Visioning Your Future Now!

photo by Geoffrey King

VISIONING

A very basic description by Michael Beckwith:  "center yourself through meditation or contemplative prayer in which you commune with the Ineffable, activating a field of unconditional love. Once your consciousness is open and receptive, you place questions before your higher Self".

We are all creatives. It matters not whether you are in a creative field - a writer, painter, performer, etc. - you are a creative being because you live in a creative Universe of a Creative Power using a creative law or Principle (Cause and Effect) to bring experiences into your life. One of the things that gets in our way is a lack of the act of forgiveness, of self or others. You might have read in my previous post, from the New Thought Guy blog, about forgiveness and its effects on our bodies, minds, and spirits. It is essential to learn forgiveness, sometimes radical forgiveness, in order to move on into our greatness. I invite you to join me in this...

Martha Graham wrote a now famous letter to Agnes DeMille that I would like to partly quote:

"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.

And If you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable it is, nor how it compares with other expressions.

It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly to keep the channel open....

You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate YOU.

Keep the channel open."

Now ask yourself these questions. And close your eyes and let Spirit, Source, God, Charlie, whatever you may call that Power which is the Allness of the Universe, speak to you in the silence.

1. What is it that you want to open your mind to create?

2. What can you do to unfold your heart in order to create your greatest good?

3. What makes you cringe and seems to prevent you from creating that great life you envision?

Let the answers show up, swirl around your consciousness, and inform you.

Vision your best life, your optimized life, your life of vitality, prosperity, significance, and love! There is a power for Good in the Universe and you get to use it. Use it Now!  

     Love Only!  Forgive Everything!  Remember Who You Are!

Forgiveness ... Yes or No?

I have decided to give up forgiveness!

It's just way too much fun to be angry at the woman who dumped me or the guy who cut me off in traffic, or the parent that ignored me, etc. etc.

I mean, we are creative beings right?

I can use this Divine creativity to think up unique ways to get back at the woman who dumped me, the guy who cut me off in traffic or the parent who ignored me and messed me up for ever having a successful loving relationship.

Let's see .... thinking ...creating ...

GOT IT!

1. I could show up where I know she'll be, that's for the woman who dumped me, with a tall model who is hanging all over me. PDA galore!

(Now why I would think I am trading up from a dancer, Pilates teacher or Yoga instructor to a model is another story.)

2. I could get real close to the guy who cut me off and turn on my brights for a mile or two, even if I have to drive away from my original destination. It's okay. It'll annoy the heck out of him.And isn't that what's most important?

3. And Mom or Dad, who ignored me and gave me commitment issues? I'll be sure to make them watch me pick the wrong gal time after time, for decades, bringing a different lover home for every holiday and whine and vent and complain to them on the phone, when I get rid of them in the intervening months. Maybe even blame them for it.

Yeah, that's the ticket!

“Mom, Dad – you messed me up, no wonder I pick women who have one foot out the door or who aren't really committed to me and the relationship, or, contrary to what they claim, a commitment at all.”  

That'll show 'em.

A fabulous long-term grudge for the parental unit(s).

I'm feeling very creative here. I could go on with more great examples, but I'll let you come up with some on your own. This is great! 

Okay, declaration time:

I'm giving up forgiveness

and enjoying a life full of resentment and blame.

Years of sweet revenge...

...and loss of dignity, self-respect, the good people in my life, the healthy minded in my life, any chance at a real/healthy/fulfilling love life; or wisdom, beauty, and peace of mind. I can look forward to years of slowly having my health eaten away with higher blood pressure and heart rate, digestive problems, depression, anxiety, and the pills to "combat" them. And everywhere else in my life:  constantly confused, giving mixed messages, being the wounded little boy, bitching and moaning all the time, whining to friends for sympathy over and over again, and living a life with self-pity and bitterness surrounding me all the time. I will also constantly attract, demonstrate, mock-up, manifest, and experience …. exactly …. what I put out:  misery, pain, shame, pseudo-happiness, and dis-ease of all kinds.

Oy, not so good, huh?

Maybe I should rethink this non-forgiveness thing!

Confucius said:

To be wronged is nothing, unless you continue to remember it.
                   

Choice, it's all about choice.

Ernest Holmes wrote in his book, IT'S UP TO YOU:  
We are like the sculptor having both the training and the tools with which to work, standing before a huge block of marble, admiring its beauty yet never turning a hand, and all the while wondering why an interesting statue does not emerge – entirely forgetful of why he studied for years and why he has tools with which to work. We are like a man who hates darkness and sits alone in a house completely wired electricity, praying for the light yet never moving a finger to switch on the powerful illumination. Will it be strange if future generations, knowing this, call us stupid?

What will you choose? Resentment, pain, shame, blame, a whirlwind of physical and emotional setbacks? A life of hiding behind a wall of protection, maybe unconsciously and in the name of self-preservation or protection from past mistakes, but yet a wall that you only peek over now and again until what should be comfortable, but is not your "normal" (a habit that you have built into your reasoning of pushing the good away), becomes uncomfortable and it gets too scary? Then you just fall back behind that wall. 

Or will you choose to know and live the Truth, and use that knowledge and Power to take the leap? Maybe you will have to have the courage to ask for assistance in the step over the cliff, that's perfectly fine. But step nonetheless!

Affirm with me:

I choose to forgive you and to forgive me.

I choose love!

                                                                                                                               Photo by Tara Yarte

NAMASTE

Let Freedom Ring!

This week, our nation commemorated the 50th anniversary of 250,000 people who gathered at the National Mall in Washington D.C. to listen to Martin Luther King speak on the injustice that was still occurring for the African American in the United States.


He dreamed that the Constitution and Declaration of Independence wouldn't be just pieces of paper with noble words and marvelous visions, but the law of the land - followed and respected.

He dreamed that equality for all would be solidified in this land and all lands.

It was fifty years ago this week, in 1963, that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called this country, nay the world, to bear witness to, become a part of, and take positive non-violent action for freedom ... for all!

In honor of that day, I call you, this nation, and this planet to bear witness to and become a conscious and mindful part of the remembering, knowing, living, and being of who you are:

Love, Life, Light … God

Bringing only your best self to the table .... and to the party. Bringing only the best experience into your thoughts and into your life.

Using the Power given to you by the Universe to demonstrate and manifest your greatest good in all the corners of your life, even the nooks and crannies.
 

Like the Declaration of Independence says:

We hold these truths to be self-evident that all are created equal.

That's you, me and everyone!

We have the Power to free ourselves from missing the mark in our thoughts and beliefs about our bodies, minds, pocket books, relationships, and work.

Dr. King ended his famous Dream Speech with this:

When we allow freedom to ring - when we let it ring from every city and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, Free at last, Great God a-mighty, We are free at last."

Repeat that to yourself:

Free at last, free at last,
Great God a-mighty, I am free at last.

Namaste

Mind The Gap

 

In the Underground of London, there is a gap between where you are, on the platform, and where you want to be, in the train. Or vice versa. And to get to either of those places from either of those places you have to step over - MIND - the gap to get there. The same holds true with all the stuff in our lives. The gaps between want we want and what we have.

Dr. Holmes wrote, “Nature is not foolish; she does nothing without an ample reason, leaves no gaps and provides for all emergencies."

Gaps are made by us. We decide what we must climb over or step over or fill in over to get to what or where we want.

Anybody out there have some gaps?

Tony Robbins has said, “the past does not equal the future unless you live there.”

So, where are you living...in your mind?

You may ask how do you get away from that "there" to get to "that" there? Or, the platform to the train or the train to the platform?

The answer lies in a spiritual practice. A mental practice. Daily, hourly, or at any moment of the day possible, engage in a spiritual practice. This may include affirmations, self-talk, meditation, visioning, reading and comprehending, workshops or classes, the James Mellon's Mental Muscle and other such in-depth experiential programs, or just good ole spiritual mind treatment - affirmative prayer.

Stay focused. Be aware. Be mindful and decide to rid yourself of the limiting beliefs that don't suit you or serve you. And work your spiritual mind practice until you do so.

Dr. Rosalene Glickman has a formula for life: "Accept, Understand, Optimize"

As they say at the Global Truth Center: Love Only, Forgive Everything, Remember Who You Are!

Napoleon Hill has a famous saying: “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

To change a belief is easy. It might take time, but it's easy. It might take consideration and thought, but it's easy. It may take a conscious and consistent use of that stuff bouncing around in that brain of ours - thoughts and feelings - but it's easy. You might have to restructure your self talk words, meditate more, move your feet more after you treat, but it's easy.

Just stay focused and consistent.

What's hard is what happens when you don't do the work.

And the best thing is ... once you change or heal your beliefs ... you don't have to deal with the intricacies of how your new belief will manifest.

The Universe will take care of that.

Namaste.

The Defining Moment

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

 - Charles Dickens A TALE OF TWO CITIES.

 I have some questions for you:

How do you define you?

What is the definition of you?

Who or what do you let define you?

Are you defined by your past ... your mother ... your mate? Or maybe by your friends or your career or job?

Perhaps you are like Sydney Carton in A TALE OF TWO CITIES; the lazy, alcoholic attorney who can't muster any interest in his own life until his unrequited love for Lucie Manette inspires him to become a selfless martyr where, at the end of the novel, he disguises himself as a wanted man (her fiance) and takes the rap for him, paying the ultimate price with death by guillotine; thus enabling the happiness of his beloved Lucie and ensuring his own redemptive immortality and resurrected life meaning? 

ie. Are you living a life of sacrifice?

Maybe you have defined yourself by some or many of these things before: your profession, others opinions, your hopes and dreams?

I have:

There have been times in my life where I have put myself second unnecessarily and too often. I have allowed my talents, abilities, profession, marital status, checkbook status, or social status define me.

Maybe not verbally, but, worse, internally.

But no more!!! 

And I want you to join me!  So I repeat the question: 

How do you define you?

First off, let's define definition -

It is an act of; the formal proclamation of one's being, a statement expressing the essential nature of something, the action or process of stating the meaning of a word or word group or one's life, the action or the power of describing, explaining, or making clear; or a clarity of the visual presentation, outline or detail

Poet and civil rights advocate, Audre Lorde said, 

If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.

She has been quoted self-defining herself as a black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet. So, she defines herself by her race, sexuality, procreation, engagement in activism and equality, profession and art - what she does, her actions.

Ms. Lorde defines herself by what Thomas Jefferson said:

Do you want to know who you are?
Don't ask. Act!
Action will delineate and define you.

So, what actions are you taking? What thoughts are you thinking or will think? Is tomorrow just going to be another day, Scarlett?

Another day where lack overrides prosperity?

Fear overrides love?

Or will faith override fear?

Truth override fact?

We all have volition. We get to choose what and which emotions, states of mind, and opinions we're going to have. We get to decide which emotional triggers are allowed to invade our lives and which ones will fade and vanish from our lives, and what or which reactions we are going to have to fact number x, y or z.

We get to choose!

Second definition is the ostensive definition:

A definition accomplished by exhibiting and characterizing
 the thing to be defined.

If everyone was blind, how would you be described? 

-Brianna West, Thought Catalogue

In a moment, I want you to close your eyes and...

Feel your face … 

... the texture, the lines - is it a frown or smile?

Stressed or joyous?

Listen to (not just hear) your voice. ...

... your tone - is it stressed or joyous?

Feel your energy ...

... surrounded by happy, sad, content, 

stressed, at ease, at peace?

Try it!

Do you sense a big fat wall or lie going on?

What energy do you give off?

Does the room clear when you enter it

or are people attracted to the energy you exude?

Brianna went on to say:

You are not your hair color. You are not your choice of clothing. You’re not your height, weight or job or degree of education. More importantly, you’re not your mistakes. You’re not defined by the things that make you human, otherwise known to some as “flaws.” The physical are just descriptors that make you easier to identify by others (short tall young old brown hair dyed hair no hair), they don’t define who you are.

And this is my favorite part:

You are whatever touches your soul more deeply than anything. You are who you love. You are the music that makes you cry. You are the daydreams your mind trails off to. You are your favorite food. You are your deepest desires. You are what you want to bring to the world. You are the silly jokes that make you laugh. You are how you treat other people, especially people who don’t and can’t do anything for you in return. You are anything and everything that touches you and changes you from your core.

Our third definition is the contextual definition

A definition in which the meaning of a word, expression, or symbol is partly or wholly determined by defining the meaning of a larger expression containing the definiendum.

So, let's put this into context … the larger expression of you and I is commonly referred to as God!

Ernest Holmes calls God:

The Power that creates everything, that gives life to everything.

So in a contextual definition of you and me, we are creators
 … we are artists.

Edgar Allan Poe said:

It is almost something that can't be put into words. Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term Art, I should call it 'the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul.'

You see, you and I are the ultimate Artists of our lives. What we perceive we can achieve. Our thoughts become things. Our beliefs flavor every experience we have, whether we call them good, bad, positive, negative, wanted or not wanted.

What do you believe?

The fourth is about our depth of focus

It is the range of distances of the image measured along the axis of the device throughout which the image has acceptable sharpness.
You can say that it is the range of distance where our focus on our perfection is sharp. That is a mental and optical reference.
The human eye can change focus from distance infinity to 7 cm from the eye in 350 milliseconds. Milliseconds! Well, we also have that same capacity, mentally, to change our focus, as well.

I define myself by everything that I love, everything I can create, everything that I can imagine. 

- Stedman Graham

What are you focusing on?

It's time to learn to turn off the noise; the chaos of the city, of work, and of life. Put down the paper, close People Magazine, turn off the news and look into the eyes of your pet, your child, your lover, your friend.
It is there you will see, feel, reveal that which defines you.

Dr. Holmes in This Thing Called You says:

Not a person lives does not at some time in life sense this inward Presence, this vision of the Divine which presses against us. It is seeking entrance through our thoughts.

We must open the door of our consciousness

and permit It to enter.

Our fifth definition is the connotative definition

It is a statement of the equivalence of connotation between the defined term and another expression.

It is our thoughts:  

        what we think about our selves 
or what we accept about what others might say

Dr. Holmes wrote:

Thoughts often repeated form patterns in mind which automatically repeat themselves.

So, what is going on in your self talk?

"I can't do nothing."

"I can do anything."

"I am a failure."

                                                       or

"I express limitless possibilities

because there are limitless possibilities

and I am of the ultimate Artist, the ultimate Creator,

thus I am the Artist,

I am the Creator of my experiences."

In Don Miguel Ruiz's THE FOUR AGREEMENT, the second and third agreements are:  

Don't take anything personally and don't make assumptions.

Don't take anything personally about what others say about you, think about you, write about you, or you have even done yourself.Don't like how you handled something or said something? Yeah, take responsibility....but suffer, beat yourself up for it?

Forget it!

Repair the damage and don't ever do it again.

Love Only - Forgive Everything

Remember Who You Are!

Don't assume! Find out! 

Don't poison your mind with supposed facts, including the news, find out ... ask ... get the truth with a little t and know the Truth with the big T.

Give up defining yourself - to yourself or to others. You won't die. You will come to life. And don't be concerned with how others define you. When they define you, they are limiting themselves, so it's their problem. Whenever you interact with people, don't be there primarily as a function or a role, but as the field of conscious Presence. You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are.

                            ― Eckhart Tolle

          A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

The sixth and final definition is the genetic definition
which indicates how that to which a word or expression refers, comes into existence.

You don't have to achieve it  - a life of meaning, a life of definition, or a defining moment - like Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities did or the way so famously made by Jesus of Nazareth – by sacrificing your life. You can have it now by sacrificing the old you that no longer serves your greatest good, that you used or maybe abused to define you before and live like the Artist that you are, like the Creator that you are.

You see, you are unique!

There were 200-300 million sperm in competition to fertilize the one egg that was available in one of the two fallopian tubes in your mother to start the process of reproduction and the making of your body - this vehicle that is temporarily holding the real you, the definition of You. 

200-300 million!

And that sperm not only fought for its place in the cue, it traveled the equivalent to its size, a distance of 40 miles to reach its destination.

Forty miles!

That is some power. That is some kind of uniqueness that you and I are.

It is the same Power that makes the planets, grows the trees, whips up the wind, works the 100 trillion cells that makes up your body. Now the saying that you rejuvenate your entire cell system every 7 - 10 years is a misnomer. But many or our cells are constantly regenerating themselves – much of your body is younger than the number of candles on your birthday cake. 

This is power and this Power is in you,

works through you,

acts as you ... 

is YOU.

Take it, grasp it, absorb it...

BE IT.

Creation's gold mine is in you. The key is deliberate intention. Whatever your dream may be at this moment, identify it. If you cannot define your desire, it can never become a reality. 

- Mary Manin Morrissey

They say don't sweat the big stuff...

and people ask how, how do I do that?

Well, by concentrating on ... 

living in and being of the little stuff … 

the basic stuff … 

which is the True big stuff.

Allow me to, as Jarvis Lorry did for Dr. Manette in the beginning of A TALE OF TWO CITIES, give you this message:

Recalled to Life.

I am recalling you to a life deserved, a life birthed to, a life au natural (with or without clothing); a life imbued with, soaking in, surrounded by, created from, living as, and Being One with which you are … 

With which you are … 

A life that defines You

Charles Dickens' A TALE OF TWO CITIES ends with this, from the narrator:

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.

Let us end with this:

Please repeat:

Today I proclaim my Divine inheritance...

I am rich with the richness of Source...

I am strong with the power of Light...

I am guided by the wisdom of Spirit...

I am held in the goodness of God, today.

If you must define yourself, make that your definition. And watch those “synchronicities”, those “miracles” that seem to just show up when things are going great .... show up even more.

LOVE ONLY - FORGIVE EVERYTHING

REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!

Namaste!

I Live a Life of Victorious Goddness and Prosperity!

I live a life of victorious goodness and prosperity!

In ancient times, palm branches signified goodness and victory. The Jews use this during the holiday of Sukkot to represent part of the struggle of the Israelites on their 40 year journey out of Egypt (used palm fronds to build housing, etc.) and to thank God for a good Summer abundance and to say, 'hey, don't forget next year'.

Today, the Christians celebrate Palm Sunday. The day Jesus entered the City of Jerusalem on a donkey (which represents peace). He was greeted not so much as the spiritual leader who taught them the way to think...bringing the heart and mind together and the innate divinity in all to the forefront...you know...“the kingdom of heaven is within” and the “we reap what we sow” stuff that are two major tenets of our teaching.

The people also looked to him as a potential political leader who would save them from the Roman rule. The cries of Hosanna mean 'save now'.

Jesus showed up to show the people how to save themselves from themselves....from the perception of less than, the missing the mark, the sin, you might say, of self-doubt, the ignorance of fear, and the dis-ease of shame, blame and guilt.

Earlier, Moses was around to illustrate the Power of God, the respect and love that is deserved for this singular Divine entity, this Creative Intelligence that is Allness, everywhere and with everyone – Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Republican. All the mystics over the centuries spoke up to show that we are Spirit infused. And that this Divine, love-filled Source is ours to use and be one with. 

 

Today, I want this to be a symbol for all of us to have the courage and tenacity to tell the world, when 'negative commands of a culture of fear” show up in the media, conversation and mind... to get lost. I am not telling you to ignore the facts or the experiences going on in the world and your life that aren't so nice, but to learn to transcend them. The perspective of not ignoring your pains, just not absorbing them is a choice you can make.Take action in body through your intention of Mind, supported by the love of life.

In the book “The Heart-Mind Matrix”, Joseph Pearce discusses how the heart can teach the mind new ways to think, especially in the midst of chaos. In the forward, Dr. Robert Sardello, co-founder of the School of Spiritual Psychology wrote,

“The Self expresses the Universal through the heart and the individual aspect of things through the Mind.” In gestation, the brain is developed with neurons, through what is called the neural tube, with mitochondria cells that come from the heart. There is a physical connection there from day one of our physical development.

I urge you to continuously loop the head with the heart, the Mind with the Spirit, the calculating intellect with the engine of feeling, and bring conscious victorious goodness into your life.

Then share it with the world, so that love and peace spreads, overwhelms and prevails.