Tag Archives: love

Making Dreams Come True in 5 Minutes a Day

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This practice is so easy that sometimes I forget how effective it is! Studies even prove it – people that write down their goals are one to one and one-half times more likely to achieve them. So, let’s do it!

While this practice is useful for any kind of goal or dream, I’d like to encourage its use with Divinely inspired goals, goals that are good for both you and others, goals or dreams that make your soul sing!

The whole process will probably take you less than 5 minutes, depending on how detailed you are with it. Once you have your goal or dream in mind, you want to do four things: say it, write it, read it and see it. Every Day.

1. Say it. Recite it from memory and repeat it, changing the words around if necessary until it sounds just right.

2. Write it. Once you’re happy with the wording, write it out 10 times. You might want to keep a journal so you can look back on previous dreams and how they’ve changed or materialized.

3. Read it. Read what you just wrote, out loud. Every sentence.

4. See it. Close your eyes and see what that dream looks like once achieved. Feel into it as well: what does it feel like once it’s real?

It’s okay and even encouraged to write the same goal every day for weeks, or really for as long as it takes. You may find the goal evolves a little bit every day and that’s a good thing; focusing on it daily helps us to be clear in what we really desire.

It really is that easy! Might as well start right now: what is your dream?

 

Bring on More Joy!

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Do you want more joy in your life? Who doesn’t?! The good news is it’s quite simple to start allowing more joy in on a regular basis; we just have to get used to it. This is a great exercise to remember if we’re in a funk and want to get out of it. There is nothing wrong with feeling down, but eventually we’re ready to move on.

A quick note on negative and positive emotions – all are good and necessary. Negative does not mean bad; it is just relative to other emotions. It’s a scale, negative on one end and positive on the other, or terror and rage on one end and joy on the other end. The more we intentionally feel joy the more we move up the scale on a regular basis. Because most of us prefer to feel happy and joyful!

This exercise is so simple you can do it almost anywhere you are comfortable closing your eyes for a minute.

Bring to mind something that makes you very, very happy. It can be anything – a loved one, a pet, music, friends, art, mountains, food, elephants – truly anything; no one is judging you. Anything that just thinking about brings a smile to your face or makes you bust out laughing.

Once you have it in mind, set your timer for 17 seconds (“Siri, set timer 17 seconds”) and then just dive into that object of love and feel the joy; live it, feel it, surround yourself in it, swim in it and get it all over you! Feel the happiness and joy like it’s the only important thing in the world.

Once the timer goes off – how do you feel? Doesn’t it feel great to take the time to do nothing but sit and feel that joy? And it was less than a minute.

As you practice this more and more, you’ll find you instantaneously recall it throughout the day, lifting your mood more and more frequently.

Do this at least once a day every day for a week; two or three times a day is ideal. Feeling this every morning encourages good days to follow!

 

The Practice of Forgiveness

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If you are determined to move forward into a greater life for yourself, but you are harboring grudges or resentments towards another, forgiving is essential. I know it’s not easy. I know you may not want to do it; I didn’t. I had heard people promoting the value of forgiveness for many years before I decided to take a serious stab at it.

After all, “He did it to me; why should I forgive him?” He needed to suffer, and I wasn’t going to let him off the hook, no way; he needed to pay! The problem is, he wasn’t paying for it. I was. In reality, he probably had no idea the series of events still played over and over in my head and he’d long forgotten them, so it certainly didn’t torture him at all.

I was the one paying for it, wrapping up good energy on past events that truly had no significance in my current or future life. And that’s why we need to forgive; we need that valuable, awesome energy to help us move forward, not hold us back. It doesn’t make the person’s actions okay or acceptable; it’s a matter of taking back our energy and our Power. Take your Power back and get rid of that icky energy.

There are many ways to start a forgiveness practice. What I’ll share here are three possibilities using prayer beads or malas. There is no magic number of times you need to do it; you just do it until you feel you’re done. It might take one day, two weeks or two months, but eventually the charged energy goes away when you recall the person. None of these three practices is any better than the other. Do the one that feels best for the situation.

First Option: This is particularly useful when you really wanted someone to change. Imagine the person in front of you, as if you are speaking directly to them. Speak sincerely. “Joe, I forgive you for not being the person I wanted you to be.” It allows for a space of letting them be them, and not someone they’re not. Repeat it over and over until you feel a shift.

It is also sometimes useful to combine it with the second option.

Second option: Again, imagine the person in front of you, as if you are speaking to them. Speak sincerely. “Joe. I love you, I bless you, I forgive you, I release you.” That’s it, over and over.

Combined it is even more powerful: “Joe, I forgive you for not being the person I wanted you to be. I love you, I bless you, I release you.”

The third option is my personal favorite as it helps me recognize that the faults I see in others are also my own, which helps me come around quickly to compassion or understanding for that person. Again, imagine talking directly to them. “Joe, I forgive you and myself for being ignorant (Choose appropriate quality). I love you as I love myself, for God is the love I am.” This also turns the situation over to the Divine Source that allows love to flow to and from all without judgement.

I’d challenge you to just try one for a week if there is someone that really triggers you. You don’t have to fully forgive them, but just see if it frees anything up in you to be open to starting the process.

Are you willing to be open to moving toward your greater life?

 

Journal for Love

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One Spiritual Practice of Journaling

You’ve undoubtedly heard of the value of journaling before now, and I’m going to confirm that there are a lot of great things that can be accomplished by journaling. However, the kind of journaling I’m going to propose here is a little different than most in that it will focus on our connection with a piece of nature that we feel deeply connected to, and that want to learn why and how to take that out into the rest of our lives.

This is one of the practices we’ll be doing on my safari in Kenya; in fact, we may even be doing it as you read this! My safaris are not standard – see animal, take picture, move on – no, my safaris are about connecting with the land, the people and the animals for a meaningful experience.

To start this practice, think of something you love and feel connected to. It doesn’t have to be living; in Kenya any of the group might be focused on an elephant, lion, the vast Masai Mara or Mt. Kilimanjaro – just look for something that moves you. Art or Music can be good focus objects, too.

Write in your journal, “What do I like about you?” and give yourself plenty of time for the answer to flow. Don’t move on until you feel complete.

Then write, “Why do I love you so much?” Again, take plenty of time to answer.

You might be surprised at how different the two answers are as you allow yourself to contemplate deeply.

Next write, “Where else in my life do I find this love?”, then “Where do I want to find this love?”

The last question – “What do I have to do to allow this love there?”

That question is critical to allowing in the love that you want. You might have to release something, you might have to shift a behavior, you might need to forgive someone, so really allow it to sink in and fully engage in each question.

Imagine, if you can feel that deep of a connection with something already, shouldn’t you also be able to feel it in other areas of your life? What’s in the way? Maybe it’s time to allow more love in.

A Practice to Connect with All Life

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Wouldn’t it be great if there was a spiritual practice in which you got to connect with the animals or the trees or the mountains of the world? There is! In fact, there are several. This is one that I will be leading my safari group through while I’m in Kenya in November.

My safaris are not simply “see animal, take picture, move on.” No, on my safaris we take time to connect with the land, connect with the animals, connect with the people. It’s a completely different experience than most safaris.

The great thing is, you can experience some of this anywhere you are, so I wanted to teach you just one way to connect with life as my group will. This is the short version, but it’s a great intro to the process.

What do you want to connect with? It can truly be any part of nature: a river, a mountain, a flower, an ocean, an animal – even your own pets. The object of connection doesn’t necessarily have to be in your field of vision, but it does help if it is.

Watching the connected video may make it easier to go through this process, but I’ll also write it in case you’re unable to watch the video.

Once you have your object of connection, close your eyes and take a couple of deep grounding breaths. Begin to feel your skin. What does it feel like from the inside? Take a few minutes with that, and then actually take one hand and run it over your skin – is it soft? Rough? Smooth? Cold? Dry? Warm? Take a few minutes with this. Then open your eyes and look at your object. Imagine touching its outer cover, whether it’s a skin, fur, bark, snow, leaves – what does it feel like?

After a few minutes, come back inside yourself. Can you feel the blood pumping through your veins and your heart? What does it feel like? Turning to your connection object, imagine feeling its circulatory system, whether it’s blood, water, or some other form of life. There is some kind of life force energy moving through all natural objects; can you feel it?

Back to yourself again, what emotions do you feel inside you right now? Happy, Peace, Tranquil, Joy, Excitement? Then connecting again with your object, can you feel what emotions it might be exuding? Even if you don’t believe the object has emotions, pretend it did – what would they be?

As a bonus, ask the object if it has a message for you.

I would love to hear of your experience with this, especially any messages you received.

Enjoy your connection with life; it’s truly magical!