Decorating Your New Year

Tony Robbins said:

There’s something coming for all of us. It’s called death.

Give me a second, I'm not trying to be morbid or grim.

Rather than fearing it, it can become one of our greatest counselors. All of a sudden everything gets re-prioritized. All of a sudden the littlest things you think are little, very often become the most important things in your life – those things you took for granted. So, if this was the last week of your life, how would you live, who would you call … what truth would you tell today? What would you cherish most?

And I would add, most importantly… what Truth would you live as?  Not 'by', not 'for'… AS!
As we assess 2019 and consider what we are resolving for 2020, what is it we want to live as?

Two traveling monks came upon a young woman waiting to step out of her sedan chair. The rains had made deep puddles and she couldn’t step across without spoiling her silken robes. She stood there, looking very cross and impatient, scolding her attendants. They had nowhere to place the packages they held for her, so they couldn’t help her across the puddle.

The younger monk noticed the woman, said nothing, and walked by. The older monk quickly picked her up and put her on his back, transported her across the water and put her down on the other side. Not even thanking the older monk, she shoved him out of the way and departed. The two monks continued on their way.

The young one was brooding and preoccupied the whole time and, after several hours, unable to hold his silence, he spoke out. “That woman back there was very selfish and rude, but you picked her up on your back and carried her! Then she didn’t even thank you!

The older monk stopped and turned to the younger monk and replied, “I set the woman down hours ago, why are you still carrying her?”

We carry so much weight in our stories of 2019 and before. Some good, some fantastic, some bad and some worse than bad. What are some of yours? Do you have any gripes ... disappointments, “what if's,” bitterness or holding a grudge or holding on to being right? I am sure it describes pretty much all of us.Why? Why do we hold on to those....stories? As I end this year, I ask myself:

Do you want to be right or free?

Do you want to be right or succeed?

Do you want to be right or happy?

So much energy is used up being right and righteous. It keeps one attached to the problem, conflict, condition or the memory and our supposed solution; versus living the elegant simplicity of choosing to consciously let go of the control of others and their outcomes. Just let all those stories that are muddying everything we do go the heck away. 

Trying to control things is like trying to take the master carpenter’s place. When you handle the master carpenter’s tools, chances are that you’ll cut yourself. ~Tao Te Ching - verse 74

What's cutting you from the past? Isn't it time to dissipate the emotional charge – the trigger of those old stories; take the heat off the event and accept the reality that sometimes the supposed “wrongdoer” is unreachable and maybe unrepentant. Isn't it time, past time, we make the choice to stop carrying the wrongdoing and doer on our shoulders? My grandmother and her sister had a feud for so long, they didn't know what it was about. What a waste.

Our attachment to these stories and the need to be right create a duality in our lives. An us and them perspective, that only hinders the us side of the equation.

All duality is a mind creation, all duality is created by the clinging and attached mind. When there is no attachment there is no duality.  ~Osho

It's time to surrender and accept it's over. Let go of the story. What stories about yourself from 20109 or before are keeping you wound up? What story can you let go of? Is it some “I am not good enough,” or “I don’t have enough?”

What story do you want to cultivate in 2020? A Rabbi once told me, “We must listen carefully to what the Hannukah candles are saying.” Here a few to assist in this release from old stories:

A Little Light Goes A Long Way
The candles serve as a beacon for the darkening streets. No matter how dark it is outside, the Light of Divine communion transforms the darkness into light. And here's a big one .... forgiveness of self and others shines a light on the darkness of those grudges we keep and the being right's we hold on to and drain ourselves with. When step into radical forgiveness, it rids us of the oppression of the duality of them and us, right and not right, or other b.s. about arguments, triggers and other gunk that we allow to overpower our lives.

Take It To The Streets
The candles remind us to shine outwards into our surroundings with the Divine glow of mitzvahs (good deeds). Share your Light, not the dark and oppressiveness of your self-righteousness. No one wants to be around, work for/with, be in a relationship with a sourpuss, always grumpy and constantly triggered by unresolved stories. As you share your goodness and kindness, you will be assisted by the glow of the mitzvahs effect by realizing what is a better perspective on life to have and heal those old stories to the point they don't influence you anymore.

Proudly Proclaiming Your Radiance For All To See When we re-dedicate yourself to who and what you truly are ... the unique, individualized personification of the Divine Presence, illuminating and experiencing Itself as You ... those old stories that have been triggering you for the last year(s) begin to lose their power over you. Who you are will always win out over the conditions of old. Remember, those triggers, attitudes, gripes, etc. are old habits and may take a bit of time to be ineffective, but it will happen.

And let's take this time to rediscover the Christ Consciousness, the Namaste in all of us by ridding ourselves of the greed of being in the right, the plague of living as the persecuted, the vice of victim-hood and the addiction of giving away our Power and focus to some event or condition, person or memory. Let's forgive and move on with our lives, not hold on to the grudges, the fights, the anger.  Let's celebrate our human right to live free from the bondage of duality...the them vs. us attitude.
Let's let go of the shoulda, woulda, coulda's, I don't have time's, they never call me, so why should I call them's. 

Let Go and Know that Divine Intelligence flows through you as light, love, grace, peace, beauty, power, joy and wisdom.....and them, as well.

Let Go and Know that you are here to be happy and whole and vibrant and creative...and them, as well.

Let Go and Know that you have the Power of Decision to live your life free of past disappoints, grudges, judgments, fights, worries, attachments to being right.

Let Go and Know the great I Am that you are, right here, right now.

Decorate your new year with the original You.

Write your story for 2020 and let the Universe publish it today.

Affirmation

I leave 2019 with a bang...

Prosperous in pocket, radiating great health and vitality, creative with a wondrous imagination, and surrounded by only love. I Vibrate, Reveal and Bust Through with my Divinity vibrating with luminescence, so that...

I Soar and Zoom in 2020!

Ethos Pathos Logos

A man walks up to the pearly gates and the Lord looks down on him and says, “We don’t know of anything particularly good or bad you have done in your lifetime, so tell us a story that will persuade us in a certain ... direction.”

The man looks up, nervous and shaking, “ Well, uh, here's a story. One day, when I was driving down a rural highway, I saw a gang beating up on a child. I immediately pulled over. I popped my collar, put my sunglasses on and ran out at them, yelling, 'Hey you bullies, if you want to hurt him, you’ll have to go through me first.’”

The Lord smiled down and said, “Very good, very, very good, when was this?”

“About 5 minutes ago.”

Persuasion is designed as a way to change our thinking, which, in turn, thus changes our beliefs and finally, thus our lives. We do this with using ethos, pathos and logos.

Ethos is the ethical appeal where we convince an audience of our credibility and/or character. It's not the Universe you're convincing. Neither is it not the Law you're convincing...it's yourself.

Pathos is the use of persuading audience through an emotional appeal, to make the audience feel what we want felt. Pathos is the Greek word for “experience,” using meaningful language, emotional tone, and emotion to evoke examples and visualizations in the mind of the audience. Again, it's not the Law you're convincing....it's you.

Logos is the technique used to convince an audience by the use of logic or reason, citing Truth, analogies, descriptions, and authorities on the subject or mystics of the subject discussed, by constructing logical arguments to persuade the audience to your belief. Logos is the Greek term for “word” or “that by which the inward thought is expressed" or "the inward thought itself." Logic is a great way to persuade oneself of the need to change thought, feeling and belief.

Whether you use ethos, pathos, logos or all three; your audience is not the Universe, your audience is not the Law...your audience is YOU!

The Power of Decision tells us:

The creative process awaits your decision and your calm acceptance of the necessary work on your part following the decision. Idea follows idea as you proceed in the work of bringing to pass that which you decided would now be.  ~Raymond Charles Barker

This decision comes through self-persuasion, not manipulation. Manipulation is coercion, through force, to get someone to do something that is not in their own interest. We are not of the philosophy that forcing is useful. In fact, it is a negative tactic that usually attracts negativity, not resolution; and this is something that is, of course, not in our own interest.

Persuasion is the art of getting ourselves to think things that are in our own best interest, different than those old mental habits that no longer serve our True selves. Sometimes that means getting out of our lack and limitation comfort zones. Let me tell you a story:

One cowardly person came to his sensei, his teacher of martial arts and asked to be taught bravery. The master looked at him and said, “I will teach you only with one condition: one month you will have to live in a big city and tell every person that you meet on your way that you are a coward. You will have to say it loudly, openly and looking straight into the person’s eyes.”

The person became quite troubled, as this task seemed very scary and uncomfortable. For a couple of days he was very depressed and frightened, but to live with his cowardice was so unbearable, that he finally was able to persuade himself to travel to the city to accomplish his mission.

At first, when meeting the passers, he cowered, lost his speech and couldn’t make contact with anyone. But he knew he needed to finish the master’s task, so he made the decision to overcome himself. He took a deep breath and when he came up to his first passer, trembling he told him about about his cowardice. It seemed he would die from fear and shame. But with each passing day, his voice sounded louder and more confident. Suddenly, there came a moment, when the man caught himself thinking that he’s not scared anymore, and the further he continued doing the master’s task, the more logical it seemed and thus the more convinced he was that the fear was abandoning him. After a month had passed, the person came back to the master, bowed to him and said, “Thank you, sensei. I finished your task. Now I’m not afraid anymore. But how did you know that this strange task will help me?”

“The thing is,” the master answered, “cowardice is only a habit. And by doing the things that scare us, we can destroy the stereotypes and histories and the past to come to a conclusion like you came to. And now you know that bravery is also a habit. And if you want to make bravery a part of yourself, you need to move forward into and through the fear. Then the fear will go away, and bravery will take its place. 

We don't have to persuade the Law to receive a graceful life. We don't even have to persuade the Law we want a graceful life. We have to persuade ourselves we have a graceful life!

Persuasion is clearly a sort of demonstration, since we are most fully persuaded when we consider a thing to have been demonstrated.       ~Aristotle

We demonstrate our desires, when we require them to show up in our lives!

But how, you may ask? How do we persuade ourselves? It's as easy as one, two, three....

1) Remembering who we are...

2) Feeling the feeling of living the life...

  Role playing, like you did as a child. Fully involved in telling the story and living the story, using your imagination to experience and feel the story in mind, heart, and soul.

3) Understanding, seeing, and accepting the logic of how the Universe works on your desires, requirements and ideas, (f)actualizing them into your life.

Think of a belief you want to change and answer these questions from INSTANT INFLUENCE by Dr. Michael Pantalon.

1. How ready are you to change, on a scale from 1-10, where 1 means “not ready at all” and 10 means “totally ready”?

2. Why didn’t you pick a lower number?

3. Imagine you’ve changed your thinking. What would the positive outcomes be?

4. Why are those outcomes important to you?

5. What’s the next step, if any?

Now, I don't want to know what you are “supposed” to do, I want to know what are you going to do. You see, to persuade is to imagine it, to feel it, to see the logic in it as a part of your life....and then to bravely be it.

Bravely step out of your comfort zones and persuade, through ethos, pathos and logos, your new direction in magnificence to fruition.

Affirmation

This Is What I Know...  

I trust the vibrant power in my heart to tap into the manifesting Law, bringing joy into my life.  The evidence is tangible and the authority is solid. I am passionate about these best practices in my life:  revealing the Divinity within me, vibrating at the speed of this Divinity in all I think, feel and do, and busting through any beliefs that no longer serve me or the greater good.                       

I Soar and Zoom Into Graceful Living!