You will notice that those who speak most of prosperity, have it. Those who speak most of health, have it. Those who speak most of sickness, have it. Those who speak most of poverty, have it. It is Law. It can be no other way...
The way you feel is your point of attraction, and so, the Law of Attraction is most understood when you see yourself as a magnet getting more and more of the way you feel. When you feel lonely, you attract more loneliness. When you feel poor, you attract more poverty. When you feel sick, you attract more sickness. When you feel unhappy, you attract more unhappiness. When you feel healthy and vital and alive and prosperous - you attract more of all of those things. (Abraham-Hicks)
The other day I went to my neighborhood herb/vitamin store which is owned by two nutritionists. The moment I entered, I wanted to turn around and leave...Yes, the negative energy was that strong. One of the owners asked if she could help me find something and on hearing my answer, she pointed to a shelf location. I asked whether the powder was water soluble and she said she didn't know. With that curt response, she turned around and walked away, leaving me standing alone in an empty store. I left as quickly as I could. If the owner's curtness was due to business being slow.....it is not about to get any better. Approaching anything from a place of lack never works. If that were my store, I would look for quick and easy solutions to begin with......SMILE, and play some wonderful, soft music. Dressing cheerfully would be better than the black she was wearing......Begin where you can, and as your spirits lift, so will the circumstances.
Our minds are incredibly powerful. We put that power to work for us when we consciously set an intention to be or do something. Get into the practice of consciously setting an intention for every activity in which you are involved.
Your intention might support efficiency – for example, to complete a job or project by a specific time. Your intention might support your personal growth, e.g., to undertake a task that scares you. Or it might support more soul connection, e.g., to see beauty in the chaos of your day.
When we make an effort to set an intention, no matter how trivial it may appear, we are taking the time to choose what we want for ourselves. And clearly, this is essential for our growth – to actively, thoughtfully choose what we want for ourselves.
Expectations of how something is going to play out is a warning signal to me. If I can manage to be aware enough to catch my thoughts at this stage, and change those thoughts, the outcome is amazingly better!
It's not easy to believe that we control what happens to us. It needs to be experienced over and over. I think it's fun!
There may be times in our lives when it seems like we keep having the same kinds of experiences. The situation or the people involved may be different each time, yet one experience may feel exactly like the last one and the one before that one.
Perhaps we left a job where we were unhappy and we find ourselves experiencing similar challenges in our new job. A relationship with a new romantic partner may start to seem a lot like our old relationship and the problems that we thought we had left behind.\
We may feel disappointed or frustrated and wonder why the same situations and people keep showing up in our lives. The truth is that the same kinds of experiences don’t keep happening to us. After all, the circumstances and the people involved are always different.
Subconsciously, there is great value to be had in experiencing life in the same ways until we are ready to have different experiences. Perhaps we feel unworthy of happiness, or worry that we can’t get a break. Our experiences tend to reflect what we believe about life. After all, most of us don’t like to be proven wrong. We may even derive satisfaction in being right or experience a sense of safety every time we confirm to ourselves that know the way the world works.
We may choose a relationship partner who is very different from our last significant other and hope that this time love will turn out differently. Yet as long as we hold whatever beliefs we have that limit the good we can experience in our relationships, we will create the same dynamic of limited happiness with any partner.
We bring ourselves and our beliefs to every situation. Change those thoughts, those beliefs to be more in keeping with what you really want.
16. Asking for What You Want - Giving Yourself What You Want
Ask for what you want, even though it may feel bold or awkward. People don't know what you want until you ask them. The act of asking is a validation of the awareness that you deserve to have what you want. If others are unable or unwilling to accommodate your request, give it to yourself.
17. Awareness of You
Recognize that the one in front of you is you. Beyond all appearances
and personalities is the essence of goodness, which is you. Remembering your presence in all form will bring you immediately into the present moment, in awe of the fullness therein. The person before you will become an opportunity to know yourself. The heart overflows with love and gratitude, humbly saying, "Oh yes, this person or situation is here for me to learn about who I am."
18. Self Gratitude
For a simple twenty-four hours, stop looking outside yourself for validation. On the other side of that you become the experience of gratitude.
19. The Vanity Mirror
If you want to see who you are not, look in the mirror. Use the mirror once a day only. Who would you be without your mirror?
20. Beyond Justification
Begin to notice how often you explain or justify yourself, your words, actions, decisions, etc. Who are you trying to convince? And what is the story you are perpetuating? Become aware of your use of the word "because" or "but" when you speak. Stop your sentence immediately. Begin again. Justification is an attempt to manipulate the other person; decide to be still and know, and BE CAUSE.
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The other day I found myself uncustomarily upset. I don't mean that I don't get upset any longer.....I just don't get VERY upset. I reached for Byron Katie's The Work, and did come to what felt like a magic turn-around. Fantastic, I thought!
Only a few hours later, I found myself back at the beginning. The Work didn't have staying power.....and, so it is. It has to be done over and over on each issue. Not only have we been practicing "our ways" a long time and need to learn new skills in order to change, but there's the unconscious programmed mind! I am newly excited about Psych-K! It is a faster, deeper method for effecting change.
This exercise can help in healing fear and terror. Practice reporting events to yourself as if a circumstance you find yourself in is actually a news story and you are the roving reporter. Announce exactly what your surroundings are and what's happening "on the scene" at that very moment.
Fear is always the result of projecting a re-creation of the past into the now or the future. If you find yourself fearful, find the core belief and inquire: "Is this really true that I need to be fearful in this situation? What is actually happening right now, physically? Where is my body (hands, arms, feet, legs, head)? What do I see (trees, walls,windows, sky)?" Impersonalizing our stories gives us an opportunity to look at circumstances more objectively, and choose our responses to what life brings.
9. Literal Hearing
Practice listening to others in the most literal sense, believing exactly what they say, and do your best to resist falling into your own interpretations about the information they share with you. For example, someone might compliment you on how beautiful you are, and you interpret that as an implication that the person has ulterior motives. Our interpretations of what we hear people say to us are often far more painful or frightening than what people actually say.
We can hurt ourselves with our misconceptions and our thinking for others. Trytrusting that what they say is exactly what they mean: not more, not less. Hear people out. Catch yourself when you want to finish a sentence for someone either aloud or in your mind. Listen. It can be amazing to hear what comes out when we allow others to complete their thoughts without interruption. And, when we are busy thinking we know what they are about to say, we are missing what they are actually saying.
You might want to consider these questions: "What can be threatened if I listen and hear literally? Do I interrupt because I don't want to really know what they have to say? Do I interrupt to convince them I know more than they do? Am I attempting to portray an image of self- confidence and control? Who would I be without the need to possess those qualities? Is there a fear of appearing unintelligent? Would people leave me if I heard them literally, and no longer engage in manipulative games?"
10. Speaking Honestly and Literally
Speak literally. Say what you mean without justification, without any desire to manipulate, and without concern about how another may interpret your words. Practice not being careful. Experience the freedom this brings.
11. Watching the Play
See yourself in a balcony, watching your favorite drama about you and what distresses you. Watch the story on the stage below. Notice how you have seen this drama performed hundreds, perhaps thousands of times. Watch this until you find yourself becoming bored. The performers are having to exaggerate their parts to keep your attention. Notice when you get honest with your boredom, you get up from your seat, leave the balcony, exit the playhouse and step outside.
Always know you can re-visit. Who would you be without your story?
12. Watching a Second Version of the Play
Write your story from the eyes and mind of another. Write as many different versions with as many different outcomes as you like. Notice what you notice.
13. Exercising Polarity
If you find yourself dwelling on a negative thought, practice going to the opposite positive extreme or polarity. When you catch yourself slipping back into negativity, choose again to return to the positive polarity and be present with your conscious choice; feel the truth of it. There is only love, and what doesn't appear as love is a disguised call for love. It is your birthright to live in the positive polarity of love and truth.
14. Self Loving Process
Make a list of everything you love about someone and share it with them. Then, give yourself everything that is on the list. You may also recognize that what you love about someone else is just as true of you. Then allow the fullness of it to be expressed in your life.
15. Coming from Honesty
Practice moving and responding honestly. Laugh, cry, scream, and speak as it is genuinely true for you in each moment. Be a child again; act in full integrity with your feelings. Don't let beliefs compromise your integrity. For example, practice leaving a room honestly without manipulating those you leave behind with a polite excuse. Live your truth without explaining yourself. (continued)
The following are simple, yet powerful practices from Byron Katie that offer new ways of looking at life circumstances, and in that, create new possibilities for making choices that will bring you into greater alignment with the best in you.
1. Reversing your HASTY Judgments
Practice noticing when you judge or criticize someone or something. For example, in a grocery store line, you might be impatient and think the person in front of you is disorganized and rude. Quickly turn your judgment around and ask yourself: "Is it just as true about me? Am I rude? (Am I rude sometimes; to others - or to myself?) Am I being rude inside of me when I think they are rude?"
This exercise takes your attention off the "other" and places your attention on you. Forgiveness naturally results. Placing the blame or judgment on someone else leaves you powerless to change your experience; taking responsibility for your beliefs and judgments gives you the power to change them.
Remember, beyond the appearance of who it is you are looking at, it is always God disguised, standing in front of you so that you can know yourself. Reversing judgments allows complete forgiveness. Forgiveness leads to awareness of one's self, and reestablishes personal integrity.
2. The Three Kinds of Business
Notice when you hurt that you are mentally out of your business. If you're not sure, stop and ask, "Mentally, whose business am I in?"
There are only three kinds of business in the universe, mine, yours, and God's. Simple! Whose business is it if an earthquake happens? God's business. Whose business is it if your neighbor down the street has an ugly lawn? Your neighbor's business. Whose business is it if you are angry at your neighbor down the street because they have an ugly lawn? Your business.
Life is simple, it is internal. So, count, in five minute intervals, how many times you are in someone else's business mentally. Notice when you give uninvited advice or offer your opinion about something (aloud or silently). Ask yourself: "Am I in their business? Did they ask me for my advice?" And more importantly, "Can I take the advice I am offering and apply it to my life?"
3. Being in Nobody's Business
After working with the practice of staying out of others' business, try to stay out of your own business as well. Hold lightly whatever you think you know about yourself. "I am contained within this physical body. Is it really true? Can I really know that it's true? What do I get by holding that belief?" There is a widespread belief that we are our bodies, and we will die. "Who would I be without the belief?"
4. "Detaching" from Your Body/Your Story
Try speaking about yourself, for a period of time, in third person, rather than as I or me. Instead of saying, "I'm going to lunch", say "She's going to lunch", referring to yourself), or "This one is going to lunch." Do this with a friend for an hour, the afternoon, or the entire day. Eliminate the use of all personal pronouns (I, me, we). Refer to yourself and the other in third person. For example, "How is that one (or this one) today? Does he want to go to the park?" Experience impersonally the body, the stories and the preferences which you think you are.
5. Speaking in the Present Tense
Become mindful of how often your conversations focus on the past or future. Be aware of the verbs you use: was, did, will, are going to, etc. To speak of the past in the present is to reawaken and recreate it fully in the present, if only in our minds, and then we are lost to what is present for us now. To speak of the future is to create and live with what is but a fantasy in our minds. If you want to experience fear, think of the future. If you want to experience shame and guilt, think of the past.
6. Doing the Dishes
"Doing the dishes" is a practice of learning to love the action that is in front of you. Your inner voice or intuition guides you all day long to do simple things such as doing the dishes, driving to work or sweeping the floor. Allow the sanctity of simplicity. Listening to your inner voice and then acting on its suggestions with implicit trust creates a life that is more graceful, effortless and miraculous.
7. Listening to the Voice of the Body
The body is the voice of your mind, and it speaks to you in physical movement as muscular contractions - as twitches, twinges, tickles and tension, just to name a few. Become aware of how often you move away from peace or stillness. Practice stillness and let your body speak to you of where your mind contracts, no matter how subtle the flickering contraction may be. When you notice a sensation, inquire within, "What situation or contracted thought is triggering this physical sensation? Am I out of alignment with my integrity in this circumstance, and if so, where? Am I willing to let go of this belief or thought that causes my body to contract?" Listen and allow the answers to guide you, and return to the peace and clarity within. (continued)
'If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.' - Marcus Aurelius
Nothing I post is new. I am constantly surprised and amazed just how far back our supposedly current ideas go. :-) We humans are slow learners.
