Gratitude and Serotonin

Did you know that you can increase your serotonin levels merely by being grateful? Most of the brain chemicals linked to happiness are stimulated by this shift in perspective.

Here’s what others have said about giving thanks:
Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow. ~Edward Sandford Martin

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues. ~Cicero

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was “thank you,” that would suffice. ~Meister Eckhart

Have a wonderful holiday.

Choosing Your Reality, Choosing Your Path

Choosing Your Reality, Choosing Your Path

I’ve written a few posts recently about taking a media fast, holding your focus on your own vision for your life, continuing to take actions in this direction, and being aware that there is more than one possible perspective on the current economic climate, that, historically, people have experienced enormous success and wealth during such times by maintaining their focus and marching to the beat of their internal drummer. This is what I continue to do. I have an unshakable knowing that I am doing the right thing for myself and for humanity. I take it as a benchmark of all the work I’ve done on myself for decades that I am not freaked out, immobilized or pessimistic.

Today, I received an email from Marilyn Schwader of www.clarityofvision.com
What follows are her steps:

1. Release confusion and doubt: Trust your heart and follow with action.

2. Walk the talk: When there is unclear intent, your allies and partners can’t assist you.

3. All change benefits growth: If the moment is not beautiful, I can recreate it!

4. See with unlimited vision: Go beyond accepted reality and pay attention to messages from unusual sources.

5. Honor who I am and why I’m here: Make peace with inner conflict that keeps me from seeing the beauty of my true potential.

6. I have options: Listen to opportunities coming my way.

7. Allow for growth to happen: Give those opportunities room to grow through an alternate route.

8. Remove old patterns: Recognize old patterns and change them before you make the same mistakes again.

9. Be clear: My quality of life depends on me – my actions and my attitude.

10. I am not alone! Honor my sources of support, the blessings from all my relations.

My focus is clear, I’m excited about each day, and my business is growing instead of shrinking.

And so, I encourage you to revisit your own vision and strategy. Are there things that aren’t working? Are there things that would benefit from more intention, more clarity, more action? How can you make your own changes to ride out the turbulence that exists around us on a daily basis?

Remember that you are not alone. There are others going through the same thing and finding ways to make their businesses grow. Fortunes have been made in economic downturns. What stands out in those cases is that the businesses really stayed with their foundation, kept to the basics, and continued to provide quality products and services to their customers.

Clarity. Intention. Action. Doesn’t get much simpler than that.

Personal Responsibility = Being “At Cause”

Personal Responsibility = Being “At Cause” in NLP-speak

Take time to seriously consider one central tenant in NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming): Personal Responsibility.
This may be an elusive concept for some people; it was for me. Although I thought that I took responsibility for my stuff, my actions and inactions, I really couldn’t keep straight Being At Cause and Being At Effect- I had a certain denseness around understanding these concepts. That was a clue to me.
I learned NLP from Christopher Howard. He and his staff would frequently refer to whether one was At Cause or At Effect. It wasn’t until I was listening to David Neagle’s Art of Success series (which gets my highest recommendation and you just can’t beat the price: free!) that it really clicked for me. Since then, I’ve had many little and big epiphanies related to this understanding and some significant shifts personally and professionally.

I invite you to ask yourself: In what areas of my life am I bucking responsibility for my present circumstances, results, feelings and decisions? If there is anything that I am unhappy with, or that I feel is less than what I truly desire, how have I given away my power to change that situation by waiting for others or circumstances to change or come to my rescue?

In this country there is nothing that you desire that you cannot be, do or have. However, it is up to you to claim it for your own. It is up to you to identify and change that which holds you back. It is up to you to create the life you dream of. You are solely responsible for the state of your life. We can truly transform our lives if we simply take responsibility, make the decision, and take the appropriate actions.

You are powerful and there is nothing that you cannot change if you have the desire to do so!!

I recommend getting a great coach to assist you in the process. Most great coaches have coaches themselves. In my last session with my coach, we were talking about being “At Cause”. She commented on how much progress she’s witnessed in me in the past year. I replied that it has a lot to do with finally “groking” the concept of Personal Responsibility and taking action based on my new understanding and resultant willingness to be completely honest with myself about some things that I had had rationalizations for; this one shift has significantly changed my relationship to my business, my health, my personal life, and my relationships. My friends and colleagues have noticed the difference in me too. YEAH!

Give it a try. What have you got to lose?

Recession, Napoleon Hill, The Law of Attraction, and Your Dreams

Recession, Napoleon Hill, The Law of Attraction, and Your Dreams

Is there a recession? Depends on your criteria and your perspective. Regardless, people make their own circumstances (and success) regardless of the economy or other circumstances. You can allow yourself to be scared by the doom and gloom in the news (……it’s going to be a looooong time before the economy recovers”) or you can choose to persevere with your dreams, your goals, and your intentions. Here’s a story about perseverance, hope and faith:

This infamous story told by Napoleon Hill in “Think and Grow Rich” told of the exploits of the uncle of R.U. Darby who, in the 1800’s, was caught up in the “Gold Fever” produced by the mass hysteria and hype of the gold rush days.

Many people had “Gold Fever” or the burning desire to strike it rich in the vast producing western United States. Word spread world wide of the gold strikes and people from far and near rushed in to make their fortune. The uncle of R.U. Darby was no exception and in fact was one of the few who stuck gold on his initial dig. His initial find was proven to be one of the richest and purest gold veins in Colorado. His challenge though, was raising enough capital to fund a full scale mining process. He went back to the east coast to raise capital from friends, family and investors. Once this was done, he raced back to his mine and purchased the equipment for the task at hand.

He began drilling on endlessly yet, as if by some mysterious stroke of bad luck, the vein of gold had disapeared. Soon, worry, doubt and discouragement took hold and in fear of going broke, he sold his equipment to a junk dealer for a few hundred dollars. He quit… just gave up. He never knew that if the desire was present, so was the gold.

The junk man called a mining engineer and asked him his opinion on the whole project. The engineer went to the mine, examined the situation and told the junk man that if he drilled just 3 feet from where the other man had stopped, he would re-enter the previously tapped rich vein of gold.

The junk man extracted millions of dollars of gold from that mine because he was not afraid to ask for advice, seek counsel, and then act on that advice. Whether he understood the the law or just had an intuitive knowledge of it, the fact is the principle worked and it will always work.

Some of us are stopping 3 feet from our own gold mine and a sure way to prevent that is to stop listening to those doubts and worries that sing their song of gloom in your head. There’s a lot of negativity out there in the world today because people choose to believe what they hear and not what the law insists upon: if the desire was present, so was the gold. This is a universal law! If you have a dream, a desire, an intention, it cannot exist without the means for its fruition to also exist! If you are able to maintain the feelings of desire, the feelings of the fruition experience of that dream or desire, and take all appropriate actions to bring about the desired outcome, there is every reason for you to succeed. If a voice in your head or in your life says otherwise, you may choose to disregard it. You may need coaching, support, and practice to do this effectively. Start with a media fast; stop consuming media. Focus instead on how it will feel to realize your dream.

The current economy: fear, constriction, and dissociation OR a potent opportunity for discovery, growth, and transformation?

The current economy: fear, constriction, and dissociation OR a potent opportunity for discovery, growth, and transformation?
We are powerless to change that which we lack conscious awareness of.
Given our current financial condition, it is time to explore both our personal and collective relationship with money more deeply.  Money can be a very powerful teacher of what we have yet to learn about who we are as human beings.

We all possess unconscious beliefs, patterns and behaviors around money that are largely unknown to us.  It is time to embark upon a deeper learning and integrate money into our spiritual work.  We created it, we made it powerful, and its movement in the world is a direct reflection of our consciousness. As we become increasingly more conscious of this aspect of ourselves, we can begin to co-create a more meaningful and sustainable experience with money and the world around us. The other reward we will receive for doing our personal money work, I believe, is access to the pure potentiality that money represents that will allow us to become more evolved and fulfilled in all areas of our lives. This potential is greater than we ever imagined possible.

It’s interesting to note that the early alchemists did not attempt to turn lead into gold for financial gain, they were seeking spiritual gain. Quite literally, the process of turning the darker, heavier metal of lead to gold was to raise one’s consciousness, not one’s wealth. The alchemists were seeking enlightenment. On the path of seeking spiritual truth, gold was merely a physical manifestation of their enlightenment.
Until we understand and transform our relationship with money and become the alchemists in our own lives, money will always be problematic. Seeking to possess it without understanding its true purpose and meaning in our lives will only leave us feeling more conflicted and unfulfilled. The journey is not about money. The journey is about truth and self-discovery, an archeological dig to the center of the truth of who we really are.
Now, more than ever before we are all being called to delve deeper into our spiritual journey. We must take action to create a world to that values human beings and our planet above profit. We need to trust that there is enough for everyone. Spirit will provide. We must resist the temptation to go into fear and constriction as there is nothing that can be gained by this. That is a trap that only stands to fulfill itself. Now is the time to release and let go of all that no longer serves us so that we can create the space to receive that which does.

What will be your first action in this direction?

Using NLP for fears such as Mc Cain, Palin, arachnophobia or the Stock Market

Using NLP for fears such as arachnophobia or the Stock Market

Yes, NLP can be used for fears about everything from arachnophobia to fears about what’s going on in the current market.

With Halloween quickly approaching, it seems an appropriate time to address a common, but often ignored, issue- arachnophobia.

Is your first reaction when seeing a spider usually one of fear? If your answer is yes, then you’re not alone — fear of spiders affects millions of people. A survey in England suggests that size, color and leg length are important reasons offered for the fright, with the threat of sudden movement by a spider being the most important, and most chilling, aspect.

Now, arachnophobia can be a mild, inconvenient nagging, or it can be so intense as to trigger a full-blown panic attack. These strongest responses are an automatic, unconscious response, meaning it is completely beyond conscious control. These responses are often the result of a distressing encounter with a spider in childhood, though the original incident may be long forgotten.

So, what can you do to stop this fear? Until recently, desensitization was the typical approach, involving gradual exposure to spiders. Another, newer, approach is to relive the moment when the spider phobia was accidentally acquired and remove the negative feeling. While this is less painful than desensitization, it can still be unpleasant.

Here is a simple formula that will work miracles without any discomfort. Try it on yourself, or call an NLP professional for a session.

1. Put yourself in a really comfortable and safe place. Breathe deeply and rhythmically.
2. In your mind’s eye, imagine a spider flashing on a white screen for a second. Keep breathing and imagine relaxing.
3. Let another spider flash in your imagination for 2 seconds. Relax and breathe evenly.
4. Think of the friendliest, most harmless creature you can envision.
5. Slowly morph it into a spider, while keeping the feeling of harmlessness in your mind.
6. Keep going back and forth between the friendly creature and the spider until you can imagine the spider without any fear. If any of the fear remains, call an NLP Practitioner ( me).

Election Day 2008: Is there any point in trying?

Election Day 2008: Is there any point in trying?

Stop Trying; It’s Useless.
Trying creates enormous conflict between people and even within individuals.  The word “try” is loaded with built-in failure. When Luke says that he will try, Yoda corrects him, “No!  Do or do not.  There is no try.”  This is one of the most simple, straightforward, and yet powerful lessons we can take from a linguistic source.  In reality, as opposed to the conceptual world, there actually is no such thing as “try.”  The clash between the conceptual “try” and the real world “do or do not” is where the conflict is born.

Here is an experiment I’ve done with clients to give them the physical experience of knowing the word “try” to be an impossible real world action.  Put a pen on a table in front of you.  Now, “try” to move the pen.  Don’t move it.  I am not saying to move the pen.  The instructions are specifically to try to move it.  What does that require of you?  How do you go about trying to do something, rather than go about doing it?  What is different?  Does this seem a little ridiculous?  Why doesn’t it always seem ridiculous?  Why do we even use the word try?  It’s what I call a “squirm” word; the back door is built-in and wide open for our escape.

Okay, this isn’t entirely fair.  There are times when we’re not sure if we can do something.  What then?  Well this is where you can actually have some impact on the outcome, through the wonders of Conscious Communication.  We know that we can’t just say don’t use the word try, as that creates a void, which is as useless as “don’t think of a pink elephant.”  We need a replacement phrase, like “do think of a blue elephant.”  Without changing the meaning, we can choose words that will shift our consciousness toward successful achievement.  Rather than, “I’ll try,” we can say, “I’ll do the best I can.”

Too simple?  There’s the beauty of it.  Give this exercise some practice.  There are several built-in motivators within this phrase, and you’ll be surprised by the impact it has on you and others. First there is the statement “I’ll do,” setting up a promise/commitment, and a foregone conclusion of success.  Then you add the quality of the effort you are going to bring to this commitment: “the best.”  “I’ll do the best.”  This gets followed by another affirmation of foregone success and belief in oneself: “I can.”  Put all three pieces together, and you have “I’ll do the best I can.”  This may not sound all that different from “I’ll try,” but stick with this practice for even a few days, and you’ll notice a distinct difference in your level of success.

This post was written by Ian Blei, Director of the Integral Enneagram Institute and President of Optimized Results www.optimized-results.com
415.826.0478

Ian and I see much of the world in very similar ways.

Check out his book Kind Ambition.

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