For my first article in January,  I like to write about goals, resolutions, or whatever you call the list you make of intentions for the coming year. It’s well known that few well-meant intentions get realized. Often we become enmeshed in a pattern of pushing forward when action feels inappropriate. Then, discouraged, we begin to put off action. Simply described, procrastination is the act of putting off doing things we don’t want to do.

Students are famous for putting off papers or studying. Avoiding the completion of certain dreaded household tasks is also a popular activity. Many of us put off making phone calls we absolutely don’t want to make.

Even though procrastination can seem to be the avoidance of action, it’s an activity that consumes a great deal of energy. We don’t simply avoid the unwanted action and then forget about it.

The thought that we should do it keeps on returning, like a mosquito hungry for blood. We use energy to resist the thought. Then we blame ourselves for laziness, fear, or whatever inspires the delay. We may end up feeling worse and more exhausted than if we’d actually done the thing we didn’t want to do.

It may seem like the appropriate solution is to simply do it and get it over with. However, that can cause additional problems.

Act in Haste, Repent at Leisure

Say you know you need to paint the bathroom, and you haven’t bought the paint yet. You say to yourself, “That’s it; I’m going out right now.”

You go to buy the paint and realize you haven’t decided on a color yet. You’re not going to let procrastination stop you any more, though, so you pick out a color, hardly looking at it, come home, and realize the color is awful–maybe before, maybe after you paint.

You have a report to write for an organization. You’ve been dreading putting the words together, but the deadline is closing, noose-like, around your neck. You get on the computer and zip through the writing. Only when it’s time to give it do you discover you wrote on the wrong subject.

You’ve been putting off a possibly painful conversation with someone. The longer you wait, the more angry and upset you get, until you begin to feel like a soon-to-erupt volcano. You decide you have to say it, no matter how it comes out. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come out very well, and the other person stops speaking to you.

The Nightmare Journey

Sometimes both the resistance and the action that overcomes it are more subtle. You may not deliberately resist doing something, but you feel mental/emotional reluctance, which in turn creates energetic resistance. It’s as if you’re driving with the emergency brake on.

For example, you’re going to visit a family member out of a sense of duty, but no real joy. You half-wish something would happen so that you didn’t have to make the trip.

When you call to make the airplane reservations, the line is busy. You try making your reservations online, and the server is busy. You call again. After listening to the “Please listen carefully, as our menu options have changed” message, you push the wrong button. Then you try again, get the right one, and get put on hold. Finally, you hear a human voice and manage to work out a flight plan that doesn’t have you flying from New York to Nevada in order to get to Florida.

Later you print out your online tickets and see they’re incorrect. At last, you get the arrangements done to your satisfaction, but when you get to the airport, you find there’s no record of your reservations. Fortunately, you have your tickets, but it takes a lot of effort to get things worked out, and you barely make your plane.

Resistance can also hold back the fulfillment of what you think you really do want. You may want a better job, but don’t feel capable of fulfilling its requirements. You’d like to go to Europe, if only you could get there without having to travel. You’d like to have a show of your art, but then everyone would see it.

The Virtue of Struggle

I have come to realize that my not wanting to do something isn’t necessarily a measure of my laziness. It may, instead, be like the light on the dashboard that tells me my emergency brake is on. Procrastination lets me know that my energy is blocked from the easy fulfillment of an action.

I have also discovered that about ninety percent of the braking action stems from the belief that accomplishment should involve difficulty. A widespread belief tells many of us that we’re worthy people when we push through our resistance and do things we don’t want to do. Holding this belief can have the magical effect of multiplying—at least in the mind—the difficulty of an action.

I have heard people who love what they do telling others how difficult it is. If they are writers, they describe the agonies of sitting before a blank screen; if they are artists, they curse the paper or canvas that stubbornly remains blank. If they are teachers, their students have conspired to turn their classroom into the blackboard jungle. They believe this, because they’ve become oriented to the idea that for something to be worthwhile, it must involve struggle.

I’ve gradually let go of this perspective, but it’s a work in progress, and it can still blinker my vision. Right before I started writing this article, I was working on another. It didn’t seem to want to get written beyond a certain point, so I stopped working on it, feeling guilty that I was procrastinating, thinking how difficult it was to write.

Once I got over the misery that all that hard work would be wasted, I decided I didn’t have to write that article. Instead, I wrote this one, in about a tenth the time I spent agonizing about the other one.

There’s no virtue to suffering and struggling or in being blocked, frustrated, or self-critical about something that isn’t happening. That only blocks the smooth flow of energy needed to get things done.

The Virtue of Ease

Here’s a mantra you may find helpful: “Life is meant to be easy. Life is meant to be fun.” When you find you don’t have to mentally or physically add difficulty to a task, it can become enjoyable. For example, when I clean the house, I stop myself from looking for a badge of virtue for such drudgery. I give up the idea that I’m Cinderella scrubbing the flagstones. Instead, I listen to music or sing while I house clean. I tell myself this is good exercise. I think about how nice the house is going to look.

I’ve also noticed that some of the things I put off doing seem to get done by themselves. Try asking the universe to do some of the items on your list. The people you’re worried about calling may call you with the good news you thought you’d never hear. Instead of searching for an elusive reference, you may find a link for it in your email. The results can be miraculous.

The best result is that when I’m unburdened by guilt over procrastination, or the heavy burden of having to be a good and worthy attention, I have much more energy to give to the creative expression and fulfillment of those projects that really thrill me.

Energy Un-blockers

Meditation in general helps us to return to the core of being, especially when it interrupts a frantic stream of activity or an equally frantic avoidance of activity. In a state of deepened connection to our true selves, we can effectively ask the question, “What is most important to me right now?”

You might want to hold carnelian while asking that question. Known as the “be here now” crystal, it helps us to focus on what is of most immediate value to us.

Smoky quartz gives us the gift of both grounding and activating our energy. It can help to smooth out those push-pull energy spurts that say, “I’ll do it,” “I won’t.” It particularly helps in this process by disposing of psychic waste, those old beliefs and emotions that prevent us from being clear on what we want.

While it can be placed at the feet in meditation for grounding and energizing, you can also hold a clear quartz in one hand and a smoky quartz in the other. Contemplate those conditions and emotions you wish to release or change while mentally focusing on the smoky quartz; then ask for inspiration regarding accomplishing these changes.

Several crystals that, in their unpolished state have vertical striations or ridges, help energy move more smoothly. Among these are golden topaz, kunzite, danburite, and the tourmaline family.

The Essence of Timing

People are often confused about the differences between the FES essences, Cayenne, Blackberry, and Tansy. Blackberry is for those who feel stuck at the mental level. They feel unable to translate their ideas and goals into the actions that will bring them into being.

The properties of Cayenne are particularly suited to the subject of this article. It’s for those who procrastinate, and feel indecisive and stuck in inertia. This essence catalyzes one to action. You can think of it as building an energetic fire.

Tansy helps those who feel stuck in a laziness or lethargy that goes beyond procrastination. If you need Tansy you’re not thinking about doing something enough to procrastinate. The essence inspires one to take decisive action.

If procrastination itself is a pattern, it may have become a habit. Chestnut Bud (Bach) can help with unwanted repetitive behavior patterns.

All good things to think about (I think!) in this new decade 2010.

Live in Joy!

Lilly

One of the questions people most often ask about flower essences is, “How long will it take them to work?” One could as easily ask this about crystals or any other vibrational tool.

And there’s no specific answer I can give to this question because how fast you or I change is an individual issue, based on four vital elements: Intention, focus, commitment, and willingness.

How Vibrational Healing Works

My favorite explanation comes from Dr. Edward Bach, who discovered and developed the Bach Flower Remedies. He believed the source of all illness (whether mental, emotional, or physical) is conflict between one’s higher self and the personality (or ego).

“Higher self” is his phrase. I prefer the phrase, “spiritual” self (as distinct from physical self). This is the eternal, nonphysical aspect of each of us. Not only is it our direct connection to universal spirit, it has (for those who believe in reincarnation) been present for each of our visits to physical existence and remembers all we’ve learned in each incarnation. When we open ourselves up to its wisdom and energy, life on the physical plane can be a powerful and joyful experience.

Think of the connection between your spiritual and physical selves as a channel through which your spiritual self is constantly sending the physical self empowering messages. “You are a worthy person. Love yourself. Appreciate yourself. Celebrate yourself.” These messages are spiritual fuel, food to help you grow into someone who enjoys life and easily creates the fulfillment of your dreams.

Most people, however, are not getting this message. The one they hear says, “You made a mistake.” “That person doesn’t like you.” “You won’t get a raise.” “You’ll never find true love.” These messages always have emotional components: guilt, self-judgment, resentment that other people seem to have easier lives, etc. Our channel becomes blocked with mental and emotional sludge, and the spiritual fuel of the higher self can’t get through.

The role of vibrational healing, whether the specific method used is crystals, essences, Reiki, or any other modality, is to dissolve these blockages, thus clearing the channel and restoring the direct connection between the higher self and the physical self.

The Role of Intention

Choosing to take essences or to work with crystals, deciding which will be most appropriate, and taking the remedies or meditating with crystals on a regular basis are acts of intention. They announce that you want to release a condition/blockage limiting your life, and, in a more general way, that you choose to be happy and attuned to your spiritual nature. Such statements of intention set up a vibration that assists the essences or crystals in doing their work.

Sometimes that’s all you need to do. Mild blockages or those recently acquired are more easily and quickly dissolved. Someone who’s gone through a brief but intense period of stress and feels overwhelmed is likely to find she doesn’t need to do anything more than take Elm for a few weeks to a month (with Star of Bethlehem added, if feelings of trauma accompany the stress), sleep or meditate with an amethyst or aquamarine crystal, or give herself extra Reiki treatments. You can, of course, do all three.

When Emotions are Habits

You can most effectively release more deeply rooted and/or longer-held blockages by making a commitment to focus your attention on clearing up the psychic debris and unraveling the patterns that have created the habitual response.

Practical steps for expressing this commitment can include:

Create an Affirmation. This will have most effect when expressed positively, i.e., not. “I don’t want to feel guilty any more.” Say instead, “I accept myself just as I am.”

Meditate with Crystals Relating to Your Issue. Sugilite, for example, is a very good crystal for guilt. Rose quartz fosters love; while citrine and smoky can help to release blockages related to self-esteem. Quartz in all forms helps to release any kind of energy blockage.

As you meditate, visualize situations that in the past made you feel guilty. Imagine responding in a self-accepting way to these situations. Imagine yourself releasing any emotional charge these situations bring up and see yourself responding in a self-accepting way. When you do such visualizations, you are creating a future in which, when these situations come up in real life, you will respond in this positive way.

Also, imagine you are clearing up the channel between your spiritual and physical selves. Visualize that channel free of obstruction with any images you choose. Mentally sweep it with a broom, vacuum it, whatever works.

Keep a Dream Journal. Flower essences stimulate powerful dreams, and this is one way in which your being works through emotional blockages and releases them. When you’re connected to your creative dream life, you can have insights about the origins of your particular blockage. Insights help to shift energy and dissolve blockages.

Be Aware. Sometimes you know in advance that particular situations may activate the emotions and/or behavior you are working on releasing. If, for example, you’ve set reasonable boundaries about your children doing work around the house, but feel guilty and give in when they complain, take some time to think about this. Explore the situation in meditation.

Listen to Your Thoughts. This relates to the point above. What thought patterns enter your mind when you choose to act on your commitment to adopt a way of being?

“If I were a better parent, they’d do what they were supposed to do.” “I don’t want to be strict like my mother.” “Why don’t they just do the housework?” “It would be easier to do it myself.” Bringing these thoughts to the surface helps to weaken their energetic charge, which clears the way for more positive energy to flow through you.

Ask Others to Help. Ask your spouse, partner, or a close friend to tell you when you’re sinking into guilt. Don’t get angry with them when they keep their promises to do so.

Healing/Crisis/Opportunity

Sometimes people experience healing crises when they take essences, work with crystals, or practice Reiki in order to deal with a long-term emotional way of being. A healing crisis is a positive development that doesn’t always feel good.

Energetically speaking, a habitual way of being is embedded in one’s being. Think of it as the psychic/emotional equivalent of physical toxins. In order to clear up the passageway to the spiritual self, the toxins have to leave the being.

When one physically detoxifies, the release of the toxins can cause physical symptoms such as headache, nausea, headaches, skin rashes, etc. One feels worse before feeling better. In like manner, one may feel emotionally worse (for example, intensified guilt) before feeling the release of the emotions.

Emotions may also become intensified because one is very aware of them. Because of your commitment to release your particular emotional blockage, you will notice whenever it comes up.

Being Willing to Change

Often, unconscious resistance can create or intensify a healing crisis. As physical beings, our fear of the unknown may be greater than our dislike of our emotional habits.

At this point, Rescue Remedy (containing Rock Rose for terror), Aspen (for fear of the unknown), and Charoite (for both known and unknown fears) can be very helpful.

I have also found it valuable to “make believe.” This means, even if you don’t think you’ve ever experienced the energy and guidance of your spiritual self, you can begin thinking and acting as if it exists. You can say to yourself, “I choose to feel the energy of my spiritual self” or whatever affirmation feels appropriate to you. When you meditate, imagine a greater, eternal you, who’s visiting the physical plane.

That’s who you really are, and when you go through rough spots in the process of transformation, remind yourself of this.

Or, as your spiritual self might say, “You are a worthy person. Love yourself. Appreciate yourself. Celebrate yourself.”

Transformational Crystals and Essences

In addition to the crystals and essence I’ve noted in the course of this article, I find the following invaluable:

Danburite: I have become increasingly appreciative of this crystal. It helps us to view our lives from the soul perspective, and has helped me clean up psychic sludge many times.

Particular forms of quartz can be especially valuable in the work of transformation. Tabular quartz, for example, can act as a bridge between where we are and where we want to be.

Chrysocolla and amethyst are extremely calming crystals, wonderful to have around when nerves begin to fray.

If one of your issues is needing to screen out the negative energies of others, hematite is an especially helpful stone. Its flower essence equivalents are Yarrow (for general screening) and Pink Yarrow (for shielding from the emotions of those close to you).

Rhodochrosite is an indispensable crystal for anxious moments.

Walnut is one of the most popular Bach Flower Remedies, helping to ease traumas associated with transition and transformation.

Three Wild Earth Animal Essences are especially related to transformation in that the animals they are related to go through complete physical transformation several times in their lives.

They are Butterfly, Frog, and Salamander. In my experience, Butterfly helps to achieve a lightness of spirit about the process of transformation; while Frog can aid in emotional release. Salamander is a very subtle essence, which seems to guide one gently through the process of release and transformation.

Life is like a road. There are long and short roads; smooth and rocky roads; crooked and straight roads. In our life there are many roads which come our way as we undertake our great journey.

There are roads that lead to fame and fortune on one hand, or isolation and poverty on the other. There are roads to happiness as there are roads to sadness, roads towards victory and jubilation, and roads leading to defeat and disappointment.

Just like any road, there are corners, detours, and crossroads in life. Perhaps the most perplexing road that you could encounter is a crossroad. With four roads to choose from and with limited knowledge on where they would go, which road will you take? What is the guarantee that we would choose the right one along the way? Would you take any road, or just stay where you are: in front of a crossroad? There are no guarantees…

You do not really know where a road will lead you until you take it. There are no guarantees. This is one of the most important things to realize about life. Nobody said that choosing to do the right thing all the time would always lead you to happiness. Loving someone with all your heart does not guarantee that it would be returned. Gaining fame and fortune does not guarantee happiness.

Since life offers no guarantee and you would never know that your decision would be wrong until you have made it, then you might as well take the risk and decide. It is definitely better than keeping yourself in limbo. Although it is true that one wrong turn could get you lost, it could also be that such a turn could be an opportunity for an adventure, moreover open more roads. It is all a matter of perspective.

You have the choice between being a lost traveler or an accidental tourist of life, and ultimately this means having the courage, faith and belief to sometimes just “Go with the Flow”.

I’ve been at a crossroads the past few weeks. Not lost. Just an accidental tourist.

Miss you all like crazy …

xoxoxox

Lilly

You don’t stop very often to think about how you are feeling. And yet, how you are feeling is everything. How you are feeling is your point of attraction. How you are feeling is your asking from the Universe. How you are feeling is everything that is coming to you!

Most of you have not discovered that the Universe is conspiring to assist you. And so you work hard from an attitude of unworthiness, from a feeling that you are not enough, from a feeling that you have to justify. And what I want you to begin to do is recognize that the Universe is responding to the way you feel. So think about the way you feel.

Don’t think so much about what you’re thinking or about what you have or about how you compare with your actions or your possessions to others. Instead, think about how you feel. Ask yourself, “Am I sitting here in a feeling of well-being? Do I feel intimidated? Do I feel self-conscious? Do I feel inadequate? Do I feel unworthy? Or do I feel pretty good? Do I feel cocky? Do I feel full of myself? Do I feel in love with life? Do I feel exhilarated? Am I feeling fun? Am I feeling some passion?” How you’re feeling is what your point of attraction is.

Your Point of Attraction

If you’re feeling unworthy, you can work day and night, night and day, every day, and yet not allow the very things that you want to flow, because your vibration is not allowing it, and the Universe cannot buck your current. How you’re feeling is everything. So if I were standing in your physical shoes, I would let the contrast naturally produce the desire, because it will.

And when I feel a desire within me, I would look at it, I would recognize the weirdness of it, I would recognize how unfamiliar it feels, and then I would do what is my work: I will do the work that I have been born to do: My work is to take that new desire and play with it in my mind’s eye, until it feels familiar, until it feels like the manifestation of it is the next logical step.

The goal must exist to summon the Energy, but the goal can’t matter that much — or it stops the Energy.

Let us bring this to a place that if you get this, you will have quantum leaped into a new place of deliberate attraction: Most everybody stands here, dissatisfied to some degree, longing to be over there. But the whole point of that point of attention to over there is not to get over there. The whole point of the goal or the desire is that the desire summons Life Force through you.

That’s why you’re always wanting another goal, another goal, another goal. That’s why I say you will never get it done. So, “Why do I want that?” It’s an interesting thing, isn’t it? The goal must exist to summon the Energy, but the goal can’t matter that much, or it stops the Energy. You’re wanting the goal for the sake of the Energy that will flow through you, not for the sake of the manifestation.

A woman, one day, said to me, “I don’t think you care if my lover ever comes to me. I think you want me to envision him so clearly that in my mind’s eye, he is real — so real, that it doesn’t matter that he’s not really there.” And I said, that’s exactly right. I know when she feels him in that way, the pain will be gone from her, and the Life Force will flow through her, and all of her goals will be achieved. And I also know, then he must come. But it is not about him coming. It is about him being a goal that is reason for her to focus, that causes Life Force to flow through her. It is about the Life Force flowing through her.

I am delighted that you have unfulfilled goals, because as long as you have desire, Life Force is still flowing through you. From our Nonphysical perspective, I see the unfulfilled goal as the constant summoning of life. You say, “We want fulfilled goals!” And I say, Your goals will all be fulfilled when you get over being so unhappy that they’re not fulfilled — when you start being satisfied in the un-fulfillment!

The Cycle of Creation

Here I am. Here is this contrast that gives birth to a new desire. The new desire feels weird in the beginning, because this is where I’m used to vibrating. So I look at it; I talk about it; I visualize it; I play with it; I imagine it until it becomes familiar — and now it is the vibration that is me. And now we are one.

Now I have a new platform from which to examine contrast, which gives birth to another desire, which is also weird in the beginning. I’m a failure’ again; I haven’t succeeded. But I look at it; I visualize it; I find the feeling place of it; it gets familiar; I imagine it; and it becomes the next logical step. It manifests, and now here I am again… You never stop that cycle so long as you all shall live — which is forever.

You should say, “I will go forth into this physical time/space reality, because this is the best environment that I know of that will keep producing new desire within me. And nothing in all of the Universe is more delicious than to have new desire within me!”

Celebrate the desire that is within you, and stop cursing the fact that it isn’t fulfilled! It is the desire that is within you that is worth everything — it is life itself! You keep thinking that it must be manifested before you can feel good, and that is backwards. The fact that it exists is the reason for the Life Force.

There isn’t anything that you want or have ever wanted, or anybody has ever wanted or ever will want that is for any other reason than this: You want it because you think, in the having of it, you will feel better. And I am here to say to you, you want it because in the wanting of it, Life Force is summoned through you — and you are more alive. You are in the flow.

Being In The Flow is having goals that cause Energy to flow through you. It is being in such a place of expectation and acceptance of your eternal motion forward, that you are eternally in the flow. So people say, “How are you doing?” And you say, “Great!” And they say, “Well, is there anything not going well with you?” And you say, “Everything always goes well with me!” And they say, “Oh, but I see there are all these things incomplete in your experience.” And you say, “Yeah, isn’t it great? That means I’m still alive. I still have wanting, I’m still summoning life. That means I still have the future ahead of me. That means Life Force is still flowing.”

Have you ever found yourself eating an ice cream cone and wanting to make it last? Do you find yourself ever in a sexual interlude or in a delicious book, wanting it to last? You can tell you’re getting to the end of it, and you don’t want it to be over? You know that feeling of savoring? That’s the way we’re wanting you to be with your goals. And that may be why you’re not so eager to get on with the completion of everything. You’re recognizing that you have all of this life before you — so much wonderful stuff to do — never getting it done.

Where you now are is the perfect place to be, the perfect place to move from, the perfect place from which to attract. Nothing is inappropriate with where you are. There’s not one reason in this world for you to feel anything but proud about where you are and eager about what it will produce for you.

All things are possible. Oh, you can’t even begin to get your thoughts around what is before you! But you see, none of you are ever asked (and it’s a wonderful thing) to stand here and plan everything forevermore. Just stand where you are and let the natural desire that is born out of that come into alignment with you. That’s your work: Contrast produces it. You feel it, recognize it, and then line up your Energy with it.

You are born into an environment that will produce the goals. Your work is then to choose from those goals, focus, as the creator that you are, and in your focusing, allow the Energy to flow to the completion of those goals. There are endless possibilities.

So many of you spend your lifetimes arguing about what is an appropriate goal. I’m not kidding when I say you cannot get it wrong. There are no actions that are deemed inappropriate as such. Sometimes people say, you scare us, because as you talk about absolute freedom, we are afraid that you might give people permission to do bad things to other people.

Whether I give them permission or not, everybody’s going to do what they’re going to do, and you can’t get enough laws into place to keep that from happening. But I promise you, no one would ever do anything bad to any other at the same time they were connected to Source Energy. You never connect to Source Energy and lash out against anyone else.

As you are pushing against wrongdoers, even though they might be really doing wrong, your pushing against them disconnects you from any real power. You think the strongest one wins. But your pushing against them is dis-empowering you, and their pushing against you is dis-empowering them. So if your opponent wins, it is actually because you pushed against hardest.

When you are pushing against someone –you are weakening yourself. “My adversary won because I did a better job of disallowing my well-being. I pushed harder against him.” I’m just wanting to get a little twist on this, so that you can give up all that pushing against, because it never helps.

There has been co-creating here that has taken this thought beyond that which it has been before. Once you have an opportunity to review this, you will realize that together, we will have achieved a sort of quantum leap in understanding.

Live in Joy!
Lilly

Every so often (and not very often at all!) I come across a personal growth program that I truly believe is worth recommending and sharing. Today, I want to introduce you to a uniquely beneficial program that I implement on a daily basis, and I am certain you will want in your learning library.

This is a remarkable “must have” program. Please indulge me a moment while I explain why.

Joe Navarro is a former counterintelligence officer for the FBI and a recognized expert on nonverbal behavior. He spent his professional career developing a system for “reading” people that is used today by this top government agency.

This is not a program about the meaning of crossed arms! It’s an in-depth, easy-to-learn system for reading people’s true intentions through their body language. The truth is, what Joe has to say in this program is riveting, informative, and tremendously applicable to every encounter you have with every individual you now know or will meet.

I’m sure you’ve considered learning a new foreign language at some point in your life. Why? So you would be able to communicate in ways you couldn’t before. Well, Joe reminds us there is a language that will tell us more about an individual than any words can.

In his new program, The Power of Body Language, (published by Nightingale-Conant) he explains how to “speed-read” people: decode sentiments and behaviors, avoid hidden pitfalls, and look for deceptive behaviors. What’s more, he unveils how YOUR body language can influence what your boss, family, friends, and even strangers think of you.

Filled with examples from Navarro’s professional experience, this definitive program offers a powerful new way to navigate your world. You’ll learn:

? The ancient survival instincts that drive body language

? Why the face is the least likely place to gauge a person’s true feelings

? What thumbs, feet, and eyelids reveal about moods and motives

? The most powerful behaviors that reveal our confidence and true sentiments

? Simple nonverbals that instantly establish trust or communicate authority

(just to name a few!)

If you think learning a new language is important, put it on hold until you master learning about body language. You’ll be armed with the “decoder secret” about people’s motives and attitudes that most people never realize exist — knowledge that will change your life in ways you can’t begin to imagine.

It will take only one listen to The Power of Body Language, for you to learn how to detect what people really mean. It will send your nonverbal intelligence soaring! I guarantee that this program is going to give you an amazing edge when negotiating or even just getting to know a person for the first time. I find it very helpful when being approached by people interested in new business deals … or by guys who want to date my daughter!

Live In Joy!

Lilly

So blue you winding river flows,
It seems an outlet from the sky,
Where waiting till the west-wind blows,
The freighted clouds at anchor lie.

All things are new;–the buds, the leaves,
That gild the elm-tree’s nodding crest,
And even the nest beneath the eaves;–
There are no birds in last year’s nest!

All things rejoice in youth and love,
The fulness of their first delight!
And learn from the soft heavens above
The melting tenderness of night.

Maiden, that read’st this simple rhyme,
Enjoy thy youth, it will not stay;
Enjoy the fragrance of thy prime,
For oh, it is not always May!

Enjoy the Spring of Love and Youth,
To some good angel leave the rest;
For Time will teach thee soon the truth,
There are no birds in last year’s nest!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Often we regret and brood about past decisions – what we should or shouldn’t have done. Or we think of what we should now be doing and are not doing, of what we would like to learn, and it makes us uneasy.

We regret misunderstandings – words we wish we hadn’t said, words we wish we had said, mistakes we have made, people we have offended, opportunities gone by, errors and carelessness that could have been avoided, places we might have gone, things we might have been.

The past has its place and is valuable for lessons learned. The present also has its place, and what we cannot change should not now needlessly keep us from looking and moving forward. Nothing lost or left behind should keep us from now becoming what we can become, from learning what we now can learn.

There are new decisions every day, every hour, and reasons to improve and to repent. Whatever we are, wherever we’ve been, each day we have some opportunity to determine direction.

Each day we need to win, or keep – and certainly to deserve – the love of loved ones; each day to be more patient, more pleasant, more understanding. If there have been loved ones neglected, unreconciled differences, unspoken gratitude, unacknowledged debts, we ought to do now what we should do. If there has been within something that has soured us, we well would turn now to sweetening ourselves, for we hurt ourselves as well as others when we live below the level of our possibilities.

Whatever the past or its meaning, or its length, or its losses, or its lessons learned or left unlearned, we go on from where we are – wherever we are – and become what we can become; with work, repentance, improvement; with faith in the future.

Live in Joy!
Lilly

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater
and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble,
it’s a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit
to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Author – Max Ehrmann (1872 – 1945)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiderata

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

It is an absolute message about the vital force flowing within us and without us. It is about becoming aware of the negative, self-doubting and criticism in each of us that is projected outward daily. Before anything else, it’s about how to transform that negativity into a “positive” way of being, or comparably, a joy of Being.

As a intuitive healing arts practitioner and author with a 14 year private practice, I found Jacks book to be of immeasurable support and comfort to my clients and friends as they struggle to make spiritual sense of the intense suffering that sometimes accompanies life challenges. The insights gained through Lessons from the Source, shine a light of gentle, compassionate clarity and understanding to situations that could otherwise be harshly judged.

Also, like many, I have read spirituality-related material written by authors such as Gregg Braden, Judith Orloff, Ken Wilber, Doreen Virtue, Byron Katie, and Sonia Choquette. All outstanding authors, indeed. But after reading Lessons from the Source, I noticed that a subtle shift had taken place within me. I was able to distinguish and internalize the lessons in a way that was effortless; I felt and “knew” Jack’s guidance on an internal level, rather than just as an external idea to be discussed. Another sharp departure this book takes from others like it, is that Mr. Armstrong has written it without the ego that frequently accompanies spiritual teachings.

Why me? It is a question so often thought, cried, and asked by many. Blame is placed on higher powers as surely as emotion is felt. Isn’t it possible though, that our trials and tribulations, our painful experiences, are full of purpose? What if an author would share with you that your own soul actually planned for these things to happen? That there is indeed a reason for it all? If there have been simply too many “coincidences” in your life for them to be random, discover this book. It will help you believe in yourself and in the greater goodness and everlasting nature of all life.

If you feel inclined to read this book, I cannot recommend it highly enough. Excellent all the way to the end. Bravo, and Thank You, JACK, for courageously and eloquently presenting these delicately touching stories and insights. Thank you for giving us all the freedom to expand, accept, love ourselves more, and grow grow grow. Simply, Thank You!

~ Lilly ~

Lessons from the Source

Lessons from the Source (Kindle)

Website: http://www.lessonsfromthesource.com/
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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