DO YOU BELIEVE IN YOURSELF?

"We cannot rise higher than our thought of ourselves."
-- Orison Swett Marden

What do you believe about yourself?

If you are experiencing a lack of something in your life, chances are that you hold a belief in your subconscious that says you aren't worthy of having that quality. Write in your journal the answer to these questions for yourself:

• Where are you not good enough, not worthy enough?
• How willing are you to receive?

"We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit."
-- e. e. cummings

RESPONSIBILITY BRINGS POWER

"To be tested is good. The challenged life may be the best therapist."
-- Gail Sheehy

What holds you back from being all that you are? 

In your journal, list at least 5 things that hold you back.

Now review your answers. Have you blamed people or factors outside of yourself? 

It's important to understand that ALL obstructions are rooted in our internal blocks. Even the problems that appear to be outside of us are only reflecting back to us problems we have inside. Once we address our inner issues, the outer problems disappear.

Be personally accountable for everything in your life and watch your perspectives shift. We claim our power when we accept responsibility for our lives. 

"Conscious evolution begins as we take responsibility for clearing our own obstructions."
-- Dan Millman

Having conflicts with the kids? Relax!!!!

"Family life! The United Nations is child's play compared to the tugs and splits and need to understand and forgive in any family."
-- May Sarton

Faced with a child (or a person of any age, for that matter) who is angry or rebellious? Consider the guidance from Vimala McClure: 

"To discover what my child needed, a deep, yielding receptivity was vital. The temptation is to become more and more rigid, but the more you do, the less you understand. When faced with a child who is testing your resolve, relax and yield .... 

"As a parent, the frustration of not knowing how to fill a need that cannot be articulated can be overwhelming. Often we direct the rage that stems from that frustration toward the child, which serves to distance us even further, making it impossible for the child to open up to us. To get to this type of receptivity, a practice of conscious relaxation is a must." 

"Those who have children can become masters of patience, endurance, and steadfastness, because children will test you at every turn. ...The way to make our children patient and loving is to be that way ourselves."
-- Eknath Easwaran

Are you struggling with money??

"Managing your money does not depend upon becoming wealthy or declaring vows of poverty. Rather, it is about creating stability and sufficiency - a balanced flow of monetary energy through your life."
-- Dan Millman

What would it take to achieve financial stability and sufficiency in your life? 

Lets take a honest look at your life. How could you achieve financial stability and sufficiency? Would you need more income? Would you need to trim back your lifestyle? Would you achieve this by refusing to purchase on credit? What can you do now that would move you one step closer to having control over the money in your life? 

"We can respond creatively to what we experience as life-depriving and become richer in spirit for having met the challenge."
-- Tad Crawford

LEARN TO BE AWARE

"You can live a lifetime and, at the end of it, know more about other people than you know about yourself."
-- Beryl Markham

Who am I? To answer this, we must first learn to become more aware of ourselves. To be aware, we must STOP and PAY ATTENTION! We need to STOP and objectively watch ourselves in action.

We live most of our lives by habit. These habits keep us stuck in patterns that limit our experience of life. Once we detect a pattern we were previously unconscious of, we can choose differently, if we want. With awareness comes choice and with choice, we gain freedom.

"To be authentic is literally to be your own author..., to discover your own native energies and desires, and then to find your own way of acting on them."
-- Warren G. Bennis

"Self-knowledge is the great power by which we comprehend and control our lives."
-- Vernon Howard

A NEW LOOK AT PROBLEMS

"The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem."
-- Theodore Rubin

Our lives really begin to change when we learn to shift our perspective on 'problems.'

From a spiritual perspective, problems offer our best path to growth. Like it or not, pain gets our attention. Discomfort also challenges the ego's perception that it is in complete control of life. This opens the door for soul's guidance.

If we want to be rid of the problem, we need to shift from denial and resistance to accept that this situation is present. We need to be willing to truly feel our experience to allow the energy of emotions to move through.

Finally, we need to explore what belief is giving rise to our distress. When we realize the belief is faulty, our shift in perspective resolves the problem. The solution always lies within us.

"No one can go back and make a brand new start. Anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending."
-- Source Unknown

OPEN TO THE MOMENT

"Why not concentrate on the now instead of hoping for better times in the future? Why not understand the now instead of forgetting it and hoping for the future? Isn't the future just another trap?"
-- Anthony de Mello

Soul exists only in this moment. Every moment, no matter what the conditions, offers opportunities to touch and experience life in a new way. Our egos, with their fears and desires, easily get trapped in the past and the future, but the power to change exists only in this moment.

We don't need to know more or have more before we can live more deeply. We simply need to pay attention to what’s happening now. To open without judgment to the worlds around and within us.

"Nothing is worth more than this day. You cannot relive yesterday. Tomorrow is still beyond your reach."
-- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

THE CHALLENGE OF RELATIONSHIPS

"It doesn't much signify whom one marries, for one is sure to find out the next morning that it was someone else."
-- Samuel Rogers

Despite our passion for romantic love, relationships are not the easiest way to find love and peace. They are, however, one of the most effective for finding our blocks.

Relationships naturally bring out into full view our desires, attachments and unconscious programs - our likes, dislikes, belief systems, judgments, compulsions, conformities, etc. Relationships challenge us because they take us deep into thoughts, feelings and experiences we have suppressed for a lifetime. That's why they provide the very best arena for personal growth!

"Human relationships are the perfect tool for sanding away our rough edges and getting at the core of divinity within us."
-- Eknath Easwaran

DISCOVER THE TREASURES INSIDE

"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude."
-- Denis Waitley

Peace, joy, health and well-being can only be found inside us. They exist within us now, waiting to be discovered. Yet we tend to look to the outside world to satisfy our needs and longings.

Our outer life reflects back to us the way we think, feel and behave. The outer world is all effects. Go to the source inside for all of life’s treasures.

How are you searching for peace and contentment outside of yourself?

"The great Western disease is, ‘I'll be happy when… When I get the money. When I get a BMW. When I get this job.’ Well, the reality is, you never get to when. The only way to find happiness is to understand that happiness is not out there. It's in here. And happiness is not next week. It's now."
-- Marshall Goldsmith