me start by reminding you about the two polar opposites of feelings: feeling good and feeling bad. Of course, we have many different words for emotions, and here are a few:

feeling good — excited, thrilled, happy, overjoyed, at-ease
feeling bad — tense, nervous, uneasy, anxious, cautious

Your intuition often speaks through feelings. That makes it tricky, because lots of other things can affect how we feel, like what kinds of thoughts we have been thinking, or even if we are hungry. However, if you aren’t hungry and you take a few minutes to breathe deeply and clear your thoughts, you can receive a message from your intuition by how you feel.

Feel the Answer

Try this. After centering yourself as described above, ask yourself a “yes/no” question that you already know the answer to. Think of something you like to do and ask yourself a related question. Then, see if you get a “feeling answer.” Let me give you an example.

I really enjoy knitting, so I might ask myself “should I do some knitting later?” The answer is Yes, and the corresponding feeling is one of happiness and anticipation of continuing my latest knitting project. If I ask myself a “no” question, like “should I get back together with my ex?” the answer is a most definite “no!” For me, I can almost hear the answer verbally, but I certainly get “yucky” (“no”) feelings — anxiety, stress, heart-pounding feeling.

Once you do this and feel both the “yes” and “no” answers, now you can try a less-obvious question and one that you don’t know the answer to. If you stay still, calmly breathing, you should feel the answer — either a good feeling, or a “bad” one. If you can’t feel the answer for some reason, try rephrasing the question or break the question down into a smaller part or get more specific. For example, if you ask if you should take a new job you’ve been offered, but you can’t feel the answer, try asking

– Should I leave the job I am at now?
– Is this job offer good for me?
– Should I look for an even better job out there for me?
– Is this new employer right for me?

A slight variation on this method is to use your fingers instead of just feelings. Make the a circle with your index finger and thumb, like the universal “ok” sign, on both your left and right hands. Now, interlock them like two links of a chain. Calibrate your response by asking yourself a “yes” question as before. Tug to see if your fingers will come apart — for a “yes” answer, your fingers will be strong. When you ask a “no” question, or say something that is untrue, one of your finger-thumb connections will give way and your fingers will come apart. This process is called muscle testing, and the video below will show you exactly what I mean. If you have a hard time feeling the answer, muscle testing will work for sure!

Tomorrow, I will talk about some other ways to connect with your intuition. Subscribe to this blog to make sure you don’t miss it (use the RSS button near the top-right of the page), follow me on Twitter or friend me on Facebook. Mention that you read my blog!

– The “Hearing from Your Intuition Series” –
Hearing from Your Intuition (Part 1) Feel the Answer | Hearing from Your Intuition (Part 2) Tapping Your Imagination | Hearing from Your Intuition (Part 3) Detailed Messages/Knowing | Hearing from Your Intuition (Part 4) Centering Yourself

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The Value of Being Self-Centred

September 21, 2012

Did the title of this blog post throw you off? Well, I am not trying to deceive you, but it is important to be self-centred — centred in yourself — and I wanted to expand on that a little.

What does it mean to be centred in yourself?
It means that you know who you are. You know what you enjoy doing, and what you don’t particularly enjoy. You know what you are good at and what is best to leave for someone else to do. It doesn’t mean being conceited.

It means you know when you are acting in your best interest, and when you are acting toward your best goal/higher purpose. It means you are aware of your thoughts and how those thoughts make you feel. You can hear from your intuition any time you like. It means you don’t have to look outside yourself to make decisions.

It means you know what you want. A commercial you see on TV isn’t going to compel you immediately to start buying products or questioning your lifestyle. You know what physical things you want and what emotional things or life situations you want.

Most importantly, it means you are aware that your actions and thoughts (your physio-spiritual vibration) create your reality and you don’t blame anyone else for your situation.

Somehow along the way, many of us have lost track of the principle of cause and effect. When you do something, there is an effect. When you say something, there is an effect. When you think something, there is an effect. When you do, say or think something repeatedly, there is a greater effect. This shows up in many, many ways:

– actual, significant events in your life, such as getting/losing jobs
– how the people in your life treat you
– seemingly random events, like flat tires or hail storms
– painful events, like skeletons in your closet

Being self-centred is another way of saying you are self-aware. You are tuned in to what is going on in your life — you aren’t half-awake — and you are tuned in to what is coming your way. You can predict the future, somewhat, when you are truly self-centred. But only YOUR future. Why would you want to be messing around in someone else’s future anyway?

Ever watch Star Trek? Well, here’s one way I sometimes think of it: there are countless alternate realities within my reach at any given moment in time. How I chose to conduct this moment in time — the attitude I take and thoughts I think — determines which of the infinite realities I will live in for the next few moments. Only this moment matters. Only what I do matters. Only those things I am immediately interacting with in this moment are real (seeing, listening to, speaking about, touching, moving, etc.).

So how can you get in touch with your self more? Here are a few ideas:
– Spend some time alone, just breathing and being aware of your thoughts.
– Spend some time in nature.
– Spend some time alone in nature. 🙂
– Appreciate each day. Look for and/or journal about things that you find lovely, precious, enjoyable or otherwise good.
– Live in the moment more.
– Remind yourself there is a source of higher wisdom within you.

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Sore Muscles, Sore Feelings

September 8, 2012

A very simple truth struck me today, in a new way, so of course, I wanted to share it with you: You cannot heal from a skeleton in your closet unless you are willing to look at it, yet, in looking at it, you must not obsess about it.

The same is true when you are trying to use the Law of Attraction to manifest something in particular in your life. You must see or know the reality that you want to change, but you cannot look at it too closely or it will only grow. The reality of the past cannot be “too real” to you. You have to have a stronger vision in your mind’s eye for what you are wanting to create.

Bear with me for a minute while I digress on this analogy: If you have a sore muscle, it won’t start to feel better if you baby it too much. You need to stretch it, move it gently to get the blood flowing and the healing power going. I know this from experience and it is a fact. You cannot ignore a sore muscle or try to never move it. For some types of sore muscles, working out intensely is the best thing you can do for them. I have a friend who even did this with a broken arm, but I’m not advocating that for everyone!

Now consider sore feelings. If you have been hurt by someone, you cannot ignore it or pretend it never happened and try to never “use” that feeling again. You have to look at it a little, move it, think about it, gently, to get the healing power going. But at the same time, obsessing about that hurt feeling is only going to make it feel worse, and “working it out intensely” is the best thing you can do for it. Ernest Holmes, the founder of the Science of Mind new thought movement said it well:

“We must be willing to look at a thing until it has no power over us.” – Ernest Holmes

Do not shy away from your hurt feelings. On the other had, you cannot give them more power over you. Acknowledge the way you feel, talk it out with a trusted friend or counsellor, and when you are ready, start to imagine how you’d like to feel. Imagine that you are happy most of the time, that you feel content and that you eagerly look forward to the future and good things that are coming your way. Even if you don’t quite “feel” that way yet, imagine that you will someday. This activates the Law of Attraction and will also help you to feel better now.

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Don’t be Like a Fly

August 12, 2012

I was cleaning windows today when I came to the one in the porch. This one is out of the way, so it rarely gets looked at or tidied up. The window sill was littered with dead flies, and there was a live one bouncing incessantly, they way they always do, against the glass.

Why do flies do this? I tried to shoo this one away, because I was going to be spraying glass cleaner and it would die if it got sprayed. That fly just wouldn’t be shooed — it was intent on bouncing its head up against the glass over and over again, trying to break through the barrier — invisible but unbreakable (for a fly).

So, I sprayed around it, but the vapours made it woozy and it flew strangely. Eventually, it flew away, and maybe once it turned around, it even saw the open door and flew outside to freedom. This whole experience made me wonder — how are we like the fly, bouncing our heads against a barrier we can’t get through?

Do you have anything in your life that you’ve been struggling with for a long time? Like a fly trying to fly through a window, you think there should be a way through. You can see the light and just can’t figure out how to get to it. You try and try, over and over, but you’re just acting like a fly.

If this is striking a chord in you, don’t ignore it. What is coming to mind right now? Don’t shy away from it — it doesn’t make you a bad person. It just means you’re human. Sit for a minute and think about whatever is coming to you.

So what can you do? If you keep bouncing up against that glass, you might end up like all those other flies — dead on the window sill. I’m not just talking about being physically dead, but emotionally or spiritually dead. It could also be a death of your freedom, creativity, joy, happiness or health. What are you afraid might be dying?

If you don’t want this to happen, just turn around. Stop trying, stop bouncing against the problem and look the other way. Look for the open door. Look at what is lovely and beautiful about your life, about the world, about you. Stop focusing on problems, either in you or in the world around you, and trying to fix them. If you just fly away from them, you’ll find another way to the light, to the great outdoors, and never have to worry about another window again.

There’s a common expression that goes something like “when God closes a door, He opens a window.” I would say “when the window is closed, look for the open door!”

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Picking up Good Vibrations…. in Your Body

August 6, 2012

Have you heard of the concept of “raising our vibration”? In the New Thought realm (wikipedia page), we often talk about raising our vibration. I was thinking about what this means and how it works, and got these tidbits of inspiration.

We are all familiar with microwaves, but few of us know how they work. Microwave ovens work by beaming actual microwaves — electromagnetic radiation, similar to light but with longer wavelengths — that are tuned to the frequency that excites water. The radiation then heats your food by heating the water within the food. Stay with me here! I am going somewhere with this.

How about MRI machines? They work on a similar principle, using electromagnetic radiation. Once your body is magnetized inside the huge magnet, the machine beams radio waves towards your body and the hydrogen atoms in your body — which are everywhere, and very abundant in water — “reply” to the incoming radio waves by producing weak radio signals of their own, which the MRI picks up. So an image of your body taken with an MRI is actually made from radio signals your body produced.

I wonder how else our bodies react to frequencies? Every atom or molecule has certain frequencies of electromagnetic radiation (microwaves and radio waves are just two types) that can make the atom excited or make the molecule vibrate in particular modes. It follows, then, that the calcium in my body might react a certain way to certain energies. Or any other element, like iron or oxygen or sodium.

From the Heart-Math Website

What about molecules? The water in the microwave is a molecule, and there is lots of water in our bodies (plus lots of other molecules). I wonder if unsettled energy like anxiety or worry might cause certain atoms or molecules to act differently? I remember reading The Hidden Messages in Water by Dr. Masaru Emoto, and he certainly proved that water reacts to different thought messages! I also remember reading this article on the Heart Math website that talks about how our heart’s rhythm and electrical signals change when we are focused on appreciation compared to being angry or frustrated.

And then there are the really long chain molecules like RNA and DNA. These ones are certainly far more complex than simple H2O, but it stands to wonder if more complex frequencies — those created by thought energy itself — could affect them.

Could playing and staying youthful keep you healthier?

Could having faith, i.e. not worrying, help your cells to function better?

Could being positive and thinking loving, appreciative thoughts make your cells “happy?”

Well, the only way to know personally is to try. Imagine that your cells are happy. Love your body. Appreciate the life-giving forces that inhabit it. Feed it with healthy food and thoughts. Don’t give in to worry. Breathe the fresh air deeply, consciously. Do this, and I BET you will feel better than ever!


video about Dr. Masaru Emoto’s work

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Energy Beings

August 2, 2012

We are Energy Beings.

We live on more than just food. We live on energy. It’s simpler to think of our bodies just as chemcial-food-energy factories that convert chemical energy from food into energy for use in our bodies, either as motion, heat or building blocks for cells. That is true, and what you tell yourself about the food you eat is one part of the equation of health. If you think that the food you are eating is bad for you, it will be (no matter what its actual content). If you think that the food you’re eating is good for you, that will be true for you!

Tell Yourself This: Everything I eat contributes to my healthy body. Everything I eat comprises the building blocks for perfectly healthy cells.

Although this is true, there is so much more to it than that. We absorb other types of energy too. Have you ever noticed the “mood of a room” change when a new person walks in? Have you ever felt tired and frustrated one minute and then perky and happy the next, because a friend called you or you started doing something you enjoy? Your thoughts are a form of energy and your body benefits or suffers based on the type of energy that you are creating with your thoughts.

The next time you feel tired or mildly depressed, rather than eating something, why not try feeding your energy body another way? Read some jokes or look at cartoons (Savage Chickens is one of my favourites). Remind yourself that life is supposed to be fun — put on a playful attitude. Sit quietly and breathe deeply. Remind yourself that everything is working out perfectly. You are a good person, and good things happen to you. Put your feet up and focus on your breathing. Imagine that you are reaching upward, tapping into a higher energy (literally and metaphorically). Think of someone who inspires you and imagine that you are entering his/her energy-space… you can tap into the place their higher self lives. Keep breathing!

Tell Yourself This: I am an energy being. I am in a healthy, happy energy field right now. I am “recharging my batteries” right now with pure, loving, abundant, expansive, boundless energy.

Your energy body can be described further by chakras, but for now, just realize that there is more to it than food. Sometimes when I am vaguely hungry but I don’t know why, I just sit and have a short meditation and then I feel better, centered. I am no longer hungry (although I am still sometimes thirsty). I wonder how different your body would be if every time you ate, you also topped up your spiritual batteries? Would you feel like eating less, because your spiritual body has also been consciously fed? Would your digestion be better? Would the food-chemical building blocks be used more perfectly? Leave a comment and let me know how this works for you!

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Connecting with the Essense of Appreciation

July 19, 2012

Gratitude is so important to focus on. It makes the difference between smelling the roses and just inhaling a different flavoured air.

Making a list of things to be grateful for is nothing new. Many people keep a gratitude journal to help them to remember all the things they have to be thankful for. I think we all know intuitively that this is a good practice, and that connecting with gratitude is the way to a more enlightened life. There is a little more to it than just scribbling in a book, however.

Mindlessly writing is mindlessly writing. It doesn’t matter what’s actually getting onto the page. When you are making a list of things to be thankful for, do so consciously. Pause and really picture what it is you appreciate about that thing. Connect with the wonder of it, the beauty or the specialness. This isn’t a “head-thing” — making a longer list, or adding more adjectives (details). It’s a “heart-thing.” Activate your imagination and feel the appreciation grow.

In fact, if you think about it, sometimes when you are thankful for something what’s actually active in your vibration is the very thing you don’t want. For example, you could be thankful for your health, but in your mind, you are thinking of this-or-that person who has the flu, and *whew* you haven’t caught it yet. If you continue down this road of thinking, you may end up with the flu after all, because of the Law of Attraction. You spent more time thinking about the flu than thinking about how healthy, energetic and spunky you feel! This may actually explain the increase in cancer we are seeing lately. Rather than focusing on being healthy, people everywhere are focusing on the illness, the symptoms, the treatments, and the deaths.

Shift your focus. Be sympathetic to those who are ill, but don’t forget what it means to be healthy. Be more grateful, but make sure that your focus is on the thing you love and the gratitude or appreciation itself. In fact, just changing your lingo from “gratitude” to appreciation can be enough to remind you that it’s all about the positive aspects, the light, and the beauty.

Note: You may like to join the Gratitude log — a place to post whatever you are grateful for!

By Teresa | Posted in Articles, Encouragement | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments off

Live and Let Live

July 5, 2012

Sometimes, I wish the world was more of a “live and let live” kind of place. It occurred to me that there are two aspects of this: “Live” and, of course, “let live.”

Live

You gotta live! When we don’t live our life to its fullest, that’s when we get grumpy, snarky, and we stop accepting others around us. If we “settle,” give in, or just play it safe all the time, we cheat ourselves out of all the best life has to offer and deep down, we know it. So we feel unhappy, because being unhappy is a signal — sort of a neon sign! — that we need to change something in our lives, and quickly!

So, if you’d like to join me on this planet of Live and Let Live, please make sure you do the first part thoroughly! Go on that vacation you’ve always wanted, or at least start planning it! Spend time with your favourite people in the world. Go to the park, the beach or the bookstore — whatever you enjoy most. Go to your favourite restaurant or listen to your fav band play. Take time out to visit a friend. Leave work early. Live it up!

Let Live

What does it mean “to let live?” It means to accept others as they are and not have any great desire to change them. It’s not about tolerating people who are different — it means celebrating each and every person exactly as they are!

photo from http://eatsleepquilt.blogspot.ca/2011/06/my-mid-morning-walk.htmlHave you ever watched a child play? Didn’t you feel joy or fascination at their freedom, playfulness and exploring spirit? Imagine watching a couple of little children splashing in a kiddie pool or public fountain on a hot summer day. They are having fun and living in the moment, and you can’t help but smile as you see the joy on their faces. That feeling (what you feel while watching them) is pure acceptance. You don’t have any desire to prevent them from splashing, or to make them conform to your way of splashing. You feel happy just watching them do what they do. That’s what it feels like to accept others as they are and to “let live.” You don’t need them to be more like you, to agree with you, or to stop doing something they are doing. You simply accept and love them as they are!

Another aspect of accepting others relates back to accepting ourselves. If we don’t accept ourselves, we will find it very hard to accept others. The aspects of another that irritate you the most are probably aspects that you are not proud of in yourself. Why not look at yourself like you look at those playing children — in wonder and amazement at your growth and how far you’ve come.

Let me know your experiences with “live and let live.” Is this easy for you? Do you struggle with it? Or do you think it’s not even very important these days?

By Teresa | Posted in Articles | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments off

The Truth About Discrimination

May 15, 2012

Have you ever felt like you were being discriminated against? For whatever reason, you felt like you weren’t being treated fairly… and you may have obsessed over it. It doesn’t matter if you figured out the exact reason, or what type of discrimination was taking place. It doesn’t even matter if the discrimination was intentional or not, real or imagined.

What can you do when you feel like you aren’t being treated the same as everyone else?

Let me tell you the secret to stopping discrimination. It is not about the discriminator — it is all about how you, the victim, thinks and feels about how others treat you.

The absolute best thing you can do is not think about your perceived mistreatment. Whenever you catch yourself thinking about it, you must change your thinking — think about something completely different. Have you ever played a first-person-shooter video game? If you have, think of changing your thinking like when you swing around in the game and run the opposite way.

At times when you feel good and are not obsessing about your discrimination or mistreatment, try telling yourself this:

“I am a fantastic person! I am amazing and wonderful and everyone around me can see that just because. I attract people who treat me properly. I attract people who respect me and see my value.”

When you focus on this, the vibration of discrimination goes away, and the Universe sees you a person who has wonderful, positive interactions with everyone, and that’s all you will have.

You will attract people who respect you and see your value. The Universe takes care of the rest. You don’t need to worry about how or if the disrespectful person/people will change. If they don’t change, they may spontaneously quit or leave your life in some other way. Perhaps you will be the one to move on, or even be fired! It sounds terrible, but at least then, you will be moving on. Chances are, the day you are fired will be the day you find a better job where everyone will respect you and treat you properly. It will happen really fast, once you are clear, because the Universe doesn’t waste time. Once you see yourself as the wonderful, deserving person you are, and you see what types of interactions you want to have with people, the Universe can only respond to this new vibration.

All your interactions on the street, from other drivers to coffee baristas, will be positive when that’s what you see and you cannot see anything else. When you get that clear, it will happen very, very fast. The bully might spontaneously start treating you nice. Or you’ll get that promotion. You won’t have to look for the nice coffee baristas, they will find you. You don’t have to make it happen, it will just all work out. The trick is to focus on the end point — having positive, respectful interactions with everyone — without noticing that you aren’t there yet.

The truth about discrimination is that discriminators don’t go around looking for people to discriminate against; victims attract people who treat them badly. If everyone expected to be treated fairly and with respect, everyone would be. Discrimination would fade into our history, never to be seen again. Now that’s the kind of world I want to live in! Don’t you agree?

By Teresa | Posted in Articles | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments off

Moving Up the Emotional Scale

February 3, 2012

It can be tough sometimes to overcome skeletons in your closet. Without meaning to, we can get stuck in certain patterns, and those patterns can often be summarized into an emotional state, such as disappointment, pessimism or anger.

It is not too hard to move up the emotional scale, by reaching for a better-feeling thought. Like climbing a flight of stairs, you just step up to the next one, you don’t try to jump all the way to the top. Read the emotional scale, originally from Ester and Jerry Hicks (or Abraham-Hicks) book Ask and It is Given. Where are you on the emotional scale today?


Joy! Empowerment! Love! Appreciation!
Passion
Enthusiasm, eagerness, happiness
Positive expectation/belief
Optimism
Hopefulness
Contentment
Boredom
Pessimism
Frustration, irritation, impatience
“Overwhelment”
Disappointment
Doubt
Worry
Blame
Discouragement
Anger
Revenge
Hatred/rage
Jealousy

So even though you might be feeling stuck at disappointment, perhaps you can reach for an overwhelming thought. Don’t stay there too long – try to reach for a frustrating thought. Even though this is not exactly enlightened thinking, it will be an improvement on overwhelment. If you can get yourself to pessimism, you are only two steps away from contentment!

You can do this process over the course of a single day, but also over several days. In fact, these levels are just shades of gray between the ultimate best-feeling and worst-feeling thoughts. Just reach for the best one you can find at any given moment in time! As you get higher and higher, even if it is just for a short time, “milk it” for all its worth and it will get easier and easier to reach those happy levels!

More about the emotional scale in chapter 19 of the book! Order a copy today! paperback | ebook

By Teresa | Posted in Articles, Encouragement | Tagged , , | Comments off