Hello All

August 23, 2006 at 12:58 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

My new site is LIVE.
Please update your bookmarks to http://liveconsciously.us

I’ll be updating from there.
See you soon!

Creating Lasting Change

August 21, 2006 at 11:16 am | Posted in Consciousness | 1 Comment

To create lasting change, there must be an irrevocable shift in perspective.

Nothing else in my experience has created and sustained more lasting change in my life.

But how do you arrive at this new state? This new perspective?

It almost like reaching an event horizon, a point of no return. In self development, its an awakening. And after this awakening, its like seeing the world with new eyes. You see things in a way you haven’t seen them before.

I recently went through one of these event horizons in my life and it has changed me and how I view my life forever.

It was acknowledging personal responsibility for everything in my universe.

It started when I was reading Steve Pavlina’s blog about the Law of Attraction. The article focused on how all the energy you put out into the universe comes back at you, manifesting into the life that you are creating. It emphasizes that no one else is responsible for your life and your universe, and that we are the sole creators of our own reality.

Its almost like an energetic boomerang, except that this boomerang is what the universe throws back at us. This boomerang is the result of our thoughts, feelings, energies, and vibrations, the collection of energy we throw out. I’ve read about this Law of Attraction a lot, but for some reason it didn’t sink in no matter what I’ve tried.

Steve’s article really set this (new) principle into motion. When I realized that I was responsible for everything that was occurring in my life, I really want to change. I didn’t want all the scary things that were happening in the world, or the negative things that were happening in my life. I wanted to have all the beauty and nice things that were coming to me. That I knew were just around the corner.

But in all honesty, I wasn’t ready for total responsibility. I wanted to have some time off from all this responsibility stuff. I wasn’t ready to commit yet.

Then, a few days later, something drastic changed.

It came to me as I was walking home. I realized that while I may not want to be responsible for my life, I’m still accountable.

The universe still holds me accountable for all my energy that I throw out to it, and it responds to it whether I put out positive or negative energy.

Realizing that, wow, I’m totally accountable, I’m 100% accountable for everything in my life, was the major shift I needed. Even if I want to escape responsibility, or hide, or deny the fact of this Law of Attraction, the universe still holds me accountable.

That’s what hit home.

I started to take total inventory of my thoughts and feelings, seeing where I was at in my life on many levels. And honestly I didn’t like what I saw.

I started to check into my thoughts and realized that I have so many negative thoughts floating around! Unresolved feelings about my past that were influencing my present.

I like to consider myself a reasonably aware guy, but all these negative thought patterns where still there, lurking in the background.

And then there were problems at work and…

You can see how they start to add up.

I couldn’t continue on this path of unconsciousness anymore.

I had what I would call a spiritual breakdown.

It was like a panic at a psychic level, realizing that I am accountable for everything that is manifesting in my life, and that I couldn’t escape it. All my problems, my job, my relationships, my life, all come from me and how I’m projecting my energy.

Great, I thought. I was kind of slumped for a few days. Its not fun realizing that you’re the sole cause of all your problems in your life. Its not fun, but I’m glad I had that realization.

It was that realization that created the irrevocable shift in my perspective. Now, I can’t go back to thinking I had in the past. I can’t go back to unconsciously having negative thoughts. I can’t go back to blaming anyone other than myself. I had to take total responsibility for everything.

I was at a place where I couldn’t hide or make excuses or run or use any other methods of avoiding my present life. I was almost like I just let it go. I had to drop a whole lot of thinking I had stored up in my subconsciousness because I couldn’t allow it to stay there anymore.

After my initial slump, ironically, having a new perspective became more empowering than I thought it would be. I started to feel more in tune, more aware and more conscious. I felt that all the good in my life happened because I intended it to. I stopped validating the bad that happens, I couldn’t excuse any of the bad thoughts or energies that I send out, because what could I possibly gain from them? They only affected me, and I didn’t want that anymore.

You are accountable for your energies on a universal level. It does not discriminate. It only responds. Once you realize this, you are one step closer to attaining personal freedom.

Its shifts like these that lead to lasting change, because from your new place, you cannot possibly go back to thinking the way you did before.

Once you have these major changes, you can feel confident in yourself that you’re heading in the right direction, because you know you can’t go back.

What is more empowering than knowing you’re on the right track?

Namaste

The Vegetarian Experiment

August 17, 2006 at 9:05 am | Posted in Life | Leave a comment

I’ve been vegetarian for about a month now. So far its been one of the best decisions I’ve made this year, although its kind of funny how it all happened…

We were driving up to a convention in Las Vegas with my coworkers, and I was chatting with our bosses. (They were along for the ride as well.)

He had mentioned that he has been vegetarian for about 10 years now.

I thought wow, a real live vegetarian, and he looks abundantly healthy! I had in my mind that vegetarians are all emaciated and look sickly, but no no, my boss was completely healthy.

I asked him about the transition he made from eating things with faces to a veggie diet, and over the course of time, the meat cravings became less and less, until after a while you don’t even crave meat at all…

Now, I had been on the fence with vegetarianism, for about 2 years. I had always thought it was something that I would love to do someday, but never really committed to when I would go for it.

I had been eating primarily soy products for a year (ironically because I had switched to an almost total organic diet, and they didn’t have organic meat at the store I shopped at). Gradually, I decreased the amount of animal products that I ate because of the organic thing as well.

So for about a year I had been eating lots of soy products, organic foods, and yogurts, with the occasional face food. But I didn’t feel like I wanted to give up my meat, just yet.

After speaking with my boss about it, I became inspired to take the final plunge and go head into vegetarianism…for a month.

In all honesty, I’m not one for big commitments right away! I wanted to give it a try and make sure that this was something I really wanted to do. I figured a month would be sufficient time to give it a try and see if I really did like it.

During my month, I did some research, so I could remain healthy and happy during my experiment. To my amazement, I found out a lot I didn’t know!

As it turns out, vegetarians eat a lot more than just salads. They eat beans, protein, carbs, fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, grains, you name it. And with a little bit of supplementing for the B vitamins, I felt confident that I would be just fine.

After about a week, I had lost the cravings for meat, and fish. Fish was the big worry for me because I love sushi. Beef wasn’t such an ordeal, I rarely eat that. All the poultry too, surprisingly, was a breeze to cook without.

About 3 weeks into it and I begin to develop an aversion to meat. To my absolute shock. It just didn’t look all that tasty after all. And the smell, blah not something I wanted to consume.

After about 6 weeks total of total vegetarianism, I couldn’t be happier with the experiment. I feel great, my body feels cleaner, I feel more energized, I’ve learned to cook a bit too, and I have no cravings for meat. Amazing!

I must say I’m very satisfied with the results, and I’m glad to keep on the vegetarian diet. I feel more comfortable knowing I’m actively contributing to my healthy lifestyle. So I’m going to stick with it. And eventually I’ll go vegan. But that’s down the road.

If you’ve thought about going vegetarian, try it for a month. You might be surprised by the results.

🙂

Law of Attraction – A Case Study

August 16, 2006 at 8:45 am | Posted in Law of Attraction | 1 Comment

So I’m pretty new to this whole attracting sort of thing. The ability to attract what you want in your life based on how your thoughts and feelings are flowing. Pretty neat stuff, but does it really work?

As its been explained to me, from what I read, you attract into your life based on the energy you put out into the universe. This could be emotional, mental, spiritual, psychic energy. All that stuff that comes shooting out of you sends a signal to the universe to respond. And it responds by sending you the same stuff you put out.

Pretty simple really. I think its another way to say Karma. Or you reap what you sow. But, in truth does it work? And how can we tell if its actually working? What are the quantitative results!

Being results driven, I decided to try an experiment. Well its an ongoing experiment. What can I attract into my life that I want? While all these feel good stuff makes me feel good, how do I put it into action that brings me the results that I want in my life?

So here’s the experiment, or in this case, the case study. About hmm, say early July, I had been listening to Joe Vitale talk about the Attractor Factor. After I listened to his course, I wrote down the things that I wanted to see in my life. A car, a new job, new relationships. Ok, great so now I know what I want. Now, how do I get these things in my life? (I also put down a million dollars, but have yet to see that materialize. 🙂

So this case study focuses on the car.

I had been taking the bus for about three years since my VW quit on me, may she rest in peace. She didn’t really quit on me, I forgot to fill her radiator fluid, imagine that being important in Arizona.

And since then I hadn’t really wanted another car, I figured that’s what friends were for.

And in those three years I hadn’t really considered getting another car, until recently.

So I set down in writing, “I now have a beautiful, fun, safe, reliable car.”

Hmm, ok I said, that sounds nice. I had no idea WHAT kind of car that was, let alone what kind of car I wanted. There it was, in black and white, I had committed myself to it.

So about a week past and nothing really happened.

I said, well maybe I should at least find out what kind of make of car I want.

Ok, not so bad. So I did some research and looked around. I read an article somewhere saying that Hondas were the most reliable cars in the world.

That sounded good, I like reliable. They had great gas mileage, and were cute too. So I said great, I want a Honda.

Well, I didn’t know what kind of Honda I wanted. Miff.

This part took a little work. I had started with the general, I want a car. Worked to become more specific, Honda. But I didn’t know what kind of Honda I wanted.

So I browsed a bit. I started to look on Craigslist at all the different Hondas that were for sale, and that were affordable. Honda seem to run forever.

After a few weeks of exploration, I found one particular Honda that I really started to like. It was gray, small, fuel efficient, cute, sporty, fast, and it caught my eye. It was the CRX.

Now granted before this, I had seen CRXs around, but hadn’t given them much thought. They were cute, and fast but I didn’t have any sort of preference for them.

For some reason, they caught my eye. I had started to look around for more CRXs. And read a bit about them. They were sporty, reliable, fun, had great gas mileage, and they seemed to run forever.

Great! I thought, I had started to like the CRX. Which was good because for some reason, they were abundant here on the Phoenix Craigslist.

So what I did was put the RSS feed for Hondas on my netvibes.com site, and sat and watched for the deals. I was looking for a car that was under 2,000 dollars, and that was in good shape, and drivable.

I had kept my feed for about a month, responded to a few ads but nothing happened. A few blips on the radar no major motion.

Then something changed.

Its hard to describe exactly what happened, but essentially I had started to really LOVE the CRX. I mean just love and appreciate and adore them. This mental shift, of actively flowing positive emotions, imagining myself owning my own CRX, started to boost my excitement. And that excitement boosted more excitement, until it was a perpetual excitement cycle.

Somewhere along the way, I decided to love the CRX. And with that love, I imagined owning the CRX. Instead of saying I own the CRX in the future, I placed the ownership in the present or the past, so the universe would know where to give me this car. If you say you want or have something in the future, then you’ll keep getting more want of something in the future.

With all this love some of the universal magic started to happen. I had sent an email for a CRX, that was a little out of my price range, but wanted to give it a shot anyways. She had emailed me back, answering the general questions about the title, etcetera. So that was all good, the car was good to go and it ran well, and it had been in storage for about 7 months, so less wear and tear from her. Great.

She had to sell it fast. She was moving out of the country and needed to make the sale by the weekend.

I had told her, that I was working that weekend, and wouldn’t be able to see the car. However, if she didn’t receive any offers she liked, to give me a call. She said she would, and I didn’t give the incident much more thought.

Until Monday rolled around.

I received an early call from her asking me how much I was willing to offer her for the car. I was thinking to myself, hmm that’s interesting, she didn’t find any other people who were interested in her CRX? I made her an offer. She seemed pleased with it, but I told her I had to find out if I could get the money and arrange for a ride to see it. Done, and I was off trying to arrange a ride.

While I didn’t have any luck arranging a ride that morning (all my friends were working at the time), she did bring up the car for me to look at. Something about, oh I was in the area sort of thing. And naturally I was excited to see the car.

It was then I REALLY fell in love with the CRXs and we agreed on a price that we were both happy with!

As luck would have it, my father was out visiting for a high school reunion, so we were able to go get the car, pay for it, and get it back to my condo. I was the happiest man that day. I got to spend time with my father and get a great car that was fun to drive!

So it was a day of coincidences for me! Coincidentally, I was able to get a great car, it literally came to me so I could see it and test drive it, and then I was able to have a father and son day going to get it.

I must say this law of attraction is pretty cool. That was the biggie for me, to see if I could get a car, to prove to myself that it would work and have some evidence for it. Now I have a beautiful Honda CRX sitting in the parking lot, and she is a dream, I think I’ll call her Shannon.

I sent the previous owner a email the other day to thank her for the wonderful car, and she had an unusual remark. She said that when I was driving it away, it looked like to her that is was my car, and that I looked so comfortable in it. It must have been, because I had attracted Shannon into my life.

Voosh, and I’m glad I did!

Next Page »

Blog at WordPress.com.
Entries and comments feeds.