Act Like a Baby!

What’s the fastest way to create an abundant life?

Act Like a Baby!

Thank you all so much for responding to my survey that I sent out earlier this week.  I was very touched by your responses and I’m carefully putting together some guest teachers and classes to address some of the areas of growth you requested. 

One of the most common challenges people listed was frustration with life and feeling like every aspect of life is “not working”.  Many of you said that in spite of knowing “what to do” and tending diligently to your “mindset”, abundance still seemed elusive.

All of these frustrations for many of us have been amplified over the last few weeks as Mercury has been retrograde.  You may have noticed that communication, technology and agreements have not been working.  You may have discovered “snafus” and mistakes that have made you feel like pulling your hair out or beating your head on your desk.

The purpose of Mercury Retrograde is not to drive you insane.  It is a time when the energy of the planet asks us to go inside and to get clear about who we are, what we are doing and how we can best align in a joyful way with what is in our lives as we continue to grow and expand on more of what we’d like to be experiencing in our lives. 

Contracts of all kinds get reviewed.  Agreements are renegotiated.  It’s a time to re-align our lives as we move forward and make new rules about how we want to live our life.

But, OMG, it can be a time of tremendous confusion and frustration.  And, by all reports, this mercury retrograde cycle has been exceptionally intense. 

Personally, during this time I flew across the country to speak at a “big” conference attended by 8 people, the airlines lost my luggage both ways, I got bumped off a flight and had to spend the night in Phoenix and almost didn’t find a hotel.  I’ve had books go to press with the wrong files, lost some long-time friendships, renegotiated some agreements with some clients, my son broke his leg, had a huge chunk of money disappear out of my bank account for no reason, had a different huge chunk of money appear in my bank account for no reason, had checks get lost in the mail and have spent a LOT of time re-evaluating my own life and direction. I pretty much have felt like a total space cadet and have been sitting at my desk staring out the window with drool coming out of my mouth for 24 hours now…

Ugh.

All of these challenges bring us lessons and as I have listened to other people’s Mercury Retrograde horror stories and, of course, participated in my own, I realized that life will always have cycles of chaos and disaster.  Order always comes from chaos and when we are faced with the unexpected the only thing we can do is laugh, get back up and keep going.

In other words, the best way to survive the ups and downs of life is to act like a baby.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfvp6zUqP5M

This is a video of my almost-two-year-old daughter taken last year when she just learned to walk.  Notice how unsteady she is on her feet.  Pay attention to her proud smile as she wobbles.  Watch how, when she falls down, she simply gets back up and keeps walking.

 

She doesn’t quit.  She doesn’t sit on the floor wondering what is wrong with her.  She doesn’t even doubt herself.  She just gets up and keeps going.

As I mentioned earlier, my 15 year-old-son broke his leg two weeks ago.  This was the first major broken bone in my family.  As a Mom, I was worried and concerned about my son and his pain.  I thought he’d be scared and hurting. 

As I anxiously drove him to the emergency room, he started calling and texting his friends bragging about his big fall. (He was trying to do a “180” on roller blades off the edge of a curb and missed the landing of his jump.)  My oldest son called him and the two of them practically high-fived each other over the phone.  Clearly, this was not a scary process.  This kid was absolutely proud of his chaos.

Our lives are really just “movie-projections” of our consciousness.  What we think, believe and feel about our lives will be projected out into our experience.  We are actors in a story that we co-create with other souls and our Creator. (If you want to learn more about this, listen to this presentation:  http://InstantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=12757593)

The purpose of our life story is to learn, experience and, ultimately, grow. 

If you can imagine that your life is just a movie and you are an actor in the movie, then it becomes easier to see that the challenges we face in our lives are simply “scenes” that are vital to the overall plot and outcome of the story.

But, how easy it is to get trapped in a scene and think that a single horrific scene is the whole story!

Not only do we get trapped in the scene, we begin to define ourselves by this one piece of the story and suddenly, as a result of our constant attention and projection, the scene keeps repeating itself.  Instead of sitting at the back of the theater watching a great movie with a bunch of your soul-friends and “high-fiving” each other for doing such a good job playing your respective parts, you get stuck in a scary hallucination that keeps going and going and going…

Instead of acting like resilient babies (or children), we cringe and hide like scared grown-ups.

For the sake of reclaiming our baby-like resilient qualities, let’s look at some key components of “baby consciousness” and learning strategies: 

1.       Babies are immersed in a world of learning.   When a baby is focused on mastering a specific skill, their every moment, awake and asleep, is focused on achieving mastery.

2.      A baby’s mastery is accelerated by constant feedback from family and friends.  Positive correction and persistent reinforcement nurture and foster the growth of a child’s ability.

3.     Children learn through play. 

We can help ourselves master our world by remembering these key components:

1.      In order to learn and grow, we must immerse ourselves in the world of learning.  The Law of Focused Success teaches us that where we put our energy and attention is where we get results and growth in our lives. 

If you want to create an abundant life, you have to immerse yourself in an abundant world.  Surround yourself with people and circumstances that reflect your intended creation and mindset.  Read inspiring information daily and develop a daily practice of visualization.

Visualize, not for the sake of creating a specific circumstance, but as a way of keeping your energy and enthusiasm high.  Ultimately, the Universe knows best what circumstances and situations to bring you that are in alignment with your vibration and energy.  Your job is to make your happiness an “inside” job by focusing on the things in your life that ARE good, that ARE working, that ARE beautiful and let the other stuff simply fall away by attrition.

2.       Recognize that you are receiving constant feedback about your mindset from the world around you.  You can never pretend to not know what is going on.  Your world is always demonstrating to you where you stand in your mindset and your consciousness.

 

It’s your movie.  If you don’t like it, instead of focusing on what you don’t like, find whatever you DO like (even if it is as simple as the color of your shoelaces) and put your attention in that direction. 

Make sure that you surround yourself with people and information that supports your creative process.  You don’t have to get rid of people who are “nay-sayers” but don’t give their words and energy your attention.  Build a community of people who acknowledge your successes and wins.  Reach out and ask for support if you need it.

 

This is a time of interdependency.  We are not here to suffer alone any more.

3.      Play.  And play.  And play some more.  When faced with challenges, indecisiveness, confusion and frustration, do something light-hearted and fun.  Change the energy.  Go for a walk, dance, take a bubble bath, plant some flowers, make love…do something different.  Break the pattern.

And don’t take it too seriously.  Remember, this is just a movie.  Turn to your fellow cast-mates and high-five each other for creating such a great scene.  While there are tragic moments in life, your life is not a tragedy. 

You put the “disasters” in your life there to help yourself learn.  What an amazing creator you are!  Now glean the lesson and create something new.  There are no mistakes in life.  Only new things to master, new perspectives to be gain, faith to be deepened, love to be experienced and magnificence all around.

A couple more quick cues to take from babies:

1.       It’s okay to stomp your foot, cry, scream and raise your fist to the heavens for a bit.  Sometimes we have to discharge the energy.  And then move on to the next adventure.

2.       Do what you need to do for yourself first, and then worry about everyone else.  If it’s naptime, then, by God, it’s naptime. 

3.       Ask for help.

4.       Savor the moment.  Get messy.  Eat with your fingers.  Have dessert first.  Cuddle with kitties and puppies.  Stay in awe.  Clap your hands with delight and jump up and down.

5.       Learn to say no when you need to.

6.       Say “I love you” and give hugs freely.  (Who said love has to be so complicated?????)

7.       If something feels good, do it again and again without guilt.

8.       Smile and say hello to strangers.

9.       Accept gifts from others.

10.   Speak the truth.

11.   Live in the now with the intention to grow.

12.   Keep trying.

13.   Take baby steps and remember every journey starts with one step.

14.   Dream big, have fantasies and an ever-expanding imagination.

15.   Pretend shamelessly.

And, my favorite, fall down, laugh and get back up again.

We’ve had a rough couple of years.  Let’s keep getting back up, taking baby steps, laughing and moving forward.

Stay tuned for more.  Next week we have a New Moon teleclass with Sao, more free sessions with Community-Building Expert, Jim Tree-Gilmore and a new Inside the Body of God teleclass.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Love,

Karen 

 http://InstantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=12757593http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfvp6zUqP5M

Meditation for Japan

Close your eyes.  Take a deep breath.  Let the air from your breath fill your lungs, and as you release your breath, let your fingers, your hands, your arms, your shoulders and your chest relax…..

Take another nice long deep breath and let your belly fill with air.  As you breath in let your abdomen, your pelvis and your hips expand and then gently relax into your chair.  Feel the support of your chair gently holding you up.

Now take another nice long deep breath and this time let your breath travel to your toes, to your feet, your calves, your knees, your thighs and your sitting muscles.  As  you let your breath out, all the muscles in your legs relax and your whole body is now filled with nourishing air.  Your body is soft, perfectly supported and you rest comfortably in your chair, ready to let your mind relax and realign with your Abundant Source.

Imagine now that you are standing at the top of a rainbow colored staircase.  As you look down the staircase, you see, at the bottom of the stairs, a beautiful garden.  Begin descending the stairs, one step at a time, moving down the stairs towards the beautiful garden.

You step first on the red stair, now the orange, now the yellow, now the green, now the turquoise, now the indigo and finally on the last stair, the purple one….

You are now stepping into the center of the beautiful garden.

You sit down on the beautiful green grass.  As you are sitting on the grass, you notice a soft, gentle light.  The light floats towards you and you are bathed in a warm glow.  Everything is just perfect….

As you sit soaking up this glorious golden light, you remember, without a doubt, that you are a Divine Child of God.  Within you is the code for perfect abundance and abundance is your true and natural state.  You remember, fully and completely that abundance is your birthright and your natural state.

As you remember your Divine Power and your Abundant Birthright, you know that you only have to focus your energy and attention on what you choose to experience and you know that this power of creative choice allows you to live and have any experience you choose. 

In the purity of your essence of you as you really are, you naturally choose abundant experiences.  You were created and designed to experience complete and total abundance.

As you sit in this beautiful garden, you reflect on what you will choose to experience today.  Imagine all the abundance you will enjoy on this glorious day......

As you enjoy your abundant thoughts, you remember that you can create whatever reality, whatever world you choose to live in.  And that when you add your intentions for an abundant world with the intentions of your Divine Brothers and Sisters, your power to co-create an abundant New World is amplified a million fold. 

Today, as you enjoy your abundance in the garden, we come together to co-create an abundant new world.

We hold a vision of deep healing for Japan and all people affected by the earthquake and tsunami.  We see rapid and miraculous emergency rescues.  We call angels and Divine Unseen Loving Forces to help rescuers quickly discover those in need.  We send love and light to all rescue workers that they may be strong, full of energy, courage and so that they may receive the support they need to fulfill their missions.

We see countries around the globe coming together to create and provide resources, shelter, food, water and medical supplies to all those in need in Japan and all around the globe.  We hold a vision of a planet where all people recognize the divine in each other and are called to come together to lift up, support and nurture each other in times of stress, trauma and tragedy.

We see friends, families and loved ones joyfully reunited.  We see a rapid return of communication technology.  We hold a vision of abundant resources being delivered to Japan and a powerful network that delivers food, water and shelter to all those in need.

We see Japans nuclear power plants peacefully quiet.  The walls and infrastructure of the reactors are sound and full of structural integrity.  Everyone is safe from the threat of nuclear meltdown. 

We hold a powerful vision of healing in Japan.  We see the people of Japan enjoying a rapid recovery from this earthquake and tsunami.  We see the Japanese economy as strong, resilient and on the leading edge of evolution and people turn this tragedy into an opportunity to anchor the energy of abundance even more deeply into the collective consciousness.

We see people moving joyfully in the streets, fully recovered from the fear and force of the trauma experienced today.  We see the Japanese people safely restored to their lives, free from pain and suffering.

We see the earth as strong and stable.  All tectonic plates are quiet and beautifully aligned.  The energy of the earth is restful, fully expressed and the planet is, as always, a source of sustenance, nurturing, support for all her inhabitants.

We see this event as an opportunity to continue to work together as Divine Siblings, loving each other, co-creating an abundant world together and we continue to consciously co-create an ever-expanding, ever-abundant new world where love rules, all people are fed, all people are honored and empowered and we are free to live the fullest expression of our authentic selves.

As you enjoy this vision of a peaceful abundant world, you bring your attention back to the garden.  Your intentions for the day are set and open to evolving as the day progresses.  You know that your day will be filled with abundant opportunities.  All you need to do is be ready to take guided action that is in alignment with your desires and intentions. 

As you prepare to leave the garden and start your day, you take a nice long deep breath and you offer your gratitude to All That Is.  You are so blessed and you know that you will use your blessings of abundance to increase the blessings of others. 

You stand up and begin to climb the rainbow stairs.  First the purple one, then the indigo, the turquoise, the green, the yellow, the orange and the red…..

As you finish climbing the stairs, you take a nice long deep breath and bring your attention back to your body, your toes, your feet, your calves, your knees, your thighs, your sitting muscles, your back, your belly, your chest, your shoulders, your fingers, your hands, your arms, your neck, your face and the top of your head.

You are fully present to your body and to your life.  You smile, stretch and greet the day with joyful anticipation of all the abundant miracles you will enjoy today.

You are fully supported, deeply loved and magnificently powerful.  You are an unlimited child of the Universe.

Integrity Matters!

For those of you who know Human Design, I am a 4/6 profile “on the roof.”  That means that I am in a life-cycle where I am watching others to see what works and what doesn’t.  I have a few more years of learning before I can come “off the roof”. 

I’m also deeply responsible by Design.  I’m a big lover of humanity and this world.  Sometimes, I can just watch.  But, every once and a while, I have to jump off the roof and speak up.

I’ve been accidentally dropping plates and bowls on my tile floor all week.  Each time I break a dish, the sound of the glass shattering seems to be shattering my soul, waking me up and pushing me forward to speak my truth.

We are in a crucial time on this planet.  We are entering an era of sustainable peace and to grow into this era, we have to grow in consciousness AND take strong, third-dimensional actions that will support us in our evolution.  We have to be honest and courageous.  We have to be willing to stare into the face of the things we might not want to look because sometimes we have to push against the darkness to consciously reach for the light.

Please forgive me if my tone seems harsh.  It is not intended to be rough.  If the energy of this blog post hits you in a way that is disturbing, I gently ask you to please see what is within yourself first that may be triggering this response.  My intention is to invite us all, as Lightworkers, to check in with ourselves and be accountable for our own consciousness and actions.

I have watched the metaphysical community turn a blind eye to tragedy and trauma because it wasn’t “positive” and it created “negative” energy.  I find it baffling that a community who sees their consciousness of the Divine within as Source could be so easily knocked off center by the reality of what is taking place on the planet right now.

If we believe that the projections of our own consciousness creates our reality and what is in our reality is some of the stuff we read on the CNN news page, then, by GOD, don’t we want to be darn sure that we’re constantly and consistently realigning our consciousness with Love and Source so that we can create a more abundant, more peaceful and more loving world?

I know we don’t CAUSE the bad stuff to happen but, as humans and Divine Siblings, we are responsible for taking care of each other.  Hiding our heads in the sand is not going to make it go away.  Shifting our consciousness and deliberately creating the possibility of something better, something MORE ABUNDANT and aligned with what we know as Source is crucial.  And so is delivering food, water and creating safety and shelter for each other, (among other things).

Recently I was given the great honor to publish a very important book by Shawna Bowen about the Sedona Sweat Lodge deaths. On October 8, 2009, three people died, nineteen people were physically injured and an untold number of people were psychologically and spiritually wounded when a sweat lodge ceremony, conducted as part of a personal growth retreat hosted by best-selling author and speaker, James Arthur Ray went horribly wrong.

Shawna Bowen was a witness to the aftermath of this tragedy. In her book, Never Again, Shawna chronicles the events leading up to and following that terrible day.  In this book Shawna shares her  insights and unique perspectives as a  both a student and a teacher in the personal growth field. 

Shawna reveals the dark side of the personal growth industry and issues a call to both teachers and consumers to act with integrity, honor and to always trust your own guidance, no matter what the "experts" may be urging you to do.

By all accounts, this book is an empowering statement to all of us who are both teachers and consumers in the self-help industry.  This story is not about blame, finger-pointing or anger. It is an important wake-up call to all of us to check in and make sure we are truly operating in our work, our practices and our lives with the intention to serve the highest good of all.

In spite of this powerful intention, this book is being pushed aside by some members of the metaphysical community, dodged and thrown about like the proverbial “hot potato”.  While many people are saying that this message is important, we are struggling to create venues where Shawna can share her story and create a platform for open and honest dialogue about the Sedona Sweat Lodge tragedy and what we need to do in the self-help industry to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.

I agreed to publish this book because it struck a nerve for me personally.  Before I was an abundance teacher, I worked for several years as a professional psychic medium.  I always HATED working as a medium because my clients were always in a very vulnerable place and, being a very logical person in some ways, I wanted to see the “proof” that what I was experiencing was real.  My nervousness has always made me use my language carefully, wary of presenting information in an unquestionable and indisputable way.  I always saw my role more as translator, rather than messenger.

It wasn’t unusual for many of my clients to have had several readings by other psychics who had told them things that seemed “wrong” or were unsettling and they felt compelled to keep searching for answers.  I have also met people who were devastated by bad readings and gave up looking for answers.

Sometimes the stories my clients would share with me about “bad” readings would make me very angry.  I couldn’t understand how other psychics could take advantage of people in such obvious pain. 

I like that being a psychic makes me nervous and uncomfortable.  I think my nervousness keeps me honest.  I have always believed that I never tell someone something they don’t already know…they just want confirmation. If a client resists me strongly, I will always encourage my client to trust their own knowingness.  In fact, this is one of the primary reasons I started teaching psychic development classes.  I like it much better when my clients are their own psychics! 

Lightwork is not a science.  It is always subject to our own interpretation and our own conditioning.  How we see information is often filtered through our own experiences and beliefs.  As responsible Light workers, we owe it to our clients to present information in a way that allows our clients to interpret along with us.  Yes, that DOES mean that sometimes you, the psychic, have to ask a lot of questions.  But I’ll take a psychic who asks a lot of questions over a psychic who makes bold, indisputable claims any day!

I eventually went on to teach abundance classes.  As part of my process of growing into a teacher, I was an avid prosperity consciousness student and I attended every seminar I could.  People who are desperate for money seemed even more vulnerable than grieving loved ones.  Desperate people can sometimes make some desperate choices.

In countless prosperity seminars, I witnessed people on the edge of foreclosure and bankruptcy run to the back of the room with their credit cards held high, ready to plunk down up to $60,000.00 for programs that guarantee they will be wealthy in six months (or less!!).  I can’t tell you how many of these people I have had as clients and students six months later.

I have watched many well-dressed, muscled men in shiny double-breasted suits talk about how making money is our responsibility as Divine Beings and that if you’re broke, it’s all your fault.  I have watched people who know better than to spend $60,000.00 they don’t have, leave these workshops dejected and broken, feeling even more “less than” than when they walked in.

I certainly have had some of those feelings and experiences.

I actually attended a free James Ray seminar about five years ago.  I was scheduled to have James Ray on as a guest on my radio show and, after almost up-chucking during his 90-minute presentation and sales-pitch, I canceled the interview because I could not, in good conscience, host him on my show.

I believe that the James Ray tragedy is a wake-up call to all of us.  And as people on the leading-edge of consciousness, we MUST come together and dialogue about what is in front of us.  The self-help industry has no real way of policing itself.  There is a danger in this industry that we don’t often talk about.

I have read comment threads after news articles calling the victims of the Sedona tragedy “stupid” for following James Ray and for being willing to spend over $10,000.00 to attend his Spiritual Warrior retreat that ended so terribly.

Many of us use techniques that are designed to assist our clients to “re-wire” their neurobiology.  We know subliminal and hypnotic techniques designed to trick the brain into accepting new ideas and programming.  It is easy to apply these techniques and manipulate people, if you are not clear about your role as healer and if your intentions are less than honest. 

Our clients trust us.  They look to us for support, guidance and sometimes help with healing. With the purest of intentions to grow and make their lives better, they turn to us and, before they reach awareness of their own power, transfer their power to us to help them. 

Our clients are not “stupid.”  They are vulnerable and open to growth and transformation.

Sometimes the dark side can sneak up on you.  The ego gets seduced and, if you aren’t clear about the role of your own ego, it’s easy to see how things can get messy and convoluted very quickly.  Sometimes we are motivated by needs and beliefs we aren’t always aware of. I believe that is what happened to James Ray.

I don’t think it will ever work to regulate this industry.  It evolves too quickly and, because of the difficulty of measuring parameters for validity and accountability, it’s too hard to make good rules.  Many people seek help from us because a traditional, more regulated approach hasn’t worked.

That leaves it to each and every one of us, on a personal level, to agree to be our own “police”.  Here are a few simple guidelines that we should consider for ourselves. 

I’m going to list them below and I look forward to any others that you think should be posted here:

1.        Always see your client as healed, not broken. Your job is to help them see themselves as healed.

2.       Walk your talk.  Be honest.  Admit when you don’t know or if you are in over your head. 

3.       Set your intention to be of the greatest service to your client and allow the Creator to work through you.  You don’t heal your clients.  They heal themselves.  You just give them a gentle nudge sometimes…even Jesus didn’t claim to heal people. 

4.       Never convince someone who doesn’t have the money to beg, borrow, steal or whatever they need to do to procure the funds if they can’t afford your workshops, services or trainings.  Always offer free resources on your website that they can benefit from while they are shifting their money consciousness.  Sometimes it’s just not right timing.  And sometimes potential clients have to learn what they have to learn to be ready for the next level.

5.       If a client isn’t a good fit, let them go and support them in finding someone who is.

6.       Never judge your clients or potential clients. 

7.       Don’t make promises you can’t guarantee or keep.

8.       Always speak to your client in terms of possibilities and probabilities.  The future can shift on a dime.  You want to help your client understand and master new patterns so that the probability of their outcome changes in their favor.

9.       Always tend to your own evolution.  You can only lift someone up to the degree to which you yourself are lifted.  Stay humble and honest with yourself. 

When we are faced with “negative” or “dark” things, like the deaths in Sedona or some of the many tragedies on the planet, as Lightworkers, we cannot turn away.  These tragedies are here to help us define what we’d rather be experiencing on the planet instead.  Use tragedy to construct a vision of what you’d rather see happened, then hold that vision, knowing that it is Truth and begin to look for evidence that it’s already starting to come into form. 

Then get to work making it happen with your own two hands. 

When we turn away, we judge a situation as “bad” and the denial only creates more of what we are seeking to avoid.  We have to give our attention to potential solutions rather than ignoring what isn’t going away at the moment.

This is not a time for hiding or blaming, running or denying.  That is what James Ray allegedly did.  I wonder how the outcome might have been different if he had stood up from the very start and stated something like this:

“Wow.  Something really terrible and horrifically sad has happened.  I don’t know how it happened but I am committed to discovering exactly what happened so that it doesn’t happen again.  And, I’m going to do a serious search of my own mindset and consciousness to see what my part of creating the energy associated with this terrible tragedy played.  I am truly, truly sorry to the people who were killed and hurt and to their families. I am deeply remorseful.  Please let me know what I can do to help and support you in your healing from this event. I am removing myself from a position of teacher and leader as I need to tend to my own personal growth and evolution.”

We are in an era of authenticity and integrity.  Things that are out of alignment with integrity can only fall away.  We need to honor those brave souls like Shawna Bowen, who have the courage to speak the truth and are willing to accept the consequences.  They are helping us deepen our intention and co-create a new world.

In our dying days and in the time that follows our death, we never wonder if we made enough money, if we were famous enough or if we got enough testimonials and kudos for a job well done.  Our only question as we savor our last breaths is this, “Did I love enough?” 

As Lightworkers, I pray that your answer is a resounding YES!  Love is the only true legacy we leave on this planet.

Love your creator, love each other, love yourselves and trust that everything is in Divine Order, even if it looks messy right now.  Have the courage to take a good long look at the darkness and use it to push against to spread even MORE light!

Love,

Karen

p.s.

If you’d like to learn more about Shawna and her book, Never Again, please visit:  http://www.shawnabowenbooks.com

Make sure you download the Introduction by Jim Tree-Gilmore.  He shares some important insights about how this event impacted the Native American communities in Northern Arizona. 

 http://www.shawnabowenbooks.com

Lies and Love by Design

Welcome February, the month of Love and Valentine's Day!

Ok. I'm a Leo. I'm also a 4/6 profile in the Human Design System, which means that relationships and partnerships are very important to me.

I've been working on writing and editing my new book, Parenting by Design. As I work on my book and actively parent my own five children, I'm gaining a new awareness of how many our actions and interactions in relationships are influenced by our conditioning.

The official definition of conditioning is, "the learning process by which the behaviour of an organism becomes dependent on an event occurring in its environment."

When you expect an event to occur, you begin to prepare for it on a psychological, spiritual and emotional level. Unfortunately, many of us have a life history of experiencing events that are not based in the truth of our magnificence and the possibility of our limitless abundance. Consequently, we are conditioned to expect punishment, suffering and lack from the world and from our relationships.

I get that this is old stuff for you guys. You all know this and I am certain that most, if not all of you, have been diligently working on "de-conditioning" yourselves for many years now.

I have, too. And, yet, in spite of all my internal searches, I still discover small and subtle places where I seemingly continue to believe in the "lies" in my consciousness.

I know that "lies" is a harsh word. But I don't know what else to call a set of beliefs or "conditioned responses" that are not rooted in the truth of my limitless abundance and magnificence, so "lies" feels like a good word.

I also don't want to sound like Chicken Little running around screaming that the proverbial "sky is falling", but, the more we evolve and grow in consciousness, the more these "lies" feel the the "pea" underneath the princesses mattress. These little "lies" make the mattresses of our life, lumpy and uncomfortable.

Not only do they make us uncomfortable, if we don't pay attention to the discomfort and make some serious changes, these "lies" will force our reality to collapse until we realign with the truth of who we are. Frankly, we don't have a whole lot of wiggle room in pretending that we don't know the Truth. Once you know the Truth, the door to evolution busts open and we are compelled to begin the process of "plucking the peas from under the mattress."

The thing about conditioning is that sometimes it can be very subtle. We often don't realize we've seduced ourselves with a "lie" until we're deep in the middle of the self-deception.

One of the of the horrific gifts of parenting (and one of the reasons why evolution can become an urgent agenda when you are a parent) is that you get to see your "karmic lies" reflected back at you in the actions, choices and words of your children. Those of you who are parents, how many times have you noticed your children doing or saying something they learned from you? Have you ever watched your older children relive your karmic choices?

I have a friend whose sons have all married women with the same name as their mother. One son has married a couple of these women, all with the same first name. My oldest daughter is dating a young man with the same name as her father. Her father wanted to study acting in college and was told that if he studied acting, there would be no money for college. Her boyfriend is experiencing the exact same thing...and more.

When I watch my children, sometimes it feels like I'm looking in a mirror. Through my children I see their conditioning from their life with me and their father. And I see the conditioned patterns I carry from my family as well.

When conditioned patterns are so generational and deeply ingrained in our bodies and our consciousness, they are so much a part of who we perceive ourselves to be, that they can really sneak up on us before we realize what's happening!

Our "lies" can be family patterns that are not only ingrained in our decision-making consciousness, but in our energy fields. One of the things that I find so fascinating about Human Design is that our Human Design is inherited from our grandparents. If you know your grandparent's birth charts, you will see that your chart is a compilation of all of those energies.

You are designed to carry the energetic patterns of your grandparents. Imagine the delicious agony of our parents (or you as a parent) when they realized that they are sandwiched between two generations who can trigger and provoke them in the same way!

Another way to think of this is you intended to be born into a family with a preset energy pattern. You picked the energetic "karma" you needed to further the evolution of your soul and your life path.

In addition to there being a genetic component to the energy we play with, we are also deeply conditioned by the energy in our families, the energies we experienced on a daily basis during our childhood. In the Human Design chart, where you have white in your chart (openness or undefined energy) is where you take energy in from the world and the people around you. (If you are new to Human Design, click here to watch an introductory webcast.) To receive your free Human Design chart click here.

When we consistently experience other people's energy, we get used to always experiencing that energy in our own essence. When we leave home as young adults, we commonly believe, albeit mistakenly, that we have that particular kind of energy.

For example, if you are not a particularly emotional or dramatic person but you live with emotional people, you take in that emotional energy your whole childhood. It's hard to believe, when you leave home and enter into a new energetic world, that you are not emotional.

Even when we realize that perhaps those energies are "not us", we are still drawn to them in relationships, over and over again until we learn to navigate our way through those energies with an evolved, higher consciousness. If you run your parent's Human Design charts and the charts of your lovers, spouses and friends, you will see that you are usually attracted to people who have similar designs to your family of origin.

Aren't we really good at recreating themes in every arena of our life? What a powerful way to insure that we'll have LOTS of chances to evolve in one lifetime!!! Talk about Divine Order...yikes!

Awareness (and, of course, intention) can be all that's necessary to shift and change energetic patterns and help us start on the process of re-telling ourselves our Truth. Once you become aware of patterns, it gets easier to make different choices.

We live in a dualistic Universe. Energies and patterns can be expressed on a continuum but at the end of the ribbon of energy there is one end or the other. While there can be gray in the middle of a "spectrum" of expression, at the end of the gray "spectrum" there is either black or white. Most "lies" have a truth that is the opposite of the lie. And it is usually in experiencing the "lie" that we create energetic alignment with the intention to bring forth the opposite experience.

Our "lies" are often very good at revealing the Truth of our heart's desires. You can use your "lies" to help yourself create a different reality. Your "lies" can become pushing off points for evolution and clarity.

To do this, you have to start first with an awareness of what you desire to be your Truth. Just for grins, I've inserted the Abundance Manifesto here to inspire you. I encourage you to write your own manifesto related to whatever area of growth you'd like to focus on.

Click Here to read the Abundance Manifesto:

http://www.joyfulmission.com/articles/article/1975190/49301.htm

Once you have identified what your Truth is, you can now make a list of your "lies" to help you see where you may need to make some deliberate changes in your choices.

Start by picking an area of your life that you'd like to bring into alignment with your Truth. Since it's almost Valentine's Day, let's use an example about relationships.

Let's say that your Truth is that you are a lovable, beautiful, partner who deserves to be cherished, valued, loved and honored exactly as you are.

Now make a list of all the "lies" you may have been allowing in the relationship part of your life.

Here are some of my "lies", past and present:

1. Men only want "one thing." (And now that I'm older, I have nothing of value to offer a man...)

2. Men are inconsistent and you have to always be prepared for the unexpected if a man is involved in the equation.

3. Men leave. Sometimes they come back. Sometimes they don't.

4. Men hate commitment and being tied down. It's not in their nature. We just have to accept them for who they are.

5. Men aren't responsible. They chase after their dreams and leave you with the "serious" work of life. A woman has to figure out how to live her dream while still fulfilling her obligations and responsibilities. A woman's dream is her hobby.

6. If you love a man enough, he will change for you, settle down, get a job, realize that you are The One...

7. Your physical beauty is your most valuable asset.

8. A woman is more capable than a man. But you have to keep it a secret from the man. You don't want to hurt his ego.

(Aren't these YUCKY?)

Using your understanding of the principles of duality, you can now use these "lies" to redefine your Truth.

You new Truth List might look like this:

1. I am an older, wiser woman and the right man will see the value of who I am and what I have to offer in a relationship. I celebrate my wisdom and the beauty that radiates out of me. My consciousness, my heart, my spirit and my Light are the true sources of my real beauty. I only allow people into my life who see these parts of the Truth of who I am.

2. There are consistent men on this planet who are diligently dedicated to the growth and expansion of their own consciousness and live a life that reflects this evolutionary state of awareness. I'm looking forward to experiencing commitment with the right man.

3. Some men commit strongly and enjoy and celebrate their commitments. I'm excited about having this kind of man in my life.

4. See above.

5. My dreams and the fulfillment of my life purpose is the most important part of the expression of the Truth of Me. I only attract people into my life who support me in this expression of myself.

6. My love is strong and true. I commit to expressing my love with a man who shares my commitment to our relationship and to me.

7. See number one.

8. I celebrate my own capability and intend to attract and allow people who are of like-mind, passion and quality of energy. I serve myself, my Creator and my Divine Siblings by shining my light brightly for all to see!

These are just a few quick examples to help you see that awareness can give you a dramatic way to re-write your "lies" into Truth.

Of course, the next step is a little trickier. Once you have identified your Truth, you have to inventory your life and get real and honest with yourself about what you've been creating. You may discover that in order to live your Truth and bring it forth into form, you have to take some pretty dramatic actions to make space for your Truth to grow into your reality.

Are there situations in your life that you need to let go of? Where do you need to make room? Where do you need to speak your Truth? Where do you need to set clearer intentions and, sometimes, take courageous action to allow what you intend to experience?

As you move into action phase, remember that these actions can and must be taken with loving energy. This is not about rebellion, revenge or even a need to prove anything. Without your current "lies" you may never have discovered the Truth for yourself. Everything in your life that has brought you to this point has been in your life to serve you in some way. When you can deeply see the truth of this statement, positive change will hasten its way towards you at a breath-taking speed.

As you move into your new awareness, you will begin to see how to shift the "darker" expressions of the essence of who you are into higher expression and fulfill your Divine Potential.

In honor of The Month of Love, I am offering a unique Love By Design reading to help you identify your old energy patterns and "lies" so that you can start telling yourself the Truth of Who You Are. During this one-hour reading we will examine the energetic patterns of your life using your Human Design chart and (if you have them) the Human Design charts of your family of origin and your past and current partners. With this new understanding, you will learn to shift from living from the "low" expressions of these energies to the "high" expressions to help you create relationships that are loving and empowering.

In addition, if you are currently in a relationship, we'll look at your partner's Human Design chart and the composite Human Design chart for your relationship. We'll use these charts to talk about strategies to help you create a strong, mutually loving and respectful Truth in your relationship.

The Love by Design readings will all be recorded and you may, of course, bring your Beloved to the reading with you, if you choose. The cost for this reading is $147.00. My schedule is pretty tight so please be sure to book your reading quickly if you want to do this for Valentine's Day. To schedule your reading, simply click on the Paypal button below. After we receive your payment confirmation, we'll contact you asap to schedule your session.



May you discover and celebrate the Magnificent Truth of Who You Really Are!!!! You deserve to be loved wildly and passionately.

May you fall madly in love with yourself first...

Love,

Faith and the Cash Cab

Yesterday I discovered a new brand of “miracle”. By miracle I mean the possibility of a wildly unexpected and powerfully abundant experience.

I was at the gym running on the treadmill. I was working out at an unfamiliar facility away from home. The gym attendants graciously strolled between us sweaty joggers and offered us cups of water from their well-stocked trays. In front of us were three massive flat-screen TV’s with subtitles, distracting us from our puffing and pain and informing us of the current trends and news.

As I watched the giant screen, the scene changed from the local news to a taxi cab picking up riders in New York City. As the riders entered the cab, magical lights began to shimmer and shine on the roof of the cab and the driver turned to the riders and said, “Welcome to the Cash Cab!”

At first I thought this was a joke or an advertisement for something, but as it turns out, this was a real TV show. The Cash Cab drives through New York City picking up passengers and taking them to their destination. While they are being driven, the riders are asked questions and given money for their correct answers…think “Jeopardy on Wheels…”

As I watched happy passengers go for a nice cab ride in New York City and win cash, I thought how cool it must be to be a tourist in the city, get into a cab and win some unexpected money. I imagined how one man, traveling with his teenage son, might have used the extra money to take his kid to a Broadway show or stay an extra night in a fancy hotel.

Or that the two young women, who took their turn next in the Cash Cab, might have used their money to make their student loan payments or for rent….

What I love so much about the Cash Cab is that is falls into that amazing category of weird and unexpected blessings. I mean, what is the probability that someone would hail a cab, step into an income generating vehicle and receive abundant cash, just for being in the right place at the right time?

This is the nature of a true miracle.

All of my life I have struggled with mastering the difference between hope and faith. Hope, I have been reminded, is not really a good strategy. Of course, it’s a step up from despair, but “hoping” by definition implies that there is still a chance that whatever you are intending won’t come true.

Sometimes we get trapped in hoping versus KNOWING when we struggle with what I call a Belief Gap. A Belief Gap is when you desire a certain outcome but you don’t believe that the manifestation of this outcome is possible. In other words, you want to get from Point A to Point B but you don’t know if getting there is possible (but you HOPE that it is…).

There is a distinct difference between hoping and knowing. When you know that Point B is possible, you can relax, tune in and pay attention to the signs and signals that the Universe provides you so that you take the necessary actions to get yourself to that awesome Point B you’re inspired to be at (pun intended….).

When you’re just hoping, your focus is split, waiting to see if Point B is actually going to happen or if your desires are being carried away on an eternally empty wind. When you’re hoping, because you’re tuning in to see if what you desire is manifesting or not, you run the risk of missing that vital next bit of information that will lead you to the next step in the creation of Point B.

Sometimes we get stuck in hope versus knowing when we can’t seem to see the “how” of a specific manifestation. How many times have you let go of a dream because you can’t “imagine”’ how it’s going to happen?

And how many times has something miraculous and ridiculously unexpectedly good manifested in your life?

Things have to happen in linear order on Earth. It’s the nature of the third dimension. We experience time and distance here. When we try to jump out of order we simply create chaos, especially when we haven’t completely rewired our physiology.

Once you really master your Divine Power and you live out your full creative potential, it is possible to take great leaps of faith. But, if you do not completely, deeply believe that something is going to happen, if you still have underlying fears or limiting beliefs about knowing that something will manifest, beyond a doubt, then do not take action.

Faith is not hope. Faith is pure and relentless knowing. It is an act of unwavering certainty and surrender.

The delicate dance between humanity and Divinity starts in the human brain. The right hemisphere receives Divine Inspiration; the left hemisphere translates it into human action. The right brain conceives the “what”. The left-brain conceives the “how”.

The brain is just an organ, like the heart and the liver. Its function is to think, translate data and regulate the nervous system. Your heart doesn’t have the option to do anything other than beat. Your brain doesn’t have the option to do anything other than think.

When we live in the paradigm of a separate God, we think that we have to come up with all the answers. We have to take our inspiration and figure out “how” we are going to make it happen. As you may have experienced yourself, this can put you under tremendous pressure, especially when you have an inspiration that is bigger than you know how to create.

This is where a lot of people get lost in the creative process. We think we have to come up with the “how” things will happen and we close ourselves off to the constant possibility of miracles.

Thinking is to the brain as beating is to the heart. But the human brain presents challenges to us that the physical heart does not. In the brain we experience not only thinking, but also consciousness. Our Divine Awareness is perceived with the brain and we are given the task of sorting out Divine Thought and human thought, both of which are crucial on the Earthly plane.

Our human thoughts are vital. We need human thoughts to drive a car, put on our shoes, cook and build houses. Our human thoughts are the operating system for the body.

Our Divine Awareness is the antenna or the inter-dimensional interface between our expanded Self, or the Soul, and our human Self.

But, as I stated before, thinking is happening all the time. The brain has to be still for us to hear our Divine Consciousness talking. This is why a habit of daily meditation is crucial. The thinking has to be silenced in order for you to get into the habit of being able to hear your Divine Consciousness. Meditation helps you learn to sort out the different voices in your head.

Imagine this for a moment. Your brain is like a giant chamber. Inside this chamber, you are hearing your Divine Guidance, Consciousness and Inspiration. You are also simultaneously experiencing your old thought patterns, limiting beliefs and subconscious fears. At the same time, your thinking mind is translating all of this activity into possible actions, thinking thoughts about what you saw on TV last night, remembering an old experience and wondering what’s for dinner tonight.

No wonder so many of us feel paralyzed, confused or overwhelmed.

You have to think of your brain as a muscle. In order to build muscles, you have to gently train them to make them bigger. When you first start to go to the gym, you start with small weights and gradually, over time, build up your muscle strength and mass. It takes time and repetition.

Even though the brain isn’t technically a muscle, it operates the same way. You have to really build your mental “muscle” over time. You have to train it to be still, be deliberate, and hold a thought for a prolonged period of time and to know the difference between God-Mind and human mind.

It takes years for a body builder to build up his muscle mass. The process of training your brain won’t necessarily take years but it is a process that has to occur over time. Remember, as you are training your brain, you are also physically changing the nature of your body. You aren’t growing muscles, but you are growing neuropathways.

There is a simple strategy to learning how to use your brain to anchor the high vibration of Divine Thinking and turn it into inspired action.

Step One: Daily Meditation

It is crucial that you adopt some kind of daily meditative practice. There are a lot of techniques out there. I suggest that you experiment until you find one that works for you.

The most important part of meditating is learning to get your mind quiet enough to be able to hear Divine Mind speaking to you. You probably will never be able to fully shut off your thinking mind, just as you may never get your heart to stop beating for a while.

Regardless of what technique you use, enter into your meditative practice with intention. I suggest that you write down an intention statement each morning before you meditate to help you line your energy up with the experience that you would like to have.

Your intention might say something like this:

I intend to use this special, quiet time to connect deeply with Divine Mind and to hear clearly and understand perfectly. I intend to sit in silence and deeply integrate my understanding of my Inner Divinity and to act in accordance with my Divine Wisdom each moment of this day.

Step Two: Clarifying and expressing your desires
God whispers within us through desire. God wants what you want. The blueprint for the Divine is within you and communicated through you with hopes, wishes and dreams. These are the direction points given to us by our Divinity Within.

When you turn away from your dreams and desires, you are turning away from your Inner Divinity and shutting off your access to unlimited re-Sources and miracles.

You have to have dreams and desires. These are the catalysts that inspire growth and expansion.

Step Three: Know that your desires will manifest into form
Faith is the unwavering knowingness that your desires will manifest as part of your reality. The knowingness carries a certain vibration that lines up your consciousness with the reality you choose to experience.

You will allow yourself to experience a desire to the degree to which you believe it is a possibility for you.

When you can exist in a state of certainty and knowingness, then you can allow the natural flow of miracles to enter into your life and then take action accordingly.

Step Four: Take actions that are in alignment with your desires and beliefs
“Act as if” your desires are coming true. And make sure that your actions are leading up to what you want. I see so many people waiting for “miracles” who forget that creation in this dimension is a co-creative process. You can’t just sit back in your cave and wait for the situation to magically show up. You have to do your part.

If you’re going to be a best-selling author, then you better be spending time working on writing your best-selling book, or hire a ghostwriter. If you are planning on having a lot of money, then you better have a real plan on how you are going to save and invest your money when it shows up.

You have to take earthly actions that line up the frequency of what you expect in the third dimension. If you are not making the necessary preparations to receive your miracle, then you may want to re-evaluate whether you really want what you want or believe that it can really happen for you.

Miracles are wonderful works done by the Power of God. If the Power of God resides within us and our vehicle for this power is our human form, then we as humans have to co-facilitate our miracles by getting ready for their manifestation and surrendering to the process of creation.

This is the supreme expression of the spiritual concept of “surrender”. The human mind that is co-creating with Divine Mind operates like a beautiful machine. Inspiration comes in. Desire is triggered. Imagination and emotion take over with delight and the human mind begins to imagine the possibilities.

The envisioning of the earthly possibilities is the translation of Divine Inspiration into human form. Once the possibilities are envisioned then you begin to prepare the way. “Act as if” your vision is coming into form.

And then you surrender. You wait until the circumstances in your outer reality show up to give you the next steps to follow for creation. Our human experience is a metaphorical experience of the Divine. Our outer world is God’s world. Miracles show up daily, even hourly, in our outer reality, if we expect them.

We get inspired with big ideas, often times ideas that we don’t know how to “do”. Let’s say, for example, that you wanted to be a best-selling author, but you didn’t know how to make that happen.

First you begin the process by taking the inspiration and turning it into inspired action. You write a book.

Over time as you are writing your book, you feel and imagine yourself as a best-selling author. Maybe you even pretend a little bit and you create a fake New York Times Best Seller list that you tape on your office wall.

As you are working on your book, you realize that you keep meeting people who are authors and publishers. (Funny how you never noticed this before!) One evening you are at a dinner party at a friend's house and her brother is visiting from out of town. Turns out he is a publisher and has worked with several best-selling authors. The two of you have a lovely conversation and the next morning he emails you and asks you to send him your manuscript.

You send him the manuscript. He’s impressed and wants to see more and before you know it, you have a publisher, your finished book is in hand, you are on a whirlwind book tour and your book is steadily climbing the best-seller list, just like you desired!

In this story there is a gentle relaxation or surrender that happens when you take action and wait with certainty and expectation. Of course, this is only one possible scenario. The cool part about co-creating with Divine Mind is that Divine Mind is waaaaaaay bigger than your human mind.

Although your left-brain is very good at figuring out possible “how” scenarios, Divine Mind truly understands the magic of unlimited possibility. Surrendering is letting go of pre-conceived ideas about “how” your inspiration will manifest. You simply need only to know that it will manifest and all you have to do is get ready for it and pay attention to the evidence in your outer reality.

This process of knowing and surrendering creates a vibration that is in alignment with what it is that you want to experience. The more you hold this vibration by staying in a place of certainty with your expectation, the faster your vibration aligns with the unlimited possibilities that will help you perceive your desire into form.

The marriage between the Power of God within you and your human form creates the unlimited possibility of miracles in everyday life. When you let your Divine Power work its magic, you are an essential player in creating Heaven on Earth and you fulfill your Divine Role of anchoring the vibration of God deeper and deeper into the third dimension.

When you master this process, you open yourself up to experiencing the magic of the Universe and your Divine Power. Miracles will happen to you every day!

(And you never know when the Cash Cab will carry you to your next destination…!)

Love,

Bury Your Worry in the Dirt

It's raining outside and right now, my electric bill and one of my credit card bills is in my backyard…three feet underground in the dirt, getting all wet and muddy.

Why, you might wonder, are my bills buried in the backyard?

Did I conduct some woo woo ritual to eliminate debt?

Did my frustration get the better of me leaving me senseless and enraged with my bills?

No.

It's kind of a long story that started with me experiencing worry.

I was raised by "worriers". I love my parents dearly and they did a good job of worrying about everything. Even now they call me up worried that I'm not taking good care of myself, worried about my financial well-being, worried that my kids aren't getting a good education and worried about the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning in my house (and to make sure that I have enough carbon monoxide detectors in my home.)

(They also worry a lot about my sanity and my life path, but that is a whole 'nother blog post…)

Worrying is in my genes. All of my memories of my grandmother involve visions of her wringing her hands with worry over everything.

She had a stroke at age 65. For 15 years after her stroke, she was carefree. It took significant brain damage to make her stop worrying.

Somewhere along the line, I learned that worrying was the responsible way to go through life. If you weren't worried about the future, making money, your kids, your neighbors, the news or your career, you weren't being responsible.

And, of course, if you were irresponsible in any way, you were giving your parents something to worry about.

I got good at worrying at a very young age. I bit my nails most of my life until I discovered acrylic fingernails when I was thirty. I chew the side of my mouth and have a hard time sitting still and focusing on one thing when I'm worried. I pace a lot and am very good at waking up several times in the night fulfilling my responsibility to worry about my life.

Over the last few years as I have experienced shifts in consciousness, I have mastered my worrying habit (for the most part).

When you integrate a deep understanding that your true and natural state is abundance in all of its expressions, you realize that you don't have to worry about anything. You are abundant. And abundance continually shows up, often in beautiful and unexpected ways.

But shifting is hard work. As we raise our vibrational frequency and continue to align energetically with our Divine Abundance, it's not unusual to become more and more sensitive to our conditioning and those places where we may still hold beliefs that keep us from allowing our abundance.

We are more sensitive, not because we are weak or vulnerable, but because we are more finely tuned to those places where we need to continue to shift our focus back to abundance. Our intention is to live abundance in consciousness and, obviously, in our third dimensional realities. When we are out of alignment with that intention, we notice!

We have been training for "The Shift" for many years. It is crucial as our souls come together and unify our energies that we ignore our outer realities and stay focused on our inner abundance, no matter what may seem to be going on outside of ourselves.

What does that look like in reality? That means, for example, that when the bills are due and things look grim, you have to ignore "reality" and focus on the abundance that is already there for you, even if you can't quite see it yet.

Freaking out and worrying, albeit "responsible" behavior by old standards, really doesn't work in these situations. We have to practice holding a vision for what we intend, in spite of the outer circumstances.

When we worry, we are basically expressing an unconscious underlying belief in lack of some kind. When you examine what you are worried about, it is always a belief or possibility that somehow there will not be enough and terrible things will happen.

Explore those beliefs and see what needs to be cleared in order for you to come back to an awareness of your natural state of abundance.

From a physiological perspective, worrying triggers the adrenaline "fight or flight" response. When you are fearful or "running", all creative thought shuts down, your connection to Source is forgotten and you go into survival mode. Not only is this tough on your body, especially if you do this on a chronic basis, but it also shuts your mind to creative possibilities and inspirations that can change your situation.

When we worry, we are basically making an energetic statement that we do not trust in the Divine Plan and the Universe. Worrying points our creative energies, our thoughts and emotions, at the worst case scenario and, not surprisingly, worrying can actually contribute to making your worst fears come true.

These are the simple mechanics of deliberate creation.

Letting go of worry doesn't mean you don't "deal" with reality. You may need to call your utility or credit card company and ask them for an extension on your payment. But you do it with knowingness that the bills will get pain, not with fear or shame.

You will be amazed at how simply holding the energy of knowingness that there is an inspired, Divine and elegant solution to your challenges (even if you don't know what it is yet…) creates, well, an inspired, Divine and elegant solution to your challenge.

Where you put your energy and attention is where you get growth and results.

Of course, this all sounds so simple and easy. Just stop worrying, right?

LOL!

I have found that turning your attention away from the worry and back to gratitude and appreciation is the fastest way to get out of the worry rut. If we focus on what we DO have, what we appreciate and all the abundance around us, it's hard to slip into worry and fear.

Not only that, if you place your attention on all the good that surrounds you, you will, by Universal Law, only draw to yourself more abundance. (Focus and attention creates.)

"If you can rid yourself of worry, you will rid yourself of things to worry about.
It is really that simple.
Shift the way you feel and watch what happens."

- Abraham-Hicks

So, you are probably wondering what this has to do with my bills being 3 feet under in my backyard.

Lately I've allowed my consciousness to be seduced by worry. In my meditations, I have been working on releasing my worry. I know how little worrying helps my life.

Well, as you know, the Universe often has unique ways of sending us messages. Personally, I think G-d loves to laugh.

Yesterday I was outside on my back deck talking to a client on the telephone. Ayelet, my 16 month old Star Baby, came running out of the house with a handful of my bills clutched in her chubby little fists. Now, as I was talking to a client, I was trying to get my bills back without eliciting a scream of defiance from her (She IS gifted and "NO" is one of her favorite words right now…).

Not only did Ayelet come tearing out of the house, but Kwincy, my 110 pound lab/Rhodesian ridgeback mix followed right behind her.

As I was gently trying to pry my bills out of Ayelets hands, Kwincy galloped towards the back corner of the yard and began to dig a huge hole. Ayelet, seeing that mud and dirt were flying, immediately followed him to be a part of the digging "party".

As soon as the hole was just right, Ayelet, with all her might, pitched my bills into the hole and proceeded to help Kwincy fill the hole back up. My bills had met their fate, 3 feet underground.

Upon completion of their task, both of the Sneaky Sneakers dusted off their respective paws/hands and grinned with pride at me.

The moral of this story:

Go bury your worry in the dirt.

And if you can't do it yourself, get some good soul friends to help you...

Love,

Karen

My Soul Friends, Ayelet and Kwincy