I’ve just been on an amazing weekend seminar here in the UK, called “The isa Experience” (http://www.isaexperience.com/). It helped me begin to see that I truly have SO many choices in my life, and that many things I have learned – habitual “how to’s” and ways of thinking – just don’t benefit me any more.

The over-riding theme behind The Experience is that we can consciously decide to be happy, without that happiness being impacted by events and people over which we have absolutely no control.

And that doesn’t mean being unthinkingly happy (i.e. with a smile plastered in your face, regardless) but being consciously happy… as this video also explains:

I’ll write more about The Experience soon, but I do hope this video provokes some interesting ideas in the meantime.

Please subscribe to my blog notification list – that way you’ll get an occasional notification when a new post is up on the website…

And feel free to share this with friends and family!

Love & light

Tracey

A friend forwarded on a great email this morning, on the topic of fear – and how it can impact out lives. I’m not going to reproduce it all here, but there were 2 paragraphs that really resonated :

It’s amazing what we can accomplish if we refuse to be afraid. Fear – whether it’s of pain, failure, or rejection – is a toxic emotion that creates monsters in our mind that consume self-confidence and intimidate us from doing our best or sometimes even trying at all.

and

….   For most law graduates, passing the bar exam should be no more difficult than walking across a board 20 feet long and two feet wide. The trouble is, they don’t walk normally because they’re intimidated by the illusion that the board is suspended 100 feet in the air and that getting across is a life-or-death matter. What’s the worst thing that could happen? Embarrassment, inconvenience, and expense – but none of these is fatal.

Perspective is an antidote to fear. Most things you fear will never happen, and even if they do, you can handle it.

I’ve been going through a lot of fear – in my head – recently, mainly around perceived lack of financial success, and a couple of weeks ago it go to the point where it was really impacting my ability to focus on my business.

Through chatting to a wise and wonderful friend, who gently questioned things I was asserting (she just asked, “Is that really true?” – very powerful…) I realised that
(a) this fear was just in my head – I have a business that gives me a decent income
(b) by focussing on “lack” I was forgetting about the abundance I have in so many areas of my life, and this led to unreasonable dissatisfaction, spiralling into fear
(c) if I focus on things I want, and things I love about my life, I’m far more likely to action in those areas. Fear paralyses me and stops me doing pretty much anything.

So – you’re not alone if you get confounded by fear – but you can take a few steps to lessen it’s hold on you – so good luck

Earlier I was reading an email from a friend, in which he told me about a personal growth weekend he’d been on.  He wrote: ” it struck me that that was the week-end when I fell back in love with my life….“. I got goosebumps when I read that  – what an incredibly powerful statement to be able to make!

I know that I have the choice to feel the same about my life too … as long as I exercise that choice! In recent weeks I’ve been feeling a bit low, anxious about matters financial, and basically feeling a bit overwhelmed. Perhaps its the transition into Spring, that old issues are springing forth too?!

As usual, the Universe is pointing out to me, only an almost daily basis, that I can overcome these unhelpful thoughts in my head. A couple of weeks ago I got a link in an email, to register to view some excellent videos by the wonderful Bob Proctor – try them out yourself too: http://www.bobproctor-training.net/; the main theme of the 3 videos is that we can change the thoughts (or programmes, you could call them) in our heads.
[He is a promoting an excellent-sounding program, but you don't have to sign up for that - just watch the videos at least, they're very interesting.]

I had lunch with a friend on Friday, and we started talking about why I seem to be fearful about certain things in my life. Now, in most cases (things like being chased by a lion, or having a car accident, excluded in this!) fear is just a product of our minds – False Evidence Appearing Real, as the acronym goes! So my most important task for the moment is to be aware when I’m running old programmes of negative self-talk in my head, and question their validity – and chances are I’ll realise that things are never as bad as I fear!

“… if we “act as if” we already have something we want, “act as if” something is already occurring in our lives (even if it’s not), or “act as if” we know how to do something (even if we don’t) – we create the conditions for it to manifest in our life with greater easy and probability.”

This is the start of Mike Robbins’ latest blog post on the Power Of “Acting As If”.

He continues…

“As I’ve been reflecting on it more, I realize that although I understand the concept of “acting as if” and I write, speak, and teach about how we have the power to create our own reality, in certain areas of my life – especially the ones that are most important to me or the ones where I feel the most cynical and resigned, I often pay “lip service” to acting as if, while simply hoping things will get better, worrying that they won’t, or allowing the outcome to determine how optimistic or pessimistic my outlook and approach will be.

This has been a sobering, but important realization for me this week. There is a big difference between knowing something and living it.

“Acting as if” is about believing in things that don’t currently exist and that there may not be much evidence for. This is about living a “faith-based” life, not an “evidence-based life.” The term “faith-based” often gets used in a political, social, or moral context when talking about initiatives or organizations that are connected with the church or some specific organized religion. However, being a faith-based person, while it can and often does encompass our religious beliefs and our spiritual practices, is even broader than this.

When we choose to live with a strong faith in things not seen, not proven, and not guaranteed – we tap into the power of the possible and we supersede the literal and predicable.“

This SO resonated with me … in some areas of my life, I’m comfortable handing over things to the universe, trusting that the right things will happen for me… but in other areas (and I now realise they are those areas where I have most fear and perception of lack of control) I still think that I have to be in control, and worry about things until they go right.

Hmmm… hard work!! Letting the Universe & my spiritual power handle things seems to make a whole lot more sense

[To read the full article, go to Mike Robbins' blog.]

This inspiring video was sent to me by a friend, the day after I had an amazing experience of letting go of some debilitating old emotions – this video seems to reaffirm that we’re all on the path to greater emotional clarity and freedom.

Enjoy it

One of my favourite online writers is Chris Guillebeau, whose blog is the Art Of Non Conformity. I’ve just read his recent article “A short collection of unconventional ideas“, which I found inspiring!

Far too many of us have, over the years, done things just because we’ve learned that we “should” do them : have a job in an office, aspire to get a fancy car, get married and have 2.5 children, etc. – but sometimes these just aren’t meant for some people. I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with any of these things… just that they’re not right for everyone. Some of them aren’t right for me – working in an office, in particular!

I grew up thinking I had to do what others told me to, or what was expected of me. Now that I’m doing less and less of that, it can sometimes be very uncomfortable but also great fun. As long as you’re honest and sensitive in turning things down, it’s surprising how people will mostly just accept that it’s cool to NOT do something.

One question I’ve (slowly) been learning to ask myself is this : “Does it really REALLY matter if someone thinks you’re wrong?” I’m not talking about dangerous stuff here either … just simple stuff like turning down an invitation when you’re not in the mood, letting someone know that their behaviour had a neagtive impact on you … small things that can impact the way you live your day. I’m learning to listen to my intuition – so when something doesn’t feel right, but I go ahead with it anyway, it usually turns out to be something I should have avoided.

So listen to your own heart and instinct, and be just a little unconventional tomorrow … and see where it takes you

–>

Let me know what small unconventionalities (is there such a word??) you try & how they made you feel…

One of my Twitter followers (can’t remember who – I apologise!) had a link to this old blog post by John Reese, a respected internet marketer.(It is really old in Internet terms – late 2006!)

As someone who does a bit of internet marketing myself, I thought I’d read it… to discover that this particular post has much more scope in the “self development” arena, in my humble opinion. Hence this post! This information doesn’t date, so I don’t mind that it’s from 2006 … hope you don’t either…

A little background here: I am a victim of procrastination and overwhelm on occasion. I have little “to do” lists on scraps of paper & lose them, find them again days or even weeks later… and generally find my personal life a bit chaotic if I have to rely on my memory, which gets overloaded quite regularly! So when I saw this post, I thought the video was well worth watching if it would help me with better strategies.

John talks about a system he has developed, using ideas from many sources. He calls it “Reboot Your Brain”. It’s a very interesting system of “dumping the contents of your brain” into 3 different notebooks (and it IS important to have them separate, as he emphasis in the video) and thus being able to free up your mind and memory, as you learn the habit of putting everything (and that is literally EVERYTHING you can think of!) down on paper.

The video is quite long at 67 minutes … but if you plan to watch it in 3 sessions with brief breaks, it’s worth that effort. Oh… and take notes!

Watch John’s video by clicking here.

Let me know how you get on – leave a comment below; I’d love to hear!

Take care

Tracey

Zig Ziglar said, “People often tell me that motivation doesn’t last, and I tell them bathing doesn’t either, that’s why I recommend it daily!”

This idea is so important to remember when you’re struck low by doubts or worries… nothing is an instant quick-fix – you have to work at success, happiness, motivation, inspiration. That doesn’t mean that you’re on a never-ending cycle of struggle, not getting anywhere – but you have to top things up regularly to stop them “going flat” as it were.

• Find inspirational quotes that will remind you that what you’re doing is worth while!
• Speak to people who uplift you with their positive energy and joie de vivre   : )  Even if your circumstances remain the same, your outlook may change and that can help enormously.
• Take responsibility for your own feelings – you really can change the way that others make you feel by choosing to let their energy affect you … or not!
• Find some form of meditation that centres and calms you, and helps you learn to avoid others negative energy – again, it takes work and practice, but the benefits are so worth it.
  I’ll write more about this soon…

Find what inspires YOU!!!

Motivation implies an outside source, pushing you towards something that you want (or think you want)… but if that source of motivation is absent, it makes continuing along the path you want far harder than it needs to be

Inspiration implies motivation from within, a source of internal energy that will keep you going because it comes from your passions or beliefs – it’s a bit like having a fully-charged battery on inside you all the time – you stay driven!

Please let me know if you’ve enjoyed this post – then I can write more articles in this vein…

thanks,
Tracey

How many of us would love to be appreciated more by those we love, work with or just encounter day-to-day? And how often do we show our appreciation to others? This is a thought-provoking 3-minute clip of Dr. Laura Trice speaking at one of the TED conferences, that I recommend watching & taking to heart. We deserve appreciation

Have a wonderful day!

(Click on the video below to start it – but make sure your volume is down a bit as it’s loud at the start!)

Live a life that feels wonderful!! This is what Greg Hicks believes you can do, and he outlines ways of choosing such a life, in his new book Choosing Brilliant Health: 9 Choices That Redefine What It Takes to Create Lifelong Vitality and Well-Being. I haven’t seen Oprah Winfrey’s show – but I’m a subscriber to her regular newsletter, which mentioned a talk about this book last week – you can hear a snippet from the radio show & read a little about the book on the link to Bob Greene’s show on “Oprah and Friends Radio“.

As Bob Greene says on the website:

“What’s the secret to living a long life? According to Greg Hicks, there are actually nine universal secrets to health, happiness and longevity, which he chronicles in his book Choosing Brilliant Health: 9 Choices That Redefine What It Takes to Create Lifelong Vitality and Well-Being. Greg says research has shown that positive emotions play a fundamental role in maintaining wellness, and he shares with Bob a few of the ways we can create positive behaviors and attitudes that will help us live longer.

• Live with positive intentions. While we can’t always choose our circumstances, we can always choose our attitude, reactions and intentions—which in turn affect every cell in our body, Greg says. Not surprisingly, he says people who live longer give themselves positive “commands” for the day, beginning the moment they wake up. “The more we can be successful at choosing these positive attitudes, the more our brain creates these new neuropathways that make it so they become more our automatic responses than whatever our automatic responses [were],” Greg says.
• Be accountable to yourself. Greg says people who live long tend to have a sense of competency and control that helps them tackle life’s challenges, including disease or illness. On the other hand, people who don’t have a sense of accountability tend to view themselves as powerless victims, he says. “Even though we may be victimized in life, if we panoramically see ourselves as a victim, we have shot ourselves in the foot because our body does not like this,” he says.
• Think about the things you love. Because thoughts have such a determining role on our health, Greg says it’s important to identify your passions, envision them in your mind, journal them and share stories about them on a regular basis. “Just thinking about something that you love or a passion of yours activates the same part of the brain that’s actually experiencing that thing,” he says.
• Do the things you love. In addition to thinking positive thoughts about what gets you excited and happy about living life, Greg says you have to do those things too. To the degree that you can, make those activities central in your life if you want to live a good, long life, he says. “Living [your] passions is not debatable,” Greg says.”

Even if you don’t read this book, take these few pointers to heart, realise that YOU are so much in control of YOUR ATTITUDE and thus your outlook on life, and health – and be well!

Blessings
Tracey

P.S. another related link: also from Oprah’s website