FOOD FOR THOUGHT - Meditation is Medication

Temple in the Sea, Waterloo, Trinidad

Meditation is medication. I heard myself say that one day as a slip of the tongue while doing The Work from Byron Katie's Loving What Is and it stuck with me.

On reflection, I understood how true it was - when I take my medication/do my meditation I feel solid and centred. Meditation seems to clear away the cobwebs, giving me a clearer frame of mind to face my challenges.

Byron Katie's statement made no sense at the time when I began The Work i.e. there's only ever one thing to do which in fact is the next action you take, even if it's cleaning up after someone at home or at work. Now it does

What you resist persists.

Think about it, you come home and there's a mess made by... and you refuse to clean it up. It's one of your gripes and everytime you see the mess you become more angry until it seems to take over your thoughts.

This is where meditation comes in. It's a perfect companion to The Work. Once you get yourself sorted you will see that it's not a big deal to clean up the mess and get it off your mind!

Meditation provides you with a solid foundation on which to ground your daily activities. Let it become part of your life. You will never regret those daily 5 - 15 minutes of calm. Try it.

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Anticipating Joy - Nourishment For The Soul

Food for thought to sup on at your leisure - it's about expectations and anticipating... joy.

I never consciously thought about it in the way Russell Bishop describes in his article however he is absolutely correct. When I think about things I don't want in my life anymore, I demand instant changes because I deserve it which in fact is a lie because if I really believed that I wouldn't be in the current situation nor would I have to insist.

It would be all natural and free flowing.

Of course I feel disappointed and frustrated hurrying up to wait when my expectations are not met, and that right there is the crux of the matter. Expectations lead to disappointment because joy doesn't come on demand.

We have to feel it inside.

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines JOY as the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.

Bishop says that the anticipation of joy would be much more fulfilling (it's on its way to me) and not open to disappointment as in (I deserve it and why isn't it here) and that's where affirmations and visualization come in.

Here's an excerpt from Russell Bishop's article Soul Talk - Want More Joy in your Life? He describes affirmations and visualization as just one means of  moving the odds in your favour. An article not to be missed!

Anticipating Joy

It's pretty simple, really: Shift from expecting joy to anticipating joy. Besides the obviously-simplistic idea that this could be nothing more than semantics, there is actually a huge difference.

Expectations carry with them the sense of entitlement along with a demand for immediacy. "I expected" it is a way of saying I deserved it, and if you're expecting joy today, then not only are you running on the premise of you deserve it, but that you deserve it now and that the source of your joy comes from someone or something outside yourself.

Anticipation, however, carries with it a sense that the joy is coming and you just don't know when. "It's just around the corner" is a whole different mindset from "it damn well better be just around the corner."

The trick to anticipating joy is not that much different from that old Heinz catsup commercial put to Carly Simon's song "Anticipation" -- you just have to hang in there long enough for the joy to come out.

While you're waiting, you stay focused on how good it's going to "taste" when it finally does come out.

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Character Counts - Be Dependable and Keep Your Word

Dependability is the first foundation stone of good character.

People of character do what they say they will do, when they say they will do it, and according to agreed-upon conditions. They are the leaders, the individuals to whom others turn for guidance, because they have demonstrated that they care, that they can be trusted.

If you respect yourself enough to keep commitments even when it’s inconvenient to do so, others will come to respect you too.

Dependability, like any other character trait, is a habit. Begin today to develop the dependability habit. If you procrastinate or find it difficult to meet your commitments, start small. Promise yourself that you will be on time, for example, and manage your time so that you are. Soon you will find that it’s easier to keep other commitments as well.   Napoleon Hill

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LESSONS FROM MASTERS - Don't be Afraid to Learn, Knowledge is Weightless

Lessons from masters - I call the stories from Bob Proctor's Insight of the Day - words of wisdom learnt from experience and deserve to be shared.

Juggle Balls

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them - work, family, health, friends and spirit and you're keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball.

If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls - family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.

How?

* Don't undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.

* Don't set your goals by what other people deem important. Only you know what is best for you.

* Don't take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as you would your life, for without them, life is meaningles your fins.

* Don't let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live ALL the days of your life.

Brian Lara Promenade, Trinidad-Tobago

* Don't give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.

* Don't be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is this fragile thread that binds us each together.

* Don't be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.

* Don't shut love out of your life by saying it's impossible to find. The quickest way to receive love is to give; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.

* Don't run through life so fast that you forget not only where you've been, but also where you are going.

* Don't forget that a person's greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.

*Don't be afraid to learn. Knowledge is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily.

* Don't use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved. Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.

Brian Dyson

Former CEO of Coca-Cola Company. This was from a speech he gave at the Georgia Tech 172nd Commencement Address on September 6, 1996.

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Change how you think and your experience changes

The Law of Attraction is responding to your thought, not to your current reality. When you change the thought, your reality must follow suit.

If things are going well for you, then focusing upon what is happening now will cause the well-being to continue, but if there are things happening now that are not pleasing, you must find a way of taking your attention away from those unwanted things.

You have the ability to quickly change your patterns of thought, and eventually… your life experience.

Take 15 minutes daily, thinking of pleasant scenarios regarding your body, with the sole intent of enjoying your body and appreciating its strength and stamina and flexibility and beauty. 

When you visualize for the joy of visualizing rather than with the intention of correcting some deficiency, your thoughts are more pure and, therefore, more powerful. 

When you visualize to overcome something that is wrong, your thoughts are diluted with the "lackful" side of the equation. In time, your physical condition will acquiesce to your dominant thoughts.

Abraham

Excerpted from the book "Money and the Law of Attraction: Learning to Attract Health, Wealth and Happiness" #669

 

Read some more:

• Michael Bernard Beckwith: The Law Of Attraction: Does It Grant Us An Evolutionary Edge? (huffingtonpost.com)
• Five Ways to Bring Harmony and Prosperity (socyberty.com)
• For whom the law of attraction won't work. (using-spiritual-energy.blogspot.com)
• ~Abraham-Hicks~The Greatest Gift you can give to your child. (parenting-success.com)

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Don't Ever Lose Faith in Yourself

Entrance to History Museum, Port of Spain, Trinidad

When you're feeling down, lost and alone after you have been trodden upon by those whom you thought cared for you, read this. Barbara Cage exhorts you not to lose faith in yourself and tells you how to keep hope alive in your heart.

Perseverence is the key. It works for me and picks me up. Russell Bishop's Soul Talk: How to find perfection in rejection helps clarify how acceptance of "rejection" helps build you.

There is a fabulous anonymous affirmation included in his article that must not be missed.

Most people think acceptance has something to do with liking your circumstances. In truth, acceptance merely means recognizing the obvious, cooperating with the reality of it, and finding ways to move forward in spite of the situation. Russell Bishop

Do The Work with Byron Katie. It is a absolutely amazing life system where you face yourself and your individual life challenges one at a time by asking yourself four questions . This is where being authentic will turn your life around.

Her book Loving What Is is changing how I see myself, my life and others, and no, I am not getting paid for plugging this book. Marvelous!

Don't Ever Lose Faith in Yourself

You may be feeling a little uncertain about your future right now

But you need to trust your decisions and feelings and do what is best for you.

The future will work itself out.

You're the kind of person who can make it happen.

Don't let anyone else's negativity influence your dreams, values or hopes.

Focus on what you can change and let go of what you can't.

You know your own worth, what you've accomplished, and what you're capable of.

Your goals may take a bit longer and be harder to achieve than you had hoped, but concentrate on the positives and combine faith with generous portions of patience and determination.

Step boldly and confidently into your future where happiness, success, and dreams await you.

You have the potential for greatness... never give up.

Barbara Cage

Soulful reading:

Soul Talk: How to find perfection in rejection, Russell Bishop

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Freedom of the Mind is Priceless

Mastering your thoughts and living by what you know to be true is probably the hardest feat of all. It takes courage and strength of character and formidable perseverance against huge odds, namely, your parents, teachers, friends, mates, lovers, colleagues and neighbours believe and skating along to keep the peace.

That is a tough road to hoe and worth it. Get your mind right and live the best you can by your rules is what life is all about. That's my food for thought today.

"Live free, even if your body is chained, live free, live." He touched his skull with a palsied hand. "This is the place where no man can chain you. This is the place where there are no walls. And maybe that's the hardest lesson to learn, Mikhail."

"All freedom has its price but freedom of the mind is priceless."

Excerpt from the Wolf's Hour, pgs. 396-397

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Do Not Dwell on the Image of Illness

Hyatt, Port of Spain, Trinidad

Our thoughts and beliefs screw us up more than anyone can, and unfortunately we learn the pattern in childhood, along with the implacable determination to harshly judge ourselves and everyone else.

I learned but I forget and get reminders in interesting ways from time to time that no one is good or bad, they just are. This does not mean condoning murder and mayhem or acts of cruelty however it does mean accepting that the heinous acts committed by others are also within each and every one of us. We simply don't act them out.

When we repeatedly think about something - usually negative - long enough it becomes a belief.

I am a good example here. I have gained at least 20 pounds over the past 5 months because I am feeling depressed about living in a hostel and being unable to find a job. I only have 53 years so how is that possible.

Because of that weight gain I've been thinking how ugly I am repeatedly. And guess what happened, the ugliest and most unexplainable pus-filled rashes have broken out all over that fat ugly body.

You think it long enough and you will create it. So think grateful thoughts about the small things in your lives when it all seems to suck. Be healthy people.

"Un-Peace" of Mind

In my sixty-odd years of adulthood I have been gratified to see that physicians give increasing attention to psychosomatic illness, or bodily illness which originates in the mind.

Since man's earliest history, however, it has been obvious that almost all of our illness is caused by un-peace of mind. Here is a very partial list of symptoms which can arise from mental conflicts, fears, and tensions:

Headache, Indigestion, Ulcers, Arthritic pains, Constant fatigue, Sleeplessness, Slow healing of wounds, Kidney trouble, Circulatory trouble, Frigidity, Impotence, Rashes, other skin afflictions, Mouth infection, Rectal disorders, Muscular cramps. . .and more. . .and more.

Then there are the many mental disorders, ranging from extreme nervous tension to outright insanity, which often are caused or aggravated by a mind which fights itself.

The list of ills to which body and mind may yield is almost endless, so let your first step toward good health be this: do not dwell upon the image of illness.

The mind tends to transmute all beliefs into their physical equivalent. Why, then, see yourself as anything but a person who enjoys good sound health from top to toe and back again?

Napoleon Hill

Source: Grow Rich with Peace of Mind, Fawcett, 1967, pgs. 51 & 52.

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Hope Is The Magic Ingredient - Empower Yourself!

Motivate Yourself and Others by Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone with the magic ingredient. What is the magic ingredient? One man, in particular, found it and here is his story.

Motivate Yourself and Others

Some years ago, this man, a successful cosmetic manufacturer, retired at the age of sixty-five.

Each year thereafter his friends gave him a birthday party, and on each occasion they asked him to disclose his formula. Year after year he pleasantly refused; however, on his seventy-fifth birthday his friends, half jokingly and half seriously, once again asked if he would disclose the secret.

"You have been so wonderful to me over the years that I now will tell you," he said. "You see, in addition to the formulas used by other cosmeticians, I added the magic ingredient."

"What is the magic ingredient?" he was asked.

"I never promised a woman that my cosmetics would make her beautiful, but I always gave her hope."

Hope is the magic ingredient!

Hope is a desire with the expectation of obtaining what is desired and belief that it is obtainable. A person consciously reacts to that which to him is desirable, believable, and attainable.

And he also subconsciously reacts to the inner urge that induces action when environmental suggestion, self-suggestion, or auto-suggestion cause the release of the powers of his subconscious mind.

His response to suggestion may develop obedience that is direct, neutral, or in reverse action to a specific symbol. In other words, there may be various types and degrees of motivating factors.

Every result has a given cause. Your every act is the result of a given cause - your motives.

Source: Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude. Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone. Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1960. Pgs. 102 & 103.

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You Need to become More to Have More

Port of Spain, Trinidad

Jim Rohn's essay below The Great Challenge of Life smacked me on the forehead when it came in the mail from Bob Proctor's Insight of the Day. It was like 'well, duhh kinda obvious'.

I mean so many of us are struggling hopefully upward. We want more are always demanding more of everything and everyone but... here's the kicker if we don't do the work on ourselves we (you and me both) are not going to get anywhere.

Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless. Jamie Paolinetti

Each one of us must be the change we want to see in our lives. That is how we change the world by extension.

You want riches, feel rich inside. You want respect, respect yourself first. You want others to do what's right, YOU be first in line, no preaching. Others will follow by example.

So when you feel that life is shitting on you, seemingly endless challenges getting you down, look at yourself. Focus on the crappy thoughts you think about yourself and look at your resulting actions.

I am slowly and painfully learning what the great man said, you do need to become more in order to have more (of whatever it is you want). It all starts with you (and me).

The Great Challenge of Life


Here's the great challenge of life - You can have more than you've got because you can become more than you are.

I have found that income seldom will exceed your own personal development. Once in a while income takes a lucky jump, but unless you grow out to where it is, it will go back to where you are.

Somebody once said if you took all the money in the world and divided it among everyone equally; it would soon be back in the same pockets.

However, you can have more because you can become more. You see, here is how the other side of the coin reads - unless you change how you are, you will always have what you've got.

The marketing plan won't do it. It's a good plan but it won't work without you. You've got to work it. It is the human effort that counts. If you could send a sales manual out to recruit - wouldn't that be lovely?

The major thing that makes the difference is what YOU do.

In order to have more, you need to become more. The guy says "If I had a good job I would really pour it on, but I have this lousy job so I just goof off." If that is your philosophy, you are destined to stay there.

Some people say if I had a lot of money I would be really generous, but I don't have much so I'm not generous. See, you've got to change that philosophy or you will never have "the lots of money." Unless YOU change, IT won't change.

Amazingly, however, when we throw out our blame list and start becoming more ourselves - the difference is everything else will begin to change around us.

Jim Rohn
1930-2009, Author and Speaker 

Followup reading

Meditate to boost your self-esteem, Ed & Deb Shapiro
Be the change guide, Ed & Deb Shapiro
Soul Talk: Are you suffering unnecessarily, Russell Bishop
When hope is under attack, finding guidance from soul's beauty, Cara Barker

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