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Life Mastery's Friday Weekly Podcast:
"What are you Dreaming and Believing about Yourself?
A Meditation."
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(length 6:47 minutes)
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What is possible? Whatever you believe to be possible is what is possible! The impossible is impossible because you believe it to be so.
We create our reality by virtue of what we believe. Within each one of us is enormous potential, but often we do not manifest it or even realize it is there. In Latin the root for the word “potential” is the same as the root for the word “potency.”
Within each of us is such great potency or power or potential to create, but because we think small, we create and experience small. The Universe/God is infinite potential waiting to be actualized. And, we, through our thoughts and feelings, can draw in this infinite potential and make it manifest. This drawing in of that infinite potential via our thoughts is precisely what qualifies us to be co-creators made in his/her Image.
But if your thoughts and beliefs about what is possible for you are small, you will never dream or create or experience “big.” Why not get out of the old box and dream and think big, since you dream and think all the time anyhow? Think big, not small and all things are possible.
Take a few minutes each day in meditation to observe how big or small your thoughts and dreams are and then adjust in whatever way feels right.
Remember to look within. For it is only there that one can really find who one truly is and what is most important.
Take some time on a regular basis to slow down and go within. Suspend for awhile what you “think” you “should” be doing and instead just listen to the Silence within and allow its “voice” to speak to you.
Slowing down and taking inventory of who you presently are and where you are headed is sooooooo important. The word inventory comes from a Latin word which means “to come or go within.” So, by slowing down your overly active thinking mind, you can go within and in the Quiet hear your Self rather than your ego mind’s never-ending prattle.
So, take a few deep breaths now, quiet your mind and go within and gently and without too much focus ask, “What dream am I living now? Am I living the dream I had five years ago? Can I be happy and fulfilled living yesterday’s dream or someone else’s dream? What is my dream today?”
Gently allow these questions or similar ones to float out there and then just sit back and “listen.” No, do not seek to hear your mind’s ruminations, but actually just be still and sense, see and feel whatever impressions, feelings or images arise. Just “be” with them and with your Self.
You will be surprised at what comes up for you, if you leave your mind behind. Don’t strain or “try,” just allow the process to come to you. Be open and receptive. In time, as you practice this, a clearer and clearer vision will come to you of you.
Actually, as you practice this, you learn that being conscious of who you are is a moment to moment process. It is a process whereby you learn to “feel” first rather than “think” first. It is a process whereby you lose your mind and come to your senses.
It can be a bit of a stretch to ignore your mind and, instead, listen first to your heart/Soul or your intuition/feelings, but it’s a good stretch. I suggest you try it for awhile because by doing so, you will find your Dreams and Your Self!
Life Mastery's Friday Weekly Podcast:
"All of Life is Rich and New:
A Meditation."
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(length 9:06 minutes)
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A new day, a new beginning! It’s all so new, if we but stop and look. Nothing is the same as we left it. And even though our daily routines make us think it is all the same, it never is or can be.
So, we can exult in the “newness” of every moment of every “routine” and know that it is all fresh, new and joy filled. And as we see the “newness” and freshness of every moment, we come to appreciate and adore it all.
Thus, you may want to say to yourself: “I really want to bring this sense of newness and freshness into all I do from now on. To just stop, breathe and appreciate; to savor. To just ‘be’ present for each moment’s gift, for each moment’s ‘newness’.”
There can be no greater joy or fulfillment than to be filled with the richness of each moment. If one reaches and strives for the hoped for fulfillment in the future, one will always come up empty handed. There is only the present. Let us seize each and every moment and be filled to overflowing with all it has to offer. LET IT ALL COME TO YOU! Be present and it will!
In order to allow yourself to experience the “newness” of a moment, experiment with the following. Whenever you can, just stop; take a couple of deep breaths; then become aware of your body by doing a brief body scan from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. This will bring you into the present.
Then focus on your inhalation and just imagine that you are breathing in “newness,” “freshness,” and “joy.” And on the exhalation, imagine that you are releasing the old, stagnant, and mutated energies. Then continue focusing on your breath and your breathing. Breathing in all that is new and fresh and joy-filled and releasing on the exhalation all that is old, worn and stagnant. After a few moments of doing this, all will be made fresh and anew!
Remember, you only see what you are looking for; you only get what you are asking for!
Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived.
Thomas Merton
I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery
than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it.
Kat Cathey
Most of us habitually try to control all aspects of our lives: our relationships, our work environments, our health, etc, but usually we fail. We do this to feel safe and secure. We do this so that we can be happy. But the irony is that in tenaciously holding on so hard, we waste most of our precious energy in trying to control things. We exhaust ourselves trying to anticipate what may happen and we squeeze all the joy, creativity and spontaneity out of life.
By spending so much energy trying to make sure that everything and everyone follows a specific script that we have in mind, we miss a myriad of opportunities to really enjoy and experience life. We never allow for life to simply come to us! We are constantly trying to force it to “go our way.” We leave no room for wonder and magic.
We always want to know what is going to happen next, but by doing so we limit the boundless possibilities that are available to us. Life isn’t a script to be followed word by word, but a new, fresh potential waiting to be expressed or actualized.
It is only when we allow for the unexpected and unknown to happen that “magic” or “real life” can happen. All that is new, fresh and joy filled can only be found in the “unknown.” The “known” is stagnant and calcified.
Embrace the “unknown” and there you will find Life! Tenaciously hold on to the “known” and there you will find stagnation!
Allow for the mysteries of life to delight you! Learn to live in the moment and be free! Learn to trust that it is all there for you! Each moment will take care of it self! Become a master of the mystery of life.
Cease trying to work things out with your mind,
it will get you nowhere.
Let your whole life be led by Intuition and Inspiration
Let your whole life be a Revelation.
Eileen Cady
In order to allow yourself to be in the moment, to experience the mystery and magic of it all, experiment with the following. Whenever you can, just stop; take a couple of deep breaths; then become aware of your body by doing a brief body scan from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. This will bring you into the present.
Then allow your attention to be simply in the present only focused on the rise and fall of your abdomen as you breathe in and out. Suspend all thought and then just feel. Don’t think! Feel! And ask and allow for an insight or an inspiration to reveal itself to you! And then sit back, with your mind disengaged and absorb and enJoy whatever you receive! It may come as a thought, an impression, an image or a feeling.
Life Mastery's Friday Weekly Podcast:
"Life is a Gift:
Trust and Drink it All In!
A Meditation."
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(length 7:32 minutes)
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Meditation is the art of learning how to tend the sacred ground of your life.
Meditation connects you with your inner world.
By meditating you learn how to care for the garden of your mind.
First, you learn to identify what is growing there.
Then you learn how to nurture and plant what you want
and weed out what you do not want.
Mother Teresa once said:
"There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread."
The one thing that we cannot get enough of, the one thing that there is no possibility of ever overusing; of ever over receiving or of ever over giving is Compassion or Love. As the saying goes; “No matter what the question; Love is the answer.”
Whenever you find your self caught up in your negative thought patterns, or your negative emotional states, being self–critical or critical of another, or enmeshed in your negative imagination or worry; sit back and drink in Compassion. As you drink in that Compassion all the tension and negativity will start to release. And then you will remember and accept that your natural state of being is that of feeling and being in the Embrace, of being at Peace!
It’s quite easy to do, actually! Find a quiet place and moment, close your eyes, take a few deep cleansing breaths and then just imagine someone you love, be they a loved one or an esteemed spiritual teacher/master, and “see”/imagine them right there in front of you. Look into their eyes, the mirror of their soul, and then just feel their love flowing to you. Open up your heart to feeling their care, compassion and unconditional love for you. Hold this image and feeling for a couple of minutes. And in just a few minutes, you will feel so refreshed!
Compassion is at the heart of meditation because it connects us with who we really are and what is truly at our core. I would urge you to give yourself at least one dose of this daily, even for just a few minutes. You deserve it!
If you haven’t already, feel free to join my membership area and get a free audio talk on meditation and a free 5 minute guided meditation. As well, my Meditation CD “Peace of Mind is a Thought Away” goes into greater depth regarding how to make this connection with Compassion.
FAITH
Faith is the bird that feels the light
and sings when the dawn is still dark.
Rabindranath Tagore
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages where we are, impatient to being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability and that it may take a very long time. And so, I think it is with you. Your ideas mature gradually. Let them grow. Let them shape themselves without undue haste. Don’t try to force them on as though you could be today what time, that is to say, grace and circumstances, acting on your own good will, will make of you tomorrow. Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be.
Give yourself the benefit of believing that the Divine hand is leading you. And accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.
Teilhard de Chardin
All is in Divine Order and Divine Timing. There is a rhythm and rhyme for all that we experience. If we just allow ourselves the opportunity to slow down and go within and listen to the Silence that is there; there we will see the bigger picture; there we will find the answer to all our questions; there we will know that we are “Good;” there we will know that we are held in the “Embrace;” there we will know that “All is well.”
The “still, small voice” within is your most trustworthy ally! Learn to “listen” to your most “significant other,” this “still, small voice” within. Learn to listen to your Self!
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.
Ecclesiastes
Live your life as a Meditation and not as a race. Let it proceed at the speed of Grace!
If you haven’t already, feel free to join my membership area and get a free audio talk on meditation and a free 5 minute guided meditation. As well, my meditation CDs go into greater depth regarding how to make this connection with the Silence, with your Self.
Life Mastery's Friday Weekly Podcast:
"Whatever We Focus Our Thoughts,
Feelings and Attention Upon,
We Draw into Our Lives;
a Meditation."
Click Here to Download MP3/Audio
(length 6:49 minutes)
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How can you fly?
You create your own wings!
How can you create your own wings?
Keep dreaming and dreaming and dreaming!
Your dreams are what create your experiences.
And as you keep dreaming and believing in your dreams and in your self,
all your dreams will not only come true,
but they will give you the wings to fly.
And if you dare to let go of the nest, these wings will catch the wind.
And if you allow, the winds will embrace, support and transport you
and carry you not only to all your dreams,
but even beyond to the full potential of your Self!
Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating your self.
George Bernard Shaw
Our beginnings never know our ends.
T.S. Eliot
In order for you to create anything in your life, you must first dream or imagine it. Whether you are aware of it or not, you constantly use your imagination. You either continually “awfulize” and “catastophize” and dream up your worst nightmares through worry, fear and anger. Or you use your imagination to aspire to the highest of your potential through faith, hope, love and dreaming big.
Since you are always imagining or dreaming about something anyhow, why not make it a dream that is truly big, worthwhile and of greatest value to you and to others.
You get to choose what you focus on and what you get in life. You choose whether you learn to glide and fly or whether you struggle and crawl through life! You get to create your own wings or your own crutches!
And the real “neat” thing about all this is that once you learn to fly you learn that, “the sky is no longer the limit,” only you were!
We create our reality by the predominant thoughts and emotions that we hold. “Like attracts like” is a universal law. Be happy and happiness comes. Feel abundant and abundance comes. The Universe reflects back to us what we are feeling, whether we are conscious of it or not. What we experience in our lives is an objective mirror reflecting back to us the predominant thoughts and feelings we have.
We can change what we are experiencing by first observing our predominant thoughts and feelings; and then we can choose to gradually change whatever we don’t like. And by doing this, we eventually will have different experiences knocking at our door.
Meditation is a wonderful way to learn how to get mastery of your thoughts, your emotions and ultimately your life. It allows you to objectively observe your mental chatter and then by doing so you can choose to change it.
So, try just "being" with yourself and see what comes up. Just “listen” to yourself! And then gradually change what doesn't really serve you and keep what does. You’ll know the difference.
If you haven’t already, feel free to join my membership area and get a free audio talk on meditation and a free 5 minute guided meditation.
As well, my meditation CD entitled: Peace of Mind is a Thought Away: Mastery Meditations goes into greater depth about this process.