The Power of Surrender

Inevitably, when I find myself suffering angst, pain, or grief I discover that I am attempting to swim upstream carrying a whole lotta stuff that I have convince myself I need.  In simple terms, I am battling the natural flow of my life and most likely I'm making it as hard as possible.

I insist, as they say, upon not only acting in my own production, but I'm demanding set design be my way, the sound and lighting, the schedule to run on my timetable and I'm directing all of the other players with an iron fist leaving no room for creative flow, improv or outside input. In short, I lock God in the Green Room and then wonder why everything has exploded into a dust storm under my brilliant instruction!

And so, when I am feeling most emotionally uncomfortable and distraught, I must ask myself, what am I not surrendering to?  What am I fighting for in my life that just isn't falling into place? 

Now, this is NOT to say don't fight for your heart's desire.  It's merely to remind you that if you are pushing on the door to your absolute exhaustion and pain, then you are probably pushing on the wrong door. Look around you, because usually there is a window open somewhere nearby. :)

Breathe, journal and take a walk outside.  The answers will come. You may not like them, but trust that there is a bigger plan.  And remember, "More will be revealed".

ACCEPTANCE vs ACCEPTABLE

Gratitude and Acceptance are key.  You will hear these words in many forms by a majority of Spiritual  Gurus out there.  However, Gratitude and Acceptance of a horrible circumstances can be a real challenge, so what is this all about and how do you make this valuable manifesting principle work within the confines of your life.

As I pondered this principle this morning, considering my own challenging circumstances what occured to me is there is a clarification necessary. 

ACCEPTANCE of your current circumstances is NOT a proclamation that they are ACCEPTABLE.

The purpose behind the principle of Acceptance is to get us out of NO, to get us out of the negative thoughts that go along with complaining internally about this current circumstance so that we can make the necessary adjustments with high vibrational energy and manifestation tools to make changes to our circumstances.  However, accepting our Day as it is Today, does NOT mean you have to allow that to be your ACCEPTABLE tomorrow.  Make your proclamation to the Universe, "I Accept that this is the challenge that I face today and I am DETERMINED to do whatever it takes to make my Tomorrow more acceptable to me." 

Gratitude for a challenge that has you completely bogged down is somehow a more challenging scenario, however having the vibrational energy levels of Gratitude coursing through your energy field and your day, is paramount to manifesting that "Acceptable Tomorrow".  Search for things in your day to be grateful for, no matter how small.  Repeat your gratitude list throughout your day and focus your mind on visualizing whatever it is that will make your Tomorrow more Acceptable than your Today.

RELAX - Your best Work is Play

One of the key elements to the book and movie THE SECRET, is to always FEEL GOOD.  For some of US, this is far easier to say than to do on a consistent basis.  If you are in a particularly stressful time in your life (as many are, that are seeking) or if you suffer from clinical depression, it can be really hard to keep your vibrational energies in the upper levels where you can honestly say that you feel good. 

Here are some recommendations when you are not feeling so good-
1. JOURNAL - get the junk out and onto paper. If its really bad, have a ceremonial burial or burning of the pages to destroy whatever is bothering you.
2. WALK - Walking in a forward direction is a YES activity (see my Power of YES blog) repeat gratitude affirmations and/or simply announce YES while you are walking. Pay attention to things of beauty on your walk. The elevated vibrational levels of beautiful visions will elevate you also!
3. MEDITATION- A chakra light meditation or an Angel meditation are also powerful tools. Call the Light in or your Angels to help heal, energize, empower you.
4. PHYSICAL - Workout, run, Tai Chi, Yoga are all great ways to alter ones energy and mood.

Now, let's say you just can't get yourself to use any of these tools, or worse, you tried them but its just not quite enough to snap you out of it.  Then we move into new territory.  You see, all of these things could be construed by your inner self as work and your inner self is typically between 3 and 6 years old.  So if you are meeting such resistance to the list I gave, now we need to appeal to your inner child.  The inner child wants to play. The inner child does not care what you think you are supposed to do, it wants to do what is fun or different or 'not allowed'. You know what your inner child wants to do. How often do you let it?

Go to a music store and strum a guitar no matter how bad it sounds. Buy paint and glitter and make a really silly but outrageously fun picture on $1 poster board. Write a silly poem in the voice of your 5year old inner child, marvel at the simplistic wisdom comes out of this neglected part of you! Take yourself to a toy store, or the zoo, or the children's science museum, a botanical garden or to the beach to make sand castles.

When all else fails, do that thing that you've been telling yourself you're not allowed to do (keep it lawful and within confines of your moral standards of course) but cut loose a little! Blast your stereo and dance around your house fearless, like a child. When you are struggling to feel good, it means your soul is crying out to you for something it is not getting, something you are not doing.

Let's fill every day with a symphony of laughter and joy.  What a wonderful world that will be.

The Way of the Jedi

I took my son to see STAR WARS - The Phantom Menace today. I am continually amazed by the powerful insight of this series in regard to energy and the unseen workings of the Universe. 

There are so many subtle reminders in the STAR WARS series, my favorite is Yoda's famous quote in the original Star Wars which I will paraphrase as-- Do, or do not. There is no Try.

However, what struck me today as so important was when Obi Wan's Jedi mentor is speaking to a 6 year old Anakin Skywalker.  He says to the child, that to become a Jedi will not be easy.  The training will be difficult and rigrous.  However the determined young Skywalker is unwavering in his desire to be a Jedi. 

If you are reading this Blog, you are on your own path of a Jedi. Many will fall away and not reach the goal. They give up and blend in with the flock and melt into mediocrity. The way of the Jedi, to tap into the Universe, to raise your energy levels well above the average, to rise above the crowd to greatness, will take unstoppable determination, powerful conviction and blinded focus. 

Stay on the path young Jedi. If you are here, you have been chosen to rise above the flock. The Universe needs you. Your purpose is greater than anything you have thus far dreamed of. You are being called on a quest.

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The Power of Determination

This morning I watched a Youtube video filmed by a friend at a business convention. The video was of the keynote speaker who was Chris Gardner, the subject of the true life film starring Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness.  Mr. Gardner told his story about living homeless as the single father of a 14 mo old son who he refuses to abandon despite his hardships.  He spoke of fighting his way through a rigorous stockbrokering program sleeping with his baby in the safest places he could find, with not enough money to get by or even consistently eat.  He seemingly waded through hardship after hardship like a man trudging through waist high mud, and through the heart-wrenching story I heard him say ONE WORD, over and over in his speech. DETERMINED.

He was determined that his son grow up with a loving and present father.  He was determined against all odds to get into the stockbrokering program for which he was technically not qualified.  He was determined to get through each day, each night, with stroller, baby, pampers and duffle bag of clothes.  He was determined to get beyond this challenge.  He was determined to be successful. How long could you go on like that before giving up?  I had to ponder this question.  At every curveball, at every brick wall and obstacle, he was determined. In manifesting our heart's desires, we talk about not allowing doubt to enter your desire.  However, it occurs to me that even more powerful is focussed, pinpointed determination.

As I ponder this conclusion, I have to ask myself two questions.

1. What am I DETERMINED to be or do?

2. What is my LEVEL of determination?

The answers to these questions will DETERMINE your level of success. 

Just last year I was determined to go on an overseas trip.  I hadn't traveled in years, money was painfully scarce, and timing would be precarious with work, someone to watch the kids, etc. However, it was my deepest heart's desire to go.  I pushed aside all thoughts of NO, and became determined that the only acceptable answer was YES.

My level of determination was so powerful that money and timing manifested effortlessly. 

Even as I write this Blog, I realize that I must search for a new target to engulf in the fires of a deep, unwavering determination.  Such is the way of living a life of PASSION.
So I ask you...
What are you DETERMINED to be or do?

photo credit : Ariana Zariah

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The Power of YES

I clearly remember watching Jim Carey's YES MAN movie years ago.  The basic premise of  which, is that Jim's character starts saying YES to everything and under hilarious circumstances his life becomes AMAZING. Well, curiously enough, it is yet another example of art imitating life! However, it wasn't until recently that I realized the truth in THE POWER OF YES.  I was learning an intuitive technique taught by Christie Marie Sheldon in her Love or Above Energy Toolkit Series in which she trains you to identify your own body's YES or NO response to any stated question.

Christie Marie Sheldon works with vibrational energy levels.  The theory in MANIFESTING being that the better you feel (the higher your vibrational energy) the more effortless your life, your relationships, and your manifestations. Well, in very basic terms, YES, is a high vibrational statement. NO, is not. 

Say YES! out loud. Seriously, try it right now.  Try to be in a bad mood and say YES, YES, YES!  ----- You can't do it! *giggle* it makes me feel good to type it even! Haha! 

Now say NO, NO, NO! It's heavy, right? Now don't cheat and do a cutesy 'no' that really MEANS 'yes'. Do a real "don't do that" kind of NO.  Say real NO and then try to feel good.  You can't! 

The next day, after discovering this, my phone rang with a number I did not recognize. Being in sales, the phone ringing was a possible prospect looking for my service.  However, I looked at my phone and my brain said, "Ugh, a phone call." In that moment, I realized I had just said NO to a call that could have been the Universe sending me a client! Was I crazy?!

How often had I unconsciously said NO to opportunity?! My mind opened up! 

I began practicing saying YES to opportunities and my business went from having to work really hard for every penny, to almost effortless.

Now, during this time I was also going through that heartwrenching breakup.  I realized after months of agonizing pain, that the worst of it was that it was all my fault.  I had started saying NO. No, I will not accept that we can't be together. No, I won't give in to obvious unfortunate circumstance. No, I won't give up on the fairytale dream. No, I can't just "be friends". No, I can't let you go. No, this is not fair. NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!  And my No's destroyed what should have remained a loving and tender friendship.  When I stopped living in gratitude for our special connection and started living in No for not getting it my way, the beauty of it all crumbled before my eyes. And in the end, I suffered for declaring NO.

Right after that revelation I connected this simple theory to another life milestone.  My girlfriend had lost her mother this past year. Now Mom told her kids that she had a full and wonderful life and not to grieve, but we are human and we must process the loss.  While my friend was handling the loss in a healthy manner, it still kept me pondering.  I realized that some people I have known have processed their grief better or more smoothly than others.  What was the difference? Yes and No.

Are you saying,  I miss Mom but Yes, she had a great life
Or I miss Mom and No, I will not accept the loss. 

As you focus on the NO- type statements you expand NO into all facets of your life.  The more intense your grief, the more intense the NO, the more intensely you energize NO throughout your life.  Your job, friendships, love partner, kids, etc all become infected with the NO.

Certainly, as I said, the grieving process is essential to human existence.   However, maintaining the awareness of the affect on the other facets of your life is mind-opening. 

I challenge you to a powerful exercise that continues to empower my life and enrich my soul.  For seven days, repeat this mantra over and over and over, when you wake, in the bathroom, waiting on line, on the treadmill, whenever you leave your mind to its own thoughts squelched it with this mantra...

I am so grateful and thankful. YES, YES, YES.

You can fill in the "what you are grateful for" if you choose to add extra power to the mantra. Don't worry too much if you can't muster FEELING grateful in the statement, just focus on your YESs.  The feeling of gratitude will come.  I have used this mantra while feeling like cr*p with tears pouring down my face.  I muscled through it and came out victorious after a couple of determined and consistent days.
And remember, the more you say YES to the Universe, the more the Universe says YES right back to you.
Please try this exercise and come back and comment on your experience.

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Why Can't I Manifest?

I hear many people asking, "Why Can't I Manifest?" 

Obstacles are part of the process.  Some people just can't seem to get off of the ground with manifesting.  Others have no trouble getting started in manifesting, however, at some point they do hit obstacles. 

Firstly, as we are learning new tools and exercises, we need to remember to be gentle with ourselves.  You are learning, what I hope for you to be a life-long process, so you don't need to get it all right, right now.  In fact, in the early stages I have found that DOING IT is far more important that doing it PERFECTLY.  These practices are constantly evolving.  Eventually you will find the practices that work best for you and maybe even develop some tools of your own.

The most important thing to understand when starting on a journey of Manifestation and Spiritual Health is that you need to clear out the old negative toxins to create a space for the new stuff coming in.  This is a common practice in Feng Shui.  Decluttering is essential, to raise the positive energy of a space.  You also need to REMOVE the negative energy items to make space for higher vibrational items to come in.  In fact, it is commonly suggested that if you are single and trying to bring love into your life, leave open space in your bedroom closet and empty dresser drawers for your new love to move in.  In working with our emotional or self-image baggage there are many examples and I will cite two of my favorites. 

In Julia Cameron's book, THE ARTISTS WAY, she talks about identifying your "Inner Critic" and reprogramming that chatter with new positive thoughts.  My experience in those early days was that the negative self chatter was so bonded and ingrained in me that I didn't even recognize it or identify it.  It took a lot of journaling and paying attention for me to identify what my "Inner Critic" was whispering into my ear keeping me from love and success. 

In the famous PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS by Dr. Maxwell Maltz, he talks about working with people on their Self-Image reprogramming.  One story is of a man who's image of himself was so repulsive and unworthy due to the size of his ears and nose.  Dr. Maltz explains that this man's self image was so distorted from what was real that the man was seeking unnecessary plastic surgery when all he needed was to "see" himself as others truly saw him.  So take a moment today, to journal, to meditate and explore your own self-image.  What is your Inner Critic telling you?  What is your big ugly nose?  What inside of you has kept you from your Heart's Desire?  Be courageous in your honesty! You can't reverse it, if you haven't identified it in the first place.

Once you have identified the negative self image beliefs that are sabotaging your success and relationships, you need to iradicate them and replace them with a more desirable belief.  Easier said than done!  Finding the source of the negative belief and then disqualifying the negative belief, are major keys to successfully squelching these beliefs... and well worth the extra effort. 

For example, if you discover (which is common) that you have negative feelings about people that are wealthy and that is keeping you from amassing your own wealth.  First identify where this idea came from.  Did you have a parent who complained about the rich? Did someone who was wealthy bring harm?  Does it truely make sense to your logical mind to lump all people with money in this category?  Can you find people of wealth using their money and influence to help the less fortunate or impact the world in a positive way?

Cut out pictures of people that you would like to emulate and really "get to know them".  Hold conversations with them in your mind to let THEIR success and THEIR belief systems guide you.

In elevating your energy levels and getting into a space where you effortlessly manifest your Heart's Desires, you will ALWAYS hit obstacles along the way.  If you did not have obstacles within your energy field, or soul, or pyche, you would not be seeking these tools in the first place! :) You would be at the level of Jesus, Buddah, or any other likeness of Spiritual perfection and you would be teaching ME! :)

I myself have gone through periods where a new layer peels away and I am raw, emotional and vulnerable.  I can be filled with great sorrow, sobbing while old, unidentified wounds are released.  This can also come up as extreme anger.  Recognizing this as part of the process, allowing yourself to work through it and stay in gratitude works wonders.  During one recent bout with deep, painful sorrow, I held onto the mantra, "I am so grateful and thankful that my heart is opening and healing." My heart was in unbearable pain.  I was crying all of the time.  But I stuck to that mantra, walking and breathing.  I became afraid that I would need Prozac, but I stuck with my mantra, walking and breathing and I did get to the other side of the pain.  Once the emotions worked their way through, I had a new freedom that I had not experienced before.

Keep in your awareness that as you remove Layers of the Onion of your Humanness, you will inevitably uncover negative emotions or responses or even self-sabotaging fears.  Be gentle with yourself as you work through these.  The obstacles you uncover as you dig deeper and deeper into your soul, may even be toxic baggage from existences that you no longer hold in your current awareness.  Sometimes, there are even instances where an individual attains a level of success, love, and relationships that they always dreamed of only to hit some jarring obstacles of self sabotage and destroy it all.  Fear not, if you build it up once, you can do it again!

Keep at it! Trust that the Divine is walking with you the whole way and don't be afraid to ask your Guides and Angels to fill you with Love and Light.  They are always there for you!  However, you do NEED to ask.

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Will You Be My TweetHeart?

Feb 2012: Like the best stories... it started as a love story.

I was self-employed in real estate.  My girlfriend, an Associate and Techie guru, insisted that I had to get on Twitter.  I really didn't want to do it.  I had tried Twitter and hated it.  It made no sense to me and was a waste of time.  She insisted that I give it one more try.  So one day, while home with my sick 5 year old, I committed to gaining followers, interacting with people and figuring this Twitter thing out.  It was the summer of 2010. It was probably over the course of a couple of days, I was targetting Tweeps in my local area of business, but began to notice some interesting people following me from interesting places from overseas.

One afternoon, while deciding who to follow and who to chat with, I read a bio that I found really odd.  It said Vulcan, Looking for friends, good ones.  That's odd, I thought.  Vulcan.  Does he mean Star Trek? That makes no sense to me.  A true vulcan wouldn't have so much emotion as to be concerned with good friendship.  He was from Malaysia.  I didn't even know where Malaysia was at the time.  No reason to follow this person.  I stared at the picture.  Half of his face was cropped off.  It was an artsy shot, but somehow evasive.  I honestly battled over whether or not to follow.  I finally decided to call him out on his Vulcan error.  He was amused and we exchanged a cute banter about Spock and Jim.  He amused me.  The flow was effortless.  Through Twitter, eventually email and gtalk, we became friends.

What does all of this have to do with 1LotusHeart and Manifesting your Heart's Desires?  I have come up with only this for right now... Since I believe that everything happens for a reason, I must believe that this relationship had a purpose and this pain had a purpose.  I began to seek answers.  What I found was myself.  It has been a long time since I have meditated or practiced energy work or healing.  I found myself in so much pain that I was committed to Healing.  I threw myself into healthful eating, Yoga, Meditation, exercise, prayer, working with Divine Light, Angels, and Vibrational Energies.  And in that Healing I reconnected with my Life's Purpose... to Transform people's lives as I transform my own... with Healing, Love and Light, and other powerful Holistic tools that I had all but abandoned in recent years.

If you are a hopeless romantic like me, you will want me to tell you that the story ends with a Forever Kiss and riding off into a picturesque sunset.  Unfortunately, I don't know how the fairy tale ends.  Some say, that it has already ended and that we don't always get the happy Hollywood ending.  I don't know if I am ready to believe that.  I guess we never really let go of our first love or our first TweetHeart.  For now, he has his side of the world, and I have mine.  Falis mi, Volim te, dusu moj.

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