bring it on

a quote from Abraham-Hicks, 10/6/96:

The intense intertwining of two people provides valuable contrast and motion forward that could not erupt without the powerful dynamics of two powerful creators coming together.

Your relationship literally provides a springboard for ideas that are born out of the intertwining of thoughts. The intense coupling of thinkers speeds and intensifies the decision making process.

There is enormous power in the contrast that erupts from two people blending ideas, situations, beliefs, intentions and desires.

Two working together provides more growth experiences for the human experience than one million people singularly focused.

When two beings, who are individually in vibrational harmony with their own Source Energy, come together — the physical experience of Co-Creation is at its very best.

harassed into clarity

thanks to The Vortex: Where the Law of Attraction Assembles All Cooperative Relationships, I have a new way to look at my favorite critics and cynics:

They show me what I do not want.

My mission, should I choose to accept it, is to use that information to increase my clarity about what I do want, keep my attention focused there, and see what happens.

from p. 231:

Don't ask the person or people who helped you define what you want to become what you want so that you can have what you want.

and p. 232:

And if the others could speak it like it really is, they'd say, "Hey, it's not my job to be everything you want. It was my job to harass you into clarity about what you want. And now that you're clear about what you want, can't you see I'm not it? Don't try to make me be it. Focus upon what you want and let that come to you, and leave me alone!"

Seems to me this works for any type of relationship -- with friends, lovers, homes, jobs, pets, and even cars. Some people, things, or situations pass through our lives to harass us into clarity -- to play the role of a catalyst, and then to release us to find what we desire elsewhere.

And sometimes it turns out that our newfound clarity matches up with what that person, thing, or situation wants to become. We realize we want a red car, and our Honda needs a paint job anyway. We realize we prefer a shorter commute, and a new branch opens up closer to home. We realize we'd rather kiss a nonsmoker, and he decides he is ready to quit.

When that happens, we can stay together awhile longer and enjoy our mutual expansion. But either way -- with or without the catalyst -- we are compelled to move ahead toward what we want once we have identified it. There's no going back.

tell me what you want what you really really want

Whenever you know what you do not want, you always know more clearly what you do want.

--- Abraham

Since not much is happening this week that I don't want (being on retreat and all), I'm not getting much practice with using what I don't want to help me define what I do want. I've mostly been hanging out in neutral. Which is fine. Soon enough something unwanted will come to my attention for me to experiment with. I'll get into gear when the time is right.

In the meantime, I'll be skipping around singing tell me what you want what you really really want, which I just learned comes from the song Wannabe by the Spice Girls (!) (I didn't think I knew anything by them ...)

favorite things

I'm now on my second or third reading of The Vortex: Where the Law of Attraction Assembles All Cooperative Relationships and I find new treasures to highlight each time. Before I went to sleep last night, my reading inspired me to dedicate today to a new experiment.

I don't think I mentioned here that I cleared most of my calendar this week to go on sort of a mini-retreat at home. I still drive my daughter around, and talk with her, and fulfill work commitments. But I'm not scheduling social visits or chatting on the phone. I'm not listening to any music in the car. I'm not reading the paper or listening to the news. I'm walking about two hours each day, stretching my body in new ways, eating very lightly, and spending as much time as I can in silence.

I've been more successful than I anticipated at wrangling my attention away from my mind and toward body awareness. It's become a fairly consistently effective strategy for settling my thoughts.

So now that I can put my mind in neutral, I want to learn how to put it in gear and go where I want, when I want, regardless of where the people and circumstances around me are heading. (sounds rather grandiose, doesn't it? LOL. This language will make more sense if you are an Abe fan.)

Anyway, my experiment for today is to practice steering my thoughts to topics that feel good. So I was very excited that when I woke up this morning, my first thought was I want to feel good.

Immediately, I kid you not, that song from The Sound of Music, My Favorite Things, started playing in my head. I love when I realize there is profound wisdom in something that's been around for ages and I just never noticed. (this song and Row, Row, Row Your Boat could have been written by Abraham)



All the guidance I need for today's experiment is right in the lyrics: when I'm feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite things and then I don't feel so bad. But since whiskers and packages aren't actually my favorite things, I think I'm gonna make up my own words.

Here's what Abraham said about it on page 164:

We are encouraging you to focus your attention upon thoughts that please you, even when there is no pleasing evidence to observe.

ps: ooh, and look at today's daily quote!

My Every Thought Is Attracting Its Vibrational Essence...

Whether you are thinking about wanted things or unwanted things, you are still sending out a request to attract more things like the subject of your thought. And all things that happen to you - all people, things, experiences, situations that come to you - come in response to your Vibrational invitation.

Noticing how things are turning out for you is one very clear way of understanding which Vibrational requests you are emanating, because you always get the essence of what you are thinking about, whether you want it or not. --- Abraham

The Vortex

I am loving Abraham's new book, The Vortex. My copy is dog eared already and I brought it home only three hours ago! This concept alone was worth the cost of the entire book to me:

Anytime what someone else thinks about you becomes more important than your own balance with self, you are in a less-than-healthy position. Anytime you take action to try to manipulate or affect others' opinions or attitudes toward you, you are in an less-than-healthy position, because you are replacing your own Guidance System with their opinion.

there's no one in your way

Of the many empowering and inspiring concepts I've learned from Abraham-Hicks over the years, one of my favorites is the idea that there's no one who can keep you from happiness, joy, and success.

You are the creator of your own reality, and so you are not in jeopardy. You do not need to control the behavior of others in order for you to thrive. Your attention to things that you think they do that keeps you from your thriving is, in fact, what keeps you from your thriving... It is not what they do to you; it's what you do to you in fear of what you think that they will do to you. -Abraham-Hicks

In the plainest and simplest terms, it is your attention that determines whether you thrive or not, not the actions or attitudes of others. That's not what most of us have been taught, so it takes a little mental retraining to keep your attention on the roses instead of fixating on the thorns. But even in the most challenging situation, there is something positive to focus on.

For example, let's look at the economic situation. Any roses there? Sure! People are talking to each other. Kindness and generosity are thriving. Families are spending more time together. Creativity is being called forth to provide new and exciting solutions. Communities are coming together. Gardens are springing up everywhere. Values are realigning. There is much to celebrate.

Only your own thoughts can interfere with your momentum. So take the focus off of what anyone else is doing, look around for the positives, and ride that wave of joy until the next one catches your attention. Don't waste one precious minute blaming anything outside of you for your lot in life. Lots of us haven't yet learned how to harness our attention. Luckily, it's pretty easy to master, once you point your effort in the right direction. It's certainly far easier than trying to force agreement, convince others to step aside, or barrel through external resistance.

Let your alignment (with Well-Being) be first and foremost, and let everything else be secondary. And not only will you have an eternally joyous journey, but everything you have ever imagined will flow effortlessly into your experience. There is nothing you cannot be or do or have—but your dominant intent is to be joyful. The doing and the having will come into alignment once you get that one down.
Abraham-Hicks in Portland, OR on Wednesday, July 14th, 2004

If you could get to the place where you no longer feel a need to push against anything that you disagree with--you would become in alignment with what you do agree with. Even within your own body, it is your pushing against those things you don't agree with, that causes you to be out of alignment with what you do agree.
Excerpted from the workshop in Philadelphia, PA on Monday, May 13th, 2002

Since nothing matters to you other than your personal alignment with your individual goals or desires, then that is where our work is. We are not here to debate the rightness or the wrongness of what you, or anyone, chooses. We are not taking sides, for or against, anything. We are here to help you understand that your life can be as wonderful or as horrible as you allow it to be. It all depends upon the thoughts that you practice. And therein lies the basis of anyone's success: How much do I practice thoughts that bring me joy, and how much do I practice thoughts that bring me pain?
Excerpted from the workshop in San Francisco, CA on Saturday, March 8th, 2003

Let others vibrate as they vibrate and want the best for them. Never mind how they're flowing to you. You concentrate on how you're flowing. Because one who is connected to the Energy Stream is more powerful, more influential than a million who are not.
Excerpted from the workshop in Portland, OR on Tuesday, June 10th, 1997

conspiracy exposed

Oh my gosh, how could I have been so stupid?

I fell for all the Law of Attraction hype. I voraciously devoured the plethora of advice about How to Manifest. Yes, there are things and situations I want that I don't have! Sign me up for the program that teaches me how to get them!

Well, heads up, Abraham-Hicks, Louise Hay, The Secret, and other such snake-oil salesmen. I have seen the tiny wizard behind the big curtain, and the gig is up. I know this is all a bait and switch scheme. I've figured out what you are REALLY trying to do with all this manifestational crap. You can't fool me one minute longer.

You don't care whether or not I ever manifest the house, job, car or life of my dreams. You tricked me ... baited me by dangling the fulfillment of my desires in front of me ... told me I could have it all if I just changed my thinking.

But this was never about the future, was it? Huh? Admit it!! You had the bald-faced audacity to actually want me to be happy NOW. But you knew that I wouldn't think that was enough, didn't you? So you went along with me, pretending the future mattered, teaching me how to manifest, telling me to reach for a thought that feels better.

And all the while, you knew that by changing my thoughts in order to attract or create what I wanted in the future, I would become happy in this moment, even before I manifested anything!

It's the crime of the century as far as I'm concerned. The ultimate sleight of hand. While I was busy making a vision board, creatively visualizing, and writing in my Done Book, earnestly imagining how my future would feel, some of that joy seeped into my experience of the present moment. And once that leak started, it wouldn't stop.

See what you have done? Now I am so happy in this moment that I don't even worry about the future any more.

It's brilliant!!!

You were right, by the way. I didn't believe that being fully present and happy in the moment would be enough. It's just too simple, too darn easy.

I really thought there had to be more to it than this. I needed to be tricked out of my delusion that hard work, noble effort, and due diligence were the only way to earn the rewards of satisfaction and joy. And you found the perfect way to do it.

Thank you for everything. I have no complaint whatsoever.


p.s. several hours later: oooh, check out this abe quote I just stumbled across! nice synchronicity, eh? they say it much better than I did ...


As you set a goal to achieve a new house, or a new body size and a shape, or a new occupation - and you reach that goal - you misunderstand, thinking that the new house or new body or new job was the subject of creation, when all along the subject of creation is your state of being.

In this physical experience you use the format of houses and bodies and jobs to facilitate your state of being - but none of those physical things are the subject of your creation. YOU ARE THE SUBJECT OF YOUR CREATION. YOUR STATE OF BEING, OR THE WAY YOU FEEL, IS THE SUBJECT OF YOUR CREATION.

If you will seek ways to observe your state of being, you will have a clearer understanding of how you are doing in the creation of you. If you will deliberately identify the way you want to feel or be, you will be more effective in achieving that which you came into this body to achieve.

- Abraham-Hicks

a novel idea

the intention I've been playing with lately is Acceptance.

it's kind of an interesting line to walk. to the left I perceive total surrender to whatever is happening at the moment ... for example, immersing myself fully in the joys of life as a single mother: tons of time with my daughter, lots of writing, more sleep, long uninterrupted sessions of organizing and getting caught up on paperwork, leisurely phone calls with friends, and many slow walks in the sunshine.

to the right side of this line I see the opportunity to create my future experiences by dreaming them and allowing them in ... for example, feeling joyful anticipation about the relationship that I have been creating in my Done Book, seeing couples sharing beautiful moments and thinking, "That's where I am headed," feeling my hands in the clay and molding my future.

I haven't quite mapped out my unique and dynamic balance between these two activities yet. I suspect that what I currently perceive as a dichotomy -- these being on opposite sides of some arbitrary center -- probably isn't.

So my next experiment will be spending about 20 minutes twice a day engaging in intentionally creative daydreaming, and the rest of the time keeping my focus on my bodily sensations in the moment. Seems like a decent place to start, and I can make adjustments until it feels maximally nourishing and fun. I'm open to suggestions if you have any to share ...

DONE box

just spent some time with a vivacious and enthusiastic friend who is also an Abe fan, and she shared a wonderful idea that I want to pass along to you. (and record for myself!)

Abraham-Hicks (http://www.abraham-hicks.com/) talks about the three steps to the Law of Attraction: 1) ask, 2) it is given, 3) line up with it vibrationally and receive it.

I'm thinking about it in restaurant terms lately: 1) I place my order, 2) the chef prepares it and the waiter delivers it, 3) I visit with friends while I wait, and savor it when it arrives.

My friend reminded me that many of us get stuck in step one, and just keep asking over and over again. This is like reminding the waiter what you ordered every time you see him. It's not speeding anything up, though. Just making your wait (while the chef is busy cooking) more unpleasant.

My friend also enjoys writing scenarios, like I do in my Wish Book. She heard somewhere along the line that she should re-read them daily. If doing that helps you attain the good feeling of being inside your scenario, that's a great idea. But, if it keeps you focused on the icky feeling of WANTING it, but not LIVING it, then it's not helping.

If you happen to feel stuck in the wanting feeling, here's something to try. Write your scenario one time, date it, fold it up, and put it in a shoe box in your closet that has been labelled DONE. You have now completed step one: placing your order.

Then leave that box alone, and go do whatever it takes to raise your vibration ... pet the cat, tend the garden, call a friend, go for a run, take a class, sing a song. Keep your actions and thoughts focused on whatever makes your heart sing, and forget all about your request. That's step three: lining up with your desire vibrationally. Enjoy the wait! It is coming. Prepare to give it a warm welcome when it arrives.

And actually, we are asking all the time, so there's no need to make the process this explicit unless it brings you joy to do this. Simply by bumbling your way through the day, you have registered hundreds of preferences. Stuck in traffic, you wish for flow. Hungry, you wish for nourishment. Tired, you wish for rest. Angry, you wish for peace. It's happening on autopilot.

But I find this idea intriguing, so I'm changing the name of my Wish Book to my Done Book. It's a more accurate reflection of what I'm really doing with it.

how is this exactly what I wanted?

I'm playing around with a new self-inquiry prompt whenever I am feeling disappointed, upset, or in resistance to something: How is this exactly what I wanted? The answer exposes my hidden conflicting intentions.

Here's an example: When I first started my private practice, I was intensely focused on getting more clients. I studied marketing, took action on everything I learned, and then felt sort of mystified when my client base didn't markedly increase.

When I applied my question to this quandary in hindsight, it was quite illuminating. How was having not very many clients exactly what I wanted? The answer practically jumped out at me. Ever since I first became a parent, I have been unwavering in my resolve to be home for my kids. More clients would have meant less time and energy to devote to parenting. And of course, the strongest and clearest intention had the most energy backing it up, so it won out.

I don't ask myself this question to change anything, but rather to empower myself. It helps me realize that I am in the driver's seat and have been all along. When I bring the hidden conflicting intentions to the surface, I see that I am not at the mercy of caprice or some external force. I have created exactly what I wanted the most, whether I was consciously aware of that desire or not.

As soon as I remember that I am indeed in the driver's seat, I can take the wheel and steer myself in a different direction if I wish. Sometimes a new idea that synthesizes my conflicting intentions suggests itself, such as teaching classes or doing group sessions to increase my client base without detracting from my commitment to my family.

And sometimes I just sit back and smile, and decide not to change a thing. Because quite often it it becomes clear to me that the situation is actually perfect exactly as it is.

Wish Book update

Wow, is this ever fun! Today I was out in the world and I had an uncomfortable interaction with someone. Almost immediately, I felt the urge to go straight home and re-write it the way I wanted it to happen in my Wish Book.

There was very little mental rehearsal about what had happened. Instead my mind jumped straight into, "How would I like this to be instead?"

I'm finding that it's virtually impossible for me to write a scenario without feeling as if I am inside of it. An immediate and discernible vibrational shift occurs when I put pen to paper.

I can't seem to both remember and create at the same time, and it feels so much better to create.

I'm quite enthralled with this magical process. I think I'll get a tiny Wish Book to carry around with me in my purse!

random thoughts from my shower

maybe I should change the name of this blog to Postcards from My Shower. Inspiration finds me there almost daily -- to the point that I've been considering keeping a pad of paper and a pen in the bathroom. My son says there's military stuff that you can write on while it's wet ...

today's thought:

I couldn't apply for construction financing by walking into a bank and saying, "Hi! I'm a really honest and trustworthy and nice person, and I want to build something. Will you loan me some money? I promise I'll use it wisely and pay you back." This might elicit a giggle, but probably won't result in a big fat check made out to my name.

It doesn't matter what kind of person I am, or for that matter, how nice the people are who work at the bank. They won't give me a loan until they see at least a rough drawing of what I plan to do with it. Same thing with grants, which you don't have to pay back. They still want to know how you are going to spend it.

Maybe the process of manifestation is the same - rather than trying to prove to the universe that I deserve more money, perhaps I just need to get more specific about what I plan to do with it. Since money is a means to an end, maybe I can skip the middleman and focus on the final outcome.

For most of my life, I was severely imaginatively impaired. I simply didn't fantasize, ever. I paid attention to only what was in front of me, and dealt with that. It never ocurred to me that I could create with my imagination.

For example, if I was out in the cold, I never thought to remember or imagine being warm and toasty in front of a roaring fire, and let the warmth in my mind seep into my body. I was not aware that scientists had discovered that thinking about doing something activates the same neurons as physically doing it. So I would just shiver.

If our family income was reduced, I just tightened the belt and cut non-essentials out of the budget. It never ocurred to me that we could manifest more money in any way other than working hard for it.

I started experimenting with the power of imagination when I began listening to Abraham-Hicks. Since then, money that I did not earn has been finding me, which is fantastic. But I'm still a newbie in this imagination thing. My vision board helps me, since lots of inspiring images of abundance are gathered in one place. However, my primary modality for imagination seems to be kinesthetic. I can remember and imagine how things feel much easier than how they look.

I used to think that since I could not visualize, I could not manifest. Now I know that some imaginations are visual, some are auditory, some are kinesthetic -- each one of the five senses could come into play. Turns out I was manifesting all along without realizing it. Since my attention was so anchored on 'reality', and I didn't know how to fantasize, I just kept attracting more of what I already had -- not much money, or whatever. Now it's time to learn how to imagine what I want so I can attract something new!

Which is where my new Wish Book comes into play. (it's the journal where I write stories of my life the way I want it to feel.) Maybe it really IS a catalog, and when I access the feelings I want to have, I am placing my order with the universe. I can't wait to experiment with this!

wishful thinking

got accused of doing that recently ... wishful thinking, I mean.
I think it might have been intended as an insult.
I took it as a really nice compliment.

It sounded fun to make some New Year's Resolutions this year, and guess what topped my list? Imagine more. I wanted to play with creating my experience internally rather than reacting habitually to my external circumstances.

and even though we are only a few weeks into January, I have already done it enough that it shows?

Cool.

recipe for a sweet life

My summer romance has recently come to completion, and I want to be intentional during the letting go process to make sure I have integrated the things from the relationship that I want to carry forward as well as released anything I don't wish to repeat.

So I spent a few hours hanging out on my favorite rock in the mountains today, and as soon as my mind finally stopped jumping around like a caffeinated preschooler, I was gifted with a whopper of an insight: Just don't put it in your pie!

Weird, right? Yeah, I thought so too when I first heard it on an Abraham-Hicks CD a while ago. Maybe a bit of background might help to put it into context.

Some of you have commented to me that my recent posts have been sort of fixated on the topics of judgment, criticism, and cynicism. True enough! Those are dynamics I haven't had a lot of experience dealing with in someone close to me until I became involved in this relationship.

So I would be sort of bewildered when he would say something like You shouldn't eat that before bed or You are too involved with your kids. I'm thrilled that I got to experience comments like this, though, because I learned about that little translator in my head that I wrote about before, which turned out to be really good at converting those You-Statements to I-Statements so I could decipher the loving intentions beneath them: I want you to sleep well tonight. I hope we can have some time alone soon.

Friends told me that my translator was all nice and good for now, but they didn't want me to have to use it forever. It became sort of automatic, or so I thought, so I wasn't really worried about it. Sometimes, my translator didn't work fast enough, and I'd respond defensively. I was so curious about those times that I did a lot of writing about it to try to understand and re-awaken my compassion. As you know, writing is good medicine for me.

Okay, now, back to the pie. Here's the metaphor a la Abe:

Life is like a big kitchen with millions of ingredients in the well-stocked pantry -- including flavors that some people savor and other people despise. There's sugar and salt, coconut and rhubarb, mincemeat and peaches, all right next to each other on the shelves. There's joy and anger, appreciation and cynicism, judgment and gratitude, war and peace.

We each enter into this well-stocked pantry intending to bake the pie that is our personal life experience. We add ingredients to our pie by paying attention to them. So every time I noticed his cynicism and tried to understand it, I was putting it in my pie! And I just could not understand why my pie tasted so funny, so I kept trying to add more compassion to sweeten it up.

So to me, Just don't put it in your pie means stop trying to understand it. Stop writing about it, stop thinking about it, stop trying to explain how I feel when hear it. Stop focusing on it! Just friggin' keep my eyes moving and turn my attention elsewhere.

Each person in front of me has numerous qualities I could focus on in any given moment -- some sweet, some bitter. It's not helpful to stand in the pantry looking at the rhubarb or the cynicism and think, Hey, what's that doing on the shelf? That shouldn't be here! Get that outta here. I don't want it to sour my sweet apple pie!

Just because I don't like how something tastes does not mean I have the need or the right to take it out of the pantry. To someone else, it could be a delicacy. It can't get into my pie unless I put it there, so it's okay to just let it be.

I still have a lot to learn about how to keep my attention focused only on what I want in my own pie. I keep peeking over at the mincemeat, thinking maybe I could just sneak a little bit of sugar in there and then it might not taste so bad if it happens to get into my pie.

And every time I look at it, a little bit of yucky meaty goo gets sprinkled onto my apples. But I'll get it figured out sooner or later, I'm sure. It's good that it tastes so bad, because that way, I notice it quicker.

let it grow

got up early this am and was out on the trail by 7:20. I was aiming for the sunrise, but that didn't quite happen. it was a spectacular day, and I did my favorite kind of hiking -- walking slowly from big rock to big rock, covering very little ground, and spending the better part of 2 hours sitting and soaking up the sights and smells and sounds as the sun warmed my body from above and the rock cooled it from below.

it's a treat to move that slowly and aimlessly, and my mind usually quiets right down. thoughts of planning are replaced by thoughts of appreciation, and concepts that had been lodged in my mind often percolate down into my heart.

today I was pondering manifestation. Abraham-Hicks, The Secret, Napoleon Hill, and many many others have taught us that there are three steps - Ask, Let It Go, and Receive/Allow. As I walked along, I found myself thinking, "Oh, I should use this time to get clear about what I want next." I laughed out loud at the absurdity of spending this gorgeous day lost in my thoughts. And it hit me like a lightning bolt that I have been investing far more energy than is truly necessary in the Asking part.

In fact, I may have gotten so specific in my requests that I am actually being counter productive. So a new experiment was born in me. What if I just assume that I am already constantly asking, and instead put my energy and focus into the other two steps? I've heard Abraham-Hicks suggest this dozens of times. And today, I got it.

If I ask for a feeling, rather than the material details, it's just like placing an order at a restaurant. I don't need to go into the kitchen and supervise the cook - I can sit out in the clean and quiet dining room and enjoy myself with friends while my meal is prepared for me.

Almost everything I've ever wanted has eventually arrived - usually after I forgot about it. So I decided to let go of asking, and instead just enjoy what is here now, while assuming that more good things I will like are on their way.

And when I got back in the car, this song was playing on the radio:

http://www.last.fm/music/Eric+Clapton/_/Let+It+Grow

the nudge

I got rear-ended in a minor fender bender last week. My car had only the teensiest bit of damage, but it's amazing how strongly my neck is reacting to that little love tap!

I've been blessed with good people at every stage of the process. The woman who hit me was compassionate and kind, and sent me to her massage therapist the very next day. He is nothing short of a miracle worker with magic hands, and I instantly pledged my unmitigated devotion and became a client for life. (If you live anywhere near Louisville, CO, I'd urge you call him immediately, except that I hope he doesn't get so busy that I can't see him when I want to! Jeremy at Louisville Massage Center, downtown on Main St. 303 665 2563)

The claims adjuster has been nothing but helpful, and my chiropracter is working with her to bill them directly. (Since I'm on a referring roll today: Dr. Joel Fry at Elite Chiropractic) So it's all been virtually seamless.

It's funny, I know some folks who would think having an accident meant they were somehow vibrationally out of alignment. They might look for metaphorical significance in it; take it as a sign of something needing to be fixed in their lives.

But I'm getting a kick out of a very different interpretation - that the accident is nothing more and nothing less than an opportunity to connect with myself and my fellow earthmates in new and interesting ways. Exactly the same kind of opportunity that comes my way every day -- in line at the grocery store, or with the person who bumps into me in a crowd. Wait .... there's a song about this! .... oh yeah! Peter Gabriel. The time I like is the rush hour, cos I like the rush. The pushing of the people - I like it all so much. Such a mass of motion - do not know where it goes. I move with the movement and ... I have the touch.

Well, I bet that will be playing in my head for hours now, if not days. But earlier today I found myself repeating the phrase I read in an article a long time ago by Alan Cohen:

Thank you for everything. I have no complaint whatsoever.

And it was true. Ahh, the grace of it all!

today's abraham quote

Be easy about this. Be playful about it. Don't work so hard at it. Let your dominant intent to be to feel good, and if you don't feel good, then let your dominant intent be to feel relief. Feel your way through it. If you think your way through it, you can get off on all kinds of tangents. If you feel your way through it, you can come quickly to your Core Energy, and when you do that only good can then flow to you.

Excerpted from a workshop in Rye, NY on Sunday, October 12th, 1997

All Is Well

www.abraham-hicks.com

relationship life preservers

I just finished writing a marathon email to a friend whose husband has more or less checked out of their marriage and is ignoring her. I wanted to share it with you, too, in case it resonates with anyone.

~

Now that I'm back at my computer and thinking clearly, I wanted to share one more relationship idea. It's radical, and you may feel kinda repulsed by it, so I'll just throw it out there trusting that you will either pitch it out or experiment with it as you see fit.

I guess it's based on a few premises which might seem really silly when you first hear them. Even if they sound like crap, it might be worth an experiment. At the risk of dangerous oversimplification, I'll try to describe them briefly.

Most men need a mission in life. They are wired to feel good when they make a difference or accomplish something. When they feel aimless or useless for whatever reason, and that reason might have nothing at all to do with their relationship, they can sort of implode into depression.

This might sound really stupid, but I haven't yet met a man who did not thrive on feeling like his woman's hero. Of course that has nothing to do with income, competence, or anything material. It's emotional. They want to know that they have something unique and powerful to offer to their lover. And they do, or we would not have chosen them. Sometimes they need to be reminded about what that is when they have lost sight of it.

The woman who loves him can sometimes offer a temporary lifeline into feeling like a hero again with two strategies: speaking only gratitude, and asking for their help.

These are sort of "medicinal" strategies; applied in specific doses to support a healing from within. You are right that we cannot truly bring anyone out of depression or change them.

These are just life preserver rings that we throw out into the water. We feel better having something to try, and he may just grab hold of one and pull himself to the side of the boat.

So the life preservers might look like this: when he gets home, the first thing he hears is that you are happy to see him. If that's not even true at this point, then maybe it's true that your daughter is happy to see him, so you say that with sincerity.

Then you might ask for his help on something for dinner. The request is really straightforward. "Honey, will you mash those potatoes for me?" If he does it, great. You don't help him or make suggestions or comments, even if he does it completely wrong.

When he's done, you say a warm and simple thank you. All the better if it is accompanied by a kiss, a gentle touch on the shoulder, or at least eye contact.

If he doesn't do it, that's fine too. You were planning on doing it yourself anyway, so you just take care of it.

The rest of the night goes this way. Mostly gratitude and appreciative comments, sprinkled with an occasional request, which is offered in complete neutrality only one time. If he does it, he hears more gratitude. If not, you just do it with no comment.

If you honestly can't find one thing to appreciate, then don't say anything until you can. If you have to dig, you could look for something he did around the house back when he was feeling good, like, "Wow, I feel so lucky to have this terrific deck that you made for us,"or whatever.

The whole time you are taking care of yourself emotionally, listening to yourself, acknowledging your feelings internally, and doing whatever it takes to unilaterally calm your own anxiety or anger. When you need to vent some steam, do it with girlfriends.

A few days of this might help him to let his guard down a little bit and show some vulnerability or emotion. If he does, you'll want to meet his disclosures with as much understanding as you can. One way to do that is to simply repeat what you think he is expressing back to him, and wait for his confirmation, and ask if there's more. Then ask if you can share your feelings about it before doing so.

Even if he does not open or soften, it might be good medicine for you, anyway. We always feel better when we focus our attention on finding things to appreciate, and it takes our minds off of noticing what is so painfully wrong.

Yes, it can take a LOT of discipline to do this. And if I know only one thing about you it's that you are a powerful woman! Even if all you can muster is one appreciative comment in an evening of otherwise gentle and accepting silence, it's still something.

so anyway, sorry, that was pretty long. I'll shut up now and just say that I am wishing you both all the best.



Karen Alonge
720 771 8915
www.karenalonge.com
Contact me to schedule a parenting consultation by phone,
or to register for Connected Parenting classes near Boulder, CO.

chillin' with the billin'

I've been doing something sort of weird lately. Well, let's get real .... I do a lot of weird things all the time! This one's about money.

Paying bills used to suck for me. I would sit down with a big ol' pile of 'em and a very small checking account balance, and start juggling accounts and transfers and due dates, often hedging my bets by mailing a check in before I had earned the money to cover it. It worked - I always made the deposit in time and have never bounced a check. But, lemme tell you, it was freakin' stressful.

Then I read a tip in one of those prosperity consciousness books, probably Busting Loose from the Money Game.

Now I make bill paying an event. I gather up my favorite calculator, my big purple gel pen, a nice cool beverage, and put on some music. Then I open each bill, and read the itemized statement. If I see a charge for Target, for example, I think fondly back to that errand and remember what I bought, appreciating the joy or efficiency or nourishment that each item has contributed to my life.

If I can't remember exactly what I bought, I just remember the feeling of putting things I want into my cart, and the joy of seeing abundance in my cupboards or new clothes in my closet. If it's the electric bill, I think about how comfortable my house is, and how much I love having light at the flip of a switch. If it's the water bill, I appreciate my long hot showers and indoor plumbing.

Then, while feeling awash in gratitude, I write that check. And in the memo line, I write a big THANKS!! in my purple pen, and underline it for emphasis. Then I seal it with a kiss, and add it to my pile of outgoing mail.

It sounds kinda silly, but this simple little change in my routine has made a huge impact on my attitude toward bills.

Instead of dreading feeling the pinch of money going out, I revel in the richness of abundance that has come in. And without even noticing it, I have eased my way into not needing to do the transfer game anymore.

Now the money is already there when I need it... sometimes there's even some left over! Might be a coincidence. I dunno. But I can't deny that long before I noticed that the money was where I needed it to be, I was feeling much better about paying bills. And how can that be a bad thing?

automated reminders

I often get so mentally focused on writing or researching that I remain immobile in front of my computer screen for hours. So I am grinning at the irony of the new free software I just downloaded, which automatically flashes a reminder message on my screen at intervals I select. I wrote my own messages, which say things like look out the window, get up and stretch, take a drink of water, etc. Yes, I still have to look at the screen to see the reminder, but since that's what I'm doing anyway, it works! just going with the flow here ... starting where I am. :)

http://www.motivator.ws/motivator/default.aspx?sj=true

insightful article on The Secret

http://www.themastersofthesecret.com/letter/

carnival of deliberate creation

visit here to find links to lots of cool blog entries about the Law of Attraction ... including mine! :)

http://www.optimistlab.com/index.php/2007/03/21/the-carnival-of-deliberate-creation-2-perspectives/

the science behind the law of attraction

thanks to my friend chari for passing this along to me. sorry about all the >> ... I'm just not in the mood to go through line by line and remove them. :)

I can't vouch for the scientific validity of these studies, and they make some bold claims that I would probably not be comfortable making based on these results, but I thought it was interesting reading nonetheless.


Energy Research Corp. has developed
>> a product they believe can effect (heal), even to the cellular level,
>> with no physical contact. It is based on quantum energy. The results
>> of their beta test with 600 volunteers over 8 months is astonishing.
>> *Understanding a Secret of the Universe*
>> Below are three astonishing experiments with DNA which proves that
>> DNA can heal itself according to the "feelings" of the individual as
>> reported recently by Gregg Braden. In his recent program entitled
>> Healing Hearts/Healing Nations: The Science of Peace and the Power of
>> Prayer, Gregg Braden discussed how in the past we lost huge amounts
>> of information from ancient spiritual traditions (when the library at
>> Alexandria burned we lost at least 532,000 documents), and that there
>> may be information in those traditions which could help us understand
>> some of the mysteries of science. To this end he reported on three
>> very interesting experiments. Gregg Braden started off as a scientist
>> and engineer, before he began pursuing these larger questions.
>>
>> *EXPERIMENT #1*
>>
>> The first experiment reported was done by Dr.Vladimir Poponin, a
>> quantum biologist. In this experiment, first a container was emptied
>> (i.e. a vacuum was created within it), and then the only thing left
>> photons (particles of light) they measured the distribution (ie the
>> location) of the photons and found they were completely random inside
>> the container. This was the expected result.
>>
>> Then some DNA was placed inside the container and the distribution
>> (location) of the photons was remeasured. This time the photons were
>> LINED UP in an ORDERED way and aligned with the DNA. In other words
>> the physical DNA had an effect on the non- physical photons.
>>
>> After that, the DNA was removed from the container, and the
>> distribution of the photons was measured again. The photons REMAINED
>> ORDERED and lined up where the DNA had been. What are the light
>> particles connected to?
>>
>> Gregg Braden says we are forced to accept the possibility that some
>> NEW field of energy, a web of energy, is there and the DNA is
>> communicating with the photons through this energy.
>>
>> *EXPERIMENT #2*
>>
>> These were experiments done by the military. Leukocytes (white blood
>> cells) were collected for DNA from donors and placed into chambers so
>> they could measure electrical changes. In this experiment, the donor
>> was placed in one room and subjected to "emotional stimulation"
>> consisting of video clips, which generated different emotions in the
>> donor. The DNA was placed in a different room in the same building.
>> Both the donor and his DNA were monitored and as the donor exhibited
>> emotional peaks or valleys (measured by electrical responses), the
>> DNA exhibited the IDENTICAL RESPONSES AT THE EXACT SAME TIME. There
>> was no lag time, no transmission time. The DNA peaks and valleys
>> EXACTLY MATCHED the peaks and valleys of the donor in time.
>>
>> The military wanted to see how far away they could separate the donor
>> from his DNA and still get this effect. They stopped testing after
>> they separated the DNA and the donor by 50 miles and STILL had the
>> SAME result. No lag time; no transmission time.
>>
>> The DNA and the donor had the same identical responses in time. What
>> can this mean? Gregg Braden says it means that living cells
>> communicate through a previously unrecognized form of energy. This
>> energy is not affected by time and distance. This is a non- local
>> form of energy, an energy that already exists everywhere, all the time.
>>
>> *EXPERIMENT #3*
>>
>> The third experiment was done by the Institute of Heart Math and the
>> paper that was written about this was titled: Local and Non local
>> Effects of Coherent Heart Frequencies on Conformational Changes of
>> DNA. (Disregard the title! The info is incredible.)
>>
>> This is the experiment that relates directly to the anthrax
>> situation. In this experiment, some human placenta DNA (the most
>> pristine form of DNA) was placed in a container from which they could
>> measure changes in the DNA. Twenty-eight vials of DNA were given (one
>> each) to 28 trained researchers. Each researcher had been trained how
>> to generate and FEEL feelings, and they each had strong emotions.
>>
>> What was discovered was that the DNA CHANGED ITS SHAPE according to
>> the feelings of the researchers:
>> 1. When the researchers FELT gratitude, love and appreciation, the
>> DNA responded by RELAXING and the strands unwound. The length of the
>> DNA became longer.
>>
>> 2. When the researchers FELT anger, fear, frustration, or stress, the
>> DNA responded by TIGHTENING UP. It became shorter and SWITCHED OFF
>> many of our DNA codes! If you've ever felt "shut down" by negative
>> emotions, now you know why your body was equally shut down too. The
>> shut down of the DNA codes was reversed and the codes were switched
>> back on again when feelings of love, joy, gratitude and appreciation
>> were felt by the researchers.
>>
>> This experiment was later followed up by testing HIV positive
>> patients. They discovered that feelings of love, gratitude and
>> appreciation created 300,000 TIMES the RESISTANCE they had without
>> those feelings. So here's the answer to what can help you stay well,
>> no matter what dreadful virus or bacteria may be floating around.
>> Stay in feelings of joy, love, gratitude and appreciation!
>>
>> These emotional changes went beyond the effects of electro-
>> magnetics. Individuals trained in deep love were able to change the
>> shape of their DNA. Gregg Braden says this illustrates a new
>> recognized form of energy that connects all of creation. This energy
>> appears to be a TIGHTLY WOVEN WEB that connects all matter.
>> Essentially we're able to influence this web of creation through our
>> VIBRATION.
>>
>> *SUMMARY:* What do the results of these experiments have to do with
>> our present situation? This is the science behind how we can choose a
>> timeline to stay safe, no matter what else is happening. As Gregg
>> explains in The Isaiah Effect, basically time is not just linear
>> (past, present and future), but it also has depth. The depth of time
>> consists of all the possible prayers and timelines that could ever be
>> prayed or exist. Essentially, all our prayers have already been
>> answered. We just activate the one we're living through our FEELINGS.
>>
>> THIS is how we create our reality - by choosing it with our feelings.
>> Our feelings are activating the timeline via the web of creation,
>> which connects all of the energy and matter of the Universe.
>>
>> Remember that the law of the Universe is that we attract what we
>> focus on. If you are focused on fearing whatever may come, you are
>> sending a strong message to the Universe to send you whatever you
>> fear. Instead if you can get yourself into feelings of joy, love,
>> appreciation or gratitude, and focus on bringing more of that into
>> your life, you are going to avoid the negative stuff automatically.
>>
>> You will be choosing a different TIMELINE with your feelings. You can
>> prevent getting anthrax or any other flu, virus, etc, by staying in
>> these positive feelings, which maintains an incredibly strong immune
>> system. So here's your protection for whatever comes: Find something
>> to be happy about every day, and every hour if possible,moment-to-
>> moment, even if only for a few minutes. This is the easiest and best
>> protection you can have. If nothing else, be joyous that the
>> criminals have "already been caught" by the Universe!

The Present Hidden in The Secret

Everyone's talking about the movie The Secret (www.thesecret.tv) and the Law of Attraction these days. Oprah Herself even devoted two shows to it recently! As a person who has always been very interested in helping others to change their lives, I'm thrilled to see such positive and powerful concepts floating down the main stream.

I know many of my readers are already quite familiar with the Law of Attraction. If you are one of them, feel free to skip the italicized paragraphs, which are a brief synopsis of the principles. Mosey on down below them, where I will offer my two cents on the subject.

Here's a little bit of the summary of Oprah's show about The Secret from her website. You can read the entire summary at http://www.oprah.com/spiritself/slide/20070208/ss_20070208_284_101.jhtmlJack

[Canfield] says that everything in the world is made up of energy, which is controlled by thoughts and feelings. According to Jack, thoughts can travel long distances, so you are sending out signals to many people without even knowing it, and these signals attract like energy to you.

Jack and James [Ray] say that this means there is no such thing as a coincidence. "Everything happens by principles and laws in our universe. And so consequently, we have an absolutely unlimited power within us," James says.

Michael [Beckwith] says that thoughts—which turn into experience, speech and behavior—become the "feeling tone of your life." "An individual can actually begin to generate a certain feeling of gratitude, of love, of peace and of harmony, and the universe will begin to match that feeling tone—and what will flow into your life will match the feeling that you're holding," he says. "It means that everyone…can release themselves from being a victim and begin to take control of their life's destiny."

Okay, now here's my two cents:

Many people, when they first hear of The Secret, think it is a handy tool for getting what they want in the future.

They are excited to hear that if they just:

1) Focus on what they want instead of what they don't want
2) Find things to be grateful for where they are right now, and
3) Keep open to nudges from the universe to take inspired action,

then life will deliver their heart's desires to their door.

And I've seen it happen exactly that way -- many times -- which is very cool!

But I wonder sometimes if we might be missing the forest for the trees when we look to the future. For me, the benefit of The Secret is that it improves my world RIGHT NOW.

It's much more fun to ponder what I want and why, rather than obsess about what I think I will never have and why.

Gratitude is much lighter than the heavy burden of blame or victimization.

Inspired action feels like play, whereas doing what I think I should requires discipline and hard work.

I don't have to wait until later to reap what I sow.
I reap most of it while I am sowing it.

So if I happen to die in a freak accident in the next five minutes, before the universe can complete its delivery of all that good stuff I have attracted, that's just fine with me. Because the real benefit of focusing my thoughts on gratitude and joyful expectation is that when my mind is occupied in this endeavor, I feel happy with myself and my life.

And since any moment could be my last, and whether I am dead or alive my experience of each moment will never come again, it makes sense to me to spend as much of my precious time as possible feeling peaceful and joyful.

So to me, the future stuff is a fringe benefit. It's cool to know that when I feel at peace, I am inspired to act and speak with kindness and compassion, and my deeds may create ripples of sweetness that expand out into the world around me. I like making the world a better place. And I like getting the material stuff I want as much as the next guy.

But even better, I like knowing that simply by shifting my attention, I can change the quality of my inner experience at any time, under any circumstances.


copyright 2007 karen alonge

www.karenalonge.com


I offer individual consultations by phone and email to help you consciously harness the Law of Attraction to improve your relationships, parenting, career, and personal development. Contact me to schedule a free 15 minute conversation ... karen@karenalonge.com

***************

The Secret and the Law of Attraction

so everyone's talking about the movie The Secret since it was on Oprah last week. This week I hosted a teleconference to talk about the principles of the Law of Attraction. If you would like to hear the call for free, you can download a recording of it here: http://www.karenalonge.com/downloads.html

I also announced that I will be facilitating an eight week Law of Attraction study group soon. We'll meet for an hour one evening each week by teleconference. The $99 tuition includes a study guide, notes, and an hour of chat room time each week.
details here: http://www.karenalonge.com/classes.html

Vision Board for your Computer!!

now THIS is very cool, and I just heard about it earlier today -- a software download that allows you to create virtual vision boards on your computer, complete with affirmations, to be displayed at a click and also as your screen saver! best of all, you can change or fine tune it whenever you want.

it's a whole different kind of cutting and pasting - no glue or paper scraps! It costs about $30, which to me is a steal considering the flexibility and ease of access. I can't wait to start creating mine ...

update: I HAVE created mine - the first of many! It has so many uses - I'm thinking I could make one for every mood on the emotional scale, to take me from where I am to one step higher. wheeee, this is fun!!!

http://www.visualizeyourgoals.com/cgi-bin/t.cgi?a=436399

drivin'

three cheers for my friend drew who posted this cool video and lyrics to one of my favorite songs on his blog. check this out ... if you happen to be next to me in traffic when this song comes on the radio you'll see me singing along with great enthusiasm. :)

http://www.drewrozell.com/53/law-of-attraction-music-incubus-drive

your attention, please!

Greetings!

As I was reading the transcript of Larry King's show called Beyond Positive Thinking (http://www.mrfire.com/article-archives/new-articles/larry-king-spreads-the-secret-again.html) I found myself halting midstream to marvel at this simple statement by James Ray:

... Well, energy flows where attention goes. If you have a relationship, a romantic relationship, and you're grateful and you love him or her, you give them attention, right? If you have children and you love them, you give them attention. Attention equals love.

The whole What is love? question has been simmering on my mental back burner for a very long time. In my curiosity, I've gathered lots of opinions -– love is a need, love is a vibration, love is a feeling, love is a choice. Howard Jones sings, " ... maybe love is letting people be just what they want to be."

All are very interesting ... and none very practical in terms of expressing or experiencing more of it. It simply never occurred to me to link attention and love together in any meaningful way. Yet suddenly, it seems very difficult not to! Just for the sake of playing devil's advocate, I have been scanning my memory today for any instance where I expressed or received love in the absence of attention. I can't find even one.

Could this be why so many people feel somewhat slighted when their partner reciprocates their "I love you" by parroting it back in a flat tone without shifting their gaze from the television screen? Might we already intuitively know that words alone mean nothing without attention backing them up? And that even traditionally loving gestures can feel empty if they spring from habit or autopilot rather than conscious intention in the moment?

I generated some variations on the theme to see which felt most deeply satisfying and practically useful to me. Here's what I came up with:

Attention expresses love.
Attention demonstrates love.
Attention distributes love.
Attention engages love.
Attention is love in action.
Attention is love in 3D.
Attention is proportional to love.

I have no idea if any of these are really true. Heck, I don't know if anything is true! But I thought it might make for an interesting experiment: if I conceptualize my attention as the currency I use to express my love, will I find myself spending and investing it differently?

I notice that attention comes in lots of packages – it doesn't necessarily require my physical presence. My attention is in the birthday card I picked out, the flowers I had delivered, and the email I sent. It's even in the thought I just had of you, which made me smile.

And when we ARE together, maybe the most satisfying expression of love for both of us would be to give each other our full attention. I'm predicting that a little dose of conscious and loving attention feels much better and lasts a lot longer than rote communication driven by habit or expectation.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts or experiences on this topic, if you feel inclined to share ...

warmly,
karen
www.karenalonge.com

easing off ...

Man oh man, do we parents ever put ourselves in a pressure cooker these days! So many of us think we have to teach our kids important life lessons or .... well, I dunno ... or what?

They'll still be sucking their thumbs in college?

They'll become sociopaths or recluses or criminals?

They'll never get jobs or move away from home?

What is it that we are so afraid of? Why do we place such importance on imparting our wisdom to our children? Sometimes in our frantic state, we do even more than impart ... we impose! We insist that the way that works for us is the ONLY way, and we take extreme measures to make sure our kids board our truth train, even if we must pay a price in our own hearts in order to force them.

I wanted to share an excerpt from an email I wrote recently with you. I hope it still makes sense out of context ... the statements I am responding to are inside asterisks:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.. that's why I love this statement from Abraham-Hicks: You never get it right and you never get it done.

sort of like dancing - dancers aren't moving around in search of the ultimate pose. they don't find just the right position and then FREEZE there! the beauty is in the motion. the JOY is in the motion. the satisfaction is in creative expression of the moment, just as it is, and then moving on to the next.

so you don't like where you are? great!! maybe life loves you too much to let you freeze in one position - be it mental, physical, or emotional. maybe your discomfort is simply an invitation to motion. once you get the message, you can turn your thoughts to what you might like to try next. and I don't mean that you have to make any kind of dramatic physical change, like leave your husband or job. it could be a mental change or an emotional change or a new idea that you try on for a while and see how it feels.


*I believe with conviction that one reason my son fights with depression and anxiety is because I do. Somehow I taught him this. It makes me feel very bad.*

may I be so bold as to bring an idea over to your fitting room for you to try on and see how it feels?

maybe it's not all your fault honey. maybe your son has his own life plan mapped out, and he is gathering exactly the beliefs and experiences he wants to take with him on his journey. could it be as true or truer that your own struggle with anxiety and depression simply causes you to perceive his experience as one of fighting anxiety and depression? and that someone with different life experiences and filters than you have might look at his life and just call it ... Life?

*But maybe if I can learn to do a better job at self love it will teach him.*

oh wow, good luck with that! that's more pressure than I could ever withstand - I have to get it right before my kid can? makes me feel sorry for my kid, cause chances are that ain't gonna happen in time for him. LOL. if he's waiting for me to figure it out so I can teach him, it might be a long wait! he might have to take care of his own self-love without my example.

I took a terrific workshop this weekend on financial beliefs. I was telling my 16 yr old son about it, and he just laughed, and said 'Mom, what's the problem with money? When I need some, it's there, and when I don't need it, it isn't there!'

And he's right! It IS that way for him. Thank goodness he is not limited to only believing what I believe or can teach!

my kids are not mini-me's. they have their own journeys, expectations, desires, limitations, and blessings. I could and will spend my entire lifetime just getting to know my own journey, expectations, desires, limitations, and blessings - I don't have the time or energy to get to know theirs too! much less try to intervene or manage their life for them.

If my only job was to take care of my own state of mind, I would be busy all day every day. how could I possibly begin to know what is ultimately best for my kids? I am still working on listening to my own inner guidance about what is best for ME!

thank goodness they can do that for themselves. they have their own inner guidance, and as far as I can tell, they are much more in touch with it at their ages than I am at my age right now.

I hope you receive this in the giggly spirit in which I sent it: You are not that important in your son's life! He's working on his own plan. You are just hanging out with him to feed him and shelter him and stuff like that until he can do it for himself.

So don't worry, you cannot hold him back. He's not looking to you to set his pace or direction. He doesn't expect that from you! It's okay to let him work this stuff out while you work your own out.

and by 'your own stuff', I mean simply soothing yourself back into feeling like it's all gonna be okay, and making peace with the motion that is the dance of life. You never get it done and you never get it right, and that's the whole fun of it!

with the next beat of the music, you can move differently if you want. or not. you don't need to worry about taking a wrong step when you remember that there's another step right after that which presents another opportunity to move in a different direction.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've recently completed some big changes to my website. If you haven't visited for a while, I'd love for you to stop on by and check it out!
www.karenalonge.com

the $ game

this book is BLOWING MY MIND:

Busting Loose by Bob Scheinfeld

www.bustingloose.com

a self-healing

Below is the inspiring story of a guy I met last week at an Abraham-Hicks meetup group. When I heard that he had freed himself of chronic pain after only a week of consciously disciplining his attention to focus upon gratitude, I asked him to write down how he did it so I could share it with you. He graciously agreed.

All of the Sudden

I woke on a Friday morning not wanting to get out of bed. For years I had been suffering with a form of arthritis called gout. This happens when uric acid levels are very high in your blood stream. I had tried several different prescription drugs at the behest of my doctor only to find the side effects were nearly as bad as the constant pain I felt in my feet. Some days I could not walk, some days I could not even get out of bed.

I focused on my illness to the point that I really did not feel anything else except the pain. A friend loaned me a copy of a movie called “The Secret” which I watched with my feet up.

All of the sudden I realized that I had many other feelings besides the pain in my feet. I had given up on all these feelings due to my overwhelming physical foot pain. [note from Karen: according to Dr. John Sarno and others, often the body generously provides us with physical pain to distract our attention from the uncomfortable emotions we are afraid of facing and feeling. Sort of like curing a headache by punching someone in the stomach .... ]

I felt stuck. So as instructed in the movie I began to examine my other feelings and soon realized that I had a lot of bad feelings about my personal life as well as my professional life.

This was a big step for me and I wanted to feel better so I began searching out what was right in my life. I found many things including my wonderful Dalmatians, my home, good friends and so many others.

Next I began being grateful for what was right in my life. It took several days of consciously checking my every thought for negativity and then when realizing I had a negative thought, consciously changing that thought to a grateful thought. [that night he explained to me that this was literally a full time job, and that at first he would have to correct his thoughts almost every 2 minutes because they would slip back into the old habit of focusing on what he did not want. Pain can be incredibly motivating!]

I noticed I felt better and my foot pain was better than it had been in a year. I continued this conscious willing of thought control for 6 days and found my foot pain gone.

Now I realize that it was stress both in my personal life and in my professional life that was causing me to lose touch with myself. The many bad feelings I had about my life were literally causing so much stress that I stopped listening to my inner self and focused on all that was wrong in my life with the idea that I was going to fix everything.

In order to do that I felt I needed to judge and manipulate all that was around me. Boy was I out of balance. It is a wonder I could stand without falling over, I was so out of balance. It seems so simple to say quit trying to control or fix things you can not control or fix. But that’s what I was doing and I probably would not have even heard these words if they were spoken to me.

It is also easy to be grateful for what you have but not so easy to always feel grateful.

You must commit to yourself.

Now after more than a week with no foot pain I have become a great believer in the human body. It was able to cure the pain when I simply de-stressed, focused on what is right in my life, and disciplined myself to stay feeling grateful.

It was The Secret that changed my life, and allowed me to see how to correct my path to the path of least resistance; to use the law of attraction to ask for what I want in life.

The only thing that is of top importance is that you feel good in all ways.

-R.E.

This stuff really does work, folks. This man is walking proof.
If he can do it, we all can.

millionaire meditation

I just read about this author Paul B. Farrell in the Sunday paper. You can download The Millionaire Meditation for free at his website, and it's great; a clear and simple guide to keeping your attention fully in the present moment - no cushion or cross-legged ohm-chanting required. he's got us all covered with ways to meditate while doing things we already do every day -- athletes, business people, parents, artists. no more excuses!

www.paulbfarrell.com

surf's up!

sweet waves I've been riding on the web today:

have you heard about the underground movie The Secret? Already toldja I am a big fan of Steve Pavlina's blog... now here he is talking about it! gosh I love this guy ...

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/05/the-secret

see the movie for yourself at www.thesecret.tv
I'm hoping to watch it this weekend.

THIS left my mind reeling. The ultimate in self-responsibility from Joe Vitale ... who, not coincidentally, is in on The Secret!
http://www.mrfire.com/article-archives/new-articles/worlds-most-unusual-therapist.html

and for a listing of inspiring blogs, check out the personal development blog carnival:
http://www.ldrj.com/cabl/2006/08/20/the-personal-development-carnival-august-20-2006/