Rick Allen and Lauren Monroe visited the Life Savers Ranch in Lancaster, CA and each had a first hand experience gentling or whispering wild horses.

Raven Drum Foundation: http://www.ravendrumfoundation.org

Facebook Group:  Raven Drum Foundation

Twitter :  @ravendrum

Music:  Oneness Chant by Lauren Monroe and Rick Allen.
Visit http://www.laurenmonroe.com

I know I’m getting on my soap-box again, but that’s just me. One day I’ll probably fall off it and anyone who wants can laugh but for now let me just mention the stark fact that six times as many Americans die every year from lack of health care as the number killed on 9/11. Acceptable ? Not in any sane society.

The health care system in the USA is broken. No-one can seriously argue that its not. It does not operate in the best interests of everyone who needs it. The richest country in the world has 46 million people with no health insurance and even more that are dangerously under-insured with high deductibles and co-payments. The cost of essential drugs is obscenely high compared to other countries. The result is that more than 18,000 Americans die needlessly every year from preventable illnesses because they cannot see a doctor when they should.

Remember, this is six times the number who died on 9/11 but this avoidable carnage occurs every single year and nobody does anything about it. That’s not even counting the far higher numbers who live in misery with treatable illnesses they can’t get treatment for. This crazy system costs the U.S. far more per capita than any other country and health care costs continue to soar. Its not value for money. Sick people are being ripped off.

Why is it so hideously expensive yet so bad ? Really simple. Greedy individuals and big business interests add to the cost at every stage of the process by gouging out profits and resist any reform or effective regulation. Well maybe you can sell T-shirts or Coca-Cola like that but its sure as hell totally inappropriate for a fundamental human need like health-care. Its a disgrace and the whole discredited system needs to be radically and urgently overhauled so that good quality health-care is available to every single citizen, free at the point of delivery and regardless of their ability to pay.

No one should have to hesitate about seeing a doctor because of cost. No-one should have to forgo the drugs they need because they’re too expensive. No-one should be left crippled by debt because they fall ill. None of that is acceptable in a civilized society. Other countries can manage it so why not the USA ? Its hardly rocket-science after all. It just requires political will and common-sense.

Let me be blunt. I believe that any unscrupulous politician or self-interested big business lobbyist who tries to block or sabotage the desperately needed health-care reforms is an enemy of ordinary Americans in a very real way. If they succeed thousands more decent people will suffer and die needlessly. Its time to get angry. Its time to get serious. Failure is not an option. Compromise is not enough. Only radical, root-and-branch change that puts people ahead of profit is acceptable. The way things are is a national scandal and it can’t continue.

Send in The Clowns

I just wanted to show my sincere appreciation for all of the slapstick clowns who have worked so tirelessly to entertain us during the health-care debate. I mean, of course, the ‘right-wing’ TV hosts, political pundits and snake-oil salesmen. Here’s to good old Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, Bill o’Reilly, the sainted Sarah Palin and many more. Merchants of doom, purveyors of hot air, peddlers of hate and vitriol all. For every lie and half-witted fabrication, for every unscrupulous scare-tactic and clumsy attempt to mislead the American people, our only response can be ….
hahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha …
ohmygosh, you guys are funny

New Rule: electing a smart president does not mean its a smart country – The incomparable Bill Maher using wit like a straight-edged razor on that section of America which is gloriously stupid and by-God proud of it! Alarming but sadly true facts to make you either laugh or cry, depending on your mood. Its hard to disagree with anything the man says.

When performed on a regular basis, these various activities can eventually cause a decrease in daily stress or anxiety levels and contribute to a heightened level of happiness and peace. In addition, they instruct individuals in techniques to utilize to stay calm and level-headed when faced with a stressful or unexpected situation.

The Belmont Center for Comprehensive Treatment, part of the Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, has begun employing Healing Rhythms as an aid to a variety of behavioral disorders. Patients recovering from eating disorders may, early on, experience panic attacks and physical discomfort while learning how to eat healthy. This software is used in 50-minute sessions, twice a week, to help patients cope with a wide range of symptoms.

Healing Rhythms, developed by a San Diego company called Wild Divine, is designed to help patients learn to relax and control their heart rate, pulse and skin response through their breathing.

One program shows balloons peacefully rising and falling on the screen. As the participant does deep and focused breathing, the balloons will slowly float in a steady and straight course across the screen. In a different program, balls are juggled in the air. The more relaxed the person becomes through their breathing, the slower the balls move. If the person increases his or her stress levels, the balls are juggled faster and higher.

“The aim is to offer these patients another way to gain control of their psychological and physiologic responses, and, ultimately, their lives,” said Stacey Saleff, an occupational therapist at Belmont.

Original Suorce

http://philadelphia.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2009/02/02/newscolumn1.html

The Raven Drum Foundation is a nonprofit organization with a mission to serve, educate and empower veterans and people in crisis through the power of the drum.

Community & Partnership Drum Circles

Drum circles are conducted in various communities across the country and internationally. Drum circles use drumming as a tool for healing and allow participants to use rhythm as a form of release and connecting to others.

They conduct two types of drum circles:  Community Drum Circles and Partnership Drum Circles.  Community Drum Circles are open to the public and are held throughout the year for communities to come together in support of their local veterans.  Partnership Drum Circles are conducted in collaboration with groups and organizations and are arranged upon request.

Resiliency Program

Raven Drum Foundation’s Resiliency Program is an innovative healing program for veterans, active duty military, and their families. They use self-care modalities to aid in healing combat-related trauma, and the everyday stress, anxiety, and depression experienced by service men and women and their families.

Current research demonstrates that the primary impact of traumatic experience is a bodily impact. Our body, as the site of all human experience, stores the memory of traumatic experience implicitly, and these memories permeate our thoughts, feelings and actions. By using the drum circle as a backbone, our programs incorporate drumming, rhythm, movement, dance, yoga, breathing techniques, and the practice of mindfulness and meditation. When combined together these modalities help to release and heal the trauma allowing the body to become integrated and whole.

Our program provides participants with self-help and self-healing tools to be incorporated into their daily lives to help cope with their emotional, physical and psychological wounds.

Over the past several years, we have had the opportunity to work with hundreds of veterans throughout the country and we hope to continue to expand our programs to reach more and more service men and women, especially new veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with life-changing injuries. Additionally, we are developing components of the program that will focus specifically on women veterans, as well as military spouses, partners and families.

The Resiliency Program is our way of giving back to these courageous and inspiring warriors by providing them with a new path for the future.

Additionally, Def Leppard and Live Nation have donated unpurchased tickets for each Def Leppard show to Raven Drum for our veterans!

Over the past decade, Raven Drum has been honored to work with amazing groups of people.  They are continually inspired, especially by our veterans, to continue serving and sharing our gift of healing and peace.

http://www.ravendrumfoundation.org/

SIGNS THAT YOU’VE ENCOUNTERD AN EMOTIONAL VAMPIRE
(from “Emotional Freedom” by Judith Orloff MD)

•    Your eyelids are heavy—you’re ready for a nap
•    Your mood takes a nosedive
•    You want to binge on carbs or comfort foods
•    You feel anxious, depressed, or negative
•    You feel put down, sniped at, or slimed

TYPES OF EMOTIONAL VAMPIRES

Vampire #1: The Narcissist
Their motto is “Me first.” Everything is all about them. They have a grandiose sense of self-importance and entitlement, hog attention, and crave admiration. They’re dangerous because they lack empathy and have a limited capacity for unconditional love. If you don’t do things their way, they become punishing, withholding, or cold.

How to Protect Your Emotions: Keep your expectations realistic. These are emotionally limited people. Try not to fall in love with one or expect them to be selfless or love without strings attached. Never make your self-worth dependent on them or confide your deepest feelings to someone who won’t cherish them. To successfully communicate, the hard truth is that you must show how something will be to their benefit. Though it’s better not to have to contend with this tedious ego stroking, if the relationship is unavoidable use the above strategies to achieved desired results.

Vampire #2: The Victim
These vampires grate on you with their “poor-me’ attitude and are allergic to taking responsibility for their actions. The world is always against them, the reason for their unhappiness. When you offer a solution to their problems they always say, “Yes, but.” You might end up screening your calls or purposely avoid them. As a friend, you may want to help but their tales of woe overwhelm you.

How to Protect Your Emotions: Set kind but firm limits. Listen briefly and tell a friend or relative, “I love you but I can only listen for a few minutes unless you want to discuss solutions. Then I’d be thrilled to brainstorm with you.” With a coworker, listen briefly, sympathize by saying, “I’ll keep good thought for things to work out. Then say, I hope you understand, but I’m on deadline and must go back to work. Then use “this isn’t a good time” body language such as crossing your arms and breaking eye contact to help set these healthy limits.

Vampire #3: The Controller
These people obsessively try to control you and dictate what you’re supposed to be and feel. They have an opinion about everything. They’ll control you by invalidating your emotions if they don’t fit into their rulebook. They often start sentences with “You know what you need?” and then proceed to tell you. You end up feeling dominated, demeaned, or put down.

How to Protect Your Emotions: The secret to success is never try and control a controller. Be healthily assertive, but don’t tell them what to do. You can say, “I value your advice but really need to work through this myself.” Be confident but don’t play the victim or sweat the small stuff. Focus on high priority issues rather than on putting the cap on the toothpaste.

Vampire #4: The Splitter or Borderline Personality
Splitters see things as either good or bad and have love/hate relationships. One minute they idealize you, the next you’re the enemy if you upset them. They have a sixth sense for knowing how to pit people against each another and will retaliate if they feel you have wronged them. They are people who are fundamentally damaged—inwardly they feel as if they don’t exist and become alive when they get angry. They’ll keep you on an emotional rollercoaster and you may walk on eggshells to avoid their anger.

How to Protect Your Emotions: Stay calm. Don’t react when your buttons get pushed. Splitters feed off of anger. They respond best to structure and limit setting. If one goes into a rage, tell the person, “I’m leaving until you get calmer. Then we can talk.” Refuse to take sides when he or she tries to turn you against someone else. With family members, it’s best to show a united front and not let a splitter’s venomous opinions poison your relationships.

Adapted from Dr. Judith Orloff’s new book “Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself From Negative Emotions and Transform Your Life” (Harmony Books, 2009)

About Judith Orloff
Judith Orloff MD, an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA and intuition expert, is author of the new book Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself From Negative Emotions and Transform Your Life (Harmony Books, 2009) Her other bestsellers are Positive Energy, Intuitive Healing, and Second Sight. Dr. Orloff synthesizes the pearls of traditional medicine with cutting edge knowledge of intuition and energy medicine. She passionately believes that the future of medicine involves integrating all this wisdom to achieve emotional freedom and total wellness. www.drjudithorloff.com

FREE MINI VIDEO CLASSES ON YOUTUBE FOR YOU!
Please check out “Dr. Orloff’s Living Room Series” to find out more about the special method Dr. Orloff recommends to remember your dreams and other topics to build the power within. Stop by www.youtube.com/judithorloffmd anytime.

There are two parts of the brain that do not operate together. They are poles apart. There is the prefrontal cortex which is the highest part of the brain. Being consciously soul connected requires one to focus through this part of the brain. In order for this focus to prevail, one must be at peace, non-combative, and not defensive. Being fearful blocks this part of the brain from controlling.

When people are afraid, they do not think creatively, compassionately or independently. This kind of thought requires the use of the higher brain. If we have previously developed this part of the brain, and have a tendency to use it on a regular basis, it will continue to attract our attention to cope with situations.

What results when both the higher brain wants to be active, and the primitive, defensive brain is activated through fear, is a real conflict between the two. This conflict typically produces heightened stress, chronic anxiety, chaos, confusion and depression.

This confused and depressed emotional-mental state unconsciously seeks escape because this is an unnatural state. Drugs (including prozac and the like) can provide temporary escape for some. Violence can erupt as a way of acting out the tension. Inertia may be a defense mechanism used. Creating a scapegoat or enemy to attack may be pursued. Giving up and surrendering to a governmental or military power may also be a way out.

None of these escapes, however, resolve the inner tension. We are still left with the problem that is rooted in fear. Unless we deal effectively with the fear we will not have peace and will remain disconnected from soul.

There are two things we can do that would help resolve this issue of government/authority-induced fear. First, we need to acknowledge that the fear is aroused within us by believing what we are told by those we accept as an authority greater than ourselves. We then need to rationally and intelligently examine what is said to ascertain its validity. In other words, are we being presented with facts, with the truth, or does the ‘authority’ have some hidden agenda for saying what it does?

Second, we need to rely on our own inner authority for what we believe and for the choices we make. We need to trust that we have the inner strength, intelligence and ability to be at peace and make appropriate decisions for our own well-being. By taking the time each day to relax deeply and/or go into a meditative state of mind, we reduce the amount of beta brainwaves that are heightened through fear and stress, and we produce an abundance of alpha brainwaves that make us feel peaceful and facilitate soul connections.

We cannot experience fear while we are producing strong alpha waves. In this relaxed meditative state our mind is receptive to soul impulse – the source of inner strength, love and intelligence. Through regular practice of this inner state of connection, we rely less and less on external authority, and gradually learn to trust the inner authority of soul. The choices we then make are more creative, compassionate and life enhancing for ourselves and others.

This year, we will make suicide prevention a national priority. In 2009, the Out of the Darkness Overnight national walk returns to Chicago. We’re planning a beautiful route full of sweeping lakefront views, big city streets and picturesque neighborhoods, supported by the welcoming warmth of the Windy City’s residents.

The Overnight is fund raising walk unlike any other.  Starting at dusk and ending at dawn, we’ll walk up to 18 miles, a moving community of thousands of diverse individuals connected by a common goal.  Please join our community.

This year, we will make suicide prevention a national priority. And we need your help. By joining the Overnight, you’ll send a loud, clear message, heard from your house to the White House, that it’s time to end the stigma surrounding suicide and shed light on the tragic consequences of depression, substance abuse, anxiety and other mood disorders that, left untreated, can lead to suicide.

Register now for the Out of the Darkness Overnight, Chicago June 27-28, 2009

The funds you raise will further the mission of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the leading not-for-profit organization exclusively dedicated to understanding and preventing suicide through research and education, and to reaching out to people with mood disorders and those impacted by suicide.

Register Now

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It is important not to confuse forgiveness with other similar acts. Forgiveness is not excusing, smothering conflict, accepting people, or tolerance. When you forgive the person who hurt you deeply and unfairly, you perform a miracle that has no equal. Nothing else is the same. Forgiving has its own feel and its own color and its own climax, different from any other creative act in the repertoire of human relationships.

There are four stages in the process of forgiveness beginning with the hurt that precipitates the crisis and causes us pain that will not go away. We must acknowledge that first. The second stage is hate when all our feelings of anger and righteous indignation come to the surface. The third stage is healing; you are given the ‘magic eyes’ to see the person who hurt you in a new light. Your memory is healed, you turn back the flow of pain and are free again. The fourth stage is the coming together where you affect a reconciliation and invite the person back into your life at the right time ( which doesn’t always mean now). The major healing takes place within us thanks to the love and freedom that blooms in us.

It is best to practice forgiveness a little at a time. Ordinary people forgive best if they go at it in bits and pieces, and for specific acts. We bog down if we try to forgive people in the grand manner, because wholesale forgiving is almost always fake. Forgiving anything at all is a minor miracle; forgiving carte blanche is silly. Nobody can do it. Except God. And the first rule for mere human beings in the forgiving game is to remember that we are not God. Below, I want to share with you The Doorway To Freedom. It’s a way to begin healing yourself TODAY.

Enlightenment cannot enter through a closed door. Forgiveness is the doorway to enlightenment or love consciousness, for without completing forgiveness you cannot move on. It will always be the anchor that holds you back. Sooner or later you must do it for your own sake. “Unforgiveness” is a poison in your system that will rob you of your spiritual life. If you hate one soul you will never be able to love another completely. The poison in your system will pollute your experience of love with everyone and everything in life.

“Unforgiveness” spills over into other aspects of your life and stains your experiences. When the time comes for true forgiveness, open yourself to your God and invite the Holy Spirit to enter, to cleanse the cellular memory of all the negative energy stored in there and dissolve with love the patterns you hold about others that you have not forgiven. The vibration at this time can be so strong as to make your ego or logical mind start having fearful thoughts.

Remember God created us to experience perfection and beauty. When the Holy Spirit meets our darkness, “bad” things happen in our best interest. Do not judge the situation let it be. We cannot hate one Soul and love another. For our own sake we need to forgive one another, to be kind and considerate to each other and show tolerance. When we hold resentment in our hearts and minds we poison our beings with dark energies that foster anger that we then suppress and deny. This dishonoring of our being brings emotional pain that destroys our qualities of life. Every experience that comes to us is filtered through this unforgiving attitude, thereby diluting our enjoyment and experience of the joy of being alive.

THE LOSS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE

Vague shadows lurk in the background and forever blunt our edge. The dullness of our experience robs us of our spirituality. We know there should be more, but we can never quite fully experience what we feel we should. The shadows of resentment keep our spiritual light from shining through, never allowing us to fully experience who we are.

HONORING THE LESSONS

The longer we hold hard thoughts or feelings of animosity, the weaker our light becomes, and consequently the deeper the hurt from our own dishonoring. The anger grows and grows. No matter what the perceived sin is against us, eventually forgiveness is seen to be the only doorway to freedom. All of the denial and suppression must be reversed in order that our spirit be set free and our heritage of a full and joyous spiritual life be realized while still on the earth plane.

Anger is the state that divides and separates spiritual beings experiencing physical life. The damage is self-inflicted. The person who holds the resentment is the victim of their own anger and does little or no damage to their perceived enemies. The people closest to them become secondary victims. As they weave their karmic web, they draw others into their play, intensifying and complicating what could have been a wonderful and simple experience.

Nevertheless, the play that is happening is learning and growth, so to judge it as wrong would be another misperception of the truth. With all of life, options are there for us. The choice of how we learn is ours; no matter how it appears to others, it is our choice. As we watch another learning, we must honor that person and the path of learning that he or she has chosen. Judgment is not the way. Love and tolerance will open the door to spiritual freedom.

FACING OUR GREATEST FEAR

Pain in the heart is the energy of love pushing against a blocked emotion contained there. Forgiveness shakes our very foundation and belief that we are the victim and we are righteous in our anger. This belief pattern must go if we are to progress. Holding onto anger keeps us on the path of self-destruction. Justifying our behavior is an indication that we are out to convince others that we have a right to be angry, and hatred of another soul is completely OK because of what they did to us. Justification and self-elevation above others is the most divisive and destructive path that the ego can take us on.

In the experience of resentment, we are pushed further from our light than at any other time, because anger and hatred are the opposite of love. The festering inner wound will never heal and allow us to move forward until the door of forgiveness is reached. At this moment, depending on the intensity of the experience, the strongest person can cry and shiver like a frightened child deep in the experience of a nightmare. At this time you see the wrongs you have done to yourself.

Yet in all of this, the gentle prompting from our own divinity never really lets us forget who we are, it is the inner voice of sanity. This voice is our link to the inner Light, to our conscience; the whispering of our Soul; the comforting words of our God self; our true being; the doorway through which enlightenment will come. Discard the shackles of many lifetimes and embrace who you are. The fear perpetuated by the ego needs to be faced and seen for the illusion that it is, that which robs us of our spiritual life.

HONORING OUR MAGNIFICENCE

When we stand before the light of who we are and prepare to allow the light to enter our darkness, the fear of accumulated lifetimes in our cellular memory trembles in a way that defies any description. The pain of release goes to the very core of our beings. Yet throughout all of this, another energy stands close by, allowing but comforting, never interfering, but strengthening us. The time is at hand to honor our true magnificence. The light beckons us to come home. The lessons you have chosen are refining and purifying you to accept your rightful place in the universe.

MY EXPERIENCE OF FORGIVENESS

My father was an alcoholic from the time he was a very young man, and he carried within him a lot of pain and anger. Unfortunately, he carried that anger with him until his death at 86 years of age – a terribly long time. The effect on children of alcoholic parents is well-known; rather than regurgitate all the details, suffice it to say I had never forgiven him.

On an intellectual level I had forgiven him, but in my heart I had not. It seems a small point, but our minds tell us one thing, but in our hearts we know better. During those early healing times, it became my habit to stand and allow the spirit guides to work with my body, teaching me how to tune into them and anticipate mentally and physically what part of the body I should focus on next. All of this exercise was done alone, and greatly helped open physical and mental channels for a more efficient working partnership. These became my practice sessions.

After a clairvoyant friend had mentioned on numerous occasions that my father was around me quite a lot, I became alerted once by the spirit guides that he was here during a practice session. I felt this to be unusual as he had passed over barely two years before. Why was he around so much? My learning had taught me that he possibly should be being helped on to another level, not be visiting the earth plane so soon. With prompting from my guides I finally arrived at the conclusion that he needed my forgiveness before moving on. This realization shocked me. Had I been responsible for his staying back, earth bound? What happened next will be with me forever.
The spirit guides brought him to me, and because my sense of psychic touch had developed, I could feel his energy field moving closer to me. I can never describe to you the emotional sensations that began to move about inside me and then move to the surface. Refusing to be held in check any longer, my emotional dam wall cracked and then flooded out, demanding expression. Tears of release poured forth, so painful but so sweet.

My arms were lifted from my side to embrace my father as I had never done in my 54 years. My pain of withheld love expressed itself. The sobbing slowly abated as did the pain in my throat as all the unsaid words were released. To feel my father in my arms as he really is and was moved me in such a way that I feel it was a gift of pure grace. To have faith is one thing, to know and experience is another. At that moment I knew death to be a fraud. Life is eternal.

Next I was asked to pray for my father. This I did with much passion and love. During this prayer, my father was surrounded by a ball of golden light. He was then sent into the light to begin his journey once more in spirit. He had been released from the lower astral plane with love, something he had needed from me all of his life…love.
All was not done yet. As my communication was rough to say the least, this whole exercise had taken nearly two hours to get it right. Soon I understood that I needed to pray for myself. The Guides were most pleased that I understood this last request quickly.

My prayer for forgiveness was filled with the emotion still flowing from the experience of my father. As I prayed I became lighter and lighter, understanding that my burdens were being lifted. Our emotional burdens will be taken piece by piece over time, and though this one was large and heavy, it was leaving at once. The forgiveness that I had asked for was for my dishonoring of myself. As a divine being we dishonor ourselves with unforgiveness as much as the person we need to forgive.

The next day while driving to work, I realized that a knot in my stomach that had accompanied me all of my life had gone. My thoughts turned to my father. I felt a smile on my face and a feeling of love for him in my heart for the first time. It was a warm love, with a depth of feeling I had never felt before. How wonderful it is to know that it is never too late to forgive. Knowing where he was made me feel warm inside. The fear of death had been washed away. As I was to find out later in my healing experiences, “Those who work in the light have no fear.”

TRUE FORGIVENESS

Once true forgiveness is completed with one soul, it is done for every soul. Forgiveness will reside in your heart from that day forward. When this lesson is completed, we need not keep repeating something we now understand totally. The lesson of forgiveness shows us that love is the only experience we ever want in our hearts forever.

The stain on ourselves is so damaging when we do not practice forgiveness that another awakening occurs through the realization of our own incredibly thoughtless acts. As we see our ignorance, we see our path to enlightenment. The horror of our actions repels us so much, we seek forgiveness for ourselves. In this act of seeking, we see the need to forgive others, no matter what they may have done. The freedom forgiveness brings us is total.

TWO TYPES OF FORGIVENESS

There are two types of forgiveness, and the first one we try is the intellectual path. The ego is in control here. We say with a grandiose wave of the arm, “Oh I have forgiven them for that,” making light of the whole subject and busying ourselves in a big selling job on ourselves and on the other person or persons we are speaking to.

The second path is through the heart where we become defenseless. Now all of the emotional pain from the heart and body is released in the most wonderful act of cleansing. This path takes courage and honesty with yourself; every cell in your body holds the fear. It is powerful, painful and wonderful all at once, an experience you will always remember and cherish because you have just been reborn. You now have new eyes through which to perceive the world. Strange but beautiful things occur when you release through the heart, allow the fear to be there and drop your ego’s defenses. You CAN do it.

When you forgive, you do it with your whole being. You become as a child again without defenses. Any form of defense will stop forgiveness. The river of love that flows through us is the inner pathway.

We may or may not enlighten ourselves by standing on our heads in the corner of the room, or by saying prayers continuously like a parrot, or by focusing on an object for the purpose of stilling the mind or by any spiritual practice that disciplines our bodies. When we forgive ourselves and others, we have opened the floodgate so that the river of life can flow through us and change our consciousness. While snippets of resentment may arise, or anger may pop up, we immediately replace it with love, fully realizing that we do not want to go on that path ever again.

It is essential that all stains of unforgiveness are washed away. To truly love another soul this must happen. If you have not forgiven your Father or Mother, your ex partner or anyone that you perceive has wronged you, then you can never fully experience love or give love fully to another. Once the Creator’s love flows through our hearts, the spring cleaning begins, and it’s not always a bed of roses.

Do not stress that you have not forgiven. As love changes your mind, it is inevitable that forgiveness will come. True forgiveness comes in its own time. When love opens the door, we constantly correct and refine our behavior, gradually bringing ourselves to a state of love where fear will not exist.

If you hold a strong desire to become the loving soul that you know you are, it must happen.

Greetings, my dearest friends. Again, I shall try to help those of you who are on the path to move forward from where they may be stuck. Although each of you may have a different problem to encounter in himself at this moment, this article will converge into the one point all of you now need in order to proceed without too much hindrance from within yourself, So, let us understand certain fundamental factors, as they exist in yourself and in the universe.

It has been said by all great spiritual teachings that creation is infinite in its possibilities and that man’s potential to realize these infinite possibilities of happiness exists in the depths of his being. Almost all of you have heard these words. Some of you may believe them, at least in principle. Others may have their doubts about accepting them, even in theory. Let us now try to overcome some of the difficulties in this respect.

It is, first of all, necessary to understand that no one creates anything new by himself. Nothing new ever comes into existence. This would be an impossibility. But it is possible to make manifest something that already exists. It is a fact that everything, absolutely everything, exists already. The word everything cannot convey the scope of this concept. When one speaks about the infinity of God, about the infinity of Creation, this is part of the meaning.

There is no state of being, no experience, no situation, no concept, no feeling, no object, no manifestation — in whatever variety, or type, or degree — that does not already exist. It exists as a potentiality, and already in that potential lies the finished product. I can see that this idea is not easy for man to embrace, for it is so contrary to the way of thinking, being, and experiencing on the level of consciousness he generally lives in. But the more you can deepen your thoughts on that subject, the easier it will become to perceive, to sense, to grasp this truth.

Nothing is created anew, all exists already. It exists on another level of being, of experience, of consciousness. It can be found right now, immediately — if and when specific obstructions are eliminated. Knowing and understanding this principle of Creation — that all exists already and that man can make these existing possibilities manifest — is one of the necessary prerequisites.

Before man can create new possibilities of unfoldment and entirely new ranges of experience in his personal life, it is necessary that he first learns to apply these laws of Creation to his problem areas: to those aspects of life where he is troubled, limited, handicapped — where he feels trapped. Healthy unfoldment follows the creation of a healthy personality. The learning and comprehension of the laws of Creation can take place only if one applies them first to the afflicted area of the personality.

Whatever possibility you can conceive of, you can realize. Suppose you are in a conflicting situation from which you cannot see a way out. As long as you do not conceive of a way out, you truly cannot realize the already existing possibility. Or, if your concepts about the way out are hazy or unrealistic, so will be the temporary solutions that will appear as the only possibilities. The same applies, of course, to your life as a whole, as well as to specific areas. If you truly comprehend that an infinite number of possibilities exists in any given situation, you can find solutions where it was hitherto impossible to do so.

It is man’s prerogative to make use of these laws of Creation and to reach out for these infinite possibilities to unfold and partake of life’s offerings. If man’s life seems so limited, it is only because he is convinced his life must be limited. He cannot conceive of anything more than what he has experienced until now, and what he is experiencing at present. This is precisely the first handicap. Therefore, in order to expand your own possibilities of happiness, your mind must grasp this principle: you cannot bring to life what you cannot conceive.

This sentence should be truly meditated on, for the understanding of it will open new doors. And you should understand that there is a vast difference between conceiving of further possibilities of expansion, of happiness, on the one hand, and of daydreaming on the other. Wistful, resigned daydreaming that grabs the fantasy as a substitute for a drab reality is not at all what is meant here; such daydreaming is really a hindrance to the proper conceiving of life’s potentials.

What I mean is a vigorous, active, dynamic reality concept of what is possible. When you know that something you wish to bring about exists in principle, you have made the first step toward its realization.

Therefore, I invite everyone of you to contemplate what you truly conceive of as possibilities for your life. If you examine yourself closely, you will find, primarily, that you conceive of negative possibilities, which you naturally fear and wish to avoid. You defend yourself against negative possibilities. You use the main part of your psychic energies in order to defend against negative possibilities.

Negative motivation does not necessarily mean a destructive intent. For that matter, a positive motivation, in this context, could mean a very destructive intent or aim. The avoidance of a feared possibility means negative motivation. Upon close examination of your mental and emotional processes, you will find that you are negatively motivated to a considerable extent.

This is one of the first obstructions which encloses you in an imaginary and needless prison. This applies, of course, to all levels of your personality. It applies to the mental level, where you cannot really envisage the infinite vistas of experience, of expansion, of stimulation, of all sorts of wondrous and happy possibilities you have a prerogative to achieve in this life. It exists on the emotional level, where you do not allow the spontaneous and natural flow of your feelings. You fearfully, anxiously, and suspiciously hold back this spontaneous flow of what you really feel. And it exists physically, where you do not permit your body to experience the pleasure it is destined to experience.

All these are limitations which you artificially and needlessly inflict upon yourself. The next hindrance and obstruction in connection with expanding your life and creating the best of all possible lives for yourself is a cluster of misconceptions widespread in the world. We have discussed them in the past and in various other connections. Briefly recapitulating, they are: “It is not possible to be really happy; man’s life is very limited; happiness, pleasure, ecstasy are frivolous, selfish aims the truly spiritual person must abandon for his spiritual development, which must consist of sacrifice and renunciation.”

We do not have to elucidate these deeply lodged misconceptions, which are often more in the unconscious than in the conscious mind. We discussed this sufficiently in the past. But it is necessary that you discover the subtle way in which you abide by such concepts, no matter what you consciously believe. You may discover these subtle reactions by observing the reluctance which you feel against realizing a perfectly harmless and normal fulfillment, a genuine need, a truly constructive aim.

You feel as though something were holding you back, paralyzing your effort. Although there are often a number of other reasons for this reluctance as well — some of which we shall discuss shortly — it is also often true that you simply have accepted a negative idea that really makes no sense and has no good purpose.

Fear of happiness, of pleasure, of wide expansion in one’s life experiences is based on ignorance that such fulfillment could exist. On ignorance that you possess all the powers, faculties, and resources to create and bring about what you wish. On misconceptions, such as that pleasure is wrong, that it is selfish to want personal fulfillment. On fear of being annihilated and dissolved if one trusted the flow of the universal forces and went with them. Such trust necessitates letting go of the ego-will and the ego-forces and surrendering to the beneficial forces of your deep nature.

Every single human being in this world harbors an attitude of fear and weakness. This corner of the personality usually induces a strong shame, so that it is kept secret, often even from the conscious mind. Many different devices are invented in order to hide this weak, dependent area in which one feels utterly helpless, dependent, unable to assert the self, unable even to protect one’s truth and integrity. Here one is constantly compelled to sell out, to betray oneself, in order to ward off disapproval, censure, rejection.

The need for such acceptance by others is mostly less shameful than the measures to which the personality goes in order to submit, to placate, to appease. We did discuss some of these aspects in the past, of course, since they are psychologically so fundamental that we could not have gotten so far in our work unless considerable work had already been done in this respect. All the defense mechanisms you have discovered and, perhaps to some extent, begun to remove, are nothing but either ways to obtain this apparently vital acceptance from others, and/or ways to hide this shameful submission.

In this article we shall go into this topic with a still closer scrutiny, especially from the point of view of realizing life’s possibilities. We are less concerned here with ways in which you hide this shameful area — often by an apparently opposite attitude, such as indifference, hostility, compulsion, and blind rebellion, over-aggressiveness, and so forth.

Few things give man as much pain and shame as this weak spot in himself, which makes him feel impotent and compelled to sell out. We already know, my friends, that this area has remained a child. The child does not yet know that the whole of the personality has grown up and is, indeed, no longer helpless and dependent. An infant or a young child truly is helpless and dependent on the parents. But in this corner of your being that is still a child you either do not know or do not want to know that this is no longer true, that you are no longer helpless and dependent, that you are an adult.

To briefly recapitulate: the child is dependent on the parents for everything: shelter, food, affection, protection, and last, but not least, also on the so necessary supply of pleasure. For man cannot live without pleasure. It is one of the most harmful errors to deny this truth. Body, soul, mind, and spirit wither without pleasure. As the adult is able to establish conditions by his own forces and resources to provide shelter, food, affection, and safety, so is he able to do the same about pleasure. In all these areas he must have contact, cooperation, and communication with others — in varying degrees.

He cannot provide for himself any of these necessities without interplay with other people. But this interplay, or interaction, is entirely different from the passive, weak, dependency of the small child. The thoroughly adult person uses his own best forces, his intelligence, his intuition, his talents, his observation, his flexibility to get along with others in giving and taking. His sense of fairness makes him sufficiently pliable to give in. And his sense of self makes him sufficiently assertive not to be stepped on and abused.

The often fine balance in these forces of communication cannot be taught; it is an awareness that comes through personal growth. The child is incapable of this. He is rigidly one-sided in his insistence to receive, for this is his need. The same applies to pleasure. The child must have the parent’s permission, as it were, to have pleasure. The adult must have his own permission to establish and utilize the source of all pleasure deep within himself.

Through his own permission, he will have the force and security to make meaningful contact. If he first needs the other person to approve before he can allow himself to experience pleasure, he is still in the position of a child, or even of an infant. I repeat, this never implies that one can do without others. But the emphasis is shifted. The adult finds in himself a well of inexhaustibly wonderful feelings. Insecurity and weakness are not possible when these feelings are activated.

When man is distorted in this respect and part of his development is arrested, he waits for another person — a parental substitute — to make it possible for him to realize this deep source of his own rich feelings. He knows of them and yearns for them. But he does not know that he is no longer a child who is dependent on others for being allowed to feel them, for being able to activate and express his feelings. This is his tragedy, for he thus moves into a vicious circle. Whenever a misconception is adhered to, immediately a vicious circle comes into being, which paralyzes the pleasure forces, a good part of energy, and thus makes life dull and lusterless.

To deny the intense pleasure of being, the pleasure of the energy flow of man’s body, soul, and spirit, is to deny life. When a child suffers such a denial, his psyche receives sort of a shock — perhaps by repeated absence of pleasure and unfulfilled yearning. This shock prevents growth, so that the personality grows lopsidedly. In his conscious mind, man ignores the fact that in him exists a crying, claiming, angry, and helpless child.

He believes himself entirely grown. Yet on the unconscious level, where this child exists, he is unaware that he has not grown up, and no longer needs the parental permission, or, even more, the parent (substitute) for the source of pleasure and life. He does not know that he is free to move toward pleasure, toward his own fulfillment, toward the realization of his own powers to obtain whatever he wants and needs. This is one of the most fundamental splits in man’s personality.

Let us now look a bit closer at this hidden corner, where man has remained a child. Let us see where his consciousness ignores this and where the child ignores the rights and powers of the adult state. The particular vicious circle I mentioned before is this: not knowing that all exists already, so that it can be (re)created as a manifestation in his life, makes him dependent on an outside force, another authority, for all his wants and needs. In this distortion of facts, he waits for fulfillment from the wrong source.

This keeps the need perpetually unfulfilled. The more unfulfilled he is, the more urgent the need becomes. The more urgent the need, the greater his dependence, his hope, his attempt to please whomever is supposed to fill it. He becomes desperate. Desperate because the more he tries, the less the need is fulfilled, as it must be in this unrealistic attempt. Consciously he knows nothing of this, he does not know what forces drive him — not even in what direction. And he is desperate because, in his urgency to have the need fulfilled, he betrays himself, his truth, his best.

Both his frustrated striving and his self-betrayal create a forcing current. This forcing current may manifest in a very subtle way. It may not be overt at all, but the emotions are all cramped up with it and it must inevitably affect others and have its lawful and appropriate consequences. Any forcing current is bound to make others resist and shrink back, even if what they are forced to do were for their own benefit and delight. Thus the vicious circle continues.

The continued frustration, believed to be caused by the mean refusal of the other to cooperate and to give, brings rage, fury, and perhaps even vindictiveness, and also varying degrees of cruel impulses into the soul. This, in turn, weakens the personality even more, for guilt comes up. The destructive feelings must be hidden, so as not to antagonize the “source of life.”

The net of entanglement becomes tighter and tighter, the individual is completely ensnarled in this trap of his own misconceptions, distortions, and illusions, with all the destructive emotions that follow suit. He finds himself in the preposterous position of craving for the love and acceptance of a person whom he hates and resents for having left him unfulfilled for so long.

This one-sidedness — this insistence to be loved by a person one deeply resents and wishes to punish — increases guilt, for the ever wakeful presence of the real self flashes its reactions into a mind that is unable to interpret and sort out the messages of the real self from those that come from the child inside.

The fact that this need is not fulfilled by the other also weakens man’s conviction that he has a right to the pleasure he so much desires. He vaguely suspects that he may be wrong to want this. Thus he begins to displace the original, natural need and desire, he conducts them into other channels, where they are “sublimated.”

More or less compulsive other needs come into existence. All the while he is torn between the force of the deeply hidden original need and the doubt that he has a right to it. The more he doubts, the more dependent he becomes for reconfirmation by an authority person — a parent substitute, public opinion, certain groups of people who represent the last word of truth.

The more the vicious circle goes on, the less pleasure and the more unpleasure exists in the psyche and the more such a person must despair about life and doubt that fulfillment is possible. There comes a point when a person inwardly gives up.

There is not a single human being who does not harbor, in some way and to some degree, such a weak area within. In this secret corner he feels not only helpless and dependent, but deeply ashamed for the means he employs in order to placate the person who, at any given period, is supposed to fulfill the role of the authority to grant him what he needs in pleasure, safety, and self-respect.

The forcing current says, “you must.” It makes demands on others to be, feel, and do what the person needs and desires. This may not at all manifest outwardly. In fact, on the surface it may have the entirely opposite effect. Man’s inability or difficulty to healthily assert himself is a direct result of hiding the shameful and threatening forcing current. It is threatening because the person knows quite well that if it shows openly, it will evoke great censure and disapproval and possibly even overt rejection.

I invite all my friends to vigorously face this feared area in themselves. Some of you have done so already, others are still struggling with it and have only half-heartedly admitted its existence. Perhaps some of you may still have to face up to it. But all of you must tackle it if you wish to realize life’s and your own best potentials, if you wish to discover your own infinite powers to create infinite goodness in your life.

The stronger the “must” is secretly and inwardly thrown at others, the more man inactivates his own powers and the more paralyzed and inactive he becomes in body, soul, and mind. This inactivity exists, on the one level, where he does not move into his own nucleus, where all realistic promise lies, where all potential for every kind of fulfillment and delight exists. He inadvertently makes himself hang on to others, which must elicit hate. Finding the treasure of one’s nucleus, on the contrary, makes one free, and contact with others becomes a delightful luxury that elicits love.

By continually using inner, covert pressure on others, because he believes himself dependent on them, man diminishes his available energy supply. If energy is used in its natural, correct, meaningful way, it never exhausts itself. There are innumerable means man uses in order to send forth this forcing current. It may be from every degree of compliance, passive resistance, spite, withdrawal, the refusal to cooperate, forceful outer aggression, the attempt to persuade through false strength, and assuming oneself a kind of authority role, intimidations, etc., etc. They all mean, deep down, “you must love me and give me what I need.” The more he is blindly involved in this way of being, the more man weakens himself, and the further he alienates himself from the center of his true inner life, where all is found that he needs and can ever want.

In order to re-orient and re-condition the soul forces into health and into their true nature, the following must happen: man must let go of the particular person or persons of whom he expects his life fulfillment and whom he, simultaneously, resents for this very fact. He must recognize that he extends expectations to and makes demands on others that no one else can fulfill but himself, for himself.

The real love you all need and long for can only come when your soul is fearless and when you know that the material to love with — the strength of your feelings, with which you can give and receive — is found within you. For as long as you hang on to another in the ways of a child, denying the adult you are, you enslave yourself in the true sense of the word. The more you do this, the less you can either receive or give; the less real feelings of any sort, feelings about any vital experience, can find a place within you.

For fear and anger take up most of the “room” in your psyche. This is why it is so essential to let out these negative emotions, in the way you learn to do on this path, where no one is harmed. Letting out makes room for the good feelings. Here so many of my friends are still locked and paralyzed. It is the last thing you want to do.

Even if you admit such negative emotions in principle, you still prefer to act them out rather than express them and take the responsibility for them onto yourself. You still claim a false perfection, which you do not really believe to exist in yourself any longer, in order to favorably dispose others toward you. Also, you cling to the negative emotions for dear life because you fear the positive feelings.

The less you are responsible for yourself in the deepest possible sense — concerning the negative feelings you still possess, as well as your possibility to create happiness — the more you must live in fear. Consequently, the more you must “do” to eliminate that fear. Thus negative motivation comes about.

You live in a makeshift life of avoidance, rather than unfoldment and expansion, of positive experience and pleasure. You aim to avoid the threat of your own negative feelings, which would spoil your aim of obtaining from others that which you must obtain from yourself. You stake your salvation on others, from whom it can never come.

Apart from recognizing all these aspects, which is the fundamental necessity, the reorientation must always begin by the willingness to let go. This cannot be forced upon one who has not been made aware of the dependency itself in very exact ways. But once this is the case, it becomes possible to give up what one so tightly holds on to.

This loosening up must occur in order to bring about a change in the balance structure of soul forces so that benign circles are set into motion. You must also be willing to dispense with your rationalizations that make your “case” seem so right. For you can always succeed to present it to yourself and to others as though your wishes, your needs, and your demands on others are not only justified, but that there is nothing wrong about them, that, in fact, they are also beneficial for the other.

This may even be quite true, as far as it goes. What you want, in principle, may indeed be good and legitimate. But in a hidden, emotional forcing current you go about it in the wrong way and you do not grant the other person the freedom you wish for yourself. You do not give him the right to freely choose whom to love and accept, you coerce him; you feel rejected and hated when he asserts this freedom; you refuse him the right to be wrong without being hated and totally denied.

This is a freedom you very much wish for yourself and you deeply resent it when others do not grant it to you. You are unable to defend yourself adequately in such cases, only because you do not grant this same freedom to others on certain emotional levels. When you look very closely, you will find this to be true. And when you do so, your sense of fairness and objectivity will help you to give up what you so desperately hold on to, even while you emotionally still believe that your life depends on getting the other to feel and do as you wish.

Once you have learned this initial condition — surely with a number of inevitable relapses, that must forever be newly observed and dealt with — you will take a vast step towards the source of your inner being, where you are not chained in weakness and anxiety, in fear and anger. You all chafe at the leash around your neck that keeps you dependent and anxious in a situation in which you cannot find the strength to assert yourself; in which you find yourself absolutely caught and cannot see a way out, for each possibility seems wrong.

None of the visible alternatives give you that good feeling about yourself, that resilient strength and well-being, in which even different steps become feasible because you know they are right for you. Most of you have, at least occasionally, experienced this. It is that your real self is freed and is operative through you. It is our aim to bring it out completely. In order to do so, this weak point must be found so that you can eventually let go of it.

The weak point is where you are most bound and anxious. Ask yourself what it is that you want from the other person — where you are bound, resentful, afraid, weak, and unable to assert yourself? This is your leash, which can be given up only when you stop wanting from others what you must supply from yourself. Whatever it is you find you need from others, verbalize it concisely to yourself.

This will bring you nearer to letting go. You will then know that this is precisely where you enslave, weaken, and paralyze yourself. You will then experience a new, resilient strength coming out of you that suddenly conciliates apparently insoluble problems. You will become free as you let free.

Only when you can let go — on the ego level — in the areas where you exert force, can you gain or win — on the level of Creation — the power to form a good life.

Conversely, your inability to give up, to let free, to be fair; your insistence to win and have your way, your refusal to lose on this ego-level, makes it impossible to win where it counts and makes it impossible for you to find your real strength.

Jesus Christ spoke about this when He said, “He who wants to live must be able to lose his life.” This is the meaning. You must give up what you want to gain. Here we are dealing with levels. I hope it is quite clear that there is no sacrifice or renunciation involved.

What is meant here is that you cannot obtain what you want, and what you should have, in the manner and through the source you exert your effort to. The emphasis must shift. If you insist to win on the wrong level, you cannot win. If you can lose on that level, you will win. You will inevitably come into that nucleus of yourself where every conceivable power exists. As you grant others the right to be, whether it is convenient to you or not, to that extent you will truly find your own rights.

It is a steadily growing process to find these rights. First it will manifest by no longer selling out, in no longer downgrading yourself. You will find genuine, good defenses against abuse. You will feel good about them. Later, you will discover ever increasing “rights” for pleasure and happiness, which you can expand towards obtaining. You will find yourself move toward vistas and visions of what your life can be, possibilities you never dreamed could exist.

You will suddenly permit yourself pleasure. You will no longer cramp up against it, as inadvertently you continuously do. You will stop undermining the spontaneous processes and will learn to trust in them. This will open a richness of life and a security that truly are heavenly. By letting go and giving up inner forcing, you will experience the beauty of free relationships, not forced relationships. When you live in the dependency pattern, you force the other and are thus forced to make him do what you want.

Thus you have mutual force. This weakens you and creates a host of negative emotions through which you lose contact with the nucleus of your real being, as well as with your good feelings. When you can lose gracefully, you will find a treasure within that is an entirely new venture, a new way of life, whose beginning stages you are just embarking on. You will feel free in the areas of your life where heretofore you have felt so weak and trapped.

Reach into your inner being, communicate with it, for the purpose of eliminating this weakness in you that binds you and that wastefully and needlessly holds you back in your life, for no good purpose whatever, no matter how much you may glorify this holding back.

All of you do this in one way or the other, just as mankind has done for millennia, by saying that pleasure is wrong and frivolous and unspiritual. This way you may have your own private excuses to beautify your weakness and apparently make an asset out of it. Thus you cannot really come face to face with yourself.

Only by coming face to face with the forcing current in you that says to others “you must,” can you also come face to face with the strength, the beauty, and all the potentials that exist in you, in a way you cannot even fathom yet.

Be blessed by the great strength that is here now, but even more so by the great strength that dwells in you. Be in peace, be in Light.

This article is about one way to make new beginnings, based on five principles formulated by Mikao Usui, the originator of traditional Reiki. Usui developed the principles out of his realization that spiritual, emotional, and physical health depend on a change in attitude and the assumption of responsibility for one’s well-being. The principles are valuable for anyone who wishes to increase their enjoyment and appreciation of life.

The First Principle:

Just for today I will not worry

Worry may result from a feeling of separation and isolation. We are often taught that we’re individuals. We separate ourselves from the so-called lower species; as individuals we isolate ourselves from those of our own species.

Alone, we feel small and vulnerable, and we worry about our ability to bear the burden of survival. Lost in worry, we forget that we can choose to reunite with the energy of universal love, a power which can dissolve our worries and fears. The more we allow that energy to flow through us the more we come in touch with a natural state of grace. The more we consciously become open to trust and faith the more we experience ourselves as part of a safe and loving universe.

Every small step towards trust is a victory. When we review our lives we notice how little the huge disappointments of the past mean to us now. We find ourselves glad that some of the things we wanted so desperately didn’t happen. We discover a larger purpose to the events of our lives.

The Second Principle:

Just for today I will not anger.

This isn’t a recommendation to keep anger bottled up inside or to pretend that it isn’t there. I’m for feeling every emotion. I hit pillows, write letters (which I later burn) to the objects of my anger. I experience the anger until it dissipates, then examine its roots.

Once I reach the point at which I cab look at the situation dispassionately I often find that I hold beliefs which are compatible with the situation which is making me angry. Because I used to believe that bosses were unfair I regularly encountered bosses whose behavior confirmed my belief.

When a person makes me angry I ask myself if they mirror emotions or issues within me which I don’t want to face – that is, unless I really don’t want to face it. It takes courage to face those inner demons, but the reward is great. The braver I get the more willing I am to view people in my life as manifestations of lessons I need to learn. Some day (when I’m a realized being) I’ll come to appreciate them as my teachers, and love will replace anger.

Until that glorious day, I say to myself, “Just for today look at the people and circumstances you’ve attracted into your life – without blaming others or yourself. Just for today, see what within yourself needs healing.”

The Third principle:

I will honor my parents, teachers, and elders.

I (and many others) have modified this principle to be more inclusive. I hold it as, “Just for today I will honor all of life.” It’s another way of honoring myself.

When we honor other creations with the grace and love of our spirits, practical gestures are also appropriate. We can plant a tree, overcome laziness and recycle. We can honor the food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the fire which warms us. We can thank all beings who have helped us by passing their gift of understanding and support on to someone else who needs it.

The Fourth Principle:

I earn my living honestly

This statement can be expanded to read, “I live my life honestly.” This is less a question of whether one calls in sick to work, then goes to the beach than of whether we are honest with ourselves.

If we say we want to grow spiritually, but do nothing to create that growth, we need to honestly examine the depth of our commitment. If we ignore the loneliness inside by pretending we don’t care that we’re not in a committed relationship we need to acknowledge our feelings, to honor the truth of our emotions. We can’t solve a problem if we refuse to admit its existence.

Ask yourself what longings lie hidden inside your heart; what creative urges have been suppressed. Ask for guidance through dreams and visions. Ask for an understanding of your soul’s purpose in choosing physical existence. The answer is within you’ it awaits only your receptivity to unveil itself.

The Fifth Principle:

I show gratitude to everything.

The fifth principle flows naturally from the other four. If instead of worrying, we trust that love and happiness are our birthrights, if we recognize that what makes us angry mirrors the beliefs which block us, if we honor all of life and our own divinity by being honest with ourselves, we will become grateful for the gift of physical existence.

Step by Step

The bold among us may want to take on all of The Five Principles at once. Those of us who prefer to experience transformation in smaller doses may prefer to work on one at a time.

Say, for example, that you decide to work on anger. One step in this process might be to list everything in your life that you’re angry about. To truly discover this you may find it helpful to apply the principle of living life honestly. If you do so you might find a number of issues you’ve avoided handling because someone might get angry because you raised them (or you might get angry at someone else). The next step might be to feel your anger fully, then to decide what changes you’d like to make.

I’ve found that an ongoing maintenance program is valuable, too. Anger is less overwhelming when we acknowledge it and deal with it as it arises, and when we allow the possibility that anger often stems from anger at ourselves we go a long way towards handling anger with honesty.

Programming for Peace of Mind

Crystals are invaluable tools for assisting us in keeping our commitments to ourselves. Because the molecular structure of crystals is orderly and symmetrical they radiate energy in a consistent and steady manner. Simply being in the presence of this harmonious energy field can help us to become more harmonious in our beings.

When we program crystals we intensify this energy flow. The process is very simple.

Create an affirmation (always in the present tense), i.e., “I live my life honestly;” “I have loving communication with my children.”

As you hold your crystal visualize yourself in the desired situation and experience the feelings of being in it. Say the affirmation to yourself.

Then put the crystal some place where it won’t be disturbed.

Below are some stones and flower essences which closely relate to the Five Principles. Clear quartz may be used for any of them.

Just for today I will not worry.
Crystal: rhodochrosite.
Flower essence: Chamomile (FES)

Just for today I will not anger.
Crystal: red garnet, sugilite.
Flower essence: Holly (Bach)

I honor all of life.
Crystal: moss agate and chrysocolla, in particular, but any crystal helps to reveal the beauty and wisdom of nature’s creations.
Flower essence: Nicotiana

I live my life honestly.
Crystal: obsidian, lapis
Flower essence: Deerbrush

I show gratitude to everything.
Crystal: rose quartz, rhodochrosite, rhodonite.
Flower essence: Holly, Willow