Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Believe in Miracles

Do you believe in miracles?  Do miracles happen in your life? I think with all the noise & the push to have everything quantified & proven we've lost some of the magic.  One of the ways to shift to a more joyful/positive life is to rediscover the magic in the world & of course, in your life.

Up until the industrial revolution of the last 100 years people always believed that miracles happened.  They saw miracles big & small in their daily lives but with all the new inventions & the growth of science we tend to not even look for miracles.  We get to the point where even when a miracle happens we don't believe that it's a miracle.  We think there must be a reason for what happened & we look past the wonder of the miracle.

Don't get me wrong I love the world we live in & the continued innovation that this world creates.  But, for me looking at the world as a child is the way to live.  Everything in the world to me is a wonder.  I am always amazed at the beauty around us & I see miracles happen everyday in my life.  Sometimes these miracles are small & sometimes they are just amazing.

Open your eyes to the wonder in your life.  Let go of the noises telling you that things are a certain way, become a child again & reconnect to the joy in the world.  Love with all your heart & trust that miracles happen!

Till tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day from Deepak Chopra: "Every decision I make is a choice between a grievance & a miracle.  I let go of grievances & choose miracles."

Monday, September 14, 2009

Being Yourself

Do you know who you are?  I mean truly in your soul?  Do you know what you want to do?  Do you know what you're good at?  These are all very important questions.  We've talked a lot about how to lead a more joyful/positive life over the last 3 months.  I've shared the ways that I've learned to change your life, to open your heart & to become a positive influence in this world. All of this information is great & I truly hope it helps, but the bottom line is you need to know who you are & what you want.

In the world today there's a big push to always go further, become more famous, make more money & to be a big success.  I think sometimes in all the noise of the media we think the only way to be who we are is to do more, make more, etc.  The bottom line is that none of this really matters.  No matter the pressure you feel by family, friends or co-workers you need to discover what you truly want.  I realize that this isn't always easy.  Quieting the noise around you & focusing on what is true to your heart takes time.

What I want you to realize is it doesn't matter what it is that you truly want.  If you love to be a janitor & that's what makes you happy, be a janitor.  The world goes around because each of us have our own talents & skills.  Don't get caught up in all the noise around you.  Find where your heart wants to be & do what you want to do.

I've done a lot of different things in my life.  It took me a longtime to know who I was & what I wanted to do.  The work I've done over the past 10-12 years has helped me to discover my talents & who I really am.  Before you can change your life completely you need to take time to figure out what you want & who you are.

Believe in yourself & know that once you're clear God/universe will provide what you want.  Know whatever path you want to pursue it's ok, the world needs all skills & talents to continue to grow.

Till tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day: "Believe in yourself & know your talents, for the world opens up to anyone who's honest with themselves."

Friday, September 11, 2009

Creativity

Do you consider yourself creative?  Is creativity part of your daily life?  These are interesting questions for everyone.  I've found that as you open up to the divine connection in your soul that everything becomes more beautiful.  If you pay attention to this new beauty in your life you can't help but to become more creative.

How does creativity work?  I think it's different for everybody.  For me I become the most creative with other creative people, that's one of the reason I've enjoyed twitter.  I enjoy bouncing ideas around with creative people & listening to their ideas.  It's this interaction that really expands my creativity.  I've always had an interesting internal dialogue in regards to creativity.  As many of you may know for the past 11 years I have done taxes for a living.  In the previous 10 years though I was a professional actor so this duality has always been hard for me.  Part of my transformation to a more joyful life was to let go of my logical mind.  I use to over analyze everything in my life.

I found that by opening myself up to creativity I could limit the over analysis of everything  in my life.  The smallest things could spark very creative things in my life.  A great book for anyone who wants to expand their creativity is "The Artists Way" by Julie Cameron if you take the time & follow the excerises in this book you will rediscover your creativity.  By expanding your creativity or rediscovering your creativity you will open yourself up to a whole new world of possibilities.

Take time to enjoy more creativity & enjoy the benefits of a more joyful life.

Till Monday,

Bill

Quote of the day: "Open your life to more creativity & enjoy the beauty of the world around you."

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Dreams

Do you dream at night? Do you remember your dreams?  One of the other great ways to improve synchronicity in your life & to set your intentions is through your dreaming. As we've discussed before I'm not really into meditation, I instead use quiet time to clear my head & set my intentions.  But, one of the other things I do before I fall asleep is to clear my mind, think positive thoughts & set my intentions.  To me this works wonders because you have hours while your sleeping to think about positive things & to have your intentions working for you with no other distractions.

Most of you may be wondering how you "control" your dreams to do this.  I don't really try to control my dreams all I do is clear my head of the day, recall the positive things that happened for the day & the things I'm grateful for.  I always do this "clearing of my head" in the last few minutes before I fall asleep.  I believe by taking this time to let go of anything that's bad or troubling & I set myself up for another wonderful, joyful day.

The second part of this process for me is to pay attention to what I dream.  Some people keep a journal near their bed so when they wake up they can write down what they dreamed.  This works very well for a lot of people.  For me, I've learned that if I have a dream that I remember in the morning it's important to pay attention to it.  In other words if I don't remember a dream or if I don't dream it's not something I need to know.  Whatever works best for you is great, in the beginning using the journal may work best for you.

The point behind this is that since your EGO isn't normally involved in your dreaming you can start to see things in your dreams that will lead you to snychronistic events during your waking day.  Pay attention to your dreams for God/universe will help show you the path to a more joyful life.

Till tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day: "Your dreams are the key to unlocking true joy in your life.  Pay attention to your dreams & open yourself to more snychronicity."

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Motivation

What Motivates you?  How do you stay motivated?  These are questions I've gotten from several people over the last few months.  There's not an easy answer for this because with me as with most people I find motivation in several different places.

We all have days that we're not as motivated as other days & sometimes there are days where we don't feel like doing much of anything.  To me these are all part of the natural cycle of nature.  We all have good times & we also have bad times.  We need to have both to learn to enjoy the good times, I wrote about this in my "Opposites" blog a week or so ago.  No matter how connected you are to God/universe you will still have this natural cycle.  The difference is the more you are connected to God/universe the more you'll understand why you are having a bad time and this connection will also make the bad times shorter & easier to take.

So back to motivation, in my daily life I have several things that I tend to need motivation to deal with.  The first is the day in general.  The way I deal with this is two fold.  The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is lay in bed and be grateful for another day.  Then I thank God/universe for all the amazing things that are going to happen to me today.  The second part of my daily motivation is to pay attention, for the first few hours of everyday I pay attention to as many small things as I can.  In these small things I find positive things.  It could be just a feeling I get from reading something or the smell of the State park that I ride through on my bike.  Between these two things I tend to start the day very positive & this feeling sets the tone for the rest of the day.

The next thing I need motivation for on a daily basis is my bike riding.  Many of you know that I've been riding my bike every morning for the last couple of months.  I am currently riding 30 miles a day through the State park that's about 5 miles from our home.  But this riding is not always easy for me.  There are mornings when I wake up that I just ache & I really don't want to get on the bike & ride.  The motivation I use for this is also two fold.  I first tell myself the benefits of riding the bike.  I talk to myself about how this will help my physical conditioning & overall health.  The second thing I do is tap into my competitive nature.  I tell myself that I'm not going to let this ride beat me.  I'm going to make it through no matter how tough it becomes.

The final thing I need daily motivation for is looking through job ads.  As many of you know I've been laid off for 3 months now & on a daily basis I go through 100 - 150 job ads looking for jobs I believe are a match for me.  If any of you have done this, it's very dull & not a lot of fun.  My motivation is again is looking for the positive, I try to tell myself that the prefect job will be found in this daily review of ads.  I believe that only through the action of looking can I find the perfect job even if this job isn't in the ads I review.  Action often sets things in motion with God/universe.

The bottom line with motivation should be whatever works best for you.  I believe by finding the positive in everything situation you can always find some motivation.  This motivation adds to your overall joyful/positive life because the more motivated you are the better you'll feel about anything that comes into your life.

Until tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day: "Find motivation in the small things everyday.  For true motivation will lift you to a more positive life." 

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Control

Control is an issue we've touched on before but I believe we should take a deeper look at today.  What is Control?  Do you consider yourself controlling? Do you feel like you have to have control over everything in your life?  Let's take a look at each one of these questions & see how each relates to the issue of control.

Control to me is taking over everything in your life.  Making everything work on your schedule with no margin for error.  If your in a relationship or have children it includes the need to know what they are doing & where they are at every minute of everyday.  Do you get upset if things don't go exactly according to plan?  Do you feel like you can't handle anything happening outside of your plan?  These questions may open your eyes to the second question whether or not you are controlling.  The first step to letting go of control in your life is to understand that you are controlling or that you need to have control in your life. These are slightly different issues of the same coin.  The need to have control is slightly different then being controlling.  The answer to needing control can be a past issue that you need to work through.

I have never been a person that needed control in his life.  I've always tried to enjoy the now but there were times in my life when I decided to take control of a certain issue.  I made up my mind that I was going to make this happen no matter what.  Unfortunately, I've found out the hard way that this isn't the best way to be.  I usually was able to make things happen & I would end up getting what I wanted but most of the time it was never what I thought it was going to be. 

One of the best examples of this would be a job.  I decided I wanted a certain job & did everything I could to make sure I got this job.  The once I had the job it wasn't what I thought it would be at all.  In fact it turned out to be a job that I didn't want at all.

So why did this happen?  Control, negates everything good in the universe.  It destroys synchronicity and the natural flow of things.  You may feel like you're happy because things are the way you want them to be.  But, the truth is that if you let go of control & become one with God/universe your life will unfold into a new an amazing life that you can only imagine.

Letting go of control doesn't mean not doing anything.  It simply means letting things happen as they should not making them happen.  For true fulfillment in your life you need to let go of control & release your desires into the universe.  The end result of this will be a more joyful/positive life.

Till Tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day: "Release the need for control in your life.  Allow the universe to work for you & you will discover a more joyful life."

Monday, September 7, 2009

Service to Others

On this "Labor Day" in the US I thought it was time to write about the most important way to have a more joyful/positive life.  That way is service to others, what does service to others mean?  I think it means whatever you'd like it to mean but, to me, it means giving of yourself to someone else.  This can be through volunteering with a local charity or shelter. It can mean helping a neighbor or someone stuck on the side of the road.  It may also mean service to your country either in the active military or through organizations like the Peace Corps.

The bottom line to me, is that you give of yourself to others.  This giving of ones self opens you up to receive everything you give back in a new & wondrous way.  I know what you're thinking....I have a very busy life how am I suppose to find time to volunteer or give to someone else?  Well, I used that excuse before in my life.  The act of "service to others" doesn't mean that you have to set-up a time to volunteer every week or squeeze it into a small piece of time around everything else you're doing.  It means to open yourself to others understanding that we are all divine beings & all connected.  The way you do this is truly up to you, it's the idea of looking first to give, first to help that will bring more joy to your life.  The rewards you receive from helping others far out weigh anything that you give up.

Find a way to be in service to others today & your life will begin to change around you!

Finally, a small side note:  To all our service men & women who are in action across this wonderful world of ours or who are home after serving their time to their country.  Thank you for your service & sacrifice to help keep this country & the world free. 

Until tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day: "Giving of ones self in service to another is truly the greatest gift of love you can ever give."