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.

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'.

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

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.

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

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.

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?

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!

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

These readings have been coming every two days. There were no new posts for the 22nd and the 24th.

Didn't receive some posts, don't know why. Some #s are missing.