Finding Optimism In The Midst Of Struggle

My work week has been crazy busy with running my therapy groups and 3.5 days of training for a new computer program so all of our charts for clients will go from paper to computer files.  This training made my head spin with the amount of details and time it will take to do my record keeping for this work.  In the pursuit of data my job just got much less interesting to me.  Client time will suffer and that is why I do this work, to help people. 

There has been so much on my mind lately and a rollercoaster of emotions.  What I sense is a inner struggle between my natural tendency to be optimistic and look hopefully to the future and a sense of the struggle that seems like such a powerful force in the world these days.   Governments are being toppled as a result of the unrest.  Our government is a mess because of the huge corporate dominance of our ego driven elected officials.  The economy is going great for the wealthy but the rest of us are feeling the impact of costs, debt, low pay, needs of those we care for and instability. 

How do we keep in a positive and productive frame of mind when there seems to be such unrest and instability?  I ask that question because I feel caught in the midst of trying to sort that out.  I do have a simple plan and I want to offer that to you today.

First – keep the mind and heart open and positive.  If you (or I) get pulled into doubt, fear and worry, you will be getting in your own way and limiting the results you want to create.  With hope you get energy and inspiration.

Second – sit down and write out the kind of life you want to live and how that would feel.  This imagineering charged with hopeful feelings can be a very powerful force inside for creating the results you want.

Third – set up goals toward your ideal life.  Once the goals are set turn them into affirmative statements.  An example would be: Your goal is to increase your flow of income – the affirmation could be – I now enjoy a rich flow of income and opportunities.

Fourth – now take the goals/affirmations and make a plan to realize them.  Having a plan provides motivation and direction.  Plans are fluid and change but always are set at moving your life forward.

Fifth – now move into action implementing your plans.  Action is where the rubber meets the road, where things start to happen.  Actions turn the hope for a better life into reality.  Set it up so that each day you review where you are going and take action to get there.

Each of these steps is important and the starting point is your imagining and inner focus because they unleash the forces for a better life.  Once it is clear where you want to go then you keep refining the goals, plans and actions to get there.  This takes determination, focus, and an optimistic mindset.  If you throw in passion and purpose the results will be inevitable.   



5 C’s That Will ROC The World

What has inspired my lately in my writing for The Revolution Of Compassion (ROC) is the inspiration of using what I call the basic five principles that serve as guidelines to a real revolution of compassion.  Those guidelines are called the 5 C’s:  Compassion of course (open hearted understanding), Consciousness (aware and in touch with our higher nature) Connection (building and expanding relationships free of judging) Creativity (the inner flow of your genius) and Cooperation (let’s figure this out together). 

These 5 C’s will serve as checkpoints along the way for self-evaluation.  This way each of us can measure how we are doing by comparing ourselves to the 5 C’s.  

Here are some questions that would give you feedback about what you are doing and it aligns with the 5 C’s:

Compassion - Is your heart open?  Are you being kind? Are you seeking to understand and care for those you are interacting with?

Consciousness - Are you fully awake and present in what you are doing? Are you aware of what is going on emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually?  Are you expressing your higher nature?

Connection – Are you acting from the consciousness of your unity with all beings?  Are you moving towards greater acceptance of others? Are you forming healthy relationships? 

Creativity - Are you expressing your own uniqueness? Are tapping into the flow of your unique genius?  Are you creating beauty by being you?

Cooperation - Are you working together with others to make things better?  Are you finding ways to combine efforts?  Are you enjoying the inspiration of those around you?

I really like this 5 C’s as a self-examination, which will lead to self-empowerment.  I empower myself when I ask:

If my heart is part of the solution? 

If I bring awareness and insight to what I am doing?

If I am positively exploring with others our commonalities and our shared visions? 

If I am doing and flowing in creative ways?

If I am finding ways to work together even with our differences?

When my heart is guiding me; when I am raising my consciousness; when I am sharing purpose and passion; when I am expressing my unique gifts; and when I am doing all of this together with others then I am empowered and empowering of others.  This kind of power will shift the world.



10 Evident Truths For A Better World

The happenings in Congress lately around the budget issues and all the stirred up unrest around the world turned a light on in me.   There needs to be certain truths we all acknowledge as essential to our nation and the well being of the planet.  I suggest we come to a consensus about what ideas will best serve us and future generations.  Here are my 10 most evidents truths capable of showing us the way to a better tomorrow:

1.         War is not working and peace is not only possible but necessary.  Isn’t it time we grow past the idea of killing those we disagree with?  This seems like such a necessary leap to grow beyond the ego’s need for power and control toward us all working together.  Cooperation is the answer not attempting to control.

2.         Birth control is an essential choice because of the damage to the planet caused by over population.  The recent attempt in Congress to not fund Planned Parenthood is simply people laying their religious views on others, “I am right and you are not.”  There is no God who would defund Planned Parenthood nor mistreat this planet.

3.         All religious dogma and doctrine needs to be questioned. These church rules have no place in guiding our government.  They are simply beliefs invented by men with agendas. All radicals inall religions do such harm because they are blinded by their own need to be right.  Can’t we just get along and be global citizens?

4.         Cutting the budget for the Pentagon is essential.  If we keep building our weapons of mass destruction, we are destined to use them.  Can we take the hormone driven big boys away from their guns and use that money for good?

5.          This is a nation of the people not a corporate state.  All laws must be made with the people in mind not the profits of corporations.  Presently greed is the guiding principle of our government and our economy and this is to the great detriment of the people and Earth.

6.           The education and on going growth of the people of this nation is of vital importance.  Money spent on education, training, relevant research, and life long learning is a key to the longevity of humanity.  Stop making more bombs and start providing new and improved educational opportunities.

7.          Healthcare is a must for all Americans and huge profits of insurance companies and medical corporations are not.  Making money off the illness and injuries of others is a sickness called greed.  Any business run by fear is unsustainable as are all insurance companies.

8.         Unions are also a must in a world where companies, banking, investments, and profits are set up to enrich the rich on the backs of the workers.  Unions serve an important role in trying to take back the economy from greed and the hunger for power of those driven by profits.  Without unions greed wins.

9.         We are all connected to each other.  On a genetic level we are all made up of the same stuff.  The consciousness of each of us runs through all of us.  We all share this small planet together in an ever-expanding universe.  To do harm to another or the planet is to do harm to ourselves.

10.        Love and compassion is the answer to all of our problems.  The solution to every issue is for us to open our hearts, seek to understand, and then work together for solutions.  The only real challenges are closed hearts and rigid minds.  Open hearts and expansive minds are much more powerful.

When together we find a way to be guided by our consciousness, have compassion for all, and work towards cooperation, we will best utilize these guidelines for the good of all of us and the planet. 



See The Movie - I AM

Last night I saw the movie I Am by Tom Shadyac.  This movie questions so much of what we feel inside needs to change.  We live in incredible times and this movie is an invitation to point our lives with purpose towards a better world.  This movie is a calling to all those who watch it that we turn towards what we know deep inside and express our higher wisdom.  If we feel like our lives lack meaning then it is time to find where this movie is playing and see it. 

Tom Shadyac who directed Ace Ventura and other comedies was at the showing and was open to questions from the audience after the movie.  He has a great sense of humor and a passion for encouraging all of us to get involved in whatever calls us.  We are all needed to save the planet and humanity from forces dominated by greed and uninterested in cooperation. 

When you see this movie come prepared to feel where you are called to do something more with your life.  Today is a good day to move towards more action.  Today is a good day to live with purpose and to act with passion.

Note: I will be back with a really interesting post on Monday about 10 Truths we need to keep in mind for the good of all humanity.  Also I will have an abbreviate posting schedule next week with posts coming on Wednesday and Friday.  This schedule may become regular as I take more time to write my book The Revolution Of Compassion.  There is so much for us all to do and I am feeling clear that I need to get this book going more quickly.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend. 



Imagine There's No Heaven, No Religions Too

My friend who found herself began the first full day of her life enriched by her new insights.  She reported that she worked with a coach today to help deepen her understanding of what is shifting in her.  She gained some tools to help stay the course of a more positive way of viewing herself.  This is such an encouraging development because this offers hope for true personal freedom.

Freedom is often on my mind lately and has been for some time.  I grew up in a family of good people who believed in a religion that shaped their values.  There were a number of values I learned as a child that I still am guided by today.  I learned of the importance of compassion towards one another and of treating others with respect.  These values are really universal and not tied to any particular belief system. 

There were also values that I have left behind as I became a more conscious human being.  One of these values includes the idea of judging others and myself as either good or bad.  This is more a religious belief that seems based in the human ego.  Another belief was that we should do what an authoritarian organization like a church tells us to do or we will suffer eternal damnation or some other made up consequence to keep us in line.  That is another example of ego seeking power and control.  There are many other values that need to be questioned. 

Today I came upon and article through one of my Facebook friends about a really interesting and positive development.   Nine nations are coming closer to freeing themselves from the influence of structured religions.  Five of the nine nations had the Beatles play there in concert.

“When John Lennon sang “Imagine there’s no heaven” in 1971, rock critics called the song “utopian.” But forty years later, researchers have found that religion is indeed disappearing in nine countries: Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland.”

Isn’t this interesting?  My speculation is that as people find themselves they let organized religion go because they live by their own truths.  Spirituality is on the rise and traditional religion is being questioned.  This is a hopeful development in personal freedom from my viewpoint of having to help people feel ok about who they are.  Religious training has too often been filled with negative judgments toward self and that for me as a mental health professional is never healthy. 

We all would benefit greatly by examining what beliefs support and encourage the best human qualities in us and what beliefs hold us back and keep us down?  The limits of religion are human in design and certainly not from the Great Source of the Universe.



A Friend Wakes Up To Herself

A dear friend of mine shared a powerful insight she had recently that will forever change the way she views herself.  These insights will also open her to an even richer expression of who she is.  This insight came on the mat of her Dojo.  She is studying to be a Ninja and her teachers are wise and understanding of their students. 

She was learning a new move and was told to stand open.  She said “I am open” and the teacher said she was not.  My friend insisted not only was she standing open but was in fact an open person with an open heart.  So the teacher came behind her and gently helped her move into an open position and my friend felt a deep fear arise.  It rose up with such power she wanted to run from the Dojo and never come back.  She was mindful enough to know this reaction was important for her to face.  In that moment she actually opened her heart to herself in a way that was spacious enough to take in all of who she is. 

She processed with her kind teacher and her fellow student what had come up and this deepened her insight into who she was beyond the story she had told herself.  With this awareness of not being who she thought she was, she began to turn her inner light toward who she was beyond her self-perception and the deeper false belief of not being ok.

When we got together to talk she had deepened the journey of self-discovery to the point of now being open to really looking at herself with a curiosity free of judgment.  From her now impartial viewpoint she saw herself as guarded and protected and more alone than she had realized.  This was not who she was but who she had become.

Emotions began to flow but the ride was more energizing than disappointing because a part of her knew this wisdom about self would help to liberate her to be who she wants to be.  She wants to be an open and loving person and now she can because she sees what’s in her way.  The blockages of the past now no longer have the restraint they once had.  With awareness comes choice and her choices are now informed by a richer view of what is possible.

When awareness arrives with such clarity it offers the recipient the chance to transform him or herself.  This transformation becomes possible with a focused intention and the willingness to look with kindness and interest at oneself.  This interested looking will take the person to a place of more aliveness and personal freedom. 

When we see who we are beyond the story and reactivity of our conditioning the light of potential will be almost blinding.  As the Buddha said, “When you wake up, you are filled with love and compassion.”  



What's On Your Bucket List?

This is a blog I meant to write when I first saw this film.  The Bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman was on TV last night and I just couldn’t pull myself away from it even though I had seen it before.  If you don’t know what a bucket list is, it is a list of things you want to do before you kick the bucket?  This is a fun movie and it got me wondering what kinds of experiences might be on my list and on a list you might put together. 

Here is my bucket list:

• Fully experience financial freedom where all my needs are met because of the rich flow of money in my life
• Surprise someone by offering then enough money to remove all their fears about their financial future.
• Spend at least 3-6 months traveling around Europe and seeing all the places I have wanted to see
• Spend a month on a silent retreat
• Give seed money to a number of people who have great ideas for making the world a better place
• Go play golf at some of the most beautiful courses in the world
• Travel with a group that does chanting and experience the daily high of this kind of deeply spiritual experience
• Be able to afford the help I need to completed my musical and have it play around the world and generate lots funds to do many good things
• Write a best selling book that brings more light to the world
• Run a small café that makes wonderful food that everyone can enjoy
• Buy two houses (one each for men and women) and turn them into sober living homes (provides staff also) for the first year of those in recovery,
• Create a Peace Together Foundation to promote peace through expanding compassion, raising consciousness, encouraging connection to each other and promoting creativity
• Experience the highest consciousness I can realize in this lifetime
• Help end hunger on the planet

As I did this list I realized that I have done many things I have wanted to do already and that my list is more about helping others.  There is no greater purpose to me than making a positive difference in as many people’s lives as possible with the time I have left in this life. 

What would you put on your list?  Have an inspired day.  



Three Point Formula For Getting Unstuck

Today was another intense day at work with another one of our clients relapsing and totally denying any drinking.  Addiction is totally baffling disease according to beliefs of AA.  The power of the addiction is so overwhelming that even in the face of clear evidence this person still denied use.  The client walked off leaving the car behind looking lost. 

I can identify with that state of feeling lost, can you?  Have you ever wandering away from a mess you where in because you didn’t feel strong enough to handle it?  Have you ever felt so overwhelmed that you couldn’t accept help even when it was offered to you?  Have you ever felt so bad about yourself that you felt unworthy of changing your life around?

If you can answer “no” to these questions then you have had a life better than most of the rest of us.  Life often presents most with big roadblocks and you have to find another way to get to where you want to go.  If self-doubt is nagging at your heals like a obnoxious dog then you know what it feels like to be down and have a hard time picking yourself up.

Three things to do when you feel so stuck and unsure about what to do to move your life forward:

1. Take a risk and do things you haven’t tried before, move out of your comfort zone, push yourself and see what it takes to move the energy of your life forward. Keep pushing until you get to the finish line of what it is you are after.
   
2. Reach out and ask for help, there are many people out there who would lend a hand or give some valuable support and professionals who can guide you forward.  Everybody needs help sometimes so don't let your pride get in the way.
   
3. Curiosity is a great strategy because when you get curious you gain insights and awareness about yourself and the process.  New insights and more awareness is liberating and mean greater chances for success.

Each time you breakthrough you own barriers you build strength in yourself and you gain confidence to take on whatever comes your way. 

I don’t remember if I have shared this podcast with you at the Moth with DMC but if so I just listened to it again and it is awesome.



Big Changes Needed Mr. President and Taxes Essential

Today our president announced he is running for re-election.  Maybe Mr Obama needs to be thoughtful about what he needs to do well before election day?

As I explore the news of the past few weeks I find myself more and more unsettled.  I have avoided my social critic self because I wanted to focus instead on the idea that everything is as it should be.  It is a noble idea worth exploring that there is nothing wrong.  However the world as it is now has some things going on that are not working very well. 

Today I feel the need to return to asking questioning about what is going on because these questions are needed.  I suspect many if not most people who look at what is going on would agree that real change is necessary.

One of the major roadblocks to a better world is our political process.  Politics as it is now is not working for the benefit of most people.  Three powerful forces encumber politics: the insistence on judging and demonizing those who think differently; the agendas of those who finance the politician’s campaigns; and the predominance of the ego-mind.  This system is terribly broken and these three factors are in need of great innovation, lots of compassion, and a much wiser level of consciousness. 

Today the US is entangled in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and in Libya and frankly we don’t belong in any of them.  The Corporate world is not paying their fair share of taxes and they are attempting to blame the unions for the financial woes of the world.  Fortunately most Americans are smart enough not to be fooled by this greed driven move by corporate interests.  The business of government has gone off track and as those with the most financial influence buy the laws they want.  The budget of our government has gotten out of control and the two reasons are war and the lack of taxes paid by those that have all the financial resources.  

It seems time we talk reality here.   This is no longer about who is right or wrong.  This is about a clear and honest appraisal of what is working and what is not.  Here are some questions to consider:

Is it working for us to be in three wars and spending billions on these wars when we are in a financial mess? 

Is it right to say it is the working people like you and I that are the cause of the financial problems of our government? 

Will government honestly work better if they take away our benefits, cut our education and other important program that provide for those in need?  

Would it work if we insist that all the companies and their executives pay their fair share of taxes? 

Would it work that the corporations getting rich off these wars pay taxes on their profits?

Would it be fair for the oil companies who are getting richer off raising all the gas prices (rationalizes these cost because of an unstable Middle East) to pay taxes on their profits? 

Would it work if 5% of the people that control about 90% of the wealth in this nation pay their fair share of taxes? 

Is it working that banks are making so much money off credit because people are trying to survive and keep their homes? Are banks paying their fair share of taxes?

Is it working if people are going broke and loosing their homes over health care costs?   Are insurance and medical companies and their executives paying their fair share of taxes?

There are many more questions to be asked.  What solutions come to your mind about how we can fix our broken system?

Here are a few solutions that seem obvious to me:

Close the loopholes in the tax system so that every individual and every corporation pays a fair percentage of taxes.

Eliminate all influence money from politics

Remove the US from the wars we are in

Make healthcare reasonable or free to everyone who can’t afford it

Put much more money into education and far less into building bombs

Hold all corporations accountable for paying their fair share of taxes, that means no offshore corporations etc.

Make everyone pay social security taxes not just those who make less than $100,000 per year

Carefully regulate banks, credit cards companies and mortgages

Stop subsidizing oil companies and started taxing them

CEO and other executives get paid astronomical wages and bonuses so they should be fully taxed on all that money.

Taxes are not evil no matter what those who don’t pay many taxes say.  Taxes are necessary and if everyone pays their fair share then our system of government will work better. 

Positive Comments And Compassionate Hearts

Just got this really wonderful comment about my new book Spirited Living:

I have read hundreds of self help books.  But I’ve never been as impressed with any of them as I have with Spirited Living.  Joseph Bernard makes good on his promise to show you how to “make a conscious choice to transform your life every day in every way.”  This book is filled with insightful information presented in an easy to read – and more important, easy to apply – format.  Joseph suggests you print this eBook and use it to take notes.  I printed my copy as soon as I received it and have filled the margins with notes on the ideas in the book that have special meaning for me.  Get this book, print it and use it to guide you on your personal journey.

 Bud Bilanich

The Common Sense guy

Denver, CO USA

***** If you enjoy my blog you can lend support to my work by buying this book (See the ad to the right).  It is sure to enrich your experience of life.

“In an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way,” these are the words of Catherine Ponder that she advises using with all of our affirmations.  Catherine Ponder is an inspirational metaphysical teacher who writes and lectures on universal principles of prosperity.  Prosperity is a really good thing to have in our lives.  My wife and I have a many causes and individuals we want to help and a desire to do philanthropic work.  We have goals, plans and actions to bring prosperity to us in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way.

How do you want to give in the world?  Compassionate action is so needed.  If we view the world by watching the nightly news we might get the picture there are just a bunch of angry people out there.  Actually there are many kind and giving people on the planet who act with compassion towards others.  Compassionate giving always feels good if it is done with a spacious heart.  If giving is done with expectations then disappointment often follows.  Compassionate actions are most powerful when they are unconditional.

Imagine, dream, visual how you want to give, how you want to make a difference.  Carry that image with you at all times and fill it with hope and positive expectations.  Live it in your mind as if it is the reality and soon it will be.  You are a master manifestor when you set your mind and heart into action. 

My posting will return on Monday.  I am writing for my new book over the next few days and hope to share some part when Monday comes around.  Have a good day.



The Way Is Available To You

The reading I am doing this week has really stirred things up for me.  I rediscovered an author I had read in the past and I very moved by the depth of wisdom this novel contains.  The author is Reshad Feild and the book I am rereading is The Invisible Way.  I just ordered used copied of all of his novels at Amazon because I am excited he has several I haven’t yet read and one I will reread.  Reshad is a Brit who studies The Way, which is from the Sufi tradition.  

“What is real for anyone is what one sees with the outer or inner eye.  ‘We become what we behold, ‘ Blake once said.”  This is from The Invisible Way.  Reshad ideas in his novels are transformative and if you stop by this blog often, you know I love a great story, which is also enlightening.  I went searching on the web and I found one link for him so I will keep on looking and share any links that seem informative about this awesomely inspired writer.

As I am writing about this I feel excitement flowing through me and I remember that 10 years ago I had a teacher from the Sufi tradition and now I understand what all this energy is flowing through me.  I am feeling the inspirational energy of my past studies and sense they are coming together in some way that is filling me with hope and a belief that I am coming more fully into the wisdom that is available to me.  This new awareness of trust in the wisdom inside is just what I have been seeking.  I have been an active student of consciousness for 35 years and just recently I have felt the want/need/desire to more fully claim the wisdom of my seeking. 

This all seems to be speeding along as I write this.  I want to be of service at a more energized and realized level so I can help to awaken everyone I come into contact with.  This is my purpose and I feel it flowing through me like a mighty river flowing powerfully to it destination.  This destination is the ocean of consciousness in which we are all one awareness, innately divine, and infinite is all ways we can know. 

This power surge of energy within me is waiting quietly within you because according to the Buddha:  “When you wake up, you are filled with love and compassion.”  

Love and compassion are the answers to all the world’s challenges and is the heart of my idea for my book The Revolution of Compassion. 

Vacation At Home Can be So Nice

My week off so far has been enjoyable and enriching.  There has been no need to travel to get some place, which has been nice.  I enjoy where I live when the winter disappears.  This week as part of my renewal vacation I am reading The Greatest Secret Of All by Marc Allen.  I picked the book up cheap as the local Borders, which is closing.  It makes me sad when bookstores close because I love books and the endless interest they have between their covers. 

Marc Allen is clear that the greatest secret is as available to us as we are available to understanding it.  One of the secrets he refers to often is the importance of love and service.  This is always a good reminder for whatever we are engaged in. The Greatest Secret Of All is short, to the point, and the ideas are worth reading even if they are review of what you may already understand to be true.  Truths are often better understood when they come to us from a variety of points of view. 

Around noon my wife and I went to this event that we heard about the day before where a healer named Braco (pronounced Brotszo) came into a room and gazed into the eyes of all of us (1000 people) who where there.  I thought there were cameras flashing but after the session I heard not everyone saw the light show when he was standing there.  There were no cameras flashing. The energy in the room was very soothing and seemed to be coming from his heart.  He doesn’t speak because he has learned that words get in the way of the healing.  

It snowed yesterday early in the morning and tomorrow it is suppose to be 88 degrees.  Now that makes a body wonder what the heck is going on.  I will go for a long slow distance (LSD) run up in the mountains today.  Yes and sometime LSD running is like LSD because the exercise and the beauty of nature around me alter my mind.  I like a well altered mind every once in awhile (actually frequently). 

My mind just returned to the idea of love and service.  My work has been in service to others all my adult life and it has been very rewarding.  During these years of helping others I have learned to open my heart to love and be more compassionate.  Helping others is very rewarding.   Having a week off is also rewarding because I can feel myself being recharged by the quiet time, the self-care, the play and enjoying time away. 

My new e-book Spirited Living is now out there and so far I have heard from two people who were both excited about having a copy and exploring the ideas.  Check this book out when you get a chance.

A Spirited Life – A New E-Book Available Today

Today my newest e-book is available to you - Spirited Living: Making a Conscious Choice To Transform Your Life Every Day In Every Way.  The book contains super ideas for getting the most out of your life. In my 35 years of personal exploration and helping bring out the best in people, I have gained important wisdom that you can use today.

Spirited Living is about going beyond the ordinary ways of limiting thoughts, uneasy emotions, uptight bodies and the aimless wanderings of discontent most of us struggle with at times.  Spirited Living is when you are aligned with purpose, filled with passion, feeling empowered, and fully realizing the vast potential and possibilities of who you are and what you life can be.   Spirited Living is about healing from the inside and spreading the power of your heart out into the world.  

In Spirited Living there is exceptionally helpful information on all of the following:

Freeing yourself of limiting beliefs

Ways to fully express who you are

Others methods for personal freedom

Realizing your inner gold mind

Ways to nurture your greatness

How to identify if your ego is in control

Strategies for letting go of familiar struggles

Useful perspective and practices to enhance your life

Building a positive sense of self

Using your emotions to create results

A self-improvement plan

Ways to make life an adventure worth exploring

Important inner qualities worth developing

Useful resources to deepen your exploration

Invitation to lighten up and have more fun

Download a copy of this book today and you will be on the way to the best of possibilities for your life. These ideas are meant to inspire and encourage you to live a very satisfying life, to move out of your comfort zone toward a more dynamic and exciting expression of who you are and what your life can be about.  Your fullest expression will greatly benefit all of humanity.

My hope is that you experience great success from this book.  I completely guarantee it will enrich your life if you take the time to fully explore the ideas and do the practices.  The ball is in your court, are you ready to move from ordinary to extraordinary? 

When you see how valuable this book is you will want to check out my books on the way: expanding your capacities for the best expression of you; inner practices for a richer life; and a novel that will help you come to rest in a deeper sense of your own spirit. 

Three Commitments For My 61st Year

Now that I am older and wiser as of yesterday, I plan to commit to several new directions in my life.  Actually I strongly feel the need to prioritize my focus and stir things up.  When things get stirred up new results can come about; when I keep on doing things as I have, they tend to create the same results.  You may notice the truth of this in your life?

My new and focused directions have lead to the following commitments:

My first commitment is to expand my inner practices through adding Taoist practices in the qi gong, tai chi tradition, which I have explored in the past and want to deepen.  Inner work stirs things up on a number of levels.  The OBE’s have been great for inner stirrings and these new practices will do the same. 

My second commitment is to write a book called The Revolution Of Compassion, which I have written about considering here at this blog.  This book is calling me to begin now and I strongly sense this is where I need to put my attention.  My goal will be to stay out of the way of the inspiration that wants to flow through me.  This may effect the number of posts I do each week.  What I plan to do is share some of book ideas in the form of blog posts so you will journey with me as I write this book.  I anticipate lots of inspiration and energy for this project.

My third commitment is creating my freedom from a 40-hour a week job so I can fully focus on my writing, my research, my exploration of consciousness, and my peace and social change work.  I will be presenting a number of products over the next few months to help support my work.  These products have the capacity to enrich your life so I ask that you consider purchasing them both for your personal growth and to support my work. 

Over the next few months please pass these product offers, my blog posts and the new websites on to your friends and family so that I can grow a support network.  Together we can be powerful agents for change and I am requesting your support and encouragement.  Each of us has our own particular purpose and mine is clearly about expanding compassion and consciousness for the good of all of us on the planet.  With expanded compassion and higher consciousness the solutions to the world’s problems become clear.  

I have this week off from my job and I plan on being very productive about getting these three commitments fully fired up, also I will enjoy some respite from the intensity of the therapeutic work I do, and I will have some fun each day.   



Reclaiming The Social Critic Voice

My experimental focus on “there is nothing wrong” has been a big challenge because there is so much going on that needs to be questioned.   I could right now put out a lengthy list of questions that I think should be asked but that isn’t what I am going to do. 

What I have noticed is that things have been more stirred up in me and that may be because my writing is an outlet and I have been trying to keep it channeled away from looking at what is wrong.  Yes there are many things that are going right and to focus on those things can be uplifting.  Focusing on what I appreciate about my life is also uplifting.

The other side of us humans is our dark side or shadow.  It seems to me that acknowledging the restless, stirred up, hurt, sad, mad, dissatisfied, and critical parts of who we are is also essential to our well-being.  Expressing these parts of us make us whole, not expressing the shadow causes us to stuff what is uncomfortable and that can't be as healthy.  

The quieting of my social critic seems to not be working so well inside of me.  The social commentary I write about may need some fine tuning because of my own beliefs but it still seems to be an important voice both for my mental health and because there is a real need to question what is.  To question seems to be essential for me.   The political part of the questioning is something I want to place much more in background and instead go in search of the deeper truths.

I want to reclaim and express my social critic so I am ending the “nothing is wrong” experiment for my own well-being and because this voice needs to speak.  On a higher level there is nothing wrong but on a global/humanity level there is so much that needs to be questioned and worked out for the better of all beings. 

My e-book Spirited Living is going through some final editing and it will be released next Tuesday.  If you want a preview copy and are willing to send back a quote we can use in promotions let me know.

Today I am another year older and I am going to go have some fun.



Hope, Spirit and Flow

It has been a rough week with much intensity at work, some highly charged emotions and lots of proofing for my latest e-book.  My mind seems a little fried and I can feel the need for some time off.  Next week I am taking time away from work to relax, quiet the mind, work on some personal projects, and have some fun.  I am ready for an extending break from my addictions work but as of yet I am still working on how to do that.  There is no shortage of ideas so my task is to figure, which ideas have the most traction for creating the results I want.

Quiet time is so needed, my head feels full of words, my heart is full of emotions, my body feels tired but there is an energy force in me, which I call Spirit that is fully charged and ready to go.  In the stillness within is the possibility of directly knowing the guidance my Spirit has for me.  I love to spend time in contemplation where the spring of wisdom, consciousness and creativity flow richly. 

The Spirited Living e-book is coming but as always with writing there is more to do to get things where I want them to be.  My wife has been working hard at a website for this book and it looks great. 

There are at least three more books in the incubator so I feel surrounded by words and possibilities.  I am excited and it will take some time and focus to make all these happen.  The best part is that I feel hopeful and I am grateful for this hope.



Your Thinking Shapes Your Experience Of Life

My new e-book Spirited Living is on the way.  Last night my writing time for the post needed to be spent in proofing so I will be short and to the point.  

How you think about the circumstances of you life shape your experience.  If you think people or situations are not fair, then you will feel upset and powerless.  If you think the best of people and situations you will be happier with life.

As with my experiment, if you think everything is as it should be and not focus on what is wrong then things will seem to work out in a way that feels ok.   If you focus on what is not ok you will be very busy dealing with all that is wrong.

This being said, we have to check out a couple of safety valves to make sure we are not kidding or blinding ourselves by our own beliefs.  The following are effective Inner BS Detectors (IBSD’s):

• Your heart is not easily fooled by foolish thoughts.  You feel expansive when things are right and contracted when things are off.
• Your gut starts rumbling when you are going against what you sense is right for you. 
• Your intuition is fine-tuned and it knows what is best for you and what is not.
• Your feelings will give you feedback about what you are up to, when you feel light, hopeful, energized, open and at peace with yourself, you are heading in the right direction in your life.  If you are uneasy, anxious, and upset then you are heading toward a big mistake.
• Your higher mind observes what is and knows what isn’t.  This knowing sees without judging what will work for you and what won’t.

I hope you pay attention each day to these IBSD’s because they will enrich your life and keep you are of the doghouse.   



Open To Creative Flow

Lately I have been focused on putting together several e-books with the help of my wife who has a wonderful eye for designing.  One of those e-books will be out tomorrow.  I will write more about this new book called Spirited Living in the next post.  Today I wanted to write about the inspiration that is flowing through me.  This inspiration seems greater than me and I find that very interesting

Recently I have been going through my almost 1400 posts and I am in awe of this and I wonder where did all this come from?  Who is writing all of this?  What wisdom is flowing through me?  How do I manage to stay open? 

I am a quiet person who spends most of my day listening to people and helping them sort out their lives.  Reading and the exploration of ideas is also an integral part of my day.  When I am not at work, I read, listening to interesting podcasts and programs, and spend time in mindfulness and other contemplative practices.  Fitness, writing and cooking are three other parts of most days.  Yes it is a busy day and yet there seems to be plenty of energy.  

As I look at my day, I see intense interactions during work and than mostly time for self-nurturing of mind, body, and spirit.   My day has evolved over the years to represent what works best for me.  In my ordinary day there is my expression as a therapist, which is more quiet than talkative.  In the other part of my day is my expression as a reader, meal maker, contemplative, and writer, which are usually quiet pursuits. Also there is this constant flow of ideas, insights and experiences that also inform my day. 

From this mix of listening, inner work and personal explorations comes this vast flow of inspiration.  This flow seems to be there when I open to it and there has become an intuitive trust in the process.  With trust and flow and a keyboard as a canvas, I seem to have tapped into a part of me or something greater that is rich in expression waiting to be expressed.   Like the universe that is expanding at an accelerated pace, (see post below) there are parts of me that have come into being recently.  This I find very exciting and although I lack clarity about where it comes from, I am open to this flow and grateful for it.

This same potential for expression resides in you too.  Through your life experiences, your learning, your doing, and the way you are in the world empower your expansion.  The ways your potential is expressed will be unique to you.  You may: be creative; have fun doing what you love to do; invent or design; teach and inspire; help heal or awaken; make a difference for others or many other possibilities.   If you go inward you will be guided to an even greater expression of yourself. 

An interesting article on Buddhism and the Brain



Tapping Into The Energy Of Life

On my walk I found my mind wondering about all the forces of energy we interact with throughout our day.  I was also curious about how do we access energies that would be healthy for us and enriching for our lives?  Maybe all these energies are in fact one energy?

A primary energetic force seems to be the energy called our life force.  This is the energy that keeps us alive.  Without this energy we would not be in existence.  In some belief systems this energy is finite and when it runs out we stop.  Or maybe this energy is infinite and we are the ones who argue for it running out?

Then there is the energy of our thoughts and this energy can be creative and move us into action.  It can also stop us by getting congested with confusion.  Thoughts are powerful.  Just look around and realize that everything made by humans began as a thought. 

Connected to the energy of our thoughts is the energy of our heart.  Each of us has within us a powerful energetic force called love and this force is transformative.  The power of love and compassion is unlimited and in a very essential way the key to a much better world.  If compassion guided humanity things would be in much better shape for everyone.

The energy of money is another way of looking at our financial world.  Money is an exchange of energy, on a simple level we get money for the work we do (energy we put out) and we pay money for the work others do (energy they put out.)  Sometimes the energy of money gets stuck and the flow subsides.  Sometimes the money gets too concentrated in a few hands and that puts things out of balance. 

The energy that fuels our heat, our cars, our lights etc. is another force.  This energy people go to war over.  Has this energy gotten too valuable for the good of the planet? 

There is the energy for healing, the energy of the martial arts, the energy of consciousness and awareness.  This energy is connected to our life force but seems moveable or beyond the forces within us.  This is the energy that healers use to heal, that martial artist learn to direct as part of the disciplines, that also can be directed towards the pursuit of ones potential or the search for meaning and enlightenment.

Then there is the energy of an ever-expanding universe.  It seems difficult to understand how powerful this force is and is this force within us?  Are all these forces linked to each other or maybe they are one force, which we separate in our thinking but do so artificially?

What if there is only one force and if we learn to tap into it then all our energy needs both personal and global can be met effortlessly? 

As I write this there seems to be a deep resonance in me with the idea that there is only One Energy.  This energy is the energy of the universe that is contained in our thoughts and in our heart.  This is the energy that fuels us, enriches us, heals us, and expands our realization of being. 

How do we remain in open connection to the flow of this One Energy?  For an experiment why don’t we tapped into this Unified Energy Field and see what we can learn as we go through our day?   



Are You Open To Change Or Sure You Are Right?

Saturday evening under the bright moon I did tai chi with a wonderful sense of peacefulness and a feeling of expansion as I looked out over the city.  I was standing in a field above the city lights and it was quiet and meditative.  The warm breeze reminding me that Spring was knocking at the seasonal door.  I just got up as I am writing this and looked at the calendar and today is the first day of Spring.  Yeah I made it through another winter. 

Life is so interesting sometimes.  As I write this I hear a woodpecker working our metal chimney as if it is a tree.  I wonder how many times he will bang his head against the steel to figure out that it is not wood.  The bird sounds more like a mini-jackhammer.  My wife just yelled, “For God sakes what is wrong with that bird?”   When will it figure out it is hammering down the wrong path.  I finally had to go outside and toss a tennis ball to see where he was.  He came flying out of the metal chimney and it is quiet around here again.

This got me thinking about us humans and how sometimes we keep pushing rather than get off a path that isn’t working.  Pushing forward is a great quality when it gets us through rough times.  This pushing can also be more like a bad habit when we are heading in the wrong direction but our ego is inflexibly hammering away and unwilling to take a step back and re-evaluate so we can course correct.

Are you good at pushing through difficult times?  Do you know when you are pushing up the river of unnecessary hardship?  Can you course correct easily or does your ego resist?  Does the familiar and the habitual take precedence or can you move easily into change?  Are you stubborn or flexible?  Where in your life do you need to make some changes so things happen more effortlessly?

Life has a flow to it and if we are open we can step into the stream of universal force and do things effortless and easily.  Are you ready to step on the easier path or do you insist on struggle?

Now that Spring has sprung I can start to think about doing some gardening.  The sun is shining, it is warming up outside and I am heading out for a longer run.  I so much enjoy the experience of running up into the mountains and appreciating in the beauty of nature.  Although running can be physically difficult at times there is mental glide that nurtures me deeply.

Here is a podcast that features Joanna Macy at On Being a great teacher about what is important in life. 

And here is "Widening Circles" by Rainer Maria Rilke; translation by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows

I live my life in widening circles

that reach out across the world.

I may not complete this last one

but I give myself to it.

I circle around God, around the primordial tower.

I've been circling for thousands of years

and I still don't know: am I a falcon,

a storm, or a great song?