Ask For What You Want!

Many of us miss out on so much simply because we do not ask for want we want. Why do we not ask for what we want?

Probably the biggest reason is that we have not yet learned or understand that we live in a universe of abundance! We have not yet accepted that we all can live an abundant life, that there is no limit on the abundance that is available to us. As many times as you may hear this lesson of abundance, there are still reasons that you may find this lesson difficult to accept.

Let’s take a look at a young child. Children at a very young age ask for everything and they are the masters of getting what they want. They know that if they need something they simply need to ask for it. However as the child grows older the adults begin to say things and do things that teach the child not to ask for what they want. Matter of fact, we say things to the child like, “be happy with what you have”,  “it’s not polite to ask”, “we are a family of poor means, you should accept that you will never have all the things you want”, we make statements like this over and over again, teaching and reinforcing to the child that they do not live a life of abundance.  Furthermore, sometimes our culture and religious beliefs teach us not to ask for what we want, that it is a “sin” to ask and sometimes even want material things in our life. Some belief systems teach that poverty and a life of sacrifice bring you closer to “God”.

With these types of teachings in our life’s, it is no small wonder that we are conditioned to believe that we do not live in an abundant universe, that what we can get in life is very limited. It is because of these teachings that we feel guilty when we do want something, and feel even more guilty when we get it. This is one of the reasons that we sabotage ourselves when we do receive what we desire.

When we  say, “just ask for it” and the universe will provide that abundance for you, we are going against many of the lessons that we have learned from a very early age. Because of this, even as we try to accept and practice the law of abundance, even as we begin to “ask for what we want”, we have underlying thoughts of disbelief which sabotage are desire.

Today, begin to ask for what you want, with the expectation that you will get it. Focus on what you desire. Believe that you will receive your desires. See yourself receiving what you desire. Understand there are no limits! You can ask for anything, love, money, cars, houses, anything, THERE ARE NO LIMITS to the abundance that you can attract into your life!

Ask for what you want, what you desire, ask because it is already yours!

 

Listening Equals Caring

 Want to show someone in your life how much they mean to you? Listen to them! I mean really listen, slow down your own thoughts and activities for a few moments and make a concentrated effort to listen.

Actively listening to another person is the easiest way to demonstrate how much you care. We love when we recognize that someone is really listening to us, taking mental notes of what we are saying.

You can easily tell when someone is listening to you:

1. They are making good eye contact.

2. They are not doing anything else, not reading, not half watching the TV, not distracted.

3. They are engaged in what you are saying.

4. They are giving you physical and verbal cues that they are listening.

5. They ask you questions, ask you to explain something more, etc.

6. They don’t look as though they are just waiting for their turn to talk.

When a person is actively listening to us, we feel that they sincerely care about what we are saying, that they care about us.

Activly listening to someone equals caring.  We all want to feel that people care about us!

Do yourself and your family, friends and co-workers a favor today and stop and really listen to what they are saying. actively listen, even if you already think you have heard what they are about to say. Put down your paper, turn the computer monitor off, turn off the TV, make eye contact and really listen.

You will be amazed what a difference this will make in your relationships. The people in your life will love the attention that they feel they are getting from you.

Such a very simple thing to do! So what are you waiting for? I am sure someone is waiting for you to listen to them right now!

How Do You Choose to React?

Flat tire, misplaced keys, school delay, no show for meetings , stuck in traffic, … All of these things can cause some level of frustration. These events happen and we can feel ourselves becoming agitated, we can feel our mood start to shift. Pretty normal to feel some angst when things don’t go the way we expect them to, when our plans have to be rearranged. The question is how long do you stay frustrated, do you allow this one or two things shift your mood for the entire day? Do you allow these types of things ruin your whole day and subsequently negatively impact the days of everyone you come in contact with? Do you let it get to the point where you are taking your frustration over a unexpected event  out on those closest to you, e.g. your spouse, your children, your friends, your co-workers, etc?

Do you find yourself justifying your bad mood and your bad behavior? Do you hear yourself saying “I am cranky because _________?”

Why do you do that?

Truth is, we behave like this because somewhere along the way we either learned by watching other people that this was the way we supposed to act when something unexpected happened or we taught ourselves that this was the way we wanted to react. Another reason could be that, we have something else that is weighing heavy on our mind and this one thing that happened was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Whatever the reason is that you behave this way, the thing you need to know is that you can choose to change the way you react to unplanned events in your day which cause you frustration and sometimes escalate to the point where your whole mood is changed.

Let’s take a getting a “flat tire” as an example.

You get a flat tire on the way to work this morning. You now have choices to make as you get out of the car to inspect the flat tire. You can react by sitting there and pound on the steering wheel in frustration and anger, open the door, kick the tire in anger, fix the tire, get back in the car, go to work, snarl at everyone who greets you, tell everyone how you are now in a bad mood because you had a flat tire on the way to work, which now has ruined your whole day, because your schedule had to be rearranged, etc. You then decide to stay in a foul mood all day and continue to simmer about the inconvenience the flat tire created, you take your foul mood home and snap at the people that you love as they try to share their day with you, etc. You get the picture, a simple flat tire at 7:00 in the morning, ruined the rest of your day and had a negative impact on everything and everyone you came in contact with.  The sad truth is, in some way you chose to behave this way!

The other choice is this:

On the way to work, you get a flat tire. You are initially frustrated at the inconvenience that this is going to cause you. You decide (choose) to not allow this to ruin your day. You get out of the car, you fix the flat tire. You get back in the car, drive to work and put the “flat tire” event behind you. You make the necessary adjustments to your schedule and you go on with your day as if it were any other day. The flat tire was simply a blip in your day, that happened at the moment and it was over.

Which choice would you make? We are faced with these choices daily.

The key is that we can choose how we react to life’s events or we can let life’s events control our moods.

I choose to decide how I am going to react to lifes events, and I choose not to allow any one thing to ruin my whole day!

How do you choose to react?

Should You “Stay the Course”?

 

“Staying the course” -This is a phrase that we have heard used quite a bit in the last couple of years by some politicians and world leaders. You may even find youself using this familiar phrase.

When we say that we are “staying the course”, we mean that we that we have set our rudder in the water and locked it into place. We are not deviating from our plan. We are committed to our plan and we are going to forge ahead come hell or high water.

Of course this type of myopic thinking only works if you were able to plot out every obstacle that may come your way, every possible storm or high wind that may push you off course, every change in the flow of the current.  Of course we don’t live in such a perfect world where we can predict everything that will happen as we execute our plan to achieve our goals.

The reality of life is that we can sit down and plot out a course of action to take and painstakingly attempt to plan for every possible obstacle or change that may affect our plan and we still are  going to run into something that we didn’t plan for. Because of this we have to be willing to unlock our rudder and make changes in our course along the way. Youmust be able to keep your eyes open and to be willing to make necessary changes in your course which enable you to achieve your goal. You also must be in tune with all that is around you and most importantly in tune with your inner self. You must be willing to admit to yourself that what may have seemed like a great idea or the right thing to do at the time, is now not your best course of action. This is where it is so important to keep your ego in check, because we all know that our fragile ego does not want to admit that we are wrong or that there may be a better way to go. Our ego demands to be right, and often times at all costs. You can see examples of this in business and world politics and I am sure that you can see examples of this in your own life.

Yes, it is important to set your course and take action. Remember, it is critical that you keep your hand on the rudder of life, make adjustments based on the real obstacles that may come your way, be aware of the shifts in current and be willing to follow your inner soul’s awareness of what you should do and to remove your ego from the equation.

Remember that even though the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, that our life journeys seldom can follow this rule. Be willing to execute changes in your course during your journey.

Are You Standing Still, Feeling Stuck?

 

“Life is like riding a bike. It is impossible to maintain your balance while standing still”

- Linda Brakeall – Author

 

The above quote is so true! If your life is at a stall, if you are standing still in regards to your life, then you are going to find yourself off balance.

Are you standing still in regards to something in your life? Are you stuck in place, waiting for something to happen or in limbo trying to making a decision?

If you are, I am sure that you are feeling frustrated, off balance, or even laying flat on the floor, almost unable to pull yourself out of bed in the morning.

It is time to take ACTION! Time to move! Time to make the decision!

You might be sitting there, saying “I wish I could, it’s just not that easy”. My response to that is, your right, maybe it’s not that easy, maybe you fear making the wrong move, making the wrong decision. I say do it anyway, make a move, take action, even if you are not 100% sure about the decision you are making . Take action, make a move, once you do you will regain your balance, you will feel alive again. Guess what? If it’s the wrong move or wrong decision, you will make the necessary adjustments, you can always rechart your course, go another way. You can only do this if you are taking action! Sitting still, waiting, worrying, doing nothing will make nothing happen, except sink you deeper  and deeper into an abyss of frustration and depression.

You must take action, you must have movement to regain your feeling of balance.

If you need to take baby steps, then take baby steps. Baby steps are still movement. Action, movement is the key to regaining your balance.

 

Consider the following:

1. In what way are you currently standing still?

2. Determine what is holding you in place? (usually some type of fear)

3. Make a decision and take action

4. Feel the joy of regaining your balance

Lessons are Everywhere

“The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manners for all human souls: In short, behaving as if you were in Heaven, where there are no third class carriages, and one soul is as good as another”  - George Bernard Shaw 

 Isn’t it funny how many times and in so many ways we are exposed to the great truths! The above excerpt is from George Bernard Shaw’s screenplay, “My Fair Lady”. In this excerpt, Professor Higgins tells Eliza a “great secret”, that we should treat all souls the same because “one soul is as good as another”. This is so true! We know this to be a universal truth. All souls are equal! It is our egos that create a perception of superiority or inferiority. The concept of us not being equal is a human condition, a condition of the ego, a learned concept. This is not to say that we cannot change our concept of equality of souls.We can learn and accept the lesson that we are all equals. When we do accept this lesson and apply it to our life’s the world will seem to change, you will be open to so many more lessons, because you will begin to realize that we can learn lessons from everyone we meet, that we are all teachers and at the same time all students. I love how the universal truths are found in so many places and that you have heard them so many times. Keep all of your senses tuned in, you never know where, who, or how the universal truths will be revealed to you. 

Be open to all of the possibilities!  

The Darkest Hour

 Many of us have heard that the darkest hour is right before dawn. We understand  this means that if you hang in there through the worst of times, through the darkest hours that the dawn will break, that you will turn the corner, that all will be well.

Of course when you are in your darkest hour, it is very difficult to believe that the “dawn” is right around the corner. When we are in our darkest hour, it is often hard to believe that things could ever get better.

The truth is that things will get better, we will turn the corner. The key is to know that things will get better, that you will have a dawn, you will have a victory. The tough part is that you have to hang in there, you have to see it through.

It is easy to get to a point where you just want to give in, or give up. Sometimes life is so overwhelming that you just want to say, I am done. The sad part is that often the time when you decide to throw in the towel is just moments away from when you would have seen the light, when you would have be victorious!

The question is, how do you manage to hang in there, through the worse of the worse.

The answer is:

1. Live on Purpose – know and believe in your purpose at all times

2. Believe in Yourself – Know who you are

3. Have a Knowing – know that everything always works out for you, know that everything happens for a reason, know that you will be better for what you are going through.

4. Believe in the Journey - Believe that the journey is part  of the prize, embrace your journey and all that happens along the way.

5. Visualize – see the “dawn” in your mind, put yourself where you want to be – remember you are and become what you think about.

6. Remember your Lessons – Remember that there are lessons in every step that we take, learn from your lessons.

7.  Be Dogmatic – Hang in there, know that you are very near the time when the light will shine again.

Do these things and you will be well prepared to face even the darkest of hours!

A “Book” Tag – Just for Fun

Sunflower Optimism  has posted a challange to her readers, a “tag” if you will. The tag goes like this:

The “rules” for the 123Meme are as follows:

For those tagged, here’s what you’ve got to do:

1. Grab the closest book to you.
2. Open to page 123, look down to the 5th sentence.
3. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog.
4. Include the title and the author’s name.
5. Tag 3 people.

This sounds like fun, so I agreed to participate.

I just bought a book at lunch time today which is titled “Controlling People, How to Recognize, Understand and Deal with People Who Try to Control You” by Patrica Evans.

Here goes:

“If we look at his relationship in terms of our model, we can see that as time passes he might find  it increasingly difficult to keep pretending — to maintain his Pretend Person. His wife might grow to be more expressive of her individuality, therfore less Teddy-like. Taking into accountthe objective of his oppreessive behavior to preserve his Control Connection, it is not surprising that he would feel increasingly thwarted and that he would become more oppresssive.”

As I stated earlier, I just bought the book today at lunch. I have not had any time to read it as of yet. I will give you a review of it when I am done.

Now, of course the challange is now up to you to continue. Please let me know if you decide to join in fun by leaving a comment.

Does Your Past Drive Your Future?

 

What affect does your past have on your future? My knee jerk response to this, is that your past has plenty to do with your future, dosn’t it? Most of us base the majority of today’s decisions on our experiences from the past. We learn things from our past and we make today’s decisions based on those lessons learned. This is a good thing, right? Right, using lessons we have learned in our past can be a good thing, if it helps us to grow.

The other side of the coin is that many of us use our past as a reason not to grow. Many of us look at our past and say things like, “well, I tried that before, and it didn’t work for me”, or “I wasn’t very good at doing that in my past, so therefore I don’t see why I would be good at it now”. We also say things like, “because of my past, I don’t really deserve to be happy, successful, loved, etc” You fill in the blank. Living in our past often times has the power to stunt our spiritual growth. We even use our past when dealing with people in our life, “I tried to be nice to him last time and I got hurt, I don’t want to get hurt again, so I will not be nice this time”, or “I helped people in the past and never got as much as a thank-you, so why should I help anyone now”.

You see, we can use the past as an excuse not to grow, not to make the effort. The scary part is that it is so easy to fall into these patterns of using the past to justify why we can not really move forward.

I would like you to stop and think about how you use the past.

Are you using your past experiences to learn from and grow or are you using your past as a reason to not grow, as an excuse for why you are the way you are, for an excuse why you are stuck in a place in your life that you tell yourself that you don’t want to be?

Remember the present is all you really have. You can be who ever you desire to be, regardless of your past!

Everything Happens for a Reason

It all happens for a reason. What happens for a reason? Everything happens for a reason! There are lessons in everything that happens to us, and around us. There are lessons to be learned in every encounter we have with another person.

The key is, to be able to recognize what the lesson is. I know that often times I do not recognize why something happened at first or why some person came into my life at the time they did. Sometimes it may be days, weeks, even years later that I can look at what happened and say “Ah ha! That is why that happened the way it did. Because if that hadn’t happened (what I perceived as negative at the time) then this wonderful thing could not have happened to me now.

Knowing that everything happens for a reason, that the detours are part of the journey, enables me to better accept the things that may happen to me in a day. When something that I perceive as negative happens to me, I find great comfort and peace in knowing that there is a lesson here, this is happening for a reason, maybe, even a reason that I am not ready to understand yet.

The more I accept this, the less stress and worry I have. The more I accept that everything happens for a reason, the more I find that I can tune into what the lesson is.

The next time that something happens that you did not plan, something that you didn’t want to happen, remember there is a reason for why this has happened and there is a lesson to be learned and that at some time weather it be now or years from now, all will be revealed when you are ready to understand.