Make The Leap of Faith, Don’t Look Down, Don’t Look Back!

“Half the failures of this world in life arise from pulling in one’s horse as he is leaping” – Julius and Augustus Hare

When we are shifting and growing we often are challenging ourselves to make a leap of faith. As I read the above quote this morning the visual I conjured up was of the old Warner Brothers “Roadrunner” cartoons where Wiley E. Coyote relentlessly chases the Roadrunner all over the desert and often at some point in the cartoon the Coyote is running so fast after the Roadrunner that he finds himself out in the air over a chasm between two cliffs. Upon his realization that he has no ground beneath his feet he makes a futile attempt to turn back to the cliff which he inadvertently made the leap from. Of course, he can’t return and because he has stopped in the middle he predictably plummets to the bottom of the deep chasm and crashes to the ground.

For me this is a great illustration of how we sometimes approach the leaps of faith that we take. There are times in our journey where we know that we want/need to make a change, we need to make a shift and that change/shift often means that we take a leap of faith.  We summon up the courage to take a leap of faith that we need to make the change in our life because we believe that this change is needed for our continued growth.

When we make the leap we are rarely if ever 100% sure that we are making the right move. There are usually some doubts that pull at  us and there is often an uneasy feeling as we move out of what is comfortable to us to that which is new and usually at first uncomfortable. Many people fall back on the old adage “The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know” and therefore will stay in a paradigm or situation that they recognize as toxic or holding them back from the growth they desire because they are comfortable in their current discomfort and they are not ready to take a leap of faith and make a change that will take them out of what is familiar and comfortable even when what is comfortable is not serving them.

Many people do make a leap, often times though it is a half hearted attempt and when they realize they are “out there” without a net, they allow ego and fear to drive them to back peddle. When they attempt to back peddle they either go right back to where they were or they fall deep within the chasm and curse the change that they tried to make rationalizing that the change was not the right one to make.

Making a leap of faith does often take courage, it does take an awareness that there will be moments of doubt, however you do it anyway, that there is a chance that you will get hurt, yet you do it anyway, that there is a chance that you will fail on the first try or the first one hundred tries, yet you do it anyway!

The danger does not lie within the leap itself; the danger lies within allowing are fear to pull us back in the middle of the leap!

Trust in your authentic self, your true voice and make the changes, make the shifts and experience the true joy which is you!

I will close with one of my favorite poems:

Do It Anyway

People are often unreasonable, illogical,
And self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you
Of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some
False friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank;
People may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building,
someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis
it is between you and God
It was never between you and them anyway

- Mother Theresa

When Our Paths in a Relationship Changes

“Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue, a wonderful living side by side can grow, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky”

~Rainer Maria Rilke

When we enter a new relationship we participate in a discovery phase where we discover what path the other person is on, what paths they have been on and where they believe there current path will take them. As the relationship grows we compare paths and we accept each others paths or we make some compromises to make our paths work in a way which will allow our relationship to continue to grow. When we make a commitment to a relationship in essence we are saying that we respect and accept the individual paths that we are on and in doing so we agree that as a couple we can build a relationship together.
Obviously we don’t do this in such a sterile manner, however this is part of the process (or should be) as we enter into a long term relationship and make a commitment to each other. We therefore accept the distance between each other and understand that we are not going to joined at the hip each step of our journey as a couple. We do this with an understanding that we each have individual paths which will compliment our relationship.
The beginning of the end of many relationships is that one or both partners view each others paths as static rather than dynamic. Inevitably as each individual in a relationship grows, one or both person’s paths will change. Sometimes the changes in our paths will be subtle and go somewhat unnoticed until something happens which brings awareness to the changes. Some times one or both people will make what appear to be a radical change in their path which will be very obvious to their partner. If in our minds we have an unrealistic expectation that our partners path will never change than we create conflicts within the relationship. This thought pattern is exemplified by the quote known around the world “You are not the same person that I married” or “I don’t know who you are anymore”. My immediate thought when I hear that said to someone or about someone is “Thank goodness”, how limiting would a relationship be if we did not change along the way!
In a mature loving relationship we understand that individual paths will change over time and these changes are part of the natural growth of each other and part of the evolution of our relationship. I love Rilke’s words in the above quote

“… loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each other to see the whole against the sky”,

these are indeed wise and beautiful words. I believe in many relationships we tend to box each other in and in doing so our vision of each other becomes very myopic. When we are able to appreciate the distance between each other we in fact are able to step back and see the whole person whom we love and in doing so the distance between us creates the closeness that we long to have.
As we as individuals change, it is unfair to expect that our partner will always understand or agree with the changes in our path, however it is reasonable to expect our partner to respect and accept the changes that we make along our journey as long as those changes do not harm ourselves or others.
I would be remiss if I did not note that there are times when one partner may choose a path which is not healthy for the individual or for the relationship. There are times where a person may choose a path which is toxic and the partner will need to assess the wellness of the individual and of the relationship. It is important to remember we can still love someone yet decide not to with them any longer.
May we be aware of the changes in our paths and the paths of people with whom we have relationships and may the distance between us bring us closer together with respect, acceptance and unconditional love.

Hardships Along Our Journey

Along our journey we will often experience hills, curves, potholes and detours. This year many people have lost much of their retirement savings as they watched the value of their investments dwindle due to hard economic times, people lose their jobs, homes our foreclosed upon, people are diagnosed with cancer and other life altering diseases, relationships fall apart, etc. The list of what we view as hardships goes on and on. Most of us will know hardship at points in our life.

I love the following quote by the Greek philosopher Epictetus:

“What ought one to say then as each hardship comes?  I was practicing

for this, I was training for this”

Epictetus speaks wisely in that when we do experience hardship it does not have to catch us off balance and throw us into a whirlwind if we are living a spiritual driven life which prepares us for every bump, curve and detour along our journey.

I am reminded of my time spent in combat training. Many years ago I was part of a small elite front line military combat group. At the time we were training to be on the front lines, eye to eye with whom we viewed at that time as the aggressor. The training we went through was long and intense. We trained in extreme heat and extreme cold, we ate rations and we lived every moment as if we were on the front line engaging in combat. We practiced everything we did as if it was the real thing, no exceptions! We trained “as if”!  The reason we trained in this very realistic way was that if you trained as if it were real then you would learn the behaviors and mind set that would help you to survive and succeed in a real world combat situation. You would do as you were trained to do because your mind did not distinguish between training and reality and you went into an automatic mode of sorts when you were in a real world situation.

The spiritual life that we live each day is not simply to be lived when it is smooth sailing; it is a way of life to be lived at all times even when we feel the world crashing in on us, when we experience what we view as a hardship. When we live a spiritual life, that is when we live from the core of our being which is our authentic self then when we experience some form of hardship we will simply approach the hardship with our spirit which will make even the greatest of hardships palatable as we accept and allow and embrace the lessons which the hardship presents.

I believe this is important for often times when hardship befalls us our ego mind jumps at the chance to speak up, pull an Alexander Haig and announce that it is now in control!  The ego loves to be in control which in many ways means we are out of control as we begin to react in a way which often heightens the anxiety and pain associated with the hardship. The ego often times will react in the way that it has been trained to react by family and society and the drama ensues (ego loves drama; ego often uses drama as a way to justify its existence).

Conversely when we are living in spirit, we know and understand that all things happen for a reason therefore we trust in the Universe, we open ourselves, we let go of our attachments and we accept and allow which provides us peaceful way of handling the hardships which come our way. As a matter of fact when we are living in this state, we may not even see what others would call a hardship as a hardship, we simply accept it as part of our journey, an opportunity to stretch and grow as we are in simple state of being.

We are spiritual beings, we choose to live in a state of being which is our authentic self or we choose to live in a state of being which is ego driven or sometimes we straddle the fence vacillating between the two. To know the peace and happiness of being is to in all situations to live from our core spiritual self!

What Is Our Value?

In the United States there is a television program on the Public Broadcasting Station called “Antiques Road Show”. Antiques Road Show is a program which travels from city to city throughout the United States where local people can bring in their personal treasures, heirlooms and garage sale and auction buys to be evaluated by experts in antiques. The experts often can tell a person the history of the item they have brought in and ultimately they assign a dollar value to the item. Many people bring in items that have been passed down to them by family members or that they have purchased for a very low price and they are interested to see what the item is worth. Ultimately some of the people who bring there items in to be evaluated are very surprised by the value of what they were using as a candy dish or a painting that was hidden away in the attic, a door stop or what they saw as an ugly heirloom. One lady recently found out that the jade items she had inherited from her father were worth a million dollars.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if there were a similar venue for understanding what we as people are worth? If you asked most people what they are worth they would immediately start adding up what they own and how much money they have in the bank. When we talk about the worth of Bill Gates or Oprah Winfery this is what we do, we look at their monetary worth, so therefore it is a pretty natural leap that people when asked what they are worth would jump to looking at there monetary ledger sheet and assigning a monetary value to answer what they are worth.

Even if you were to influence a person’s answer and say that you don’t mean what they are worth from a monetary standpoint most people will then start adding up what they have contributed to the world and to the people around them. Many people might begin to add up their personal achievements, positions they have obtained in their career, levels of education they have achieved, who they know, etc to evaluate their value, their worth.

Basing ones worth on money, possessions and achievements still does not answer the real question of what one’s value is does it? To base ones value on any of these things is to create a separateness between people, it gives the illusion that one person is in some way better or less than another person.

Our inherent value/worth is not what we own, what we have achieved or even what we do, are value/worth is who we are. Who we all are is the same, we are energy which originates from source and therefore our inherent value/worth is immeasurable, we are in essence PRICELESS!

The sad part is that so many of us don’t have an understanding or appreciation of the fact that we are more valuable than anything we can ever earn, purchase or achieve and that which is external has nothing to do with that which we truly are.

The Master once told the story of a priceless antique bowl that fetched a fortune at a public auction. It had been used by a tramp who ended his days in poverty, quite unaware of the value of the bowl with which he begged for pennies.

When a disciple asked the Master what the bowl stood for, the Master said, “Your self!”

Asked to elaborate, he said, “All your attention is focused on the penny knowledge you collect from books and teachers. You would do better to pay attention to the bowl in which you hold it.”

-         Anthony de Mello

May we all come to understand the value of that which we are!

Feeding on Soul Food

I remember when I was a child that I had a very healthy appetite and would eat beyond what one would think I needed and my Mother would say “ Mark, I don’t know where you put it all, you must have a hollow leg”.  Today as I observe people I notice that many people have what seems to be an insatiable appetite as if they have a “hollow leg”, more like they have a hollow spot within that they are trying to fill. The appetite of which I speak is not limited to food; this insatiable appetite includes all types of consumption from food, to money, to activities, to work, to all sorts of material possessions.

I notice that many people spend there day racing to buy the next thing that is going to make them feel good, or consume the next meal or enter the next relationship all in an attempt to unconsciously fill a void that they feel exists. For many people if they are not in consumption mode they are thinking about consuming, you will hear people in this mode excitedly say, “I want that” or “I need this”, or “I am going to get …”

This mass appetite to consume is fueled by the gurus of marketing who feed on peoples need to feel good, to fill that spot in their life which feels empty with the promise that when they use/posses their products that they will feel better, complete, whole.

The reality is that we cannot fill what feels like a void in our life by consuming more. We may experience an illusion of fulfillment by consuming more, however it will be short lived and then we will seek to consume again and again in a futile attempt to fill this void that we feel. This cycle of consumption  often times manifests itself into addiction as a person becomes engulfed in a cycle of behavior which never is able to fill the hole that they feel exists in their life.

What we really crave is “Soul Food”! We crave food that feeds our soul. The hole we feel exists is simply the feeling of not being in alignment with our true self. When we are out of alignment with our purpose, when we are thinking and acting from ego based thinking we feel, that is we intuitively know there is a void in our life and we will do many things to fill that void, most of which are like consuming empty calories, always leaving us wanting for more.

The soul food that we need is love, service and connection to source, none of which come to us from the external world. We produce the soul food that we need, we produce love, for at our core that is what we our, we our love.

I know that we are love for we are part of divine source, which means we are divine, which means we are love! When we are operating from our authentic self we cannot help but be love and when we are love in all of its glory we then attract that which we are; meaning that all of the love we emanate from our being will be showered upon us in ways that you have not yet imagined.

When we are emanating love, our natural tendency and desire is to be of service to others. To love is to serve; to serve is the noblest and highest of purposes.

When we love and we are of service we become keenly aware of our connection to source. We are always connected to source, we can never disconnect. Disconnection from source is simply not possible since we are of source. The disconnection from source that we may feel is simply an ego created illusion. We cannot disconnect from the divinity which we naturally are. It would be like an apple deciding to be an orange. The apple could think it is an orange all day long, however it is still an apple.  Many people do the same thing, they create an ego based thought which states they are disconnected from source, however the reality is that they are of source and therefore cannot disconnect no matter how much they want to disconnect.

As we become aware of what we truly are, then we begin to clearly see that we are of source and therefore are always connected to source, we are love and that it is because of the love that we are that we strongly desire to be of service to all.

Feeling like you have a void to fill? Choose soul food, choose to feed your soul with all that you already have within you and let go of the false self which drives you to attempt to fill your void with the consumption of external things.

Intuitive Decisions

Do you sometimes feel that you are being pulled in many different directions and that you are at a point where you don’t know what decision to make or what to do next? Most everyone has been in this situation. Much of our experience here is influenced by the thoughts and desires of others. We are influenced by our parents, our siblings, our peers, those we desire to be our friends, churches, government and mass media. It seems that everyone has an opinion on how we should live and what we should and should not be thinking/doing and that many of these opinions differ. The influence of all of these often conflicting opinions is enough to make one’s head spin.

We often think to our self, if I make this decision it will hurt this ones feelings, if I make this decision then I will lose the respect or love of this person; if I make this decision then the world will think I am some sort of nut; if I make this decision I will risk too much, etc. All of these “ifs” often bring us to a point of inertia where the only decision we make is to not make a decision at all or we go ahead and make a decision based solely on someone else’s influence only to regret that decision from the moment we made it because we intuitively knew that it was not the best decision for us.

When we make intuitive decisions we are making decisions based on what we feel deep inside of us, that is we make the decision based on our spirit. When you make the best possible decision for yourself you will know it because you will feel that your decision is aligned with your authentic being. You will intuitively feel good about your decision and you will have a knowing that it is the correct decision for you. Note, making an intuitive decision does not always mean that the decision will seem logical, nor does it mean it will fit the accepted societal norms or the norms of your life thus far. When one makes an intuitive decision one may even experience ridicule from friends, family and society. You may feel alone in your decision and this may bring on feelings of doubt which are fueled by the opinions and accepted norms of those who influence you. Know that this experience is normal and sometimes to be expected, it’s okay, for others cannot/do not always know what you intuitively know.

It is important for us to remember that many people live their life as if they were sheep, following the herd and going wherever the Sheppard of the day takes them. Of course when one breaks free of the heard or appears to be changing the natural response of the herd is to try to influence you in a way that brings you back into the fold. This is done by the use of logic, quilt and ridicule all of which are aimed at influencing our ego mind to return to the herd and to put aside our silly notions.

It is good to remember that much of what we accept as the norm today was ridiculed by society when the idea was first introduced. At one time people were imprisoned for such thoughts of the world is round or that the sun did not revolve around the earth. People scoffed at the idea of man flying, space travel was a thing found only in comic books and fantasy movies, the idea of having an African American President of the United States would have got you laughed out of most social circles …the list goes on and on.

People who stayed true to their authentic voice and did not allow themselves to be overly influenced by the opinions and often overt actions of others have changed the world in which we live and continue to facilitate change today.

What I am speaking of today is not about the decisions that change the world in obvious ways, what I am speaking of today is about us making the everyday decisions that shape our lives, for it is these series of little everyday decisions that shape our personal lives and in a way much greater that we realize shapes the universe.

It is critical to our own well being and to the achievement of our purpose that we make our decisions based on our authentic self. The Bard himself said it so eloquently, “To thine own self be true”; wise and true words to live by.

Today, listen to your spirit and make all of your decisions based on what you intuitively know is best for you. If you do this, I assure you that you be amazed by the outcome.

The Cookie Thief

The Cookie Thief

A woman was waiting at an airport one night,
With several long hours before her flight.
She hunted for a book in the airport shops.
Bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.

She was engrossed in her book but happened to see,
That the man sitting beside her, as bold as could be.
Grabbed a cookie or two from the bag in between,
Which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene.

So she munched the cookies and watched the clock,
As the gutsy cookie thief diminished her stock.
She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by,
Thinking, “If I wasn’t so nice, I would blacken his eye.”

With each cookie she took, he took one too,
When only one was left, she wondered what he would do.
With a smile on his face, and a nervous laugh,
He took the last cookie and broke it in half.

He offered her half, as he ate the other,
She snatched it from him and thought… oooh, brother.
This guy has some nerve and he’s also rude,
Why he didn’t even show any gratitude!

She had never known when she had been so galled,
And sighed with relief when her flight was called.
She gathered her belongings and headed to the gate,
Refusing to look back at the thieving ingrate.

She boarded the plane, and sank in her seat,
Then she sought her book, which was almost complete.
As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise,
There was her bag of cookies, in front of her eyes.

If mine are here, she moaned in despair,
The others were his, and he tried to share.
Too late to apologize, she realized with grief,
That she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief.

by Valerie Cox

I love this story.

How many times in our lives, have we absolutely known that something was a certain way, only to discover later that
what we believed to be true … was not?

In this story we can see how one person acted from spirit while the other reacted from ego. Too often people act from ego and feel the sting of regret later when they are able to view the bigger picture. May we always think and act from spirit and keep our lens open wide to see all the possibilities!

Anxiety

A friend of mine over the last year had started having anxiety attacks. When these attacks hit, her blood pressure would spike, her emotions would be on edge and she would develop a doomsday viewpoint, i.e. she would imagine the worst possible outcome of everything in her life to include that she was dying of one malady or another.  The attacks were often severe and she ended up in the emergency room a couple of times because she worked herself into such a frenzy.

When she was calm we talked about the things that might be contributing to her having anxiety attacks. At first she did not believe that her attacks were brought on by anxiety. She insisted that she had some medical disorder that the doctors were missing. She told me that she didn’t feel anxious and that she didn’t feel she was worried or pressured by anything. The fact that she did not see herself as anxious was interesting to me because I knew simply from observing her that she led an anxious life.

Anxiety is defined as “painful or apprehensive uneasiness of the mind”

It was clear to me that my friend was in pain and was truly experiencing an uneasiness of the mind. I observed her lifestyle and noted that in many ways her lifestyle was contributing to her uneasiness of the mind. She didn’t eat well, lived on fast food and snacks which were high in sugar and sodium and when she did eat a decent meal it was almost always eaten in a restaurant. When she ate she ate like the food was going to be taken away from her at any moment, she ate fast and furious barely having a chance to taste what she shoveled in her mouth.  I observed that she did not get regular hours of sleep and was often trying to burn the candles at both ends. She did not get any real exercise, when she wasn’t busy with work or school she could be found on the couch watching “reality” type shows such as COPS and other type shows which chronicled the drama of others and focused on the worst of human behavior.

When I shared with her my observations and how her lifestyle may be contributing to her anxiety attacks she was quick to dismiss what I had to say, yet each time she went into an anxiety attack or had a melt down because she was in a doomsday mental state she would reach out to me and ask for help. It was during these times that I would gently and sometimes not so gently open up discussions about the possible changes she could make that would help her to remove the anxiety from her life and each time she would put up a wall and defend her lifestyle choices and reiterate that she believed she was suffering from some form of medical malady that the inept doctors were not detecting.

Fast forward a few months; I am visiting with my friend; she appears to be in a good state of being. When I remark at how well she appears she shares with me that she had made a conscious choice to make some lifestyle changes and that she had not experienced an anxiety attack in quite some time, as a matter of fact she shared with me that she had never felt better.

When I asked her what changes she had made she told me that she became aware of what she was exposing herself to and that through this awareness she had chosen to no longer watch dramatic reality shows. She now realized that her exposures to these types of programs which she had viewed as entertainment were in fact having a negative effect on her mental and emotional state.  She also became aware of taking better care of her physical form by eating better, getting some form of exercise and having a more regular sleep schedule. Bottom line, she made some lifestyle changes and reduced her anxiety levels and she did this by increasing her awareness and opening herself up to the possibilities that she could effect change from her internal self and not look for external things to blame her anxiety on. The big, aha for her is that she had to take responsibility for her anxiety, which she did!

Truth is, she has only scratched the surface of removing anxiety from her life and experiencing a joyful life. She has made some changes yes and she feels better, however she now has set herself up to begin aligning herself with her spirit in a much deeper and more profound way which will take her to a level of joy that she has not yet known.

When we experience anxiety it is simply because our thoughts, words/actions are not in alignment with our authentic self, our spirit. The more aligned we become with our authentic self the less anxiety we will experience. Like my friend discovered, we must also be conscious of our physical environment and how we treat our form. It is interesting how as we become aware and make changes to our environment and how we treat and interact with our form that we begin to create an overall awareness or being. These changes can be a catalyst for the deeper internal changes that we need to make to align with our authentic self.

Note, if you see bits of yourself or someone close to you in the description of my friend, please understand that one does not have to change or “get it” all at once.  That being said, one does have to take accountability and responsibility for their state of being before any real and lasting change can take place. Know that even the slightest shifts in thought and lifestyle can lead to less anxiety and a more joyful life.

Anxiety is not something that we should cope with. If you drove a nail through your hand, you wouldn’t cope with the nail in your hand, you would take action to remove the nail and allow the wound to heal. The same thing applies to anxiety, we don’t need to cope with anxiety, we need to take appropriate actions to remove anxiety from our life and heal our self.

Note, one of the key learning’s/reminders for me was that even when people are putting up walls and dismissing your thoughts (even when they ask for them)  there is often a part of them that is listening.

How Do You Use Your Creativity?

When we think of people who are creative we often think of people who can create songs, music, dance steps, paint, sculpt, create vivid art from piecing together little objects to create a mosaic or string words together in way that form poems or writes in a way that captures are attention. When we reflect on creative people, we may call out people like Michelangelo, Brahms,   Billy Joel, Martin Scorsese, Michael Jackson or Charlie Chaplin.

For most of us it is easy to recognize the creative genius of others. When asked if we are creative, many people will quickly tell you that they are not the creative type.  Why do many people believe that they are not creative? Many people do not believe they are creative because they have a very limited view of creativity. When they think of being creative they think of people in the arts. This is a very limiting view and understanding of creativity.

The truth is we are all creative and weather we acknowledge it or not, we are creating all of the time. Creativity is thought, when we think we create; now that is a very broad statement so let’s dig into this thing we call creativity a little bit more. We are all creative, even the most linear thinkers are creative. Take someone who appears to be non-creative such as a data analyst, a number cruncher; some even refer to these people as “bean counters”. One would think that this is a purely analytical thing to do, yet this very same person who lives in an analytical world creates spreadsheets and graphs and discerns what the numbers mean and provides commentary and findings, all of which are very creative tasks.

On a broader spectrum each morning that you wake up you are creative. As we begin thinking we begin to create. We create the fact that we are going to have a cup of coffee or that we are going for a morning jog. We create our day as we mentally review what lies before us and how we will approach the day. We create our mood by the thoughts we have and the perspectives that we develop.

Even those who believe they are not in the least way creative are in fact often very creative. The creativity that I am speaking of here is the darker side of creativity, we often refer to this type of creativity as fear or worry. When a person thinks about the possibilities of what can happen in the future and they begin to formulate worst case scenarios they are in a creative mode. Albeit, worry and fear are not typically viewed as creativity they none the less are, as a matter of fact this is a type of creativity that almost everyone engages in.

Bottom line is, we are all creative. Creativity is viewed as a positive activity, however as you can now see we also use creativity in way that does not serve our wellbeing. If you are apt at creating fear and worry about things which have not yet happened than it is my hope that you recognize that you are indeed creative. Once we recognize our creativity it is simply a matter of how we choose to use our creativity. In other words, we being the limitless beings that we are have a choice to be creative in a way that creates a world of peace, love and harmony for ourselves and others.

As you can hopefully see, you are creative, you are going to create, you can’t help but create so why not go forth and create the world you desire!

The Resume

Have you ever prepared or read a resume that talks about the failures or negative things a person has experienced in their career? Of course you haven’t! When we write our resume it is done so with the objective of selling ourselves to a perspective employer in a way that  will garner us an interview. When we craft a resume we only talk about the good stuff we have done! Even if we had a negative experience we spin it to reflect it in a positive light.

Consider for a moment what a resume of your life would be? I am not talking about your job/career accomplishments, I am talking about your life experiences and all of the roles that you have and do play. What would that resume look like?

Did your thoughts go to all of the things that have happened in your life that you are not so proud of? Remember, a resume is a document of experiences and achievements which demonstrate the beauty of you and does not rehash that which you view as negative experiences.  If a negative experience does come to mind let it flow through your thoughts, look at it from different angles and ask yourself what lesson or what positive was gained from this experience that would reflect well on your resume?

What would your life resume look like? For me an effective resume always begins with a clear objective. In this case the objective might read as follows:

Objective: To expose my soul and allow the love that is the true me to shine through and radiate to the Universe; to demonstrate the beauty and divinity of my being. To remind myself of whom I truly am and to release and forgive myself for all and anything which I continue to carry as a negative experience.

Next comes a person’s qualification which might read as follows:

Qualifications: An eternal being, a divine extension of source, an intrepid traveler along an endless journey who is both a teacher and a student. Currently in human form, having human experiences which are designed for me to accomplish my purpose and grow in wisdom through lessons which are provided to me.

From here you list the many accomplishments and lessons learned, remember all of which match up to your above objective.

References: Here you could list all of the people whom love you and would share that love of you with anyone who asked. Of course this does not need to be limited to those whom you know love you, you could even open this up to the unknown multitudes of people whom you have touched with your love, be it the beggar on the street that you gave money/food to or the elderly person whom you helped up the stairs or the child who was lost whom you helped find their mother. Truly you have positively touched many people in ways greater than you realize.

If you have the inclination and time, writing your personal life resume can be a very loving thing to do for yourself. This exercise helps you to understand and remember the beauty whom you are and how much you mean to all of us as we are all one. Have fun with this.

Once you have completed your life resume remember to update it at least once every six months with all the changes that have transpired along your journey. This document, like you should be every changing, evolving if  you will as you evolve.