Tools for Life

33 New Life Directions That Will Rock Your World

I want to suggest that you consider the possibility that it’s time you take real charge of your life. It’s time to more fully understand who you are, what you want, and how you are getting in your own way.

Most of who you are is learned and much of it has been helpful in moving you to where you are now. However, big chunks of it have been holding you back, slowing your progress or even road-blocking what you feel deep inside is right for you.

How To Stop Fear From Devastating Your Life

Fear ruins people’s lives. It can poison your dreams, terrorize your imagination, imprison you from doing things you want to experience, strangle your heart from opening, drown your creativity, blind you to the truth, and cripple you moving forward. Does any of this sound familiar? 

The most interested thing about fear is that it is not real. It always begins as a thought and then turns into a feeling sensation you have learned to call fear. 99% of what you fear is all in your mind.

Yet it still dominates the world. It is so powerful that fear has been used to control the masses for centuries. Just create an imagined enemy and people fall into doing what they’re told. 

Let’s talk about fear and what you can do about it.

The Super ABC’s Of Happiness

Over the last two years of living quietly, I have gained some valuable insights about happiness and I want to share them with you today.

As I started going through the alphabet I realized I had more than one idea for each of the letters. They all seemed valuable. What I want to give you is as many good ideas as I can come with. Hope that’s okay with you? Here’s the list:

Acceptance of Self – If you accept yourself as fully as you can, happiness will come easily. Loving yourself will set you free to love the world.

Awareness – Through awareness of who you are and what matters to you, you can create the life you want. Awareness makes your life a choice.

A Summer Blessing For You

I invite you to join me and explore a spiritual practice of blessing.

The following is the blessing I will share throughout this Summer for the benefit of all our brothers and sisters on the planet:

I call upon the brightest light within me and beyond to bless all my human family.

I send blessings from the heart of unconditional love, compassion, kindness and caring to everyone.

I send blessings of awareness, consciousness, insight, inspiration, awakening and the realization of are oneness.

I send blessings of peace, inner peace, and world peace. It is time to find peace together.

I send  blessings of joy, happiness, laughter and much enjoyment of life. Feel the joy flowing through these blessings to you.

I send blessings of healing, health and well-being to all. Within we have all we need to heal ourselves and each other.

I send blessings of flow, abundance, prosperity, money, wealth, and financial freedom. We all deserve this wonderful flow.

I send blessings of freedom, free to be, free of oppression, free of the need to be in control and be right, and free of all limits.

I also bless myself with all these blessing and encourage you to do the same.

Together our blessing will send transforming waves across the planet for the good of all.

Let the Blessings flow,

Joseph

How I Got Rid Of My Enemies, Wrote My Way To The Light And Was Filled With Blessings and Guidance.

This week I want to share several helpful perspectives, which may not seem related but I promise to tie them all together before this post is over.

Each one of these 5 points is worthy of a full post and they may receive that attention in the next few weeks. For now though, I will share these ideas so you can immediately explore what they have to offer:

1.         There are no enemies. The only enemies are in your mind.

Attention, Attention – Read All About It

Recently I was exploring several ideas about how things in life work or don’t work. After spending time journaling and further exploring my ideas I soon had helpful inspiration and guidance.

The guidance was that what determines how well you and I do things is how well we place our attention on what we are doing. That makes sense doesn’t it?

I want to suggest a more expanded definition than how attention is usually defined – it is not only the focusing of your mind but also of your heart and spirit.

Life Made Easy – Stop Then Go

Beyond the ordinary of daily life there is a vast reservoir of possibilities available to you. This potential sits quietly whispering with hope that you will do something special with your life.

Special, not in the standard way dictated by social norms, but in a way that screams look out, ready or not, here I come. With boldness you can be genuinely you and vibrantly alive in all that you do.

For too long you have been getting ready, haven’t you? I know I have. Reading, listening, watching, learning, always hoping the next knowing will leave the self-doubt behind. It never does, does it?

Well today is the day. Put your collection of notes aside. Fire the inner critic. Take no more classes.  You have all you need inside. Truth be known, there is everything you will ever need to know available to you right now.

There are no secrets here; just doing what you know will work for you. Let’s call this practice - Life Made Easy and let’s begin with what you need to stop doing:

Take A Walk On The Wild Side

It’s time to get up and move. Spring has sprung and your body is ready to re-engage with the natural world.

I love to walk. There are many reasons for that. Let me share with you why walking is so important. My hope is that you will join me and make walking part of your daily life.

There are many benefits from walking. Walking is not only good for the body but also super good for the mind, heart and spirit:

Just Say YES

In the last post, I shared with you the basic life attitudes of Yes, Maybe and No. I advocated for the importance of living the Yes way. Yes is the very best response to the chaotic world we live in.

I decided to follow up the last post with what to say YES too. I know in my heart Yes is more fun, healthier and what works best for creating the life you want.

This is a long list which is exciting because that means there are so many energizing and joyous ways to say Yes.

If you are willing to play with this list of Yes possibilities, I can make you a promise – You will love living your life this way.

Each day, in every way, say YES to the following:

How Journal Writing Pushed Me Beyond My Limits

I realized recently that my journal writing has been much more powerful than I had ever been aware of. Things have shifting in so many ways over the past year.

Those shifts have been powered by the writing I do daily in my journal. This is not some boring account of my day or a discipline I push on myself. It is more a life force vibrating with meaning and aliveness.

The more I explore it the more vital the exploration becomes. Now, I feel an essential piece of life is missing from my day if I don’t sit, tune in and write.

Are You Ready Yet To Unhook Your Life From The Past?

My home sits near Hwy 101 on a rural part of the Oregon Coast. I see huge trailers and RV’s go by every day. So it is no surprise that I would use the following metaphor:

Today I realized that for all my life I have been towing a trailer behind filled with the past, overloaded with faulty programming, jammed with false beliefs and full of trained self-doubt.

For many years I added more and more emotional and mental junk to this trailer. I needed lots of will power just to plod along through life and try to keep my head up. 

Too much time was spent thinking I am not enough, good enough or deserving. My mind was trained to be a non-stop judging machine of others and myself. I found it easier to play the blame and complain game than to take responsibility for my own life. 

Have you run into any of this? If so, you understand how heavy your trailer can get.

You Are Awesome – Let Me Count The Ways

It is time for a hugely important reminder. You are awesome!!!

You might wonder, ”How can I say that?” You might want to hide at the hint of such an idea. Or you might say, “Thank You, I so much needed this reminder?” 

Here’s why I have such a high opinion of you:

Six Essential Steps To Master The Art Of Receiving

Recently a reader of my blog left a wonderful comment about receiving and it stimulated a flow of ideas that I became very excited about. The excitement sprang from that fresh perspective and experiences his comment stirred in me.

As a result, I went to work journaling about how to be open to receiving. I use my journal to tap into my higher mind and the guidance from my soul. This is what came to me in bright flashes of insight:

Receiving Of Flow

Begins as an opening

With an opening, comes a trickle

That expands into a steady flow

Then a vibrant stream begins to stir

This over time becomes a powerful river

Along the way you remain open, receptive and grateful

Then you and the flow become one in an ocean of abundance

Taking Positive To The Next Level

A positive mental attitude rocks. It makes everything seem better and work better. The alternative isn’t any fun.

But you don’t have to hold yourself to just positive thoughts. You can take your life even higher. Exciting, isn’t it?

Right now if you show up fully in this moment there is joy, love, light and peace waiting for you. That’s right, in the now joy, love, light and peace are always available to you. As a matter of fact they can only be found in the now.

All the not-fun-feelings like fear, anger, worry etc. exist only if your mind is replaying the past or trying to live in the future. Negativity arises only if the mind moves out of the now.

Why You Don’t Need To Live in Fear, Be Anxious And Worry Anymore

Recently an encounter with several people who were angry and fearful brought a clear question to my mind. How did they allow their thoughts to cause such anger, fear and discomfort?

This may challenge you but - all fear and worry are self-created. Your thinking generates them. Yes there are occasional situations (a train coming as your car stalls on the tracks) in which fear is a natural response but almost all fear is born within your thoughts.

The opposite of fear, worry and anxiety is being at peace, being open, observing, and trusting.  Changing your thoughts can bring peace, allow you to be open and just observe what is going on. 

Not getting caught up in the drama of the moment is such a relief. Try trusting things will work out and watch how they do.

Ultimately it is very liberating to come to the awareness that you are fully responsible for what you think and how you feel. Yes, blame is very tempting but really it is just an avoidance of responsibility. 

You might wonder - how do I take back my power and stop pointing outward when things are not how I want them to be? How do I bring more consciousness to this process?

Writing Your Life Story Forward

Recently I promised you several tools to enhance 2013. The first tool is a plan to become the conscious author of your life story.  

In November I experimented with writing a novel that included rewriting my past and writing my future. The experiment went very well. I have noticed that what I wrote for my future is already beginning to come into existence.

Experiences and inner sensations imagined in the writing of the novel are now in my life. I had a sense for what the next phase of my life would feel like. I now feel that.

As I was writing my recent story I also rewound some of the past by creating another view, a kind of bigger picture focused on the benefits of what I learned even in difficult times. The advantage of looking back is that you can usually gain a fresh and larger experience of what happened and what benefited you. 

This process is one of creation. Since you are the creator of your life experience, why not consciously create the experiences you want to have. The heart and mind, your intentions and where you put your attention all are powerful factors of creation.

My offer to you is:

What Is Fulfillment For You?

Recently, in a conversation with friends, I had an insight about how each of us had our own ways of seeking fulfillment. That may seem obvious to you but at some level I saw that I had a belief that we all seek to be self-realized. That I found isn’t true.

Fulfillment is an interesting perspective as a way to guide your life. To be fulfilled may not be something you even consider until later in your life.

The qualities of being fulfilled will vary uniquely to your heart’s desire, the guidance of your intuitive voice or through your contact with your soul.  Insights really come from a tuning in process.

You and I get to decide what fulfillment is for us.  We can also redefine what being fulfilled is as we grow older and more aware of what matters.

My observation is that there are certain paths most conducive to making fulfillment possible. Opportunities to experience being fulfilled come to you along these pathways. Your choice is about how you explore and express the different paths.

These are the most traveled paths of fulfillment.  Each vary in intensity as you explore them:

How Walking In Peace Will Save You And The Planet

When we are able to take one step peacefully and happily, we are working for the cause of peace and happiness for the whole of humankind.” Thich Nhat Hahn

I want to invite you to join me and walk the Earth in peace.

I am sure you have noticed that the world seems uneasy. Each of us walking peacefully is needed. 

You can start by bringing awareness to your body as it moves. Notice your feet touching the floor or ground, feel your spine in action, be aware of your senses sensing. See what happens when you slow down enough to pay attention this way.

You can become mindful of your steps as you walk on the planet, as you approach work, as you move to your computer or reach for your phone, as you shop in the grocery store, as you enter into the room where someone you care about is, as you visit places in your community, as you go from room to room, and as you make your way towards your bed at night.

Each step you take shapes your experience.

You can walk peacefully when: