"Yesterday is history,
tomorrow is a mystery,
and today is a gift,
that is why we call it
the present."

Joyous Change
Daily Word
August 28, 2006

I answer the invitation of life to find joy in change and growth.

It has been said that a person can never step into the same river twice, for the river is constantly moving and changing.

Without change, there can be no growth. Life stirs within the seed, the shell cracks, and a flower, a blade of grass, or a tree grows. We rejoice when we see the robin break free of its shell, and then with time, it finds its balance and spreads its wings to fly. Nature teaches us much about finding joy in change.

Life itself invites us to change and grow every day. This is how we discover and use the power of God within us so that we soar. May we always celebrate the joyous changes that take place every time we replace fear with faith, anger with peace, and sorrow with joy. As we change the way we think, our world changes with us.

The following excerpt is 8 pages of a 51 page manuscript...
very enlightening and beautifully written. You can feel
the author's intense yearning for the truth. He
knows he must change to
become enlightened.

***

AND THESE WORDS ARE WRITTEN IN THE SKIES FOR ALL TO SEE

Writings on Spiritual Healing and Well-Being
by
Don Nicol
Web publication by Yvonne Gosselink

INTRODUCTION

I surprise myself with these writings. The thoughts, ideas and feelings come to me, I guess, in the same manner as an author creating themes for a book. I plan to add to this home page, should there be interest. I try to live my own words but it is just that sometimes I forget.

Yvonne and I welcome you to our Web site and invite you to read these pages and perceive for yourself.

www.peacefulspirits.net

We anticipate your feedback will encourage and stimulate us to add
additional pages. I thank Yvonne for all her assistance
and involvement in this publication.
Please e-mail to either of us.

author@peacefulspirits.net (Don)
admin@peacefulspirits.net (Yvonne)

Thank you.

Posted with love by Don and Yvonne

Forward

Sometimes it's time, time for a change. I reflect and recall when I made decisions that altered my life. Deciding on family issues, a job, a journey. Some of these decisions have led to happiness, some to sorrow. Others, thought major, appear insignificant in later life. Numerous I thought complicated; several I barely recognized at the time yet later turned out to be central.

I recall a more recent time when I decided to allow a change to my life pattern. I was meeting with a person, now very much a friend, who seemed to me to be "seeing" differently. At an early meeting we talked about my feelings and emotions. I was uncomfortable and full of thoughts and confusion. As we talked about life and me, I wondered, who is this person and what is it that is different here?

The friend was saying: "If you wish, I offer you a different way of relating to your being, to your soul."

I was, in one way nervous, in another eager to discover. What I was being presented was something that appeared as difficult to grasp and hazy. Nevertheless I was being offered an alternative way. My process was hesitant and I looked for assurances that what I was considering was not just another trick of life.

I had many questions but initially they were ones of avoidance. I was comfortable where I was, why would I risk change? But I yearned for a better understanding of myself, and here I was being asked if I wanted to explore my being. The thought process kept crashing in: what if I am let down and hurt again? But then, what was I holding on to?

Previously I had not been an un-spiritual person but I was wearing some scars from past experiences. Nonetheless in due time I did dare to commit myself, for that was all I was being asked to do. My friend and I agreed to meet more regularly. I was making a resolution where I knew I had to be open to change. Not forced or pressured into change, but change because I chose and wanted. I remember on many occasions my mentor saying: "I offer. You choose." I did choose, I chose to seek.

Early on and encouraged by my guide I started to write down a jumble of notes from our meetings that eventually filled several exercise books. I was given regular homework! Many writings were repeated, many became more refined. The text that follows is a compilation of those notes. They were originally done for me to personally sort out my own feelings, but as I developed the document and talked to others, one or two people asked me for a copy. (I find it difficult to relate the content verbally).

Now I am able to offer this revised and refined wording. In it there is finally more flow to what were very haphazard jottings. I continue to have difficulty with sequencing and avoiding repetition. This, I am sure, was meant to be, for I have come to recognize so much more during its development.

This is a story of a journey to consciousness. They are my notes, written for me, which I now release to freely wander. Should another reader find the writing style unusual, one reason may be that I have left out any reference to gender and creed. Tenses are occasionally tricky where I try and cope with an unconventional concept of time.

I continue to write, as this seems for me to be how I come to comprehend. I am constantly altering the text; I appear to be unable to complete the task but I am aware that it leads me to being a more peaceful person. This "work", I believe, has helped me to become more awakened and closer to my being. I see people, animals, insects, trees, the ocean, all of nature differently. I seek inwardly. I see others as souls on a similar journey. I perceive alternatively. I am more likely to choose the path of love, peace and truth. I accept that this is so.

Is my journey complete? No. There is more to do, so much more. I have yet to reach my destination but I am guided in my travels. I continue to have errors of perception however I now better understand that if I do not show compassion to my friends, neighbors, perceived enemies and all nature, then I am not loving myself and therefore not at peace. My assignment is to continue to search inwardly to discover more of my essential being and so proceed in an ongoing quest.

You may identify with what I have written as being different from your perception; that is the joy of individuality and free will. Statements may seem significant to one yet be inconsequential to another. It is not for me to judge how these writings are received, they are offered in love. They just are.

I do not know whether they are correct or otherwise but I do know that love exists and brings peace. I trust that what I have written causes no offence and yes I still struggle over some of the content to the extent of contradicting myself. Irrespective of this I continue to find the conclusion unquestionable.

What I offer here is serious. However if you choose to read on though, may I suggest that you do not take it solemnly; rather be positive and "play" with it somewhat light heartedly.

I rarely see my spiritual friend now but we both continue along the path. We both continue to seek, occasionally perceiving differently!

ONE

So where am I, who am I, and just what am I doing here on planet earth? Others may have had an influence on my life, but I've got myself to this point, my here and now; I have made the choices, no one else. Yes, I may have been pressured by others or consider that events have influenced me, but I made the decisions.

As I consider myself at conception on planet earth, I may envisage myself as a perfect gift. To what extent I was accepted or otherwise was a consideration of those around me, but as a spiritual presence I was perfect.

As I commenced to sense outwardly and to look about, I started to absorb my mother's, father's, caretaker's and other people's feelings; their emotions and opinions. As I felt and sensed, I also took on board the worldliness about me, collecting chattels as they came my way.

As I grew I started to lose sight of and forget my true being, my spirit, whom I am within. I slowly became other than my originality. As I have come to more mature years I am realizing that I have spent so much time looking outwardly at the world, that I have neglected and lost touch with my inner being.

I have slowly forgotten and now overlook my core self; that which is my soul, my very essence: primarily due of my fascination with the worldly. I am not "out there", I am my presence, I am within. The authenticity of my life is my inner being, my truth, my true presence. It is just that I have forgotten.

Practice: Quiet the mind. Be at peace and accept that you may perceive differently.

TWO

I am spirit; I am essence, consciousness, and vitality. I am me. Yet I have covered my "me" (the real me) with the trappings of worldly wants. I have neglected my true presence and gathered great measures of jumble, curios, bric-a-brac, confusion and bewilderment as I journey along on my temporary visit to this island planet.

If I could take all this accumulated excess away, then I again become my true self. This is what my spirit, the life that is within, yearns. Light and love is who my inner self is now, as it was at my beginning when I came to this speck in the universe. During my stay here on this planet I have taught myself to ignore this fact. Yet my inner instinctive desire remains to love and be loved.

Thus far I have buried my soul deep within, covering it so that my mind believes my spirit is no longer of primary consequence. I believe that I am in the outer, amongst the worldly, more than I am my inner self.

I accept as true that I am in my thinking, more than my feelings. This is to the cost of my true presence, my inner being, my essence. I have forgotten that my deepest yearning is the consciousness within. I forget that love is what I crave. Deep down I know this; on the surface I barely dare believe it.

I am so busy with everyday life, with family, study, work and leisure that I leave little occasion to be with my fundamental existence, the vital presence within. But I am responsible for my own life and for where I now find myself; no one else. While it is true that my background, associates and my environment do affect me, I am not their prisoner.

I do not have to blindly follow, I am a free being. During my life to date I may consider that I have done well or maybe not so well, but in all of these hectic happenings I have strayed from my true presence, drifting apart from my soul. I have almost totally lost contact with my inner creation; that which is my beginning and will be with me at the closing of this episode.

My worldly desire seems to be to collect belongings and status, to be accepted as this or that, to have what I perceive that I have not. These desires simply cloud who I am. I have put on all these false guises, artificial fronts, airs and pretences. I have hidden my true self with this baggage so effectively that I no longer recognize my own reality.

I no longer identify with my own true presence. I have in effect sold my soul. Having got to here and now, is this spiritually where I really wish to be? I do not take my worldly wealth, my status, my family and friends with me when I depart for I leave as I arrived; as a presence who is me. I am a perpetual soul wearing a transient earthly body. I do not know when it may be my moment to depart.

When I realize where I am and accept that my current situation is of my own making, I may choose to seek and recognize differently and in this way I may rediscover, disentangle and thus recall who I am. If I look to myself and journey within I might even delight and surprise myself!

As I decide and make the attempt to get closer to my true being, I am then on the path to again being my soul who is love.

To help me do this I need to make space, for I have so crammed myself with the jumble of life that little free area remains. My task is to remove these bits and pieces; those possessions; the junk and debris I have so willingly taken on board, eliminating all that is not love. This will make space to free up my inner being, my essence, and allow the true me to again be.

As I do this I am to be patient with myself, kind, caring and cherish my internal presence rather than look to my external appearance. I am to cease rushing about hectically, chasing the world. In preference I am to rediscover my true self: the one who I really am and so regain my true presence. I am allowed to rediscover who I am.

I have neglected to remember that I am love and that harmony is within, forgiveness is within, peace is within, joy is within. I have lost contact with my real me. My soul aches to again be acknowledged. I have my permission to again seek my reality. Everything I require to complete the task is within: I have forgotten this also, I have strayed far.

If I cast out all the unnecessary debris of life, then I make room for these renewals. The space I make available, I may fill with joy and compassion: all the characteristics of love. As I do this I will be able to see differently, to perceive otherwise and again become my rightful being.

All I have to do is make the decision to do so and seek. If I deny myself this opportunity then I do not allow the hope of change and without hope there is no peace. Only as I make space within as I throw off the worldly can I freely receive. Previously I have been full of absurdity and overflowing with the paraphernalia of worldliness. I may choose to discard all this previous clutter. I may release the heaviness and so free myself to again be.

As I accept, then I find love, I re-unite with the truth within and I open up to giving and in return receiving love. I am permitted to restore myself in this manner and again be with my soul. It is my birthright, my love-right. I am free to choose. I may do these things; all I have to do is accept.

It cannot be difficult or complicated for it is not the nature of love to be complex or tricky, it's just that I have allowed it to appear so. It cannot be that it is obligatory to visit specific gurus and attend special teachings. Love does not hide in this manner; it is me who has been hiding from love. I may find peace.

Love is totally helpful to assist me in my resolution for, by its definition, love does not judge and is unable to favour one over another. I do not require any additional "qualifications" to attain love, I was born with everything I need. Love is within.

Practice: Say to self and repeat frequently: I am love. I am the mighty and consuming flame of love that consumes forever all past and present mistakes, all their causes and effects and all undesirable perceptions.
I will again be free and all is forgiven.

Three

I seem to be obsessed with judging, it has become a full time habit and I am scarcely conscious of how much I am doing it. When with people I judge, I judge physically, whether they might be fat or thin, of this race or that, old, young, tall, short, attractive and so on in a never-ending manner.

I judge people emotionally, I judge people on my consideration of their talent or lack thereof. In the same way I judge buildings, motor vehicles, roads, utilities, gardens, TV programs, governments, religion, culture, jobs.

Judging and judging, and I accept all this as normal for everyone else appears to be doing the same. Virtually everything in my and other people's lives I judge. It has become a habit, a life style that rarely seems to abate. If I ceased this pattern I give myself the opportunity to perceive differently.

We are all souls on our individual journeys on this planet. We are all here for a short period only, yet seemingly we are unable to live in harmony, even though we have an inborn desire for peace and compassion.

It is essential for mankind's future survival that we live in unison rather than apart. It is similarly vital for my survival that I live in unison with my soul rather than apart. To live apart from my inner being is effectively dieing. To live apart from others, not caring, not showing kindness and consideration, is squandering the life given to me. I wish to again be in touch with my loving feelings.

It is imperative that I look at myself and others as permanent souls journeying in a temporary body rather than predominantly seeing and concerning myself about my outward transitory and worldly exterior. This is fundamental for my own survival, mankind's continuing existence and for the future wellbeing of all souls.

We may each individually do something about these things; if we do not, we live a charade by creating a delusional personality that is not valid: we live a lie. It is my task to accept the responsibility of my own soul; my task solely. As I do this I will come to a re-acquaintance with of my own being and in turn come to respect myself, others and planet earth.

I may start on this journey of renewal by accepting and honouring myself as a being who is a spirit who is the presence of my existence. To do this I get in touch with my inner presence and again acknowledge my oneness with the light whom I am.

To this present moment, I think I am my lifetime work, but where am I? Am I really in touch? When did I last hear the sound of mallets on wooden tent pegs, listen to the rapids of a strange language, see the transparency of the giggling waters, feel muddy peat oozing between my toes, follow the vortex of whirling water, experience the empty line, the wormless hook: feel the urgency of a viper struggling over the heated footpath.

When did I last deliberately take the occasion to be with my feelings? When did I last communicate with my soul? How regularly do I make the effort to be with my self? Upbringing, education and life experiences may have trained me to think, but what am I doing to maintain contact with my feelings, with my very being? I may consider myself worldly wise but at what cost to my soul?

I am my being, this is my life, it was given to me freely, how do I fare? Do I know? Am I regularly taking stock? Not where I am physically, not where I am financially, not where I am in the pecking order of the world, none of these things, but where I am with regard to my inner being.

My soul was whom I am when I came to this planet; my soul will continue to be whom I am when I depart. Where am I now in this relationship? Do I know my true self; do I even recognize the being within? Am I in contact with my own presence, my very essence? Have I spent time being in the company of my truth or am I devoting my life to the transient trinkets of the world? What am I doing about it?

Within me is a power beyond my comprehension. I must recognize it to be able to take advantage of it. This power is love. Love is what I crave, but even this longing I have starved and smothered so frequently that it is less than recognizable. I am so involved with judging that the result is anguish in my soul. I dull this pain by taking on board the drugs of worldliness.

I have become remote from my feelings and I no longer distinguish the hurt. The discomfort often gets worse as I ignore it and I possibly become sick or turn to an addiction, taking on some obsession in a belief I may gain satisfaction. I look for the instant quick fix rather than acknowledging my dependence.

I obtain only temporary relief, if at all. Should I recognize my true distress I might ask for help, I might plead for a sign to show the way out. These signal lights are constantly present but I have forgotten what many look like. I am no longer aware.

I may re-open the door to my soul by closing the door to all that is judging. Each occasion on which I put judging aside I make space to receive forgiveness Although I am a temporary being on this planet, I have chosen to spend my presence living in a world that is alienated by borders, divides, limitation, separatism, barriers, sanctions and groupings.

Mankind has developed it so. But I would rather see the oneness of the planet than these divisions. I would rather see and be with the wonder of my soul; to be one with myself and others. This is my option. I may freely choose.

To regain my soul, I release the worldly and in its place accept love. I may let go of my shame, my distress, hypocrisy, envy, greed, spite, pretence, vanity, arrogance, boasting, blaming; all my lies. I may exchange their pain and fears to replace them with love.

I may accept the alternatives of compassion, hope, truth, mercy, forgiveness, gentleness, grace, patience, humility, glory, happiness and kindness. I may re-acquaint myself with the gift of the life given to me. I may again be free rather than enslaved. The gift of love is ever present. It is never too late to start. I may be at peace.

First I take a look at myself.

Practice: Be somewhere peaceful and consider your true being. Go within and retrace to the youngest age that you recall. Go to the child within. Is it dark there? Is this where you would like to have been left? When did you last embrace the child within?

Four

I was given my life; I was given the ability to love as a fundamental capacity of that life. I was given freedom of choice and so many gifts. So having been given to it is now my responsibility to give. Until I give I am not likely to receive. As I am compassionate to others, I make space to receive compassion. As I forgive it becomes easier for others to forgive.

As I allow my true feelings to flow I open the door to receive. As I love others I give love a chance. First give, then I may receive. I do not need to wait for an opportunity to give; the occasion is always present.
My spirit, my very essence is healed as I do so.

There is no scarcity of love, it is free, it is plentiful and to be found anywhere and everywhere. It is within me, beside me, nearby and far away. It is here now. It is throughout and beyond. I am never alone. My problem is that I have clouded my ability to see its clarity.

I have been neglecting love who is my companion. It is not within the nature of love to hide and be unavailable to me, for why would that be so? Love has no requirement to hide for that is not the essence of love. It can only be me who has made myself distant from love.

Love cannot help but give of itself for that is its character. Frequently 1 do not recognize this, I am blinded by my own inability to see. On another occasion I may be blinded by love, by its beauty and brilliance. Where I do not see truth today, I may find it tomorrow. The same is true of all the aspects of love.

Although love is not hidden, in order to see love and be in its presence, I am required to seek it out and, finding it, I am to stay within that place. Love will assist, that is its way. I may not however just sit back and let love do the work for me, it is for me to initiate the reunification, by returning back to the kindness, compassion and joy that I am in my true presence.

As I do these things I pick a powerful and comforting partner to whom I may always ask assistance. Love will not and cannot reject me for its pattern is to give of itself. My efforts will always be rewarded. It is a case of "give and be given to" rather than "be given to and then give". I am to make this first move of reconciliation. With love in my being and as my companion, I re-unite with a mighty giving and forgiving presence.

Love is not rationed, nor is its availability restricted. It and all its ingredients such as kindness, forgiveness and truth are free. It is more available than the air around me. I may tap into its compassion wherever I am, within and without, for it is ever present and ever a present awaiting to be opened. I only need to practise my recognition to achieve its companionship.

My task is to actively look for and seek its company in every situation. I am to allow love to again become apparent and devote myself to an everlasting partnership. What better cause can there be in life? I am here to re-discover love; it is the reason for my life. My soul is love and yearns my return. I often forget and have difficulty accepting this.

In the beginning I am love, what has happened since? How come I no longer recognize my beginning? Where have I hidden my truth? I have become so remote. I seem to have difficulty distinguishing my own spiritual self, my own reality. Do I no longer even recognize my true nature? Have I buried myself so deep? Have I been so calculating with my masks and disguises that I do not recognize who I am?

How come I let others advise me about my feelings? How come I let the world I perceive, the material world, tower over me so; above my affection for my soul? How is it that I ignore my very being, my presence? How come I have shut myself off from love?

Now is my chance to again be with my soul. It is not within my power to change yesterday, nor am I able to surely predict tomorrow, but by living love in the "now" of this instant, then I become more accepting, less judging. And love will love me for that. By giving, I receive. By showing kindness, I so receive. Forgiving others and forgiving self is what I yearn. Love is who I am. I am just to re-accept the company of love.

As I receive love I may pass it on for, as I do so, I may be immediately replenished. But not giving is being apart and I will not have made space for love within. As I again allow myself to love and be loving, I am thankful. I am not to ask to whom shall I give, I am just to give.

It is not for me to judge whether I should give to the perceived rich or poor. The sun does not ask "For whom am I giving light?" the sun just gives light. The tree does not ask, "For whom am I giving shade?" it just gives shade. Similarly it is for me just to give. Give freely so I may freely receive freely.

Practise giving and be thankful. Give with joy in the heart. Today is given to me for giving. I may find it easy to give love to some and more difficult to others. I am to practise for all are equal; all are spirits as I am, journeying temporarily on planet earth. I am granted the consciousness of love, why would I deny it?

My giving is just to be giving, not with any attachment. If I give with an expectation (other than love) it is no longer a loving gift. Should I give a child a football with a hope that the child enjoys it, then that is a loving gift, for hope and joy are attributes of love. But to give with a condition that the child trains to become a good football player; then the gift is qualified and no longer free of attachment for it carries an expectation.

Giving love is giving just love. Otherwise, when giving with an attachment, it becomes something other than a gift. A gift of love automatically includes all the aspects of love such as hope, peace and forgiveness, but I am not able to so give love if there is an associated expectation or stipulation.

To say "I will give you this, if you do or allow that" is a trade rather than a gift. Love is not a trading commodity. Similarly love cannot be: "I'll love you if you do this" for that is manipulation and such exploitation is no longer love. I do not choose to whom I give love for this too may be misguided. The
gift of love is freedom, love itself is free.

I have been given my body. I was not given my body on condition that I exercise and keep it fit, or that I feed myself only the correct foods. No, I was given my body and I have the freedom of choice to do as I will. It is up to me what I choose, but if I care for my body, then my body in return will care for me. As I love myself, I am loved and I free myself... there is no purpose in being a slave. I freely give because I choose, not because I want something.

One thing not to give away is my power. This happens in subtle ways. For example I might consider a certain number unlucky and by doing so I am giving power to that number to be so. This is true of many superstitions.

If I am not giving, I am holding on. If I am holding on I am not making space to receive. If my plate is full, there is no room for alternatives. Practise giving: as I give I then receive. Giving opens the door to life, giving opens the door to love and allows my return. Dare to give myself over to love. There is nothing I need that love will not return in abundance. If I am not giving in this manner I am wasting the life granted to me.

If stuck, find something easy to love, perhaps care for a flower and at the same time have compassion for self. From that willingness I allow the joy of love to well up within. It is a privilege to give love but I am not to take love for granted. The only deed I am required to do is to give and accept love. Love is everlasting.

What a wonderful gift to give and receive. Give love this opportunity, for love, in return, will give of itself, that is its behavior.

Practice: In quiet and stillness, be open to giving and receiving. Consider yourself a perfect gift waiting to be unwrapped. Undo the package and find the wondrous presence inside. Find your lovable self within. Accept the joy of being, and be thankful.

If Life Is a Game, These Are the Rules
by
Cherie Carter-Scott

FLEXIBILITY

"To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often."
Winston Churchill

Flexibility is defined as being adaptable to change. In the course of your lifetime, you will be tempted to try to hold on to what is, when in fact, what is is only a temporary phase that evolves almost immediately into what was. It is essential that you learn to bend and flex around every new circumstance, as rigidity robs you of the opportunity to see the freedom of new possibilities.

In order to truly embrace your role as a student of life, you need to cultivate the ability to move easily from "knowingness" to "not-knowingness," which in turn moves you from master to student again and again. In other words, you learn the lesson of flexibility once you are able to flow with what is coming next rather than clinging to the way things are presently.

Paradigms change over time, and so must you. Your company may restructure, and you will have to survive. Your spouse may choose to leave the marriage, and you will have to cope. Technology will continue to advance and change, and you must constantly learn and adapt or risk becoming a dinosaur. Flexibility allows you to be ready for whatever curve lies ahead in life instead of getting blindsided by it.

From 1900 to 1967, the Swiss were the leading watchmakers in the world. In 1967, when the digital technology was patented by the Swiss, they rejected it in favor of the traditional ball bearings, gears, and mainsprings they had been using to make watches for decades.

Unfortunately, however, the world was ready for this advance, and Seiko, a Japanese company, picked up the digital patent and became the leading watch manufacturer in the world almost overnight. Fifty thousand of the 67,000 Swiss watchmakers went out of business because they refused to embrace this new technology. It was not until years later that the Swiss caught up and regained their position in the marketplace with the creation of Swatch watch.

Learn to be flexible; it makes the curves in your life path much easier to maneuver.

Your time here on Earth is brief. Time passes and things change. You have options and choices in which to make your wishes, dreams, and goals become reality.

When you ask yourself, "Why am I here?" or "Why is this happening to me?" or "What's it all about?" turn to your spiritual primer. Ask yourself, "What is the lesson?" If you hear a defensive reaction using the words "never" or "always" in your response, you haven't yet learned the lesson.

Next, go a little deeper and ask, "What is there for me to learn from this experience?" Each time you view your circumstances as possessing value, regardless of the apparent confusion or hardship, you grow. Your personal evolution will depend on how readily you embrace your lessons and integrate them into your life.

Remember, the only consequence for resisting lessons, is that they will keep repeating themselves until you learn them. When you have learned a lesson, you will always be tested. When the lesson is learned, the test will be easily passed, and you then move on to more complex and challenging ones.

You can look back on the incidents in your past and see clearly the lessons you have learned, resisted, and are still repeating. "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift, that is why we call it the present."

It is more challenging to look at your present situation and see exactly what your lessons are. Looking into the future is the most difficult. Wishing that you had already graduated from the school of life does not accelerate your progress or make the lessons any easier. Examining the situation for the real lesson is the scavenger hunt.

Remind yourself that you are here to learn lessons.
Be present with your process.
Pay attention to what you are experiencing.
Be diligent with actions which enable you to "get" the lessons presented.
Ask for answers and you shall receive them.
Listen with an open heart.
Explore all options.
See your judgment as a mirror.
View each crisis as an opportunity.
Trust yourself.
Believe in yourself.
Look within yourself, to your higher self, for guidance on all your choices.
Extend compassion to yourself.
Remember, there are no mistakes, only lessons.
Love yourself, trust your choices, and everything is possible!

If Life Is a Game, These Are the Rules

Rule One:
You will receive a body.
You may love it or hate it,
but it will be yours for the duration
of your life on Earth.

Rule Two:
You will be presented with lessons.
You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called "life."
Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to
learn lessons. You may like the lessons or hate them, but
you have designed them as part of your curriculum.

Rule Three:
There are no mistakes, only lessons.
Growth is a process of experimentation,
a series of trials, errors, and occasional victories.
The failed experiments are as much apart of the process
as the experiments that work.

Rule Four:
A lesson is repeated until learned.
Lessons will repeated to you in various forms
until you have learned them. When you have learned them,
you can then go on to the next lesson.

Rule Five:
Learning does not end.
There is no part of life that does not contain lessons.
If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

Rule Six:
" There" is no better [place] than "here."
When your [place] "there" has become a [place] "here,"
you will simply obtain a [place] "there" that will look better
to you than your present [place] "here."

Rule Seven:
Others are only mirrors of you.
You cannot love or hate something about
another person unless it reflects something you love
or hate about yourself.

Rule Eight:
What you make of your life is up to you.
You have all the tools and resources you need.
What you do with them is up to you.

Rule Nine:
Your answers lie inside of you.
All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

Rule Ten:
You will forget all of this at birth.
You can remember it if you want
by unraveling the double helix
of inner knowing.

"If you don't get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don't want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can't hold onto it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change, free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is a law, and no amount of pretending will alter that reality."
"Life is not suffering; it's just that you will suffer it, rather than enjoy it, until you let go of your mind's attachments and just go for the ride freely, no matter what happens." From: Way of the PEACEFUL WARRIOR

***

TAKING THE FEAR OUT OF CHANGING
BY
Dr. Dennis O'Grady

Becoming A Change-Expert

We've given each other some hard lessons lately,
But we ain't learnin'.
We're the same, sad story, that's a fact —
One step up and two steps back.

Bruce Springsteen, "One Step Up,"

Being Open To Change Leads To Success

DON'T BLAME,
OR COMPLAIN
CHANGE!

Change means learning. It means the ability to learn lessons as quickly as you can, before your self-esteem sinks, your loving relationships turn to war or your heartfelt aspirations for success burn so low you can't recover.

Haven't you experienced the phenomenon of taking one step forward in your change goals, only to find yourself taking two steps back and feeling more discouraged and disappointed than before? Of course.

You have had to learn some hard lessons to be where you are today. Hard lessons are an inescapable part of the human condition. How you experience them is another story — the story of change.

And haven't you unmercifully criticized yourself for blowing a good chance to bring about something fine in your professional or family life? Probably so. You are prone to taking many of your inner talents for granted, and over-focusing on your weaknesses when your self-esteem is low.

" One step up and two steps back." How's a person to keep going?

It's no wonder that keeping a positive attitude toward change is difficult. Maybe we need to take care of first things first: changing your attitude about change... into a change-expert's belief system that emphasizes success over fear.

Are you staying ahead, or lagging behind, in these fast-changing times? If you are successful, then you have a great deal to lose. If you aren't successful, then you have a great deal to gain. Either way, being open to change is the only sure-fire way to guarantee your success.

THE SUCCESS QUIZ

This quick quiz has been designed to help you get a handle on the concepts being discussed. Answer these items to determine if your attitudes about change are going to guarantee your success, or result in your eventual failure.

True or False?

1. Successful people know that the hardest thing to change is a hardening of their attitudes.

2. All failures stem from two sets of innocent sounding but deadly words — "I CAN'T" and "YES, BUT..."

3. Winners analyze how they might undermine their own hard-earned successes.

4. A big cause of failure is the failure to set big enough goals.

5. Unexpected pain can result from huge setbacks or successes.

6. My choices and options are all open to me now.

7. Change-experts grab hold of good advice and run far and fast with it.

8. Complaining is a good habit.

9. Giving positive strokes to myself is as important as giving positive strokes to others.

10. I often struggle with how to balance pleasing myself with pleasing others.

11. The fear of failure is really an excuse that most of us use to be unassertive.

12. High self-esteem results from making small positive changes in spite of fear.

Answers and Discussion

1. True. Change-experts must stay abreast of changes and
welcome them to remain successful. Nothing kills off
change faster than staid attitudes that resist change.

2. True. Believing "I CAN'T" fuels negative emotions. Stress
results from resisting needed changes and creates
more negative emotions. Negative emotions act to
abort new changes from taking hold.

3. True. The only people who have not experienced the fear of
success are those people who have not yet attained it.
Winners analyze how they might sabotage their
successes.

4. True. Success means living your potentials to the fullest with
the help of important goals. The fear of commitment
makes most of us stop short of setting big goals.

5. True. Success does not magically bestow happiness. In fact,
success forces you to let go of old painful childhood
beliefs which said you weren't lovable or worthwhile.
Success is not as easy to digest as many would care to think.

6. True. Your choices only seem fixed or frozen in time. You
can re-choose the same decision or make a new choice
at any time. This means you are free to make your life
whatever you want it to be.

7. True. The fear of disapproval distracts many of us from
taking our own good advice. Change-experts do not
reject fabulous advice to prove that they aren't being
pressured or controlled by others. Experts will even
use advice that an advice-giver refuses to use.

8. True. Complaining is a good habit when it creates a sense of
belonging and attachment. Sadly though, complaining
can be used as a substitute for taking charge of our
lives and venturing into the unknown.

9. True. Stroke yourself if you want to change fast! Of course,
self-criticism is easier than self-stroking. Self- criticism
is a sly way that beginning successes are not
adequately reinforced in order to maintain them.
Stroking others is easier but still occurs too
infrequently.

10. True. Equally pleasing self and others is best. The quickest
way to ruin a romantic relationship is to stop it from
changing. Constructive conflict helps couples balance
the art of self-pleasuring with partner-pleasuring.
Equality between partners is always best.

11. True. The fear of failure is one of the five major excuses
people use to avoid taking small positive actions in
spite of fear. Success means getting back up again after
a failure. Assertiveness is developed by contradicting
fears in order to conquer them.

12. True. There is no security like being really good at what you
do. Self-worth, self-control and positive self-image are
the three hallmarks of high self-esteem. Confidence
comes from conquering the fear of change.

Your Score?

10-12 Correct: CHANGE-EXPERT. You aren't afraid to embrace change and learn everything you can from the experience.

4-9 Correct: CHANGE-RESISTER. You resist making needed changes which limits your success and increases your stress level.

0-3 Correct: CHANGE-PHOBIC. Fear is in charge of your life and you must learn quickly how to venture into the unknown to learn and grow.

Begin to feel successful about change!

Use negative feelings as a call to re-examine the quality of your self-esteem, loving relationships and your career aspirations. Start right now to use frustration to guide and support you in your change efforts.

Change means putting your identity in full public view for possible critical review. By doing so, you will be striving for a level of success and reaching for a sense of happiness that few people ever savor.

Being who you are means you stop using "shoulds" that shut down your chances for change and make you feel like a victim stuck in "I CAN'T" disability thinking.

Self-criticism is deadly to your self-esteem. The permissions you find in these pages can help you fight back against "shouldistic" thinking.

Shoulds cause negative feelings which affect you invisibly, much like unseen radiation poisoning affects your healthy body. Slowly, but surely, you are weakened without ever having seen the real cause.

Changing negative attitudes.

Changing old ways of thinking isn't easy, but it is necessary for building your self-esteem. "Bad" attitudes are lies told about your good character that interfere with the bigger challenge of self-acceptance.

Giving up before you begin, or quitting soon after you start, results from the rigid belief system that you are a static human being who can't transform into a different person. You are capable of change until the day you take your last breath. But why should you wait that long?

The two words most responsible for the maintenance of rigid attitudes are: "I CAN'T.." For example, "I can't change" is a belief that makes you feel like victim, and dooms your efforts to achieve change. Sticking to goals occurs when you determinedly declare: "I CAN TOO DO IT!" Replacing victim beliefs with this type of coping statement encourages new behaviors during the trying times of breaking difficult mental and physical habits.

Do you ever feel like giving up on tough new change projects? Do you ever succumb to the temptation of being self-critical? If so, find out which of these coping statements CAN help you out the most:

1. I CAN CHANGE TODAY.

To Achieve Self-Control: Keeping an open attitude to change which forces you to make the best use of your time by living in the present. Go ahead and
change despite your current age, life situation or length of time you have
been practicing the negative attitude.

Work Daily On Your Self-Esteem: Experts believe it's never too late to change.

2. I CAN BE DIFFERENT.

To Achieve Self-Control: Interrupting bad mental habits means you cast off easy methods of anxiety-reduction, and throw away your security blankets. Change requires the courage to live in harmony with disruptive emotions.

Work Daily On Your Self-Esteem: Experts know that negative thinking s not a helpful way to deal with anger.

3. I CAN SEE MYSELF ACHIEVING THE GOAL.

To Achieve Self-Control: Use the power of imagination to visualize yourself moving toward your goal. Developing a positive attitude requires you to be alert to the hidden costs of staying the same.

Work Daily On Your Self-Esteem: Experts visualize a bright future of accomplishment in advance of the reality.

4. I CAN GET OVER ANY HURT.

To Achieve Self-Control: Risking success and real intimacy can bring out unresolved grief issues locked away deep in your mind. Take time to heal forgotten wounds, and assimilate the best traits of the lost person into your personality.

Work Daily On Your Self-Esteem: Experts do not let negative attitudes be an indirect expression of unresolved grief.

5. I CAN COPE WITH THE STRESS OF THE UNKNOWN.

To Achieve Self-Control: Switching from a bad situation to a good one turns on all of your body's senses, creative energies and self-actualization drives in unpredictable and profound ways.

Work Daily On Your Self-Esteem: Experts attempt to redefine anxiety as "the excitement of being fully alive."

6. I CAN HAVE WHAT I DESIRE.

To Achieve Self-Control: Peace of mind, grudge-free living and self-pride come from the hard work of having your dreams come true. High self-esteemers struggle with accepting the best of life's rewards.

Work Daily On Your Self-Esteem: Experts deal honestly with self-defeating guilt feelings.

7. I CAN FINISH WHAT I START.

To Achieve Self-Control: Procrastination applies to the reluctance to begin a change project, the ambivalence of continuing it or the resistance id follow-through on hard won wins.

Work Daily On Your Self-Esteem: Experts finish strong by taking lots of little steps in the right direction.

8. I CAN ASK FOR HELP WHEN I'M OVERWHELMED.

To Achieve Self-Control: Low self-esteem states happen every day to high self-esteemers. People who undergo dramatic change often feel like scared and vulnerable children again.

Work Daily On Your Self-Esteem: Experts know when hope is low; asking for help must take a high priority.

9. I CAN LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES.

To Achieve Self-Control: It is crucial for those of us who have been abused, or who have abused our own bodies, minds or relationships to forgive ourselves. Choose to learn something new from old failures to avoid repeating them.

Work Daily On Your Self-Esteem: Experts do not accept failure as the final decree.

10. I CAN LET MY BEST TRAITS COME OUT.

To Achieve Self-Control: Negative attitudes keep great talents hidden from view, and feelings of being bad and worthless running strong. Challenge yourself to be on friendly terms with your secret strengths, and use them as allies to master difficult tasks.

Work Daily On Your Self-Esteem: Experts keep stroking their strengths to succeed.

No, changing a negative attitude is not easy. But you can still get your changes right despite previous attempts that might have failed.

YOU CAN TOO CHOOSE new changes right now! And watch closely how your self-acceptance grows as you master negative emotions.

Keep On Changing!

Does change mean giving up being who you really are?
Absolutely not! Just the reverse is true. Change is such a difficult developmental process because it requires you become more attuned to who you are.

Being a "real" adult was meant to mean:

1. Enjoying the benefits of a positive attitude.
2. Bringing what you most want into your life.
3. Feeling free to choose your own changes.
4. Learning from frustrations.
5. Enjoying success and prosperity.
6. Growing from romantic relationships.
7. Being hopeful instead of helpless.
8. Having fun and laughing loudly.
9. Letting pain be pain.
10. Trying to control only what you can control.
11. Feeling worthwhile.
12. Being happy much of the time.

Being successful is your birthright. Suffering does not make you a more responsible "adult." Being unhappy or bored means just the reverse.
Keep on welcoming change to remain successful! Live a heroic life instead of a mediocre one.

THE GIFT OF CHANGE
by
Marianne Williamson

CHAPTER FIVE

From Asking God to Change
the World
to Praying... That He Change Us

Jesus said, "Be of good cheer, which is certainly positive. But then he added, "for I have overcome the world." He didn't say, "I have fixed the world," but rather, "I have overcome" it. The difference between fixing the world and over­coming it is huge. The problem most of us have is that we try to fix instead of overcoming, which is why we never find that fundamental good cheer.

Trying to fix the world is like trying to change a movie by manipulating the movie screen. The world as we know it is simply a screen onto which we project our thoughts. Until we change those thoughts, the movie stays the same.

If we want our lives to change, it does little good to simply move from town to town, job to job, or relationship to relation­ship. Wherever we go, as they say, we take ourselves with us. We manifest not so much according to geography as according to consciousness. We can travel wide, but that of itself will not fundamentally change us. For our lives to change, we must travel deep.

The truth is that our fundamental happiness stems not from anything that happens in the material world, but from love. Certainly there are some wonderful experiences to be had on the material plane, and there is nothing wrong with enjoying them to the fullest.

The world itself is neutral; whether or not something of the material plane can be considered holy is determined by the purposes our mind ascribes to it.

That which is used by the Holy Spirit for purposes of genuine healing is holy; that which is used by the ego for purposes of separation is not. The body itself can be a "beautiful lesson in communion until communion is."
Wherever there is love, there is God.

But we cannot enjoy the material plane if we are overly attached to it; the secret of happiness lies in knowing that we are in the world but not of it. That understanding—keeping our thoughts on love while having our feet planted squarely on earth—is the intersection between heaven and earth. And that intersecting point is what we are.

It is our mission to live on the earth while thinking only the thoughts of heaven, and when we do, the power of the intersecting point between man and God (symbolized visually in both the cross and the Star of David) overcomes all negative force. That is the overcoming to which Jesus referred and that he himself embodied.

In the Bible it is said that the Holy Spirit will give us a new mind. And who among us could not use that? It becomes fruitless to ask God to change our world once we recognize the world is merely the reflection of our thoughts. What we pray for is the healing of our minds.

It's impossible to make your life new when your mind is running old tapes. Time and time again, we've blown it at exactly the same place in a relationship or sabotaged a professional endeavor in exactly the same way. Yet we feel powerless to stop our self-defeating behavior. What's the point of attracting an opportunity if we're only going to ruin it anyway?

We pay a high price for refusing to accept the part we play in causing our problems; if I don't see I caused it, then I can't see I can change it! But once I'm willing to take total responsibility for my own experience, I can see the value of inviting the Holy Spirit to enter my mind and fill me with His spirit. Conscious­ness precedes form, and the perfect form arises from a conscious­ness of total love.

Total love seems like a very tall order until we consider the reality that total love is what we are. So where's the disconnect? We ask, "If I am love, and love creates miracles, then why is my life so screwed up?"

At a certain level it's not our divine reality that's the issue— the issue is how much of that reality we allow ourselves to experience and express. In the introduction to A Course in Miracles, it's stated, "The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to your awareness of love's presence, which is your natural inheritance." Love is all around us, but we're in the mental and emotional habit of deflecting it.

With every attitude of attack or defense, we send love away. With every perception of anyone's guilt, we tell love to leave. With every thought of limited possibility, we tell miracles we don't want them. And then we wonder why we're depressed.

To treat the depression, we must ask ourselves essential questions: What am I doing, or not doing, to allow fear rather than love to prevail here? Who am I attacking or not forgiving? What am I myself not giving to this situation? We indulge our fear as if we're being strong to do so, "honest" in a way that makes us more "real."

But what is so real about playing weak instead of strong? Sometimes we need to tell our fear to go to hell, which is literally where it came from.

The ego is backed by the weight of an entire thought system, constantly luring us away from love and limitlessness toward fear and scarcity. It is a vicious taskmaster, and it has our hearts—indeed our entire planet—in its grip. And some people would rather die than change their minds.

The transformation of the heart will take more than an intellectual decision. The ego is a mental addiction to the thinking of fear, and only a spiritual experience can break an addiction. If we want our lives and our world to genuinely change, then we need a spiritual experience to make it happen. And to have that experience, we must open our hearts to receive it.

Manifesting Spiritual Change
An Interview with Wayne Dyer
By Mary NurrieStearns (Personal Transformation Editor)

http://www.personaltransformation.com/Dyer.html

Wayne Dyer’s book, Wisdom of the Ages, contains a wonderful collection of prose and poetry from sixty ancestral masters. Just compiling the words of these extraordinary people of the past twenty-five centuries in one volume is reason enough for the book.

However, each teaching, on some aspect of personal and spiritual growth, is followed by an essay. In the essays, Dyer applies the insights of these wise people to our lives today. He also offers a social and historical context for each writer’s life and work. These sages come to life in these pages, touching our hearts and beckoning us to bring their wisdom into our contemporary lives.

Since Dyer is such a popular author and lecturer, we were interested in what he had to say about effecting deep spiritual change, the underlying focus of this book and his life’s work. We talked by phone one morning while he was at his home in southern Florida.

Personal Transformation: In this book, you talk about working with our thoughts in order to create deep inner change. Do we effect spiritual change by working with our mind?

Wayne Dyer: That’s the place we start, certainly. The way to effect deep spiritual change is to work at allowing the highest part of you, the invisible part of you, the divine part of you, to be the more dominant force in your life. That’s done through getting quiet and becoming peaceful. You use the mind to lose the mind. In the process of losing it, you make conscious contact with what I think of as God. That’s really the process of personal transformation. In the word transformation, trans means to go beyond. Transformation translates to the experience of going beyond form. The mind is not in the world of form. That which houses it is, perhaps, but we don’t even know if it is housed in the brain. Certainly, it’s beyond the world of the physical. Using the mind to lose the mind is the process of getting quiet, of shutting down the inner dialogue, of letting go of the chatter that fills our lives every day.

PT: You discuss the Bible quote, "As you think, so shall you be." How do you interpret that?

Dyer: Thinking is a major part of our lives. It defines our relationships, our health and our level of prosperity. We become what we think about all day long. It’s the first law of the universe. You have to ask yourself, "Why am I thinking the way that I'm thinking," rather than "Why am I attracting what I am attracting into my life?" People aren’t good at attracting into their life what they want because the reverse is also true. What you really, really don’t want, you will also get. If your mind is on what you don’t want, you will continue to manifest and attract that into your life. For example, you can’t manifest prosperity from "I despise being poor." If you despise being poor, if that’s what you think, you have to create more despising being poor. It’s true of everything in our lives. We have to become really conscious of what we think about, and put our attention on what we want rather than what we don’t want. Let’s look at relationships. If your thoughts and energy are on what you don’t like about the person, if you pay attention primarily to their flaws and to what they do that upsets you, that will characterize the nature of your relationship. You will continue to see the flaws and the things that upset you being manifested. Robert Frost said, "We love the things we love for what they are"—not for what they ought to be or used to be or what we think they should be, but what they are. Everything gets defined by the way we process it. Everything. Looking out the window at a sunny day can be seen as beautiful for one person and horrible for someone else who thinks the temperature isn’t right or worries that it might rain. What you think about is what you create in your life.

PT: Given the power of thinking, what is the best place in ourselves for making decisions? What do we turn our thoughts to?

Dyer: The best place is one of peace, which is enlightenment. Enlightenment is to be immersed in and surrounded by peace at all moments in our lives. Before you act, you can ask yourself if what you are about to do or what you are about to say is going to bring peace. For example, often you have a choice to be right or to be kind. By being right, making somebody else wrong, you create turmoil; but by being kind, you always create peace. Enlightenment is about being kind, about being at peace. The Course of Miracles says, "I can choose peace rather than this." It’s a great affirmation. We don’t get rid of ego—this part of us that needs to be right, that’s into pleasure and that evaluates itself on the basis of what it has, who it’s better than, and what everybody else thinks of "me." We just make ego the least important part of our decision-making. We try to be conscious of choosing peace.

PT: You discuss the importance of being yourself, of being self-directed enough to maintain balance and dignity. How do we know our true self, so that we’re directing ourselves with something other than ego?

Dyer: The truest part of us feels divine and knows peace; not believes in it, but knows it. It knows tranquility and harmony and feels in balance. It’s not anything you can intellectualize about; it’s something you absolutely know. If I’m able to serve in some way, that is, to bring peace to somebody, or to make someone else’s life better, if I’m able to do that, then of course, I’m doing it for myself as well.

PT: I’ll quote you here. You encourage us "to wish for anything we want. We are entitled to share the abundance of the world. We’re divine creatures of God, and as such, we’re as entitled to health, prosperity and love as anyone who lives on earth." How do we relate to the principles of manifestation in a way that we’re serving the betterment of humanity and not feeding some hungry ego which may have something to prove or feels entitled?

Dyer: I know the question. When you attract into your life the things you desire, whether it’s a new Mercedes, jewelry from Sak’s, a job, or feeding a homeless person, as long as it’s consistent with those nine principles I wrote about in Manifest Your Destiny, it’s based on love. When your desires are based on love, you create abundance for everyone else on the planet. It’s a myth to think people are hungry or dying or starving or in poverty because you attract prosperity into your life. It’s a guilt myth. I’ll use myself as an example. When I have a book idea in my head, I go away and I write a book. As a result, great abundance flows into my life—money, accolades, and lots of wonderful things. In a way it feeds my ego, but the process of actualizing what I feel is my purpose, putting it down on paper and letting the world read it, involves millions of people. Somebody has to edit the book, somebody has to deliver the book, somebody has to build the cars that deliver the book, somebody has to feed the people who get up in the morning to get in the cars. None of those people go to work without any clothes on. Somebody has to inspect the clothes, grow the cotton, and design the garment. It’s an endless progression.

No man is an island unto himself. We are all part of the main. Mystical consciousness is an awareness that none of us is alone. We accomplish nothing alone. Everything is done in relationship. When I create and when I attract into my life, I afford opportunity to everyone else in the whole world to work together in order to bring that about, and in the process of doing so, abundance is created for them as well. It’s when I do nothing that I stop that flow of abundance and prosperity. If you have a desire to attract something into your life, whatever that might be, you should act on it as long as it’s not going to hurt anyone else in the process. There are two ways to have the tallest building in town, you know. One is to knock down everyone else’s building, but before long, you’re going to be at war, because people won’t stand for that. Secondly, you can work on your own building. In the process of working on your own building, you allow everyone else to have a building, as well. When you stop, you stop other people as well.

PT: So prosperity and abundance come out of our inner-connectedness.

Dyer: Absolutely. People say to me, "You drive a nice car and you have a nice home and there are people starving in Somalia." I respond with "People aren’t starving in Somalia because I drive a nice car." I do all that I can to help. I work with the hunger projects to help people improve their lives, but denying myself the things that I want and that I can create for myself won’t decrease world hunger.

PT: You talk about dignity in the book. How do you define dignity?

Dyer: If we talk about dignity in terms of how we feel about ourselves, we might be able to define dignity as being in harmony with our higher self. If we talk about dignity in terms of comparing people on some scale, we get into prejudice. My father, who spent years in prison and who abandoned us, would have been labeled a very undignified man, and yet, he was the greatest teacher in my life. He taught me about forgiveness and how to get on the spiritual path. I remember being told a story about a man who had signed up to come to this planet to live—to sit and beg at a corner in front of a certain building every day, to stand there with his hand out, just to teach one person compassion. His was a life of dignity.

PT: What’s your understanding of humility?

Dyer: It’s not projecting your ego onto others. It’s a wonderful trait to cultivate. I am not talking about false humility, which is pretending. I am talking about not always having to draw attention to yourself. I listened, on a call-in radio show, to this father who had given up his child for adoption and now, thirty years later, his child is famous. His son took his real name back five years ago. The father now wants to reconnect with the son he hasn’t seen since he gave him up for adoption. The father told this story on the radio. Everybody who called in talked about how they disliked this man and what he was doing, accusing him of only wanting contact with his famous son because he wanted money. Then callers said, "Let me tell you about what happened to me, with my father." Everyone who called in projected their own story onto this person’s desire to reconnect with his son. We have to learn humility—to see the world the way it is, not the way we are, and to see people the way they are, and not the way we are, and not to use ourselves and our stories as a justification or a rationale for the way everyone else ought to behave.

PT: Do we have to be humbled to develop humility?

Dyer: It’s not a question of being humbled. It’s a question of losing some of your self-importance, your self-absorption. It’s making the decision to be free. Freedom means an absence of thinking about yourself. You’re never free until you’re free from thinking about yourself, and that’s what all transformational work is about. It’s about losing your self-absorption, reaching a level of impeccability, and reaching levels of higher consciousness.

PT: In ways, freedom and humility are the same.

Dyer: Yes. They are egolessness, losing ego, or not having it be such a dominant force in your life.

PT: In that sense, is there strength in humility?

Dyer: There is strength in humility, but that isn’t the reason to become humble. The reason to grow in humility is because doing so raises you to a higher level of consciousness. You are only strong because other people perceive you to be that way. Strength is a relative term.

PT: One of the themes throughout your book is that we are naturally purposeful. If we are inherently purposeful, are we naturally powerful, and if so, what’s the source of that power?

Dyer: We are all naturally much more powerful than our egos, our minds and our personalities have convinced us. We have incredible power which comes from our source. We become powerless because we disconnect ourselves from our source. When you disconnect from the source, you lose the power of the source, like the drop of water in the ocean. When the water is away from the ocean, it shrivels and can’t create and sustain life. But, reconnect it to its source and it regains all of the power of its source. Our egos are like these drops of water. We’ve come to believe that we are separate from our source—separate from each other, separate from God, and separate from what we’d like to attract into our lives. This concept of separation is where we lose our power. When you reconnect to your source, you regain the power of your source—the power to create and sustain life, which is as powerful as it gets.

PT: Is there a difference between power and strength?

Dyer: Strength is often perceived as a comparison to others—how much more I can lift or how much faster I can run or how influential I am. Power is often interpreted as having influence beyond your own boundaries. But I’m not speaking about that kind of power, which is a dominating kind of power. I’m talking about the power in the inner strength, to be able to create and sustain life, to heal, and to attract prosperity into our lives.

PT: What about the heart in transformation?

Dyer: I see the heart as the center of the body; not the brain, not the head, but the heart. The heart is a symbol, of course, of coming from the place inside of you that knows that you and God are one. It’s something that you can only feel and experience. Your heart beating is like the waves hitting upon the ocean. Jackson Browne sang, "I hear your heart beating everywhere." It is God’s voice inside of you, coming from that place in your center where you radiate out into the world what it is that you are and want. It’s only when you can get to that center place, that place of the heart, that you’ll really come to know peace. The mind won’t give it to you.

PT: You talk about a rich life being filled with enthusiasm. What generates enthusiasm?

Dyer: The word enthusiasm means "God within." Enthios is God and asm means within. Enthusiasm is being authentic. It’s allowing God to reside inside of you.

PT: Is the heart the source of enthusiasm?

Dyer: Yes, that’s the God within. When people ask, "How do you get to be a great speaker?" I say, "Be authentic and be enthusiastic, and anything else, he’ll forgive you for." If you can’t remember, if you stumble, it won’t make any difference.

PT: You say there is no such thing as failure. What do you mean by that?

Dyer: If you swing at a golf ball and the ball dribbles off to the side, you haven’t really failed, you’ve produced a result. The question in life isn’t whether you fail, the question is, what do you do with the results you’ve produced? Do you say I can never hit a golf ball, I’m not athletic, or do you pick up the ball and swing at it again? The moment you label yourself a failure, you become the label that you place on yourself. Failure is another judgmental term. One person’s failure is someone else’s enormous success.

PT: What about regrets? Are they real and do they serve our evolution?

Dyer: You don’t regret what you do, you regret what you don’t do. When you do something and don’t like the result you produce, you have a choice. You can learn from the experience. You can make changes and in that sense, there’s no regret. There’s actually gratitude for the fall, because the falls provide you with the energy to propel yourself to higher and higher places in our lives. When you’d like to try something and you don’t because you’re afraid of failing or you’re afraid of somebody else’s opinion about it, then you can have regrets. You can go through your whole life wondering what would have happened if you had asked her to go out. There is also an aspect of regret after doing something harmful toward another person. When you feel regret, vow to change your behavior. In that sense, regret serves our evolution. Copyright 2002, All rights reserved.

FOOTPRINTS ON THE PATH BY EILEEN CADDY

CHANGE

Life is full and overflowing with the new.
But it is necessary to empty out the old
to make room for the new to enter.
The emptying out process can be very painful,
but it is very necessary
for when you have been emptied of the old,
you may experience that feeling of barrenness,
of having nothing to hold on to,
of being alone and bereft of everything.

You may even feel that I have forsaken you,
that life is completely dead and empty
with no meaning to it,
and you want to throw up your hands in despair
and run away from everything.

Try to realise that if you are going through a time
like this
it is this process of being emptied of the old so
that you can be refilled with the new. Never give up
hope but hold on until you can start again
in newness of spirit and in truth. You can become
as a little child
and enjoy to the full the wonderment of this new life
as you gradually become infilled by it.

You have to be willing to unlearn so much
to make room for all those new and wonderful truths
to enter and become part of you.

It is more difficult to unlearn than it is to learn,
for many souls cling on to what they know
because they are afraid of losing their feeling of security
their feeling of superiority
and are uneasy at the idea of being born again
in spirit and in truth
to enable them to enter the new.
They cannot bear to be parted from all the knowledge
they have acquired in this life,
and many refuse to start again,
which results in the parting of the ways.

No one can enter the new without a real change of heart; and you can experience a real change of heart only when you choose to do so of your own free will. No one can
make you change, they can only show you the way. You have to take it.
You have to start the wheels turning and keep them turning.

Every day is a new day,
therefore expect something new and different each day;
never be satisfied to drift along in the same old way day after day.
Start each day by getting in touch with Me and then expect the most wonderful
things to come about.

How can life be dull and mundane
when you are in tune with the source of all life?

Expect wonder upon wonder to take place.
Be prepared for anything to happen at any time.
Behold the new unfold in true perfection,
and give eternal thanks for everything.



Every day you can learn something new and wonderful,
but what you do with that lesson is up to you:
you can live it
and put it into practice
and see how wonderfully it works;
or you can tuck it away into the subconscious
and draw it out at a later date,
but sooner or later you will have to live it—
if not in this life, in the next.

The sooner you put it into practice the better
because with practice comes change:
change of heart,
change of outlook,
change of attitude
change of a whole way of life.
You can be transformed as you learn
to live and demonstrate that lesson,
whatever it may be.

Unless you allow a very small child to do things
for itself: to feed itself, to walk, to dress itself, to write, to draw,
to express itself,
it will never develop and become independent
and be able to stand on its own feet
and make its own decisions.

You have to stand back
and allow it to make mistakes,
to take a long time to master what it is learning to do.
You have to be very patient
and wait
and watch
no matter how tempted you are to rush forward
and do it for the child to save time.

How often do I have to stand back
and very lovingly watch you fumbling
and struggling with life
so that you can learn a vitally important lesson from it—
a lesson never to be forgotten
once it has been mastered.
I have infinite love and patience.

If only you would open your eyes,
you would realise that life is a classroom in a school,
you are learning all the time;
you are absorbing the most wonderful truths
which will become part of you;
you will find yourself living and demonstrating them.

It may take time for this to come about,
but sooner or later it will;
it is up to you how soon.
You can learn quickly if you choose,
or you can go off and experiment on your own
and try out your own methods
which may take you far longer.

What you do and how you do it
is up to you.
I am there to show you the way,
but you have to take it.
No one else can take it for you,
no one else can live your life for you.

What are you doing with your life?
Are you content to drift through it
doing what you want to,
living the way you want to live,
without a thought for anyone else?
You are free to do this.
Many, many souls live this way
and then wonder why they are so unhappy
and discontented.

It is only when you learn to forget the self and live for others that you will find real peace of heart and true contentment.

Learn to give and not just take all the time.
Why not give on one level and receive on another?
Life is a two-way thing,
a constant giving and receiving.
I keep on telling you that you cannot live unto yourself
and find real happiness and satisfaction in life.

Live for the whole
and give to the whole,
and be whole.

Are you alert and recep
tive to new and fresh ideas?
Are your thoughts positive and constructive at all times?
Do you eliminate all negative, unhappy
and depressing thoughts
and see the very best
in everything that is happening in your life?
Can you see a wonderful pattern and plan
running through all that is happening to you
and know with deep inner knowing
that only the very best will come out of it,
even if it means a complete upheaval in your life?

Start from this moment to watch your thoughts
and ideas
and do not let them wander aimlessly around. Be in complete control of them and select only those thoughts and ideas which will bring the very best
to the whole.

Why dwell on the negative when the very best, the positive, is just around the corner if you are willing to expand your consciousness and find it?

Never be afraid of change,
of the new.
Learn to let go
and move forward in absolute freedom
and once you have let go
never look backward but ever forward.
Once you have set the ball rolling
and have accepted a completely new life,
have no regrets
but accept it all with real joy and thanksgiving.
Regrets can hold you back
and can prevent the most wonderful things
taking place in your life.
Keep open so that anything can happen.

Never be afraid to tread the path alone.
Know which is your path
and follow it wherever it may lead you;
do not feel you have to follow
in someone else's footsteps.
When you take time to be still in the silence
you will know what is your specific path.

It takes strength and courage to follow the path,
especially when you have to go alone.
You must not just follow the crowd
because it is easier and more comfortable.
Find out what My will is for you
and follow it wherever it may take you.

Turn within more and more,
attune your consciousness to the very highest,
and watch My plan unfold for you step by step.

Those steps may come thick and fast.
Let them come.
When I tell you that My glorious plan
will unfold step by step you visualise it all happening slowly. Nothing will happen slowly now. Everything is being speeded up.

Nevertheless it will be an unfoldment
because all will come about in perfect timing.
Just let it come and do not try
to stop anything taking place
because you are afraid of the speed at which it is coming.

My timing is always perfect.
You know this,
so why not accept it
and go along with it?
Let there be no resistance in you
but find perfect freedom and joy as the plan unfolds.
It is a truly wonderful plan
and you are all part of it.
You each have your own part to play in it,
that is why it is so important for you each to find
what your part is
and for you to do this now.

Do not drift through another day without finding it out.

Spring is here.
The new age is here.
Awake from your slumbers
and behold the wonder of the times,
for these are truly wonderful times you are all living in.

Wonder upon wonder is waiting to unfold.
See the very best in everything that is taking place.
Expect changes
and go along with them
allowing nothing in you to hold them up.

Never be afraid of the new,
of the unknown,
but step fearlessly into it
knowing that I am with you always
and that I will never leave you or forsake you.
When I am for you, who can be against you?
Recognise Me in everything
and give Me the honour and glory.
Take nothing to the self
that might stop that wonderful flow within.

This is the golden age that you are moving into. Change and pain come with the birth of anything new. But once the actual birth has taken place pain is
forgotten.
So be not concerned nor struggle against the changes which are taking place at this time.

The darkest hour comes before the glorious dawn.
The dawn is there.
It comes in perfect rhythm
and nothing can stop it coming about.
The whole universe functions in that perfect rhythm,
so why don't you?
Get into rhythm
and flow with it instead of fighting against it

The more you fight against change
the more pain and suffering you cause yourself.
It is resistance that causes the pain.
Let go
and let Me take over
and be at perfect peace.

Seek and find peace, serenity and tranquility
at all times
and let it infill your whole being;
project this state of consciousness all around you,
for that which is within is reflected without.

Let there be no feeling of competition within you.
When you realise that each of you
has your specific part to play in the whole,
all that spirit of competition will disappear,
and you will be able to relax
and be yourself.
How much simpler life becomes
when you cease trying to be something you are not.

Let there be no round pegs in square holes. You each have your part to play in the whole, so play it to the very best of your ability.

I tell you to love one another.
Are you really doing this?
Or are you still just tolerating each other,
making excuses for yourselves
by saying that there are certain souls
you cannot be expected to blend with
since you are poles apart
and it would be just like trying to mix oil and water
to ask you to love them?

You are all My beloveds
and the sooner you realise this the better;
for you are all one in My sight
and My love flows to each one of you alike.
When you can accept your oneness with Me
you will be able to accept your oneness with each other,
and learn to live and work as one.

One of the things you can count on in life is... Change!