Do you find yourself in the midst of too much discomfort too often? Do you feel more comfortable being uncomfortable? Doesn’t make sense does it?

Do you think suffering makes you a better person? Were you taught to believe that suffering is beneficial?

If you answered yes to any of these you can join the Suffer Club - most of us have been card-carrying members of this club at one time or another. The glorification of suffering has been a strong societal message for many generations.

I have been told from a young age that suffering is what you and I do. I was raised to view this angst as something I offered up (to some kind of God who keeps track) and you get credit in the afterlife for doing it well.

I have also been told that suffering makes your stronger and helps you grow as a person.

Buddha even said, “Life is suffering.” He also said much more about this topic, which created a deeper understanding about how to live free of such discomfort.

It is time to question all these messages because they are a bunch of nonsense rationalized by the ego-mind.

I use to buy those ideas because they helped to explain away things in life that left me disappointed, hurt or confused. My thought was, “that was painful, but I learned from it and won’t do it again.” This school of hard knocks works sometimes but mostly it just leaves us even more confused about ourselves.

An interesting thing happens once you quit this club - most people don’t come back. Leaving suffering behind feels much better than holding on to it.

Truth - in the now you can always move away from suffering. This entangled mindset is most often caused by thoughts of the past or the future. In the present moment, suffering does not exist, or if it does you can always just be aware of it, watch it, question it, change your thinking - and it will go away. 

I hope this encourages you to question what’s not working for you, and what’s causing your to suffer. You really don’t need to suffer anymore unless you really want to. You can free yourself from misery now. 

A quick review of Suffering Shrinkers:

*  Take control of your thoughts by becoming mindful.

*  Do your best to eliminate most expectations.

*  Live as fully in the present moment as you can.

*  Put aside all blaming and instead take full responsibility for all your thoughts and feelings.

*  Stop imaging that suffering is heroic or good for you. That is a false belief that needs to be erased from your thinking.

*  Focus on the life you want, on having fun and on expressing the endless love of your heart.

Any question? Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or ask about any concerns you might have. I am passionate about helping to eliminate suffering in your life.

PS I was recently interviewed by Nathan Ohren about journal writing at his blog Write4Life. You will appreciate the interview and Nathan’s blog is great if you find value in journaling.

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. An enemy always begins as a thought, which creates feelings of fear and anger. This idea is ego-based and is about wanting power and control over others. When you label them as an enemy you can then rationalize your actions.

This false ego-mind - thinking and rationalizing - is the source of all wars and much inner discontent. Change your thoughts and you free yourself from the falsehood of thinking there are enemies and from the discomfort of fear and anger.

2.         Journal writing is so powerful because it brings you into the now where the ego has little influence. The ego is replaced in the now by your higher mind. That is why journaling can open the doorway to such powerful guidance.

In the now you can hear the soul’s voice - your intuition - which always knows what is best for you. You access the wisdom of the universe in the moment-to-moment writing that journaling provides you. This is a very liberating and empowering practice.

3.         If you want to change the course of your life, start blessing yourself and all you encounter. I am reading a wonderful book call The Gentle Art Of Blessing by Pierre Pradervand. I am impressed by the use and power of blessing in many cultures for much of human history.

The basic idea is that you can bless yourself and all others you choose through your inner thoughts and imagery. These blessing enhance your life and those you bless. They open a unique doorway into the vastness of possibilities contained in the universe.

Example: I bless you as you read this post with the bright light of insight and awareness so that you can be enriched in all you do with great love, well-being, abundance, joy and inner peace.

I will share more about this as I further explore this book and its ideas.

4.         There is incredibly wise guidance available to you beyond your ordinary mind. Many seek that guidance through a variety of guides, angels and other entities. If you know of Ester Hicks and Abraham, you know what I am talking about.

You don’t need Ester’s Abraham (not that it wouldn’t be nice to have) because that same source of guidance is within the quiet silence of you. This intuitive source of guiding wisdom is all you ever need to have the most amazing life.

Your higher knowing is the voice of the soul, spirit, intuition, Higher Self or whatever you understand it to be. This wise voice always knows what will make possible the life you desire.

5.         Willpower is not as powerful as heart and soul power. The ego-mind is in charge of willpower. Yes, willpower can be very forceful but its underlining drive is the ego. This ego is about keeping you safe. It know only one strategy - using its power to gain control over what it fears. This is not a sustainable strategy because there is always the need to gain more power. Think multi-millionaires who feel they never have enough.

There are two other main forces that are sustainable and work even better - the power of the heart and the soul. The power of love is well recognized but underestimated. The power of the soul is mostly unrealized and infrequently tapped into. If you let the voices of your heart and soul show you the way then you become an effective manifestor of what you want to bring into the world.

The common theme through these five insights is about the mind and its power to both limit and expand your life. You are the director of your thoughts. You can use your mind to lift you higher. These five ideas will aid the creation of the life you desire. 

One last idea - desire, often bashed by most religion as wrong and a source of suffering, is better seen as a call within to express yourself even more fully. Following your desire is a great way to move you towards the fullest realization of who you are.

Summer is knocking. I hope you have lots of fun, go to interesting places and enjoy the beauty of this time of year.

At this point in my life I’ve committed to leaving a lifetime of programming behind. Now I am on a personal journey of deepening awareness, expanding compassion and realizing the highest levels of potential and expression.

Recently I’ve had a number of insights that have been very helpful. My hope is you can join me in exploring these higher levels of knowing.

My first insight is why joy matters. I have come to understand that if I feel joy, I am fully present. Joy means I’m appreciating the moment and all it has to offer. My purest nature is joy and my heart speaks the language of joy throughout my day. Living in joy, I reach out to the world inviting others to share in the joy of living.

The second insight is what relief indicates. I feel relief when I align with what I know inside is right for me. This relief is because I’ve put aside the seeking of approval, all self-judging and the ongoing false belief of “not being enough”. Ah! relief is what happens when these old themes are released. I support and encourage others to find their own ways of creating relief.

The third insight is value of light and lightness. I feel lighter when I take life more lightly. I seek the light of awareness and express the light that flows through me. I release to the light what I can’t figure out. I open to the great light of knowing from the eternal source. Now my intention is to spread light wherever I go.

The fourth insight is being peace. When I stop being at war within, I find inner peace. Peace is the vibration of me flowing effortlessly into each moment. I am at the deepest place of peace in the quiet stillness and knowing of the now. I share the peace within as I promote peace in others and the world.

The fifth insight is about the awesomeness of love. My heart center is the best place to hangout for my well-being and in connecting to the world. I sense within an ever-expanding flow of compassion, kindness, caring and love that awaits expression. I bring an open heart to all I do because love is the great healer and best answer to the troubles of the world.

My sixth insight is the importance of presence. I show up as fully as I can in all I do. I bring with me the pure energy of that which is an aware presence. Presence happens when awareness meets awareness; when souls make contact with each other; when the ego-self is replaced by the Higher Self. I bring the gift of presence everywhere I go inviting the presence in others.

Each of these insights keep unraveling and presenting richer flavors of consciousness. Once you get a taste of any of these, your life expands into greater and greater expression of your true nature.

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.

Mind Attention is about bringing your mind into focus in the here and now. This mental focus is very important because what you think about shapes what you are doing. If your focus is scattered, the results will be scattered. If your focus is more laser like, the results will be laser like. If you set a goal and utilize your full attention the results are very likely to be positive.

Heart Attention is more about having your heart engaged in what you do. If you do things half-hearted, the results will be half-hearted. If you have an open and engaged heart the results will be full of you at our best. If you love what you do, it will show.

Spirit Attention is the use of your higher nature to guide you towards what you want to make happen. If your spirit is engaged, you are guided from the place of deep knowing. Deep knowing creates the wisest results. If your spirit is activated the ordinary limits are often dissolved. If things are done from the place of your highest expression, the best will come about.

How might you use the attention of your mind, heart and spirit to create the life you want?

This is a list of both positive and not so positive ways of using the attention of our mind, heart and spirit. You can put your attention:

On what’s working or what’s not working

On what’s going well or what’s not okay

On what you want to make happen or what you don’t want to happen

On peaceful thoughts or thoughts of fear and discontent

On the present moment or the past or future

On what you appreciate or what you don’t like

On a loving heart or keeping your heart safe

On what brings you joy or what makes you mad

On self-realization or what’s wrong with you

On being open or being protected

On working things out or ways to prove others wrong

On abundance or lack

On flow or on who or what is in the way

On taking responsibility or blaming and complaining

On giving or what you’re not getting

On being free or how trapped you feel

On finding the truth or holding on to beliefs

On being aware or tuning out

On collaboration or winning

On compassion or not getting involved

On acceptance of self and others or judging self and others

On taking risks or playing it safe

On the light or the darkness

On being empowered or being a victim

On your access to inner knowing or letting your “will” rule

If your attention is on what you don’t want, you create more of what you don’t want. If instead your mind, heart and spirit’s attention are on what you do want, you then become very empowered to bring about those results.

It’s all about where you put your attention. Why not make it possible for you to create the kind of life you want?

I offer consultations and coaching for those with attention malfunctions of the mind, heart and spirit.

P.S. This past Sunday I went to my first open mic where I took the leap from audience to performer. I sang and played three songs. It was scary and fun. When was the last time you chose taking a risk instead of playing it safe?

The great promise of most religion is that you will have a better life in the hereafter. The Truth never lingers in the possibilities of tomorrow. It can only reside in the present moment. Now is the only place where the seeds of human possibilities bloom.

Heaven is not a romp through the tulips but a song that sings itself as your life. You are the creator of each moment whether it’s heaven, hell or dull disconnect from the vibrancy of life.

Characteristics of the true heaven within you include:

A loving heart so vast and unconditional that all is included

A mind expansive enough to always be in wonder at the mysteries of life while appreciating the beauty in all beings.

A realized soul guiding you to ways of greater and greater expressions of the infinite

A pervading joy untouched by the false dramas of your human story

A peace so profound it cannot be disturbed by the chaos of your thoughts

A freedom that liberates you for an exploration of life without limits

A light so bright that all the darkness is brought into the dissolving power of awareness

A presence so expanded that its boundaries are as wide as the universe itself

And even more that words are unable to even begin to explain or express.

This is your heaven waiting to be realized in the many moments of your day. Do these heavenly conditions interest you? Can you even imagine them as possible in your life?

Let’s walk into heaven together. I will lead you on a tour:

First let’s take an elevator down below the ordinary noise of the mind. As we go down past the chaos of our thoughts we enter into the silence and stillness of our spirit - of our soul’s realm - where our higher mind resides.

In this silence all the human conditioning is placed aside, the voice of the ego is turned off and the false beliefs and limits fall away. These restricting parts of your personal story in fact only exist in your thoughts and too often most thoughts go unexamined.

In the deep quiet the false is replaced with the light of the now.

In the present moment we enter a different reality, which offers us a vastness of perspective, possibilities and potential that knows no limits. Can you feel this fresh breeze of the infinite washing over you?

In this expanded place of profound stillness we can sit and take in the gifts only available in the here and now. These gifts include pure love, real joy, deep peace, and the bright lights of consciousness, awareness and the guiding voice of our soul.

Let’s sit for a while and experience these gifts. We can do this by allowing them to flow through us – love without limits fills our being, then joy naturally comes into our experience and we vibrate with aliveness. With that we realize that peace is always here surrounding us. Feel the cosmic yes of Om vibrating through the particles of your being.   

Now, right now there is a guiding voice (for many there is more than one voice that represents this ultimate knowing – voice of the soul, voice of the intuition, voice of a guide or guides.) The voice of the soul is the name we will give it here as we tour. This voice is in complete oneness with all soul’s and with the Source of the Universe. So it’s references are impeccable. 

This soul’s voice is always present to guide us on our way. Whenever we need to know what is best for us, all we have to do is enter the silence, listen and be guided.

While visiting heaven I have found having the conversation with my soul or guides works best with a journal where I can make note of the questions that are coming up in me and the guidance I receive. Writing these sacred conversations out helps them from being just words in my head. Instead they become a more concrete spelling out of what insights and choices are being presented to me. As I write, questions and responses that deepening my understanding come up.

What often follows the guidance is an expanded confidence and a deep sense of appreciation. In the moment I offer a prayerful thank you. 

Now sitting in the heaven within, you are invited to take time to allow the guidance to come to you. It may take a time or two to tune into the Divine network but when you do, you will know it because of the spaciousness and presence of this infinite and eternal voice.

Let me know how it goes - love, peace, joy and light to you.

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:

1.  Stop doing what doesn’t work – Keep shifting gears and stirring things up. Do lots of exploring, questioning and listening inward for the wise soul-filled guidance there waiting. Life is a big experiment. Keep exploring until you get it right.

2.  Never ever linger again in the past – First take the stance of “no regrets.” The time you spend in reworking the past in your mind is stealing from your now. You cannot ever create a better life with your mind in the past (or the future either).

3.  Set your goal to totally and forever get out of your own way – You are the block, not circumstances, not others - it’s you. Take a thorough inventory of what thoughts, beliefs and grooved habits are holding you back, and then eliminate them. Start today.

4.  No more whining or complaining – Blaming only does one thing, it creates misery inside. You are the one and only creator of your life. If your life is not working go knock on your own door and demand changes.

5.  Never believe anything that’s in your noisy mind – All your thoughts must be questioned. Most of what you think is decades - old conditioning full of messed up ideas and uninformed decisions about life. Wipe the slate clean. Quiet the mind and be positive.

6.  Stop driving down the road of numbing and distracting yourself – If you use distractions like surfing the web or playing video games to fill your day, stop - do something that matters, that has heart, that calls you to be more not less. No using substance to numb out. Change from running away from things towards going after what you want.

7.  Stop right now seeking the approval of others – It’s a dead end game that never works. Be you, do you. No more worries about if you fit in or live up to somebody’s expectations. It really doesn’t matter. What matters most is you being you.

8.  Quit getting ready today – You’re done preparing for life. It’s time to go live it with all you got. Find what fills you with passion and aliveness and do that today and from now on. No excuses, you are much more than enough to do what you are here to do.

9.  If there is no joy stop doing it – Life goes by so fast, why waste it away not having fun, enjoying it? Yes there are things that aren’t fun but figure out how to put some joy into doing them. Your # 1 goal is to create joy.

10. No more giving up your freedom – You are a totally free human being that can always do what you want. Yes always! You are wise enough inside your heart to choose what is best for you. Being free may cost you a lousy job or relationships that aren’t working for you. No loss, just room to create what you want.

Wow that was a pile of “stops, no’s and don’t” wasn’t it? Can you imagine a totally freed up life waiting for you? Here are a few quick tips that fall on the “go, yes and do” side of things:

*  Each day set one positive goal that will move your life forward. In 100 days your life will be 100 times better.

*  Live today as if it is all that matters. It is. Now is the only place you can create the life you want. In this moment and every moment you have - love, joy, peace, freedom, awareness and the guidance of your soul’s voice there waiting for you.

*  Throughout your day focus on appreciation of all you feel (yes even the difficult feelings), the beauty of the world around you, the wonders of life, those you love, and the intuitive guidance of the spirit within. Gratitude is a wonderful attitude. 

Now if you follow these stops and goes, the journey will get better and better. Trust the process and believe in yourself and all will work out great. 

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:

+ Walking encourages you to be in the present moment where the world is vibrating with energy and possibilities.

+ Walking brings your body into balance and harmony.

+ Walking is a way to feel connected to the world around you - especially the natural world.

+ Walking vigorously up a hill will pump up your heart.

+ Walking helps by releasing stress, negative energy and tension from your day.

+ Walking is the perfect simple exercise for health and well being. No special equipment is needed - just a place for you to walk.

+ Walking grounds you, gives you roots and a strong base. Having a strong bases makes it easier to withstand the storms of life.

+ Walking often alters your state of consciousness. As you walk you open to experience the unity of all life.

+ Walking is a wonderful form of meditation. It calms your mind and brings a sense of inner peace.

+ Walking can shift you from your ego sense of self to the expansiveness of your Higher Self.

+ Walking is a great way to move through fear towards courage and a deeper belief in yourself.

+ Walking is just what you need after a great meal and a full stomach.

+ Walking moves you out into the world. It keeps you from spending too much time alone in your own thoughts.

+ Walking helps you step more boldly and fully into life.

+ Walking mindfully expands your mind and opens your heart through the richness of awareness in the moment.

These are all really good reasons to go for a daily walk. If you do you will feel very positive about yourself and your life.

Next I want to teach you a special technique. You can use walking as a way to greatly expand your experience of what is possible within you. This technique is a method passed down from teacher to seeker.

It will only appeal to you if you have a passion to fully awaken. It is a direct path to more fully realize that you are, “The Divine poured into human form.”

The Practice:

Sense both of your feet. Which foot seems like the one you  can follow to awakening?

Don’t worry. Both work - but choose one.

Then imagine that this foot sends a deep root down into the Earth.

Feel the foot as if it plugs directly into the universal life force. Feel this flow of energy vibrating through your foot and up through your entire being.

Next stand up and begin walking while paying attention to this foot as it touches the ground. You can feel the other one also but it helps to focus on just one.

Walk through you house, down the street, through a park, library or office lobby until your foot feels like your lifeline to the world.

Each time you walk be as fully present as possible. This presence is the doorway to the realization of your highest nature.

As you walk in a state of awareness your pace will naturally slow because you leave the rat race and enter the expanded realm of unlimited possibilities.

The more you walk in this way, the more you will experience the radiant beauty of your soul.

Walk in peace and light.

Please feel free to ask any questions (through comments or emailing me at joseph@josephbernardphd.com) about walking and this special practice. I am here to invite the light in you to shine.

P.S. After a while you’ll get so tuned in to your link to the Infinite that you can just sense your foot and almost instantly move to a peaceful and expansive experience. You can sense your foot in a boring meeting, in a traffic jam, waiting in line or wherever and enter into the blissful place of pure awareness.

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:

*  Yes to this moment, be present, live now – this is where all the happiness happens, the seeds get planted and doing gets done.

*  Yes to the voice of your heart – your heart is full of deeper wisdom and endless love.

*  Yes to the voice of your soul – your soul is the part of you that is infinite and eternal and one with the Source.

*  Yes to pursuing your desires – desire is a driving force towards you more fully expressing all that you are.

*  Yes to being – life is about being present to it, you can just be and what is to happen will arise from that.

*  Yes to exploring your creativity – you have within you a creative urge to express your unique gifts and greatness.

*  Yes to loving and being loved – if there is one thing that matters most, it is the expression of your love to self and to the world.

*  Yes to expressing compassion – the more your compassion and kindness are expressed, the better the world will be.

*  Yes to living in awareness – awareness offers the gift of self-appreciation and is what you need for making healthy choices.

*  Yes to moving into the light- move towards what has light and lightness in it, towards what is enlightening.  

*  Yes to entering the flow – the flow of life is everywhere and life works best when you go with the flow.

*  Yes to prosperity and abundance – this flow is also about opening, willing to receive and not about willpower and determination.

*  Yes to easy and effortless – find ways that are simpler and take less effort and explore them.

*  Yes to Relief – when stuck in intensity, move towards what will bring you relief.

*  Yes to higher consciousness and awakening – the biggest life involves seeking more consciousness and awakening to your infinite nature.

*  Yes to the awareness of unity/oneness – living in the realization of connection to all humanity, opens your heart to deep compassion.

*  Yes to inner peace and world peace – finding the stillness and peace within helps you bring peace to the world.

*  Yes to personal freedom – if you listen inward, you will hear guidance on how to set yourself free.

*  Yes to grace and blessings – you can live in the state of grace by appreciating the endless blessings around you.

*  Yes to growth and learning – life is an ongoing journey of personal growth and non-stop learning, so enjoy.

*  Yes to joy as your guide – joy is the perfect guide, if you feel joy you are heading just where you need to go.

*  Yes to you are so much more – go in the direction of stillness, your vastness, the unknown and the presence.

*  Yes to nature – the natural world is healing, soothing, calming and just what you need when the busy world gets you down or confused.  

*  Yes to appreciate beauty – there is beauty in almost everything, go in search of the beauty in yourself, others and the world.

*  Yes to following you bliss – go with what makes you happy, it works better and feels better.

*  Yes to totally loving and accepting yourself – this is the bottom line and the best way to live life.

*  Yes to stillness – In the quiet now there is a deep calm filled with peace and knowing, listen deeply and be guided. 

*  Yes to following your intuition – this inner voice is true knowing you can count on and when followed everything is possible.

*  Yes to following your passion – the fire of passion takes you on a journey that is full of aliveness and rich with satisfaction.

*  Yes to living with purpose – you have a powerful purpose, if you get stuck wondering what to do, start opening your heart and mind.

*  Yes to exploring life as an experiment – each day is full of new possibilities; why not explore everything you can.

*  Yes to living as spiritual being – you are a spiritual being having a human experience, each day express your spirit and spread your light more fully.

This should be enough Yes to keep you busy for a while. Let me know when you are ready for more.

PS Please feel free to add to the YES list in the comments section. Your ideas will be appreciated by everyone.

Today my goal is to communicate aspects of that light in hopes it will invite a greater expression of who you are for the benefit of us all.

First let’s talk about what your presiding attitude about life is. The simple answer to this begins with this question, “Do you wake up in the morning with a Yes, Maybe or No?” Is it Yes to life or Maybe, I’m not sure or No this is not working?

How would these responses shape your experience?

Yes – feel the energy and vibration of yes. How alive does your life feel in Yes mode?

Maybe – feel the power of self-doubt and a lack of focus. What part of you wants to stand on a mountaintop and shout, Yes - how can you express that?

No – feel the contraction of that. How does it feel to be run over by life and driven by fear? How do you move into more hope?

Does any of this sound familiar? Please, no matter what - do your best to be kind to yourself if you are stuck in No or filled with the uncertainty of Maybe.

Better to simply acknowledge where you are with a curiosity for learning more. Learning mixed with awareness will bring a fresh stream of possibilities into your life.

Second, where’s your fire? What makes you feel alive? What can’t you wait to do or be?  Fire burns bright where there is aliveness, passion, purpose, heart and you being you as fully as you can.

If the fire is cold or whimpering, it’s time to find what stokes your fire, what turns you on, what makes you want to get up every day and do life?

Find the fire and you’ll find your life.

Are you a person that wants to change the world? If seems there are many of us at this time in human history. What are you willing to commit to doing within yourself? This question is important because it will shape you in ways that change the no to at least maybe or move you from maybe to the fire of Yes.

Awakening is essential both for the world and for your Yes. Everyday life is where you can shift your story from oh no and uncertainty to Yes. The opportunities that life offers you will look like the following:

1.         Your relationship with those you love offer many opportunities to see where you are getting in your way. Any time you are on contraction, closed in your heart, you can become curious as to how and why you do that. It’s really not about the other person.

You could be present to your heart’s closing, feel it and explore how it would feel to open.

2.         Any part of life that keeps tripping you up is another place to see yourself. Hating mornings, being late, eating poorly, being angry and many other ways of self-sabotage are moments ripe for self-examination. An important question – is your mind working as an ally or a hindrance.

If your thoughts are bugging you then why not change them? Do an experiment, change the uncomfortable thoughts and see how it works.

3.         The working life often stirs so much reaction. Issues of authority, control, boredom, meaning, and others get provoked in the working world. In those moments when you’re stuck in the spin of a job, you can begin to wonder what it might be like to be the creator of your life experience.

Once you see you as the creator, then you can witness you as the limiter. Embracing the way you limit yourself will give you the awareness you need to remove the blocks. Then you can set yourself free.

Here’s a thought – you can live anyway you want so why not make it full of Yes, full of wanting more, expressing more and loving more?

Are you willing to make a commitment to you and your life? How about keeping that commitment very simple? All you have to do is listen to your heart and let it to guide you to peace and happiness.

PS I have a passion for helping people get to Yes in life.

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.

What makes this writing so powerful is that I utilize many of the ideas that come directly to me via the writing.

This method for me is a superhighway to my intuition, higher nature and the voice of my soul. This knowing takes me beyond the noise of the ego into truly expanded states of awareness directly wired to the highest consciousness of the universe.

Everything I ever need to know is made available to me through this writing practice.  Here’s how it works – with a few further insights that will make your journal writing even more powerful:

1.         I drop away any need to be right or think I know. It seems humility makes me receptive.

2.          I request guidance, which may come in response to a question I have, from seeking clarity about a recent insight or awareness, or just out of the blue.

3.         Then I wait. Soon there are words pouring through the ink of my pen onto the journal pages. Often I can’t write fast enough to keep up.

4.          I accept fully that I am guided and that this guiding voice is infinitely wiser than my ordinary mind.

5.         Insights, fresh perspectives and clear guidance are presented to me. Always I have a choice to use or ignore them.

6.          I have come to understand that clear guidance, when repeated, needs to be paid attention to. If I ignore this advice, it inevitably causes me suffering.

7.         The voice of knowing is always peaceful and feels right as soon as I hear it. Truth always resonates in my being.

8.          My ego-mind’s games are often pointed out even as they try to trick me. I now rarely fall for this nonsense because my wiser Self immediately sees through any falseness.

9.         After clarifying any further questions I always write a note of appreciation for these gifts of inspiration and awareness.

In addition to these ideas here are few insights gained that will enhance the journaling experience: 

* I pay close attention to what shifts me towards being more open and expanded in my heart. 

* I also use the journal to create imagery and ideas of what I want to bring into my life. I have come to appreciate the value of these desires as paths to further realize and express my potential.

* I explore creative ways to integrate new insights into my daily living.    

* I use journaling when I’m stuck and it quickly moves me into more expanded states.

* Journaling brings me fully into the moment and often taps into a great river of joy, light and love.

* I discovered that writing my insights, awareness and understandings gives them more substance and clarity.

I take my journal with me when I venture out into the world. Sometimes I even have to pull off the road when I driving because awareness is streaming through me and I want to take notes.

Let me know what questions you have about using journal writing for awareness and expansion.

I hand you this gift of insight and smile at the thought of your exploration.