(By Dr. Chuck Spezzano)
Acceptance heals hurt. It heals the resistance that causes or exacerbates the pain. When you accept, it allows you to move forward in the flow, because what you accept, you naturally let go of.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Monday, August 01, 2011
Do You Remember The Time When You Believe You Can Do Anything?
(By Sasha Xarrian, Founder of Outrageous Mastery, and reproduced from the "Master Your Beliefs - Take Control Of Your Life" website at: http://www.masteryourbeliefs.com/)
Do you remember what it was like when you were a kid?
When you believed that you could be anything you wanted to be when you grew up?
When you believed you could do anything?
The possibilities were endless.
You remember don't you?
You could be a police officer, or a doctor, or an astronaut.
You believed you could be anything you wanted and have anything you wanted
Like that Radio Flyer Wagon or Barbie doll or Dump Truck
You believed that you were "worthy of" and "entitled to" that new toy that you wanted to play with.
You didn't think about the money it could cost to have it.
I mean, at some point you believed money grew on trees and you would think, "Why can't I have that wagon, doll or truck? Don't they {your parents} know how happy that would make me?"
You believed that anything was possible.
And it was.
You didn't have any doubts.
You didn't have any judgments.
You didn't see the "why nots," you just saw the "what ifs."
So, let me ask you this...
Do you still believe you can be or have anything you desire?
Do you believe you are worthy and deserving of having it all?
No?
Why not?
What happened?
Why don't you still believe that you can have it all?
Why don't you still believe that you are worthy enough?
Why do you see all the reasons why it won't work?
Why you can't do it?
Why it's not possible?
Why?
I'll tell you why, but first let me say this...
"It's not your fault that you believe this way."
Here's why:
As you went through life, your beliefs changed.
Other people told you that XYZ wasn't possible.
That told you that you had to work hard.
That life was a struggle.
That you didn't deserve it.
That you weren't good enough, or smart enough, or attractive enough.
At first, you didn't believe them.
Right?
You were still a "kid at heart." You thought that you could have it all.
But then you tried and failed.
We all did.
And the more we tried and failed, the more we began adopting these beliefs as "truths" and "facts."
These fraudulent truths and facts became our beliefs.
We started saying and believing:
I'm not good enough.
I'm not smart enough.
Nothing ever works out for me.
Other people are just lucky.
I'll never succeed.
Life is hard.
The list goes on and on, doesn't it?
Well, I'm here to tell you –
"This Is Not The Truth"
That is not who you are!
That is not what life is about!
These are other people's old, worn out, self-sabotaging beliefs.
And if you don't change these beliefs...
Life will continue to be hard.
You will continue to experience your life exactly like it is now.
You will continue to struggle.
You will continue to fight.
continue to "want more" and never get it.
Your Beliefs Literally Control Your Life.
They control YOU.
Now, obviously I'm NOT talking about religious or political beliefs.
I'm talking about the beliefs that are far more hidden.
It is the Hidden Beliefs that are actually Controlling Every Decision You Make and Action You Take.
You aren't even aware of the beliefs that are controlling your life.
Your beliefs are the cause and effect of everything in your life.
Your beliefs create your feelings and your emotional responses.
Your beliefs determine your success (or lack of it).
Your beliefs determine the quality of your relationships and even whom you choose to be in a relationship with.
Your beliefs determine the kind of... car you drive, home you live in, clothes you wear, job you have
"Your" beliefs have literally created the life "you" are now living.
If you are miserable in any area of your life, it is because of the beliefs you have in that area of your life.
If you aren't living the life of your dreams and creating the life you deserve, it is the perfect time to uncover the hidden beliefs that are keeping you stuck.
No amount of positive thinking, affirmations, law of attraction, or anything else will work to its full potential until you consciously select and incorporate new beliefs.
Our beliefs control everything in our lives!
Do you remember what it was like when you were a kid?
When you believed that you could be anything you wanted to be when you grew up?
When you believed you could do anything?
The possibilities were endless.
You remember don't you?
You could be a police officer, or a doctor, or an astronaut.
You believed you could be anything you wanted and have anything you wanted
Like that Radio Flyer Wagon or Barbie doll or Dump Truck
You believed that you were "worthy of" and "entitled to" that new toy that you wanted to play with.
You didn't think about the money it could cost to have it.
I mean, at some point you believed money grew on trees and you would think, "Why can't I have that wagon, doll or truck? Don't they {your parents} know how happy that would make me?"
You believed that anything was possible.
And it was.
You didn't have any doubts.
You didn't have any judgments.
You didn't see the "why nots," you just saw the "what ifs."
So, let me ask you this...
Do you still believe you can be or have anything you desire?
Do you believe you are worthy and deserving of having it all?
No?
Why not?
What happened?
Why don't you still believe that you can have it all?
Why don't you still believe that you are worthy enough?
Why do you see all the reasons why it won't work?
Why you can't do it?
Why it's not possible?
Why?
I'll tell you why, but first let me say this...
"It's not your fault that you believe this way."
Here's why:
As you went through life, your beliefs changed.
Other people told you that XYZ wasn't possible.
That told you that you had to work hard.
That life was a struggle.
That you didn't deserve it.
That you weren't good enough, or smart enough, or attractive enough.
At first, you didn't believe them.
Right?
You were still a "kid at heart." You thought that you could have it all.
But then you tried and failed.
We all did.
And the more we tried and failed, the more we began adopting these beliefs as "truths" and "facts."
These fraudulent truths and facts became our beliefs.
We started saying and believing:
I'm not good enough.
I'm not smart enough.
Nothing ever works out for me.
Other people are just lucky.
I'll never succeed.
Life is hard.
The list goes on and on, doesn't it?
Well, I'm here to tell you –
"This Is Not The Truth"
That is not who you are!
That is not what life is about!
These are other people's old, worn out, self-sabotaging beliefs.
And if you don't change these beliefs...
Life will continue to be hard.
You will continue to experience your life exactly like it is now.
You will continue to struggle.
You will continue to fight.
continue to "want more" and never get it.
Your Beliefs Literally Control Your Life.
They control YOU.
Now, obviously I'm NOT talking about religious or political beliefs.
I'm talking about the beliefs that are far more hidden.
It is the Hidden Beliefs that are actually Controlling Every Decision You Make and Action You Take.
You aren't even aware of the beliefs that are controlling your life.
Your beliefs are the cause and effect of everything in your life.
Your beliefs create your feelings and your emotional responses.
Your beliefs determine your success (or lack of it).
Your beliefs determine the quality of your relationships and even whom you choose to be in a relationship with.
Your beliefs determine the kind of... car you drive, home you live in, clothes you wear, job you have
"Your" beliefs have literally created the life "you" are now living.
If you are miserable in any area of your life, it is because of the beliefs you have in that area of your life.
If you aren't living the life of your dreams and creating the life you deserve, it is the perfect time to uncover the hidden beliefs that are keeping you stuck.
No amount of positive thinking, affirmations, law of attraction, or anything else will work to its full potential until you consciously select and incorporate new beliefs.
Our beliefs control everything in our lives!
Monday, July 04, 2011
The Major Arcana: The Life Of The Fool
(By Thirteen and reproduced from "Tarot Card Meanings" page in the website of Aeclectic Tarot: http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/learn/meanings/)
The Fool
With all his worldly possessions in one small pack, the Fool travels he knows not where. So filled with visions, questions, wonder and excitement is he, that he doesn't see the cliff he is likely to fall over. At his heel a small dog harries him (or tries to warn him of a possible mis-step). Will the Fool learn to pay attention to where he's going before it's too late?
The Magician
Travelling on his way, the Fool first encounters a Magician. Skilful, self-confident, a powerful magus with the infinite as a halo floating above his head, the Magician mesmerizes the Fool. When asked, the Fool gives over his bundled pack and stick to the Magician. Raising his wand to heaven, pointing his finger to Earth, the Magician calls on all powers. Magically, the cloth of the pack unfolds upon the table, revealing its contents.
To the Fool's eyes, it is as if the Magician has created the future with a word. All the possibilities are laid out, all the directions he can take: The cool, airy Sword of intellect and communication, the fiery Wand of passions and ambition, the overflowing Chalice of love and emotions, the solid Pentacle of work, possessions and body.
With these tools, the Fool can create anything, make anything of his life. But here's the question, did the Magician create the tools, or were they already in the pack? Only the Magician knows - and on this mystery, our eloquent mage refuses to say a word.
The High Priestess
Continuing his journey, the Fool comes upon a beautiful and mysterious veiled lady enthroned between two pillars and illuminated by the moon. She is the opposite of the Magician, quiet where he was loquacious, still where he was in motion, sitting while he stood, shrouded in the night where he was out in the bright of day. Sensing that she is a great seer, the Fool lays out his sword, chalice, staff and pentacle before her. "The Magician showed me these, but now I'm in a quandary. There are so many things I could do with them. I can't decide."
The High Priestess doesn't speak. Instead she hands him a pair of ancient scrolls. Seating himself at her feet, the Fool puts his decision-making on hold and reads by the light of her crescent moon.
"I did not know any of this," says the Fool. The scrolls, like a secret manual, have given him insight into his new tools. "This information helps me to narrow things down, but I'm still afraid of making a wrong decision."
The words come to him then, not from without but from within: "What do your instincts tell you?" The Fool reflects on that, and that's when he knows what he should do. Decision made, he rises to leave even though he suspects that the High Priestess has more secrets she could reveal to him--like what lies behind the pomegranate curtain. Right now, however, he is focused and ready to be on his way.
Thanking the High Priestess, he heads off. But as he leaves he hears that inner voice, rising like the waters which spring and flow from beneath her throne: "We'll meet again...when you're ready to travel the most secret path of all."
The Empress
Having decided what he will create with his tools, the Fool strides forward, impatient to make his future a full-grown reality. This is when he comes upon the Empress. Her hair gold as wheat, wearing a crown of stars, and a white gown dotted with pomegranates. She rests back on her throne surrounded by an abundance of grain and a lush garden. It is possible that she is pregnant.
Kneeling, the Fool relates to her his story. And she, in turn, smiles a motherly smile and gently gives him this advice: "Like newly planted grain or a newborn babe, a new life, a new relationship, a new creation is fragile. It requires patience and nurturing. It needs love and attention. Only this will bring it to fruition." Understanding at last that his creations will take time to develop, the Fool thanks the Empress and continues on his way.
The Emperor
The Fool was given options by the Magician, and decided on one with help from the High Priestess. He learned how to develop it thanks to the Empress. Now it has reached as stage where he must find a way to manage it. How to do this? He approaches a great Emperor seated on a stone throne. The Fool is amazed by the way the Emperor is instantly, eagerly obeyed in every particular, at how well his Empire is run and organized. Respectfully, he asks the Emperor how it is he does this. And the Emperor answers: "Strong will and a solid foundation of laws and order. It's all very well," he explains to the Fool, "to be imaginative, creative, instinctual, patient; but to control one must be alert, brave and aggressive."
Ready now to lead and direct rather than be led, the Fool heads out with new purpose.
The Hierophant
Having created a solid foundation on which to build his future, the Fool is struck with a sudden fear. What if everything he's worked for is taken away? Is stolen, or lost, or destroyed or vanishes? Or what if what he's created isn't good enough? In a panic, he heads into a temple where he finds the Hierophant, a wise and holy man. Acolytes kneel before the man ready to hear and pass on his teachings. The Fool tells the Hierophant his fears, and asks how he can be free of them.
"There are two ways," says the Hierophant sagely, "Either give up that which you fear to lose so it no longer holds any power over you, or consider what you will still have if your fear comes to pass. After all," the Hierophant continues, "if you did lose all you'd built, you would still keep the experience and knowledge that you've gained up to this point, wouldn't you?"
"That is true," the Fool says. "But what about the community, society and friends I've discovered thanks to what I've created? More than knowledge or experience, I value them. If I lost all, I'd lose them too, wouldn't I?"
"Not necessarily," the Hierophant answers with a warm glow in his compassionate eyes. "If your community has traditions that you all share, ethics and beliefs, then you will never lose that fellowship even if circumstances force you to part. You can even pass such onto your children giving them the same fellowship with each other and with past generations."
Hearing this, the Fool feels his heart ease, as if knots of fear have been loosened. A sense of peace blankets him, and he takes a moment to thank the good Hierophant most profoundly. Stepping out of the sanctuary he makes his way to a meeting with his friends. Tonight they will talk about how they can create lessons and traditions to preserve not only their experience and knowledge, but their community.
The Lovers
The Fool comes to a cross-road, filled with energy, confidence and purpose, knowing exactly where he wants to go and what he wants to do. But he comes to a dead stop. A flowering tree marks the path he wants to take, the one he's been planning on taking. But standing before a fruit tree marking the other path is a woman. The Fool has met and had relationships with women before, some far more beautiful and alluring. But she is different. Seeing her, he feels as though he's just been shot in the heart with cupid's arrow.
That's how shocking, how painful is his "recognition" of her. As he speaks with her, the feeling intensifies; like finding a missing part of himself. It is clear that she feels the same about him. They finish each other's sentences, think the same thoughts. It is as if an Angel above had introduced their souls to each other.
Though it was his plan to follow the path of the flowering tree, and though it will cause some trouble for him to bring this woman with him, the Fool knows he dare not leave her behind. Like the fruit tree, she will fulfil him. No matter how divergent from his original intent, she is his future. He chooses her, and together they head down a whole new road.
The Chariot
The Fool is close to completing what he set out to create long ago, back when the Magician revealed those tools to him. But enemies are now standing in his way, devious human enemies, bad circumstances, even confusion in his own mind. There's no more forward momentum; he feels he is fighting just to stay where he is. Walking along the shore, watching the waves come in, he puzzles over how to defeat these enemies and get things moving forward once again. It is here that he comes across a charioteer, standing in his gold and silver chariot, his black and white steeds at rest. "You seem a victorious warrior," the Fool remarks. "I feel beset by my enemies, unable to move forward. What should I do?
"First, you must armour yourself," the Charioteer strikes the chariot and then his breastplate with a gauntleted fist, making both ring out. "Next, you must focus on your goal, where do you mean to go, what do you mean to do." The warrior nods to his beasts. "Your steeds keep the wheels turning, but it is your control and direction of them that gets them to their destination. Dark and light, they must be made to draw in harmony, under your guidance." The Fool nods. That makes sense. "What if an someone or something gets in your way?"
The Charioteer coolly meets the Fool's gaze. "You run them down. Your aim is victory, and to be victorious you must have unwavering confidence in your cause. Never question, never doubt what you're trying to achieve. Never lose your focus or your motivation."
The Fool is impressed and inspired. He thinks he now knows how to get past all the distractions and setbacks that have been keeping him trapped in place, like a riptide in the ocean. He thanks the warrior, but before he leaves, the warrior stays the Fool.
"One thing more you should keep in mind," he says, "Victory is not the end, it is the beginning. Remember that before you decide to enter into any contest."
Strength
The Fool, victorious over his enemies, is feeling arrogant, powerful, even vengeful. There are hot passions in him, ones he finds himself unable and unwilling to control. It is in this state that he comes across a maiden struggling with a lion. Running to help, he arrives in time to see her gently but firmly shut the lion's mouth! In fact, the beast, which seemed so wild and fierce, is now completely at her command.
Amazed, the Fool asks her, "How did you do that?" One hand on the lion's mane, she answers, "I asked the lion to do it, and it did it."
"But-but-" the Fool stutters, confounded. "Why did it want to obey?" At that moment, the Maiden meets the Fool's eyes; he sees in her warmth, gentleness, a heart so great that its generosity seems as infinite as its willingness to understand. And that is when the Fool understands exactly why the lion did her bidding.
It wanted to connect to that higher energy.
Yet there is still one thing that confuses the Fool. "But," he says, much softer now, "Why would you, fair maiden, want to keep company with a beast?"
"Because he, too, is filled with a wonderful energy," the Maiden says. "It is wild and fierce, but it can be banked, like a fire in a hearth. I knew if he would take direction from me, we could both be warmed."
"So, too," she adds, "are our passions. Let them run wild and they will do damage. But we can, with gentle fortitude, check and direct those passions. In doing so, we can get so much more out of them. And yet, still sate them."
His rage quieted, the enlightened Fool walks away knowing that it wasn't only the lion that was tamed this day by a Maiden's pure and innocent strength.
The Hermit
After a long and busy lifetime, building, creating, loving, hating, fighting, compromising, failing, succeeding, the Fool feels a profound need to retreat. In a small, rustic home deep in the woods, he hides, reading, cleaning, organizing, resting or just thinking. But every night at dusk he heads out, travelling across the bare, autumnal landscape. He carries only a staff and a lantern.
It is during these restless walks from dusk till dawn, peering at and examining whatever takes his fancy, that he sees things he's missed during his lifetime. His lantern illuminates animals and insects that only come out at night, flowers and plants that only bloom by moon or star light.
As these secret corners of the world are illuminated and explored by him, he feels that he is also illuminating hidden areas of his mind. In a way, he has become the Fool again. As in the beginning, he goes wherever inspiration leads him. Back then, however, his staff rested on his shoulder, carrying unseen his pack. The Fool was like the pack: wrapped up, unknown. The Hermit's staff leans out before him now, not behind. And it carries a lantern, not a pack. The Hermit is like the lantern, illuminated from within by all he is, capable of penetrating the darkness.
The Wheel of Fortune
From out of hiding comes the Fool, into the sunlight, as if being pulled up from some low, dark point on a wheel. It is time for a change. Staff in hand, he heads back out into the world, expecting nothing. But, strangely, things seem to happen to him as the hours go by, good things. Wandering by a water wheel a woman offers him a drink in a golden chalice, and then urges him to keep the cup; as he wanders by a windmill, he stops to watch a young man swinging a sword; when he expresses his admiration of the weapon, the young man presses it into his hand, insisting that he take it.
And finally, when he comes upon a rich merchant sitting in a wagon, right over one of the wheels, the man hands him a bag of money. "I decided to give this to the tenth person who walked past me today," explains the Merchant, "You're the tenth." The Fool hardly thought he could still be surprised, but he is. It is as if everything good that he ever did in his life is being paid back to him, three-fold. All luck this day is his.
Justice
The Fool is looking for a new path, a new aspiration and inspiration for his life. Sitting uncertain at a crossroads he notices a blind wise woman listening to two brothers argue over an inheritance. They have come to her for judgment. One brother has the whole inheritance, the other has nothing.
"I ask that all of it be given to me," the poor brother demands, "Not only because I have a better right to it, but because I will not be wasteful with it, as he is!" But the rich brother protests, "It is rightfully mine and that's all that should matter, not what I do with it!"
The woman listens, then awards half of the rich brother's inheritance to the poor brother. The Fool thinks this only fair, but neither brother is happy. The rich one hates losing half his wealth, and the poor one feels he ought to have gotten all.
"You were fair," the Fool remarks to the woman after the brothers have left. "Yes, I was," she answers plainly. "With only half the inheritance, the rich one will stop being so wasteful. And the poor one will have as much as he needs. Even though they cannot see it, this decision was good for both."
The Fool thinks on this and realizes that he has spent his life achieving worldly ambitions and physical goods while leaving his spiritual self to starve. He ought to have given half his time and energy to his spiritual self, but he didn't. It's no wonder that he feels unbalanced. Thanking the woman, he heads out to restore equilibrium to his inner scales.
The Hanged Man
The Fool settles beneath a tree, intent on finding his spiritual self. There he stays for nine days, without eating, barely moving. People pass by him, animals, clouds, the wind, the rain, the stars, sun and moon. On the ninth day, with no conscious thought of why, he climbs the tree and dangles from a branch upside down like a child. For a moment, he surrenders all that he is, wants, knows or cares about. Coins fall from his pockets and as he gazes down on them - seeing them not as money but only as round bits of metal.
It seems to him that his perspective of the world has completely changed, as if his inverted position has allowed him to dangle between the mundane world and the spiritual world, able to see both. It is a dazzling moment, dreamlike yet crystal clear.
Timeless as this moment of clarity seems, he realizes that it will not last. Very soon, he must right himself, but when he does, things will be different. He will have to act on what he's learned. For now, however, he just hangs, weightless as if underwater, observing, absorbing, seeing.
Death
Having left the tree from where he hung, the Fool moves carefully through a fallow field, head still clearing from visions. The air is cold and wintry, the trees bare. He knows he has started on his spiritual journey in earnest, but feels strangely empty and profoundly sad, as if he has lost something.
Before him he sees, rising with the sun, a skeleton in black armour mounted on a white horse. He recognizes it as Death. As it stops before him, he humbly asks, "Have I died?" And the Skeleton answers, "Yes, in a way. You sacrificed your old world, your old self. Both are gone, dead."
The Fool cannot keep from weeping. "Forgive me," he says, embarrassed by his tears.
"There is nothing to forgive," Death replies. "Mourning is natural and you must deal with your loss before you can accept anything new. Keep in mind, however, that old leaves must wither and fly away from a tree's branches, leaving them bare, before new green leaves can appear."
As Death rides away, the Fool sees the truth in those words. He, too, feels like a skeleton, all that he was stripped away. This, he understands, is how all great transformations start, by removing everything down to bare bone or soil so that something new has room to grow.
Temperance
Recovering from feelings of loss at last, the Fool begins to wonder if he will finally find the new spirituality he's after. It occurs to him that so far, he's been dealing with opposites: the two opposing sides of the scales (Justice), the material and spiritual (which he hung between as the Hanged man), death and birth (the one leading into the other in the Death card). Does one always have to be surrendered to get the other? he wonders.
It is at this point that he comes upon a winged figure standing with one foot in a brook, the other on a rock. The radiant creature pours something from one flask into another. Drawing closer, the Fool sees that what is being poured from one flask is fire, while water flows from the other. The two are being blended together into a completely different substance!
"How can you mix fire and water?" the Fool finally whispers. Never pausing the Angel answers, "You must have the right vessels and use the right proportions."
The Fool watches with wonder. "Can this be done with all opposites?" he asks. "Indeed," the Angel replies, "Any oppositions, fire and water, man and woman, thesis and anti-thesis, can be made into a unified third. It is only a lack of will and a disbelief in the possibility that keeps opposites, opposite." And that is when the Fool begins to understand that he is the one who is keeping his universe in twain, holding life/death, material world and spiritual world separate. In him the two could merge. All it takes, the Fool realizes, is the right proportions, the right vessel and enough faith that the two can be unified.
The Devil
The Fool comes to the foot of an enormous black mountain where reigns a creature half goat, half god. At his hooves naked people, linked to the god's throne by chains, engage in every indulgence imaginable: sex, drugs, food, drink. The closer the Fool gets, the more he feels his own earthly desires rising in him. Carnal desires, hunger for food and power, greed and selfishness. "I have given up all such desires!" he roars at the Goat god, resisting the beast's power with all his might. He is sure that this is a test of his new spirituality, one where he must prove that the temptations of the material world cannot sway him.
The creature responds to his defiance with a curious look. "All I am doing is bringing out what is already in you," it responds mildly. "Such feelings are nothing to fear, nothing to be ashamed of, or even to avoid. They are even useful to helping you in your quest for spirituality, though many try to pretend otherwise."
The Fool gestures angrily at the chained men and women, "You say that even though these are clearly enslaved to the material world?"
The Goat-god mimics the Fool's gesture. "Take another look." The Fool does so, and realizes that the chained collars the men and women wear are wide enough for them to easily slip off over their heads. "They can be free if they wish to be," the Goat-god says, "They remain here because they want to be controlled by their base, bestial desires. There are, however, others…."
At this the Goat-god gestures upward, toward the peak of the mountain. "…Others who have used these same impulses to climb to the highest heights. If they had denied their desires they'd never have gotten there."
On hearing this, the Fool sees that he has mistaken the Goat-god. This is not a creature of evil as he thought, but of great power, the lowest and the highest, both of beast and god. Like all power, it is frightening, and dangerous...but it is also a key to freedom and transcendence.
The Tower
As the Fool leaves the throne of the Goat God, he comes upon a Tower, fantastic, magnificent, and familiar. In fact, The Fool, himself, helped build this Tower back when the most important thing to him was making his mark on the world and proving himself better than other men. Inside the Tower, at the top, arrogant men still live, convinced of their rightness.
Seeing the Tower again, the Fool feels as if lightning has just flashed across his mind; he thought he'd left that old self behind when he started on this spiritual journey. But he realizes now that he hasn't. He's been seeing himself, like the Tower, like the men inside, as alone and singular and superior, when in fact, he is no such thing.
So captured is he by the shock of this insight, that he opens his mouth and releases a SHOUT! And to his astonishment and terror, a bolt of actual lightning slashes down from the heavens striking the Tower and sending its residents leaping out into the waters below.
In a moment, it is over. The Tower is rubble, only rocks remaining. Stunned and shaken to the core, the Fool experiences profound fear and disbelief. But also, a strange clarity of vision, as if his inner eye has finally opened. He tore down his resistance to change and sacrifice (Hanged man), then came to terms with Death (Death); he learned about moderation and synthesis (Temperance) and about power (The Devil). But here and now, he has done what was hardest: he destroyed the lies of his life. What's left are the foundations of truth. On this he can rebuild himself.
The Star
On the bleak landscape where the Tower stood, the Fool sits, empty, despairing. He hoped to find direction on this spiritual journey, a path to his spiritual self, but having just learned that most of his life was a lie, he now feels lost. Sitting on the cold stones, he gazes up at the night sky wishing for some kind of guide. And that is when he notices, nearby, a beautiful girl with two water urns. As he watches, she kneels by a pool of water illuminated with reflected starlight. She empties the urns, one into the pool, one onto the thirsty ground.
"What are you doing," he asks her. She looks up at him, her eyes twinkling like stars. "I am refilling this pool, so that those who are thirsty may drink, and I am also watering the earth so that more fruit trees will grow to feed those who are hungry." She nods back to a single fruit tree that stands nearby, a nightingale singing amid its branches.
"Come," she invites. "Sate your hunger and quench your thirst."
The Fool plucks some fruit from the tree, then kneels by her and drinks from the pool. The water tastes wonderful, like liquid starlight, and the fruit is equally delicious. Both help to heal his wounded heart.
Having quenched his thirst and sated his hunger, the Fool lays back to gaze up at the stars. "They're so beautiful," he said, "but so distant."
"Like possible futures," agrees the girl. "Cool and distant. Yet if you keep one in sight, it can guide you to your destination no matter how far away it is." Even as she says this, she began to fade away, like dew, vanishing. All that remains is a gleam that was at the centre of her forehead. This rises up and up, until it settles in the night sky as a shining star. "Follow your star," the woman's voice seems to sing from that light, "and have hope."
The Fool takes in a breath and rises. It is a dark night, a desolate land. But for the first time, he has a guiding light to show him the way. Distant as it is, it restores his faith.
The Moon
Following the star the Fool travels through the night. The full Moon rises, illuminating for him a watery path. And he begins to feel disoriented, as if walking in his sleep. He passes under the moon, between two pillars ancient and strange. Suddenly, he looks around to find himself in another land entirely. When he was in the presence of the High Priestess, he saw hints of this dark land through the sheer veil draped behind her throne. And later, when he hung from the tree, he felt himself between the physical world and this one. Now, he has at last passed behind the veil.
Here are the mysteries he sought, the darkest mysteries, ones that have to do with the most primal and ancient powers. It is a land poets, artists, musicians and madmen know well, a terrifying, alluring place, with very different rules. Wolves run wild across this land, hunting alongside maidens with bow and arrows. Creatures from childhood nightmares and fantasies peer from shadows, eyes glowing.
The path the Fool was walking is now a river, and he stands hip-deep in the powerful pull of its salty waters. There is, on the nearby shore, a small boat, but it has no rudder, no oar. The Fool realizes he has only two choices. He can lose himself in this desolate, primal land of madness and illusion, howl with the wolves, be hunted down, or he can get into the boat and trust himself to the river. The moon will be in control either way, but in the boat his surrender to the powers of the unconscious will at least take him somewhere.
Inspiration, visions and genius are the rewards of such surrender to the Moon's Magic, as artists, poets and seers know. The Fool gets into the boat, and shoves off. As the waters sweep him away, moonbeams light his "path" and he feels the Mistress of this dark land gazing down at him with the High Priestess's approving eyes.
The Sun
The Fool wakes at dawn from his long, dark night of the soul to find that the river has deposited him in a serene pool. There is a walled garden around this pond dominated by roses, lilies and splendid, nodding sunflowers. Stepping ashore, he watches the sun rise overhead. The day is clear. A child's laughter attracts his attention and he sees a little boy ride a small white pony into the garden.
"Come!" says the little boy, leaping off the horse and running up to him. "Come see!" And the child proceeds to take the Fool's hand and enthusiastically point out all manner of things, the busy insects in the grass, the seeds and petals on the sunflowers, the way the light sparkles on the pond. He asks questions of the Fool, simple but profound ones, like "Why is the sky blue?" He sings songs, and plays games with the Fool.
At one point the Fool stops, blinking up at the Sun so large and golden overhead, and he finds himself smiling, wider and brighter than he has in a very long time. He has been tested and tried, confused and scared, dismayed and amazed. But this is the first time that he has been simply and purely happy. His mind feels illuminated, his soul light and bright as a sunbeam, and it's all thanks to this child with his simple questions, games and songs. This boy has helped the Fool see the world and himself anew.
"Who are you?" the Fool asks the child at last. The child smiles at this and seems to shine. And then he grows brighter and brighter until he turns into pure sunlight.
"I'm You," the boy's voice says throughout the garden, "The new you." And as the words fill the Fool with warmth and energy, he comes to realize that this garden, the sun above, the child, all exist within him. He has just met his own inner light.
Judgement
As the Fool leaves the garden of the Sun, he feels that he is near the end of his journey, ready to take a final step. But something is keeping him from doing this, holding him back. He gazes up, hoping to find guidance from the Sun; instead he sees above him a fiery angel, beautiful and terrible.
"You are right," the Angelic figure confirms, "you have only one last step on your journey, one final step to completion. But you cannot take that step until you lay your past to rest."
The Fool is perturbed. "Lay it to rest? I thought I'd left it behind, all of it!"
"There is no way to leave the past behind," The Angel observes. "Each step wears down the shoe just a bit, and so shapes the next step you take, and the next and the next. Your past is always under your feet. You cannot hide from it, run from it, or rid yourself of it. But you can call it up, and come to terms with it. Are you willing to do that?"
The Angel hands the Fool a small trumpet. The Fool is hesitant, but he knows that the Angel is right. There are certain memories he has a hard time looking back on as they make him feel guilty, ashamed, angry. He knows that he's never come to terms with what happened and he must if he wants to make that final transition.
He blows the trumpet and it cracks open the Earth. From under the Fool's feet, the spirits of his past selves rise up, including those less than admirable past selves that he's tried to forget.
For the first time, he faces them. They are, he sees, nothing to fear. They were him once-upon-a-time, but not now. Even as he realizes this, he finds himself forgiving those past selves for the wrongs they did that left him feeling bad. He senses, in turn, that they forgive him for ignoring the lessons they had to teach him. As he reaches an understanding with them, they start to rise up and float away, vanishing into the sky. Though they remain as experiences and memories, they no longer have any power over him. He is free of ill-feelings, reborn, and living in the present.
The World
The Fool turns to take that final step along his final path, and finds, to his bemusement, that he is right back where he started, at the edge of that very same cliff he almost stepped over when he was young and too foolish to look where he was going. But now he sees his position very differently. He thought he could separate body and mind, learn all about one, then leave it to learn about the other. But in the end, it is all about the self: mind and body, past and future, the individual, and the world. All one, including the Fool and the Mystic who are both doorways to the secrets of the universe.
With a knowing smile, the Fool takes that final step right off the cliff...and soars. Higher and higher, until the whole of the world is his to see. And there he dances, surrounded by a yoni of stars, at one with the universe. Ending, in a sense, where he began, beginning again at the end. The world turns, and the Fool's journey is complete.
N.B. Dedicated to the diversity and beauty of Tarot, Aeclectic Tarot is the website which would provide its visitors with an abundant wealth of knowledge and information on the topic of Tarot. Thirteen, through the Aeclectic Tarot Forum, has weaved this beautiful story based on the design of the Major Arcana of the Rider-Waite Tarot style of the Tarot deck. The Rider-Waite Tarot is a classic Tarot deck, perhaps the most well-known in the Western world. It is often called the first modern Tarot deck, as the cards drawn by Pamela Colman-Smith and commissioned by Waite were the first to use detailed pictures on the minor arcana cards. One may sample some of the deck's designs at this link: http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/rider-waite/.
The Fool
With all his worldly possessions in one small pack, the Fool travels he knows not where. So filled with visions, questions, wonder and excitement is he, that he doesn't see the cliff he is likely to fall over. At his heel a small dog harries him (or tries to warn him of a possible mis-step). Will the Fool learn to pay attention to where he's going before it's too late?
The Magician
Travelling on his way, the Fool first encounters a Magician. Skilful, self-confident, a powerful magus with the infinite as a halo floating above his head, the Magician mesmerizes the Fool. When asked, the Fool gives over his bundled pack and stick to the Magician. Raising his wand to heaven, pointing his finger to Earth, the Magician calls on all powers. Magically, the cloth of the pack unfolds upon the table, revealing its contents.
To the Fool's eyes, it is as if the Magician has created the future with a word. All the possibilities are laid out, all the directions he can take: The cool, airy Sword of intellect and communication, the fiery Wand of passions and ambition, the overflowing Chalice of love and emotions, the solid Pentacle of work, possessions and body.
With these tools, the Fool can create anything, make anything of his life. But here's the question, did the Magician create the tools, or were they already in the pack? Only the Magician knows - and on this mystery, our eloquent mage refuses to say a word.
The High Priestess
Continuing his journey, the Fool comes upon a beautiful and mysterious veiled lady enthroned between two pillars and illuminated by the moon. She is the opposite of the Magician, quiet where he was loquacious, still where he was in motion, sitting while he stood, shrouded in the night where he was out in the bright of day. Sensing that she is a great seer, the Fool lays out his sword, chalice, staff and pentacle before her. "The Magician showed me these, but now I'm in a quandary. There are so many things I could do with them. I can't decide."
The High Priestess doesn't speak. Instead she hands him a pair of ancient scrolls. Seating himself at her feet, the Fool puts his decision-making on hold and reads by the light of her crescent moon.
"I did not know any of this," says the Fool. The scrolls, like a secret manual, have given him insight into his new tools. "This information helps me to narrow things down, but I'm still afraid of making a wrong decision."
The words come to him then, not from without but from within: "What do your instincts tell you?" The Fool reflects on that, and that's when he knows what he should do. Decision made, he rises to leave even though he suspects that the High Priestess has more secrets she could reveal to him--like what lies behind the pomegranate curtain. Right now, however, he is focused and ready to be on his way.
Thanking the High Priestess, he heads off. But as he leaves he hears that inner voice, rising like the waters which spring and flow from beneath her throne: "We'll meet again...when you're ready to travel the most secret path of all."
The Empress
Having decided what he will create with his tools, the Fool strides forward, impatient to make his future a full-grown reality. This is when he comes upon the Empress. Her hair gold as wheat, wearing a crown of stars, and a white gown dotted with pomegranates. She rests back on her throne surrounded by an abundance of grain and a lush garden. It is possible that she is pregnant.
Kneeling, the Fool relates to her his story. And she, in turn, smiles a motherly smile and gently gives him this advice: "Like newly planted grain or a newborn babe, a new life, a new relationship, a new creation is fragile. It requires patience and nurturing. It needs love and attention. Only this will bring it to fruition." Understanding at last that his creations will take time to develop, the Fool thanks the Empress and continues on his way.
The Emperor
The Fool was given options by the Magician, and decided on one with help from the High Priestess. He learned how to develop it thanks to the Empress. Now it has reached as stage where he must find a way to manage it. How to do this? He approaches a great Emperor seated on a stone throne. The Fool is amazed by the way the Emperor is instantly, eagerly obeyed in every particular, at how well his Empire is run and organized. Respectfully, he asks the Emperor how it is he does this. And the Emperor answers: "Strong will and a solid foundation of laws and order. It's all very well," he explains to the Fool, "to be imaginative, creative, instinctual, patient; but to control one must be alert, brave and aggressive."
Ready now to lead and direct rather than be led, the Fool heads out with new purpose.
The Hierophant
Having created a solid foundation on which to build his future, the Fool is struck with a sudden fear. What if everything he's worked for is taken away? Is stolen, or lost, or destroyed or vanishes? Or what if what he's created isn't good enough? In a panic, he heads into a temple where he finds the Hierophant, a wise and holy man. Acolytes kneel before the man ready to hear and pass on his teachings. The Fool tells the Hierophant his fears, and asks how he can be free of them.
"There are two ways," says the Hierophant sagely, "Either give up that which you fear to lose so it no longer holds any power over you, or consider what you will still have if your fear comes to pass. After all," the Hierophant continues, "if you did lose all you'd built, you would still keep the experience and knowledge that you've gained up to this point, wouldn't you?"
"That is true," the Fool says. "But what about the community, society and friends I've discovered thanks to what I've created? More than knowledge or experience, I value them. If I lost all, I'd lose them too, wouldn't I?"
"Not necessarily," the Hierophant answers with a warm glow in his compassionate eyes. "If your community has traditions that you all share, ethics and beliefs, then you will never lose that fellowship even if circumstances force you to part. You can even pass such onto your children giving them the same fellowship with each other and with past generations."
Hearing this, the Fool feels his heart ease, as if knots of fear have been loosened. A sense of peace blankets him, and he takes a moment to thank the good Hierophant most profoundly. Stepping out of the sanctuary he makes his way to a meeting with his friends. Tonight they will talk about how they can create lessons and traditions to preserve not only their experience and knowledge, but their community.
The Lovers
The Fool comes to a cross-road, filled with energy, confidence and purpose, knowing exactly where he wants to go and what he wants to do. But he comes to a dead stop. A flowering tree marks the path he wants to take, the one he's been planning on taking. But standing before a fruit tree marking the other path is a woman. The Fool has met and had relationships with women before, some far more beautiful and alluring. But she is different. Seeing her, he feels as though he's just been shot in the heart with cupid's arrow.
That's how shocking, how painful is his "recognition" of her. As he speaks with her, the feeling intensifies; like finding a missing part of himself. It is clear that she feels the same about him. They finish each other's sentences, think the same thoughts. It is as if an Angel above had introduced their souls to each other.
Though it was his plan to follow the path of the flowering tree, and though it will cause some trouble for him to bring this woman with him, the Fool knows he dare not leave her behind. Like the fruit tree, she will fulfil him. No matter how divergent from his original intent, she is his future. He chooses her, and together they head down a whole new road.
The Chariot
The Fool is close to completing what he set out to create long ago, back when the Magician revealed those tools to him. But enemies are now standing in his way, devious human enemies, bad circumstances, even confusion in his own mind. There's no more forward momentum; he feels he is fighting just to stay where he is. Walking along the shore, watching the waves come in, he puzzles over how to defeat these enemies and get things moving forward once again. It is here that he comes across a charioteer, standing in his gold and silver chariot, his black and white steeds at rest. "You seem a victorious warrior," the Fool remarks. "I feel beset by my enemies, unable to move forward. What should I do?
"First, you must armour yourself," the Charioteer strikes the chariot and then his breastplate with a gauntleted fist, making both ring out. "Next, you must focus on your goal, where do you mean to go, what do you mean to do." The warrior nods to his beasts. "Your steeds keep the wheels turning, but it is your control and direction of them that gets them to their destination. Dark and light, they must be made to draw in harmony, under your guidance." The Fool nods. That makes sense. "What if an someone or something gets in your way?"
The Charioteer coolly meets the Fool's gaze. "You run them down. Your aim is victory, and to be victorious you must have unwavering confidence in your cause. Never question, never doubt what you're trying to achieve. Never lose your focus or your motivation."
The Fool is impressed and inspired. He thinks he now knows how to get past all the distractions and setbacks that have been keeping him trapped in place, like a riptide in the ocean. He thanks the warrior, but before he leaves, the warrior stays the Fool.
"One thing more you should keep in mind," he says, "Victory is not the end, it is the beginning. Remember that before you decide to enter into any contest."
Strength
The Fool, victorious over his enemies, is feeling arrogant, powerful, even vengeful. There are hot passions in him, ones he finds himself unable and unwilling to control. It is in this state that he comes across a maiden struggling with a lion. Running to help, he arrives in time to see her gently but firmly shut the lion's mouth! In fact, the beast, which seemed so wild and fierce, is now completely at her command.
Amazed, the Fool asks her, "How did you do that?" One hand on the lion's mane, she answers, "I asked the lion to do it, and it did it."
"But-but-" the Fool stutters, confounded. "Why did it want to obey?" At that moment, the Maiden meets the Fool's eyes; he sees in her warmth, gentleness, a heart so great that its generosity seems as infinite as its willingness to understand. And that is when the Fool understands exactly why the lion did her bidding.
It wanted to connect to that higher energy.
Yet there is still one thing that confuses the Fool. "But," he says, much softer now, "Why would you, fair maiden, want to keep company with a beast?"
"Because he, too, is filled with a wonderful energy," the Maiden says. "It is wild and fierce, but it can be banked, like a fire in a hearth. I knew if he would take direction from me, we could both be warmed."
"So, too," she adds, "are our passions. Let them run wild and they will do damage. But we can, with gentle fortitude, check and direct those passions. In doing so, we can get so much more out of them. And yet, still sate them."
His rage quieted, the enlightened Fool walks away knowing that it wasn't only the lion that was tamed this day by a Maiden's pure and innocent strength.
The Hermit
After a long and busy lifetime, building, creating, loving, hating, fighting, compromising, failing, succeeding, the Fool feels a profound need to retreat. In a small, rustic home deep in the woods, he hides, reading, cleaning, organizing, resting or just thinking. But every night at dusk he heads out, travelling across the bare, autumnal landscape. He carries only a staff and a lantern.
It is during these restless walks from dusk till dawn, peering at and examining whatever takes his fancy, that he sees things he's missed during his lifetime. His lantern illuminates animals and insects that only come out at night, flowers and plants that only bloom by moon or star light.
As these secret corners of the world are illuminated and explored by him, he feels that he is also illuminating hidden areas of his mind. In a way, he has become the Fool again. As in the beginning, he goes wherever inspiration leads him. Back then, however, his staff rested on his shoulder, carrying unseen his pack. The Fool was like the pack: wrapped up, unknown. The Hermit's staff leans out before him now, not behind. And it carries a lantern, not a pack. The Hermit is like the lantern, illuminated from within by all he is, capable of penetrating the darkness.
The Wheel of Fortune
From out of hiding comes the Fool, into the sunlight, as if being pulled up from some low, dark point on a wheel. It is time for a change. Staff in hand, he heads back out into the world, expecting nothing. But, strangely, things seem to happen to him as the hours go by, good things. Wandering by a water wheel a woman offers him a drink in a golden chalice, and then urges him to keep the cup; as he wanders by a windmill, he stops to watch a young man swinging a sword; when he expresses his admiration of the weapon, the young man presses it into his hand, insisting that he take it.
And finally, when he comes upon a rich merchant sitting in a wagon, right over one of the wheels, the man hands him a bag of money. "I decided to give this to the tenth person who walked past me today," explains the Merchant, "You're the tenth." The Fool hardly thought he could still be surprised, but he is. It is as if everything good that he ever did in his life is being paid back to him, three-fold. All luck this day is his.
Justice
The Fool is looking for a new path, a new aspiration and inspiration for his life. Sitting uncertain at a crossroads he notices a blind wise woman listening to two brothers argue over an inheritance. They have come to her for judgment. One brother has the whole inheritance, the other has nothing.
"I ask that all of it be given to me," the poor brother demands, "Not only because I have a better right to it, but because I will not be wasteful with it, as he is!" But the rich brother protests, "It is rightfully mine and that's all that should matter, not what I do with it!"
The woman listens, then awards half of the rich brother's inheritance to the poor brother. The Fool thinks this only fair, but neither brother is happy. The rich one hates losing half his wealth, and the poor one feels he ought to have gotten all.
"You were fair," the Fool remarks to the woman after the brothers have left. "Yes, I was," she answers plainly. "With only half the inheritance, the rich one will stop being so wasteful. And the poor one will have as much as he needs. Even though they cannot see it, this decision was good for both."
The Fool thinks on this and realizes that he has spent his life achieving worldly ambitions and physical goods while leaving his spiritual self to starve. He ought to have given half his time and energy to his spiritual self, but he didn't. It's no wonder that he feels unbalanced. Thanking the woman, he heads out to restore equilibrium to his inner scales.
The Hanged Man
The Fool settles beneath a tree, intent on finding his spiritual self. There he stays for nine days, without eating, barely moving. People pass by him, animals, clouds, the wind, the rain, the stars, sun and moon. On the ninth day, with no conscious thought of why, he climbs the tree and dangles from a branch upside down like a child. For a moment, he surrenders all that he is, wants, knows or cares about. Coins fall from his pockets and as he gazes down on them - seeing them not as money but only as round bits of metal.
It seems to him that his perspective of the world has completely changed, as if his inverted position has allowed him to dangle between the mundane world and the spiritual world, able to see both. It is a dazzling moment, dreamlike yet crystal clear.
Timeless as this moment of clarity seems, he realizes that it will not last. Very soon, he must right himself, but when he does, things will be different. He will have to act on what he's learned. For now, however, he just hangs, weightless as if underwater, observing, absorbing, seeing.
Death
Having left the tree from where he hung, the Fool moves carefully through a fallow field, head still clearing from visions. The air is cold and wintry, the trees bare. He knows he has started on his spiritual journey in earnest, but feels strangely empty and profoundly sad, as if he has lost something.
Before him he sees, rising with the sun, a skeleton in black armour mounted on a white horse. He recognizes it as Death. As it stops before him, he humbly asks, "Have I died?" And the Skeleton answers, "Yes, in a way. You sacrificed your old world, your old self. Both are gone, dead."
The Fool cannot keep from weeping. "Forgive me," he says, embarrassed by his tears.
"There is nothing to forgive," Death replies. "Mourning is natural and you must deal with your loss before you can accept anything new. Keep in mind, however, that old leaves must wither and fly away from a tree's branches, leaving them bare, before new green leaves can appear."
As Death rides away, the Fool sees the truth in those words. He, too, feels like a skeleton, all that he was stripped away. This, he understands, is how all great transformations start, by removing everything down to bare bone or soil so that something new has room to grow.
Temperance
Recovering from feelings of loss at last, the Fool begins to wonder if he will finally find the new spirituality he's after. It occurs to him that so far, he's been dealing with opposites: the two opposing sides of the scales (Justice), the material and spiritual (which he hung between as the Hanged man), death and birth (the one leading into the other in the Death card). Does one always have to be surrendered to get the other? he wonders.
It is at this point that he comes upon a winged figure standing with one foot in a brook, the other on a rock. The radiant creature pours something from one flask into another. Drawing closer, the Fool sees that what is being poured from one flask is fire, while water flows from the other. The two are being blended together into a completely different substance!
"How can you mix fire and water?" the Fool finally whispers. Never pausing the Angel answers, "You must have the right vessels and use the right proportions."
The Fool watches with wonder. "Can this be done with all opposites?" he asks. "Indeed," the Angel replies, "Any oppositions, fire and water, man and woman, thesis and anti-thesis, can be made into a unified third. It is only a lack of will and a disbelief in the possibility that keeps opposites, opposite." And that is when the Fool begins to understand that he is the one who is keeping his universe in twain, holding life/death, material world and spiritual world separate. In him the two could merge. All it takes, the Fool realizes, is the right proportions, the right vessel and enough faith that the two can be unified.
The Devil
The Fool comes to the foot of an enormous black mountain where reigns a creature half goat, half god. At his hooves naked people, linked to the god's throne by chains, engage in every indulgence imaginable: sex, drugs, food, drink. The closer the Fool gets, the more he feels his own earthly desires rising in him. Carnal desires, hunger for food and power, greed and selfishness. "I have given up all such desires!" he roars at the Goat god, resisting the beast's power with all his might. He is sure that this is a test of his new spirituality, one where he must prove that the temptations of the material world cannot sway him.
The creature responds to his defiance with a curious look. "All I am doing is bringing out what is already in you," it responds mildly. "Such feelings are nothing to fear, nothing to be ashamed of, or even to avoid. They are even useful to helping you in your quest for spirituality, though many try to pretend otherwise."
The Fool gestures angrily at the chained men and women, "You say that even though these are clearly enslaved to the material world?"
The Goat-god mimics the Fool's gesture. "Take another look." The Fool does so, and realizes that the chained collars the men and women wear are wide enough for them to easily slip off over their heads. "They can be free if they wish to be," the Goat-god says, "They remain here because they want to be controlled by their base, bestial desires. There are, however, others…."
At this the Goat-god gestures upward, toward the peak of the mountain. "…Others who have used these same impulses to climb to the highest heights. If they had denied their desires they'd never have gotten there."
On hearing this, the Fool sees that he has mistaken the Goat-god. This is not a creature of evil as he thought, but of great power, the lowest and the highest, both of beast and god. Like all power, it is frightening, and dangerous...but it is also a key to freedom and transcendence.
The Tower
As the Fool leaves the throne of the Goat God, he comes upon a Tower, fantastic, magnificent, and familiar. In fact, The Fool, himself, helped build this Tower back when the most important thing to him was making his mark on the world and proving himself better than other men. Inside the Tower, at the top, arrogant men still live, convinced of their rightness.
Seeing the Tower again, the Fool feels as if lightning has just flashed across his mind; he thought he'd left that old self behind when he started on this spiritual journey. But he realizes now that he hasn't. He's been seeing himself, like the Tower, like the men inside, as alone and singular and superior, when in fact, he is no such thing.
So captured is he by the shock of this insight, that he opens his mouth and releases a SHOUT! And to his astonishment and terror, a bolt of actual lightning slashes down from the heavens striking the Tower and sending its residents leaping out into the waters below.
In a moment, it is over. The Tower is rubble, only rocks remaining. Stunned and shaken to the core, the Fool experiences profound fear and disbelief. But also, a strange clarity of vision, as if his inner eye has finally opened. He tore down his resistance to change and sacrifice (Hanged man), then came to terms with Death (Death); he learned about moderation and synthesis (Temperance) and about power (The Devil). But here and now, he has done what was hardest: he destroyed the lies of his life. What's left are the foundations of truth. On this he can rebuild himself.
The Star
On the bleak landscape where the Tower stood, the Fool sits, empty, despairing. He hoped to find direction on this spiritual journey, a path to his spiritual self, but having just learned that most of his life was a lie, he now feels lost. Sitting on the cold stones, he gazes up at the night sky wishing for some kind of guide. And that is when he notices, nearby, a beautiful girl with two water urns. As he watches, she kneels by a pool of water illuminated with reflected starlight. She empties the urns, one into the pool, one onto the thirsty ground.
"What are you doing," he asks her. She looks up at him, her eyes twinkling like stars. "I am refilling this pool, so that those who are thirsty may drink, and I am also watering the earth so that more fruit trees will grow to feed those who are hungry." She nods back to a single fruit tree that stands nearby, a nightingale singing amid its branches.
"Come," she invites. "Sate your hunger and quench your thirst."
The Fool plucks some fruit from the tree, then kneels by her and drinks from the pool. The water tastes wonderful, like liquid starlight, and the fruit is equally delicious. Both help to heal his wounded heart.
Having quenched his thirst and sated his hunger, the Fool lays back to gaze up at the stars. "They're so beautiful," he said, "but so distant."
"Like possible futures," agrees the girl. "Cool and distant. Yet if you keep one in sight, it can guide you to your destination no matter how far away it is." Even as she says this, she began to fade away, like dew, vanishing. All that remains is a gleam that was at the centre of her forehead. This rises up and up, until it settles in the night sky as a shining star. "Follow your star," the woman's voice seems to sing from that light, "and have hope."
The Fool takes in a breath and rises. It is a dark night, a desolate land. But for the first time, he has a guiding light to show him the way. Distant as it is, it restores his faith.
The Moon
Following the star the Fool travels through the night. The full Moon rises, illuminating for him a watery path. And he begins to feel disoriented, as if walking in his sleep. He passes under the moon, between two pillars ancient and strange. Suddenly, he looks around to find himself in another land entirely. When he was in the presence of the High Priestess, he saw hints of this dark land through the sheer veil draped behind her throne. And later, when he hung from the tree, he felt himself between the physical world and this one. Now, he has at last passed behind the veil.
Here are the mysteries he sought, the darkest mysteries, ones that have to do with the most primal and ancient powers. It is a land poets, artists, musicians and madmen know well, a terrifying, alluring place, with very different rules. Wolves run wild across this land, hunting alongside maidens with bow and arrows. Creatures from childhood nightmares and fantasies peer from shadows, eyes glowing.
The path the Fool was walking is now a river, and he stands hip-deep in the powerful pull of its salty waters. There is, on the nearby shore, a small boat, but it has no rudder, no oar. The Fool realizes he has only two choices. He can lose himself in this desolate, primal land of madness and illusion, howl with the wolves, be hunted down, or he can get into the boat and trust himself to the river. The moon will be in control either way, but in the boat his surrender to the powers of the unconscious will at least take him somewhere.
Inspiration, visions and genius are the rewards of such surrender to the Moon's Magic, as artists, poets and seers know. The Fool gets into the boat, and shoves off. As the waters sweep him away, moonbeams light his "path" and he feels the Mistress of this dark land gazing down at him with the High Priestess's approving eyes.
The Sun
The Fool wakes at dawn from his long, dark night of the soul to find that the river has deposited him in a serene pool. There is a walled garden around this pond dominated by roses, lilies and splendid, nodding sunflowers. Stepping ashore, he watches the sun rise overhead. The day is clear. A child's laughter attracts his attention and he sees a little boy ride a small white pony into the garden.
"Come!" says the little boy, leaping off the horse and running up to him. "Come see!" And the child proceeds to take the Fool's hand and enthusiastically point out all manner of things, the busy insects in the grass, the seeds and petals on the sunflowers, the way the light sparkles on the pond. He asks questions of the Fool, simple but profound ones, like "Why is the sky blue?" He sings songs, and plays games with the Fool.
At one point the Fool stops, blinking up at the Sun so large and golden overhead, and he finds himself smiling, wider and brighter than he has in a very long time. He has been tested and tried, confused and scared, dismayed and amazed. But this is the first time that he has been simply and purely happy. His mind feels illuminated, his soul light and bright as a sunbeam, and it's all thanks to this child with his simple questions, games and songs. This boy has helped the Fool see the world and himself anew.
"Who are you?" the Fool asks the child at last. The child smiles at this and seems to shine. And then he grows brighter and brighter until he turns into pure sunlight.
"I'm You," the boy's voice says throughout the garden, "The new you." And as the words fill the Fool with warmth and energy, he comes to realize that this garden, the sun above, the child, all exist within him. He has just met his own inner light.
Judgement
As the Fool leaves the garden of the Sun, he feels that he is near the end of his journey, ready to take a final step. But something is keeping him from doing this, holding him back. He gazes up, hoping to find guidance from the Sun; instead he sees above him a fiery angel, beautiful and terrible.
"You are right," the Angelic figure confirms, "you have only one last step on your journey, one final step to completion. But you cannot take that step until you lay your past to rest."
The Fool is perturbed. "Lay it to rest? I thought I'd left it behind, all of it!"
"There is no way to leave the past behind," The Angel observes. "Each step wears down the shoe just a bit, and so shapes the next step you take, and the next and the next. Your past is always under your feet. You cannot hide from it, run from it, or rid yourself of it. But you can call it up, and come to terms with it. Are you willing to do that?"
The Angel hands the Fool a small trumpet. The Fool is hesitant, but he knows that the Angel is right. There are certain memories he has a hard time looking back on as they make him feel guilty, ashamed, angry. He knows that he's never come to terms with what happened and he must if he wants to make that final transition.
He blows the trumpet and it cracks open the Earth. From under the Fool's feet, the spirits of his past selves rise up, including those less than admirable past selves that he's tried to forget.
For the first time, he faces them. They are, he sees, nothing to fear. They were him once-upon-a-time, but not now. Even as he realizes this, he finds himself forgiving those past selves for the wrongs they did that left him feeling bad. He senses, in turn, that they forgive him for ignoring the lessons they had to teach him. As he reaches an understanding with them, they start to rise up and float away, vanishing into the sky. Though they remain as experiences and memories, they no longer have any power over him. He is free of ill-feelings, reborn, and living in the present.
The World
The Fool turns to take that final step along his final path, and finds, to his bemusement, that he is right back where he started, at the edge of that very same cliff he almost stepped over when he was young and too foolish to look where he was going. But now he sees his position very differently. He thought he could separate body and mind, learn all about one, then leave it to learn about the other. But in the end, it is all about the self: mind and body, past and future, the individual, and the world. All one, including the Fool and the Mystic who are both doorways to the secrets of the universe.
With a knowing smile, the Fool takes that final step right off the cliff...and soars. Higher and higher, until the whole of the world is his to see. And there he dances, surrounded by a yoni of stars, at one with the universe. Ending, in a sense, where he began, beginning again at the end. The world turns, and the Fool's journey is complete.
N.B. Dedicated to the diversity and beauty of Tarot, Aeclectic Tarot is the website which would provide its visitors with an abundant wealth of knowledge and information on the topic of Tarot. Thirteen, through the Aeclectic Tarot Forum, has weaved this beautiful story based on the design of the Major Arcana of the Rider-Waite Tarot style of the Tarot deck. The Rider-Waite Tarot is a classic Tarot deck, perhaps the most well-known in the Western world. It is often called the first modern Tarot deck, as the cards drawn by Pamela Colman-Smith and commissioned by Waite were the first to use detailed pictures on the minor arcana cards. One may sample some of the deck's designs at this link: http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/rider-waite/.
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Being on The Same Wavelength - A Collective Coherence Study
(By Sara Childre)
You probably know how beneficial maintaining a high level of heart-rhythm coherence can be for your mental, physical and emotional health and well-being. Perhaps you use HeartMath’s Quick Coherence® or other techniques and the emWave® PSR or emWave® Desktop to raise your own coherence level.
Have you ever wondered whether raising your coherence could influence the coherence levels of those around you? Remember a time with a small group of friends or others when you all felt an extraordinarily close connection – like being on the same wavelength?
Steven M. Morris, Ph.D., founder of Singapore-based Steve Morris Associates, wondered about such questions and explored them in an independent study in September and October of 2008.
In the study, Achieving Collective Coherence: Group Effects on Heart Rate Variability Coherence and Heart Rhythm Synchronization, Morris, whose firm helps corporate executives and their teams achieve coherence in their work and personal lives, wanted to know: "whether a group of participants trained in achieving high states of heart-rate-variability coherence (HRVC) could facilitate higher levels of HRVC in an untrained subject in close proximity."
Writing about the study’s results in the July/August 2010 edition of the journal, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, Morris said: "The HRVC of the untrained subject was found to be higher in approximately half of all matched comparisons. …
"These results suggest that a coherent energy field can be generated and/or enhanced by the intentions of small groups of participants trained to send coherence-facilitating intentions to a target receiver. This field is made more coherent with greater levels of comfort between group members. The evidence of heart-rhythm synchronization across participants supports the possibility of heart-to-heart bio-communications."
Various protocols were used in the study’s 148 trials over eight weeks. In each, groups of four participants – one Receiver, with no coherence training, and three Senders, with training – were instructed to employ one of the following protocols:
Read Morris’ entire article and learn more about coherence at Achieving Collective Coherence (The full article can be downloaded at: http://www.heartmath.org/templates/ihm/downloads/pdf/research/publications/achieving-collective-coherence.pdf).
You probably know how beneficial maintaining a high level of heart-rhythm coherence can be for your mental, physical and emotional health and well-being. Perhaps you use HeartMath’s Quick Coherence® or other techniques and the emWave® PSR or emWave® Desktop to raise your own coherence level.
Have you ever wondered whether raising your coherence could influence the coherence levels of those around you? Remember a time with a small group of friends or others when you all felt an extraordinarily close connection – like being on the same wavelength?
Steven M. Morris, Ph.D., founder of Singapore-based Steve Morris Associates, wondered about such questions and explored them in an independent study in September and October of 2008.
In the study, Achieving Collective Coherence: Group Effects on Heart Rate Variability Coherence and Heart Rhythm Synchronization, Morris, whose firm helps corporate executives and their teams achieve coherence in their work and personal lives, wanted to know: "whether a group of participants trained in achieving high states of heart-rate-variability coherence (HRVC) could facilitate higher levels of HRVC in an untrained subject in close proximity."
Writing about the study’s results in the July/August 2010 edition of the journal, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, Morris said: "The HRVC of the untrained subject was found to be higher in approximately half of all matched comparisons. …
"These results suggest that a coherent energy field can be generated and/or enhanced by the intentions of small groups of participants trained to send coherence-facilitating intentions to a target receiver. This field is made more coherent with greater levels of comfort between group members. The evidence of heart-rhythm synchronization across participants supports the possibility of heart-to-heart bio-communications."
Various protocols were used in the study’s 148 trials over eight weeks. In each, groups of four participants – one Receiver, with no coherence training, and three Senders, with training – were instructed to employ one of the following protocols:
- Senders raise personal coherence while Receiver remains in a state of quiet relaxation.
- Senders raise personal coherence and consciously attempt, with care and compassion, to facilitate, or promote increased coherence in Receiver.
- Senders raise personal coherence while Receiver practices HeartMath’s Quick Coherence Technique® (This technique can be found at: http://www.heartmath.org/free-services/tools-for-well-being/quick-coherence-adult.html) – explained on a cue card and briefly demonstrated by a researcher.
- Senders relax while Receiver attempts to raise personal coherence.
- Senders and Receivers relax quietly.
Read Morris’ entire article and learn more about coherence at Achieving Collective Coherence (The full article can be downloaded at: http://www.heartmath.org/templates/ihm/downloads/pdf/research/publications/achieving-collective-coherence.pdf).
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Humour: Shredded Similes & Mutilated Metaphors
As a departure from the topics on which I normally post, I have included the following actual similes and metaphors purportedly found by high school English teachers from across the United States of America in their student's essays. Some of them are actually pretty impressive.
- Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
- His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances, like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
- He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
- She grew on him like she was a colony of e-coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.
- She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
- Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
- He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.
- The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.
- The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
- McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
- From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.
- Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
- The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
- Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
- They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.
- John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
- He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.
- Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
- Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
- The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
- The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
- He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
- The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
- It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
- He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
- The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
- Her date was pleasant enough, but she knew that if her life was a movie this guy would be buried in the credits as something like "Second Tall Man."
- The thunder was ominous-sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.
- The red brick wall was the color of a brick-red Crayola crayon.
- Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
- His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances, like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
- He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
- She grew on him like she was a colony of e-coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.
- She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
- Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
- He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.
- The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.
- The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
- McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
- From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.
- Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
- The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
- Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
- They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.
- John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
- He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.
- Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
- Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
- The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
- The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
- He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
- The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
- It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
- He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
- The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
- Her date was pleasant enough, but she knew that if her life was a movie this guy would be buried in the credits as something like "Second Tall Man."
- The thunder was ominous-sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.
- The red brick wall was the color of a brick-red Crayola crayon.
Sunday, May 08, 2011
佛祖说：Why are you still carrying her?
Tanzan and Ekido, two monks on a pilgrimage, were traveling together when they came to the ford of a river. It was there where they met a lovely young girl dressed in silk kimono with a sash and all manners of finery. However, she appeared not to know how she could proceed towards the opposite bank since the water level in the river was high and she obviously was not too keen to soil or wet her clothes.
Without much ado, Tanzan then proceeded to take her on his back, carried her safely across the river and put her down on dry ground on the opposite bank. Thereafter, the monks continued on their way.
Tanzan and Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. It was then when Ekido could no longer restrain himself and said “Surely, it is not right for us to touch that girl by the river bank; for it is against the commandments for monks to have close contact with women. How could you of all people violate such a cardinal rule for monks?”
Tanzan remained silent for a moment, but he finally remarked, “I have already set her down by the river bank hours ago. Why are you still carrying her?”
P.S. The above story is derived from a classic kōan. A kōan is a fundamental part of the history and lore of Zen Buddhism. It typically consists of a story, dialogue, question, or statement, the meaning of which cannot be understood by rational thinking but may be accessible through intuition.
One of the most difficult thing which we face constantly in life is to let go of something from the past. When someone does us wrong and seeks forgiveness in the process, we may already choose not to grant that someone forgiveness. Even if we do forgive that someone, we may inadvertently still choose to continue carrying the memory of that wrong. It is especially so if we are that someone who has committed the wrong against somebody else. I am sure we do not want to continue carrying memories of the wrong and its associated guilt, but unfortunately, we often do. In fact, it often seems to be infinitely more difficult for us to forgive ourselves than to forgive someone else. So, when are we ever going to lay down the memories of our past transgressions and move on in life?
Without much ado, Tanzan then proceeded to take her on his back, carried her safely across the river and put her down on dry ground on the opposite bank. Thereafter, the monks continued on their way.
Tanzan and Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. It was then when Ekido could no longer restrain himself and said “Surely, it is not right for us to touch that girl by the river bank; for it is against the commandments for monks to have close contact with women. How could you of all people violate such a cardinal rule for monks?”
Tanzan remained silent for a moment, but he finally remarked, “I have already set her down by the river bank hours ago. Why are you still carrying her?”
P.S. The above story is derived from a classic kōan. A kōan is a fundamental part of the history and lore of Zen Buddhism. It typically consists of a story, dialogue, question, or statement, the meaning of which cannot be understood by rational thinking but may be accessible through intuition.
One of the most difficult thing which we face constantly in life is to let go of something from the past. When someone does us wrong and seeks forgiveness in the process, we may already choose not to grant that someone forgiveness. Even if we do forgive that someone, we may inadvertently still choose to continue carrying the memory of that wrong. It is especially so if we are that someone who has committed the wrong against somebody else. I am sure we do not want to continue carrying memories of the wrong and its associated guilt, but unfortunately, we often do. In fact, it often seems to be infinitely more difficult for us to forgive ourselves than to forgive someone else. So, when are we ever going to lay down the memories of our past transgressions and move on in life?
Sunday, May 01, 2011
佛祖说：石桥禅
阿难对佛祖说 ：我喜欢上了一女子。
佛祖问阿难：你有多喜欢这女子?
阿难说：我愿化身石桥，受那五百年风吹，五百年日晒，五百年雨淋，只求她从桥上经过。
佛祖说:会有多喜欢?
可是一见钟情便倾心一世?
可是不问回报而付出等待？
阿难，某日等那女子从桥上经过，那也便只是经过了，此刻你已化身成了石桥，注定只与风雨厮守。
这一切你都明白，仍旧只为那场遇见而甘受造化之苦。
阿难，你究竟有多喜欢那从桥上经过的女子，令你舍身弃道，甘受情劫之苦？
------------------------------------------------------------
有个年轻美丽的女孩，出身豪门，家产丰厚，又多才多艺，日子过得很好。
媒婆也快把她家的门槛给踩烂了，但她一直不想结婚，因为她觉得还没见到她真正想要嫁的那个男孩。
直到有一天，她去一个庙会散心，于万千拥挤的人群中，看见了一个年轻的男人，不用多说什么，反正女孩觉得那个男人就是她苦苦等待的结果了。
可惜，庙会太挤了， 她无法走到那个男人的身边，就这样眼睁睁的看着那个男人消失在人群中。
后来的两年里，女孩四处去寻找那个男人，但这人就像蒸发了一样，无影无踪。
女孩每天都向佛祖祈祷，希望能再见到那个男人。
她的诚心打动了佛祖，佛祖显灵了。
佛祖说：“你想再看到那个男人吗？”
女孩说：“是的！我只想再看他一眼！”
佛祖：”你要放弃你现在的一切，包括爱你的家人和幸福的生活。”
女孩：“我能放弃！”
佛祖：“你还必须修炼五百年道行，才能见他一面。你不后悔么？”
女孩：“我不后悔！”
女孩变成了一块大石头，躺在荒郊野外，四百多年的风吹日晒，苦不堪言，但女孩都觉得没什么，难受的是这四百多年都没看到一个人，看不见一点点希望，这让她都快崩溃了。
最后一年，一个采石队来了，看中了她的巨大，把她凿成一块巨大的条石，运进了城里，他们正在建一座石桥，于是，女孩变成了石桥的护栏。
就在石桥建成的第一天，女孩就看见了，那个她等了五百年的男人！
他行色匆匆，像有什么急事，很快地从石桥的正中走过了，当然，他不会发觉有一块石头正目不转睛地望着他。
男人又一次消失了，再次出现的是佛祖。
佛祖：“你满意了吗？”
女孩：“不！为什么？为什么我只是桥的护栏？如果我被铺在桥的正中，我就能碰到他了，我就能摸他一下！”
佛祖：“你想摸他一下？那你还得修炼五百年！”
女孩：“我愿意！”
佛祖：“你吃了这么多苦，不后悔？”
女孩：“不后悔！”
女孩变成了一棵大树，立在一条人来人往的官道上，这里每天都有很多人经过，女孩每天都在近处观望，但这更难受，因为无数次满怀希望的看见一个人走来，又无数次希望破灭。
不是有前五百年的修炼，相信女孩早就崩溃了！
日子一天天的过去，女孩的心逐渐平静了，她知道，不到最后一天，他是不会出现的。
又是一个五百年啊！最后一天，女孩知道他会来了，但她的心中竟然不再激动。
来了！他来了！他还是穿着他最喜欢的白色长衫，脸还是那么俊美，女孩痴痴地望着他。
这一次，他没有急匆匆的走过，因为，天太热了。
他注意到路边有一棵大树，那浓密的树荫很诱人，休息一下吧，他这样想。
他走到大树脚下，＊着树根，微微的闭上了双眼，他睡着了。
女孩摸到他了！他就靠在她的身边！
但是，她无法告诉他，这千年的相思。她只有尽力把树荫聚集起来，为他挡住毒辣的阳光。
千年的柔情啊！
男人只是小睡了一刻，因为他还有事要办，他站起身来，拍拍长衫上的灰尘，在动身的前一刻，他抬头看了看这棵大树，又微微地抚摸了一下树干，大概是为了感谢大树为他带来清凉吧。
然后，他头也不回地走了！就在他消失在她的视线的那一刻，佛祖又出现了。
佛祖：“你是不是还想做他的妻子？那你还得修炼……”
女孩平静地打断了佛祖的话：“我是很想，但是不必了。”
佛祖：“哦？”
女孩：“这样已经很好了，爱他，并不一定要做他的妻子。”
佛祖：“哦！”
女孩：“他现在的妻子也像我这样受过苦吗？”
佛祖微微地点点头。
女孩微微一笑：“我也能做到的，但是不必了。”
就在这一刻，女孩发现佛祖微微地叹了一口气，或者是说，佛祖轻轻地松了一口气。
女孩有几分诧异，“佛祖也有心事么？”
佛祖的脸上绽开了一个笑容：“因为这样很好，有个男孩可以少等一千年了，他为了能够看你一眼，已经修炼了两千年。”
佛祖问阿难：你有多喜欢这女子?
阿难说：我愿化身石桥，受那五百年风吹，五百年日晒，五百年雨淋，只求她从桥上经过。
佛祖说:会有多喜欢?
可是一见钟情便倾心一世?
可是不问回报而付出等待？
阿难，某日等那女子从桥上经过，那也便只是经过了，此刻你已化身成了石桥，注定只与风雨厮守。
这一切你都明白，仍旧只为那场遇见而甘受造化之苦。
阿难，你究竟有多喜欢那从桥上经过的女子，令你舍身弃道，甘受情劫之苦？
------------------------------------------------------------
有个年轻美丽的女孩，出身豪门，家产丰厚，又多才多艺，日子过得很好。
媒婆也快把她家的门槛给踩烂了，但她一直不想结婚，因为她觉得还没见到她真正想要嫁的那个男孩。
直到有一天，她去一个庙会散心，于万千拥挤的人群中，看见了一个年轻的男人，不用多说什么，反正女孩觉得那个男人就是她苦苦等待的结果了。
可惜，庙会太挤了， 她无法走到那个男人的身边，就这样眼睁睁的看着那个男人消失在人群中。
后来的两年里，女孩四处去寻找那个男人，但这人就像蒸发了一样，无影无踪。
女孩每天都向佛祖祈祷，希望能再见到那个男人。
她的诚心打动了佛祖，佛祖显灵了。
佛祖说：“你想再看到那个男人吗？”
女孩说：“是的！我只想再看他一眼！”
佛祖：”你要放弃你现在的一切，包括爱你的家人和幸福的生活。”
女孩：“我能放弃！”
佛祖：“你还必须修炼五百年道行，才能见他一面。你不后悔么？”
女孩：“我不后悔！”
女孩变成了一块大石头，躺在荒郊野外，四百多年的风吹日晒，苦不堪言，但女孩都觉得没什么，难受的是这四百多年都没看到一个人，看不见一点点希望，这让她都快崩溃了。
最后一年，一个采石队来了，看中了她的巨大，把她凿成一块巨大的条石，运进了城里，他们正在建一座石桥，于是，女孩变成了石桥的护栏。
就在石桥建成的第一天，女孩就看见了，那个她等了五百年的男人！
他行色匆匆，像有什么急事，很快地从石桥的正中走过了，当然，他不会发觉有一块石头正目不转睛地望着他。
男人又一次消失了，再次出现的是佛祖。
佛祖：“你满意了吗？”
女孩：“不！为什么？为什么我只是桥的护栏？如果我被铺在桥的正中，我就能碰到他了，我就能摸他一下！”
佛祖：“你想摸他一下？那你还得修炼五百年！”
女孩：“我愿意！”
佛祖：“你吃了这么多苦，不后悔？”
女孩：“不后悔！”
女孩变成了一棵大树，立在一条人来人往的官道上，这里每天都有很多人经过，女孩每天都在近处观望，但这更难受，因为无数次满怀希望的看见一个人走来，又无数次希望破灭。
不是有前五百年的修炼，相信女孩早就崩溃了！
日子一天天的过去，女孩的心逐渐平静了，她知道，不到最后一天，他是不会出现的。
又是一个五百年啊！最后一天，女孩知道他会来了，但她的心中竟然不再激动。
来了！他来了！他还是穿着他最喜欢的白色长衫，脸还是那么俊美，女孩痴痴地望着他。
这一次，他没有急匆匆的走过，因为，天太热了。
他注意到路边有一棵大树，那浓密的树荫很诱人，休息一下吧，他这样想。
他走到大树脚下，＊着树根，微微的闭上了双眼，他睡着了。
女孩摸到他了！他就靠在她的身边！
但是，她无法告诉他，这千年的相思。她只有尽力把树荫聚集起来，为他挡住毒辣的阳光。
千年的柔情啊！
男人只是小睡了一刻，因为他还有事要办，他站起身来，拍拍长衫上的灰尘，在动身的前一刻，他抬头看了看这棵大树，又微微地抚摸了一下树干，大概是为了感谢大树为他带来清凉吧。
然后，他头也不回地走了！就在他消失在她的视线的那一刻，佛祖又出现了。
佛祖：“你是不是还想做他的妻子？那你还得修炼……”
女孩平静地打断了佛祖的话：“我是很想，但是不必了。”
佛祖：“哦？”
女孩：“这样已经很好了，爱他，并不一定要做他的妻子。”
佛祖：“哦！”
女孩：“他现在的妻子也像我这样受过苦吗？”
佛祖微微地点点头。
女孩微微一笑：“我也能做到的，但是不必了。”
就在这一刻，女孩发现佛祖微微地叹了一口气，或者是说，佛祖轻轻地松了一口气。
女孩有几分诧异，“佛祖也有心事么？”
佛祖的脸上绽开了一个笑容：“因为这样很好，有个男孩可以少等一千年了，他为了能够看你一眼，已经修炼了两千年。”
Friday, April 01, 2011
Medical Journals - Weight Loss Through Chromium
(By Dr. Al Sears, MD - Taken from the article entitled "Pigs Don't Lie" published in The Doctor's House Call dated 10 February 2011)
If you want to fight fat and keep a lean, muscular body, you can try going to the gym and spending hours and hours lifting, running, spinning…
…or you can use chromium.
Did you know that one study took commercial pigs and fed them chromium, and measured significant fat reduction? They changed nothing else about the pigs … all they did was give them chromium and they got lean. Not only that, but they had an increase in muscle, as well.
Another study at the University of Kentucky found much the same thing. They added chromium to the diet of pigs and got an “increased percentage of muscle and decreased percentage of fat.”
But it’s not just pigs telling the tale of chromium. An Austrian study gave one group of people a calorie-restricted diet and another group chromium for 26 weeks. The people in the chromium group lost just as much weight as the people eating almost nothing. And, like the other studies, they had increased lean muscle mass.
And it gets better. They then gave chromium to the people who had dropped weight through calorie restriction, and those people were able to increase their lean muscle mass without gaining weight back.
Unfortunately, most of us don't get enough chromium through what we eat.
Some of the reasons are:
But a lack of chromium is just one reason why people are overweight.
For instance, you might just have a problem with leptin. Leptin is a hormone that does two things: It sends out the “I’m full” signal to your brain, and it tells the fat inside your cells to break down, so it can be burned as energy.
But foods containing high fructose corn syrup, for example, make you pump out so much leptin that your body eventually ignores the constant “full” signal. Your body thinks it needs to keep eating and storing more fat because it thinks it’s out of energy!
One of the best ways to stop that cycle and keep leptin working normally is with irvingia gabonensis seed extract. Irvingia comes from the forests of West Africa and helps leptin work normally. In fact, in one study, people taking an irvingia extract dropped an average of 28 pounds and 6 inches in just 10 weeks.
Also, sometimes people just eat too much, and that’s the reason they’re overweight. But there are ways to address that, too. One of my favorites is garcinia cambogia, a natural appetite suppressant.
This edible fruit from Asia is full of hydroxycitric acid, which promotes the synthesis of glycogen. When your body produces more glycogen and has enough of it, this helps leptin give the “I’m full” signal.
A study of 60 people taking garcinia at Georgetown University showed a significant decrease of total body weight and total food intake. The people also had a significant increase of serotonin (the “feel good” brain chemical), fat oxidation (fat burning) and cardiovascular benefits.
And if you’ve already got excess fat, an easy way to burn it off is with fucoxanthin.
This extract comes from an edible marine plant and helps you fight fat deposits. In a Japanese study, mice given fucoxanthin had significantly reduced weight in their white adipose tissue – the kind of fat that makes up an oversized waist.
Because those things are so important to getting lean, I’ve created a special formula with just the right amount of chromium, irvingia, garcinia and fucoxanthin to handle all four reasons why people have a hard time getting and staying lean.
Thousands of people are already using this formula to maintain healthy insulin function, help leptin work properly, control appetite and fight fat. They look better and most importantly, feel better!
I want nothing more than for you to experience that for yourself.
If you want to fight fat and keep a lean, muscular body, you can try going to the gym and spending hours and hours lifting, running, spinning…
…or you can use chromium.
Did you know that one study took commercial pigs and fed them chromium, and measured significant fat reduction? They changed nothing else about the pigs … all they did was give them chromium and they got lean. Not only that, but they had an increase in muscle, as well.
Another study at the University of Kentucky found much the same thing. They added chromium to the diet of pigs and got an “increased percentage of muscle and decreased percentage of fat.”
But it’s not just pigs telling the tale of chromium. An Austrian study gave one group of people a calorie-restricted diet and another group chromium for 26 weeks. The people in the chromium group lost just as much weight as the people eating almost nothing. And, like the other studies, they had increased lean muscle mass.
And it gets better. They then gave chromium to the people who had dropped weight through calorie restriction, and those people were able to increase their lean muscle mass without gaining weight back.
Unfortunately, most of us don't get enough chromium through what we eat.
Some of the reasons are:
- Modern nutrition advice – It tells you to eat mostly grains and lean meat, which gives you little chromium. One study showed that 90 percent of Americans aren't getting enough chromium through our food.
- Junk food – Most of the snacks available are full of sugar which can form phytic acid. This binds to chromium and prevents it from being absorbed.
- Fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides – These are used on our crops and deplete them of important trace minerals like chromium.
- Stomach medications – Antacids block chromium absorption.
- Age – As you get older, it gets tougher to retain chromium.
But a lack of chromium is just one reason why people are overweight.
For instance, you might just have a problem with leptin. Leptin is a hormone that does two things: It sends out the “I’m full” signal to your brain, and it tells the fat inside your cells to break down, so it can be burned as energy.
But foods containing high fructose corn syrup, for example, make you pump out so much leptin that your body eventually ignores the constant “full” signal. Your body thinks it needs to keep eating and storing more fat because it thinks it’s out of energy!
One of the best ways to stop that cycle and keep leptin working normally is with irvingia gabonensis seed extract. Irvingia comes from the forests of West Africa and helps leptin work normally. In fact, in one study, people taking an irvingia extract dropped an average of 28 pounds and 6 inches in just 10 weeks.
Also, sometimes people just eat too much, and that’s the reason they’re overweight. But there are ways to address that, too. One of my favorites is garcinia cambogia, a natural appetite suppressant.
This edible fruit from Asia is full of hydroxycitric acid, which promotes the synthesis of glycogen. When your body produces more glycogen and has enough of it, this helps leptin give the “I’m full” signal.
A study of 60 people taking garcinia at Georgetown University showed a significant decrease of total body weight and total food intake. The people also had a significant increase of serotonin (the “feel good” brain chemical), fat oxidation (fat burning) and cardiovascular benefits.
And if you’ve already got excess fat, an easy way to burn it off is with fucoxanthin.
This extract comes from an edible marine plant and helps you fight fat deposits. In a Japanese study, mice given fucoxanthin had significantly reduced weight in their white adipose tissue – the kind of fat that makes up an oversized waist.
Because those things are so important to getting lean, I’ve created a special formula with just the right amount of chromium, irvingia, garcinia and fucoxanthin to handle all four reasons why people have a hard time getting and staying lean.
Thousands of people are already using this formula to maintain healthy insulin function, help leptin work properly, control appetite and fight fat. They look better and most importantly, feel better!
I want nothing more than for you to experience that for yourself.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
How the earthquake changed our brains (and how we think)
(By Norma Gentile)
- Reproduced from Norma Gentile's original newsletter: First published on 16 March 2011 at http://www.healingchants.com/newsletter3b-11.html)
It wasn't just an Earthquake. Nor was it just a tsunami. Nor is it even the ongoing nuclear meltdowns. The electromagnetic field of the planet shifted. It happened in the hours just before the Earthquake and for several hours after the Earthquake. And because of that, our brains and the way we think have changed.
What does that mean?
Simply put; you can't think the same thoughts this week that you thought last week. The physical shift of the Earth made more concrete within our own bodies whatever change was necessary so that our thought patterns will not regress. That is a gift to all of humanity from those now enduring hardship and loss in Japan.
There are thoughts that are very hard for us to entertain now, after the quake. These same thoughts were ones we considered normal to have before the quake. There is a deeper quality of compassion and less judgment. A deeper reflection and stillness that we either yearn for or are taking steps to find and cultivate now. Our brain's function has shifted. We have lost some of our memory. The kind of memory that tells our computer where we were the last time we opened a web browser. We can no longer access it. There is no going back. We are not who we were.
The electromagnetic field that surrounds the Earth is both generated by the Earth as well as all the living beings who are present upon and within the Earth. As my definition of living beings I'm including plants, animals, minerals and all that humanity has created. Including nuclear power plants. These power plants emit electromagnetic fields. To a lesser extent the electrical lines in my backyard that bring electricity into my house, along with my phone lines and even cable TV lines, also generate small electromagnetic fields. As a result, the larger EM field of the planet is impacted by these smaller EM fields.
My guides were suggesting I think of this like acupuncture. If the planet is the body of the patient, then the planetary electromagnetic field is the energetic body of the patient. The nuclear reactors are needles being inserted into the patient's body; in this case the Earth. If someone randomly inserts needles into someone's body, chances are they won't hit any major acupuncture points, or hit enough minor points that relate to each other in a way to disturb the flow of energy in any given meridian. Any disruption in the meridians or chi of the patient that does occur due to needles being inserted randomly the patient's own body will restore within a few hours or days, once the needles are removed.
In the case of our planet, the nuclear reactors and similarly large producers of electromagnetic fields have been plunked down upon the planet. But they are not spread out evenly. They are clustered into certain regions and in lines up and down the coasts of Japan and the east coast of the US. Where the reactors exist in these lines, it is possible that they are forming secondary energy meridians, with each reactor functioning as a potent nodal point. These secondary energy meridians exist alongside the natural energy meridians of the Earth. Where they are clustered, they are creating secondary nodal points.
My wondering goes perhaps a bit differently here than what you might expect. I wonder if Earth's energies and Gaia's consciousness feels these secondary meridians and might be incorporating them to catapult the change in human consciousness? That is to say, what humanity has built is not wrong. It is being used in a manner we didn't anticipate to help us spring more quickly into a new way of viewing and interacting with our Earth. And we may not find this comfortable. Perhaps this discomfort will motivate us to seek within ourselves that still center point. Or plant a garden. Or call a dear friend.
At about the same moment the Earth shrugged her shoulder under the island of Japan, my own body sighed deeply. Months of a tension which had slowly built up inside of my core released as I turned from my computer screen to reach some papers behind me. It was an emotional energy and a sigh and a question mark, all pulsing up and out and into the space around me.
It was also a surprise. Before I gathered my thoughts, the energy had gone from the room. And the uneasiness I had been feeling inside of my body was gone. Completely. It was not mine. It had grown so slowly that I had not even thought to ask the tension if it was mine. Like most of us who feel things going on inside of us, I assumed that the sensation was mine. But it wasn't. It was the Earth's.
Our bodies are resonant to the physical Earth. Although we may have blocked it, we have the ability to be telepathic with the Earth. Many people find it easier to be telepathic in their emotions. They know they are resonant with the grief, fear and pain they see on the television. Others are now resonant with the Earth, as she builds up tension and then releases it. Just as we are on a journey, so is Gaia, whose body is the physical Earth.
N.B. Norma Gentile, a soprano as well as a Sound Sharman, is also a recording artist of four solo musical CDs, 10 Meditation and Teaching CDs, an energy healer and channeler. She receives information for individuals in healing sessions, and written transmissions from Archangel Michael, Mary and Thoth which she shares in her news-lettters and articles. As a singer of healing music, she works with the Hathors and Hildegard. Her works can be found at the following site: http://www.healingchants.com/. At the site, you will be able to hear as background music "Three Beauties Create Sacred Space" from Norma's latest album "Songs of Spirit".
- Reproduced from Norma Gentile's original newsletter: First published on 16 March 2011 at http://www.healingchants.com/newsletter3b-11.html)
It wasn't just an Earthquake. Nor was it just a tsunami. Nor is it even the ongoing nuclear meltdowns. The electromagnetic field of the planet shifted. It happened in the hours just before the Earthquake and for several hours after the Earthquake. And because of that, our brains and the way we think have changed.
What does that mean?
Simply put; you can't think the same thoughts this week that you thought last week. The physical shift of the Earth made more concrete within our own bodies whatever change was necessary so that our thought patterns will not regress. That is a gift to all of humanity from those now enduring hardship and loss in Japan.
There are thoughts that are very hard for us to entertain now, after the quake. These same thoughts were ones we considered normal to have before the quake. There is a deeper quality of compassion and less judgment. A deeper reflection and stillness that we either yearn for or are taking steps to find and cultivate now. Our brain's function has shifted. We have lost some of our memory. The kind of memory that tells our computer where we were the last time we opened a web browser. We can no longer access it. There is no going back. We are not who we were.
The electromagnetic field that surrounds the Earth is both generated by the Earth as well as all the living beings who are present upon and within the Earth. As my definition of living beings I'm including plants, animals, minerals and all that humanity has created. Including nuclear power plants. These power plants emit electromagnetic fields. To a lesser extent the electrical lines in my backyard that bring electricity into my house, along with my phone lines and even cable TV lines, also generate small electromagnetic fields. As a result, the larger EM field of the planet is impacted by these smaller EM fields.
My guides were suggesting I think of this like acupuncture. If the planet is the body of the patient, then the planetary electromagnetic field is the energetic body of the patient. The nuclear reactors are needles being inserted into the patient's body; in this case the Earth. If someone randomly inserts needles into someone's body, chances are they won't hit any major acupuncture points, or hit enough minor points that relate to each other in a way to disturb the flow of energy in any given meridian. Any disruption in the meridians or chi of the patient that does occur due to needles being inserted randomly the patient's own body will restore within a few hours or days, once the needles are removed.
In the case of our planet, the nuclear reactors and similarly large producers of electromagnetic fields have been plunked down upon the planet. But they are not spread out evenly. They are clustered into certain regions and in lines up and down the coasts of Japan and the east coast of the US. Where the reactors exist in these lines, it is possible that they are forming secondary energy meridians, with each reactor functioning as a potent nodal point. These secondary energy meridians exist alongside the natural energy meridians of the Earth. Where they are clustered, they are creating secondary nodal points.
My wondering goes perhaps a bit differently here than what you might expect. I wonder if Earth's energies and Gaia's consciousness feels these secondary meridians and might be incorporating them to catapult the change in human consciousness? That is to say, what humanity has built is not wrong. It is being used in a manner we didn't anticipate to help us spring more quickly into a new way of viewing and interacting with our Earth. And we may not find this comfortable. Perhaps this discomfort will motivate us to seek within ourselves that still center point. Or plant a garden. Or call a dear friend.
At about the same moment the Earth shrugged her shoulder under the island of Japan, my own body sighed deeply. Months of a tension which had slowly built up inside of my core released as I turned from my computer screen to reach some papers behind me. It was an emotional energy and a sigh and a question mark, all pulsing up and out and into the space around me.
It was also a surprise. Before I gathered my thoughts, the energy had gone from the room. And the uneasiness I had been feeling inside of my body was gone. Completely. It was not mine. It had grown so slowly that I had not even thought to ask the tension if it was mine. Like most of us who feel things going on inside of us, I assumed that the sensation was mine. But it wasn't. It was the Earth's.
Our bodies are resonant to the physical Earth. Although we may have blocked it, we have the ability to be telepathic with the Earth. Many people find it easier to be telepathic in their emotions. They know they are resonant with the grief, fear and pain they see on the television. Others are now resonant with the Earth, as she builds up tension and then releases it. Just as we are on a journey, so is Gaia, whose body is the physical Earth.
N.B. Norma Gentile, a soprano as well as a Sound Sharman, is also a recording artist of four solo musical CDs, 10 Meditation and Teaching CDs, an energy healer and channeler. She receives information for individuals in healing sessions, and written transmissions from Archangel Michael, Mary and Thoth which she shares in her news-lettters and articles. As a singer of healing music, she works with the Hathors and Hildegard. Her works can be found at the following site: http://www.healingchants.com/. At the site, you will be able to hear as background music "Three Beauties Create Sacred Space" from Norma's latest album "Songs of Spirit".
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Early To Rise - Winner Take All? The Yin and Yang of Negotiating
(By Michael Masterson)
Sid had done it. He had convinced the IRS agent to forgive the mistake my partner Joel and I had made. He had spent three weeks with the guy, working mornings, golfing with him in the afternoon, and taking him out to dinner.
If the IRS had stuck to their ridiculous position, it would have cost us $10 million. But Sid's logic and diligence and charm had persuaded one of its bulldogs to do the right thing.
A month later, Sid's bill crossed my desk. It was for $85,000. "That's odd," I thought. "I could have sworn Sid was billing us by the hour."
Had he done so, the bill would probably not have exceeded $15,000. Still, $85,000 was a small price to pay for the service he had provided. I signed the invoice and sent it on to my partner.
The next day, Joel called me into his office.
"You saw his bill."
"Yes, I signed it."
"I saw that. But you know he was supposed to bill us by the hour."
"Yes, I know. But what he did was worth a lot more than eighty-five grand."
"Maybe so, but that wasn't our deal."
I shrugged.
"We have to bring him in and negotiate his bill."
"Okay."
"But we have to plan this thing. We have to rehearse."
"Plan? Rehearse? I don't get it. You are the best negotiator I know. Everyone in the business is afraid to negotiate with you. Why do we need to plan for Sid?"
He shook his head. "You don't know Sid," he said. "He taught me to negotiate."
Three or four times over the following week, Joel and I rehearsed our lines. Joel was going to take the strong line. I was going to be the objective outsider.
When the day arrived, Joel had a small wooden stool placed in front of his desk.
"That's where he'll sit," he told me.
The only thing missing was a spotlight.
Sid, 75 years old and about 110 pounds at the time, sauntered in wearing his tennis togs. His bony knees and skinny calves almost broke my heart.
"Have a seat," Joel, said, motioning to the wooden stool.
Sid sat. And then we began our practiced pitch. First Joel. Then me. Then back to Joel again. All the while, Sid sat there like a deer caught in the headlights. His eyes were wide. His flesh was white. His hands seemed to tremble.
Surely we were killing the old man, I thought. This was the cruelest thing I had ever done. Surely I would burn in hell.
But we persisted. And Sid said nothing.
When it was all over, he just stared at us for a full 30 seconds. And then he said, "I have only one question for you, boys."
We said, "What is that?"
And he said, "Did you think $85,000 was the entire bill?!"
I swear. That's what he said.
We spent the next 45 minutes negotiating. And we settled at $115,000.
Sid taught Joel to negotiate and Joel taught me. Sid and Joel viewed negotiating as a contest of power. The object was to gain as much of an advantage as you could by using every means at your disposal.
And Then I Met Bill
I've read many books on negotiating that advocated that same approach. But it never felt comfortable to me. I didn't understood why until I became a colleague of Bill Bonner.
Bill Bonner, as you probably know, is the founder and CEO of Agora Publishing.
Agora has been my primary client now for more than 15 years. During that time, I've seen it grow from a handful of employees with revenues of $8 million to a worldwide publishing powerhouse with nearly a thousand employees and revenues in the $400 million range.
I have witnessed Bill negotiating at least two dozen times. But I have never seen him do any of the clever things Joel taught me. When you negotiate with Bill, you have one of two conversations:
Conversation One:
Bill: Well, Frank, How much do you want for it?
Frank: Oh, I figure it's worth about $X million.
Bill: Well, Frank, that seems reasonable to me.
Conversation Two:
Bill: Well, Frank, How much do you want for it?
Frank: Oh, I figure it's worth about $X million.
Bill: Gee, Frank. I'm sorry but I don't think I can pay that much.
End of conversation.
I'm not kidding.
The amazing thing about Bill's low-key approach to negotiating is how well it works. People in the industry know that (a) he will never bully them, (b) he will never cheat them, and (c) he isn't a fool.
The difference between Bill's way and Joel's way is the difference between yin and yang.
The Yin Negotiator wants to achieve a mutually beneficial relationship. He is looking for a long-term partner so he doesn't care about short-term advantages.
The Yang Negotiator is not interested in the long-term. He sees his negotiating counterpart as an opponent, and believes that success comes one victory at a time.
How Much Yin and How Much Yang?
When negotiating a deal, how hard should you push for an advantage?
Should you play the competition game and get as much as you can? Or should you take a softer approach and "take care of" the other guy, even if he isn't taking care of himself?
What should you do if you discover a benefit or cost in the deal that the other guy isn't aware of? Do you bring it up? Or figure "If he's too stupid to notice, he doesn't deserve to know."
Let's answer these questions today.
When you think of business as a war and arm yourself accordingly, you can win plenty of battles. But as the years roll by and the battlefields change along with technology, all military approaches - however clever or powerful - fail.
Yes, you can fight your way to the top of the mountain when you are young and strong. But nobody stays on top forever.
Remember that old saw: Be nice to the people you meet on the way up, because they will be the same ones you meet on the way down.
So long as you maintain an edge, you can take advantage of it. But the minute you lose ground, you will slide onto a slippery downhill slope - greased by the bitterness of the many people who secretly resent you for past transgressions.
More important, perhaps, it takes a great deal of energy and cunning to do business as a Yang Negotiator. You must work just as hard for the next deal as you did for the last. However, when you negotiate with yin principles, you create trust. And trust makes it much easier to do good deals as time goes by.
The Yang Negotiator's view of the world is based on at least two fundamentally faulty ideas. One is that power is static: He who is stronger now will be stronger in the future. Another is that wealth is a commodity: It is something limited as opposed to something organic that can grow.
Mother bakes an apple pie. She cuts it into four pieces, one for each of her children. Since Mom has not used a protractor along with her knife, the pieces are not exactly the same. "I will be better off if I get the largest piece," the Yang Negotiator thinks. So he abandons his manners and grabs for it first. He gets the biggest piece but loses the trust of his siblings.
The Yang Negotiator thinks he is smart, but actually he is half-blind.
He doesn't realize that Mom will be making lots more pies. And when she does, the other children will remember that he had the biggest piece the first time. If he is bigger and stronger than they are, he will keep "winning" for a while. But Mother Nature has a surprise in store for him. His peers are going to start to become faster than he is. And then he will get the little piece. Or he might even go hungry.
When I get into a deal, I don't want the other guy to feel as if he's been taken advantage of. I don't want that to happen for three reasons - two of them practical and one philosophical.
First of all, I believe that someone who feels he's been bested by me will quietly assign an emotional marker to my butt that says "You'll get yours one day."
Second, I believe that if I get known as a tough guy to do business with, the number of people who will bring me good deals will diminish and the pool will eventually dry up completely.
And, finally, I think that, in the great scheme of things, everything eventually balances out with interest. If I give you something today, I'll get something back from someone - plus interest - some years hence. If I take something from you now, I'll pay the price for it - with interest - in the future.
If you see things the way I do, you really, really don't want to take advantage of anyone. You'd rather be the one taken advantage of.
From what I've said, you might conclude that I discount what Joel taught me in favor of Bill's way. But the truth is that I have applied lessons from each of them. My overall strategy is definitely yin. But I do sometimes use yang tactics when I believe they will help create a fairer deal (fairer to both of us.)
For example, I never go into a negotiation unprepared. (Joel taught me that.) I always spend time thinking about what I want from the deal. But instead of simply imagining how much I can get, I think long-term. If this deal turns into a lifetime relationship, how much can I get from it?
I also spend as much time - sometimes more - thinking about what the other guy wants. I imagine what he may want in the short-term and what he could get if we had a relationship that lasted many years.
I make a mental note of all these things. Sometimes, when it is complicated, I write them down.
I also spend some time thinking about what would happen if the deal did not take place. I try to visualize it as clearly as I can. I try to imagine how I would feel.
If I sense that I will be very disappointed, I come up with a Plan B. (I've written about Plan Bs many times in the past, including last week.) By devising a Plan B, I can go into the discussion knowing that if we can't agree I won't care. Not caring is the most valuable asset one can have in negotiating. Joel taught me that.
Now back to the questions I posed before:
Question: When negotiating a deal, how hard should you push for an advantage?
Answer: Don't push at all. Make your case as clearly as you can. Show your counterpart how the deal will benefit him. But if he doesn't agree, walk away.
Question: Should you play the competition game and get as much as you can? Or should you take a softer approach and "take care of" the other guy, even if he isn't taking care of himself?
Answer: See above.
Question: What should you do if you discover a benefit or cost in the deal that the other guy isn't aware of? Do you bring it up? Or figure "If he's too stupid to notice, he doesn't deserve to know."
Answer: You are interested in a long-term relationship. Tell him about his oversight. Reap the benefit of the trust that will engender.
Some of my friends tell me that I am too "nice" when it comes to making deals. When they hear that someone I've helped get rich does something chintzy to me, they scold me and tell me to get tough.
But none of these doubters have enjoyed as much success as I've had in business. And none of them have as many longstanding positive business relationships.
There is a way to negotiate well without being a bully. And there is a way to win without seeing the world as a contest over getting the biggest piece of a pie.
By taking a long-term approach to negotiating, wealth and success will come easier and easier. That seems to me to be a smart way to do business. Don't you think?
Sid had done it. He had convinced the IRS agent to forgive the mistake my partner Joel and I had made. He had spent three weeks with the guy, working mornings, golfing with him in the afternoon, and taking him out to dinner.
If the IRS had stuck to their ridiculous position, it would have cost us $10 million. But Sid's logic and diligence and charm had persuaded one of its bulldogs to do the right thing.
A month later, Sid's bill crossed my desk. It was for $85,000. "That's odd," I thought. "I could have sworn Sid was billing us by the hour."
Had he done so, the bill would probably not have exceeded $15,000. Still, $85,000 was a small price to pay for the service he had provided. I signed the invoice and sent it on to my partner.
The next day, Joel called me into his office.
"You saw his bill."
"Yes, I signed it."
"I saw that. But you know he was supposed to bill us by the hour."
"Yes, I know. But what he did was worth a lot more than eighty-five grand."
"Maybe so, but that wasn't our deal."
I shrugged.
"We have to bring him in and negotiate his bill."
"Okay."
"But we have to plan this thing. We have to rehearse."
"Plan? Rehearse? I don't get it. You are the best negotiator I know. Everyone in the business is afraid to negotiate with you. Why do we need to plan for Sid?"
He shook his head. "You don't know Sid," he said. "He taught me to negotiate."
Three or four times over the following week, Joel and I rehearsed our lines. Joel was going to take the strong line. I was going to be the objective outsider.
When the day arrived, Joel had a small wooden stool placed in front of his desk.
"That's where he'll sit," he told me.
The only thing missing was a spotlight.
Sid, 75 years old and about 110 pounds at the time, sauntered in wearing his tennis togs. His bony knees and skinny calves almost broke my heart.
"Have a seat," Joel, said, motioning to the wooden stool.
Sid sat. And then we began our practiced pitch. First Joel. Then me. Then back to Joel again. All the while, Sid sat there like a deer caught in the headlights. His eyes were wide. His flesh was white. His hands seemed to tremble.
Surely we were killing the old man, I thought. This was the cruelest thing I had ever done. Surely I would burn in hell.
But we persisted. And Sid said nothing.
When it was all over, he just stared at us for a full 30 seconds. And then he said, "I have only one question for you, boys."
We said, "What is that?"
And he said, "Did you think $85,000 was the entire bill?!"
I swear. That's what he said.
We spent the next 45 minutes negotiating. And we settled at $115,000.
Sid taught Joel to negotiate and Joel taught me. Sid and Joel viewed negotiating as a contest of power. The object was to gain as much of an advantage as you could by using every means at your disposal.
And Then I Met Bill
I've read many books on negotiating that advocated that same approach. But it never felt comfortable to me. I didn't understood why until I became a colleague of Bill Bonner.
Bill Bonner, as you probably know, is the founder and CEO of Agora Publishing.
Agora has been my primary client now for more than 15 years. During that time, I've seen it grow from a handful of employees with revenues of $8 million to a worldwide publishing powerhouse with nearly a thousand employees and revenues in the $400 million range.
I have witnessed Bill negotiating at least two dozen times. But I have never seen him do any of the clever things Joel taught me. When you negotiate with Bill, you have one of two conversations:
Conversation One:
Bill: Well, Frank, How much do you want for it?
Frank: Oh, I figure it's worth about $X million.
Bill: Well, Frank, that seems reasonable to me.
Conversation Two:
Bill: Well, Frank, How much do you want for it?
Frank: Oh, I figure it's worth about $X million.
Bill: Gee, Frank. I'm sorry but I don't think I can pay that much.
End of conversation.
I'm not kidding.
The amazing thing about Bill's low-key approach to negotiating is how well it works. People in the industry know that (a) he will never bully them, (b) he will never cheat them, and (c) he isn't a fool.
The difference between Bill's way and Joel's way is the difference between yin and yang.
The Yin Negotiator wants to achieve a mutually beneficial relationship. He is looking for a long-term partner so he doesn't care about short-term advantages.
The Yang Negotiator is not interested in the long-term. He sees his negotiating counterpart as an opponent, and believes that success comes one victory at a time.
How Much Yin and How Much Yang?
When negotiating a deal, how hard should you push for an advantage?
Should you play the competition game and get as much as you can? Or should you take a softer approach and "take care of" the other guy, even if he isn't taking care of himself?
What should you do if you discover a benefit or cost in the deal that the other guy isn't aware of? Do you bring it up? Or figure "If he's too stupid to notice, he doesn't deserve to know."
Let's answer these questions today.
When you think of business as a war and arm yourself accordingly, you can win plenty of battles. But as the years roll by and the battlefields change along with technology, all military approaches - however clever or powerful - fail.
Yes, you can fight your way to the top of the mountain when you are young and strong. But nobody stays on top forever.
Remember that old saw: Be nice to the people you meet on the way up, because they will be the same ones you meet on the way down.
So long as you maintain an edge, you can take advantage of it. But the minute you lose ground, you will slide onto a slippery downhill slope - greased by the bitterness of the many people who secretly resent you for past transgressions.
More important, perhaps, it takes a great deal of energy and cunning to do business as a Yang Negotiator. You must work just as hard for the next deal as you did for the last. However, when you negotiate with yin principles, you create trust. And trust makes it much easier to do good deals as time goes by.
The Yang Negotiator's view of the world is based on at least two fundamentally faulty ideas. One is that power is static: He who is stronger now will be stronger in the future. Another is that wealth is a commodity: It is something limited as opposed to something organic that can grow.
Mother bakes an apple pie. She cuts it into four pieces, one for each of her children. Since Mom has not used a protractor along with her knife, the pieces are not exactly the same. "I will be better off if I get the largest piece," the Yang Negotiator thinks. So he abandons his manners and grabs for it first. He gets the biggest piece but loses the trust of his siblings.
The Yang Negotiator thinks he is smart, but actually he is half-blind.
He doesn't realize that Mom will be making lots more pies. And when she does, the other children will remember that he had the biggest piece the first time. If he is bigger and stronger than they are, he will keep "winning" for a while. But Mother Nature has a surprise in store for him. His peers are going to start to become faster than he is. And then he will get the little piece. Or he might even go hungry.
When I get into a deal, I don't want the other guy to feel as if he's been taken advantage of. I don't want that to happen for three reasons - two of them practical and one philosophical.
First of all, I believe that someone who feels he's been bested by me will quietly assign an emotional marker to my butt that says "You'll get yours one day."
Second, I believe that if I get known as a tough guy to do business with, the number of people who will bring me good deals will diminish and the pool will eventually dry up completely.
And, finally, I think that, in the great scheme of things, everything eventually balances out with interest. If I give you something today, I'll get something back from someone - plus interest - some years hence. If I take something from you now, I'll pay the price for it - with interest - in the future.
If you see things the way I do, you really, really don't want to take advantage of anyone. You'd rather be the one taken advantage of.
From what I've said, you might conclude that I discount what Joel taught me in favor of Bill's way. But the truth is that I have applied lessons from each of them. My overall strategy is definitely yin. But I do sometimes use yang tactics when I believe they will help create a fairer deal (fairer to both of us.)
For example, I never go into a negotiation unprepared. (Joel taught me that.) I always spend time thinking about what I want from the deal. But instead of simply imagining how much I can get, I think long-term. If this deal turns into a lifetime relationship, how much can I get from it?
I also spend as much time - sometimes more - thinking about what the other guy wants. I imagine what he may want in the short-term and what he could get if we had a relationship that lasted many years.
I make a mental note of all these things. Sometimes, when it is complicated, I write them down.
I also spend some time thinking about what would happen if the deal did not take place. I try to visualize it as clearly as I can. I try to imagine how I would feel.
If I sense that I will be very disappointed, I come up with a Plan B. (I've written about Plan Bs many times in the past, including last week.) By devising a Plan B, I can go into the discussion knowing that if we can't agree I won't care. Not caring is the most valuable asset one can have in negotiating. Joel taught me that.
Now back to the questions I posed before:
Question: When negotiating a deal, how hard should you push for an advantage?
Answer: Don't push at all. Make your case as clearly as you can. Show your counterpart how the deal will benefit him. But if he doesn't agree, walk away.
Question: Should you play the competition game and get as much as you can? Or should you take a softer approach and "take care of" the other guy, even if he isn't taking care of himself?
Answer: See above.
Question: What should you do if you discover a benefit or cost in the deal that the other guy isn't aware of? Do you bring it up? Or figure "If he's too stupid to notice, he doesn't deserve to know."
Answer: You are interested in a long-term relationship. Tell him about his oversight. Reap the benefit of the trust that will engender.
Some of my friends tell me that I am too "nice" when it comes to making deals. When they hear that someone I've helped get rich does something chintzy to me, they scold me and tell me to get tough.
But none of these doubters have enjoyed as much success as I've had in business. And none of them have as many longstanding positive business relationships.
There is a way to negotiate well without being a bully. And there is a way to win without seeing the world as a contest over getting the biggest piece of a pie.
By taking a long-term approach to negotiating, wealth and success will come easier and easier. That seems to me to be a smart way to do business. Don't you think?
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Medical Journals - Deep Breathing
(By the Underground Health Reporter)
Didi you know that deep breathing is the single most powerful daily practice for advancing your health and well-being?
It might seem unusual, especially to people in America and the western world to regard the simple act of breathing as being an activity that enhances health. That's because most of us think breathing is nothing more than an automatic, involuntary mechanism that our body does in order to stay alive.
Special breathing techniques, such as those practiced in in ancient cultures and certain Eastern disciplines (such as yoga), have remained largely a mystery to Western civilization. What Westerners often don't realize is that when we turn our attention to our breath -- and increase the volume of our breath -- beneficial physiological mechanisms are triggered that have a significant effect on health.
For example, when volume, rate and attention level are altered in the practice of breathing, dramatic physiological, and even emotional, changes can and do occur.
According to Roger Jahnke, O.M.D., author of The Healer Within, "The breath is a link to the most profound medicine that we carry within us. Within this nearly unconscious gesture, a breath, that we enact 1,261,440,000 (1 and 1/4 billion) times in our life span there is a simple yet profound healing capability."
Various advocates of breathwork offer different breathing techniques and practices, such as full chest and abdominal breathing or alternate nostril breathing. The one I have been using since 1997 is one called Vital Breathing. It involves inhaling, holding the breath, and exhaling in the following sequence:
If you do 10 repetitions of this breathing exercise 3 times a day (morning, evening and just before bedtime), 5 to 10 minutes a day, you will experience a noticeable shift in your energy level, your mental clarity and your body's ability to prevent and heal diseases.
One of the main reasons why this breathing exercise delivers many health benefits is because the combined action of the lungs, diaphragm and thorax serve as a 'pump' for the lymph fluid.
The lymphatic system is often referred to as the sewage system of the body. It cleans up the waste created by virtually all the other systems of the body. The human body has twice as much lymph fluid than it has blood. But unlike the circulatory system, which has the heart to keep the blood flowing, the lymphatic system does not have a 'pump' to push the lymph fluids around the body. It relies on our breathing and movement in order to perform its function of surrounding every cell in the body; protecting each one by removing dead cells, blood proteins and any other toxins; and excreting them from the body. If the movement of the lymph were to stop entirely for 24 hours, one would die as a result of the trapped toxins and proteins surrounding our cells.
The practice of Vital Breathing creates the muscular movement required by the lymphatic system to circulate the lymph fluid efficiently. A lymphatic system that is functioning properly supports every other system in the body, including the immune, digestive, detoxification and nervous systems. A sluggish lymphatic system and stagnant lymph fluid, on the other hand, makes the body susceptible to infections, diseases and health conditions ranging from cancer, AIDS, tumor growth, cysts, impaired immune system ... all the way down to cellulite.
Didi you know that deep breathing is the single most powerful daily practice for advancing your health and well-being?
It might seem unusual, especially to people in America and the western world to regard the simple act of breathing as being an activity that enhances health. That's because most of us think breathing is nothing more than an automatic, involuntary mechanism that our body does in order to stay alive.
Special breathing techniques, such as those practiced in in ancient cultures and certain Eastern disciplines (such as yoga), have remained largely a mystery to Western civilization. What Westerners often don't realize is that when we turn our attention to our breath -- and increase the volume of our breath -- beneficial physiological mechanisms are triggered that have a significant effect on health.
For example, when volume, rate and attention level are altered in the practice of breathing, dramatic physiological, and even emotional, changes can and do occur.
According to Roger Jahnke, O.M.D., author of The Healer Within, "The breath is a link to the most profound medicine that we carry within us. Within this nearly unconscious gesture, a breath, that we enact 1,261,440,000 (1 and 1/4 billion) times in our life span there is a simple yet profound healing capability."
Various advocates of breathwork offer different breathing techniques and practices, such as full chest and abdominal breathing or alternate nostril breathing. The one I have been using since 1997 is one called Vital Breathing. It involves inhaling, holding the breath, and exhaling in the following sequence:
- Inhale for 1 count
- Hold the breath for 4 counts
- Exhale for 2 counts
If you do 10 repetitions of this breathing exercise 3 times a day (morning, evening and just before bedtime), 5 to 10 minutes a day, you will experience a noticeable shift in your energy level, your mental clarity and your body's ability to prevent and heal diseases.
One of the main reasons why this breathing exercise delivers many health benefits is because the combined action of the lungs, diaphragm and thorax serve as a 'pump' for the lymph fluid.
The lymphatic system is often referred to as the sewage system of the body. It cleans up the waste created by virtually all the other systems of the body. The human body has twice as much lymph fluid than it has blood. But unlike the circulatory system, which has the heart to keep the blood flowing, the lymphatic system does not have a 'pump' to push the lymph fluids around the body. It relies on our breathing and movement in order to perform its function of surrounding every cell in the body; protecting each one by removing dead cells, blood proteins and any other toxins; and excreting them from the body. If the movement of the lymph were to stop entirely for 24 hours, one would die as a result of the trapped toxins and proteins surrounding our cells.
The practice of Vital Breathing creates the muscular movement required by the lymphatic system to circulate the lymph fluid efficiently. A lymphatic system that is functioning properly supports every other system in the body, including the immune, digestive, detoxification and nervous systems. A sluggish lymphatic system and stagnant lymph fluid, on the other hand, makes the body susceptible to infections, diseases and health conditions ranging from cancer, AIDS, tumor growth, cysts, impaired immune system ... all the way down to cellulite.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Random Thoughts: Wittgenstein's Ruler - To Judge Or Not To Judge
I read "Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets" by the esteemed Nassim Nicholas Taleb a while ago. In the process, I recall chancing upon a probabilistic mechanism referred to as the "Wittgenstein’s Ruler". I think it can be applied to explain the relationship between a person passing judgment on someone (the "judgor") and the someone being judged on (the "judgee").
Taleb says: "Unless the source of a statement has extremely high qualifications, the statement will be more revealing of the author than the information intended by him. This applies to matters of judgment. According to Wittgenstein's ruler: Unless you have confidence in the ruler's reliability, if you use a ruler to measure a table you may also be using the table to measure the ruler. The less you trust the ruler's reliability, the more information you are getting about the ruler and the less about the table. A practical example of Wittgenstein's ruler is: The information from an anonymous reader on Amazon.com is all about the person, while that of a qualified person, is going to be all about the book."
In the case of the judgor versus the judgee, unless the judgor has impeccable credentials and expertise in the area he is passing judgment on, his statement would normally be more revealing of himself than on the subject matter being judged. And more often than not, it would be his subjective bigotry on the subject matter that is revealed.
Taleb says: "Unless the source of a statement has extremely high qualifications, the statement will be more revealing of the author than the information intended by him. This applies to matters of judgment. According to Wittgenstein's ruler: Unless you have confidence in the ruler's reliability, if you use a ruler to measure a table you may also be using the table to measure the ruler. The less you trust the ruler's reliability, the more information you are getting about the ruler and the less about the table. A practical example of Wittgenstein's ruler is: The information from an anonymous reader on Amazon.com is all about the person, while that of a qualified person, is going to be all about the book."
In the case of the judgor versus the judgee, unless the judgor has impeccable credentials and expertise in the area he is passing judgment on, his statement would normally be more revealing of himself than on the subject matter being judged. And more often than not, it would be his subjective bigotry on the subject matter that is revealed.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Medical Journals - Correlation between Cholesterol Count & Heart Disease
(By Dr. Al Sears, MD - Taken from an article entitled "What Is It About This Number?" published in The Doctor's House Call dated 19 January 2011)
Did you know there is no scientifically valid correlation between your total cholesterol count and the likelihood that you’ll develop heart disease?
But you and everyone else with a TV have been coerced into believing “high” cholesterol is bad for your heart.
It’s what drug companies want you to believe. They’ve become among the biggest corporations in the world by convincing you that you need their drug “cures” for cholesterol, depression, high blood pressure …
Meanwhile most of these drugs are really just treatments you have to take for the rest of your life. Their goal is to profit from your health, not cure you.
For example, how does the modern “health” industry explain the fact that 75 percent of the people who suffer heart attacks have normal total cholesterol?
The truth is, as long as your HDL is high enough, you have little if any risk of heart disease.
The Framingham Heart Study has been ongoing since the 1940s. It’s considered the most reliable data on heart disease because it has no interference from drug companies.
It has proved over the last 60 years that high levels of HDLs are directly related to a lower risk of heart disease.
Not only that, but it’s showed that raising HDL can reduce coronary disease regardless of LDL cholesterol. That’s because HDL removes plaque from your arteries. And it’s plaque buildup that really causes heart disease and heart attacks – not cholesterol.
In fact, if you want to beat heart disease without drugs, here are seven ways to raise your HDL levels naturally:
1. Niacin. Niacin has been found to raise HDL levels by as much as 24 percent. The best food sources of niacin are liver, chicken, beef, avocados, tomatoes and nuts. As always, stick with grass-fed beef, free-range chicken and organic produce and nuts. Or you can supplement. I recommend taking 500 mg of “sustained release” niacin a day.
2. Restore omega-3s to your diet. Wild-caught fish, grass-fed beef, free-range, organic poultry, nuts, olives, eggs and avocados are all rich in “good” fats. And cod liver oil – the best omega-3 supplement – will boost your HDL levels naturally.
3. Eat more protein, fewer carbohydrates. Replacing carbs with healthy proteins will lower your triglycerides and raise your HDL. The best protein sources are nuts, eggs, free-range poultry, grass-fed beef and wild-caught salmon.
4. Challenge your heart with high-intensity, short-duration, progressively challenging exercises. For example, these types of workouts, like my PACE program, boosts reserve capacity in your heart – critical for avoiding heart attacks – and raises HDL.
5. Enjoy a good brew. Drinking a beer a day decreases cholesterol levels, increases antioxidants and reduces levels of fibrinogen, a clot-producing protein.
6. Stop smoking. It sounds obvious, but if you smoke, you should stop. Not only does smoking lower your HDL, it constricts your blood vessels and raises your risk of heart attack in many other ways as well.
7. Drop the excess weight. Carrying excess pounds increases your risk of heart disease. Even a little weight reduction will raise your HDL levels.
I’m telling how to raise your HDL because I want you to have real alternatives to the drug-fueled culture of fear we’re exposed to every day. I want you to be empowered to make choices based on fact, not on information from commercials and media reports.
Did you know there is no scientifically valid correlation between your total cholesterol count and the likelihood that you’ll develop heart disease?
But you and everyone else with a TV have been coerced into believing “high” cholesterol is bad for your heart.
It’s what drug companies want you to believe. They’ve become among the biggest corporations in the world by convincing you that you need their drug “cures” for cholesterol, depression, high blood pressure …
Meanwhile most of these drugs are really just treatments you have to take for the rest of your life. Their goal is to profit from your health, not cure you.
For example, how does the modern “health” industry explain the fact that 75 percent of the people who suffer heart attacks have normal total cholesterol?
The truth is, as long as your HDL is high enough, you have little if any risk of heart disease.
The Framingham Heart Study has been ongoing since the 1940s. It’s considered the most reliable data on heart disease because it has no interference from drug companies.
It has proved over the last 60 years that high levels of HDLs are directly related to a lower risk of heart disease.
Not only that, but it’s showed that raising HDL can reduce coronary disease regardless of LDL cholesterol. That’s because HDL removes plaque from your arteries. And it’s plaque buildup that really causes heart disease and heart attacks – not cholesterol.
In fact, if you want to beat heart disease without drugs, here are seven ways to raise your HDL levels naturally:
1. Niacin. Niacin has been found to raise HDL levels by as much as 24 percent. The best food sources of niacin are liver, chicken, beef, avocados, tomatoes and nuts. As always, stick with grass-fed beef, free-range chicken and organic produce and nuts. Or you can supplement. I recommend taking 500 mg of “sustained release” niacin a day.
2. Restore omega-3s to your diet. Wild-caught fish, grass-fed beef, free-range, organic poultry, nuts, olives, eggs and avocados are all rich in “good” fats. And cod liver oil – the best omega-3 supplement – will boost your HDL levels naturally.
3. Eat more protein, fewer carbohydrates. Replacing carbs with healthy proteins will lower your triglycerides and raise your HDL. The best protein sources are nuts, eggs, free-range poultry, grass-fed beef and wild-caught salmon.
4. Challenge your heart with high-intensity, short-duration, progressively challenging exercises. For example, these types of workouts, like my PACE program, boosts reserve capacity in your heart – critical for avoiding heart attacks – and raises HDL.
5. Enjoy a good brew. Drinking a beer a day decreases cholesterol levels, increases antioxidants and reduces levels of fibrinogen, a clot-producing protein.
6. Stop smoking. It sounds obvious, but if you smoke, you should stop. Not only does smoking lower your HDL, it constricts your blood vessels and raises your risk of heart attack in many other ways as well.
7. Drop the excess weight. Carrying excess pounds increases your risk of heart disease. Even a little weight reduction will raise your HDL levels.
I’m telling how to raise your HDL because I want you to have real alternatives to the drug-fueled culture of fear we’re exposed to every day. I want you to be empowered to make choices based on fact, not on information from commercials and media reports.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Early To Rise - Controlling Your Emotions During Tough Markets
(By John Nyaradi)
All year, investors have been fleeing the stock market for the perceived safety of the bond market, letting fear take control of their investing and financial future. But if you can learn to control your emotions, today's equity markets offer enormous opportunity.
Your biggest enemy for successful trading is not the "market," other traders or investors, the economy, or any outside force. You face your biggest danger in the mirror every morning, because your biggest danger is you -- your emotions and the human frailties that can easily lead to your financial ruin.
How many times have you read that the average investor has an uncanny knack to buy at the top and sell at the bottom? It's true -- and it's sad. People tend to chase bubble fads and the latest "hot" investment. And when they do, they invariably get burned.
More of us need to be like Warren Buffett and train ourselves to "be greedy when others are fearful, and be fearful when others are greedy."
Greed, Fear, and the Herd
Greed and fear are the two primary driving forces behind most investor decisions. Because though much has been written about markets being rational and investors making rational decisions based on earnings reports, price-to-earnings ratios, or technical analysis, the fact is that markets are not rational, as witnessed by the stock market's recent wild gyrations.
We've seen incredible global volatility, a flash crash, strong short-term rallies and declines -- and there's no rational reason for any of this in terms of corporate profits, economic reports, or political events. The explanation for what's happening in these crazy times is very simply that greed and fear are driving today's markets in very powerful and extreme ways.
Greed is simple to understand. People want to make money. But fear is a little more complex in that there are really two types of fear: fear of loss, which we all understand, but also fear of being left behind.
I believe a key to investment success is learning to control your greed and your fear.
You can control both of those emotions by following these rules:
• Do not overtrade. In the search for better results or to limit loss, investors tend to overtrade and so wind up paying too much in commissions or getting whipsawed by short-term market gyrations.
• Do not take on too much risk. Greed causes investors to take on too much risk, either through options, leverage, investing in risky companies, or by taking positions that are too large.
• Do not look back. Successful traders don't go back and look at trades they have sold to see how they "would've done." When a trade is over, it's over. They don't do a postmortem to see if they were "right" or "wrong" about the market.
• Do not sell your winners too soon. When you sell too soon, you miss out on further gains.
• Do not hang on to losers too long. Most investors find it's hard to admit they were "wrong," and so lose more than they should or could. Ego plays a big role here. People want to be right. But "Hang on, it'll come back" is not an investment strategy. Just ask anyone who still owns some of the darlings of the dot.com boom and bust.
• Keep your ego out of your trading. Pride in a good trade is as harmful as shame or anger or grief over a bad trade. Some trades will go well. Some trades won't go well. It has nothing to do with the investor's intellect or self worth.
• Find a good plan and stick with it. A great batter in baseball only succeeds four out of 10 times at the plate. Investing is a marathon, not a sprint.
To be successful, you must use a trading system that suits you. It must fit your personality, your lifestyle, and your goals. A day trader, for example, is a totally different animal than a buy-and-hold investor.
Once you recognize who you are, you must apply discipline to your trading activities by having a written plan that you stick to unrelentingly. You must learn your market inside and out and become a specialist, not try to be an expert in all things. Today's markets are much too fast complex for anyone to be a generalist. Be a one-trick pony, and make it a very good trick.
I can tell you from personal, painful experience that if you violate the above rules, your chances for investing success are slim at best.
I've made all of the mistakes I mentioned at one time or another -- and, almost invariably, it's cost me money. The "trading gods" just seem to know when you violate the rules, and then smack you down for your transgression.
When I look around at people I know and have worked with who've made these mistakes, they, too, have usually lost money.
I know one guy who has lost money for three years running who spends his weekends watching the talking heads on financial television. By Sunday evening, he's so confused that he doesn't know where to turn. Recently, I watched one of the weekend talk shows for a few minutes at SeaTac International Airport between flights -- and I could almost feel the paralysis start to set in.
I know a woman who skips from advisor to advisor, managing to lose money with each one of them -- and she can't figure out why. I know more people than I care to count who trade by the seat of their pants or on a hunch or based on a tip that they read or heard about in the financial media. Frankly, they'd have about the same odds of winning and a lot more fun if they went to Las Vegas instead.
The bottom line is this: Trading and investing in our current climate is tough. Like the old saying goes, "Trading isn't rocket science, it's harder."
You can be like the herd, the "sheepies" who have fled to the bond market and are in the process of creating another bubble there. Or you can be different, a contrarian, and deploy a professional, unemotional trading plan that can take advantage of today's unique opportunities.
The choice is yours.
P.S. John Nyaradi is the publisher of Wall Street Sector Selector, an online newsletter specializing in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and the author of Super Sectors, How to Outsmart the Market Using Sector Rotation and ETFs.
All year, investors have been fleeing the stock market for the perceived safety of the bond market, letting fear take control of their investing and financial future. But if you can learn to control your emotions, today's equity markets offer enormous opportunity.
Your biggest enemy for successful trading is not the "market," other traders or investors, the economy, or any outside force. You face your biggest danger in the mirror every morning, because your biggest danger is you -- your emotions and the human frailties that can easily lead to your financial ruin.
How many times have you read that the average investor has an uncanny knack to buy at the top and sell at the bottom? It's true -- and it's sad. People tend to chase bubble fads and the latest "hot" investment. And when they do, they invariably get burned.
More of us need to be like Warren Buffett and train ourselves to "be greedy when others are fearful, and be fearful when others are greedy."
Greed, Fear, and the Herd
Greed and fear are the two primary driving forces behind most investor decisions. Because though much has been written about markets being rational and investors making rational decisions based on earnings reports, price-to-earnings ratios, or technical analysis, the fact is that markets are not rational, as witnessed by the stock market's recent wild gyrations.
We've seen incredible global volatility, a flash crash, strong short-term rallies and declines -- and there's no rational reason for any of this in terms of corporate profits, economic reports, or political events. The explanation for what's happening in these crazy times is very simply that greed and fear are driving today's markets in very powerful and extreme ways.
Greed is simple to understand. People want to make money. But fear is a little more complex in that there are really two types of fear: fear of loss, which we all understand, but also fear of being left behind.
I believe a key to investment success is learning to control your greed and your fear.
You can control both of those emotions by following these rules:
• Do not overtrade. In the search for better results or to limit loss, investors tend to overtrade and so wind up paying too much in commissions or getting whipsawed by short-term market gyrations.
• Do not take on too much risk. Greed causes investors to take on too much risk, either through options, leverage, investing in risky companies, or by taking positions that are too large.
• Do not look back. Successful traders don't go back and look at trades they have sold to see how they "would've done." When a trade is over, it's over. They don't do a postmortem to see if they were "right" or "wrong" about the market.
• Do not sell your winners too soon. When you sell too soon, you miss out on further gains.
• Do not hang on to losers too long. Most investors find it's hard to admit they were "wrong," and so lose more than they should or could. Ego plays a big role here. People want to be right. But "Hang on, it'll come back" is not an investment strategy. Just ask anyone who still owns some of the darlings of the dot.com boom and bust.
• Keep your ego out of your trading. Pride in a good trade is as harmful as shame or anger or grief over a bad trade. Some trades will go well. Some trades won't go well. It has nothing to do with the investor's intellect or self worth.
• Find a good plan and stick with it. A great batter in baseball only succeeds four out of 10 times at the plate. Investing is a marathon, not a sprint.
To be successful, you must use a trading system that suits you. It must fit your personality, your lifestyle, and your goals. A day trader, for example, is a totally different animal than a buy-and-hold investor.
Once you recognize who you are, you must apply discipline to your trading activities by having a written plan that you stick to unrelentingly. You must learn your market inside and out and become a specialist, not try to be an expert in all things. Today's markets are much too fast complex for anyone to be a generalist. Be a one-trick pony, and make it a very good trick.
I can tell you from personal, painful experience that if you violate the above rules, your chances for investing success are slim at best.
I've made all of the mistakes I mentioned at one time or another -- and, almost invariably, it's cost me money. The "trading gods" just seem to know when you violate the rules, and then smack you down for your transgression.
When I look around at people I know and have worked with who've made these mistakes, they, too, have usually lost money.
I know one guy who has lost money for three years running who spends his weekends watching the talking heads on financial television. By Sunday evening, he's so confused that he doesn't know where to turn. Recently, I watched one of the weekend talk shows for a few minutes at SeaTac International Airport between flights -- and I could almost feel the paralysis start to set in.
I know a woman who skips from advisor to advisor, managing to lose money with each one of them -- and she can't figure out why. I know more people than I care to count who trade by the seat of their pants or on a hunch or based on a tip that they read or heard about in the financial media. Frankly, they'd have about the same odds of winning and a lot more fun if they went to Las Vegas instead.
The bottom line is this: Trading and investing in our current climate is tough. Like the old saying goes, "Trading isn't rocket science, it's harder."
You can be like the herd, the "sheepies" who have fled to the bond market and are in the process of creating another bubble there. Or you can be different, a contrarian, and deploy a professional, unemotional trading plan that can take advantage of today's unique opportunities.
The choice is yours.
P.S. John Nyaradi is the publisher of Wall Street Sector Selector, an online newsletter specializing in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and the author of Super Sectors, How to Outsmart the Market Using Sector Rotation and ETFs.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Early To Rise - The Ultimate Customer Formula
(By Noah St. John)
Customers are the lifeblood of your business. Without customers -- people who buy your product or service -- you really don't have a business, do you? Duh!
Ask any business owner, and he'll tell you he wants more customers. Yet I say that you DON'T want more customers. What you want are more Evangelists.
What's an Evangelist? In this sense of the word, I mean someone who not only buys from you but tells everyone within earshot (and e-mailshot) how great you are.
There are three kinds of people who buy from you:
By using The Ultimate Customer Formula:
Want + Trust = Customer
Want x Trust = Referrer
Want x Love = Evangelist
Let's start with why someone becomes a Customer in the first place.
First, a person has a Want -- something they desire. It could be to alleviate a PAIN or to increase their PLEASURE. That pretty much covers human Want.
Then they find out about you (through something called marketing). And something they read, hear, see, or experience in your marketing makes them Trust that you will deliver to them the fulfillment of their Want.
If you do what you said you would do -- help fulfill their Want -- they are satisfied with their purchase. They are now your Customer because they Trust you.
So what do you do now?
That's where most businesses fail. They go, "Whew, we got another one. Okay, where do we get the next one?"
But don't you get it? You can get your next Customer -- or dozen Customers -- from that first satisfied Customer!
How? Simple: Make them feel good about their purchase. Ask if there's anything else you can do. See what else they need or want -- that they may not even have thought of. Ask questions that no one else is asking.
Or just be so much better than the other guys that your Customers have no choice but to choose you to fulfill their Want.
Let me give you an example...
I love Southwest Airlines. Why? There are dozens of reasons, but the most important one for me is that when I need to change a flight, I simply call their toll-free number and an ACTUAL HUMAN BEING picks up the phone and says, "Southwest, how can I help you?"
Then I change the flight and there is NO service fee! What do you know? Southwest treats my money as MY money!
I've flown other airlines, and paid as much as $450 for CHANGE FEES. Ridiculous!
Do you see what I just did? I just told everyone who's reading this newsletter how awesome Southwest Airlines is. I went from Customer right to Evangelist.
If I felt so-so about Southwest, I might tell one or two friends. That would make me a Referrer.
But because I love Southwest, I tell everyone about them -- even when I'm flying on other airlines!
How did it happen? I have a Want -- affordable, reliable airline service to take me where I need to go, AND actual human beings who answer the phone, AND no fees when I need to change a flight.
From the very first time I flew Southwest, they not only delivered the fulfillment of my Want -- they OVER-delivered by thinking of ways I hadn't even thought of to make my travel better and easier, and by being a company of real live human beings.
So I emotionally moved from I Trust Southwest to I LOVE Southwest.
How fitting that their stock ticker symbol is LUV.
So here's The Ultimate Customer Formula again -- this time with the thoughts that go behind it:
Want + Trust = Customer
I want something and trust that you will deliver it to me.
Want x Trust = Referrer
I want something and trust that you will not only deliver it to me but that if I were to send a friend to you, you'd deliver it to them too.
Want x Love = Evangelist
I want something and not only trust that you will deliver it to me, you will over-deliver, take care of me in ways I hadn't even thought of, and you are a company of actual human beings.
That last part is particularly vital today. The word we see everywhere in marketing is transparency.
In the old days, you could hide behind a corporate shield and be immune to criticism. Those days are long gone.
People are amazed when I pick up the phone and call them to see if they're happy with their purchase, or personally respond to an e-mail they wrote me, or write back to them on my Facebook fan page.
My feeling is, why wouldn't I?
But the beauty is, very few of my competitors will ever pick up the phone and call people to connect with them.
Sure, it's more work for me. But it's work that I really enjoy doing. Plus, it cements me as the guy who actually CARES about how they're doing (which, as it happens, I do).
So, use The Ultimate Customer Formula and see what you can do today, this week, this month, and this year to move people from Customer to Referrer to Evangelist.
And isn't it amazing that the ultimate secret to success, yet again, is Love.
P.S. Noah St. John, Ph.D., is a lifestyle expert and #1 bestselling author of The Secret Code of Success: 7 Hidden Steps to More Wealth and Happiness. Stephen Covey says, "Noah's Secret Code of Success is about discovering within ourselves what we should have known all along -- we are truly powerful beings with unlimited potential." For a limited time, get the first 3 chapters of Noah's new bestseller, The Secret Code of Success, FREE at NoahStJohn.com (http://www.afformations.com/).
Customers are the lifeblood of your business. Without customers -- people who buy your product or service -- you really don't have a business, do you? Duh!
Ask any business owner, and he'll tell you he wants more customers. Yet I say that you DON'T want more customers. What you want are more Evangelists.
What's an Evangelist? In this sense of the word, I mean someone who not only buys from you but tells everyone within earshot (and e-mailshot) how great you are.
There are three kinds of people who buy from you:
- Customer = someone who simply buys from you
- Referrer = someone who tells one or two people about you
- Evangelist = someone who tells everyone about you
By using The Ultimate Customer Formula:
Want + Trust = Customer
Want x Trust = Referrer
Want x Love = Evangelist
Let's start with why someone becomes a Customer in the first place.
First, a person has a Want -- something they desire. It could be to alleviate a PAIN or to increase their PLEASURE. That pretty much covers human Want.
Then they find out about you (through something called marketing). And something they read, hear, see, or experience in your marketing makes them Trust that you will deliver to them the fulfillment of their Want.
If you do what you said you would do -- help fulfill their Want -- they are satisfied with their purchase. They are now your Customer because they Trust you.
So what do you do now?
That's where most businesses fail. They go, "Whew, we got another one. Okay, where do we get the next one?"
But don't you get it? You can get your next Customer -- or dozen Customers -- from that first satisfied Customer!
How? Simple: Make them feel good about their purchase. Ask if there's anything else you can do. See what else they need or want -- that they may not even have thought of. Ask questions that no one else is asking.
Or just be so much better than the other guys that your Customers have no choice but to choose you to fulfill their Want.
Let me give you an example...
I love Southwest Airlines. Why? There are dozens of reasons, but the most important one for me is that when I need to change a flight, I simply call their toll-free number and an ACTUAL HUMAN BEING picks up the phone and says, "Southwest, how can I help you?"
Then I change the flight and there is NO service fee! What do you know? Southwest treats my money as MY money!
I've flown other airlines, and paid as much as $450 for CHANGE FEES. Ridiculous!
Do you see what I just did? I just told everyone who's reading this newsletter how awesome Southwest Airlines is. I went from Customer right to Evangelist.
If I felt so-so about Southwest, I might tell one or two friends. That would make me a Referrer.
But because I love Southwest, I tell everyone about them -- even when I'm flying on other airlines!
How did it happen? I have a Want -- affordable, reliable airline service to take me where I need to go, AND actual human beings who answer the phone, AND no fees when I need to change a flight.
From the very first time I flew Southwest, they not only delivered the fulfillment of my Want -- they OVER-delivered by thinking of ways I hadn't even thought of to make my travel better and easier, and by being a company of real live human beings.
So I emotionally moved from I Trust Southwest to I LOVE Southwest.
How fitting that their stock ticker symbol is LUV.
So here's The Ultimate Customer Formula again -- this time with the thoughts that go behind it:
Want + Trust = Customer
I want something and trust that you will deliver it to me.
Want x Trust = Referrer
I want something and trust that you will not only deliver it to me but that if I were to send a friend to you, you'd deliver it to them too.
Want x Love = Evangelist
I want something and not only trust that you will deliver it to me, you will over-deliver, take care of me in ways I hadn't even thought of, and you are a company of actual human beings.
That last part is particularly vital today. The word we see everywhere in marketing is transparency.
In the old days, you could hide behind a corporate shield and be immune to criticism. Those days are long gone.
People are amazed when I pick up the phone and call them to see if they're happy with their purchase, or personally respond to an e-mail they wrote me, or write back to them on my Facebook fan page.
My feeling is, why wouldn't I?
But the beauty is, very few of my competitors will ever pick up the phone and call people to connect with them.
Sure, it's more work for me. But it's work that I really enjoy doing. Plus, it cements me as the guy who actually CARES about how they're doing (which, as it happens, I do).
So, use The Ultimate Customer Formula and see what you can do today, this week, this month, and this year to move people from Customer to Referrer to Evangelist.
And isn't it amazing that the ultimate secret to success, yet again, is Love.
P.S. Noah St. John, Ph.D., is a lifestyle expert and #1 bestselling author of The Secret Code of Success: 7 Hidden Steps to More Wealth and Happiness. Stephen Covey says, "Noah's Secret Code of Success is about discovering within ourselves what we should have known all along -- we are truly powerful beings with unlimited potential." For a limited time, get the first 3 chapters of Noah's new bestseller, The Secret Code of Success, FREE at NoahStJohn.com (http://www.afformations.com/).
Sunday, December 05, 2010
Gratitude & Abundance!
(By Aine Belton)
Certain states of consciousness hold a resonance field that accelerates the manifestation of your desires.
Gratitude is certainly one of them!
Gratitude is a generating energy that will serve to attract more of anything you feel grateful for into your life.
In that sense it is a powerful abundance ally!
Gratitude aligns you to, and subsequently attracts, that which is for your highest good, and opens you to more of the love, joy, gifts and blessings the universe wishes to bestow.
Along with appreciation, gratitude opens your heart, raises your energy, and elevates you from even the darkest of states.
In feeling grateful for something or someone, you essentially 'receive' it, as well as give to it from your heart, which effectively aligns your vibration to it, and directs your focus, attention and energy towards it, attuning your heart and mind to that which is positive.
Whatever you focus on grows, so when you appreciate someone, see their value and beauty and feel grateful for it, those qualities will expand and grow in your life.
When you focus on everything in your life you have to feel grateful for, and all the wonderful things, experiences and people you appreciate, the universe hands you more of the same!
It's a wonderful abundance expanding experience!
Gratitude is the sweet song of appreciation. It turns an experience, person or event into a gift that is received, for when you appreciate and feel grateful, you literally let the experience/quality in, and you also give to it. It is a wonderful exchange of positive energies.
When you feel grateful you experience more of your love, which enhances your state in a beautiful magical way.
You also get to experience all the beautiful qualities of that which you feel grateful for all over again! "Gratitude is a powerful tool. If you will allow yourself to feel grateful, your processing and programming can work immeasurably better... As you feel grateful for what you have, you start having more things about which to feel that gratitude."
- Lazaris
Keep a gratitude journal and write down at the end of each day 10 things you feel grateful for over the last 24 hours to assist you in experiencing more of this wondrous, generative, heart-opening energy.
When you do so, be sure to connect to the heart-felt feelings of gratitude, i.e. don't just make it a mental box-ticking process - really engage your emotions.
Add to that list a few things you are grateful to YOURSELF for, positive qualities, actions, traits and demeanours, how you've handled your day or any situations, how you've taken care of yourself or been kind to others, etc.
And lastly, be grateful to the FUTURE you're creating. You are a powerful manifesting being and when you begin to feel grateful for the dreams you are creating and person you are becoming, you begin to attract them more powerfully into your life, for you give the message to your subconscious mind they have already manifested.
P.S. Enclosed below is a message from the author:
Hi! I'm Aine! (That's 'Onya'- an Irish name!)
My 20 year journey into the realms of intuition has led to remarkable
rewards in all areas of my life; success, abundance, excellent health,
right-livelihood, the most amazing connections, opportunities, people,
magic moments and experiences, as well as profound states of being,
divine inspiration, vision, confidence and an oasis of love (and so much
more I wish I could squeeze into this sentence!!).
As importantly, my intuition has helped me to navigate obstacles, transform problems and challenges, and find the gifts in crises. It has offered the invaluable solutions of soul-level insight and the enhanced acuity of my inner senses with which to powerfully craft my world from the inside out.
Aine Belton
www.intuitionzone.com
www.mmmprogram.com
www.beliefbusterkit.com
www.doseoflove.com
Certain states of consciousness hold a resonance field that accelerates the manifestation of your desires.
Gratitude is certainly one of them!
Gratitude is a generating energy that will serve to attract more of anything you feel grateful for into your life.
In that sense it is a powerful abundance ally!
Gratitude aligns you to, and subsequently attracts, that which is for your highest good, and opens you to more of the love, joy, gifts and blessings the universe wishes to bestow.
Along with appreciation, gratitude opens your heart, raises your energy, and elevates you from even the darkest of states.
In feeling grateful for something or someone, you essentially 'receive' it, as well as give to it from your heart, which effectively aligns your vibration to it, and directs your focus, attention and energy towards it, attuning your heart and mind to that which is positive.
Whatever you focus on grows, so when you appreciate someone, see their value and beauty and feel grateful for it, those qualities will expand and grow in your life.
When you focus on everything in your life you have to feel grateful for, and all the wonderful things, experiences and people you appreciate, the universe hands you more of the same!
It's a wonderful abundance expanding experience!
Gratitude is the sweet song of appreciation. It turns an experience, person or event into a gift that is received, for when you appreciate and feel grateful, you literally let the experience/quality in, and you also give to it. It is a wonderful exchange of positive energies.
When you feel grateful you experience more of your love, which enhances your state in a beautiful magical way.
You also get to experience all the beautiful qualities of that which you feel grateful for all over again! "Gratitude is a powerful tool. If you will allow yourself to feel grateful, your processing and programming can work immeasurably better... As you feel grateful for what you have, you start having more things about which to feel that gratitude."
- Lazaris
Keep a gratitude journal and write down at the end of each day 10 things you feel grateful for over the last 24 hours to assist you in experiencing more of this wondrous, generative, heart-opening energy.
When you do so, be sure to connect to the heart-felt feelings of gratitude, i.e. don't just make it a mental box-ticking process - really engage your emotions.
Add to that list a few things you are grateful to YOURSELF for, positive qualities, actions, traits and demeanours, how you've handled your day or any situations, how you've taken care of yourself or been kind to others, etc.
And lastly, be grateful to the FUTURE you're creating. You are a powerful manifesting being and when you begin to feel grateful for the dreams you are creating and person you are becoming, you begin to attract them more powerfully into your life, for you give the message to your subconscious mind they have already manifested.
P.S. Enclosed below is a message from the author:
Hi! I'm Aine! (That's 'Onya'- an Irish name!)
My 20 year journey into the realms of intuition has led to remarkable
rewards in all areas of my life; success, abundance, excellent health,
right-livelihood, the most amazing connections, opportunities, people,
magic moments and experiences, as well as profound states of being,
divine inspiration, vision, confidence and an oasis of love (and so much
more I wish I could squeeze into this sentence!!).
As importantly, my intuition has helped me to navigate obstacles, transform problems and challenges, and find the gifts in crises. It has offered the invaluable solutions of soul-level insight and the enhanced acuity of my inner senses with which to powerfully craft my world from the inside out.
Aine Belton
www.intuitionzone.com
www.mmmprogram.com
www.beliefbusterkit.com
www.doseoflove.com
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