Since you came out into the world there has been endless influence and feedback from all the people and circumstances of your life. All of this programming adds up to a great amount of unsorted ideas, information, beliefs, etc. Unless you become mindful and/or aware to these influences they unconsciously run your life. 

This post today is about drawing your attention inward to help you become more aware of the ideas and beliefs you acquired along the way. With the hope you will become conscious enough to choose the influences that shape you and your world from now on. Becoming a more conscious human being enriches your life in endless ways and can set you free of self limits you picked up trying to figure out how to be a human being.

In my 35 plus years of working intensely with people I have come upon some very common false beliefs. The following 10 false beliefs may or may not limit your experience of life today:

1.         You are not an okay person. These messages came to you from your family, peers, your schooling, your church and now mostly from yourself as an adult. This idea of you not being okay is totally false. The people who said you were not okay were not okay with themselves. This false idea of self is programmed into most of us even by very well intended and loving human beings. They were wrong and you are mistaken if you have the belief that you are not an okay person. The good news is you can change that idea right now by changing your thoughts about yourself. Focus on accepting and appreciating who you are.

2.         You are a bad person. Like the “not okay” above this one gets more specific by telling you that you are bad for the way you behave, for the sins you commit, and for the rules you break. There is really no such thing as a bad other than a label people put on other people and themselves. Yes there are people who do terrible things but they are the exception. Sin, often linked to being a bad person, does not exist other than as a religious idea. There was no original sin that too is a human invention. The rules you violated upset the rule makers but they do not make you bad. Do your best to catch the judging mind and stop any further labeling of self.

3.         You are not good enough, you don’t deserve. This is a false message most of you have received that often is hard to shake. People who didn’t feel okay about themselves taught you that you were not good enough or deserving of what you want. Again the institutions of the world often teach you aren’t good enough. Families, schools and religion too often make you feel like you don’t deserve the life you want to have. Then when you become an adult you don’t let in the good things because you feel undeserving. You deserve the life you desire so go for it.

4.         You are not smart enough. Intelligence comes in many forms but in school it’s determined by math and language skills. If neither of those were your strengths in your early years you may graduate from school with lots of self-doubt about how smart you are. You can also be smart in body intelligence (athletics, dance etc), in creativity, in social skills, in mechanical skills and other ways of personal brilliance. You are more than smart enough for the life you want to live. There is unique genius in you waiting to be discovered.

5.         You are not creative. Your creativity may not be drawing or coloring within the lines. You could be a creative genius in graffiti, in hip hop music, in designing video games, in the way you communicate with others, or in the way you parent your children with great compassion. The more you explore your creativity the more it seems to flow. Everyone is creative. When you find your ways of creating you will feel full of aliveness and feel purposeful.

6.         Your body is not okay. This is a constant message in our society, it is no wonder you are not okay with your own body. Diet books out sell most other non-fiction books. Yes you want a healthy body but it needs to start with feeling okay with who you are and then work at getting better if that is what you want. The products industry is heavily invested in the idea of selling you stuff because they promote not feeling okay about yourself or your body. Stand in front of a mirror every day and be okay with it. If you want to change it do so with positive focus and acceptance all along the way.

7.         You are not loveable. This message is false and always will be but it comes to you from others who don’t know how to love themselves. Self-love is most important for a positive experience of life. When you love and accept yourself as you are, others will love you to. Do not waste your time seeking the approval of others. Approve of yourself and the rest will take care of itself. You may have been raised by people who had closed their hearts. That does not make you unlovable; it makes them not able to love. Treat yourself with loving-kindness every day.

8.         Your feelings are not okay. All your feeling, every one of them, are okay. Some feelings are more difficult to deal with and may cause others to feel uncomfortable. Feelings like fear, anger and hate are highly charged and may seem both scary inside and to those around you. They are okay as feelings but may need some attention. Unexpressed or stuffed feelings build a big charge inside until you numb out or explode. All feelings if acknowledged naturally change to other feelings. If you can get to acceptance with how you feel, you feel positive about yourself. All difficult feelings come from being stuck in the past or worried about the future (fear, anger, hate, worry etc.). All positive feelings come in the present moment (love, joy peace, appreciation, hope etc.)

9.         Your sexuality is bad. Religion especially seems to want to make our sexuality bad. This is a false belief generated by people who don’t want others to have pleasure in life. If sexuality is denied or suppressed it often comes out in very unhealthy ways, priests sexual abuse, porn for those who sit in piety over others, fear of LGBT etc. Being a sexual being makes you healthy and alive. Enjoy yourself and your intimacy with others and ignore those who fear pleasure.  Intimacy means you have an open heart.

10.        You are a failure. There is no such thing as failure, there is just feedback. If things aren’t working out very well, maybe you are caught up in trying to do something that isn’t right for you or trying to live up to other people’s expectations. That could feel like failure but you can change that. Schools that fail students are doing a poor job in their teaching. Find your own way and you will thrive at what you do.  Failure is a false idea invented by the judging mind. If you imagine a world that includes what you love to do, you will have great joy and real success.

Many of the above 10 false beliefs are programmed in us by people who don’t even know who they are or what their truth is. Those that judge others do so because they live by what others tell them is the truth and lack compassion for people who see the world differently. Please leave the old ideas and beliefs on the junk pile of human experiences gone off course. Instead find your own truth by listening inward to your heart, your intuition and your higher nature. Then go boldly into the world and make a positive difference just by being you as fully as you can.

One last thought, a powerful message to carry inside is, I totally and completely love and accept myself. If you know tapping or EFT then use this statement to rewire your brain. You can also simply put one hand on the back of you head and one on the front of your head and do this affirmation until you feel you have reprogrammed yourself to be the positive and loving you.

Join me in having appreciation for all that has inspired your life. I am grateful for all the great writers and teachers, for all the great ideas, for the light that shines so brightly from those who have open hearts and minds, for the awakened ones who have stayed here to help us awaken, for the creative genius of human kind, for the all the love that inspires the best in me and all of us and for the creative force and source of the Universe. I have been so abundantly blessed.

If you are new here, thanks for stopping by and there is much to explore. If you are a regular, I am grateful to you for taking the time to read my blog. I trust it is of value to you as it is for me.

In honor of these 5 years I am going to make some moves to improve my site, give it a facelift, and offer some new services and new directions. Stay tuned - Make-A-Point videos and e-books are on the way. 

5 years, and now 1621 posts.

My new book Awaken:100 Question To Expand Your Mind and Open Your Heart (see ad to the right) offers questions that will expand your life in many ways. Pick up a copy today.

Thank you so much for stopping by.



Each one is unique in both access and influence. Combining them multiplies the transformative energy they create. If changing the world is something you have a passion for it would serve you well to come into alignment with these forces:

Compassion – the heart is the driving force, the source of courage and passion needed to keep you going when fear strikes or complacency slips in. Compassion is also a powerful healing force both for you the change agent and for those you interact with along the way.  A kind and compassionate heart can bring people together both through listening and through the energy of aliveness an open heart spreads. Having compassion for yourself opens you to having compassion for others and vice versa. Self-love is an essential ingredient if you want to realize your potential. Imagine a world where loving-kindness was the guiding principle.

Consciousness – the ability to rise above the chaos and see the truth of the moment is why consciousness is so important. Higher Consciousness is the light of wisdom that guides you through the darkness of self-doubt. Consciousness is about awareness and insight into your expansive nature and the possibilities of every human being. Your highest consciousness is accessed through silence, through stepping away from the noise of ordinary thought, by going around the needs of the ego-mind, and instead sitting in the quiet stillness that resonates with your spirit. The collective consciousness of all humanity is available to you in the silence of the now.

Connection – the reality is that as human beings you and I and the rest share many more commonalities than differences. When you connect with the common ground of others together you are all much more powerful. Connection means spending time with others with an open mind and an accepting heart. Imagine a world were you shared your greatest dreams and hopes and found many others who share similar ideas of what they wanted in life. Then those people helped you realize your dreams and hopes and you helped them realize theirs. At the atomic, spiritual and consciousness level you are one with everyone. Find that place of oneness within and meet others there.

Creativity – many of the biggest forces for change come from inspired words, uplifting images and the human being ability to imagine something greater.  This is creativity in action. You can uplift yourself and others by expressing your creative urges. There has never been found a limit to creativity. So if you are already a creative person there is much more to explore and if you are not yet creative, that is creative expression waiting for you right now. Imagine writing a poem, song or story that lifts others up. Maybe a creative conversation will transform a relationship or a creative act of kindness with help someone going through difficult times.  You are a creative being waiting to be more full expressed. When you join with other creative people together you can produce fireworks of inspiration. 

Collaboration – the most effective way to usher in change is to have people work together. Collaboration beats competition every time when it comes to shifting cultures, expanding possibilities, encouraging the evolution urges within us. What would happen if the people of the world got together and went in search of solutions for all the world problems? Would you doubt their ability to succeed if they worked collaboratively? You can being like-minded people together or people of different points of view and together see what solutions you can discover for common problems.  The best thing about collaboration is that you work with other people you get to experience the oneness of connection, you get to feel compassion for each other, you get to encourage creativity, and you get to help each other be more conscious.

Working together with open hearts, expansive minds, in connection to each other, expressing your creativity in collaboration will change the world in amazing ways.



Gandhi had a way of stating things that was "no nonsense." We must live by our truths and speak boldly when needed. Too often dogma and doctrine try to claim the power of the world but our truth is a more powerful force for good.

The importance of questioning everything that matters to you is that it clears the way to direct contact with your soul. Remember you are a spiritual being having a human experience.  My question book called Awaken:100 questions To Expand Your Mind and Open Your Heart is a wonderful aid for the questioning process. (see post below about my new book)

Please take a moment and sit with the words of this picture. Find the place inside where the truth of it is felt. Stay with the connection to the infinite and eternal within you. Now find your way to be a little more self-realized every day.

To appreciate beauty is to transform yourself into something greater. This picture is from the town I live near last night after sunset. I love blue, I love nature, I love the ocean and I love beauty and it is all captured right here.

These photos and quotes all came to me from Facebook and I am very grateful for this inspiration. Peace and joy to you this day.

I found myself wanting to encourage everyone who is interested in co-creating a better world together, so I put together 10 ways you can begin today to make a positive difference:

1.         Be mindful of your thoughts and feelings and encourage those close to you to do the same.  Mindfulness is being tuned inward and self-aware which allows you to be true to who you are and genuine in your interactions with others. Mindfulness is a powerful practice because it helps you be fully present where everything that is possible and everyone who matters awaits you.  A good book to read and share with someone you care about and to encourage mindfulness is Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hahn a Zen monk who writes with great heart.

2.         Explore and express your purpose because expressing your purpose will fill your life with meaning and inspire others. You have a purpose that will make the world a better place if you express this purpose. If you can’t figure out what your purpose is today then try spreading love because that is most likely a purpose we all share. One of the great teachers of our time – Dr. Jean Houston is offering a powerful seminar on purpose. 

3.         As I said in the previous paragraph love is a purpose we all share. If you want to have a big impact on the world all you have to do is explore ways to open your heart, be caring and have compassion for self and others. An open heart is such a positive and powerful force in the world.  There is a wonderful meditation practice called, “loving-kindness” and you can learn more about this practice by studying with great teachers like Sharon Salzberg.

4.         Make kindness a daily practice and your life will be more joyous. Imagine if your job was to be kind to everyone you interact with throughout your day. How would your kindness enhance other people’s lives? How would this practice enhance yours? Make a list of people who could use a dose of kindness, reach out to them and spread a little love with your acts of kindness.  Check out this site about random acts of kindness. 

5.         Happiness is a choice, you can choose to be happy or not. If you choose happiness, you can bring your light out into the world and people will welcome it. Happiness comes easily when you focus on what you appreciate, when you are fully present, when you give to others, and when you connect with your higher nature.   Check out the Happiness Project for inspiration.

6.         Expand your consciousness, because with higher consciousness you bring greater light to everything you do.  The more aware and awake you are the more expand is your capacity to make a positive difference in the world.  If you take the time to tune inward you can access the highest collective consciousness of all intelligent life on the planet. Two excellent awakening books worth reading are: Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle and The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer

7.         Find your own truth because it will set you free and energize your life. Most of the beliefs and ideas you have came from others. Many of these beliefs and ideas need to be questioned because they are not true. The more you explore your own truth the more you live an authentic life. If you live in truth you can be at peace. No one can tell your what is true for you.  It always helps to tune inward, listen and question.  My own book – Awaken: 100 Questions To Expand Your Mind and Open Your Heart is an excellent resource for exploring your own truth.

8.         Live in the now where everything is happening. Much of the time your mind can be worrying about the future or unable to let go of the past. Today in this moment is all there ever is. In the now is the only place where you make things happen. By living in the now you can connect deeply with yourself and those around you. Joy, love, peace, hope and freedom exist only in the now.  The Power Of Now by Eckhart Tolle is a great resource for being in the now.

9.         Express your creativity, creativity opens you up to your genius. Creativity is very powerful and it comes in many forms including: writing, painting, poetry, movement, healing, parenting, business, humor, organization, loving, design, architecture, peace making, social activism and many other forms of personal expression. When you express your creativity it enriches those around you.  The Artist Way by Julia Cameron has inspired lots of creativity.

10.         Join together with others and have meaningful conversations. Meaningful conversations make you feel alive because you are a social being. Meaningful conversations come about when your heart is open and your feel compassionate for others. An open mind is also helpful for meaningful conversations because then you have the ability to listen and not judge.  After looking for good reference materials, I decided maybe it is time for a group of people to get together and create a meaningful conversations handbook.

There are many more ways to create a better world together than there are ways to create a better world by yourself. If you can find one other person to join you, your power to be effective multiplies. The world is waiting for you and I to step up and get involved. Are you ready to make a difference?  



There is a lot going on of late with my new movement idea bubbling to the surface and my just published book. These times are ripe for creation, can you feel in the air? The creative flow is there also like happiness when I am in the now. As I have said often, “now is where all the action is.” In this moment if I take the time to tune inward then inspiration and intuition are their waiting. Give the moment a try, pose a question, sit quietly and listen for guidance and be ready for inner messages, images, impulses, synchronicity and other forms of deeper guidance.

The next thing I wanted to talk with about is my new book. Awaken:100 Questions to Expand Your Mind and Open Your Heart.  This book is a life changer, if you take the time to explore these questions. I am not claiming any special powers to change your life, but I am promising you that if you ask yourself the important questions, you will be deeply affected by those questions and your responses to them. As counselor I have seen people’s lives change just be the asking of a simple question.  I know when I turn inward and ask myself questions I am forever altered by the exploration.

Questions are powerful because they invite us to expand our thinking, to broaden our viewpoint, and to go searching for what is truth for us.  Questions also have the ability to open us up to more love, greater compassion, and ways to be more engaged in the world. Just a simple question like, “how can I be more kind to those I love,” will give you an abundance of ideas that will enrich the lives of yourself and those around you. 

It is my guarantee that if you read this book your life will be enhanced in many ways. These questions have great power.

The Better World Together movement has been percolating now for a few days and I am getting lots of ideas, which I will share with you soon.  I welcome your ideas too. I can be reached at josephteach@hotmail.com

Experiment Update: Also if you read my posts regularly you know I started this experiment about inner focus versus action with the belief that my inner work was more important for success than my outer actions. I am now well into week two and what I am noticing is that my focus on inner work is more rewarding than my focus on action. When I am in the introspective mode, I fee most alive. When I meditate or do other practices, I feel fully present and inspired.

This week I have been doing actions with much less inner focus and I have noticed worry and fear more in my awareness. Actions are great and may at times help with the concerns but they are not near as effective at soothing the heart or quieting the mind. Of course this may seem obvious that inner work has a greater inner benefits. It is not near as obvious as when you take time to highlight both inner work and outer actions and see which best enhances the quality of your life.

Through this experiment I have become even clearer about the importance of taking the time to tune inward throughout my day so that my actions are always guided by my inner knowing. I will now integrate that into my daily routine. My plan is to now take at least 5-10 minutes every couple of hours to tune inward in addition to longer periods of inner practices in the morning and in the evening. I want to fill my life with the vibrations of this inner work so that all my actions sparkle with inspiration. 



I feel very positive about the quality of the questions and have no doubt that if you explore them, you will be a more expanded human being.  The journey of life is a long and winding road and it helps to have a positive mind filled with inspiration and an open heart full of courage,

Here are five ways this book will enhance your life significantly: 

If you are interested in expanding the possibilities of your life then this book will ask you just the questions to set you on a clear path for fulfilling your dreams.
 
If you want to expand your capacity for compassion and be a more conscious human being these 100 questions in this book will assist you in doing so.
 
If you are a seeker of personal freedom, these questions and hints will offer you the opportunity to set yourself free.
 
If finding your own truth is important to you, this book will help you discover what your truths are and inspire you to live them.
 
If you find that life sometimes gets off course, you get too busy, or off center, this book will act as a compass to get you heading in the right direction.

I know you will want to rush out and get one, but you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your home.  My book is available at Amazon and it can be in the mail and on the way to you shortly. 

This book would be excellent if you work with groups of people and want to encourage meaningful conversations.

I really look forward to your comments and to hear how beneficial this book is for you and your life. 



Since I am open to guidance from the Universe, I paid close attention to the information my wife shared with me after her reading. That person said I was going to start a movement and it was important that I do so.  My initial reaction was that sounded interesting and hoped there was more information and insight coming. For the past 6 months or so I have been tuning inward in search of greater clarity trusting at some level that this message came to me for some specific purpose. 

Wow, that was a long-winded lead into this movement idea wasn’t it? I felt I wanted to lay some groundwork. In the process of creating a movement it seems that laying some groundwork is essential.

The Better World Together movement is about us coming together for the greater good. This movement is what happens when the power of compassionate hearts and expansive minds work together for a better world.

As I have begun to explore the idea of creating a movement it became very clear I couldn’t do this on my own. The only way any movement can happen is if people come together to make it happen. Coming together for the good of all on the planet is the idea.  When people come together with a shared vision or purpose there is a collective energy that gathers which has much more power than the numbers of people involved.

This Better World Together movement is timely because 2012 is a year of change, a year that seems destined to be part of a shift of significance. By destined, I mean it is the expectation of many that the times we live in are ripe for change and some would argue not a minute too soon.

With this movement in mind, I am going to shift my writing and energetic focus to building this movement. There is much to be done and I will need lots of help. More as this all unfolds.

Here are number of the pressing issues of our time that a Better World Together might address: 

Peace together – it is time to end wars on the planet and learn to peacefully co-exist

Prosperity together – we live in an abundant world and everyone should benefit from this

Compassion together – open hearts making a difference to those hungry, homeless, and in need of support and encouragement

Green together – the planet’s soil, air and water are being compromised and we need to change that

Learn together – our education needs to grow, be more creative and expansive. Life long learning and growth is essential also

Lead together – there is a need for the great compassion and expansive and inspired thinking to lead and govern for the good of all

Live together – it is time we figure out how to live with and enjoy each other and explore what we have in common

Hope together – with us sharing hope the future is bright with possibilities

Stand together – there are number of things that need to change and we can be the ones to make that happen

Love together – the time is now for the power of love to guide us all.

This is a movement we all create. I am just planting the seed and have a good size water bucket to help the process. I very much need your ideas. This movement is free of dogma and doctrine, and lives by the collective truth of all who are involved. 

A website needs to be created. I have a new book (Awaken: 100 Questions To Expand Your Mind And Open Your Heart) ready with questions to help everyone who wants to join me in building a better world together. Soon there will be another short book on a basic idea essential to moving to a higher mindset in creating this movement. Most important -  there will be all of your ideas, your insights, your awareness, you inspiration, you intuitive knowing, your creativity, your energy and your dreams. Then together we can do anything and that anything we do will make a positive difference.

Lastly some inspirational words from one of the greatest of change agents Gandhi:

First they ignore you

Then they laugh at you

Then they fight you

Then you win

Winning is about understanding the deeper truths and living fully with an open heart and an expanded mind. This winning makes everyone a winner.

***Much more to come and please let me know your thoughts, ideas, hopes, interests and passionate purposes.



Your thoughts create how you feel. There is no one else you can blame for how you feel.  Your feelings come from your thoughts about what is going on in your life. If you play the blame game for how you feel, you are basically saying other people have control over my brain and make me think certain thoughts that cause me to feel how I feel. That is not true nor is it ever true.

With this is mind; there are some other important considerations:

• It is important to know what you are thinking, what is the internal dialogue that goes on in your head? If you don’t know what is going on inside of you, you are a train without an engineer. 
•  
• Thinking and awareness come into conflict because it is very difficult to think and be aware at the same time. There is however a part of you that can be aware and knowing simultaneously. That knowing is not a thought but more a sense of what is true. The source of this higher knowing is you beyond your ordinary thought. What is it? You can call it what you want; it is a knowing that comes from your higher mind, your higher nature, your soul/spirit, the part of you that is infinite and eternal.  Are you aware of this higher nature in you?
•  
• You can step away from the noise upstairs and enter into a observing watchful mode, this observer self is free of judging, accepting, seeking the truth of the moment. Truth is usually best known through the watchfulness of your higher self. This Self is one with your soul, your spiritual nature. This eternal aspect of yourself is within the collective intelligence of all of life on the planet and not separate from the source of all creation. “Not separate from,” is a way to say at one with but many will argue for their separateness from the Source of the Universe.
•  
• You can free yourself from the limits of your own mind by being aware of the limits of your own thoughts, by being aware that all thoughts need to be paid attention to and often questioned. The mind wants to hold onto the familiar and will even refuse to release beliefs that are false and don’t work.  Have you every caught yourself arguing for a belief you then realized was no longer true?

Enter into the place within you that is quiet, still, and knowing. There in that place you can shape your experience of life with clarity and then shape your thoughts to support that life. Now is the time.

*Update of the experiment – I am finding it difficult not doing more in the way of actions other than tuning in. My one hour of intense actions is often more like two hours. My writing keeps calling me for more than an hour. All kinds of things in life get me distracted. I also see that my mind can use some additional focus.

There is really turning out to be a learning experience more than an experiment.  I will keep working at it though because I feel the value of it. I also feel the inner conversations with my higher nature are too easily mixed up with the sly workings of the ego-mind.  More on all of this as the light becomes brighter.



I believe it is time for all of us to have peace inside and peace in the world.

Peace is possible and all that is needed is more love and compassion, more light and consciousness.

Also helpful is the simple realization that we are all connected to each other, one big family on a small dot of a planet in an ever expanding universe. 

On my desk is this inspirational quote by Mahatma Gandhi:

First they ignore you,

Then they laugh at you,

Then they fight you,

then you win.