Four Reasons Why You Should Be Living Off the Grid

With the ever-increasing demand for power supply, and the constant warnings of the damage our environment is receiving, an alternative source of energy has become a necessity to a large group of energy conscious people. What are these people doing about it? Living off the grid.

That may sound scary to most folks, but living off the grid is not as harsh and primitive as it sounds. There have been extreme advances made over the last several years in the alternative energy world, and building your very own renewable energy supply for your home has become a very viable and inexpensive option.

Here are some of the advantages of living off the grid.

1. Reduce your dependability on exhausting resources:

Wouldn't it be great if you did not have to depend on public utility companies all of the time? Living off the grid enables you to thumb your nose at big corporation utility companies who increase their prices at the expense of us consumers. Don't worry about power outages anymore that may disrupt an important event or work at home. Producing your own energy assures you that you can rely on your own natural resources.

2. Use as much power as you want with a totally renewable natural resource: 

Indulge yourself with plentiful and renewable energy. Don't worry about turning the heat down or leaving the lights off. I know, it sounds crazy and it goes against everything our energy conscious parents ever taught us. But just imagine having free energy that you are producing that is totally renewable and environmentally friendly...being produced right outside your door! Now that is living off the grid!

3. Save money by reducing power costs:

This is the biggest advantage. Cutting your electricity costs and saving money in your wallet. Living off the grid will ultimately save you lots of cash that you would otherwise just be tossing into the wind. Think of all of the possibilities that you can use that extra cash on!

4. Building the foundation for a healthier environment:

Do you realize that people years ago planted trees hoping that future generations like us would benefit from them? We can make a better future for future generations also by giving them a greener, healthier world. By cutting down on the usage of non-renewable sources of energy and producing our own clean, wind and solar energy!

There you have it. Living off the grid is a very possible alternative to the money guzzling utility companies that are draining our wallets and using up all of the earths valuable resources. Check out below to discover how you can get started by building your own power company in your own back yard, and start living off the grid.

This author has written several articles about wind and alternative energy. His website at http://www.buildawindturbine.com contains several related articles about wind energy and how the everyday homeowner can achieve results by building their own wind turbine system to cut their energy costs. If you are interested in creating your own wind power to help reduce your electrical costs, visit How To Build A Windmill and find the perfect solution for your alternative energy needs.

Healthy Living - If I Already Know This - Why Is It So Hard?

Having a healthy life takes work. Energy and vitality may be have been a God given fact when we were young, but as we get older, we are often shocked to realize the aging process is just as true for us as it was for our parents. We start to feel aches and pains, develop chronic complaints, diseases, have less stamina to keep up with the grandchildren, forget things, and lose stuff.

There is nothing about having a healthy lifestyle that we have not already heard, read about, or tried periodically. We all know about the benefits of exercise, maintaining a healthy weight, eating whole foods, and the importance of managing our stress. We read it on the cover of thousands of magazines, hear it on TV, go to workshops, support groups, and hire trainers.

Despite all the media hype, our culture doesn't really support health. Our medical model is more likely to result in a prescription for a pill rather than a lifestyle program. Our children are obese. They don't play outside like most of us did as kids, recreational time is cut in schools, and free time is spent in front of a computer, TV, or Xbox. They are driven instead of riding their bikes or walking to a friend's house or school, because the world "doesn't feel safe." Fast foods and convenience options are taken for granted. Our palates have been hijacked and we've been brainwashed into thinking that eating chicken nuggets is a healthy choice because it's chicken and not a quarter pounder. Or that it is too expensive to eat healthy foods all together.

Let's look at some common excuses why we don't make choices to live a healthy lifestyle:

Unhappy

We have to start with mental health. When depressed, anxious, or struggling with any mental illness, even ADD or ADHD, it is impossible to stay the course or focus on self-care. If we are in life situations that aren't loving, respectful or caring, we need to take action to change these situations.

Get help, find a therapist, go on medication if you need it, and deal with past and present traumas. Let in the concept that you have a RIGHT to be happy. One has to love oneself to WANT to do self-care.

Too Lazy

We become complacent in our habits, making excuses, procrastinating and putting everything and everyone else before our own self-care. We take for granted our health and vitality and ignore the fact that we need to do the work of maintaining our strength and vigor. We deny the dangers of our lifestyle choices, somehow thinking disease and deterioration will never happen to us.

Take pleasure in taking care of yourself, feeling the joy of jumping out of bed with no aches and pains, and having energy all day.

Perfectionist - (another name for procrastinator)

Those who view life through the lens of perfection can find it extremely difficult to even try to make the changes necessary to cultivate a healthy life. They lack the motivation because the goal of change seems as if it can never be perfectly achieved; there is a lack of belief in oneself that goals will ever be met, so one is easily discouraged, disheartened or pessimistic that efforts will pay off. A person may feel that they are never good enough and whatever they are trying to improve won't happen to them. They can feel overly guilty if they cheat or miss a day. Setting a goal to mediate, exercise or "eat perfectly" is a sure way to fail.

Learn that life is not perfect and there are no perfect goals to achieve. Living a healthy life is a practice, something you do that is positive in the moment, and has an accumulative affirming effect on your life moving forward.

Bad Habits

When we do anything consistently, it becomes an almost involuntary response. People spend countless hours and dollars every year attempting to break their bad habits, often with little success. There is no magic bullet. Change is hard and takes work to achieve. We develop bad habits because they fulfill some need. We need to find alternative. healthy actions that satisfy these needs and fulfill us.

First we have to become conscious of what we are doing. One way to increase awareness is to do an experiment by completely abstaining for, let's say one week, from whatever bad habit you have identified. For example, if you are struggling with your weight, and have a habit of snacking after dinner until you go to sleep, abstain from eating anything at all after your evening meal for one week. Pay close attention to your thoughts, feelings and discomfort. Journal and reflect what's coming up as you consciously choose to not meet those needs. Become conscious of what drives your bad habits. Once you are conscious you can choose if you want to change or not.

Too Busy

It's just too easy to be distracted and get caught up in the day-to-day activities of life. Anything, everything else feels more important than attending to ourselves. We are not use to putting our self first. It feels selfish to carve out time to exercise daily, or sit quietly in meditation or take the time to market and prepare whole foods.

Figure out how and when to fit cardio and strength training exercise into your day. Schedule it. We are all victims of habit. Make an "exercise habit." Do it without exception. Book it into your schedule, non-negotiable.

It's not only okay, but imperative that we learn how to be "healthy selfish." When we take care of ourselves, we have the resources and incentive to be active in the world. We feel good about ourselves and have balance in our life.

Looking at the consequences of choices helps mold good habits. To get to work or school on time you have to get up earlier. If you get home late, you might choose to eat a lighter meal before going to sleep. Modify your specific life situation to facilitate good choices for you and your lifestyle. The most important thing we need to do is SLOW DOWN and be present with ourselves. Feel what we feel. Go from there.

Too Tired

It's a vicious and ironic cycle. Feeling lethargic, depressed and unmotivated, we are not inclined to do any of the activities that can increase our energy. It is important to have a physical and make sure thyroid, adrenal, hormone, and vitamin D levels are within the normal range. Once medical issues are eliminated, it's time to start a wellness protocol.

Pick one new activity to add that will begin to convert your lifestyle. Go for a walk everyday, start a meditation practice, take processed or white foods out of your diet, start drinking green tea and more water. Force it. Don't let your negative self-talk or lack of motivation get the best of you. Even if you don't believe it, treat yourself like you are the most precious, beautiful being in the world. Nurture, love and care for yourself into the best of life.

Skepticism

Some people actually don't believe in the mind/body connection. They believe science and medicine have the ability to conquer whatever failure or break down the body encounters. We replace joints and body parts. Instead of understanding and honoring the fact that our body uses symptoms to signal us that something is wrong with what we're doing, we try to medicate the symptom away. We cut out, cut off, and disassociate from any responsibility we might have to take care of our mind, brain, body and spirit.

We forget that it is our job to take care of ourselves. We are here to be an embodiment of health and goodness. If we want that in the world, we have to live in that space, starting with ourselves.

Oblivion There are those who honestly don't know any differently. They are not concerned, nor do they even question what's going on around them. They follow the patterns and behaviors taught by their culture and parents, without question. Perhaps it's denial, or just a lack of interest, but they fail to recognize the cause and effect between lifestyle choices and morbidity, (the occurrence of disease).

When you look at what you're doing inside, and how you treat your self, you'll become aware of what you are contributing to the world. Take responsibility for your own mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Then you will be empowered to be a healing source to others.

Start now - it begins with the decision to change from your old unconscious habits, to consciously practicing good health, and making it a lifestyle.

No More Excuses!

"Health is the thing that makes you feel that NOW is the best time of year."

Franklin P. Adams

If you want to learn more about tools and techniques to get on the Path of Wellness check out: http://bit.ly/j0i1iq.

Upon receiving a diagnosis of life-threatening cancer in her early 20's, Pamela Holtzman realized that her health could not be taken for granted. She began an in-depth study of the various components of daily living that would enable her to achieve and maintain her goal of having a healthy lifestyle. Pamela has learned how to listen to and care for her body through healthy eating, daily meditation, and regular exercise and the experience of her early life crisis. She shares her knowledge with others so they, too, can experience a more balanced and happy life. A Certified Wellness Practitioner (CWP), Pamela began her professional life as a registered nurse, caring for patients in hospice. She has spent the majority of her 25-year career as a psychotherapist and personal care advocate, providing professional services to individuals, couples, and groups.

http://Pamelaholtzman.com

A Comparative of Thought With Eckhart Tolle - Living in the Now and Setting Goals

A while ago I submitted an article comparing my views about the purpose of the ego in our lives. It was submitted humbly as a one sided discussion of my views in comparison with the wonderful works of Eckhart Tolle.

It seems to be time once again to submit another article in this regard as it is a subject of great questioning by many people today. Having moved deeper into his book: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose I offer you some food for thought.

The aspect of his book I will focus on this time is one that has rippled in my mind for a long time. I am not sure I have come to a firm conclusion yet, but I am going to offer up my thoughts anyway. Maybe we can each come up with some sort of conclusion that works for us on our own.

Having been a member of the business world for much of my adult life, goals have always been an issue for me. Eckhart Tolle has a fairly unique perspective on the value of goals that I feel is quite opposite to that which I learned as a sales person. But is it really in opposition? This is what we will look at today.

When first reading about the relationship of goals to living in the now and living on purpose, it appears that goals are an unnecessary, if not conflicting tool used by people who still believe that the mind is the controller of our destinies. One only needs to know their purpose in life. By regular focussing on that purpose their life will unveil itself and all will be wonderful.

I think something that needs to be kept in mind with Eckhart Tolle's writing is that his base for his philosophy is very Buddhist in origin and therefore very expansive. It focuses on the world and the universe as a whole, very big picture. We are just pieces of the universal puzzle.

I agree with this concept but the question that underlies this whole discussion for each of us as individuals is about how this outlook works for each of us as individuals who are trying to survive and succeed in the world of today. Can we just let go and trust that everything will work out if we just believe?

Every individual is in a different place in their lives, in their evolution and in their spiritual understanding. Ultimately I think we all want to live our lives in the flow of the universe, manifesting wonderful experiences that make our world a better place to be. However, the reality for most of us is that our skills in maintaining that level of consciousness are not well enough established to support life at this level.

Most people live in the day-to-day world of getting out of bed, going to work, only to return to bed a few hours later. Trying to keep the bills paid is of more importance than being in the flow of universal energy.

Is the concept of living on Purpose an impossible dream? Is using goals as a tool for managing one's life an impediment to true personal growth?

I find we often tend to live in a black and white world. Everything seems to have to be polar opposites rather than being muddled in the grey area of life. If one supports one theory, they have to denounce the other.

In my experience on this planet during my 50+ plus years of trying to understand the program of living, I feel that what Eckhart Tolle proposes does not undermine the theory of goals. Rather, if we understand the system of goal setting, we can come to a realization that using goals as a mind management tool these goals can actually help us to evolve in living our purpose.

Let me explain.

When we come to this life, we have very little knowledge of the rules of life here on earth or even the capacity of what can be attained on this plane of consciousness.

As we live out our days and collect information that helps us to exist and hopefully succeed in living, we develop our own set of rules through testing out the water of our environment.

We learn to communicate through body language and by using our voices in order to get our needs met. This type of communication is very simple, but then our lives at this time are simple too.

As we mature, we discover that we have minds with the ability to discern, differentiate and to think. We begin to relate to the outer world. Unfortunately, for most people this is where evolution ends. They do not develop an understanding of the magnificent power of their mind or its relation to the universal consciousness. Life becomes a process of repeating the lessons of the past over and over until one day their life ends.

Fortunately, many people have now learned the power of goals. Through the use of their personal goals they develop and integrate the ability to direct and manage their lives and achieve many of their dreams.

The process of using goals has changed considerably over the forty years I have been around the business world. If one was to look at the evolution of goal processing, one can see that this powerful tool is evolving to exactly what Eckhart Tolle is proposing.

Back in the 1970s goal achievement was attained by developing several wide ranging personal concepts into simple sentences, such as:

I own a 1970 Red Buick Riviera
I own and live in a 3 bedroom house in Oak Bay
I run 4 miles per day each and every day
Every day in every way, I am getting better and better

They were to be repeated several times a day, every day until they were achieved. I am not sure how people who used this system ever got any work done, or how they maintained any kind of sanity as this system was very time consuming and I would think challenging to the ego and the emotions as they either succeeded in coming into fruition or died in the misery of failure.

Several years later, as the evolution of sanity demanded a more rational form of goal processing, it became more popular to write the goals down on pieces of paper and keep them posted all over one's life as reminders of their chosen path. At least this method allowed some work to get done and when they didn't work out, the frustration could be taken out on the post-it note. The important change that had occurred, though, was that the subconscious mind was now given space to actually work in the achievement of the goals. The process had become more than a mental exercise as it preferred using visual memory rather than relying on the memory alone. It recognized that we needed to participate in the larger world of the universe in order to provide a platform for the goal.

Today, goals seem to fit more as tools for directing the focus of the mind on several levels. There is recognition of several key factors that are essential to one's overall success:

Recognition of the role of the unconscious mind
Recognition of the role of the conscious mind
Recognition of the role of emotions
Recognition of the necessity of participating in the physical process required to manifest the goal.
Recognition of the role of oneself in the universal scheme

In days of old, a goal could become a self-perpetuated jail through the rigid demands of the ego having to succeed in order to feel safe and valued. After all, the opposite of success was failure and who wanted that?

In the present world, the success of goals is not mandatory. Specific goals are used as mental directors to remind the mind where it is intending to reach. Goals are no longer a success or failure tool. Goals are mind and life management tools.

My understanding of Eckhart Tolle's perception of the future of goals is the next step in the ascension of goals.

We have seen goals evolve from being mental exercises that often ended up causing mental anguish, through the inception and recognition of the value of a more holistic approach where the various levels of mind including the emotions became an integral part of the process, to recognition that goals are a tool that we use to improve our connection to the universal mind.

Does it not make sense that the next step is to allow the universe to play a much larger role in the evolution of our lives and our beings?

The danger I see in this development is that people who have not done their personal work adequately so that they connect well with the universal energies could use this higher system of practice as an excuse for not taking responsibility for their own lives and actions. After all, their lives are now in God's hands.

No matter what system of life advancement one adheres to, self-responsibility and self-application are fundamental cornerstones to living well. Integrating these life tools with a metaphysically based goal attainment system can make for a very powerful and successful life.

Personally, I still find I need to live in a blended system of goal achievement because I find it just too easy to do nothing and be okay with it. Working with goals is much like having a list of jobs I am working to complete.

On the other hand, I know that I need to leave space in my everyday life to allow the universe to answer some of my very many questions and demands. The goals serve to notify the universe the correct information and energy to return directed toward fulfilling these same goals. The passive space I provide by relaxing gives the universe the opportunity to participate in bringing about my desire.

I would love to hear what you think about the evolution of goals in your life. Can you see how working with energies external to yourself can expedite the success of these goals?

Can you see how Eckhart Tolle's prediction can play in your life?

Namaste

Monty

Monty Ritchings has written and published two books

Embracing The Blend (What Mom And Dad Didn't Know They Were Teaching You)

Stamp Out Stress

Monty's knowledge on the subjects of psychology and personal awareness are promoted from his own life experiences and challenges in growing up in a dysfunctional environment as a child. Not being able to accept the pain and discomfort of the outcome of his life, he embarked on his life long mission to understand his life and build a better one. As this process developed, he began writing and teaching about practical methods for improving the quality of life for others.

Monty's approach to dealing with life's issues are always practical and often outside the box coming from his mystical rather than academic perspective.

Monty's main website is [http://www.montyritchings.com]. Sign up to receive his blogs and receive a free e-book of your choice!

Explore the Benefits of Vegan Living

In today's world, there are many reasons why someone might want to explore the various healthier alternatives to traditional American lifestyles and diet. After a lifetime of fast food, the everyday stresses brought on by a rapid pace personal and business life, and the simple lack of attention most people pay to their lives, vegan diet and lifestyle alternatives are a good way to boost overall health and sometimes even bring failing health back to optimal levels.

What is a Vegan Diet?

A vegan diet is like a vegetarian diet, only more so. Most vegetarians do not eat meat, fish, or poultry. There are several variations on this theme, for example, people who do not eat meat or poultry but eat fish. Vegans, in addition to eliminating meat, fish, and poultry from their diet, also forgo eggs, dairy products, and sometimes even animal-produced substances like honey.

A wide variety of vegan foods and nutritional supplements are available in modern markets and health food stores. Seasonal organic produce is also usually available whether you live in the city or the country. Vegans have more food choices than ever before due to the increased popularity of vegan foods and the development of preparation, storage, and cooking techniques-all centered around tasty foods with high nutrition value. Vegetarianism and veganism are often placed in the broader context of lifestyle choices that involve much more than dietary concerns.

What is a Vegan Lifestyle?

Veganism is a lifestyle choice that, when all things are considered, involves asking and answering questions about the ethics of animal husbandry practices, the moral dilemmas associated with killing living things for food, and even about the chemicals and proteins that are ingested that may not contribute to overall health and vitality and may also be counter to our current evolutionary state as human beings. Vegans seek to live in a more conscious world, and if that means not eating animal flesh and associated byproducts, so be it.

In addition to eliminating animal derived food sources, many vegans choose not to use silk, wool, animal skins, or personal, cleaning and other substances that contain animal products. In practice, this eliminates leather goods and certain fabrics, soaps, detergents, glues, and cosmetics. A vegan household is one where every attempt as been made to live consciously and in harmony by not doing harm to the natural world or its inhabitants.

Putting it all Together

The benefits of vegan living are numerous. Increased vitality and health are high on everyone's list of top benefits. Taking the time to make conscious choices in one's diet, lifestyle, and personal concerns leads to being less in tune with the persuasive influences of consumer culture that involve mass marketing, subliminal psychological manipulations. There is now considerable evidence that clean brain chemistry means clear thinking. Clear thinking means the ability to handle stress and keep things in perspective-two things that help to empower yourself by making decisions that are right for you. Many other life areas are positively impacted by pursuing a vegan lifestyle, and everyone has more options than ever before to find the solution that feels right for them. Vegans aim to live a simplified, harmonious lifestyle that is lived consciously and in cooperation with the greater whole.

Tim Thompson is a professional freelance writer/editor and content developer currently making his home in southern California. He works closely with other creatives and technical people to provide content writing and editing services [http://www.thompsoninkworks.com/] and technical marketing and project administration to individuals and businesses of all kinds.

A Day in the Life of Living Consciously

Have you ever wondered what it would look like if you lived a conscious life (Mindful in every way), well here's an example.

You awake after a restful nights sleep, alive and energized, instantly aware of the air entering your lungs gently and then exiting. Everything around you feels fresh and alive and you appreciate it all. Thoughts of the day ahead pop in but you let them pass through, as the present moment is all that matters.

You go to the bathroom, noticing each step you take and are aware of your posture as you walk all the while you maintain a part of your attention on your breath and you feel at peace and one with all.

Then as part of taking care of your body, you:

· Get dressed and go for a gentle but brisk walk

· Clean your body through showering and grooming

· Spend some time in silence, meditating

· Eat a nutritious breakfast that includes fresh seasonal fruit

You do this because you respect and appreciate your body for the vehicle that it is and you want it to keep serving you well.

You then set about your day, being aware of any appointments you have and allow yourself ample time to arrive at your destinations. When you arrive you are calm, relaxed and still have awareness on the breath (you have not spent time worrying about how the meeting will go). You are present, here and now and you allow whatever shows up to be as it is, there is no struggle or wanting anything to be different than as it is.

When you meet with people, you look into their eyes and actively listen to them, never interrupting them or allow thoughts to distract you, a part of your awareness is on your breath and the majority of it is on the one you are listening to. When it is time to speak, you say whatever is there to be said in the moment, with love and clarity. You're no ones victim and you do everything from a place of love and peace.

When the meeting is over, you let it go, knowing that everything that needed to be taken care of has been, through direct actions. You remain with the breath and the way you feel remains the same, at peace and calm, you are like a deep ocean, your core doesn't change, it remains still and present in all circumstances.

When your body is hungry, you eat nutritious food again, eating consciously, savoring the flavors, knowing where the food has come from and feeling good about it. You never rush and you never worry but you always have awareness of this present moment. When action is needed you take it, knowing that whatever flows from that action will be fine.

In the evening, you plan for the next day to get clear about what is there to do, when done, you let go of thinking about tomorrow and trust that everything will be taken care of when the moment comes.

When your body is tired you go to sleep, knowing that nothing has been left undone, you are at peace and allow yourself to rest peacefully without any concern for what tomorrow may bring. All is well and you remain unchanged.

Ok, so most of us don't live this way, but what's implied here is that you have the clarity and awareness to put systems in place so that you do take care of whatever responsibilities you may have and you trust that those systems take care of you so that you don't need to worry. You're then free to rest in the present moment. It takes practice but it is possible to live life without worrying about the next moment constantly. Usually, we worry because we are addicted to it, but that's a topic for another article.

Angelo Campione is a writer and publisher of Mindfulness related articles. He has real life experience in dealing with emotional pain and now walks the path that has him live a life of Purpose, Joy and Freedom He is passionate about helping to raise consciousness in the world and runs an online Mindfulness Series Free of charge.

Celebrating Life - The Art of Living - Be There

On my bathroom vanity I have a small ceramic sign that's propped up by tower of special rocks that I purchased a number of years ago which reads "Celebrate Life." I bought it to remind me to take joy in the everyday simple pleasures. So many times I find myself living in my head - thinking of what I need to do next, what will I write about in my monthly e-zine, how are my kids doing, what's my granddaughter up to, or the old self critic tape that keeps up an endless chatter of Am I doing the right thing?, do people find value in what I do? Am I making a difference? Yada, yada, yada, instead of seeing this precious miraculous moment for what it is- a miracle of breath, life and a connection to the Divine.

The other evening I was listening to call on a topic I had an interest in and my husband knocked on my office door and whispered "There's a double rainbow in the sky."

I had some choices here. I could have stayed listening to the call and said thanks to my husband for letting me know or I could get up and go outside to see this double rainbow.

I choose to see the rainbows. One because I love rainbows, two it was a double rainbow three my husband made an effort to let me know about it and four- that is what life is about- sharing, celebrating the wonders of nature, connecting. A bonus was that as we were watching the rainbow strengthen and then fade we received "sky kisses" from a cloud above our house. I have to go back to my calendar to remember what call I was on yet the rainbow experience continues with me as does the feeling of wonder and quiet joy it evoked.

Even in the midst of chaos and grief, there is usually a moment that evokes joy. The challenge is in "seeing" it and receiving it. These little life celebrations provide a pause or a pattern interrupt to bring you back to your spirit and authentic present self.

I'm not saying that this easy yet it's simple. It takes practice to bridge the pleasure gap.

Sometimes focusing on dissatisfaction becomes a comfortable lifestyle and actually takes more energy to maintain than one of celebrating the nuggets of daily life.

People seem to look at life's big moments or occasions as the only ones worthy of celebrating thus dismissing the potential for joy on a daily basis. This creates a disconnect between the bulk of your daily life and the extraordinary events in your life making life seem like a burden in between the highlights.

How can you bridge the pleasure gap and experience the art of living?

o Become conscious of breath- this puts you in the present in the beingness of now.

o Become of aware of the delights in your life- A new toothbrush, a clean sink,

a coupon for a favorite drink, a kindness randomly given, the beautiful weed your child picked for you, the courteousness of a customer service rep.

o Give eye contact to the check out person at the store-celebrating that they are ringing up your purchases for you.

o Open yourself up to receiving and seeing the delights and little celebrations there are. (It's not always popular.)

o Sing, dance when you work.

o Look for the beauty in what you are doing or bring beauty into your space.

o Be aware of what your energy is and what you are projecting - your daily energy is what defines your spirit and ultimately your destiny.

Bridging this gap is not indicating indulgence in physical desires but a deeper sense of peace, contentment - One that comes from a profound appreciation of the here and now. This is a conscious choice to celebrate life and be mindful of the now.

"There is only one minute in which you are alive,

this minute, here and now.

The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle.

Which is exactly what it is- a miracle and unreapeatable." Storm Jameson

Your consciousness is always creating and the challenge is directing your energy toward the emotions and experiences that you want. As you align yourself with this creative celebratory energy you align yourself with Universal/Spiritual Laws, you can literally spark bringing in your Quantum Charisma. When you are relentless in being in an optimistic energy combined with your clear and specific intention you have created your most powerful space and force for manifesting.

Colleen Crook, owner and founder of Conscious Living Connection is a Life & Leadership Coach who partners and supports forward thinking individuals and groups in creating a life what matters most by connecting them with what they are most passionate and tapping into their inherent creativity with integrity and authenticity. She is a Certified Facilitator of The Passion Test %u2122. Send her an e-mail describing your biggest challenge to see how she can help you create what matters most to you. E-mail: colleen@consciouslivingconnection.com Website: [http://www.consciouslivingconnection.com]

Life Phrase For Powerful Living - I Am Humbly Powerful

One of the great mysteries that surrounds the concept of God is the silence that sometimes seems to be a most prevalent feature of this entity some name God.

First, you need to dislodge any negative connotations you may be giving to the idea of God. I am writing of the Cosmic Consciousness that is the Universe and more. This is not the God of those who would put imposed limits on your activities. There are reasons for benevolent behavior that need not be backed-up or reinforced by an arbitrary God-figure who imposes rules and punishments. I am talking about an entity who seems indifferent out of the greatest love (41st verse of the Tao Te Ching).

But the seeming indifference leads to my second point. God does not go around chest-beating as the stereotypical gorilla does when confronted with a challenge from another gorilla. The Cosmic Consciousness I am speaking of is unconditional love. There is, therefore, no need for boastful or arrogant behavior on Its part. Yet because of this great love, there is the greatest of power.

So, if you would be powerful you need only take example from the Cosmic Consciousness. No need for shouting in some way, "Look at me." No need to throw your weight of power around as a sledge hammer to destroy all others in your road.

Your life phrase for this article is: "I am humbly powerful." When you make and keep connection and contact with the Cosmic Consciousness, you can and will feel the power flowing through you. Oh, yes, there will still be periods of feeling weaker than you would like. That is usually because you have attached too much importance to the outcome of things. You have temporary succumbed to the belief that to be powerful there must be see-able, measurable results for all to observe and be in awe of.

Yes, the Cosmic Consciousness has created things and events in which we may stand in awe. But there is no grand advertising scheme, so to speak, to get you to see. These things and events are there to be enjoyed when someone chooses to savor them.

So it shall be with you. "I am humbly powerful" is an invitation to yourself to be as is the Cosmic Consciousness. Power and glory are yours as you emulate the Cosmic Consciousness.

Say it to yourself right now: "I am humbly powerful." Connect yourself on a regular basis to the Cosmic Consciousness. Therein you will find both power itself and example of how to be about that power. Start today.

And I invite you to claim your Free Instant Access to a Force-Source-Resource where you will find more about the Cosmic Consciousness and your own power. Just Click Here. There are several to choose from. One is titled, "Two Life Phrases for Self Development, 'I Am My True Self' and 'I Am Conscious'" Remember, one bit of information can save you a lifetime of frustration. You'll get that info here.

My blog is http://themeaningoflifewithdrbob.com/blog We talk about the meaning of life there.

Reality - Living an Illusion? (Part 2)

In the strictest interpretation of word meaning, we hallucinate reality, in that we create it through a miraculous cooperation between inner and outer consciousness, between the inner ego and the exterior ego utilizing a process whereby Nothing becomes Something. The something that becomes real is a psychic creation that does not exist to anyone else that would not have the exact same sensory organs that we do.

In other words, intelligent beings from another planet approaching our small world in a space vehicle would most likely perceive nothing except perhaps the light of the presence of self aware consciousness. If our planet was perceivable to them, it might be able to land, to them our planet could seem desolate and uninhabited or it might fly completely through our world unknowingly. The only beings that could perceive our reality, as in the famous flying saucers are other civilizations that are on the same parallel plane as ourselves, meaning coming from planets that we can actually see or perceive with instruments. Remember, it is only our senses that make our planet, and our civilizations with their pasts, presents and futures valid.

These kinds of world to world excursions are fraught with difficulty and could only be achieved by identities far more evolved that we are at this time. The technology involved in such space travel will not exist in any practical way for us for centuries, but it will come eventually. Space travel for us now is simply too slow and too far to go.

A hallucination is something that does not exist outside of the mind; it is a creation of the mind of an object or event. We have all agreed in advance to play the same game and the game has consequences and meaning. In that respect, it has value and it is real. When we peer through our most advanced telescopes, we perceive only what falls within our sensual abilities. The universe if filled with other phenomenon that we can not perceive, both physical and non-physical.

What we perceive, what seems real to us is only what we can extract by using our senses from available fields of energy driven into objective patterns and forms. Our physical brain then interprets what we perceive, that which falls within our belief structures and organizes it into recognizable objects and events. You could say that we encounter only what is meaningful to us and discard about 99% of everything else that actually exists.

The universe could be described as the ultimate psychological event, and in that respect, everything emerges from psychological fact and what emerges is real so it can not be an illusion, and it is not a hallucination because it does have a physical counterpart and it does exist outside of the mind. Which brings us to the question, if it exists, is it real?

Look at it this way, in a very true sense we are all in an immaculate trance, pre-programming our consciousness to perceive things a certain way, precisely tuning our perceptions before birth, to interpret what results from our beliefs and thoughts into what is real to us. But here is the really cool thing, thoughts and beliefs are just as real as the Sphinx or the Empire State Building.

What we are really talking about here is the transformation of a pure psychological event into different kinds of physically materialized constructions that we call three dimensional physical objects or events.

This building of objective reality from subjective thought is a natural process of self aware consciousness and is carried out by natural emanations of that consciousness, invisible subjective particles gathering, swarming, collecting and attracting other such emanations until the inner vibrational patterns reach a critical level of intensity, igniting inner processes that literally jump the barrier between a subjective inner state (thought) into objective physical matter.

These first particles are, of course, pure energy changing form to manifest itself into the smallest imaginable particles, much smaller even than electrons, mesons, quarks, etc. This was indeed the triumphant psychological breakthrough that allowed our universe to emerge from its inner subjective bed, creating time and space in its wake.

The process is in a way magical, but if "All That Is" had not devised this incomprehensible process to create Everything from Nothing, there would still be nothing but an eternal subjective dream state of drowsiness and no physical universe would have ever emerged from it's deep eternal psychological state. In a strange way, the universe has always existed, always wanted to be, before it knew its first atom, cell or molecule. This intense desire to be is still prevalent today in all consciousness. In greater terms, the universe had no beginning; it did have an emergence from its timeless subjective dream into the realm of actuality.

The real difficulty here is that we try to discuss subjects like these using words which are only symbols of something else. The words are NOT the reality. We use words as best we can to qualify and quantify and categorize objective things, but the true bed of Prime Reality out of which all physical phenomena rises is not physical at all. The reality comes first and the symbols or words follow. So when there is no physically perceivable reality to label with words or symbols, we find ourselves woefully lacking for adequate words to explain some of the very things we need to know to enhance our lives.

So where does this leave us?

Here is one truth. When you begin to understand the connection with your thoughts and what you experience, you will begin to also feel the power of knowing that no matter what you have created in the past, you are not at the mercy of a chance life in a chance world in a meaningless universe. You are the center of the universe from your perspective and from that lofty viewpoint; you can indeed create a better life.

So the answer is that we truly do hallucinate reality, creating an illusion that becomes physical structure. Physical, three dimensional objects and events are wonderful liars, overlaying inner patterns projected from the mind into the exterior world of fact. In other terms, while we are in a physical body living in a physical world that exists in a physical universe, we have to play by the rules of the game. Again we are limited by the meaning of words in trying to explain inner spiritual concepts that are truly out of this world. The illusion of solidity cannot be pierced except when consciousness is stilled in the sleep state, in dreams, in states of reverie or occasionally in rare cases of spontaneous illumination.

There is NO rock bed reality anywhere in any world or any universe and there is not one scintilla of solid, hard stuff out there anywhere in space, but if it seems real and solid and we can sit on it, that's all that counts. There is no contradiction. It's all good!

My name is W. Allan, single male 62, a resident of Naples Florida. I graduated from Washington University in St. Louis and have in the past, written a column called SECRET REALITY which was carried by spiritual and metaphysical magazines. I have recently started a blog to publish my work with the intent of incorporating expanded versions of my blog in book form. You can contact me any at my e-mail address: beachinguy@hotmail.com You may also read other articles at my blog at: http://answersbygod.blogspot.com

Five Ways To Create On Purpose By Living In The Moment

What can you do to really immerse yourself into living more consciously every day?

"We look backward too much and we look forward too much; thus we miss the only eternity of which we can be absolutely sure - the eternal present, for it is always now." - William Phelps

1 - NOW is the only moment that matters. Remember that the only creative moment is this moment, right now. What we receive NOW is 100% of the time a vibrational match to us right NOW. When we are unaware, what we radiate will be the vibrational equivalent of our past observations, judgements, beliefs and decisions. If we don't like what we have - all we have to do is create a new vibration in this moment.

2 - Honor the Divine Perfection of life. When faced with challenges do your best to immediately repeat Buddha's quote: "How wonderful! How wonderful! All things are perfect exactly as they are!" Repeating this until it sinks in will (for most daily challenges) support you in maintaining your tone. I suggest repeating it at least 10 times and I usually count down on my fingers to get me through.

3 - Really live in the moment! When Ashlyn was four-months-old, and felt pain, she screamed and when the pain went away, she stopped. When Parker was four, I noticed that when he would get hurt, he'd cry but even after the pain is actually gone he would continue to mourn the pain for a short period until something else catches his attention. After observing this, I stumped my toe - hard on the door jam. I hopped around and wailed and then suddenly I realized that it really wasn't still hurting but that I was still acting as if it was. Now, I'm learning to ask myself, "How do I feel now? How do I feel in this moment? Does it still hurt or not? What do I want to feel now instead?"

4 - You are unlimited and every moment is filled with possibility! By re-focusing in the moment on the fact that you are an unlimited child of God, you are aligning your energy with the power to manifest whatever your heart desires without even having to identify what that might be.

"We are, in our essential state, pure consciousness. Pure consciousness is pure potentiality; it is the field of all possibilities and infinite creativity. Pure consciousness is our spiritual essence." - Deepak Chopra

Affirm: "I am unlimited! There is nothing I cannot have and nothing I can not do! I accept my unlimited potential right now! I am a Divine Child of God and it is my birthright to have all that I desire."

5 - Fantasize in Fragments. By focusing on what you want in segments, you allow yourself to be more fully open to the now. Abraham (www.abraham-hicks.com) calls this "segment intending." This would look like...(before getting out of bed) I intend to have a fabulous day filled with joyous, connected and aware experiences. I am grateful for a great day! (before brushing teeth) I intend to have healthy gums and teeth and I am grateful for a mouthful of beautiful chops for the rest of my life! (before dressing for the day) I am healthy, fit, attractive and beautiful/handsome. I am grateful for being appreciated and valued by everyone I meet today. (before that board meeting) I intend to experience a positive, enlightening, efficient meeting. I intend to communicate clearly and effectively and to be well received and respected by all meeting attendees. I am grateful for this now.

2005 Written & Copyrighted by cAnisa Aven

Receive Anisa's FREE Conscious Creation 101, a 5-part e-course on the basics of Manifesting, when you register for the Creative Manifesting ezine. Read more about manifesting and conscious creation by visiting http://www.CreativeManifesting.com and http://www.ManifestingProsperity.com - This article may be distributed freely provided this resource box is included in its entirety.

Living With Awareness: A Process, Not an Event

I would like to take a moment to clarify what I said about living with awareness, in an earlier article entitled "Living With Awareness: Are you Living by Default?".

When I said, "Just think about it....you can teach yourself to start living with awareness in just a month's time!" The key word in that sentence was "START".

I didn't mean to imply that you could live fully with awareness in 30 days....and I hope that my article didn't set up false expectations for you.

In fact, while it is possible to achieve awareness or consciousness instantly (Buddha did it), it is very rare, and considered quite miraculous. Most of us achieve it through incremental change...and that is what I wanted to say in my previous article....that within 30 days, you will have integrated your first step toward living more consciously.

Being able to live with full awareness can take years, or decades, depending on your life path, and how much focus you place on this area of your life.

So please, be patient with yourself...growth comes in stages. Focus on one area of your day where you would like to be more conscious (perhaps you'd like to choose a positive, sunny outlook as you head off to work each morning). Then spend 30 days integrating that positive attitude into your routine. Be gentle and easy with yourself, understanding that, short of a miracle, change takes time.

Growth typically comes through incremental changes, with the occasional big shift thrown in for good measure. So let your first step become solidified and part of your daily routine....and then you can choose another area of your life to bring your awareness/consciousness to.

Elise Fee is a Consulting Hypnotist and Life Mentor - her business "EliseOnLife" helps clients get a new lease on life. Elise works with clients via private consultations, either in person or over the phone.

Elise's many varied life experiences have taught her broader, more expansive ways to view and experience the world and humanity. She writes a daily blog sharing her perspectives on life and humanity, and provides readers with practical, easy techniques they can use to begin living their best life. Subscribe to her free blog today: http://www.EliseOnLife.com

Consistency and Living Up to Your Own Standards

Everyday life contains multiple different choices that we make sometimes out of routines, and on other occasions based on rational- or emotional reflections. Despite common beliefs, a smart person makes both, emotional- and reasoned decisions as the conscious mind is only able to process information 60bits/s, wherein the sub-conscious has been estimated to have a capacity of 11 200 000bits/s, and thus it is a marriage made in heaven that a person listens to her intuition, emotion and reasons by taking also note on both of them.

To make decisions based on the intuitive experience most have come familiar to know what it feels to live with a decision that was not in accordance with one's intuition, the constant feeling that something just isn't right. It is the same when one does not live up to one's own standards but instead chooses to live up to someone else's standards, causing another episode of uncomfortable emotions. Thus, by perceiving that something causes an authentic experience of the need or something one feels fit with, one perceives the truth and not the untruth when it comes to living up to one's own standards.

Human existence isn't something that can be split into conscious and non-conscious self, for everything in human physiology is interconnected. Intuition and emotional responses flare in an instant, and after some line of reasoning, one usually tends to find them to be correct. They are what we either feel right or wrong about, "there's something suspicious about this", and such instinctive emotions should be trusted, as it is also to trust oneself.

Measure the difference with need and desire. Say instead whenever you desire something that you need it, and you will learn the true measures between them. Need as a word has more honesty and clarity than the word desire, and the real desires are in your needs, for desires tend to be shortly outlived. Consistency in reaching goals is one of the keys on reaching the desired circumstances, but consistency in living up to one's own standards may well be lost by following shortly outlived flares of desires. You're saving money, but decide to go into a triathlon on a shopping spree.

The bounds of vain desires are in the boundaries of imagination, but needs are the language of your hearts desires. And what comes to the perception of truths, all persons have an authentic compass that guides the sense between truth and untruth. If you do against what you experience as the truth, you will become internally conflicted, and sense that your authentic experience is against it. Internal honesty can be at first weighty in realizations, and it is not easy for example to admit that one is living in a fantasy of circumstances that are non-existent, but the truth is most powerful path of existence, outside of the dream living, guided not blindly, but by truths.

Henry M. Piironen is the author of "The Power of Transiency (How Thoughts Can Harness the Power of Life, the Universe and Everything)." To purchase this definitive book, visit Amazon Kindle Store now! Already read it? To purchase his other books, click here.

Living Consciously - Making Life Decisions Based On Inner Wisdom

To live consciously is to re-create our life the way we want it to be. Good health and vitality are our natural birthright. No matter what our age or our current health situation is, it is never too late to make positive changes that will help us heal ourselves, so that we may live life to the fullest. We are constantly being bombarded with words and images through television, movies, magazines and other media that are designed to influence our life choices. Much of this is overt, such as cleverly conceived advertising created to appeal to a target group of individuals. Some is more subtle, designed to reinforce our cultural behaviors.

All of us are familiar with the barrage of commercials by the pharmaceutical industry promoting one drug or another as the solution for various health problems. Somewhat less obvious is that ever present reminder in these advertisements to "ask your doctor whether 'drug-x' is right for you", perpetuating the idea that your doctor is the ultimate authority when it comes to making health decisions in your life.

To live consciously means to take charge of our own life, including our health decisions. Yes, doctors have an important role in our health care system, especially in dealing with trauma such as physical injuries. But we need to better educate ourselves as to how our bodies function, and how we can work with the natural processes of our body to support health and vitality. Making life decisions based on inner wisdom, rather than outside influences, represents a fundamental change for many people. It is not always easy to go against the cultural currents - to be the one who is always 'different' when we are with a group of friends.

Changing our life begins with clarifying our intentions. Let's explore this in a bit more detail. Our intentions are literally a field of energy that we radiate out from the center of our being - our 'heart' center - as we move through the experiences of our daily life. This field of energy consists of both our thoughts and our emotions, integrated together in a unified field. If upon waking in the morning, we take a few moments to clarify our intentions for the day, we literally pre-program the nature of the experiences that we will attract to us. For example, if we affirm that it is our intention to be kind to each person we meet, and if we take a few moments in our imagination to move into the feelings of what those encounters will be like, then we will proceed through our day radiating the energies of kindness. A resonance will occur as we encounter others who are also radiating an intention (unified energy field) of kindness. Through their 'inner sense' or 'intuition', they will be attracted to interact with us on the vibration of kindness.

The interaction might be as simple as a smile as they pass by us, or something more expansive. On the other hand, if we live unconsciously, and allow our intentions to be dominated by negative thoughts and emotions, there will be a resonance with others who are radiating similar negative thoughts and emotions. Consequently, our experiences throughout the day are likely to be of a much more negative or depleting nature, reinforcing our own negativity.

Relating this to personal wellness, if we begin our day by affirming our intention to do only those things throughout the day that contribute to our health and vitality, we will tend to live our life in a healthier manner. Making changes in our life is seldom easy or instantaneous. But, like a child learning to walk, if we begin with small steps and pay attention to the progress we are making, we can develop the confidence that is needed to take larger steps. In his book, The Power of Intention: Learning to Co-Create Your World Your Way, Dr. Wayne Dyer writes about intention as being a field of energy that flows invisibly beyond the reach of our normal, everyday habit patterns. He goes on to say that this omnipresent power of intention pervades everything and everyone, so all we need to do to be what we want to be, and to achieve what we want to achieve is to align our intention, and then everything in the universe will assist us.

Living consciously involves the integration and alignment of our body, mind and spirit in a way that provides the courage and wisdom to make important life choices from within, rather than simply responding to external influences.

[This is an excerpt from the book Simple Steps To Total Health by Andreas Moritz & John Hornecker]

Andreas Moritz is a writer and practitioner in the field of Integrative Medicine. He is the author of 13 books on various subjects pertaining to holistic health, including The Amazing Liver and Gallbladder Flush, Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation and Cancer Is Not a Disease. His most recent book is titled Vaccine-Nation: Poisoning the Population, One Shot at a Time.

Moritz is also the creator of Ener-Chi Art (www.ener-chi.com) and Sacred Santemony.

Much of his life's work has been dedicated to understanding and treating the root causes of illness, and helping the body, mind, spirit and heart to heal naturally.

Connect with Andreas at: http://www.facebook.com/enerchi.wellness

Copyright c 2011 by Andreas Moritz

Living With Regret - How to Transform This Negative Emotion

How to handle negative emotions is one of the most controversial topics in the self-help movement-particularly such emotions as "regret."

"The [desire to change one's ways] that is according to the will of God, produces a repentance [change and amends] but without regret." (2 Corinthians 7:10).

Regret is an emotion that might very well control us more than any other. Since it is also an emotion that we often try to ignore or repress, it tends to do its damage beneath the surface of our conscious mind. Some of us allow such negative emotions to exist because we assume that we "deserve to have regret" as a punishment for the "poor choices" we've made. Others take the opposite approach and try avoiding regret by brushing it aside, never taking responsibility nor attempting to improve upon themselves. The former of these can be a statement of being a victim; the latter can be a statement of pure arrogance.

There is another option. Regret can serve us for good in that it can remind us to refrain from repeating the same mistakes. However, this could imply that our fear of experiencing the negative outcomes of our past errors will make us "behave" our way back into God's good graces. This is simply not so. It is not enough for human beings to simply "behave themselves," if such "good" behavior is motivated by guilt or regret. We have learned that there is a part of us-the Christ within-that is so pure it needs not to be "frightened into behaving" or "scared straight." The Christ within is pure Love, and where pure Love is, fear cannot exist. Besides, God already sees us as perfect and sinless.

Regret is also a form of self-condemnation, created by our ego as a means of keeping us in a state of un-forgiveness. When we use regret to keep us from doing something "wrong," we are trying to tell God that we've got our own plan for correcting errors. We think we will not need God's plan for release-known as "forgiveness of self." Self-condemnation is also our ego's way to keep us from learning and healing-our only two reasons for being here on earth. This, in turn, keeps us from being liberated and free. Instead, for us to heal our regrets, we have to confront them-head on-by processing them and then coming to peace with them!

So how do you know if your regrets are valid and that your awkward feelings about previous behaviors are valid or not? One way to know is to ask yourself if you would repeat the past behavior in the present time of your life. If not, then it probably wasn't for your highest good in the past. If you are still uncertain, you can ask yourself if what you did choose in the past is something you would recommend to others-particularly someone you care about. If you wouldn't recommend certain choices and behaviors to others, then why in God's name would you try to justify that it was okay for you?

Which of the following do you most often choose for dealing with regret?

1. "I have no regrets." This applies to people who refuse to own that they've made mistakes. They might deny or minimize their behaviors but all are merely aspects of denial or avoidance.

2. "I live with constant regret, guilt and shame." This applies to people who cannot seem to forgive themselves for their errors.

3. "Regrets serve no purpose in my life." This can sound suspiciously similar to the first option, but the difference is that the reason you now have no regrets is because you know what you thought you did never actually occurred.

It's easy to say you prefer and choose the third option. However, it is much harder to actually understand it and unless you understand it, you cannot actually choose it.

When we reach a heightened level of Christ Consciousness, we find no purpose in having regret for a couple of reasons: For starters, in the ultimate sense, whatever is in the past no longer exists. Second, when you are "born again" into a new level of consciousness-Christ Consciousness-you find that it was not the new you who committed the errors but instead, it was the old you-a part of you that exists no longer. As the Bible puts is, "There is now no condemnation for those who are [newly born into Christ Consciousness]." (Romans 8:1).

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." (Galatians 2:20)

As with all things, there are a few ways to deal with regret. 1) You can ignore it and hope it goes away-pretending you don't feel it. 2) You can allow it to destroy you-always shaming yourself and your actions, which can then paralyze your abilities to move forward. 3) You can take an honest look (self inventory) at whatever it was that you've done (past or present) and learn from it-learning what made you choose that decision, what part of you the decision served (your ego or your soul), and even how you can choose differently next time. But the fact is that you need to do something with it. It does not serve you to pretend you are above it or that you simply don't feel such emotions.

Of course this does not imply that you need to shame or guilt yourself into making more "spiritual choices." Instead, the goal is to teach yourself about YOU and what makes you tick. Once you "know thyself," you will make different choices, but not out of fear or attempting to "be good." Instead, you will make different choices because you understand why you made your previous choices. Therefore, you can now make more educated, self-aware, and healthy choices.

It is not God's will for you to attempt to heal your soul through self-abasement. Making yourself feel bad for things you've done "wrong" is "ego-centered." Attempts to improve oneself through such means are simply not real nor are they long lasting. No amount of regret will ever correct your soul nor will it make amends for your past behavior.

"The anger [regret and self-condemnation] of man does not achieve the righteousness of God [a new self in a state of purity]." (James 1:20).

A Course in Miracles explains that errors are merely illusions that are not yet seen for what they are/were-they are actions or reactions that stem from a misperception of who we are. Therefore they are actions that are rash, unfounded, and misdirected, which means they have no foundation in reality...therefore they are not real. When truth enters the picture, the illusions disappear, "leaving not a trace by which to be remembered." This, in part, is referring to the fact that when you heal wounds from the past (which includes regret), your mind and brain will literally be re-wired in a way that unplugs the past (leaving no trace) and gets re-wired with new thoughts and belief-systems.

What then, can we do, to come to heal our regrets on the soul level? As with all things that are negative, or outworn, we can recycle them and allow them to be put to a new use (teaching us about ourselves). Then we can bid them farewell entirely. One such means of transforming regret into a miracle of healing is as follows:

1. Recognize there is a problem. Do a self-inventory to see if there is anything you can recall in your life (something you did or failed to do) with which you are not at peace. Look closely to make sure you are including things you would rather not think about.

2. Allow yourself to come to accept that there are far deeper issues than you had previously been willing to acknowledge. Once you have some memories or scenarios arise, ask yourself what the other people involved got from you and what you might have got from them. Be honest with this step, as it is sometimes hard to believe that we could get anything from some of our past events (such as abuses). Also, from these regrettable events, are there positives you can integrate or negatives from which you can learn? For example, if I regret not taking a job that was offered to me, I could choose to integrate into myself, and into my own life, whatever positives I liked or admired about that business. Then, I could also choose to learn from the negatives by perhaps owning that I may not have felt good enough for the job or maybe I allowed my fears of change to get the best of me. Now, seeing this, I can choose to never again allow such self-sabotage.

3. Prayerfully choose to surrender the entire experience to God, including the people, lessons, and emotions (such as regret).

4. Ask instead, that the previous space that this job (the people, the emotions, and so forth) took up in your mind, now be replaced with new thoughts and beliefs. The more self-inventory you did in the earlier step, the more room you have now created for God to move in and become a more active Force in your mind and soul.

5. Close your self-healing process by giving thanks that you have bravely bid farewell to so many deep layers of your past and that you have chosen to replace the previous, wounded guide in your soul, with a new, Divine Guide who has only your highest good in mind.

Imagine there are three rooms set in a row but connected by a door between each. The first room is a room where we experience bliss and pure love. We can call this room, Heaven. A Course in Miracles makes reference to the first room as follows: "Try to remember when there was a time...when nothing came to interrupt your peace; when you were certain you were loved and safe." This room still exists somewhere in our mind but needs to be rediscovered.

The next room is the room where we began to believe that we were separate from God. It is here that we gave birth to the effects of our mistaken choices. This is the room of guilt and regret.

The last room is where we live now. This is the room of outcomes. This is the room where we try to "get by" and ignore what we chose in the second room-in hopes that it was just a bad dream. What most people don't realize in the third room, is that even though you think you feel better than you did in the second room, you haven't really dealt with any of the choices and beliefs made in the second room nor the negative emotions, such as regret. Also, the room in which you now live is, in fact, one room further away from Heaven or the Real World of God. Therefore, the only way to repair this dilemma is to set your course (focus) on the first room (God) and then walk with commitment and conviction through the second room until you reach your destination-the first room--Heaven.

There are NO shortcuts. You cannot escape yourself. Instead, all parts of you that you perceive as flawed must be looked at square in the eye and healed. Each of these healings (miracles) gets you closer to the first room-Home. There are simply no other routes but straight through your own heart and soul.

"Lay judgment [of self] down, not with regret but with a sigh of gratitude. It was all illusion and nothing more." -A Course in Miracles

Michael Mirdad is a world-renowned spiritual teacher, healer, and author. He continues to tour extensively around the world leading church services, workshops and Sacred Sites Tours, as well as being a keynote speaker at some of the largest conferences in the country on Spirituality and Metaphysics.

Learn more about Michael Mirdad by visiting his web site at: http://www.grailproductions.com

Living in the Power of Now - Practice Silence & Become Empowered Living in the Power of Now - Part 4

As you quiet the mind and the body you're allowing power from the Infinite Source to empower you from within. Silence in the now is where great power resides. The still small voice speaks loudly in the silence. Wisdom emerges out of the silence. Confidence comes to you as you're strengthened in the silence. You overcome fear and become courageous in the silence. For silence is the dwelling place of the Universal Mind and Universal Power.

But this time of silence does not come to you unless you truly desire and consciously set the time aside for it. Only then will you be empowered living in the now as you practice silence.

5 Steps to Practice Silence

Step 1 - Schedule a time everyday where you'll not be disturbed and you can still your mind and body, preferably first thing in the morning to set the pace for the day and at night before bedtime so you can cleanse the mind and rejuvenate the body.

Step 2 - Speak peace to your mind. Say, "Peace, calm, relax." As you give this instruction to your mind, it will immediately pick up this vibration and send it also to your body causing it to relax. Repeat this as many times as necessary for you.

Step 3 - As you relax, become conscious of and allow the presence of inner peace, inner joy and love to emerge from within. I use the word presence because you'll feel this energy within you. The deeper you go into this the stronger this energy will become and the more peace, joy and love you'll experience. The warmth of your inner sun will begin to shine brighter and brighter dispersing the clouds that shade it.

Step 4 - Release all thoughts that come into this space. As thoughts come to you, look at them directly with your inner eye and consciously release them and re-enter your inner sanctuary of peace.

Step 5 - Become conscious that you are now in the presence of the Universal Mind - God, where all power, all knowledge - the All-in-All dwells and that, and this is very important, you are one with this Universal Mind. Be conscious that this Power Source now runs in and through you. Bask in this consciousness.

This is where I release you to have your own personal experience. Follow the inner guidance. You'll develop your own unique personal encounters and come out feeling energized and empowered to go out into your day. And as your day begins, continue to practice living in the power of now so that the flow of the Universal Energy is magnified into your daily activity.

The more you allow this energy to flow through you into others - releasing love, joy and peace to those around you - the more power you'll experience in your life. This energy multiplies by usage and you'll become a great power source through which the Infinite Mind of God can be expressed on the earth.

Changing your life may seem like an overwhelming frustrating process. But it doesn't have to be if you're given simple doable step-by-step strategies that will get you from where you are to where you want to be and experience a transformed life. To get access to daily life-changing tips, steps and quotes go to http://www.facebook.com/changinginsideoutnow.

Living a Harmonious Life

"A man is not rightly conditioned until he is a happy, healthy, and prosperous being; and happiness, health, and prosperity are the result of a harmonious adjustment of the inner with the outer of the man with his surroundings." ~ James Allen

Having a prosperity consciousness is not strictly limited to money and finances, but it encompasses the whole of a person's life. Because we are limited as human beings, we tend to limit the way we define things and thus our experience of them. When we can remember that we are spiritual beings first and foremost, knowing that we have access to an unlimited source, then we can begin to expand not only our definitions but our whole consciousness.

When we can begin to see prosperity consciousness as the way we define our whole life, then we can also begin to shift into that mindset in all areas of life. For example, having a prosperity mindset also means that you do not neglect your health and well being. In order to have a prosperous life, it begins with a healthy lifestyle. You cannot succeed to the level of excellence when you are in poor health. A less than healthy existence means a lack of focus and concentration and even less motivation to pursue your goals. Prosperity consciousness is a way of living and thinking and not just material wealth.

"The word prosperity comes from the Latin root which literally translates: "according to hope" or "to go forward hopefully." Thus it is not so much a condition in life as it is an attitude toward life." ~ Eric Butterworth, Spiritual Economics

Look at all the areas of your life, including your relationships, your recreational time and your spiritual life. If there is no harmony with any of them, then you are not living from prosperity consciousness. Don't neglect all other areas of your life just to accumulate money and wealth. One must not be done at the expense of the other. You don't want there to come a time when your health breaks down and you need to spend all of your money to restore your health. This is not a harmonious lifestyle or living from prosperity consciousness.

Remember that you are a whole being with different areas of your life; and you need to be equally mindful of all those different areas. Your life will be much sweeter when you can live in a complete and prosperous way.

As a Spiritual Animator, Author and Advocate, Carolyn Townes has been teaching, coaching and facilitating workshops for over a decade in the areas of women's wellness. Founder and Chief Spiritual Officer of Spirit Women Institute, she is dedicated to equipping, empowering and encouraging women to lead lives of inner peace, passion and prosperity. Trained and certified in grief counseling, death education, hospice and bereavement care, as well as pastoral ministry, Carolyn has journeyed with women and men going through difficult life transitions through her workshops, one-on-one counseling, group coaching, and courses in grief, healing and life transition, such as dealing with anger, change, and forgiveness issues.

Carolyn delivers inspiring and power-packed seminars, workshops, and classes propelling audiences and clients to lead a more passionate and purposeful life. Carolyn hangs out at http://www.carolyntownes.com and blogs at http://spiritwomen.blogspot.com.

Connection - Consciously CHOOSING To Be Present - Living Your Best Life

Humans are a species that thrive on connection. We have the ability to connect on the level of body, mind and spirit. In fact we are AWESOME connectors, making incredible differences to each other's lives through the simplicity of eye to eye contact and gentle touch.

However...

When we speed through the streets, skirting around corners, narrowly missing pedestrians, in a hurry to get to the next thing, we are disconnected.

When we focus on the television, stare at the laptop and ignore our children, we are disconnected.

When we eat without gratitude, smoke cigarettes out of habit or react in anger and frustration we are disconnected.

In fact when we do ANYTHING in our lives without conscious awareness we are choosing to disconnect from life itself.

Consciously connecting or being in the NOW are surefire ways to gain command of your life and project yourself into happiness and success!

Disconnection leaves us little or no room for the purposeful direction our lives, disconnection is another word for suffering.

Connection, implies clarity and awareness. Being connected give us access to extraordinary levels of power.

To truly connect we must be willing to be happy rather than right, to take command of our own emotional body rather than try to control others actions.

Couple this willingness with conscious awareness on your breathing and you begin the process of connection.

Breathing fully, relaxing the shoulders, stomach and bottom activates the vibration of NOWNESS. As soon as you bring your attention to your body your heart alights with the recognition of NOW.

You come back from wherever your thoughts and habits had taken you and you awaken to the sensations on your body, in your lungs, before your eyes.

Conscious awareness of your breathing flushes the system of stagnant air and ideas. opening the door to a wider appreciation of your life.

There is such peace to be found in the now.

Extreme beauty abounds in the air of the now.

Your child's eyes are shinier when you are connected in the now.

The things people say are more interesting.

Your lovers skin is warmer, the food tastes better, your decisions are keener.

You become aware of your integrity. You can make the conscious decision to smoke the ciggy or eat the cake and if you decide to do it, you get to really experience the joy in it, or you can consciously register the distasteful body response it causes.

You are no longer numb to your own senses, no longer in denial of your own best practice.

The more often you switch on to the moment the easier it becomes to notice your natural, implicit connection to everything around you.

Children with learning and/or behavioural issues clearly benefit from true connection with the adults in their lives and will often respond immediately to the harmony that is to be found in defenceless connection.

If parents and carers of such children are devoted to their own personal development, concentrating on the power of presence they receive the payoff in optimum results.

Relationships of all kinds heal and change, with more joy and less pain, when we commit to breathing into the now.

Humans are intrinsically connected to each other and all that is. It is in the simple denying/forgetting of this that we feel grief.

Imagine leaving your child somewhere, forgetting to go back for her and now a seeking for the memory of where you left her.

There would be, to hazard a guess, an overwhelming distress and blanket feeling of hopelessness.

This is what humans are unconsciously feeling, a nagging sense that something is missing. A deep need to fill the space within with external drama and material objects to satisfy our yearning for the peace and joy only to be found in the silence of now, the truth of connection.

An important aspect of our psyche has been abandoned in favour of ambition and noise and I believe we are angry at ourselves for allowing this to happen.

it is time to see past our anger and disillusionment, stop asking why and skip to the solution.

Relax. breathe and be here now. This is enlightenment.

Relax, breathe and change the world.

Breathe and connect, feel the little hand in yours. Be there for the children.

Forgive ourselves for forgetting ans start afresh NOW!

To learn how to bring connection to your family and or classroom please visit The I AM Program at http://www.theiamprogram.com, an awesome site filled with emotional intelligence activities, lesson plans and support for the growth of self-esteem.
To discover a sense of connection and enlightenment within the self visit http://www.iamspirituality.com brilliant advise and wonderful video podcast all free!

Reality - Living an Illusion? (Part 1)

The answer is YES and NO.

And as Lowell Thomas would say, "Here is the rest of the story".

Since much of what I have been writing about concerns "Reality", this seems to be a good time to try and clear up exactly what I am talking about and will be talking about in the future. There are many others who have written about reality in countless books and given in lectures, yet these attempts to tell you about what is usually fall short because they usually get lost in lofty rhetoric about a "walk softly and speak quietly with an eternal smile on your face" kind of religious connotation that everyone inherently knows deep within themselves is just some "idealistic" non-realistic way of living an unfulfilling life.

Some authors attempt to equate reality with spirituality, leaving the impression that following some exterior source, they will finally be qualified to live a happy life and ascend into a mindless and purposeless Heaven or Nirvana upon physical death.

Most people sense on other levels of their being that achieving spiritual understanding has very little to do with the way you present yourself to the world. It has a lot to do with how you think about that world. Religion has played a necessary role in at least acquainting us with the possibility that something exists after death. Religion has always been the constant reminder to humanity that there is another world existing behind, under or invisibly in a dimension we don't fully understand, but it just makes sense to us, and that is why religion has always been present in some form in all civilizations. Hidden within religions faults, distortions and misconceptions, there is always hope, hope that we can and will live again. We don't know where, but somewhere?

The problem is that for centuries, the qualifications for achieving that peaceful and harmonious afterlife are so stringent that almost no one qualifies, and how could you expect to convince yourself that you were good enough to go to Heaven when you have been convinced that you were born a sinner with only a dim hope of salvation, and you know where sinners go. (smile)

Realities exist! Meaning there is more than one system of reality. Actually they are countless.

There are then, many systems of reality, some occupying planets or stars, some not). There are even realities that intersect with and move through our own world and not a tremor is felt. Physical, rock solid, seemingly permanent worlds actually occupy no real space and can pass through one another without notice. The properties of solidity only seems that way to our exterior tuned senses. A reality is many isolated, interconnected chemical, electromagnetic and psychic fields of specifically oriented consciousness coming together at a precise location in time and space to explore and understand certain specific challenges that could be encountered in no other way.

A world is a system of reality. Systems of reality exist within different dimensions as do other worlds, but they do not necessarily have to. A system of reality is a plane existing in a dimension. Different planes of reality can exist within one system of reality as in the leprechauns and fairies who shared our world in mythological history. There was a factual basis for the stories of such little people lost in the mists of time. Of course they still exist but are rarely noticed because we have trained and limited our fields of perception so much that we are only perceiving a smidgen of what is available of these other planes existing within our own.

Consciousness always seeks form and on achieving form it seeks to manifest itself further by combining with other consciousness to achieve more complex objects, events and identities. Identity, once formed cannot be negated, diffused, diminished or extinguished. You are an IDENTITY. Consciousness (identity) seeks to be known! Identity is restless and never still, it is always striving. There is an ever driving ache within identity to combine and become more.

A world is purposeful, it has meaning and there is a meaning that is unique to our world, as it is to others. We are not alone.

Our system of reality is planet oriented, (we call it Earth) organized around a sensual experience of seeming solidity manifested through atomic structure and presented to our senses for interpretation as solid, hard, concrete, full with no spaces.

By inference, I am saying that solidity is the result of a sensual perception, a hypnotic kind of experience agreed upon by every living thing that lives on planet earth. What that means is that if we ALL agree in advance to the rules of the game, agreeing on a set of parameters for the game we play, the game achieves validity and meaning for all players.

Other parameters we have accepted and agreed on are gravity, time, spatial dimensions and many others. Keeping in the same train of thought, once the parameters or rules of the game are agreed upon for any particular system of reality, these unique rules are set and become intractable. The thing that is important to understand, is that these rules pertinent to our game, could and would be different in other systems or dimensions. No system of reality is duplicated anywhere in the universe.

The parameters define the world view and experience and if they had been set differently, then the exact kind of solidity that we perceive now would have been far different, and is far different in other similar systems of reality. (other worlds). To say that our world is an illusion, would be to say that it is not real, that it is a lie, an untruth. So there is a contradiction here, or is there? There are countless worlds that are less solid than ours and some far denser and their experience is not less in quality than ours.

To be continued

My name is W. Allan, single male 62, a resident of Naples Florida. I graduated from Washington University in St. Louis and have in the past, written a column called SECRET REALITY which was carried by spiritual and metaphysical magazines. I have recently started a blog to publish my work with the intent of incorporating expanded versions of my blog in book form. You can contact me any at my e-mail address: beachinguy@hotmail.com You may also read other articles at my blog at: http://answersbygod.blogspot.com

The Universe is a Living, Pulsating Being

Wherever you look in the universe, you see order and intelligence displayed. Life is everywhere in everything around us and cannot be destroyed, as it is energy itself.

We all know from physics that energy cannot be created or destroyed: it is eternal and can only change its form. We know that everything in the universe is made of energy.

We often hear people say that we will soon run out of energy. By this, they often are referring to oil and gas deposits in the Earth. Yet the energy content is always the same: it just transforms from one form of energy to another.

If you wake up to who you really are, you will never feel the lack of anything ever again. During deep meditation, we connect to our Higher Self: that field of energy which is unmanifest.

I was reading an article recently about the Milky Way: how scientists are saying there are huge Magellanic Clouds of magnetic energy at each end. This electromagnetic gravitational field of energy is stirring up the dark matter and making it vibrate like a drum skin over the whole area.

What I feel we are seeing when we hear this is a living, breathing universe. Scientists say that ninety per cent of the universe is made up of dark matter. I say that this is like what telephone companies talk about when they have unused fibre optic cables: they call it Dark Fibre.

What I would put to you is that this dark matter is the universe's consciousness that has not yet woken up, i.e. become self-aware. It is like our own consciousness: we cannot use the intelligence that we are made of until we become self-aware.

Only by looking within our Selves can we know ourselves and know who and what we are. It is only when intelligence is turned back on itself through the human mind that intelligence become intelligent and knows itself. When we become aware of our abilities, we can start to use them.

In the same way, we can measure the electrical and magnetic activity of our brainwaves: how they form themselves into impulses in our brain and body and how this flow of electricity produces a field of magnetic energy.

It is this field of magnetic energy that makes the aura that surrounds us and creates the magnetic field - or field of energy - which holds each cell of our body in place.

Science is starting to see the same relationship in the universe as in the example of the latest finding in the Milky Way. Scientists are seeing the relationship between matter - which makes up the stars and the planets - and the conscious awareness that flows through these magnetic clouds.

The drumbeat is the Milky Way breathing as it is sleeping; but, very soon, it is going to wake up. It is going to become self-aware like fibre optics that is being switched on.

The dark fibre will disappear as new channels of conscious communication open up, connecting different aspects of matter that are growing in integration and coming to life.

The shift in human consciousness which we are experiencing at the moment is not just limited to human beings as we realize we are all one. We start to wake up the Earth's own consciousness.

We see the same relationship on the Earth - with the Earth and all the different forms of crystals forming the matter and gravity, and ley lines forming the magnetic aura that the planet's conscious awareness flows through.

This consciousness will expand out to reach the sun and moon and the other planets that form our solar system which, through astrology, we already know have an influence on our consciousness.

We are seeing an awakening now on a universal level as the unseen aspect of our consciousness wakes up. Dark matter is turning into light and becoming self-aware and integrated into a unified wholeness of vibrant life.

Message channelled by George Lockett (C) Copyright 2006, All Rights Reserved.

* New book * "A Journey into the Self -- the multi-dimensional nature of being human": HealerGeorge Web Site and New Book

Description: What is this book going to do for YOU? For those who are seeking a complete energetic makeover, as you read it you will feel a stirring and awakening in the depths of your heart. For those who have questions about Shifts in Consciousness, Energy Balancing and Healing within the body, you will find clear answers.

Read HealerGeorge?s Blog: Curezone Blog or ask at question at: Ask HealerGeorge

Quantum Physics and the Living Universe

The Age of Aquarius has given us the Laws of Quantum Physics. The materialistic scientists have grabbed hold of it and are talking and writing it to death. The extremely high levels of abstractions that they use are way above the heads of the average man and woman and this shouldn't be.

The Universe is far more easy to understand if we stop trying to dissect it and classify it and put it in one of the Departmental Drawers in one of the Universities.

The one major difficulty that many of the eggheads who are studying and talking and writing about Quantum Physics (while they are getting their egos inflamed as well as their $$$grants) is that they leave out God.

I am not talking about one of the God's of the dogmatic religions prevalent on the planet. I am talking about the Creator God, the Grand Architecht of the Universe what the ancients speak about. It is the Creator God that has set everything that you and I know (and a great deal we do NOT know about) into motion.

The second thing that they leave out is that we live in a living, expanding Universe. It is alive and conscious just as you and I are alive and conscious only in a different, much vaster degree. It has a function, purpose and destiny just as you and I have a function purpose and destiny.

Stop analyzing and start enjoying. Stop seeking and let it BE.

The key to all the so called mysteries of the Universe, such as Black Holes and Super Novas exist in the Quantum Ocean. The Laws of Quantum Physics tell us that there exists an infinite Ocean of Thinking, intelligent energy called the Quantum Ocean. It is the Mind of God.

The Creator God put everything possible, everything that ever was, is or will be into this thinking Ocean of Energy.

We as human beings, 'blinked out' of the Quantum Ocean many times. Each time we blinked out it was called a life. Every time we died we 'blinked back in.'

Why all this 'blinking out and 'blinking in?' Because it is the process the Creator put into place to allow us to reach our goal, our destiny. And that is to become more God-like, more conscious with each new incarnation until we reach 'critical mass' and do not have to live physically again.

The Universe and the Galaxies, Planets and Sun also 'blink in' and 'blink out' of the Quantum Ocean. The ancient yogi's and Brahmin's knew this.

No body knows the timing factor, but why do we have to? It is not important. It is what my teacher called 'Decorative' knowledge. What we need to pay attention to is 'functional knowledge.' What we can do on a daily basis to grow and BE. We must be after our 'Father's' work. And that work is to raise our levels of Consciousness, to become more God like, to EVOLVE.

Decorative knowledge may be fun to read about, but it has no real value for us.

I know that if a materialistic scientist reads this he will scoff at the childish simplicity of my words. I have two reply s. My teacher told me once, "...Unless you can talk about something in your own words so that others can understand you, you don't know what you are talking about.."

And a greater teacher than him once said, "...Unless you become like little children you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

The Kingdom of Heaven is the Quantum Ocean, Mind of God. All the Answers are there and we do not need telescopes nor microscopes to get the answers.

The Quantum Ocean, Mind of God responds to all our thoughts and questions. The higher we raise our level of consciousness, the deeper the Quantum Ocean, Mind of God will reveal it's secrets to us.

We don't need technology or materialistic egg-heads. We need more consciousness and higher and better thoughts. We need to become more spiritually oriented.

Ellis Peterson AKA Ragnar Storyteller is a retired math professor and electronics engineer. He has been studying astrology, runes, metaphysics and alternate healing treatments for over 30 years. He is 70+, in very good health and lives in the boonies of the Pocono mountains with his wifr Lory. His writings are unique and refreshing.

To see more of his writings visit his websites.

[http://www.olevikingshop.com]

and http://www.runes-for-health-wealth-love-now.com

Or go to goggle and type in his pen name RAGNAR STORYTELLER for his listings. He is also a ghost writer and will write and article for you. Email Ragnar for his FREE 10 PART MINI-COURSE, "How-To use Quantum Physics in Your Every Day Life to Attract More Wealth, Health and Love, Now." You can contact him at:

ragnarstoryteller2@gmail.com