Fear

That which we fear will most definitely come upon us. 

When we live in fear, we are exhibiting a form of resistance - - resistance to love, resistance to God.  But we are also resisting the fear of the thing that we fear.

Remember, the universal law that resistance causes persistence?  That is precisely what is in effect here.  Rather than resisting fear, or resisting the fear of a thing, notice your feelings and notice your thoughts when you are feeling fear.  The thing you fear is simply a pattern of thoughts being replayed from the past.  Notice that you have fear.  Notice everything that comes up for you around this fear. 

Another thing to notice about fear is that it is at the root of everything that stops us.  When you feel you can’t ask someone for help, fear is at the root.  Maybe you fear looking bad in that person’s eyes.  Or, maybe you have a fear of not looking good.  Maybe your fear is of someone saying “no.”  Is “no” so harmful?  When you get a “no” from someone, don’t you have exactly what you had before you asked?  Look closely and you will see that nothing has changed for you except now you are left with whatever meaning that you assign to that “no.”  If “no” means rejection to you, then you aren’t simply letting “no” mean “no.”  Fear is at the root.

Getting past fear isn’t always easy.  You first must accept what is so about the situation.  You need to look closely to understand where your fear is coming from.  You need to determine if there is more than one source of fear and get real with yourself rather than making up stories or justifications about why the fear is present.  You must stop hiding your true feelings from yourself if you’re going to get out of fear and into a place that empowers you!

There are two types of fear – authentic and inauthentic.  Authentic fear is in play when you are being faced with real danger.  As an example, you’re out walking by yourself and you have ended up in an unknown area of the city.  It’s dark and you see a stranger approaching you with a gun in his hand.  The type of fear you will be feeling is authentic fear.  You are authentically in danger.  There is something that is happening right now that is placing your life in danger.

Inauthentic fear doesn’t feel any differently to the body.  The feelings you experience may be the same.  But when inauthentic fear is present, you are in no real danger.  For example, you are at work and you have been feeling pressured by your boss to perform at a higher rate.  You have been fired from jobs before.  The economy is rough, jobs are scarce, and you are feeling the fear of losing your job, the fear of not being able to feed your family, and the fear of not looking good in the eyes of your fellow employees, your friends, and your family.  This fear is real.  But it’s inauthentic.  It’s all based on something you believe might happen in your future – not something that is happening right now.

Do you see the difference?

In order to get past the fear and into a place of power, you must get real with yourself about why the fear is present.  Determine if the fear is authentic or inauthentic.  If the fear is inauthentic, just distinguish it for what it is – the fear of something that you’ve determined could happen in your future.  Then, make the conscious choice to replace the fear with love, with trust, and with peace.  You can allow yourself to love and trust that everything will be alright just as easily as you allow yourself to have fear.  It’s simply a matter of choosing to believe different thoughts.

Don’t be fooled by your bodily sensations.  The same feelings you feel when you first fall in love are the same bodily sensations you have when you are afraid of something; butterflies in the stomach, lack of appetite, nervousness, sweaty palms.  The bodily sensations are the same but the value, or assignment of meaning that we give to them differ greatly.  Don’t be swayed by what you feel in your body.  Choose love and faith over fear and you will be able to walk successfully in peace.

Perceptions – Part II

For the past couple of days I’ve been blogging about how we, as humans, have a propensity to make up explanatory stories about ourselves and others. So, along that vein, I wanted to write a second part to my previous blog on “Perceptions.”

As a quick refresher for those who have already read that blog, I’ve posted bits and pieces from my previous blog below:

We all have powers of perception when it comes to “reading” others. We perceive people to be upset, to be dangerous, to be lighthearted and fun to be around, and to be serious and void of humor.

While perception is a valuable tool for us to use in our communications with others, there is a particular trap we often fall into when it comes to perception. This trap, of “preconceived notions” isn’t reserved for people we’ve just met. It also interferes with people we’ve known for a long time.

If we only relate to others as we “know” them to be, we never leave room for them to change, grow, or transform. They can only “be” who we perceived them to be. And, in our worlds, once they do change, we don’t see it because we’re never looking for it. We’re only looking for the evidence of what we “know” to be true about them. And, we will always find the evidence we are looking for to support our assumptions / perceptions about others.

So, today’s blog is really a simple exercise that will move you into a place of letting go of what you “know” about another. If you’re anything like me, when you see an exercise, you’re probably tempted to just read it and see what you glean from it. But, I promise you, that the value of this exercise is in actually doing it.

So, please grab a clean piece of paper and write down the name of the individual you want to use for this exercise. I would recommend using a spouse or partner or a family member – someone to whom you are very close and have daily interaction.

Now, take as much time as you need and write down the answers to the following questions as related to the person whose name you wrote down:

What is it that I already know about this person?

What opinions do I have about this person?

What judgments do I have about this person?

What are his or her strongest attributes?

What’s wrong with him or her?

What decisions have you made about this person?

What true about this person?

What does this person think about me?

What is this person's relationship to money?

What is this person's relationship to sex?

What is this person's relationship to communication?

What is this person's relationship to intimacy?

What is this person's relationship with me?

Whew! You’re finished with that part; now for the fun part:

Look over your lists of the things you think about this person and the things you believe that he or she thinks about you. Where did all of those ideas come from?

I’m guessing that you didn’t write down how you see this person in the future.

And, the present is happening now, and now, and now, and now. So, you couldn’t have gotten your notions from the present because each present moment quickly becomes the past moment.

So, I believe that you’ll agree with me that everything you believe to be true about this person came from your past experiences of this person. Could this person have changed and you have not recognized it?

I wrote in my previous blog that “In order to compensate for this ‘trap of perception’, we must give up, anew, our previous perceptions about a person each time that we interact with him or her. Only then, do we allow another the space s/he needs to be fully self-expressed as who s/he is, in the present.”

Consider that your intimacy with a person is directly related to your ability to be with who he or she is in the moment. We’ve always looked at intimacy as something that we feel, based on the happenings or events of our past. But, really, intimacy is being able to share exactly who you are at any given moment and the person with whom you are sharing being able to understand that and not let past interactions interfere with his or her perceptions of you in the present moment……and, vice-versa.

Now, look at the list of things you wrote down once more and ask your self these questions:

What would be possible with this person if I could give up knowing all of this stuff, and could discover him or her newly?

What would be possible if I engaged with him or her as if each time we met it was new and I would look for what’s present instead of what’s missing?

What would be possible in our relationship if she or he listened to me newly each time? Would he or she discover things about me that he or she didn’t already know?

Task yourself this week with discovering the people around you, newly, as if you were meeting them for the first time and see what a difference in makes in your affinity for them.

Our Worlds Are Created By Our Words – Part II

Our worlds only exist in language. There is no “you” outside of language. There is no “me” outside of language. And there is nothing else in this universe that exists outside of the world of language for you and me. If we didn’t have language, would we know one another by smell or sight? Would we be able to differentiate one from another at all? Would we “name” each other by using tongue-clicks or guttural noises? These are all valid questions for what our lives would look like if we didn’t have the cognitive skill of language.

We are the only part of God’s creation that has true language. We are able to “create” new things in language – naming something that is newly invented. We are able to coin new words that have meanings varied from those already in existence. This, on its own, differentiates us from primates.

Monkeys have proven that they have the ability to use tools. They are able to mimic the actions of other monkeys and learn to use sticks for things such as getting ants out of an ant-hill, etc. But, you’ll never see a monkey pick up a stick in order to get bananas out of a tree, for a tree that is yet to be seen down the path. In other words, monkeys don’t exhibit any behavioral signs that they are ever living for their futures. Their worlds appear to be all about the survival of their present.

So, we are distinguished from the lower classes of animals not only in our ability to use language as a representative tool and for communication, but we are also able to use our cognitive skills in order to plan for our future lives. And those futures will look exactly as our pasts have looked unless we use our skills in language to create something that is different from that which we now have.

You see, it is only in language that creation may occur. On a simple level we could say, that if I were to create something with you or with a group of people, it would take our communication to accomplish the creation of that thing. That is the simplest form of using our language for the purpose of creation.

However, there is a greater form of creation that we have available to us through language. And that is simply, the creation of a thing, created in our speaking, our writing, or our thoughts.

The Bible gives us a lesson from history about what man can accomplish (or, create) with two fundamental things: (1) Imagination and (2) Language. Following is that account from Genesis 11:1-12 (AMP):

The Tower of Babel

1And the whole earth was of one language and of one accent and mode of expression. 2And as they journeyed eastward, they found a plain (valley) in the land of Shinar, and they settled and dwelt there.

3And they said one to another, Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. So they had brick for stone, and slime (bitumen) for mortar. 4And they said, Come, let us build us a city and a tower whose top reaches into the sky, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over the whole earth.

5And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6And the Lord said, Behold, they are one people and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do, and now nothing they have imagined they can do will be impossible for them.

7Come, let Us go down and there confound (mix up, confuse) their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 8So the Lord scattered them abroad from that place upon the face of the whole earth, and they gave up building the city.

9Therefore the name of it was called Babel – because there the Lord confounded the language of all the earth; and from that place the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of the whole earth. [Italics & Bolding are mine.]

The Law of Attraction is just as real as the Law of Gravity. We can’t see either of these laws with our eyes. Yet these laws are finite and unrepentant. Quantum mechanics has now proven that in order for there to have been a Universe, there had to have been thought. Remember:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.“ - John 1:1 (NIV)

“And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.” - Genesis 1:3 (NIV)

“…And God said, “let there be……….” and there was……” Genesis 1:1-31 (NIV)

Being able to declare in advance the results that you’re committed to producing, and then having those results occur because you said, leaves you profoundly related to reality.

Meditation - The Secret to Manifesting your Desires

If you’re like most people, you probably have some preconceived notions about what meditation is. It might evoke images of Buddhist monks chanting or yogis sitting in lotus position with their eyes closed. And although meditation does encompass those forms, it is defined by the Merriam-Webster online dictionary as “1: to focus one's thoughts on : reflect on or ponder over 2: to plan or project in the mind : intend, purpose.“

When using the Law of Attraction to manifest a desired thing in your life, there is no better or faster way to make this law work than through the use of intentional meditation. What I mean by “intentional meditation” is that this is not a form of meditation used to “clear your mind.” Instead, this form of meditation is very directed and focused. It is most like the second definition provided above - - “to plan or project in the mind: intend; purpose.”

Firstly, let me explain why this step is so important. The more emotion and feeling that you can muster behind your desired outcome, the faster the universe responds to it. So, those who have worked with this law for some time, typically recommend the use of meditation either two or three times each day.

How Many Times & How Long To Meditate:

The minimum recommendation is to use meditation after first awakening in the morning and then to use it again prior to going to sleep at night. If you can manage to throw in a mid-day meditation time, that will be all the more powerful for you. You will want to spend about 10 – 15 minutes each time you meditate so plan your day accordingly so that the time you need to meditate is carved out in your schedule.

What to Do when You Meditate:

If you have collaged your desired outcome, if you have created a Visualization Board, or if you have any type of pictorial representations of what it is you desire, have those things in front of you for the meditation exercise. If you don’t have any of these, that’s fine - - they are not necessary. However, keeping any dream or vision before your eyes as much as possible will simply help to speed the process along as it will continually remind you throughout your day of the desire you are intending to manifest.

Sit in a comfortable place and position in a room where you will be able to have absolute quiet and no interruptions. Look over your pictorial representations (if you have them), and then close your eyes. You now want to picture what your life will look like once you have the desired thing. However, don’t picture this as a future event. Picture it as a “now” event. For example, if you believe that you have received a new car, picture in your mind what it feels like now that you have that new car. Feel the feelings of happiness or joy that go along with having that new car. Picture yourself behind the wheel of the car, driving it wherever you will drive it once it manifests. See yourself behind the wheel of your new car - - driving down the road in it, listening to music, parking in your parking spaces at work and at home. Feel the joyful feelings of having those experiences.

Before you complete this meditation exercise, remember to give thanks for the gift you have received. Remember, if you had been given an inheritance, you would be thanking anyone associated with the giver of those funds prior to ever receiving the money. That’s how your faith must work with the Law of Attraction, too. Be thankful and show your gratitude to God and the universe for providing that which you requested and have now received.

Continue to meditate, day and night (at a minimum), until the desired thing manifests in your life. Remember, we can’t dictate through what channels or in what time these things will come. God determines the method of delivery and the timing. We are to ask, believe, and receive, and then take action on any divine inspiration we receive.

Why are my Thoughts & Words Not Producing the Desired Effects? – Part II

or……….”Size Doesn’t Matter but Worthiness Does”

The Law of Attraction (LOA) responds to our dominant thoughts and spoken words to bring about that which we think about most & that of which we speak. While we have in our minds concepts such as: big or little, and worthiness or deservedness, the LOA doesn’t pay attention to any of that nonsense. This law doesn’t care if you are believing for something that is really big (something that’s a major stretch for you to believe based on your present circumstances) or something small (that you could easily buy for yourself without breaking your budget). And, the LOA doesn’t consider your deservedness of receiving the thing for which you ask.

Along side of ‘thinking about what we don’t want (instead of what we do want),’ (see previous post) the above two thoughts make up the top three reasons that people don’t receive that for which they’ve believed.

So, let’s talk about the size issue first. What we see as a big thing, requires the same amount of effort (or energy) for God to produce as what we see as a small thing. Both things are made of the same stuff – energy. It truly doesn’t make a difference to the universe whether you’re believing for a parking spot or for $1,000.00. Both are made of energy. And the channels that need to be opened, the pathways that need to be unblocked, or the hearts of men that need to be stirred, are all made up of energy. It’s just energy that’s vibrating at different frequencies.

And now, let’s talk about the worthiness issue. Many people do not receive what they tell themselves and others that they are believing for because, at their very core, they do not believe that they deserve to receive that for which they’ve asked. Ask anyone and s/he can tell you - - off the top of his/her head, 10 “good” reasons why s/he doesn’t deserve to get the thing which s/he desires. The majority of us judge ourselves to be unworthy of receiving anything for free. We believe that we need to be good “enough”, work hard “enough”, give to charities “enough”, go to church “enough”, “do volunteer work “enough.” Can you see what’s in common with the above thoughts? They are each about doing something enough! God’s not dangling a carrot on a string attached to a pole in front of us to coerce us to do anything. God’s fundamental nature is to give. That is who He is. Therefore, He’s not moved by your doing anything enough. In fact, He’s not moved by your doing altogether! He simply wants to give you His love.

Both of the above beliefs come down to one shared central theme: where you are at with your faith? Do you believe that you can ask for $1,000.00 and receive it? Do you feel that you could believe for a cup of coffee and receive it? Do you believe that you are worthy to receive that new job (or promotion)? Do you believe that you aren’t the best qualified candidate no matter what the job is for which you would like to apply?

If you have issues using the LOA because of the “size” of your wants, begin with small things. Exercise the Law of Attraction by believing today for a cup of coffee or a bagel or something small. Once that thing is attracted into your life, begin to gradually increase your faith - - each time asking for something “bigger” than you received the last time. The exercising of your faith will help you develop that muscle to believe, just like physical exercise develops our body’s muscles.

If you have issues with your low self-image / self-worth, begin to see yourself as worthy simply because you have a place on this planet. You are God’s master creation and you were created to be the recipient of His love. Begin declaring to yourself as often as possible:

I Deserve Good Things In My Life.

I Am worthy of receiving good things.

I Abundantly receive my desires from the universe, because God desires to richly bless me.

Why are my Thoughts & Words Not Producing the Desired Effects? - Part I

The Law of Attraction responds to our thoughts and spoken words to bring about that which we think about & that of which we speak. What many people don’t realize is that this law is blind to whether we are thinking in the negative or positive - - it just responds to that which we think about the most. And many people who aren’t getting the results they want are thinking about what they don’t want instead of what they do want.

As an example, in the English language, we consider the following two sentences to basically mean the same thing:

“I am healthy and well.”
“I don’t get sick or feel badly.”

However, the Law of Attraction regards the above two sentences as two completely different statements. This law doesn’t regard whether a thought is formed in the positive or negative. It simply responds to the dominate words contained in the thought itself.

So, in the thought, “I am healthy and well,” the universe responds to the words “healthy” and “well.” In the thought, “I don’t get sick or feel badly,” the universe responds to the words “sick” and “feel badly.” As you can see, the outcome of thinking “healthy and well” will be very different from the outcome of thinking “sick and feel badly.”

Again, this brings us back to yet another reason that we need to be thinking thoughts that are positive. Thinking positive thoughts about our self-image, our self-worth and value, our abilities, our health, our finances, our intelligence, our relationships, our inter-relational skills, etc. are all the types of thoughts we should be thinking. When we think along these lines, we will notice that we feel good about ourselves.

In contrast, thinking thoughts that start with: “I don’t want…..,” “I don’t need….,” “I am not….,” and “I won’t be……” are all phrased in the negative. These thoughts will only lead us down one path - - the path of causing the universe to manifest those things that we don’t want in our lives. If we don’t want something, our pursuit should be to only think about it’s opposite - - what we do want.

As I wrote in my blog of Monday, July 6, 2009, entitled, “Fighting Against Sickness”, “…we must realize that no one has ever gotten, or become, something by studying its opposite. In other words, no one has ever gotten peace by studying war. No one has ever produced a non-addicted society by studying drugs. We don’t obtain righteousness by studying sin. We don’t gain wealth by studying poverty.  And, we certainly don’t obtain healing by studying disease.” We only obtain what we want by thinking positively and speaking positively about that which we want.

If You Don’t Like What’s On the Outside, Change What’s On the Inside!

There’s a phenomenon that’s common to the human experience in which we continually create the same experience of life over and over again. If you look back over the course of your life, you will see that this phenomenon has been present at various points of your life and in different areas.

Look back at your relationships. Perhaps you left one relationship that wasn’t working for you, just to end up in another relationship, or even a string of relationships, that pretty much looked the same as the last. Whatever it was about the one relationship that didn’t work for you, continued to present itself in the next relationship(s) also. This is a common pattern that we see in Battered Wives Syndrome.

Look at your previous work situations. Did you ever leave a place of employment where you didn’t get along with your co-workers or your boss only to have the same experience at your next job?

What once occurred to me as Life handing me the same situation over and over again until I learned whatever lesson there was for me to learn, now occurs for me as Me creating the same situation over and over again until I change what’s on the inside. What we experience in our lives is always a direct reflection of what’s happening on the inside. Our thoughts, our ideas, and what we believe to be true create our life experiences. We actually attract to ourselves what we think about and believe.

I know this is hard idea for some to swallow. I can imagine the thoughts of readers thinking, “I didn’t want this illness in my life” or, “I wasn’t wanting to have a car wreck or other such tragedy.” It’s not that you were literally thinking, “I want my house to catch on fire” or, “I want to be sick.” Instead, the things that have come into your life were attracted to you by the vibrational frequency of your thoughts.

For example, if it’s common-place for you to have feelings of guilt, low self-esteem, shame, fear, self-righteousness, judgment, or resignation, you are emitting thoughts that attract unwanted and unfavorable circumstances and situations into your life. The vibrational frequency of these thoughts is the same vibrational frequency of the unwanted events that you have experienced. That’s why it’s so important that we change our thinking. If we are thinking thoughts that make us feel good, we are attracting into our lives, positive, and desirable things.

After learning this lesson and changing my thinking to be positive, it’s now common-place for me to have people go out of their way to help me or to provide great customer service. I no longer catch myself grumbling about others’ attitudes or apathy. Instead, as I now live to be of service to others and to show them unconditional love, I receive back from others the kindness and love that I believe we all have within us to give.

If you find that you are creating the same unwanted life experiences for yourself over and over again, look at what you are thinking and what you believe to be true about yourself. Do you believe that you are less valuable than others? Do you believe that you have less to give or that you cannot make a contribution to those around you? Do you believe that your body has an unhealthy constitution that’s prone to sickness and disease? If so, you are only attracting to yourself negative life-events. Work on changing your thinking so that you maintain a positive self-image. Once the image you hold of yourself on the inside is that of the powerful, healthy, beautiful, whole and complete, and loving person that God created you, you will see positive and desirable things manifest in your life.

Having Gratitude

I’ve been writing in my blogs for the month of July about things that relate to the Law of Attraction.  In today’s blog, I am focusing my attention on Gratitude.  Gratitude is one of the muscles that we need to exercise if we are going to see a return of that for which we’ve asked / believed.  Hebrews 11:1 (NIV) reads, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” 

Once you have asked for something, the second step is to believe - - believe that you have received that for which you asked.  In other words, faith is being certain that you have received that which you do not [yet] see [physically].  If you bought a lottery ticket and you checked the winning numbers against the numbers on your ticket and found that the numbers matched, would you wait to have an official tell you that you won the lottery money?  Would you have to wait until you actually, physically received a check in your hand before you believed that you had won?  No - - of course not!

Once you saw that the numbers matched, you would know that you had won and you would start to lay claim on that money even before you showed your winning ticket to the lottery official.  In your mind, you would start spending the money, investing the money, and determining exactly how this win-fall was going to change your life.

If you received an inheritance from a relative who passed on, would you wait to believe that you had received an inheritance until you received a check in your hand and were able to get to your bank to deposit the funds and then wait a few days for the check to clear to know that you had received something of value?  I’m asserting that you would already believe you had received the money before you ever saw the evidence of it.

Gratitude works from two realms:  (1) the realm of giving thanks for those things which are physically present in your life & (2) the realm of giving thanks in believing that you have received that for which you asked.

When we use the tool of gratitude in the first realm, we are giving thanks to God for the blessings that we currently have in our lives.  This is another way that we can turn our bad thoughts into thoughts that bring us joy and happiness.  The art of Thanksgiving always causes our hearts to overflow with good feelings.  Make it a practice to start off every day with some thoughts of thanksgiving - - giving gratitude to God for the good things in your life.  See if this practice doesn’t turn around your mood for the remainder of the day.

When we use the tool of gratitude in the second realm, we are thanking God for providing that for which we have asked.  Gratitude in this realm then, is part of the 2^nd step - - the step of believing.  If you truly believe that you received what you asked for, you will easily be able to give thanks to God for providing that thing.  We needn’t get stuck on whether or not the requested thing is yet physically seen.  This type of gratitude is just like the thanksgiving you would give if you had received an inheritance.  Your money may not yet be in hand, but you know that it is yours.

In closing, I am sharing the following quotes about Gratitude:

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” - Epictetus

“If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness.  It will change your life mightily.” -  Gerald Good

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” - John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” - William Arthur Ward

"You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you." - Sarah Ban Breathnach

"To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven." - Johannes A. Gaertner

“The daily practice of gratitude is one of the conduits by which your wealth will come to you.” Wallace Wattles

How do we Attract Good Things by Thinking Good Thoughts?

Experts disagree on the number, but researchers estimate that the average person has approximately 60,000 thoughts/day.  I don’t know about you, but I can’t keep track of that many thoughts!  In fact, I’m certain that I’m not consciously aware of all 60,000 thoughts.  In my case, it may be closer to 100 – 200 thoughts that I am consciously aware of thinking.  If all thoughts entering our minds are not the result of us consciously thinking them, where do the rest of these thoughts come from?

I don’t have the answer to that question.  But I do take heart in knowing that I’m not at the source of all of the thoughts that go through my head.  That means, some of these random thoughts that enter your mind from time to time, aren’t the result of you consciously thinking them.  That should relieve a fair amount of worry for some.  Having a random thought about doing something that is outside of your character doesn’t mean that you are flawed or that there is anything wrong with you.  It simply means that particular thought wasn’t from you. 

We need to get our thinking corrected in this area.  For many of us, we haven’t been having thoughts.  Instead, our thoughts have been having us!  What I mean by that is that we believe that we are our thoughts.  That is absolutely not true.  Your thoughts do not make up who you are.  You determine who you are.  And, you have the right to think thoughts in line with who you say you are.  And, you also have the right to disregard any thoughts that pop into your mind, which don’t line up with who you say you are.  Those thoughts aren’t from you anyway.

So, if we’re having so many thoughts of which we are unconscious, how do we know whether or not we’re thinking “good” thoughts?  Well, we do know from the Law of Attraction that if we want to attract good things into our lives, we need to focus on thinking “good” thoughts.  This is where we need to tune in to our feelings.  Our emotions, or feelings, are the prime indicator of our thoughts.  In fact, at any time of the day, you can simply do a quick check of this by asking yourself, “How am I feeling right now?”  If you’re feeling good, your thoughts must be on good things.  It’s impossible to feel good while thinking “bad” thoughts, and vice-versa. 

Try this experiment right now.  Think of a fond memory you have from childhood or your young adult years.  Maybe a fond memory of a special time shared with your mother or your father or a childhood friend.  Now, while you’re thinking about that good memory, try to feel upset or angry.  It’s impossible!  You can’t feel bad if you’re thoughts are on good things.  Now we have an easy barometer to use to check our internal dialogue.  If you’re feeling good about yourself, you can know that your thoughts are on good things.  If you’re feeling bad about yourself, you can know that your thoughts are on negative things.

So, what do we do if our thoughts are on things that are making us feel bad?  Well, we all have things that can trigger a happy emotion/response from us.  You’ll want to think about what these are for you and have 3 – 5 “happy triggers” ready to use at a moment’s notice.  Things you may consider using are:

• Listen to Music  (a favorite, or soothing piece of music can change your mood very rapidly)
• Take a few minutes of time to spend with a Pet 
• Recall a favorite Joke or antidotal story (one that makes you laugh heartily)
• Recall a fond Memory of a favorite person you enjoy spending time with

There are many other “happy triggers” that you can use.  But the above are some of the most common and a good place with which to start.

Wishing you days filled with happiness and every good thing.

The Power of Thoughts

or…...."Thoughts Become Things"

In my blog of Sunday, July 5^th, in which I introduced the Law of Attraction, I included the four axioms of that law. Two of those tenets are: (1) Thoughts become things and (2) What you think about, you bring about.

Thought is a powerful tool according to the Law of Attraction. This law asserts that those things to which we give the majority of our thought-life, will manifest in the physical world, with some action on our part. Luckily for us, we don’t have thoughts and then immediately see the results of our thoughts manifested. If we did, I dare say we would all be in trouble. That would be like you thinking “mountain of gold” and then having a gold mountain appear, seemingly out of thin air, right before your eyes!

Instead, when we desire something and we continually think or meditate about that thing, we will receive some inspiration that will prompt us to take an action or actions, that will ultimately result in us obtaining that thing. Our thoughts don’t produce results without some action on our part. In other words, you can’t spend an hour of your workday each day in day-dreaming about getting that new job to just have the new job magically drop into your lap. The Law doesn't work like that. The universe requires that you be in action. The action you are prompted to take may not seem inspired at the moment of inspiration. It may seem that by coincidence, you meet the person who is in a position to get your resume into the hands of the right hiring manager. Or, you might feel the urge to make a change to your resume - - and that change will be the thing that makes the difference to the individual reviewing your submission.

We don’t dictate to the universe how or when something will manifest. We don’t choose the channels through which our desires will come. There are endless possibilities of how we might ultimately receive the things we desire. But how and when, is up to the universe to determine. Our part is to spend time meditating on the things we desire, and to take action when inspired to do so.

Fighting Against Sickness

Why is it that we’ve always believed we have to fight for what we want? We fight each other, fight other countries, fight cancer, fight nuclear arms, fight in the war on drugs, and fight in the war on terror. 

I’m not writing that fighting is, in itself, wrong.  I don’t pretend to know everything about the merits or downfalls of fighting.  I do however want to assert a claim here when dealing with things of a personal nature.  When we have a sickness within our bodies that we want to rid ourselves of, we do not have to fight it!  Scripture (1 Timothy 6:12 – NIV) tells us to “Fight the good fight of faith…”  Before you check out on me, read the rest of this blog and then decide whether or not you agree with what I’ve written.

Firstly, we must realize that no one has ever gotten, or become, something by studying its opposite.  In other words, no one has ever gotten peace by studying war.  No one has ever produced a non-addicted society by studying drugs.  We don’t obtain righteousness by studying sin.  We don’t gain wealth by studying poverty.  And, we certainly don’t obtain healing by studying disease.

[Please read this in the light intended.  I’m very grateful for those who have studied different diseases in order to understand their makeup so that cures could be made through medicine.  I’m not arguing against doctors, the use of doctors or medicines, or the study of diseases by doctors and scientists.  What I am saying is that if you are seeking healing outside of the aid of medicine or doctors, you won’t get well by studying the sickness.  You’ll only obtain your healing by studying, and focusing on, your health.]

Carl Jung (1875 – 1961), noted Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology known as Jungian psychology, stated that “what you resist, persists.”  This is the central theme of today’s blog.  The basic concept is that through resistance of a thing, we keep that thing in place.  When we no longer fight a thing, but allow it to be as it is, and we put our efforts into standing for the opposite, the thing we had been resisting will lose its power and will cease to rule over us or exist in our lives.

When Sister Theresa was approached about attending a war protest, she emphatically replied that she would not.  She went on to say to her requestors, “However, if you ever hold a peace rally, I’ll be there” (paraphrased).  Sister Theresa understood this concept, that you only obtain what you want by standing for it - - not fighting against what you don’t want.

The Law of Attraction states that we attract to us what we think about.  The principal is the same as how a magnet works - - like attracts like.  If we put out thoughts (energy) into thinking about our being well, we attract healing to us.  If we put our thoughts into thinking about the sickness, what it’s doing to our bodies, how it’s limiting our abilities, we simply attract more sickness to us.  If we try to resist the sickness, we are still focusing our thoughts on the sickness; therefore, we continue to attract more sickness to us!

Romans 4:17 (NIV) tells us that God himself, “…calls things that are not as though they were.”  God, the inventor of the Laws of the Universe, calls things that are not as though they were.  Using God’s example, we can call our sick bodies well.  Look closely here, the scripture doesn’t read that He calls things that are as though they were not.  He is not a God of denial but a God of faith.  Therefore, if we’re to have our faith work for us, we would be best to consider the source of faith and not deny our sickness (which has us focused on the sickness), but instead, call our bodies healed (which has our thoughts and words focused on our health).

Take a good look at your life right now.  Write down on a piece of paper all of the things that you have been resisting.  Write down how long you have been resisting them.  Then look to see if any of those things have changed due to your resistance of them.  I believe you’ll find that it hasn’t happened.  Now, consider experimenting with the idea above.  Pick one thing on your list; and instead of resisting it, now embrace it.  Let it be as it is.  Don’t fight it.  Just step over into faith and declare what it is that you are standing for.  Don’t deny what is already in existence.  Just begin believing for what you want to come to fruition.  When you think of that thing throughout the day, smile and think of how it feels to now have in your life what you want (even though you don’t yet see it in the physical realm).  I promise you, the desired thing will manifest in the physical realm and the undesired thing will disappear.

Our Worlds are created by our Words

Our Worlds are created by our Words. This may be a new concept to some. Others may believe this to be the truth based on their study of scriptures or of quantum physics / quantum mechanics. Regardless of where you are along this spectrum, I’d like to share the following with you.

I hold, and I believe that science bears out, that our universe is a monistic one. Simply put, everything that we know, whether it be a physical object, a sensation such as the wind, or something from the spiritual (unseen) plane, is made up of the same substance – energy. Everything that can be seen is actually made up of molecules of energy that are moving at a very rapid pace. Trees, the desk your computer sits on, clouds, the sun, ice - - all are made up of the very same substance - - it’s just vibrating at varying frequencies.

Our thoughts, too, vibrate at different frequencies. And, the frequencies we send out through our thinking and through the words we speak attract to us the things of which we are thinking / speaking. This can be farther broken down into two levels. At a macro-level, when we think thoughts that make us feel good about ourselves, we attract good things into our lives. And when we think thoughts that make us feel bad about ourselves, we attract bad things into our lives. At a micro-level, we can focus our thinking, to meditate on some goal or some thing that we want to obtain. By continually using meditation and thinking about: having achieved that thing, feeling how we will feel when we obtain that thing, and “seeing” how we will act when we obtain that thing - - we can bring about the existence of specific things into our lives.

While driving in your car, you might turn on the radio to listen to music. If you don’t like what’s on one channel, you turn the dial (or push the button) on your radio to change the frequency to which your radio is tuned. When the tuner reaches the desired frequency, you hear through your car’s speakers what is being broadcast by the radio station assigned to that frequency. If you don’t like the content, you simply change the frequency of your radio’s tuner.

In this way, we are like a radio or T.V. tuner. But, instead of projecting the content of our thoughts on a screen or speakers, the content of our thoughts shows up in our lives. How our lives look outwardly, is a direct reflection of the thoughts we have been thinking and the words we have been speaking - - with some time delay in between. Written another way, the circumstances of our lives, are a reflection of the types of thoughts (those that bring good feelings / bad feelings) we think and speak, and the things of which we think and speak.

This is the Law of Attraction (a.k.a. the Law of Faith) at work.

The Law of Attraction states that:

• Like attracts like
• What we think about, we bring about
• Thoughts become things
• Ask, Believe, & Receive (What we ask for, we then believe that we have received it, and then we will receive it.)

I realize that sounds rather simplistic. And, actually it is simple. There are other things (and other laws) that come into play when using your Faith / the Law of Attraction, such as Gratitude and Thanksgiving, and having a level of Integrity with your own word such that you have faith in what you say.

This has simply been an introduction to the basic principle of the Law of Attraction / Faith. During the remainder of this month, I will be blogging about the various attributes of this law and the things that affect its efficacy in our lives.

Please note that your comments about this blog are welcome but you must be a registered user in order to make a comment.

Getting Triggered

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about triggers (also called “hooks”).  Triggers are thoughts, memories, events, words, or actions - - that when exposed to - - trigger, or hook us, causing an emotional upset.

We are never triggered by the content of things happening to us today, but rather because of things that happened in the past.  And, those triggering events came to reside in us only because of situations we were in that we were unable (due to our immaturity of age or mind, or due to great emotional turmoil, etc.) or unwilling to be with.

Today, when we get triggered by someone else’s words or actions, we need to stop and consider that we are being triggered by our pasts, and not by the current situation.  We have a predisposition to react (not respond) when we are triggered.  Our predisposition is to react out of anger, rebellion, despair, or some other emotion that isn’t even appropriate to the situation at hand.  But we don’t always see that because when we get triggered, our thoughts and feelings take us back to the past and we react out of feelings about that past triggering event.

So, we are left with two goals here.  The first is to recognize when we are getting triggered and ask ourselves, in the moment, if we can give up our emotional reaction in order to respond appropriately to the situation at hand.  The second is to locate that triggering event and relive it.  Do this with someone you trust.  Close your eyes and describe the event or memory.  Feel any bodily sensations.  Feel your emotions surrounding that event.  Listen to what you are thinking regarding that memory and relay all of this, out loud, to your friend.  Let your feelings come out about that event.  Sometimes this will be crying.  Other times it will be anger or another emotion.  Your friend needs not say anything but simply be there as a sounding board.  By reliving the event, and now dealing with it with the maturity of an adult, you will be able to allow that memory its release and it will no longer have a hold over you.

Our Interactions are Shaped by our Perceptions

Perception is one of the tools of communication we have which allows us broader access and insight to the true feelings of those around us. 

We sometimes overlook the power of perception in our daily lives but it absolutely shapes the color of our interactions with others, the quality of our lives, and our willingness to take action on behalf of another.

We all have powers of perception when it comes to “reading” others.  We perceive people to be upset, to be dangerous, to be lighthearted and fun to be around, and to be serious and void of humor.  These perceptions come from others physiological (body) language (standing with open or crossed arms, smiling or frowning, eyes are bright or eyes are glazed, etc.) as well as their tones of voices and inflections of speech more so than in the actual words that they say.

While perception is a valuable tool for us to use in our communications with others, there is a particular trap we often fall into when it comes to perception.  Let’s say that you’re meeting someone for the first time.  It’s been said that first impressions are the most important.  Why do you think that might be?

When we meet someone for the first time, we file away general information about that person in our memory.  Most of us will at least remember the person’s face.  Some will remember the person’s face and their name.  But all of us will remember what we perceived about that person.  We will remember if we liked them.  We will remember what kinds of signals they were sending with their physiological language and other non-verbals - - and by these we will remember if they were enjoyable to be around and whether or not we felt that they liked us.  We will remember if we were offended by anything they said.  And so on, and so on…..

The trap that this creates for us is that we begin to “know” that person by what we remembered from our first encounter.  That’s not to say that those impressions cannot be changed over time.  However, the next time we are in the company of that person, we choose the words we speak, the information we share, and convey back our overall feelings about that individual based upon our past perceptions of the person.

This trap, however, isn’t reserved for people we’ve just met.  It also interferes with people we’ve known for a long time. 

People can and do change.  And, people transform.  My perception about my supervisor at work might be that he isn’t sympathetic to others when they are sick.  He’s never sick and he doesn’t have empathy for others when they are.  However, let’s say that he eats some tainted shell-fish one Friday night and he becomes very sick.  By Monday, he’s recovered enough to return to work and he can hide the fact that he’s been ill.  Neither I, nor any of my fellow employees, know that our boss was sick over the weekend.  Now, unbeknownst to any of us, through his own experience, my boss has developed an empathy for others when they are sick.  But since I don’t know that, I still relate to him as if he were a tyrant when it relates to illness. 

The following Wednesday, I wake up really sick with a stomach flu.  I go to pick up the phone and call my boss but all I can think about is how he has related to me in the past when I was sick and how difficult this is going to be for me to call out of work.  I try to think of other excuses.  I try to determine if I can push through this and make it.  This whole time, I am operating in the trap known as “preconceived notions” as given by the perceptions I have about my boss in the area of sickness.  I’ve gotten myself so worked up that I’ve gone over what our verbal exchange might be when I call in and talk to him.

Finally, feeling that I’m armed as well as can be, I call my boss to inform him that I will be out of work that day due to illness.  He thanks me for calling and tells me that he hopes I get to feeling better soon.  “What?!!!?!,” I think as I hang up the phone.  That wasn’t my boss.  I proceed to ponder over it for awhile and then chalk-it-up as a one time thing.  I continue to relate to my boss as an uncaring, unsympathetic human being.

That is an example of the trap of perception at work.  If we only relate to others as we “know” them to be, we never leave room for them to change, grow, or transform.  They can only “be” who we perceived them to be.  And, in our worlds, once they do change, we don’t see it because we’re never looking for it.  We’re only looking for the evidence of what we “know” to be true about them.  And, we will always find the evidence we are looking for to support our assumptions / perceptions about others. 

In order to compensate for this “trap of perception”, we must give up, anew, our previous perceptions about a person each time that we interact with him or her.  Only then, do we allow another the space s/he needs to be fully self-expressed as who s/he is, in the present.

Our Worlds are shaped by our Perspectives

Perspective is a very powerful thing.  Our moods are given to us by the perspectives we assume.  Our thoughts, our feelings, and our actions are all driven by the perspectives from which we choose to live our lives.

We sometimes overlook the power of perspective in our daily lives.  But, it is the absolute framework for the quality of our lives.  Our perspectives determine our willingness to take action in any given situation.  If we believe we are unbreakable, our perspective will lead us to take risks, ask for things that others won’t, and attempt things that others may shy away from.  If we believe ourselves to be broken, our perspective will keep us from easily making friends, prevent us from requesting anything from another for which the answer might be “no”, and stop us from taking any action at which we might ultimately fail.

We must make every effort to vigilantly remember:  the perspectives we assume provide the context for which the content of our lives shows up. 

As an example, if you have the perspective that you are unlovable, the only context in which people can show up for you is in a space of unloving.  In that space of unloving, any given person’s actions will be used to prove to yourself that you are incapable of being loved - - regardless of how benign the action might have been.  [Remember: We always find proof of what we’re looking for.  If we’re looking for proof that people are dangerous, we will always find proof of it in their words and actions.  If we’re looking for proof that people are loving, we will always find proof of that in their words and actions.]

Last week I needed to be at a specific place at a specific time.  I left the house late.  As I was driving, I became very aware of my thoughts and feelings.  I was tense.  I was irritable.  I was in an upset and everyone else who was driving in my path was doing so incorrectly.  I was making all of the driving actions they took about me.  If someone pulled into my lane ahead of me, they were inconsiderate and oblivious to the fact that I was in a hurry.  Quickly, I regained consciousness and choose a new reality - - a new perspective.  I thought:

When I believe that I’m going to be late, I get upset and everything that happens is wrong…..it’s like the world’s conspiring against me.  However, if I didn’t have to be anywhere at a specific time and I were just out running errands, everything would be great and the actions that other drivers took would (of course) not be about me.  In fact, they would be of little consequence to me.

I didn’t take the perspective that I wasn’t going to be late.  I was pretty certain that I would be and lying to myself about that would not be the best solution.  Instead, I said to myself, “OK, I’m going to be late.  There is nothing I can do to change that.  All I can do is communicate my impending lateness to the party concerned and allow myself to be with the fact that I will be late.”  Hurrying, driving recklessly fast or taking risks in my car where not actions that I wanted to take.  Instead, I simply allowed myself to be with the fact that I would be late and I was able to easily switch gears back to a “running errands” type of driving mood - - no hurry, nothing wrong, no irritability.  

You choose what you want in life.  No one chooses that for you.  Don’t get into a rut of thinking that you’ve been given your perspectives in life.  You may have had certain influences (such as your parents or guardians) in your life, but you chose the perspectives by which you live your life.  And you now have the power to freely choose different perspectives - - ones that empower you to live your best life.