Creation is Always Happening

Our inner worldly thoughts and emotions are our most powerful asset. These are the building blocks from which a foundation for an incredible life can be made. Many times, we look at the world at large and the local world (the world directly around us) and we attribute the way we feel and our own personal circumstances to these outer worlds. Unfortunately and fortunately, this is just not true. Now, I am not saying that there are not tragedies, disappointments, good luck, ect. that does not an effect on us as individuals. These things do happen, however in the big picture, their long-term effect on us is not lasting. Knee-jerk reactions do happen, however, it is a personal choice to allow those to linger. You may say, well that is just not true, I do not have any control over my thoughts and emotions. And if that is your mindset and belief, then for you, it will be true and you will live your life as if you have no control over the thoughts and feelings you have. It takes no more work to think a negative thought as it does to think a positive one. That would be like saying, it requires more effort to pick up a gallon of 2% milk then it does to pick up a gallon of skim milk. They are both gallons of milk, it requires no more effort to pick up one then it does the other. The problem is, most of us have habitual patterns of thinking to the point that the mind defaults to a certain way of thinking. It does not require more effort, the brain has just simplified the process to get from seeing circumstances unfolding to a negative mental outlook on it. The trick is to acknowledge this is happening and become aware that you own your thoughts and they respond to your command. It is my opinion that this is what is meant in the Bible when God gave dominion over the Earth to man. Our Earth starts with our individual thoughts.

So how do we begin to shift our thinking? The first thing, as previously mentioned, is to admit that maybe your immediate thoughts about things are wrong. Just because you think it does not mean that its based in any truth. I often times try to gauge the validity of my thoughts by asking if they are based in fear or based in love. If my thoughts is directly related to a fear, then more often than not it is based in an illusion. The illusion of fear can seem very real, but in the light of the truth, it completely dissolves. Just making a decision to believe that there is a possibility of a better outcome to a situation then initially envisioned, if you can be open to the possibility, then you have begun to re-wire your brain towards a new setting.

The next optimal step would be to begin to envision something prosperous in the place of your previous negative notion. Begin to see an optimal outcome. If you cannot think of one, begin to feel that there is an outcome where everyone involved in the situation will benefit. This may mean that you have to begin to want the best for other people around you, even those who you may not like. But if Albert Einstein was correct, we are all one and wishing something bad on someone else is really wishing bad on yourself. Its is literally a prayer that negativity will bombard your fellow human, but the laws of the universe dictate that the same fate will also befall you. You can have your indignation and resentment or you can have your dreams come true. Some would rather have their anger, and that is all they will have. I would prefer to live the life of my dreams, but in order for that to happen, I need to be in a place where I sincerely want others to have the life of their dreams. It is not for me to make judgment on others actions. Their lives are their lives. I would rather be happy, joyous and free than justified.

The brain is a miraculous tool. It works directly with the mind to create the world within and without us. They are the tools of creation and manifestation. Creation is always happening according to the thoughts and feelings we hold. The question that time and manifestation will answer is, what are the thoughts and feelings we choose to most frequently hold?

It starts with a choice.

At times in life, things seem to not go the way we would like to. A job may be lost, a loved one passes away, the car breaks down, ect. These events may have been a long time coming or they may be sudden and unexpected. If you're like me, you may immediately slip into the mindset of "poor me", "this always happens to me", "once again I'm the victim". While at the time it may feel right and more then justified, this attitude is a blueprint for more pain and suffering.

Its so easy to fall into the idea that the circumstances and events in our lives the main factor in shaping our good or bad feelings. It seems so logical and natural that when things are going seemingly bad in our lives that is what makes us feel bad. When things seem to be working out for the best, that is cause for us to be happy. This illusion is so very powerful that many of us base our lives on it. However, this illusion is just that, an illusion. As I look over my life, it the worst things that ever happened to me actually worked out for the best. In the moment they transpired, I remember being emotionally and mentally knocked off my feet. I had that "this can't be happening to me" felling. I honestly believed in that instant that I would never be able to recover and my life would continue to wither and dry up until my time on Earth was over. With that mindset, telling that story of bad events always transpiring and really owning my certified victim-hood, I continued to live the sad story that I was all too happy to tell anyone who would listen.

There is hope though. The first step is to recognize the illusion for what it is. The circumstances and events in our lives only have as much power over us as we allow them to have. Sometimes, they seem very real and insurmountable. This is no so. I'm not at all saying that truly tragic events in our lives do not happen and do not require the emotions produced by our psyche. What I'm saying is that the stories we continue to tell will be the stories we perpetually live. We are the main character in the novel that we write as we go. When we can awake from this living dream, we can begin to rewrite our story and change our future. This opens the door to live the life we've always wanted. The changes can be immediate and/or occur over time. They will always materialize if we work for them. But the path to this new journey starts in the right NOW. You can begin to focus on the things that are working in your life right NOW and be grateful for them. Take time to appreciate those immediate things that bring you joy. Honor them right NOW and this will allow more things to be grateful for to flow into your life.

This is all a choice. People have the right to choose to be victims and choose to be ungrateful and choose to tell a negative story. But it does not have to be that way. Life is meant to be abundant and overflowing. But life is also meant to be a choice. We can choose the experiences we would like to have. We can choose the storyline we want to live. It is the very essence of free will. What will our story be? Will we rise to the potential or choose to fail before we even try. All that is required is the idea of possibility and the decision to choose that possibility in each and every consciously aware moment available. Its starts with a choice.

The Ideal Self

Who are we? What are we here to do? Why were we put here?

These are questions that I'm sure we have all wondered, I know I have. I especially have reflected on these things when I have come up against conflict or a state of frustration in my life. It seems like at any point in my life when things are not going the way I would like them to, that's when the previous questions start to appear. However, my questions are a little more childish and show up in the form of, "why me?" or "why is life so unfair?"

As I have come to believe, life is not so bleak. Life is good. Albert Einstein said "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." For the most part, I don't really buy into absolutes and black and white ways of being. However, the quote by Einstein really is one of the keys to the kingdom. It leaves no room for error. It takes away the guess work in the Art of Life. And really isn't it the guess work, the shoulda-coulda-woulda that causes us the most pain and distress in our lives. I know for myself that I burn alot of energy being upset and disgruntled in regards to how I wish things were different. I have found that in the long run, seemingly tragic failures are really installments toward true success. I can choose to be imprisoned by the iron bars of a disgruntled state of mind, or I can choose to try and see my current circumstances for what they really are. Merely my current circumstances....nothing more.

If we can begin to see seemingly good and seemingly bad as merely current circumstances that are only temporary, we have shifted our state of being and the Ideal Self will being to emerge. There are religious and philosophical traditions that suggest if we analyze where we are in this exact moment, there is nothing that we are truly lacking. And if we really think about it, isn't life ultimately lives only in the exact moment? I've spent time regretful of the past, reliving painful experiences thousands of times over, and fearful of the future, prophesizing terrible events. As a result, life becomes a living hell. Who wants to live in hell?

To change from a way of being that no longer serves us to the Ideal Self is a huge shift in being, but only takes subtle shifts in thinking and can begin right now. An easy first step is to begin to be grateful for the current things in your life. Gratitude is a way of being that opens the door for more situations to be grateful for. Gratitude is a choice, and most of us have spent so much of our lives focusing on what is lacking and what we consider to be unfair that we have wired our brains to default to that mindset. It is easier and requires not effort for our brains to go there. We don't even have to think about it, our brains just automatically go there. Its familiar and the brain likes familiar. Being grateful requires more thought then not being grateful. Its like exercising, it make require some effort at first, but if we continue to do it will become a more integrated part of who we are. After all, when we first started, being ungrateful took more effort then being grateful. We just continued to do it and began to develop the belief that life would only hand out more reasons to be ungrateful then to be grateful.

As we begin to choose to be more grateful and observe in our lives more things and circumstances to be grateful for, our Ideal Self will begin to solidify and grow stronger. This is where we begin to become aware of the path to our full potential. We can begin to believe in power of possibility. The power of possibility is enormous. If we can shift our thinking from absolutes to possibility, we have opened a door for magic to come into our lives and circumstances begin to appear that are in line with our divine potential. And really our divine potential is what we are here to discover and ultimately reach.

Divine potential can be achieved by the Ideal Self, and the Ideal Self is who we really are underneath all the layers that we have put on while we have lived and explored the Earth plane. If we can begin to question what we have been taught is truth and if we can start to see possibility where we used to see only absolute then the journey has begun.

Keeping your head in the clouds.

Many of us have lofty aspirations and dreams. Growing up we want to be all sorts of things. Professional athletes, firemen, astronauts, ect. Some people are blessed enough to have the ambition, desire and/or a support group around them and they eventually achieve their dreams and go on to be trail blazers in their field and live happy, successful lives.

There are also those who get to a place where they give up on pursuing the things they want to do in life. This can be from an authoritative figure telling them to "get real" and try to be more practical. Others meet with some form of failure and immediately give up. There are still others that just have no idea what they want to be when they grow up.

I was personally of the mindset that there was no way to make a decent living and enjoy the work I was doing. I believed that I would either be happy and poor or be wealthy and miserable. I have found this last sentence to defy the laws of the universe. One cannot be miserable and truly wealthy and there is no way for a person to be truly happy and remain unwealthy.

If we take the phrase "getting real" literally, then the true form of reality would be within ourselves as that is where our subjective reality is generated. I believe that the needs and desires that we possess are God-given and therefore the spirit of our creator wanting to express itself. If we truly listen to it and tap into that expression, then there is no way that we cannot succeed at whatever it is that spirit calls us to do.

I have found that when we give up on these dreams and desires, then part of us dies on the inside and we become like the walking dead. Doing this that we don't want to do, living a life that we really don't want to live and constantly putting our happiness in tomorrow or next year or some distant date that never comes. When we tap into our inner being, everything sparks with aliveness. There is magic in all that we do and coincidences are just par for the course.

It doesn't matter at what age or time we gave up on our dreams and started living a life that we didn't want to live, we can always tap back into that side of ourselves. It is always there because it is who we are in the purest form. It is our spiritual selves and on the level of spirit, there are not limits and everything is possible. If we can move from a world of black and white to a world of possibility, then we have tapped into spirit and begun the journey.

Once we make the conscious (or unconscious) decision to walk with spirit, then life takes on a whole new meaning. We go from just killing time to living life. The joy of being in the moment far outweighs some lackluster promise that tomorrow will break. We become who we are and can dream into physical reality anything that we can clearly focus our attention on. In this place it is only appropriate to keep your head in the clouds as there is where we can imagine with the most clarity. This, I believe, is what the great master said when he spoke "And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." With the imagination of a child we can create a kingdom of heaven here and now.

First Things First

This is my first blog...ever. I've heard about these things and even read one or two of them, but never pictured myself writing one. Well, times have changed. Here I am, writing my first blog. I plan to update it as much as possible and my intent is offer insight, inspiration and empowerment to my readers.

This is a time of great change for myself. One month ago, I quit a very well paying and potential filled career at an insurance company. I had just been promoted, I had enlisted the help of a mentor to position myself for further advancement and on paper, all was well. However, I was not happy. It was nothing to do with the company, my superiors, or my co-workers. In fact, I loved them all. I just disliked (this word is a drastic understatement) being at work. I would wake up in the morning and try to think of reasons not to go in. My wife stated that I was no longer the person she had married, that I was distant and very much disconnected. I spent 8 hours at work wishing I was somewhere else, 8 hours outside of work dreading the thought of going back into work and then 8 hours sleeping.

I read a book call 'Riding for the Brand' by Jim Whit. Ironically, it was given to me and my co-workers by management in an effort to have us find more purpose in what we were doing and put passion and gusto into our work. Some people liked the book and others could not get past the surface storyline in which the underlying, true message of the book is presented. I was changed by the book. It was the right book at the right time and something clicked in my head. This book paired with my unhappiness and my wife's disenchantment with our situation as a couple lead me to the decision. I needed to quit my job and find what my passion and purpose was.

This was a big decision, but looking back, its a wonder I did not make it sooner.

I walked in on a Friday and told my boss how grateful I was for the opportunity they had given me to work there, but that it was time for me to leave.

I had no safety net or nest egg or back-up plan. On the day I put in my two weeks, I honestly didn't know what to pursue. I did know, however, that I was doing the right thing. I had taken the first step in faith and the rest would be provided by the Universe and would appear as needed.

My rational mind was ablaze with fear, uncertainty and was already telling me how I would end up homeless and starving as a result of this decision. My intuitive/spiritual mind was ablaze with the possibilities and the excitement of the journey that lay ahead of me. Its quite an emotion to experience the previously mentioned all at once.

The signs all pointed toward a career in coaching. I had previously explored this territory before when I was in graduate school for psychology. At the time, I had ruled it out but it was now a new and exciting opportunity. I found out that the bills still come and coaching school requires a certain amount of capital, but the strange thing is that all my needs have been provided for. Everything as come to me with ease and least resistance and I can see the Universe paving the way. As I trust more, more is revealed. As more is revealed, my fear begins to dissipate.

Nothing real can be threatened and nothing unreal exists.