Archive for the ‘Life’ Category
I have been really into positive thinking lately. Recently I have realized how negative my thoughts had become. It was like I was swimming in a sea of negativity. I have been determined to change things.
By changing your thoughts you can change your life. Do something with me right now. Say the word ‘Awesome’. Now stand up and say it with feeling ‘AWESOME’. Did you feel a shift in energy? I know someone who did a lot of stage presentations and he said that he would stand in front of a mirror before going on and say ‘AWESOME’ with feeling three times. Another good word to say before you have a presentation or meeting is ‘YES’. Say that if front a mirror three times with hand movements and excitement and you will definitely have a shift. If you actually did that, don’t you feel better?
There are many ways to shift your attitude. I read about a person who started experimenting with facial expressions. You have heard that smiling can lift your spirits. Well he had heard that also and wanted to learn more. This person learned about all the different muscles in the face. He discovered which muscles created which expressions. But he did not stop there. He and a colleague developed facial exercises to learn to work each muscle individually! He found that when he moved the correct muscles to make a specific expression, he experienced the corresponding emotion in his body! Isn’t that wild? There is basis to ‘smile and you will feel better’.
This led me to think about other ways that can change our feelings or even our character. I will go into that tomorrow.
Yesterday I mentioned the two methods of handling obstacles. One was to be persistent until you worked through it, the other was to give up and move on to something else. The dilemma was how to know which type the obstacle was.
Actually, the two reactions are not often mutually exclusive, they can work together. A passion may lead you down one path and you hit a brick wall. You try to punch through it, that doesn’t work. You try to jump over it, too tall. You try to dig under it, tunnel keeps caving in. You try going around it and it seems to go on forever. Then you step back to look at the wall again, take a deep breath and consider how to tackle it next. That is when you notice a door in the wall! It was there all along and allows you through with little effort!
But what if you step back and don’t see a door or a window or a ladder? That is when you consider how important getting to the other side really is to you. Maybe this is the sign to move on. Is there something else you are just as passionate about that you have let slide? Look for the other opportunities around you that don’t have to do with the wall. Something just as interesting may be just over your shoulder.
This has happened to my husband many times. He says he will keep butting his head against a brick wall and when he finally comes up for air, there is a window staring at him. This window is usually a different opportunity, something that will take him in a different direction that he would have never noticed if he had not come to the impassable wall.
You don’t even have to totally give up on the wall problem. Time may crumble the wall and allow you easy passage through it later.
I have a problem with obstacles that are encountered in life. How should they be dealt with?
Are they just a test of your determination? I have always noted that successful people are persistent. They meet a challenge with determination. An obstacle is just a challenge to be overcome. Obstacles are speed bumps on the road to success.
Then there are the obstacles that are actually closed doors. These are the signs that you need to look around for the open window; it is time to go in a different direction.
But how do you know which type of obstacle is in front of you? If you treat it as a test of your determination when it is a true closed door, you will beat your head on it for quite a while and never get anywhere. You will waste a lot of time and energy. There is a chance you will become obsessed with the problem and never look around to see that there is an open window or another door just beckoning you to enter.
If you treat it the other way, where you see the obstacle as a closed door when it should be met with determination, you may never actually complete a project! Running from all obstacles will lead to a wishy-washy character trait; one where you will never stick to anything.
So how do you tell the difference? I believe most of us fall somewhere between the two. We have each developed an internal stop light to tell us when to move on and when to stick with something. This internal light will vary with the project. When we have a lot of passion for an effort, we will keep with it, determined to see it through. Passion creates stick-ability.
I’ll continue this thought tomorrow.
My spell-checker husband is out of town on a mission trip with the youth from our church so if you find a misspelling or wrong word, let me know so I can correct it.
Archangel Michael and Car Trouble
Posted by: Ann
June 12th, 2010 >> Guides, Life, Physical/Material, Spirituality
Once I was waiting at a stop light, when it turned green I started across. My car started rolling but there was no power. No matter how much I put my foot on the gas there was no power. I made the corner and was able to pull to the side of the road. I tried to start it and nothing happened. What to do!
I was about 4 miles from home and another 4 miles from my destination. I remembered reading that Archangel Michael was good with computers so I thought maybe he could help with the car. I said a fast prayer asking Archangel Michael to help me ‘get my car started’. Then I tried starting it again; nothing.
I decided to call my husband who was 1000 miles away on a job in another state. I knew he couldn’t do anything for me, but just hearing his voice would help me feel better. While I was talking to Paul, a work truck pulled up behind me and a man got out and approached the car. I rolled down the window (the electrical still worked), and I said good bye to Paul. The man in the truck was a mobile mechanic!
He stayed there working under the hood, trying the easiest possibility first and progressing to the more difficult. Each time we would try to start it and nothing. After changing out about 4 smaller items with no success, he finally gave the car a full blown tune up, new spark plugs and new wires! He had been working on the vehicle for 3 hours! After he put the last wire on I had this feeling of ‘OK, I’ve been here long enough, it is time to get going’ I got in the car and it started! I happily paid him for his work and got going.
OK Michael did not directly get the car going, but I believe he sent that mechanic to help me ‘get my car started’ just like I had asked. Another oddity about the incident was that I was not upset or frazzled by the delay and there was a distinct feeling that it was time to get going again after the tune up. I just knew the car would start at that point because it was just time to go.
That makes me wonder what I missed by the 3 hour delay, was this a form of protection? I will never know in this life the significance of that event, but maybe when I get home I will understand what that was all about.
What do you remember about current celebrities? Is it their good traits or their failures? Unfortunately, when you are in the limelight it is the faults that are remembered.
Let’s get back to you, the average Joe. What are you going to be remembered for? Will it be that you were steadfast, that you kept your word or that you were a good provider?
Those who know you well may remember the good traits you have. But even they will fall back on the ‘stories’ about you and your quirks and failures. (This is a good reason to always have a sense of humor about yourself). How much more will those who are just acquaintances of you only know the bad stories, the problems you created, the ‘colorful’ side of you because those are the stories that get gossiped about as they are more ‘interesting’ that the standard everyday goodness a person has.
Why are we remembered for our mistakes instead of our regular everyday deeds? For one thing it is sad that many people try and make themselves feel better by putting others down. If they can find something about someone as being below what they would do then they think they are better. This is a hollow ‘victory’ as it does not have to do with the person’s own good merits but the failure of another.
What can we do about this? Not much. People will be people. All we can do is live our life to the best of our ability and don’t take our little failures to heart. Every one has them, even those throwing shadows at you. On the positive side, we can try and not do the same to others. This is a good time to practice the Golden Rule.
The Commandments and The Law of Attraction
Posted by: Ann
June 10th, 2010 >> EFT, God, Life, Manifesting, Meridian Tapping, Physical/Material, Spirituality
As promised, today is how the commandments 4-10 relate to the law of attraction.
The rest of the commands have to do with how we treat each other. If we are truly living in abundance and in the law of attraction we will not do any of these because that would be like doing it to yourself. What goes around comes around. Be good to others and good will come to you. Let’s take a few and look closer.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy’. You don’t have to work your tail off. Take some time off and recuperate. Have faith, expect that good will come and let it come. This can also be expressed as take time for gratitude which is very important in the law of attraction.
“Honor your father and your mother”. Ok who hasn’t had a dysfunctional childhood? Congratulations, move to the next paragraph. The rest of you keep reading. I am going to use the big “F” word: Forgiveness. I know it is hard, but your mom or dad or who ever wronged you had a crappy childhood too. More than likely they did not wake up each morning thinking of ways to make your life miserable. For the few who had parents that did, remember you are grown up now and can break those ties for your own good. They don’t have to be in your life any more, I give you permission to never see them again! Thank them for what they taught you, because you did learn from them, then move on. Those lessons may not have been pleasant but they formed you. Now you know what you do not want to be like. Remember you are forgiving them, not their actions. But if you can’t bring yourself to forgive, work on the issues involved with EFT or one of the other meridian tapping methods. (Go to www.naturallyresilient.com to learn more). Lifting the weight of the issues from your shoulders will help you tremendously.
The next several are no-brainers; don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie. This falls under what you think about comes about. If you do something to someone else then that is the way you view the world. If you view the world as unfriendly that is the kind of world you will get. I have heard it said that the most important decision you will ever make is to decide what kind of a world you live in; a friendly one or an unfriendly one.
What about the last one; you shall not covet. This is beyond just wanting what they have. In the law of attraction, you can attract the same thing into your life if you want it. You do not have to take from some one else to have it, there is plenty to go around. This is beyond just wanting because I also see this as rejoicing with your neighbor for what he has accomplished. Be glad that you neighbor has figured out how to attract good things into his life. This is like love, just because you love one of your children that doesn’t mean there is less love for the other children! Rejoice and be glad and expect just as good for yourself.
These tenants are great ones to live by and can enrich anyone’s life no matter what culture they live in.
Do you know a teen who is not interested in driving? This was unheard of when I was a teenager (gulp! 35 years ago). But today seems to be remarkably different. I have talked to people who have teenage and even early 20 age children who have no interest in learning to drive, and most of them are boys! My own son had to be forced to get his license; I was determined to be through with chauffeuring. To me this is in the ‘twilight zone’ area, I don’t understand what is happening.
When I was young, getting your driver’s license was like receiving a ‘get-out-of jail’ card; Freedom beckoned. I would yell “I’ll be back in an hour” and I would hit the road. I did not have to have a destination; just driving was its own reward. I would drive down roads I had never been on. I would try to get lost and this was before cell phones and GPS so there was a good chance I might actually get lost! It was exciting. I lived south of Houston at the time and sometimes I would drive down to Galveston just to smell the salt water!
But nowadays, my son and apparently many others, don’t get that feeling of freedom or that sense of adventure.
A part of this may be attributed to gameboys, books and movies in the car. No one looks out the window anymore for entertainment. The child can’t find their way around their own neighborhood.
A year before he received his learner’s permit my husband and I would quiz our son about where we were when driving and he never had a clue. I was worried that my very smart son was going to get a license then never be able to figure out how to get anywhere! Then I was talking with a friend, Sue, and the subject got turned to our teens and she volunteered that she was frustrated with her daughter who wanted to drive herself to an event happening at a small town 100 miles away and the mother was saying ‘No Way!” She explained that “M… couldn’t find her way to the grocery store”! A year before getting her learner’s permit, Sue had a relative stay with her daughter while Sue and her husband were gone for a week. One morning the relative mentioned to Sue that she was going to take M… to visit a friend. Sue said ‘let me give you directions’ but the relative assured her that they could find the house. Well the relative had to call back because after they backed out of the drive, M… couldn’t even tell her which way to turn down her own street!
So do yourself a favor and ditch the kid’s gameboys, books, movies and even MP3 players and make them find entertainment out the window, maybe they will learn some local geography in the process.
However there may also be another part to this no interest, it may be a feeling of ‘been there, done that’. A hundred years ago, shoot, 75 years ago, driving was new, different, fascinating. Those who lived back then learned the new technology. If these same souls are coming back now, driving may be something to be taken for granted, it is a ‘yeah, so what, I’ve already done that’ in the experiences of life. And worse than that, there may be some residual dislike if the soul had been killed or involved in a bad car crash.
My husband thinks there may be a link to the driving aversion and indigo kids that were being born in mass in the 90’s. I have not investigated that possibility. If anyone else can shed some light on the topic your input would be appreciated.
What ever the cause there is a definite shift in the mentality of young drivers.
The Jackrabbit Factor: Why You Can
Richard, the main character in the book, enters into a ‘dream’ type world where people race around looking for sandwiches. The sandwiches represent W-2 jobs. Some bags contain a fat juicy tuna sandwich others may contain a thin cheese sandwich and some contain more than one sandwich. But people are racing around trying to find these sandwich bags, or trying to protect these bags or even getting into fights over the bags when there are actually plenty of others to choose from.
Richard is then introduced to another way of feeding the family. It involves getting off of the main road and collecting jackrabbits. The jackrabbits are elusive until Richard meets some one who is willing to teach him about catching jackrabbits. I won’t tell you how to catch jackrabbits; you will have to read the book for yourself.
Yesterday I wrote on the benefits of suffering. I talked briefly about the superficial benefits of suffering; the attention, the pampering, the excuse for not doing something you don’t want to do. I wanted to expand on this some.
Some people experience suffering in all its glory (it may feel more like gory at the time) and they are molded and changed by the experience. Others only seem to experience the superficial benefits of suffering and may even become bitter from the experience. Why the two different reactions?
I have head it said that there are two types of clay. One type of clay when left in the sun gets soft and moldable; the other clay will get hard and brittle. You see, hardship and suffering may not necessarily build character but it sure reveals it. An amusing example of this is to consider two golfers. How does each react on the course? One may get angry with each poor shot, blaming the course, blaming the designer, blaming the water trap, blaming his clubs. The other golfer sees the challenge the course lays out and takes the opportunity to improve his game. The second golfer may make the same poor shots the first one did but he will handle it differently. One sees it as the world is against him, the other sees it as an opportunity to experiment and learn.
Which type are you? Are you flexible and open, willing to learn? Or are you hard and brittle and stuck in your ways, seeing everything and everyone as being against you. You may not realize it, but you have a choice.
Did you know that suffering has benefits? I am not talking about the surface ‘benefits’ that are not true benefits. You know what I mean; benefits such as attention, being catered to, having an excuse. These can actually prevent you from obtaining the true benefit of suffering.
Are you confused yet? Suffering that comes from hardships and illness can have a major positive impact on a person’s life. Yes of the impact is judged as bad but a lot of it is actually desirable. This suffering builds character; it creates a means for growth. True spirituality and insights can come to the person who goes through such a trial.
Our society tries real hard to eliminate the benefit of suffering. We pity the person. We try to make the person more comfortable sometimes to the point of knocking them out with drugs. We don’t even want to mention or acknowledge the problems a person is suffering through – to their face. Oh we talk to everyone else about it but if we come face to face with this person we tend to talk about superficial things like the weather.
The sufferer has much insight to give us on what is truly important but we have to be willing to listen.
When the sufferer finally comes through to the other side of their suffering you will often hear comments from them such as “I could not pay me a million dollars to do that again but nor would I take a million dollars to give up that experience.”
As a society, we need to honor our suffering and look for the benefits we can obtain in it. If you are in the midst of a suffering cycle right now, know that there are benefits. You may not be able to see them now. But when you are finally able to distance yourself from the current pain and it is all in the past, you will be able to look back and find the diamonds the experience left you with.