Good day, and
welcome to this issue! We thank you sincerely
for dropping by,
and we hope that somewhere within the wisdom and
caring thoughts on this page,
you find something that truly touches your heart and
feelings.
The law of
attraction says like attracts like, and so as you think a
thought, you are also attracting like thoughts to
you. Here are some examples you may have experienced of
the law of attraction in your life:
Have you ever
started thinking about something you were not happy about, and
the more you thought about it the worse it seemed? That's
because as you think one sustained thought, the law of
attraction immediately brings more like thoughts to
you. In a matter of minutes, you have gotten so many like
unhappy thoughts coming to you that the situation seems to be
getting worse. The more you think about it, the more upset
you get.
You may have
experienced attracting like thoughts when you listened to
a song, and then found out you couldn't get that song out of
your head. The song just kept playing over and over in
your mind. When you listened to that song, even though you
may not have realized it, you gave your full attention and focus
of thought to it. As you did that, you were powerfully
attracting more like thoughts of that song, and so the
law of attraction moved into action and delivered more thoughts
of that song, over and over again.
Your life right
now is a reflection of your past thoughts. That includes
all the great things, and all the things you consider not so
great. Since you attract to
you what you think about most, it is easy to see what your
dominant thoughts have been on every subject of your life, because
that is what you have experienced. Until now!
If you can think
about what you want in your mind, and make that your dominant
thought, you will bring it into your life. . . .
Thoughts are
magnetic, and thoughts have a frequency. As you think, those
thoughts are sent out into the Universe, and they magnetically
attract all like things that are on the same
frequency. Everything sent out returns to the source.
And that source is you.
Think of it this
way: we understand that a television station's transmission
tower broadcasts via a frequency, which is transformed into
pictures on your television. Most of us don't really
understand how it works, but we know that each channel has a
frequency and when we tune into that frequency we see the picture
on our television. We choose the frequency by selecting the
channel, and we then receive the pictures broadcast on that
channel. If we want to see different pictures on our
television, we change the channel and tune into a new frequency. .
. .
The pictures you
receive from the transmission of your thoughts are not on a
television screen in your living room, they are the pictures of
your life! Your thoughts create the frequency, they
attract like things on that frequency, and then they are
broadcast back to you as your life pictures. If you want to
change anything in your life, change the channel and change the
frequency by changing your thoughts.
As you think of
yourself living in abundance, you are powerfully and consciously
determining your life through the law of attraction. It's
that easy. But then the most obvious question becomes,
"Why isn't everybody living the life of their dreams?"
The only reason
why people don't have what they want is because they are thinking
more about what they don't want than what they do
want. Listen to your thoughts, and listen to the words you
are saying. The law is absolute and there are no mistakes.
An epidemic worse
than any plague that humankind has ever seen has been raging for
centuries. It is the "don't want" epidemic.
People keep this epidemic alive when they predominantly think,
speak, act, and focus on what they "don't want."
But this is the generation that will change history, because we
are receiving the knowledge that can free us of this
epidemic! It begins with you, and you can become a pioneer
of this new thought movement by simply thinking and speaking about
what you want.
The law of
attraction is a law of nature. It is impersonal and it does
not see good things or bad things. It is receiving your
thoughts and reflecting back to you those thoughts as your life
experience. The law of attraction simply gives you whatever
it is you are thinking about.
The law of
attraction doesn't care whether you
perceive something to be good or bad, or whether you
don't want it or whether you do want it. It's
responding to your thoughts. So if you're looking at
a mountain of debt, feeling terrible about it, that's
the signal you're putting out into the Universe. "I
feel
really bad because of all this debt I've got." You're
just affirming it to yourself. You feel it on every level
of your being. That's what you're going to get more of.
We
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"I
will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling
or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my
living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible;
to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance, to live so that which came
to me as seed goes to the next as blossom, and that which
came to me as blossom goes on as fruit."
Dawna
Markova
Re-read
the above quote, then close your eyes for a moment and imagine this:
it's you speaking the words. Imagine it’s the kind of life
YOU chose.
What comes up for you? Do you feel inspired? Do you feel
like it could never happen?
In the years
I’ve been coaching I’ve found there to be some essential
qualities of people who live a complete and balanced life.
They firmly
believe their success is more about who they are, rather than
just what they have or what they do.
They're clear
about their values and what’s most important to them.
They have a
vision for their life.
They're
willing to take clear and focused action to fulfill that vision.
They hold
themselves responsible for the quality of their life.
Living a full
and balanced life starts with knowing what a full and balanced life
means to you. Each day, we are bombarded with images from the
media that tell us who to be, what to do and how to act. We
are saturated with "shoulds," past experiences, family
edicts and endlessly disempowering messages.
So the first
step in claiming a complete life is to embrace the distinction that
Oprah makes quite succinctly, “Don’t worry about living
THE best life, just live YOUR best life.”
Here are some
suggestions I give my clients to help them begin the journey toward
living their best life.
1. Start a
journal.
One of the best ways I know to quiet the mind and access your
deeper thoughts is to write. Let yourself write in an
uncensored way. Let your thoughts flow without concern for
grammar or impressing a reader. Be curious about what your
inner self wants to tell you.
Here's a
series of provocative questions to help start the journey:
What will my
life feel/be like when I’m living fully and in balance?
Here’s where you imagine in detail the life you want. Let
yourself dream about how you’ll feel. Will you feel
peaceful? Energized? Both? Will you be fulfilling
a dream or simply living fully in each moment? Paint a picture for
yourself.
What’s most
important to me? Begin to make a list of your values. Your
values are your personal inventory of what you consider most
important. We all have values, but unless you take the time to
clarify them for yourself, you can inadvertently be living someone
else’s values. Your values inform the choices you make.
2. Get to know
yourself.
Walk, meditate, exercise, or take yourself on a date. Getting
to know yourself and what you like is an important piece of the
puzzle. What movie would YOU chose? Is nature most
enlivening or would you prefer a cultural romp in the city? Do
something you’ve always wanted to try. Take a risk. To
live a complete life you have to be in touch with what makes you
happy.
3. Find support.
It can be difficult to explore or make life changes without the
benefit of a support system. Often, when people start to grow,
others around them - friends and relatives - may feel
threatened. They may not want you to “rock the boat.” Seek
out at least one person you feel safe sharing your desires
with. This will help you to stay motivated and provide some
accountability.
4. Take
action.
Inspiration without action is like being dressed up and having
nowhere to go. Take some baby steps. Ask yourself:
"what’s one thing I can do this week to feel great about my
life?" Then do it.
What does a
complete and balanced life mean to you? I’d love to hear
your thoughts and what you discover. It’s truly
possible. You can love your life and watch the seeds turn to
blossoms and the blossoms turn to fruit.
It’s YOUR life.
. . live it completely!
* * * *
Helaine
Iris is a certified Life Coach, writer and teacher who loves her
life.
Living
Life Fully, the e-zine
exists to try to provide for visitors of the world wide web a
place
of growth, peace, inspiration, and encouragement. Our
articles
are presented as thoughts of the authors--by no means do
we
mean to present them as ways that anyone has to live
life. Take
from them what you will, and disagree with
whatever you disagree
with--just know that they'll be here for you
each week.
"This
is how it feels to me," he told me. "I am always
tuning my orchestra.
Somewhere deep inside there is a
sound that is mine alone, and I struggle
daily to hear it and
tune my life to it. Sometimes there are people and
situations that help me to hear my note more clearly; other
times, people
and situations make it harder for me to
hear. A lot depends on my
commitment to listening and my
intention to stay coherent with this note.
It is only when
my life is tuned to my note that I can play life's mysterious
and holy music without tainting it with my own discordance,
my
own bitterness, resentment, agendas, and fears."
I'm a very strong proponent of rest, and it scares me quite a bit
when I see just how few people seem to value the concept enough to
make it an integral part of their lives. It frightens me
because I know that many of the people around me are doing
mediocre jobs and pushing themselves to unhealthy limits simply
because they refuse to take the time to recharge, reinvigorate,
and rejuvenate themselves. They're hurting themselves and
others by not taking the time to do something that's absolutely
necessary, and they're justifying their actions by claiming that
they have no choice, that life demands that they be so busy.
But rest is not a luxury. Rest is a necessity. Study
after study shows that people who are well rested are more
efficient, more accurate, and more satisfied at their jobs and in
life in general. A well rested parent isn't going to snap at
his or her kids like a tired parent will; a well rested police
officer is going to make better decisions and be able to deal with
conflict better; a well rested doctor will be less likely to make
mistakes that can harm and possible even kill a patient.
When I'm rested, I'm less likely to see the world darkly, for my
mind is more alert and I'm much more aware of my surroundings and
my life in general. I can see and notice the positive in
situations even when bad ones come up, whereas when I'm tired and
drained, anything negative gets amplified greatly in my mind so
that it's easy for me to become depressed, anxious, and nervous.
Rest
is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass
on a
summer
day listening
to the murmur of water,
or watching
the clouds float
across the sky,
is hardly a waste of time.
John
Lubbock
Rest is also,
of course, good for the body. When you're
hiking up a mountainside, it's important to stop now
and then and allow your body to recover from the
effort. One of my favorite short stories is
that of two men who were in a competition to harvest
the wheat from a field, an all-day effort. One
man, the physically stronger one, started out
quickly and kept going, impressing everyone with his
speed and strength. The other man started out
at a decent speed, but it was obvious that he was
conserving his strength. And then, after a few
hours, he actually stopped and rested and had
something to eat! In the morning, the stronger
man built a significant lead, but by the time the
afternoon came, he completely burned himself out and
couldn't keep on. The other man took a lunch
break and then kept working at his steady pace,
eventually accomplishing far, far more than the
stronger man.
This is why substitutes are so necessary in sports
such as basketball and football, and why lunch hours
and breaks are built into work days. Our
bodies need breaks from what we're doing; otherwise,
we'll burn ourselves out and not be able to work
nearly as effectively as we could if we took a break
now and then. I used to watch college students
sit for five or six hours straight, trying to get
all their work done in one marathon session.
Their last couple of hours, though, were usually
wasted time because they were so exhausted, mentally
and physically. I would tell them that they'd
be much better off working for two and a half hours,
taking a twenty-minute walk, and then finishing up
with the last two hours of their study sessions, for
both the brain and the body need time to be focused
on something else. We need our rests.
The most
valuable thing we can do for the psyche, occasionally,
is to let it rest, wander, live in the changing light of room,
not try to be or do anything whatever.
May Sarton
One of the most
insidious aspects of our society is the
mistaken--and even cruel--belief that wanting to
rest is a sign of weakness, and that it shows that
we're somehow lazy. Personally, I'm a person
who likes to be busy: I did two MA's
simultaneously for two years, and I consistently
take on extra work or classes. But I also make
sure that I'm well rested when I'm doing such
work. I make sure that rest is planned into my
schedule, for if it weren't, the amount of work
would be more than overwhelming, and the results
would be mediocre at best. I also have run
many very long distances, and when I do, I make sure
to build in rests while I go. If I'm running
100 miles, it's important that I build in rests as
early as the ten- or fifteen-mile marks so that I
can be sure to have something left twenty hours
later.
I even build short breaks into classes I teach, when
I ask students to write a 10-minute reflective essay
or to work on some sort of exercises to practice
something we've been discussing. Mental strain
builds up rather quickly when trying to teach
concepts to others, and such short breaks are very
helpful. I use the time to help the students
individually, but it is a break from the normal
classroom routine.
If you feel a need to rest, that's not
laziness--that's your mind and/or body telling you
that it's important for you to take some sort of
break. There's absolutely nothing wrong with
taking that break, either, for the work that you do
later will be of higher quality if you do make sure
to take care of yourself now. While we don't
want to let things go too far and end up being
slackers, we do want to take care of ourselves so
that we don't wind ourselves up so tightly that we
eventually reach some sort of breaking point--that
would be the worst thing that we could do to
ourselves. Our newspapers are full of stories
of people who do reach that breaking point, and it's
not pretty when it happens.
Activity and rest are two vital aspects of life.
To find a balance in them
is a skill in itself. Wisdom is knowing when to have rest, when to
have
activity, and how much of each to have. Finding them in each other--
activity in rest and rest in activity-- is the ultimate freedom.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
I like the idea
of balance between rest and activity. To me,
15-20% of our work time should be rest (that's about
ten minutes an hour), and I do try to reach that
balance regularly. I know, though, that there
are often times when I'm going to go three or four
hours with no break at all, but that's okay as long
as I balance that sort of effort with sufficient
rest afterwards. I also know that something
that's effort for someone else--a long walk, for
example--is actually rest for me. We should
make the effort to know ourselves well enough to
recognize the signs that tell us that we do need to
rest, signs such as crankiness or a lack of ability
to focus or simple physical tiredness. The
rest that we take is important not just to us, but
to the quality of the work that we're doing and to
the quality of the relationships with the people
with whom we work.
If we do want to live our lives fully, we need to
take rests from our work, from our computers, from
our cell phones, from our relationships, from our
stressors, from our worries, from our television
sets. Too much of anything becomes harmful,
and rest is one of our most important--and most
often undervalued-- methods of dealing with many of
the things that ail us. Do yourself and the
others in your life a huge favor and make sure that
you're well rested, for it truly is up to you
whether you are or not.
This kind of split makes
me crazy, this
territorializing
of the holy. Here
God may
dwell.Here God may
not dwell.
It contradicts
everything in my
experience, which says: God
dwells where I dwell.Period.
1.
Look at life as a journey and enjoy the ride. Get the
most out of the detours and realize they're sometimes
necessary.
2.
Do your best, but if what you're doing has caused you
discouragement, try a different approach. Be
passionate about the process, but don't be so attached to
the outcome.
3.
Wish the best for everyone, with no personal strings
attached. Applaud someone else's win as much as you
would your own.
4.
Trust that there's a divine plan, that we don't always know
what's best for us. A disappointment now could mean a
victory later, so don't be disappointed. There is
usually a reason.
5.
Ask no more of yourself than the best that you can do, and
be satisfied with that. Be compassionate towards
yourself as well as others. Know your calling, your
gift, and do it well.
6.
Don't worry about something after it's done; it's out of
your hands then, too late, over! Learn the lesson and
move on.
7.
Have the attitude that no one, except you, owes you
anything. Give without expecting a thank-you in
return. But when someone does something for you, be
appreciative of even the smallest gesture.
8.
Choose your thoughts or your thoughts will choose you; they
will free you or keep you bound. Educate your spirit
and give it authority over your feelings.
9.
Judge no one, and disappointment and forgiveness won't be an
issue. No one can let you down if you're not leaning
on them. People can't hurt you unless you allow them
to.
10.
Love anyway. . . for no reason. . . and give. . . just
because.
You
say grace before meals.All right.But I say grace before the
concert
and the opera, and grace before the play and the pantomime,
and grace
before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting,
swimming,
fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing, and
grace
before I dip the pen in the ink.
G. K. Chesterton
Yes, life
can be mysterious and confusing--but there's much of life that's
actually rather dependable and reliable. Some principles apply
to life in so many different contexts that they can truly be called
universal--and learning what they are and how to approach them and use
them can teach us some of the most important lessons that we've ever
learned.
My doctorate is in Teaching and Learning. I use it a lot when I
teach at school, but I also do my best to apply what I've learned to
the life I'm living, and to observe how others live their lives.
What makes them happy or unhappy, stressed or peaceful, selfish or
generous, compassionate or arrogant? In this book, I've done my
best to pass on to you what I've learned from people in my life,
writers whose works I've read, and stories that I've heard.
Perhaps these principles can be a positive part of your life, too! Universal Principles of Living Life Fully. Awareness of
these principles can explain a lot and take much of the frustration
out of the lives we lead.
Explore all of our
quotations pages--these links will take you to the first page of each
topic, and those pages will contain links to any additional pages on
the same topic (there are five pages on adversity, for example).
™
