I Love You.

I love you.

A simple statement.  Most of us reserve these words for those nearest and dearest to our hearts - family, loved ones, very close friends.  We'll often say "I love this" or "I love that" about stuff or situations that we like... but think about how often you hear the words "I love YOU."  We know by now it is not only romantic love.  The power and energy of LOVE is something much greater.

This past weekend I picked up a book that was sitting on my shelf staring at me as I sat on the couch, for some reason it caught my eye.  I really felt the need to pick this book up and start reading it, even though I had purchased this book over a year ago, was already in the middle of two other books and had plenty on my to do list.  Following my intuition, I picked up the book and started reading it Saturday afternoon and by Tuesday I had finished it!

The book is called Zero Limits by Joe Vitale.  It tells the story of Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len who cleared a ward of the criminally insane using only the Ho'oponopono prayer and never actually seeing any patients in a therapeutic setting.  The ideas shared in the book are quite simple and amazing.  The suggestion is to take 100% responsibility for our life, and everything we encounter in it, and constantly "clean" our life experience and what we encounter by repeating the words of the prayer, addressing it to the Divine, or God. The words are simple but strong...

I love you.

I'm sorry.

Please forgive me.

Thank you.

So simple!  The power in these words is that they speak to the Divine in each of us, in everything really.  If each and every one of us were to take 100% responsibility for our life, bless everything and everyone with love and forgiveness, live life treating each other as the Divine expressions that we each are, imagine what a beautiful world we would live in - a world that truly works for everyone!

Now I find myself saying "I love you" to absolutely everything.  EVERYTHING!  People, places, things, situations, conditions, circumstances.  I choose LOVE.  I choose to be love, give love, recognize love, love love.  I am not even sure what that means sometimes but that doesn't matter.  When I simply repeat "I love you" quietly in my mind I am changing my consciousness, slowly but surely change is taking place.

Why bother doing this?  Maybe there are some things going on in your life that you don't like... doesn't matter what it is.  It could be your job, where you live, your body-perception, your relationships... we all have something that bothers us or we don't like.  My new practice is to simply repeat "I love you", quietly in my own mind, when I see or think of these things I don't like or don't want in my life.  I've heard it said that when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.  Miracles happen!

Peace begins with me...  With you...  With each and every one of us...

I love you.

(Repeat often for an improved life experience!)

(collage created by my cousin Nicole and her two lovely daughters, Tegan and Maslyn)

For more information on the prayer, the book, or the author... Google it!!

Powerful Affirmations

In our Foundations class last night, we studied the power of affirmations. We use affirmations to change our consciousness for a particular experience or effect. Affirmations are reminders of the Truth within us.

Guidelines to help write powerful affirmations:

• Keep them in the present tense; e.g. "Right now I know I am tuned in to the highest frequency. Not I will be tuned in or I have been tuned in but in the present moment.
• Use powerful, positive, evocative language; e.g. "I am a highly effective artist, painting pictures of Truth at all times." 
• Use positive, affirmative language. Avoid saying what you do not want. Say what you do intend. Let's say you have had difficulty completing tasks on time. Maybe you have even called yourself a procrastinator. It doesn't do much good to say , "I am NOT a procrastinator." Not, "I am not a procrastinator," The Universe does not hear the negation. It would be better to say, "I complete all tasks in a timely manner."
• Use the first person. These affirmations are for you so use the powerful, "I AM in them."
• Keep your affirmations short and snappy so they are easy to remember.

How to Use Affirmations:

Repetition is the key to power for affirmations. Think about something that you would like to experience in your life but currently are not experiencing. Maybe you would like more ease with money, maybe you woud like a better relationship with your spouse, maybe you would like to be healthier or happier. Write at least ten affirmations, first in the first person (I am) then write it in the second person (You are) Lastly in the third person (She is.) Choose the one affirmation that speaks to you the loudest. Write it twenty times. Say it one hundred times twice a day. In your journal, write it several more times a day. Write it where you can see it often: as your screen saver, on your dashboard, your mirror, coffee pot, etc. Record it with passion and listen to several times a day.  Remind yourself of this idea. Let it become your identity.

When you follow these guidelines, you are planting seeds of a new idea which must take root in Subconscious Mind and produce a corresponding result. 

Most of my adult life, I have been a very poor gardener but I decided to change my mind about that. I purchased a paper white bulb at the Holiday Boutique. It grew tall and produced lots of blossoms. We all can do the same thing by using the spiritual tool of affirmations.

I am a great gardener!

Namaste Consciousness in San Clemente

Namaste is more than just a greeting we use in yoga class.

Namaste consciousness, a feeling of oneness with all of creation is listed as a side effect of the practice of meditation. Deepak Chopra discusses this quality in Meditation Techniques Demonstrated.

How would your day look different if you set your intention to honor the light, love, truth, beauty and peace of the entire universe in each person you met?

Unification, or Recognition, is the first step in affirmative prayer. "The stronger your statement of recognition the more powerful your treatment will be" shares Dr. John Waterhouse in his book An Introduction to Spiritual Mind Treatment 5 Steps to Freedom   I've come to understand the the Unification step as the motor of affirmative prayer, this is where the muscle is.

Dropping the illusion of separateness brings a new healing consciousness to ourselves and to the entire world. Recognition of the power that runs in us, though us and as us ... and it's not "our thoughts" that gets us there but rather our silence.

Namaste.

Want to Know How Evolved You Are? Visit Family - Part 1

I once heard that saying because I laughed out loud.

Nothing can make me crazier than my extended family, to be honest.

That's why I left my small home town in Pennsylvania at the age of 18 and never looked back.

Always filled with drama, I ever felt comfortable being a part of it.

I wanted to get out of our small town and explore the world and ended up settling down over 3,000 miles away in California...

...about as far as I could get from my family outside of moving to a new country.

My mother did the same thing and moved to South Carolina...

...now she's moving to California, so we decided to make a road trip to Pennsylvania before heading back out to the West Coast.

A 12 hour drive with a 7 year old, a 5 year old, and your mother....already a good test for one's consciousness!

As I took my turn driving yesterday, I thought about my prayer before I left...

...I gave thanks for compassion, patience, and protection.

All qualities of God, so my prayer reminded me to receive them as my own as I AM all the qualities of God as well.

I also thought about how, after 7 hours into our trip, all of those qualities were in me.  

I didn't lose my patience with my boys, or my mother.   

I had compassion for my mom as she spoke about her fear of getting cancer, or her fear of losing all her retirement money in the stock market, or many other fear-based ideas she has lived with her whole life.

I tried to give some alternative view-points, but I could tell they went in one ear and out the other.

I wanted to yell and say, "Mom, why do you choose to think this way?"

But, I was always silently reminded of compassion and patience, so I would let it go always remembering that everyone has their own path.

We all have our journey to consciousness and to  a new way of thinking about our lives.

As I parked in the hotel parking lot, my heart fluttered at knowing that the next day, I would see the rest of my family.

I will continue to pray for patience and compassion because that is what I will most have to embody during my visit...

...but remarkably, I am excited to see my whole family.

I'm not sure much has changed, however, that would be a perception as I know how much everyone changes over the years.

I will also pray to let go of judgments that may arise or false perceptions and open my heart to love....

....I know, when we open ourselves to love, we shower others with it.  

No matter where I am in my own growth as a person, I am doing the best I can at where I am in my heart...I know this for everyone and if I simply put my mind on love, I give it to everyone no matter where they are in their own journey.

So, as I write this post, in a few hours, I will be surrounded by my extended family.

This post has helped me know what to pray and meditate on in preparation as it has also shared the true principle of how we approach life...both the good and the challenges...

...by knowing that we each embody the qualities of God, we can take on anything....even our perceived "crazy" families...

....I'll give you an update next week and let you know how I faired :)

So Many Blessings!

Dr. Emoto and I  after the water blessing

On Thursday I joined fifty or so like-minded people to participate in a water blessing of the ocean at the south end of San Onofre Beach nearest to the nuclear power plant. The blessing was given by Dr. Masaru Emoto, whose molecular pictures of water we studied in our Beyond Limits class earlier this year. For those of you unfamiliar with those pictures see his book Hidden Images in Water. 

Dr Emoto spoke briefly in Japanese, then his speech was translated into English. Due to the close surf and the large circle, it was difficult to hear his entire message but we felt it in the blessing. He asked us all to face the ocean and pray for the water between San Onofre and Japan. Then he did a call and response chant in Japanese. (We all did the best we could but I think our English-speaking expression did not very accurately reflect his intentions.) We all om'ed together. Then a minute of silence. Then he asked us to repeat after him, the words of the Ho'opononpono Blessing of Ihaleakala Hew Len that Joe Vitale made famous.

Remember the story of Hew Len who was a director of an asylum for the criminally insane.  The inmates were violent. The workers were stressed, fearful and watchful. The staff had no morale. Everyone feared for their lives. The workers were drug and alcohol addicted. When they walked down the hallways they would walk with their backs against the wall so they could see everything on either direction. The staff were often absent due to sickness.

Dr. Hew Len was a new director. When he had only been there for a few months, the staff started relaxing and enjoying their work. The patients seemed to be calmer. Then the patients started to get better. One by one they were released from the institution until finally they closed the institution.

What kind of miracle work did Dr Len Hew do? What kind of psychological techniques did he know? How did he accomplish this huge turn-around?

He never saw a patient.

He didn't do any therapy.

What he did everyday was to take the file of each patient and bless the patient with the Ho'oponopono Blessing. This blessing is very easy. It is the same blessing Dr. Emoto used for the water that Hew Len used on the mental patients. In Dr. Emoto's words it is:

Water, I am sorry.

Water, please forgive me.

Water, I love you.

Water, thank you.

We repeated it three times. Then he sang a song to us and asked us to sing something into the circle. Nobody seemed brave enough to do it. He said that there was a melody everybody knew. He asked us to just sing La-la-la to "Ode to Joy." He kept the pitch low and sweet.It was beautiful, simple and transformational. 

How blessed I felt that I had been invited to the blessing, that I had time on my calendar to do it and that we have further proof that in this Universe (uni-verse, one song)we are all connected.  Our positive thinking and feeling not only effects us but the world in which we live.

If there is anything that you are troubled by, I recommend chanting the words of Ho''oponopono silently for five minutes or so. You will know when you are complete because your energy about the situation will have changed. You will see with the eyes of Love.

To find out more about Dr. Emoto's work, check out his book on Amazon.com. 

To find out more about Ho'oponopono,check out the book Joe Vitale and Hew Len co-authored entitled Zero Limits.