Some inspiration for your Friday

One of the best resources out there

I stumbled upon an awesome resource the other day. Although, spiritually speaking, we never stumble upon anything. The universe delivers what we need at the time we need it. Perfect timing for me. . . as it always is.

http://www.entheosacademy.com is a virtual school that offers some of the best and most useful classes in around. Having gone to business school, I heard a lot that I should just forget whatever I learned in school and that I will never use it. "All you really need is experience." Well these classes are way different. At The Entheos Academy you will learn how to live an optimal life. Choose from a variety of courses ranging from health, nutrition, sexuality, spirituality, creativity, money, and much more. Enjoy online access and live calls with some of today's leading teachers: Steve Sisgold, Gabrielle Bernstein, Joel Fuhrman, Brian Johnson, and many more.

What attracted me to this site, other than a 5 week course with Gabby, was Brian Johnson's Philosopher's Notes. Remember Cliff's Notes? This is better! Get MP3s or PDFs of Brian's synopsis (covering all main ideas) of hundreds of amazing books. Each audio is about 20 minutes long and is filled with insight, quotes, and even Brian's personal stories to help drive home some concepts. 

Here are some of the titles:

"A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle

"How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" by Dale Carnegie

"Ask and It is Given" by Esther and Jerry Hicks,

"Happy for No Reason" by Marci Shimoff

"Real Magic" by Dr. Wayne Dyer

"Spiritual Liberation" by Michael Bernard Beckwith

"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey

and MUCH, MUCH MORE! Seriously, hundreds!

You can view a full list here of volumes I and II: http://bit.ly/rYtpTK

View the Audio and Ebook versions available here: http://bit.ly/tTi7cy

Here is a link to the Optimal Living 101 site: http://bit.ly/v8hTUz

This is an amazing resource that will surely enhance your life! Listen to the notes in the car, at work, or at the gym. Then choose your fav and purchase the book!

<3 Live, Love, Miracles

Accept, forgive, and release for inner peace

There are some people in our lives that we don’t understand. I don’t understand the way some people think, how they behave, or their motives. I don’t agree with many of their opinions or ideas. They can seem  unsupportive, rude, and just plain mean. When in the presence of such people we often get angry, annoyed, upset, and defensive. And unfortunately, there are some people that will always be in our lives so we must learn to deal with them and keep ourselves at peace.

A wise friend recently said something that really resonated with me. “Some people never change. They are who they are and you cannot change them. You don’t need to understand them and you don’t need to agree with them. You just need to accept them. Accept them for who they are.” Acceptance, huh? I thought about this for a while and I kept coming back to the idea of perception. A Course in Miracles says that a miracle is a change in perception. This would definitely qualify as a miracle if I could change my perception about such people! I added forgiveness and release to the acceptance process because I really feel those steps are necessary as well.

My steps to acceptance:

1. Why are they the way they are? What has caused them to lose sight of love and be bitter? What have they had to deal with in their lives that could explain their personalities?

2. Empathy

3. Acceptance. “I accept you for your authentic and real self. I accept that I don’t always understand you. I accept that we are different and that is ok. I accept that I cannot and should not change you. I accept you for you and for all the reasons that made you, you.”

Steps to forgiveness:

1. Without getting yourself all worked up, how have these people wronged or hurt you?

2. Chose to change your perception about these situations and see how you could have been at fault instead of the other person.

3. Go deep and feel the feelings that come up for you. Breathe through it and release them. Holding onto these feelings will not bring you closer to inner peace.

4. Forgive: "I accept you and I forgive you. I will leave all ill feelings in the past". 
Ask for forgiveness:“I am sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you.” (this is a pretty well known Hawaiian mantra for forgiveness.” FEEL this.

Understand that forgiveness does NOT mean you are condoning anyone’s behavior. You are just choosing to forgive in order to release.

The subsequent release of ill feelings and thoughts will naturally occur. Use meditation to relax your mind and soul and picture yourself physically releasing the person/people. Gabrielle Bernstein has some useful guided meditations.A HerFuture.com lady suggested a meditation where you extend a loving light from you to other people sending them love and receiving more love in return. Another mentioned envisioning roses all around her sucking up the negative energy and replenishing her with positive energy. In meditation, the possibilities are endless.

For me this will be a long process. I have a lot of pent up anger. It will take work and a true commitment. It’s worth it in the long run J

Here’s to changing perceptions and miracles.

<3 Live, Love, Miracles

Mirroring: In reference to yesterday's post

I created the same blog post yesterday on Herfuture.com. I was hoping to get some insight into this issue from some of the more spiritually advanced ladies. Someone brought the following article to my attention: The Blessing of Difficult People: It’s Not What You Think.

It's a really interesting article about mirroring. Mirroring is a really intriguing subject that Gabby speaks about in her books. It occurs when the outside world mirrors your thoughts and feelings inside. Perhaps these ideas coming to the surface from other people was just a mirror of the doubt that I myself was feeling about the subject. I couldn't or chose not to express this doubt and let it hang in my subconscious for fear of feeling like a fake.Out came my true feelings through other people's words. Pretty powerful stuff right? I think the lesson here is that it's normal to feel doubtful and unsure of the journey you are embarking on. But bringing these feelings to surface helps to dissipate them.


Someone else on Herfuture.com suggested that it was a test to see how devoted I was to my practice. Could my ego be testing my loyalty? I'm sure! If you remember from previous posts about the ego, it cannot survive in love. The ego wants to forever keep us in dark, sad, fear.Perhaps this was my ego's attempt to win me back to the dark side. I don't think I want to go back there. Although I still have questions, a life full of love and happiness seems much richer than one full of fear. Don't you think? Not much to lose.


And that's my conclusion. I won't let the ego win! I am sort of even more intrigued now then I was before. I want to read more, study more, and learn more. I want to embrace my spiritual practice like never before. Really take it head on and see what happens. I want to become a miracle maker and teacher. One step at a time. I think I will start with A Course in Miracles which can be summed up with this:
 
"Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists."

Intriguing right? Stay tuned and take this course with me to change your life forever.

<3 Live Love Miracles 

Is it all a lie?

A  friend recently posted on Facebook the 5 simple rules to happiness: 

1. Free your heart of hatred

2. Free your mind from worries
3. Live simply

4. Give more
5. Expect less

I responded with praise and conformity. However, I was startled to see the following post from someone I didn’t know:

“I did this for a while, all five. Here’s what happens – you lose touch. The material world’s demands eventually infringe on your peace and you realize that you cannot transcend while still attached to the world. You lose your use of goals and become bound to nothing…and the happiness becomes ignorance of all but the current moment and your passion fails. External suffering makes life move forward, finding internal happiness leads nowhere without a desire to change external circumstance, both must be in balance. Or something.” WOW was my initial response. Ignorance, yeah I guess I can see that. I mean I don’t watch the news anymore because it depresses me and drains my energy. Does that make me ignorant? If we detach ourselves from outcomes then what are we really living for? Can we be highly spiritual beings and still have goals that depend on the world? I look at Gabby and think HELL YEAH! That woman is spiritual, has goals, and success. Does that mean she is still connected to outcomes?

A few days later I had the same sort of conversation with my husband. I insisted that you can be spiritual and still have goals and live a full life. He told me I’d be living in my own world and would lose touch with reality. If I was continuously avoiding our money problems and affirming that we live in abundance (although we don’t) then I am not living in reality, right? He continued that by me changing my perception to happiness and gratitude for the things that I already have, I was acknowledging that I didn’t need anything else and therefore there was nothing to manifest and that was how I was able to achieve peace. I wasn’t actually manifesting anything. Boy, was my head spinning at this point. “I dunno,” I answered, confused

So is this whole spirituality think a lie? Are we just changing our perceptions and affirming our happiness to live in our own inner worlds while detached from the unchanged “real” world? How can I possibly manifest more money when I keep telling myself I have enough? Is manifestation actually a trick? Is the purpose to trick your mind that you already have what you want so that you live in this imaginary-esq world where you have everything? Will flooding my mind with positivity prevent horrible things from happening?? How can this possibly work. I’m starting to doubt the journey. And I don’t want to. For the first time, I was starting to feel connected to something larger and I liked the process. But is it fake?

What are your thoughts?

ACIM quote to live by

A Course in Miracles quote from Gabrielle Bernstein's book Spirit Junkie.

"If he senses even the faintest hint of irritation in himself as he responds to anyone, let him instantly realize that he has made an interpretation that is not true. Then let him turn within to his eternal Guide, and let Him judge what the response should be."

What this means is that we control our perceptions of everything and therefore it's existence. Being a woman who is naturally sensitive, sometimes hormonal, and often times defensive, I always read too much into what people say. So I might be having a conversation with a friend when she says something that comes off as mean spirited, rude, and just obnoxious. In my head I am thinking "Wow, what a B%$&*! She has said this before so now I really know what she thinks of me." This is the ego speaking and its perception of the situation. If I were to ask my inner wisdom to intervene what would she say? She would probably help me return to love and see that I have myself created the idea that this person is attacking me. If I return to loving thoughts my perception of this person and the situation would completely change. So the question is do you want to live peacefully and happily with loving thoughts of yourself and others? Or would you rather be suffering and angry person? The choice seems simple.

The bigger idea here is that we are truly the creators of everything in our lives. We create our interpretations and therefore our happiness and everything else that exists in our lives. Everything I learn about spirituality, love, and happiness always goes back to the mind and the thoughts that we think. It is such a difficult aspect to wrap our heads around that we think about we actually bring about. Our thoughts bring things into existence. My thought of love towards this person during a tense situation would have brought more love and happiness into both of our lives instead of anger. And so with that I am making a commitment to myself right now that I will try to follow this rule in my everyday life. 

Divine Self

Divine self, inner wisdom, ing, spirit, whatever you want to call it, it's inside of you. Whether you choose to acknowledge it is your choice. But once you do, you wont go back. That inner voice has the ability to show you the way when you are lost and open your heart to love when all you feel is fear. It is really quite amazing once we choose to accept it. The best way to tap into this inner wisdom is through meditation and prayer.

I met with my meditation group yesterday. I was really excited about it because I felt I had a lot of questions for the universe. What is my calling? How can I make more money? How can I become more spiritual? And how can I get rid of this runny nose?! Instead of asking myself all of those questions, I decided to just get quiet and listen for a change. Well, I had other plans. Everything and anything began running through my head. My thoughts were out of control. I tried hushing and shushing them. I tried acknowledging them. But nothing worked, it was just chatter. Dr.Chris says this fight is our personality meeting our divine self. I was desperate for my divine self to shut up my personality. Suddenly, I felt a slight nudge forward and I saw a bright white light. It was beautiful, reassuring, and peaceful. When I shared my experience with the group, I was surprised and elated to hear Dr.Chris say that this was probably my first interaction with my divine self. WOW! How powerful. I do have a higher self! That moment was the Holy Instant. Gabrielle Bernstein in Spirit Junkie says, "The Holy Instant is the release of the illusion by way of forgiving the illusion itself." I finally recognized that I did have a divine self to turn to and to put my trust into. Suddenly, my money problems didn't seem like problems. They were an opportunity to use my inner wisdom to manifest and co-create something greater. What a revelation! As Gabby says, "The Holy Instant is the moment when we choose our ~ing instead of the ego as our teacher." AMEN! I do! Join me, you wont regret it.

buddhablends.com

<3 Live, Love, Miracles

P.S. I wanted to leave you with something that Dr.Chris said last night. When we say things such as "I am proud of myself" we are acknowledging the fact that there is I and myself. Our personality and our divine self. Beautiful.

Day 7: Gabrielle Bernstein

I must first apologize for not keeping up with the summit. I had a really busy weekend and wasn’t able to sit down with the lectures and take notes in order to blog about them. The lectures are only available for 24 hours after they play so this was just not enough time for me. I apologize. However, today was the spirit lecture with my girl Gabby! She is my ‘guru’ and an inspiration for sure.

Being a spiritual being, as Gabby is, starts with a desire. The desire to change and see things differently. You have to really open your heart, mind, and soul to a higher being. The hardest of these is probably opening your heart to more “loving perspectives.”  We’ve been trained in fear and in judgment for so long that making this really important change is also VERY difficult. It’s a “moment to moment” basis, as Gabby says. It takes time. But even the smallest shift in perception is a miracle. You can start by making small subtle shifts everyday that will eventually lead to a higher way of living. If we don’t participate in loving acts we are actually blocking miracles from coming to us. The Course says that miracles should happen each day. If they do not, then something has gone wrong. So if you do not feel you are in a place of receiving miracles, what has gone wrong? Are you closed to the idea of the return to love? Who are you judging? What are you fearing? Who are you not forgiving? Forgiveness, Gabby says, makes love possible. Keep in mind that forgiveness does not mean you are condoning the other person’s behavior. It just means that you are releasing the feelings to allow yourself to reconnect to love.

Gabby begins her spiritual ritual (J) with a prayer from ACIM. In her meditation she says to the universe “Where would you have me go, what would you have me do, what would you have me say and to who?” This puts you into a state of mind where you are letting a higher knowing guide you. This can be Gd, your inner wisdom, inner guide, universe, or whatever you wish. Connect to the prayer and allow it to guide you to other places in your meditation or journal.  Then listen. Allow yourself to receive, be open to receiving. Be open to any change in perception that may occur.  

Lastly, I will leave you with a quote “There is a divine spiritual assignment in every being”. Think about this and what it means to you and the connections and relationships you make in life. There is a higher reason for every person that you meet and every relationship you partake in.

<3 Live, Love, Miracles

Don’t forget to visit Gabby at gabbyb.tv and her social networking site herfuture.com (this site is full of amazing women wanting to help you). Also check out her two fab books: Spirit Junkie and Add more ~ing to your life!

Spirit Junkie Quote of the Day

"Ou ego believes that there is a way to control the outcome of all situations through an outward action. Our ~ing does the opposite by taking care of fearful thoughts internally. By turning inward for the miracles, we accept that spirit has a much better plan than we do, and we allow the guidance to flow"
Gabrielle Bernstein "Spirit Junkie"

A great article: Do anything leveraging your collective energy!

Day 1 of the BFL Summit: SARK

Day 1 of The Big Fat Lies Summit included a call with SARK (Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy) and Lisa Nichols.

SARK and Amy started off the call letting us all know that we are not alone with our Big Fat Lies (BFL). Every single person has BFL that they tell themselves. Even SARK, Amy, President Obama, and Angelina Jolie. So how do you deal with these BFL??? You make that sacred connection to your inner (wiser) self. Making that connection can be difficult at first so SARK recommended writing yourself a letter from your inner self to let the truth flow out on its own.

She also gave us three crucial steps to achieving harmony:
1. Express
2. Release
3. Relief
The first step is the most important. This is all about expressing your real feelings. Let yourself truly feel whatever is happening for you in that moment and don't repress any of it. Otherwise it would cause a dangerous flood of emotion at a later date. I'm going to dwell on that a bit as I have read a bit about that is Gabrielle Bernstein's books as well. Think about how powerful your feelings and emotions are. You know that if you just hide a feeling it will continue to come up again and again in different situations. It will grow and manifest into something much bigger than the original feeling. So the next time something comes up for you, sit there and let yourself feel all the feelings associated with the event. Acknowledge them as being present. But then let them go (2nd step: release) Forgive yourself, forgive others, and move past it. Practice this and you will immediately reap the benefits (3rd step of feeling relief).
This acknowledgment of your feelings and thoughts is such a great tool. Dr.Chris (the leader of my meditation group) also spoke about noticing your thoughts and feelings during meditation and then releasing them to achieve real peace. SARK suggests actually saying to yourself "I see you, I hear you, I acknowledge you".
So for me, my inner mean girl is telling me that I will never be smart enough to be successful. I see this BFL, I hear it (a lot), I am acknowledging it, and I am letting it go because my inner wiser self is telling me this is bull shit. I will no longer let this BFL lead me through life and hold me back.This is an inner dialogue you need to have with yourself to work through your feelings and BFL. Take control back from your 'inner mean girl'!


Stay tuned for the Lisa Nichols blog. She is awesome!

Live, love, and expect miracles <3

10 days to stop the big fat lies

There is something amazing happening in the next 10 days. Some of the most talented motivational speakers are coming together to share their knowledge with all of us for FREE! This is the Big Fat Lies Summit organized by Amy Ahlers, The Wake Up Call Coach.
So what is this all about? This is about women getting together and getting real about the big fat lies that they we are all telling ourselves. You know what I mean. "Oh, I am not good enough for that job or that raise. I am a disappointment to my family and loved ones. I will never find love. I am not smart enough to open a business." And the list goes on. Amy and her team are dedicated to helping us recognize those big fat lies, bring them into our consciousness, and then work through them. Learn how to stop beating yourself up and start loving yourself for all that you are and all that you can be.
The reason I am pumped for this is because of the amazing line up of speakers!!

From www.bigfatliessummit.com:

• Big Fat Lies About Self-Worth: SARK & Lisa Nichols
• Big Fat Lies About Body and Self-Care: Dr. Lissa Rankin & Shakaya Leone
• Big Fat Lies About Love & Relationships: Arielle Ford & Carol Allen
• Big Fat Lies About Money: Karen Russo & Alexis Martin Neely
• Big Fat Lies About Success: Marci Shimoff & Michelle Villalobos
• Big Fat Lies About Being Authentic: Shiloh Sophia McCloud & Dyana Valentine
• Big Fat Lies About Spirit: Gabrielle Bernstein & Claire Zammit
• BONUS SESSION: Big Fat Lies MOMS tell themselves: Kristine Carlson
• BONUS SESSION: Big Fat Lies about MEN: Mike Robbins, Noah Martin, Chris Kyle
• Your Inner Superstar Awakened: Samantha Bennett & Christine Arylo
• FINALE: Amy Ahlers LIVE, INTERACTIVE Call to bust through any remaining Big Fat Lies!

This amazing self love summit starts today so register now at www.bigfatliessummit.com to listen to the calls for free. You have access to each call for 24 hours after it starts. Should you want to purchase all the calls and transcripts and other goodies you can do so at www.bigfatliessummit.com/party

I will be blogging about each of the calls with any additional info I can provide and with my own experiences and opinions. Comments welcomed!

I will leave you with this quote from Samantha Bennett from last night's intro call "I am not interested in complaining about my life. I'm interested in changing the world." may we all live by that each day. 

Live, love, and expect miracles!


P.S. I am not in any way related to the summit. i just thought it would neat to blog about the summit and my experiences. 

Tap away to better health

Tapping (also known as EFT), wow . What an amazing way to heal your body from physical and emotional pain. I first found tapping during my 40 day fear cleanse with Gabrielle Bernstein and Christine Arylo (highly recommended). Jessica Ortner made a special call all bout tapping. She spoke about her own story of being very sick for quite some time. As she laid in bed, her brother came to her and asked her to try something new and a little 'out there'. As she began tapping, new and old emotions reared and the truth of her sickness, pain, and life struggles came to the surface. This really ties in with my last post that we trap emotions in different parts of our bodies. Some people get sick, get diseases, have back pain, migraines, the list goes on and on.So Jess created a documentary called "The Tapping Solution".

After listening to her call, visiting her site, and doing some of my own research, I realized that this is something very real. Jess Ortner, Nick Ortner, Carol Look, and many other people are really on to something amazing with this. I have tried it myself and have found that if you really stick with it and focus on your real emotions, it is a very powerful tool. I recommend this video with Jess Ortner who will give you the DL on how to tap.

Do some of your own research and then try it, you have nothing to lose. Comment below on whether you felt it worked.  Also check out the 2011 Pain Relief Summit, that just wrapped up, for more information.




<3 Live, love and expect miracles everyday!