Confirmation

Doesn't it feel good when you get confirmation that you are on the right track? Yes, it certainly does. Sometimes we get an awakening when we see something we had not seen before, and sometimes the awakening is just as invigorating when we get a sign that we are going in the right direction.



We all have those times when we have had thoughts in the back of our mind but just have not gotten up and followed through with it yet. When we find ourselves in this situation, simply stop and ask the question. Do I really want to do this? Or would my life be happy if I just forgot about this and set the whole idea aside?



After all, sometimes we outgrow an idea that seemed significant earlier in life. However, if our real true gut confirmation says that we should go ahead, start doing whatever is necessary to go ahead rather than letting the idea just sit in the back of your head and nag. Clear the way to make it happen and you will feel great once you are on that path.

Intensity Makes the Difference

When we have a goal in mind that we want but we do not achieve it, the missing key may well be intensity. If our intensity is in focus, then our vision will be in focus and we will have taken actions to bring our dreams to life. Intensity shows in our level of desire. For example, when a person says that they want to see some kind of change in their life, but that it is OK with them if they get it and OK with them if they don't, what they are revealing is that they do not have any serious intention of making the change.

If you are not certain about your true intentions and where your intensity is most actively engaged, look at what is happening in your life right now. Whatever you have created produces the results you see around you. If you want to change that, the first thing to engage is a new vision. The new vision will become more powerful as you focus on it with great intensity. Then as you engage in actions to get yourself into that picture, you notice your reality beginning to shift.

Intensity can be an elusive thing because people overlook it or take it for granted. Why? A number of reasons. By now, we all know about the power of positive thinking, law of attraction, smiling and having a good attitude. Often, people mistakenly think that this is enough. It is easy to see why. If we think thoughts like how wonderful it would be to have a new job or a new relationship, we might just think that our helpers in the universe will help us get these things because we are good people and we have good intentions, and if we are consistent with these thoughts, that everything will just fall into place eventually. Except that sometimes it doesn't and we wonder why.

Take another look. Hold these thoughts. Only this time, feel it all the way to your bones, all the way through your body. Feel how your life would be different when you achieve these things. Feel the difference when your goal moves from being a good idea to being your new reality?

Your mental focus is your single biggest tool in keeping your intensity on track. Keeping this in mind, there are tools that can support that drive. Reading books that support your goals, listening to music that inspires you to pursue your goals, seeking out the company of friends who support you achieving your goals, keeping your consciousness and words aligned with your goals will help you get where you are going.

Can you feel the shift in your facial expressions, your body language, the rhythm of your body, the clarity of your thoughts, the ease with which decisions like prioritizing fall into place? When you are desiring a change with a great deal of intensity, as you make decisions, it gets easier to identify one thing as important to you in realizing your goals and other things as not important.

Can you see yourself not just picturing this new stage of your life, but living it, feeling it, knowing it deep in your guts? Feel how different you would do everything once your goal is not just some good idea you are picturing, but a life you are living?

See how it feels for you right now as you read this. Whatever that deeply held desire is, can you move beyond the level of simply thinking it is a good idea to feeling yourself living it, achieving it, having it, being it?

Can you feel that vision penetrate every pore of your being? Can you look at that picture you have in your mind or on your vision board and not just see it, but experience being there in it, being part of it?

Can you feel yourself being in that picture with someone else who wants it just as much as you do? Can you picture the other people in your life being just as fully invested in that life as you are? Equal partners? Can you feel the difference intensity makes?

Inviting intensity into our lives always starts with key questions that we ask ourselves. Are we happy with the way our life is going now? Would we really like to make a change? Is this desire for change just a passing fancy, or are we really serious about it? If we are really serious about making this change, then increasing our focus and inviting in a greater level of intensity is the first step toward getting what we most ardently desire. Once you do this, you can feel the change start to happen, and once we do that, we begin to notice how the universe aligns with us and it seems like magic. Doesn't it feel great when that happens?

How to Increase Your Joy, Love and Abundance

In order to experience some of the biggest shifts in your life, moving you forward in a bold fashion, all that is needed is one shift in perspective which applied consistently will having you feeling greater joy and satisfaction in all aspects of your life. What is this shift?



It is simply adapting the point of view that every decision that is made from love rather than fear will bring better results.



Perhaps you think that this is too simple, that it cannot be correct, but let us stop and consider the situations we usually find ourselves in.



For example, how many commercials are we exposed to where the real message seems to be that if we do not buy this new thing that we will not be attractive enough or successful enough, that without it, we are exposed to dangers or simply be inadequate.



So what happens if we ignore these commercials and simply purchase what we really feel that we need or really want? We end up with things that give us greater satisfaction which leads to a greater feeling of self confidence because we have just made a choice that suits us very well. We feel like we have acted wisely. By comparison, how many times have we found ourselves cleaning around the house and coming across a thing we never use and remarking that it would sure be nice if we had the purchase price of that thing back in our pocket. Getting the lesson from that experience simply means that we resolve to follow our own best judgment in making future purchases.



Now let's take a look at how this same dynamic influences other important choices in our life.



Have you ever decided to go out with someone or form a relationship with them because you feel like you don't have a better offer pending, rather than affirming to yourself that you really enjoy being with this person, and therefore enthusiastically embrace your choice? Sometimes in readings, a person will reveal that the relationship that they are in does not work for them, has not for a long time and they have been unable to turn the situation around due to a lack of willingness on the part of their partner. In response to the question of why not leave the situation that is not working and start over fresh with someone different, they may respond that they are waiting for a better offer to come their way first. But of course, it is unlikely that you will get the best results that way. The energy all around you reveals that this person is not really available because they are enmeshed in something else and are not really available. They stay in an unsatisfying situation out of fear. Different options appear when we choose out of love.



The other biggest decision that we make is what we will do for making money. Whenever we hear someone say that they really don't like their work, but at least it is a paycheck, we are listening to someone allow themselves to get bogged down and enmeshed in a poor quality energy pattern.



It is true that many of the changes that have rippled through our economy in recent years has disrupted our lives and in many cases made it difficult for individuals to find work that satisfies them and treats them fairly. Staying in such a situation is once again, letting fear dictate our choices. Choosing from love opens up the questions about what a person would rather be doing, and how would they go about getting there? Inspiration can be found in the stories of other people who have successfully changed their lives, which could be contained in things we read on the Internet or new people we have met who tell us stories about their life experiences.



Another source can be those things that have been pushed to the background. Do you have any books on your shelf that you have been meaning to read for a while? If you had made up your mind that you didn't really like them, you would have gotten rid of them. So the fact that they are still there means that you still want to read them. When you do, you suddenly have those flashes of recognition that there are ideas in this book that you can use, or perhaps even new career paths that appeal to you and look like things you could learn to do.



When we choose from love, new potentials open up. When we feel inspired, we find new ways to do things. When we are inspired, we see opportunities we had not seen before. When we feel inspired, we are in more active communication with the spiritual aspect of our life. When we are inspired, and when we are unhappy with the way things are going, both are good times to increase our communication with our spirit guides. These are ways they can help us choose out of love so that we not only find work that pays, but work that we enjoy. By tapping into spirit and choosing out of love, we can find ourselves in better relationships, and in this context I am not only referring to lovers, but friends, acquaintances, co-workers, people who share recreational interests with us, all of it, the full spectrum.



Choosing from love rather than fear affects all aspects of life. Recently, for example, I chose to change the way I eat and increase my workouts at the rec center in order to strengthen my physical health. At first, making such changes can feel challenging, but then once I got rolling with it, the feeling of satisfaction with the new ways keeps increasing as I get more signs that it is working. People do not change their personal habits because other people tell them they should. They only make real changes when they feel like it, and choosing from love rather than fear is a powerful way to make the shift.



Here is another small change you can start making today to increase the joy in your life. It is tempting to judge other people and their choices and we also waste a lot of energy even thinking this way. Instead, with every person you meet, simply look at them in a new light and tell yourself that they must be choosing out of what they love. It remains to be seen for all of us how well things work out later. But at least in the meantime, you can at least hold this person in a positive light, and you will experience the encounter with that person as more enjoyable. Yes, there are some bad people in the world who are all about doing bad things, but that is not most people. Try the more loving attitude with those you meet, even in brief encounters, and see how much lighter and brighter every day feels.

Finding Our Way with Our Spirit Guides

As we go forward with our lives, we often have a desire for a second opinion from someone we trust. Sometimes we want to hear not from our buddies or our girlfriends or even close family members. Often we desire input from spirits who are on a higher plane when we are contemplating big decisions.

Who are our spirit guides? There can be quite a variety of them. For one, those who were raised with a belief in guardian angels or saints often see them that way. In many cultures around the world, people ask for the guidance and protection of their ancestors.

I have had many instances where a person had someone near to them who crossed over recently and they still feel that that person's spirit is still near them and sometimes communicating with them.

Of course, there is always God or Goddess in that role for some people, and that of course, will vary according to your view on religion and spirituality.

Another kind of spirit guide often takes the form of totem animals or spirit animals. As a person notices that they have a connection to a specific bird, animal or other creature, these may show up in person or in visions when that person is asking for a sign or an omen that will help them make a decision.

We all have some sort of spirit guide and their job is always to help us and protect us. They would like to see us succeed. Then why don't we always succeed? Because we have free will. We feel that gut reaction that is unmistakable when we consider going out with this person or doing this work, and yet, there are always some people who will over ride that gut instinct and they always regret it.

We can ask our spirit guides for advice. If we just sit quietly, perhaps in the morning before we get busy or turn on a TV or computer or talk on the phone, and make notes in a notebook where we might make note of whatever we can remember from our dreams. And then we also just get these random thoughts. But where do those random thoughts come from? Who do you think plants those seeds? You know, the kinds of thoughts like I should call so-and-so today. Or I really feel like it would be good to go to this place today. Or maybe it is time to read that book that I have had sitting here for a long time now.

We can also ask our spirit guides to show us things that we need to know in our dreams. Before going to sleep, program that in asking to be shown answers to your questions. Sometimes you may need help understanding your dreams and that is something people have been doing since ancient times. My name is Daniel. Who was Daniel in ancient history? The interpreter of dreams for the king of an ancient society.

When we keep in touch with our spirit guides and express our appreciation to them for all the good things we have received already, we are cultivating valuable sources to help us make the best of our lives.

Spirit guides may ebb and flow in terms of their importance to us at certain times. For example, one who was highly interactive at one phase of our life may fade to the background as another becomes a stronger presence at this time of our life. We don't get rid of one to get another. We have more than one, so those who were with us when we were little children as still with us, although there may be a different one who we are communicating more with now.

This is all part of our evolution. Others help us now, and when we evolve and have learned our major life lessons, it will be our turn to be spirit guides for other people. I know, some of you got a little bump in your coffee because you hadn't thought of that angle yet. But it makes sense, doesn't it?

We are never really alone. If you haven't been working with your spirit guides very consciously, these are some ways that you can get started with as soon as you like. Like today. You can start by simply sitting quietly in some place you feel comfortable and open your mind to your spirit guides. Welcome them in and open the dialogue. Remember, spirit would not send us a messenger and then refuse to deliver the message. Start however you like and discover a whole new dimension to your journey.

The Power of Enthusiasm

Have you ever noticed how contagious enthusiasm is? When someone is doing something that reveals excitement and joy, other people want to participate with them.

Enthusiasm is an energy that attracts others by sheer magnetism and draws them closer. Enthusiasm is a vibrant display of life affirming activity.

So how can you get more enthusiasm in your life? It would be worth it, wouldn't it, to feel that level of support or attraction working for you?

How many times have you wanted to try something new but hesitated because you didn't want to go by yourself?

But sometimes, that beginning of the new journey is all about you deciding to get up and go, and in so doing, finding others who enjoy the same things as you do.

Part of the adventure is simply being willing to get started and trust that you will meet others who share your enthusiasm.

How many of the things in life that give you pleasure and satisfaction are things that you simply had to learn by doing? Yes, most of them. Of course, at times we need teachers to show us the way to do things and give us knowledge about subjects we want to learn more about. But in the end, it is still all about getting up and putting one foot in front of the other.

It has been said that to be a good swing dancer only requires enthusiasm and a ready partner. How many things can you do that only require joyful enthusiasm and a ready partner?

Now, I know that not everyone wants to be a swing dancer, but the same principles apply to other things. When I used to lead drumming circles, once someone got a rhythm started other people were eager to join in until everyone was playing or dancing. When I was teaching creative writing, once one person told a good story, others were eager to share a favorite story too. How many times have you been chatting with a group of people and once one person tells a joke that makes everyone laugh, other people suddenly have one to tell too? How many times have you bought something because the salesperson was enthusiastic? How many times has someone else showed you something they made and your response is that you would like to make something like that too? When we see street performers, isn't it their enthusiasm that draws us to them?

If we remove all the other considerations from the picture and just get going, how much more joy would there be in our life? How many times have you wanted to try something new but hesitated because you didn't want to go by yourself?

But sometimes, that beginning of the new journey is all about you deciding to get up and go, and in so doing, finding others who enjoy the same things as you do.

Part of the adventure is simply being willing to get started and trust that you will meet others who share your enthusiasm.

How many of the things in life that give you pleasure and satisfaction are things that you simply had to learn by doing? Yes, most of them. Of course, at times we need teachers to show us the way to do things and give us knowledge about subjects we want to learn more about. But in the end, it is still all about getting up and putting one foot in front of the other.

If we remove all the other considerations from the picture and just get going, how much more joy would there be in our life?

Optimism is at the root of getting more of what we want

In order to attract the kinds of change you want into your life, a
person must be an optimist. The common thread in positive thinking, The
Law of Attraction, manifesting sympathetic magic or whatever other
terms you are comfortable using, optimism is an essential ingredient in
positive thinking. It makes sense, doesn't it? And that is all the more
reason why it is important to shift our way of thinking in order to
create more of what we want in our life.

By restating our goals
in positive ways and keeping them in the present tense, we are creating a
structure to our efforts that is strong from every angle, and thus,
engineered to work.

Once a person's hopes and dreams are
awakened, that person must be able to visualize their life becoming
populated by positive developments. A crucial ingredient must be added
to the optimism, and that is will, or the actions a person takes to make
their dreams real. The third crucial ingredient is the desire a person
has to bring about change.

A person who is cynical or negative in
their outlook can not be a successful person, because in order to
desire a change in their life, they must believe that such things are
not only possible, but that they have the power to influence or create
such changes.

Someone might say that a person who is constantly
cynical or pessimistic in their outlook is also drawing more of those
influences, energies and results into their life, and this is true.

However,
my focus is on creating a better life. Those who are interested in a
worse, more negative or more depressing life will not get any help from
me. These ideas are being presented for the benefit of those people who
want to move forward in their life and may have had doubts about their
own abilities to make things happen.

Have you ever noticed that
when you focus on looking for opportunities, you find opportunities?
Have you noticed that when you are happy you attract other happy people?
Have you noticed that when you focus on doing something well that you
get better at it?

Practice, it is all about practice. The person
who wants to become a good musician practices every day. The person who
wants to be an artist is always making art. The person who writes every
day gets better at writing. The person who wants to be a successful
engineer studies the ways of engineering and keeps practicing. The
person wants to be a better gardener keeps practicing it. The person who
wants to be the better realtor, salesperson or anything else, keeps
practicing until they get better. The person who plays a sport every day
gets better at that sport. The same is true for all our endeavors.

Making
real change in our life is about focusing on a goal and going for it,
with full consciousness and confidence that we can do it. In the process
of driving toward our goals, we make discoveries and find out about
things we did not know before. We may not know exactly how we will
achieve our success, but if we proceed in that direction with our eyes
and ears open for opportunities, then we are always moving toward making
our dreams real.

We have to be optimistic enough to believe that
our life will get better, then we have to really desire it, and finally
take action on it.

Optimism is an important ingredient because
it always involves positive thinking and creativity. A person can do
make change much more effectively when they are optimistic. Does it
bring a smile to your face when you think of what you really want? See?

 

Does life have a meaning? Or a purpose?

 

 

Often, I hear people asking about finding their purpose in life. It's almost as if they are looking for a ledger or a box where these things are kept and as soon as they can find it and open it up, they will find theirs there, right next to their name. But there is no purpose that someone else assigns us. We choose our own purposes. I have used the plural because we can have more than one, same as we have more than one career or more than one relationship, or more than one cause we believe in. 

It is almost the same question when people are asking about what the meaning to life is. There is no meaning. Life just is.

We have the delicious opportunity to make up that answer and live with it, and if we change our minds, we can do it again. When we have choices, we often need clarity to help us see our best path. This is something I have helped people to do many times.

What do we do with our lives? The two biggest choices we ever get to make are the questions about who we are going to love and what we are going to do to make a living. Those are the two biggest questions on everyone's mind and the two most popular areas of concern among people who get readings.

There are other spiritual concerns and people who request personal clearings, house blessings or reiki healings are often seeking rebalancing and peace from upsets that have caused them grief all the way to the spirit level, even though those may have originated from problems with relationships and work.

We do not find purposes or meanings. We create them.

Think about this for a moment. People often say that they have found a sign or an omen that helped them make a choice or answer a question. How exactly does that happen? A person may have as their totem a red fox, and as they are driving out one evening, a red fox crosses the road in front of them. What does that mean? Or perhaps a person is simply out for a walk and suddenly a robin is flying near them, singing. What does that mean?

Ultimately, if two different people are seeing these same things and have different problems or questions on their minds, then they get two different answers to what does it mean to see a fox cross my path or have a robin fly around me and sing.

Look at art in a museum. Some of it you love and some of it you don't care for at all. However, as we walk through the museum, certain pictures, carvings, sculptures, photos or artifacts grab our attention and we stand there looking at them for a while, with all kinds of thoughts running through our heads. These are the ones that mean something to us. We assign meanings to things. Sometimes we do not know what was on the artist's mind when they created those things, we only know if we like them or not. Do they speak to us?

Think about some of the noble causes that some people work hard to achieve. They want to help the injured veterans who have returned from war. They want to clean up the environment. They want to help house homeless people or find cures for diseases. They want to feed starving people or rescue stray animals. These are things that people choose to focus on.

There is no meaning to life. The choices we make form the direction our life takes and the path we follow. There is a cause and effect relationship between choices we make and what happens next.

I wonder if some people think that there is a little gnome sitting somewhere with a ledger who will look up their account for them and tell them what they are supposed to be doing.

What we do is the result of our free will. Let's agree that a person is born with a talent for musical ability or is keenly interested in art or science or baseball.

What a person does with those talent potentials and preferences is to refine them into skills. If you ended up doing art, it is because you like it and you spent more time learning how to do it well. Same for everyone else. Whatever it is that they enjoy doing they took the time to learn about it and apply it.

You find a common thread when you read the biographies of successful people. The person who became a great athlete practiced a lot. The person who became a great musician practiced a lot. The person who invented new computers spent enormous amounts of time working at inventing new computers. The person who becomes a successful realtor, home builder, hairdresser, massage therapist, auto mechanic, comedian or chef spends a lot of time developing their skills and building their business.

That then, is a product of using our free will to make a decision and the persistence to follow through with the necessary actions.

Even in the more playful part of our lives, where we choose to become a dancer, a drummer, a singer, a skiier, a skater, a potter, a knitter, a beader, a writer, or anything else, we discover that we become good at it with lessons and practice, and those who invest more time in practice get better and better.

My reference to a gnome with a ledger was intended to use a little humor to make my point. To me, the notion that there is a meaning to anyone's life implies that someone is assigning meanings to each individual, such as "You will be a plumber, you will be a doctor, you will be a pottery maker, you will be a musician, you will be a whatever."

Clearly, that is not true. How many people, for instance, were encouraged to be in a particular business or profession, but they choose to do something different? How many people were perfectly content doing their job until their company shut down or got taken over, reorganized and they got laid off and now they have to do something else?

Aside from work, is our meaning determined by whether we have children? Some people choose to have several, some choose to have one. Some people choose not to have any. What does that mean? It doesn't mean anything. It is simply their choice.

And of course, our choice of people we have relationships with. We seek to form relationships that we feel fit us well, that the people we are connecting with are those with whom we feel a special bond. But who decides which one we have a special bond with? We do. And for many of us, there is more than one instance like this in life, and more than one relationship. Some last for less than a year, and some last for many years. Looking for that person that we feel really special with is a factor that we decide. We decide what sorts of qualities and characteristics are important in the other person. Once again, we are making up the meaning, the purpose.

Is meaning related to a choice of religion? Obviously many people choose to change religions or not to belong to any. Is meaning related to our choice of hobbies or the charities we support? People change these during the course of a lifetime too. All of these are free will choices too.

In each case, free will choice determines the outcome. So, no, there is no purpose or meaning to life. We are born and then we decide what to do with that life. Life just is, it does not mean anything. We assign meanings to things.

I don't know if this will come as a shock to anyone who gives it a little thought, but I notice that some people like to start discussions in forums about such questions.

Viewing meaning and purpose as a matter of choice really makes it much more powerful. We can state our preference to the world and then get busy with it and suddenly we are in charge of our life and going full speed ahead. Yes, I know, some people will choose to go slow speed ahead, and that is simply their choice too. 

If you are sorting out your choices and can use a little help, just ask me. I do these kinds of sessions for people all the time. It is amazing how light and energized you feel when you have a clear sense of direction, isn't it?