Luck, Fortune, and Crystals

I’ve been working with, teaching about, and selling crystals since 1998 and I’ve been thinking of the most common questions people have asked about crystals. One of them is, “Which crystal is the one for good luck?”

I was surprised to realize I hadn’t been asked that question in a long time. Out of curiosity, I searched on the Internet, using the keywords, “crystals good luck,” and I found a number of sites that claimed to sell good luck crystals. Because of the prevalence of these sites, I’ve decided it might be a good idea to explain why I don’t sell crystals for good luck.

The short answer is that, while I believe that holding, meditating with, and keeping crystals near you can have a variety of positive effects, BUT, I don’t believe in good (or bad) luck. The long answer follows.

Luck and the Law of Attraction

When we believe in luck, we believe that the distribution of life’s gifts, whether material or spiritual, is based on chance, an accidental and arbitrary unfolding of events in which some people come up with winning numbers, while the rest lose. When life looks this way, elements such as free will, choice, determination, and focus have neither point nor purpose. What will be will be, regardless of our best efforts to transform our world and ourselves. All we can do is hope for the best and be prepared for the worst.

I hold a different viewpoint: that what happens to us is determined by the thoughts and emotions we most consistently think and feel. If we think about good health and believe we can or do have it, we will. If we want good health but think of many reasons why we won’t have it, it’s likely that we won’t. This principle is now commonly known as the Law of Attraction.

Though it’s based on thoughts and emotions, the moving energy is that of vibrations. Every thought and emotion has a vibration that attracts like vibrations. The more intensely we generate these vibrations, the more we draw that kind of energy to us.

This belief has the potential to empower us and put us in charge of our lives. It is, however, opposed to the belief in the randomness of events. This can create problems.

In no way do I like all the things I’ve created in my life. When I’ve been careless in my reactions and when I’ve allowed habitual patterns of thought and emotion to take command, I’ve attracted circumstances and events that no self-respecting human being would wish to be accused of creating. At such moments, it’s far more comforting to imagine that somewhere a wheel of fortune slowly turns, rarely, if ever, stopping at my number.

Lady Luck

Envisioning this wheel of fortune, I realized that luck and fortune have historically been given female characteristics. The medieval philosopher railing against the heartlessness of Dame Fortune and the gambler singing, “Luck, be a lady tonight” agree that life seems fickle, changeable, inconsistent, and indifferent to the plans of the orderly mind or the well-organized life. These prejudices have also traditionally been held about women.

When positively viewed, this quality of bypassing the rules and regulations of logic and reason is called intuition, the knowing of things without conscious reasoning. Intuition is powerful because it’s connected to our deepest sense of knowing, to the eternal part of ourselves that doesn’t sense the limitations we’ve told ourselves we have. It doesn’t hear the habitual voices that tell us why we can’t. Intuition tells us why and how we can.

When we follow our intuition, our confidence generates positive energy that attracts our dreams to us. Intuition generates the kind of decision-making that can’t be explained in retrospect, and people who consistently follow their intuition often seem lucky.

They’re not, though; they’re just in their right minds (or brains).

Intuitive Crystals

With that in mind, I recommend some crystals that, while not necessarily lucky, help to develop balance between both sides of the brain, so that intuition has a chance to come out and play.

Sodalite

Right-left brain imbalances get aggravated when mental and emotional confusion short-circuit the natural connections between the two brains. This is where sodalite becomes helpful.

This stone is especially valuable for those who find themselves in states of mental confusion, especially when these states are intensified by emotional turmoil. Very often, when our emotions are whirling about in our heads we are tempted to seize at any decision which seems to promise that it will reduce our distress. Sodalite helps us to resist such temptation.

Tabular and Double-terminated Crystals

A tabular crystal is flat in appearance, with two opposing sides being much wider than the other four. (They are sometimes also double terminated). Their ability is that of connection and balance.

In a crystal layout they can be used to blend energies between two chakras. For example, if you feel something deeply but can’t seem to express it you might place a tabular crystal between the heart and throat chakras.

When you are leaving one stage of your life and apprehensive about taking the steps that will lead you to a new phase tabular crystals can act as bridges. Keep one with you, meditate with it, and program it for a smooth transition.

A double-terminated crystal has a point at each end. They can be used as tools for balancing energy in the way that tabulars are, and they have some additional meanings and functions. Their points are generally believed to symbolize the balance of spirit and matter, to teach us that we can be balanced in our expression of both qualities, and that all opposites or seeming conflicts can meet in the center.

Postscript: You might still want to know what the lucky crystal is. According to many sources, it’s aventurine, whose name comes from the Italian a ventura, meaning “by chance.”

Does it work? One of my employees bought an aventurine at my store and programmed it for winning an apartment a radio show was giving away. She meditated every night with the stone. She worked on visualizing the apartment as hers until she could do so without any interference from limiting beliefs. She carried the crystal with her every day.

She won. Was it because she had the stone or because of the focused thought and emotion she brought to her project?

You decide.

If you ever wonder

I would like to be someone you’ll remember
But not someone you can’t forget

Becoming aware of my presence should be like
Taking notice of a gentle breeze passing by

When i am with you

I would like to be as unobtrusive as the faint aroma
Of a freshly gathered bouquet

Waiting quietly to be
Enjoyed

When I arrive
It may be like a kiss from the morning sun
And when i leave

I hope you will be filled with reassurance that
Like the dim light of the moon

The consistency of the cycle is the promise
Is the cure

And all these things that I am

that are in
And of this world

are there
Just to let you know

If ever you wonder … emphatically yes
You are truly loved

Q & A About Global Pain

Learn how darkness in the world serves, in time, to glorify the Light and how the suffering of others helps awaken compassion and other higher characteristics that would otherwise remain asleep within us.  Friend and colleague, Guy Finley,  shares answers to our  questions– to help heal the global pain and suffering of the world.

Question: Why did God, in his infinite wisdom, create a situation for humankind that would allow for so much pain and suffering?

Answer: Apart from evil, suffering is the least understood subject in the world. You may have to ponder this for a while, but think on this idea: Has not the suffering of someone you love not invited you (at least) to make a change for the better, if not actually led you to that change?

Excerpted from Seeker’s Guide to Self-Freedom

Question:  There seems to be so much wrong and dark today…how can the Divine be behind such things?

Answer: Trying to understand the personal and global conditions that confuse you, without understanding the true nature of this life and our role and relationship — or purpose — within it, is like trying to comprehend the meaning of an elephant by examining a peanut. As difficult as it may be to understand, we are first creations ourselves, and then — in a minor way — empowered to be creators. As such, our lives belong to that living, just, and merciful Intelligence in and by whose life and presence we are sustained in the present moment. This isn’t to say that, as beings empowered to create, we don’t create misery for others and ourselves. Clearly we do; and the evil we see so prevalent these days is the expression of this unconscious darkness having its way through our so-called “will.” And yet, even with all of this being true, this same Creative Intelligence expresses itself in all things, and in all ways, including those things that we see presently as being unfair, or otherwise unjust. There would be no awareness of beauty without the mirror of ugliness; there would be no compassion without those cruel conditions that awaken compassion into action. All is God, God is all; everything serves, nothing is wasted. And the only way we come to see this ineffable Goodness for what it is, is as we awaken and begin seeing how it serves a purpose greater than our present sense of time and circumstance is capable of now seeing.

Question:  What are we to do with what life brings to us — that we are sure just isn’t “right” — especially when we can look out and see so many horrible things taking place on our planet?

Answer:  While not disregarding negative conditions…things are the way they are in the moment in which we see them unfold. No moment can be different than it is. Whether we like it or not means nothing, and our distaste for it changes nothing in what takes place before us. However, what does mean something is what we allow to happen within us in that moment, because as we are changed — by what we see about ourselves –so changes the moment itself.

Not only are events unfolding as they must, but they also serve a higher purpose. Life itself, each of its “waves,” is a kind of “window” through which we see what “is” — including the reality of how our awareness interacts and transforms all that is becoming moment to moment.

It’s what we do inwardly — with what takes place outwardly — that alone has the power to transform both of these worlds in a way that’s truly positive for all. And when we are aware of this truth, and its vital relationship with all that is taking place, we begin to see how our true human responsibility and the higher purpose of this life are really one movement. It’s why our interior work is so crucial to the enlightenment of human consciousness. Our world is transformed according to our ability to take part in it this way, just as we ourselves are transformed with the world as it reveals to us the truth of ourselves.

Excerpted from The Essential Laws of Fearless Living

Question:  Sometimes I feel so hopeful for the world, and other times I almost feel there is no hope for this Earth.

Answer:  I know this seems like a paradox, but both feelings you have are correct.  To put this in perspective — the hope for our world rests in the hands of those men and women who, like yourself, are beginning to awaken to what has happened to this world because of a humanity fast asleep. On the other hand, for sleeping human beings, there is no hope outside of the dream state they dwell in that promises them tomorrow they will escape the nightmare of their own unconscious actions. Work. Never let discouragement have the last word.

Question:  If most of our life and reality is based upon our thoughts and beliefs, how do you explain the poverty and suffering that go on in the world? Do millions of people just think wrong? What purpose does the suffering serve other than as an example of the result of our collective sleep?

Answer:  No image reflected in a mirror can be any better or worse than the nature of whatever it is that stands before that mirror. The world that we see “outside” of us — with all of its poverty, sickness, and violence, is the accurate reflection of (the present level) of our collective consciousness. This is an inescapable fact; in fact, the real problem (and the reason our planet remains  ”pained” as it does) is we don’t want to see our complicity. It should be obvious — as glimpsed from our individual lives — that what we believe often causes others to suffer for those same beliefs; religious intolerance, maniacal self-righteousness, just the insistence that someone else except our opinion as being valid “or else” face the consequences… all of these are instances in which what we believe can make bitter the lives of even those we say we love. Now multiply this insight by six billion people and it is not hard to see why millions cry as they do. The real inner work is not wondering why the world is the way it is, but in discovering what it is within us that makes it that way. . . and then doing whatever is necessary to transform our sleeping nature that sows the seeds of suffering that it does. This path is the only way the world can become caring and whole for all who live there.

Question: Humanity is at such a troubling level, and I am beginning to suspect where this planet is heading. With wars raging and me in the middle of it all, will my spiritual work lift me out of the clutches of this dismal place?

Answer: Freedom from this raging planet, with all of its wars, begins with discovering and walking away from the war within ourselves. In truth, there is no other battle, and what we see around us is the inevitable expression of the pain within us that pushes and pushes until it finds some release. At first when we see the general degenerated level of mankind, it gives us a feeling of hopelessness. But if we’ll persist through this elementary “dark night of the soul,” on the other side of it there is new light. The character of this new light is both the understanding that we are indeed alone, as well as the willingness and right spirit to get increasingly serious about leaving this world behind us.

Excerpted from Seeker’s Guide to Self-Freedom

Question: It’s obvious that the world is descending into further darkness… so do we, as individuals, have the power to turn it around?

Answer: Darkness serves a purpose in this world, and the purpose that it serves is for it to be entered into and be penetrated by light.

We each have a secret character hidden away in us that is created for just the alchemical purpose of transforming any dark influence into a beneficial force. We have been given everything that we need to transform and transcend the shadows of fear, regrets, and resentments that prowl the corridors of our sleeping consciousness. And when these secret seeds of conflict have been revealed and released, we are as well, for then nothing negative remains within us to goad us into acting against ourselves. Multiply this possibility by billions of beings, and gone are the mindless wars and all the selfish acts of socially accepted gluttony.

This great power entrusted to us is that each of us is created to be the Light of the world. We can think of this as being the Light of higher conscience by whose compassionate intelligence we are empowered to discern what is helpful from what is harmful, to intuitively know the difference between a genuine act of kindness and a kindness done for selfish reasons. By this Light we are able to tell what is true and what is false.

So then, how do we illuminate our relationships at home, in our workplace, wherever we are? What must we do to enlighten this murky world of ours that staggers under the weight of its own shadows? We must cease being an unconscious part of its darkness.

If we bring light into any darkness anywhere, is not darkness everywhere made less? Mustn’t even the littlest bit of light added to even the greatest darkness leave that same darkness not so impenetrable? The answer has to be a brilliant yes! Can we see the possibilities before us? Can we see the significance of the choices we make? Is it clear what we are empowered to do? Once we agree to actualize the Living Light, everything around us, everything within the sphere of our awareness, may be altered in
its fundamental makeup.

This means that in moments of trial, our first task is to wake up, become fully aware of ourselves, and then dare to do the light thing. When we welcome the Light into our lives, we give notice to all negative states: Darkness, your days are numbered! We are done with you!

Excerpted from Let Go and Live in the Now

Guy Finley author of  Secrets of Being Unstoppable is also the acclaimed author of more than 30 books and audio programs on the subject of self-realization, several of which have become international best sellers . His popular works, published in 16 languages, are widely endorsed by doctors, professionals, and religious leaders of all denominations. His popular works include The Secret of Letting Go, Design Your Destiny, and The Lost Secrets of Prayer. To learn more about the work of Guy Finley visit the Life of Learning Foundation at http://www.guyfinley.org.

Thought and Character

The aphorism, “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he,” not only embraces the whole of a man’s being, but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every condition and circumstance of his life. A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.

As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, so every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought, and could not have appeared without them. This applies equally to those acts called “spontaneous” and “unpremeditated” as to those which are deliberately executed.

Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits; thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry.

Thought in the mind hath made us.
What we are By thought we wrought and built.
If a man’s mind Hath evil thought,
pain comes on him as comes the wheel the ox behind.
If one endure in purity of thought,
Joy follows him as his own shadow – sure.

Man is a growth by law, and not a creation by artifice, and cause and effect is as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm of thought as in the world of visible and material things. A noble and Godlike character is not a thing of favor or chance, but is the natural result of continued effort in right thinking, the effect of ong-cherished association with Godlike thoughts. An ignoble and bestial character, by the same process, is the result of the continued harboring of groveling thoughts.

Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself. He also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength And peace. By the right choice and true application of thought, man ascends to the Divine Perfection; by the abuse wrong application of thought, scends below the level of the beast. Between these two extremes are all the grades of character, and man is their maker and master.

Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the soul which have been restored and brought to light in this age, none is more gladdening or fruitful of divine promise and confidence than this – that man is the master of thought, the molder of character, and maker and shaper of condition, environment, and destiny.

As a being of Power, Intelligence, and Love, and the lord of his own thoughts, man holds the key to every situation, and contains within himself that transforming and regenerative which he may make himself what he wills.

Man is always the master, even in his weakest and most abandoned state; in his weakness and degradation he is the foolish master who misgoverns his “household.” When he begins to reflect upon his condition, and to search diligently for the Law upon which his being is established, he then becomes the wise aster, directing his energies with intelligence, and fashioning his thoughts to fruitful issues. Such is the conscious master, and man can only thus become by discovering within himself the laws of thought; which discovery is totally a matter of application, self-analysis, and experience.

Only by much searching and mining are gold an diamonds obtained, and man can find every truth connected with his being if he will dig deep into the mine of his soul. And that he is the maker of his character, the molder of his life, and the builder of his destiny, he may unerringly prove: if he will watch, control, and alter his thoughts, tracing their effects upon himself, upon others, and upon his life and circumstances; if he will link cause and effect by patient practice and investigation, utilizing his every experience, even to the most trivial, as a means of obtaining that knowledge of himself. In this direction, as in no other, is the law absolute that “He that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened”; for only by patience, practice, and ceaseless importunity can a man enter the Door of the Temple of Knowledge.

As A Man Thinketh by James Allen

Our Sacred World

Soul often reveals itself in myth – a symbolic representation or story of reality. There is a new myth attempting to come into our consciousness. This myth has the fundamental image of the unity or oneness of all life. It also has the image of the unity of all human beings. And it has within it the commitment of true service to others.

When new myths emerge from the unconscious spiritual dimensions they contradict the prevailing perceptions and thinking, and the common ways of living and understanding, because they are the emergence of the new soul or the new consciousness which has yet to be accepted as real and incorporated into our thinking.

What is it that stands opposed to the new myth in society and at times within ourselves? Is it not the common habit of viewing the world in which we live from mechanistic, scientific, analytical or physical perspectives? When we do this we engage our senses without involving the soul. We thereby remain on the surface of relationships, and give away the power of controlling our own lives and loves to external forces. We thus find ourselves increasingly disconnected from the world and others, and we become increasingly afraid of close encounters and intimate connections. In fact, we make victims of ourselves, feeling and believing that it is other people and situations that determine our experiences.

To many of us the world has lost its sacredness. People have become deaf and blind to the voices and visions of the loving and intelligent divine presence. The expansion of consciousness now emerging requires the psychic restoration of a sense of the sacred in order that soul, which crosses species and encompasses all kingdoms, can become the dominant center of consciousness from which we live our lives.

We need to ensoul our senses so that we can perceive the more subtle energies present – the divine intelligence (the elemental beings), the inherent love of all things in existence (what enables matter to join and fuse with other particles of matter. And we need to ensoul our minds so that what we analyse, take apart and create can be put into a larger more universal reality with inherent meaning and purpose.

Perceiving the world and others as sacred is a moral act, just as perceiving the world and others as defective is an immoral act. What is moral must correspond to the truth. According to Robert Sardello, to develop this moral perception all we need to do is “be more receptive and let the things of the world completely fill our consciousness, holding in abeyance the willful encroachment of our thinking into our surroundings. Gradually a soul mood of holiness comes through strongly along with whatever we are perceiving. Seeing the world through the developed capacities of soul not only reveals more of what is there but also invites back the Spiritual presences that have receded because of the literal-minded way we have come to view the world …” (Robert Sardello, Freeing The Soul From Fear, p. 129)

With the decline of religion which, for centuries, has been the custodian of morality, we need to find the essence of morality in a deeper understanding of life. Morality is declining in the world, and yet it is of such vital importance as we enter the age of relationships. We now know from the new consciousness perspective that an immoral act is a result of not deeply connecting with the object of one’s awareness or with the other in a relationship. Without connecting to the soul, the essence of the other, it is not possible to know who or what they are.

In place of the truth of the other, one creates a distorted perception of the other. This implies that there is no true love in the attitude or connection with essence in that relationship. Where love is lacking, immorality is present because the lack of love creates separation and disconnection from soul. This disconnection or lack of conscious soul is contrary to the true nature of human relationship. Morality, therefore, becomes a measure of our love.

We need to wake up to the ways that Spirit enters our world and speaks to us through others, inviting us in every single relationship into a creative partnership. This is our potential inspiration, but also our potential pain. Morality is not the path of ease, but of responsible love and sensitive awareness of the true nature of all beings.

Live in Joy!
Lilly

Sacred Geometry and Consciousness

Sacred geometry involves sacred universal patterns used in the design of everything in our reality, most often seen in sacred architecture and sacred art. The basic belief is that geometry and mathematical ratios, harmonics and proportion are also found in music, light, cosmology. This value system is seen as widespread even in prehistory, a cultural universal of the human condition. It is considered foundational to building sacred structures such as temples, mosques, megaliths, monuments and churches; sacred spaces such as altars, temenoi and tabernacles; meeting places such as sacred groves, village greens and holy wells and the creation of religious art, iconography and using “divine” proportions. Alternatively, sacred geometry based arts may be ephemeral, such as visualization, sandpainting and medicine wheels.

Sacred geometry may be understood as a worldview of pattern recognition, a complex system of religious symbols and structures involving space, time and form. According to this view the basic patterns of existence are perceived as sacred. By connecting with these, a believer contemplates the Great Mysteries, and the Great Design. By studying the nature of these patterns, forms and relationships and their connections, insight may be gained into the mysteries – the laws and lore of the Universe.

Music

The discovery of the relationship of geometry and mathematics to music within the Classical Period is attributed to Pythagoras, who found that a string stopped halfway along its length produced an octave, while a ratio of 3/2 produced a fifth interval and 4/3 produced a fourth. Pythagoreans believed that this gave music powers of healing, as it could “harmonize” the out-of-balance body, and this belief has been revived in modern times. Hans Jenny, a physician who pioneered the study of geometric figures formed by wave interactions and named that study cymatics, is often cited in this context. However, Dr. Jenny did not make healing claims for his work.

Even though Hans Jenny did pioneer cymatics in modern times, the study of geometric relationships to wave interaction (sound) obviously has much older roots (Pythagoras). A work that shows ancient peoples understanding of sacred geometry can be found in Scotland. In the Rosslyn Chapel, Thomas J. Mitchell, and his son, my friend Stuart Mitchell, have has found what he calls “frozen music”. Apparently, there are 213 cubes with different symbols that are believed to have musical significance. After 27 years of study and research, Mitchell has found the correct pitches and tonality that matches each symbol on each cube, revealing harmonic and melodic progressions. He has fully discovered the “frozen music”, which he has named the Rosslyn Motet, and is set to have it performed in the chapel on May 18, 2007, and June 1, 2007.

Cosmology

At least as late as Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), a belief in the geometric underpinnings of the cosmos persisted among scientists. Kepler explored the ratios of the planetary orbits, at first in two dimensions (having spotted that the ratio of the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn approximate to the in-circle and out-circle of an equilateral triangle). When this did not give him a neat enough outcome, he tried using the Platonic solids. In fact, planetary orbits can be related using two-dimensional geometric figures, but the figures do not occur in a particularly neat order. Even in his own lifetime (with less accurate data than we now possess) Kepler could see that the fit of the Platonic solids was imperfect. However, other geometric configurations are possible.

Mandala Artwork by my good friend Marlis Ladurée

Star Journey Symbol System – Exciting Tool for Personal Insights

Use this exciting system to tap intuition, solve problems, and make decisions. You can gain insights about personal topics such as work, career, love, relationship, money, health, and more.

At the core of the system is a set of 96 simple and fun symbols, each describing a facet of the self. In addition, the system’s Circle Pattern diagram shows how symbols are organized and connected, including twelve prime archetypal qualities and seven levels of living.

Star Journey is a powerful tool for self-growth. It creates a profound personal mirror along with a guided process of interpretation to reach resolve. The system demonstrates that the answers to life’s questions are found within.

Star Journey is now in several formats:

Books and cards, Online symbols, Membership, other tools, and expert Phone Help are all available on the website:

http://www.star-journey.com

Online Symbol Set -  Now you can simply hop online and have access to the Star Journey symbol set, 96 in all. Use them now, or whenever needed, to get valuable insights about personal questions. The symbols are colorful, simple, and full of meaning. Use symbols in the Goal Journey format, to help you see where you are now, what the goal is, and what’s getting in the way. You’ll use both words and images to develop meaning. Complete instructions provided for use and interpretation.

Live Phone Consultations – Talk by phone with a Star Journey expert and be personally guided through the Goal Journey experience. Author Richard Geer and skilled expert Vanessa Taylor (RebelMum Slade) are available to assist with personalized service and consultation. Your satisfaction is guaranteed.

New release: Star Journey for iPhone & iPod Touch – Now Star Journey is portable and can always be at your fingertips. Whether sitting in a cafe or riding a train, you can be solving a problem, making a decision, or jumpstarting ideas about a challenge. Use on the spot for insights about love, work, career, money, health and more. (visit Apple’s App Store)

In addition, visit the beautiful, 3D and interactive version, Star Journey island in Second Life virtual world. Here, enjoy free tours and opportunities to meet the author and his talented in-world team:

Direct link into Second Life:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Star%20Journey/133/124/440/?title=Welcome%20to%20Star%20Journey

The Law Of Exposure

The statement, “you become what you think about”, reminds us that our thoughts affect who we are, and it points out the connection between what we think and what we become.

This understanding is both enhanced and magnified once combined with the Law of Exposure.

The Law of Exposure tells us that our minds think about what it is most exposed too.

This performance law is fueled by the following understandings:

1. What enters your mind repeatedly, first occupies your mind, and then eventually shapes both your perception and reality.

2. Your mind will absorb and then ultimately reflect whatever it gets repeatedly exposed too.

3. The events you attend, the materials you read, the music you listen too, the images you watch, the conversations you hold, the friends you hangout with, the daydreams you entertain — all of these are right now shaping your mind, then your character, and eventually your future.

4. You expose people to your behavior everyday, and as a result you either make deposits or withdrawals into their psychological bank account.

I’d like you to consider the following the questions as it relates to the Law of Exposure;

. What am I currently exposing my mind to on a daily basis?

. What impact is that exposure having on my performance?

. What should I be exposing my mind to on a daily basis?

. What am I exposing other people to when they look at my behavior?

. What steps should I take to ensure that I am exposed to better, people, places, behaviors and results?

. What indecencies should I no longer be exposing my mind too?

INDECENT EXPOSURE

Indecent exposure is the deliberate exposure by a person of a portion of his or her own body that is likely to be seen as vulgar, offensive, and contrary to accepted standards of decency.

As it relates to your personal and professional performance, indecent exposure consists of anything that pollutes your mind, body or soul, such as the following:

. Excuses
. Junk food
. Self-Pity
. Violence
. Lack of Integrity
. Inconsistency
. Apathy
. Lying
. Sarcasm
. Gossip
. Procrastination
. Anger
. Jealousy
. Mediocrity
. Fear
. Worry
. Prejudice
. Vulgar language or behavior

Far too many people are over-exposed to these behavioral indecencies which negatively impacts their results.

It amazes me to see how many people think they can live as they want and that they can avoid this law. They think they can read anything they want and it won’t affect them. They think they can watch bad images or listen to nasty music and it won’t affect them.

The Right Kind of Exposure

You must never forget that your mind thinks about what it is exposed too. So consciously give serious exposure to whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-expose yourself accordingly.

Your task for today is twofold:

Expose yourself to new ideas, to stimulating conversation, to positivity, to all that is good and virtuous about humanity,

AND

Expose other people to your good character, sound judgment, and to your helpful nature. You must expose people to the example you want emulated in society.

Soul Perspectives On The New Spirituality

There is a new spirituality unfolding, dictated by universal need and the cycles of necessity. Evidenced by its absence as destruction and disregard for human life and environmental sensitivity, this new Spirit of the times is enticing our consciousness to become increasingly inclusive and responsible.

The new Spirit of the times creates a necessity for spiritual dimensions and psychological dimensions to meet in the center of our being. Where they merge, the infinite and finite become one, creating soul and expanding consciousness. In the spiritual dimensions we embrace the universal realities. In the psychological dimensions we encounter the personal human realities. Living the two dimensions simultaneously is Soul Life and it is what the New Spirituality is all about. The manifestation of this enlightened consciousness in practical living brings about the beneficial changes needed for the well- being of humanity and the planet.

Turn your life around 180 degrees with soul-based psychology! Soul-based psychology is the basis of the New Spirituality. It is a radical re-visioning. Learn to see beyond the surface appearance of things and know what’s really happening. Understand how all experiences are really Love’s manifestations.

The foundation of the New Spirituality is intelligent understanding. Through understanding, love and empowerment become real. Through understanding comes transformation.

The New Spirituality that is emerging from the depths of humanity’s soul is demanding new responses from each individual. Most people do not recognize what the demands of this spirituality are, and do not therefore respond appropriately, thereby living in disharmony. The prevalent idea of the spiritual path is the religious attitude of believing and doing good works, while others who may be more contemporary say we only need to manifest ‘Spirit into matter’ without knowing how to do that, except to exercise a great deal of willpower and positive thinking. However, belief can be blind, good works can be highly subjective rather than a response to need, willpower can be heartless, and positive thinking can create denial and repression. Obviously these are not the primary elements of the New Spirituality.

These approaches do not meet the essential requirements of the new spirituality that involves a necessary transformation of consciousness. Many who understand that a consciousness change is required still confuse personality awareness with soul consciousness, and use personality effort to try to bring about the necessary changes.

Dealing with mundane, existential conditions is not an obligation imposed by an other-world view of spirituality, but an essential characteristic of the New Spirituality. For example, if one were financially irresponsible one would not be embodying the new spirituality. Ignorance of financial matters is no excuse. Ignorance is an impediment to the new spirituality.

Religion is often more focused on the transcendent, while the New Spirituality seeks to relate to both the transcendent and the immanent, seeking to bring the two together in consciousness. The New Spirituality seeks to bring the respect and devotion to the highest into practical demonstration of love for all beings, meeting practical needs as they exist.

Emotions and Animal Essences

How Essences Work: A Brief Review

The idea that energy can get blocked and prevent or limit the flow of healing, balancing energies is fairly well known today. Edward Bach, M.D., originated the idea’s application to flower essence work by noticing that blockages often took a particular form. One person might be blocked from expressing unconditional love by feelings and thoughts of anger, another by resentment. Someone else might find her ability to be guided by her inner source limited by the feeling she had to ask the opinions of others; another might always feel there were too many choices available to decide.

In the Bach Flower Essence system (and in many others), each of the flowers embodies a particular energy frequency. When an individual resists the expression of that particular energy (i.e., patience, calmness, enthusiasm), she is out of touch with that aspect of her fundamental nature.

Melting Emotional Blockages with Wild Earth Animal Essences

While these essences also relate to specific qualities, I have noticed that some of them have a more general effect on emotional release and rebalance. No matter what emotion I’m choosing to release with the appropriate essence, the addition of one of the following essences in my mixture seems to make it easier to let go of the persistent emotional pattern.

You probably couldn’t go wrong in choosing any of the three below. Each, however, has a particular relationship to emotional release.

Big Girls Don’t Cry (or Big Boys)

They’d be happier if they did. That’s my opinion, and for those interested in astrology, I have Moon in Pisces, which is about as wet and emotional as it gets. I believe that a good cry, like the rain that relieves drought, revives us and gives us a new beginning.

The deepest levels of healing are accomplished on the emotional level. Emotions are associated with water, especially in the context of tears. If we are brought up to believe that tears are shameful and childish, we deprive ourselves of a powerful form of emotional release.

Frog medicine follows this principle. With its help, we can begin to experience tears as being as natural and necessary as rain.

For me, one of the most welcome signs of spring is the evening chorus of the spring peepers. Their song tells me that the ice in the ponds and streams where they live has melted. So Frog medicine symbolizes the unfreezing and flow of emotions.

Water cleanses and replenishes the earth, and in terms of healing, this animal’s medicine can help when our lives feel dry and dull, when we feel mired in the mud of circumstances, or when we have allowed emotional toxins to poison our outlook on life.

A Scottish version of the story of the Frog Prince illustrates the power of this medicine. A queen who was ill could only be healed by a drink from the well of true water. When each of her three daughters tried to get this water, a monstrous frog refused to allow them access unless they agreed to marry him. The youngest daughter agreed and was able to heal her mother. She also later discovered that her unattractive bridegroom was actually a prince.

This story teaches us that to heal ourselves (and others), it is often necessary to face the emotions within ourselves that we’ve buried because we find them unacceptable, or “ugly.” When we can honestly look at all aspects of ourselves, we find that the “ugliness” washes away, and our true beauty shines, like the sun after healing rain.

Seal: The Inner Voice

As humans, we often don’t realize the purpose of negative emotions, which are intended to tell us when we’re out of harmony. Guilt, for example, is meant to warn us when we’re about to violate our true nature. If we find our love for someone diminished because we judge them, we may feel guilty. This emotion isn’t intended to beat us up but to guide us back to unconditional love.

Fear is supposed to us of true danger, as opposed to an imagined danger. If I see a bear in the background, I am wise to stay inside, but if I spend my waking hours worried that a bear might appear, I am misusing the power of fear.

We humans have the tendency to let negative emotion misguide us that we can’t hear the deeper song of inner guidance. The seal reminds us of our connection to our inner rhythms, feelings, and knowing.

Often, when we create, the feeling aspect is missing. As a sea mammal, Seal is strongly symbolic of our feeling, sensual selves, and connects us to our deep inner rhythms and knowing. As animals with intellects that we believe set us apart from other animals we often resist surrendering to these deep rhythms, being fearful that we will lose what we think of as ourselves.

Playful Seal leads us to the water’s edge and urges us to lose our heaviness in the buoyancy of the sea. This animal reminds us that we can swim gracefully with the current, and that when we do, we can learn to release the worries created by our minds. With this perspective, our emotions, rather than pulling us down, provide us with the buoyancy that gives joy to our journeys.

Though the seal spends much of its life in the sea, it gives birth on land. This helps us to know that there are two essential ingredients to the fulfillment of our dreams and visions. They are optimally conceived in the deepest part of ourselves and given nurturance through the strength of our ability to imagine them with all the senses. They are then most easily realized when we help to bring them to birth with the help of practical and material acts.

Dove: Peace

Where I live one of the most familiar sounds of a summer evening or early morning is the cooing of the mourning dove. When all the other birds are asleep (except the robin and nightingale), the dove’s haunting call fills the air.

Thus, this bird is associated with these transitional periods in the day’s cycle, during which, according to mystical and magical traditions, the veils between the physical and spiritual worlds are at their thinnest.

I find it interesting that the crystal, amethyst, which is the color the skies of sunset and sunrise often assume, is, like the dove, related to peacefulness. Amethyst is one of the most popular crystals, and a comfort to those of us who live in a world that seems to be characterized by stress, tension, and major changes.

It is certainly a world in which we all need peace, and we can work with both amethyst and Dove Medicine to achieve it, especially when we are going through major changes and transitions. The peace symbolized by Dove is that of the deepest kind. It quiets our worried and troubled thoughts, and allows us to find renewal in the silence of mind.

It teaches us that, regardless of external circumstances, this quality of peace is within us, and always available to us. The regular practices of deep breathing and meditation can help us to find inner peace and enable us to move calmly and with purpose during the hours between dawn and dusk.

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