May you grow in 2015!

The purpose of life for man is growth, just as the purpose of life for trees and plants is growth. Trees and plants grow automatically and along fixed lines; man can grow, as he will. Trees and plants can only develop certain possibilities and characteristics; man can develop any power, which is or has been shown by any person, anywhere. Nothing that is possible in spirit is impossible in flesh and blood. Nothing that man can think is impossible-in action. Nothing that man can imagine is impossible of realization.

Life without progress becomes unendurable, and the person who ceases from growth must either become imbecile or insane. The greater and more harmonious and well rounded his growth, the happier man will be.

There is no possibility in any man that is not in every man; but if they proceed naturally, no two men will grow into the same thing, or be alike. Every man comes into the world with a predisposition to grow along certain lines, and growth is easier for him along those lines than in any other way. This is a wise provision, for it gives endless variety. It is as if a gardener should throw all his bulbs into one basket; to the superficial observer they would look alike, but growth reveals a tremendous difference.

So of men and women, they are like a basket of bulbs. One may be a rose and add brightness and color to some dark corner of the world; one may be a lily and teach a lesson of love and purity to every eye that sees; one may be a climbing vine and hide the rugged outlines of some dark rock; one may be a great oak among whose boughs the birds shall nest and sing, and beneath whose shade the flocks shall rest at noon, but every one will be something worthwhile, something rare, something perfect.

May your New Year be filled with roses, lilies and singing birds and may the great Oak cast its calming shade over your life.

Happy New Year!

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How To Live Your Life Without Regrets

Everyone has made poor choices or done something in their past that could possibly be labelled as "regrettable." But, think about it. The fact that you are now able to look back and realize that a mistake or mis-step occurred means you have learned a valuable lesson. Some of my choices may have landed me in unpleasant circumstances, but experiencing these things certainly built my current character. I wouldn't be where I am today if it weren't for those character-building situations. Mistakes are stepping stones to an evolving life. No need for you to sink into regret or despair -- keep your chin up.

Here's How:

Difficulty: Average

Time Required: now and forever

Acknowledge a mistake has been made - It is easy to play the blame game, pointing fingers at someone else or circumstances as to why you have stumbled or why your life is difficult. Taking personal ownership that your past actions resulted in bringing about your current reality is the first step to moving past regrets and moving toward a brighter future.

Make amends - If your past actions or words have harmed another person an apology may be in order. Or not, apologies can be tricky. Judge for yourself if an apology will help matters or only drudge up old wounds better left alone. But, definitely forgive yourself! Nobody is perfect. We all make mistakes. Continually berating yourself for past actions is self-defeating. Would you kick a dog while it was laying down? Of course not. Please don't do this to yourself. Righting a wrong is not always feasible. If you feel badly about a past action you've taken that cannot be righted, forgive yourself, and let it go.

Do-overs - Sometimes feelings of regret arise not from our past actions, but from our non-actions. Have you ever regretted not taking a vacation, staying stuck in a dead-end job, not attending college... or whatever? It may be too late to reverse those decisions, but you still have options. Some colleges offer free classes for seniors. You might not have the time, money, or physical endurance to travel, but you can rent movies or attend travelogue showings about the regions you wish to learn more about. New opportunities are available around every corner if you just open your heart and follow your dreams.
Be grateful - The most valuable lessons learned in life often come from the mistakes we make. It may take a walk down a dark alley to see clearly. Embrace your follies, feel gratitude for getting past the worst episodes and eventually finding your way along a less-cluttered path.

Be careful not to repeat the same mistake - A skinned-knee teaches a small child not to run so fast. Slow-down. If you are repeatedly faced with similar difficulties over and over again, this is a sure bet that you have not learned the lessons these situations are trying to teach. Opportunity will surface only after you take responsibility for faulty actions taken and change your current and future behaviours accordingly.

Be watchful of future knee-jerk reactions - This is probably the toughest step, not reacting negatively to situations or the people who tend to push your buttons. We don't always have control over the things life tosses in front of us, but we do control our reactions. Stay calm. Introduce stress-management into your daily life. Meditation helps clear and focus the mind. Therapeutic play will help balance work-related stresses.

Looking deeper inside - Re-evaluate the direction your life is taking. Have you accepted that your past mistakes are just that --- in the past? Focus on today. Become aware of your future goals and desires. Setting clear intentions will help clear the path so that your life progresses with a freer heart and increased happiness. The best is yet to come! Believe it.

Tips:

Remember, nobody is perfect. Including yourself!

Forgiveness is golden.

Live for today. Yesterday was then.

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Be You

You were born to be real, not to be perfect.

You are here to be you,

not to live someone else’s life.

Every day you make some progress

and every day

you make a few mistakes.

Through it all,

your wisdom continues to grow

and your experience

continues to broaden.

Be gentle with yourself.

Accept who you are,

where you have been,

and what you have to work with,

for in this moment

you can make positive use of it all.

Reach in and touch the purpose

that makes you feel most alive.

The world around you

is filled with places

where that purpose

can do great things.

It is never too late

to offer your unique

and genuine gifts to life.

Now is the time to do great things,

even in the smallest of ways.

Choose to fully and graciously

live life as it comes.

The richest rewards by far

are the ones to which

you most sincerely give of yourself.

-- Ralph Marston

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Words to Uplift An Addicted Loved One

QUESTION:
There are some members of my family that have a problem with alcohol. If they truly want to stop drinking, and they come to me, what do I tell them?

ANSWER:
The most significant thing that you could do for anyone who is asking you, is to diffuse their trauma about it. I would diffuse any labels. I would explain to them that all who are physically focused have this powerful desire to feel good. You want, more than life itself, because it is life itself, to connect with that which is your Source.

Some people are born more sensitive to that vibration. You said about them, "You're too sensitive. You let things bother you too much." They were sensitive to things that they felt that they could not control, and they did not know how to choose the thoughts that allowed the Source Energy to flow. The more the Source Energy didn't flow, the worse they felt, because they came forth intending - in a stronger way than others you might meet - to be Teachers of that flow of Energy. And so, they discovered that the alcohol or drugs diffused their ability to focus, and in the diffusion of focus, they allowed more Connection. And as they allowed more Connection - they felt better.

It is with very well-meaning intent that they have found that action, and - while it is not an action that I would encourage -- sometimes the respite of the alcohol or the drug is the only means to soothing that they can find.

I would not say, you are bad; I would say -- you are sensitive.

I would not say, you are weak; I would say -- you have this powerful desire to feel good.

And in the midst of not being able to find a way to control what was happening--

you found a way to diffuse your awareness of how you were feeling.

I see no solution in pushing against. The solution that I see is in soothing them back into their Connection; you don't demand them back, or condemn them back -- you appreciate them back.

I do not see a way other than helping them to understand the whole picture: "You've got Source Energy that is flowing to you and through you, and when you're allowing it, you feel great -- and when you're not, you don't feel so good." I would teach them about the emotions that are their Guidance System.

I would say to them: "When you think those thoughts of condemnation about yourself, and you feel all of that guilt or grief, or self-condemnation, you are, in that thought, holding yourself apart from the vibration and the thought of your Source. Because your Source adores you. And when you choose to hate yourself rather than adore yourself, you've set up a wall of resistance. And under those conditions, I don't blame you for wanting a pill or a drug, or a drink of something, to soothe yourself from that . No one, especially someone as sensitive as you, could endure such disconnection."

So, if we were talking to anyone who is wanting to relieve themselves of the tool that they had discovered -- that turned out to have side effects that they did not want -- the tool that was soothing their disconnection, we would teach them how to reconnect. But you can't do it unless you're willing to talk to them about Inner Being, about Source Energy, about Vibration. You must talk to them about Emotion. In other words, you can't do it by tippy-toeing around the Essence of who we all are.

People go to church, people are having metaphysical experiences all over the place, it's time to stop pussy-footing around the idea that you are Source Energy in physical bodies.

It's time to start saying,

You are Source Energy in this physical body, and the better you feel,

the more of who you really are is flowing through.

And the worse you feel, the less of it you are allowing to flow through.

And it's not being disallowed by Source --

It's being disallowed by you.


I would love them, love them, love them!

I would love them when they're drunk.

I would love them when they are high.

I would love them when they're coming off of it.



I would say, "It's alright. It's alright. It's alright.

You are valid in your reason for being here.

You are valid in your reason for this action.

I understand what is happening to you.

Let me talk to you about what I know."



"You are a powerful being," I would say.

"You are perfect in the eyes of Source, or All-That-Is, or whatever you're wanting to call that.

You are a creator.

You've come forth with very real intent.

And when you love yourself the way you are loved by Source Energy, there is nothing better than that."

That's the point I would make.

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How to fuck up your vibration

Let's bring it down to something that's easy to get your thoughts around for a moment. So, let's say that there are two people who have a disagreement that you don't understand, that are arguing in the parking lot. And as you walk by, you hear their argument, but you are used to things going well for you and you're not really interested..

And so, while you couldn't help but hear them, you wonder, sort of, how you even got there. You don't give it very much attention. But someone that you are with turns and hears them a little bit, and says to you, "Wait up for just a moment." Now, your natural instinct is not to get involved in something like this, but you have another intention, and that is to stay with the friend, or lover or mate, that you came with.

So, while you do not have an intention to get involved in any argument, in fact, that's not the nature of you, you do have an intention to stay with this person who has other peripheral intentions. And so, it turns out that the person that you are with has had a parking lot or two scuffles of his own, and is only peripherally interested, so he just stops for a moment and as he listens, he hears something that stirs something within him, and now he feels that he must take action, because he can see that the big one is clearly going to beat up on the little one.

And so, your friend now gets involved, and now you're involved. Now, somebody else comes, and somebody else comes, and before you know it, you have a whole lot of people that are, sort of, gathered around this issue that you really did not have anything to do with at the beginning of it. But the more you listen, and the more you begin to talk among yourselves, the more you begin to take sides. And then you can clearly see that this one is right, or you can clearly see that this one is right. And now, because of your involvement with it over a period of a few days or weeks or months, or years, it begins to feel very personal to you as you begin to really relate to the issue.

And so, you get these things activated within yourself. And so, that, in a very scanty way, is exactly the sort of thing that escalates into these culminations that evolve into world events.

It is my promise to you, that if mass consciousness were not involved, nothing could ever escalate to be something that is played out on the world stage. It would play out in the parking lot. But the more people get involved in it, then the more energy is around it, and then, the more large the events must come about.

::

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Live your truth

Live your truth. Express your love. Share your enthusiasm. Take action towards your dreams. Walk your talk. Dance and sing to your music. Embrace your blessings.
~ Steve Maraboli

::

Go to your inner Happy Place

::

Season, Reason and Lifetime

People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. When you figure out which it is, you know exactly what to do.

When someone is in your life for a REASON,

It is usually to meet a need you have expressed outwardly or inwardly. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally, or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend, and they are. They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, without any wrong-doing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up or out and force you to take a stand.

What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled; their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and it is now time to move on.

When people come into your life for a SEASON,
It is because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn. They may bring  you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy.

When people come into your life for a LIFETIME
relationships teach you lifetime lessons; those things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person/people (any way); and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life. 
It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.
- author Unknown -

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There is enough of everything, for everybody

I really want you to get into the realization that your lack-based conclusions are erroneous, and not validated. Your conclusion that there isn't enough of something—whether it is enough land or enough money, or enough clarity—your feeling that there is not enough of something, stems from you learning, without meaning to, a vibration that holds you apart from what you want. But you imply that there's not enough in the bucket, that there's not enough in the pile, that there's not enough in the Source—that the Source of what you want is somehow limited. And since the Source is limited, then those greedy buggers that have managed to figure out how to get it in their life, are somehow depriving you of it. And I say, oh, you could not be further from the fact of the abundance of Source!

There is no limitation. If you can identify a desire for it, Source recognizes your desire, and immediately begins to deliver it to you—and it will manifest in your experience in the variety, in the fullness, in the way that you, and only you, learn to allow it.

So, if you stand in your now and you say, "Look at where I am. Where I am, justifies the desire that is conjuring within me. It is really important that I have this, or this, or this—because, after all, I am living in the deprivation of it. And the deprivation of it has served me to identify that I want it. I want that thing that I do not have. I want that thing that I do not have! I want that thing that I do not have. I really, really want that thing that I really, really, really do not have!"

And I say, you cannot be equally focused upon the absence of something, and bring it swiftly into your experience at the same time, because in your awareness that you do not have it, you are offering a vibration. And the vibration that you're offering, is sending a signal to the Universe that says, "I am one who does not have this." The Universe, is based upon the Law of Attraction, which says, "The vibration that you emit is the vibration that you receive." You cannot set your radio for 98.6 and receive the broadcast from 101 FM—you understand that. And you cannot set your sender to the "I don't have enough money," and be in the place of receiving all the money that you want, because the signals do not line up—and Law of Attraction is responding to the vibration of your Being. Nice, isn't it? Nice to know. So consistent—always consistent.

No one affects you, but you. Oh, you can watch others, and you can get all revved up about what they're doing. In your watching of others, you can project a vibration that the Universe matches. But your vibration is yours. You have control of your vibration. And when you learn to offer a vibration deliberately, you are the Deliberate Creator of your own experience. And before you learn to offer a vibration deliberately, you are just the creator of your experience—a sort of creator by default.

Excerpted from the workshop 'Abraham' in San Francisco, CA on Saturday, March 8th, 2003

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Resign from a system that no longer serves you

Art By : 'Prana' Bernart Amygdalah Digital-Art

That feeling of pure bliss coming in when you decide to resign from a system that no longer serves you - be true to yourself don`t betray your own Soul.
For you to fully enter into your own mastery, you have to stop being a follower. Ask your own heart, and walk your own way lead by your heart and soul ...
We need for you to bring your own unique mastery into our togetherness ....
Espavo dear Ones !!!

~ Keeper of The Platinum Ray

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Feel the fear and do it anyway

What is waiting but a pause in a hurtful place?.. It’s like standing barefoot in a pricker bush and saying, 

“hmm, I don’t think I’m ready to move yet”.

The timing will never be right. The conditions will never ever ever ever be exactly perfect. No matter how long you wait, there will always be a reason it why isn’t the “right” time.

So maybe you should just do it anyway.

Whatever it is that you’re working on, planning to do, or waiting to implement, it’s too important to just let it slip away.

Whenever we humble ourselves, open up and decide to do something powerful, something worth doing, a lot of doubt, question, and “is it right?” is brought to the surface. Many of the people I work with have experienced this, and I too have felt waves of this feeling. And you know what? This is what makes us feel alive. This is us feeling, experiencing, and doing our work. The more we try and experience and move forward, the more “stuff” we’re faced with, and there’s always going to be more “stuff” and its all beautiful. It’s all moveable, and it’s all eye opening and perfect.

Through our “real work” we do our “soul work”.

And ooh we’re doing big things, we’re doing serious work. Whether it be bettering our own lives, and loving ourselves deeply, or sharing this with someone else through our work. The good stuff isn’t always easy. And we need to recommit to this work each and every day. We need to remind ourselves of the good that we are doing, and the fact that there is no one else in this world that can do exactly whatever it is that you can. There is no one that has what you have, because it’s YOU, that you do have. And it’s THAT which you will share, and spread out and send into the world. And this is what we must remind ourselves of.

And even more than all of this, we have to remind ourselves to actually DO IT, and make moves.

I mean really, what is the risk of moving forward and doing this thing? Are you afraid of loss or failure? Because psst, guess what: if you never move forward to do whatever it is you’re yearning for, you’ve automatically experienced loss, “failure” and non success. If you don’t do it at all, there’s no way to get it done. You have to at least TRY, or you’ve automatically failed.
Action is what really gets things flowing.

Movement is what the universe responds to more quickly than thought. It’s action that shows the world you are serious. Each step creates momentum, and each moment it gets stronger and stronger, pushing you along the way. This is you in the flow. And baby…. I LOVE the flow. Let’s move.

So let’s bring this back to you, my love. Where are you feeling stuck? What have you been waiting to do, when the timing is “right” or after “this one thing is done”?

It’s time to move now. The time is now because you will never feel ready. That edge of nerve, sweat, or super-fast heartbeat will never fully go away. And thank god, because it is that which reminds us of the strength of our actions. The fact that you are sitting here, thinking about this thing and experiencing a physical response, without having acted yet, shows how powerful it can be.

But let’s re-frame this a little bit….. Instead of experiencing this sensation as fear of what may come, look at it as if you are already feeling the effects of this powerful decision. It’s excitement about the good that is to come that you are feeling, not fear! Whoa!! Different right? One small shift of perspective changes this terrible feeling in your gut into something that’s beneficial, exciting and GOOD.

So recommit if you’ve felt like maybe it isn’t right, or that you can’t do it. I’ve been there, too. We all have. But you know what? It is right, you can do this, and you are important. Who cares how long it has taken you to get here, because you’re here now, and nothing super easy is really worth doing anyway.

There are thorns in your feet baby! Pluck them out and get a move on. Remember all that there is for you to create. Remember the fire, and kindle the flames. Remember that you are you.

Move baby! GO!

Tell me, what is the next thing you need to do to get you where you want to be? What’s your first step, and when are you doing it? Share it with me below, and THIS can become your first move to making it happen.

- by Morgan Potts

About the author:
Morgan Potts is a holistic health coach working with women from around the world who want to live a life more sacred and satisfying. Her passion is to fill life with ritual and connection, bringing wonder, magic and excitement to each moment. Morgan believes when we feel aligned we feel connected, we feel sacred, we are the divine feminine — and we can truly nurture our desires. The relationship between the moon’s phases and women’s natural cycles is a main focus.

Morgan works with women online through her one-on-one coaching programs, and also leads the Facebook group Moonblush Sacred Women. Both are aimed at reconnecting with the feminine flow, and understanding how to live a life more rich and nourishing to our bodies. If this subject fascinates you, and is something you want to connect with, join her Facebook group where all things sacred and feminine are discussed! Morgan also leads monthly women’s gatherings on the evening of the new moon, in Rochester NY.

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You must be willing

You are joy, looking for a way to express.

You are joy, looking for a way to express. It’s not just that your purpose is joy, it is that you are joy. You are love and joy and freedom and clarity expressing. Energy—frolicking and eager—that’s who you are. And so, if you’re always reaching for alignment with that, you’re always on your path, and your path will take you into all kinds of places. We will not deny that you will not discover miracles and create benefits and be involved in creation, and that you will not uplift humanity…we will not say that you will not find satisfaction in so many things that you create, but we can’t get away from the acknowledgement that you are Pure Positive Energy that translates into the human emotion of joy.

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How To Alleviate The Current World-wide Financial Crisis

You can chill out and go to work.

Or you can focus upon the things that are important to you and figure out how to satisfy the details of your life and stop looking to someone else to solve it and figure out how to bring yourself into balance - and turn off things like this debate! - you're harassing yourself into the misalignment of what's already in your vibrational escrow.

Prosperity has been brought into motion by all of you; you are all co-conspirators, and you have, through that which you have been living, been contributing to this plan of prosperity and it is the legacy that you all hold ownership of.

In order for you to claim your piece of this amazing pie of prosperity, all you have to do is look in the direction of it and see if you can remember what pieces of it you put there, because every piece you have put there, has been lovingly held for you. It cannot evaporate from the stock-market and it cannot be squandered by those who do not understand and it cannot be taken from you. Because if your life caused you to put it in to this holding pattern, this vibrational escrow, then it is forever there for you . You hold ownership of it, and the only thing that is required for you to make your personal withdrawal, is make your personal withdrawal by no longer paying attention to who else is making what withdrawals.

Don't worry about them getting your fair share of prosperity - it's not possible for anybody to get your fair share - your fair share is always earmarked for you - it will always stay there - in perfect becoming-ness - and since you've put it there, it has been accruing magnificent interest - it's gotten bigger than it was when you asked for it and it gets bigger with every request you make and the more crisis you apply to it, it the bigger and bigger it gets - know that it's there for you and that no one can get it away from you - stop worrying about what anybody else is doing because it's the your worrying about what everybody else is doing that's causing you to hold yourself vibrationally out of whack from it.

For those who do not know about the vibrational reality, I would say, "Worry not, this has happened before and you will get through it. Do not worry about what's happening. Nothing has changed in the last few days. Nothing even has changed in the last few years that is so far out of balance that it cannot come back into balance." All you have to do is settle in and ride it out." Say to yourself every day, "It's better .. It's getting better, it's getting better, and it's going to be alright. It's better, it's getting better, it's getting better and it's going to be alright."

As soon as you convince yourself that it's better than you thought it was and that it's getting better than it is right now and that it's not only going to be alright, it's going to be REALLY alright, your prosperity can begin to come to you immediately.

Political leaders :

Do not hold anybody on the planet responsible for the well-being that comes to you - THIS man and THAT man is not responsible for your well-being. YOU are responsible for their well-being. GIVE THEM A BREAK.

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Give yourself permission

Give yourself permission to be OK with growing and evolving slowly, make it OK that you may take one step forward and one step back, make it OK that it's a struggle, because the secret is, it's like that for others too, eventually the tide does turn, but do not make it longer by being unloving to your self.

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Affirmation for What I am

I accept and respect myself for who I am.
I am who I want to be, and only I have the power to change who I am.

You already possess all of the power and resources required to create anything you choose.
To unlock that power, all it takes is a willingness to change.

Affirmations are statements of truth that help us to feel differently to act differently. It is these new actions that create miracles. What could you accomplish if you believed that?

• You are powerful.
• You are talented.
• You are enough.
• You have or can get the resources you need.
• Your past does not have to determine your future.
• You only have to take the first step.

Most of the time, it is our own thoughts that get in the way of success. Positive thinking re-programs our minds to believe what is true about life. Fear and worry are only barriers if you allow them to prevent you from taking steps toward a life you fall in love with.

• Affirmations help to affirm positives and counteract negatives
• Affirmations program the conscious and unconscious mind to focus on what you want
• Affirmations can help turn negative self-talk into positive self-talk
• Affirmations can change negative habits into positive ones.

Every thought you think, every word you say, is an affirmation. All of our self-talk or inner dialogue is a stream of affirmations. We are continually affirming subconsciously with our words and thoughts and this flow of affirmations is creating our life experience in every moment. Our beliefs are just learned thought-patterns that we have developed since childhood, many of these work well for us, but others may now be working against us.

It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen. Don’t force yourself to believe it, just say it. All you have to do is repeat it over and over again and the affirmation will quite naturally have an effect. After all, you don’t force yourself to believe that the medication your doctor has given you will work. You just take the prescribed dosage and assume it will. So too with affirmations; just repeating the statement many times will cause it to work for you.
The more often you use it, the purer your aura will become.
Stand in front of the mirror and repeat it to yourself daily. You might feel silly in the beginning, but who cares and who’s listening?! Do it in your own quiet time when nobody is around.


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Speak your truth

Have you ever been at that place of knowing with every fibre of your being that you are enmeshed in a situation that doesn’t honour your spirit? And you can’t see how to create your exit in such a way that deep, healing, new, fun, meaningful and validating experiences can come in?

At times like that your communication with yourself can seem muffled to the extent that it can feel like you are in an energetic fog. In this fog it is difficult to hear and really step into your wisdom and truth, to see your options and know precisely what it is you need to do to navigate your way out of it.

You may not have necessarily thought about it in these terms before, but as a Spirit, at times like this, what you are really after is a quantum leap in your self-awareness, ability to see yourself, capture and become the vibration of a new and relatively less encumbered you.

Becoming aware of this – your desired quantum leap enables you to cut your way through the fog, sometimes on your own, at other times with others you ‘coincidentally’ encounter because on some level you intuitively sense they can help.
Additionally, the more consciously you can allow yourself to become aware of your desired quantum leap, the more you can begin to acknowledge your truth – your inner wisdom, desires and needs that resonate with you on the most core, fundamental levels of your awareness and being.

Once you allow yourself to stand in the energy of your Truth, no matter how naked and vulnerable you feel (in comparison to the relative safety of the life situation that keeps you safe yes, but also stuck!) It can become addictive. You find yourself wanting to do it more and more because it makes you feel aligned. Your body and being begin to recall the primordial energy of limitless possibilities available to you as it now searches for a more conscious form of creative expression.

Immersed in that new space now, you begin not only to hear your deepest wants and needs, but you begin to dare to imagine the possibilities. Even if you feel uncertain and fearful, you begin ever so slightly to allow yourself to become excited because you sense there is a whole other outcome that is possible for you – an outcome outside of the limiting one that you have grown so accustomed to.

How do you begin to honour this ‘well of wisdom’ and truth bubbling within your depths? The answer is simple.
You speak your truth.
Yes, there is fear but you feel the fear and do it anyway! Why? Because when you speak your truth, you unwittingly give your entire body and being permission to energetically shift.

In this way you also begin shifting your relationships, not only to the situations that kept you stuck but to the people and unconscious dynamics that formerly ‘held’ you in that space or role.

People will sometimes struggle to make sense of your seemingly new-found convictions. This is simply a reflection of your reality and truth beginning to shift away from the pre-defined limits and roles you – and they – unwittingly accepted because you felt you had no other choice.

Never underestimate the sheer magnificence, beauty and wisdom inherent in your spiritual self. Being able to speak your truth is synonymous with trusting yourself and your ability to continually evolve, heal and grow. It is the same as knowing that all is right in your world when you step into your brilliance and give yourself permission to shine. Ultimately when you speak your truth in this way, you give yourself permission to be spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically free.

By Caroline Diana Bobart
Guest Writer for Wake Up World

About the author:
Caroline wants to live in a world where it’s easy for others to connect with their innermost desires and experience the exhilaration that comes when they find their groove. A professional Intuitive Life Coach, she teaches at the Academy of Clairvoyance and Consciousness and creates and facilitates opportunities for others to participate in transformational group-based intuitive work.

Caroline is the creator and facilitator of Everyday Alchemy: Intuition at Work and Play, a system of intuitive self-healing programs thoughtfully designed to reveal to you your own essential energetic, intuitive and creative nature. It takes you from a place from feeling unremarkable to wonderment at being able to reclaim your ability to heal yourself and effect positive, meaningful life change.

You can follow Caroline on Facebook at Facebook.com/TheAlchemistWithin.

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Remember how blessed you are

We all have something bad crossing our paths from time to time and although it might feel like the end of the world, remember that it could be worse. If you have only R1000 to your name, remember that there is someone else that only has R100 to their name. If you feel you have been betrayed by a loved one, remember that someone else has lost a loved one.

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The sanctuary is within you

What has happened is in the past, finished, over and done with. And each moment of what is happening right now is also in the past as soon as it has happened.

Never mind what-is. Imagine it the way you want it to be so that your vibration is a match to your desire. When your vibration is a match to your desire, all things in your experience will gravitate to meet that match every time.

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There's Not One Truth Or One Religion That Is Appropriate

Have you ever known someone whose life was not based on what you thought was moral or appropriate behaviour? And yet, they continued to win. You know why? They don't listen to the other side of the argument and mix up their vibration. They focus upon and hold themselves in alignment with what they want—and the Universe delivers to them what they want.

It doesn't matter how many others stand back and claim injustice, foul play, or inappropriate, the Universe always answers your vibration. And it doesn't have anything to do with what anybody else is doing—or thinks about what you're doing—unless you change your vibration because of what they think about what you're doing. That's why a variety of medical remedies work differently on different people. That's why a variety of religious intentions work for different people.

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Abundance

Do you know that everyday you are unconsciously reliving successes or failures? By playing these positive or negative tapes over and over in the mind, you are literally planning and practicing your future.
Thoughts form habits.

When you learn to discipline your thoughts and concentrate on the positive, you’ll be creating the habit of success.

Success, happiness and self-satisfaction come from within.

Believe without exception that, “I can do it!” and you will.

Success and happiness also depend on your willingness to persist when the going gets tough.
Often, giving up too soon is the reason most people fail to find their most satisfying successes.
Your belief in yourself determines what you’ll accomplish.

Your mind is always programming itself to keep you happy and content in the world you’ve created. Beating yourself up about negative habits only tightens their hold over you. And feeling guilty only makes them stronger.

"You can replace old habits by creating new, more positive ones. Research has shown that it takes about twenty-one days to change a habit."
- Sharon A. Michaels

Pop Quiz
Q: How do you find love, health, abundance, or enlightenment?
A: Stop searching. And start seeing what’s been there all along.

Note from the Universe :
Today, you are a magnet…
for infinite abundance, divine intelligence, and unlimited love.
Actually, this has always been true.
You are the reason the sun came up today.
BELIEVE IT!


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Today is International Forgiveness Day....

The Power of Forgiveness

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A simply quiet life

Simplifying your life does not only mean cleaning out your cupboards, re-organising your store room or getting rid of excess stuff. All most of us want, is a quiet life. By that I don't mean you must not travel, be adventurous or have a busy life. I'm talking about having a quiet, peaceful mind, a mind that is at ease with where you are in life, that can handle whatever is thrown at you.

Decluttering our minds is one of the most important aspects of living a simple, fulfilled life. If your cupboards are neat and organised but your mind is still in a place of turmoil, you won't feel any better. We all have problems that arise in our lives and important decisions to make and problems are much easier to handle when we have inner peace.

Inner peace is obtained by taking a good look at what's going on in your life and deciding what is important and dumping all the rest. By clearing out "unnecessary" thoughts and problems, it leaves us space to deal with only that which is necessary. We often fill our minds with all sorts of irrelevant things which makes it impossible to see the big picture.

If you're contemplating moving house, don't sweat the small stuff like, "where am I going to put this in the new place" or "I won't have space for my desk and computer" or "the new bathroom is so small". Life has a way of working out those small issues and we are all actually very adaptable beings. Once you've made a decision, just do what you have to do and the rest will fall into place.

Inner peace also comes from deciding which problems you can actually do something about and which you cannot help with except by giving constant support, like a friend or a family member that might be going through a difficult time. If the problem is of a financial nature and you can help, that's fine. If not, let it go and know that things happen as they must. To tell you the truth, you are not actually responsible for the rest of the Universe, even your own adult child, but love and support is something that we all have an abundance of and that's the best we can do.

All problems and decisions are the same - changing jobs, getting divorced, financial security, loss of a loved one - look at the big picture, let go of what you can and move on. Regrets and living in the past serves no purpose. All we have is now, tomorrow might never come, so let's do the best with NOW that we can.

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Go ahead! Throw the first stone!

Sin is a very liberating thing. It’s a shame we have forgotten it. Just think what might not have happened in the world if we had had a little more respect for personal sins, a little more knowledge of our own, a little less condemnation of everyone else’s. We may have been spared the shame of the stocks in Boston, the Magdalene laundries in Ireland, the penal colonies in Georgia, the back-alley births of so many children of single mothers, the front-page pictures of professional people found drunk in public and, in our own day, the Web pages of sleazy private information released to justify the impeachment of a president.

We love making sinners “stand in front of us.” In public. How else can their sins take attention away from our own?

It isn’t, of course, that there’s no place for accountability. It’s just that there’s no place for condemnation once we face our own sins. The problem is simply that there’s no place for stoning if we are the ones supposed to be pure enough to do it.

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There will always be those who thrive

There are always those who thrive when masses are dying of sickness. There are always those who thrive economically when economic decline seems to be the order of our nation. There are always those who are clear-minded, in environments of confusion. You do not need everyone or anyone else to align with your desire—only you need to align with your desire.

It's interesting, how, when you know that you are the creator of your own experience, and that anything you ask for, Source immediately begins to answer, things start falling into place.

Through the millennia humanity has always grasped for something to lean on, a crutch, some external factor that can "save" them, get them to to a place of contentment or help them through a crisis or difficult times. People turn to drugs, smoking, drinking, religion, sedatives or many of the other external factors that can make one "feel good".

When you understand that you deliberately create your own reality through your focus and your exposure to contrast, when you really get it, that your desire is always answered and that it's just your work to get into a place of allowing it—then, standing in that unfulfilled place of a fresh, new desire is delicious.

All you have to do is to discover that you have within you a Guidance System that lets you know, in any moment, what you're doing with your vibration. You can literally feel, once you have listened for it a little bit, whether you are a vibrational match to your Core Energy or whether you are not.

None of the "crutches" are right or wrong. When you find something that works for you, stick to it. Have you ever known someone whose life was not based on what you thought was moral or appropriate behavior? And yet, they continued to win. You know why? They don't listen to the other side of the argument and mix up their vibration. They focus upon and hold themselves in alignment with what they want—and the Universe delivers to them what they want.

It doesn't matter how many others stand back and claim injustice, foul play, or inappropriate, the Universe always answers your vibration.

And it doesn't have anything to do with what anybody else is doing—or thinks about what you're doing—unless you change your vibration because of what they think about what you're doing. That's why a variety of medical remedies work differently on different people. That's why a variety of religious intentions work for different people.

How do you ever decide what is right or wrong for you, what is appropriate or inappropriate, when there are so many different opinions and voices trying to get your attention and trying to get you to follow?

If you have a very narrow experience, if you only have one or two choices, it is fairly easy to choose one and stick to it. But as you go through life, all these different options are offered to you, where people have different religious beliefs or different beliefs about what you should eat or the way you should dress, now you have greater contradiction within your experience. The variety is enormous. And so, many of us try to find the biggest group in order to please.

Begin to move through life more on a feeling basis than on an intellectual, thinking basis. You want to reach the point where you can just tell by the way you feel, “Am I vibrationally up to speed with who I am and what I want, or have I chosen — by influence of others or by some old habit of thought — have I chosen to focus somewhere that’s lower and slower in vibration?”

You can believe anything you want and have success with it. But in the moment you push against what another believes, you cut yourself off from your success.They must be allowed if I am to be allowed. All is allowed.

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The habit of religion

Processionary caterpillars travel in long, undulating lines, one creature behind the other. Jean Hanri Fabre, the French entomologist, once lead a group of these caterpillars onto the rim of a large flowerpot so that the leader of the procession found himself nose to tail with the last caterpillar in the procession, forming a circle without end or beginning.

Through sheer force of habit and, of course, instinct, the ring of caterpillars circled the flowerpot for seven days and seven nights, until they died from exhaustion and starvation. An ample supply of food was close at hand and plainly visible, but it was outside the range of the circle, so the caterpillars continued along the beaten path.

People often behave in a similar way. Habit patterns and ways of thinking become deeply established, and it seems easier and more comforting to follow them than to cope with change, even when that change may represent freedom, achievement, and peace of mind.

If someone shouts, "Fire!" it is automatic to blindly follow the crowd, and many thousands have needlessly died because of it. How many stop to ask themselves: Is this really the best way out of here?

So many people "miss the boat" because it's easier and more comforting to follow - to follow without questioning the qualifications of the people just ahead - than to do some independent thinking and checking.

A hard thing for most people to fully understand is that people in such numbers can be so wrong, like the caterpillars going around and around the edge of the flowerpot, with life and food just a short distance away. If most people are living that way, it must be right, they think.

But a little checking will reveal that, throughout all recorded history, the majority of mankind has an unbroken record of being wrong about most things, especially important things. For a time we thought the Earth was flat and later we thought the Sun, Stars, and planets traveled around the Earth. Both ideas are now considered ridiculous, but at the time they were believed and defended by the vast majority of followers. In the hindsight of history we must have looked like those caterpillars blindly following the follower out of habit rather than stepping out of line to look for the truth.

It's difficult for people to come to the understanding that only a small minority of people ever really get the word about life, about living abundantly and in harmony with themselves. Peace and harmony in the important departments of life seldom comes naturally, no more naturally than success at anything - a musical instrument, sports, fly-fishing, tennis, golf, business, marriage, parenthood.

But for some reason, most people wait passively for change to come to them - like the caterpillars going around in circles, waiting for sustenance, following nose to tail - living as other people are living in the unspoken, tacit assumption that other people must know what is right.

It's a good idea to step out of the line every once in a while and look around to see if the line is going where we want it to go. If it is not, it might be time for a new direction, looking at relieving ourselves of old habits that don't serve us anymore.

The breaking of a long-time habit of religion can be traumatic and does seem like the end of the road at the time - the complete cessation of life as we know it. Suddenly dropping the habit so fills our minds with the desire for the old habitual way that, for a while, it seems there will no longer be any peace, any sort of law and order in our lives again. But that's not true. New habits form in a surprisingly short time, and a whole new world opens up to us when we realise that we are free from all restrictions, free from following the follower and that only joy and happiness can come from following our hearts instead.

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Is our planet broken?

I came upon this quote on the internet - "People who pursue intrinsic values — self-acceptance, making the world a better place, helping polar bears — are much happier than people who chase popularity, money, and image."

What a general remark to make! I say, different strokes for different folks. There is nothing wrong with wanting to feel popular, it's a part of our human-ness, and there's nothing wrong with wanting money, it enables us to enjoy the good things in life and also to do a lot of good.

Not everybody is into making the world a better place or helping polar bears, although it is a noble thought. But cluttering our minds and lives with thoughts of 'saving the planet' serves no purpose and actually exacerbates the situation.

If you understand the principle of "what you think about, you bring about" you will realise that, thinking of our planet as being "broken", just enhances mass-consciousness of this fact and causes more 'action' of saving (the planet) which sets an on-going circle into motion of enhancing mass-consciousness and 'saving'.

Activism might seem like the answer, but the truth is, activism is fighting a losing battle. When GreenPeace heads out to stop the slaughter of whales, for example, they once again send out vibrations into mass-consciousness that something needs saving.

Every activist vibrates, deep down from within their heart and soul, pain, anger, a feeling of helplessness and a desire to 'save'. This vibration, which is a feeling of what they DON'T want, goes out into the Universe and MORE of what they don't want comes into being.

The only way we can 'save the planet' is by everybody doing their little bit by leaving as light a carbon footprint as possible. By vibrating what we DO want. By living simply and by eliminating all but the essential, which turns chaos into peace. By each person taking responsibility for their style of life. It's not about money and living simply is not about believing that there is a shortage. The Universe is infinite in its supply of resources. Here we are, on the same planet that we've been on for more years than we have the ability to count. And just in the last 400 years, look at the difference in our economy. And it's the same exact planet. Nobody has been trucking in or piping in any resources from somewhere else. There are not more resources present today. Nor any less.

There is no shortage. And any attention to shortage of something wanted will always produce negative emotion within us because our guidance system is letting us know that we have strayed from our broader basic understanding of abundance and Well-Being. Whether we are focused upon the shortage of money—or resources—that feeling of decline is contrary to our broader understanding of the Eternal nature of our Being.

I will not stay silent

"Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth. For being correct. For being you. Never apologize for being correct, or for being years ahead of your time. If you're right and you know it, speak your mind. Speak your mind. Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth." - Gandhi

So many people need you to behave in a certain way for them to feel good. They condemn you for your selfishness. "How dare you be so selfish as to follow what makes you feel good? You should follow what makes us feel good!"

From an early age you were "told", through word and action, that you are too young, not smart enough to know anything and that somebody else should make all the decisions for you. (I'm not talking about infants). You were told what religion to follow, that you HAVE to have a religion to follow; you were told when to eat, even though your body knew it was not ready for food yet; you were told what to eat, even though your body knew what it needed and you were told that things only get done in a certain way even though you knew there was another way that would work for you.

You could not live in this culture during the times of your life without getting a huge amount of information relative to that, just the same as the way people respond to the things you do and say. And then people are scared out of their wits when you come up with an alternative theory, when you step out of the box and do something differently.

They are fearful that your choices, your beliefs, are somehow going to affect them. How can that be? How can anybody be fearful that what you or I do is going to affect them in any way?

But all that is slowly changing now. Many realise that there are many choices out there and that diversity is as real as their own convictions. All anybody needs to do is to focus on what they want in their lives, not what anybody else is doing.

You are free.

You’re so free, you can choose bondage.

You are so free, that no one can do anything to you.

You are so free, that you are the only one who is causing anything to happen in your experience.

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As you get older...

When you suspend your faculty of independent judgement, you suspend consciousness. To stop consciousness is to stop life. Everyone has the right to make his own decisions, but none has the right to force his decision on others.

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Trust the process

Imae by Kim Klassen

When I first heard about minimalism, I immediately rejected it. The root word is partly to blame: minimal. It gives the impression of having to endure scarcity to the point of deprivation.

Living simply isn't about living under a rock somewhere and depriving yourself of the finer pleasures in life. It's about feeling satisfied, not deprived. About filling up, not emptying out. It's about surrounding yourself by things you love, good books, music, beautiful art. It's about peace of mind, living your life with purpose, without the screaming thoughts of what or who you SHOULD be.

Sometimes life is made simple by removing things, but sometimes it comes from adapting or adding in what you really need to live a good life.

Listen to your heart and trust the process - Simple living today is joyful, bright, poetic and mentally robust.

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Do NOT study poverty

Since belief is all important, it is important for you to guard your thoughts if you want to thrive, and as your beliefs will be shaped to a very great extent by the things you observe and think about, it is important that you should carefully govern to what you give your attention. And here free will comes into use, for it is by your will that you determine upon what things your attention shall be fixed.

If you want to become thrive, you must not make a study of poverty. Things are not brought into being by thinking about their opposites.

- Health is never to be attained by studying disease and thinking about disease;

- Righteousness is not to be promoted by studying sin and thinking about sin;

- and no one ever thrived by studying poverty and thinking about poverty.

Medicine as a science of disease has increased disease;

religion as a science of sin has promoted sin,

and economics as a study of poverty will fill the world with wretchedness and want.

Do not talk about poverty, do not investigate it, or concern yourself with it. Never mind what its causes are; you have nothing to do with them.

Do not read books or papers which give circumstantial accounts of the wretchedness of the tenement dwellers, of the horrors of child labor, and so on.

Do not read anything which fills your mind with gloomy images of want and suffering.

You cannot help the poor in the least by knowing about these things, and the widespread knowledge of them does not tend at all to do away with poverty.

What concerns you is to thrive. Do not spend your time in so-called charitable work or charity movements; most charity only tends to perpetuate the wretchedness it aims to eradicate.

I do not say that you should be hard-hearted or unkind and refuse to hear the cry of need, but you must not try to eradicate poverty in any of the conventional ways.

Ayn Rand said, “There is a great, basic contradiction in the teachings of Jesus. Jesus was one of the first great teachers to proclaim the basic principle of individualism – the inviolate sanctity of man’s soul, and the salvation of one’s soul as one’s first concern and highest goal; this means – one’s ego and the integrity of one’s ego. But when it came to the next question, a code of ethics to observe for the salvation of one’s soul – (this means: what must one do in actual practice in order to save one’s soul?) – Jesus (or perhaps his interpreters) gave men a code of altruism, that is, a code which he told them that, in order to save one’s soul, one must love or help or live for others. This means, the subordination of one’s soul (or ego) to the wishes, desires, or needs of others, which means the subordination of one’s souls to the souls of others.

This is a contradiction that cannot be resolved. This is why men have never succeeded in applying Christianity in practice, while they have preached it in theory for 2,000 years. The reason of their failure was not men’s natural depravity or hypocrisy, which is the superficial (and vicious) explanation usually given. The reason is that a contradiction cannot be made to work.”

You cannot hold the mental image which is to make you thrive if you fill your mind with pictures of poverty and all its attendant ills. Poverty can be done away with, not by increasing the number of well-to-do people who think about poverty, but by increasing the number of poor people who purpose with faith to thrive.

The poor do not need charity; they need inspiration. Charity only sends them a loaf of bread to keep them alive in their wretchedness, or gives them an entertainment to make them forget for an hour or two. But inspiration can cause them to rise out of their misery. If you want to help the poor, demonstrate to them that they can thrive. Prove it by thriving yourself.

Put poverty behind you, and put all that pertains to it behind you, and “make good.” Thrive. That is the best way you can help the poor.

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Having an open mind

There is a common misconception that taking risks is … well, risky. But the truth is that taking risks is no more risky than playing it safe, or maintaining the status quo. In fact, often by failing to innovate, make changes and move forward in different areas of our lives, we open ourselves up to the possibility of stagnation and falling behind.

And often our perceptions of reality do not match the truth of reality. For example, statistically speaking, you are far less likely to be injured in an airplane than in an automobile, by almost 100 to one. Cars are far more dangerous. Think about it. How many people do you personally know that have been injured or killed in a plane crash? Not in newspaper reports you’ve read, but people you actually know. Now how many people do you know who have been injured or killed in a car accident? Point made. Yet many people feel apprehensive about taking a plane trip, and these same people feel no apprehension whatsoever about a car ride. Their perceptions and fears do not match the reality of the situation. This happens in our lives more than we would care to realize.

Everyone talks about how important having an open mind is. But what they don’t say is how much having an open mind can affect your potential. A lot of opportunities pass us by because we’re stuck in a limited pattern of thinking, or we’re afraid to take a risk.

If there’s no actual real (or perceived) danger, take the risk. The worse that can happen is you’ll look silly. Having an open mind is the first step to reaching your potential, because it gives you the willingness to take risks. We’ll never be the best we can be by playing it safe.

As the saying goes: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always be where you’ve always been.”

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"Smiling" and "Atheism"

The internet is so full of positive quotes, affirmations, inspiring articles and images and "good" information that it is easy to get positive feed-back in all areas and regularly raise the frequency of your vibration.

But the internet is just as full of negativity, full of ugly on-line fights, full of people pushing against one another and venting their anger for the world to see.

You know how, when you click on a link, and then you click on another and then another and eventually you're somewhere you never intended?

Well, that happened to me the other day. I was Googling "smiling", of all things, and through following links, I ended up at this FaceBook page link called "Fuck Jesus Christ and Fuck Christianity".  Seeing the title, I was intrigued and my curiosity got the better of me, so I popped over to have a look.

I have no problem with what religion someone follows, or whether they do or don't. Everybody is entitled to their opinion or beliefs. Even this page. And although there are many valid "truths" on the page, I do not understand why a viewpoint has to be put across with such anger and hatred. If you do not believe in a god, then you don't. It's your choice. It’s your right. But leave other people to have their choice, their belief, it's their right, it's their choice.

This page strikes me as the sort of thing that gives "atheists" a bad name, and probably one of the reasons why so many religious people find it difficult to "come out of the closet" and follow their own truth.

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Life after divorce

I am not divorced, have never been, although I have been through a seperation, but I do have a certain outlook on divorce and being single again - my favourite tag line is "Each and every one of us used to be single before marriage!" so what's the big deal? But this divorce thing can, and sometimes does, destroy so many lives - why?

Because how you view yourself becomes your reality.

The way you think and feel about living your life after divorce is mirrored in how you're living life right now. In a nutshell, your life is a self-fulfilling prophecy. What you expect will happen, will happen. You'll either live up or down, to your own expectations.

What are your expectations for your life after divorce?

I know, divorce hurts. Let's look at your new life this way, whatever you dwell on most forms the world around you. If you look for the negative, you can find negative circumstances and situations everywhere. Negative thinking becomes negative reality. When you close your eyes and think about the future - Do you picture yourself as successful, content and happy? When you think of your life five years from now, how does it look and feel? Do you see the future as an exciting adventure or something to dread and fear?

This time of emotional upheaval more than any other, is the time to dig deep and find your powerful and positive inner motivators. Inner motivators begin in your memory and imagination. When you use your imagination to picture positive and exciting outcomes, you are more willing to come out of your comfort zone and take the needed risks to make a new life reality. Your imagination creates your possibilities.

Have you tried visualizing an exciting, successful, happy and content future? If visualization is new to you, you may be sceptical about using "daydreaming" to create reality. You may be saying, "Reality is reality and wishing and hoping won't change anything." Think of visualizing as planting seeds of content and success in your imagination. These seeds grow into goals and the goals into reality.

As someone who has many friends who have been through divorce, I'm a big believer in the philosophy that a person is only limited by her/his own imagination and willingness to take positive action. Your mind will react positively to the emotional belief that something you desire is already reality. You are visualizing an ideal scenario, ignoring reality as it is at this moment. You will be using your mental energy to attract what you truly want into your life. Focus all your energy on the positives you want, not the negatives you don't want. Your mind will work very hard to make visualizations come true. Your nervous system tunes into your visualization. When visualizing your new ideal life, you begin to stimulate your mind to take action.

Taking the appropriate steps, everyday, will help make your self-empowered and rewarding new life after divorce a reality.

Do you see the future as an exciting adventure or something to dread and fear?

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Thinking men cannot be ruled

"The good, say the mystics of spirit, is God, a being whose only definition is that he is beyond man's power to conceive - a definition that invalidates man's consciousness and nullifies his concepts of existence...

Man's mind, say the mystics of spirit, must be subordinated to the will of God... Man's standard of value, say the mystics of spirit, is the pleasure of God, whose standards are beyond man's power of comprehension and must be accepted on faith....

The purpose of man's life... is to become an abject zombie who serves a purpose he does not know, for reasons he is not to question?"
- Ayn Rand, For the New Intellectual

If more individuals today are religious sceptics than in centuries past, that is mainly because accumulated knowledge has inclined more people toward such doubt.

It would have been harder to be an atheist hundreds of years ago, when so many mysteries about the universe had not been answered. The scientific discoveries of the last few hundred years have filled in so many gaps that the idea of a Grand Designer with some kind of special affection for humans seems more implausible than ever to many.

Early childhood indoctrination by family, for example, is a key environmental factor that promotes religious beliefs. I mean, you might not have been a Christian if you were born into a Hindu or Buddhist family. And vice versa. If you had been born on an island where just your parents lived and they told you that a certain brick was god, you would have grown up believing that. Until your common sense kicked in.

But living in a close society as we humans do, prevailing social views that disapprove of open disbelief will often discourage serious exploration of secularity. In other words, the major environmental factor that promotes disbelief (and discourages belief) tends to be accumulated knowledge, whereas the most significant environmental factor in promoting belief (and discouraging disbelief) tends to be family and social indoctrination.

Religion, especially Christianity, has always been about control. Through the ages, the control the Church had over the people was total. Peasants worked for free on Church land. They paid 10% of what they earned in a year to the Church (a practice which still continues today). A failure to pay taxes, so the peasants were told by the Church, would lead to their souls going to Hell after they had died. You also had to pay for baptisms (if you were not baptised you could not go to Heaven when you died), marriages (there were no couples living together in Medieval times as the Church taught that this equaled sin) and burials - you had to be buried on holy land if your soul was to get to heaven. Whichever way you looked, the Church received money. The Church also did not have to pay taxes. This saved them a vast sum of money and the church just kept on getting wealthier and more powerful. Not something to be easily given up without a struggle.

Spirituality means something different to everyone. For some, it's about participating in organized religion: going to church, synagogue, a mosque, etc. For others, it's more personal: Some people get in touch with their spiritual side through private prayer, yoga, meditation, quiet reflection, or even long walks. Visiting Nature is as close to any god as you can get, her awesomeness is irrefutable and we could take many lessons on spirituality from her.

It seems that, once we believe in something, we will try to explain away anything that conflicts with it. Humans can't help but ask big questions—the instinct seems wired in our minds.

"If the explosion of knowledge in recent centuries has made the idea of disbelief more compelling, it would seem that the long-term trend toward secularity, even if slow, is likely to continue. In fact, it is remarkable that secularity has spread so impressively even though powerful forces have tried to shape the environment against it."

- Psychology today

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