Inner Journey - Higher Awareness

[MajestyJo]

PERFECTIONISM

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"We have the need to be accepted and to be loved by others, but we cannot accept and love ourselves. The more self-love we have, the less we will experience self-abuse. Self-abuse comes from self-rejection, and self-rejection comes from having an image of what it means to be perfect and never measuring up to that ideal. Our image of perfection is the reason we reject ourselves the way we are, and why we don't accept others the way they are."
-- Don Miguel Ruiz

"The maxim 'Nothing but perfection' may be spelled 'Paralysis.'"
-- Winston Churchill

"After enough mirror gazing, we all develop our 'cosmic sense of humor.' We no longer try to be perfect, or try to get all our work done in time. We become content with whatever life brings. Just to deal with what comes up without crucifying ourselves or others is enough of a challenge."
-- Paul Ferrini

"Good enough never is."
-- Debbi Fields

Our process is clear. First 'know yourself' - your personality and direction in life. Then 'create a plan'. Next 'heal yourself and what holds you back. Then you can expand and 'grow yourself'. Are you ready to commit to changing your life for the better?

[MajestyJo]

FOLLOW THE 80/20 RULE

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"Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all your energies on a limited set of targets."
-- Nido Qubein

The 80/20 rule says that on a list of 10 tasks, only 2 of those tasks will return 80% of the value of the entire list. Look at your 'to do' list for today. Which tasks are directly related to what you most want in life? Find the 2 high value items on your list and tackle them first. These tasks are the ones that really move us forward.

Many of us actively avoid the top 2 priorities because they are more challenging than the rest. If they are to lead us to worthy goals, they are undoubtedly asking us to move into new territory in thinking and acting, and this can be scary. But this is also REWARDING!

"Don't kid yourself: it's because you're doing all those C's (low priorities) and NOT because you haven't any time, that you don't get to do your A's."
-- Alan Lakein

Confused about what you want and where you're going? We'll support you in getting clear so you can plan your life and live your plan! Take our online personal goal setting workbook with daily email support. Discover the empowerment that comes with focus!

[MajestyJo]

DON'T REJECT THE EGO

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"Nourishing the soul is the process of drinking at the life stream, coming back to one’s true self, embracing the whole of one's experience - good, bad, or ugly; painful or exalted; dull or boring."
-- Jon Kabat-Zinn

Spiritual teachings sometimes counsel a need to let go of the ego. In our view, though, ego and personality are essential players in our theatre of life. Personality is the vehicle for Spirit to evolve through form. Soul sparks the potential that exists within the personality.

We don't want the ego to disappear - we want it to open to divine guidance so the two may work together in alignment.

And so the path of personality aims to build a healthy, skilful ego. Ironically, only a strong, mature ego can take responsibility for carrying the consciousness of soul.

"How do we nurture the soul? By revering our own life. By treating it as supremely important. By reaching for the best within ourselves. By learning to love it all, not only the joys and the victories, but also the pain and the struggles."
-- Nathaniel Branden

[MajestyJo]

THERE'S HOPE!

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"No matter how painful our early experiences were, our Essence cannot be harmed. Our Essence is waiting for the opportunity to reveal itself. In a very true sense, we are waiting for the opportunity to become ourselves. Our spirit is yearning to break free, to express itself ...

"And yet, ironically, we always fear and resist opening to that which is most real in us. When we trust in the process and give ourselves over to it, however, our true nature comes forth. The result is real integrity, love, authenticity, creativity, understanding, guidance, joy, power, and serenity-all of the qualities we are forever demanding that personality supply."
-- Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson

[MajestyJo]

Why are you here?

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"You can come to understand your purpose in life by slowing down and feeling your heart's desires."
-- Marcia Wieder

What do you love to do? What gives you greatest meaning in your life? Let your answers trickle through and keep a record of the key words that come up.

Life becomes so much richer when we choose to live from our heart.

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life."
-- Steve Jobs

[MajestyJo]

Give yourself free time

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"What is it that makes all of us end each day with the sense that we have not lived our time, but have been lived, used by what we do?"
-- Jacob Needleman

How can you free up more time for yourself?

All of the great masters counsel that we need time daily for solitude. And if our journey in life is to become more aware of who we are, then surely we need some free time each day to explore our inner landscapes and uncover our passions.

What activities can you cut out of your life to give you more growing room?

"Life is made up of moments, small pieces of glittering mica in a long, stretch of gray cement. It would be wonderful if they came to us unsummoned, but particularly in lives as busy as the ones most of us lead now, that won’t happen. We have to teach ourselves how to make room for them, to love them, and to live, really live."
-- Anna Quindlen

[MajestyJo]

Soul lives in connection

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"We all seek Soul. While Soul is always present, it doesn’t appear in our lives automatically. Soul requires our attention and reflection. Offering our respectful regard to the Soul is a way of loving it, caring for it, nurturing it."
-- Benjamin Shield and Richard Carlson

How do we experience soul in our lives?

It’s so simple! STOP AND PAY ATTENTION! Soul lives in connection. Whenever we are present and conscious, soul emerges.

To easily experience soul, find something you love to do and immerse yourself in it. Consciously savour a favourite piece of music. Consciously enjoy a walk in nature. Really experience your breathing and the pounding of your heart as you exercise. Really be present to your partner, your kids, your pet or another, and you will know the contentment of soul.

"I think that whenever soul is present, it’s because what you’re doing, whom you’re with, where you are, evokes love without your thinking about it. You are totally absorbed in the place or person or event, without ego and without judgment."
-- Jean Shinoda Bolen

[MajestyJo]

Willingness to change

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"At any moment, you have a choice, that either leads you closer to your spirit or further away from it."
-- Thich Nhat Hahn

How are you feeling in this moment? If you are not feeling great, are you willing to make the effort right now to shift your focus so you feel better? Finding something to appreciate will do it.

If you are not willing, that’s okay. Don’t judge yourself. Just be aware that you are choosing to stay where you are.

"Choice of attention... is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases, a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences, whatever they may be."
-- W.H. Auden

Our process is clear. First 'know yourself' - your personality and direction in life. Then 'create a plan'. Next 'heal yourself and what holds you back. Then you can expand and 'grow yourself'. Are you ready to commit to changing your life for the better?

[MajestyJo]

KNOW YOURSELF

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"What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself."
-- Abraham H. Maslow

STOP AND PAY ATTENTION! Set an intention to be more aware. Become a watcher, of yourself and what's around you. Develop the witness, the part of you that can step back from life and impartially observe how you react and think and feel. We learn so much about who we are!

"Knowing others is wisdom; knowing the self is enlightenment."
-- Tao Te Ching

"The true profession of man is to find his way to himself."
-- Hermann Hesse

[MajestyJo]

Balance material and spiritual

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"What is [the role of money] in the search for meaning? Is our relationship to it one of the chief factors that keeps us in our prison, or could it also be a tool for breaking out, for awakening to a life filled with intensity of purpose?"

-- Jacob Needleman

Our personality has a need for security. As a human in a material world, we need money to survive. If we don’t have enough for basics, our lives cannot function. At the same time, with too much emphasis on the material, we lose the spiritual awareness that brings meaning and fulfillment. The key lies in the balance.

What draws most of your attention, time and energy: spiritual growth or money? Reflect on (or better yet, journal on) the balance or lack of balance of these two in your life.

"Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul."

-- Henry David Thoreau

"View money and things not as something you create to fill a lack, but as tools to help you more fully express yourself and realize your potential."

-- Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer

Received from Higher Awareness - used with permission

[MajestyJo]

AS ABOVE, SO BELOW

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"There is in all visible things - a hidden wholeness."
-- Thomas Merton

"From a hologrammatic viewpoint, ...you are one little physical image that reflects all of humanity when projected spiritually upon the cosmic screen."
-- Wayne Dyer

"As above, so below."

Everything is connected. The universe is a hologram where every part contains the whole. Outside echoes the inside. The lower is a reflection of the higher. The other is a reflection of you. We are all a microcosm of each other. The big picture is within us and even our cells.

Be open to see the interconnections, influences and inter-relationships of things.

"Unity consciousness is a state of enlightenment where we pierce the mask of illusion which creates separation and fragmentation. Behind the appearance of separation is one unified field of wholeness. Here the seer and the scenery are one."
-- Deepak Chopra

"To me there is no difference between one person and another; I behold all as soul-reflections of the one God. I can't think of anyone as a stranger, for I know that we are all part of the One Spirit."
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

Explore what blocks and enhances intuition.

[MajestyJo]

NATURAL VIBRATIONS

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"I sing the body electric."
-- Walt Whitman

The water that makes up so much of our bodies is like oceann water. The salt crystals in this water vibrate at ever-changing frequencies. Our hearts are the emotional centers of our bodies, and they put out frequencies that are 10 times the power of the frequencies of our brains.

When we are happy, we vibrate at a higher frequency than when we are angry or sad. Our emotions change the chemical composition of the water in our systems. That's why happy tears taste different than tears of sadness.

Experiencing physical, emotional and mental stillness harmonizes the vibrational output of the body, heart and mind and we become stronger.

"The message we give our bodies -- one of irritation or acceptance -- is the message to which our bodies will answer."
-- Deb Shapiro

Our process is clear. First 'know yourself' - your personality and direction in life. Then 'create a plan'. Next 'heal yourself and what holds you back. Then you can expand and 'grow yourself'. Are you ready to commit to changing your life for the better?

[MajestyJo]

UNDERSTAND DUALITIES

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"Life is the coexistence of all opposite values. Joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, up and down, hot and cold, here and there, light and darkness, birth and death. All experience is by contrast, and one would be meaningless without the other."
-- Deepak Chopra

Life is full of dualities, opposites. Despite their apparent opposition, each extreme in a duality is necessary to fully actualize the other. Each depends on the existence of the other. For example, we cannot know honesty if we don’t know deception.

The key is to not resist or suppress the negative. We need to acknowledge its existence, though we may choose not to express it. When we embrace wholeness, we move to a higher perspective.

"The light which man has discovered within himself makes him more aware of the dark; through the good which attracts him, he sees the evil which is the line of least resistance; the activity leading to pain simultaneously permits him to visualize the contrasting pleasure, and thus he experiences something of both hell and heaven."
-- Aart Jurriaanse

*** Restart building a new foundation for your life. Clear blocks and transform your life.

[MajestyJo]

WORK SMART, NOT HARD

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"The whole secret of freedom from anxiety over not having enough time lies not in working more hours, but in the proper planning of the hours."
-- Frank Bettger

We need to commit time to doing the right things for ourselves, and only we can judge what’s right for us. We need to clearly know what we want, and we need to believe we can have it. Having goals in mind, we can avoid the trap of busyness and get right down to business. Efficiency is not nearly as important as effectiveness.

For fulfillment, we need to take our lives off autopilot. We need to consciously decide what we will and will not do, moment by moment. We need to give ourselves the space, support and freedom to be proactive in choosing how we live each day.

"Learn to use ten minutes intelligently. It will pay you huge dividends."
-- William A. Irwin

[MajestyJo]

FEARS OF MONEY

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"We are all powerless as children, and money looms so powerfully ... we don't grow up to claim our financial power until we look money directly in the eye, face our fears, and claim that power back."
-- Suze Orman

How does money scare you?

In your journal, write down your greatest fears around money, and see what comes up. If emotions surface, as they undoubtedly will, let them come. Really feel your feelings, without judgment. They'll give you valuable information.

"In all realms of life it takes courage to stretch your limits, express your power, and fulfill your potential; it’s no different in the financial realm. In a buy-now, consume-now culture like ours, it takes courage to make the decisions today that may make us rich tomorrow. It takes courage to face up to the facts of old age and mortality and to prepare for them. It also takes courage to live generously, regardless of your financial state of affairs. ...It takes courage to ask for what you want. And it takes courage to live honestly, wisely, true to yourself ...and true to your desire for more."
-- Suze Orman

*** Tackle your financial challenges holistically!

[MajestyJo]

HOW ARE YOU SABOTAGING YOURSELF?

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"If you play it safe in life you've decided that you don't want to grow any more."
-- Shirley Hufstedler

How are you sabotaging your potential for change?

We unconsciously use defence mechanisms to shield us from situations we perceive to be scary or painful. A part of you may want to grow and change, but another part may be resisting because change always moves you into new territory in your thinking and emotions.

If you find you are getting anxious, fearful, angry, frustrated, dismissive or unmotivated, then defence mechanisms are at work. Watch for them and know them to be signs of fear that wants to hold you back. Then courageously move through them.

"I have never been contained except I made the prison."
-- Mary Evans

[MajestyJo]

YOU KNOW THE WAY

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"Woe to the man whose heart has not learned while young to hope, to love ... and to put its trust in life."
-- Joseph Conrad

How deeply do you trust your own guidance?

Always trust that you know what's best for you. To move forward in your life, gather information from the "experts," consider how their advice relates to your situation and then act only on what feels right for you. You are the only expert for your own life.

"I trust so much in the power of the heart and the soul; I know that the answer to what we need to do next is in our own hearts. All we have to do is listen, then take that one step further and trust what we hear. We will be taught what we need to learn."
-- Melody Beattie

"I never know what the next lesson is going to be, because we're not supposed to know; we’re supposed to trust ourselves to discover it."
-- Melody Beattie

[MajestyJo]

RELIEVE THE PRESSURE COOKER

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"Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to entertain your old pain. The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life."
-- Mary Manin Morrissey

Journaling is a great way to release and let go. To get things off your chest. Our minds are our own worst enemies. The same thoughts go round and round in the same old ways and keep us stuck.

If something bothers you, write about it. Get it out so you can see it from a different perspective. Let it out. Let it go.

Owning and healing your pressure cooker is an important step in claiming your power, building your esteem and making your stand.

"In truth, to attain to interior peace, one must be willing to pass through the contrary to peace. Such is the teaching of the Sages."
-- Swami Brahmanada

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision.

[MajestyJo]

APPRECIATION

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"You can never get to peace and inner security without first acknowledging all of the good things in your life. If you're forever wanting and longing for more without first appreciating things the way they are, you'll stay in discord."
-- Doc Childre and Howard Martin

Develop an attitude of gratitude. We discover a sense of wholeness as we appreciate both the small and big things in our lives. And it really helps to remember to appreciate ourselves. Appreciation is more than just acceptance -- it's respect and admiration. Let go of criticism and self-abuse.

"Generally, appreciation means some blend of thankfulness, admiration, approval, and gratitude. In the financial world, something that 'appreciates' grows in value. With the power tool of appreciation, you get the benefit of both perspectives: as you learn to be consistently thankful and approving, your life will grow in value."
-- Doc Childre and Howard Martin

[MajestyJo]

OPEN TO AWARENESS

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"Mindfulness means moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness. It is cultivated by refining our capacity to pay attention, intentionally, in the present moment, and then sustaining that attention over time as best we can. In the process, we become more in touch with our life as it is unfolding."
-- Myla & Jon Kabat-Zinn

Why do we want to become more aware?

If we remain unaware, we:

repeat the past,
remain stuck in relationships,
live superficial, literal and one dimensional lives,
lack experiences of love and beauty, and
have limited connection to others and the universe.
With awareness, we are fully involved with life. Awareness is sensing deeply and sensitively for what really is. To do this, we need to approach the present as totally new. When we can be open and attentive in each moment, we begin to free ourselves from the conditioning of the past and the suffering that it so often brings.

"If moment by moment you can keep your mind clear then nothing will confuse you."
-- Sheng Yen


*** Awareness is the key to all change.

[MajestyJo]

DAILY FORGIVENESS

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"As long as you don't forgive, who and whatever it is will occupy rent-free space in your mind."
-- Isabelle Holland

We cannot avoid daily resentment and thoughts of guilt. They are a part of human nature. What we can do is release their grip on us. We can forgive others and ourselves daily.

Forgiveness requires nothing in return. There are no conditions. It gets rid of old baggage and clears up unfinished business. It leads us to a life of authenticity, lightness and directness. Forgiveness is the highest form of letting go of resentment and ego.

True forgiveness is more than an apology, understanding and acceptance. There is an element of recreating and re-imagining. There is a need to envision ourselves as more loving, interdependent, courageous and compassionate. Forgiveness requires honouring the sacred journey of learning about life - our life and others'.

"Whatever we have done, we can always make amends for it without ever looking back in guilt or sorrow."
-- Eknath Easwaran

Is your spiritual development important to you?

[MajestyJo]

BEING GENUINE

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"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

When we don’t know who we are -- or if we are afraid to be who we are -- we betray ourselves. We pretend to be who we think we are. Our self image is made up of our experiences, desires and other people’s ideas and expectations of us.

Maintaining this false self is a betrayal of ourselves. In all deep spiritual journeys, there is the experience of betrayal. Betrayal always tells us to adjust our life to be more authentic. What we identify with is all important.

There are large betrayals (e.g., your partner leaving you) and small betrayals (e.g., disappointments). They are all experiences of being wounded for the purpose of breaking down the defenses of the personality. When we allow the wounding and accept the betrayals as divine gifts, we greatly benefit.

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
-- Dr. Seuss (via Elena)

"What you must dare is to be yourself."
-- Dag Hammarskjold

[MajestyJo]

DISCOVER THE TREASURES INSIDE

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"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude."
-- Denis Waitley

Peace, joy, health and well-being can only be found inside us. They exist within us now, waiting to be discovered. Yet we tend to look to the outside world to satisfy our needs and longings.

Our outer life reflects back to us the way we think, feel and behave. The outer world is all effects. Go to the source inside for all of life’s treasures.

How are you searching for peace and contentment outside of yourself?

"The great Western disease is, ‘I'll be happy when… When I get the money. When I get a BMW. When I get this job.’ Well, the reality is, you never get to when. The only way to find happiness is to understand that happiness is not out there. It's in here. And happiness is not next week. It's now."
-- Marshall Goldsmith

[MajestyJo]

RESPONSIBILITY BRINGS POWER

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"To be tested is good. The challenged life may be the best therapist."
-- Gail Sheehy

What holds you back from being all that you are?

In your journal, list at least 5 things that hold you back.

Now review your answers. Have you blamed people or factors outside of yourself?

It's important to understand that ALL obstructions are rooted in our internal blocks. Even the problems that appear to be outside of us are only reflecting back to us problems we have inside. Once we address our inner issues, the outer problems disappear.

Be personally accountable for everything in your life and watch your perspectives shift. We claim our power when we accept responsibility for our lives.

"Conscious evolution begins as we take responsibility for clearing our own obstructions."
-- Dan Millman

Our process is clear. First 'know yourself' - your personality and direction in life. Then 'create a plan'. Next 'heal yourself and what holds you back. Then you can expand and 'grow yourself'. Are you ready to commit to changing your life for the better?

[MajestyJo]

A NEW LOOK AT PROBLEMS

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"The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem."
-- Theodore Rubin

Our lives really begin to change when we learn to shift our perspective on 'problems.'

From a spiritual perspective, problems offer our best path to growth. Like it or not, pain gets our attention. Discomfort also challenges the ego's perception that it is in complete control of life. This opens the door for soul's guidance.

If we want to be rid of the problem, we need to shift from denial and resistance to accept that this situation is present. We need to be willing to truly feel our experience to allow the energy of emotions to move through.

Finally, we need to explore what belief is giving rise to our distress. When we realize the belief is faulty, our shift in perspective resolves the problem. The solution always lies within us.

"No one can go back and make a brand new start. Anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending."
-- Source Unknown

[MajestyJo]

SING YOUR OWN SONG

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"Since you are like no other being ever created since the beginning of time, you are incomparable."
-- Brenda Ueland

Great forces are directing you to conform to the patterns of your society. You have DNA that has been handed down from generation to generation, coding repeated behaviour patterns into your being. You have archetypal energies setting the standards for how you behave as a man or a woman, as husband or wife, as father or mother .... You are immersed in consensual reality, whereby the world around you reflects societal understanding of how life has been and is to be.

At the same time, you have an even greater force within you inspiring you to wake up and recognize the reality of who you are. This force, the creative power underlying the entire universe, is urging you to create brand new standards of reality.

The status quo is blind to our creative power. Create a brand new world for yourself, one that meets your deepest needs, and you will help raise the quality of consciousness of the entire world.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
-- Gandhi

*** Do you feel an urge or calling in you to be or do more? Then honour it and open to more meaning and fulfillment by exploring your life purpose.

[MajestyJo]

REALLY BE THERE FOR ANOTHER

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"Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. You can see that when you think how the friends that really listen to us are the ones we move toward, and we want to sit in their radius as though it did us good, like ultraviolet rays."
-- Brenda Ueland

How well do we communicate with others? Often, when we are interacting with others, our attention in both speaking and listening is focused on meeting our own needs.

Our communication skills improve when we can open to be aware of the needs of the other person. When we listen, we can release the filters that serve our own needs for security and receive the message with our compassionate heart. And when we speak, we can choose words that the listener is able to receive. True communication happens when we harmonize with the other individual.

"So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it."
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti

"The first duty of love is to listen."
-- Paul Tillich

Our process is clear. First 'know yourself' - your personality and direction in life. Then 'create a plan'. Next 'heal yourself and what holds you back. Then you can expand and 'grow yourself'. Are you ready to commit to changing your life for the better?

[MajestyJo]

BE AWARE OF YOUR THINKING

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"There is a thought in your mind right now. The longer you hold on to it, the more you dwell upon it, the more life you give to that thought. Give it enough life, and it will become real. So make sure the thought is indeed a great one."
-- Ralph Marston

Most of our self-talk comes unconsciously from our subconscious. Yet every thought that exists in our subconscious got there through a conscious decision to accept that thought.

We need to become conscious of our self-talk so we can at will choose to replace negative beliefs with positive ones. We have the power to choose an identity we love, but we need to do the work. The process of changing our subconscious beliefs requires awareness, diligence, consistency and repetition.

"Man is made or unmade by himself. In the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself. He also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace."
-- James Allen

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are

[MajestyJo]

THE PAST IN THE PRESENT

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"If you accept a limiting belief, then it will become a truth for you."
-- Louise Hay

Pick one aspect of your life, e.g. your health, your competence, your prosperity or relationships, and think back to when you were a child. What messages about this subject did you hear from adults at that time that are still playing on your subconscious tape recorder? Messages like: "Men can't be trusted." "Money doesn't grow on trees." "You're not smart enough to succeed in business."

How is your world reflecting your beliefs back to you, today?

"There are no limitations to the self except those you believe in."
-- Seth

[MajestyJo]

DARE TO RISK

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"To try is to risk failure. But risk must be taken because the greatest hazard of life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, live, and love."
-- Leo Buscaglia

Daring to risk is an essential step to self empowerment. This is the key to breaking out of stuck thinking and behaviour. It is about breaking through the comfort zones and barriers. It is about experiencing new levels of mind and feelings. It is about experiencing more life.

"A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."
-- George Bernard Shaw

"Only those who risk going too far can know how far they can go."
-- Unknown source

Build a new relationship with the time of your life. Experience time from different perspectives. Discover how to do life rather than allow life to do you.

[MajestyJo]

SEEK YOUR LIMITS AND BEYOND

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"If you're proactive, you don't have to wait for circumstances or other people to create perspective expanding experiences. You can consciously create your own."
-- Stephen Covey

Connect with the edge, the unknown, of your experience. Allow this pull towards unexplored territory to take you to new dimensions of yourself. Allow life to touch you in new ways. For this is how we truly live life. Become more alive as you grow through your consciousness barriers. Ask questions that seek answers beyond yourself. The depth of life is revealed as you go further into it.

"Nothing is lost upon a man who is bent upon growth; nothing wasted on one who is always preparing for - life by keeping eyes, mind and heart open to nature, men, books, experience - and what he gathers serves him at unexpected moments in unforeseen ways."
-- Hamilton Wright Mabie

"Nurture great thoughts, for you will never go higher than your thoughts."
--Benjamin Disraeli

Explore what blocks and how to enhance intuition. Your answers and guidance lie within.

[MajestyJo]

THE POWER OF SILENCE

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"Growth takes place in a person by working at a deep inner level in a sustained atmosphere of silence."
-- Dr. Ira Progoff

How can we hear our wise voice of intuition if we are always thinking, talking and distracted by outer events?

If we take time daily to experience physical stillness and to direct our attention inside, we can begin to find the peace, love, will and wisdom that exist as our essence.

"Only when one is connected to one's own core is one connected to others... And, for me, the core, the inner spring, can best be refound through solitude."
-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"In the sweet territory of silence we touch the mystery. It's the place of reflection and contemplation, and it's the place where we can connect with the deep knowing, to the deep wisdom way."
-- Angeles Arrien

[MajestyJo]

SLOW DOWN AND ENJOY

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"Adopt the pace of nature, her secret is patience."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Racing through life is very stressful. If we stay in high gear too long, we lose our ability to shift down. And when we're stressed, we can't access happiness, appreciation, fun, compassion, generosity, awareness of beauty and other wonderful qualities. High stress also triggers negative emotions like frustration, impatience, anger and fear.

Life has so much to offer if we will slow down and truly experience it. We must always remember that we are the ones in control of the accelerator. We CAN choose to brake.

"Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast -- you also miss the sense of where you are going and why."
-- Eddie Cantor

Never have time for what you really want in life? Take control of the time of your life by changing your mind.

[MajestyJo]

OPEN TO TRUST

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"When I grip the wheel too tight, I find I lose control."
-- Steve Rapson

WE SEEK TO CONTROL OUR LIVES WHEN WE DO NOT TRUST, WHEN WE DO NOT LOVE. Our ego, perceiving itself to be vulnerable and insecure, uses control in an effort to protect itself.

At the root of our need to control, we find FEAR. It may be fear of the unknown. Fear of not coping. Fear of loss. Or possibly even fear of looking stupid. And as our efforts to control other people and events invariably fail, our fear increases.

Trust, on the other hand, is a quality of the soul. While control is a tool of the mind, TRUST AND FAITH ARE ASPECTS OF THE HEART. Trust comes with the deep knowing that we are spiritual beings in physical bodies. When we trust enough in life to give up our need to control, we can relax and open to the flow of energy in our lives. This brings peace of mind.

"The only real security in life lies in relishing life's insecurity."
-- M. Scott Peck

"Do not abandon trust when your ego thinks things should be different than they are."
-- Wayne Dyer

Discover the power of trusting yourself. Connect with your inner guidance that knows the way. Life can be easier and more fulfilling.

[MajestyJo]

DIRECT YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS MIND

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"The power to move the world is in the subconscious mind."
-- William James

Our subconscious mind creates our lives perfectly according to how it has been programmed. It works 24 hours of every day, 365 days per year. It accepts instructions from the conscious mind, checks on old inner programming and executes.

The subconscious mind acts on old beliefs stored over a lifetime. Many of those beliefs you may have accepted without thinking. Or you may have absorbed them when you were too young to exercise choice. Many of the beliefs that govern your life may no longer match what you now hold to be true.

Nonetheless, the subconscious mind is the director till you rewrite the scripts. Put some effort into getting it working on your positive, conscious intentions instead of your old limiting, unconscious beliefs and your life will change.

"If a man devotes himself to the instructions of his own unconscious, it can bestow this gift [of renewal], so that suddenly life, which has been stale and dull, turns into a rich unending inner adventure, full of creative possibilities."
-- Marie-Louise von Franz

[MajestyJo]

IT'S OKAY TO DREAM!

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"Don't discard your fantasies as merely wishful thinking. Honor them as messages from the deepest part of your being about what you can do and directions you can choose."
-- Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer

What are your deepest heart-felt desires, dreams and visions?

Our deepest desires and dreams align with the essence of who we are. The more we align with that essence, the more our life holds meaning, purpose and fulfilment. Do you have a sense of your destiny?

"Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born."
-- Dale E. Turner

"Everybody builds a dream in their lifetime. You're either going to build your dream, or somebody else's. So build your own!"
-- Christopher LaBrec

*** Do you feel an urge or calling in you to be or do more? Then honour it and open to more meaning and fulfillment by exploring your life purpose. Maybe it is time to do life instead of life doing you!

[MajestyJo]

PERSONAL POWER

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"The deep root of failure in our lives is to think, 'Oh how useless and powerless I am.' It is essential to think strongly and forcefully, 'I can do it,' without boasting or fretting."
-- Dalai Lama

Angeles Arrien says that whether we are male or female, we need to develop three kinds of power. People who hold these three powers cannot be ignored.

Power of presence - Being really present in each moment
Power of communication - Speaking my truth
Power of position - Being willing to take a stand
"A man's true state of power and riches is to be in himself."
-- Henry Ward Beecher

"We are no longer puppets being manipulated by outside powerful forces; we become the powerful force ourselves."
-- Leo Buscaglia

What is personality? What is soul? How do they interact? Experience the power of living soulfully in the present moment.

[MajestyJo]

DO YOU BELIEVE IN YOURSELF?

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"We cannot rise higher than our thought of ourselves."
-- Orison Swett Marden

What do you believe about yourself?

If you are experiencing a lack of something in your life, chances are that you hold a belief in your subconscious that says you aren't worthy of having that quality. Write in your journal the answer to these questions for yourself:

Where are you not good enough, not worthy enough?
How willing are you to receive?
"We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit."
-- e. e. cummings

[MajestyJo]

BE OPEN TO CHANGE

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"Balance is a dynamic process; it changes with the days, the seasons, the years."
-- Sherrill Sellman

How rigid are your routines? Do you exercise for 30 minutes, three times each week no matter how you feel?

Routines and structure can provide a valuable framework to bring discipline to our lives. At the same time, we are always changing and it's wise to be sensitive to our physical, emotional and mental states so we can ensure that our activities truly meet our needs. We need to be willing to change our patterns when our practices no longer serve us.

"Only in growth, reform, and change, paradoxically enough, is true security to be found."
-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"The smallest change in perspective can transform a life. What tiny attitude adjustment might turn your world around?"
-- Oprah

[MajestyJo]

HOW DO YOU WORK WITH ANGER?

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"Character isn't inherited. One builds it daily by the way one thinks and acts, thought by thought, action by action. If one lets fear or hate or anger take possession of the mind, they become self-forged chains."
-- Helen Douglas

How do you feel about anger, in yourself and in others?
How do you deal with it?

Anger is powerful energy. If we are afraid of this energy, we may attempt to deny or hide it. And when we lack control of the energy of anger, we impose it on other people or things.

The ways we react to anger usually reflect how we experienced anger as children and how our own anger when we were young was handled by the adults at the time.

In reality, anger, like any emotion, brings us information. It tells us how we feel about what is being experienced. If we receive anger's message and learn more about ourselves, the energy will pass.

"Too often we underestimate how quickly our feelings are going to change because we underestimate our ability to change them."
-- David Gilbert

[MajestyJo]

BELIEVE IN YOUR UNLIMITED POTENTIAL

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"You cannot see anything that you do not first contemplate as a reality."
-- Ramtha

How do you typically define yourself? Do you tell yourself and others that you are slow and methodical, that you have two left feet, that you are lazy, or unimaginative or that you can't hang on to money?

In our unconscious self talk, most of us rarely say positive things about ourselves. List the positive and the negative ways you describe yourself. Then look over your list and contemplate how those definitions limit your ability to be cosmic in your outlook and performance.

"Belief has the word 'lie' in it... and that pretty much sums up what the world has us believing about ourselves."
-- Doug Firebaugh

"We are what we believe we are."
-- Benjamin N. Cardozo

[MajestyJo]

FORGIVE THE HURTS

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"Forgiveness will never fail to free you."
-- Jerrold Mundis

How do we forgive when we're angry and hurt?

As a first step, we can be willing to truly feel our anger and hurt. Honouring our feelings by being fully present with them helps to release the feelings themselves.

And it helps to remember that people only hurt others when they themselves are in pain. When we can recognize the other person's suffering, our heart can open in compassion. We can also remember that at some time or another, we too have hurt someone through our own unskilful action.

Only love can heal the rifts caused by a hurtful deed. Forgiveness holds immense power because it mends separation. It moves us towards the unity and love that lie at the core of our being. It is a fundamental part of the healing process.

"Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future."
-- Paul Boese

"God has a big eraser."
-- Billy Zeoli

[MajestyJo]

VALUE THE PROCESS

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"If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear ... as it is, infinite."
-- William Blake

When we stop and pay attention to ourselves, we begin to see clearly the habits and patterns that have kept us asleep and confused and misled for so long. With awareness, we can choose to shift from the selfish and narrow outlook of our personality to the all-embracing generosity of our soul, simply by changing our perspective.

Change your mind and you’ll change your world.

"You watch your mind to see who you are not. I watch my mind to gain a sense of its content, which has always been my pain. As I watch it, I get a sense of its impermanence. Thoughts come and go as part of a process. I see how content dissolves into process and begin to see the patterns in the process. Realizing it isn't MY suffering, MY pain, it becomes THE pain. I’ve gone from the tiny, the small, and the individual to the universal. I feel OUR pain. When we do, we go from fear to compassion. Fear is MY pain, compassion is THE pain."
-- Stephen Levine

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are.

[MajestyJo]

REMEMBER YOUR SPIRITUAL SIDE

"The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays."
-- Soren Kierkegaard

Reminding ourselves often of our spiritual natures truly changes the quality of our lives. It helps us relax, slow down, lighten up, and generally find more space and joy in life.

When we get down on ourselves or life, we can pull back and ask, "How might my soul regard this situation? What am I being invited to experience?"

This shift in perspective helps us let go of the resistance that always comes with negativity. As energy once again begins to flow, our outlook brightens.

"Spirituality is the sacred center out of which all life comes, including Mondays and Tuesdays and rainy Saturday afternoons in all their mundane and glorious detail. ... The spiritual journey is the soul's life commingling with ordinary life."
-- Christina Baldwin

"It is not my business to think about myself. My business is to think about God. It is for God to think about me."
-- Simone Weil

What is soul? What is personality? How do the two work together? Explore your own spirituality

[MajestyJo]

THE SOURCE OF ANGER

"Anger is that powerful internal force that blows out the light of reason."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

How does anger typically surface in your life?

We usually get angry at someone, don't we? We judge that someone has done something wrong and we want them to be punished.

In truth, the actions of others are never to blame. It's our thinking - our blaming and judgment - that causes the anger. And we blame and judge because we have a need that has not been met.

In his book 'Nonviolent Communication,' Marshall B. Rosenberg advises that rather than blame others, we are better served by directing our energy towards meeting our own needs.

He offers a simple tool for change. Instead of saying, 'I am angry because they ...' we can say, 'I am angry because I am needing ....'

"At the core of all anger is a need that is not being fulfilled."
-- Marshall B. Rosenberg

"How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it."
-- Marcus Aurelius

[MajestyJo]

REVIEW AND RECOMMIT

"Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Just think: When we are driving, we know where we want to go and we plot out our route. When we plan and prepare a meal, we follow a recipe and monitor the food as it cooks.

How much attention do we give to planning the direction of our lives?

Taking the time to review our quality of life gives us a chance to re-evaluate what we are doing and where we want to go. It lets us fine-tune our direction, to ensure we are on track for what we most want.

Stop and think about your last 6 months. What did you learn? What would you like to do differently? Where do you want to recommit?

"Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up."
-- A. A. Milne

"Always have a plan, and believe in it. Nothing happens by accident."
-- Chuck Knox

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision. Go deeper...

[MajestyJo]

THINK FOR YOURSELF

"I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself."
-- Rita Mae Brown

Where do you need to think for yourself?

When we begin to cultivate awareness of our thoughts and emotions, we begin to see just how much we live according to other people's and society's beliefs and actions. Don't get upset by this. Just get in touch with how you really think and feel inside and begin to express your authenticity.

"Once in a while it really hits people that they don't have to experience the world in the way they have been told to."
-- Alan Keightley

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are

[MajestyJo]

WHAT BLOCKS CONNECTION?

"People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges."
-- Joseph F. Newton

We experience soul when we really connect with life -- when we stop and consciously experience what is happening.

We lose soul with:
• resistance - to anyone or anything
• superficiality - we avoid depth of experience
• control - we try to control the relationship
• selfishness - we remain self-centered.

Each of these attitudes fosters separation rather than connection. Once again, soul lives in relating.

Take time to become aware of, and perhaps journal on how you relate to other people and things in your life.

"We have to decide for ourselves what's nourishing to our souls, and do those things over others."
-- Thomas Moore

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision. Go deeper...

[MajestyJo]

BRING AWARENESS TO YOUR GENEROSITY

"Generosity lies less in giving much than in giving at the right moment."
-- Jean De La Bruyère

While it's important to give, it's also essential that we not give more than we can afford. Only you can determine the appropriate amount of time or money you can give away, but it should not cause you hardship. We need to respect our own needs as well as the needs of others.

When do you give more than you can afford?

"Generosity is another quality which, like patience, letting go, non-judging, and trust, provides a solid foundation for mindfulness practice. You might experiment with using the cultivation of generosity as a vehicle for deep self-observation and inquiry as well as an exercise in giving."
-- Jon Kabat Zinn

[MajestyJo]

HEALTH AND HELP

"More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones."
-- Mother Teresa

If we are prompted to ask for spiritual blessings for ourselves or others, how do we best do this?

Speaker Kimberly Herkert offers that it is best to simply ask the divine for health and help. As human beings, we are not capable of seeing the big picture for anyone's situation. As a result, we are not able to judge what is best for anyone, including ourselves.

The Higher Power always knows best, and the general prayer for 'health and help' acknowledges the wisdom that exists there and our faith in divine will.

"God answers prayer in His own way, not ours."
-- Mohandas Gandhi

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are.

[MajestyJo]

GIVE TO YOURSELF FIRST

"First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do."
-- Epictetus

Do you want more in your life? More love? More happiness? More money? More satisfaction? Then explore how you can BE more.

In the Delfin Knowledge System, Leslie Fieger advises, "You can have more when you are willing to give more. You must begin this process by giving more to yourself. Give yourself more time; give yourself more attention; give yourself more love; give yourself more of what you want. Then decide how to offer the more that you are (and have) to the world and you will receive even more back in return."

"Let the waters settle you will see stars and moon mirrored in your Being."
-- Rumi

Our process is clear. First 'know yourself' - your personality and direction in life. Then 'create a plan'. Next 'heal yourself and what holds you back. Then you can expand and 'grow yourself'. Are you ready to commit to changing your life for the better?

[MajestyJo]

Are you in integrity?

“In order to live a rich life, everything about who you are must be one, in alignment, and in pure harmony.”

-- Suze Orman

For clear and honest expression, our thoughts, speech and actions must all be congruent. We will not stand in our power if we are inadvertently sending mixed messages—if we say one thing and do another.

I found it helpful to consciously identify the values that matter most to me. With these values in mind, it’s easier to ensure I’m living them.

“Honor your integrity and you will be repaid many times over with increased prosperity.”

-- Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer

(C) Reproductions Permitted: www.higherawareness.com

When I was in active addiction, I had no values. Any spiritual principles that I had been raised with seemed to have disappeared or didn't seem to matter.

In today, I live by the spiritual principles of the Steps and the values I was taught growing up are now back integrated into my life.

Integrity for me mean to walk your talk. Don't say one thing and do something else. As the saying doesn't say, "Do what I say, don't do what I do." It is doing what you say.

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[MajestyJo]

ARE YOU SERVING?



"You may be good, but what are you good for? You've got to be good for something. You’ve got to be about some project, some task that requires you to be humble and obedient to the universal principles of service."
-- Stephen R. Covey

"We had to learn ourselves, and furthermore we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life but instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life, daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for the individual."
-- Victor Frankl

"If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room."
-- Anita Roddick

*** Do you feel an urge or calling in you to be or do more? Then honour it and open to more meaning and fulfillment by exploring your life purpose. Maybe it is time to do life instead of life doing you!

[MajestyJo]

TIME TO CHANGE DIRECTION?



"Employ the power of positive quitting. Most of us view quitting as something negative, but it’s not. 'Winners never quit,' we're told, when, in reality, winners quit all the time: choosing to stop doing things that aren’t creating the results they desire. When you quit all the things that aren’t working for you, when you quit tolerating all the negative things that hold you back, you'll create a positive ‘charge’ in your life as well as create the space in your life for more positive experiences."
-- Jim Allen

"I like thinking of possibilities. At any time, an entirely new possibility is liable to come along and spin you off in an entirely new direction. The trick, I've learned, is to be awake to the moment."
-- Doug Hall

"Persons and societies do not submit passively to surroundings and events. They make choices as to the places where they live and the activities in which they engage -- choices based on what they want to be, to do and to become. Furthermore, persons and societies often change their goals and ways; they can even retrace their steps and start in a new direction if they believe they are on a wrong course. Thus, whereas animal life is prisoner of biological evolution which is essentially irreversible, human life has the wonderful freedom of social evolution which is rapidly reversible and creative. Wherever human beings are concerned, trend is not destiny."
-- Rene Dubos

Confused about what you want and where you're going? We'll support you in getting clear so you can plan your life and live your plan! Take our online personal goal setting workbook with daily email support. Discover the empowerment that comes with focus!

[MajestyJo]

CO-CREATION



"[Manifestation is] the art of fashioning a co- creative, synchronistic, and mutually supportive relationship between the inner creative energies of a person's own mind and spirit and their counterpart within the larger world in order to bring a new and desirable situation into being."
-- David Spangler

I have always understood that Spirit works through us. Only recently have I really come to appreciate how Spirit works WITH us. The divine life force partners with our unique perspective, our passion and our skills to create new life situations.

We are not passive vessels for God's will. To realize our highest potential, we must co-create with the divine.

"We must see ourselves as co-manifestors -- partners in manifestation -- all engaged in the primal act of unfoldment and emergence. Each act of manifestation may be directed toward a specific outcome, but it also contributes to the greater manifestation of the wholeness, love, compassion, and creativity of the primal source from which we all come."
-- David Spangler

What is personality? What is soul? How do they interact? Experience the power of living soulfully in the present moment.

[MajestyJo]

WHAT ARE YOU FEELING?



"We know too much and feel too little. At least, we feel too little of those creative emotions from which a good life springs."
-- Bertrand Russell

Many of the qualities that bring fulfilment in life are feelings, like love, joy, freedom and gratitude.

In our overly rational world, we tend to think about how we feel, which, of course, is not feeling at all -- it's thinking.

Honour your feelings and be willing to experience them. They give us valuable feedback about what is and what is not working in our lives. They are the signposts to meaningful inner work.

"With just a little education and practice on how to manage your emotions, you can move into a new experience of life so rewarding that you will be motivated to keep on managing your emotional nature in order to sustain it. The payoff is delicious in terms of improved quality of life."
-- Doc Childre

Explore and get in touch with your feelings.

*** Restart building a new foundation for your life. Clear blocks and transform your life. Discover a whole new way of working with life's challenges.

[MajestyJo]

LABELS LIMIT US



"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."
-- Lao Tzu

How do you label yourself? How do you label others?

Be aware that any label is limiting. Labels stick us in a box where there's no room to move. Today, experience how it feels to let go of the labels to rest in 'I am.' Feel the freedom, the spaciousness, the infinite potential of simply being.

"As long as I am this or that, I am not all things."
-- Meister Eckhart

"Your only limitations are those you set up in your mind, or permit others to set up for you."
-- Og Mandino

Meditation is a powerful tool for experiencing 'I am.' *** Step by step, progressively learn basic meditation methods to relax, concentrate, focus, reflect, contemplate and illuminate.

[MajestyJo]

SPEAK FOR YOURSELF



"An open ear is the only believable sign of an open heart."
-- David Augsburger

We can easily get into trouble in relationships when we assume that we know what someone else is thinking or feeling. Parents, in particular, can be quick to judge what's going on in their children.

Rather than assuming we know someone else's experience, we could shift our perceptions into questions. Instead of saying, 'I know you're hurting,' we could ask, 'Are you feeling hurt?' This allows us to connect with the other with no risk of misunderstandings.

"It's always wise to raise questions about the most obvious and simple assumptions."
-- C. West Churchman

"To assume is to be deceived."
-- Yiddish proverb

[MajestyJo]

WHAT'S ON YOUR HOT LIST?

"The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want."
-- Ben Stein

A Hot List is basically a to-do list with one key difference: it only includes topics or tasks that really matter to you, those that genuinely affect your quality of life. You know -- the ones you never get around to! The ones that will make your life your own!

Keep a prioritised Hot List handy to remind you to claim 5 to 15 minutes to focus on and write about what counts in your life. Even 5 minutes is better than nothing. Start small and the momentum will build.

"You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage -- pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically -- to say 'no' to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger 'yes' burning inside."
-- Stephen Covey

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision. Go deeper....

[MajestyJo]

STOP THE BATTLES

"When you fight something, you're tied to it forever. As long as you're fighting it, you’re giving it power."
-- Anthony de Mello

What are you fighting?

Resistance always brings pain. Examine your struggle. What does your personality want from the situation? What does your soul want? What can you learn from this?

Always strive to mend separation and achieve unity. Always choose love over fear. If you can embrace whatever you are struggling against, the struggle will disappear.

"What you resist persists. And only what you look at, and own, can disappear. You make it disappear by simply changing your mind about it."
-- Neale Donald Walsch

*** Restart building a new foundation for your life. Clear blocks and transform your life.

[MajestyJo]

LAUGH!

"We don't laugh because we're happy, we're happy because we laugh."
-- William James

Why laugh?

Laughter nourishes the soul and triggers joy. It's a natural stress reliever. It stimulates the immune system and increases oxygen, stamina and our breathing capacity. Medical literature is full of reasons to laugh for the health of it.

Don't rely upon your funny friends, favorite sit-com or jokes to tickle your funny bone -- just laugh for the joy of it!

"Laughter is like the human body wagging its tail."
-- Anne Wilson Schaef

[MajestyJo]

STEP BY STEP

"The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at a time."
-- Sydney Smiles

When I get overwhelmed by the number of tasks on my to- do list, I remind myself that the only way to get anywhere is step by step. And I cover the most distance in the journey of my life when I take a moment to decide which step will bring the greatest rewards.

"Often he who does too much does too little."
-- Italian Proverb

"If you chase two rabbits, both will escape."
-- Source Unknown

[MajestyJo]

SMILE!

"Smile, it's free therapy."
-- Doug Horton

I've learned that if I put a smile on my face when I'm feeling down, my spirits will automatically lift. The body knows that a smile means happiness.

Knowing this doesn't mean I'm always willing to do it. Many times, I have absolutely refused to cheer myself up. Isn't that interesting!

It's a clue that sometimes the ego positively enjoys being miserable. It can be enlightening to explore the pay-offs we get from our black moods.

"Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there is never any recourse to the mention of it."
-- Samuel Johnson

Become aware of your subconscious limitations, your character strengths, weaknesses and potentials, your life challenges, gifts, talents, and your deepest desires and aspirations.

[MajestyJo]

ARE YOU IN INTEGRITY?

"In order to live a rich life, everything about who you are must be one, in alignment, and in pure harmony."
-- Suze Orman

For clear and honest expression, our thoughts, speech and actions must all be congruent. We will not stand in our power if we are inadvertently sending mixed messages-if we say one thing and do another.

I found it helpful to consciously identify the values that matter most to me. With these values in mind, it's easier to ensure I'm living them.

"Honor your integrity and you will be repaid many times over with increased prosperity."
-- Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer

[MajestyJo]

COMMITMENTS TO SERVE

"Our deepest need is for the joy that comes with ...knowing we are of genuine use to others."
-- Eknath Easwaran

Holding an intention to be in service shapes our overall attitude towards life in many ways. For example, it brings a greater sensitivity and awareness of others, a commitment to harmlessness, a willingness to put others' needs before our own and a desire to be in harmony with all.

An attitude of service also involves a willingness to be served when we truly need support.

"... there is no such thing as just existing. Everything is in service to everything else. Existence is giving and receiving. A stone gives and receives no less than a saint."
-- Jacob Needleman

*** Do you feel an urge or calling in you to be or do more? Then honour it and open to more meaning and fulfillment by exploring your life purpose. Maybe it is time to do life instead of life doing you!

[MajestyJo]

STRUGGLING WITH A DECISION?

"You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind."
-- Dale Carnegie

My anxiety level spiked the other day as I wrestled with whether to choose option A or option B. I was so afraid of making the wrong choice!

And then I remembered, with deep gratitude, Susan Jeffers' sage advice: There are no wrong decisions! Whatever we might choose in life will bring valuable experiences if we are open to receive them.

"Lighten up! Whatever happens as a result of your decision, you'll handle it!"
-- Susan Jeffers

[MajestyJo]

THINKING OF POVERTY OR WEALTH?

"Being poor is a frame of mind."
-- Mike Todd

What do you think of money?

Our beliefs create our reality. If you have struggled with money most of your adult life, chances are that something happened when you were young to create limiting beliefs around money and prosperity. Look back to your early years. What beliefs did your parents and other influential adults have about money? Chances are you're also carrying those beliefs. Are they serving you?

"The law of abundance is that everything replicates after its own kind. Like is attracted to like. If you want more wealth, concentrate of wealth; think thoughts of abundance and wealth."
-- Delfin Knowledge System

*** Tackle your financial challenges holistically!

[MajestyJo]

JUDGMENT CREATES

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them."
-- Mother Teresa

We know the power of thoughts to create. Consider, then, the impact of our judgments. When we judge someone critically, those judgments have the power to affect the one being judged, if they are open to our perceptions. This is the case even when we don't say what we're thinking.

For example, if I judge someone to be fat, and that individual perceives him or herself to be fat and is sensitive to the opinions of others, my thoughts will reinforce their 'fat' experience.

Being aware of the impact of our judgments helps us let go of our tendency to judge.

"There are three kinds of violence: one, through our deeds; two, through our words; and three, through our thoughts. ...The root of all violence is in the world of thoughts, and that is why training the mind is so important."
-- Eknath Easwaran

*** Restart building a new foundation for your life. Clear blocks and transform your life.

[MajestyJo]

GROWING THROUGH AWARENESS OF MONEY

"What is [the role of money] in the search for meaning? Is our relationship to it one of the chief factors that keeps us in our prison, or could it also be a tool for breaking out, for awakening to a life filled with intensity of purpose?"
-- Jacob Needleman

How do you relate to money?

Money is a powerful tool for growth. Pay sharp attention to your thoughts, emotions, reactions and actions where money is involved. Don't judge what you find; just be aware of what's going on. Your growing awareness will automatically support changes in your behaviour.

"What we're after in Prospering is nothing less than a major shift in consciousness-in the attitudes, beliefs, and ideas you have about yourself and your relationship to money."
-- Jerrold Mundis

[MajestyJo]

ATTACHMENT

"The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for until the cord be broken, the bird cannot fly."
-- Saint John of the Cross

"Attachment to spiritual things is... just as much an attachment as inordinate love of anything else."
-- Thomas Merton

"The tighter you squeeze, the less you have."
-- Zen Saying

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision. Go deeper...

[MajestyJo]

MAKING LIFE OUR OWN

"Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways."
-- Stephen Vincent Benet

What's needed for a new relationship with time and life?

Intention -- Get really clear about what you want.

Desire -- How much do you want something new for yourself? Know your motivation. Desire brings the energy for change.

Belief and/or willingness to trust you can have what you want. If belief is lacking, can you believe in the possibility that you can find a new way of living?

Perseverance, discipline -- It takes time and effort to change attitudes and habits. We can't expect a new life overnight.

Acceptance, both of what's happening now and of who we are. Until we honestly and openly accept our present situation, we cannot change it.

A willingness to try something new.

"It is so easy to waste our lives: our days, our hours, our minutes. ... It is so easy to exist instead of live. Unless you know there is a clock ticking. So many of us changed our lives when we heard a biological clock and decided to have kids. But that sound is a murmur compared to the tolling of mortality."
-- Anna Quindlen

[MajestyJo]

THE EYES OF THE SOUL

Today, we want to share a passage from Martia Nelson's book, 'Coming Home':
"My greatest teacher was the experience of living in split realities: personality and true self. Personality is our daily companion, our conscious self that sees the world through the eyes of limitation and dutifully keeps us informed about what we can and cannot do. True self, on the other hand, patiently stands by, offering the unwavering knowledge that a state of vibrant well- being and unlimited possibility is our true nature, a birthright that can be lived if we choose to do so. ... True self simply refers to the aspect of our being that is completely aware of its expanded nature no matter what we may be experiencing at the time."

Whenever we feel constrained, fearful, unworthy, inadequate or anything we deem to be negative, we have identified with our personality. We can always choose to view the same situation from the perspective of our soul.

"As a Witness, you begin to discover that you are not that which you have been observing; you are not those things that you have been noticing about your body. Instead, you are the noticer."
-- Wayne Dyer

Is your spiritual development important to you?

[MajestyJo]

QUESTIONS THAT AREN'T HELPFUL

"We accept many notions because they seem to be the logical answers to our questions. But have we asked the right questions?"
-- Harold L. Klawans

Sometimes we ask questions for which we really don't want the answer! Nonetheless, when we ask a question, our subconscious minds will get to work to answer us.

Here are some examples of questions we want to avoid:

What's wrong with me?
How long could this take?
What could go wrong?
How much trouble could it be?
How hard could it be?
Asking questions can be empowering - as long as they're smart questions!

"The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions."
-- Anthony Jay

[MajestyJo]

TIME FOR STILLNESS

"We're so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget that the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it's all about."
-- Joseph Campbell

The sages all say that the path to liberation is found in entering the stillness within. To experience that stillness, we need to be willing to regularly stop the activity for a while.

How do we do this in a busy life? We set our priorities. Perhaps it means giving up a TV program or using a coffee break to grab a few moments of solitude. Perhaps we have to ask our partner, relative or neighbour to give us 30 minutes of time away from the kids. If we really want something, we can make it happen.

"Learn to pause... or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you."
-- Doug King

*** Step by step, progressively learn basic meditation methods to relax, concentrate, focus, reflect, contemplate and illuminate. Learn to meditate with new exercises weekly.

[MajestyJo]

ACCEPTING REALITY

"...self-contempt never inspires lasting change."
-- Jane R. Hirschmann and Carol H. Munter

I can suck myself down into a deep, black hole when I focus on what I think I SHOULD be... more loving, sexy, productive, whatever. Thinking I should be something else means I'm not good enough now. This is poverty thinking and a guaranteed way to be miserable.

I can let go of this suffering by accepting WHAT IS. I can say, "This is how I am right now and that's okay."

When I first tried this, I could say it but not believe it. Then I began to experience the freedom this perspective brings - just by changing my mind! Now I'm beginning to believe it. What a gift!

"When we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple, fluid, kind, and fearless."
-- Byron Katie

Become aware of your subconscious limitations, your character strengths, weaknesses and potentials, your life challenges, gifts, talents, and your deepest desires and aspirations.

[MajestyJo]

SPEAK KINDLY TO YOURSELF

"What is this self inside us, this silent observer, Severe and speechless critic, who can terrorize us, And urge us on to futile activity, And in the end, judge us still more severely, For the errors into which his own reproaches drove us?"
-- T. S. Eliot

How do you talk to yourself? Would you talk that way to anyone else?

Our thoughts create our reality. How do you typically think about yourself? Do you berate yourself for being stupid, sloppy, forgetful or insensitive? Do you watch yourself with interest, respect and compassion? Stay alert to your self-talk and let go of judgments that don't serve you.

"Self-acceptance is my refusal to be in an adversarial relationship to myself."
-- Nathaniel Branden

Our process is clear. First 'know yourself' - your personality and direction in life. Then 'create a plan'. Next 'heal yourself and what holds you back. Then you can expand and 'grow yourself'. Are you ready to commit to changing your life for the better?

[MajestyJo]

LIMITED PERSPECTIVES

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

We never have enough information to enable us to fully understand the truth of the reality around us. And there is never only one correct perspective about anything.

Knowing this helps me let go of my tendency to label things as good or bad. I suffer least when I can accept reality just as it is. And I benefit most when I open my heart and mind in appreciation.

"If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgment of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now."
-- Marcus Aurelius

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are.

[MajestyJo]

BEWARE OF DUTY

"Should is an ordinary, everyday word -- except when it is used to indicate an order that may not be refused. Then should becomes a finger waving under the nose. ...Should users build prison cells for themselves. They are so focused on what they should do -- that they cannot think about what they can do, what they might do in the future."
-- Dr. Arthur Freeman and Rose Dewolf

Many of us have been taught to do our duty. What does this imply to you? For me, 'doing my duty' means doing something I really don't want to do. My heart's not in it, and so the energy for the act isn't there. I have to force every move. Usually, there's underlying resentment. When this is the scenario, tasks may get done but there's no gift to the world.

We do not truly serve the world if we give to others but neglect our own truth and our own needs. It's only when our own needs are fully met that we can generously and whole-heartedly give of ourselves. It's not selfish to look after ourselves -- it's essential!

"To serve is beautiful, but only if it is done with joy and a whole heart."
-- Pearl S. Buck

*** Do you feel an urge or calling in you to be or do more? Then honour it and open to more meaning and fulfillment by exploring your life purpose. Maybe it is time to do life instead of life doing you!

[MajestyJo]

TO SUPPORT OR NOT

"It is not helpful to help a friend by putting coins in his pockets when he has got holes in his pockets."
-- Douglas Hurd

Are you struggling financially because you are helping another adult who is being irresponsible around money?

Without intending to do so, we can keep people dependent when we are willing to financially rescue them. Enablers typically feel it's their duty to help out. They may see giving money as an expression of love. Unfortunately, they may lose their own financial security as a result.

As hard as it may be to do, the solution may lie in forcing the dependent to find his or her own way financially. In this case, it's not selfish to not lend a hand -- it actually serves the highest interests of all. Learning personal responsibility can be a tough road but it's a necessary one for empowerment.

"Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon them and to let them know that you trust them."
-- Booker T. Washington

*** Tackle your financial challenges holistically!

[MajestyJo]

ARE YOU IN INTEGRITY?

"In order to live a rich life, everything about who you are must be one, in alignment, and in pure harmony."
-- Suze Orman

For clear and honest expression, our thoughts, speech and actions must all be congruent. We will not stand in our power if we are inadvertently sending mixed messages-if we say one thing and do another.

I found it helpful to consciously identify the values that matter most to me. With these values in mind, it's easier to ensure I'm living them.

"Honor your integrity and you will be repaid many times over with increased prosperity."
-- Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer

*** Tackle your financial challenges holistically!

[MajestyJo]

ARE YOU IN INTEGRITY?

"In order to live a rich life, everything about who you are must be one, in alignment, and in pure harmony."
-- Suze Orman

For clear and honest expression, our thoughts, speech and actions must all be congruent. We will not stand in our power if we are inadvertently sending mixed messages-if we say one thing and do another.

I found it helpful to consciously identify the values that matter most to me. With these values in mind, it's easier to ensure I'm living them.

"Honor your integrity and you will be repaid many times over with increased prosperity."
-- Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer

*** Tackle your financial challenges holistically!

[MajestyJo]

STRUGGLING WITH A DECISION?

"You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind."
-- Dale Carnegie

My anxiety level spiked the other day as I wrestled with whether to choose option A or option B. I was so afraid of making the wrong choice!

And then I remembered, with deep gratitude, Susan Jeffers' sage advice: There are no wrong decisions! Whatever we might choose in life will bring valuable experiences if we are open to receive them.

"Lighten up! Whatever happens as a result of your decision, you'll handle it!"
-- Susan Jeffers

[MajestyJo]

BE ON VACATION - TODAY!

"A loser seldom lives in the present, but instead destroys the present by focusing on past memories or future expectations."
-- Muriel James

I had been feeling really tired, and so I began planning a one-week vacation. I became aware of how desperate I was to leave responsibilities behind and simply do nothing for a while. Fortunately, I quickly realized how insane it is to expect one little week that is months away to meet all my needs for freedom, joy, play and relaxation.

Life is only worth living when we experience the gifts of vacations in delicious moments, day in and day out. Qualities like freedom, play and joy do not depend on external conditions. They can be realized any time, if we open to their presence right now.

I'm happy that I will be going on vacation, AND I'm doing more to look after my needs as they arise each day.

"You had better live your best and act your best and think your best today; for today is the sure preparation for tomorrow and all the other tomorrows that follow."
-- Harriet Martineau

[MajestyJo]

TRAVEL WITH AWARENESS

"...focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it."
-- Greg Anderson

Travelling brings me wonderful opportunities to build awareness. When I get into the car, for example, I set an intention to drive well and stay alert to what other drivers and pedestrians are doing. When I realize that my mind has drifted and I've slipped into autopilot, I gently bring my focus back to the present.

It's also a time when I can pay attention to my reactions. Does irritation arise when someone drives too quickly or slowly, or when I get stopped by a yellow light? Being aware of the irritation gives me the opportunity to acknowledge and then release it. If I choose to, I can be at peace anywhere - even on the road!

"Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going to fast -- you also miss the sense of where you are going and why."
-- Eddie Cantor

*** Awareness is the key to all change.

[MajestyJo]

A NEW VIEW

A friend shared this moment of awakening. She was moaning, "I never get anything done." Her companion replied, "Perhaps you never get EVERYTHING done." Oh... of course!

A shift in perspective can bring both understanding and release.

"Besides learning to see, there is another art to be learned -- not to see what is not."
-- Maria Mitchell

What is personality? What is soul? How do they interact? Experience the power of living soulfully in the present moment.

[MajestyJo]

FEELING SAFE

"Oh the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are -- chaff and grain together -- certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away...."
-- Dinah Craik

We cherish our best friends and our special communities because we feel safe to be vulnerable when we're in their embrace. And yet I have discovered that as long as I identify with my self-image, with my ego, there’s no safety possible anywhere. When the ego is on watch, even a dear friend's truth may trigger reactions like anxiety, self-criticism and fear.

The only true safety exists in living the truth of our soul, our essence.

"Open your body and your mind to the subtler levels of experience, letting go of your attempt to control, to be right, not worrying about appearances, not trying to be safe."
-- Stephen Levine

*** Restart building a new foundation for your life. Clear blocks and transform your life.

[MajestyJo]

GETTING DOWN TO ESSENTIALS

"Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials."
-- Lin Yutang

Do you feel a desire to simplify your life?

If you say 'yes,' then set an intention to reduce the demands, stimuli, interruptions and busyness in your life. We each have the power to do this - we simply have to begin to say 'no' to those activities that don't directly serve what we want for our lives.

Everyone of this planet deserves to have some free time to think, relax and have fun. If you long for this, begin now to clear your plate and allow a new level of experience to happen in your life. Take charge. Eliminate time wasters. Make some decisions about what matters to you.

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak."
-- Hans Hofmann

*** Step by step, progressively learn basic meditation methods to relax, concentrate, focus, reflect, contemplate and illuminate.

[MajestyJo]

THINKING OF POVERTY OR WEALTH?

"Being poor is a frame of mind."
-- Mike Todd

What do you think of money?

Our beliefs create our reality. If you have struggled with money most of your adult life, chances are that something happened when you were young to create limiting beliefs around money and prosperity. Look back to your early years. What beliefs did your parents and other influential adults have about money? Chances are you're also carrying those beliefs. Are they serving you?

"The law of abundance is that everything replicates after its own kind. Like is attracted to like. If you want more wealth, concentrate of wealth; think thoughts of abundance and wealth."
-- Delfin Knowledge System

*** Tackle your financial challenges holistically!

[MajestyJo]

TIME TO STOP SEEKING?

"If there are so many seekers, why are there so few finders?"
-- Eckhart Tolle

Perhaps we've misunderstood the whole concept of a spiritual journey. The term 'seeker' means we are looking for something we believe we do not have now. It places all hope on the future because as a seeker, we haven't yet found our salvation.

Tolle encourages us to experience the truth of who we are by being present right now. If we do that, we don't have to seek anything. We already have everything and can relax and rejoice in the power of being.

"There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man's whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue."
-- Hagakure

Our process is clear. First 'know yourself' - your personality and direction in life. Then 'create a plan'. Next 'heal yourself and what holds you back. Then you can expand and 'grow yourself'. Are you ready to commit to changing your life for the better?

[MajestyJo]

WONDER-FULL!

"...we can't survive without enchantment... the loss of it is killing us."
-- Thomas Moore

"There is one thing that all true spirituality has in common, whether that spirituality is derived from faith, from science, from nature or from the arts - a sense of wonder."
-- Andrew Schneider

"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. I believe in the latter."
-- Albert Einstein

"We live in a world of theophanies. Holiness comes wrapped in the ordinary. There are burning bushes all around you. Every tree is full of angels. Hidden beauty is waiting in every crumb. Life wants to lead you from crumbs to angels, but this can happen only if you are willing to unwrap the ordinary by staying with it long enough to harvest its treasure."
-- Macrina Wiederkehr

*** Do you feel an urge or calling in you to be or do more?

[MajestyJo]

A NEW LOOK AT OLD ATTITUDES

"I can change. I can live out my imagination instead of my memory. I can tie myself to my limitless potential instead of my limiting past."
-- Stephen Covey

I was eating lunch with a friend who shared that she disliked one of the vegetables on my plate and hadn't eaten any since childhood. I suggested that sometimes our tastes change and maybe she could give it another try. She did, and to her surprise, she enjoyed it. Her world became a little richer as she opened to new possibilities.

Is there something in your life you might be willing to give another try?

"Change. It has the power to uplift, to heal, to stimulate, surprise, open new doors, bring fresh experience and create excitement in life. Certainly it is worth the risk."
-- Leo Buscaglia

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are.

[MajestyJo]

THE KEY TO THE FUTURE

"The future is not some place we are going, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made. And the activity of making them changes both the maker and their destination."
-- John Schaar

We've been taught to look forward to our future. Somehow, we believe, things will be better then. But the future is not available to be lived - we can only live NOW. So what are we doing to live best right now? What are we doing now that will bear fruit when we reach some future now?

"Let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present."
-- Roger Babson

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of w

[MajestyJo]

REMOVE THE FILTERS

"You got to look at things with the eye in your heart, not with the eye in your head."
-- Lame Deer, Medicine Man of the Oglala people

Whenever we're thinking, our experience is being filtered through our minds. For example, when I say to myself, "What a beautiful sunset!" I am not fully experiencing the sunset because I am involved with the words in my mind.

Explore letting go of the thoughts, the words, and connecting directly with your experiences. Tune in to the silence and the sensations in your body. Be aware of the spaciousness this brings because this is truly living in the present moment.

Being present doesn't mean that we have to abandon thinking entirely. That's not feasible, of course. But we can experiment with what it's like to stop thinking once in a while!

"Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world."
-- Hans Margolius

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are.

[MajestyJo]

WHAT INSPIRES YOU?

"It is never about how good your voice is; it is only about feeling the urge to sing, and then having the courage to do it with the voice you are given."
-- Katie in 'True to Form' by Elizabeth Berg

How often have you allowed fear and your inner critic to stop you from doing something you were inspired to do?

Helen Keller said, "Life is either a grand adventure or nothing." When we allow fear and criticism to stop us in our tracks, we give up that grand adventure. What a waste!

"Be an all-out, not a hold-out."
-- Norman Vincent Peale

*** Do you feel an urge or calling in you to be or do more? Then honour it and open to more meaning and fulfillment by exploring your life purpose. Maybe it is time to do life instead of life doing you!

[MajestyJo]

GROWING THROUGH AWARENESS OF MONEY

"What is [the role of money] in the search for meaning? Is our relationship to it one of the chief factors that keeps us in our prison, or could it also be a tool for breaking out, for awakening to a life filled with intensity of purpose?"
-- Jacob Needleman

How do you relate to money?

Money is a powerful tool for growth. Pay sharp attention to your thoughts, emotions, reactions and actions where money is involved. Don't judge what you find; just be aware of what's going on. Your growing awareness will automatically support changes in your behaviour.

"What we're after in Prospering is nothing less than a major shift in consciousness-in the attitudes, beliefs, and ideas you have about yourself and your relationship to money."
-- Jerrold Mundis

*** Tackle your financial challenges holistically!

[MajestyJo]

ATTACHMENT

"The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for until the cord be broken, the bird cannot fly."
-- Saint John of the Cross

"Attachment to spiritual things is... just as much an attachment as inordinate love of anything else."
-- Thomas Merton

"The tighter you squeeze, the less you have."
-- Zen Saying

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision. Go deeper....

[MajestyJo]

CONSCIOUS COMMUNICATION

"If we want to be compassionate we must be conscious of the words we use. We must both speak and listen from the heart."
-- Marshall B. Rosenberg

Conscious communication requires us to be truly present to what is occurring. When we are unconscious, we both speak to and react to others out of habit. And in the face of what we perceive as someone's judgment and criticism, we automatically (and unconsciously) defend, withdraw or attack.

To communicate consciously requires attention to two areas:

I need to speak from awareness of what I am perceiving, feeling and needing, and
Through watching and listening, I need to be aware of those same needs in others.
"When we focus on clarifying what is being observed, felt, and needed rather than on diagnosing and judging, we discover the depth of our own compassion."
-- Marshall B. Rosenberg

Explore your typical defence mechanisms in our Know Yourself workbook.

Become aware of your subconscious limitations, your character strengths, weaknesses and potentials, your life challenges, gifts, talents, and your deepest desires and aspirations.

[MajestyJo]

LIVE LIFE FULLY

"Time is life. It is irreversible and irreplaceable. To waste your time is to waste your life, but to master your time is to master your life and make the most of it."
-- Alan Lakein

Refuse to feel USED by life! Make full use of it instead.

To do this, we initially need to take control of the time of our lives. Time management is life management, from the inside out. It's an INSIDE job. You already have everything you need. You have the power to create a life of meaning, fulfillment and joy.

Your challenge is to find what works for you! Review the literature but make your own decisions. To do this, you'll need to:

Get to know yourself -- your desires and passions, rhythms, styles, challenges, needs and habits.

Be aware that you always have choice. Claim your independence and power to choose what is right for your life, moment by moment.

"Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it."
-- M. Scott Peck

[MajestyJo]

MAKING LIFE OUR OWN

"Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways."
-- Stephen Vincent Benet

What's needed for a new relationship with time and life?

Intention -- Get really clear about what you want.

Desire -- How much do you want something new for yourself? Know your motivation. Desire brings the energy for change.

Belief and/or willingness to trust you can have what you want. If belief is lacking, can you believe in the possibility that you can find a new way of living?

Perseverance, discipline -- It takes time and effort to change attitudes and habits. We can't expect a new life overnight.

Acceptance, both of what's happening now and of who we are. Until we honestly and openly accept our present situation, we cannot change it.

A willingness to try something new.

"It is so easy to waste our lives: our days, our hours, our minutes. ... It is so easy to exist instead of live. Unless you know there is a clock ticking. So many of us changed our lives when we heard a biological clock and decided to have kids. But that sound is a murmur compared to the tolling of mortality."
-- Anna Quindlen

[MajestyJo]

GROWING OURSELVES

"The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving."
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes

We are all on a life-long journey. It is a search for who we are and why we are here. It is a journey that expands our consciousness.

There is an urge within each of us to move forward in life. It is an urge to become more whole, to find more meaning, and eventually to help others. It is human nature to strive for a sense of well-being.

We all go through the same growth cycles, though our experiences may appear entirely different. By understanding the process of personal and spiritual growth, we can work more effectively with the process, instead of fighting and resisting it.

"We can learn to be the catalysts for our own change."
-- Sarah Ban Breathnach

[MajestyJo]

CHANGING CONSCIOUSNESS

Why should we care about raising our consciousness? When we set an intention to change and grow, we begin a journey in which we move from coping, to learning and finally, to the enjoyment of living.

Here are some of the shifts we move through:

From dependence on the clock, to charting a direction, to moment-to-moment guidance from intuition.

From doing things right, to doing the right things, to being your true self.

From lack of self discipline to having personal willpower to being completely willing to express our essence.

From being out of control, to being in control, to trusting and letting go of the need to control.

With each step, we experience greater freedom, fulfillment and joy. Worth going for, don't you think?

"Every human has four endowments - self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom... The power to choose, to respond, to change."
-- Stephen R. Covey
*** Awareness is the key to all change.

[MajestyJo]

GOING FOR GUILT-FREE PLAY

"There is no pleasure in having nothing to do. The fun is in having lots to do and not doing it."
-- Mary Little

When you're tempted with a promise of pleasure, does guilt promptly spoil it for you?

For many of us, the work ethic still rules supreme. It keeps our life out of balance and our health at risk. There will always be lots of work to do. We can't wait for it to go away to enjoy ourselves.

Today, we invite you to become aware of your attitude towards rest, relaxation, pleasure and fun. When you give yourself a break, do you carry guilt through it? Deep down, do you believe that you don't deserve to have a good time, that you haven't earned a holiday? If you do discover these thoughts, send them packing.

"Guilt is the source of sorrows, the avenging fiend that follows us behind with whips and stings."
-- Nicholas Rowe
*** Step by step, progressively learn basic meditation methods to relax, concentrate, focus, reflect, contemplate and illuminate.

[MajestyJo]

AWARENESS THROUGH LOVE AND FEAR

"There is nothing holier in this life of ours than the first consciousness of love -- the first fluttering of its silken wings -- the first rising sound and breath of that wind which is so soon to sweep through the soul, to purify or to destroy."
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Our inner journey takes us through the following stages relative to love and fear:

UNCONSCIOUS LOVE: When we are born, we exist as pure love but we are not conscious of our love.
UNCONSCIOUS FEAR: Our souls have set the stage for our evolution. As we grow, unconscious fears arise in our personalities that draw experiences to us that wound us.
CONSCIOUS FEAR: Our wounds bring pain and suffering that enable us to become conscious of our fears.
CONSCIOUS LOVE: When we've suffered enough pain, we are motivated to move through our fears to consciously experience the love that supports all.
"Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition."
-- Alexander Smith

Our process is clear. First 'know yourself' - your personality and direction in life. Then 'create a plan'. Next 'heal yourself and what holds you back. Then you can expand and 'grow yourself'.

[MajestyJo]

THE EYES OF THE SOUL

Today, we want to share a passage from Martia Nelson's book, 'Coming Home':
"My greatest teacher was the experience of living in split realities: personality and true self. Personality is our daily companion, our conscious self that sees the world through the eyes of limitation and dutifully keeps us informed about what we can and cannot do. True self, on the other hand, patiently stands by, offering the unwavering knowledge that a state of vibrant well- being and unlimited possibility is our true nature, a birthright that can be lived if we choose to do so. ... True self simply refers to the aspect of our being that is completely aware of its expanded nature no matter what we may be experiencing at the time."

Whenever we feel constrained, fearful, unworthy, inadequate or anything we deem to be negative, we have identified with our personality. We can always choose to view the same situation from the perspective of our soul.

"As a Witness, you begin to discover that you are not that which you have been observing; you are not those things that you have been noticing about your body. Instead, you are the noticer."
-- Wayne Dyer

[MajestyJo]

WHY DO YOU WANT MONEY?

"Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul."
-- Henry David Thoreau

Money is nothing more than a medium of exchange. While we may want more money to get out of debt or to have more cash to play with, we want to set goals that represent more than just making money. And so we might ask, "What do I want money to do for me?"

Look to the values beneath money. What is happiness to you? What things, qualities, service, purpose do you value in life?

"If all the gold in the world were melted down into a solid cube, it would be about the size of an eight room house. If a man got possession of all that gold -- billions of dollars worth -- he could not buy a friend, character, peace of mind, clear conscience or a sense of eternity."
-- Charles F. Bunning

*** Tackle your financial challenges holistically!

[MajestyJo]

HOW MUCH OF THIS IS MINE?

"The collective energy generated from the feelings, thoughts, and attitudes of the almost six billion people on this planet creates an atmosphere or 'consciousness climate.' Surrounding us like the air we breathe, this consciousness climate affects us most strongly on energetic and emotional levels."
-- Doc Childre and Howard Martin

Feeling angry, sad or anxious? You might ask, "How much of this is mine?"

Those of us who are sensitive sometimes pick up on emotional, mental or physical energy in the environment. It feels like ours - we really do feel the emotions or physical or mental symptoms. But really, we are processing 'generic' energies that belong to others or to humanity as a whole.

Opening to the possibility that our experiences may not be completely ours helps us detach from them. When we don't completely identify with our thoughts and feeling

"If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear ... as it is, infinite."
-- William Blake

*** Restart building a new foundation for your life. Clear blocks and transform your life.

[MajestyJo]

QUESTIONS THAT AREN'T HELPFUL

"We accept many notions because they seem to be the logical answers to our questions. But have we asked the right questions?"
-- Harold L. Klawans

Sometimes we ask questions for which we really don't want the answer! Nonetheless, when we ask a question, our subconscious minds will get to work to answer us.

Here are some examples of questions we want to avoid:

What's wrong with me?
How long could this take?
What could go wrong?
How much trouble could it be?
How hard could it be?
Asking questions can be empowering - as long as they're smart questions!

"The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions."
-- Anthony Jay

[MajestyJo]

SMART QUESTIONS TO KEEP HANDY

"Quality questions create a quality life. Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers."
-- Anthony Robbins

Last time, we talked about questions to avoid. Today, let's consider some that are truly empowering:

Is there a message for me in this experience?
What's the gift in this situation?
What can I learn from this?
What's the most loving thing I could do now?
What's the most important thing for me to focus on now?
What would I do if I knew I could not fail?
What would I do if there were nothing to fear?
"A prudent question is one-half of wisdom."
-- Francis Bacon

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision. Go deeper...

[MajestyJo]

LOOK INSIDE FOR DIRECTION

"If you see your path laid out in front of you -- Step one, Step two, Step three -- you only know one thing... it is not your path. Your path is created in the moment of action. If you can see it laid out in front of you, you can be sure it is someone else's path. That is why you see it so clearly."
-- Joseph Campbell

What? No one to follow? Now that's a scary thought!

And yet, that's what life asks each of us to do - to chart our own path. We are each unique. We're told our uniqueness is our gift to the world. And so why would we even want to follow in someone else's footsteps?

Can we trust ourselves to carve our own trail?

"To know how to choose a path with heart is to learn how to follow intuitive feeling."
-- Jean Shinoda Bolen

*** Do you feel an urge or calling in you to be or do more? Then honour it and open to more meaning and fulfillment by exploring your life purpose. Maybe it is time to do life instead of life doing you!

[MajestyJo]

HIGHER PERSPECTIVES

"Bias and impartiality is in the eye of the beholder."
-- Lord Barnett

According to Andrew Schneider, the radical difference between personality awareness and soul consciousness is a difference in perspectives. Acquiring a soul perspective allows us to see things differently - and we always see a more inclusive, universal picture. This expanded view adds to an understanding, enjoyment and appreciation of life.

If I insist on hanging on to a personality perspective that is contrary to a soul perspective, the two perspectives will clash. This challenges me to find a way through to a deeper truth than I previously knew. This kind of tension between soul and personality positions is typical of the prelude to transformation that is a vital part of the soul journey.

"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my eyes and all is born again."
-- Sylvia Plath

[MajestyJo]

TIME FOR STILLNESS

"We're so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget that the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it's all about."
-- Joseph Campbell

The sages all say that the path to liberation is found in entering the stillness within. To experience that stillness, we need to be willing to regularly stop the activity for a while.

How do we do this in a busy life? We set our priorities. Perhaps it means giving up a TV program or using a coffee break to grab a few moments of solitude. Perhaps we have to ask our partner, relative or neighbour to give us 30 minutes of time away from the kids. If we really want something, we can make it happen.

"Learn to pause... or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you."
-- Doug King

*** Step by step, progressively learn basic meditation methods to relax, concentrate, focus, reflect, contemplate and illuminate.

[MajestyJo]

SEEK UNION OVER SEPARATION

"Beliefs separate. Loving thoughts unite."
-- Paul Ferrini

Our ego focuses on how we are different from the rest of the world. We connect with soul when we experience how we are the same.

Any time you separate yourself from other people or from situations, you know your personality is in control. At such times, shift your perspective to build connection and you will move into soul.

"As a holistic being you shatter the illusion of your separateness and reveal your connection to everything. This empowers you in a way that the ego-driven self could never contemplate."
-- Wayne Dyer

[MajestyJo]

ACCEPTING REALITY

"...self-contempt never inspires lasting change."
-- Jane R. Hirschmann and Carol H. Munter

I can suck myself down into a deep, black hole when I focus on what I think I SHOULD be... more loving, sexy, productive, whatever. Thinking I should be something else means I'm not good enough now. This is poverty thinking and a guaranteed way to be miserable.

I can let go of this suffering by accepting WHAT IS. I can say, "This is how I am right now and that's okay."

When I first tried this, I could say it but not believe it. Then I began to experience the freedom this perspective brings - just by changing my mind! Now I'm beginning to believe it. What a gift!

"When we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple, fluid, kind, and fearless."
-- Byron Katie

[MajestyJo]

WE EXPERIENCE WHAT WE BELIEVE

"You are free to believe what you choose and what you do attests to what you believe."
-- A Course of Miracles

You most likely believe that your experiences have taught you what is real and what is true - at least for you. However, what you may not know is that your beliefs - conscious and unconscious - have determined what you would experience.

Experiences do not determine what you believe. What you first of all believe is what you will experience. It follows, then, that if you wish to experience life in new ways, you need to examine your belief systems.

Change your consciousness and you'll change your life.

"Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can."
-- Richard Bach

[MajestyJo]

SPEAK KINDLY TO YOURSELF

"What is this self inside us, this silent observer, Severe and speechless critic, who can terrorize us, And urge us on to futile activity, And in the end, judge us still more severely, For the errors into which his own reproaches drove us?"
-- T. S. Eliot

How do you talk to yourself? Would you talk that way to anyone else?

Our thoughts create our reality. How do you typically think about yourself? Do you berate yourself for being stupid, sloppy, forgetful or insensitive? Do you watch yourself with interest, respect and compassion? Stay alert to your self-talk and let go of judgments that don't serve you.

"Self-acceptance is my refusal to be in an adversarial relationship to myself."
-- Nathaniel Branden

Our process is clear. First 'know yourself' - your personality and direction in life. Then 'create a plan'. Next 'heal yourself and what holds you back. Then you can expand and 'grow yourself'. Are you ready to commit to changing your life for the better?

[MajestyJo]

LIMITED PERSPECTIVES

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

We never have enough information to enable us to fully understand the truth of the reality around us. And there is never only one correct perspective about anything.

Knowing this helps me let go of my tendency to label things as good or bad. I suffer least when I can accept reality just as it is. And I benefit most when I open my heart and mind in appreciation.

"If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgment of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now."
-- Marcus Aurelius

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are.

[MajestyJo]

BEWARE OF DUTY

"Should is an ordinary, everyday word -- except when it is used to indicate an order that may not be refused. Then should becomes a finger waving under the nose. ...Should users build prison cells for themselves. They are so focused on what they should do -- that they cannot think about what they can do, what they might do in the future."
-- Dr. Arthur Freeman and Rose Dewolf

Many of us have been taught to do our duty. What does this imply to you? For me, 'doing my duty' means doing something I really don't want to do. My heart's not in it, and so the energy for the act isn't there. I have to force every move. Usually, there's underlying resentment. When this is the scenario, tasks may get done but there's no gift to the world.

We do not truly serve the world if we give to others but neglect our own truth and our own needs. It's only when our own needs are fully met that we can generously and whole-heartedly give of ourselves. It's not selfish to look after ourselves -- it's essential!

"To serve is beautiful, but only if it is done with joy and a whole heart."
-- Pearl S. Buck

*** Do you feel an urge or calling in you to be or do more? Then honour it and open to more meaning and fulfillment by exploring your life purpose.

[MajestyJo]

TO SUPPORT OR NOT

"It is not helpful to help a friend by putting coins in his pockets when he has got holes in his pockets."
-- Douglas Hurd

Are you struggling financially because you are helping another adult who is being irresponsible around money?

Without intending to do so, we can keep people dependent when we are willing to financially rescue them. Enablers typically feel it's their duty to help out. They may see giving money as an expression of love. Unfortunately, they may lose their own financial security as a result.

As hard as it may be to do, the solution may lie in forcing the dependent to find his or her own way financially. In this case, it's not selfish to not lend a hand -- it actually serves the highest interests of all. Learning personal responsibility can be a tough road but it's a necessary one for empowerment.

"Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon them and to let them know that you trust them."
-- Booker T. Washington

[MajestyJo]

AWARENESS


"Relative to the level of awareness that is possible for us, our ordinary state of consciousness is as far from a direct experience of reality as sleep is from waking consciousness."
-- Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson

"The thought 'I exist' is not the same thing as the awareness of one's own existence. ... Thought is not the same thing as consciousness."
-- Jacob Needleman

A person asked Buddha:
"Are you a God?"
Buddha's reply was
"No."
"Are you an Angel?"
"No."
"Then what are you?"
"I am Awake."
-- Unknown Source

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are.

[MajestyJo]

OPENING THE HEART

"Everything is made of light; everything is alive. The Great Mystery of life has little to do with intelligence. The universe is not an intellectual process. The intellect is helpful; but our hearts are the wiser part of ourselves."
-- Mellen-Thomas Benedict

Heart is a word that refers to many different levels of our being. Essentially, it is the love aspect of soul, capable of making direct, intuitive contact. Soul love is not emotional; it is highly impersonal and intelligent, capable of grasping the essence of someone or something without any projection on our part.

Appreciation significantly turns on the heart. Appreciation is not an emotion that arises spontaneously, but a soul quality we can choose. The more often we choose to be appreciative, the easier this choice becomes and the more frequently our heart opens to give and receive love.

"If you open your heart, love opens your mind."
-- Charles John Quarto

[MajestyJo]

INNER CRITICS

"We tell ourselves so many lies and half-truths ... We listen and are duly impressed by these inner voices that turn into unseen judges that nag at us. We give each of these judges a seat of honor in our minds, all the while hating their guts and their never-ending supply of judgements ... We give the judges permission to accompany us on each journey of life, never daring to realize that we can park them, at least momentarily."
-- Eloise Ristad

"The Inner Critic makes each of us a child. As we become the child in our relationships, we lose our sense of self. We are no longer self-contained, self- respecting adults. We look to others for validation. Our self-worth is based upon their opinion of us. Thus, everyone around us becomes a mother or a father whose support and approval is desperately needed to protect us from the constant criticism of the Inner Critic."
-- Hal and Sidra Stone

*** Restart building a new foundation for your life. Clear blocks and transform your life.

[MajestyJo]

GIVING CHOICE

"Freedom of choice is more to be treasured than any possession earth can give."
-- David O. McKay

I want to choose the details of my life. Fortunately, I've come to appreciate how important it is to give others the freedom to choose their own paths.

None of us wants our choice robbed from us. I can't know what's best for anyone but me. So why give unsolicited advice to others and expect them to follow it?

"The truest characters of ignorance are vanity, and pride and arrogance."
-- Samuel Butler

"What man wants is simply independent choice, whatever that may cost and wherever it may lead."
-- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

[MajestyJo]

WISDOM

"...we need to abandon the idea that wisdom is knowing everything-the whys, the wherefores, the how-tos. Wisdom is often more subtle, both far simpler and exceedingly more complex. For wisdom requires the discerning, the listening to, the acknowledgement of nudges and notions, of senses and sensations, of the minute and what we often mistakenly assume is the mundane. Wisdom means listening to the still, small voice, the whisper that can be easily lost in the whirlwind of busyness, expectations, and conventions of the world...."
-- Jean M. Blomquist

"Nine-tenths of wisdom is appreciation. Go find somebody's hand and squeeze it, while there's time."
-- Dale Dauten

"To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision.

[MajestyJo]

HARD WORK

"Work should be in order to live. We don't live in order to work. That shift in awareness is necessary."
-- Matthew Fox

What are your beliefs around work? Do you believe it's necessary to work hard to earn a living? No pain, no gain? Do you believe women's work is never done? That play is a waste of time?

While there are merits to the work ethic, over-work takes a serious toll on the quality of our lives. Our ability to contribute to life requires us to have a sense of balance, joy, playfulness, time to stop and smell the flowers.

"Learning to let go of the ways we inadvertently and unconsciously contribute to our own pain is the key to finding radiant physical and emotional health."
-- Ingrid Bacci

"To do great work a man must be very idle as well as very industrious."
-- Samuel Butler

"The true object of all human life is play."
-- G.K. Chesterton

[MajestyJo]

THERE'S HOPE!

"No matter how painful our early experiences were, our Essence cannot be harmed. Our Essence is waiting for the opportunity to reveal itself. In a very true sense, we are waiting for the opportunity to become ourselves. Our spirit is yearning to break free, to express itself ...

"And yet, ironically, we always fear and resist opening to that which is most real in us. When we trust in the process and give ourselves over to it, however, our true nature comes forth. The result is real integrity, love, authenticity, creativity, understanding, guidance, joy, power, and serenity-all of the qualities we are forever demanding that personality supply."
-- Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson

[MajestyJo]

Befriend yourself

"Self-contempt never inspires lasting change."
-- Jane R. Hirschmann & Carol H. Munter

The journey to know ourselves ideally brings us to self-understanding and acceptance. It is NOT a quest for self-improvement.

When we open to love and accept ourselves, no matter what, we allow our innate love, power and wisdom to emerge naturally.

"Who you really are is enough."
-- Oriah Mountain Dreamer

[MajestyJo]

Give yourself free time

"What is it that makes all of us end each day with the sense that we have not lived our time, but have been lived, used by what we do?"
-- Jacob Needleman

How can you free up more time for yourself?

All of the great masters counsel that we need time daily for solitude. And if our journey in life is to become more aware of who we are, then surely we need some free time each day to explore our inner landscapes and uncover our passions.

What activities can you cut out of your life to give you more growing room?

"Life is made up of moments, small pieces of glittering mica in a long, stretch of gray cement. It would be wonderful if they came to us unsummoned, but particularly in lives as busy as the ones most of us lead now, that won’t happen. We have to teach ourselves how to make room for them, to love them, and to live, really live."
-- Anna Quindlen

[MajestyJo]

VALUE JUST BEING

"To do great work a man must be very idle as well as very industrious."
-- Samuel Butler

Many of us have been taught to believe that we are valued for what we do, not just for who we are. 'Doing' is important, but to keep life in balance, we also need time to just 'be.'

Henry David Thoreau expressed this so well in Walden Pond:

"There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present moment to any work, whether of the head or hand.

"Sometimes, on a summer morning, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a revery, amidst the pines and hickories and sumacs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sang around or flitted noiseless through the house, until by the sun falling in at my west window, or the noise of some traveller's wagon on the distant highway, I was reminded of the lapse of time.

"I grew in those seasons like corn in the night, and they were far better than any work of the hands would have been."

*** Step by step, progressively learn basic meditation methods to relax, concentrate, focus, reflect, contemplate and illuminate. Learn to meditate with new exercises weekly.

[MajestyJo]

DO YOU OWN YOUR LIFE?

"The meaning of life is to give life meaning."
-- Ken Hudgins

When we own our lives, we accept what we've inherited and the experiences we hold in our memories. We also claim our right to create new conditions if we're not happy with what's come before. We assume responsibility for changing what does not suit us. We acknowledge our own special talents and skills, and truly comprehend our right to enjoy the journey. In short, we embrace the meaning and purpose, the mystery and the beauty of our lives.

Do you feel that you own your life at the moment?

"I think of life itself now as a wonderful play that I've written for myself... and so my purpose is to have the utmost fun playing my part."
-- Shirley MacLaine

"Life is too short to be little."
-- Benjamin Disraeli

"Every man dies, but not every man lives...."
-- Garth Brooks

[MajestyJo]

LIFE COMES WITH PROBLEMS

"For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin -- real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life."
-- Fr. Alfred D'Souza

Life always brings problems. We really can't live without them.

And so it helps to shift our perspective. We can stop trying to avoid the problems. We can stop feeling victimized by what's happening. Instead, we can consciously work with the challenge of the moment to learn more about ourselves and the world. When we make this shift in attitude, we discover ourselves to be strong and powerful.

"Every lesson is a widening and deepening of consciousness. It is a stretching of the mind beyond its conceptual limits and a stretching of the heart beyond its emotional boundaries. It is a bringing of unconscious material into consciousness, a healing of past wounds, and a discovery of new faith and trust."
-- Paul Ferrini

*** Restart building a new foundation for your life. Clear blocks and transform your life.

[MajestyJo]

NO JUDGMENT

Everything in life holds both a blessing and a curse. We deny this when we label the events of our lives as either good or bad. The following old Zen story illustrates this lesson most effectively.

A farmer had a horse but one day, the horse ran away and so the farmer and his son had to plow their fields themselves. Their neighbors said, "Oh, what bad luck that your horse ran away!" But the farmer replied, "Bad luck, good luck, who knows?"

The next week, the horse returned to the farm, bringing a herd of wild horses with him. "What wonderful luck!" cried the neighbors, but the farmer responded, "Good luck, bad luck, who knows?"

Then, the farmer's son was thrown as he tried to ride one of the wild horses, and he broke his leg. "Ah, such bad luck," sympathized the neighbors. Once again, the farmer responded, "Bad luck, good luck, who knows?"

A short time later, the ruler of the country recruited all young men to join his army for battle. The son, with his broken leg, was left at home. "What good luck that your son was not forced into battle!" celebrated the neighbors. And the farmer remarked, "Good luck, bad luck, who knows?"

"Do not judge, and you will never be mistaken."
-- Jean Jacques Rousseau

Become aware of your subconscious limitations, your character strengths, weaknesses and potentials, your life challenges, gifts, talents, and your deepest desires and aspirations.

[MajestyJo]

HOW ARE YOU SABOTAGING YOURSELF?

"If you play it safe in life you've decided that you don't want to grow any more."
-- Shirley Hufstedler

How are you sabotaging your potential for change?

We unconsciously use defence mechanisms to shield us from situations we perceive to be scary or painful. A part of you may want to grow and change, but another part may be resisting because change always moves you into new territory in your thinking and emotions.

If you find you are getting anxious, fearful, angry, frustrated, dismissive or unmotivated, then defence mechanisms are at work. Watch for them and know them to be signs of fear that wants to hold you back. Then courageously move through them.

"I have never been contained except I made the prison."
-- Mary Evans

[MajestyJo]

YOU KNOW THE WAY

"Woe to the man whose heart has not learned while young to hope, to love ... and to put its trust in life."
-- Joseph Conrad

How deeply do you trust your own guidance?

Always trust that you know what's best for you. To move forward in your life, gather information from the "experts," consider how their advice relates to your situation and then act only on what feels right for you. You are the only expert for your own life.

"I trust so much in the power of the heart and the soul; I know that the answer to what we need to do next is in our own hearts. All we have to do is listen, then take that one step further and trust what we hear. We will be taught what we need to learn."
-- Melody Beattie

"I never know what the next lesson is going to be, because we're not supposed to know; we’re supposed to trust ourselves to discover it."
-- Melody Beattie

[MajestyJo]

RELIEVE THE PRESSURE COOKER

"Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to entertain your old pain. The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life."
-- Mary Manin Morrissey

Journaling is a great way to release and let go. To get things off your chest. Our minds are our own worst enemies. The same thoughts go round and round in the same old ways and keep us stuck.

If something bothers you, write about it. Get it out so you can see it from a different perspective. Let it out. Let it go.

Owning and healing your pressure cooker is an important step in claiming your power, building your esteem and making your stand.

"In truth, to attain to interior peace, one must be willing to pass through the contrary to peace. Such is the teaching of the Sages."
-- Swami Brahmanada

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision.

[MajestyJo]

THE POWER OF ACCEPTANCE

"It is permissible to take life's blessings with both hands provided thou dost know thyself prepared in the opposite event to take them just as gladly. This applies to food and friends and kindred, to anything God gives and takes away... As long as God is satisfied do thou rest content. If he is pleased to want something else of thee, still rest content."
-- Meister Eckhart

Our life begins to change in magical ways when we open to the experience of life AS IT IS. With acceptance, we stop fighting what is happening. And this creates space, an opening for new relationships to unfold.

Explore unconditionally saying yes to the facts of life. Accept your past and where you are now. Unconditional acceptance is unconditional love and this is healing.

"Sometimes what seems like surrender isn't surrender at all. It's about what's going on in our hearts. About seeing clearly the way life is and accepting it and being true to it, whatever the pain, because the pain of not being true to it is far, far greater."
-- Nicholas Evans

Is your spiritual development important to you?

[MajestyJo]

APPRECIATION

"You can never get to peace and inner security without first acknowledging all of the good things in your life. If you're forever wanting and longing for more without first appreciating things the way they are, you'll stay in discord."
-- Doc Childre and Howard Martin

Develop an attitude of gratitude. We discover a sense of wholeness as we appreciate both the small and big things in our lives. And it really helps to remember to appreciate ourselves. Appreciation is more than just acceptance -- it's respect and admiration. Let go of criticism and self-abuse.

"Generally, appreciation means some blend of thankfulness, admiration, approval, and gratitude. In the financial world, something that 'appreciates' grows in value. With the power tool of appreciation, you get the benefit of both perspectives: as you learn to be consistently thankful and approving, your life will grow in value."
-- Doc Childre and Howard Martin

[MajestyJo]

OPEN TO AWARENESS

"Mindfulness means moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness. It is cultivated by refining our capacity to pay attention, intentionally, in the present moment, and then sustaining that attention over time as best we can. In the process, we become more in touch with our life as it is unfolding."
-- Myla & Jon Kabat-Zinn

Why do we want to become more aware?

If we remain unaware, we:

repeat the past,
remain stuck in relationships,
live superficial, literal and one dimensional lives,
lack experiences of love and beauty, and
have limited connection to others and the universe.
With awareness, we are fully involved with life. Awareness is sensing deeply and sensitively for what really is. To do this, we need to approach the present as totally new. When we can be open and attentive in each moment, we begin to free ourselves from the conditioning of the past and the suffering that it so often brings.

"If moment by moment you can keep your mind clear then nothing will confuse you."
-- Sheng Yen

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are.

[MajestyJo]

RAISE YOUR AWARENESS

"Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts."
-- Albert Einstein

Take awareness to new levels. Explore experiencing yourself in the act of being aware. Be aware of awareness itself. To do this, we need to go beyond our old mechanical patterns, compulsions and rejections. We need to uproot the arrogance of ego.

Higher awareness is conscious of spirit and form working together. We must be conscious and present within before we can tune in to the guidance of our soul. Develop awareness to hear the subtlest whispers of intuition through your thoughts, feelings and sensations.

"Most of us are in touch with our intuition whether we know it or not, but we're usually in the habit of doubting or contradicting it so automatically that we don't even know it has spoken."
-- Shakti Gawain

*** Step by step, progressively learn basic meditation methods to relax, concentrate, focus, reflect, contemplate and illuminate.

[MajestyJo]

SELF TALK IS REVEALING

"If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words."
-- Chinese Proverb

What passes over your lips each day?

Are your words typically negative, critical, gossiping, deceptive, illusory, justifying, blaming, manipulative and argumentative? Are they more uplifting, inspirational, positive, questioning, beautiful, loving, universal, truthful, accepting and supportive?

The throat is our center of expression. Who we are sneaks out in our attitudes and in what we say.

"Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs."
-- Pearl Strachan Hurd

"The wise weigh their words on a scale with gold."
-- Bible

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision.

[MajestyJo]

DEEPER COMMUNICATION

"Once a human being has arrived on this earth, communication is the largest single factor determining what kinds of relationships he makes with others and what happens to him in the world about him."
-- Virginia Satir

How do you typically communicate? Is it through words, gestures, emotions, thoughts, desires, needs, truths, direct perception or intuition? Do you focus more on the other person or on yourself? Do you typically tell, ask or listen?

For a few days, set an intention to be aware of your communication styles and skills. After you’ve spent some time talking with someone, reflect on what your underlying motives were and what level of depth you reached. Write your insights in your journal. This exercise will help you become more aware and conscious of who you are and why you do what you do.

"We need people in our lives with whom we can be as open as possible. To have real conversation with people may seem like such a simple, obvious suggestion, but it involves courage and risk."
-- Thomas Moore

"You must speak straight so that your words may go as sunlight to our hearts."
-- Cochise

Become aware of your subconscious limitations, your character strengths, weaknesses and potentials, your life challenges, gifts, talents, and your deepest desires and aspirations.

[MajestyJo]

HEAL DUALITIES

"Beware of the fury of the patient man."
-- John Dryden

Our minds perceive and give relative value - positive and negative - to the different sides of a duality. We usually shun the negative.

It's important to know that you cannot eliminate the negative by focusing exclusively on the positive. Energetically, both opposites must remain in balance. Increase one and its opposite will also increase. Try to be only positive and the negative within you will raise its ugly head.

We work with dualities by remembering that each is part of the whole. We must acknowledge and accept all aspects of life, because they all exist within us. And so, if we seek to be honest, we do so by acknowledging our potential to be dishonest. We can also bring in love and compassion when we catch ourselves acting out the negative.

Power arises out of integrating the positive and negatives within us. From the tension that exists between the two, we develop awareness and become more conscious and compassionate.

"Any fool can run towards the light. It takes a master with courage to turn and face the darkness and shine his own light there."
-- Leslie Fieger - author of the Delfin Knowledge System

Our process is clear. First 'know yourself' - your personality and direction in life. Then 'create a plan'. Next 'heal yourself and what holds you back. Then you can expand and 'grow yourself'. Are you ready to commit to changing your life for the better?

[YanKeeGal]

I know what you mean. I have meant many people who were zealous for one cause or another. I would gently tell them, you need balance in your life. If we did not have bad we could not compare it to the good. If we did not have bad things we would not appreciate the good things in our lives. The bad help us to see there is a way other than bad and we have the choice to pursue it. Nice post. ty

[MajestyJo]

Thank you. These are from Higher Awareness, used with permission. I get them in an e-mail. I find them to be good living recovery skills.

[MajestyJo]

DAILY FORGIVENESS

"As long as you don't forgive, who and whatever it is will occupy rent-free space in your mind."
-- Isabelle Holland

We cannot avoid daily resentment and thoughts of guilt. They are a part of human nature. What we can do is release their grip on us. We can forgive others and ourselves daily.

Forgiveness requires nothing in return. There are no conditions. It gets rid of old baggage and clears up unfinished business. It leads us to a life of authenticity, lightness and directness. Forgiveness is the highest form of letting go of resentment and ego.

True forgiveness is more than an apology, understanding and acceptance. There is an element of recreating and re-imagining. There is a need to envision ourselves as more loving, interdependent, courageous and compassionate. Forgiveness requires honouring the sacred journey of learning about life - our life and others'.

"Whatever we have done, we can always make amends for it without ever looking back in guilt or sorrow."
-- Eknath Easwaran

[MajestyJo]

RAISING YOUR SIGHTS

"A human being is a part of the whole, called by us ‘Universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security."
-- Albert Einstein

To grow in consciousness, we expand our perspectives on life. So how do we do that? The more we work with the universal -- the concept of unity and wholeness, the more everything makes sense. Parts have meaning when they are understood to be parts of a bigger picture.

Consciousness is all about relationships -- especially how the lower relates to the higher and how the darkness can exist within the light. Hold and experience contradictions like anger with love. Let opposites coexist in you without choosing one over the other.

"Higher consciousness, enLIGHTenment, comes from meaningful experiences and lessons passed with the understanding that there truly is only one law - the Law of Love. When one leads a life expressing this belief, the mind and heart begin to open to new realities, and other dimensional truths become known."
-- Dr. Norma Milanovich & Dr. Shirley McCune

[MajestyJo]

THE PARADOX OF LIFE'S JOURNEY

"It is only when we realize that life is taking us nowhere that it begins to have meaning."
-- P.D. Ouspensky

"All major mystical traditions have recognized that there is a paradox at the heart of the journey of return to Origin. ...Put simply, this is that we are already what we seek, and that what we are looking for on the Path with such an intensity of striving and passion and discipline is already within and around us at all moments. The journey and all its different ordeals are all emanations of the One Spirit that is manifesting everything in all dimensions; every rung of the ladder we climb toward final awareness is made of the divine stuff of awareness itself; Divine Consciousness is at once creating and manifesting all things and acting in and as all things in various states of self-disguise throughout all the different levels and dimensions of the universe."
-- Andrew Harvey

"Look at you, you madman, Screaming you are thirsty And are dying in a desert when all around you there is nothing but water!"
-- Kabir

"After changes upon changes, we are more or less the same."
-- Paul Simon

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision.

[MajestyJo]

SING YOUR OWN SONG

"Since you are like no other being ever created since the beginning of time, you are incomparable."
-- Brenda Ueland

Great forces are directing you to conform to the patterns of your society. You have DNA that has been handed down from generation to generation, coding repeated behaviour patterns into your being. You have archetypal energies setting the standards for how you behave as a man or a woman, as husband or wife, as father or mother .... You are immersed in consensual reality, whereby the world around you reflects societal understanding of how life has been and is to be.

At the same time, you have an even greater force within you inspiring you to wake up and recognize the reality of who you are. This force, the creative power underlying the entire universe, is urging you to create brand new standards of reality.

The status quo is blind to our creative power. Create a brand new world for yourself, one that meets your deepest needs, and you will help raise the quality of consciousness of the entire world.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
-- Gandhi

*** Do you feel an urge or calling in you to be or do more? Then honour it and open to more meaning and fulfillment by exploring your life purpose. Maybe it is time to do life instead of life doing you!

[MajestyJo]

STAR CONNECTIONS

"The interchangeability of matter and spirit means the starlit magic of the outermost life of our universe becomes the soul-light magic of the innermost life of our self. The energy of the stars becomes us. We become the energy of the stars. Stardust and spirit unite and we begin: One with the universe. Whole and holy."
-- Dennis J. Kucinich

Ponder the spectre of yourself as one human being in the over six billion people on Earth. See Earth as one tiny planet in a galaxy of billions of stars, and that galaxy as just one of billions of galaxies in our expanding universe. We are so minute as to be nonexistent. And yet, we have the power to visualize, to imagine the entirety of the cosmos.

In your journal, write about the paradox of being both microscopic and immense.

"I think we would be able to live in this world more peaceably if our spirituality were to come from looking not just into infinity but very closely at the world around us -- and appreciating its depth and divinity."
-- Thomas Moore

"I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it."
-- Harry Emerson Fosdick

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision. Go deeper....

[MajestyJo]

WHAT ARE YOUR PRIORITIES FOR TODAY?

"Most people are so busy knocking themselves out trying to do everything they think they should do, they never get around to do what they want to do."
-- Kathleen Winsor

When we clearly set an intention, our conscious and subconscious minds mobilize to help us meet that intention. At the start of each day, thoroughly review what commitments you have made to others for the day, and decide what commitment(s) you will make for yourself.

What can you do today that will move you one step closer to your personal goals? Own your power to choose to meet your own needs. After all, we are much better able to help others when our own needs are met. And at the end of the day, when you've honoured your commitment to yourself, acknowledge your success.

"If you want to make good use of your time, you've got to know what's most important and then give it all you've got."
-- Lee Iacocca

Never have time for what you really want in life? Get control of where you are going and how to get there and enjoy the time of your life.

[MajestyJo]

LET GO OF THE PAST

"Your journey has molded you for your greater good, and it was exactly what it needed to be. Don't think that you've lost time. There is no short-cutting to life. It took each and every situation you have encountered to bring you to the now. And now is right on time."
-- Asha Tyson

No regrets. As we become more aware, we begin to realize that there's a purpose to everything that happens. This builds our trust, and supports us in being willing to be more open and daring to really experience life as it unfolds.

If we pay attention to what's happening in each moment, we will discover that life continually brings us opportunities to heal our past wounds. When a painful memory surfaces, we can take the time to feel it fully, give compassion to ourselves and any others and allow the energy to release. As we deal with the past in this way IN THE PRESENT, we free ourselves to more fully connect with life.

"The next message you need is right where you are."
-- Ram Dass

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are.

[MajestyJo]

USE DOWN TIMES TO GOOD ADVANTAGE

"The affairs of the world will go on forever. Do not delay the practice of meditation."
-- Milarepa

In our busy schedules, we can often complain that we don't have time to meditate. But if we are sincere in our desire to go inside, we can create our own moments of stillness in the midst of our activity.

Stopped at a traffic light? Do some deep breathing. Waiting in line at the bank or grocery store? Repeat an uplifting word such as 'love' or 'peace.' Riding the bus to and from work? Value these times as an opportunity to close your eyes and go within or to say a little prayer.

"Wherever you go in the midst of movement and activity, carry your stillness within you. Then the chaotic movement around you will never overshadow your access to the reservoir of creativity, the field of pure potentiality."
-- Deepak Chopra

*** Step by step, progressively learn basic meditation methods to relax, concentrate, focus, reflect, contemplate and illuminate. Learn to meditate with new exercises weekly.

[MajestyJo]

FREE TO CHOOSE

"Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility."
-- Sigmund Freud

In his book Nobody’s Victim, Christopher J. McCullough explains, "In order to live your freedom, you must first accept reality. 'These are the choices, and given those choices, which do I choose?' Whether the option you select is pleasant or painful does not alter the fact that, given reality, this is your preference.

"To live your freedom, it is helpful to stop and ask yourself, 'Why am I doing this?' and then notice whether, given the options, you are choosing what you really want, or whether you want to choose something else.... Sometimes the exercise of freedom involves naming your poison -- all choices may lead to outcomes that are in some way painful. But the real pain is that of feeling powerless -- denying your freedom."

"Freedom is man's capacity to take a hand in his own development. It is our capacity to mold ourselves."
-- Dr. Rollo May

[MajestyJo]

CALM THE MIND

"All man's miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone."
-- Blaise Pascal

Meditation calms our minds and makes it easier for us to pay attention to the reality around and within us. Meditation breaks through the masks that have built up as our identity. It helps us see through our defences and connect with unacknowledged and unloved aspects of ourselves. It opens us to higher mind and the voice of intuition.

We can consciously choose meditation as a way to become more aware of who we truly are. If we don’t take the initiative to open to our authentic selves, we can be certain that deep challenge and pain from life experience will push us to awaken.

"Meditation helps me feel the shape, the texture of my inner life. Here, in the quiet, I can begin to taste what Buddhists would call my true nature, what Jews call the still, small voice, what Christians call the holy spirit."
-- Wayne Muller

"In a world filled with noise, we need to quiet ourselves to hear God's voice."
-- Paul Borthwick

*** Step by step, progressively learn basic meditation methods to relax, concentrate, focus, reflect, contemplate and illuminate.

[MajestyJo]

TAKE THE FIRST STEP

"When we take one step toward God, he takes seven steps toward us."
-- Hadith Qudsi

If our ego is to know spirit, we must make the first move. Spirit does not come down and knock on our door. It sits waiting for us to acknowledge it. We must want to change and take the initiative and persevere. The love of spirit will embrace us. But we must take the first steps.

In what areas of your life are you ready for change? What step can you take to open the door to new possibilities? It starts with you.

"Faith is not complacent; faith is action. You don’t have faith and wait. When you have faith, you move."
-- Betty Eadie

"It is not my business to think about myself. My business is to think about God. It is for God to think about me."
-- Simone Weil

*** Restart building a new foundation for your life. Clear blocks and transform your life. Discover a whole new way of working with life's challenges.

[MajestyJo]

REALLY BE THERE FOR ANOTHER

"Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. You can see that when you think how the friends that really listen to us are the ones we move toward, and we want to sit in their radius as though it did us good, like ultraviolet rays."
-- Brenda Ueland

How well do we communicate with others? Often, when we are interacting with others, our attention in both speaking and listening is focused on meeting our own needs.

Our communication skills improve when we can open to be aware of the needs of the other person. When we listen, we can release the filters that serve our own needs for security and receive the message with our compassionate heart. And when we speak, we can choose words that the listener is able to receive. True communication happens when we harmonize with the other individual.

"So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it."
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti

"The first duty of love is to listen."
-- Paul Tillich

Our process is clear. First 'know yourself' - your personality and direction in life. Then 'create a plan'. Next 'heal yourself and what holds you back. Then you can expand and 'grow yourself'. Are you ready to commit to changing your life for the better?

[MajestyJo]

WHAT IS LOVE?

"When mystics use the word love, they use it very carefully -- in the deeply spiritual sense, where to love is to know; to love is to act. If you really love, from the depths of your Consciousness, that love gives you a native wisdom. You perceive the needs of others intuitively and clearly, with detachment from any personal desires; and you know how to act creatively to meet those needs, dexterously surmounting any obstacle that comes in the way. Such is the immense, driving power of love."
-- Eknath Easwaran

"Therefore, when I say that 'I love,' it is not I who love, but in reality Love who acts through me. Love is not so much something I do as something that I am. Love is not a doing but a state of being - a relatedness, a connectedness to another mortal, an identification with her or him that simply flows within me and through me, independent of my intentions or my efforts."
-- Robert A. Johnson

"When you are aware that you are the force that is Life, anything is possible. Miracles happen all the time, because those miracles are performed by the heart. The heart is in direct communion with the human soul, and when the heart speaks, even with the resistance of the head, something inside you changes; your heart opens another heart, and true love is possible."
-- Don Miguel Ruiz

[MajestyJo]

BE AWARE OF YOUR THINKING

"There is a thought in your mind right now. The longer you hold on to it, the more you dwell upon it, the more life you give to that thought. Give it enough life, and it will become real. So make sure the thought is indeed a great one."
-- Ralph Marston

Most of our self-talk comes unconsciously from our subconscious. Yet every thought that exists in our subconscious got there through a conscious decision to accept that thought.

We need to become conscious of our self-talk so we can at will choose to replace negative beliefs with positive ones. We have the power to choose an identity we love, but we need to do the work. The process of changing our subconscious beliefs requires awareness, diligence, consistency and repetition.

"Man is made or unmade by himself. In the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself. He also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace."
-- James Allen

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are.

[MajestyJo]

QUESTION YOUR INTENTION

"Men are more accountable for their motives, than for anything else ...."
-- Archibald Alexander

Why are you doing what you are doing?

Throughout the day, continually ask yourself about your underlying motivation. Are you doing what you are doing for selfish, manipulative or fearful reasons, or in honest service? Maybe you will see that much of your activity lacks purpose. This is a great way to become more conscious.

Your intention and motives are fundamental to the results you receive. Set high intentions and your life will blossom.

"A good intention clothes itself with power."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

[MajestyJo]

LIFE AS A MIRROR

"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."
-- C.G. Jung

We get clues about our unconscious programming if we watch our reactions, responses, feelings and thoughts about other people and events. Ask yourself: How do I judge or stereotype people? What pushes my buttons? What makes me angry or fearful or sad?

The outer incidents that trigger these reactions in me simply MIRROR my own nature. If I didn't have beliefs around the issues that upset me, where would my reactions come from? If I didn't have some internal reference, I wouldn't react at all.

When outer events spark a reaction, we need to look inside to explore what’s going on.

"We discover in ourselves what others hide from us and we recognize in others what we hide from ourselves."
-- Vauvenargues

Watch yourself shift from the self-centered, controlling behaviours of the ego to the power, love and wisdom of the soul.

[MajestyJo]

INTUIT AND DO IT

"Everyone who has ever taken a shower has had an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off, and does something about it that makes a difference."
-- Nolan Bushnell

Creativity and intuition are meaningless unless you put the ideas that arise into action. We must make some effort to do things differently or to do different things, or our lives remain the same.

"People spend too much time finding other people to blame, too much energy finding excuses for not being what they are capable of being, and not enough energy putting themselves on the line, growing out of the past, and getting on with their lives."
-- J. Michael Straczynski

Explore what blocks and how to enhance intuition. Your answers and guidance lie within.

[MajestyJo]

FOLLOW THROUGH AND COMPLETE

"Activity is not achievement. It is not enough to rush about beginning a lot of things and keeping busy. A well-spent life is one that rounds out what it has begun."
-- Eknath Easwaran

Intention and the words we speak are powerful. When we say we are going to do something, we set energy in motion. When we fail to act or complete our intention, we drain our energy. We lose our power.

We would be wise to choose our words carefully -- to really mean what we say and to honour the commitments we have made.

"Genius begins great works; labor alone finishes them."
-- Joseph Joubert

"Good to begin well, better to end well."
-- English proverb

[MajestyJo]

DARE TO RISK

"To try is to risk failure. But risk must be taken because the greatest hazard of life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, live, and love."
-- Leo Buscaglia

Daring to risk is an essential step to self empowerment. This is the key to breaking out of stuck thinking and behaviour. It is about breaking through the comfort zones and barriers. It is about experiencing new levels of mind and feelings. It is about experiencing more life.

"A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."
-- George Bernard Shaw

"Only those who risk going too far can know how far they can go."
-- Unknown source

Build a new relationship with the time of your life. Experience time from different perspectives. Discover how to do life rather than allow life to do you.

[MajestyJo]

TIME TO CHANGE?

"When coasting in our comfort zones, we don't grow. We continue to do more of the same.... Maintaining a comfort zone can, paradoxically, lead to discomfort in the long run. If by being comfortable we avoid important life issues, internal tension accumulates.... Eventually, as both internal and external pressures for change persist, the ‘comfort zone’ ceases to serve us."
-- Eric Allenbaugh

It takes effort to change. What do you most want to change in your life? Make a list of what you can do to start the process. Try journaling, perhaps. Read books. Take a course. Find a mentor. Seek out support.

How will you commit time to make it happen? When are you going to start? Your life is passing quickly!

"Be not afraid of changing slowly; be afraid only of standing still."
-- Chinese Proverb

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision.

[MajestyJo]

DREAM

"The most pathetic person in the world is the person who has sight, but no vision."
-- Helen Keller

What's the big picture for your life? Always have a larger, purposeful, even spiritually ideal picture of where you are going. Your mind needs to have a clear and challenging vision to draw you ever upwards.

"Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and follow where they lead."
-- Louisa May Alcott

"The only limits are, as always, those of vision."
-- James Broughton

*** Do you feel an urge or calling in you to be or do more? Then honour it and open to more meaning and fulfillment by exploring your life purpose. Maybe it is time to do life instead of life doing you!

[MajestyJo]

OPEN TO POSSIBILITIES

"Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities -- always see them, for they're always there."
-- Dr. Norman Vincent Peale

"One of the saddest lines in the world is, 'Oh come now - be realistic.' The best parts of this world were not fashioned by those who were realistic. They were fashioned by those who dared to look hard at their wishes and gave them horses to ride."
-- Richard Nelson Bolles

"The world would have you agree with its dismal dream of limitation. But the light would have you soar like the eagle of your sacred visions."
-- Alan Cohen

"It's kind of fun to do the impossible."
-- Walt Disney

[MajestyJo]

FOLLOW YOUR OWN PATH

"Life is complex. Each one of us must make his own path through life. There are no self-help manuals, no formulas, no easy answers. The right road for one is the wrong road for another ... The journey of life is not paved in blacktop; it is not brightly lit, and it has no road signs. It is a rocky path through the wilderness."
-- M. Scott Peck

We each have our own pathways to develop both personally and spiritually. They are based on our character and past experiences. No one else can identify our paths for us. Tune in to your inner guidance system and follow its direction.

"What every man needs, regardless of his job or the kind of work he is doing, is a vision of what his place is and may be. He needs an objective and a purpose. He needs a feeling and a belief that he has some worthwhile thing to do. What this is no one can tell him. It must be his own creation."
-- Joseph M. Dodge

Watch yourself shift from the self-centered, controlling behaviours of the ego to the power, love and wisdom of the soul.

[MajestyJo]

ORDINARY CAN BE AWESOME

"Everything in life can be nourishing. Everything can bless us, but we've got to be there for the blessing to occur. Being present with quality is a decision we are invited to make each day."
-- MacRina Wiederkehr

Spirit is not only found in holy places, prayer and meditation, yoga and retreats. It is everywhere -- in your relationships, your work, your daily chores, in nature ... if you are willing to connect deeply with your environment.

Open to connect with something and you open to its essence, its purpose and meaning. There are other dimensions of reality below what we normally see and hear. Open to the mystery.

"We live in a world of theophanies. Holiness comes wrapped in the ordinary. There are burning bushes all around you. Every tree is full of angels. Hidden beauty is waiting in every crumb. Life wants to lead you from crumbs to angels, but this can happen only if you are willing to unwrap the ordinary by staying with it long enough to harvest its treasure."
-- Macrina Wiederkehr

Is your spiritual development important to you?

[MajestyJo]

SEEK YOUR LIMITS AND BEYOND

"If you're proactive, you don't have to wait for circumstances or other people to create perspective expanding experiences. You can consciously create your own."
-- Stephen Covey

Connect with the edge, the unknown, of your experience. Allow this pull towards unexplored territory to take you to new dimensions of yourself. Allow life to touch you in new ways. For this is how we truly live life. Become more alive as you grow through your consciousness barriers. Ask questions that seek answers beyond yourself. The depth of life is revealed as you go further into it.

"Nothing is lost upon a man who is bent upon growth; nothing wasted on one who is always preparing for - life by keeping eyes, mind and heart open to nature, men, books, experience - and what he gathers serves him at unexpected moments in unforeseen ways."
-- Hamilton Wright Mabie

"Nurture great thoughts, for you will never go higher than your thoughts."
--Benjamin Disraeli

Explore what blocks and how to enhance intuition.

[MajestyJo]

THE POWER OF SILENCE

"Growth takes place in a person by working at a deep inner level in a sustained atmosphere of silence."
-- Dr. Ira Progoff

How can we hear our wise voice of intuition if we are always thinking, talking and distracted by outer events?

If we take time daily to experience physical stillness and to direct our attention inside, we can begin to find the peace, love, will and wisdom that exist as our essence.

"Only when one is connected to one's own core is one connected to others... And, for me, the core, the inner spring, can best be refound through solitude."
-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"In the sweet territory of silence we touch the mystery. It's the place of reflection and contemplation, and it's the place where we can connect with the deep knowing, to the deep wisdom way."
-- Angeles Arrien

*** Step by step, progressively learn basic meditation methods to relax, concentrate, focus, reflect, contemplate and illuminate. Learn to meditate with new exercises weekly.

[MajestyJo]

YOU ARE BIGGER THAN YOU THINK

"He who would be serene and pure needs but one thing, detachment."
-- Meister Eckhart

We are the ocean -- vast, deep, powerful and rich. Nourishing and nurturing. Dive down into the dark stillness of being. Sense the rising and falling of surface thoughts and emotions, sometimes gentle, sometimes violent. Always shifting. Always in motion. Draw back and watch the waves of your life at play. Know you are the unfathomable depths -- surface agitations can't disturb you. Know that you are bigger than the little things that aggravate you.

"The bird of paradise alights only on the hand that does not grasp."
-- John Berry

"It's best not to get too excited or too depressed by the ups and downs of life."
-- Dalai Lama

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision. Go deeper....

[MajestyJo]

LOVE LIFE AND YOURSELF

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength while loving someone deeply gives you courage."
-- Lao Tzu

There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance.

We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.

"It matters not Who you love, Where you love, Why you love, When you love, Or how you love, It matters only that you love."
-- John Lennon

"Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is?"
-- Frank Scully

[MajestyJo]

DO YOU LOVE YOURSELF?

"At the heart of personality is the need to feel a sense of being lovable without having to qualify for that acceptance."
-- Dr. Paul Tournier

How do you see yourself as unlovable?

Take a few minutes to write down why you perceive yourself to be unlovable. Look at the list and see if you can identify where those characterizations originated. Can you pinpoint old messages from parents, teachers, and friends that led you to negative conclusions about yourself? Are those messages valid today?

The beliefs we adopt as children usually don't hold when we view them objectively as adults. Can you let them go? Can you begin to see yourself as a unique expression of life, a genuine gift to the world?

"You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection."
-- Buddha

"Limitless like the ocean are your excellent qualities."
-- Dalai Lama

*** Restart building a new foundation for your life. Clear blocks and transform your life.

[MajestyJo]

THE FACE IN THE MIRROR

"Our inability to see beauty doesn’t suggest in the slightest that beauty is not there. Rather, it suggests that we are not looking carefully enough or with broad enough perspective to see the beauty."
-- Rabbi Harold Kushner

Who are you? You can gaze at your reflection in a mirror but you're not likely to see your true likeness. You are beautiful, unique, perfect. Do you see that?

The world needs you to see how whole and complete you are -- now. Can you begin to own your divinity? The world needs you to know who you really are so you can be the mirror for others.

"The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us, thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing."
-- John Muir

Is your spiritual development important to you?

[MajestyJo]

BIG MIND, LITTLE MIND

"It is the mind that makes one wise or ignorant, bound or emancipated."
-- Sri Ramakrishna

Zen distinguishes big mind from small mind. Big mind identifies with its process, is impersonal and participates universally. Big mind is unlimited possibilities, deeper understanding, forgiveness, acceptance, insight, connectedness, attention.

Small mind is self centred and focuses only on itself. It is compulsive, limited, reactive and mechanical. Small mind feeds on itself -- fear reacts to fear, judgment reacts to judgment, anger sparks more anger.

Always seek higher perspectives and you will in time find freedom.

"If a pickpocket meets a Holy Man, he will see only his pockets."
-- Hari Dass

"Minds are like parachutes; they work best when open."
-- Lord Thomas Dewar

Our process is clear. First 'know yourself' - your personality and direction in life. Then 'create a plan'. Next 'heal yourself and what holds you back. Then you can expand and 'grow yourself'. Are you ready to commit to changing your life for the better?

[MajestyJo]

THE PAST IN THE PRESENT

"If you accept a limiting belief, then it will become a truth for you."
-- Louise Hay

Pick one aspect of your life, e.g. your health, your competence, your prosperity or relationships, and think back to when you were a child. What messages about this subject did you hear from adults at that time that are still playing on your subconscious tape recorder? Messages like: "Men can't be trusted." "Money doesn't grow on trees." "You're not smart enough to succeed in business."

How is your world reflecting your beliefs back to you, today?

"There are no limitations to the self except those you believe in."
-- Seth

*** Restart building a new foundation for your life. Clear blocks and transform your life.

[MajestyJo]

SLOW DOWN AND ENJOY

"Adopt the pace of nature, her secret is patience."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Racing through life is very stressful. If we stay in high gear too long, we lose our ability to shift down. And when we're stressed, we can't access happiness, appreciation, fun, compassion, generosity, awareness of beauty and other wonderful qualities. High stress also triggers negative emotions like frustration, impatience, anger and fear.

Life has so much to offer if we will slow down and truly experience it. We must always remember that we are the ones in control of the accelerator. We CAN choose to brake.

"Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast -- you also miss the sense of where you are going and why."
-- Eddie Cantor

Never have time for what you really want in life? Take control of the time of your life by changing your mind.

[MajestyJo]

WHAT’S IMPORTANT?

"Where you are headed is more important than how fast you are going. Rather than always focusing on what's urgent, learn to focus on what is really important."
-- Stephen Covey

Time management is all about making decisions. At each step of the way, we want to choose activities that best support what we want to do with our lives. To do this, we need to be clear about our short and long-term goals.

Here’s a general question to ask yourself often: "Is this the best use of my time in terms of meeting my goals?" Sometimes, of course, we don't have any choice. But ask yourself honestly, "Could I take more control if I really wanted to?" Often, we play the victim because we don't want to make the effort to change our behaviour.

"Time is a created thing. To say 'I don't have time,' is like saying, 'I don't want to.'"
-- Lao-Tzu

[MajestyJo]

ARE YOU AFRAID TO BE DIFFERENT?

On the path of evolution, we move from being a willing and obedient member of the group to wanting to take control over our own lives. This is a necessary but difficult transition.

Andrew Schneider says, "At this point we are afraid of being ourselves. We are afraid of being unique and different. We are afraid of being individually powerful, and even successful. For all of these things stand against the old ways that told us that conformity was right and individualism was wrong."

"For as long as we possibly can, we make a compromise. We try to live both lives - the dependent tribal life and the independent personal life - as contradictory and opposite as they are.

"We want approval from others. We want to be accepted and popular. We seek this comfort to overcome our fear and feel more secure. ...So, at times when we conform, we don’t feel the fear of living. But we might lose the new sense of adventure, discovery, daring and enthusiasm for life that the questioning and questing have brought us."

"Nature never repeats herself, and the possibilities of one human soul will never be found in another."
-- Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Is your spiritual development important to you?

[MajestyJo]

DID YOU FIND JOY?

"The future, higher evolution will belong to those who live in joy, who share joy, and who spread joy."
-- Torkom Saraydarian

Joy, as the energy of love, is the highest vibration on this planet. Everything in the universe is energy; it can be measured and reduced to vibrational frequencies. It’s a universal law that as we think and feel we vibrate, and as we vibrate we attract. When we are in the high joy vibration, we attract what is for our greater good.

The Ancient Egyptians saw Joy as a sacred responsibility. They believed that upon their death, the God Osiris would ask them two questions: "Did you bring Joy?" and "Did you find Joy?" Those who answered ‘yes’ could continue their journey into the afterlife.

For at least the next week or two, ask yourself these two questions each and every day:

Did I bring joy?
Did I find joy?
"Man loves because he is Love. He seeks Joy, for he is Joy. He thirsts for God for he is composed of God and he cannot exist without Him."
-- Sathya Sai Baba

[MajestyJo]

SPIRITUAL PATHWAYS

"In any way that men love me in that same way they find my love: for many are the paths of men, but they all in the end come to me."
-- Song of God, Bhagavad Gita

Spirit - the life force - exists in everything. It follows, then, that ANY path, any encounter is spiritual if we have the awareness to see it as such. Going deeper, going higher, emptying, connecting, believing or disbelieving, bouncing off the bottom, experiencing the heights, in pain, in ecstasy ....

Too often, we search afar for our own purpose when it is in our lives all the time, waiting for us to express it more openly. Bring greater awareness to each encounter and situation in life. Tune in to what you are inspired to do, who you are inspired to be. Your answers are waiting for you to pay attention - every moment!

"...focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it."
-- Greg Anderson

[MajestyJo]

ONE STEP AT A TIME

"What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step."
-- Antoine De Saint-Exupery

Does the prospect of changing and growing seem monumental to you? Just too much to tackle?

Then consider this approach. Take a simple step of affirming your openness to experience more or something new. Or a different first step might be to let go of judgment by embracing the neutral. Begin to see the people, activities and things around you as neither good nor bad.

A journey is made of many small steps. Don't focus on a far-off destination if you’re not clear how to get there. Build a foundation that is solid for you. We get to new places one step at a time.

"You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"One may walk over the highest mountain one step at a time."
-- John Wanamaker

*** Do you feel an urge or calling in you to be or do more?

[MajestyJo]

EGO'S TRICKS

"One of the great dangers of transformational work is that the ego attempts to sidestep deep psychological work by leaping into the transcendent too soon. This is because the ego always fancies itself much more ‘advanced’ than it actually is."
-- Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson

The Tibetan teacher, Chogyam Trungpa, warned of the trap of spiritual materialism. He says we must be ever diligent to spot the ego's use of the spiritual journey to further its own ends.

We may think it's spiritual to yearn for divine connection. And yet, if the longing is to fill an emptiness inside, just how does this differ from the one who yearns for money or possessions to fill the inner void? Do we look to our spiritual practices as proof of our evolved consciousness or as protection against fears?

Any time we use spiritual disciplines to maintain our identity and security, we are not yet on the path of genuine spiritual development.

"Enlightenment is ego's ultimate disappointment."
-- Chögyam Trungpa

Is your spiritual development important to you?

[MajestyJo]

BELIEVE IN YOUR OWN SUCCESS

"What you believe yourself to be, you are."
-- Claude M. Bristol

Do you believe, deep down inside of you, that you can succeed in what you want to do?

Beliefs are strong, and they have the power to attract what is believed to us. If we doubt our ability to succeed, if we in fact believe we WON'T succeed, then sure enough, that’s what will happen.

What do you believe about yourself? You have the power to change your beliefs, and that will change your outcome. Set goals you believe you can accomplish. Your beliefs will shape your actions. As you achieve these goals, you'll begin to believe you are capable of succeeding and of doing even more.

"It is better to believe than to disbelieve; in so doing you bring everything to the realm of possibility."
-- Albert Einstein

"Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, really believe, your mind will find the ways to do it. Believing a solution paves the way to solution."
-- Dr. David Schwartz

Our process is clear. First 'know yourself' - your personality and direction in life. Then 'create a plan'. Next 'heal yourself and what holds you back. Then you can expand and 'grow yourself'.

[MajestyJo]

BE AWARE OF YOUR MOTIVES

"Ordinarily, everything we do is in our self-interest. Everything."
-- Anthony de Mello

"Remember, most of the things you think you need are ego trips designed to bolster your image and your perception of security.... You'll waste a lot of energy satisfying your ego only to find that, as soon as it's got what it wants, it ignores all your efforts and promptly nails another list of demands to your forehead. The ego will always try to force you to slave for its vision. I wouldn't stand for that BS if I were you."
-- Stuart Wilde

"We have no need to teach pure motives to the mind. All that is necessary to make the mind pure is to undo the negative conditioning to which it has been subjected; then we will be left with pure, unconditioned awareness."
-- Eknath Easwaran

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision.

[MajestyJo]

GO FOR PASSION!

"There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life."
-- Frederico Fellini

How do you ration your passion?

In what situations have you experienced your life to the fullest? Do you live your passion as fully as you can? How do you limit your experience of passion?

Passion emerges when your essence expresses itself. How do you stop yourself from fully expressing who you are?

"Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark."
-- Henri Frederic Amiel

"We could hardly wait to get up in the morning."
-- Wilbur Wright

*** Do you feel an urge or calling in you to be or do more? Then honour it and open to more meaning and fulfillment by exploring your life purpose. Maybe it is time to do life instead of life doing you!

[MajestyJo]

DEFINE 'RICH'

"It ain't so much trouble to get rich as it is to tell when we have got rich."
-- Josh Billings

How do you define 'rich'?

If you want greater wealth, what does that mean for you? A large annual income? If so, how large? A beautiful home? Health? Security? Happiness? To be in service?

Get really specific about what would bring you a rich life. There are no right and wrong answers here. Don't judge your desires. Just dig deep to discover what it is that you really want. If you want things, explore what qualities of life those things represent to you.

"No one can tell whether they are richer or poor by turning to their ledger. It is the heart that makes a person rich. One is rich according to what one is, not according to what one has."
-- Henry Ward Beecher

"If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed."
-- Edmund Burke

[MajestyJo]

BELIEVE YOU ARE A CREATOR

"Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart desires must come to you."
-- Shakti Gawain

We hold the power to create whatever we desire. Our ability to manifest the changes we desire depends on the depth and passion of our beliefs and on the focus of our attention.

With this understanding, we, as individuals and as society, can design a whole new future for ourselves. Our challenge is to break free of society’s world view, to truly empower our imaginations to create brand new realities. It brings a whole new meaning to 'vision.'

What do you passionately desire for your own life? For the planet?

"By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The non-existent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired."
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

[MajestyJo]

INSPIRED TO CHANGE?

Are you getting the most benefit from these short Inner Journeys? Here are some ways to progressively stimulate more and more growth and change from these messages:

Read them quickly for momentary inspiration and move on to the next email.
Print them and keep them visible so you are conscious of the message during the day.
Take just 30 seconds and write in your journal as little as one word or a few sentences about how you connect with each message.
Take just 3 to 5 minutes to relax, reflect and contemplate on the messages that touch you. And then write a short note in your journal.
When a message really hits home, make the effort to explore the program that delves into that topic more deeply.
At a minimum, if a message strikes any nerve at all, take a few seconds to become aware of what nerve was struck and what it means to you.

This process builds awareness, and awareness brings change and growth - automatically!

"Everyone stumbles over the truth from time to time, but most people pick themselves up and hurry off as though nothing ever happened."
-- Sir Winston Churchill

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are.

[MajestyJo]

COMMUNICATING WITHOUT WORDS

"The gesture is the thing truly expressive of the individual - as we think so will we act."
-- Martha Graham

Every movement and non-movement we make is a form of communication.

How do you communicate fear, withdrawal, avoidance, shutting down, disagreeing, and an uncaring attitude?

If you aren't sure, others can probably tell you. Begin to pay attention to what your eyes and arms and facial expressions communicate. Our body language speaks louder than our words.

"An avoidance of true communication is tantamount to a relinquishment of my self-being; if I withdraw from it I am betraying not only the other but myself."
-- Karl Jaspers

*** Do you feel an urge or calling in you to be or do more? Then honour it and open to more meaning and fulfillment by exploring your life purpose. Maybe it is time to do life instead of life doing you!

[MajestyJo]

OPEN TO TRUST

"When I grip the wheel too tight, I find I lose control."
-- Steve Rapson

WE SEEK TO CONTROL OUR LIVES WHEN WE DO NOT TRUST, WHEN WE DO NOT LOVE. Our ego, perceiving itself to be vulnerable and insecure, uses control in an effort to protect itself.

At the root of our need to control, we find FEAR. It may be fear of the unknown. Fear of not coping. Fear of loss. Or possibly even fear of looking stupid. And as our efforts to control other people and events invariably fail, our fear increases.

Trust, on the other hand, is a quality of the soul. While control is a tool of the mind, TRUST AND FAITH ARE ASPECTS OF THE HEART. Trust comes with the deep knowing that we are spiritual beings in physical bodies. When we trust enough in life to give up our need to control, we can relax and open to the flow of energy in our lives. This brings peace of mind.

"The only real security in life lies in relishing life's insecurity."
-- M. Scott Peck

"Do not abandon trust when your ego thinks things should be different than they are."
-- Wayne Dyer

Discover the power of trusting yourself. Connect with your inner guidance that knows the way. Life can be easier and more fulfilling.

[MajestyJo]

REVIEW YOUR LIFE

"Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action."
-- James Levin

Take a few minutes today to reflect on what has happened recently and to put the last week in perspective. What made an impact on you this last week? What do you want to set as a goal for next week?

Reflection helps us step back from the details of our lives and see the bigger picture with fresh eyes. It's worth a few moments of your time. Review your week and come up with at least one conclusion, insight or learning and write it in your journal.

"Just because we increase the speed of information doesn't mean we can increase the speed of decisions. Pondering, reflecting and ruminating are undervalued skills in our culture."
-- Dale Dauten

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision. Go deeper....

[MajestyJo]

DON'T THINK AWAY YOUR FEELINGS

"When emotions are managed by the heart, they heighten your awareness of the world around you and add sparkle to life. The result is new intelligence and a new view of life."
-- Doc Childre and Howard Martin

How do you intellectualize your emotions?

Many of us live so much in our heads that we intellectualize our emotions. We analyze, rationalize and explain them away so quickly that we don't actually experience them.

Learn to honour your emotions at all times by being willing to feel them. Of course, you may need to exercise some judgment over how and when you express them.

"Learning to be aware of feelings, how they arise and how to use them creatively so they guide us to happiness, is an essential lifetime skill."
-- Joan Borysenko

*** Restart building a new foundation for your life. Clear blocks and transform your life.

[MajestyJo]

THE KEY TO CREATIVITY

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
-- Albert Einstein

Do you know the key to creativity?

It rhymes with weed. It produces the oak tree. We often eat it or grind it up for flour. It can mean cause or origination. You guessed it. It is SEED.

Our minds love to associate one thing to another. But as we get stuck in very fixed patterns of thinking, we think of fewer and fewer connections. We are ruled by habits, associations and automatic responses. So we must stimulate our thinking with lots of different seeds to chart new paths in our brains.

"Just as our eyes need light in order to see, our minds need ideas in order to conceive."
-- Napoleon Hill

"Anyone can look for fashion in a boutique or history in a museum. The creative explorer looks for history in a hardware store and fashion in an airport."
-- Robert Wieder

[MajestyJo]

ALL IS MIND

"I want to know the thoughts of God; the rest are details."
-- Albert Einstein

Everything -- absolutely everything -- that happens in our lives has a spiritual cause. Mental, emotional and physical events are only effects.

When we are struggling with any challenge, whether it be ill health, a lack of money, a lost job, relationships, an accident, whatever -- we need to look for the spiritual learning. We can ask ourselves, "What quality does my soul want me to live more fully?"

"I went to the root of things, and found nothing but Him alone."
-- Mira Bai

[MajestyJo]

FEELING TRAPPED? SLOW DOWN

"If you're having difficulty coming up with new ideas, then slow down. For me, slowing down has been a tremendous source of creativity. It has allowed me to open up -- to know that there's life under the earth and that I have to let it come through me in a new way. Creativity exists in the present moment. You can't find it anywhere else."
-- Natalie Goldberg

Feeling trapped in some way? Give yourself space. Space to do nothing but breathe. To intentionally relax those tight muscles. To just for a few precious minutes, let it all go.

The world will keep turning if you tune out for a short while. And your world will begin to recover its balance.

"It's important to be heroic, ambitious, productive, efficient, creative, and progressive, but these qualities don't necessarily nurture soul. The soul has different concerns, of equal value: downtime for reflection, conversation, and reverie; beauty that is captivating and pleasuring; relatedness to the environs and to people; and any animal’s rhythm of rest and activity."
-- Thomas Moore

[MajestyJo]

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

"The burden is equal to the horse’s strength."
-- The Talmud

What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses?

If you make a list of the two and study them, you may discover they match.

Life needs us to bring our strengths to the world. To encourage us to do so, we have weaknesses that give rise to problems that require us to call on our strengths to solve them. Ingenious, don't you think?

"Our weaknesses are divine gifts that when embraced will enable us to make our purposeful contribution to the whole, which is why we incarnated in the first place."
-- Andrew Schneider

"We acquire the strength we have overcome."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Become aware of your subconscious limitations, your character strengths, weaknesses and potentials, your life challenges, gifts, talents, and your deepest desires and aspirations.

[MajestyJo]

IS YOUR EGO INVOLVED?

"There is no room for God in him who is full of himself."
-- Hasidic Saying

On the spiritual path, we must be diligent to discriminate whether we are acting from ego or from soul. If ego is in charge, what we do is self- referencing. At the deepest levels, we are motivated by our own self-interest. We're looking out for ourselves more than for others.

Although soul works through individuals, its focus is on the needs of others and on service to humanity.

"Do not feed your ego and your problems, with your attention. ... Slowly, surely, the ego will lose weight, until one fine day it will be nothing but a thin ghost of its former self. You will be able to see right through it, to the divine presence that shines in each of us."
-- Eknath Easwaran

"Why aren't you happy? It's because ninety-nine percent of everything you do, and think, and say, is for yourself -- and there isn't one."
-- Wu Wei Wu

Our process is clear. First 'know yourself' - your personality and direction in life. Then 'create a plan'. Next 'heal yourself and what holds you back. Then you can expand and 'grow yourself'.

[MajestyJo]

FOLLOW THROUGH ON YOUR COMMITMENTS

"Our high resolves look down on our slumbering acts."
-- L.E. Landon

How do you put things off, make excuses, or let anyone or anything get in the way of your commitments?

What are you saying to yourself and your subconscious mind (which records all of your patterns) when you do not complete what is important to you?

Pick a task or new habit to which you will re-commit. Show yourself and your inner programming that you CAN complete and that you are serious about what you say.

"Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task."
-- William James

"Procrastination is the thief of time."
-- Edward Young

[MajestyJo]

HEAL THE PAST

"What you bring forth out of yourself from the inside will save you. What you do not bring forth out of yourself from the inside will destroy you."
-- Gospel of Thomas

We can transform painful memories by re-imagining them from the soul's perspective of love and meaning.

Andrew Schneider says that all experiences have the purpose of serving the soul. An experience in the past blocked us because our fear at the time distorted our perception of what happened. To transform this limiting experience, we must bring what was then unconscious into the soul’s realm through consciousness.

We can do this by following these steps:

RECALL the past experience that might inhibit us.
OWN the experience (no judgment, blame, etc.).
TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for it and the consequences (i.e., the experience was determined by my subjective perception of what occurred, dictated by my lack of wholeness -- specifically my fears).
GIVE IT MEANING (the soul was attempting to gain some kind of mastery or skill, but we didn’t know that at the time).
RE-IMAGINE it from the perspective of soul consciousness (showing its higher purpose).
"Letting go of our suffering is the hardest work we will ever do. It is also the most fruitful. To heal means to meet ourselves in a new way -- in the newness of each moment where all is possible and nothing is limited to the old."
-- Stephen Levine

What is personality? What is soul? How do they interact? Experience the power of living soulfully in the present moment.

[MajestyJo]

DIRECT YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS MIND

"The power to move the world is in the subconscious mind."
-- William James

Our subconscious mind creates our lives perfectly according to how it has been programmed. It works 24 hours of every day, 365 days per year. It accepts instructions from the conscious mind, checks on old inner programming and executes.

The subconscious mind acts on old beliefs stored over a lifetime. Many of those beliefs you may have accepted without thinking. Or you may have absorbed them when you were too young to exercise choice. Many of the beliefs that govern your life may no longer match what you now hold to be true.

Nonetheless, the subconscious mind is the director till you rewrite the scripts. Put some effort into getting it working on your positive, conscious intentions instead of your old limiting, unconscious beliefs and your life will change.

"If a man devotes himself to the instructions of his own unconscious, it can bestow this gift [of renewal], so that suddenly life, which has been stale and dull, turns into a rich unending inner adventure, full of creative possibilities."
-- Marie-Louise von Franz

[MajestyJo]

THERE'S LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

"Each difficult moment has the potential to open my eyes and open my heart."
-- Myla Kabat-Zinn

"Even the most daring and accomplished people have undergone tremendous difficulty. In fact, the more successful they became, the more they attributed their success to the lessons learned during their most difficult times. Adversity is our teacher. When we view adversity as a guide towards greater inner growth, we will then learn to accept the wisdom our soul came into this life to learn."
-- Barbara Rose

"No matter what difficulty you are facing, it is coming from Divine Light to bring you to a higher place within. Write down every conceivable reason that this situation can contribute towards your growth. Write down every way this experience can possibly set the stage for serving to uplift others. When you are complete, and have come to the other side of this experience, you will then know 'why' it happened."
-- Barbara Rose

"The period of greatest gain in knowledge and experience is the most difficult period in one's life."
-- Dalai Lama

*** Restart building a new foundation for your life. Clear blocks and transform your life.

[MajestyJo]

WHAT IS YOUR BODY TELLING YOU?

"There are times when we may fool ourselves. There are times when we can fool others. But we can never fool our body. It is the most sensitive barometer of our inner world."
-- Sherrill Sellman

"Instead of frittering away your vibrancy with worry or distraction, realize your mind and body are inextricably united. What calms and tones up one, soothes and improves the other."
-- Marsha Sinetar

"When you are saying that you are happy and you are not, there will be a disturbance in your breathing. Your breathing cannot be natural. It is impossible."
-- Osho

"Your body is the ground and metaphor of your life, the expression of your existence. It is your Bible, your encyclopedia, your life story. Everything that happens to you is stored and reflected in your body. In the marriage of flesh and spirit divorce is impossible."
-- Gabrielle Roth

"If you don't take care of your body, where will you live?"
-- Unknown source

What does each physical ailment say about your thinking?

[MajestyJo]

IT'S OKAY TO DREAM!

"Don't discard your fantasies as merely wishful thinking. Honor them as messages from the deepest part of your being about what you can do and directions you can choose."
-- Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer

What are your deepest heart-felt desires, dreams and visions?

Our deepest desires and dreams align with the essence of who we are. The more we align with that essence, the more our life holds meaning, purpose and fulfilment. Do you have a sense of your destiny?

"Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born."
-- Dale E. Turner

"Everybody builds a dream in their lifetime. You're either going to build your dream, or somebody else's. So build your own!"
-- Christopher LaBrec

*** Do you feel an urge or calling in you to be or do more? Then honour it and open to more meaning and fulfillment by exploring your life purpose. Maybe it is time to do life instead of life doing you!

[MajestyJo]

EXPERIENCE STILLNESS

"My greatest wealth is the deep stillness in which I strive and grow and win what the world cannot take from me with fire or sword."
-- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

If our minds are always busy, they don't get time to do basic maintenance - to sort, tidy up and take out the trash. If we don't periodically clear out space in our minds, there’s no room for new ideas to take root.

Where do you find stillness each day and each week? Plan for quiet time, relaxation and stillness daily, even if it's only for 5 or 10 minutes.

"For peace of mind, we need to resign as general manager of the universe."
-- Larry Eisenberg

*** Step by step, progressively learn basic meditation methods to relax, concentrate, focus, reflect, contemplate and illuminate.

[MajestyJo]

LEARN TO LET GO

"To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day."
-- Lao Tzu

How do we take something away? As we cultivate higher awareness, we begin to see just how much we have added things that really aren't there to our picture of reality. Our beliefs, concepts and emotions all add layers of meaning to physical reality, but that meaning exists for us only - it has no objective existence. For example, the word 'mother' has a complicated network of meaning for each of us.

Become aware of how your beliefs and emotions colour your perception of different events in your life. See if you can begin to step out of your fabrications to experience the truth and spaciousness of what is.

"When guilt rears its ugly head confront it, discuss it and let it go. The past is over. ... Forgive yourself and move on."
-- Bernie S. Siegel

Is your spiritual development important to you?

[MajestyJo]

WHO ARE YOU?

"Please... tell me who you are and what you want. And if you think those are simple questions, keep in mind that most people live their entire lives without arriving at an answer."
-- Gary Zukav

How deeply can you answer this question? Please realize that you are the only one who can answer it. No one else can tell you who you are. You must discover this for yourself. And the challenge of knowing ourselves is no easy task.

We hope this question excites rather than intimidates you. There's so much more to you than you know at present! Isn't this intriguing? Perhaps it's time to go exploring.

"Mysterious and intimidating to contemplate, the human brain is the most complex thing there is and the most difficult task it can undertake is to understand itself."
-- David Noonan

"I don't think God cares where we were graduated or what we did for a living. God wants to know who we are. Discovering this is the work of the soul - it is our true life’s work."
-- Bernie Siegel

Become aware of your subconscious limitations, your character strengths, weaknesses and potentials, your life challenges, gifts, talents, and your deepest desires and aspirations.

[MajestyJo]

LEARN TO BE AWARE

"You can live a lifetime and, at the end of it, know more about other people than you know about yourself."
-- Beryl Markham

Who am I? To answer this, we must first learn to become more aware of ourselves. To be aware, we must STOP and PAY ATTENTION! We need to STOP and objectively watch ourselves in action.

We live most of our lives by habit. These habits keep us stuck in patterns that limit our experience of life. Once we detect a pattern we were previously unconscious of, we can choose differently, if we want. With awareness comes choice and with choice, we gain freedom.

"To be authentic is literally to be your own author..., to discover your own native energies and desires, and then to find your own way of acting on them."
-- Warren G. Bennis

"Self-knowledge is the great power by which we comprehend and control our lives."
-- Vernon Howard

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are.

[MajestyJo]

FOCUS ON WHAT YOU WANT

"A good intention clothes itself with power."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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 habit of consciously setting an intention for activities throughout your day.

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 be grateful for gifts we take for granted.

When we take the time to set an intention, no matter how trivial, we are consciously choosing what we want for ourselves. With consistent attention, your intentions will come to life!

"By becoming a conscious choice-maker, you begin to generate actions that are evolutionary for you."
-- Deepak Chopra

[MajestyJo]

These readings have been coming every two days. There were no new posts for the 22nd and the 24th.

[MajestyJo]

Didn't receive some posts, don't know why. Some #s are missing.

[MajestyJo]

THE CHALLENGE OF RELATIONSHIPS

"It doesn't much signify whom one marries, for one is sure to find out the next morning that it was someone else."
-- Samuel Rogers

Despite our passion for romantic love, relationships are not the easiest way to find love and peace. They are, however, one of the most effective for finding our blocks.

Relationships naturally bring out into full view our desires, attachments and unconscious programs - our likes, dislikes, belief systems, judgments, compulsions, conformities, etc. Relationships challenge us because they take us deep into thoughts, feelings and experiences we have suppressed for a lifetime. That's why they provide the very best arena for personal growth!

"Human relationships are the perfect tool for sanding away our rough edges and getting at the core of divinity within us."
-- Eknath Easwaran

Our process is clear. First 'know yourself' - your personality and direction in life. Then 'create a plan'. Next 'heal yourself and what holds you back. Then you can expand and 'grow yourself'. Are you ready to commit to changing your life for the better?

[MajestyJo]

DISCOVER THE TREASURES INSIDE

"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude."
-- Denis Waitley

Peace, joy, health and well-being can only be found inside us. They exist within us now, waiting to be discovered. Yet we tend to look to the outside world to satisfy our needs and longings.

Our outer life reflects back to us the way we think, feel and behave. The outer world is all effects. Go to the source inside for all of life’s treasures.

How are you searching for peace and contentment outside of yourself?

"The great Western disease is, ‘I'll be happy when… When I get the money. When I get a BMW. When I get this job.’ Well, the reality is, you never get to when. The only way to find happiness is to understand that happiness is not out there. It's in here. And happiness is not next week. It's now."
-- Marshall Goldsmith

Like beauty, joy is one of the highest vibrations on this planet. Bring the joy that's already inside you to life

[MajestyJo]

BEING GENUINE

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

When we don’t know who we are -- or if we are afraid to be who we are -- we betray ourselves. We pretend to be who we think we are. Our self image is made up of our experiences, desires and other people’s ideas and expectations of us.

Maintaining this false self is a betrayal of ourselves. In all deep spiritual journeys, there is the experience of betrayal. Betrayal always tells us to adjust our life to be more authentic. What we identify with is all important.

There are large betrayals (e.g., your partner leaving you) and small betrayals (e.g., disappointments). They are all experiences of being wounded for the purpose of breaking down the defenses of the personality. When we allow the wounding and accept the betrayals as divine gifts, we greatly benefit.

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
-- Dr. Seuss (via Elena)

"What you must dare is to be yourself."
-- Dag Hammarskjold

[MajestyJo]

STRUGGLING WITH MONEY?

"Managing your money does not depend upon becoming wealthy or declaring vows of poverty. Rather, it is about creating stability and sufficiency - a balanced flow of monetary energy through your life."
-- Dan Millman

What would it take to achieve financial stability and sufficiency in your life?

Look honestly at your life. How could you achieve financial stability and sufficiency? Would you need more income? Would you need to trim back your lifestyle? Would you achieve this by refusing to purchase on credit? What can you do now that would move you one step closer to having control over the money in your life?

"We can respond creatively to what we experience as life-depriving and become richer in spirit for having met the challenge."
-- Tad Crawford

[MajestyJo]

RESPONSIBILITY BRINGS POWER

"To be tested is good. The challenged life may be the best therapist."
-- Gail Sheehy

What holds you back from being all that you are?

In your journal, list at least 5 things that hold you back.

Now review your answers. Have you blamed people or factors outside of yourself?

It's important to understand that ALL obstructions are rooted in our internal blocks. Even the problems that appear to be outside of us are only reflecting back to us problems we have inside. Once we address our inner issues, the outer problems disappear.

Be personally accountable for everything in your life and watch your perspectives shift. We claim our power when we accept responsibility for our lives.

"Conscious evolution begins as we take responsibility for clearing our own obstructions."
-- Dan Millman

[MajestyJo]

CONFLICTS WITH THE KIDS? RELAX!

"Family life! The United Nations is child's play compared to the tugs and splits and need to understand and forgive in any family."
-- May Sarton

Faced with a child (or a person of any age, for that matter) who is angry or rebellious? Consider the guidance from Vimala McClure:

"To discover what my child needed, a deep, yielding receptivity was vital. The temptation is to become more and more rigid, but the more you do, the less you understand. When faced with a child who is testing your resolve, relax and yield ....

"As a parent, the frustration of not knowing how to fill a need that cannot be articulated can be overwhelming. Often we direct the rage that stems from that frustration toward the child, which serves to distance us even further, making it impossible for the child to open up to us. To get to this type of receptivity, a practice of conscious relaxation is a must."

"Those who have children can become masters of patience, endurance, and steadfastness, because children will test you at every turn. ...The way to make our children patient and loving is to be that way ourselves."
-- Eknath Easwaran

[MajestyJo]

PERSONAL POWER

"The deep root of failure in our lives is to think, 'Oh how useless and powerless I am.' It is essential to think strongly and forcefully, 'I can do it,' without boasting or fretting."
-- Dalai Lama

Angeles Arrien says that whether we are male or female, we need to develop three kinds of power. People who hold these three powers cannot be ignored.

Power of presence - Being really present in each moment
Power of communication - Speaking my truth
Power of position - Being willing to take a stand
"A man's true state of power and riches is to be in himself."
-- Henry Ward Beecher

"We are no longer puppets being manipulated by outside powerful forces; we become the powerful force ourselves."
-- Leo Buscaglia

What is personality? What is soul? How do they interact? Experience the power of living soulfully in the present moment.

[MajestyJo]

WHO SETS THE STANDARDS YOU LIVE BY?

"If I get to pick what I want to do, then it's play... if someone else tells me that I have to do it, then it's work."
-- Patricia Nourot

Are you continually struggling to accomplish what is expected of you? If so, stop to think for a moment: who holds those expectations?

Perhaps you're trying to meet the expectations of a parent or a teacher or other authority figures who may be long gone from your life. But many of us toil under the critical eyes of a vague 'somebody' who always judges that we've never done enough or done things well enough. Who is this phantom judge? And do we need to care about what they think any longer?

We find both our own power and happiness when we begin to set our own standards around what has heart and meaning for us.

"Doubt yourself and you doubt everything you see. Judge yourself and you see judges everywhere. But if you listen to the sound of your own voice, you can rise above doubt and judgment. And you can see forever."
-- Nancy Lopez

*** Restart building a new foundation for your life. Clear blocks and transform your life.

[MajestyJo]

WHAT'S YOUR BEST ROUTINE?

"For all my good intentions, there are days when things go wrong or I fall into old habits. When things are not going well, when I'm grumpy or mad, I'll realize that I've not been paying attention to my soul and I've not been following my best routine."
-- Robert Fulghum

How do you need to bring more balance to your life?

Robert Fulghum has shared, "The older I get, the more I realize the importance of exercising the various dimensions of my body, soul, mind and heart. Taken together, these aspects give me a sense of wholeness. I want to be a whole human being rather than one who limps on one leg because I don't know how to use all of my parts. Intellectual, emotional, and physical activity are not separate entities. Rather, they are dimensions of the same human being."

"There is an Indian Belief that everyone is in a house of four rooms: A physical, a mental, an emotional and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go into every room everyday, even if only to keep it aired, we are not complete."
-- Rumer Godden

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision. Go deeper..

[MajestyJo]

DO YOU BELIEVE IN YOURSELF?

"We cannot rise higher than our thought of ourselves."
-- Orison Swett Marden

What do you believe about yourself?

If you are experiencing a lack of something in your life, chances are that you hold a belief in your subconscious that says you aren't worthy of having that quality. Write in your journal the answer to these questions for yourself:

Where are you not good enough, not worthy enough?
How willing are you to receive?
"We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit."
-- e. e. cummings

*** Tackle your financial challenges holistically! Learn the basic steps to managing money, explore your beliefs around wealth, and open to the spiritual laws of abundance.

[MajestyJo]

CELEBRATE DIFFERENCES

"Souls don't have races or sexes or religions. They are beyond artificial divisions."
-- Brian Weiss

Intolerance of differences always exists in people who don't know who they are, people who don't have a strong sense of their own authentic self, the soul within.

Intolerance is rooted in fear.

The basis for having a strong sense of self-esteem is to replace our unconscious idea of basic unworthiness with a conscious knowing of our fundamental inherent goodness. As Matthew Fox argues in Original Blessing, the notion of 'original sin' must be replaced with the truth of 'original blessing.'

Being in touch with our essential goodness, we can see the essential goodness in others as well.

"Beliefs separate. Loving thoughts unite."
-- Paul Ferrini

Take a 90 day journey to get in touch with your authentic self.

[MajestyJo]

BUILD THE AWARENESS HABIT

"It is difficult to see the picture when you are inside of the frame."
-- Author Unknown

Start building the awareness habit: STOP and PAY ATTENTION. Set an intention to become aware of how you automatically react to different things in your life.

For example, how do you react to the alarm clock, the shower, traffic, work colleagues and situations, your partner or children? How do you react to anger or fear in someone else? How do you react to your own anger or fear? Become a witness to your own life. Pay attention to how you do things.

"What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself."
-- Abraham H. Maslow

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are.

Sorry you had to wait for these, I couldn't get into my gmail. My mistake not theres.

[MajestyJo]

BE OPEN TO CHANGE

"Balance is a dynamic process; it changes with the days, the seasons, the years."
-- Sherrill Sellman

How rigid are your routines? Do you exercise for 30 minutes, three times each week no matter how you feel?

Routines and structure can provide a valuable framework to bring discipline to our lives. At the same time, we are always changing and it's wise to be sensitive to our physical, emotional and mental states so we can ensure that our activities truly meet our needs. We need to be willing to change our patterns when our practices no longer serve us.

"Only in growth, reform, and change, paradoxically enough, is true security to be found."
-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"The smallest change in perspective can transform a life. What tiny attitude adjustment might turn your world around?"
-- Oprah

[MajestyJo]

HOW DO YOU WORK WITH ANGER?

"Character isn't inherited. One builds it daily by the way one thinks and acts, thought by thought, action by action. If one lets fear or hate or anger take possession of the mind, they become self-forged chains."
-- Helen Douglas

How do you feel about anger, in yourself and in others?
How do you deal with it?

Anger is powerful energy. If we are afraid of this energy, we may attempt to deny or hide it. And when we lack control of the energy of anger, we impose it on other people or things.

The ways we react to anger usually reflect how we experienced anger as children and how our own anger when we were young was handled by the adults at the time.

In reality, anger, like any emotion, brings us information. It tells us how we feel about what is being experienced. If we receive anger's message and learn more about ourselves, the energy will pass.

"Too often we underestimate how quickly our feelings are going to change because we underestimate our ability to change them."
-- David Gilbert

*** Restart building a new foundation for your life. Clear blocks and transform your life. Discover a whole new way of working with life's challenges.

[MajestyJo]

LIVE IN RELAXATION

"It would be glorious to see mankind at leisure for once. It is nothing but work, work, work."
-- Henry David Thoreau

Is relaxation possible only when we’re not working? No. With awareness and practice, we can be relaxed no matter what we are doing. In fact, when we work in a relaxed state, our productivity increases as our effort decreases.

For true relaxation, we need to connect with our bodies -- to consciously and intentionally become aware of tension and release it.

"Anxiety breaks a man’s backbone."
-- Hebrew proverb

"Don't hurry, don't worry. You're only here for a short visit. So be sure to stop and smell the flowers."
-- Walter Hagen

*** Step by step, progressively learn basic meditation methods to relax, concentrate, focus, reflect, contemplate and illuminate.

[MajestyJo]

USE YOUR BREATH TO RELAX YOUR BODY

"Breath is the link between the inner and outer worlds."
-- Alice Christensen

We live in very demanding times, and our health depends on our being able to relieve our bodies and minds from constant stress. Breathing with awareness can focus and concentrate our attention inside. This slows down our pace and eases the pressure, anxiety, anticipation and excitement that are common stress reactions.

At any time, you can consciously experience your breathing to help you concentrate your mind and relax your body. Compare how you feel after your session with how you felt before. Write about your experience in your journal.

"Controlled deep breathing helps the body to transform the air we breathe into energy. The stream of energized air produced by properly executed and controlled deep breathing produces a current of inner energy which radiates throughout the entire body and can be channeled to the body areas that need it the most, on demand."
-- Nancy Zi

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are.

[MajestyJo]

WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT?

"What we see depends mainly on what we look for."
-- Sir John Lubbock

Throughout the day, continually ask yourself about your underlying motivation. Why are you doing what you are doing?

Is it for selfish, manipulative or fearful reasons? Is it for honest service with integrity? Maybe you'll discover you don't know. Perhaps you will see that much of your activity lacks purpose.

This is a great way to become more conscious. Your intention and motives are fundamental to the results you will receive. Set high intentions and your life will blossom.

"The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving."
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision. Go deeper....

[MajestyJo]

WHAT ARE YOU PROCRASTINATING?

"The greatest amount of wasted time is the time not getting started."
-- Dawson Trotman

Procrastination seriously drains our energy and our morale. What remains undone nags at us. What are you avoiding?

Make a list of items and then review each one. Does it really need to be done? After you've reviewed your list, prioritize it and start one task today.

Please do not procrastinate taking one minute to write down your answer to this question. Capture it on paper and this will help build awareness, commitment and discipline.

"How soon not now, becomes never."
-- Martin Luther

"Talk does not cook rice."
-- Chinese proverb

"Do you know what happens when you give a procrastinator a good idea? Nothing!"
-- Donald Gardner

Never have time for what you really want in life? Take control of the time of your life by changing your mind.

[MajestyJo]

STRETCH YOURSELF

"People are defeated by easy, victorious and cheap successes more than by adversity."
-- Benjamin Disraeli

Today’s social standard is one of mediocrity. The status quo rarely challenges our individual creative power.

Create a brand new world for yourself, one that meets your deepest needs. By doing so, you will help raise the quality of consciousness of the entire world. Use your imagination! Sing your own song!

"Success means fulfilling your own dreams, singing your own song, dancing your own dance, creating from your heart and enjoying the journey, trusting that whatever happens, it will be OK. Creating your own adventure!"
-- Elana Lindquist

[MajestyJo]

HOW DO YOU SHOW YOU CARE?

"Love is not only something you feel. It is something you do."
-- David Wilkerson

In her book, 'No Less Than Greatness,' Mary Manin Morrissey speaks of a research study that explored how family members communicate with each other. Apparently, the most frequently spoken words between husbands, wives, sisters and brothers were "What's on?" and "Move."

She goes on to say, "We all desire great relationships but often settle for just getting by. Many of us have stopped questioning the fact that we may know fictitious TV families more intimately than we do our own."

The most powerful force in our lives is our ability to love. Indeed, it's the most basic essence of who we are. How do you experience and express your love for the people in your life?

"The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the other.... The whole purpose of life is to live by love."
-- Thomas Merton

*** Do you feel an urge or calling in you to be or do more? Then honour it and open to more meaning and fulfillment by exploring your life purpose. Maybe it is time to do life instead of life doing you!

[MajestyJo]

TIME TO BLOSSOM

"The voice of our original self is often muffled, overwhelmed, even strangled, by the voices of other people's expectations."
-- Julia Cameron

Many of us unconsciously believe that we're unworthy or defective. We adopted this belief very early in our lives when the people we looked up to disapproved of our demands, wishes and behaviours. We concluded that we had to learn to be good.

Unfortunately, 'being good' usually meant giving up our own differences or uniqueness. We learned that we might get the love we wanted if we acted and felt like others wanted us to.

If we seek true joy and connection with life, we now need to remove these artificial masks and express our deep authentic nature.

"For all those years you’ve protected the seed. It's time to become the beautiful flower."
-- Stephen C. Paul

Is your spiritual development important to you?

[MajestyJo]

ALL IS MIND

"I want to know the thoughts of God; the rest are details."
-- Albert Einstein

Everything -- absolutely everything -- that happens in our lives has a spiritual cause. Events on all other levels -- mental, emotional and physical -- are only effects.

When we are struggling with any challenge, whether it be ill health, a lack of money, a lost job, relationships, an accident, whatever -- we need to look for the spiritual learning. We can ask ourselves, "What quality does my soul want me to live more fully?"

"If you start to think the problem is 'out there,' stop yourself. That thought is the problem."
-- Stephen Covey

[MajestyJo]

THE 4 D'S OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH

"Promise Yourself ... to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. ...To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble."
-- Drawn from the Optimist Creed of the Optimist International Club

Reflect on this pathway for meaningful growth:

DISCIPLINE - To create change in our lives, we need to consistently focus on what we want.

DETACHMENT - Practice the art of detached observation. Let go of automatic defenses and patterns.

DISCERNMENT - Seek to discern the lower from the higher. What is self-serving and what is soul-inspired? Discernment carries no judgment. There are no goods and bads. Remain as a detached witness.

DHARMA "This is an East Indian word meaning "living your unique purpose." How do you find meaning and fulfillment in ways that are natural to you? How do you best serve and contribute to the world?

"If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness, and fears."
-- Glenn Clark

[MajestyJo]

FORGIVE THE HURTS

"Forgiveness will never fail to free you."
-- Jerrold Mundis

How do we forgive when we're angry and hurt?

As a first step, we can be willing to truly feel our anger and hurt. Honouring our feelings by being fully present with them helps to release the feelings themselves.

And it helps to remember that people only hurt others when they themselves are in pain. When we can recognize the other person's suffering, our heart can open in compassion. We can also remember that at some time or another, we too have hurt someone through our own unskilful action.

Only love can heal the rifts caused by a hurtful deed. Forgiveness holds immense power because it mends separation. It moves us towards the unity and love that lie at the core of our being. It is a fundamental part of the healing process.

"Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future."
-- Paul Boese

"God has a big eraser."
-- Billy Zeoli

[MajestyJo]

USE YOUR POWER TO CREATE

"I am a child of God. I came from the womb of creation."
-- Tao Te Ching

Our grand business in life is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand."
-- Thomas Carlyle

We each play a role in the bigger game of life. In this bigger picture, life plays with energy and matter to expand, create, express and evolve. It explores new possibilities, realizes them and then reaches for even more. Life continually transforms what is into something brand new.

We choose how actively we take part in this cosmic dance. We can become mere spectators to life if we get stuck in old ideas that have lost their energy for us.

How much passion do you feel for your goals? Are you still being creative in how you work with them?

"Embrace fully your capacity to create, to think in unlimited ways, and to pursue everything that you have been wanting. Be flexible, open and willing to let the new come to you. "This can be the most joyous, prosperous, and creative time of your life."
-- Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer

[MajestyJo]

OPEN TO THE NEW

"All the people we call ‘geniuses’ are men and women who somehow escaped having to put that curious, wondering child in themselves to sleep."
-- Barbara Sher

How willing are you to learn something new?
How open are you to new perspectives?

Only when we're open can we really hear what's being said or really see what's happening or really experience the moment.

Openness demands that we be willing to move to places we've never been before. It asks us to continually challenge the foundations of our belief systems so we can test out new ideas. And to do that, we need to accept insecurity.

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."
-- Alvin Toffler

[MajestyJo]

FIND PEACE INSIDE

"All spiritual disciplines are done with a view to still the mind. The perfectly still mind is universal spirit."
-- Swami Ramdas

Getting into the habit of meditating, praying and/or resting daily helps us pull back from our preoccupation with the material world. In silence and solitude, we have an opportunity to pay attention to what's happening inside rather than outside.

When we do this consistently, we learn to relax and to quiet and detach from our mental chatter and our turbulent emotions. As we begin to witness ourselves in personality, we also begin to experience our soul.

"Meditation may require a lifetime to master, but it will have been a lifetime well spent." If you want to judge your progress, ask yourself these questions: Am I more loving? Is my judgment sounder? Do I have more energy? Can my mind remain calm under provocation? Am I free from the conditioning of anger, fear, and greed? Spiritual awareness reveals itself as eloquently in character development and selfless action as in mystical states."
-- Eknath Easwaran

[MajestyJo]

ARE YOU HAPPY?

"It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere."
-- Agnes Repplier

Are you happy?

Don’t answer too quickly. Sit with this question for a long time and you’ll be introduced to brand new dimensions of who you are and of what matters in your life.

"Happiness comes only when we push our brains and hearts to the farthest reaches of which we are capable."
-- Leo C. Rosten

Like beauty, joy is one of the highest vibrations on this planet.

[MajestyJo]

KNOW THE FACTS OF YOUR FINANCES

"I've got all the money I’ll ever need, if I die by four o'clock."
-- Henny Youngman

Exactly how much money have you earned today? Exactly how much have you spent?

To master money management on the road to prosperity, you must know the details of how money moves through your life. Few people know the specifics of their finances.

Begin to gather the hard data of your earning and spending. You'll find knowing this information is surprisingly empowering.

"As you manage your money, you manage your life."
-- Dan Millman

"A lean purse is easier to cure than endure."
-- George S. Clason

*** Tackle your financial challenges holistically!

[MajestyJo]

A FOCUS FOR PARENTS

"Parents: persons who spend half their time worrying how a child will turn out, and the rest of the time wondering when a child will turn in."
-- Ted Cook

One of our responsibilities as parents is to become independent of our children.

Andrew Schneider notes that many of us feel inadequate as parents because we assume we are totally responsible for them, but we are not.

Schneider says, "Their soul is in charge of their lives, and nothing that you do can greatly interfere nor greatly help. Who you are as a being and what you model is the important reality."

How specifically can we support our children? We want them to feel nurtured and valued. We want to support them in learning how to provide for themselves. And we want to help them build good relationships.

"The most important thing that parents can teach their children is how to get along without them."
-- Frank A. Clark

"There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots; the other, wings."
-- Hodding Carter

Is your spiritual development important to you?

[MajestyJo]

HOW DO YOU PLAY YOUR ROLES?

"What concerns me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think things are."
-- Epicetus

When we are basically unconscious, we live according to social roles. We perform as sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, employers and employees, as society expects us to.

As we grow in awareness, we gain the freedom to bring our own unique perspectives to these roles. We can express ourselves authentically and creatively, without letting our roles dictate how we should behave.

"Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinion of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth."
-- Katherine Mansfield

*** Awareness is the key to all change.

[MajestyJo]

WHAT MESSAGE DID YOU MOST NEED TO HEAR?

"One word frees us from the weight and pain of life; that word is love."
-- Sophocles

In exploring the enneagram, Riso and Hudson have identified 'lost messages' that we needed to hear as children but didn't. The absence of these words may be at the heart of our most basic fear. And unconsciously we may still be seeking to hear these words from others.

Review the following messages and note if any one touches you more strongly than the others:

"You are good."
"You are wanted."
"You are loved for yourself."
"You are seen for who you are."
"Your needs are not a problem."
"You are safe."
"You will be taken care of."
"You will not be betrayed."
"Your presence matters."
"Oh the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are -- chaff and grain together -- certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away."
-- Dinah Mulock

Become aware of your subconscious limitations, your character strengths, weaknesses and potentials, your life challenges, gifts, talents, and your deepest desires and aspirations.

[MajestyJo]

ON SELF-HONESTY

"No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true."
-- Nathaniel Hawthorne

"You cannot fake a relationship and feel right with yourself or anyone else. Changing yourself to fit what you think other people want doesn’t work. Pretending to be someone other than yourself only broadens the distance between the person you are and the one with whom you’re trying to establish closeness."
-- Mary Manin Morrissey

"Just as surely as distress must follow self-deceit, healing must follow self-honesty."
-- Vernon Howard

"Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got."
-- Janis Joplin

Our process is clear. First 'know yourself' - your personality and direction in life. Then 'create a plan'. Next 'heal yourself and what holds you back. Then you can expand and 'grow yourself'. Are you ready to commit to changing your life for the better?

[MajestyJo]

THE FIRST STEP TO FORGIVENESS

"To get to forgiveness, we first have to work through the painful experiences that require it."
-- Christiane Northrup

To forgive, we do not have to say that whatever happened was okay. In fact, before we can forgive, we need to allow ourselves to really feel the pain of the experience. If we don’t fully acknowledge our hurts, we will continue to carry them subconsciously and they will drain our energy.

To forgive, we need to decide that we won't allow the memories of the event to poison us any longer. We're ready to heal this wound from the past and open to a fresh new beginning.

The blessing is that when we're really ready to experience our pain and we open to it, it usually fades away. By honouring our pain, we release it.

"We must let ourselves feel all the painful destruction we want to forgive rather than swallow it in denial. If we do not face it, we cannot choose to forgive it."
-- Kenneth McNoll

[MajestyJo]

VALUE THE PROCES


"If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear ... as it is, infinite."
-- William Blake

When we stop and pay attention to ourselves, we begin to see clearly the habits and patterns that have kept us asleep and confused and misled for so long. With awareness, we can choose to shift from the selfish and narrow outlook of our personality to the all-embracing generosity of our soul, simply by changing our perspective.

Change your mind and you’ll change your world.

"You watch your mind to see who you are not. I watch my mind to gain a sense of its content, which has always been my pain. As I watch it, I get a sense of its impermanence. Thoughts come and go as part of a process. I see how content dissolves into process and begin to see the patterns in the process. Realizing it isn't MY suffering, MY pain, it becomes THE pain. I’ve gone from the tiny, the small, and the individual to the universal. I feel OUR pain. When we do, we go from fear to compassion. Fear is MY pain, compassion is THE pain."
-- Stephen Levine

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are.

[MajestyJo]

CREATE CONSCIOUSLY

"No man has a chance to enjoy permanent success until he begins to look in a mirror for the real cause of all his mistakes."
-- Napoleon Hill

The law of karma is the law of cause and effect. It works unavoidably when there is no consciousness -- when we are not present in the moment. When there is no consciousness, the past creates the future.

The law of Love supersedes the law of karma. It intervenes in the process by focusing in the present. In fact, one could say that Love is being fully present. When anything is initiated in Love in the present, the future of that reality will be purposeful, meaningful, loving and powerful.

"He who is false to present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and will find the flaw when he may have forgotten its cause."
-- Henry Ward Beecher

"In my beginning is my end."
-- T.S. Eliot

*** Tackle your financial challenges holistically! Learn the basic steps to managing money, explore your beliefs around wealth, and open to the spiritual laws of abundance.

[MajestyJo]

BELIEVE IN MAGIC!

"...for magic to happen in your life, you must believe in magic."
-- Grandmother, quoted by Lynn Andrews

"Most of the time, we fall in love but can't remain there. The world then calls the state we were in a delusion or infatuation ... But we merely lacked, or someone else lacked, the emotional skills to hold on to the magic when the morning came. ...In truth, we can go to the moon and retain its magic for a lifetime."
-- Marianne Williamson

"We think, sometimes, there’s not a dragon left. Not one brave knight, not a single princess gliding through secret forests ... What a pleasure to be wrong. Princesses, knights, enchantments and dragons, mystery and adventure ... not only are they here-and-now, they're all that ever lived on earth! Masters of reality still meet us in dreams to tell us that we've never lost the shield we need against dragons, that blue-fire voltage arcs through us now to change our world as we wish. Intuition whispers true: We're not dust, we're magic!"
-- Richard Bach

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision. Go deeper...

[MajestyJo]

DANCE THROUGH YOUR DAY

"Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans: it’s lovely to be silly at the right moment."
-- Horace

Today, we invite you to do the Take-Your-Time Tango. In his book 'Games for the Soul,' Drew Leder challenges us to dance through our days with the graceful, slow elegance of a tango dancer.

"Slow down a notch," Leder counsels. "Do whatever you do in a calm and leisurely fashion. ... As much as possible, don’t be driven by inner fear, external deadlines, or rushed companions to stumble through a speeded-up dance. Act as if you have all the time in the world. Come to think of it, you do: No one else has any more hours."

So stand (or sit) tall. Raise your chin as you gather your full concentration, dignity and self confidence to glide smoothly and beautifully through the day.

"We look at the dance to impart the sensation of living in an affirmation of life, to energize the spectator into keener awareness of the vigor, the mystery, the humor, the variety, and the wonder of life."
-- Martha Graham

Never have time for what you really want in life? Take control of the time of your life by changing your mind.

[MajestyJo]

WHERE'S YOUR ATTENTION?

"Only one thing has to change for us to know happiness in our lives: where we focus our attention."
-- Greg Anderson

What do you usually focus on: problems or solutions?

When our mind dwells on a problem, we stay stuck. Woe is me! But when we can shift to ask how we might achieve a solution to our problem, our subconscious mind, thinking and creativity move into gear. New possibilities open up.

Get in the habit of asking for solutions!

"Every choice moves us closer to or farther away from something. Where are your choices taking your life? What do your behaviors demonstrate that you are saying yes or no to in life?"
-- Eric Allenbaugh

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are with the Journey to Awareness email series.

Unclog your senses.
Loosen your emotional attachments.
Go beyond your limiting beliefs.
Be your authentic self.

[MajestyJo]

BREAK OUT OF ROUTINE

"One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star."
-- Nietzsche

Where do you need to do some ‘out of the box’ thinking and living?

We are creatures of habit, of patterns. While initially the habits may have served us, they may now be limiting our ability to experience more of life.

What aspect of your life has become routine? How might you bring new life to it? Do some outrageous dreaming! Then do something completely different today.

"When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world."
-- George Washington Carver

There is never a money or life problem, only an idea problem! Explore different ways to generate more ideas, options and solutions in your life.