Tag Archive 'Life'

Jul 04 2009

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Seven Simple Exercises to Invite the Extraordinary Life

Filed under Happiness, Life

I can think of no greater encouragement than the self-evident Truth that there dwells in each of us the opportunity to explore and know the Extraordinary Life. The meaning of Extraordinary I wish to convey points to the immutable and inexhaustible source that is the secret center of each of us: a timeless resource open and available to anyone who would seek this Life that sits behind life as we know it. Will we spend our lives in mere dreams of winning a limitless life, or will we do the inner- work of awakening from this dream? Choosing the Extraordinary Life begins with our conscious work to realize it, which the following special practices help to ensure.

1. Let Nagging Questions Go Unanswered: In stressful moments, listen to what life is trying to tell you about you instead of searching anxiously for familiar answers to make life feel “right” again. All fearful, doubt-filled moments are secret reflections of what we have yet to understand about life and ourselves, not life’s rejection of us or our wish for happiness. Choose to go consciously quiet whenever there is a riot in you. Refuse to take part in the search to repair what you fear may be coming undone. Let go and watch what happens when you consciously sacrifice the fear-filled self. This new action allows the Extraordinary Life to enter into you where its presence alone proves that all is well.

2. Don’t Make the Rescue Call: In times of anxiety and fear, we almost always call upon someone or something to help us get through our stress. This dependency on others for strength not only weakens our soul, but also steals from it the possibility of being educated by the Extraordinary Life, which means we miss two major lessons. First, the crucial lesson that all our fears are based upon false evidence that appears real. With this revelation comes our second realization that the same frightened self that seeks rescue secretly confirms its imagined condition as being real each time it cries out for help. Refusing to rescue ourselves from inner states that scare us invites the Extraordinary Life that shows us that no such scared self exists that needs saving.

3. Take the Hard Way: Rut and routine are two sides of the same sad street. Repetitive patterns are the well-worn pavement that our spiritually asleep self loves to tread while it talks us to death with its empty promises of extraordinary times “just ahead.” We can learn to do much better let ourselves be betrayed in this way, but it takes inner work! Instead of caving into the demands of those slipshod parts of ourselves always looking for the easy way out, we must choose in favor of what our false nature wants us to see as being the “hard” way. But it’s not. In fact, once we learn that the only real way out of what we would rather avoid is to go through it, we discover another self-liberating truth: the only thing that’s hard on us is when we allow our unenlightened nature to convince us that getting around something is the same as rising above it.

4. Do the Thing You Fear Doing: There is a correct time and place for thinking through practical plans in the ordinary scheme of life’s events. But nothing that is founded in thought can serve to reveal the unthinkable plans that the Extraordinary holds in store for anyone willing to leap into the moment without a parachute. Never mind those old fears of falling. Just jump! Being willing to risk failing is a prerequisite for fearless living. If you will take the leap into what you are afraid of doing, the Extraordinary Life will prove to you that Its unshakable ground is everywhere beneath you at all times. Nothing compares with this discovery because, once realized, there’s nowhere to go but up! A note of caution: taking a spiritual leap is far different from taking a reckless physical risk. Never risk the well being of your physical body for the sake of a passing thrill: for what is possible to attain with a body, cannot be without one. The temporary rush of adrenalin has nothing in common with one’s awakening to the reality of a timeless, fearless life.

5. Take Time Out from Yourself Every Day: Unseen by the self that walks upon it, thought is a treadmill powered by the movement of our yesterdays as they produce our tomorrows. This is the real meaning of “doing time.” The domain of the Extraordinary Life is Timeless. To share Its life, we must enter into Its world. Here is a good way to begin this Work: Every day, as often as can be remembered, chose to break out of that gilded, but self-confining cage called “thinking about yourself.” We live under the power of these unconscious ponderings, for when they turn dark and stormy, it is we who are left out in the cold. Even if we can only collect ourselves to meditate, pray or contemplate a Higher Idea for a few minutes at a time, we must do it anyway. These small windows – opened by our work to remember the Extraordinary Life – grant us passage into its timeless domain.

6. Open Yourself to Life: Dare to see and experience yourself as you are without giving names to all the varied emotional sensations that present themselves before your watchful inner eyes. Allow the meaning of whatever states you see coming up in you to reveal their actual nature to you. Resist the temptation to interrupt their upwelling by explaining to yourself what you are experiencing. Have no intention toward these thoughts and feelings other than to be open to them and, in doing so, to permit them their uninterrupted passage through you. Why open up to life in this way? For one thing, this gives negative states the back door they need to depart. For another, the Extraordinary Life is very possessive. It will not enter any zone marked “occupied.”

7. Make No Campsites: The Extraordinary Life visits individuals, not groups or organizations. It strengthens the soul willing to be alone for its sake. Keep your distance from people who insist that you believe as they do, who hope to convince you that the reality they have satisfied themselves with should satisfy you as well. These deceivers want only to keep you in their unreal camp. Never mind who is walking with you and who isn’t. Be wary of any campsite – inner or outer – with its bright “welcome weary traveler” sign. Most of these campers desire your company so that they can forget they are going nowhere. Walk on! Your persistence is an open invitation to the Extraordinary Life to show you the Way back home.

(Excerpted from Let Go and Live in the Now, Red Wheel/Weiser, 2004)

Resource Box:

Guy Finley is the acclaimed author of more than 30 books and audio programs on the subject of self-realization, several of which have become international best sellers. Among many others, his popular titles include: The Secret of Letting Go, Design Your Destiny, The Lost Secrets of Prayer, Apprentice of the Heart, Let Go and Live in the Now, and The Essential Laws of Fearless Living. Finley is the founder and director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit center for self-study located in Southern Oregon where he gives talks four times each week. Visit www.GuyFinley.org for a wealth of free helpful information, free audio and video downloads, and to request your free Self-Improvement Starter Kit.

       

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Jun 27 2009

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DrKevin

Prosperity – A Way of Life

Filed under Manifesting Abundance

by Dr Kevin Ross Emery

Have you ever ridden a bike?

Think of this: It’s a beautiful day. You’re enjoying the many gifts that Mother Nature provides. Then without realizing it, you become enamored by a particularly beautiful grove of trees on the side of the bike path.

Suddenly, wham! You and the grove just tried to become one. Do you know why? Ultimately, you will always land wherever you are headed.

Once your eyes became fixed on the grove of trees, the rest of you followed. I revisited that lesson a few years ago when I was learning to mountain bike in Colorado. There, beautiful vistas are often accompanied by thousand foot drops. Thankfully, it wasn’t a painful lesson. Just in time, I remembered to look away.

My point? Our global economy has shifted. We’ve all watched Wall Street rise and fall as if it’s on a roller coaster. Headlines often remind us of troubled mortgages, urgent bailouts, and worldwide financial emergencies. During this time, where have your eyes been focused? To put it another way: Consciously or unconsciously, where is your bike headed?

It’s foolish to be the proverbial ostrich with your head in the sand. However, there is a difference between noticing and focusing. Decide now that you are not going to focus on the “end of the world as we know it.” So, what do you focus on?

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Focus on what you’re grateful for. Take an inventory of the good things in your life, as well as the good things in yourself. Where are you already prosperous? Do you have good health? Good relationships? Good family and friends? Look at the things you have to celebrate.

First, focus on the best. Then, plan for the worst. Take stock of the best ways to be prepared if something does happen. Don’t do this from a place of negativity or fear. Just have a sound, well thought-out plan. With that on hand, you can avoid panic or hasty measures that could make things worse.

If there has already been a negative impact to you and your family’s lifestyle, assess what you still have instead of what you have lost.

See where new opportunities present themselves. Is there something you have always wanted to do? Could you get support to be retrained for something new? Looking at it as an exciting adventure will make it one. If you look at it as the worst thing ever, that will also make it so, at least for the moment.

First, last, and foremost, talk with God, Goddess, Creator, the Universe or the Angels. Then, once you have stopped talking, be quiet and listen. Allow yourself to be guided to the place where your new life awaits you.

Resource Box:

Dr. Kevin Ross Emery is a spiritual counselor and teacher with offices in Portland, Maine and Haverhill, Massachusetts. His advice is available in workshops, podcasts, books, CDs and DVDs. He is also available for private sessions Find out more at Dr. Kevin’s website www.weboflight.com

       

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Jun 17 2009

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Daily Rituals as a Doorway to the Higher

Filed under Spirituality

If you have a longing to connect with something higher, whether it be your higher self or higher powers and beings, one of the simplest ways to connect is by creating a daily ritual for yourself. Whether you meditate, do yoga, read inspirational books, or just take a walk, doing a daily ritual creates a doorway through which the higher can enter your life.

Most of us are so busy during the day that we have a hard time hearing that quiet, dry voice of higher guidance. Whether we know it or not, our guides, totems, angels, and higher selves are speaking to us all the time-most of the time we just can’t hear them over all the noise of cell phones, radio, teleconferences, and gossip. So, we need to set aside some sacred time to connect, and daily rituals are perfect for that.

If you’ve already got a daily ritual that you use, you’re one step ahead. Just make sure and do that ritual with as much consistency as possible. In spiritual circles, people have discovered that the consistency of doing a ritual at the same time every time increases the level and quality of the connection with the higher. If you don’t already have a ritual, you can try meditation (see the Resources section for more details), or you can try this simple walking ritual:

1) Decide what amount of time or what distance you want to walk each day (you can adjust this later).

2) The first half of the walk, you get to talk. Talk to your guides, your totems, your angels or the Universe in general. Talk about what’s on your mind, or what’s going on in your life, or what you want or need. Talk about anything that’s important to you or that you need help with.

3) The second half of the walk, you get to listen. Take in everything your guides or the Universe is trying to express to you. Feel your feelings, feel the sensations in your body, hear the sounds around you, smell the smells, and take in the sights. Become an instrument of listening and absorbing.

If you take this walk daily at about the same time every day, you will have established a consistent connection with the higher. In other words, it’s a scheduled appointment between you and your higher helpers. It’s a time when you can truly connect, listen and be heard. Your life will increase in richness, depth, and understanding. This and other daily rituals will become like a maypole around which your life revolves with steadiness and strength. Enjoy!

Resource Box:

Stephanie Yeh, co-founder of the Esoteric School of Shamanism and Magic (http://www.shamanschool.com), helps clients learn magical and shamanic techniques. Her current project, a free teleconference series on a variety of magickal and shamanic topics with guest speakers, is designed to share information and promote interaction between people of varying spiritual practices.

       

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