Saturday, April 21, 2007
What is your perfect life?
When you think of your perfect life, what holds you back? You know there are those niggling doubts there. That part of you that says, "that would be great, but it won't happen for me." Try to get specific. Why can't it happen? What is it you believe that is holding you back? They are just beliefs, that's it. They are there from something someone said to you, the beliefs of your parents, the beliefs of our society. They only serve to limit you. Begin to ask yourself, "why not?" when you hear the doubt rising up. Let the prospect be so exciting it propels you into new and wonderful ways of being.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Spiritual Materialism Question
I had this wonderful question from a reader after I first marketed my Manifesting Course:
"I am interested but am confused with this idea... how does this balance against ideas of spiritual materialism and grasping and going against accepting what is? Can you speak to this?"
Here is my response:
Absolutely, especially since I struggled with the same concept.
Here was my answer. We limit ourselves in innumerable ways by our limiting thoughts and beliefs. Not only do we limit ourselves in what we have, we can also limit ourselves in how much spiritual evolution we allow, in how far we go to fulfill our life’s purpose, in how much we love (limiting ourselves with intimate partners as well as with friends and family) thereby limiting how much joy we experience in this life as well as how much Divine love we accept in. We define ourselves, and therefore, our life by our fears and limitations, not by what we are capable of and how expansive and abundant we are.
Now, I also want to point out that none of us does this in every area of our life. In fact, most people do many parts of their life very well and don’t even know they are doing well. I see five major areas in our lives: relationships, career, money, health, safety. Most of us do three or even four really well and one or two languish. And they languish due to our limiting beliefs and fears that have created the reality that is in front of us. For example, I had a client who is very open in relationships and was almost there with money and career when we first began working together. In love, in her words, she had been married to her “best friend” for 15 years. She liked her job, but it wasn’t fabulous because she worked very hard to make the money she made. With minimal tweaking, we perfected her job. She was working 50 percent less and making more money than ever. Moreover, she is a consultant, and once she let go of her fear around the money, she had no problem “manifesting” more clients whenever she is ready for more. (She turns down at least half of the offers that come to her.) Everything seems wonderful, and it is, until you look at her health. She has numerous health issues and many fears about her health. Her fears around her health keep her from living her life fully and being all that she can be in this life.
The more I do around this, the more I release my limiting beliefs and fears and experience more joy and love. I see the whole process as being about learning how to let the energy of life, love, flow into and through us out to others. Fears and limiting beliefs allow the fears to either run into us and not out or we let it flow out without letting it in (or sometimes it can’t flow in our out). The work of manifesting opens us up to allowing it all to flow right through us. It also helps us live from our Higher Self, not our ego. Our ego works to limit us. Our Higher Self wants only the very best.
Plus, “desire” is perfectly normal in the physical. We not only desire things, we also desire better jobs, better relationships, better environments, even better weather! :-) Even the Dalai Lama desires peace with the Chinese. But two things come to mind when we think of desire. First, when we desire, there is an assumption of not being content with what is nor grateful. But to truly be in a manifesting state, you need to feel grateful for what you currently have. “That is the optimal creative vantage point: To stand on the brink of what is coming, feeling eager, optimistic anticipation — with no feeling of impatience, doubt or unworthiness hindering the receiving of it...”
The second is, we normally “desire” from a place of scarcity, assuming we can’t have whatever it is. We envy others what they have and that sets off suffering. But what if you could have whatever it is? What if, instead of envy, we felt, “hmmm...if they have it, it is just proof that I can have it too.” What if desire was delicious and exciting and spurred you on in an inspired and love-filled way? “We would describe the sensation of desire as the delicious awareness of new possibilities. Desire is a fresh, free feeling of anticipating wonderful expansion. The feeling of desire is truly the feeling of life flowing through you.”
Ironically, doing this work has freed me to be more content with my present because it now feels truly transient (as all physical reality is). I feel more in control of my world with my control coming from the right place. I am now controlling myself with love rather than trying to control my outer world.
"I am interested but am confused with this idea... how does this balance against ideas of spiritual materialism and grasping and going against accepting what is? Can you speak to this?"
Here is my response:
Absolutely, especially since I struggled with the same concept.
Here was my answer. We limit ourselves in innumerable ways by our limiting thoughts and beliefs. Not only do we limit ourselves in what we have, we can also limit ourselves in how much spiritual evolution we allow, in how far we go to fulfill our life’s purpose, in how much we love (limiting ourselves with intimate partners as well as with friends and family) thereby limiting how much joy we experience in this life as well as how much Divine love we accept in. We define ourselves, and therefore, our life by our fears and limitations, not by what we are capable of and how expansive and abundant we are.
Now, I also want to point out that none of us does this in every area of our life. In fact, most people do many parts of their life very well and don’t even know they are doing well. I see five major areas in our lives: relationships, career, money, health, safety. Most of us do three or even four really well and one or two languish. And they languish due to our limiting beliefs and fears that have created the reality that is in front of us. For example, I had a client who is very open in relationships and was almost there with money and career when we first began working together. In love, in her words, she had been married to her “best friend” for 15 years. She liked her job, but it wasn’t fabulous because she worked very hard to make the money she made. With minimal tweaking, we perfected her job. She was working 50 percent less and making more money than ever. Moreover, she is a consultant, and once she let go of her fear around the money, she had no problem “manifesting” more clients whenever she is ready for more. (She turns down at least half of the offers that come to her.) Everything seems wonderful, and it is, until you look at her health. She has numerous health issues and many fears about her health. Her fears around her health keep her from living her life fully and being all that she can be in this life.
The more I do around this, the more I release my limiting beliefs and fears and experience more joy and love. I see the whole process as being about learning how to let the energy of life, love, flow into and through us out to others. Fears and limiting beliefs allow the fears to either run into us and not out or we let it flow out without letting it in (or sometimes it can’t flow in our out). The work of manifesting opens us up to allowing it all to flow right through us. It also helps us live from our Higher Self, not our ego. Our ego works to limit us. Our Higher Self wants only the very best.
Plus, “desire” is perfectly normal in the physical. We not only desire things, we also desire better jobs, better relationships, better environments, even better weather! :-) Even the Dalai Lama desires peace with the Chinese. But two things come to mind when we think of desire. First, when we desire, there is an assumption of not being content with what is nor grateful. But to truly be in a manifesting state, you need to feel grateful for what you currently have. “That is the optimal creative vantage point: To stand on the brink of what is coming, feeling eager, optimistic anticipation — with no feeling of impatience, doubt or unworthiness hindering the receiving of it...”
The second is, we normally “desire” from a place of scarcity, assuming we can’t have whatever it is. We envy others what they have and that sets off suffering. But what if you could have whatever it is? What if, instead of envy, we felt, “hmmm...if they have it, it is just proof that I can have it too.” What if desire was delicious and exciting and spurred you on in an inspired and love-filled way? “We would describe the sensation of desire as the delicious awareness of new possibilities. Desire is a fresh, free feeling of anticipating wonderful expansion. The feeling of desire is truly the feeling of life flowing through you.”
Ironically, doing this work has freed me to be more content with my present because it now feels truly transient (as all physical reality is). I feel more in control of my world with my control coming from the right place. I am now controlling myself with love rather than trying to control my outer world.
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