IS FREE WILL A BLESSING OR A CURSE?

Good day and I hope you are having a great week. Today I pose a thought provoking question to you in the title of this blog. “Is Free Will a blessing or a curse?”. Think about it for a minute and I will come back to discuss the origins of this question and then maybe together we can answer it.

A few weeks ago I was listening to one of Bob Proctors teaching calls. He was explaining how everything is energy in this world. When he started to take the example of an acorn through its metamorphosis into an oak tree, I started to think that perhaps there lies most of the challenges for people making use of and not succeeding with The Law of Attraction.  Let me paraphrase what Mr. Proctor said.

He said that an acorn can fall to the ground and sit in the sun and after a while it literally will disintegrate or if it is properly planted into the ground, it can become in tune with the vibration of its path and attract to itself all the forces that are needed. It then will start to grow roots and when it pops out of the dirt it will attract to itself all the forces that are in tune with its vibration from the air and ground and it will grow into an oak tree. The acorn only knows its vibration and when in optimum conditions it will align itself with the similar vibrations for the purpose of becoming an oak tree. All creatures and organisms in this world similarly only know what their vibration is and align with similar vibrations to manifest their life cycle.

Man however, is the only creature on this planet that can choose what vibration he will concentrate on. Man is the only creature that can change the vibration he is aligning with intentionally. Is that our problem?

Now let’s get back to our question.  Follow me for a second here. All other creations in this world have one vibration that they align themselves with and continue to do go about their activities along the lines that are in tune with their vibration. Can you imagine what intense and focused vibrational alignment that creates? Wouldn’t it be great if we could focus all our being on our natural state of vibration that is true bliss and prosperity?

Ahh, but alas we have FREE WILL. Humans as a specie can think. More importantly we can choose to think and focus and then react to our thoughts in different ways. Most other organism I presume use their “instinct” which is a preplanned response to their environment based on thousands of thousands of years of aligning with their sole vibration. Humans, in the modern world,  have for the most part ignored their “instinct”. That focus that is in alignment with our prosperity is not our innate focus. We have the freedom to feel anything we want towards thoughts. That allows us to control our thoughts but at the same time it also allows us to be misdirected as well to thoughts that are NOT in our best interest or in alignment with our vibrational truth.  10 people seeing the same thing will develop their unique thought and feelings towards that event.  We have started to depend on what we can visually interpret with our eyes as being the ONLY true reality even though every person who has been to a magic show knows that your eyes can easily deceive you.  We get lost in the entertainment media of our times and get so engrossed into topics and stories that have nothing to do with our well-being. The other day a buddy of mine asked me if I had heard about the Patriots’ player murder case, and when I said I had not had any idea what he was talking about he was shocked and remarked “it is everywhere, how can you have not heard about it?” to which I replied “what good will knowing about this incident do for me?”  He just shook his head.

The gift of free will is a true blessing. I cannot imagine being designed as a robot. It is a blessing that most of us have taken for granted. That taking of for granted has allowed the disparity and negativity we see in our “current reality”. There is no scarcity in this world. You keep on hearing people say it all over the place. There is more food in the U.S. to feed all the hungry people around the world. Why don’t we do it then?  We concentrate on lack and on problems and what supposedly can and cannot be done.

I leave the answer to this question that I posed in the title to you. Each and every one of you can and should answer this question for yourself. It is a personal responsibility that you have towards yourself. Is your free will a gift or a curse to you?  The great news is that you can at any moment decide to turn it around from one to the other. Yes I said decide because even if you turn it into the curse by not using your thoughts, then you are in essence choosing to take no action and that is a decision in itself.

I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I did writing it. Feel free to pass this along to anyone who can benefit from it and do not forget to follow me on Twitter and like my Facebook page.

DON’T SHOOT YOURSELF IN THE FOOT!

Good day and I hope you are having a blast. As I have mentioned before on this blog, I am far from an expert but I have had tremendous amount of success with utilizing The Law of Attraction (LOA) in my life. Occasionally though, I have come face to face with stumbling blocks and since I know the universal  law that is LOA is just as infallible as gravity, I have to look to myself to see what happened. Step one is always taking personal responsibility. When that is taken care of,  it usually is something basic that I need to go back to and make sure I have not overlooked something simple. Today’s post is an example of one such instance. We are going to go back to some basics to make sure you do not shoot yourself in the foot like I did a few days ago and mess up your vibration. Learning from each other one step at a time to a successful utilization of The Law of Attraction.

The easy mistake that I made resulted in a need for a portion of my roof being replaced, a leaking air conditioner during one of the hottest days of the summer, and loss of my satellite cable signal for 2 days just before the Anderson Silva fight on UFC 162. All of this happened to me within a 3 day period after making this mistake. What happened to me you may ask? Am I not a certified LOA practitioner and teacher? Yes, and here is a good example that even teachers need to pay attention to the basics and be open to learning.

I had listened to Jeanna Gabellini’s conference call the other day. She had covered the visualization and writing exercise she labeled “Dialing in the Universe”, which by the way is an awesome exercise.  I was really impressed with the process so as soon as I got the chance the next morning I started utilizing her teachings in my daily routine.  I started to write my gratitude list about the business I am in, and visualize my goals, write my to do list etc. early in the morning. The first day all was well .I had plenty of time early in the morning and  during my day, and put myself in the feeling of appreciation like she advised. I took the time to visualize and quieted my resistance.

Looking back at the events that transpired between getting everything done the first day, and the total chaos of the following two days, I noticed a very distinct difference in my attitude towards it.   I don’t know if it was overconfidence in the fact that, well I have been using LOA for so long and the instructions or this process are clear and in line with everything else I have learned about the subject. Or perhaps I was just lazy and wanted to get it done. In either case I really messed things up. The second day, I had to take the kids to a movie and I also happen to wake up late. Because I wanted to do the process anyway, I started JUST GOING THROUGH THE MECHANICS, however, my emotions were sending out the vibration of frustration.  So here I was concentrating and sending out a focused set of thoughts of what I wanted, but the EMOTIONAL VIBRATION was of haste, frustration and even some anger. I was actually DOING MORE HARM THAN GOOD.  You can probably see where I am going with this.

So it is very important that during the time that you usually work to deliberately manifest and work with The Law of Attraction, you are feeling good.  I suggest you get some quiet time and meditate to bring yourself to your natural state of well being before you go about doing your LOA visualization and manifesting. Even in the giving of gratitude, it is critical that your words match your feelings. Remember your emotions fuel and give power to your thoughts.  Do no sabotage yourself by rushing through this stuff people. You will do more harm than good. It is like running up a half pike with a skateboard when you can’t even ride one on the sidewalk. You will fall and get hurt.

In my case there was some issues that came up that cost me some money, and more importantly put me in a really crappy mood for a while and that was not good for anyone. I had to really do some major clean up and when I finally realized what was happening and took the time to prepare for my daily manifesting all was good again. IT IS AMAZING HOW WHEN YOU FOLLOW THE LAW, EVERYTHING JUST GOES SMOOTHLY. 

So I hope you will heed my warning and enjoy the process of deliberate manifestation and make sure you are in a proper state of mind when you are playing with such a powerful tool.  I hope you enjoyed and benefited from this post. As always please feel free to share, tweet, and pass along this information to anyone who may benefit from it and make sure to like and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Till next week I hope you have a successful and joyous day.

INTERVAL MEDITATING™

Good day and I hope you are having a great week.  Last week I mentioned I would share a technique that occurred to me that comes in handy when little challenges pop up during the day that knock you off course from the pursuit of you goals. I call it INTERVAL MEDITATION ™.

Now people have different opinions on meditation.  Most agree that it is good for you. Many people also find it difficult to make time for it on a regular basis. I happened to stumble on this technique as I was struggling to control my temper when it comes to dealing with my two small children. I had noticed that my patience was running thin quicker and quicker. If you have read last weeks post, you know that the use of GRATITUDE ROCK helped, and as I concentrated on the good vibrations, this technique just came to me and I find it very effective.

Meditating is nothing new or mystical to me. I have been meditating since I started to practice martial arts at the age of 13. As I grew older, I moved away from routine practice of it due to "other important" things like sleeping, and life getting in the way :-) .  I went back to regular practice of it shortly after being introduced to The Law of Attraction and reading Esther and Jerry Hicks' books.  Now I make an effort to schedule times to do it, but I found that I can use it another way and with practice make a habit of it as part of my daily dealing with challenges.

Here is the gist of Interval Meditation™. Instead of having to sit for 15 minutes, two times per day, which is ideal, you will brake the meditation into intervals through out your day. When do you do it? Whenever something comes up that upsets you or when you feel your emotions are about to take a nose dive. Here again we are going back to another lesson which is you have to be aware of your feelings and listen to them.

How do you do it? When challenges lurk their heads into your day, if you can and have the freedom to sit and close your eyes, do so, but that may not be possible. Closing your eyes in the rush hour traffic is not really practical. You may also not be able to sit. It does not matter.  You are going to go through an interval of breathing in this manner where ever you are.  Start by taking 3 deep breaths. These should be abdominal breathing not the shallow chest breathing. Imagine a balloon in your stomach that you are filling. Inhale through you nose, and exhale through your mouth. Then Inhale for a count of 4 (inhale, 2,3,4) . Hold for a count of 4. Exhale for a count of 7.  Do this for five cycles,and more if you have the luxury of time.  That will be your interval whenever something irks you. The challenging situation that you have to deal with, is your personal trainer in the gym that screams and motivates you to  "keep going, do it, go, go, go".

What ever upsets you is your cue to start your interval. Three deep breaths followed by three to five cycles of inhale,2,3,4; hold ,2,3,4; exhale 2,3,4,5,6,7.  This is a great way of getting your diaphragm under control, and to exercise it.  As you see the inhale is shorter than the exhale. When you inhale BE SURE to breath deep with your stomach and not with your upper chest.  Remember to pretend there is a balloon in your tummy and you are filling it.  So you take a huge inhale during the four count, and control your exhale to make it last for the 7 counts forcing out all the air.

Why does it work?  When you are upset it is difficult to clear your mind or achieve the "no mind" state of meditation.  That is OK.  That is why you concentrate on counting, and the reason why the count changes. When you are concentrating on your counting, it is harder for your thoughts to lead to other thoughts as we humans do naturally. Researchers say we have 60,000 thoughts per day. Quietening the  mind is a misnomer for meditation unless  you are  a Buddhist monk, or have been practicing for many years.  The trick is to concentrate on thoughts that do not lead to other thoughts. Concentrating on  counting numbers as you breath, is a simple method of keeping track of your thoughts. Another way to do meditation when you  have more time is to count your breathing. If you lose track of the numbers or you start to daydream don't worry. Just accept it, and come back. This is why this interval meditating is so effective. You're not doing it for a long period of time which increases the likelihood that  you start to daydream.

As Abraham Hicks teaching says you are allowing your cork  to pop back up to the surface which is our normal vibration of well being.  Try the Interval Meditation™ from now on when faced with a situation that triggers negative emotions. If you miss an opportunity to use it, do not worry. Do it when the feelings come up. Perhaps you get upset at not doing this exercise when something else upset you. There is the trainer calling you to action. Notice how great you feel after a few days.

The time commitment should not be an issue because if something upsets you, or is challenging to you, you will get a better and a fresher perspective by taking the time to do this exercise, Rather than trying to tackle it head on at the moment. Therefore the only time that you cannot do this exercise is on those days that nothing bothers you. When you have one of those days I would say you have achieved your goal.

I hope this post was beneficial to you. Please feel free to share this with anyone who may benefit and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

BUST OUT THE GRATITUDE ROCK!

Good day and I hope you are having a great week. When I first watched and then read the book The Secret, I was really struck by the lesson of Gratitude. I remember one of the teachers ( Lee Brower) told the story about  a “Gratitude Rock” that served as a reminder to be thankful. The premise  was that a guest saw him drop a rock when he reached for his keys and asked what this was. He explained that it was a reminder tool to be thankful for all he has. As when he would reach for his keys and the rock in the morning to put them in his pocket, he would start to be thankful for all the blessing he had and at the end of the day when he put his keys and the stuff in his pocket back on the dresser he would again see the rock and be thankful for the great things during his day. The friend called it a “Gratitude Rock”. That story immediately vibrated with me and I got a nice smooth rock and an engraving tool I had just received and I proceeded to engrave the words GRATITUDE on it. I carried it everywhere. In fact if you saw me at one of my talks, you would have noticed I played with it on stage.  I talked about it to everyone. I was at peace when I routinely used it. For some reason I stopped carrying it around with me when we had our second daughter until recently.  

One thing may or may not have anything to do with the other, but I seem to lose my patience with my kids quicker these days. So when the other day I ran across my gratitude rock again, I took it as an answer to my prayers to be more patient with my kids. During the day whenever I touch or feel my rock, I go through a list of the things I am thankful for and top on the list is the health of my babies, and how blessed I am to have them.  The constant reminder somehow makes the little naughty things they do pale in comparison and I have noticed I don’t reach for the “time out” card as often as I used to.  It is amazing the benefits that you gain from gratitude.  During one of the round of gratitude, I was shown a new technique to deal with the daily challenges that pop up in our busy day, which I will cover in next week’s blog post. So keep an eye out for the blog post entitles “Interval Meditating”. It just occurred to me out of the blue because I was on the vibration of gratitude and more opportunities came to me to be thankful. It is The Law.

Getting back to this Gratitude Rock thing, it is amazing how well it works to keep you centered and the mundane things really do not knock you down anymore.  Imagine this example: when you just got into your car and feel the rock as you sit down and go through a round of the things you are grateful for, it becomes difficult to get pissed off at the person that cuts you off coming out of the parking lot,  even the traffic on the freeway will not seem as bad. In fact when things start to irritate me now, I find myself instinctively reaching for my pocket just to touch my Gratitude Rock, and calm down. If you see me speaking now, you will again notice me playing with the rock in my hand as I walk around the stage.  It is difficult to get nervous when I feel so grateful. 

Anything can be a reminder.  I like the rock because as I travel, it is easier to go through the airport security with it.  Even when I pass through the Body Scanners, I hold the rock in my hand and it sometimes becomes a cause of some interesting discussions that put the TSA officers at ease as well. Maybe even reminds them to express some gratitude. 

Sometimes we all need to go back to the basics. Simple things make huge impacts in our lives. So bust out your gratitude rock. 

I hope you enjoyed this post and as always please feel free to share this post with anyone who may enjoy it and follow me on Twitter and Facebook. Till next week, to your success.