The UpShot

The First Concept

2012-11-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

The other day, I was talking with a friend, who'd also previously been a coaching client of mine, and he was remarking on how I seemed like I had a lot of great things going on in my life -- great family life, work that I found meaningful, and a plethora of fun projects, etc. -- without seeming to ever "just lose it" with so much going on. He then asked me something to the effect of: "What's your secret?" And I quite literally found myself giving an answer I had never before given to such a question. I think at various points in my life, I would have said, "I don't know..." or "I'm very fortunate..." or perhaps launched into a description of the steps in my approach, and some appreciation of the amazing help I have at every turn. And to be sure, much of that is all very true.

What I found myself saying to my friend, however, was simply: "Blind Faith!"

He leaned across the table toward me and repeated from under his raised eyebrows: "blind faith?". And I sat back a little, somewhat surprised to hear the words we were both saying, then nodded my head (as if simply in agreement with his assertion), and said: "Yep," laughed and then, "Some secret, hunh?"

He couldn't believe either the flippancy of my response (I'm sure he'd been expecting some sage response, practiced to the point of dissertation), or the lack of any detailed elaboration. I told him, in a fairly vain attempt to console him with earnestly animated, if airy, discourse that I believed everyone proceeds based almost solely on the beliefs they have about life -- ergo we all live by virtue of the faith we have in those beliefs. And I think I made that point perhaps too clear (as it was my only follow-up at the time...) with all the remaining time that we spent on the subject. And truth be told, I feel fine with that, as I believe it was enough for both of us at the moment -- for me to get to simply claim the whimsical, magical truth of myself in the presence of someone I respect without presenting it in a more "traditionally acceptable" guise; and for him to hear this basic, easy gospel, without the philosophical elaborations or logical justifications that he would expect in such a situation or would wish to explore with his own stellar analytical skills.

It was a message delivered by means of the form of the message itself -- a form poem.

Nevertheless, I have realized in the days following that I have a personal philosophy. "Just now realizing he has a personal philosophy?!" you may be saying -- and yes, of course, I have had philosophics of my own before -- but they were almost always various versions of "the philosophy of juggling concepts". I remained open to everything. I borrowed from everything. I owned nothing. And now I have claimed something that I now realize is what I have always always in my heart of hearts been most about. I've graduated. From my own school.

I've also realized, I have a lot more to say about Blind Faith.

I partly-wish I'd had the faculty at the time to tell my friend: "This is just the bedrock, the basic bottom line, the most reduced answer I can give you (just so that we can fit it into the scope of a single conversation...)". I wish I'd left him with the understanding that my faith that everything will work out is just the beginning. So I've decided that I'll share a bit of what I'll tell him next time with you for the moment.

To begin with, let's get the main point straight -- I call it Blind Faith, not because I am a fool for it (though I gladly would be, I think), but sincerely because it is the kind of faith that can lead me even in the darkest of moments, the eyes-closed-leap-into-the-abyss kind of moments, the please-help-me-so-I-don't-go-down kind of moments. At it's most basic element, it is simply the following in which I have this particular level of belief: That no matter what -- no matter what comes, no matter what goes, no matter what befalls, no matter what is revealed -- every single thing that happens to any one of us is for our own and everyone else's highest possible good. Period. Whether it's war or famine or murder or job-loss or partnership-dissolving or failure or degradation or the opposite of all of these things in any one moment -- it is all working toward harmony, not entropy as poor Steven Hawking is mis-convinced. Things do fall, and they do break, and then they become something new -- Things (do not simply) Fall Apart.

So this first, most important piece, is simply to hold (with eyes shut if necessary) onto the firm rock of believing that I am absolutely taken care of -- both in life and when I pass through death. Nothing can ultimately hurt me, and nothing is out to cause me harm in this life. And as my friends at Abraham-Hicks say, "There is only a source of Well-Being, which you are allowing, or not." -- there is no source of suffering there is just either our allowance of disallowance of our own joy. And no matter what we are experiencing, there is joy to be had there too!

And this faith, this peace, is simple enough that I can reach for it at any moment. When I am upset, I sigh and remember -- everything is working out. When I am frustrated or angry, I huff and remember -- even this is is working out for me perfectly. When I am nervous, I remember. When I am utterly lost, I remember. And moment to moment, the remembering becomes belief, the belief slowly grows into knowing, and knowing into experiencing. And when I experience the fruition(s) of my belief -- I save and compost its essence to nurture my faith further with the proof and evidence of itself.

Over time, and somewhat without my perceiving it, I have grown a perspective on the world. And as the only point I made to my friend indicated, I know that what we believe about the world and of our lives written through it, is the truth of our experience. The truth is not that "seeing is believing", but rather that the believing constitutes the seeing. Everything we truly "know" about life is the extent of what we end up seeing of it.

We are not discoverers of great truths -- we are the forgers of them. We can be, do, and have whatever we can imagine, so long as we know it to be our truth.

We don't need a system of levers and gears and highways and machinery to move mountains -- we don't even need a strategy or plan. As Jesus (you know the one) is reported to have said: "If you had but faith alone you could move mountains". I would add further that if we have faith enough, then we will see clearly that the mountain was never in the way at all.

I think I'll leave that note to resound a bit before I continue. More to come on the effects of Blind Faith on action. Until then...

∞

Be well.

*

One of the Current Experiments...

2012-01-13T02:27:00.000-07:00

I recently have been checking out the work of Christie Marie Sheldon, and her program called "Love or Above". It's all very much in the realm of Law of Attraction type stuff, and I associate her with the Abraham-Hicks end of that movement. I also happen to think she is really on to something. Her main thesis is that the level of energetic vibration that one experiences during what we call the feeling of love dramatically effects not only what we attract, but also how easily we attract it. Such that, if we each focus on maintaining our vibration at "Love or Above" (e.g. up through bliss, universal compassion, and what we call enlightenment), we will increase our magnetic ability to draw to ourselves the kinds of experiences we most want to have in this life.

Among other important little tidbits, one of the things Christie Marie's website reminded me about was Dr. Masaru Emoto's photographs of water crystals...

Click here to see a slideshow of Dr. Emoto's water crystals

And then I remembered another mini-epiphany I'd had on a previous encounter with Dr. Emoto's moving photos -- put labels I like on the drinking water container I am using. I realized I'd never actually done it. Then I remembered that I just so happened to recently come into a nearly endless supply of 1"X2" blank stickers. And as a matter of fact, I had five such stickers in my back pocket at that very moment.

What happened next was one of those delightful little surprises we all sometimes receive in life when we get our mojo going about something. You know what I'm talking about, I'm sure. You get excited about an idea and then one thing leads to another, the snow ball start rolling and growing. Then quite suddenly, a critical mass is achieved and it's no longer a snow ball, it's a giant, beautiful, cascading avalanche. And you feel delighted (elated, thrilled, a little unnerved) by the momentum that seems to have come from nowhere, but feels very much a part of you and your course. And when we are fearless about it, we can just ride the wave, surf the avalanche (to perfectly mix metaphors), and find ourselves so much further along than we would have been otherwise. Well, what I had was a micro-version of that phenomenon.

I went to get a sharpie to write on a sticker, and make a label for the water jar I was currently using. And in the spirit of Christie Marie's work, I wrote "LOVE." on it. But as I surfed the movement of the idea, and the commitment to the action, especially this action of raising my vibration, I wrote out the word, peeled off the sticker and stuck it right on the shirt I was wearing -- hearing in my head a line from Christie Marie's reference to Emoto -- she writes, "since 75% of your body is water, how could your thoughts [and vibration] be influencing it?'.

So for the last four days I have worn a new sticker everyday that says "Love." stuck to the chest of whatever shirt I have on. One day I wore it over to the left in the area where you put your hand during the pledge of allegiance. Most people who saw it that day, asked if it was my name/name-tag. I said, "Yes," without giving myself the chance to think about it. A couple people even took up calling me that, which even though I wouldn't think that I would, I really did enjoy. Others just commented that they liked it. One woman said, "I'm going to do that, too..." and explained a little more about it's appeal to her. I gave her two blank stickers to take with her.

Another day, I wore the sticker on my solar plexus. Fewer people thought I was calling myself "Love", and seemed to take it more like a slogan, or a life-advisory. One lady in her early 20's asked if it was specifically for my solar plexus and I said, "Sure, but not only," and she used her hands to explain how it was effusively radiating love into the area and outward. I felt like I could see the waves rippling out as she intimated them with her dancing gestures. And she walked away elated.

Admittedly, I do play a bit of a tug-o-war with myself about inviting the kind of attention that the stickers have drawn to me. I like enteracting with people a lot. I like novel, non-small-talky, discussion. I like inspiring people -- thus the present effort...

Buuut, I also have traditionally preferred not to be seen. At least not as my total, true "vulnerable" self. Most of my life I've tended toward a certain invisibility. I learned early (and erroneously, I think) that if I wanted to do it my way, I wasn't going to please as many people I loved, and that felt as unacceptable to me as ignoring my need to be who I am. The love offered me when I was growing up felt contingent (whether or not it actually was) on certain behaviors or at least on certain kinds of behavior, and I didn't want to miss out on love. So I played my most acceptable self outwardly, and kept my actual self under that cloak, as so many of us have done. And when I came to recognize that I had more allegiance to my self than to pleasing others in order to be loved by them, I went further into hiding, just to honour my "me". I later learned much more about all this, of course, and am now in a completely different place with those feelings, and am out in the world as my authentic self more than I ever thought possible.

The tug-o-war is still there though, between the me that wants to do his thing and not be so obviously doing something "other"; and the me that wants to do this thing and let it be shared with all the rest of the "me" out there. I wanted the sticker on the outer most layer I had on so that I saw it over and over throughout the day, but I didn't want to have to stand up for the idea to everyone else with whom I might interact.

Until I did.

Something unspoken shifted in me. In a strange way it was like going out on stage for the first time in any theatrical performance I have ever done. It's that first time on the stage (each night, every show) when I feel this same variety of lurch in my belly, and a gentle fuzzing of my consciousness. I think it's that I stop watching myself. Most of the rest of my life, I am hyper-aware that I am watching myself have this or that interaction, struggling with the door lock, making sure I don't have any boogers flailing at the edge of my nostril. I am observing myself going through motions and having experiences at the same time as having the experience. But when I experience, let's call it "the stage shift", I stop watching me and I become hyper-me -- even though I am pretending to be a character, I am the me of that character, and in a way much more so than I am generally committing to exclusively being the me I really am... (That's a little strange to realize...)

So for some reason, that stage shift, or one very similar in kind, dawned in me spontaneously, and I found myself out in public, and numerous places I regularly go with a hand-written label on the outer most layer I was wearing proclaiming, "Love.".

After the first day, my partner, Natalie, asked if I had noticed any effect on myself from the experiment thus far. I started to say I didn't think I had noticed much, but then began to notice as we spoke about it that, I had experienced a lot more kindness, openness, and receptivity from every single person with whom I had interacted that day. And then I noted as well that I had been inspired to remember more often that the place from which I most want to be coming is from a place of love. I was reminded, especially when I could see the word on my chest, that I am wanting to be in the energetic state of love, to chose loving responses in all my interactions, to think with love, to look with love, to be love(ing). And I therefore did actually feel more open, more easily entertained, more easily able to get back to balance when I had a hard feeling moment, more available to the people in front of me, and more willing to shine on them, and be loving toward them, rather than needing to appear cool, or witty, or alluring, or smart. I was just being me loving whomever crossed my path.

The feeling was nice. That may seem meiotic, but the best word for it is actually "nice". Nice, of course, in the sense that it was good, pleasant, peaceful, and no ill seemed to come of it. It was also nice in the modern sense of being well-received, well-executed, a success -- which I hadn't really expected. And further, it turned out to be a nice thing to do for the others with whom I interacted, and a nice thing to do for myself -- I was nice to us all, and nice to our largest possible Self, of which we all are part and parcel.

I keep writing, thinking there's a moral in here somewhere. But I think if there is, it's already there, in the details. Something subtle, but over-arching; something about the power of words and simple ideas; something about the manner in which the universe conspires to assist us with whatever we endeavor; something about bravery, or authenticity, or sharing; something about how we are all so connected; and maybe something about Love.

Whatever it is, I hope you get it.

∞

Be well.

*

Want more Christie Marie Shledon? Check here. More Dr Emoto? Go here.

Delicious Reminder, Anyone?

2011-09-26T20:58:00.000-06:00

I go this in my inbox the other morning from the folks over at Abraham-Hicks:

A happy life is just a string of happy moments. But most people don't allow the happy moment, because they're so busy trying to get a happy life.

It's a great reminder to savor the moments of our lives; to make happiness the immediate goal, intention, and meditation. Rather than lurching toward some distance paradise that requires an exact match of constituent parts to fall perfectly into place before transforming our lives into happy ones, we can focus our efforts on enjoying this opportunity for happiness, and then this opportunity for happiness, and then this one, and this one, and this one... More often than not, it doesn't even take an actual effort, it just takes allowance.

We when get into the habit of allowing ourselves to be happy in the moment, to feel our happiness deeply, and to savor its coming, then, as if by some newfound magic, we begin to recognize that our lives are full of these moments. They shimmer like diamonds when we look back, and guide our ways like brilliant stars when we look ahead. When we make it our business to notice and be present for the tiny moments of happiness that come tumbling toward us every hour, then not only do we attract and notice more of those tiny moments, but we also attract and enact more of the things, experiences, and endeavors, that we would otherwise be trying to force in order to be happy.

So like Abraham says, go for happiness first. Go for feeling good here and now. Go for allowing peace, and joy, and appreciation, and laughter, and pleasure, and love, right now. Welcome every opportunity for feeling the way you want to feel in the moment, and then everything that you need to live a happy life will not only be present with you, it will be streaming toward you, unable to resist you, and incapable of bypassing your brilliance.

You can have a happy life. And it doesn't take moving mountains to do it. It just takes allowing all your happy moments.

If you want to get more from Abraham and the Hicks, check out their website, it's always inspiring:

http://www.abraham-hicks.com/lawofattractionsource/index.php

And if you want help tracking your happinesses, you can hire me to be your Dream Life Facilitator. Check out the contact page for more details.

∞

Be well.

Whose Story IS This, Anyway?

2011-09-22T11:17:00.001-06:00

How does your life go? How do things work for you? And what kind of person are you? If you don't at least smile at the proposal of such questions, you may want to spend sometime rearranging, editing, or scrapping the current version of your story.

Some of you will of course wonder, "Why bother?" If I am the way I am, and my life is the way it is, why should I spend any time at all adjusting the version I tell about me?

Well, as it turns out, Life is much less often "the way it is" and much more regularly "how we choose to see it". Two people can have virtually the same experience, and one will label it and tell the story of it being "difficult", "a struggle", or "a tragedy"; and the other will just as easily call it "wonderful", "a triumph", or "a gift". We usually call one "the pessimist", and the other "the optimist", and stop there. Of course, if one of us is "the pessimist", that one will conveniently change the terms to "realist" and "idealist", respectively.

In American culture in particular, my generation has grown up thinking of idealism and optimism as ridiculously uncool, of happy endings as cliché, and of success as a treadmill that will roll you onto your head if you stop to enjoy it. Our super heroes have to have dark secrets and hidden lairs. Our action heroes must have a dark outlook, and untidy lives full of dissatisfaction, grit, and loneliness. Even our comedic stories have to be "dark" or we find them too trite.

We've been trained to tell our life stories this way, too. We play to the audience of "realists" and therefore have to sour every delicious detail lest it ring too haughty, too conceited, or too much as narcissistic fantasy. We fear karmic retribution, and/or future embarrassment if we cast too much light. And so we darken the dreamier aspects of our stories, to save ourselves and our audiences, and to soften the blow, from the assumed impending disappointments that lie just ahead of every up turn.

All of this would be fine if our stories were someone else's. If we didn't have to live them, and could just watch on some screen somewhere, the lightless stories of our existences, then there would be no problem with this method of telling. If we could just be entertained, as if we're watching Friday the 13th, or The Godfather, or Requiem for a Dream, and then get up and leave when we're ready to see something else like It's a Wonderful Life, or Mr Holland's Opus, or Stripes, then it wouldn't matter what kind of stories we told.

The trouble is when we're telling our own stories we are creating the versions(s) that we live. And yes, of course, from the most Zen perspective, we are just watching the movies of our lives unfurl on the silver screens of our awareness. But the part of us that isn't watching, is up there on the screen getting beat up by the way we choose to see the stories. So if we aren't going to be so Zen that we tell no story -- that is, if we can't just sit back and watch without narrating and creating the stories -- then we'd better start telling the stories we want to be living.

If we want to live glorious, triumphant, joyously delicious lives, then those are the kinds of stories we have to tell about it. If we want to have lives full of abundance, and ease, and love, and happiness, then those are the themes we have to include in our telling. If we want to experience all of our own grandeur, and all of our own prowess, and all of our own power, then we have to stop telling the opposite versions of ourselves, and instead, tell only the versions that we want to experience.

So here's the challenge: For the next week, every time you go to tell the story of what is happening in your life, every time you begin to relate your current perspective on the life you're living, every time you narrate your past, present, or future history, tell only the versions you want to be true. Don't lie, just be selective about what genre you're in. Refuse to cater to your audience's expectations that you'll darken your light. Refuse to tell the defeated versions of your challenges, your learning processes, and even your failures. Refuse to assume or advertise that the pessimistic version is the realistic one, and instead, turn every utterance (internal or external) into an optimistic affirmation of how perfectly your life story is unfolding.

If you want to live a happy life, then let nothing deter you from seeing all events as leading to, or already part of, your happiness. The more you tell the story you want to see, the more you'll see the story you want to tell. Guaranteed.

Stake your claim to the good life. It isn't a matter of waiting for the evidence to materialize out of the darkness. It is simply a matter of looking at the evidence in the light.

∞

Be well.

Argue for Your Un-Limitations...

2011-07-01T12:53:00.001-06:00

If you're like most humans, you've probably spent most of your life either being told and/or telling yourself that you are limited. You've been hearing from both the outside and the inside that you can't do this and you can't do that. You've been told that life is hard, life is a struggle, and that you have to overcome nearly insurmountable odds and obstacles in order to achieve the things you want because nothing is free. Even love is a battlefield.

The result is that most of us are so couched in limitations that we can barely see anything for what it really is, especially ourselves. Everywhere we go and everything we see and everything we do is colored by the limits through which we've been taught to perceive the world and ourselves. And from this cloudy perspective the world can look pretty rough, and our station in it can seem like nothing but the space between rocks and hard places. What's worse – we are often such good owners of our limitations that we believe we can't even move through this brambled landscape without dragging those weights around with us. And even worse still – these ideas have always been handed to us as though it was a favor we were being offered; as though someone was saddling us with all this doubt, and fear, and limitation in order to save us from the brutality of life.

This is why sooooooo many of us have lives full of things we don't want, and why so many of us feel unable to whittle away these obstructions in order to have the lives we do want. This is why so many of us simply feel like we can't. We are so encumbered by these heavy halters that any move, change, or goal seems nearly impossible. Many of us are so limited that it's a wonder that anything happens to us at all.

And the worst part about all this, from my current perspective, is that it's all a bunch of hogwash. It's not even really true. And it's not helping us. Not one iota. We're not being safely kept from getting "too big for our breeches". We're not being awakened from some self-destructive, self-delusional fantasy life. We're not being sheltered from embarrassing ourselves with our ignorance of how life works. We're just being caged.

So I've got a new challenge for us all. Since we're holding the keys to our own destinies, and since we are what we believe we are, let's make a promise to each other. Let's promise to get ourselves out of these prisons of limitation. Let's promise to leave these bound beliefs behind us and never retrieve them.

And instead of arguing for our limitations and thereby owning them (as the old adage goes), let's give them up. Let's argue instead for our limitlessness. Let's claim and discuss and prattle merrily on about how empowered we are, how easy life flows for us, and how peacefully we move through everything that comes. Let's never talk about what's wrong with us, why we can't do this or that, or why we're unable to achieve, be, or have whatever we want – ever again.

No more complaints. No more fear-mongering (even to ourselves). No more disastrous outlooks. No more foreboding predictions of imminent failure. No more "owning my issues". No more "saving myself from disappointment". No more holding ourselves back. No more self-depricating, self-loathing, self-abusive bullsh*t. NO MORE.

From here on out, use your words both inside and outside exclusively for empowering yourself and others. Dedicate yourself to looking exclusively at how, where, and when you and your world are unbound. Train yourself to be exclusively aware of all the places and ways that you are, do, and have whatever you want. From here on out, argue only for your un-limitations – and sure enough, they'll be yours.

∞

Want help finding your limitation locks and using your keys to get free? You can hire me as your Life Coach – powerful un-limiting is one my favorite parts of the job!

Be well.

Good News: Feeding the 15,000

2011-06-27T21:33:00.000-06:00

Good News is series of posts that do nothing but share with you some good news. The idea is just to put some more creative, potent, joyful energy into your day(s). Think of it as a mini counter balance to the barrage of bad news lobbed in your direction everyday...

Today's Good News is about a wealthy entrepreneur who's retiring from his business in order to spend more time feeding hungry children. But he's an inspiration in more ways than that...

∞

Be well.

Brand New

2011-06-26T12:14:00.001-06:00

It's a new day! Ladies and gentlemen, friends and virtual neighbors, strangers in passing, and anyone having eyes to read this or ears to hear it being read, I am compelled to celebrate with you that this – this right here – is a brand new day. It began just a little while ago – fresh, pristine, unadulterated, and as yet unknown, just waiting for you to dive in.

Yesterday? Yesterday is history, right? Or herstory... Either way, it is gone the way of the dinosaurs. And regardless of what kind of day it was, or how badly you may have biffed it, or what went absolutely disastrously "wrong", all of it is gone. Period. Heck, even if it was the most perfect day ever, it's still gone. Yesterday is just myth.

But today... Well today has got it going on. Today is where it's at. Today is where everything you ever thought could be still could be. Today is the ideal time and place for anything that makes your heart sing. Today is the exact right moment to forgive yourself (again), or love yourself (more), or cheer yourself on (to your own stupendous victories). This is it. You have been waiting for today, and now here it is.

So may I encourage you to get out there, get in there, get up to your eyeballs, and/or get rid of anything that's holding you back. You earmarked this day for your own perfect enterprise(s), so grab it with both hands and all your heart and spend it well.

Celebrate it. Steep yourself in it. Shape it into your own magnificent likeness. Waste it deliciously. Taste it fully. Let it wash over you and carry you forward into deeper and deeper experiences of your perfect youness. It is yours to do with as you please.

Regardless of what it is that you most want to do, let this day renew and revitalize your dedication, your power, and your awareness of the rightness of your inspired motion. And regardless of what you have to let go in order to be fully present to this day, remember that everything you need is here, now, waiting for you to be here too. It's yours, friends. Just accept it fully and enjoy the ride.

∞

And be well.

Think BIG

2011-06-09T09:48:00.001-06:00

Here's a reminder of the greatness of the possibilities always already at our fingertips. It comes from the renowned spiritual teacher, Osho, in one of his many books, Live Zen.

Mind can accept any boundary anywhere. But the reality is that, by its very nature, existence cannot have any boundary, because what will be beyond the boundary – yet another sky? That's why I am saying skies upon skies are available for your flight.

Don't be content easily. Those who remain content easily remain small: small are their joys, small are their ecstasies, small are their silences, small is their being.

But there is no need!

This smallness is your own imposition upon your freedom, upon your unlimited possibilities, upon your unlimited potential.

Let's all vow to take this wisdom literally. Let's all commit now to living lives just brimming and overflowing with greatness, with largesse, and with unbounded possibility. We don't have to settle for small when there is so much to go around. Let's agree now to only settle for limitlessness!

∞

Be well.

All Purpose Permission Slip

2011-06-03T12:12:00.000-06:00

Here it is, folks. You asked for it, and now I am happy to be the messenger of your very own printable permission slip(s). Click on the image and print it off as often as you need in order to give yourself permission to do what feels good to you. You don't need to have a good reason to use it, you don't have to save it up, you don't even need permission – you can just give it to yourself!

I've also been given the authority to inform you that, today, you have universal permission to be nice to yourself. Call it a holiday. How about: "I F*ing DESERVE IT Day"? It's a special holiday, and like Easter, it moves around a lot – often, even showing up more than once in a calendar year. And like today, it demands to be celebrated. You've got no choice, really – you see, you F*ing Deserve IT.

So spend today being nice to yourself. Don't hesitate. Don't resist. Don't bother trying to weasel out of it. It's a holiday, so don't be a humbug, just enjoy yourself. In whatever grand or private manner suits you best, give yourself a little extra today, and be glad for your youness. You're worth your own gratitude and appreciation – maybe even worth an honest to goodness celebration – so don't hold back.

Go ahead... Have a delicious day. Happy I F*ing Deserve It Day!

And yes, if you need to, you can print out a permission slip for you to be able to celebrate the holiday today. You don't have to get your parents to sign it, though, you have permission to do that, too!

Be well.

Building the Super You: The Secret Power of Allowing

2011-05-31T02:52:00.000-06:00

Previously on The UpShot... I've spent some time discussing the power of acceptance, the power of getting in touch with (and specific about) what you want, and the power of recognizing your worth. There's a good chance that many of you will feel some tension between at least two of these concepts (likely, "accepting" and "wanting", or "worth" and "acceptance"), but I want to ask that you suspend such internal conflict for the moment in order to hear the following:

The combination of these three powers culminates in a tour de force of manifestive capability, such that, if you can understand and wield each with mastery, then you can literally create anything. These three units, when combined, unleash a secret power, the likes of which has been responsible for every miracle ever. That secret power is – you guessed it – Allowing.

It works something like this:

If and when we get clear about what we want in our lives, and make that knowledge apparent, at least to ourselves – that is, we claim it, and own it, and live toward it; and
We accept that everything in our lives is in our lives for a reason, and that, more over, what is in our lives right now is precisely timed to be here and now in absolute accordance with what we have attracted into our lives up to this point; and
We recognize that we are worthy of all the love and abundance and joy and opportunity and creativity and peace that the universe (or God or the Tao) makes available to all creatures; then
We may combine these processes and understandings into a calm, knowing, welcoming allowance of all that the abundant, creative force of all life has to offer us, is offering us, and will offer us continually – so long as we allow it.

There's a Zen trick, here, in that you have to be willing to have what is coming to you in order to get it. It's not enough just to know what it is and want it (because wanting, alone, just makes for more wanting). It's not enough just to accept that what is here is supposed to be here, and that what is supposed to come will come (because accepting, alone, is only worthwhile if you are perfectly satisfied with everything that is in your life right now). And it's not enough just to believe that you are worthy of abundance, happiness, success, etc. (because your worth, alone, is just a measurement of your readiness to receive).

Wanting by itself is why Buddha said, "desire is suffering". It's just perpetually looking at what you still don't have. Accepting by itself is what led Ronald Reagan to say, "Status quo, you know, that is Latin for 'the mess we're in'." It's just continuing to bring more of the same. And continual focus on self-worth by itself leaves us unavailable to actually receive that of which we are worthy. As the Italian poet, Antonio Porchia writes, "Some things become so completely our own that we forget them," and in the present context that means we leave them unclaimed.

If we, instead, put all the parts together, then we can give up striving, we can give up working so incredibly hard, we can give up getting nowhere but wheel-spun and worn out, and just allow. Allow ourselves to be at peace with what is here now, and with the fact that it is passing at the same time. Allow ourselves to welcome, accept, and have all that we feel that we are worth having, and let go of all that of which we are worth being free. Allow ourselves to want what we want, and to give up that wanting for trusting, and believing, and receiving, as well. Allow ourselves to be present with all that is, and present with all that is coming and going. Allow ourselves to experience the nurturing and care and responsiveness of the source of all life and manifestation and abundance in the universe.

We can have it all – and in exactly the measure that we are able to Allow. I'm interested to see what I am able to allow this week. How allowing can you be?

Be well.

Good News: Right Place, Right Time

2011-05-15T09:57:00.000-06:00

I'm going to start this new series of posts that do nothing but share with you some good news. Maybe it'll be a heart-warming story, or a link to news about someone being her most magnificent self, or some words of wisdom that I just want to pass on to you. The idea here is just to put more creative, potent, joyful energy into your day(s). With all the planetary focus on bad news, I'm thinking we could all use more of the opposite.

Today's Good News! is about the simple power of recognizing when you are in the right place at the right time, and not being afraid to do what you know needs doing. Enjoy!

Ω

And be well.

What Are You Worth?

2011-05-10T01:25:00.001-06:00

How much do you think you're worth? $1,000,000? $1,000,000,000? The whole Roman Empire? What about happiness – are you worth being happy? Are you worth being satisfied with your life? Are you worthy of contentment? Worthy of a good life, a loving family, a rich experience of existence? Are you worth anything at all?

If you can't answer, "YES!" to at least one of those, then chances are you're headed in a direction no where near your most affluent self. In fact, you may be headed in the opposite direction, unless you've got some measurable amount of self-worth. And until you believe that you're worthy – until you believe that you're worth having your dreams – you won't be.

On the one hand, we should all be given a sense of worth from our childhoods. In the natural scenario, we're all filled up with a sense of welcome and worth as infants, and we can build on this sense as we grow and develop. But the sad truth is that many of us living today were not raised "naturally" and we didn't get a stellar sense of our own worth. Many of us were mishandled as infants and were left feeling unwelcome, or conditionally welcome, and therefore, haven't had a solid base on which to build a sense of our self-worth.

On the other hand, each of us has been given the lot we were given for precise cosmic reasons. We knew what we were doing. And in any case, we know what to do. We know what feels good and what doesn't. We know how to treat ourselves, and what feels beneficial to ourselves. And from this beginning, we can build a caring and a compassion toward ourselves. As we value ourselves, and express it with self-kindness, so we begin to build a foundation of self-worth that will allow us to receive all that we have in store for ourselves.

The Tao sent me to tell you, today, that you are magnificent enough. You are extraordinary enough. You are beautiful enough. You are important enough. And you are worthy of all the abundance, and love, and success, and happiness, and peace in the universe. You are worthy of everything you wish to be and do and experience in this life. It is yours for the receiving. It is yours for the being and doing and feeling. It is your inheritance -- you've earned it just by being born here of the source and sum of all things. Rest in knowing that you don't have to prove yourself, you always already are enough.

Ω

Be well.

Building the Super You: Focusing Your Vision

2011-05-03T09:39:00.000-06:00

How focused are you? How well are you able to hone your focus, and concentrate on the minutia of any particular activity or interest? How precise can you be in directing your attention and for how long?

We have a skill set available to us, the potential for which is hardwired into our brain design and functioning, giving us the power to focus our attention on whatever we choose, and thereby, draw to us a deeper perception of that which we give our focus. So, for example, if we spend our days focusing our attention on building a physically stronger body, then we wind up perceiving ourselves as stronger on deeper and deeper levels, and it becomes fact. If we take this a step further, there are a number of studies that show people can learn new skills, heal wounds, reverse paralysis, and grow muscle tissue, just by focusing their attention on thinking about performing those same actions. Our focus is not only how we notice things, and take account of the details, but also how we relate to the world, how we experience life, and how we create more of the things we want in our lives.

Dr. Joe Dispenza, the nuero-scientist featured in the films What the Bleep Do We Know? and What If?, and author of the book, Evolve Your Brain, has made a study of the power of human focus and tells of one study in particular in which participants were told they would be learning how to play the piano. One quarter of the participants were shown and given regular time to practice certain scales and other active elements of piano playing. A second quarter was given the same amount of time to play, but no instruction whatsoever. A third section was given information and instruction and then told to mentally rehearse, and for the same amount of time as the others played, this group sat imagining themselves playing. The fourth group did nothing, as they were the control group. The researchers hooked the participants up to MRI scanners so they could tell which parts of the brain were being stimulated by the various activities. They discovered that the second group (the free players) had as little stimulation and brain development as the group that never showed up. But more surprising, and more to the point, the group that just imagined themselves playing showed just as much stimulation and just as much development in the exact same portions of the brain as the group that was actually practicing. !

The bottom line is, if we give our attention to something, and focus on it regularly and with clear intention, we can create change – change in our perceptions, change in our awareness, even change in our abilities. In fact, depending on the particulars, we can create just as much change with our minds as we can with our hands. But the key is developing the skill of focusing our attention and keeping it focused long enough to have the desired effect.

A simple focus-building practice is doing only one thing at a time and finishing it completely before moving on. It may sound too easy to be good for you, but I challenge you to experiment with it for a day. With every activity that you take on – whether it's going to the bathroom, brushing your teeth, writing your memoir, or spending a couple hours in the park with your kid – give yourself completely to the activity, and let nothing distract you from it until it is complete enough for the present moment. So this means, no texting while eating, no talking on the phone while driving, no working while playing. You may find it more difficult than you'd like for a daily practice, but giving yourself the opportunity to work with it regularly will build those focus muscles into super focus muscles – the kind that can change your life.

Another fun focus activity is to choose something in the morning – an image, an object, an idea, anything – and hold it in your mind throughout the day watching for how your focus will draw more of the experience of that thing to you. So let's say you pick "a blue bucket" as the mental image on which to focus, and revisit during the course of your day. Then you just sit back and watch how that blue bucket shows up in your day. If you hold your focus on the image for 10-20 seconds at a time and revisit it more than once during the day, seeing it clearly in your mind, I guarantee you that you will perceive it somewhere else – either a picture, or a real blue bucket, or some mention of a blue bucket in someone's meandering story you happen to overhear as you pass them on the sidewalk. Don't believe me? Give it a shot.

Happy focusing!

Be well.

Rediscovering... YOU

2011-04-24T10:33:00.001-06:00

In the last post, I discussed the idea that we often are the ones holding us back from being our most magnificent selves. We do this in many different ways, depending largely on methods we were taught to use by our parents, caregivers, siblings, and early friends. We have loop reels of negative self-talk rolling in our heads most of the time, we tend to doubt ourselves regularly, we self-deprecate to our friends, and underestimate our prowess to any audience who'll listen. But one of the more subtle techniques we frequently use to disempower ourselves or keep us stuck is our own self-awareness.

Now, I know – you're thinking, "Damn. I thought 'knowing myself' was supposed to be a good thing!" And generally speaking, I'd say you are more right than not right about that. Exploring yourself, and discovering the you that you carry with you (often too closely to sense) is a necessary project for almost all humans. Otherwise, we spend too much time bumbling around and being dissatisfied and blaming it all on forces outside us.

However, there is a difference, between knowing yourself and canonizing yourself. To know yourself is to look within, and explore who you are, and how you work, and to be present in your own processes. To canonize yourself is to make a claim (based on "knowing" or not) for how you always already are. To know yourself is to take note of your movements in relationship to the events of your life. To canonize yourself is to write in stone how you will respond in every foreseeable situation, and to manipulate the events of your life to confirm and conform to a static version of yourself.

Knowing yourself has some real advantages, but almost all of them are lost if you only use that knowledge to limit yourself.

You might be holding yourself back with how well you "know" yourself if you're saying any of the following:

"I always... [get sick, get taken advantage of, etc.]"
"I never... [win, get to do what I want, etc.] "
"I'm just a... [neat freak, addictive personality, etc.]"
"I can't..."
"I don't..."
"I won't..."
Or any other "universal truth" about how you are and always will be, or about the way life works for you.

You in a nut shell...

But, lucky you – today you have brought yourself a brand new opportunity to reacquaint yourself with yourself. That's right folks, today, you can give yourself a get-out-of-self-free card any time you feel the desire to look at yourself from a fresh perspective. Today, you have been given full license to rediscover yourself – forget your biases, make no assumptions, and take nothing for granted.

Pretend you have no habits and see how long you can get away with it. Act as if you have never met yourself but have always wanted to. Forget everything you ever knew about how you respond to life. Take yourself in for the first time. Experience being-ness from a place of wonder, and exploration. Be a novice to your own existence. Chances are you'll discover that there is more to you than you were previously allowing, and more to life than you had yet been willing to allow.

Try it for a day and you will change your thinking about yourself. Practice it everyday and you will change your life.

Be well.

Want to turn up your experience of ecstasy in life? Pretend you are an alien trying everything on Earth for the first time. Allow yourself the richness of every sensation in all of your experiences. Be open to everything as a sublime gift.

Building the Super You: Getting Out of Your Own Way

2011-04-21T17:27:00.001-06:00

Have you ever noticed that super heroes never have problems with self assurance? Have you ever noticed that they spend very little if any time running around excusing themselves from being super? Have you ever seen a super hero beating him- or herself up for not being more super?

Well, I've never been an avid reader of comic books or super hero novels, but I bet you the occurrence of any of the above in the history of super hero lore is almost nil. Even the ones who are otherwise pretty human, or who might even have other deep psychological issues don't seem to suffer from self-doubt when it comes to being super, or accomplishing their normal amount of Herculean deeds.

But with us regular humans – well, let's just say, we work pretty much the opposite. No matter how greatly we perform, no matter how much we achieve, no matter how many people we help, we're still not good enough. And regularly, we are giving ourselves heavy doses of doubt, mistrust, and disbelief in our abilities and ourselves. We act like enemies to ourselves, relentless warring with our own greatness, and dropping antagonistic propaganda inside the sovereign territory of our thoughts and beliefs. In fact, we've even made cultural currency out of downplaying our beauty, our prowess, our intellect, our magic, our power, our triumphs, and even our dedication:

If we're manifesting wealth and health, we're "lucky", "fortunate", or, "blessed".
If we're being recognized for our abilities, we're "humble", and "appreciative", and "owe it all to [someone else]".
If we make good grades in school we lie about how easy it was, or how much work we did, or even the grades themselves, just so we're not seen as too good, too smart, or too interested.
If we achieve success as adults, we pass on responsibility or even self-deprecate, so as to avoid seeming haughty, narcissistic, or egotistical.
If we're headed for greatness, success, or tremendous reward, we're likely to do any or all of the above, in addition to doubting, down-playing potentials, and depreciating the value of succeeding, so as to spare ourselves possible embarrassment, or seeming too confident, or being disappointed.
If we really want to create, enact, or achieve something, we're likely to proceed by assuming the worst about ourselves, fearing we won't be able, preparing ourselves mentally and emotionally for failure, and devising a back-up plan to accommodate our incompetence.

So it's no wonder that we struggle, and strain, and sweat, and suffer in order to perform even the simplest tasks. It's no wonder why we give up on our own greatness, and settle for mediocrity, and habitual distraction from ourselves and our lives. It's no wonder we don't see our own super powers when even our very selves are hidden in the looming shadows of our negative self-images.

Think of it this way: Superman knows he has a weakness. He knows that the mysterious green gem from his home planet (and perfect metaphor for all of the programming of his upbringing), Kryptonite, can render him utterly powerless – as weak as human babe. But that notion has never once stopped him from plunging headfirst into whatever colossal undertaking arises before him. Even though he knows it's out there, even though Lex Luthor apparently has unlimited access to the stuff and has used it numerous times against him, Superman never stands outside the burning building wondering if he should run in and save everyone, or check first for Kryptonite. He never fears that his weakness will incapacitate him – even though it has so many times. Superman is always the very last person to think that his weakness might actually make him weak.

Are you constantly telling yourself you can't do it, that you'll fail, that it'll never work for you? Are you regularly assuming that you "aren't good enough", "aren't ready yet", or "don't know how"? Are you mired in self-doubt, self-loathing, or even just self-insecurity? Are you feeling anything but super?

If so, then chances are it's due in large part to the messages you are constantly broadcasting inside yourself, telling yourself over and over all day long, how incapable you are.

If you want to know your power, and see your super-ness in action, the very first step is employing your own belief, because without it, you'll never even get off the ground. If you want to own your prowess, then you have to quit disowning it with your thoughts and words about yourself. If you want to be your most magnificent self, you have to give up pretending to be anything less. You have to let go of treating yourself as incapacitated, incapable, or broken. You have to get your(old)self, out of your way.

It may be a tough job, but you are the only one who can do it.

Ω

Be (your super-self) well.

A Clean Sweep for Spring

2011-04-16T02:18:00.003-06:00

Imagine that the following words are the individual bristles of a mind broom:

Today we are brushing away some of the limiting thoughts and concepts you have (more than likely) been carrying around with you most of your life. Modern culture is rife with limiting concepts that are handed down from generation to generation like inverse inheritance – costing us more and more as time goes on. Generally these ideas are proffered as though they were universal truths and programmed into children's impressionable brains before they can even decide if they agree. And though they are offered as a way to help us and help children learn how to live in "an adult world", the bulk of these idioms, proverbs, and truisms do nothing but hold us back, convince us to play small, and ruin our potential.

So I want you to know:

A watched pot will actually boil. It's just that most of us don't have time or focus enough to prove it.
Money does grow on trees. And like any tree, money trees need planting, nurturing, cultivation, and time to grow before they produce anything worth harvesting.
You do not have to have "something to fall back on"; in fact, the very preparation of that thing, necessitates it. If you want to do what you dream, there is no falling back.
Nice guys do not always finish last. More than likely, nice guys don't even need to run the race to prove themselves; but when they do race, they have no trouble running just as fast as the not-nice guys.
All birds get worms. There is an absolute abundance of worms. So there's no need to lose sleep over that one.
A leopard may not be able to change his spots, but humans can change almost anything they want to about themselves. Some humans have even been known to change themselves from "dying of terminal cancer" to "perfectly healthy". Talk about spot-changing...
A "good man" is not as hard to find as a "good looker". If you would find a "good" anything, then become an impeccable observer – the "good" is just waiting for you to notice it.
"A place for everything, and everything in its place" leaves everything pigeon-holed. There is a place for anything that wants it and space for anything that prefers it if we have an open mind about how it all settles out.
Accidents will happen, but only if you believe in them.
And not all good things must come to an end, just the ones you are trading in for new good things.

That was way more fun for me than I expected it to be. I might have to do that again sometime. And you as well – feel free to rewrite your truth about the way things are, and share any that you want to here.

Go forth and be well.

Building the Super You: Stoking the Fires

2011-04-12T09:49:00.002-06:00

How do you get your Mojo going? What rituals or processes have you developed to get fired up about your life, your work, your next major endeavor? Do you have methods for turning up the volume on the feelings in you that generate your most positive and proactive states of consciousness?

Different personality types will gravitate toward their own unique devices, but essentially, anything that works is worth exploring; because if we spend any time at all putting our focus on and working with generating positive, active, alive states of being, then we are actively giving ourselves more power to create fulfilling lives.

If you think of your ability to render your life's work as analogous to the work of a Blacksmith: the work you do to generate positive emotional states is like using the billows to breathe powerful life into the forge fire, stoking the flames to increase the heat. If you want to make the perfect sword, you need intense heat. If you want to forge a meaningful and potent life, you need white-hot intention.

The best way(s) to stoke yourself may take some investigation and research to discover and implement. You might get power from physical exertion, from eating food your body loves, or from taking an afternoon nap. You might find stores of energy waiting for you in deep meditation, joyful love-making, or quiet walks alone. You might get pumped watching an inspiring program, or listening to your favorite tunes on your ipod, or even just sitting and observing the world going by. It could be anything, so long as it turns up the positive vibrations you are feeling and emitting.

One of the things I regularly do with my clients who are in an up swing, or enjoying some success ( no matter how minimal) is help them to look for and take advantage of ways of "cauterizing" their more energized states. So when I am working with someone who has achieved something important to them, or who is in an especially inspired state, we will spend some time exploring ways for them to use, preserve, or at least make note of that state. They may choose some ritual to celebrate the success, or write a letter to themselves to be read if they are struggling later, or make that call they had been putting off until now.

The idea is to generate, capitalize on, and celebrate our more energized states as often as we are able. Those states are our fire, and if we want to live more powerful lives, then we would do well to practice the art of stoking the fire.

Be well!

Today, You are a New You

2011-04-08T01:22:00.000-06:00

What are you bringing into your life today? What are you drawing toward you with your focus, intention, and emotional state? What are you creating in your immediate future?

Everyday, we are building our stories. Everyday, we are attracting and manifesting the things we focus on, and intend, and feel. Everyday, whether we want to or not, whether we believe it or not, whether we make an effort to do so or let it happen passively, we are creating our lives.

The present we are experiencing today is the result of what we have been making up to this point. Everything you see in your world is the result of your focus and intention in all the days before now. Most likely you have (as most of us) spent the majority of your life in ignorance of this fact, and therefore, have witnessed a lot of your life with wonder and confusion, not realizing from where it has all come.

But today? Today you know what you are bringing toward you. (And if not, then I am here to tell you.) Today you are being given the opportunity to focus on, intend, and delight in realizing the life you know is right for you.

It exists already inside you. You feel it and know it as if it were your own hand. You always have.

You've just been too afraid to believe it.You've just been duped by the naysayers preaching into your ear since you were born. You've just been deceived about who and what you are, and what you are capable of doing, and how life works. You've been lied to. And now, today, you are in the right place and time to say, "No more lies."

You can be who you are now. You can do what you dream now. You can have your life now. You simply have to believe it. And know it. And feel it in your bones that you are your most magnificent you. You are the creator of your life.

When you believe that – as a beyond-any-shadow-of-a-doubt belief – then, and only then, will you begin to see it. Look where you are and realize that it is all the result of what you have believed until now. And recognize that if you want to see something different, you will have to change what you believe.

Today is when you begin to believe in what you will see next. SO get busy, you've got some focussing, and intending, and feeling good about your life that you've got to get to. Your time is now!

Be well.

How Do You Feel About Money?

2011-04-05T02:36:00.001-06:00

Growing up in the buckle of the Bible Belt of the South, I inherited a lot of nonsensical ideas about money. "It is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven than it is for a camel to enter the eye of a needle," and "Don't store up treasures where moth and rust may destroy them..." and that sort of thing. Until I was in my mid-twenties I thought the old psalm said, "Money is the root of all evil," and of course, the revelation when it came was only to understand that it wasn't the thing itself, it was "The love of money" which was the root of all that evil. Rich people were greedy, slobbering demons, as far as I understood it, who would stop at nothing to take the last teeny morsel from the mouth of anyone in their paths.

After recovering from that harsh upbringing, it has taken me years to unearth and overcome the remaining brainwashing I was given around money. In the last decade, I have come to understand and appreciate it, not just as "another form of energy" like food, and love, and all the rest; and not just as a useful trade note for ease of exchange; but also as means to lots of things I really enjoy like: housing, and food, and health care, not to mention, wine and chocolate and family vacations. And considering where I had come from, I felt like I'd come a long way with my relationship with money.

That is, until I started to become familiar with T. Harv Eker and his wonderful book, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. This little gem is full of eye-openers on the subject of the differences between the ways rich people and poor people conceptualize money and earning money. The thing that clicked for me in a way I had never before considered was that rich people think about having money not just spending it. Before, I had only thought well of money as a means to get things I wanted or needed, or to empower others to get what they wanted or needed. At best I fantasized about all the people I could help with more money. And always, in my fantasies and imagining of being rich, I was giving lots of money away, spending tons, and using charity to justify the wealth.

Then, quite suddenly, I was handed this concept of just having money, not as a means, but as an end in itself. Rich people don't focus their money attention on how they'll spend it -- they know they'll have no trouble doing that. Rich people focus instead on having money, and making more, and keeping lots and lots of it. And they aren't ashamed to just possess the money itself. It doesn't have to be headed toward the greater civic or collective good, in order to be worthwhile or guilt-free. And it doesn't have to be simply a middleman to personal pleasure. Money is the intention, not it's potential trappings.

The second discovery that changed my money thinking was Morgana Rea's (patented) Prosperity Coaching technique of transforming one's interactions with money into a literal relationship with it. She teaches people to stop relating to money as a loveless ogre that you're ashamed to even bring into the room; and instead to relate with money as if it was the most wonderful, understanding and supportive, generous lover you've ever had -- a "Money Honey", she calls it. You get rid of your old inhibiting programming around money, and initiate a new directive to your mind to interact with an actual character (in your thoughts) who is a representation of your money, and ask it how best to woo and keep it.

Both of these concepts worked together to crystallize the idea for me that Money is Nice. It isn't a monster waiting to get me. It isn't a trickster waiting to teach me an embarrassing lesson. It isn't a demoralizer, or a family-wrecker, or gate-way obsession. It isn't just for charity projects. It isn't just for buying all the things we need. Money is nice all by itself.

Now, the fear of scarcity... that thing is really the root of all evil.

And by the way, camels could, after the city gates were closed for the night, enter through a small portal in the wall called "the eye of the needle". Though it was difficult to get the camel to move forward on its belly, any camel could do it.

Want some help changing your relationship with money? You can hire me to walk you through your own process to a rich life. See the contact page for more information.

Be well.

Synchronic Messaging Service Presents...

2011-04-01T13:42:00.000-06:00

Just noticed in my inbox this delicious little reminder about owning our power, and taking responsibility for every aspect of our own lives. It came to me via a "Daily Quotes" email from Abraham, which is one of the few daily emails I can tolerate. Abraham often helps to frame my day in a potent way. Thought I'd share this one with you today, since it is timely. I'll be bringing more gorgeous little tidbits from there on occasion in the future.

   Tell everyone you know: "My happiness depends on me, so you're off the
   hook." And then demonstrate it. Be happy, no matter what they're doing.
   Practice feeling good, no matter what. And before you know it, you will

not give anyone else responsibility for the way you feel -- and then, you'll

love them all. Because the only reason you don't love them, is because

you're using them as your excuse to not feel good.

--- Abraham

I hope you have a potent day of recognizing your strength and enjoying your power.

Be well.

Who Controls You?

2011-04-01T01:32:00.000-06:00

Are you a puppet? No offense, but seriously, is someone controlling you? Is someone conjuring your life and making you play along? Is someone else writing you in as the unwitting character of your own story?

Well, I'm hoping that by the last one of those questions, you were shouting a resounding, "Noooo!" But put more subtly, I wonder if you might find yourself frighteningly less disagreeable. What I mean is, you may be willing to resist being called a puppet, or being outright controlled by another, but are you giving away your power in other less obvious situations?

Here's a good way to check – answer these few questions:

How did your life get the way it is?
How did you get to be the way you are?
How did you arrive at your current financial state?
If things aren't the way you'd like, how do/will they change?

If you responded to any of the above questions with any answer other than, "By my choice and intention" or a variation thereof, then you are giving away your power.

How, and to what degree, we take responsibility for our lives and what is showing up in them right now, are fantastic indicators of how much power we currently have. If we are aware that we are responsible for everything, then we are already more powerful. If we own that responsibility and make it our motivation – well then, our power becomes immeasurable.

A place to begin taking more responsibility in your life is by refusing to ever play the victim again.

I don't mean become a bully, take self-defense classes, or increase your vibrato in adversarial scenarios. I mean stop blaming anyone else for anything that happens to you. Stop saying that the universe doesn't want you to have something. Stop saying that you "can't" because of someone else. Stop pointing the finger at coworkers, bosses, spouse, lovers, friends, kids, or strangers. Don't let them have that power over you.

Take that power back! Own every aspect of your creation. Delight in the surprises that you have made for yourself. Revel in the opportunities for growth, and exploration, and change. Savor the many chances to bite the dust on your own volition, by virtue of your own power, and at the end of your own choices.

Sounds hard, but you begin with one choice. Make the one choice to own your power. And then, just don't stop using your ability to chose, recognizing that your life is all your choice.

Be well, powerful choosers.

Building the Super You: Recognizing Your Limitlessness

2011-03-28T11:21:00.001-06:00

Ever thought of yourself as infinite before? How about all-knowing or all-powerful? Ever felt like you could make magic, heal sickness, or fly? What about when you were a kid?

Here's one of the many places where I think kids have got life figured out more than adults. They still have a grasp on the limitless power we humans have at our whim. Unfortunately, most children are raised by adults into "knowing better", and eventually forget just how incredibly capable they are. By the time they are adults, the concept of having anything more than average abilities has generally been coaxed or crushed out of them, like all the rest of us "grown-ups" – or more appropriately "ground-downs".

But we don't have to be worn out, mediocre yo-yos, lurched and jerked around helplessly by our circumstances. We don't have to be victims. And we don't have to be insignificant, either.

Coursing through each and every one of us is some of the most potent energy in the universe. If you could harness the human will, you could light every house on Earth. And if you could fill the sails of human potential, you could ride them to the other side of the cosmos (and back!).

What I mean to say is that we are powerful – each and every one of us. And so much so that we are even able to keep ourselves ignorant of our potency while simultaneously creating every aspect of our existence. We are even so powerful that we live whole lives here, manufacturing every moment we experience, and still die without knowing who or what we are. It takes a hell of a lot of magic to manifest a whole lifetime without ever letting on – even to yourself.

Still doubting that you're an all-powerful, all-knowing cosmic creator? Well check out some of these links to human "miracles" to remind yourself of just what we are all capable, and doing:

1994 study that concludes the "placebo effect" often accounts for more than 1/3 of all positive reactions to treatment of any kind in which both practitioner and patient believe
Urban legend of Supermom lifting a car
One of many spontaneous remission of cancer stories
"When Fear makes us Superhuman"
The Yogi who Lived without Food or Water
And other People with Abilities Beyond Belief

After you've had enough of that, check out the documentary What If? the Movie for a full-on celebration of our human potential. You'll be amazed and inspired by what "ordinary" humans are doing.

The bottom line here is this: there is more to you than you have yet dared to believe. You are moving mountains everyday, you just haven't stopped long enough (yet) to notice what you're doing or able to do. So let me encourage you to look into what's possible, and then to dust off that beautiful imagination of yours and get serious about unleashing some of the potential you've been hoarding for so long.

Believe me, you aren't the only one who will benefit when you decide to own your power.

Be well.

Where Are You? Now.

2011-03-24T14:34:00.002-06:00

Calling all Yous. This message is brought to you by yourSelf. However you got here, whatever was done to direct you to this moment and these words – you did it! You are the potent magnet that drew yourself to this exact spot in the cosmos and this precise second in order to receive the following words:

Wake Up! Your entire life that is waiting at your doorstep to welcome you into yourSelf. Everything you want to become or accomplish is here in this instant with you. Everything you wish to do or give or enact in the world is present in you now. Everything you wish to see or know or receive is already available in this moment. The only thing that you wait on is YOU.

So where are you? Where are your thoughts? Where is your intention? Where is your focus resting in the constant flow of seconds that sweeps by you? Are you being present with your life?

If you are spending all your time in thoughts of what could be, or what wasn't, then you are missing your only chance to initiate change. Right now. Right now in this exact moment is the absolute only opportunity you will ever have to do anything about anything in your life. Not last week, not yesterday, not tomorrow or next Tuesday – but right now. That's it. That's all we get. And if we aren't mindful of it, then we lose even that.

So take it from yourSelf – tune in to your now. Pay attention to the moment. That's when and where everything is happening. This moment right now. Outside of it is nothing, outside of it you are powerless. But in the moment you are magical. In the moment you can do anything – you even brought yourself here to give yourself this important message.

Now go be in your now.

And be well.

Building the Super You: Accepting the Is

2011-03-20T12:56:00.007-06:00

The other day, I discussed getting in touch with what you want in, for, and from your life, but that doesn't mean I think you should waste your time arguing with what is. A lot of people seem to get these two concepts inextricably interlocked or collapse them completely, but wanting something or a particular set of things, does not necessitate being dissatisfied with what you already have, nor must you be dissatisfied in order to want something or a particular set of things.

I think it's important to separate these ideas because I believe both have something to offer us, but not if they coalesce in our consciousness. In the context of satisfaction (or the lack thereof), wanting becomes synonymous with suffering, and gets drafted by our minds as the agent to change what is. If we separate the concept of our satisfaction with the way things are from the conception of what we desire, we offer better prospects to both.

We looked a little at letting ourselves want what we want in the previous post. Let's look now at the power of accepting what is.

For starters, we get no points in life from ignoring reality. Time and time again, we'll find that arguing with what is gets in the way of our peace, our happiness, our relationships, our goals, and even our ability to make change. Getting stuck in a debate with the universe over the way things are is a lot like banging your head on a brick wall. Reality wins every single time. And we would do well to embrace it whole-heartedly.

Also, the alternative – i.e. persisting in all that head banging, and resisting – just makes the brick wall all that much more solid, impervious, and permanent feeling. Remember the popular adage: "What we resist, persists"? Well that's true of the brick wall, and true of anything into which we regularly or continuously put our attention and energy. Denying, resisting, and refuting, all put just as much of our focus and power into maintaining what we are fighting as does supporting and championing it. If we put all of our energy into arguing with what is, then we may as well consider ourselves brick layers.

There's a Zen trick in this dynamic that I want to call to your attention. Remember, perhaps in grade school, playing with a mixture of baking soda (or corn meal) and water? When you squeeze it in your fist, it gets as solid as a stone. When you open your hand and let it go, it loses all shape and slides right between your fingers. If we just stop pressing against the things in life that we are resisting, if we are just wide open (like an extended palm) to all that is, then so many of the things we've been fighting for so long just melt away.

If we stop needing the wall as a reason to resist (it), as a reason to be closed, and as a reason not to accept what is – well, I bet you can guess what that makes possible...

yep.

Want to be a magic wall-melter? Then give up banging your head against it, and lay down your argument with reality. Without your resistance to act as mortar, the bricks will just be bricks. And without making them into something else, you will get see the bricks for what they are, and perhaps know better what to do with them.

If you are struggling to figure out where to begin, then you might try accepting that at this very moment there are some things you don't want to accept right now. Like everything else, letting go of your argument with reality begins with accepting that you have one...

Be well.

Whatcha-Whatcha Whatcha Want?!

2011-03-17T13:13:00.004-06:00

Got any idea what you want for your life? Or what you want in your life? Or from it?

Well, although it would be more convenient for the present discussion if you said, "No... I don't know what I want at all...", the fact is nearly everyone has at least an inkling. It's the urge that calls to us from the corners of our thoughts and feelings. It's the intangible drive that pushes us toward some things and away from others. Our secret, or at least unspoken, desires influence our decisions every step of the way through every interaction of every day, and often without our ever knowing it.

And that's the sticking point, isn't it? Most of us are all too regularly motivated by subsurface wishes that remain hidden from us, even as they alter the course of our lives.

Think that can't happen to you? Well, just take a moment to remember all the times you've given in to one of your favorite foods or vices, even after you were making a sincere effort to resist. That's the power of "less-conscious" wants in our lives.

My point here is not to make you feel guilty or powerless. We are all motivated by "unseen hands". Our power lies in rending the veil. Like the pivotal moment in The Wizard of Oz, we must tear away the shroud of "the man behind the curtain" and expose his mechanizations for what they are in order to be free.

So what's behind your own curtains? Whatchu got in there?! What are your secret desires? What do you want?

The flip side of this discussion is, of course, that the best way to get what you want in your life is to know that you want it – to claim it, to celebrate it, and to move toward it with conviction. The more time you spend discovering your self and your self's agenda, the more power you bring to both, the more crystalline your identity will be, and the more realized you will become. When given proper attention and focus, the things we want in life transform from a list of hopeful ideas into the resonant creation of the life they represent. And although it contradicts modern "conventional wisdom" – if we give power to the things we want, and know that we can bring them into fruition by virtue of our intention, attention, and extension of effort, then rather than a bane to poison our happiness, our wants simply become signs of what lies in store for us.

And that's the moral of this particular story. The universe is a generous, abundant place, containing and offering all that we might ever need or desire. It has always provided for us, filling our bodies with energy, replacing our atoms with care and compassion, adjusting it's every move to assist us. Simply by virtue of our wanting something, the universe responds and conspires with us to make it manifest. It has been doing this since the beginning of time, and continues moment by moment everyday, working with us to create.

May I encourage you to pull out your master list of secret desires, clear out the attic of your wishes, and make a claim for all that you want for, in, and from your life. Write it down, make it into a song, draw a picture, or carve a sculpture – but make it plain and tangible. Let the edifice remind you of the thing you're manifesting, and empower you to move yourself in collusion with the universe to create the life of which you dream. It's yours – but only if you want it.

Ω

Be well, my fellow future-makers.

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Want help? Here's a lady that offers the service of drawing you a life map, or you can hire me to be your Life Coach and we'll mine for your wants together.