Mind Power

8 Keys to Instant Charisma

2009-01-18T14:58:00.002-08:00

By Tina Su
Source: ThinkSimpleNow.com

There is a simple fact of human nature that states we all want to be liked. Don’t be afraid to admit it. If we think about it, underlying many of our actions, we are really seeking ways to validate ourselves and to fulfill this desire of being liked.

Have you ever met someone and instantly took a liking towards them? You can’t explain why, but you feel a fondness and you want to do things to help them. I’m not talking about sexual attraction, but a genuine and innocent feeling of fondness towards another person.

In a job interview, you are more likely to be hired if the interviewer likes you as a person. In a business situation, you are more likely to get deals done and gain favors. In a personal situation, you are likely to gain trust and loyal friendships.

When we decide that we like someone, it is a psychological process that we cannot quite articulate. It’s not a secret that we make decisions emotionally and justify them logically. So, does this mean that we can influence an emotional decision that happens subconsciously?

I believe that decisions can be influenced. I know that the qualities of a likeable person can be cultivated and proactively developed. Do you want to know how to develop the skills to be likable?

My Inspiration

I was helping my partner Adam prepare for an interview last night. At one point, I had explained to him the power of Mirroring and that it can make others feel more comfortable around you.

When I first heard about Mirroring, I was told that “If you’re afraid that the other person will get suspicious of you mimicking them, then you must be the type of person who thinks that people are actually listening when you’re talking.” I mentioned this and we laughed at it. I said, “Trust me, just try it out. It really works.”

We went off on another topic and he asked me a question about usability testing in software. I went on answering it, and 10 minutes went by and I was still talking. It felt as if I couldn’t stop talking.

When I finally finished covering all areas of software usability testing (including excruciating details that he would have little interest in), he burst out laughing.

So, apparently, he used mirroring on me. And it worked. What’s amazing is that it worked on me after having just told him about it. I didn’t even have a clue that he was mirroring me.

It occurred to me that like-ability can actually be cultivated, like many skills.
What are these skills?

Aside from being polite and respectful, there are several specific things we can pay particular attention to. I’m not asking you to pretend, but be aware of these things when engaged in a conversation. The little things make a big difference in how others perceive us.

1. Mirroring

This simple technique was the inspiration for this article. Mirroring is copying the other person’s physical mannerisms, movements and facial expressions when engaged in a conversation. You become a mirror image of the other person.

Mirroring happens naturally in social interactions, but when you are conscious of it and are aware of its affects, it can be used as a tool in effective communication for generating rapport.

Mirroring someone closely will cause you to feel what they’re feeling (to some extent). I did an exercise once, in a group of three, during a workshop. One person starts by visualizing a scene; seeing, feeling and experiencing the scene. A second person imitates this person’s facial expressions and physical postures. A third person adjusts the second person’s facial expressions and physical postures until he thinks that they are identical. After several minutes, the second person explains what she was feeling. Not only does the second person feel the feelings of the first person, but will at times see what the first person is seeing in his imagination. I was blown away after trying this out, myself.

Next time you’re engaged in a conversation with someone, try mirroring body language, posture, and facial expressions. You will find that the conversation suddenly feels very friendly and open.

For example, you are sitting across the table from someone. You watch them pick up a glass of water with their left hand and gently lean forward, then to the right. You mirror them by holding your glass of water with your right hand, leaning forward and towards the left.

Try it next time … just for fun. :)

2. Remembering Names

Personally, I’m always impressed when others I’ve just met remember my name and use it in a sentence. Since birth, our parents, teachers, friends, and family, have hard wired the sound of our name in our brain. It is certain to get your attention, instantly. It makes you feel important and respected, filling our desire for attention and love.

Recall the last time someone who you just met parted by declaring “Nice to meet you, [insert your name]!” Weren’t you impressed? They are clearly interested in you enough to remember your name, and you want to show them the same respect.

Always make an effort to remember people’s names.

3. Be Interested

People love talking about themselves, seriously.

Ask questions that the other person will enjoy answering. If it’s a complete stranger, start with the basics and dig deeper. Rephrase their words to make sure you really understand what they’re saying. You can think of this technique as verbal mirroring. By asking questions about their interests or feelings, you are mirroring their interest in themselves.

Really listen when the person is answering. Only when you are listening will you actually absorb what was said and will actually feel interested. If you run into a boring conversation, find ideas that do interest you and re-focus the conversation. Ask questions. Make it a game.

4. Allowing Others to Talk

In addition to asking questions, it’s important to allow the other person to talk. This means, stop talking. Stop talking about yourself, stop inserting your opinions, refrain from interrupting.

Next time you’re engaged in a conversation, practice not saying anything after asking a question. This might mean not speaking for several minutes *gasp*. Even when the other person appears to be finished, practice not speaking for 30 seconds. Often times, the person is still thinking, is actually pausing, and will start speaking again. By doing so, you will get a lot more depth from that person.

Many girlfriends I know have the interruption problem, myself included. Pay particular attention to this skill, you’ll be amazed at the wealth of thoughtful goodness coming from your partner. Being a patient listener is a great way to connect with and get to know people.

Try it: ask a question and then zip up. Listen and learn.

5. Intention

Send out the intention that you would like to get to know this person better, to really listen to them and to be there for them. I’m always amazed at the power of intention, which I believe is the seed for starting anything, whether it is a goal or a friendship.

Make a wish for the other person. Send out a positive intention for your interaction.

6. Offer Help

We are mostly self seeking and are driven by motivations that benefit us, with the exception of some extreme cases and parent-child relationships. But let’s face-it, we are self-seeking most of the time because it is a natural part of our survival instincts. Even if we are working on a good cause, we almost always have a reason for helping that is personally beneficial.

When others genuinely offer their help, we feel particularly fond of them. Why? Offering help is a kind gesture that implies a respect and admiration for you. And when we put ourselves in their shoes, wouldn’t it be advantageous to offer help to others?

I’m a big believer in giving more than I take in return. And my personal motto: “To get what you want, help others get what they want, first.”

Find a need that others have that you can provide. Offer help. Even just a casual email offering help will make the world of difference towards how this person feels about you.

7. Smile

“Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.” ~ Mother Teresa

Do you remember how you felt when you saw a genuine smile? Or awkwardly standing in an elevator full of strangers and suddenly someone smiles at you? It really is contagious and shifts your state to a positive one.

Smile genuinely. Start by smiling at friends. Try lifting the spirits of passing strangers.

8. Authenticity

Any of the above techniques will work by themselves, but become highly effective only when combined with authenticity.

Always be genuine and be your complete self, no more and no less. When you are completely honest and speaking from your heart, you will exuberate a kind of energy that people cannot help but to connect with. In that moment, you are pure, expressive, and radiating your true self. When others see and recognize that side of you, they are really seeing a reflection of that part of themselves.

Just be yourself.

The Power of Persuasion: Eight Ways to Get Exactly What You Want

2009-01-18T14:58:00.001-08:00

By Dan Jones and Alison Motluk
Source: New Scientist

Cajole your boss into giving you a raise, win someone round to your point of view, or persuade your partner it's their turn to put out the trash - getting people to do what you want can be very handy.

Persuasion is a key element of all human interaction, from politics to marketing to everyday dealings with friends, family and colleagues. "Persuasion is a basic form of social interaction," says Eric Knowles, emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. "It is the way we build consensus and a common purpose."

Unfortunately persuasion is both notoriously difficult to pull off and almost impossible to resist when done well. Psychologists have long been fascinated by persuasion - why some people are more persuasive than others and why some strategies work where others fail. Over the next six pages we bring together some recent insights into the science of persuasion.

For those who don't want to be persuaded, there are lessons here too. Knowing the strategies charmers and advertisers adopt can help you resist their guile.

1. Be a mimic

When you're aware of it, it's one of the most infuriating behaviours imaginable. Yet mimic someone's mannerisms subtly - their head and hand movements, posture and so forth - and it can be one of the most powerful forms of persuasion. That's the conclusion of a number of recent studies.

William Maddux at the INSEAD business school in Fontainebleau, France, explored the effect of mimicry on 166 students in two role-play experiments, one involving negotiation between job candidates and recruiters, the second between buyers and sellers (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, vol 44, p 461).

In both cases, the outcome of negotiations was better for the would-be persuaders when they employed subtle mimicry. For example, in the buyer-seller experiment, 67 per cent of sellers who mimicked their target secured a sale, as opposed to 12.5 per cent of those who did not.

Another study by Robin Tanner at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, asked students to discuss a new soft drink with sales reps (both the reps and the drink were fictitious, though the students did not know this). Half of the reps were instructed to mimic the physical and verbal behaviour of half of the students they spoke to.

These "chameleon" reps elicited more positive ratings of the drink, and volunteers they mimicked consumed more of it during the chat. "Ours is the first study to show that mimicry can essentially enhance persuasion in interpersonal interactions," says Tanner. Intriguingly, people felt especially positive about the drink and its market prospects when the mimic explicitly stated their vested interest in the success of the drink (Journal of Consumer Research, vol 34, p 754).

It is possible, though, that the reps in the "no mimicry" group subconsciously resorted to mimicry. Jeremy Bailenson and Nick Yee of Stanford University got round this by using virtual reality avatars. They asked 61 students to watch and listen to an avatar arguing that students should carry ID cards at all times - an unpopular proposal. For one group, the avatar moved in a pre-programmed human-like way. In the other, computers tracked the students' head movements, which the avatar mimicked after a 4-second delay (previous studies suggested a delay of 2 to 4 seconds works best). Students who had been mimicked were more likely to respond favourably.

But be warned, overt mimicry can backfire on the mimic, or at least be very embarrassing if detected, says Tanner. "It's far from a free shot at persuasiveness."

The crucial factors are: be subtle, leave a delay and, whatever you do, if you think there's even the slightest chance you've been rumbled, stop.

2. Look at it this way...

If you want to bring people round to your point of view, try "framing", a favourite tactic of spin doctors. "Framing is about leading people to think about an issue or opinion in a way that is advantageous to you," explains George Bizer of Union College in Schenectady, New York. "For example, opponents of inheritance taxes prefer to frame them as 'death taxes'."

Framing is a key tactic in election campaigns, so Bizer wanted to see whether voters were more or less persuadable to change their views when asked to frame them in different ways.

He asked 69 undergraduates to read an article about two fictitious candidates' views and policies (one candidate, Rick, was conservative, while the other, Chris, was liberal). Half of the students had to choose between the two statements: either "I support Rick" or "I oppose Rick"; the other half chose between equivalent statements about Chris. Participants also rated their preference for both candidates on a sliding scale from "strongly support" to "strongly oppose".

They then read another article, this time arguing against the merits of their preferred candidate, and then had their opinions reassessed. Overall, people whose preference for a candidate had been expressed in terms of opposition to the other candidate were less likely to modify their opinions (Political Psychology, vol 26, p 553). "A simple change in framing - leading people to think of their evaluations in terms of whom they oppose instead of whom they support - leads to stronger, more resistant opinions," says Bizer.

These findings fit with a broad body of research suggesting that negative information frequently has a more powerful influence than positive messages. So if you want to sway someone when they choose between two options, a good tactic is to be negative about the option you don't want them to pick.

3. Less is more

In most battles, outnumbering your opponent will hand you victory, and it would seem common sense that the more arguments you can call on, the more persuasive you'll be. Yet, the evidence suggests otherwise. A number of studies have revealed that the more reasons people are asked to come up with in support of an idea, the less value they ascribe to each. The result: asking people to "think of all the reasons why this is a good idea" is likely to backfire, and may serve to harden their views.

Zakary Tormala and Richard Petty of Ohio State University, working with Pablo Briñol at the Autonomous University of Madrid in Spain, demonstrated the effect in 2002. The researchers told 59 university students that there was a plan to introduce new exams into their courses - an unwelcome prospect. They then asked half the students to produce two reasons why this was a bad idea, and the other half eight reasons. On average, students who supplied just two arguments against the proposal were subsequently more opposed to the exam policy than those who gave eight.

Tormala and colleagues argue that the ease with which we can summon up thoughts affects how much confidence we place in them, and it is generally easier to think of two reasons for believing something rather than eight. This finding has some clear practical implications. "If you want to persuade people by getting them to think positively about your message, idea, product or whatever, ask them to generate just a few positive thoughts - three at most - because that's easy and they'll feel confident about their positive thoughts," says Tormala.

Conversely, next time you're in an argument, avoid the temptation to spin the "give me one good reason" line; it'll only strengthen your adversary's hand.

4. Grind them down

Hunger is a powerful thing, but how many times have you reached for a quick snack, only to regret it when it's lying heavily in your stomach? Just as your standards for food quality can slip when your stomach is empty, so you should avoid engaging in argument or doing battle with sales people when your mental batteries are running low. Conversely, if you're trying to be persuasive, strike when your target is running low on mental energy.

Edward Burkley of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater studied the impact of cognitive exhaustion on the resistance levels of 78 students. The plan was to try to convince them to accept one month's summer holiday instead of three. Half the students came to the study fresh. But the other half first had to complete a self-control task in which they wrote down all thoughts that came into their heads while suppressing any thoughts about a white bear.

This task, Burkey argued, would use up some of their reserves of self-control. He found that the students who had performed the white bear task were less resistant to the idea of giving up two months of holiday.

Burkley also studied the flip side of this effect. He asked a different group of 72 students to rate the plan to shorten their holidays. Half were told it would be implemented within two years, making it personally relevant. The other half were told it would not be implemented for 10 years. He wanted to test the hypothesis that students presented with the two-year scenario would use up more of their mental resources, because they would be more motivated to argue against that unwelcome suggestion.

The students then had to try to complete an (unbeknown to them) unsolvable puzzle - a technique commonly used in such studies to measure how much self-control a person has. On average, students in the 10-year group persisted for more than a minute longer before giving up, suggesting they were less mentally exhausted than those in the two-year group (Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol 34, p 419).

Of course, there is a form of mental exhaustion that doesn't require thought: nag them into submission. Children have got this technique sussed, says Burkley.

5. The medium is the means

In this fast-paced world, we seldom have time for face-to-face meetings. You are just as likely to conduct your personal and business negotiations by email, or some other electronic medium, as you are in person. How does this impact your powers of persuasion?

The question intrigued Rosanna Guadagno of the University of Alabama and Robert Cialdini of Arizona State University, who have been comparing the persuasive power of online communication with face-to-face meetings.

In a study published in 2002, Guadagno and Cialdini had a group of students discuss the introduction of new exams (Group Dynamics: Theory, Research and Practice, vol 6, p 38). The group was split into same-sex couples. Unbeknown to the subjects, each pair included an accomplice of the experimenters whose role was to provide arguments in favour of the idea. Half the discussions took place in an online chatroom, the other half sat face-to-face.

While overall men rated the proposals similarly whether they participated in the electronic or face-to-face sessions, women in face-to-face sessions rated them more highly than those who only took part online. Guadagno and Cialdini suggest this is because groups of women tend to form communal bonds and reach agreement. Electronic communication disrupts the exchange of social cues women use to establish a communal bond and is therefore less conducive to persuasion.

On the other hand, groups of men typically try to establish their competence and independence, which can lead to competitive encounters. When two men who have not met before debate a point, online interaction is about as effective and persuasive as face-to-face.

But if they have met and had a competitive exchange, subsequent face-to-face meetings are less productive, whereas online exchanges fare far better. So while online communication can prevent women "connecting", it can help men suppress competitive urges that hamper persuasion.

So, if you're a woman and want to persuade other women you'd be better off meeting face-to-face, while men are less confrontational if contacted by email. The researchers are now studying these effects in mixed couples.

6. Style over substance

It was midnight when the knock came at the door. It was "Paul", a "neighbour", who'd "just moved in". He spoke non-stop, without pause or hesitation, detailing a problem with a truck that had run out of gas and his need for $20, which he would, of course, return first thing in the morning. Later, Kurt often looked back and wondered just how it was he got taken in so easily.

"Paul" was a master of his craft: Kurt later learned that four other people on the street had also been taken in by the con.

Maybe we shouldn't be so surprised when things like this happen. Persuasion, it turns out, may have as much to do with how you say something as what you're saying. And the less time you're allowed to think about the content, the more the style of delivery matters. At least, those are the findings of two marketing professors who decided to tease style and substance apart.

John Sparks at the University of Dayton in Ohio and Charles Areni at the University of Sydney, Australia, knew from earlier work on courtroom transcripts that people equated certain kinds of speech with lack of credibility. In particular, hesitant phrases such as "I mean", "you know" and "isn't it?" reduced a speaker's power. But no one had looked at the exact relationship between style and content.

The researchers asked 118 undergraduates to read a transcript of a testimonial about a scanner. In one version, the speaker used hesitations like "I mean" and "ummm"; in the other, he used none. They also gave half the students enough time to read it thoroughly, while the others got just 20 seconds, to see how limiting a person's understanding of the substance would alter the persuasiveness of the style.

The researchers found that in both versions style was important. When hesitant language was used, people were less easily convinced that this was a scanner worth buying - even when it was a better scanner at a lower price. Style was especially important, the researchers found, when time was limited (Journal of Applied Social Psychology, vol 38, p 37). "If you can't pay attention to what the speaker is saying," Sparks says, "you pay attention to how they say it."

So take a lesson from Paul, the conman. If you want to be persuasive, don't stumble, pause or use language that shows hesitation. And for goodness sake, don't give your listeners time to think about what you're really saying.

7. Get them angry

Angering people may seem like an odd way to go about persuading them, but according to Monique Mitchell Turner, a communications professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, it is seriously underrated as a tool of persuasion.

Much study has gone into how emotions aid persuasion. The best known and most studied is fear. It serves well in campaigns that try to steer you clear of certain activities, like smoking or unprotected sex.

But fear doesn't always work, says Turner, and over time, people become more resistant to scare tactics. The same applies to guilt. It can be effective (think of maternal guilt), but not once people clue into the fact they're being manipulated. Worse, it has to be carefully calibrated: too much and people resist. "We don't want people telling us we're bad people," says Turner.

Anger is different. For one thing, it's focused on someone else's misdeeds, not your own. Also, it's a very utilitarian emotion, she says, usually in response to a perceived injustice. "Anger makes people feel empowered," Turner says.

There has been a long debate, she says, about whether anger can be constructively harnessed. In studying groups that employ anger as a tactic - most notably animal rights groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, as well as environment organisations and even political campaigns - she has found that, given the right conditions, it can.

First, people have to be convinced that the issue is relevant to them, that it affects them or their children or their community. At that point, says Turner, you need to hammer home what's wrong with the world as it is. Once you have got people roiled up, you can offer them a way to remedy the situation (Public Relations Review, vol 33, p 114).

"When those feelings of anger are accompanied by the feeling that there is a solution to this problem, then the message is more likely to be persuasive," she says.

8. Resistance isn't futile

Historically, psychologists studying persuasion have concentrated on what makes certain messages more appealing than others. But over the past few years researchers have begun revising that idea. A growing body of evidence suggests that breaking down people's resistance to persuasion can be even more important.

The reason for this is that people are naturally suspicious of attempts to persuade them. This is especially true if they think they are being duped.

In laboratory studies, merely reminding people that they are vulnerable to manipulation - for example, showing them magazine adverts with celebrities or models endorsing products they clearly know nothing about - makes them generally more difficult to persuade (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol 83, p 526).

So far so obvious, but there's a useful point here. Resistance means that very persuasive arguments can backfire. People who successfully resist persuasion often become even more entrenched in their wrong-headed opinions, and the stronger, more credible or authoritative they perceive the attempt at persuasion to be, the more certain of their opinions they become when they resist it (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol 83, p 1298).

At first blush, this seems paradoxical. You might think a strong, authoritative argument would hold greater sway. Not necessarily. It seems that if people resist good arguments presented by an expert, they conclude their own arguments must be even stronger.

This sets up a bit of a catch-22. "If you want to change people's attitudes, it's good to have strong arguments," says Zakary Tormala of Stanford University. "But if they manage to resist your message, they might become more certain of the very attitudes you want to change."

How to overcome this deadlock? Tormala's colleague Richard Petty of Ohio State University says: "Present positions closer to your target's views, then move them towards your goal a little at a time." You could also try charming them by boosting their self-esteem. "When people feel good about themselves, they are more open to challenging messages," he says.

Are You Being Influenced Without Your Knowledge?

2009-01-18T14:56:00.000-08:00

Source: The Power Of Conversational Hypnosis

It might seem shocking, but every single day people are trying to influence and persuade you without your knowledge.

Some of this is relatively harmless. But a lot of it most certainly is not.

It's not talked about a lot but it's the dark side of hypnosis.

You see,hypnosis is actually a fairly commonplace everyday occurrence.

People go in and out of trances all the time.

Watching TV, reading a book, simply standing in line or in an elevator.

As a result, people (and you) are open to being influenced.

You're being targeted by thousands of messages every single day.

These messages come to you in the form of the media, advertising, news, government, post and even other people's opinion.

Now sometimes this accidental hypnosis is well-intentioned, well-meaning or even totally accidental.

Other times it's very, very purposeful.

For example, take an advertisement.

If you look closely at advertising you'll notice that it's actually structured in a very hypnotic way.

It is designed to persuade and influence you.

It is designed to get you to buy things.

And there are many other examples.

Think about news broadcasts.

Typically, they will focus on really negative experiences.

People dying, wars, financial losses, dangerous economic events, natural disasters and the like.

Thisis done because it captures your attention.

It captivates you.

It makes sure you watch.

Now, if you're like me, I'm sure you want to protect yourself against these unwanted intrusions.

The good news is that when you understand what's happening, it's easy to shrug off these attempts to persuade you.

There's also a positive side to all this.

You can actually turn these techniques to your advantage.

You can turn the tables and influence and persuade people without them being aware of what you're doing.

Mind-to-Mind Connection: How to Influence People With Your Mind

2009-01-18T14:55:00.000-08:00

By Jim Francis
Source: Real Mind Power Secrets

It has long been suspected that your right cerebral hemisphere, when in the alpha state, operates in a realm where time and space are of no consequence. What you think affects others... and what others think affects you!

It is rather like the invisible connection between the earth's magnetic field and every magnetic compass on earth. They are interconnected. If the earth's magnetic field were to suddenly shift then every compass in existence would swing in unison.

Likewise, if you suddenly move a magnetic compass, or any magnet for that matter, this movement will have a slight effect on the earth's entire magnetic field. Admittedly this would be so small as to be immeasurable but it would still be there.

Similarly, when you have a thought it “twitches” the entire human consciousness "thought field".

Rupert Sheldrake calls this the Morphogenetic Field. Karl Jung called it Collective Unconsciousness.

Jose Silva found a practical method of evoking and controlling this marvelous human ability at will.

The technique, which is amazingly simple, has been developed over the years but to this day more than 99% of the population are unaware of it.

In the United States it is used extensively in business to "sway" the outcome of a business proposition in favor of the person using Subjective Communication.

In personal life it has been used to resurrect a dying marriage, to name but one of its many applications.

And one of the most extraordinary applications is to use it to make people aware of your advertisement in the Yellow Pages!

Its effectiveness appears to vary between 20% and 500%. That is the results can be up to 500% better than they would have been without it.

If you consider two identical competitive businesses both vying for superior market share then the one that learns to use Subjective Communication will forge ahead. This has been tested and thoroughly proven.

Car dealers in the US who use this direct mental contact technique have reported a sharp improvement in sales. The usual comment is it brings customers out of the woodwork and actually closes more deals. US real estate agents use it also - it makes a vast difference in their commissions when used properly.

And it is a strange thing that most people are using it continually without being aware of it. Unfortunately they are also conveying mentally their fears and apprehensions. So it can work against them.

But used properly and with the correct protocol it can (and does) produce quite astounding results. Sometimes the results leave the practitioner somewhat startled. They almost seem too good to be true! Some beginners have had such amazing success that the result has literally left them "awe-struck!

If you decide to apply this magical mental technique to other areas of your life ...then things suddenly become much more interesting. You seem to be able to achieve anything you set out to and for some "strange" reason; even total strangers fall over backwards trying to help you.

Welcome to the world of direct mental influence... Subjective Communication!

The True Purpose of Mind Control

2009-01-18T14:54:00.000-08:00

How You Can Vastly Improve Your Ability to Manifest a Good Life With Thought

By Jorj Elprehzleinn
Publisher of the Life Transformation System Z

"We can use our mind to create the wonderful reality that we desire by forming a clear image of the result that we desire and then expecting it to come true." --Tycho Photiou

I assume that you have become familiar with a version of the idea that is presented in the lovely quote above. I also assume that as much or as little as you have already tasted the fruits of applying the idea that thoughts can make the things of daily living you have also tasted the bitterness of failure to do it and been clouded with doubt about "this mind control stuff".

You might have heard about other people materializing and manifesting wonderful things. Even you have manifested things and situations yet you wonder why you cannot fill your bank account with so much more money TODAY then ever and park a new Rolls Royce NOW in your driveway fully paid and registered in your name while your gorgeous, loving, intelligent life partner and you peacefully NOW enjoy each others company in your spacious mansion that you own and treasure as a great asset for you filled with all sorts of wonderful things that you love and enjoy and share with your wonderful interesting talented, and ever so delightful friends, family and associates.

Somehow you know that you could do all that if you could really get this mind control stuff mastered. If you could just get it all totally clear.

You actually know that is the true potential you have inside you that keeps getting confronted with a duller less pleasing though nevertheless it is what it is REALITY of your life today.

Yes you are getting results yet the real brilliance of "doing this manifesting stuff" seems elusive. Or at least somewhat elusive. I expect you have succeeded on numerous occasions to consciously form and later manifest some of your good thoughts? Please do be grateful now for all the good things in your life so far.

You know that Patanjali is famous for his ancient eightfold path of yoga? The idea is to follow a path of mind control that leads one to experience a final state of consciousness that is so effective that for the giants of yoga - the great students and masters - this goal is the ONLY GOAL.

Pantajali called it Samadhi. Also known as Nirvana, Union with the Divine. Ultimate Bliss.

Why seek anything less than this one state of being and consciousness this one thing that brings everything? That is a philosophical question and you can entertain it all you like. However my purpose in writing this article is to explain to you that in order to improve your manifestations the answer to the question:

How do I make my manifestations work better?

is, "mind control".

"When the agitations of the mind are under control, the mind becomes like a transparent crystal and has the power of becoming whatever form is presented." -- Patanjali

The light on yoga that Patanjali and other famous masters and teachers of yoga shines for us is that there is an ultimate level of mind control that can be scientifically achieved and sometimes divinely ordained (in other words it just happens).

The ultimate level of mind control is far greater and far higher than clearly seeing all the details of your bright shiny new sportscar you imagine or being able to really feel the caress of your ideal romantic partner - you imagine it so clearly- as you know and expect it will come true.....as in your thoughts it already is.

That kind of imagining is a lower level of mind control that is very effective and all that is needed to have your imaginations manifest.

Next time you are struggling to learn or discover how to keep your mind focused on things like getting more sales you imagine for your business or making new contacts or friends that you imagine you have or imagining more money or a new house remember that there is an achievement of mind control that is far greater. This can help you lighten up and power up at the level you are working on and strive for higher control which means better results.

The blissful state.

So great is the absolute level of mind control that the thing you imagine that is absolutely the very best that you can imagine would not even produce a ripple in the ocean of your desires once you had experienced the total sensual union that the yogis describe as the ultimate state or Samadhi.

Why am I telling you this? To help you manifest the things you imagine better, faster, richer. More.

To sharpen your skills of mind control by reminding you that the pinnacle achievement of mind control is beyond any amount of money in a bank account or anything else that you or I consciously imagine that we have.

Am I encouraging you to stop imagining and seek the ultimate union? No I am not. I say go for it. Achieving even moments of bliss and satisfaction by experiencing the manifestation of what you consciously once only imagined is a state of bliss. Yes?

You are having your little Samadhi right there in the moment that you are actually enjoying the thing that you once only imagined was real and now it is real.

Please, get the pay raise using your imagination. Use your imagination to help you: Make more sales. Serve the world with your great new business product that everyone buys. Find those people you want as your friends and that special someone you want to make love with and make satisfying love together.

Use you imagination again and again with travel, vacations, cars, relationships, money, helping the environment, improving society, and know as you go and get more and more and better and better and your gratitude goes up and up know that what is happening is your mind control is increasing.

Yes all the things you do with your mind to materialize and manifest your thoughts into reality is a form of ever increasing skill with mind control.

When you feel that you want more manifestations or faster manifestations or you are not happy with your manifestations then guess what?

You need better mind control.

Remember in a special place in your mind as you increase your powers and skills and show the results of doing so in full manifestation that there are those men and woman who have continued on that path of mind control to the final goal.

They went ALL the way on the ultimate journey. Way past the multi-million dollar bank accounts, career and social success, great health and wonderful friends and lovers. And when they got there it seems to me they all agree that nothing is better than that which they experienced once they arrived and that one thing thus achieved gave them the power to have everything and anything.

The one thing that gets you everything. Ultimate mind control.

You can skyrocket your manifestation success by allowing yourself to feel the freedom and detachment of knowing in at least some small place in your mind and brain that there is always something more until you get all the way to total divine consciousness.

There is a place of ultimate bliss and many people for a long time have scientifically and otherwise arrived at that place and declared we can all go there.

The ultimate destination of Life Transformation.

Focusing your mind on materializing what you imagine is better that the life you currently have right now and getting better and better results and enjoying them in reality more and more comes from better and better levels of mind control.

Have I repeated that sufficiently to instruct your subconscious to give you experiences of better and better mind control?

Meaning that you can calm your mind to complete peace in any situation. You can imagine with great detail. You can describe your existing reality clearly.

Consider also that there are many people and organizations and corporations who through advertising or peer pressure or social systems and by other means are attempting and succeeding to control your mind today.

Because consciously or unconsciously everyone knows the truth that all things come from thought first. So they know that if they get you to think what they want you to think they can use your mind to manifest what they want.

Mental freedom is a key step to being able to think what you want to think and imagine what you want to imagine. If some advertiser or social group or parents or peers have your mind then they can influence what you life is and this can reduce your ability to use your own mind freely.

For example there are people and organizations who attempt to focus your mind on fear and terror. I say focus on love and all the good things you imagine for your life.

Mind control is what I say is one of the key most important areas to learn about to have a better life.

Some would say that by consciously manifesting thoughts you are actually creating more karma.

This may be true. It may also be a way of clearing your karma just like the eightfold path of yoga does.

Please go for it. Imagine your success. The best life you can. For some this is the fast track to ultimate bliss and a good time all the way along the journey.

I imagine that when you imagine and live a good life for yourself and your family and friends you make the world a better place.

Yours Truly,
Jorj Elprehzleinn

PS. Training your mind, and understanding how to enjoy doing that, is the most fun you ever had, because you start winning the game of life more and more. I offer an e-book package on this site called the Life Transformation Formula that gives you simple easy exercises to powerfully control your mind to form thoughts and manifest them as you imagine them to be.

PPS. The information contained in the e-book can normally only be gained by taking many courses and workshops costing thousands and tens of thousands of dollars. That's what my clients have told me after using it , and I agree. By reading the book, and apply the simple exercises to your life, you get everything you could previously obtain only through the expensive trainings and workshops.

Magic Questions to Get Inside Their Heads

2009-01-18T14:52:00.002-08:00

These four hypnotic questions will give you tremendous insight into anyone you meet while effortlessly creating instant repport

By Jack Ellis
Author of Forbidden Patterns

These were somewhat popular back in the ‘good old days’ of alt.seduction.fast – but have fallen out of favor in recent years, mostly due to the popularity of ‘The Cube’.

These are much easier to remember than the Cube and can be done quickly.

Best of all, it gives you insight into the girl you are talking to. One time I had a girl answer the ‘beach’ question by saying ‘I would run and hide!’ Needless to say I didn’t spend much more time trying for her.

To lead into these is quite simple. Just say your friend showed you a really cool personality test, or that you always ask people this instead of exchanging resumes first.

The Magic Questions

Here they are, ask them in this order:

1. Visualize yourself in a white room. You’re in a bed and everything is white. How do you feel?
2. What is your favorite animal? What qualities do you see it as having?
3. What is your favorite color? How does it make you feel when you think about it?
4. Imagine yourself on a beach. Nobody is around and the ocean is right in front of you. What do you do?
What Their Answers Mean

1. This is how they view death and dying.
2. This is how their friends view them.
3. This is how they view themselves.
4. This is how they view sex.
I’ve turned around some of the coldest women I’ve ever encountered using this routine, so enjoy it!

How to Mind Control Customer Service Reps

2009-01-18T14:52:00.001-08:00

Source: Consumerist.com

Reader Lona says that people in her family have called her a consumer advocate since she was sixteen, and now she is going to share with us 2,177 words on the customer service tactics and techniques she uses to get satisfaction.

She writes, "in 99% of situations, it allows you to reach an agreeable solution to almost any problem. It is something I do for family and friends, and for myself."

Some of her methods have been mentioned in various ways on the site before but others are completely unique. And by the time you read her true success story at the end, you'll swear she has Jedi mind-control over customer service reps. It boils down to, without raising your voice, asserting control over the conversation from the beginning and then never relinquishing that power.

Lona writes:

"Keep in mind, please, that these rules require that you keep a calm, even head, or at least the appearance and sound of one, and you must have the audacity not to ASK for anything. You will be rude, and you will seem to have entitlement issues. But you will get the job done.

Here are the basic guidelines. The longer and more often you end up doing this, you will find yourself using your own language and tricks. Eventually, you will be able to determine within a few seconds whether the person you have on the phone is the correct person to speak to.

If all of this fails and you happen to be female, try asking a male relative or friend to do it, following the same steps. It sounds wrong, but people respond to voices, and in today's society, a male voice will sometimes go farther. I am female, however, and if you have a strong enough tone and voice, in most cases, you won't need to resort to that.

1. Always maintain a calm, collected tone

Keep your voice even, keep your tone low, and do not lose your temper. If you find yourself getting upset, place the person on hold for a moment, take a slow, deep breath, and pick the phone back up. If they have hung up on you, mention it when you call back.

2. Before you call, outline the situation for yourself, and decide how you want it solved

Write down several options you would be willing to accept, and keep the page in front of you when you call.

3. Always get the name of the person who answered the phone, even if you speak to them for only a moment

Write the name down, as well as any other person you connect to. Keep notes of who said what.

4. When you get a CSR on the phone, immediately ask to speak to a supervisor

When/if they insist that they can help you, keeping your tone low and even, state again that you need to speak to a supervisor. Not want, need. If they again insist, state in a clear and calm, low tone, that they WILL connect you to a supervisor, now. Do not yell, shout, or raise your voice or tone. "No. You are going to get a supervisor for me. Thank you. I'll wait." Say "thank you" immediately. Do not wait for them to answer your request first. If they again insist, hang up immediately. Call back. If you get the same person, make the request again, and if they again refuse, hang up, wait one hour for a shift change, and then call back. Do not give the initial person your name. They do not need it.

5. Once you are connected with a supervisor, introduce yourself, and then inform the person that you have a situation that they are going to fix

Do not say "that you need to fix" or "that I want fixed" or "that I need fixed." You know they will fix it. "I have a situation that you are going to fix for me today. I appreciate your patience." If they say they will try, state again that you're sure they will fix it for you. "No, you'll fix it. Don't worry." Reassure THEM. It will confuse them enough that they will allow you to explain your situation.

6. Explain your situation in a calm, even tone. Do not pause for them to respond until the entire situation/story has been told

Simply tell it as if you are dictating a letter. Once the entire situation has been explained, do not pause. Immediately give them the first option of how it should be fixed, in a simple, declarative sentence. "...this is the situation as it stands at this moment, and the reason I am calling. So what you will be doing for me today is..." or "..so what we need to do today is..."

7. If the supervisor insists that your solution is outside of policy, ask for the full policy

Do not accept "It's just not policy to do this." You want a full description of the policy. This does not mean twenty pages, faxed. A simple description of the section they feel affects your situation is what you need from them. IF they again simply say "It isn't policy to __", you say "That isn't a policy. What, exactly, is your policy in this situation?" If they refuse to give you the policy, ask for their supervisor, or a corporate number - if you choose to or must call corporate, refer to *A - however, this will most likely not be necessary. If they give you the policy, continue to step 8.

8. Listen carefully to the policy, then scan your list for solutions that fall within it

If none of your solutions fall within their policy, inform them of your viable choices, and ask them how they are going to solve your problem. Do not ask if they will. Ask how. "So, how are we going to resolve this issue?" not "Isn't there anything you can do?" or "there must be something you can do." There is always something they can do. Do not ask. It is fact. If they inform you that there is nothing they can do, again ask for their supervisor or a corporate number.

9. At this point the person should be working with you for a solution. Continue to keep a calm tone until you reach an acceptable solution

Be sure to refer to the person by name at least twice, to make sure they know you remember it. If they say they will call back, ask for their direct line. If they do not have one, again ask for their supervisor or a corporate number.

10. You SHOULD now have a solution

Write down the details, making sure to read it back to the person on the other end of the line, and make sure to repeat their name, as well as writing it next to the solution that has been reached. If it is not an immediately solvable problem (returns, or delivery, etc) get a time estimate. "And this will be here by....". You can, at this point as well, ask for a direct line, in case you have issues and need to speak to them again. Then thank them for their time and hang up.

11. If longer than the specified time goes past and the solution has not gone into effect, call the same number and ask for the person by name

If this person is unavailable or does not exist (there is always the chance) go back through your notes and ask for the person you spoke to immediately previous. Throughout this conversation remember to keep your tone calm and even. If the person you spoke to is unreachable, again, ask for a supervisor, and then immediately ask that supervisor for a corporate number. If the supervisor offers to help you, you may either attempt to work with this person, or simply call corporate.

*A - Calling Corporate

12. Keep your tone even. Introduce yourself immediately and ask to speak to a person who can solve your problem

Use those words. "Hello, my name is ___. I have an issue. Please connect me to someone who can solve it today."

13. When you are connected, introduce yourself again. Repeat step 6

More than likely, the person you are speaking to will either do what you've suggested, or will offer an alternative. At this point, if you continue to follow these basic guides, you should reach a solution fairly quickly. Remember to continue to escalate until you reach someone who will solve your problem.

This works even if the problem is not your own. This works even if the problem is not your own, and you are dealing with the infamous Best Buy. I have a success story to share now.

Currently living with me is my sister-in-law. She moved from Texas. A year or so before she moved to California, there was an issue with her computer. Her parents are fairly computer illiterate, but had purchased the PC as a gift for her, and therefore did it on their own. They purchased a floor model, and were not informed, and did not know to ask, that the OS disk was not included. They were not informed that they would need to make a boot disk themselves, and neither was my sister.

Six months later, my sister's computer ran out of space, and she followed the on-screen instructions to free some up, running Disk Cleanup. Disk Cleanup removed essential files from the OS, causing the computer to brick. A full re-install was necessary. She called Best Buy and they told her it would cost over $100 to reload the computer. She called me in a panic, as she and her parents were living off her father's Army pension at the time and could not afford the fee.

I called the Best Buy store's direct number, and asked to speak to a manager. I was told none was there. I waited one hour, and called back. This time I got Jose. I introduced myself and let him know that I was calling on behalf of a friend that was having an issue, and thanked him for solving it for me today.

I then explained to him that my friend had been given a computer without an OS disk, and now needed to reload the computer, but had been told it would cost quite a bit of money. He informed me that she was told when the computer was purchased that she needed to create a boot disk. I informed him that she was not, and that he would need to reload the computer without charge. He said he could not do that. I calmly pointed out that it is very bad policy to charge a customer for something he should never have done in the first place, and that the operating system was sold with the computer, and since the disk was not included, we basically had two options available to us - he could either issue her a free copy of Windows XP, or reload the computer free of charge. I asked him which solution he felt would be best for her. He told me that they could do neither, and I asked him how he would be solving it. He asked me to hold for a moment, then came back on the line, and told me to have her come in, and he would take care of it.

I called my sister and gave her Jose's name and told her to ask for him directly once in the store, because he would be taking care of her problem. She and her mother went, and he met them. Again, they were informed that it would cost to reload the computer. The exact charge came to $97.53 with taxes. In a panic, my sister called me, and I told her that he was not going to charge her. She said he was. I asked her to put him on the phone.

Here's the clincher - when faced with having to speak to me again, he quickly changed his mind and offered an acceptable solution to the problem: he would issue them a gift card for the exact amount, and they would use that to pay for the service. We all agreed to the terms, and he came back exactly two minutes later with a gift card for the exact charge, and handed it to the cashier.

At no point did I yell, or in any way raise my voice. I did not threaten him, or mention lawyers or the business bureau. I simply informed him of what he would be doing, and he did it. While it took a bit of reinforcement, eventually he did come up with a solution that was both within his policy, and right by the consumer. This is not a 'talent', it is a skill, and by following these steps you can usually avoid the horrific experiences many consumers have.

Not to mention gain a wonderful story. My sister tells it to anyone we meet who is having consumer issues similar to hers.

I hope this helps at least one person. You will really be amazed just how effective these methods can be.

- Lona

The Easy Way to Get Whatever You Want

2009-01-18T14:51:00.000-08:00

By Kent Sayre
Author of Unstoppable Confidence

In this article, you’ll discover how to get whatever you want. I’m going to give you specific principles that, when applied, cause near miraculous results in your life. After you become very clear in what you want, you can go after it in an all-out manner.

For whatever you want, it’s going to come from someone or someplace else. Think about that right now. You want more money? It’s going to come from your company, your customers, your clients, or whomever. You want more love? It’s going to come from your parents, your significant other, your kids, etc. You want more appreciation? It’s going to come from your co-workers, your boss, your significant other, your peers, etc. No matter what you want, it’s going to come from someone or someplace else.

Since whatever you want originates elsewhere, first figure out how to give it first. Here’s one of my top rules:

“You go first!”

If you want love, give it first. Friendship? Give it first. Money? Give it first. There are two principles at work that guarantee that you’ll receive whatever you want back. They are the rules of reciprocity and of equality.

The first rule of reciprocity is why two friends will fight over who “gets” to pay the bill after their mutual lunch together. If all people are dialed into the radio station WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?), then it doesn’t make sense that a person would voluntarily want to pay for lunch. The reason the two friends fight over who pays for lunch is because of a deeper principle at work: the one of reciprocity.

Reciprocity at work is simply the rule “Do not take without giving back. Always give back for what you take.” We’ve had this rule ingrained in us since we were little kids.

Now how can you use reciprocity to get whatever you want? Find someone that you want something from. Then genuinely serve them by giving to them freely. Help them out however they need help.

Let’s say I want to increase my business and I want to partner with Alex who is doing a lot more business than me. I could go to Alex and say, “Hey, would you mind selling my product? It will make you some money.” Alex likely has no interest in promoting my product as a result of WIIFM. Consequently, what I can do is first ask myself, “In what way can I help Alex and increase his business?

I take the answer to that question and go do it. I help Alex out and increase his business. He likes it and I’ve made a favorable impression on him. Now, if I were to pop the question of asking him to help me out promoting my products, he’ll be MUCH more likely. Reciprocity is why. He received and now he’s going to give back.

The second rule of why “going first” to get whatever you want works is equality. To me, the universe balances everything out. If someone consistently gives and gives some more, then they’ll receive. If they give out of their hearts without expectation, the universe goes to work to assure they receive equivalent or greater benefit in the future. I invite you to adopt the belief that you’re a giver and that you’re receiving is a result of your practice of giving.

Another way to get whatever you want is to practice “risk-reversal”. In marketing, this is offering a guarantee on the products so that you can overcome a prospect’s innate aversion to “taking a risk” and buying the product. People don’t want to be burned so they are cautious. With a guarantee, the risk is no longer on the buyer. The guarantee permits the customer to send the product back if the product does not meet their needs. The risk has shifted from the customer to the vendor. The vendor takes all the risk. The customer does not have any.

By reversing this risk, more sales are made and the customer and vendor are both satisfied. How can you apply “risk-reversal” in your life to get whatever you want? Let me demonstrate by the example of Napoleon Hill, author of “Think and Grow Rich”.

Napoleon Hill chose his future employer right out of college although his future employer didn’t know that. Napoleon Hill just decided to work where he wanted. Here’s how he got the job. He went to the employer and essentially said, “Let me work for you for two weeks and I’ll pay you for the opportunity. Let what I pay you be drawn against my future earnings. At the end of two weeks, if you don’t like me, I’ll leave. If you like me, you hire me at the rate I’m paying you for the opportunity to show myself.”

Lo and behold, the employer jumped at this idea. Two weeks later, Napoleon Hill had the job he had set out to get. Why did this work? It worked because Napoleon Hill overcame the employer’s reluctance to hire a new, unproven kid right out of college. View it from the employer’s perspective. He had a risk-free offer. He either got a super employee after two weeks or he got a kid to pay him two weeks of wages and two weeks of FREE labor. For him, it was totally “Risk-FREE”. How can you apply “risk-reversal” in your life to get more of what you want?

Here’s in a nutshell what to do to get whatever you want:

1. You Go First
2. Use Reciprocity
3. Reverse the Risk

Drug Tricks Body Into 'Thinking' You Exercised

2009-01-18T14:50:00.000-08:00

Source: World-Science.net

While steroids can give the boost in muscle power that so often tempts athletes to abuse these drugs, researchers say there hasn’t been a targeted drug capable of building the endurance needed to run a marathon or ride a bike through the Alps.

Now there might be, suggests a new study with mice. And that’s creating both hope and worry.

A study with mice suggests the existence of drugs that trick the body into "believing" it has exercised.

The study found that a drug developed for the treatment of metabolic disease, when taken in combination with exercise, gives mice the ability to run farther than exercise alone can. And another chemical endowed mice with greater endurance, even without the workout.

“It’s tricking the muscle into ‘believing’ it’s been exercised daily,” said Ronald Evans of the Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif. Both compounds “are very logical targets for athletic abuse, and we need to be aware of that.” But for people with health problems that preclude much exercise, the findings could be a boon, he added.

The study by Evans and colleagues appears in the July 31 online issue of the research journal Cell.

Evans said his group has already spoken to the World Anti-Doping Agency and is developing a test aimed at detecting use of the PPARd-boosting drug. That test won’t be available in time for this summer’s Olympic games, he said. It also wouldn’t detect the use of AICAR, a chemical that is available but isn’t an FDA-approved drug.

Earlier studies had found that a red wine ingredient called resveratrol could build endurance, but only at enormous doses and by uncertain means. The chemicals tested in the new study are thought to work by specifically tapping into the molecular mechanisms that normally “reprogram” muscle genes in response to exercise.

Evans said it’s not certain that athletes could get a boost from the drugs: the effects in mice might not work as well in highly trained people who may be “pushing the limits” already.

Skeletal muscle, the type of muscle that moves the body, comes in two main types: bulky, fast-twitch muscles for power and speed and slender slow-twitch muscles for endurance. Fast-twitch muscles burn sugar that must be stored in the muscle itself while slow-twitch muscle burns fat.

Evans’ team had previously found they could genetically engineer, or “pre-program” mice to produce more of the fat-burning slow-twitch muscle fibers, turning them into “marathon mice” with nearly twice the running endurance of untrained adults. The key was boosting the activity of a gene in muscle called PPARd, known to control other genes important to skeletal muscle metabolism.

But could you re-program rather than pre-program muscles by simply giving a drug that acts on PPARd? To find out, the researchers gave mice an experimental drug, known only as GW1516, that increases PPARd activity. The drug is being tested for the treatment of metabolic disease, but Evans wanted to know its effects on muscle. “It was a spectacular failure,” he said. It “had no impact on running ability” even though there were changes in muscle gene activity.

Something was missing, so the scientists took a different tack. They gave the PPARd drug to mice that were undergoing exercise training. The same dose and duration of GW1516 treatment that previously failed to alter performance, when paired with four weeks of exercise training, increased the animals’ running time by 68 percent and their running distance by 70 percent over other trained mice, the new study reports.

The muscles of those mice also showed a unique “endurance gene signature,” including patterns of gene activity not seen with either the drug or exercise alone, according to the investigators. That pattern bore a striking resemblance to the one seen years earlier in the genetically engineered marathon mice, they noted.

Since PPARd on its own wasn’t enough, the researchers decided to try one more thing: a chemical known as AICAR that was known to act on a protein in the body called AMPK. Evans’ group suspected AMPK might be the link between exercise and PPARd.

To their surprise, even in sedentary mice, four weeks of AICAR treatment alone induced metabolic genes and enhanced running endurance by 44 percent. “We were blown away that AICAR alone mimicked exercise—not to the same level but a healthy boost,” Evans said.

“We revealed that synthetic PPARd activation and exercise or more importantly AMPK activation alone… re-programs the skeletal muscle genome and dramatically enhances endurance,” the researchers wrote. “We believe that the strategy of re-organizing the preset genetic imprint of muscle (as well as other tissues) using exercise mimetic drugs has therapeutic potential in treating certain muscle diseases such as wasting and frailty as well as obesity where exercise is known to be beneficial.”

Experts Question Placebo Pill for Children

2009-01-18T14:49:00.000-08:00

By Christie Aschwanden
Source: New York Times

Jennifer Buettner was taking care of her young niece when the idea struck her. The child had a nagging case of hypochondria, and Ms. Buettner’s mother-in-law, a nurse, instructed her to give the girl a Motrin tablet.

“She told me it was the most benign thing I could give,” Ms. Buettner said. “I thought, why give her any drug? Why not give her a placebo?”

Studies have repeatedly shown that placebos can produce improvements for many problems like depression, pain and high blood pressure, and Ms. Buettner reasoned that she could harness the placebo effect to help her niece. She sent her husband to the drugstore to buy placebo pills. When he came back empty handed, she said, “It was one of those ‘aha!’ moments when everything just clicks.”

Ms. Buettner, 40, who lives in Severna Park, Md., with her husband, 7-month-old son and 22-month-old twins, envisioned a children’s placebo tablet that would empower parents to do something tangible for minor ills and reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics and other medicines.

With the help of her husband, Dennis, she founded a placebo company, and, without a hint of irony, named it Efficacy Brands. Its chewable, cherry-flavored dextrose tablets, Obecalp, for placebo spelled backward, goes on sale on June 1 at the Efficacy Brands Web site. Bottles of 50 tablets will sell for $5.95. The Buettners have plans for a liquid version, too.

Because they contain no active drug, the pills will not be sold as a drug under Food and Drug Administration rules. They will be marketed as dietary supplements, meaning they can be sold at groceries, drugstores and discount stores without a prescription.

“This is designed to have the texture and taste of actual medicine so it will trick kids into thinking that they’re taking something,” Ms. Buettner said. “Then their brain takes over, and they say, ‘Oh, I feel better.’ ”

But some experts question the premise behind the tablets. “Placebos are unpredictable,” said Dr. Howard Brody, a medical ethicist and family physician at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. “Each and every time you give a placebo you see a dramatic response among some people and no response in others.”

He added that there was no way to predict who would respond.

“The idea that we can use a placebo as a general treatment method,” Dr. Brody said, “strikes me as inappropriate.”

Ms. Buettner does not spell out the conditions that her pills could treat. As a parent, she said, “you’ll know when Obecalp is necessary.”

Franklin G. Miller, a bioethicist at the National Institutes of Health, is skeptical. “As a parent of three now grown children,” he said, “I can’t think of a single instance where I’d want to give a placebo.”

Much of the power of the placebo effect seems to lie in the belief that it will work, and some experts question whether this expectation can be sustained if the person giving it knows it is a sham.

Most clinical trials that have shown benefits from placebos are double blinded. Neither the recipient nor the giver knows that the pills are fake.

“For this to work really well as placebo, you cannot let the parents know that it’s a sugar pill,” Dr. Brody said. “You have to lie to the parents, too, if you expect them to fool their kids.”

At least one study has shown that placebos can be effective even when the patients know that they are inert. In a study in 2007, 70 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were asked to reduce their medications gradually by replacing some of their drugs with placebo pills. The children and their parents were explicitly told that these “dose extender” pills contained no drug.

After three months, 80 percent of the children reported that the placebo had helped them. Although that study used a placebo in a different context from Obecalp, it did suggest that deception might not be necessary for a placebo to work, said the senior author, Gail Geller, a bioethicist at the Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins.

Even if Obecalp proved helpful, some doctors worry that giving children “medicine” for every ache and pain teaches that every ailment has a cure in a bottle.

“Kids could grow up thinking that the only way to get better is by taking a pill,” Dr. Brody said. If they do that, he added, they will not learn that a minor complaint like a scraped knee or a cold can improve on its own.

Dr. David Spiegel, a psychiatrist who studies placebos at the Stanford School of Medicine, said conditioning children to reach for relief in a pill could also make them easy targets for quacks and pharmaceutical pitches later. “They used to sell candied cigarettes to kids to get them used to the idea of playing with cigarettes,” he said.

Ms. Buettner acknowledged that “we expect controversy with this,” but she added, “We are not promoting drug use.”

Despite his misgivings, Dr. Brody predicted that Obecalp would entice many parents. “Anybody who has ever been up in the middle of the night with a crying child would be tempted to try something like this,” he said. “You’re so desperate for anything that could quiet down your poor, miserable kid.”

Doctors themselves have been known to dole out placebos to overwhelmed parents, said Dr. Brian Olshansky, a physician at the University of Iowa Hospitals. A screaming child with an earache may leave the emergency room with a prescription for antibiotics, even though the drug will not speed recovery and could potentially cause harm.

Ms. Buettner said her pill could satisfy that need while reducing potential harms from unnecessary medications. “The overprescription of drugs is a serious problem, and I think there needs to be an alternative,” she said.

Some experts question whether an alternative should involve deception. “I don’t like the idea of parents lying to their kids,” said Dr. Steven Joffe, a pediatrician and bioethicist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. “It makes me squeamish.”

Dr. Geller, the bioethicist, agrees that parents should not deceive their children. But she added that a parent who truly believed in the power of the placebo was not really being deceptive. “In principle,” she said, “I don’t have a problem with the thoughtful use of placebo. The starting premise and your own belief about what you’re doing matters a lot.”

Dr. Brody said parents did not need a pill to induce the placebo effect. Mothers have long promised to “kiss it and make it better” and it is that type of placebo children really yearn for, he said.

“Does a sick child really want X-rays or M.R.I.’s or the latest antibiotic?” he asked. “No. All the sick child wants is comforting.”

The Spontaneous Healing of Belief

2009-01-18T14:48:00.003-08:00

Interview with Gregg Braden, author of
The Spontaneous Healing of Belief

By Laurie Nadel, Ph.D.
Host of The Sixth Sense Radio Show

Do you believe that heart-based belief—something that you believe and feel to be true from the core of your being—affects how your body heals and the movement of molecules?

Do you believe that you were born with the power to reverse disease, to create peace and abundance, or perhaps even change reality itself?

Gregg Braden does.

A former computer engineer for Cisco systems, Braden spent more than two decades studying forgotten texts in remote monasteries in the high Himalayas; traveling to remote locations to consult with sages about ancient wisdom.

In The Spontaneous Power of Belief: Shattering the Paradigm of False Limits, Braden argues for the existing of an underlying code that can help you communicate directly with a matrix of energy that some call “The Universe.” Others call this divine matrix “The Creator” or “God.”

Here are highlights from my interview with Gregg Braden. (The complete interview can be heard on “The Sixth Sense” radio show at www.webtalkradio.net.)

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about the background of your new book, The Spontaneous Healing of Belief?

Braden: It contains both ancient wisdom from some of the most remote texts, traditions, and monasteries that we visited throughout the world over the last 20 years, married with the best science of our time. It tells us that:

Number One: There is a field of energy that connects everything in our world—and scientists believe beyond.
Number Two: We are born with the ability to communicate with this field.
Through our heart-based intelligence, we speak the nonverbal language that this field recognizes. It’s from that language that everything from the healing of our bodies to peace between nations, personal relationships, personal abundance, the success of our careers are all linked through this field.
Q: To recap: We are all connected through an energy field or matrix. I sometimes refer to it as The Creator, the Directing Intelligence. We can communicate with this field, this intelligence, through the nonverbal, kinesthetic language of the heart.

Braden: Absolutely! What is new is that within the last few years of the 20th century, Western science was able to validate the fact. It is now a fact. It’s no longer a theory. It’s no longer a metaphor. It is a fact that there is a universal field of what is called “non-conventional energy” that underlies everything that we see in our physical world. It is this invisible field that modern science is struggling to come to terms with. What does it mean in terms of our role in the universe? How do we connect and communicate with this field?

Q: Isn’t it interesting that indigenous people, including shamans all over the world have believed that as a basic assumption for thousands of years.

Braden: This is precisely where we are going. Science is a relatively new language that describes our world. Science or the scientific method are believed to have begun about 300 years ago when Isaac Newton formalized the laws of physics. So science is about a 300-year old study of the universe and the world around us. Many of the spiritual and indigenous traditions that we are studying have been here 4, 5, 6, even 7-thousand years, as in the case of the Hindu Vedas. Science has only arrived at the place where those traditions begin.

For 300 years, scientists have been arguing, and the controversy has been whether or not this field exists. They have just arrived at the place where there is a general agreement that the field is here. Now they are asking: what do we do with it, on the one hand. On the other hand, these ancient traditions began with this understanding.

Q: Can you please explain what are the two false assumptions of science that have set us back, in terms of understanding the invisible language of this invisible field that connects everything?

Braden: I was trained in the hard sciences. My degree, my background, my corporate training is all in the hard sciences. I think science is good. It served us well. The best scientists will openly admit that our science is incomplete. Our science is based largely upon two false assumptions:

The first false assumption is that the space between physical things is empty. That scientists tell us about 96% of the universe is empty. Only about 4% contains what we would call physical matter, or “stuff.”

The second false assumption is that our inner experiences of thought, feeling, emotion, belief have no effect on the world beyond our bodies. Now we know that is absolutely false. The peer-reviewed research papers published in technical journals have documented the fact that we create fields of energy in our bodies, specifically in our hearts, through feeling and belief. Those fields directly influence the world around us.

Q: What does that mean?

Braden: There is less controversy as to whether or not we affect the world. The question is, to what degree? In other words, scientists now acknowledge that when we observe our world, that we cannot simply look at what’s happening; that by observing it, we affect and we influence things that happen in the world.

Q: Have there not been experiments in the laboratory that have shown that the mind of the scientific observer can influence the action or motion of atoms and molecules?

Braden: Precisely. In the laboratory, they are showing that the observers, when they are watching the experiments, they have beliefs and expectations. And those beliefs and expectations become part of what they are watching. They change the behavior of the “stuff” that our world is made of, the same stuff that our bodies are made of.

So the question becomes: How much power do we have? How much ability do we have to influence the healing of our bodies and the events of the physical world?

The answer is: we have got as much as we are willing to accept. This is what we are understanding from studying the ancient traditions in the monasteries in Tibet, Bolivia, and Peru. If we do nothing, we have relatively little power to influence the healing of our bodies, the success of our careers, or the abundance of our relationships.

If we choose to hone this language in our heart, we may assume a tremendous amount of power to influence. Not control. Not manipulate. Not to impose our will but to influence the world around us.

Certainly, life-affirming healings within the human body are very well documented from our ability to speak this language of the heart.

Expensive Placebos Work Better Than Cheap Ones

2009-01-18T14:48:00.001-08:00

By Laura Brinn
Source: Duke University

A 10-cent pill doesn't kill pain as well as a $2.50 pill, even when they are identical placebos, according to a provocative study by Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke University.

"Physicians want to think it's the medicine and not their enthusiasm about a particular drug that makes a drug more therapeutically effective, but now we really have to worry about the nuances of interaction between patients and physicians," said Ariely, whose findings appear as a letter in the March 5 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Ariely and a team of collaborators at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology used a standard protocol for administering light electric shock to participants’ wrists to measure their subjective rating of pain. The 82 study subjects were tested before getting the placebo and after.

Half the participants were given a brochure describing the pill as a newly-approved pain-killer which cost $2.50 per dose and half were given a brochure describing it as marked down to 10 cents, without saying why.

In the full-price group, 85 percent of subjects experienced a reduction in pain after taking the placebo. In the low-price group, 61 percent said the pain was less.

The finding, from a relatively small and simplified experiment, points to a host of larger questions, Ariely said.

The results fit with existing data about how people perceive quality and how they anticipate therapeutic effects, he said. But what's interesting is the combination of the price-sensitive consumer expectation with the well-known placebo effect of being told a pill works. "The placebo effect is one of the most fascinating, least harnessed forces in the universe," Ariely said.

Ariely wonders if prescription medications should offer cues from packaging, rather than coming in indistinguishable brown bottles. "And how do we give people cheaper medication, or a generic, without them thinking it won't work?" he asks.

At the very least, doctors should be able to use their enthusiasm for a medication as part of the therapy, Ariely said. "They have a huge potential to use these quality cues to be more effective."

The Cure Within: Can the Mind Heal the Body?

2009-01-18T14:47:00.002-08:00

By Gregory M. Lamb
Source: Christian Science Monitor

[This is a book review of The Cure Within: A History of Mind-Body Medicine By Anne Harrington]

Americans who watched the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on TV and reported feeling anxiety afterward also experienced increased rates of various heart ailments in the following three years.

That's the conclusion of a recent scholarly article in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Such research, showing intriguing connections between physical health and states of mind, has come in a steady flow for decades. While some studies are challenged or discredited, others replace them.

Ordinary Americans seem more comfortable than medical researchers with the idea that thoughts can control experience. The idea is embedded in popular culture: In the 1950 musical "Guys and Dolls" the humorous song "Adelaide's Lament" tells the story of a woman whose frustration in not getting married brings on a cold.

But what exactly is the relationship between mind and body? How strong is it? How is it evoked and how does it work?

In The Cure Within, Anne Harrington traces the mind-body connection through the centuries and in its many manifestations. Harrington, chair of the history of science department at Harvard University, finds that mind-body medicine is really a "patchwork" of widely differing beliefs and approaches that often "pull in different directions."

The many manifestations of mind-body healing make for fascinating reading, though her own conclusion on the subject is no more definitive than "let a thousand therapies bloom" alongside conventional, technological medicine.

The reductionist, "physicalist" medicine of today views disease as wholly a material phenomenon, she says. Disease has no meaning beyond being a natural physical process. Yet patients continue to seek out alternative meanings and methods. They see stories in their illnesses. Understanding these stories, they feel, will help lead to wholeness. When their bodies fail them, when they fall ill, people want to know the "why" questions: They ask "Why me? Why now? What next?" she says.

A broader tent for treating disease, Harrington says, would allow "that there is more to physical illness than can be seen just in the body; and more to healing than can be found in just pills and shots. Mind matters too: how one thinks, how one feels, what kind of personality or character one has or cultivates."

In the book readers encounter individuals such as 18th-century physician Franz Anton Mesmer and his form of healing through hypnotism, called mesmerism; Sigmund Freud and the birth of psychoanalysis, which explores the idea that "every illness was more than just a biological event; it was also a biographical event rich with (usually hidden) meaning...."

In the mid-20th century, Norman Vincent Peale, pastor of the Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, wrote a wildly popular book, "The Power of Positive Thinking," urging ordinarily Americans to employ mind-body ideas to help themselves. Writer Norman Cousins's "The Anatomy of an Illness (as Perceived by the Patient)" told how he defeated his own severe physical ailment through laughter (including watching Marx Brothers movies). Harvard cardiologist Herbert Benson Westernized meditation as healing through his "relaxation response."

In her own research, Harrington has studied the "placebo effect" – the ability of fake drugs or even fake surgery to heal, an effect that continues to perplex researchers. In a broader sense, she asks, might peoples' bodies today listen and respond to scientists or doctors, "people they believe to speak with the authority of science"? We need to reflect on the "larger implications" of what that would mean, Harrington says.

Religion is a taproot for today's secular explorations into mind-body connections, she acknowledges. The Bible is filled with physical healings accomplished through prayer only. Some modern-day Christian denominations, such as Christian Science, emphasize physical healing. But Christian Science, for example, does not see true healing as the result of the action of the human mind, but as the natural effect of communing with the divine Mind, or God. To many religious adherents, religious healing is much more than the "supercharged placebo effect" Harrington grants it.

One way of looking at mental healing suggests that love may have a lot to do with it. In 2000, Robert Putnam, the author of "Bowling Alone," noted: "As a rough rule of thumb, if you belong to no groups but decide to join one, you cut your risk of dying over the next year in half." Statistically, feeling part of a group was about as effective in improving health as stopping smoking.

Studies of children separated from their parents in wartime Britain, postwar Germany, and later in state orphanages in communist Romania, showed that babies given adequate food, shelter, clothing, and medical care, but without attention from a mother or other loving caregiver, fell ill and died at a higher rate than those whose physical care was less good but who received loving attention. Even in a less-than-sanitary women's prison nursery in the United States, researchers found that "The mothers' love had proven a better deterrent to infection than the most conscientious of good hygiene practices," Harrington says.

Applying the power of the human mind to the body continues today to evoke healing effects, even if the causes behind them and their potential as reliable therapies remain a subject of debate. Might human mind-over-matter only hint at something more at work? Harrington doesn't go that far, but she does seem convinced that exploring – and even employing – the mind-body connection is a worthwhile endeavor.

Can Your Thoughts Affect Your Weight?

2009-01-18T14:47:00.001-08:00

By Alix Spiegel
Source: National Public Radio

The holidays are finally over and your waistline is as overstretched as your credit card. It's time to take action! What should you do?

A) Hit the gym.

B) Make a solemn pledge to never ingest another sweet for as long as you live.

C) Hit the gym and make a solemn pledge to never ingest another sweet for as long as you live, or…

D) Sit around on the couch eating chocolate bonbons while genuinely believing that you are getting a lot of rigorous exercise.

The answer to this multiple-choice quiz might not be as straightforward as you think. In fact, a recent study by Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer seems to challenge our basic assumptions about the relationship between the physical body and the mind — and perhaps even our assumptions about the nature of objective reality itself. It certainly challenges our assumptions about the limits of the placebo effect.

Langer is a researcher who has published several important and provocative studies. In this study, she decided to look at whether our perception of how much exercise we are getting has any effect on how our bodies actually look. To do this, she studied hotel maids.

As any casual observer of the hospitality industry knows, hotel maids spend the majority of their days lugging heavy equipment around endless hallways. Basically, almost every moment of their working lives is spent engaged in some kind of physical activity.

But Langer found that most of these women don't see themselves as physically active. She did a survey and found that 67 percent reported they didn't exercise. More than one-third of those reported they didn't get any exercise at all.

"Given that they are exercising all day long," Langer says, "that seemed to be bizarre."

Perceptions Change Your Body and Weight

What was even more bizarre, she says, was that, despite the fact all of the women in her study far exceeded the U.S. surgeon general's recommendation for daily exercise, the bodies of the women did not seem to benefit from their activity.

Langer and her team measured the maids' body fat, waist-to-hip ratio, blood pressure, weight and body mass index. They found that all of these indicators matched the maids' perceived amount of exercise, rather than their actual amount of exercise.

So Langer set about changing perceptions.

She divided 84 maids into two groups. With one group, researchers carefully went through each of the tasks they did each day, explaining how many calories those tasks burned. They were informed that the activity already met the surgeon general's definition of an active lifestyle.

The other group was given no information at all.

One month later, Langer and her team returned to take physical measurements of the women and were surprised by what they found. In the group that had been educated, there was a decrease in their systolic blood pressure, weight, and waist-to-hip ratio — and a 10 percent drop in blood pressure.

One possible explanation is that the process of learning about the amount of exercise they were already getting somehow changed the maids' behavior. But Langer says that her team surveyed both the women and their managers and found no indication that the maids had altered their routines in any way. She believes that the change can be explained only by the change in the women's mindset.

Essentially, what Langer is talking about is a placebo effect. She says that if you believe you are exercising, your body may respond as if it is. It's the same as if you believe you are getting medication when you are actually getting a sugar pill — your body can sometimes respond as if a placebo is actually working.

The implication is that the "objective reality" of the physical body is not as immovable as we might have assumed. Hence, the theoretical possibility that, if done with genuine conviction, one might be able to sit around eating chocolate and still lose weight.

Placebo Effect Limited?

But Martin Binks, director of behavioral health at the Duke Diet and Fitness Center in North Carolina, is skeptical of Langer's conclusion, even though he is impressed with the physical changes in the maids.

"There's a very high likelihood that [the maids] behaved differently after they received that information," he says, "and they were being more active and eating more healthfully. And that resulted in their improvements in health."

But Binks has a more substantive criticism. He does not believe that placebos are capable of producing the kind of objective change in the physical body that Langer is claiming.

"Generally what placebos work on is subjective types of findings," he says.

In other words, a placebo can help change something like your perception of pain or perhaps your sense of whether you feel depressed, but it can't do something objective like shrink a tumor or cut three pounds off your waistline.

Or can it?

Howard Brody has spent years looking at this issue. He says that a number of relatively new studies challenge the old assumption that the placebo effect alters only subjective perception. He is the director of the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch and the author of the book, The Placebo Response.

For example, Brody notes one study where researchers gave asthmatic patients a drug that actually makes asthma worse. When they gave the drug to the patients, they told them that it relieves asthma.

"A significant number of those patients said that my asthma got better when you gave me the drug," Brody says, "and they measured better when you measured the lung findings.

"So the idea that the placebo effect applies only to subjective things is really one that we have to dismiss."

So maybe it really might be possible to sit on the couch eating chocolates and lose weight. I, for one, am certainly willing to sacrifice and give it the old college try.

RELATED ARTICLE: Can Imaginary Exercise Make You Fit?

Placebos, Prayer, and Pain Relief

2009-01-18T14:46:00.000-08:00

By Diana Hartman
Source: BlogCritics.org

The belief that a divine being could be called upon to assist with one's health needs is not new. Also aged is the assertion of relieving symptoms with the idea of treatment rather than actual treatment. Scientists have been diligently researching both ideas with the help of positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and electroencephalograph (EEG) tests. The conclusions spell promise for placebos, but doom for deities.

Placebos have been found to have more than just a relieving effect. Some chronic pain patients can be trained to provide their own viable, lasting treatment. Too, how well a patient does with placebos, thought by the patient to be anti-depressants, might be a marker for how well they would do with the real deal.

While the existence of a higher power is in the heart of the believer, scientists have concluded there is no region of the brain specifically designed for heavenly communication. Researchers scanned the brains of 15 cloistered Carmelite nuns who were asked to recall their most heightened divine connection. The researchers observed as over a dozen areas of the nuns' brains were activated all at once — most notably, the caudate nucleus, the part of the brain associated with joy and love. The nuns did not submit to scans while in the process of achieving spiritual oneness, saying, "God cannot be summoned at will."

A devout agnostic, I met these results with a kind of "told you" attitude. I've many times witnessed the power of mind over matter when administering dummy pills to my mother and my children whenever the medicinal well ran dry in destitute times. Despite my mother's fervent skyward pleas, thy kingdom come never came to my house, leaving me with nothing more than a cup of sugar and an idea. We are not hard-wired to a celestial throne and the research proves it.

We are, however, wholly capable of something right nice — an ability almost lost in a cloud of spiritual vs. medical debate and a dispute over terms. The means by which a patient can learn to harness their own brainpower to relieve their suffering is scientifically proven. Does it really matter, then, what the individual sufferer calls this process or to whom they attribute the power? The parts of the brain activating those regions responsible for relieving pain and creating a sense of serenity are, in fact, activated by the person hosting said brain. Scientists rightly attribute the ability to the person and reasonably expect the person to take credit for what they've accomplished.

The wonder of realizing long sought after relief is an almost spiritual experience, and is a spiritual experience for many. It is so powerful a feeling that, at first, it appears to defy explanation. This is no work of man, many would assert. Even with an understanding of the brain's process, some who have harnessed this inner control still feel the need to reach outside themselves for explanation. It seems a simple enough concept: Feed yourself when you are hungry and the pangs will go away. I don't get the need to enshrine the grocer. But I'm not my mother.

A devout Catholic, science-fiction fan, and horribly butchered breast cancer survivor of the early 70s, my mother believed in the powers of God and the promise of technology, but she lived with the only reality she had experienced: pain. Her suffering subsided only slightly with pharmaceuticals, which also robbed her of coherent cognitive function. Out went the baby with the bath water, she would say. Placebos provided her with outright relief and her faculties didn't suffer in the process. In fact, it was this alertness that had her believing more was at play than just her medicine — or what she thought was medicine. She described the relief as "magical."

My mother wanted so much to believe in her doctors. Failing that, she turned to God and the future. Before her arm became atrophied from lymphedema (a common condition following breast cancer surgery of the early 70s), she used her once mastered calligraphy skills to pen her favorite quotes and hung them conspicuously in our home.

In Profiles of The Future, English physicist and science fiction author, Sir Arthur C. Clarke wrote, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." In Toward the Future, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote, “The day will come when, after harnessing the ether, the winds, the tides, gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And, on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”

Advanced technology has proven she did harness the energies of love and created her own magic. The part I played was insignificant, as is the part she was just sure God had played, but in terms of health, well-being, and a sense of peaceful relief, it's no skin off my nose if she wanted to believe it was God. The beauty of science is that it is discovering fire everyday. The beauty of being human, scientist and layman alike, is that we can call that fire anything we want — relief, love, magic — and it's no one's business but our own.

Rest in peace, Mom. God knows you deserve it.

The Power of the Placebo Effect in Healing

2009-01-18T14:45:00.002-08:00

The placebo effect in healing should not be dismissed lightly, argues Stephen Wright. More and more studies are illuminating the connection between mind, body and spirit

By Stephen Wright
Red Nova

Beliefs, consciousness and the mind have a lot more to do with health and healing than modern science understands or will admit to.

Oxford University recently set up a department for the exploration of mind and consciousness. It was spurred in part by general ignorance in society of the mind-body-spirit connection.

Recently, on a surgical ward, I was practising the healing approach of therapeutic touch (TT). There was no hostility, but there was certainly a degree of dismissal from some quarters. The ultimate put down TT often attracts is that old chestnut: Of course, it'sjust a placebo effect.'

There is much evidence to illustrate the connection between belief and physiological effects (Pert 1997, Peters 2002). Numerous studies have shown that giving an inert substance in a drug trial often has the same effect as giving the drug itself.

The placebo effect is still an effect. It seems that placebos can assist in the cure of disease just as well,'as long as the patient believes they might be getting the real drug or treatment' (Hamer 2004).

There have been compelling studies into 'non-local healing' - the change in a person's physical state, for example in the cure of disease, when there is the intention of another to heal through prayer or'sending healing energy'.

Pert has illustrated one mechanism, the healing neuropeptide flow, that is unleashed when we let go of anxiety and start to feel better emotionally. Psychoneuroimmunology now underpins work in places such as the Bristol Cancer Help Centre.

The noted author and educator Jeanne Achterberg stunned the audience at a recent conference in Cumbria with her findings. She used a randomised, double-blind controlled trial and an MRI scanner to see what happens when healers'send'their healing to a patient.

Eleven healers were asked to practise their craft while a patient was underthe scanner in a different room.

In nine cases, when the healer got to work, the patient's brain literally lit up the scanner. It is the first demonstrable evidence I have seen of a change in the body when a healer is at work in a different room from that of the patient. The effect of patients'belief that they are being helped, or whether some unknown energy is being 'sent'by the healers, is discussed in Achterberg's study, now in press.

However, if the placebo effect works, there can also be a downside: what Hamer(2004) calls the 'nocebo' effect. His survey of negative expectations of health, for example among people who are depressed or feel God has abandoned them, raises some alarming concerns. Many studies on religiosity suggest positive benefits for health. But when we believe that we are not loved by God, or even worse that God has turned against us, or if we are atheist, we feel hopeless, unloved or that there is no future for us, we are more likely to get sick or die.

Mind, body and spirit are part of a whole, weaving together the complex pattern we call health. What more studies are showing is that the pattern can be unwoven as well, not just by the attacks of disease, but also by our state of consciousness

REFERENCES
Hamer D (2004) The God Gene. Doubleday, New York, NY.
PertC (1997) Molecules of Emotion. Scribner, New York, NY.
Peters D (Ed) (2002) Understanding the Placebo Effect in Complementary Medicine - Theory, Practice and Research. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh.

Stephen Wright is professor at the Faculty of Health and Social Care, St Martin's College, Carlisle, and chair of the Sacred Space Foundation

SOURCE: Red Nova

Optimists Enjoy Better Health and Live Longer

2009-01-18T14:45:00.001-08:00

By Sheryl Walters
Source: Natural News

Do you see the glass half full or half empty? We now have proof that positive thinking will add years to our lives. A study published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings has revealed the difference between optimists and pessimists is around 12 years of life!

The Mayo team began by examining personality tests performed in the 1960s. Then they followed these individuals for around 30 years to find out how their lives played out to scientifically measure the relationship between attitude and longevity.

The conclusion: optimists are far more likely to live longer than pessimists.

Dr. Toshihiko Maruta, the chief researcher of this study stated, "The important thing is that we've proven the relationship scientifically, and made a correlation between how people see the world when they're young and how they turn out 30 years later."

The other piece of valuable information taken from this study is that being an optimist or a pessimist is not always dependent on one's environment, circumstances and stressors. While of course these factors play a role, there are many people in fantastic situations with plenty of money and no recognizable stress that are miserable. Then there are those whose lives are profoundly stressful that seem to be incredibly happy and optimistic.

Being optimistic is not just about living a long life. It is about enjoying life and living it to the fullest. Having an optimistic outlook is imperative to feeling young and free.

So what is the difference between an optimist and a pessimist?

Optimists see setbacks as temporary, changeable, and even a chance to learn and grow. They are motivated to take action. Non-optimists tend to look at setbacks as permanent and hopeless.

Optimists explain positive events as having happened because of them... if they get a new job it is because they are good at what they do. A pessimist views good things that happen to them as lucky breaks or a fluke.

Optimists are not self deprecating. For example, if they didn't follow their diet for a week, they might say, "I had a lot going on this week. I didn't plan my time too well. I'll have to do better next week." A pessimist blames him or herself for everything and never gets away with anything. If they missed out on their diet for a week they might say "I have no self-discipline and will never be the weight I desire. I am a loser!"
If you are one of those self blaming, negative pessimists... don't worry. You won't fall dead tomorrow and you can become an optimist with a little belief and work!

Martin E. P. Seligman, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania has done many studies on optimism and says that people can learn to adopt more optimistic outlooks. While I have always been fairly optimistic, I certainly continue to work on being more positive. There are always ways to open our minds and become more in touch with the greatness of life.

Here are a few ways to begin making that change:

When something positive happens in your life, ask yourself whether you are giving yourself credit for making it happen? Think of all your strengths that have contributed to your success.

When negative events occur, think of the extenuating circumstances that could have contributed to this happening. Don't be so quick to blame yourself. And if you realize that you have created this event, think about what you can do differently next time. See this as a way to learn a lesson.

Imagine what future possibilities could be on there way. There are infinite possibilities in life and you should expect the best!
Sheryl Walters is a kinesiologist, nutritionist and holistic practitioner. Her website www.younglivingguide.com provides the latest research on preventing disease, looking naturally gorgeous, and feeling emotionally and physically fabulous.

RELATED ARTICLE: Use Your Mind to Age Faster or Slower

Don't Listen to "Them"

2009-01-18T14:44:00.002-08:00

By Alex Goumakos
Source: MindStudio.net

Don't listen to bad news.

When it comes to the state of the economy, do NOT listen to pundits or your average TV news show.

These people, and the organizations behind them, make money and get high ratings by ’selling’ you BAD NEWS.

For example, this morning I turned on the TV (to listen to a music channel while getting ready for work) and I accidentally landed on a major cable TV news station.

I could NOT believe my ears….

Some so-called 'experts' are comparing the current U.S and world economy to the Great Depression of the 1920’s.

Wow!

…Maybe I should have stayed in bed!? (…not!)

Nothing could be further for the truth. (It’s also a political ploy being used in this year’s Presidential Election here in the U.S., but that’s whole other topic of discussion)….

Unfortunately, this type of limited and scarcity thinking will give MILLIONS of people the excuse to do …NOTHING.

For many, it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The bad news will permeate their subconscious mind and cause them to ’see’ limitation instead of POSSIBILITY.

Listen, I am NOT a wishful thinker.

I’m a REALIST (I also have over 20 years of experience handling other people’s money and finances as a CPA. I think I know a thing or two about money).

And the reality is that, yes…there ARE indeed some economic challenges that we’ve ALL had to deal with recently.

Gas and food prices are at all-time record highs…

That’s a FACT…

Many people (myself included) have had to deal with their fair share of “money storms” this past year…

We ALL go through it at one point or another…

It’s part of the natural cycle of things.

But here are some more FACTS….

There is more wealth being created today than at any other time in history.

There will be THOUSANDS more millionaires today than there were yesterday (there were one million new millionaires create in the U.S. alone in the year 2000!)

Thousands of people around the world will DOUBLE their income just in the he next hour alone!

The Internet has opened up the world to a whole new realm of possibilities. Ordinary citizens can now turn hobbies and side businesses into lucrative money-making ventures like never before.
I could go on and on….

Do you get the point? It all depends on where you’d like to focus your attention.

I rarely watch the news anymore. Instead, I prefer to fill my mind with positive thoughts and music before I start my day.

A wholesome breakfast for the mind is just as important as the one you feed your body.

You have a choice. Reach for GOOD NEWS at every opportunity.

After nearly 40 years of battling my own mind and its negative thinking, I’ve now reached a point where I am extremely sensitive to negative news of any kind.

I simply REFUSE to listen to it. I recommend you do the same.

It’s POISON.

Most people are ADDICTED to doom and gloom news (I know I was).

It’s hard to avoid, since it’s fed to us every single day by the media.

Will you be like the rest of the crowd?

Or will you heed the wisdom of Harvard University’s 23rd president, Dr James Conant when he said…

“You’ll never achieve more than the crowd until you think more than the crowd”.

If you’d like to finally put an end to scarcity thinking, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND a book written by world-renowned economist and presidential adviser Paul Zane Pilzer.

His book, The Next Millionaires, is written in simple, easy-to-understand language and it will dispel any economic myths and realities you may have.

He writes:

“We will never run out of resources, because we always invent new ones. Ever since our earliest ancestors’ days as hunter-gatherers, when we roamed from place to place every time we exhausted our immediate food supply, we have always been ‘running out’ of resources. Yet every time we reach the limits on one resource, we use our human ingenuity to invent a new and better one.”

There really ARE no limits.

Possibilities are endless and everywhere…oftentimes right under our own noses.

Think!

What can you do today, better and more profitably than yesterday?

All it takes is one simple idea to transform a life of mediocrity into one of GREATNESS.

Think!

And whatever you do….Don’t listen to ‘them”!

ALSO BY ALEX GOUMAKOS: How to Thrive During Economic Uncertainty

Can the 'Will to Live' Hold Off Death?

2009-01-18T14:44:00.001-08:00

The question of whether 'a will to live' can influence a patient's survival is rarely publicly discussed by doctors. Stuart Jeffries meets one who is doing just that.

By Stuart Jeffries
Source: The Guardian

One of Hugh Montgomery's first patients, when he started working as an intensive-care doctor in 1989, was a 94-year-old woman who had suffered a heart attack while ballroom dancing. "She was a terrific, feisty old dear and we got on really well," recalls Montgomery. "But she ended up getting complications and falling unconscious. It was just a matter of time before she died.

"Every morning when I came into work, I would ask the nurses if she'd died, and they would say no. Then the thought crossed my mind that maybe she was hanging on for me.

"So I drew the curtains and said to her: 'I don't know if you can hear me, but if you're hanging on for me, you don't have to.' She stopped breathing right then. Maybe it was a coincidence, but I don't think so."

Montgomery relates the story because he is convinced that there is such a thing as the will to live and, by extension, a will to die. "I've seen this kind of thing happen so much in my work over the years that I don't believe it is a coincidence."

He tells the story of a church organist he treated. "She had a condition which meant she had to be on a drip, but she kept pulling it out. She told me: 'I don't want a drip any more.' I said: 'Your chances of surviving are very low if you don't keep it.' But she told me that Jesus was waiting on the other side and was calling her. She was with her husband and so I said: 'If you're both comfortable with that, do that. I can give you pain relief.' As I got up to go she said: 'Aren't you going to kiss me goodbye?' and so I gave her a kiss and left. Moments later she was dead.

"What I have found again and again is that dying patients hold on for a loved one to arrive - say for a son to get the visa to fly to London and see mother in hospital for one last time. My father, who was unconscious in hospital for the last couple of days of his life, died at the rare moment when we - my mother, sisters and me - were in the room at the same time."

Montgomery - a scuba diver, skydiver, high-altitude mountaineer, intensive care doctor, genetics researcher and director of the Institute for Human Health and Performance at University College London - is to give this year's Royal Institution Christmas science lectures about extraordinary cases of survival.

What is it about certain people, he asks, that enables them to survive starvation, extreme cold, extreme heat or lack of oxygen? He suggests that genes, environment and luck all play a part. All five lectures feature guests who recount their own feats of survival - such as Jamie Andrew, who lost both hands and feet when caught in a five-day storm in the French Alps in 1999, during which a fellow mountaineer died.

But what Montgomery was not able to tackle in the lectures is the question of the will to live in medical situations. "I hope at some point to do a book about it because it is important to realise that psychology affects survival. It's a fascinating question."

But it is also a controversial one. Is Montgomery suggesting that some people who succumb to fatal illnesses may just lack the will to survive? "No. It's important not to generalise - otherwise you end up insulting the dead and upsetting the bereaved." Nor is his suggestion faith-based: "When I talk about the will to live, which very few people do, I'm not talking about intervention with prayer. I'm talking about behavioural psychology. What I am saying is that one's mental attitude or emotional state can cause fatal illnesses or help one survive. There's a lot of data to suggest this is the case."

He cites the so-called Whitehall study by Sir Michael Marmot, professor of epidemiology and public health at University College London, which concluded that life expectancy and susceptibility to fatal disease can be influenced by social status. Marmot surveyed civil servants and found that, of those who suffer coronary heart disease, what was important wasn't just diet or whether a person smoked, but sense of status. "Middle management were in the worst position in terms of stress, because they had low status," says Montgomery. "The higher-ranking people were OK because they would say: 'Make it so,' and walk away. They didn't have the stress of putting something into practice. The middle managers did and they were stressed as a result.

"The point is one's emotional condition - stress - can cause coronary disease. The St John Ambulance see this a lot - people who have heart attacks at football matches."

All Montgomery's examples are to do with coronary disease. Does he not think that his theory applies to, say, cancer patients too? "Well, I think they can certainly exhibit in some circumstances the will to live. I just don't work with them as much as with the kind of case I've mentioned."

In his lectures, Montgomery focuses on cases of survivors in more dramatic life-or-death situations - fitting, perhaps, for a doctor who is himself familiar with extreme activities. Montgomery once jumped out of a plane at 14,000 feet with no clothes on, he has twice run a 100km ultra-marathon, and reportedly holds the world record for underwater piano playing (110 hours). He also once stayed awake for eight days in a row at work.

Extreme situations clearly intrigue Montgomery. He is fascinated by the fact that survivors often mentally rehearse how they would behave in life-or-death situations, and connects such behaviour to his notion of the will to live. The yachtsman Tony Bullimore, after his yacht capsized in 1997, managed to survive for five days in the upside-down boat, having lost his food supplies. "He had, as it were, a survival kit and knew how to use it." After his ordeal, Bullimore said he had survived on "a little chocolate, water and sheer determination".

A high level of mental activity can make the difference between surviving and perishing too, he argues. Montgomery mentions Edward Brudno, an American pilot who spent seven and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. During that time, he learned French and mentally designed a dream house down to the last floor joist. He also composed and memorised a diary of his imprisonment in verse.

When he was released in 1973, Brudno asked for a tape recorder so he could record the poem. "It took him 45 minutes!" says Montgomery. "He had really kept his mind occupied, which was probably important to his survival."

Montgomery also talks about Joe Simpson, the mountaineer whose book Touching the Void (later a film) detailed his 3,000ft solo descent from the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes with a broken leg in 1985. "A lot of survivors in these situations survive because they break what they have to do down into little tasks. If I was told I had to climb the north face of the Eiger to survive, I might just think, 'Forget it. I can't do it. I'll just die.' Or I might break it down into little tasks, each one of which I would accomplish before moving to the next."

Montgomery concedes that more work is needed on the notion of the will to live. "But when you come - as I often do - across two patients who seem to be in a similar condition and have the same strengths and weaknesses, but one dies and one lives, I'm convinced there is a will to live and that it's important in deciding who survives"

RELATED ARTICLE: You Get What You Expect

You Get What You Expect

2009-01-18T14:43:00.003-08:00

By Dr. Robert Anthony,
Author of "Advanced Formula For Total Success"

Whatever you expect to happen is determined by the thoughts you dwell upon plus the intensity of the emotions behind those thoughts. It is worth repeating that our subconscious does not question the validity of the data we present to it. It merely processes it and attracts to us what we believe to be true.

If we are using imagery to change habit patterns, we must see ourselves acting and reacting the way we want to be in the future. It doesn't matter how we acted today or yesterday.

Once our subconscious gets hold of our new thought, our brain-mind, functioning together through our central nervous system, will take over and we will automatically assume the new behavior patterns. The key is to be able to picture or imagine the end result so vividly that it appears real.

We have learned that our subconscious mind functions in terms of goals or end results. Once the subconscious has accepted an idea, you can absolutely depend upon it to take you to that goal. If we will supply the end results, our subconscious will supply the "how to." It will show us how to reach that end result.

Think of the end results in terms of present possibilities. They must be seen so clearly that they seem real to your brain and nervous system. The ultimate aim of affirmation and visualization is to evoke the feeling that the goal is already achieved.

Feel as though it has already been achieved and your imagery will pull you toward the end result that you desire. Imagine it in as much detail as possible. Keep using the imaging process over and over again for the same goal. In the beginning, don't worry about whether you are putting in enough detail. Every time you visualize you will automatically incorporate more and more detail.

Always put yourself in the picture. See yourself involved in the activities
of your goal. If you do not put yourself in the picture, you may not be in
the end result. Suppose you want a new car - let's say a new BMW. You
visualize the car and faithfully infuse your imagery with emotion, detail
and repetition. And then, all of a sudden, a new BMW comes into your
life. You look out the window of your house and your neighbor is driving
a new BMW! You now have new BMW in your life, but you are not in it!
So, make sure you identify yourself with your goal.

All successful individuals have started with a picture held in their mind.
They visualized and affirmed what they wanted to be, to do and to have.
And then they instructed their subconscious with clarity and repetition.

Copyright 2003 by Dr. Robert Anthony. Reprinted with permission from the best-selling Advanced Formula For Total Success

The One Simple Key to Living a Longer, Healthier, Happier Life

2009-01-18T14:43:00.001-08:00

By Karim Hajee
CreatingPower.com

Would you like to live a longer, healthier, happier, and more successful life? If you do then follow closely - because what I am about to reveal will show you how to live a longer, healthier, happier and more successful life - and the simple process that I am going to walk you through has now been confirmed by scientists, researchers and a growing list of experts in the medical profession.

So how can you live a longer, healthier, happier and more successful life? Develop A Positive Attitude. It's that simple.

It's now a scientific fact that having and maintaining a positive attitude will not only change or improve your life - having a positive attitude could even allow you to live a healthier, longer life while leading you to be more successful at everything that you do.

The most recent findings come from Researchers at the University of Texas and North Carolina State University.

Today - I'll outline how you can create and maintain a positive attitude. These simple techniques will dramatically improve the quality of your life and allow you to achieve your goals. So read on and enjoy.

Positive Attitude Means Longer Life

If you want to live a longer, healthier life then you need to develop and maintain a positive attitude - it's now a fact thanks to a study from the two American Universities.

Researchers followed and studied 1500 people for 7-years. All 1500 were in good health when the study started. Researchers followed how they aged by measuring such things as weight loss, walking speed, exhaustion and the strength of their grip.

What exactly did they discover?

They found that people who maintained a positive attitude were significantly less likely to show signs of aging, they were less likely to become frail and were more likely to be stronger and healthier than those that had a negative attitude.

If you have a doom and gloom attitude you're actually killing yourself and at the very least - you're negative attitude is just making you weaker.

But wait there's more.

These very same researchers also found that your beliefs have a direct impact on your health - because your beliefs actually alter your body's chemical balance. That's right what you believe has a direct impact on your body.

I almost fell on the floor when I read this - because it really means that what you regularly think has a direct impact on your health and your body. Because what you regularly think is what you end up believing.

Change the way you think, you change your beliefs and you change your life. Yes you can actually improve your life and your body by having a positive attitude and a positive belief system. With that in place you'll live a healthier, longer life.

But it gets even better. Researchers found that a positive attitude improved a persons health because it made it more likely that they would succeed in life.

So not only will a positive attitude help you be healthy and live longer - but it also increases the likelihood that you will succeed.

Lead researcher Dr. Glenn Ostir explained it this way: "I believe that there is a connection between mind and body - and that our thoughts and attitudes/emotions affect physical functioning, and over all health, whether through direct mechanisms, such as immune function, or indirect mechanisms, such as social support networks."

Knowing all of this - wouldn't you rather practice a positive attitude? You would be far, far better off to develop positive thinking patterns that create a long-term positive attitude so that you live a longer, healthier more successful life! It only makes sense to start doing this immediately.

How You Can Develop A Positive Attitude

Saying it's important to have a positive attitude is one thing. Practicing it is another challenge. A lot of people will say: "I have a positive attitude, I know things will get better." That's not good enough. Having a positive attitude requires knowing that things are already better. To start doing this I suggest you first look at your life or your current situation. Then list all of the things you don't like about the current situation. Next list all the things that need to change. The two lists may be similar and that's okay. Then list all of the things that are going well. Here's where I usually hear somebody say: "Karim, I have nothing to list - there's nothing that I like about my current situation. There's nothing that's going well for me." Take a closer look - the fact that you're alive is positive. The fact that you're able to think and write is positive. These may seem trivial - but the ability to look at and focus on the good things that are going on in your life is the basis and foundation of a positive attitude. It's all in how you see things and how you choose to react.

That brings me to the second exercise. When you feel things are not going well do you look at the situation and focus on how it could get worse or do you look at the situation and try to find ways to improve the situation or make it better? If you find that you often look at how bad things can get and focus on how life progressively gets worse then you are only going to continue making things worse. Why? Because your mind and subconscious mind are focused on things getting worse and when this happens your mind and subconscious mind will continue to find or attract situations that will only make your life get worse. This happens because your mind and subconscious mind are simply used to the process - it's become a habit.

How do you change this? You have to break the habit and create a positive attitude. You start the process by pushing the mind to focus on finding solutions. Get your mind to look for ways to improve the current situation. Get your mind to look for possibilities instead of looking at limitations.

For example: If you're looking for a new job, instead of focusing on all the reasons why someone won't hire you why not find a way to improve yourself so that people do hire you? Why not listen to what they are saying and start making changes so that you improve your chances of getting a job? Then start focusing on reasons why someone will hire you. Look for ways to find the kind of place that wants to hire someone with your qualifications. If you find that you are in debt - then focus on finding ways to get out of debt. Focus on how you can better manage your money. Look for ways to cut back and payoff your debts. Look for ways to make more money. If you can't find the right person to be in a relationship with - use the same process - focus on what you need to do to meet the right person.

Another important factor that contributes to your success and determines whether you have a positive attitude or not is your belief system. If you believe life is difficult - it will always be difficult. The above exercises will help you change your belief system - but you will have to change your thoughts and eliminate all those negative thoughts that continue to hold you back. To do this you have to regularly focus on what you want and not what you don't want. You have to continually eliminate the negative thoughts and feed your mind thoughts that correspond with what you want. When you work with my Creating Power System you'll learn how to create new habits for positive thinking and develop a positive attitude within the first week. With Creating Power you'll direct your mind and subconscious mind to attract and create the situations you want in life.

How Negative Thinking Limits You

In a similar study to the one I outlined above Researchers at North Carolina State University found that people who continually used negative words or focused on negative situations displayed a drop in memory and an overall drop in their physical performance. People who focused on or used positive words regularly saw their memory and physical performance increase. The findings led researchers to conclude that if people were simply encouraged to do something and had some positive re-enforcement the chances for success would increase dramatically. "It may be very subtle. People may pick up on negative cues in their environment which suggest they are not up to it, and as a result will not perform well." Said lead researcher, Thomas Hess. "It may be that if people can suppress these negative thoughts that they will do much better, and that a positive attitude can promote effective functioning."

If you're ready to change your life and achieve your goals then visit:
The Creating Power System

Sincerely,
Karim Hajee

Six Power Steps to Your Success

2009-01-18T14:42:00.001-08:00

By Stuart Goldsmith
Creator of Stuart Goldsmith's Inner Circle

The following power steps structure your thinking to make sure the actions you take will drive you towards success.

Power Step #1: Be In Charge Of Your Life

Caring what other people think of you puts them in charge of your life, instead of you.

'What will other people think of me?' slavery is extremely common. Most of us are brought up (rightfully so) to consider others. But, unless we are discerning, we soon find ourselves caught up in a job we can't stand, or living in a relationship which makes us unhappy, or getting caught up in the spiral of poverty.

'Trying to please other people all the time' syndrome begins in childhood. It stems from a desire to be liked and admired. Let's look at a fairly typical scenario: three boys, Fred, Joe, and Matthew, all five years old, are best pals. They fight to sit together at school and spend their breaks in a group. Fred comes to school one day with a stack of pokemon cards to show his friends. Joe is envious of Fred's collection and a fight breaks out when Fred refuses to give a prized card to Joe.

There are several resulting scenarios, all with serious implications for Fred's future. A teacher could break up the fight and make Fred feel guilty for not parting with the prized card. Joe could refuse to talk to Fred even ending the friendship, unless Fred relented. Matthew would side with either Joe or Fred, or be a peacemaker and force the other two to discuss the problem and sort it out amicably.

The biggest danger to Fred, is if the solution entails his giving the card away, when he really doesn't want to. In other words, if the only reason he gives in, is because he desperately wants to be liked and it really matters what his friends think of him. If they were real friends, of course, Joe would understand Fred's view and Matthew would not criticise. Fred might even willingly offer Joe another not so valuable card out of his collection.

Over the years thousands of small incidents build up, until by the time we are adults, most of us make a habit of putting what other people think of us before our own personal needs and desires.

The Right Reasons

Before you cut the grass, decorate the house, start a business, go on holiday, always ask yourself, 'am I doing this for the right reasons?' Yes, the gardening has to be done, but not if you're in the middle of crucial market research and if you don't cut the grass today you're worried that the neighbour's will think you're lazy. Yes, a house has to be decorated, but not if it's at the expense of your health through shooting your stress level through the roof trying to fit it in between a busy advertising campaign, and it's only because your partner insists you do it now.

'Other people' slavery kills your creativity, your energy and drive towards your own goals and fulfilling your dreams. It stops you from going to places you want to visit and enjoying the kind of entertainment that you enjoy. So, make certain you're not always driven to do things, merely because you're worried about what other people think of you. Be confident in who you are!

Power Step #2: Strive to be Different

Nearly everyone you know will strive to be normal - because it's socially acceptable. But the normal person goes nowhere special and achieves the mundane.

Using a fictitious character called Norman, here's an example of his normal expectations of life and mediocre results:

'I live in a pleasant neighbourhood in an average house (translated as meaning: all the houses and gardens along the street look exactly alike, apart from the odd differences in plants). I own an average car (just another standard box on wheels, which apart from minor differences looks like nearly every other car on the road).'

Norman's other goals and ambitions: 'I save up all year round to take my wife and children on holiday, somewhere nice where it's safe. We usually book a package holiday, so everything is taken care of and we know exactly what to expect. Even the entertainment is all planned for us.

My job is boring, but it pays the bills and the pension is good. It'll never make me rich, but then I don't want to be rich (but he wouldn't give away a lottery win!). Anyone who's rich has had to lie and cheat their way to the top. I like to sleep at night with a clear conscience. I may not have much but at least it's honest toil.

I don't have much to do with the neighbours; I don't really like them. But, to keep the peace I mow my lawn once a week and keep the garden weeded and tidy, and do the odd job for them. I like to think they view me as a nice guy.

Every other weekend we visit our best friends, Alice and Paul, and they visit us alternate weekends. Like us, they're your average typical family. Most nights after work I shower, change and after dinner, put my feet up and watch television until bedtime. Every Sunday, we have a roast dinner and every Friday we treat ourselves to a fry up. Am I happy, well, it's life isn't it?'

That's how Norman thinks and lives his life and that's how many people live their life. The Normans spend their days, grumbling about how they hate their job, get fed up with their bosses and partners, but that's all they do. The same gripes day in and day out - but taking no action to change their situation, simply because they are slaves to being normal (and 'what will other people think of me, if I do something unusual?').

Living in the Fast Lane of the Elite

Let's compare Norman's goals and ambitions with another invented character, David. He's one of the smaller group of people who move forward and live the life of the elite and privileged.

'My philosophy on life is simple. Life is too short to be little.

I'm not concerned with what other people think of me. If all my neighbours want to cut down their hedges and build short brick walls and block pave their drives, that's their choice, but I'm not going to have it done just to please them. I like the trees so they're staying and I prefer to have a shingle drive. I've done everything possible to make our house individual.

Often, I ring Sarah from the office and ask her to forget about cooking dinner for that night and how about going out for a meal? We've tried all the restaurants within a twenty km radius.

We both love holidays, and I take the family as often as possible. We spend most weekends, exploring new places and trying out different activities.

I love my job, it's very challenging being a manager. I get to meet and work with people of many different personality traits, from varied backgrounds. Every now and then a junior is obviously aiming to take my job. I don't find it threatening, I like the challenge. I enjoy working with intelligent people who stretch my potential.

I work hard and I am paid well. Do I feel guilty? No, I expect to be paid handsomely for my efforts, I wouldn't have it any other way. We live in a large house in an exclusive area and that's my reward for going the extra mile at work. I don't automatically go home at the end of the working day. And sometimes I arrive at the office as early as 6am, just to prepare for a meeting with my team.

I want to be rich and I am prepared to plan and work towards my goals. I look forward to the future. I don't know what's around the corner and I don't care, because whatever happens I will handle the situation. I know I can solve problems - my strength lies within, it does not come from any outside forces. I couldn't care less whether other people approve of me or not, I know I'm okay and that's all that matters.'

Two Opposing Philosophies

Norman's slavery to acting normal (and slavery to what other people think), creates poverty and unhappiness. While David's striving to be different (and refusal to be a slave to other people's expectations of him) creates wealth and happiness.

If you are ever tempted to query if David's attitude is not a tad selfish, then just ask yourself this question, 'who would you prefer to have as a friend? Norman, who's bored and unhappy or David who's exciting and happy?' Easy isn't it.

Power Step #3: Look to the Future

If you dwell on your past mistakes your creativity can crash to a grinding halt and you will be unable to move forward. Losing is good if you interpret it correctly.

Demonstration Example: A friend of mine told me how a number of years ago, an acquaintance of his, approached him with a spectacular lead about a stock that was certain to triple in price in the next few weeks. The price was $7.45 a share. So, despite his misgivings he bought 200 shares. From that day the stock dropped. Finally eighteen months later he decided to cut his losses and sell.

He sold the stock for a huge loss at a grand total of $413. He could have let this one bad experience drive him from ever investing in the stock market again. However, this wise man explained, he was glad to have learned such valuable lessons.

It taught him:

1. Ignore the guy who wants to give a hot tip.
2. Check into a company carefully before buying.
3. Sell if it starts dropping too much.

Education of the Highest Merit

Don't regard mistakes as mistakes. It ceases to be a mistake and loses its power to hold you back if you can learn to be glad that you've not failed but learned valuable lessons in life. That attitude will help you to build future successes.

Lost a job? You probably weren't suited, so take the time out to decide what you really want to do. Built a business and then it crashed? Perhaps you don't like running your own business. Can't sell a product? Look for the reason and then act. Either try out other ways to sell it or scrap the product and sell a different one.

Blessed is he who is not discouraged by mistakes. Blessed is he who is glad he makes mistakes. Winning - or losing - is a state of mind.

Power Step #4: It's Never Too Late

Sadly, the following story is all too common: Bill spent years training to be an engineer, although he never really liked engineering. But he thought it was worth the sacrifice because it was a highly paid skill.

After college, he started a job with an engineering company. Years later he was still working at the same company and still hating it. His excuse was with a mortgage and family ties he was scared to leave the engineering firm and go into a job with lower wages.

After twenty years he was still afraid to correct a mistake made all those years ago. He was now too scared to change jobs, simply because he'd left it too late. He didn't want to compete with younger men experienced at their job.

If you have a goal and you find yourself saying 'it's too late', the only way to conquer that fear is to ignore it and go ahead and do the thing you fear. It's NEVER too late if you have the courage and the passion to follow your dream.

Power Step #5: Don't Crave Security

In ages past we accepted that life was full of hardships. They grappled with huge animals in a desperate bid to kill them for food. The odds were simple; either succeed or starve, kill or be killed.

As civilisations discovered fire and then electricity and gas to keep warm, bought food from markets and built houses of stone, people became less willing to deal with any unexpected events that threatened to turn their cosy life upside down. So, insurance was invented.

The idea of insurance is to cushion the impact of the unexpected. In theory it's a good idea, but it has turned our society into a population of security seekers. It has weakened our strength as individuals who know we can surmount any problem or situation that life throws our way.

The stifling extent of this slavery is enormous. The more security we have the less psychological freedom we can enjoy and the less our chances are of success and abundance.

Dare to Take a Chance

The only places to find security are a prison or mental hospital. Inmates are assured a roof over their heads, food and warmth and no responsibilities. The price tag for this security? No freedom.

Unfortunately, it's all too easy to reel off a list of bad things that could happen to us. For most people it's easier than thinking of the good things that could happen. People who crave security are slaves to a vivid imagination that conjures up bad news items that could happen to them, and they allow these images to cripple their actions. Too afraid to start that great business idea because of all the things they imagine that could go wrong. Too frightened to sell up and buy a larger house in another area because the house prices could drop or the children won't like the new schools, or... and so it goes on for an endless list.

Every child loves surprises and life is fun and exciting because of this. As we grow up and we fight for security, we eliminate the risks but in doing so we eliminate the surprises and limit our chances to achieve more than a humdrum life.

If you want to make sure you don't stifle your need for excitement:

1. Dare to be individual.

2. Dare to develop your own style - instead of following fashion.

3. Dare to study and work to improve yourself in your profession.

4. Dare to have a positive mental attitude and the courage to try.

In other words: Dare to take a chance.

Power Step #6: I Am Certain to Win

Our minds drive us to achieve exactly what we believe we're capable of achieving. This is good news because once we understand this and master the art of controlled thinking, then we can guide our destinies towards success.

Controlled experiments over many years have proved that children who are considered by their teachers, friends and families to be 'troublesome or terrors' actually end up getting into trouble with a high percentage becoming juvenile delinquents. However, the 'good' group of boys (in the same age group at the beginning of a study) believed by teachers, friends and families to stay out of trouble and succeed in school, go on to do so. Each group of children achieve in accordance with what people around them believe them capable of doing.

The conclusion of many similar studies is this: thinking does make it so. Only a miracle can make the football team win who starts a game with the 'we know they'll beat us,' attitude.

If you need to break the bonds of 'I'm certain to fail' slavery:

1. Hold positive chats with yourself.
2. Surround yourself with positive people.
3. Think, 'I'm going to succeed'.
4. Think, 'I'm a winner'.

The only person you will have to convince is yourself. Other people are automatically convinced you're great and a success, after you have convinced yourself.

The Purpose, Power and Possibilities of Positive Thinking

2009-01-18T14:41:00.000-08:00

Do you control your mind or does your mind control you?
Who is really in charge?

You’ve got the power!
Life is a series of endeavors that are transformed into reality based on how you perceive them; you can perceive life positively or negatively. When you have a positive outlook you can have, do and be whatever you want. When you realize that you have control over your mind and your life you begin to realize the power of positive thinking.

How do you react?
You have the choice to react to any situation positively or negatively. Consider, for example, getting a flat tire. While you cannot prevent the tire from going flat, you do have the power to choose how you will react. Each person will react to the situation differently, depending on how you have trained your mind to perceive events. Pessimists see the misfortune in each event while optimists see opportunity. In the instance of the flat tire, you can choose to be miserable and angry at the tire for going flat, or you can look at the situation as an opportunity to learn how to change a tire or make those important phone calls while you wait for the tow truck. The purpose of positive thinking is to train your mind to see the opportunity and learning experience in each event.

Are you exercising the right muscles?
Many more people exercise their body than consciously and proactively improve their mind, but your mind, like a muscle, must be trained and developed to reach its true potential. Once you have power over your thinking your possibilities are endless. Power over your mind is the key to power over your life; your mind controls your life and when you control your mind, you control your outcomes. A great way to exercise your mind is by following the Truestar Daily Life Improvement Checklist which reinforces positive daily habits in your path to positive thinking and acting.

Some steps toward positive thinking
1. Recognize the things that cause you to think negatively. Write a list of all the negative thoughts you have on a daily basis. Know your negative thoughts and learn to red flag them when they enter your mind. Recognizing that you see things negatively is a big step in making a change in your thoughts.

2. Practice seeing the positive in everything. Start small. For one hour try to see the positive in everything – your coworkers, your hair, your shoes, the teller at the bank, the stop lights for the safety they provide. Be thankful for whatever you come across. Do the same for negative thoughts; for one hour promise to flip any negative thought you have into a positive. Set this as a daily goal in your Goals Program. This small task will reap huge returns.

3. Persist until you achieve positive thinking. Conditioning yourself for positive thinking is not easy, but the reward will be worth the work. Continue to switch your thoughts from negative to positive until the habit of positive thinking is firmly rooted in your subconscious. Compose a positive habit to create a positive destiny. Check out Truestar’s Daily Success Habits for ways to improve your attitude and your life.

SOURCE: Christian Post

Put Your Mind & Body on "Autopilot" and Reach Your Goals... Automaticallly!

2009-01-18T14:40:00.000-08:00

By Dan Robey,
Author of "The Power of Positive Habits"

Did you know that habits are incredibly powerful tools for personal growth and success?

Think about the habits you have now and how they affect virtually every aspect of your life. Your weight and health are determined by your eating habits. Your relationships with people are determined by your social habits. Your success at work is determined by your work habits. You have sleeping habits that dictate how well you sleep. You have sexual habits. You even have buying habits; just take a look around your house and you will quickly see them. Our character, health and virtually every aspect of our lives are indeed determined by our habits.

If you ask ten people on the street what the word habit means, nine out of ten will tell you that a habit is a negative action that people do over and over again, like smoking, or procrastinating, or eating too much. Bad habits get all the press. Let’s look at the results of just one bad habit: smoking. Every year, over 400,000 people lose their lives to smoking-related illnesses in the United States. Imagine then, the negative power that exists in just that one bad habit. It is staggering.

Now I want you think about an even greater power, a power that can bring you success, health and happiness; a power for positive, permanent, and automatic personal growth: the power of positive habits. Let’s look a little closer at the meaning of the word habit. Random House dictionary defines habit in this way:

Habit: An acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary.

The important words in this definition are acquired and almost involuntary. Let me ask you a question. When is the last time you sat down and said to yourself, "Today I am going to add a new habit to my life?" I would venture to guess that you have probably never said those words. As you read this article, you will see how easy it is to add positive habits to your life and the great power they have to change it. Think about the words almost involuntary. This means the habit is so powerful in your mind that it is almost unstoppable! With respect to bad habits like smoking, procrastination, and overeating, this is very bad. But with positive habits, this is very, very good.

What is a positive habit? A positive habit is simply a habit that produces positive benefits, actions and attitudes you want to acquire and make a part of your life. Why is there such great power in positive habits to effect change? Because habits, by their very nature, are automatic. After a period of time they can become permanent.

So how do we go about adding new positive habits to our life? It’s really quite easy. You simply begin repeating an action, attitude or thought process every day for at least 21 days. Research has shown that an action that is repeated for a minimum of 21 days is likely to become a permanent habit. Remember that positive habits have positive benefits and you will reap those benefits for as long as you maintain that habit. So now that we know what positive habits are, and how to acquire them, let’s look at some simple positive habits from the book that will help you reach your goals and have a healthier body.

Positive Habit #53 - Make it a habit to set goals

Since we are talking about goals, what better habit could you have then the habit of setting goals? Did you know that the most successful people all share the common positive habit of goal setting? A study was done to determine the importance of goal setting. College students who had gone on to achieve great success in business were asked to list their habits. The students who had made a habit of setting goals were in the top 3% of earnings in the population! It is almost impossible to overestimate the value of goal-setting as a positive habit. Goal setting is simple, yet 97% of the population never do it. By making goal setting a positive habit, you can start placing yourself in the top 3% of the population of successful people.

Here are some simple steps to help you start making goal setting a positive habit:

Step 1 - Define your goals, write them down, and be very specific; capture your goals on paper. It is amazing how many people never take the time to write down exactly what it is they want in life. Remember, you can’t hit a target if you don’t have one.

Step 2 - Determine what the time line is for reaching your goals; set specific deadlines for each goal.

Step 3 - Identify any obstacles that may stand in your way, list them, and state how you plan to overcome them.

Step 4 - Make a list of the people and/or organizations who will help you reach your goals.

Imagine how your life would change if you could put it on AUTOPILOT and reach all of your goals automatically! Now you can with "The Power of Positive Habits" the new book that #1 NY Times best-selling authors Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy, John Gray Ph.D. are all raving about!

How Do Affirmations Promote Vibrant Health and Well-Being?

2009-01-18T14:39:00.002-08:00

By Jeff Staniforth
Affirmware.com.au

Whenever someone speaks of healing through affirmations, many people dismiss it as esoteric - or even nonsense - and they tend to not take it seriously. However, there exist volumes of scientific evidence that affirmations are an effective approach to healing and the achievement of vibrant health. They have even been shown to promote regeneration and rejuvenation of the body.

Dr. Carl Simonton of the Cancer Counseling and Research Center in Fortworth, Texas, reports on breakthrough studies that use self-suggestion (a form of affirmations) in treating disease. "We think people are now beginning to realize how much the mind and the physical body are intertwined... We know that the same pathways that are used to transmit negative things, like cancer growth, can also be used to transmit positive things that can eventually restore a person to health".

How do affirmations promote health and effect healing?

Illness starts in the mind. When you change unhealthy thought patterns and replace them with positive affirmations, you also change the energy that flows to your physical body from your etheric body, chakras, and through your energy meridians.

Your etheric body is the human subtle energy field - one of the layers of the aura believed to permeate all living things. Think of it as a blueprint of what is in your cellular structure - a blueprint that reveals your state of health (or ill health) --and gives an indication of conditions that often have not yet manifested in your physical body.

The spoken word, such as a power affirmation, elicits a strong recuperative response in the etheric body - a healing energy that permeates to the physical body, causing healing to occur. Affirmations are powerful instruments that influence both mental and emotional patterns, which are held in the etheric field. The more frequently a healing affirmation is repeated throughout the day, the more effective it is in carrying out healing.

Following are power affirmations you can use to help heal, regenerate, and regenerate your body - and foster radiant health. As I've mentioned in previous issues of this newsletter, choose the affirmations that feel appropriate to you -- those that resonate with you, or strike an emotional chord. It is important that the words feel comfortable to you and are in line with who you are. Feel free to create one for your specific need by substituting other words that have special meaning to you:

I am perfectly healthy in body, mind and spirit.
I am well, I am whole, and I am strong and healthy.
I am healthy, and full of energy and vitality.
All the cells of my body are daily bathed in the perfection of my divine being.
I am healthy, happy and radiant.
I radiate good health.
My body is a safe and pleasurable place for me to be.
My sleep is relaxed and refreshing.
I have all the energy I need to accomplish my goals and to fulfill my desires.
God's love heals me and makes me whole.
My body is healed, restored and filled with energy.
There are many ways to use your chosen affirmation. You can recite it aloud to yourself repeatedly, or you may want to write it down repeatedly. The key is to repeat it over and over again throughout the day. Repeating your affirmation reprograms your subconscious mind to accept these thoughts as reality, and ultimately create changes in your life that will manifest this new inner reality.

All the best,
Jeff Staniforth

P.S. Did you know that 19th century French professor and Master Hypnotist, Emile Coue, used one specific affirmation to heal hundreds of patients in Europe and North America?

Are You Already Rich?

2009-01-18T14:39:00.001-08:00

The Wise Person Decides How Much is "Enough" Before Setting Foot on the Path to Riches

By Stuart Goldsmith,
Excerpt from Seven Secrets of the Millionaires

Now we arrive at the deepest secret of happiness associated with wealth. Also, this is the most difficult initiation test of all seven. Yes, knowing when to stop is actually more difficult than making it in the first place!

Remember one thing. The aim of life is to happy. Money is one way (yes, a big way) in which you can achieve happiness, but don't lose sight of the fact that it is happiness you are after as a final goal, not money.

If you ever make any real money you will be so caught up in your astonishing success that you will find it very hard to quit. You will be tempted to work harder and faster to get more whilst the going is good. Then, if you hit a lean time, you will work harder and faster to try to get back what you have lost. In short, you will always be working harder and faster. Knowing when enough is enough is the most difficult challenge you will ever face.

Most people do not face this challenge because they rarely make enough to live on and almost never create a surplus. However, it is useful to ask yourself the question at any stage of your life, even if "flat broke" as I hope to prove.

This is one of life's big questions, and I believe it would help you to try and answer it right now. In this single question I believe is embodied the spirit of the next thousand years - no small claim!

What is the question?

"Do You Have Enough?"

Strange question! Perhaps you're thinking "enough of what?" Or even, "what is he talking about?"

I have deliberately phrased the question in this simple form. You know what I'm talking about. You know what the question means. So I would like you to close your eyes for a moment, and let the question work its magic, before I elaborate and spoil its simple power.

Now I will answer your question, "enough of what?" I mean enough money, enough material possessions, enough "things." And before you answer a resounding "No - that's why I bought this book!" let me tell you some interesting facts about your current level of wealth. (I have accounted for inflation in these statistics.)

Wealth Fact #1

You are approximately one thousand times richer than the average ancient Egyptian, ignoring Pharaohs - you are only a mere fifty times richer than a Pharaoh. Of course you don't have the piles of gold they had, but that's not the point. The point is what they could and did buy with that gold, which was mainly slave-power. It has been estimated that modern inventions such as a motor car, washing machines, dishwashers, etc. are the equivalent of owning one thousand slaves, making you wealthier now (whatever your level of poverty) than the kings of the ancient world.

But...are you fifty times happier than a Pharaoh? Are you one thousand times happier than the average ancient Egyptian?

Are you even as happy as they were?

Wealth Fact #2

You are about three hundred times richer than the average ancient Briton living at the start of the first millennium; i.e. the year AD 1. You are an estimated thirty times richer than the wealthiest king or lord of that era. By richer, I mean your access to clean wholesome food, potable drinking water, transport, power, medicine, shelter, clothing and labour-saving devices, to mention only a few things. Stagnant piles of loot stacked up in a warehouse are not riches, any more than ten million in a Swiss bank account which is never touched is "money." Wealth is only meaningful if it is used.

Wealth Fact #3

You are an estimated one hundred times richer than the average Briton living at about the time of the Battle of Hastings, i.e. at around the start of the second millennium, the year AD 1066. You are ten times richer than the richest man on the planet one thousand years ago.

I am not including land ownership in these statistics. The mere ownership of land is not wealth: riches are measured in what the land produces. To prove this point, let me hereby grant you 100% ownership, absolute, of the planet Pluto - all ten trillion acres. You own the entire planet. Congratulations! Has it improved your level of wealth by even 1%? No, because it produces nothing.

Are you one hundred times happier than someone from 1066? Are you even as happy?

Wealth Fact #4

You are fifty times more wealthy than the average peasant living in the year 1500. Life was hard back then, but are you fifty times happier than they were? I doubt this very much. Are you even as happy? I wonder...

Wealth Fact #5

You are thirty times more wealthy than the average Englishman or woman living in 18th-century Britain.

Wealth Fact #6

You are twenty times more wealthy than the average Victorian. Looked at another way, you have the equivalent today of twenty Victorian servants working for you. A Victorian household with twenty staff would most definitely have been owned only by the super rich.

Wealth Fact #7

On average you are likely to be five times richer than your granddad. Are you five times happier than he was?

Wealth Fact #8

On average, you are likely to be twice as wealthy as your own parents, although this depends on your age. If you are 18, it will not apply. If you are 50, it almost certainly will. For example, think back to the thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, whichever decade is closest to when you were growing up. Did each family have two cars? Mobile telephones? Dishwashers? Microwaves? Did your mom and dad take expensive foreign holidays, sometimes even more than one in a year? Did they wear expensive designer clothes? You get the idea. In the 1930s, which surely is only 'yesterday', over 25 million Americans had no income whatsoever; only 1% of UK homes had a telephone; only 50% had electricity and nutrition was so poor that six out of ten men who applied for the army failed their basic "if you can stagger, you're in" medical test and could not join up.

Wealth Fact #9

You are already in the very top 1% of the world in terms of wealth. Most people on the planet still live on subsistence farms, carrying water from long distances, without sanitation or electricity. Are you happier than they are, on average?

At this point in the proceedings, I want to ask my question again:

"Do you have enough?"

Think about it. You are already one thousand times wealthier than an ancient Egyptian, three hundred times richer than someone living in AD 1; twenty times wealthier than the average Victorian; five times wealthier than your grandfather and in the top 1% of wealthy people on the planet.

Do you have enough?

This is not a one-shot question, it is a question for life. You need to continuously ask yourself this from now until you die. If the answer is still "no," then I want to ask you a supplementary questions which you need to answer, right now: "When do you think you will have enough?" I am not asking these questions for amusement only. I believe the answers hold one of the keys to your happiness for the rest of your life.

I wish you the very best in your journey,
Stuart Goldsmith

P.S. A Personal Invitation From Stuart Goldsmith

Dear Friend,

As founder and chairman of Inner Circle, it is my honor and privilege to invite you to join my elite group.

I am offering you the opportunity to join a unique group of people who have decided to turn their lives around. Many of them are already achieving money, freedom and power way beyond their expectations.

It will cost you a small monthly fee for training materials (membership, by my invitation, is free) and some serious thinking. Frankly, you will endure some discomfort as you move up the ladder of life, and you may even lose some friends as you overtake them and become more successful.

You should understand that Inner Circle never advertises in the press or publications for people to join. Each and every member has been personally invited by letter from me. This will be an exciting process of self-discovery and achievement.

Because of the exclusivity, members of Inner Circle are honored and often cause a little jealously. After all, few people like the idea of privilege, wealth, power and freedom - in others!

By electing to join Inner Circle, you will, in a very real sense, establish yourself as a self-leader. The sort of person who is serious about changing your life for the better. This country desperately needs successful, business-minded people to act as an example of what can be achieved - independent, free-thinking people like you, capable of handling success, without abusing that power and privilege.

Learn more about the Circle by clicking here. Please take a few moments now to read it, and see what others have gained by joining.

If you have a sense of adventure and a certain pioneering spirit; if the prospect of increased knowledge, power and freedom calls to you, as it did to us all, accept this invitation and join Inner Circle - today.

All you have to do now is read more here. It is doubtful that you will ever get another chance like this, so please please act now, today, before the moment passes.

Yours sincerely,
Stuart Goldsmith

Karma of the Brain: Why Good Things Happen to Good People

2009-01-18T14:38:00.000-08:00

Yes, helping others makes us feel warm and fuzzy, but new research suggests that doing good deeds can actually help people live longer, healthier lives. Siri Agrell explains why positive action may be better than popping pills.

By Siri Agrell
Source: The Globe and Mail

What if your doctor told you to take two steps toward being a better person and call him in the morning?

Patients at a California health maintenance organization are being prescribed generous behaviour as part of a program called Rx: Volunteer, one of various new research projects described by Stephen Post in his book Why Good Things Happen To Good People, out next week. Dr. Post chronicles the link between doing good and living a longer, healthier life.

"The science shows that we're hardwired to be giving," he says. "We're talking here about a one-a-day vitamin for the soul."

A growing number of researchers are supporting his claim with studies that show how the human body benefits from everything from gratitude to generosity.

Dr. Post, the president of Case Western Reserve University's Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, believes in the scientific equivalent to The Secret, the self-help phenomenon that preaches positivity as a means to personal reward.

No, being a good person won't necessarily get you a new car or help you lose 10 pounds, Dr. Post says, but there is a karma of the brain, where the body physically rewards acts of kindness and forgiveness.

"The remarkable bottom line of the science of love is that giving protects overall health twice as much as Aspirin protects against heart disease," he says.

For example, psychologist Robert Emmons studied organ-transplant recipients and found that the more gratitude they felt, the faster they recovered.

A 2001 study of trauma survivors by psychologist Russell Kolts found that gratitude was associated with lower symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

And a Wellesley College study that has tracked 200 people since the 1920s, interviewing them for five hours every decade, found that people who were charitable in high school had better physical and mental health in late adulthood.

"The connection for mental health is particularly strong, but the physical health results are also highly significant," psychologist Paul Wink notes.

Helping other people can aid in personal relaxation and stress as well.

Researchers at the University of Michigan found that people who offered social support to others in a financial crisis saw a marked reduction in their own anxiety about money.

The movement toward studying human goodness has even spawned its own diagnostic manual, Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification.

It was written to contrast the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, which doctors use to classify human behaviour by pathology.

Dr. Post, whose institute offers funding to many of these studies, believes that people who want to prolong their lives should work on their attitude, the same way they would change their diet or exercise routines.

And he thinks the culture is ready for a shift toward the positive.

He was encouraged by the behaviour of some young people in the aftermath of last month's mass shooting at Virginia Tech, who reached out to one another online and promised to be kinder to strangers.

"The truth is ours we have a duty to be true to ourselves. Smile at people you usually never even looked at talk to people u hated," Quebec student Pierre-Olivier Laforce wrote in a Facebook post quoted in The New York Times.

And also last month Ryan Fitzgerald, an unemployed 20-year-old from Boston, received more than 5,000 calls after posting his phone number on YouTube for strangers who needed to talk.

Mr. Fitzgerald said he was inspired by Juan Mann, an Australian whose efforts to hug strangers landed him as a guest on Oprah Winfrey's couch.

And the impulse to take a higher road is not just infecting idealistic young people.

Toronto consultant Peggie Pelosi decided she needed to rethink her priorities while working as a vice-president at a health sciences company. After establishing a charitable partnership for her employees, she watched their productivity soar. She now helps companies form philanthropic partnerships and has written a book, Corporate Karma: How Business Can Move Forward By Giving Back.

"I think there's a lack of opportunity for people to find and express compassion," she says of her baby-boomer generation. "We've gotten to the point in our lives where we would like to have some meaning."

RELATED ARTICLE: The Power of Giving

The Power of Now and the End of Suffering: An Interview with Eckhart Tolle

2009-01-18T14:37:00.001-08:00

Source: Sounds True

For two years, a small man sits quietly on a park bench. People walk by, lost in their thoughts. One day someone asks him a question. In the weeks that follow there are more people and more questions. Word spreads that the man is a "mystic," and has discovered something that brings peace and meaning into our lives. It sounds like fiction, but today that man, Eckhart Tolle, is known worldwide for his teachings on spiritual enlightenment through the power of the present moment. His first book, The Power of Now, is an international bestseller, and has been translated into 17 languages. More than 20 years have passed since Eckhart Tolle answered his first question on that park bench. While his audience has grown, his message remains the same: that it is possible to stop struggling in your life, and find joy and fulfillment in this moment, and no other.

Sounds True: Can you describe to us your own experience of spiritual awakening (and of course, can you define spiritual awakening as well)? Was there a singular event that occurred or has it been a gradual process?

Eckhart Tolle: Since ancient times the term awakening has been used as a kind of metaphor that points to the transformation of human consciousness. There are parables in the New Testament that speak of the importance of being awake, of not falling back to sleep. The word Buddha comes from the Sanskrit word Budh, meaning, "to be awake." So Buddha is not a name and ultimately not a person, but a state of consciousness. All this implies that humans are potentially capable of living in a state of consciousness compared to which normal wakefulness is like sleeping or dreaming. This is why some spiritual teachings use terms like "shared hallucination" or "universal hypnotism" to describe normal human existence. Pick up any history book, and I suggest you begin with studying the 20th century, and you will find that a large part of the history of our species has all the characteristics we would normally associate with a nightmare or an insane hallucination.

The nature of spiritual awakening is frequently misunderstood. The adoption of spiritual beliefs, seeing visions of God or celestial beings, the ability to channel, to heal, to foretell the future, or other paranormal powers – all such phenomena are of value and are not to be dismissed, but none of them is in itself indicative of spiritual awakening in a person who experiences them. They may occur in a person who has not awakened spiritually and they may or may not accompany the awakened state.

Every morning we awaken from sleep and from our dreams and enter the state we call wakefulness. A continuous stream of thoughts, most of them repetitive, characterizes the normal wakeful state. So what is it that we awaken from when spiritual awakening occurs? We awaken from identification with our thoughts. Everybody who is not awake spiritually is totally identified with and run by their thinking mind – the incessant voice in the head. Thinking is compulsive: you can’t stop, or so it seems. It is also addictive: you don’t even want to stop, at least not until the suffering generated by the continuous mental noise becomes unbearable. In the unawakened state you don’t use thought, but thought uses you. You are, one could almost say, possessed by thought, which is the collective conditioning of the human mind that goes back many thousands of years. You don’t see anything as it is, but distorted and reduced by mental labels, concepts, judgments, opinions and reactive patterns. Your sense of identity, of self, is reduced to a story you keep telling yourself in your head. "Me and my story": this what your life is reduced to in the unawakened state. And when your life is thus reduced, you can never be happy for long, because you are not yourself.

Does that mean you don’t think anymore when you awaken spiritually? No, of course not. In fact, you can use thought much more effectively than before, but you realize there is a depth to your Being, a vibrantly alive stillness that is much vaster than thought. It is consciousness itself, of which the thinking mind is only a tiny aspect. For many people, the first indication of a spiritual awakening is that they suddenly become aware of their thoughts. They become a witness to their thoughts, so to speak. They are not completely identified with their mind anymore and so they begin to sense that there is a depth to them that they had never known before.

For most people, spiritual awakening is a gradual process. Rarely does it happen all at once. When it does, though, it is usually brought about by intense suffering. That was certainly true in my case. For years my life alternated between depression and acute anxiety. One night I woke up in a state of dread and intense fear, more intense than I had ever experienced before. Life seemed meaningless, barren, hostile. It became so unbearable that suddenly the thought came into my mind, "I cannot live with myself any longer." The thought kept repeating itself several times. Suddenly, I stepped back from the thought, and looked at it, as it were, and I became aware of the strangeness of that thought: "If I cannot live with myself, there must be two of me – the I and the self that I cannot live with." And the question arose, "Who is the ‘I’ and who is the self that I cannot live with?" There was no answer to that question, and all thinking stopped. For a moment, there was complete inner silence. Suddenly I felt myself drawn into a whirlpool or a vortex of energy. I was gripped by an intense fear, and my body started to shake. I heard the words, "Resist nothing," as if spoken inside my chest. I could feel myself being sucked into a void. Suddenly, all fear disappeared, and I let myself fall into that void. I have no recollection of what happened after that.

The next morning I awoke as if I had just been born into this world. Everything seemed fresh and pristine and intensely alive. A vibrant stillness filled my entire being. As I walked around the city that day, the world looked as if it had just come into existence, completely devoid of the past. I was in a state of amazement at the peace I felt within and the beauty I saw without, even in the midst of the traffic. I was no longer labeling and interpreting my sense perceptions – an almost complete absence of mental commentary. To this day, I perceive and interact with the world in this way: through stillness, not through mental noise. The peace that I felt that day, more than 20 years ago, has never left me, although it has varying degrees of intensity.

At the time, I had no conceptual framework to help me understand what had happened to me. Years later, I realized that the acute suffering I felt that night must have forced my consciousness to withdraw from identification with the unhappy self, the suffering "little me," which is ultimately a fiction of the mind. This withdrawal must have been so complete that the suffering self collapsed as if the plug had been pulled out of an inflatable toy. What was left was my true nature as the ever present "I AM": consciousness in its pure state prior to identification with form. You may also call it pure awareness or presence.

ST: In your own life story there seems to have been a relationship between intense personal suffering and a breakthrough spiritual experience. Do you believe that for all people there is some connection between personal suffering and the intensity that is needed for a spiritual breakthrough?

ET: Yes, that seems to be true in most cases. When you are trapped in a nightmare, your motivation to awaken will be so much greater than that of someone caught up in a relatively pleasant dream. On all levels, evolution occurs in response to a crisis situation, not infrequently a life-threatening one, when the old structures, inner or outer, are breaking down or are not working anymore. On a personal level, this often means the experience of loss of one kind or another: the death of a loved one, the end of a close relationship, loss of possessions, your home, status, or a breakdown of the external structures of your life that provided a sense of security. For many people, illness – loss of health – represents the crisis situation that triggers an awakening. With serious illness comes awareness of your own mortality, the greatest loss of all.

For many people alive at this time, loss is experienced as loss of meaning. In other words, life seems to lack purpose and doesn’t make sense anymore. Loss of meaning is often part of the suffering that comes with physical loss, but it can also happen to people who have gained everything the world has to offer – who have "made it" in the eyes of the world – and suddenly find that their success or possessions are empty and unfulfilling. What the world and the surrounding culture tells them is important and of value turns out to be empty and this leaves a kind of painful inner void, often accompanied by great mental confusion.

Now the question arises: What exactly is the connection between suffering and spiritual awakening? How does one lead to the other? When you look closely at the nature of human suffering you will find that an essential ingredient in most kinds of suffering is a diminishment of one’s sense of self. Take illness, for example. Illness makes you feel smaller, no longer in control, helpless. You seem to loose your autonomy, perhaps become dependent on others. You become reduced in size, figuratively speaking. Any major loss has a similar effect: some form that was an important part of your sense of who you are – a person, a possession, a social role – dissolves or leaves you and you suffer because you had become identified with it and it seems you are losing yourself or a part of yourself. In reality, of course, what feels like a diminishment or loss of your sense of self is the crumbling of an image of who you are held in the mind. What dissolves is identification with thought forms that had given you your sense of self. But that sense of self is ultimately false, is ultimately a mental fiction. It is the egoic mind or the "little me" as I sometimes call it. To be identified with a mental image of who you are is to be unconscious, to be unawakened spiritually. This unawakened state creates suffering, but suffering creates the possibility of awakening. When you no longer resist the diminishment of self that comes with suffering, all role-playing, which is normal in the unawakened state, comes to an end. You become humble, simple, real. And, paradoxically, when you say “yes” to that death, because that’s what it is, you realize that the mind-made sense of self had obscured the truth of who you are – not as defined by your past, but timelessly. And when who you think you are dissolves, you connect with a vast power which is the essence of your very being. Jesus called it: "eternal life." In Buddhism, it is sometimes called the "deathless realm."

Now, does this mean that if you haven’t experienced intense suffering in your life, there is no possibility of awakening? Firstly, the fact that you are drawn to a spiritual teaching or teacher means you must have had your share of suffering already, and the awakening process has probably already begun. A teacher or teaching is not even essential for spiritual awakening, but they save time. Secondly, humanity as a whole has already gone through unimaginable suffering, mostly self-inflicted, the culmination of which was the 20th century with its unspeakable horrors. This collective suffering has brought upon a readiness in many human beings for the evolutionary leap that is spiritual awakening. For many individuals alive now, this means: they have suffered enough. No further suffering is necessary. The end of suffering: that is also the essence of every true spiritual teaching. Be grateful that your suffering has taken you to this realization: I don’t need to suffer anymore.

ST: Your teaching about "the power of now" seems so simple. Is that really our primary spiritual task – to fully engage the present moment?

ET: Identification with thoughts and the emotions that go with those thoughts creates a false mind-made sense of self, conditioned by the past: the "little me" and its story. This false self is never happy or fulfilled for long. Its normal state is one of unease, fear, insufficiency, and nonfulfillment. It says it looks for happiness, and yet it continuously creates conflict and unhappiness. In fact, it needs conflict and "enemies" to sustain the sense of separateness that ensures its continued survival. Look at all the conflict between tribes, nations, and religions. They need their enemies, because they provide the sense of separateness on which their collective egoic identity depends. The false self lives mainly through memory and anticipation. Past and future are its main preoccupation. The present moment, at best, is a means to an end, a stepping stone to the future, because the future promises fulfillment, the future promises salvation in one form or another. The only problem is the future never comes. Life is always now. Whatever happens, whatever you experience, feel, think, do - it’s always now. It’s all there is. And if you continuously miss the now – resist it, dislike it, try to get away from it, reduce it to a means to an end, then you miss the essence of your life, and you are stuck in a dream world of images, concepts, labels, interpretations, judgments – the conditioned content of your mind that you take to be "yourself." And so you are disconnected from the fullness of life that is the “suchness” of this moment. When you are out of alignment with what is, you are out of alignment with life. You are struggling to reach a point in the future where there is greater security, aliveness, abundance, love, joy ... unaware that those things make up the essence of who you are already. All that is required of you to have access to that essence is to make the present moment into your friend. And you may realize that most of your life you made the present moment into an enemy. You didn’t say “yes” to it, didn’t embrace it. You were out of alignment with the now, and so life became a struggle. It seemed so normal, because everyone around you lived in the same way. The amazing thing is: Life, the great intelligence that pervades the entire cosmos, becomes supportive when you say “yes” to it. Where is life? Here. Now. The “isness” of this moment. The now seems so small at first, a little segment between past and future, and yet all of life’s power is concealed within it. When there is spiritual awakening, you awaken into the fullness, the aliveness, and also the sacredness of now. You were absent, asleep, and now you are present, awake. The secret of awakening is to unconditionally accept this moment as it is. Some people do it because they can no longer stand the suffering that comes with nonacceptance of the isness of this moment. They are almost forced into awakening. Others have suffered enough and are ready to voluntarily embrace the now. When you become present in this way, the judgments, labels, and concepts of your mind are no longer all that important, as a greater intelligence is now operating in and through you. And yet the mind can then be used very effectively and creatively when needed.

Now the question may arise: Would there be anything left to strive for when you are so present in the now? Wouldn’t you become passive in that state? Many meaningless activities may fall away, but the state of presence is the only state in which creative energy is available to you. When your fulfillment and sense of self are no longer dependent on the future outcome, joy flows into whatever you do. You do what you do because the action itself is fulfilling. Whatever you do or create in that state is of high quality. This is because it is not a means to and end, and so a loving care flows into your doing.

ST: Being "in the present" sounds so obvious, and yet is quite hard to sustain. Do you have any practical tips for people for maintaining awareness of the present moment?

ET: Although the old consciousness or rather unconsciousness still has considerable momentum and to a large extent still runs this world, the new awakened consciousness – presence – has already began to emerge in many human beings. In my book The Power of Now, I mention ways in which you can maintain present moment awareness, but the main thing is to allow this new state of consciousness to emerge rather then believe that you have to try hard to make it happen. How do you allow it to emerge? Simply by allowing this moment to be as it is. This means to relinquish inner resistance to what is – the suchness of now. This allows life to unfold beautifully. There is no greater spiritual practice than this.

ST: On your video The Flowering of Human Consciousness, you talk about a "new" consciousness that is emerging in our time. What do you mean? Hasn’t the present moment always been available to genuine seekers? What’s new about our current time in history? Are you pointing to a certain evolutionary process – an acceleration in human spiritual development?

ET: Yes, the present moment has always been available to spiritual seekers, but as long as you are seeking you are not available to the present moment. "Seeking" implies that you are looking to the future for some answer, or for some achievement, spiritual or otherwise. Everybody is in the seeking mode, seeking to add something to who they are, whether it be money, relationships, possessions, knowledge, status – or spiritual attainment. "Seeking" means you need more time, more future, more of this or that. And there is nothing wrong with it. All that has its place in this world. To make money, to gather knowledge, to learn a new skill, to explore new territory, even to get from A to B – for all these things you need time. For almost everything you need time, except for one thing: to embrace the present moment. You need no time to open yourself to the power of now and so awaken to who you are beyond name and form and realize that in the depth of your being, you are already complete, whole, one with the timeless essence of all life. For that you not only need no time, but time is the obstacle to that realization, seeking is the obstacle, needing to add something to who you are is the obstacle. The story of your life, how it all unfolds, whether you succeed or fail in this world...Yes, it matters, yes, it’s important – relatively, not absolutely. Only one thing is of absolute importance and this is it. If you miss it, you miss the deeper purpose of your life, which I call the flowering of human consciousness. And ultimately nothing else will satisfy you.

Some of the first human beings in whom the new consciousness emerged fully became the great teachers of humanity, such as Buddha, Lao Tzu, or Jesus, although their teachings were greatly misunderstood, especially when they turned into organized religion. They were the first manifestations of the flowering of human consciousness. Later others appeared, some of whom became famous and respected teachers, whereas others probably remained relatively unknown or perhaps even completely unrecognized. On the periphery of the established religions, from time to time certain movements appeared through which the new consciousness manifested. This enabled a number of individuals within those movements to awaken spiritually. Such movements, in Christianity, were Gnosticism and medieval mysticism; in Buddhism, Zen; in Islam, the Sufi movement; in Hinduism, the teachings called Advaita Vedanta.

But those men and women who awakened fully were always few and far between – rare flowerings of consciousness. Until fairly recently, there was not yet a need for large numbers of human beings to awaken. For the first time in human history, a large-scale transformation of consciousness has now become a necessity if humanity is to survive. Science and technology have amplified the effects of the dysfunction of the human mind in its unawakened state to such a degree that humanity, and probably the planet, would not survive for another hundred years if human consciousness remains unchanged. As I said earlier, evolution usually occurs in response to a crisis situation, and we now are faced with such a crisis situation. This is why there is indeed an enormous acceleration in the awakening process of our species.

This new large-scale spiritual awakening is occurring primarily not within the confines of the established religions, but outside of those structures. Some of it, however, is also happening within the existing churches and religious institutions wherever the members of those congregations do not identify with rigid and exclusive belief systems whose unconscious purpose is to foster a sense of separation on which the egoic mind structures depend for their survival.

ST: How much time and effort is required to realize "the power of now?" Can this really occur in an instant or is this the work of a lifetime?

ET: The power of now can only be realized now. It requires no time and effort. Effort means you’re trying hard to get somewhere, and so you are not present, welcoming this moment as it is.

Whereas it requires no time to awaken – you can only awaken now – it does take time before you can stay awake in all situations. Often you may find yourself being pulled back into old conditioned reactive patterns, particularly when faced with the challenges of daily living and of relationships. You lose the witnessing presence and become identified again with the "voice in the head," the continuous stream of thoughts, with its labels, judgments and opinions. You no longer know that they are only labels, judgments, and mental positions (opinions) – but completely believe in them. And so you create conflict. And then you suffer. And that suffering wakes you up again. Until presence becomes your predominant state, you may find yourself moving back and forth for a while between the old consciousness and the new, between mind identification and presence. "How long is it going to take?" is not a good question to ask. It makes you lose the now.

ST: How would you recommend that people listen and watch "The Power of Now" teaching series in order to get the most out of the teachings? In your opinion, why are audio and video teaching tapes such a powerful way for people to learn?

ET: If at all possible, you should not be engaged in other activity while you are listening or watching so that you can give your complete attention not only to the words but also to the silent spaces between the words. You will most likely learn many helpful facts about the emerging state of presence as well as the obstacles you are most likely to encounter. But this is only the secondary function of these tapes. Their primary purpose is not to convey information, but to help you access the state of presence as you listen. As in all true spiritual teachings, the significance of the words that are being spoken goes far beyond their informational content. Words that arise spontaneously out of the state of presence are charged with spiritual power: the power to awaken. All that is required of you is to be in a state of attentive listening. Don’t just listen with the head. Listen with your entire body, so to speak. Feel the aliveness, the animating presence, throughout the body as you listen.

I recommend that you listen and/or watch these tapes over and over. Each time you listen, it will feel as if you were listening for the first time. Each time you listen, you will grow in presence. But do not listen compulsively. Allow a gap of at least two or three days, and ideally more, before you listen to the same tape again. Each time after you finish listening, just sit in silence for a few minutes.

Enjoy the greatest adventure a human being can be engaged in: to be part of the emergence of a new consciousness.

Source: Sounds True

The Power of Now

2009-01-18T14:36:00.002-08:00

By Karim Hajee
Excerpt from 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life

Do you ever catch yourself daydreaming or thinking about something that happened some time ago - or even something that may or may not happen in the future?

Chances are you're like most people and you regularly think about something that happened in the past or you're focused on something that could happen in the future.

When you you're thinking about the past or the future - you're not here - you're not living in the now.

When you're not living in the now you fail to utilize what I call the power of now - something that can dramatically improve your life in ways you never thought possible.

If you want to achieve success, happiness and live the life you want - start living in the now - be here now - by experiencing the present moment for the gift that it is.

The Past is Over, The Future Does Not Exist

We all live in the present moment but very few of us utilize the power of this very present moment.

Let's face it the only thing that exists is what is happening right now. The past does not exist - it's over with and should be nothing but a fading memory. The future does not exist - it simply hasn't happened yet.

Both the past and the future are only a part of your thoughts and memories - they only exist in your mind and not in reality.

The only thing that really exists right now is the very present moment that you live in and from this present moment you can draw tremendous power - the kind of power that can change your life and allow you to achieve your goals.

Now you may not like the present moment - but that's only because you're thinking about what you feel the present should be. You're comparing the present moment to something else and not appreciating what is happening right now.

Chances are you're either allowing your ego to dominate your present moment, or you're focusing on mistakes of the past, or your consumed with the future that you're forgetting to live in the present moment.

I know some of you may say: "Karim, right now I don't have a job and the bank is about to foreclose. Plus my wife/husband just left me and I'm stuck with 3 kids. My present is not exactly pleasant." If you're present or current situation is not pleasant then you are comparing it to something else - you're probably thinking about what the now should be instead of dealing with what is going on.

If you don't have a job then it's time to look for one. I know you're probably looking for work but don't focus on the fact that you don't have a job, don't focus on how difficult it may seem to get a job, simply concentrate on going out and getting a job. This is the process of doing what has to be done now and not worrying about the way things should be.

At the end of the day - see where you are and focus on what needs to be done next.

If your children need attention right now - then give them attention. If you need to go out and look for work right now then do it. Don't compare your present situation to anything - accept what it is and make the most of it with the intention of making the present better with each step that you take.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying accept your present situation and don't do anything to improve it. I'm saying deal with your present situation and do everything you can to improve your life.

When you begin working on the present moment with the intent of improving your life you begin to utilize the power of now - you leave the past in the past, you don't concentrate on the future and instead you start living in the present moment doing everything that you can to improve your life now.

When you do this you send a powerful message to your subconscious mind. You tell your subconscious that you are here now and ready to get to work to improve your life. It then begins working for you because your subconscious only understands the present moment - your subconscious does not understand the future or the past - your subconscious only lives in the now - in the present moment.

Now I know this concept is easy to understand but the challenge is in applying it. While many of you will be able to grasp and understand the concept of living in the now and working with the power of the present moment - practicing it is quite another thing.

To start working with the power of now you have to get your mind to work differently - you have to get your mind to simply focus on what is happening and what needs to be done right now. No more comparing or hoping for things to get better. Just deal with what is and what has to be done.

When you do this you start moving forward and you allow your subconscious mind to help you achieve your goal because you are here now - working with your subconscious to create the situations that you want.

The Present is All That Exists

You may have memories, you may have feelings when you think about the past, you may worry about the future - but let's face it the past no longer exists. You can't step back in time and go into the past. The past is done with. It doesn't exist.

You can't step into the future and see what happens - despite what so called psychics and astrologers say - there is now way of seeing the future or living in the future. It hasn't happened - one day that future will arrive and if you're not paying attention - if you're too focused on the past or still worrying about the future - you'll miss it completely.

The only thing that is taking place right now is the present moment. As you read this article - that's all that you are doing. When you are done the moment that you are currently experiencing will never happen again! The now will never happen again! Your present moment will never happen again!

Even when you think about the past - you think about it in the present moment. You don't physically go back in time and remember the past. You only remember the past in this present moment.

When you think about the future you do it in the present moment - not in the future.

When you think about the past and the future you are wasting the valuable time and power that you have in the present moment.

The only reason people are unhappy is because they fail to live in the present moment, they fail to embrace the now. Instead, they often think about what their present moment should be and allow their ego to dominate them - thus the unhappiness sets in.

It is impossible to have a problem and live in the present moment at the same time. When you live in the present moment your attention is completely focused on what is happening at that very moment. There are no thoughts of the future or the past. If you are at work - focus on work. If you are at home - focus on the home. If you are with friends - focus on your friends.

When you do this your subconscious mind is released and free to start working on improving your life.

When you are focused on the past or worried about the future - the subconscious is lost in confusion. It doesn't know what you want and is forced to go from present to past and present to future without being given the time or ability to create the situations you need to improve your life in the present moment.You never allow your subconscious to function in the present moment - which is the only place that it can work.

Focus on the present moment. Allow your subconscious mind to work for you everyday - by working with the power of the present moment.

Many of you may be seeking answers, trying to make decisions or just hoping to discover a passion that you can follow. All of these answers come when you live in the now - when you are focused on the present moment you will receive your answers. You can't step back into the past or step into the future to receive these answers, they only come in the present moment.

But if you're focused on the past or consumed with the future then when the answer arrives you'll miss it. Why? Because you were not living in the present moment - this is where you can receive the answer.

If you want to start directing your subconscious mind and if you want to stop living in the past and start living in the now then you need to take control of your mind and subconscious mind and begin creating the life you want.

How To Live In The Now

If you're ready to start living in the now and begin creating the life that you want then take a look at your present situation and ask yourself what's wrong with the very moment you are in.

Don't think about what happened yesterday or sometime in the past. Don't focus on what might or might not happen tomorrow. Take a look at the very moment you are in not 5 minutes from now - and see if there is anything wrong. If you are at home - is there something wrong?

Don't say you are out of work - that's not the present moment because you are looking at what is not happening.

I want you to focus your mind on what is happening - then see what is wrong with that picture.

You should find nothing wrong with the present moment - it is what it is - and once you accept it - you can start living again.

Let's face it you can't turn your mind off - but you can get it to work differently and that's what you should start doing.

Because if you don't take control of your mind your mind will control you - and that's not going to help you improve your life.

Ask yourself these next questions: Do you find yourself waiting for something to happen? Are you waiting to get some more time? Make more money? Meet the right person? Are you waiting for the right opportunity?

Waiting is another game the mind plays because it doesn't want to live in the present moment.

If you answered yes to any of the above questions then you're not living in the present moment - you are focusing on anything but the present moment. I know you can't focus on the present moment or live in the now 24 hours a day. But start by doing this for a few minutes a day and then continue expanding the exercise everyday. Then track your progress. See how you feel when you only focus on what is happening right now. As you continually do this you'll see yourself starting to enjoy the process.

Here's a suggestion. The next time you are driving or walking pay attention only to what is happening around you. Listen to the sounds, observe the people. Don't think about what you have to do or what happened yesterday or what might happen tomorrow or what might happen in five minutes. Focus your attention only on what is happening right now. Doing this will get your mind to start living in the present moment and before you know it you'll be able to focus your mind and utilize the power of now.

Start utilizing the power of now - you'll be more focused and you'll enjoy the present moment. Best of all you'll start moving toward achieving your goals and living the life you want.

Have Some Fun!

What Is the Key to Freedom?

2009-01-18T14:36:00.001-08:00

By Deepak Chopra
Excerpt from Power, Freedom, & Grace: Living from the Source of Lasting Happness

One of the most crucial aspects of life is the notion of freedom and the notion of bondage. Ultimately, our goal is to experience freedom, but to understand what freedom is we first have to understand what bondage is.

What does it mean to be free and what does it mean to be in bondage? To be in bondage is to be stuck in this or that possibility, having lost the ability to choose from an infinite range of responses.

What is the bondage to?

The bondage is always to our own boundaries, to our own beliefs and conditioned responses. Boundaries and beliefs are nothing more than ideas or concepts that we have committed to and accepted as truth. And when they are as rigid and inflexible as concrete, we cannot see past them. They become the prison walls that we inadvertently construct around ourselves.

Freedom: The power to think or act without restraint; the capacity to exercise choice.

You wrap yourself in thoughts the way a spider wraps flies in gossamer. You are both the spider and the fly, entangling yourself in your own web. Your entire lifetime and other lifetimes are packaged inside you as imprints or energy patterns that are triggered by words, encounters, and relationships. You have been conditioned to interpret your experiences in a certain way, and this determines how you react to them. So any bondage that you experience is really the prison of your own conditioning.

Most people live their entire lives in bondage. They are a bundle of nerves and conditioned responses, which are constantly being triggered by other people and circumstances into totally predictable outcomes. To be free of bondage, we have to break down conditioned responses; we have to go beyond boundaries and experience the boundless.

What is freedom?

Freedom comes from the experiential knowledge of our true nature, which is already free. It comes from finding out that our real essence is the joyful field of infinite consciousness that animates all of creation. To have the experience of our real essence is just to be. Then we are free. In this state of freedom, we understand that life is the meaningful coexistence of all opposite values. We may experience happiness or we may experience pain and suffering, but we do not get attached to pleasure and we do not recoil in fear of pain. In freedom, we even lose our fear of death, because the belief in mortality is just a spell that we have cast upon ourselves.

Behind the mask of mortality is the field of immortality. The real you is immortal; it is beyond birth and death. The real you is not your ego, which is time-bound; it is your spirit, which is timeless. When you know that, when you identify with your spirit, you are free of every limitation, including the limitation that you are a person trapped inside a body for the span of a lifetime. You are the source of both body and mind, and you are not touched by this world of change because you know that you are the unchanging essence of pure consciousness itself.

The time-bound comes and goes; the timeless always is. The time-bound is the known; the timeless is the fresh unknown. In our addiction to the time-bound, we have projected a reality of separation and suffering. We live in a collective hallucination where we are bound and imprisoned by our own projections. Past and future are in the imagination; reality is in this moment. Suffering is in the imagination; freedom is in this moment. Beyond all of the obstacles to freedom is a world that is free of all projection; it is the world of infinite consciousness. And that world abides in the eternal moment.

Your Life Is This Moment

There never was a time when your life was not this moment. There never will be a time when your life is not this moment. It is impossible to deal with that which does not exist in this moment. Therefore, live in this moment by keeping your attention in this moment. Abide in this moment, and you will abide in that which is eternal, timeless, ageless, and fresh.

When you live in the now and the here, you recognize that the real you dwells in the timeless, eternal moment. You no longer want to live in the memories of the past or the imaginings of the future. You want to live in the present moment, where you can exercise the power and freedom of choice. The whole purpose of living in freedom is to enjoy the choices that you make in every successive moment of the present.

People have asked me, “Is the world one of free will, or is it deterministic?” The world is both deterministic and one of free will. If you are aware and beyond conditioning, then you have free will and you live in freedom. But if you are unaware and conditioned, then you do not have free will and your world is deterministic.

The present is the moment of choice and interpretation. Your choices, this moment, are creating the external events you are experiencing in this moment. Your interpretations, this moment, are creating the internal events you are experiencing in this moment. And because the “outer” world is a mirror of your “inner” world, your choices and interpretations co-create and perpetuate one another. You are neither the choice nor the interpretation but the source of both. If you become aware of your choices and interpretations, then you will begin to experience freedom of choice.

Therefore, the key to freedom is to become the silent witness, which is the ever-present awareness that witnesses everything. The silent witness is awareness itself. Awareness, aware of itself, is presence, profound wisdom, and peace. When you are free, you identify with your inner self instead of your self-image. And within this freedom lies the ability to spontaneously put your attention on those choices that bring joy to you, and also joy to others.

How to Use the Past, Present, and Future in Attaining Success

2009-01-18T14:35:00.000-08:00

Did you know that your past, present, and future can affect directly or indirectly your outlook in life?

The Past
Have you ever done something that is so regrettable you couldn't forgive yourself? Have you ever made a mistake that up to the present time you're still blaming yourself? Are you still torturing yourself with the thought that only if you could've done it differently, you're living a much better life right now?

Good news for you! You don't have to keep this burden in your heart for as long as you live. Release it. Set yourself free.

If you keep bad memories, you're depriving yourself of good mental and emotional health. You're making yourself a prisoner of the past.

This will adversely affect your capacity to act at the present moment. You will not be able to think clearly and you will lose your focus if you are still lingering in the shadows of your dark past.

No matter what you do, you couldn't reverse or otherwise change history. So let bygones be bygones. Why worry about something you have no control of?

Let go of the past, but keep the LESSONS. Whatever lesson you've learned will be of utmost importance to the fulfillment of your goals in the future. These lessons are your mentors that may sometimes teach you the hard way; but nevertheless, success comes to those who are willing to take the risk and pay the price for their actions.

And what about the successes you had in the past? How did you feel when you've accomplished something exceptional? It feels great isn't it?

Well then, use these past experiences in your present endeavors to encourage you and to motivate you. These memorable experiences will bring a positive aura of enthusiasm and will remind you that you have the power to achieve anything with the right attitude.

Recall these affirmative memories in everything that you do and you will see amazing results in all your undertakings.

The Future
Now how can the future influence your success if it hasn't occurred yet? The answer is simple.

Your burning passion to attain your ideal life in the future will become the motivating factor that will prod and push you to take the essential steps at the present moment.

Conceive your future in the most vivid and comprehensive way possible.

For instance, if you want to get rich, then take into consideration:

1)How much money you desire to make, when you intend to get them, and your action plan to have that exact amount by your target date

2)The vision of your lifestyle when you've attained the money; like the people you are in contact with, the activities you are engaging in, the food you are eating, the places you are visiting...Well, you get the picture.

These are the guiding forces that will chart the right path to your intended destination. If you envision yourself as having attained them and focus all your efforts regardless of the impending obstacles ahead, then your inner power will release the right kind of energy that will enable you to do nearly anything in pursuit of your desired end.

The Present
The present moment is the time to ACT. Ready or not, you must do some action now! Mistakes will be made, but you could always revise them.

Put procrastination aside. One delay or excuse will generate a chain reaction of more postponements and alibis that will never end. Before you knew it, open opportunities have already passed you by.

Never let fear get on your way. Some people are struck by the threats of failures, setbacks, or criticisms. What they don't realize is that majority of successful people had to pass through "the eye of the needle" in order to get where they are now.

Act intelligently. Use your past mistakes as guides to avoid future blunders. Let the vision of your ideal life in the future compel you to
carry out your plans and catapult you to reach your deepest desires.

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How to Create In the Eternal Now

2009-01-18T14:34:00.000-08:00

By Adrian Cooper
Excerpt from Our Ultimate Reality

“Time” is an illusion, a purely human construct of mankind, designed for convenience in order to measure a perceived “past”, “present” and “future”. The illusion of “time” on Earth is maintained by means of a scientific measurement of the relative positions of the Earth and the Sun in the physical three dimensional Universe in order to observe the seasons and the time the Earth takes for a complete rotation relative to the Sun in the measurement of ongoing “time”, in turn measured by various physical instruments such as clocks, calendars and charts.

Beyond the perceptions of most of those in the physical world, “time” simply does not exist. There is only Now, the Eternal Now where everything that has happened, is happening and ever will happen relative to the Earth concept of time already exists, always has existed and always will exist. Beyond Earth therefore the concepts of “past, present and future” simply do not and cannot exist.

The entire Universe from The Source, The First Cause, God is Energy vibrating at a frequency relative to The Source, The Source being the very centre of the Universe of Energy and the physical world being the outermost shell, the physical three dimensional Universe as observed by means of the physical senses and by science, existing at the lowest rate of vibration and the highest density. It should also be mentioned that the physical Universe of matter represents only a tiny fraction of the Universe of Energy and vibration in its entirety.

All Energy is influenced by the causation of thought before configuring under the influence of that thought, manifesting as an observable effect in the plane at which the thought originated. Everything that happens, ever happened and ever will happen in the entire Universe therefore, including the physical world, first originated as a thought originating from the Mind of a Being, and which thought in turn has its corresponding effect on the Energy of the Causal Spheres of the Universe while becoming the corresponding and potentially observable effect.

The Ultimate act of Creation by The First Cause, The Source, God of the entire Universe in all of its glorious spheres, planes and dimensions originated in the very beginning as a thought in the Mind of God. It can be truly said therefore that we all exist as “expressions”, within the Mind of God, made in the true Spiritual image of God.

Since the beginning of the human concept of “time” mankind has sought to live life based around that concept, thereby always thinking in terms of past present and future rather than Now. The Universe and the Energy we influence in the creation of our own individual realities have no concept of time, only Now, and as a result there is a no past or future irrespective of how much mankind forces his own existence around those erroneous notions. This tendency to force everything to happen in compliance with a notional concept of “time” has a very profound effect on the lives of those who do not fully understand these realities.

When a person thinks in the future tense, for example “ I will”, “I want”, “I could” then the Energy being influenced by those thoughts that can manifest into individual reality will be influenced only in the Now, with the perceived future never actually arriving. So if someone thinks, says or behaves in a manner that implies “I want”, then that person is placing themselves into a perpetual state of “wanting” but never of actually receiving. The vast majority of the human race today exists to some extent in a state of such wanting, while never being in a state of Mind, Energy and vibration to receive that which they “want”.

The Universe, The Source, God is immutable, absolutely perfect in every possible respect, and will accordingly always respond to a thought in its absolute terms rather than a human concept. “I want” literally creates a state of “wanting” perpetually until if or at such time whatever is associated with that thought is shifted to a state of “having” in the Now, which will then allow the object of that thought to manifest from a perpetual want into the actual Now, and accordingly into the individual, observable reality of the person originating that thought.

The importance of the Eternal Now simply cannot be over-emphasised. It is one of the most fundamental influences on the ability to create our own realities Now, rather than perpetually being frozen in a state of wanting but never receiving, a state that many find themselves in today.

The next chapters of this book we will address the importance of only thinking and acting in terms of the present tense in the context of total control over your own life and reality, enabling you to realise the potential that is within every human being, to have anything you can possibly desire. Always remember, there is nothing that you cannot be, do or have.

The importance of the Eternal Now must be fully grasped and fully understood as a continuous aspect of enjoying total fulfilment, joy and evolution. How we think has the most profound effect over the effects that occur in our lives; nothing has a more profound effect.

It is not sufficient to only recognize and express these fundamental Universal laws when it suits us, when we desire something or when there is a situation that demands it, it is absolutely necessary to live life completely in accordance with these immutable Universal laws. Those who do live their lives, either consciously or subconsciously according to these Universal laws will always seem to others to live a “charmed”, “lucky” “fortunate” existence, when in fact they are in reality living a Magical life, always in total control over their own individual reality, and always in a higher degree of harmony, Energy and vibration with the Universe compared to their less notionally “charmed”, “lucky” or “fortunate” family, friends and others around them.

In order to begin the process of living the life of your desires in which you have a total control first of all requires awareness. Rather than thinking random thoughts, all of which will have their corresponding effects whether observable or not, start to become fully aware of how, what and why you are thinking what you are. This is where powers of concentration as developed by virtue of the exercises in the previous chapter of this book are so valuable. Presence of Mind, awareness and concentration are a very powerful combination indeed in creating your own reality and living that Magical life that many can only dream of.

Always think as you wish things to Be, Now.

Two of the most powerful words that you can possibly think or say are “I Am”. As you live your life therefore the first stage of awareness is to always stop your thoughts short of a statement that implies the future tense and to transmute it into the present tense. So “I will” becomes “I am”, “I want” becomes “I have” and “I might” becomes “I do”. Also keep in Mind that there is absolutely no such concept as “try”. We either Do something in the present Now, or we do not Do anything; “try” simply does not exist except as a concept of a person wishing to achieve something.

I “want to feel well” should not be allowed to proceed as a thought and should be immediately become “I am feeling so well”. This thought takes the reality of feeling well from some point in the perceived future that never arrives, to actually feeling well in the present. So a strong thought of “I am feeling so well” will manifest into your reality in the Now, and you will indeed feel well in accordance with the effect of the causation of your “I am feeling so well” thought on the causation of the Universal Energy involved.

Similarly, if you have a bill that needs paying and you believe that you do not have the money, another human construct, to pay the bill, never think in terms of “I want the money to pay this bill”, but rather “I have the money to pay this bill effortlessly”. Bringing this statement into the present tense rather then a future statement of lack will cause the means by which the bill can be paid to manifest into your reality, and the bill will be paid in full.

Please always keep in Mind; the Universe always delivers in absolute accordance with your thoughts; there are no exceptions to these Laws. Again, “I might succeed at this objective” implies never “actually” succeeding. The “might” places the success into the indefinite and infinite range of possibilities and never as an actuality. So “I might succeed with this objective” should become “I am enjoying complete success with this objective”, and that success will then become your reality as that vibration of Universal Energy has its effect.

In summary, always think in terms of the present tense, and always remember those words “I Am”, using them all the time in the context of the reality you wish to create for yourself. In the next chapters of this book we will deal with consciously creating your own reality, an extremely important aspect of which is recognition of the Eternal Now. Creating your own reality is an ongoing, joyous and productive life, not just something to “do” when it suits you or to conform to the demands of others, vanity or ego. Those who understand and consciously apply these facts to their lives will be richly rewarded with health, wealth and happiness to the exact extent of the focus of the thoughts that created the same reality.

In the next chapter we will discuss in great depth The Law of Attraction, and aspect of Causation, the law of Cause and Effect, that once, fully understood and practiced, which is well within the abilities of everyone, will enable you to attract into your physical life absolutely anything you could wish for, desire or need, thus enabling you to live a life of complete abundance, joy and fulfilment.

Don't Take Your Thoughts Too Seriously

2009-01-18T14:19:00.002-08:00

By Eckhart Tolle
Author of The Power of Now

Most people spend their entire life imprisoned within the confines of their own thoughts. They never go beyond a narrow, mind-made, personalized sense of self that is conditioned by the past.

In you, as in each human being, there is a dimension of consciousness far deeper than thought. It is the very essence of who you are. We may call it presence, awareness, the unconditioned consciousness. In the ancient teachings, it is the Christ within, or your Buddha nature.

Finding that dimension frees you and the world from the suffering you inflict on yourself and others when the mind-made "little me" is all you know and runs your life. Love, joy, creative expansion, and lasting inner peace cannot come into your life except through that unconditioned dimension of consciousness.

If you can recognize, even occasionally, the thoughts that go through your mind as simply thoughts, if you can witness your own mental-emotional reactive patterns as they happen, then that dimension is already emerging in you as the awareness in which thoughts and emotions happen -- the timeless inner space in which the content of your life unfolds.

The stream of thinking has enormous momentum that can easily drag you along with it. Every thought pretends that it matters so much.

It wants to draw your attention in completely.

Here is a new spiritual practice for you: don't take your thoughts too seriously.

How easy it is for people to become trapped in their conceptual prisons.

The human mind, in its desire to know, understand, and control, mistakes its opinions and viewpoints for the truth. It says: this is how it is. You have to be larger than thought to realize that however you interpret "your life" or someone else's life or behavior, however you judge any situation, it is no more than a viewpoint, one of many possible perspectives. It is no more than a bundle of thoughts. But reality is one unified whole, in which all things are interwoven, where nothing exists in and by itself.

Thinking fragments reality -- it cuts it up into conceptual bits and pieces.

The thinking mind is a useful and powerful tool, but it is also very limiting when it takes over your life completely, when you don't realize that it is only a small aspect of the consciousness that you are.

Wisdom is not a product of thought. The deep knowing that is wisdom arises through the simple act of giving someone or something your full attention. Attention is primordial intelligence, consciousness itself. It dissolves the barriers created by conceptual thought, and with this comes the recognition that nothing exists in and by itself. It joins the perceiver and the perceived in a unifying field of awareness. It is the healer of separation.

Whenever you are immersed in compulsive thinking, you are avoiding what is. You don't want to be where you are. Here, Now.

Dogmas -- religious, political, scientific -- arise out of the erroneous belief that thought can encapsulate reality or the truth.

Dogmas are collective conceptual prisons. And the strange thing is that people love their prison cells because they give them a sense of security and a false sense of "I know."

Nothing has inflicted more suffering on humanity than its dogmas.

It is true that every dogma crumbles sooner or later, because reality will eventually disclose its falseness; however, unless the basic delusion of it is seen for what it is, it will be replaced by others.

What is this basic delusion? Identification with thought.

Spiritual awakening is awakening from the dream of thought.

The realm of consciousness is much vaster than thought can grasp.When you no longer believe everything you think, you step out of thought and see clearly that the thinker is not who you are.

The mind exists in a state of "not enough" and so is always greedy for more. When you are identified with mind, you get bored and restless very easily. Boredom means the mind is hungry for more stimulus, more food for thought, and its hunger is not being satisfied.

When you feel bored, you can satisfy the mind's hunger by picking up a magazine, making a phone call, switching on the TV, surfing the web, going shopping, or -- and this is not uncommon -- transferring the mental sense of lack and its need for more to the body and satisfy it briefly by ingesting more food.

Or you can stay bored and restless and observe what it feels like to be bored and restless. As you bring awareness to the feeling, there is suddenly some space and stillness around it, as it were. A little at first, but as the sense of inner space grows, the feeling of boredom will begin to diminish in intensity and significance. So even boredom can teach you who you are and who you are not.

You discover that a "bored person" is not who you are. Boredom is simply a conditioned energy movement within you. Neither are you an angry, sad, or fearful person. Boredom, anger, sadness, or fear are not "yours," not personal. They are conditions of the human mind. They come and go.

Nothing that comes and goes is you.

"I am bored." Who knows this?

"I am angry, sad, afraid." Who knows this?

You are the knowing, not the condition that is known.

Prejudice of any kind implies that you are identified with the thinking mind. It means you don't see the other human being anymore, but only your own concept of that human being. To reduce the aliveness of another human being to a concept is already a form of violence.

Thinking that is not rooted in awareness becomes self-serving and dysfunctional. Cleverness devoid of wisdom is extremely dangerous and destructive. That is the current state of most of humanity. The amplification of thought as science and technology, although intrinsically neither good nor bad, has also become destructive because so often the thinking out of which it comes has no roots in awareness.

The next step in human evolution is to transcend thought. This is now our urgent task. It doesn't mean not to think anymore, but simply not to be completely identified with thought, possessed by thought.

Feel the energy of your inner body. Immediately mental noise slows down or ceases. Feel it in your hands, your feet, your abdomen, your chest. Feel the life that you are, the life that animates the body.

The body then becomes a doorway, so to speak, into a deeper sense of aliveness underneath the fluctuating emotions and underneath your thinking.

There is an aliveness in you that you can feel with your entire Being, not just in the head. Every cell is alive in that presence in which you don't need to think. Yet, in that state, if thought is required for some practical purpose, it is there. The mind can still operate, and it operates beautifully when the greater intelligence that you are uses it and expresses itself through it.

You may have overlooked that brief periods in which you are "conscious without thought" are already occurring naturally and spontaneously in your life. You may be engaged in some manual activity, or walking across the room, or waiting at the airline counter, and be so completely present that the usual mental static of thought subsides and is replaced by an aware presence. Or you may find yourself looking at the sky or listening to someone without any inner mental commentary. Your perceptions become crystal clear, unclouded by thought.

To the mind, all this is not significant, because it has "more important" things to think about. It is also not memorable, and that's why you may have overlooked that it is already happening.

The truth is that it is the most significant thing that can happen to you. It is the beginning of a shift from thinking to aware presence.

Become at ease with the state of "not knowing." This takes you beyond mind because the mind is always trying to conclude and interpret. It is afraid of not knowing. So, when you can be at ease with not knowing, you have already gone beyond the mind. A deeper knowing that is non-conceptual then arises out of that state.

Artistic creation, sports, dance, teaching, counseling -- mastery in any field of endeavor implies that the thinking mind is either no longer in-volved at all or at least is taking second place. A power and intelligence greater than you and yet one with you in essence takes over. There is no decision-making process anymore; spontaneous right action happens, and "you" are not doing it.

Mastery of life is the opposite of control. You become aligned with the greater consciousness. It acts, speaks, does the works.

A moment of danger can bring about a temporary cessation of the stream of thinking and thus give you a taste of what it means to be present, alert, aware.

The Truth is far more all-encompassing than the mind could ever comprehend. No thought can encapsulate the Truth. At best, it can point to it. For example, it can say: "All things are intrinsically one." That is a pointer, not an explanation. Understanding these words means feeling deep within you the truth to which they point.

How to Live in the Moment - A Scientific Perspective

2009-01-18T14:19:00.001-08:00

By Avtar Singh
Source: Intent Blog

Both Einstein and spiritual masters have said that time is an illusion. Then isn’t each moment of time an illusion in itself? How is it possible to live in the moment if it is an illusion?

Generally speaking, living in the moment has been a spiritual concept related to the cultivation of awareness of the inner self or consciousness. However, in this modern day and age, the phrase has almost become a fashion in the pursuit of material wealth, power, and fame both in the personal as well as business worlds.

As part of the corporate training to enhance productivity and profits, the employees are provided motivational training by professionals to develop “living in the present” attitude or behavior. Yoga and meditation classes are given to corporate executives and employees to enhance competitiveness and financial health of the corporations. Recently, I heard the CEO of a Yoga franchise boasting about the extravagant success of its business in beating out even the most materialistic and egotistic CEOs of the well known and largest corporations in business.

Yoga, which originally meant to achieve unity with the universal consciousness or awareness of the present moment, has become, for a common person, another physical exercise to achieve bodily fitness and good-looks to succeed in the material world. Similarly, meditation that was meant to be a spiritual tool to achieve inner or self awareness to help living in the present/moment has become another profit making or earn-a-living tool for many.

Just like the materialistic science has squeezed consciousness out of the universal laws to win over the inanimate matter, the modern day pseudo-spirituality has squeezed consciousness out of yoga and meditation reducing them to mere physical tools to enhance material living. Instead of cultivating unity with the universe and inner self, the commercialized versions of the present day yoga and meditation have become ego gratifying and enhancing tools for individuals and corporations. Instead of providing meaning and purpose to life, they have mostly given rise to competition and jealousy of the enhanced egos of their practitioners.

Let us look into the science, a Holistic Relativity perspective, of the “living in the present moment” to understand its true meaning and value to life. According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, the speed of a clock or passing of time depends upon the speed of the observer. Hence, time is only a relative entity to the observer and there is nothing like a universal time or clock that specifies an absolute synchronous moment of time in the universe.

Empty space has no running clock in it and each of the galaxies moving at different speeds in the expanding universe has different clock and time. Moreover, relativity theory says that there is no synchronicity in the different clocks related to different observers. That means there is no absolute and unique beginning or present or ending moment of time in the universe. Hence, Big Bang is a singularity and the moment of time in the universe does not exist as a unique point. Even quantum mechanics' uncertainty principle does not allow a certain unique moment of time to exist as the space-time becomes a quantum foam of uncertainty at smaller and smaller scales.

So, how could we live in the present or any moment that is indefinable as per the science? Are science and spirituality of living in the moment at odds with each other?

Holistic Relativity resolves this dilemma and vindicates the wonderfully intuitive and scientific insights of the spiritual masters as follows…….

There are other problems with the concept of the moment of time. In spite of the fact that time is an illusion and no physical experiment can be performed to establish its existence, science has devised atomic clocks that can measure time with an unparalleled accuracy down to nanoseconds. Our everyday experience of time reinforces the feeling that it is an absolute reality rather than a relative (temporal) reality or a stubborn illusion, as Einstein characterized it.

However, the present moment is nothing but an infinitesimal duration of time, much much smaller than even the smallest measurable time interval, which represents the boundary between the past and future. If it is only the boundary between the past and future, how can one live in it?

In order to live or dwell in the so-called present moment of time, there must be a finite non-zero extent of it to dwell in. Scientifically speaking, the smallest known moment or duration of time is the Planck’s time that equals approximately 10 raised to the power of minus 43 (that is1 divided by 10 forty three times) seconds.

Neuroscientific measurements have shown that there is an irreducible delay of several hundred milliseconds between our conscious decision-making and its pursuant action via neural responses by the brain. So, even if we consciously decide to live in the current moment, by the time we can act upon it several hundred milliseconds would have already passed beyond the Planck’s moment of time. So, it is neuro-scientifically impossible to live in the moment even if we tried. It is worse than fitting the camel within the eye of a needle. Then, how did Buddha live in the moment? What do the spiritual masters mean by “Living in the present moment”?

To understand this, let us see what happens if we are able to slow down the clock or time. As the clock movement slows down, the extent of the duration of the present moment sandwiched between the past and future also expands. In the limit, if the clock is stopped completely, then both the past and future disappear, and what remains is the present moment with an infinite extension. In fact, since the both past and future dissolve, so does the present and what really remains is the one wholesome eternal existence or the consciousness. There are no more boundaries of past, present, and future dividing space and time leading to a perfect state of universal unity or Yoga.

The Holistic Relativity shows that such a state of being with fully dilated space and time is achieved when the mass completely dissolves into energy. The important insight to be gained here is that the realization of such a state of being has been the fundamental objective of the practices of yoga and meditation as originally devised by the spiritual masters including the Buddha. Their insight that led to the development of these tools was deeply scientific showing their deep intuition into the workings and laws governing space and time. They may not have developed explicit mathematical expressions for their intuition, but their experimental verification was accomplished thru their direct experience of such states of egoless (mass-less and time-less) being while living a bodily and worldly life.

Hence, the concept of “living in the present moment” is, scientifically (Holistic Relativity wise) speaking, no different than the concept of the stopped clock signifying fully dilated space (omnipresence or total awareness) and time (eternity) in conjunction with the dissolution of the ego (mass) or enlightenment.

This egoless state is the state of true “Yoga” or unity with the universe. Meditation is nothing but a tool to realize such a state. Just like the medication is to cure the disease of the body, meditation is to cure the disease of the ego or mind. Just as when the healthy state of being is achieved medication is no more needed, meditation is not needed when the state of egoless-ness or total awareness is achieved. However, meditation may help maintaining the state of awareness as it gets tarnished by the struggles of daily living in the egotistic world.

In summary, please do not rush to taking the batteries out of your clocks to stop time. What “living in the moment” really means and how it can be achieved is – “DISSOLVE THE EGO"

RELATED ARTICLE: How to Slow Down Time With Your Mind

Understanding the Power of Now

2009-01-18T14:18:00.002-08:00

By Karim Hajee
www.CreatingPower.com

I'm about to reveal something very special
and if you follow what I outline in this
article you'll tap a very powerful
side of yourself - one that will allow you
to create the life you want in a very
short time.

We all have this ability and you don't have to
endure weeks or months of training to begin
working with this incredible power. What am
I talking about? It's the power of Now - the
power of the present moment. We all live in
the present moment but very few of us utilize
the power of this very present moment.

In this article I'll outline how
this power works, why you need to begin
working with the power of now and how to
start utilizing this amazing power. I'll also
outline how not working with the Power of the
present moment can really cause a great deal
of suffering and heartache - so read on and
I'm sure you'll discover something very
valuable.

Understanding The Power Of Now

Let's face it the only thing that exists is
what is happening right now. The past does not
exist - it's over with and should be nothing
but a fading memory. The future does not exist -
it simply hasn't happened yet. Both the past and
the future are merely concepts
which consists of thoughts and memories.
The only thing that really exists right now
is the very present moment that you live in
and from this present moment you can draw
tremendous power - the kind of power that
can change your life and allow you to achieve
your goals.

Now you may say that you don't like the present
moment - but that's only because you're thinking
about what you feel the present should be. You're
either allowing your ego to dominate your present
moment, or you're focusing on mistakes of the past,
or your consumed with the future that you're forgetting
to live in the present moment. I know some of you may
say: "Karim, right now I don't have a job and the bank
is about to foreclose. Plus my wife/husband just left me
and I'm stuck with 3 kids. My present is not exactly
pleasant."

If you're present or current situation is
not pleasant then you are comparing it to something else -
you're probably thinking about what the now should be
instead of dealing with what is going on. In the above
case I would say if you don't have a job then
it's time to look for one - I know you probably are
but don't focus on the fact that you don't have
a job, don't focus on how difficult it may seem
to get a job, don't focus on why don't have a job,
simply concentrate on going out and getting a job.
At the end of the day - see where you are and
focus on what needs to be done next.
If your children need attention
right now - then give them attention. If you need to
go out and look for work right now then do it.

Don't compare your present situation to anything - accept
what it is and make the most of it with the intention of
making the present better with each step that you take.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying accept your present
situation and don't do anything to improve it. I'm saying
deal with your present situation and do everything you
can to improve your life.

Once you begin working on the present moment with the
intent of improving your life you begin to utilize the
power of now - you leave the past in the past, you don't
concentrate on the future and instead you start living
in the present moment doing everything that you can to
improve your life now.

When you do this you send a powerful message to your
subconscious mind. You tell your subconscious that you
are here now and ready to get to work to improve your
life. It then begins working for you because your
subconscious only understands the present moment -
your subconscious does not understand the future or the
past - your subconscious only lives in the now - in
the present moment.

Now I know this concept is easy to understand but
the challenge is in applying it. While many of you
will be able to grasp and understand the concept of
living in the now and working with the power of the
present moment - practicing it is quite another thing.
In order to do this you have to first start working
with a process that involves getting your mind to
work differently - something that it is not used
to and through that process you'll begin to live in
the now while moving forward and improving your life.

The Present is All That Exists

You may have memories, you may have feelings
when you think about the past, you may worry
about the future - but let's face it the past no
longer exists. You can't step back in time and
go into the past. Star Trek fans may disagree -
but as far as we know - there is no way of going
back in time and re-living or altering the past
experiences. The past is done with. It doesn't exist.
Similarly you can't step into the future and see
what happens - despite what so called psychics and
astrologers say - there is now way of seeing the
future or living in the future. It hasn't happened
- one day that future will arrive and if you're not
paying attention - if you're too focused on the past
or still worrying about the future - you'll miss it
completely.

The only thing that is taking place right now is the
present moment. As you read this article - that's
all that you are doing. When you are done the moment
that you are currently experiencing will never happen
again! The now will never happen again! Your present
moment will never happen again!

Even when you think about the past - you do so in
the present moment. You don't go back in time and
remember the past - you do so in this present moment.
When you think about the future you do it in the
present moment - not in the future - you do it now.
When you think about the past and the future you
are wasting the valuable time and power that you
have in the present moment. The only reason people are
unhappy is because they fail to live in the present
moment, they fail to embrace the now. Instead, they
often think about what their present moment should
be and allow their ego to dominate them - thus the
unhappiness sets in.

It is impossible to have a problem and live in the
present moment at the same time. When you live in
the present moment your attention is completely focused
on what is happening at that very moment. There are
no thoughts of the future or the past. If you are
at work - focus on work. If you are at home - focus
on the home. If you are with friends - focus on your
friends. When you do this your subconscious mind is
released and free to start working on improving your
life. When you are focused on the past or worried about
the future - the subconscious is lost in confusion. It
doesn't know what you want and is forced to go from
present to past and present to future without
being given the time or ability to create the situations
you need to improve your life in the present moment.
In short - you never allow your subconscious to
function in the present moment - which is the only
place that it can work.

Many of you may be seeking answers, trying to make
decisions or just hoping to discover a passion that
you can follow. All of these answers come when you live
in the now - when you are focused on the present moment
you will receive your answers. You can't step back into
the past or step into the future to receive these answers,
they only come in the present moment. But if you're
focused on the past or consumed with the future then
when the answer arrives you'll miss it. Why? Because
you were not living in the present moment - this
is where you can receive the answer.

How To Live In The Now

The reason you have trouble living in the now
is because your mind is simply not used to doing this.
Your mind is used to remembering the past or
worrying about the future - it can't live in the
present because it doesn't know how. But you can teach
your mind how to do this and I'm about to outline some
simple steps that you can take to start living in the
now.

First take a look at your present situation and ask
yourself what's wrong with the very moment you are in.
Don't think about what happened yesterday or sometime in
the past. Don't focus on what might or might not happen
tomorrow. Take a look at the very moment you are in
not 5 minutes from now - and see if there is anything
wrong. If you are at home - is there something wrong?
Don't say you are out of work - that's not the
present moment because you are looking at what is not
happening. I want you to focus your mind on what is
happening - then see what is wrong with that picture.
My point is you should find nothing wrong with
the present moment - it is what it is - and once
you accept it - you can start living again.

Let's face it you can't turn your mind off - but you
can get it to work differently and that's what you should
start doing. Because if you don't take control of your
mind your mind will control you - and that's not going to
help you improve your life.

Ask yourself these next questions. Do you find yourself
waiting for something to happen? Are you waiting to get
some more time? Make more money? Meet the right person?
Are you waiting for the right opportunity? Waiting is another
game the mind plays because it doesn't want to live in
the present moment. If you answered yes to any of the
above questions then you are not living in the present
moment - you are focusing on anything but the present
moment. I know you can't focus on the present moment
or live in the now 24 hours a day. But start by
doing this for a few minutes a day and then continue
expanding the exercise everyday. Then track your progress.
See how you feel when you only focus on what is happening
right now. As you continually do this you'll see yourself
starting to enjoy the process. Here's a suggestion. The
next time you are driving or walking pay attention only
to what is happening around you. Listen to the sounds,
observe the people. Don't think about what you have
to do or what happened yesterday or what might happen
tomorrow or what might happen in five minutes. Focus
your attention only on what is happening right now.
Doing this will get your mind to start living in the
present moment and before you know it you'll be able
to focus your mind and utilize the power of now.

Have Some Fun!

The final step in the process is to start
having some fun. Start enjoying your life. Start
doing things that you enjoy. Act like a 6 year
old - don't try to be an adult all of the time.
Forget about your troubles and just do something
completely different - and have some fun. Once you
start doing this you'll see things begin to fall
into place. If you have a passion for sports then
start playing a sport you like. If you have a
passion for cooking - make a meal or two over the
next couple of days. Do what you enjoy and you'll
start attracting more positive situations into you life.

If you're ready to change your life and
achieve your goals then visit:
The Creating Power System

Sincerely,
Karim Hajee

Amazing Secret Reveals How to Eliminate Stress From Your Life, Skyrocket Your Self-Confidence, and Program Yourself For Lifetime Success. Learn more here: The Creating Power System

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Zen and the Art of Being a Jedi

2009-01-18T14:18:00.001-08:00

SOURCE: Suite 101

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there were great men—guardians of freedom and justice—who were in touch with nature. These men were known as Jedi, and they had a deep understanding of how the world really works. A Jedi is not a Buddha. But many of the practices and concepts that are part of their art can be found in the Buddha’s teachings. In developing Star Wars, George Lucas has drawn on many religions, myths, and cultural practices from all parts of planet Earth. As we will soon see, the roots of the Jedi can be found in Asia.

Clear Your Mind
In Star Wars, we often hear Jedi masters, such as Yoda and Qui-Gon, telling their pupils to clear their minds or to "let go." This is one of the most basic principles in Buddhism.

Through the act of meditation, those who want to touch the Buddha are encouraged to clear their minds of all thought and to become aware of the moment. This can be done through breathing meditation. When beginning breathing meditation, it is helpful to count from 1 to 10. This helps you clear your mind of other thoughts and pulls you into the moment. Once you are in the moment, the next thing is to be "mindful." This means that you are aware of what you are doing, of your body, of the moment.

Breathing meditation was actually seen being practiced by Qui-Gon in The Phantom Menace. Near the end of the film, during the climactic battle with Darth Maul, the two become caught in a corridor of doors that open and close, apparently on a timer. As they approach the final door, Darth Maul gets through but Qui-Gon doesn’t. Instead of yelling at or taunting Darth Maul through the force field, Qui-Gon simply kneels, closes his eyes, and breathes calmly. He is quieting his mind and collecting himself. He is truly in the moment.

There's No Time Like the Present
One of the problems that we all face in the modern world is that we are always dwelling on the future and the past. Our lives are so hectic that we are always being pulled in many directions at once. We get so caught up in what happened at work last Wednesday or what we are having for dinner tomorrow night when the guests come over that we forget to be aware of the moment. For us, the flow of time is very real and we are locked into a vicious cycle of birth and death, beginning and ending. We dwell so heavily on these first and last moments that we forget to live in the here-and-now.

The Buddha taught that these are only concepts, not true reality. What we believe is reality is subjective—it is what we make it. To be caught up in concepts is to be out-of-touch with the moment. If you are concerned with concepts, theories, and ideas, you can’t see the true nature of things.

Seeing the true nature of things is one of the keys to being Jedi. Abandoning preconceptions, avoiding being caught up in past and future, and focusing on the present are all things that Jedi masters teach their apprentices.

At the beginning of The Phantom Menace, when Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are in the meeting room aboard the trade federation vessel, Obi-Wan begins thinking about things yet to come. Qui-Gon tells him to keep his mind focused on the here-and-now. In response, Obi-Wan says, "But master Yoda says that I should be mindful of the future." Qui-Gon replies, "Yes, but not at the expense of the present." He is teaching his student to be aware and mindful. In Buddhism, this known as Right Mindfulness.

The Circle of Life
Ever since the first film, Star Wars: A New Hope, it has been taught that everything in the universe is interconnected. The details of how this works have changed with the development of the series, but the basic principle has stayed the same. I titled this section "The Circle of Life," but when we speak of interconnectedness, both in Star Wars and Buddhism, we speak not only of living things but of non-living things as well.

In A New Hope, Obi-Wan taught Luke that if he let go of his thoughts he could "hear" the Force speaking to him, guiding him. He said that this is because everything is connected through the Force. Later, in The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda teaches Luke of the interconnectedness of all things, that Luke and the rock are one in the same. Finally, in The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon finds himself explaining this principle to young Anakin. This is where Lucas changed the concept a bit.

In the first three films, the Force was presented as a mysterious power that simply flowed through the universe. But in The Phantom Menace it is presented as the result of a symbiotic relationship between living things and microscopic organisms called medichlorines that reside in all living cells. But regardless of this change in position on Lucas’s part, the concept remains the same. We are all part of one another. Everything in existence is interdependent on everything else. Everything contains everything else. A flower, for example, contains not only flower elements like a stem and petals, but also stardust, the earth, and the gardener. In Buddhism, this interconnectedness of all things is known as Second Dharma Seal.

As Qui-Gon explains this to Anakin, he says that these micro-organisms speak to us and tell us the will of the Force. When Anakin says that he doesn’t really understand, Qui-Gon encourages him by saying, "When you learn to quiet your mind, you will hear them speaking to you." Again, this returns us to Right Mindfulness and being aware of and in touch with the moment.

Hate Leads to Suffering
If you had to sum up the goal of Buddhism in just four words it would be "the elimination of suffering." The purpose of the practices taught by the Buddha—The Four Noble Truths and The Noble Eightfold Path (Right View, Right Thinking, Right Mindfulness, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Diligence, Right Concentration, Right Livelihood)—is ultimately to identify, come to terms with, and eliminate suffering.

Suffering can be caused by many things. The desire for something you can’t have can cause you to suffer. A physical ailment can cause you to suffer. Exposure to things that can water the seeds of fear and hate that we all posses can cause you to suffer. In order to achieve nirvana, you must identify and eliminate all suffering. Nirvana is, in fact, the elimination of not only all suffering but also all concepts, all thought.

In The Phantom Menace, when Anakin faces the Jedi Council, Yoda questions him about his mother. "Afraid to lose her, I think," he says. Anakin responds by saying, "What does that have to do with anything?" To this Yoda replies, "Everything! Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering… I sense much fear in you."

What Yoda was telling him is that being controlled by fear makes it impossible to eliminate suffering and find happiness. The Jedi are aware of this and, because of the danger posed by the "dark side" of the Force, they identify and train Jedi soon after birth, before they have time to know fear, anger, or hate. As we already know, Anakin ultimately will allow his fear to get the best of him and lead him to the dark side.

Conclusion
A Jedi is not a Buddha. There are many aspects of the Jedi that are mystical and supernatural—the ability to move objects with the mind or the ability to see things before they happen, for example. These are not principles or teachings of Buddhism. It is not the aim of this article to convince you that the Jedi are space Buddhists. But many elements of Buddhism have been incorporated into the Jedi, and it is very interesting to see how this aspect of Lucas’s sci-fi epic relates to our earthly culture.

The aforementioned examples are merely a sampling of Buddhist principles that appear in Star Wars. There are many others. If you are so inclined, I invite you to learn more about Buddhism and explore its connection with Star Wars on your own. Please click here to view a list of suggested reading and continue to explore Zen and the Art of Being Jedi. May the Force be with you, always.

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The Psychic Shield and the Power of Now

2009-01-18T14:17:00.002-08:00

By Michael Goodspeed,
Thunderbolts.info

Most medical doctors are more adept at treating an illness' symptoms than identifying and conquering its root cause. If a patient has strep throat, a doctor will prescribe antibiotics, and the symptoms will usually dissipate. But it is unlikely that the doctor will explore in depth why the person became sick in the first place. The patient might be "cured" of the strep throat, but he is still suffering from a compromised immune system. He had step throat yesterday, and tomorrow he'll have cancer.

This narrow field of vision also affects many in the field of self-help. Countless books have been written about the road to recovery from addiction and neurosis, but like the medical doctor who only sees the symptoms of a sickness, most of these authors do not identify the taproot of dysfunction. Even the 12-step program may be lacking in this regard. Participants are told to embrace a Higher Power, but they may be left to wonder, "Where is this Higher Power? How do I find it?"

But what if it is possible to identify a single taproot of all human suffering? Could we cut it out like a tumor and make ourselves well? Because the mind is a complex tapestry, the very notion seems naïve and simplistic.

Simplistic or not, one author not only succeeds in finding this taproot, but hands the reader an axe and instructs him to swing. The name of the author is Eckhart Tolle, and the book is titled, "The Power of Now." I've plowed through countless spiritual, new age, and mainstream therapeutic guides to self-improvement, but Tolle's words resonate with more fundamental truth than anything else I've read.

As its title suggests, "...Now" explores the transformative effects of living in the present moment. Tolle comments that the vast majority of humanity is ruled by the egoic, obsessive-thinking mind, which keeps us forever brooding over the past, and projecting into the future. The capacity for "higher" thought distinguishes mankind from every other species on Earth, but according to Tolle, it also keeps us in bondage with suffering. Tolle refers to compulsive thinking as an "addiction" and "disease," and states that the road to good mental health can only be found by "disidentifying with the mind."

Tolle draws a clear delineation between the terms "mind" and "consciousness." Although we are taught to believe that the mind is a necessary tool to function in the world, Tolle argues that mind dominance leads to compulsive thinking, i.e. a racing mind that continuously makes problems where none exist. The mind (according to Tolle) is a creation and tool of the ego, and in order to survive, it must convince its owner that the present moment is inadequate - that happiness can only be found in some elusive future reward. Consciousness, however, is not only superior to mind in creativity, but does not live in resistance of the present moment. Tolle writes, "Enlightenment means rising above thought, not falling back to a level below thought, the level of an animal or a plant. In the enlightened state, you still use your thinking mind when needed, but in a much more effective and focused way than before...No-mind is consciousness without thought."

Tolle explains that the mind creates a false and limited self - the ego -- that derives its (illusory) strength entirely from its external life situation, or life story. This of course creates tremendous inner conflict, as a person's "happiness" is subject to the inevitable rollercoaster of life's "ups" and "downs." The false self (ego) is incapable of living in the present moment, always believing that happiness lies in some external reward, which only exists in the future.

Resistance to the present moment creates what Tolle calls "psychological time." And Tolle argues that our "addiction" to time is perhaps the greatest plague our species has ever known. He writes, "You will not have any doubt that psychological time is a mental disease if you look at its collective manifestations. They occur, for example, in the form of ideologies such as communism, national socialism or any nationalism, or rigid religious belief systems, which operate under the implicit assumption that the highest good lies in the future and that therefore the end justifies the means...Not infrequently, the means of getting there are the enslavement, torture, and murder of people in the present...This is a chilling example of how belief in a future heaven creates a present hell."

According to Tolle, one benefit that comes from living in the present moment is that it empowers you to not be overwhelmed when things inevitably go wrong. He even goes so far as to state, "All problems are illusions of the mind." The reader is invited to participate in a very powerful exercise, where Tolle instructs, "Focus your attention on the Now and tell me what problem you have at this moment." I've done this several times, and never once have I discovered a problem.

Tolle elaborates, "...it is impossible to have a problem when your attention is fully in the Now. A situation that needs to be either dealt with or accepted - yes. Why make it into a problem?...The mind unconsciously loves problems, because they give you an identity of sorts. This is normal, and it is also insane."

Tolle attempts to give the reader the tools to be fully connected with the present moment. This includes simple exercises such as closing one's eyes, and observing the first thought that comes to mind. This constant reminder to silence the mind and live in the Now may seem overly simplistic, but as Tolle explains, egoic mind can never really be understood. Therapists spend years dredging up and analyzing their patients' pasts, but Tolle tells us to "die to the past" in every moment.

If there is a fundamental key to becoming present, according to Tolle, it is the act of surrender. The term surrender, in the minds of many people, has a negative connotation, meaning "resignation." But in the context of becoming more present, it is an act of courage -- to stop living in denial of what IS. Tolle writes, "Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life. The only place where you can experience the flow of life is in the Now, so to surrender is to accept the present moment unconditionally and without reservation...If you find your life situation unsatisfactory or even intolerable, it is only by surrendering first that you can break the unconscious resistance pattern that perpetuates that situation."

Although Tolle's words are timeless and cross boundaries of culture, race, and religion, I believe that the Power of Now has exceptional relevance for people living in 21st century America. It happens that the United States is home to more sociopathic and self-destructive pathologies than any other country in the world. The U.S. has born and raised 76% of the world's serial killers, even though we hold just 3% of the world's population; we sport the highest rate of childhood murders and suicides among the world's 26 wealthiest nations; the highest rate of obesity of any nation in the world; the highest incidence of the eating disorder anorexia; the highest rate of adolescent drug use of any industrialized nation; and the highest rate of adolescent pregnancy in the Western world.

In my opinion, serial killers, anorexics, drug addicts, suicide victims, etc., have one thing in common - they all identify excessively with mind. They live in constant resistance of the present moment, choosing to contract inward and create a false sense of self from intense fantasy worlds. Many serial killers have confessed that they value their private thoughts more than they value reality. So no serial killer - or anyone who does violence to another - has ever been truly connected to the Now.

The false self (ego) is actively bred and cultivated by the American culture. Competition - the key tenet of every aspect of our society - is driven by the belief that happiness can only be found in some future reward (victory). Even the exalted "American Dream" is based on a lie - that the future is more powerful than the present.

To be fully conscious in the present moment is to create a "psychic shield" against all attempts at manipulation by those in power - media, government, religion, and corporations. Indeed, YOU can't be manipulated at all - only your THOUGHTS can. When you disidentify with the mind, you become the OBSERVER of your thoughts, and they no longer have the power to overwhelm you. No attempt to trigger anger, despair, depression, or hatred will be successful if you have discovered the power of the Now.

SOURCE: Rense.com

How to Experience Total Freedom

2009-01-18T14:17:00.001-08:00

By Eckhart Tolle
Author of The Power of Now

Are you stressed? Are you so busy getting to the future that the present is reduced to a means of getting there? Stress is caused by being "here" but wanting to be "there," or being in the present but wanting to be in the future. It's a split that tears you apart inside.

Does the past take up a great deal of your attention? Do you frequently talk and think about it, either positively or negatively? The great things that you have achieved, your adventures or experiences, or your victim story and the dreadful things that were done to you, or maybe what you did to someone else?

Are your thought processes creating guilt, pride, resentment, anger, regret, or self-pity? Then you are not only reinforcing a false sense of self but also helping to accelerate your body's aging process by creating an accumulation of past in your psyche. Verify this for yourself by observing those around you who have a strong tendency to hold on to the past.

Die To The Past Every Moment

You don't need it. Only refer to it when it is absolutely relevant to the present. Feel the power of this moment and the fullness of Being. Feel your presence.

Are you worried? Do you have many "what if" thoughts? You are identified with your mind, which is projecting itself into an imaginary future situation and creating fear. There is no way that you can cope with such a situation, because it doesn't exist. It's a mental phantom.

You can stop this health- and life-corroding insanity simply by acknowledging the present moment.

Become Aware Of Your Breathing

Feel the air flowing in and out of your body. Feel your inner energy field. All that you ever have to deal with, cope with, in real life -- as opposed to imaginary mind projections -- is this moment. Ask yourself what "problem" you have right now, not next year, tomorrow, or five minutes from nöw. What is wrong with this moment?

You can always cope with the Now, but you can never cope with the future -- nor do you have to. The answer, the strength, the right action, or the resource will be there when you need it, not before, not after.

Are you a habitual "waiter"? How much of your life do you spend waiting? What I call "small-scale waiting" is waiting in line at the post office, in a traffïc jam, at the airport, or waiting for someone to arrive, to finish work, and so on. "Large-scale waiting" is waiting for the next vacation, for a better job, for the children to grow up, for a truly meaningful relationship, for success, to make monëy, to be important, to become enlightened. It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living.

Waiting is a state of mind. Basically, it means that you want the future; you don't want the present. You don't want what you've got, and you want what you haven't got. With every kind of waiting, you unconsciously create inner conflict between your here and now, where you don't want to be, and the projected future, where you want to be. This greatly reduces the quality of your life by making you losë the present.

For example, many people are waiting for prosperity. It cannot come in the future. When you honor, acknowledge, and fully accept your present reality -- where you are, who you are, what you are doing right nöw -- when you fully accept what you have got, you are grateful for what you have got, grateful for what is, grateful for Being. Gratitude for the present moment and the fullness of life now is true prosperity. It cannot come in the future. Then, in time, that prosperity manifests for you in various ways.

If you are dissatisfied with what you have got, or even frustrated or angry about your present lack, that may motivate you to become rich, but even if you do make millïons, you will continue to experience the inner condition of lack, and deep down you will continue to feel unfulfilled. You may have many exciting experiences that monëy can buy, but they will come and go and always leave you with an empty feeling and the need for further physical or psychological gratification. You won't abide in Being and so feel the fullness of life nöw that alone is true prosperity.

Give Up Waiting As A State Of Mind

When you catch yourself slipping into waiting... snap out of it. Come into the present moment. Just be, and enjoy being. If you are present, there is never any need for you to wait for anything.

So next time somebody says, "Sorry to have kept you waiting," you can reply, "That's all right, I wasn't waiting. I was just standing here enjoying myself -- in joy in my self."

These are just a few of the habitual mind strategies for denying the present moment that are part of ordinary unconsciousness. They are easy to overlook because they are so much a part of normal living: the background static of perpetual discontent. But the more you practice monitoring your inner mental-emotional state, the easier it will be to know when you have been trapped in past or future, which is to say unconscious, and to awaken out of the dream of time into the present. But beware: The false, unhappy self, based on mind identification, lives on time. It knows that the present moment is its own death and so feels very threatened by it. It will do all it can to take you out of it. It will try to keep you trapped in time.

In a sense, the state of presence could be compared to waiting. It is a qualitatively different kind of waiting, one that requires your total alertness. Something could happen at any moment, and if you are not absolutely awake, absolutely still, you will miss it. In that state, all your attention is in the Now. There is none left for daydreaming, thinking, remembering, anticipating. There is no tension in it, no fear, just alert presence. You are present with your whole Being, with every cell of your body.

In that state, the "you" that has a past and a future, the personality if you like, is hardly there anymore. And yet nothing of value is lost. You are still essentially yourself. In fact, you are more fully yourself than you ever were before, or rather it is only now that you are truly yourself.

The past cannot survive in your presence. Whatever you need to know about the unconscious past in you, the challenges of the present will bring it out. If you delve into the past, it will become a bottomless pit: There is always more. You may think that you need more time to understand the past or become free of it, in other words, that the future will eventually free you of the past. This is a delusion. Only the present can free you of the past. More time cannot free you of time.

Access the power of Now. That is the key. The power of Now is none other than the power of your presence, your consciousness liberated from thought forms. So deal with the past on the level of the present. The more attention you give to the past, the more you energize it, and the more likely you are to make a "self" out of it.

Don't misunderstand: Attention is essential, but not to the past as past. Give attention to the present; give attention to your behavior, to your reactions, moods, thoughts, emotions, fears, and desires as they occur in the present. There's the past in you. If you can be present enough to watch all those things, not critically or analytically but nonjudgmentally, then you are dealing with the past and dissolving it through the power of your presence.

You cannot find yourself by going into the past. You find yourself by coming into the present.

How to Slow Down Time With Your Mind

2009-01-18T14:16:00.000-08:00

By Enoch Tan / Creator of Secrets of Mind and Reality

Your spirit operates outside time and space. When there is an emergency where danger is about to approach you faster than you can normally sense, your spirit will compell you to act quickly without pondering. It directs you through your instinct and reflexes. Think of a time when you moved out of harm's way in an instant and the move was so spontaneous it seems that everything just flowed in the moment. Your awareness of what was happening and your response happened without hesistation, but so quickly that it was almost together at the same time.

That is because your spirit can observe things and sense reality beyond your ordinary rate and range of awareness. Imagine that a dagger is flying towards you from the side. In ordinary rate of awareness, there is simply not enough time to notice the dagger coming and to move out of the way. But in the realm of your spirit’s awareness, time is slowed down to a crawl and it can fully perceive everything that is happening no matter how quickly. It sends the message to you and in that moment you experience the spontaneous and seemingly simultaneous knowing and action. The awareness comes just before the action but it seems that time slows almost to a standstill during that moment of thought. Perception and action become as one.

If you want to consciously perceive faster so that things don’t seem to happen so quickly, you have to slow time down in your consciousness.

It is not time that slows down but you that slows down. See in your mind’s eye and memory things slowing down. Like a picture frame frozen from a movie in motion. It is the way you experience time slowing down or stopping when you see a beautiful person of your dreams.

It would be an advantage for anyone to stop the world or at least make everything appear to move in slow motion. It would give you time to analyze the situation and the actions of everyone and everything around you. It gives you extra time to determine your actions in a pressure situation. This would would be incredibly useful in business, driving your car in traffic, playing games, military combat, sports and life threatening situations.

Be Fully Alive to This Moment

Perceptive awareness is being fully alert and living fully in the moment. It is seeing the trees bend in the wind and the way the birds circle overhead. It is sensing how the trees feel and what problems and joy the birds are experiencing. It is experiencing the full moment around us and not just our little thoughts. It is clearing the mind of future events and past replayed scenes, so you can experience the entirety of the current moment in time. It is putting yourself in the full frame picture now in front of you in relationship to everything happening around you. It is being fully alive. With that kind of perceptive awareness, a moment can seem to you to last forever.

A master baseball batter is apparently able to slow things down when he’s at the plate. To everyone else, the ball would be rocketing toward the plate at approximately 100 mph, almost faster than the eye can see. But to the focused athlete, the ball seems to slow down just for him, and present itself to him.

This is what many of the best batters have this in common. Somehow, when they need to slow things down to make their big play, they are able to perceive everything happening in slow motion. The ball rolls slowly up to the plate and is easy to see, often appearing larger than life. It’s almost as if the ball is waiting for them to hit it. To everyone else, the ball is racing to the plate at a blistering speed, curving, skinking, and breaking in waysthat make it almost impossible to track, let alone hit.

This is truly time manipulation, since the perception of the person who seems to manage this trick is that time has been stretched longer or made shorter. Since this is the perception of the magician, and becomes the way he acts upon the world, it becomes that person’s own functional reality. It’s really a consciousness shift and an expanded awareness. And yes, it is real magic as we will see.

When playing baseball as a batter, allow yourself to focus consciously on the location and speed of the ball. Clear your mind of all noise and clutter. Get unnecessary thoughts out of your head. Tune out all sound and distraction around you. Simply focus on the baseball being pitched to you. Focus your intent. Imagine hitting it squarely and watching it sail far through the air. Concentrate on your abdomen and visualize projecting energy from this “will center”. You must want to hit the ball and will it to happen. See the ball big and bold. Fixate on the ball. See only the ball and focus your total intent and will on the ball. Did the ball appear to be moving slower than normal? If so, you are well on your way to becoming a master of time manipulation.

For most rapid perception, attention must be at its maximum focus on the area of the thing to be perceived. You must intend to see everything you can in that moment of looking. When you focus only on the thing you are looking at, things surrounding will become dimmer and out of focus while moving in slow motion together with it.

How to Experience Timelessness

To experience timelessness, you need to focus intently on the moment at hand. You cannot allow your mind to wander over events of the past or wallow in deep concern over the future. You must be in the present moment, fully alert and clear headed. In short, you must be totally involved in the “now”.

You must not fear but be calm and have a heightened state of awareness. Fear collapses time. You do not want to collapse time, you want to expand it. Awe is one of the feelings that expands time and slows it down. The opposite is true, things that move in slow motion likeness create a feeling of awe. Fear and awe are very similar and yet very different feelings. Fear causes you to be totally unseeing and blind to the action of the thing you are afraid of in the moment. Awe causes you to be totally seeing and taking in the fullness of what you are looking at.

Scientists have shown that mild anxiety can improve performance in some instances like a 100 meter dash, a musical performance, or even an exam. But for the most part, a full-blown autonomic response is not adaptive in most of these circumstances. These are classic instances of what the Taoists would call getting in your own way.

The ancient Eastern masters from various traditions such as Taoist, Buddhist, Hindu, Zen, Sufi and many others recognized this feature of the human nervous system, and so found antidotes to it. These were awareness and equanimity. They cultivated a calm temperament through meditation and breathing exercises, which you can think of as strengthening the parasympathetic response.

As a result, the Eastern masters were able to develop a very strong and nearly imperturbable presence. Because they were not getting in their own way, in the face of danger they were pure action, maximally effective. This cultivation fed into a hyper-aware state of mind, which, interestingly enough, seems to block out emotion-based responses.

Empathic healers who tranfer energy to others in therapeutic touch reach a level of heightened alertness, which is classified as hyper beta brain activity. This is a state of “superalertness” similar to the keen alertness that Zen masters have been observed to reach in closed-eye meditations. In this state, the healer is acutely focused on one thought or activity, tuning out all peripheral distractions.

You can also heal or comfort yourself in this manner. In this heightened state of consciousness, you can focus on any area of pain or injury and send healing energy to that area in thought forms. Similary, you can use your hands to help or to heal, using your hands to project and conduct that healing energy.

A concentrated mind is not an attentive mind, but a mind that is in the state of awareness can concentrate. Consciousness or awareness is never exclusive, it includes everything. It is not a constricted concentration but a relaxed and free one. When you get into the calm and unperturbed state of mind of conscious awareness, you can perceive easily and nothing can happen too quickly for you. When you are able to slow time down in consciousness, you can use time as the ultimate weapon. Nothing can stop you but you can stop anything. Time is the ultimate illusion. All time is mental.

By using the principle of “it is not time that slows down but you that slows down”, you slow down your actions to slow down the rate of things moving around you in consciousness. Then once you have that increased rate of perception, you can start moving faster again with much greater control and effectiveness. This is the secret of slowing down in order to go faster. Do not hurry because hurry manifests fear and collapses time. Only when you are calm are you able to perceive things in slow motion.

Act as if you have all the time to do everything you want.

Every time you slip up on an action or have a hesitation, it’s because you overlapped a proper sequence of things and it just cancels out in your mind. Maybe it’s because you were in a hurry. Your mind can only do one thing at a time, yet each may be done at the rate of microseconds, giving the illusion of many things at once. If you actually try to do many things at once, nothing happens. We’re referring to the conscious awareness here, although your subconscious can do many things simultaneously. It is your conscious awareness that uses rapid perception in order to slow time down.

Time is an illusion, only consciousness is reality. Who is to say that only a certain amount of things can happen within one second and not more? There are times when people encounter life threatening situation and in the moment, their whole life passed in front of them. As their precious life hung in the balance, for one split second, they took stock of their life, including their loved ones, unfulfilled dreams and unrealized goals and made a momentous decision that saved them in virtually no time at all.

Maybe you experienced moments like this before. It is a state of superconsciousness. Everything seemed to slow down. Things seemed to appear in slow motion. You saw your loved ones and they seemed to be frozen in time. You considered logical arguments and argued them through the steps to completion. All of this takes a long time normally, but for this one instance when you are so sharply focused and alert, you play it all our in one magical moment, a moment that you seemed to control.

You can perceive things in slow motion and still let your thoughts and actions flow at the “same speed”. It is all relativity. To you, time around you slows down but to an outside observer, you become phenomenally precise and in control. When you are able to perceive faster, you also possess the ability to respond faster. Each second of your time becomes stretched and you can have increased rate of movement within it. Your time is increased compared to other people’s. Those watching with normal rate of consciousness will see you moving like flashes of lightning with sudden bolts of speed.

You can also use your mind to increase your own rate of movement to phenomenal levels. Think of yourself moving at extremely high speed that is beyond the ordinary. And act with that mental state. Think speed and you manifest speed. Time manipulation and phenomenally fast movement like all mind powers, require you to be in the right state of consciousness to be of effect.

The best ballplayers, it seems, have learned how to manipulate time whenever it suits them. Perhaps they do this without a great deal of thought or analysis, but they certainly employ all of the key factors of time magicians. They focus their intent, engage their will power, and energize their thought forms. This is personal magic. This is personal power. Everyone can do it. The superstars just do it more easily and more often than the rest of us. We say that they are gifted or superhuman. They are simply focused, intent and willful.

All champions have one thing in common, they have learned to sieze the moment. No matter what situation we are in, there is always a cubic centimeter of chance that appears in the moment for us to accomplish what we want. The trick is to be alert enough to seize the moment and then have enough personal power to execute the appropriate move at the appropriate instance. Impeccable warriors are fully alert and fully aware of the physical world.

Everybody knows that under normal conditions when heroics are not on the line, a person cannot pass a ball through a crowd to a selected teamate who scores, all in less than one second. Under normal circumstances, most people cannot even locate a person in a crowd in less than one second, let alone pass the ball to him. This demonstates over and over again the elasticity of time.

There’s a young swimmer who came out of nowhere at the end of a race to eclipse the field. She always found a way to win, and would “pick her spot” to “make her move.” Still, it seemed uncanny how she could close the big gap between herself and the race lader at the end, when you consider she had to swim nearly twice as fast as she had been swimming throughout the rest of the race.

It’s like the track sprinter who digs down at the end of the race to bolt like a cannon to victory at the end. To the observer, it looks as thought they are running against opponents who are moving in slow motion. How can somebody who’s been running at top speed suddenly double that speed at the end of a race, when they should be the most tired? It’s an obvious display of will power, focused intent, and energized thought power, whereby they conceive of miraculous victory and believe it is possible. And whatever our consciousness can conceive, the body can achieve. Since everything is consciousness, the physical world is only an illusion.

Move Into the "Zone" of Higher Performance

You can cope with daily emergency situations and daily challenges where you need extra time and powers that heightened awareness affords you. You can run faster in less time and slow down events when needed by altering your perception of time and space. Some of the greatest athletes do it. Heroic rescue teams do it. You can do it too.

You can meditate anywhere and reach a state of heightened consciousness and timelessness. Surely, star athletes in action do not stop everything that they are doing to sit down in perfect posture and slowly number their bodies to enter this state. They have learned to do it within the flow of events. They pop in and out of this state, as needed. They do it quickly and almost effortlessly with practice. It becomes a learned behavior. Soon your total self will sense the opportunity or need and shift you to that new, higher level of consciousness. Then everything slows down in front of you, so that you can respond.

If you watch top athletes who gets into this “zone”, as sports people often call it, you will notice that their eyes seem to glaze over or close halfway for a brief time. They might even appear to be going into a trance. That trance, of course, is the altered state of consciousness known to meditators. They go into a state of higher consciousness very briefly. A split second can seem to last much longer to a person in this state because there is no time or normal laws of physics in higher consciousness.

Most people think that specacular atheletes simply try harder when they “turn it on”. Certainly, they do find extra energy and move with greater speed in less time at these moments, almost as though time for them was standing still. These golden moments in an athelete’s life are truly magical. They can see everything happening in slow motion around them. They have all the time in the world to make amazing moves. They can run faster, think faster, and jump higher than anyone else. And all of this comes by slipping momentarily into higher consciousness, a nonphysical reality where time does not exist and the normal laws of physics do not apply. What’s even better, they operate in these golden moments with a higher consciousness that thinks faster and better than the normal, physical consciousness that people use.

Remember that you control time as you experience it. As an agent of change, you control the only real measure of time. This is because time only occurs with change. The theatre of events around us is interpreted by our personal perception of change. Your perception will be somewhat different from mine, although we might agree on many things we observe together. Because of your unique perception, you create your own reality. You also create your own sense of time as an agent of change. Time simply measures change. Beyond that simple function, time is nonexistent. There is really only the “now”.

Since time only operates according to perception of it, you can manipulate time by controlling your perception of it. Your higher consciousness exist in the realm of timelessness. Stay in a state of heightened awareness in order to make your perception of time stand still. It is a matter of personal time perception and a focused intent to stay in the now. There are people who use such time powers to transverse great distances in very little amount of time and cause limited resources to last far longer than normal as though inexhaustible. Such are the miracles that happen when time and space are altered.

Slow Time Down and Stop the World

Sword masters and ninjas all use this “slowing time down” and “stopping the world” with the mind technique to accomplish amazing feats of lightning fast combat which normal perceiving people can hardly even comprehend how it is humanly possible for themselves to attempt.

We miss ourselves. We are so busy out there in our minds, in the mirror, on the phone, on the pc, listening to deafening music, overtaking, seeking power, status, labels. The boy racer feels alive, excited, when he is near a near death opportunity! Adrenalin pumping, over excited, showing off, seeking attention, seeking power, seeking approval, fearful. Fight or flight that we cannot see the signs. We make mistakes, we miss turnings, we lose or forget things. Because we lose the plot, we lose reign of our senses.

Only when there’s an accident, a car crash, a thump on the head, a slap in the face, a comment, a synchronistic moment, a glance from a beautiful person, song of a sweet bird, the rising or setting of the sun, a shooting star, ever renewing the rhythm of the waves do we stop for a second…time slows down…in awe, devotion, speechlessness, thoughtlessness, our ears perk up. We become aware of something here now. Something beautiful, fresh, sweet, pristine, shining, glowing, evervessant, ever fresh. Only at these times, are we awake, truly alive - during the skid / bang / crash - time slows down.

Mindfulness can be defined as knowing what is happening while it is happening, no matter what it is. The essence of meditation is training in mindfulness. It’s direct perception. We see through meditation, what the mind is doing, moment by moment. Why? Because we are training ourselves to become present. If we are present, we naturally bring our intelligence to bear on the moment. Therefore we have no option but to find out what is happening.

Meditation, then, involves being present with what is here. The observer consciousness allows you to fully observe what is happening internally as well. You notice thoughts and feelings as they arise and realize the causes. It is a self-reflective awareness where you know you are thinking when thinking happens. When you become mindful, you become more aware of things both within and without. The way to wisdom and intelligence is to understand ourselves as human beings. Not through a theory, not through a concept, but through direct experience.

When you are calm, you are clear seeing. You filter out a lot of noise that affects consciousness. To have a calm mind is to silence and still a lot of vibrations leaving perception to be free and unhindered. You get into the state of observer consciousness, where you are just watching what is going on and seeing it in every moment of its happening. Mindfulness is the systematic training in knowing what is happening, while it is happening.

As the mind becomes tranquil, many things begin to become clear. Things that were not formerly clear to us about ourselves, the world around us, the way we are living, relationships. We become clear about everything. So we need to generate within our minds the conditions for a prelimary mindfulness which is the essence of meditation. As tranquility arises we began gaining insight into the state of our own minds. Insight may arise naturally with tranquility. That is the traditional teaching. We train in tranquility and insight naturally arises.

Insight is the most profound level of learning. It is learning through direct perception which naturally gives rise to understanding. It is not learning through externally acquired information, something imported from outside. It leads to wisdom because it is learning inwardly how we are and what we are as human beings. When your meditation becomes really powerful, it also becomes constant. Life offers many challenges and the serious meditator is very seldom bored.

When you’re looking for something or a solution, take time to pause and enter the stilled state of consciousness. Don’t think of it as wasting time during the work day. With practice, this little exercise takes very little time, as others perceive it. Think of it as a creative way to think through your problems by engaging your higher mind to meditate on work issues. In that state of consciousness, the answer can come to you suddenly.

Remember, even a brief second in an altered state of consciouness can seem like hours, since you are controlling time. You are creating perfect timing of perfecting time manipulation. Time is but an illusion. There is all of the time in the world, if you can focus your intent and control your perception. Make your own reality.

Any activity where you perform can be expanded and enriched by a heightned state of awareness that allows you to expand your perception of time and operate somewhat outside of normal physical limitations.

Slow down only that which you want to, otherwise allow it to proceed at normal speed. Use rapid perception on whatever you want to, whenever you want to.

Enoch Tan is the creator of Secrets of Mind Reality

The Greatest Motivational Technique of All Time

2009-01-18T14:15:00.000-08:00

By Frank Tibolt
Excerpt from A Touch of Greatness

Ivy Lee used to be a consultant in New York City. Hs regular clients were Rockefeller, Morgan, Carnegie, the Du Ponts and other big shots.

One day Charlie Schwab of the Bethlehem Steel Co. asked Lee about his services. Lee outlined them briefly ending with the statement, "With our services you'll know how to manage better.”

"HELL!" shouted Schwab. "I'm not managing as well now as I know how. What we need around here is not more "knowing" but more "doing" …not more knowledge, but more action. If you can only show us how to do half the things we already know we ought to do ...show us how to "GET THINGS DONE" ...I'll gladly engage your services at any price."

"You're on," answered Lee. "I can give you a lesson in 20 minutes that will help you get more done tomorrow." "O.K." agreed Schwab. "I have just about 20 minutes before train time. What's your idea?"

Lee pulled out a 3 x 5 filing card, handed it to Schwab and told him. "Spend 10 minutes every evening before retiring reviewing the day's work. Ask yourself, "What did I forget, neglect or foul up? What specific steps can I take to prevent these foul ups in the future? What can I do to improve on today's work? Then spend 5 more minutes writing on this card the six things you need most to get done tomorrow." That took 8 minutes. "Now," said Lee, "Number them in the order of their importance." Three more minutes passed.

"Next," said Lee, "Put this card in your pocket and the first thing tomorrow morning, look at item 1 and start working on it. Look at item 1 every hour on the hour until you've finished it. Then tackle No. 2 the same way. Then No. 3. Do this until quitting time. As you finish each task, cross it off."

"Don't be concerned if you've only finished two or three, or even if you haven't finished No. 1. You'll be working on the most important. The rest can wait. If you can't finish all with this method, you can't with any other method either, and without this method, you'd probably never even decide which are most important."

"Before making up your next day's list transfer all your unfinished items to it. Spend the last 5 minutes every day making up a "must list" of the next day's most urgent tasks. After you've tried this method, have your key employees try it. Test it for as long as you like, and Len send me a check for what you think it's worth. Schwab sent Lee a check for $25,000 saying:

"This innocent looking little lesson is the most practical lesson I ever learned in all my life. It motivated me to make a phone call I had put off 9 months. That phone call brought me an order for steel beams that netted me 2 million dollars. I explained this humble lesson to all my executives. That did more to make the Bethlehem Steel Co. the world's largest independent steel producer, than all the meetings I held with my high-salaried executives."

Schwab learned, like most great men learn, that the simplest ideas are often the greatest in getting results. This plain little lesson is so plain looking and so plain sounding that many average people won't even try it. It's so plain that its results are almost unbelievable. But it has turned more little shots into BIG SHOTS than any "secret of success," or any high priced "motivation courses". It tops all methods of turning "ordinary" fellows into "extraordinary" producers.

If you think I'm claiming too much for this humble little lesson, let's look at what bigger and wiser men have said about it.

Walter Chrysler said, "I never started producing until I engaged a taskmaster ...a written list of things to be done every day."

Henry Ford said, "No executive is worthy of the name unless he works to a written schedule."

Henry Kaiser wouldn't hire a senior executive who didn't have the HABIT of scheduling his tasks in WRITING. Ditto Thomas Watson and Lord Northcliffe.

Both Dr. Charles and Dr. William Mayo of the Mayo Clinic ended their day's work with WRITTEN lists for the next day's work. Ditto Clifford Holland of Holland Tunnel Fame, Fred Ecker, president of Metropolitan Life daily uses a pad which he heads, "to be done today."

Thousands of other big men in business, industry, banking, education, selling, and other fields, have placed this method at the top of the list of "habits that make for success".

You'll find big producers everywhere, probably in your own company, use some adaptation of this method. For GETTING THINGS DONE, it beats all the fancy, high sounding, and high priced systems ever invented.

So let's get up your "must list" right away, while it's on your mind. It'll only take 5 minutes. And it might mark the turning point in your life as it did for many others. Since, in seeking success, the hardest part is always the start; a thing begun is more than half done.

Tomorrow buy yourself a dozen packs, a couple hundred cards. Use one every day for the rest of your life. No, that's not so difficult. You'll be surprised how quickly the habit will grow into an interesting game ...and the MOST PROFITABLE GAME YOU'LL EVER PLAY.

Would you like to hire a dynamic, super duper assistant who never forgets, to remind you, prod you, spur you, and nag you to GET YOUR TASKS DONE? A silent adviser who will draw and drive you day and night toward your chief goal in life? If you have no goal in life, it's later for you than you think. Better get one. Without one, you might continue to exist but real life will pass you by. You can hire this assistant for the price of a dozen packs of 3 x 5 cards.

PAPER NEVER FORGETS

If you want a sure fire reminder, WRITE IT DOWN ON PAPER.
If you want a manager to prod you out of your laziness, WRITE IT DOWN ON PAPER.
If you want to find yourself and your right career, WRITE IT DOWN ON PAPER.
If you want to solve a difficult problem, WRITE IT DOWN ON PAPER.
If you need a new idea, WRITE IT DOWN ON PAPER.
If you want to stick to a difficult task until you finish it, DITTO.
If you want to quit a bad habit, WRITE IT DOWN ON PAPER.
If you want to acquire a new habit or a new skill, WRITE IT DOWN ON PAPER.
If you want to become successful and rich, WRITE IT DOWN ON PAPER.

Paul Durinski, a former student said, "Writing down that statement about my goal changed my whole life. Before I wrote it down, it was just "some thoughts in my head".

Writing it down on paper changed it to something real, on fire, alive. My previous 15 years of merely thinking about it was time wasted. Writing it down on paper was like planting a seed in the ground. It grew. Believe me writing a thing down on paper works and HOW!"

Writing a thing down on paper signals the subconscious mind to work on it, to incubate, to gestate, to create... to realize the thing… to turn a wish into a fact. Why not hire this dynamic, loyal helper, your silent, invisible twin, as your 24-hour assistant? It will jog your memory, develop self-confidence, sustain ambition and enthusiasm, get things done, speed you ahead "years in months" — maybe make you rich, as it did others.

See Yourself Ten Years In the Future

2009-01-18T14:14:00.002-08:00

By Christopher Westra
Creator of the Holographic Creation Program

Objective: See in your mind's eye where you really want to be in ten years time. Choose your own values, activities, and relationships rather than copying others.

Complete this exercise that I’ve done with thousands of people to learn what you really want in life. This is your chance to dream and create in your imagination anything you want to do or be!

My Own Experience with the Ten Years Exercise

While working with troubled teens, I used to have them do a Ten Years in the Future exercise. I asked them to write a letter to a friend as if it was ten years in the future. Most of these boys and girls didn't think about the next week, much less ten years to come. Like the Cheshire cat says in Alice in Wonderland, "If you don't know where you want to go, then it doesn't really matter what road you take!"

Of course, this lack of "foresight" was a major reason their lives were pretty messed up. We had some great conversations as they really thought about what they wanted. For most of them, this was the first time they had ever thought this way!

But the real story is what happened to me. I did the exercise right along with them on many occasions, writing my dreams and visions in detail. In my letter to a friend, I had moved to the country, built my own home, become a black belt in the martial arts, authored a book, and started my own business working from home.

Over the next ten years, something magic happened. All my dreams and visions became a reality, almost as if orchestrated by an unseen hand. I realized that something very powerful was happening, more powerful than I realized initially. I did write books and start my business. We did move to the country and I did build my own home.

How to Write Your Letter

This letter to a friend will become a magnetic factor in your life, even if you write it once and then file it away. Your vision will guide you in your yearly goals, your monthly goals, and your daily activities.

You must write your letter as if it has already happened. For example:

"Dear Bob, so much has happened in the last ten years. Rachel and I have moved to Australia and live on a 2000 acre ranch."

"Leslie, I just wanted to make contact again and tell you about my life. I started my own gardening business in 2012 and it's really taken off."

"Dear Harold, I met the love of my life in 2016 and we moved to Hawaii where Frank works in a bookstore and I give surfing lessons everyday. We love it."

Remember, describe all the details as if they have already happened.

What to Include in Your Ten Years Letter

Include where in the world you live, how you earn your living, and your primary relationships. Add lots of names and details. Get creative.

Write about your hobbies and your real passions and interests. How do you give back to the community and the world? What do you read? What do you drive and where do you travel on your vacations?

You can write about your daily schedule and activities, your gardens, your office, or whatever is really important to you.

Make your letter at least one page long and write it to a real person who you think you may still know in ten years. This will help make it more real for you.

After I learned the power of this exercise, I wrote up an 11 page document that has guided my life in the past few years. One page is good, unless you really want to expand and write more.

Just for Fun

To get your creative mind flowing, include some future inventions or world changes in your letter. I had the teens do this also and we had fun with it. You can include possible political changes, new technology, social changes, and much more.

Sit down and write (or type) your Ten Years in the Future letter today.

Magic Words That Make You Rich

2009-01-18T14:14:00.001-08:00

By Ted Nicholas,
Author of Magic Words That Make You Rich

How to get everything you’ve ever wanted in life by saying the right words.

The words with which you communicate determine the quality of your life. This is true whether communicating with others or with yourself. Especially with yourself. The impact of words actually causes measurable biological changes in ourselves. And in others. Words are stored in our conscious and subconscious minds. We think in words.

Certain words incite many emotions and subsequent actions. Words have the power to induce someone to laugh, to cry, to be kind, to be loving, to be cooperative, or to buy. Or be unkind, angry, or irrational. Whether words are written or spoken, they have enormous power. Of course, when words are spoken, the added factors of voice timbre, emphasis, emotion . . . all have the potential to cause even more impact.

This book offers many concrete examples of using simple words to produce certain results. This may sound like a form of manipulation. Actually, it is. But, here is the important distinction that needs to be made. Manipulation can be either positive or negative. I define negative manipulation in this context: the use of words that causes others to act for the benefit of the communicator. Positive manipulation is when certain words tend to cause responses that are of mutual benefit to the speaker or writer and the person with whom you communicate.

The techniques I’ll reveal to you have all been developed in a win/win context.

Here is what few people seem to realize: People all over the world really want to accommodate their fellow humans. But they must be approached properly. It’s my experience and observation that many people do not give much attention to the people we meet in life and who have positions on the lower end of the job scale. In fact, some people not only ignore them, they are rude and insensitive to them.

Here is a big mistake. I believe every human being should be treated with dignity and respect. Reason? People in service occupations, for example, such as waiters and waitresses, the health club attendants, golf and tennis assistants, hotel desk clerks, rental car agents, office clerks, etc. have an ongoing power to add so much quality and meaning to our lives. Little people mean a lot.

So, Rule Number One: Treat the "little" people in your world with dignity and respect. Learn their names and background information by asking questions. Think about it. Who do you think will get special consideration when it is requested? The open and kind caring person? Or the person who treats the "little" people as though they were invisible? The answer is obvious. I’ve found that the "little" people I’ve taken time to know have enormous power to make my life more enjoyable and add real quality to each day. Plus, it’s fun to make lots of new friends.

It’s been proven by the experts that body language communicates with as much impact as the words we speak. Therefore, to enhance their power, practice saying the secret words with:

* a smile (you can even hear a smile on the telephone);
* a warm, rich tone to your voice;
* enthusiasm in what you request;
* good eye contact;
* a firm handshake;
* sincerity-you can't fake friendliness;
* a purposeful posture-standing tall; and
* a manner that communicates an expectation that you deserve and expect to get what you request.

I submit that with each person we come in contact, we have, in a certain sense, the opportunity to market ourselves. To be liked or disliked. Of course, the more people like us, the happier they are to be helpful.

I use "magic words" every day of my life. Here they are revealed to you, dear reader, for the very first time anywhere.

Self-Communication
Unless you first learn to communicate with yourself, you will not be very effective communicating with others. The silent words we all say to ourselves produce feelings. These can be positive, happy and life-enhancing, or negative, unhappy and detrimental to us.

Silent Words Are Heard!
You literally affect and change your nervous system by your internal dialogue. While I will focus mainly on the silent words, it’s important that I at least touch on another vital aspect of communication to ourselves and to the outside world.

We communicate both to our inner self with the world outside as much by the way we use our body as in our words. And our body messages, along with words spoken or silent, help create our emotion. Of course, we also hear silent words in the voice pitch and quality we choose, for our unspoken voice is heard. We hear a whiny, sleepy, apologetic voice, or we hear a rich, strong energetic voice when we speak to ourselves through internal dialogue.

In addition, if you sit slouched and speak softly and slowly with a yawning voice tone, tell yourself you are learning about communication as you begin to feel a lack of energy and drowsiness.

Any doubts? Try this test. Read the previous paragraph and see how you feel. Let yourself really experience the feelings your actions produce within you.

Now try this standing up. Walk briskly and purposefully across the room - head back, good posture. Sit comfortably, but keep your back straight as you sit in your chair. Speak silently to yourself in a strong voice with energy. Tell yourself you are learning about self-communication as you feel growing excitement about all the new benefits your new knowledge brings to your life. Let yourself really experience the emotions. See the difference!

The way we use our body muscles, facial muscles and posture is critical to our self-communication. Even how you use your eyes. It’s almost impossible to feel up if you continually look downward, especially with a frown on your face. And it’s almost impossible to feel down when you are looking straight up with a smile on your face.

Try it!

In summary, communication with the outside world, written or spoken, first starts with self-communication. Self-communication starts with the way we use our body along with the silent words we say to ourselves. The loudness of the inner words, along with the richness of tone used when we say them combine to produce our inner emotional state. Interestingly, our communication to others reflects this inner state. It can’t be hidden, at least not for long.

How to get the very best table in any restaurant

Key words are: "Celebrating Tonight"

When calling for a reservation, say, "I’d like the very best, most special table you have. We’re celebrating tonight. What can you do for us?"

If you bring your spouse on a date instead of a client or friend, say instead, "I’d like the most romantic table you have in the corner, so we can sit side by side. We’re celebrating tonight."

If the maitre d’ asks what you are celebrating (unless, of course, it’s a birthday, anniversary, sales achievement, asset purchase, or other special event) say, "We’re celebrating . . .

More Magic Words That Make You Rich

2009-01-18T14:13:00.002-08:00

Discover a Master Wordsmith's Secret for Turning Everything You Say Into Wealth, Well-Being and Personal Success

By Ted Nicholas,
Author of Magic Words That Make You Rich

You might think this strange, but every day, before I start work, I stand up, look to the sky, throw my hands in the air, and shout out loud: "I feel terrific!"

This is what I call an 'affirmation' -- positive self-talk to charge up my emotions and help me produce my very best work. An affirmation can be as simply as "YES!"...as uplifting as "I'm very happy at this moment!"...or as determined as "I'm willing to do whatever is necessary to succeed!"

Try it for yourself right now. Choose a positive message you want to tell yourself. Then stand up, put your head back, throw your arms up, and shout it out loud. Makes you feel uncomfortable? Good! You've just discovered how powerful words can be.

Unlimited Success & Wealth are All In the Words You Use
What's the single most important asset you and your business possess? Forget money and numbers. The true currency of business is WORDS. Communicating your ideas, your offer, the benefits of your product -- using words to achieve your aims is the single most important activity any business ever performs.

Unlimited success and wealth are as simple as using the right words. You can get everything you've ever wanted in life, simply by saying the right words -- because the words which you communicate determine the quality of your life.

This is true whether communicating with others or with yourself. Especially with yourself.

Words have the power to induce someone to laugh, to cry, to be kind, to be loving, to be cooperative, or to buy. Or be unkind, angry, irrational. Whether words are written or spoken, they have enormous power. Of course, when words are spoken, the added factors of voice timbre, emphasis, emotion...all have the potential to cause even more impact.

Use Words to Achieve a Win -Win Situation
Here is what few businesspeople seem to realize: People all over the world really want to help and accommodate their fellow humans. But they must be approached properly. The magic words I'll reveal to you in a moment can manipulate a situation to bring you what you want -- which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Magic Words Can Bring You Riches
The same words, strategies and techniques which I've used to get the best results from everyday situations -- like renting a Mercedes for the price of a Ford, slashing the cost of a first class hotel room, and buying valuable antiques at huge discounts -- can work magic for your business, too.

Here are 3 of the phrases which have helped me build a career marketing over $500,000,000 of both my own and my client's products and services.

Magic Phrase #1
Attract All the Money You Need for any business venture you'd like to start. The magic words here are "sophisticated investor." Every successful professional -- such as a doctor or lawyer -- likes to think of himself or herself as sophisticated. And you can often attract these people to invest in your business.

Run an ad in your local paper, highlighting those two key words. Other magic phrases to include are "Local business person with excellent track record and reputable history"; "start-up business opportunity, limited investment, high potential return," and "references available."

Magic Phrase #2
Receive Free Expert Help for your business. Simply announce, "I have a business problem and need expert assistance" either to a local business group (such as the Chamber of Commerce which you have in practically every town) -- or putting an advertisement in the business section of your local newspaper. I've been absolutely delighted with the quality of assistance provided to me on several occasions by retired executives. Seek them out in your local area, and you could benefit from this great source of experienced know-how, too.

Magic Phrase #3
Get Capable People to Work for Free. Your magic words here are "piece of the action." Instead of paying a fixed salary, run ads offering people one of these options:

* Hourly rate for services rendered
* Percentage of sales
* Percentage of profits
* Royalty on sales
* Percentage of savings
* Fixed payment for each unit produce

Anyone with a strong entrepreneurial instinct will be attracted by such an approach. It means there will be no limit on their income, they will be more independent, they can set their own hours -- and the harder they work, the more they earn. This is just the type of person you should employ.

Assume The Other Person Has Already Said "Yes"
Ask questions which assume the end result you seek. For example, speaking with your bank manager about setting up a merchant account, you might ask these questions:

1. "How long does it normally take for a credit card charge to be credited to my account?"

2. "What discount or percentage of credit card sales will the bank charge us for your service?"

3. "How long would it take to get the service in place?"

4. "What equipment do we need to buy to make it easier for your bank to process our orders?"

Can you see how the end result -- having a merchant account so you can process the credit card orders -- is assumed by the very words used in each question?

Magic Words Deliver Power
And this is especially true when you're speaking to yourself. As I said at the beginning of this letter, I use affirmations every day -- standing up, looking to the sky, throwing my hands in the air, and shouting out a positive message I need to tell myself.

Yes, I feel ridiculous when I do this too. But that discomfort is just the push I need to change my emotional state. The magic words in my affirmations give me the energy and determination I need to produce my very best work. And I truly believe they'll help you achieve your goals too.

Ted Nicholas, widely recognized as one of the greatest direct marketing wizards of all time, is best-known for having earned 24.5 million dollars on the sale of a single book that was primarily sold through direct mail. He is called the Five Hundred Million Dollar Man because he has marketed over $500 million worth of products in 49 different industries. Ted's newest book, "Magic Words That Bring You Riches" reveals 17 magic words that can make you a fortune. Learn more by clicking here.

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How to Use the Simple Magic of Mantrams to Command your Superconscious Mind

2009-01-18T14:13:00.001-08:00

By Peter Kelder
Author of Ancient Secrets of the Fountain of Youth

"There is a slight difference between the words mantra and mantram. Both are taken from a Sanskrit word meaning instrument of thought. The difference is this: a mantram is a vocalized instrument of thought, while a mantra is silent."

Whether you realize it or not, you create and shape your life with your thoughts. All things that become part of your physical reality are first created in the mind from the raw material called thought. Because it is an instrument of thought, a mantram is a tool which you can use to help shape your life as you wish it to be.

Now, in order to use mantrams to your advantage, you need to first understand the mind and how it works. Nowadays, the term subconscious mind is one that's frequently heard but seldom understood. Instead of subconsciousness, the lamas use a word that could be translated as superconsciousness -- consciousness of a higher order. The job of the superconscious mind is to take thought, which is pure energy, and give it physical shape in the material world.

Whole books could be written on the subject, but just now the important thing for you to remember is this: your superconscious mind is a willing and eager servant whom you command by way of your thought patterns. When you think a thought, you issue a command. Your servant obeys by manifesting the thought in the physical world where it becomes the things and events in your life. Thus, physical reality is a mirror of your thought patterns. Change your thought patterns, and you change the reflection in the mirror. In other words, you change your life.

This concept, as simple as it is, is a stumbling block for many people. They point to some unhappy or even tragic event in their lives and refuse to believe that they could have created it with their own thoughts.

But if you examine your thoughts closely, you're likely to discover negative patterns competing with positive ones. In one breath you'll say, "I want to achieve happiness." But in the next breath you'll give yourself a thousand and one reasons to be unhappy: your job is stressful; the weather is unpleasant; bills are piling up; you're overweight; the neighbors are noisy; you are late for an appointment; and on and on. So while your stated goal is happiness, your thoughts are working overtime to create just the opposite.

A mantram is something you can use to unify your thought patterns and bring them into alignment with your highest and best desires. To start using this powerful tool, you must first clearly identify the rewards which life is to deliver to your doorstep.

A Very Simple Exercise to Unify Your Mind

There's a very simple mental exercise that can help you accomplish this. It takes only a few minutes, so I suggest that you repeat it every month of so. Sit down and make a written list of the things you desire most. Don't reason as to what you ought to want. Instead, jot down your desires quickly, including everything that comes to mind.

Now examine your list carefully and ask yourself what rewards each of your stated desires must bring you. The rewards are what you're really after, so write them down also. For example, if you wrote, "I desire a better job," what you really want are the rewards of a better job. Maybe you want the fulfillment that comes from putting to good use special talents and training you have. Perhaps you want a bigger paycheck and the feeling of security that comes with that. Or maybe you want the pleasure of working in a friendly, relaxed environment.

The rewards you want should always be expressed in terms of feelings. Feelings, both bitter and sweet, are the fruits of your lifetime experience. They are the prize. When you depart this world,you leave behind your material treasures. But your feelings remain with you always. So choose with care those which you wish to have as lasting companions.

Now review your list of desires and the rewards you wish to achieve. Read it top to bottom, and as you do, search for just two or three words or phrases to summarize everything. This may seem impossible at first. But once you look closely, you'll see groups of seemingly different desires and rewards all aimed to a common goal. Separate your desires into two or three such groups and find a word or phrase to capsulize each one. To use a simple example, if you desire a better house, an expensive automobile, and a new wardrobe, the fundamental goal behind all three is abundance or prosperity.

Create a Short, Simple Command For Your Superconscious

By now you should have a clear picture of your fundamental goals, so put them all together and state them in a brief command. Make the command positive, short, and to the point. For example, "I demand happiness, power, and prosperity right now." And there you have it. When your command is spoken aloud, it becomes a mantram, or plainly stated, a device you can use to stimulate your superconscious mind into action."

The word power is a good one, because it will help bring about health, strength, and vitality in your physical body. And on a mental level, it will empower you to become master of your own destiny. "Right now" at the end of your command tells your superconscious mind when you want things to happen: NOW. It tells your superconscious mind to get busy immediately manifesting your desires

How to Use Your Mantram

Now that you have a mantram, putting it to use is as simple as can be. All you need to do is speak it aloud with conviction. Don't be timid. Feel the power of your voice and speak as if you are commanding a magic genie who will bring you whatever you desire. Once you have spoken your mantram aloud with unwavering conviction and resolve, you've done all that's needed.

Speak your mantram just before going to sleep at night and upon waking in the morning. Then form the habit of repeating it at regular intervals throughout the day. If you find yourself in front of a mirror, gaze directly into the reflection of your own eyes and repeat your mantram with firm confidence.

Then, as you go about your daily life, pay close attention to all the things you think and say. Be alert for negative thoughts or words that will send conflicting commands to your superconscious mind. They will undo the positive force of your mantram, so when you detect them, stop, take a deep breath, and cancel the negative thoughts or words by speaking your mantram with steadfast resolve.

Of course, if you are in the presence of other people, you can't all of a sudden blurt out, "I desire happiness, power, and prosperity right now!" In such a case, I would suggest that you use a mantra. All that's needed is to repeat your mantra inwardly and contemplate the meaning of the words. Since it isn't reinforced by the power of the voice, a mantra isn't quite as effective as a spoken Mantram, but it will get splendid results nevertheless.

Focus on the End Result

Whether you're using a mantram or a mantra, an important thing to remember is this: when you command the superconscious mind, you must focus only on the end result which you desire. Never try to dictate how superconsciousness will accomplish its miracles.

The superconscious mind is far more clever and resourceful than you can possibly imagine. If it is headed off in one direction, it is not discouraged and does not give up, for it knows that there are ten thousand other ways to achieve a desired goal. If, through your own thoughts and preconceptions, you try to tell the superconscious mind how to do its work, you will only limit its options and restrict the magic which can unfold.

The superconscious realm of your mind is a magnificent thing. It takes great delight in working to accomplish literally anything you desire. Desire is a very strong force, and when you use it to stimulate the superconscious mind into action, it will be thrilled to bring you your heart's desire in ways you never dreamed possible.

Another thing you should know is this: the superconscious realm of the mind does not judge your thoughts before it responds to them. It does not differentiate between pain or pleasure, sorrow or happiness, grief or joy. A better way to state it is, no feelings or emotions are pleasant or unpleasant to the superconscious mind. Its job is to transform thought patterns into matter -- all thought patterns. And it couldn't possibly do the job it is meant to do if it were to first judge your thoughts good or bad, happy or unhappy, worthy or unworthy.

In short, the wonderfully simple secret which can help everybody achieve whatever they desire is this: change your thought patterns, and you change your life. If you think thrilling thoughts, the superconscious mind will flood your life with thrilling things, instead of the miserable things in life.

By Peter Kelder, author of "Ancient Secrets of the Fountain of Youth"

How to Be Outstanding in any Situation

2009-01-18T14:12:00.002-08:00

By Steve G. Jones,
Clinical Hypnotherapist
Better Living With Hypnosis

As my New Year's gift to you, I would like to give you something you can use today. You will be amazed at how many times what I'm about to share will come in handy, if you use it.

This technique is called anchoring. Today, anchoring is generally considered part of the body of knowledge known as NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) which has its roots in Pavlovian behavior modification. You remember Pavlov. He was the Russian scientist who, in about the year 1900, made dogs salivate by ringing a bell.

Here's how he did it: He would start by ringing a bell while letting dogs smell meat powder. They would salivate from smelling the meat powder. Eventually, he only needed to ring a bell and this alone caused the dogs to salivate. The dogs had associated the bell with hunger. The bell was an anchor for salivation. Pretty simple, huh?

Unfortunately, you are exposed to this form of conditioning every day.

Did you know that TV commercial makers use anchoring to manipulate you? TV commercials will show you a sexy person smoking to cause you to associate (anchor) sexiness with smoking. Beer commercials are notorious for showing women in bikinis so that you will associate beer with sex. Fast food commercials show happy families clogging their arteries to cause you to associate eating garbage with being happy.

This technique has been used AGAINST you countless times.

Now, I'm going to hand you the keys to the car and let you take control of your anchoring. It is possible to apply this same basic technique to almost any problem. Smoking, overeating, nail biting, fear of public speaking, all of these conditions are treatable with NLP. On many of my hypnosis recordings, I use NLP to reinforce the positive change.

Let's take a look at how Pavlov's discovery can HELP you right now. I teach this technique to established actors who need a little boost between multi-million dollar movies. Yes, even established actors feel a little self-conscious sometimes. And they love quick powerful techniques which they can use before going on camera.

So here is how positive anchoring works:

Step 1. Think of three times in your life when you felt very powerful and in control and write them down (one sentence describing each).

Step 2. Stand alone in a room and think of the first situation. Recall it in full color with sound and anything else that could make it real to you.

Step 3. At the moment when you feel fully back in that moment, slap your left shoulder with your right hand and say, "Power!"

Step 4. Repeat steps 1-3 for each of the three memories.
N.B. Remember, you want to anchor each feeling by slapping your shoulder when you feel the memory at its MOST INTENSE moment. In NLP, this process of reinforcing the anchor is called stacking anchors.

Now that you have the anchor installed, you can "fire it off" as needed. The next time you are in a situation requiring confidence, slap your left shoulder with your right hand and say, "Power!" Just as sure as Pavlov's dogs salivated when they heard that bell, and just as sure as countless people associate smoking with sexiness, you will feel confidence surging through you because now your mind associates confidence with that slapping motion and the word "power"!

Occasionally feeling a lack of confidence is a normal part of being human. Having an effective strategy for immediately turning this into confidence is a normal part of being outstanding.

Have an OUTSTANDING New Year!

Steve G. Jones is a board certified Clinical Hypnotherapist who works extensively with Hollywood actors, writers, directors, and producers, helping them achieve their very best. Learn more at Better Living With Hypnosis

Master Switchwords for Creating Wealth

2009-01-18T14:12:00.001-08:00

By Shunyam Nirav
Switchwords.com

What is a "discount?"
When an amount of money is decreased.

What's the opposite of a discount,
when an amount of money is increased?
A "count," of course.

In a word, the essence of all moneymaking is COUNT. Whenever any individual or company makes money, at some point in the process, a COUNTing happens: COUNTing of hours worked and/or products sold, and the amount of money received in exchange. Banks store money in acCOUNTs; financial record-keepers are acCOUNTants; retail shops have check-out COUNTers where customers give money for their purchases.

Declare this essence of money-making, COUNT, either once as a switch or repeated as a chant (silently or aloud), and inevitably you will soon be watching yourself make money.

"Recently, I had a shortage of cash flow, for various reasons; an interruption that was beginning to get uncomfortable. I used COUNT consciously for about a week; and last week, we received a $19,700 USD offer to settle a dispute out of the blue. This issue was going on for YEARS, and had much emotional attachment as it involved people very close to us. We had no expectation that it would appear when it did. But it did.” --Sandra Fieger, St. Vincent, Caribbean, www.empowerment-resources-online.com

A good way to get acquainted with the switchword COUNT is to silently repeat it throughout your activities for an entire day, and watch what happens ... something will! This can be fun, since COUNT is unspecific and the results are often surprising.

When I declare or chant COUNT silently or aloud, often I will soon see and pick up a coin on a street or sidewalk...even a small coin qualifies as a COUNT! (It’s also an indicator for me that COUNT is working.) When I then persist in affirming, declaring, and/or chanting COUNT, substantial income always happens. For example, I have gotten new jobs, started new profitable businesses and careers, made thousands in the stock market, observed sudden increases in business activity and income, received large financial gifts and donations from relatives and friends, written and sold many books, received royalties for commercial use of my photographs, played music and received tips and fees, and many more.

Basically you could just silently chant COUNT often until all your financial goals have manifested in physical reality!

"I repeated the word COUNT and within 48 hours I had generated $800 with my business that had been looking at some very dark days of lacking." --Jan Sydnam, Texas, USA

That is one way to use COUNT -- just affirm or chant it often silently and/or aloud, and watch what happens.

The other way is to specify a financial goal and apply COUNT to it. For example, if you want to earn or receive 10,000 Euros, affirm or declare often "10,000 Euros COUNT" until it is a physical reality in your life.

Building a Fortune with Switchwords

Using the switchword COUNT, you make money through measuring (COUNTing) the exchange of goods or services. Another closely related switchword, FIND, "to build a fortune," is about accumulation rather than measurement. Chant or declare FIND silently or aloud, and watch yourself FIND valuable things! You definitely can FIND money, but you may also FIND many other things of value (which may or may not be convertible to money). For financial increase, experiment with both COUNT and FIND.

"Money occurs to poor people as something you have (or don’t have).
Money occurs to middle-class people as something you do (like a job).
Money occurs to wealthy people as something you ARE."

(paraphrased from Werner Erhard in The est Training, 1973)

Money does not exist in Nature on its own, like a bird, tree, or rock; it is entirely an invention of human thought, to facilitate the exchange of goods and services among people in an orderly, convenient, and balanced way. As such, the way money shows up in your life is highly influenced by your thoughts.

However, since money is a social phenomenon, it also necessarily always exists in the physical universe in some form (paper, plastic, metals, or tiny electromagnetic impulses in a computer).

Therefore, to deliberately create financial income, four basic elements are always necessary: 1) deliberate creative thought, 2) interaction with other people, 3) moving things around in the physical universe, and 4) time. Switchwords can facilitate your mastery of all of these elements.

As always, I recommend primarily using one-word switchwords, especially for beginners -- it’s the most easy, simple, focused, and effective way. Nevertheless, I have found some useful combinations of switchwords for financial increase. The most important are TOGETHER-COUNT and TOGETHER-FIND: to be in a together state while making money or building a fortune; to "have it all together" financially; to make money with a group of people; to ensure that your money-making and fortune-building activities are ethical, harmonious, enjoyable, and beneficial to yourself and others.

Please do not underestimate the power and capabilities of these simple word combinations; frequently declaring, affirming, or chanting TOGETHER-COUNT and TOGETHER-FIND can eventually give you such a satisfying and wonderful life and financial situation that you cannot imagine anything better for yourself -- you already have it all right now!

Nevertheless, sometimes you may FIND it worthwhile to utilize the...

Switchwords for Financial Miracles

DIVINE-COUNT: for money miracles; for extraordinary financial results that reasonably would seem impossible. (I have a friend who works in a retail shop in Hawaii, and makes most of her money through sales commissions. After hearing about DIVINE-COUNT from me, she recently tried chanting it silently throughout her work day. In a normal good day in that shop she makes about $50 in commissions; on that day she made $170!)

TOGETHER-DIVINE-COUNT: excellent for a team or group or company that wants to accomplish extraordinary financial results together

TOGETHER-DivineORDER-COUNT: same as above, but when more order in the situation is called for (as in a company recovering from bankruptcy, for instance; or when building a new company)

DivineORDER-COUNT: good for cleaning up financial messes; putting your financial affairs in order; cleaning and organizing your office, computer, and files; doing bookkeeping or accounting; preparing taxes; or constructing and operating business activities

FINDIVINE: this is a fun one! walk around silently chanting FINDIVINE for a day (or a year) and watch what miraculous good fortune happens in your life! :-)

FINDIVINEORDERCOUNT: a new experimental composite switchword combining the ideas of miraculous good fortune, optimum order and form, and making money

You can find an advanced long combination of switchwords for great financial increase on page 166 of the SWITCHWORDS e-book.

Switchwords for Increasing Sales, Eliminating Debt, and Being Generous

Some other switchwords related to finances are GIVE, CANCEL, and MAGNANIMITY.

GIVE is the switchword for selling. Whenever you sell anything to anyone, you GIVE them the object and they GIVE you money in exchange. GIVE is the essential activity. So whenever you want to sell anything -- declare, affirm, or silently chant GIVE. Or use DIVINE-GIVE for miraculous or extraordinary sales results. If you’re working with a team, frequently silently affirm or chant TOGETHER-GIVE, TOGETHER-DIVINE-GIVE, or TOGETHER-DIVINE-GIVE-COUNT for extraordinary sales team results!

CANCEL is a very useful and important switchword for disappearing anything you don’t want in your life, thoughts, or experience (it will be the subject of a future article in this series). One of its uses is to eliminate debt. The essence of eliminating a debt is that it becomes CANCELed. So affirm, declare, or chant CANCEL towards any unwanted debts you may have, and they will in due time become actually CANCELed. Usually this happens through returning the borrowed money (COUNT!) -- but it can also happen through voluntary CANCELing of the debt by the lender, through barter of goods or services, or through other creative solutions (REACH). For a group, family, company, or nation the variations of TOGETHER-CANCEL, TOGETHER-DIVINE-CANCEL, or TOGETHER-DivineORDER-CANCEL can be useful.

MAGNANIMITY is the switchword for being generous. James T. Mangan, the discoverer of switchwords, suggested that MAGNANIMITY would be an excellent motto to put on coins and currency. Since the more you give, the more you receive, MAGNANIMITY is a superb switchword and motto for creating and maintaining prosperity -- not only for nations but for businesses, organizations, families, and for your individual life!

Experiment with the energies and results of all these financial switchwords, and invent new useful combinations, as you wish. (The switchwords.com E-Group is a good place to share about your FINDings with others.)

Switchwords are scientific creativity tools which, like a screwdriver or a shovel, don’t require any belief on your part for them to work. Just try using them and watch the results.

The Two Most Important Words to Your Development

2009-01-18T14:11:00.002-08:00

By Kent Sayre,
Author of "Unstoppable Confidence"

In this article, I’m going to explain to you the two most important words to your development. Your development means achieving your goals and developing yourself in all areas of your life. You will benefit from these words by integrating them into your vocabulary and applying them.

"START"
The first word is “start”. To reach the end, you have to have a beginning. Start things up. Let me tell you something you probably already know but maybe hadn’t thought about really consciously until now. There is no perfect time to start something. So why wait? There’s no reason. Many people describe their goals as “When I…X” or “When X happens” where “X” is the condition they’re waiting on and will continue to wait on.

Just get up and running. If you want to do something well, it’s worth doing badly at first. It’s the way we all learn. My philosophy is to just start up and go for it. When I take one step, the next step will be revealed to me. Sure, I may not know what the heck I’m doing and yet I believe in myself enough to figure it out. If I don’t know what to do, I have the second most important word to lean on, which I’ll describe later in this article. Just take one step. Promise yourself to take one small action every day.

Again, there won’t be any perfect time. Shoot, I can wait years for the stars to align, for the ocean tide to be high, for my astrological sign to be aligned with the moons of Jupiter and so on and so forth until I get the right “sign” to begin. But meanwhile, I’m burning up my most precious commodity; my time.

When you burn up your time, it’s like you’re taking the present that the Universe/God/The Great Spirit is giving you and slapping it away. And you can never get it back. My point is to just start doing something. Do it badly if you must and just say, “Hey, I’m going to find out some of the ways this won’t work and when I run out of ways it won’t work, I’m going to succeed.” It’s true. Run out of ways NOT to succeed and you’re bound for success.

Think about something you do incredibly well now. This could be at your job, at home, with your hobby, with your family, or in sports. At some point in your past, you probably weren’t as good as you are now, are you? You may have even been downright rotten. What happened? You kept at it and you got better and now you’re successful at it. See friend, this part of the article is not groundbreaking. I’m just reminding you, “Hey, remember when you didn’t do something well but now you do? Well, anything you want to do well now but aren’t so red hot at is just the same experience repeated.”

You’ve got all the resources in you to do it. This is undeniably true. You’ve been less-than-excellent in the past and now you are excellent at something. You learned one skill which means you can do it again, now. And I do mean right now! Not tomorrow, not the next day. Now, now, now, now. You get the drift of what I’m saying, don’t you?

"HELP"
So after you get up and running, you may run into snags. Snags are obstacles you meet on your journey to success. Still, I commend you for using the first word “start” to get rolling. Now here comes the second most important word to your personal development ever. Are you ready? It is “help”. Help, to me, is a near magical word. You can summon others to help you achieve what you want.

Ask for help early and often. For whatever you want to do, achieve, or solve, there is someone or something out there who not only knows how to help you but who WANTS to help you too! They may have already handled this challenge you’re facing. Stubborn pride cost me a lot because I wouldn’t ask for help from others in the past. I thought I had to do it all alone. Meanwhile, I wasted time fumbling around while another person could have immediately helped me.

Any worthwhile pursuit will have snags along the way. So get help when you find them. Defeat the snag and move on to bigger and better things. And when you get help, pass along your expertise too to others so that everyone benefits.

There you go. ‘Start’ and ‘help’ are the two words that will put you on the path to achieving your every goal and living the life of your dreams. Congratulations. As you imagine leading your dream lifestyle, you can picture it now so clearly, and tell yourself inside how great a job you did, as you feel wonderful with this powerful sense of achievement…you can remind yourself that you did it because you got started and you asked for help along the way.

Kent Sayre is a worldwide persuasion expert and author of “The Ultimate Persuasion Formula” available at: www.TheUltimatePersuasionFormula.com Furthermore, he is the author of the bestselling book “Unstoppable Confidence” endorsed by such celebrity authors as Brian Tracy, Robert Allen, and Jim Rohn.

Kent Sayre is an author of “Unstoppable Confidence”. Celebrity authors Brian Tracy, Robert Allen, and Jim Rohn have endorsed the book and it’s sold over 31,000 copies. It has a lifetime guarantee to explode your confidence. Kent is also the creator of Hypnosis MP3's which you can download immediately to change your life.

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Power Affirmations for Attracting Money

2009-01-18T14:11:00.001-08:00

By Jeff Staniforth
Affirmware.com.au

So you desire to gain material things in life? Affirmations are usually effective in this respect - maybe even more so than with other desires because material desires often come with stronger emotional attachments.

You'll recall that in my previous article, "Why Do Some Affirmations Work - and Others Don't?" I emphasized that affirmations that are emotionally charged are the ones most likely to work. So when you are emotionally connected to your desire for material things, you can use the power of affirmations to see how quickly your need is manifested!

Power Affirmations for Attracting Money.

If your desire is to have an abundance of money to fill your needs, practice this affirmation: "I always have an abundance of money to meet all my needs." Repeat it several times, then stop affirming. Be silent while knowing, visualizing, and feeling how it is to already have the amount of money you desire. Feel as though it has already happened, and that all your needs are more than satisfied. While in this state, hold yourself open to all the ways and means by which you will have money flow into your life to meet your every need.

Following are other power affirmations for abundant supply. Choose the affirmations that feel appropriate to you --those that resonate with you, or strike an emotional chord. It is important that the words feel comfortable to you and are in line with who you are. Feel free to create one for your specific need by substituting other words that have special meaning to you:

Affirmations of Abundant Supply:

I am now open to receive.
Life is easy, I have an abundance of whatever I need.
I now have surplus, all my needs are being met.
I have unlimited abundance.
I now give and receive freely.
This is a rich universe and there is plenty for all of us.
I now live in a rich and loving universe.
Money comes to me easily and effortlessly.
I am always supplied with whatever I need.
I move forward with an expectancy of my greatest good.
I look for and receive a bountiful supply.
My greatest good is coming to me NOW.
The last affirmation was a turning point for me personally.

I've since created about 20 variations of this affirmation, and created a screen saver I call "My Ideal Relationship With Money". And, for a limited time only, I am giving this "Invest in your future" screen saver away for Free when you purchase the Sculptor 3 program. For details, click here.

TIP: How to Maintain the Emotional Charge of Your Affirmations

Most people who practice affirmations experience the challenge of maintaining the emotional charge of their affirmations. That's because although the power of thought is amazingly strong, it remains strong for a short period of time. Its quality changes and tends to diminish with each repetition.

For example: Suppose you recite an affirmation such as: "All my needs are met instantaneously." The affirmation produces a feeling, and you understand and connect with the affirmation at a certain level. But when you continue repeating the affirmation, "All my needs are met instantaneously," again and again, the thought seldom maintains the same level of emotion previously achieved. With each repetition, you tend to lose the mental picture of what the words mean, and they start to have less meaning.

Affirmations that are meaningless fail to reach deep enough to touch the limitless powers of your subconscious mind.

To prevent this from happening, I've developed the software program called Sculptor 3, which combines affirmations with 7 of the best results-amplifying technologies that are tested and proven to increase the power and speed of manifestation. Discover how to tap into the power of computerization to take the power of your affirmations to the highest level at Affirmware.co.au

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Dream Incantation Attracts Harem

2009-01-18T14:10:00.002-08:00

By Leo Lewis
Times Online

An ageing and unprepossesing Tokyo fortune teller who kept a harem of ten women in their twenties for years may have used hypnosis to hold them in his thrall.

Police searching the three-storey home where Hirohito Shibuya, 57, kept the women say that they discovered “how-to” guides on group hypnosis and believe that he used other mind-control techniques under the guise of fortune telling.

Mr Shibuya, who was arrested last week on suspicion of threatening to turn one of his harem members into mincemeat if she left, went to extraordinary lengths to avoid breaching polygamy laws.

Japanese records show that he was married twelve times to ten women between 1999 and August 2004. He divorced one woman and married another in the same day eight times.

“Although it’s illegal in Japan, I’m virtually a polygamist,” he said. “I contacted my ward office, and officials there said it was not illegal to repeatedly marry and divorce, although they did say it was unprecedented.”

Mr Shibuya somehow managed to keep all his former wives under the same roof. He said that they all worked in shops while he stayed at home avoiding strenuous work because of a heart condition.

Although psychologists say it is possible that Mr Shibuya used hypnosis to secure his harem’s loyalty, he claims that he learnt in a dream of a magic “love charm”. He has refused to share it with the world, but says that “if you chant it, even unattractive men find themselves popular with women”.

SOURCE: Times Online

5 Mind Traps About the Economy and How to Stop Them From Destroying Your Life

2009-01-18T14:10:00.001-08:00

By Laurie Nadel, Ph.D.
Co-creator of Chaos to Clarity: Take Charge of Your Thinking During Turbulent Times

In "Stress and America," the American Psychological Association reported that 80% of Americans feel stressed about the economic crisis; 60% feel angry about it; and 52% are having trouble sleeping.

It is easy to blame the news for the rise in stress levels. But let’s face it: even when the economy is booming, the news generally tends to be negative in tone.

Let’s look at it from another angle: If you keep banging your head against a wall until it bleeds, do you blame the wall?

Ruminating obsessively about the economy or letting your fears keep you awake at night is like blaming the wall for being made of brick when you are the one who keeps slamming your head against it.

What happens when you stop?

Whether it’s a brick wall or the economic crisis, your head stops hurting. (Aaah! Doesn’t that feel better?)

"That’s easy for you to say," you may be thinking. "But what, specifically, can I do to stop worrying?"

The first key is to identify the Mind Traps that keep you from thinking productively and finding solutions. Here are five of the most common Mind Traps:

Mind Trap #1: Watching "The Fear Channel."

Did you know that your mind is like a television? It is constantly projecting images onto the screen of your conscious mind. When you are sleeping, those streams of images are called dreams (or nightmares). When you are awake, they make up a subliminal cable channel that runs through your mind 24/7 whether you are aware of it or not.

Every time you watch the news on TV or your computer, or listen on the radio, or read a newspaper or blog about the impact of the economic crisis, your mind selects the images, words, and themes that have the greatest emotional impact. Within nanoseconds, you are watching large, bright colorful 'mind movies' about bankruptcy, home foreclosures, swindlers, and people who became so desperate after losing large sums of money that they committed suicide.

Your head begins to feel as if it’s glued to "The Fear Channel." Knowing this, are you surprised that you have anxiety about the economy?

Here’s the solution: Change the channel! Imagine you have a remote control in your hand and you can switch from watching those disaster movies to watching something that makes you feel good. How about your very own personal "Health and Fitness Channel?" Or your "Friends and Family" channel?

It’s your mind. It’s your TV. It’s your remote. Stop banging your head against the wall. It’s not the economy, stupid. You forgot to change the channel. So do it.

Mind Trap #2: Getting stuck in NeverAlways Land.

When I was a young girl, Peter Pan was one of my favorite stories. In one version, the actress Mary Martin played Peter Pan. She sang a song to describe her life:
"I know a place where dreams are born and life is never planned. It’s not in any chart. You must find it with your heart. NeverNever Land."

As the Bible says, there are times "to put away childish things." We outgrow nursery rhymes and fairy tales. We forget about Peter Pan and NeverNeverLand.

We become adults. We have families and careers. We take on responsibilities. We work hard to pay our bills. When a financial crisis like the present one escalates to becoming the number one issue on everyone's mind, our attention starts to wander. Without realizing it, we have drifted into the emotional swamplands of NeverAlways Land. We start to think, "I’ll never get out of debt," "I will always have financial problems," "We will never recover," etc.

The quicksand of NeverAlways Land starts sucking you down into a destructive spiral of negative thinking.

There is a solution: When you are feeling stuck, pay attention to the words you use when you are speaking out loud or in your head. Write down every time you use "Always" or "Never."

Draw a border around your list of "Always" and "Never" phrases. This 'territory' of the mind is NeverAlways Land. As you become more aware of when you use these generalizations, it will become easier for you to navigate away from NeverAlwaysLand. Try replacing "Never" and "Always" with some of the following words:
"Sometimes"
"Maybe"
"Perhaps"
"Yet"
"Not yet"
"Now"
"Possibly"

You will find that staying away from NeverAlways Land creates a different mental landscape, one that is wide open to the possibility that life can change for the better. Not now, perhaps…. but possibly.

Mind Trap #3: It’s not fair!

One of my first jobs was assistant editor for the Comic Book Association of America. It was my job to read the story boards and make sure they conformed to the comic book industry association code which went something like this: "In every comic book story, good must always triumph over evil and the villain must never be allowed to escape."

Boys and girls, I am sorry to have to break it to you but real life isn’t fair.

Nowhere, except in comic books, is it written that life comes without hardship.
Fair or unfair, that’s just the way it goes sometimes.

In some ways, Mind Trap #3 seems like the cruelest of them all. There is no rational answer for why honest, hard-working individuals will be prevented from retiring because of the stock market’s tanking. Nor can I assist you in understanding why the CEO’s of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler have corporate jets at their disposal when thousands of auto workers are unemployed.

I do know that ruminating about the unfairness of it all will make it impossible for you to find that new job or scale down your expenses. What it will do is keep you stuck in the mentality of a victim, which you are not. You can choose to think differently.

"You probably spent more time learning how to drive a car than learning how to use your brain," said Richard Bandler, a founder of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). Whether you are out of work or afraid of losing your job or just plain worried, now is the best time to find your hidden strengths and make use of intelligences that you never knew you had.

It is possible that years from now, you will look back at this crisis and say, "It wasn’t fair but if I hadn’t gone through all that, I would not be who I am today. I would never know that I had certain strengths and abilities because I would not have been motivated to discover them."

Mind Trap#4: There is nothing I can do.

In the 1990’s, I spent 7 years teaching in corporate universities. One of my favorite homework assignments was asking students to bring into class an "impossible problem."

"What makes a problem impossible?" you may wonder.

You don’t believe you are smart enough to solve it. The solution is not within your control. Someone else has to give it the green light. The problem is framed in a yes/no format. This leaves no room for brainstorming new solutions. It implies that there is only one correct answer.

Mind Trap #4 is a virtual "bridge to nowhere." If you do not believe you are incapable of coming up with new ideas, you will stay stuck. If you frame the problem so that you do not have control over the choices that need to be made in order to solve the problem, guess what? You won’t be able to solve it. And if you frame the problem in a yes/no, black/white, either/or format, you are assuming there is only one correct answer. In complex, real-life situations, rarely is there one correct answer. Just as Mind Trap#4 has a few layers of complexity, so do real-life problems. Stay far away from Mind Trap#4 if you really want solutions.

Mind Trap #5: "Second pig" thinking.

In the story of the three little pigs, the big bad wolf threatened to huff and puff and blow down the house of the first little pig. He panicked and built a house of straw. The wolf came, as promised. You know what happened.

The second little pig saw what happened to the first pig and said, "Hmm…that was a flimsy house of straw." He threw together a house of sticks. The wolf came, huffed and puffed, blew the second little pig’s house down, and ate him.

The third little pig thought for awhile. "The problem isn’t the house. The wolf is the source of the problem."

He designed and built a house of bricks but he knew that would not stop the wolf. Eventually, the third little pig lured the wolf to come down the chimney where there was a pot of boiling water on the fire. The third little pig solved the problem by taking time to identify the source of the problem rather than just throwing solutions at it and hoping it would go away.

MIND TRAP #5 can be avoided quite easily. Take time to think about the source of a problem before you try to fix it. That way, it won’t come back.

Join our teleseminar:
How to Move from Chaos to Clarity during Turbulent Times

Are You Worrying About the CHAOS in Your Life RIGHT NOW?
Are you worrying about the chaos in the economy?
Do you see, hear, or feel your future spinning out of control?
Do you wake up feeling anxious about your day?
Let Dr. Laurie Nadel and Ed Caldwell show you the best ways to stay away from debilitating Mind Traps About The Economy.

Mind Control for the Bailout Blues

2009-01-18T14:09:00.003-08:00

Source: The Stop Your Drama Blog

Well… the big bail out didn’t work and now everyone is freaking out. Goes to show the effect of bad judgment. We collectively get to see what the proverbial "ripple effect" looks like on a global perspective. It’s not just about us any more.

If you haven’t noticed, we are all playing in the same sand box. In USA Today the headline on the front page says, "As fear, panic spread, global markets dive."

Japan’s Nikkei stock average plummeted, Russia, France, UK and Germany felt the hit too. If we don’t get a measure of discipline, we are all going to spiral out of control.

Here’s a suggestion to keep you rowing in the midst of the tidal waves:

Get Control of Your Mind

It’s time to throw in a dash of discipline with some good old mind control. Letting your thoughts go haywire with future predictions, worry and doom and gloom only add to the global misery as is evident in the front page of every major magazine.

Here are 5 Mind Mistakes to Avoid in Tough Times

Mind Mistake #1
I have the right to worry.

You do have the right to worry but it is a mistake to take advantage of this option.The reason is worry doesn’t contribute to the solution. Worry can make you sick and worry breeds more negativity. Already USA Today reports stress is up 50-60%, irritability is at an all time high and fatigue and sleeplessness is reaching an all time high as well. Getting SICK does not solve your problem… it only makes it worse.

Mind Mistake #2
This is all the Government’s fault.

While it’s easy to cast blame and point fingers, there is a bigger picture to observe. All of us have a responsibility to select representatives to our government who look out for our best interests. The more personal responsibility we are individually ready to assume, the less likely we will be faced with these kinds of problems. Each person must take this situation as a wake up call to be more alert and pro-active. We are all in this together.

Mind Mistake #3
I can’t help how I feel.

Although unwanted circumstances influence how you feel, you can shift how you feel. On a physical level, to feel your very best you must take care of yourself, eat healthy, exercise, and get your sleep. On a mental or emotional level you must master your mindset.

Emotions are the body’s reaction to the mind. Your thoughts trigger your emotions, not the other way around. Thought always comes first. Most people are just unaware of their thoughts. The only thing you ever totally have control over is your own sense of well-being. Ultimately you are responsible for your feelings.

Mind Mistake #4
There is One Ultimate Right Decision.

Why are so many of us rushing to make someone wrong? Every time someone disagrees with the other side, fingers start pointing and tongues start wagging. It’s all drama. Our country was built around the option to voice different opinions. We should all be more concerned about mob mentality. Let’s support those working on our behalf and lets look for blind spots in ourselves and others who are too quick to have the final answer.

Mind Mistake #5
When this is finally over I can be at peace.

You don’t have to wait to be peaceful. You can be peaceful right now. You can practice releasing in each moment. Gary Zukav says "Stress is the consequence of resistance to your life." When we resist what is, we create more stress. When you relax into acceptance, you can then reclaim your peace.

Eckhart Tolle says, "Listen to people’s stories, and you’ll find that they could all be entitled "Why I Cannot Be at Peace Now." The ego doesn’t know that your only opportunity for being at peace is now."

Take a deep breath. Take control. Ride the storm. Get present. “The Drama Stops Here.”

RELATED ARTICLE: How to Thrive During Economic Uncertainty

The Billion Dollar Meditation

2009-01-18T14:09:00.001-08:00

Posted by Barry Goss & Heather Vale Goss
Creators of The Manifesting Super Gold Pack

This meditation can be used for attracting anything you want, or just increasing your financial situation beyond what you have dreamed possible. A friend of Jafree and Margot’s used this technique and created $10,000 in 3 days! One of their clients manifested $75,000 in just a few weeks with it, and another was offered $3 million for his new business.

Are you one of those people who wonders how to get over the block of not being able to manifest money, and therefore not being able to purchase things you desire? Well, congratulations… you just manifested this wonderful tool to help you out.

The entire meditation should take at least 15 minutes, and be done every day if you want to reap profound results in attracting financial prosperity…

The Billion Dollar Meditation

Start by relaxing every muscle in your entire body. Imagine a warm, healing energy and light caressing and entering every single cell inside you.

When you are deeply relaxed, repeat the sound “Ahhhhhhhh” out loud, or in your mind. This is the same sound you would make if you had a big epiphany or were watching the most exquisite sunset. Let the sound come out effortlessly, releasing and relaxing your being deep inside.

Let the sound flow gently and naturally out of your lungs and vocal chords. Don’t force it out. Let it relax you deeper.

Then, imagine a golden liquid light running up from the base of your spine, through your heart, and showering out the top of your head.

As it fountains out the crown of your head, the liquid light cascades down over your entire body. You become a fountain of energy, bathing in golden vibrant goodness.

With each in-breath the energy flows up your spine to the top of your head. With each out-breath it flows out your crown, cascades down around your body, and drenches your skin, muscles, bones and cells with warm golden healing energy.

After 7 minutes of bathing in your golden shower, take the remaining time to imagine hundreds of millions of dollars (in $100 bills) floating down from the clouds above, dumping all over your neighborhood, entering your house, and filling up your room!

Visualize yourself swimming through the money, touching the millions of dollars around you! Look outside your window and see how EXCITED and ECSTATIC everyone is! It is raining millions of dollars in everybody’s home! There is more than enough for everyone.

Let yourself experience this abundance, and feel that you have more money than you could ever spend or ask for. Experience the feelings of JOY, SECURITY, and EXCITEMENT this money brings to you.

Allow this feeling of being infinitely rich to sink to the core of your heart, mind and soul! Know that you are a God-Being, and you deserve it!

As with all manifestation techniques, keep in mind that juicing up your emotions — really FEELING the joy and excitement outlined in the meditation — is the best way to kick the attraction power into high gear.

Now here’s an excerpt from Jafree and Margot’s Manifesting Manual, as featured in the Super Manifestor Gold Pack, to help you make the most of this exercise:

The more you can relax into your body during this visualization, the easier it will be to experience feelings of abundance, and actually attract more funds into your bank account. Receiving this increased abundance is also about releasing the attachment to your fear of poverty and financial failure.

This fear dissolves when you know in your heart that the Universe will always provide for you. This feeling of deep sufficiency occurs when you realize that you are a God-Being and every cell in your body is vibrating with the Universe’s abundance!

In order to fully maximize the power of this meditation, set a strong intention to maintain this abundant feeling and vibration all day long. It feels good to bathe in these feelings of abundance all the time, so consciously refocus your energy on these feelings whenever your mind strays back to poverty thinking.

The instant a fear arises, breathe through it, and IMMEDIATELY return to complete 100% sufficiency and abundance! Start walking, talking and acting as if you have already attained that ultimate goal you wanted to manifest.

This is an exercise in trusting the intelligent Universe, yourself, and the natural manifesting process. So take your time and be patient with yourself. You will learn as you practice it.

For years, the Billion Dollar Meditation has been a favorite for people who are seeking financial freedom and abundance. Everyone wants the experience of being outrageously abundant and financially free to do anything they desire. If you find you are having limiting beliefs that are blocking you from this experience, or a voice in your head saying that this kind of abundance is not OK, you may need to identify and heal this poverty-creating saboteur.

If you have difficulty feeling what it’s like to be surrounded by an abundance of money, you may want to experience the guided audio version of this meditation, Manifesting an Abundance of Money, which is available in the Super Manifestor Gold Pack. This audio meditation is a healing experience that brings your body, mind and vibration into a greater alignment and receptivity with feeling completely free and abundant.

Change begins at a deep level, and this meditation is a deep cellular transformation that will allow you to almost effortlessly magnetize more abundance into your life.

Your Partners in the Quest For Living a Life Without Limits,
Barry Goss and Heather Vale Goss

How to Thrive During Economic Uncertainty

2009-01-18T14:08:00.002-08:00

By Alex Goumakos / Source: MindStudio.net

If you’ve been following the news over the last couple of weeks, you’ll know that there’s been quite a stir happening on Wall Street.

We’ve heard about collapses, bailouts and the possibility of more to come.

On September 30 the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 778 points, the largest single point drop in history.

Thankfully, a few days later, it had the 3rd HIGHEST point gain on record.

No question, the financial markets are definitely unstable.

Whether the situation quickly improves or gets worse before it gets better, remains to be seen.

BUT MAKE NO MISTAKE…

The road to abundance and prosperity starts in your own mind.

Many people believe that a new government will help them to succeed.

Many feel that lower food and gas prices will make things better.

Still others blame the economy, taxes, the war in Iraq and countless other factors which are beyond the control of most people.

While all of these issues do have an impact on our collective abundance and prosperity, they are all inconsequential compared to the most important factor of all…

Your focus…

Energy flows to where attention goes.

What you focus on has the greatest impact on your abundance and prosperity.

Now more than ever, it’s important to realize that YOU and YOU ALONE hold the keys to your financial success.

In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter what happens on Wall Street or any place else.

The only thing that matters is what happens inside of YOU…

“All personal achievement starts within the mind of the individual.”
~ W. Clement Stone

The fact is, you can still make money and enjoy a wonderful lifestyle regardless of what’s happening in the economy.

All it takes is focus, simple knowledge, and realizing how powerful you really are.

Sadly, many people relinquish their personal power by inadvertently giving it to other people, institutions and the government.

Personal power is also dissipated when we listen to the news, especially economic news, most of which has been terrible lately.

Now, I’m not saying to ignore economic and financial news. That would be irresponsible.

But what I am saying is to not let it sour your entire outlook on what is and isn’t possible financially.

“99.99% of what happens is not on the news.” ~ Loesje

For many people, bad economic news is a self-fulfilling prophesy.

It gives them an excuse to complain and be negative instead of being positive and focusing on opportunities to succeed.

Please keep the following in mind…

Aside from the cold, hard statistical facts, most of the financial pundits you hear on the TV and radio are discussing opinion, not gospel.

And opinion doesn’t turn into prophesy unless you let it.

The reality is, opportunities are endless and everywhere.

“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” ~ Charles R. Swindoll

The fact is, you are ONE IDEA away from your greatest opportunity, regardless of the economic climate.

You are one idea away from solving any one of your problems, whether it’s personal, financial or anything else.

One idea. That’s all it takes.

“Ideas are the beginning points of all fortunes.” ~ Napoleon Hill

Circumstances may “appear” tougher during uncertain economic times, but in reality, opportunities to succeed are still all over the place. They just may not be in the same place you originally thought.

The Law of Cycles and Why Money is Still Really Everywhere

There is a natural, rhythmic order of things.

Everything you can see, hear or touch, everything you can sense is subject to the natural law of cycles.

If you observe closely, you’ll notice that many events tend to recur in cycles at regular intervals; the four seasons, the rise and fall of the tides, optimum agricultural plantings, animal populations, and yes — even economic activity.

If you carefully observe your own life, you’ll probably notice that you too experience natural rhythms of moods, circumstances and energy levels.

In a recent article, The Secret to Money is Having Some, I discussed the fact that the flow of money is governed by physical and natural laws.

The fact is, the entire universe is subject to the law of cycles and money is no exception.

But since money is merely a shadow of the value we place in goods and services, there’s really no change in its flow.

Instead, there’s only a natural shift in the opportunities required to create it.

“Resources are unlimited because our minds are unlimited.”
~ Paul Zane Pilzer

In other words, if you want a constant flow of money in your life, you need to focus on two things:

1) You must properly structure your financial life so no matter which phase of a cycle you’re in, money continues to flow, and…

2) You need to be aware of and act on any new opportunities presented to you.

Despite the bad news about the economy, some people are still making a lot of money.

There’s no reason why you can’t be one of them.

===============================
Tips for Thriving During Economic Uncertainty
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#1 - Start Your Own Business

I’ve been urging and showing people how to start their own businesses for a very long time.

If one of your goals in life is to achieve material wealth and financial independence, one of the quickest and surest ways to achieve those results is through owning a business of your own. Period.

Owning a thriving and profitable business beats investing in the stock market, speculating in real estate and other money-making ventures.

Believe it or not, but a recession can actually be a wonderful time to start a new business venture.

Having been a business adviser for nearly 25 years, I can tell you that some great businesses were started during a recession.

The owners simply addressed a need during an economic downturn which continued to be successful even when the economy rebounded.

“Starting a business in a recession is like vacationing in the off-season. It’s a little less crowded, and everything starts going on sale.” ~ an entrepreneur

During a recession, entrepreneurs have to be resourceful with their money in order to succeed.

A recession forces you to be smarter with your cash than you might be otherwise.

It teaches patience and money wisdom; two qualities needed to make a fortune.

If you already have a business, make it better by engaging in strategic thinking.

Strategic thinking, or planning your business’s future, often takes a back-seat during boom times because business owners are too busy working in their business instead of on it.

By taking advantage of downtime to think strategically, you can spot new opportunities you didn’t think you had.

This includes tapping new markets, launching new products, streamlining operations and countless other growth-oriented maneuvers.

#2 - Pay Close Attention to What You Think and Say

During tough times, it’s easy to get into the habit of thinking negative thoughts and making negative comments, especially when the mass media makes it easy for you to do so.

Constantly thinking and talking about the bad stuff will only serve to bring you — and anyone around you — down.

Before you know it, you’ll end up in one of those self-fulfilling prophecies we talked about earlier.

Stay informed, but don’t keep repeating what you hear on the news. Remember, energy flows to where attention goes.

Monitor your thoughts and speech (including self-talk) at all costs.

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.” ~ Frank Outlaw

By focusing on the positive, you’ll also do wonders for your creative thinking.

Creative thinking allows you to come up with solutions to your problems.

It also allows you to see new opportunities.

One of the biggest downsides to being in a negative frame of mind is that it blinds you to opportunities.

#3 - Take a Sharp Axe to Expenses

Not too many people like to talk about this, but if you want to thrive during uncertain economic times, it may be the perfect time to take a serious look at every single one of your personal expenditures.

Actually, this is good practice at ANY time, regardless of how much or how little money you have.

“Do not confuse needs with wants. All are burdened with more desires than they can gratify.” ~ George S. Clason

Despite what many prosperity teachers claim, reducing your expenses does not send out the wrong message to the universe that you don’t have enough money, and therefore you’ll just get more of the same.

On the contrary; I believe it tells the universe that you are smart enough to handle more money.

Simple truth: the better you are at managing money, the more of it you end up having.

#4 - Count Your Blessings Not Your Problems

If you really take stock of all the things you do have in your life, I bet you will be amazed.

Too often people focus on what’s missing in their lives and as a result, they ignore the riches they do have; like a great family, a loving spouse, wonderful children, fantastic pets, loyal friends, and the freedom to be or do whatever they want.

Every so often someone will write to me and tell me how desperate things are for them. Since I’ve been there myself at one time, I can surely sympathize.

But I always point out the same thing…

How bad can it really be?

I mean, how bad can it really be if you are still alive and reaching out to others?

Many people around the world haven’t had a bite to eat in days….

How bad can it really be if you are sitting at a computer and writing emails?

Some people around the world don’t even have electricity or running water.

Ask yourself: how bad is it really?

Focusing on your blessings will cause you to feel grateful.

“Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”
~ Charles Dickens

And when you feel grateful, you create a shift in your thinking from the negative to the positive.

Being positive opens the doorway to your mind. Only when its open, can opportunity can jump in.

Your Financial Destiny is in Your Own Hands

Remember, the road to abundance and prosperity begins in your own mind.

Money is unlimited because your mind is unlimited.

Stay focused on opportunity and learn to take full control over your personal finances.

Because at the end of the day, it’s not the bankers or politicians who are ultimately responsible for your financial situation, it’s you and you alone.

ALSO BY ALEX GOUMAKOS: Don't Listen to "Them"

10 Myths That Stand in the Way of Your Dreams... and How to Bust Them!

2009-01-18T14:08:00.001-08:00

By David Cameron Gikandi
Creator of Amazing Lifestyle Creation Formula

Busting the 10 Myths… The Myths That Say, Quite Convincingly, Why Your Dreams Cannot Be Achieved. Let’s Bust Them!

Myth #1: You cannot create wealth if you don’t have education or money to begin with.

This is nonsense. First, education is important. You simply need to know what to do. It is far easier to follow a proven path than to figure it out yourself by trial and error.

But education can be acquired, no matter who or where you are. Sure, some people may not afford to go to college or even school. But, if you place one foot forward, and then the next, learn one step at a time, you will ALWAYS find the next step.

If you don’t know how to start and run a business and cannot go to business school or whatever, you can always take one step forward, learn something small about business, start somewhere, and you will find someone at the end of that step who will teach you the next step.

And this applies to anything you wish to accomplish! One step at a time always leads you to the goal. Initially it may be a slow start but sooner or later you will gain momentum.

Now, as for money, you also don’t need money to get started. The more you develop your RIGHT information and knowledge and RIGHT network of people, the less you need money!

Myth #2: Time = Money. You cannot earn money without exchanging your time for it.

More nonsense. It is true that at a certain level, time = money. At a certain level. If you are employed by the hour, then, yes, time = money. But this is NOT a universal principle! Passive income, residual income, capital gains and so on are examples of situations whereby money comes without your direct working for it.

Look, production creates money. But it doesn’t have to be your hard direct labor doing the production. If you own the value production system (such as a business, an asset, a book you have written (or paid someone to write for you), a list of buyers in a particular area, a network marketing down line, a membership website whereby you have placed some instructional materials that members pay access fees to you for, shares, a content site with Google AdWords, rental property, etc) or pay someone else to work, then you don’t have to work to enjoy the benefits.

The more you develop your RIGHT information and knowledge and RIGHT network of people, and package yourself to create passive income systems, the less you need to work! The key word there is ‘packaging’. Packaging allows for you to be untied from your work. You can now export, mass produce and mass distribute your strengths, knowledge, skills, resources, etc. Do you know how to achieve self-packaging (and we are not talking about dressing up nicely here)?

Myth #3: The education system is adequate.

It is adequate at training people to get a job, to be artists and doctors and lawyers, and so on. But it does NOT show you how to be financially and time free. It simply doesn’t!

Our current education system was designed in the 1800s to produce people who fit into the work gaps in society, the machinery… It was the industrial age, after all. We needed people to work in the factories, to invent things, to administrate, to provide health services support, and so on.

There was no agenda to teach people to be financially and time free. Maybe, as civilization advances, this will be commonly taught. But at this stage in our civilization, this information is held by less than 2% of the population, perhaps. But all you are missing is this information. Those whom you may admire for having financial and time freedom simply have the information that you don’t.

Myth #4: Work hard, and you will achieve financial liberation

OK, do you really believe that in and of itself, hard work is the key? I know tons of people who work very hard and are still struggling, as I am sure you do, too. And I know several people who are financially free and still choose to work hard. There is nothing wrong with hard work. It is all up to you. And then I know of those who hardly work, and they too are financially and time free. It is up to you.

But what I hope we can agree on is that hard work is not the key. You need to apply your efforts along the right plan, leverage it using the rights systems and people, applying proven processes that lead to achievement time and time again.

Once you have reached a certain level, work is optional, but chances are, because you will most likely reach such a level by doing what you love, you will tend to work anyways! Because you love what you do!

Myth #5: Fix your weaknesses if you wish to succeed.

It is far easier to come from competence (strength) to excellence than it is to come from mediocrity to competence. We all have strengths and weaknesses.

Why bother improve your weaknesses? It takes far too much effort, too much time, and it isn’t fun! Working within your strengths is super-fun, has high growth, and great results.

So why not spend the BULK of your time doing what you love and are strong at, and let those who are strong in your areas of weakness handle your weaknesses for you? It is a synergistic way of looking at things, and if you know how to apply this principle, wow! Your life will zoom up!

Myth #6: Struggle is normal.

No its not. Struggle is a result of not being in the flow. In flow with what? With yourself! With how things work! With the natural order of things! With other people and systems (hence the power of leverage)!

Myth #7: Solve it yourself. Figure it out. Do it yourself (DIY)

Oh, boy, this is a big one! We were raised believing that it is virtuous to figure it out, to solve things. Well, solving things has its place. And its place is in inventions. In things we don’t know about. At one time, we didn’t have mobile phones, now we do. Through figuring it out, trial and error, decades of research, we invented mobile telephony. Now, in 2008, why on earth would you want to re-invent the mobile phone? Just buy one! Its cheaper and faster.

Now, most likely, 99% of your life contains things that have been done well by someone else. And in achieving your dream life, you would be treading a path that has been walked upon in the past by others.

So why not take advantage of global learning and evolution, eliminate trial and error, and simply learn from those who have succeeded before you in the path you wish to follow. We have been told that it is strong, manly even, to figure it out yourself. That it is weak to seek help. Trash those ideas right now and start emulating succeed. Copy success!

Myth #8: Life is risky, play safe.

If you run away from risks, you also run from its rewards. Life rewards risk! Life rewards risk, mightily! And life teaches via failure, guiding the failed to future success. It is far more painful to remain in mediocrity than to try and try again and make it. Life will assist you!

Now, having said that, there is no point being a damned fool about risk. Take risk, but find ways in which you can manage risk. And the best way to manage risk is to get rid of unseen corners, get rid of ignorance. How do you do that? By copying those who have succeeded before you, by learning from those who are there already! Risk management is not the same as risk avoidance. Don’t run from risk; manage it.

Myth #9: Your retirement is handled automatically if you just do your work now at your job.

Anyone up for a good laugh? Hopefully, we all now know that this isn’t true. It just flat out isn’t true. That is a fable that used to be told in the 1950s to new factory workers. Work hard and then retire!

Now we know that those who don’t have their retirement sorted will have 10 to 20 years or more of very hard living at a fraction of their past income. Think about it. If you retire at 65 years of age and live to 80 or more, what kind of life do you think a retirement benefit scheme from your employer will give you? You may end up having to work at a video store after you consume your retirement fund. And at that age, few banks will give you loans, and so on.

Retirement has NOTHING to do with age, and NOTHING to do with being able to live without working. You can retire at 25 years of age if you have put together a passive income system. And without an adequate passive income system, retiring at 65 won’t magically make money come to you. Retirement is simply the ability to stop having to work because you own a system that can replace your income for you.

A long time ago, some governments were able to do this for their citizens, to provide such a system for those who reached a certain age. Hence the common confusion nowadays that retirement has something to do with age and it automatically provides for passive income.

Nowadays, most governments are unable to adequately provide for those who retire simply because they have hit the 65 years of age mark. The benefits available are meager at best. Out of the top of my head, I think that only the Scandinavian countries, especially Norway, have a suitable retirement scheme. The rest just aren’t enough or aren’t there anymore.

Myth #10: Don’t be yourself!

This is the mother of all the myths. We are fed this myth in so many different ways and through so many different channels. There is the prevailing idea that you cannot be yourself and succeed. You are taught to change yourself to fit a certain ‘standard’, to accept certain ideas… to blend in!

In fact, you are even rewarded for blending in, for losing your natural essence, for dropping your own way. The rewards are piecemeal. Often consisting of minor promotions, small raises, stars on sheets of paper. All the time, the big reward, your life lived in passion, is held at bay, unlived.

Look, you may copy successful ways of life, but you don’t have to stop being yourself. In fact, being yourself is the best thing you can do for your success. Accept your strengths and weaknesses, then apply your strengths 100%. Whatever they may be. Accept your passions! Then follow your heart 100%! Know your natural path and ways, then harmonize that with the world and follow your path.

I am not calling for a rebellion for the sake of rebellion. That is just as unproductive as conforming. What I am saying is, be at peace with who you are, leverage your power and passions, learn what you need to learn from those who have succeeded at what you wish to accomplish, then follow your way, and you will succeed so well, and you will be happy because it will be in doing what you love!

BUT WAIT! Didn’t they tell us, when we were younger, that we can’t just do what we love, that we have to do what we are told, and work in careers selected from a menu that was presented to us when we were too young to know any better? Yes, they did tell us these things! And now we believe them, we accept them as facts of life. Wake up! They aren’t facts of life! They are just beliefs about life. You can do what you love and succeed mightily. You simply need to know how.