Time for a Change

It is time for a change! But change does not have to be drastic.  Big shifts and renovations can start with changing one little thing.  Take a look at the room you are in.  Everything has its place.  It is time to take one item and move it to a different place.  Then walk out of the room and back in again.  Take a look around.  Everything is different! By changing one little element, you have changed the whole room.  And a change of one small thing can be the stepping off point for major shifts, realignments, and new perspectives.

INTENTION: By doing one thing, I make a difference in everything;.

Take A Breather

Things are hectic and crazy these days.  There seems little prospect of this changing.  Our job is to deal, to cope, perhaps even to overcome.  In order to do this, we need to be in contact with WHO we are as much as possible.

The good thing about being in contact with our WHO is that we have a sense of our own worth and our own power. What we choose to so with that is our own stuff.

Under any circumstances, there is no judgement here. Rather, I am offering a suggestion for a way to make through the day with a little less stress.  It is an easy method, but as we learn from reading Taoism, the small stuff is generally the hardest.  We are conditioned to complicate.  To find reasons, to find motives to make observations.  What if you just needed one.  Hmm, not very… democratic?

Well, enough of that.  I have a small exercise (no huffing and puffing required) that, if used on a daily basis, can bring a bit of peace into the day.

Take a minute out of every hour of the day to center.  (If you are awake fourteen hours, that is fourteen minutes.  Not bad.) Just put everything down.  Close your eyes or perhaps focus your eyes on a peaceful picture.  Take two deep breaths.  See all the stuff just rolling off of you.  It can puddle at your feet.  You can send down into whatever is below you.  Feel how great it is to let things go for a bit. Watch it as it goes.  Then see a great white, shining light come down and flow through your body.  Renewing your energy.  Re-establishing WHO you are in your core self.  When it has fully engulfed you, go to your heart center, take two deep breaths. Add a bit of gratitude, a Namaste, whatever, and come back to where you were.

The end.  A one minute vacation to the center of it all.

Creation and Thinking

Can Thoughts Make Things Happen?

Posted: 06/10/11 09:01 AM ET
by Peter Baksa, Author – The Point of Power

As a pragmatic truth-seeking philosopher, I was very skeptical when I first encountered the Law of Attraction (LOA). Many things I’ve seen really stretch my credulity. But the more I think about it, the more I see nuggets underneath the hype that make sense to me, if reformulated a bit. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say the Buddha was a Law of Attraction proponent, I do think there is some common ground to be found between the two.

We create our world through our thoughts. Max Plank, Albert Einstein, Steven Hawking all seem to agree that the universe/god is actually a set of laws and principles that we can count on to create our world. Steven Hawking and Richard Feynman both speak in terms of M Theory and String Theory to further postulate how thoughts become matter. Our minds are essentially idea machines that refine our thoughts into electrical impulses which communicate with the same source energy that creates everything from nothing.

To read more, check out:   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-baksa/law-of-attraction_b_873666.html

 

Panera ‘Pay-What-You-Want’ A Success

Year Later, Pay-What-You-Want Panera a Success

By JIM SALTER Associated Press
CLAYTON, Mo. May 16, 2011 (AP)

 

 

Rashonda Thornton looked up at the menu on the wall, ordered a Caesar salad and dropped a $10 bill in a box. Pretty generous, considering the meal at Panera Bread Co.’s café in the St. Louis suburb of Clayton sells for less than $7.

It was a year ago that Panera converted the Clayton restaurant into a nonprofit pay-what-you-want restaurant with the idea of helping to feed the needy and raising money for charitable work. Panera founder and Chairman Ronald Shaich said the café, operated through Panera’s charitable foundation, has been a big success, largely because of people like Thornton.

“Sometimes you can give more, and sometimes you can give less,” said Thornton, a teacher’s assistant. “Today was one of my ‘more’ days.”

to read more go to:   http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=13612571

Your Focus Muscle

Things today can get pretty crazy, however if you are grounded and focused, you can actually accomplish quite a lot.  Focus is the key to many things these days.  In Taoism, Buddhism, and Neo-Confucianism, they speak of a single-minded focus.  Single-minded focus, in itself, is somewhat difficult to achieve, but, with practice, you can find yourself able to center in on your desire without falling into all the myriad distractions that are always out there vying for attention.

To gain focus, I have developed an easy and relatively quick exercise for your ‘Focus Muscle’.  Think of a particular intention, item, or goal you are wishing to achieve or create.  Around that item, as you think of it, there will be other things popping up their heads and asking for their own bit of attention.  Rather than trying to negate these or otherwise ignore them — mainly because, you know that never works, rather it has just the opposite result and that is to bring that item to the forefront — what you need to do is to engage your internal spotlight.

Take a moment and just have a sense of what a spotlight is and what it does. Basically a spotlight is a really, really bright light that is used to show up what is most important in a given scene.  So, go within and just imagine a spotlight.  Play with it for a bit, and get an idea of how it works.  Once you are in control of that internal spotlight, it is time to put it to work.  Think of what it is that you are wishing to create in your life.  As you do, you will see those sneaky little distractions beginning to sneak up into the foreground.  This is the time to use your focus muscle and turn that spotlight on.  Send the beam of light to your true intention.  All the other stuff will disappear into the background, as your desire moves to the forefront.   There in the light is the thing that you are wanting to bring into your life.

This does not mean that the distractions are totally gone or that they have ceased, rather it is a way of acknowledging go to yourself that what is truly important is the intention that is having light shone upon it.  This need not be a long practice or particularly laborious.  Start with short intervals, and with time, you will discover that your “focus muscle” is much stronger, and little by little your real intentions take center stage.

Intentions

You will find here a virtual salmagundi of thoughts, ideas, suggestions, ruminations, etc. on all sorts of topics and items.  Take a moment to browse through and see what jumps out at you.

Reflections on 10-10-10:     Well, there are no accidents, and communities, at this time MUST find themselves, and that is what is happening.  not that every attempt is successful and right at first— rather it is as though there is some kind of a cosmic dressing room — a quantum universal project runway ==== where each can try on, accept, reject, like for a time, put down, and find another, until that perfect one just appears.  and then there come together with one the others who get it … and there they are.  and there you are.  and everyone else who fits into that groove.  like a huge series of gears.  we all find our “tooth”, and then, when all is said and done., it all works as one.

Take the first step: When we decided to make a change in our lives or start something new the hardest and most important thing is the first step.  This exercise is one of visualizing the change and actually taking the first step.  Once you have done that, a feeling of accomplishment follows.

While standing up, take a few moments to center in your heart and focus on the change that you are wishing to bring about in your life.  Stay with that thought and feel the feeling of what this change will mean to you.  Know your power.  Know that this is a change you are actively choosing for the betterment of your situation.  There is nothing to fear here.  No worries.  Then actually take a step.  Move forward in the intention of fulfilling your new purpose, idea, goal, lifestyle, whatever.  Congratulate yourself for having taken the first step.  Feel how good it is to have made a start.  There is no blame if you backslide, but if you feel as though you are losing your drive, then repeat this quiet centering meditation and take another step.  With time, you will find yourself approaching your goal, and all will become easier and perhaps fun.

INTENTION:    Each step follows my first one as I approach my goal.

Intend Your Day :  Each morning, as you lie in bed before getting up or after getting up, take a moment just to think of what would make this day true and rewarding for you.  Intend your day to bring you fulfillment.  Just a few examples: If you are going to be meeting with a friend, intend that that meeting will be joyous and fruitful for you.  If you are working on   some negotiation, intend that the outcome will be positive.  If it is a day of rest, intend that you will find in the freedom of the day new knowledge and certainty.

Intention: Positively directed intention creates for me joy and fulfillment.

Hands to Heart Center:    There are times when we are feeling stressed or overwhelmed in our daily lives.  This is a time to stop, stand firmly on your two feet, take a deep breath, and bring your hands to your heart center with palms together or cross your hands, one on top of the other.  Take a moment to feel your heart, to listen to your heart, to be with yourself.  Connect with the energies of the Earth and the Universe and feel the light all around.  As you connect with all things, you can see the true meaning and importance of WHO you are.  You can accomplish anything as long as you stand firm in WHO you are and act from your heart.  You will find more clarity and better perspective.  While you are firm within your heart, take a moment to look at your priorities.  Then breathe deeply and move on with your day.

INTENTION: By connecting with my heart, I find my inner power.

Why Not? You know that you deserve what you desire, yet perhaps you are feeling yourself blocked and unable to create what it is that you wish.  Take time to consider what it is there that keeps things from moving forward?  Perhaps there are old ideas, images, fears, doubts.  It is time to put those aside and ask yourself, in terms of what it is you wish to create, WHY NOT?  Why should you not have what will fulfill you?  Work with this sense of WHY NOT each and every time a doubt arises to make you question your worthiness, etc.  As time goes by, you will find that the WHY NOT response becomes stronger and stronger, as you grow in your personal power.

INTENTION:    Why not?

It is time to become healthy. Put aside all thoughts of lack and dis-ease.  Look to what is right with you.  Look to what brings you joy.  Look to the healthy place within.  Focus on that.  Take a minute to see the healthy part of you spreading out from its center into the rest of your person-self.  If you are feeling depressed, take a moment to find a spark of something positive, something happy, something that the depression does not touch, and experience that part for just a moment.  See its light get brighter and brighter.  See it lighten up the dark spaces bit by bit.  Be there for a time, experience, and bookmark that spot.  Know that you can always go back there.  Likewise, if you are feeling pain or dis-ease in your body, find a spot where things are well.  Focus on the light of that well piece.  Touch it.  Love it.  Make it real and watch its spark glow brighter.  Stay with that .  You can go to the bright place at any time.  Health comes from within.  Go to the heart center and let the light there glow.  Find some bit of joy.  Never forget the joy.  All else is illusion and distraction.

INTENTION:  I am all I need to be well.  Health comes from within.

Listen to the words you say when your mind is out of gear: Pay attention to thoughts and words that come to mind when your mind is otherwise occupied with quotidian, routine, or automatic actions.  Those are the times when your mind is not in gear, and at those times unbidden true thoughts, emotions, feelings, and desires can well up and make themselves felt.  These are the messages from within that logic and rationality will not allow in.  They are promptings from your deepest self as to what it is that you are missing or wanting or working to resolve.  Take heed of these messages and take time to feel and think about what they are really saying.  Write them down.  Draw them out.  But never, never forget that true guidance comes from within for it is within your own authentic heart that lies the connection with the consciousness of the Universe, a consciousness of which you are a necessary a part, a consciousness that loves you and wants the best for you and tries always to give you the messages that will help the most.  You are never alone, for you are always part of All.

INTENTION:  I am part of infinite Consciousness which speaks to me through me.

Play the Game Without Any Rules: 05/27/09:   Now is the time to play the game.  That is what we are all being called to do, but when you play the game, do not play by the rules.  Make your own rules up as you go along.  If you want to use blue paint in a green room, go ahead, do it.  Invite novelty and the unexpected into everything you do.  Do not follow the beaten path.  Make your own. You can only make it through the illusion when you recognize it as such and challenge its limits.  They only exist if you allow them to.  This is not a path for the feint of heart, but for the true of heart.  That is you.

INTENTION:   I see through the illusion and know my truth in joy.

What is done, is done!: Now, more than ever, it is time to put behind you everything of the past.  Dwelling on things that have a life in the past does not help you in dealing with new energies and vibrations that are coming your way.  Things are speeding up on all levels.  You must be alert, open, allowing, and letting go all at the same time.  To hold onto old thoughts, habits, people., things, etc. that are in your life just because they are in your life will no longer work.  Choose what it is you love, and break down your attachments to all the rest.  You must learn to see those things as obstacles to the unfoldment of WHO you are.

INTENTION: I recognize the past and put it behind me.  I live in the Now.

Wake Up Calls:   Right now we are all experiencing odd coincidences, serendipities, synchronicities.  These are all nudges from the Universe to pay attention, become more aware, take a second look at, listen deeply, and open your heart.  Things are changing on all levels at this time, and there is a greater and greater influence of other dimensions piercing through into this 3D reality.  You may wonder why this is happening.  Simply put, it is part of a shift in consciousness taking place on a Universal level, an awakening to the difference in unity of all things.  Each person, place, things, animal, rock, tree, flower, bird, etc. has a place, an importance, a meaning and a message.  It is time to listen, look, and feel what that is.

INTENTION:  I am WHO I am in my uniqueness.

Walking on Air::    Now is a good time to walk on air, to take the leap and choose not to worry about the process.  Worry makes real the possibility of a fall, of defeat, of misunderstanding.  No Worry makes possible all things.  This is what walking on air is all about.  It is being your breath, which is, after all, the breath of the Universe in every step you take, in everything you do.  You float from reality to reality, experiencing potentials and becoming promises.  Transcending time and all limitations. Sit with this concept in meditation, accompanied by some favorite relaxing music.  See yourself walking on air, on the air you breathe, on the breath of the One.

INTENTION:  I can walk on air and am connected to the Universe.

Serendipity and Synchronicity.:    These are the themes of these days.  Things are joyous and wish to happen well for all.  And when you are able to accept that joy, then you will find a new sense of fulfillment in your life.  And flowing along with that comes a wave of synchronicities.  Things come about.  You find the right book. A word someone says answers a long standing question in your heart.  You find just the right picture that expresses WHO you are.  You look up and find a smile in a face that you somehow just know.  It is the joy of the Universe coming to fill your heart.  It is serendipity.  It is the timing of the Universe becoming your own.  It is synchronicity.

INTENTION: That which I need comes to me.

Chance encounters make all the difference:    Things happen for a reason and people who come into your life who seem to have some purpose actually do.  Do not let things pass you by.  If someone wishes to engage you in conversation, perhaps that is a good time to listen to what he/she has to say.  For there very possibly is a message there, perhaps a companion soul, and definitely a lesson.  Be clear with your vision and wise with your thought.  Take heed of the way the wind blows and watch the shadows upon the land.  There is something stirring, and it is there for you.  Listen.  Watch.  Love.  Learn.  Chance encounters make all the difference.

INTENTION:  The Universe provides for me all I need.

Make a Vision Board for yourself Vision Boards act as a way to get in touch with your deepest desires and to give them an actual visual form.  Working with your true intention of creating and manifesting, take time to decide what it is that you are truly wishing for in your life — health, happiness, partner, money, new car, miracles, whatever.  Take time to jot down a few ideas.  Then find pictures in magazines, words, and photographs that represent what you wish to create in your life.   Take these things and make a collage.  Add your energy, your love, your intent, your desire.  When you are happy with the results, take your vision board and display it prominently in your home where you will see it often as a constant reminder of what you are creating.  Open to your desires and be prepared to allow and receive.  You deserve it!

INTENTION:  In my joy I know myself.

The Ascension Process that we are hooked into is actually a process of uncovering WHO we truly are.  Each one of us has within us that legendary, elusive Grail that brings wholeness , that brings together all our physical and spiritual potentials and possibilities into dynamic, creative manifestation.  The Grail is representative of our own perfection.  It has been hidden since the beginning of time because it was felt to be too powerful for common knowledge.  Life is a quest for the Grail, and each of us is our own Grail Knight going forth to find the treasure.  There is nothing that is so much hidden as that which is most in sight.  Take some time to look into your eyes in the mirror.  See the person you are, then look more deeply and see yourself becoming one with all facets of the physical, spiritual, emotional and mental.  See the two halves of the brain converge, breaking down all the limits to what you can do.  Move forward into this day as a complete, unitary, and holistic self.

This is a good day to try something new. Be crazy.  Be creative.  Be daring.  It does not have to be anything huge, just something you usually do not, something you have not tried, something you wondered about but never approached.  It can be eating a food you have never had before, visiting a museum or shop you have by-passed many times, taking the stairs instead of the elevator.  Any little change on the outside can bring about a big change on the inside, in how you look at things or feel about things.  Do it for fun.  Do not worry about outcomes, just do it.

INTENTION: I find what brings me joy in following my heart.

The old ways are no longer helpful in dealing with the new energies of these new days.  It is a good time to take a look at how you felt you had to do things in the past.  Were you feeling that things had to be hard, to be difficult, to be a challenge?  If so, then you probably found yourself taking that long and winding and bumpy and dark and uncomfortable road.  Guess what?  Things do not need to be hard to be worthwhile and important.  It is time to allow that information into yourself and look for joy in your life, synchronicity in your intention, and fulfillment of your desires.  You deserve all you desire if only you would allow it in.

INTENTION: Synchronicity is the light of my way.

Every day, things are new. Every day everything is different.  You may wake up in the same house with the same people, pets, plants, and possessions, but somehow they are all different.  We take things too much for granted.  Take a look around yourself today and see things in a new light.  See what makes them different from what they were yesterday.   Look for the surprises in the ordinary.  That is where you will find the magic.

INTENTION:  I create magic in my heart and wonder in my life.

What’s in a Name: Take a look at your name.  Write down each letter on a separate line, and for each letter write down qualities, desires, goals, dreams that define WHO you in your deepest being truly are.  For example, let us say you name is Sue.  For “S” you might write things such as the following:  successful, sometimes sappy, sensuous, self-directed, super, sensitive, sincere…  You get the idea.  Go for it, and have fun!

Take some time today to look at the natural world, to experience nature. Regardless of where you are there is somewhere a piece of nature waiting for you to appreciate it.  There are birds in the skies, perched on windows or in trees.  Plants in pots, trees and bushes dotting the landscape.  Stones and rocks.  Perhaps water — ponds, lakes, streams, rivers, oceans.  Mountains and valleys.   Nature is there in all its wonder at all times.  It never demands that you take notice, but it so loves it when you do.

Every morning, as you wake up, think of one thing you love about yourself and take that through the day with you.  It can be anything:  I love that I made a great dinner last night.  I love that my cat loves me.  I love my new haircut.  I love the picture I took yesterday.  I love the bowl I threw.  I love that I gave that woman my place in line.  I love that I have three plants in my window.  Anything.  Just something that makes you know how wonderful you are and all the things you can do.  You might want to make a list and add a new reason to love yourself to it whenever you think of it.  Then, when the melancholy hits, you can take out the list and see what a great person you are.

INTENTION: I bring love into my life as I love WHO I am.