Monday, August 29, 2011

"The Awareness of Individual Power

There are some pertinent points on accessing our inner power or unconditioned awareness in "Seeds from the Ashes." And for those of us who are searching for the answers to eliminate the toxic beliefs from our minds, we can find solace in knowing that the answers are found within us.

There's no need to search for answers outside of ourselves. Within us is the source of our own human power.

"Whenever you feel powerless to do something that you want to do, stop and ask yourself why. Why don't you have the power to achieve the things you desire to have?


"The obvious answer is that you don't believe you are strong enough to achieve them. If this is the case, then the solution to your problem is attaining the necessary strength or power to solve your problems.


"How do you attain this power? You attain power the same way as you attain anything else: you work for it. The harder you work, the greater your reward.


"If you desire to have a well-conditioned body, you must exercise  regularly and monitor what you eat. If you desire to have a well-conditioned mind, you must exercise it regularly and monitor what you allow to enter into it.


"For you to begin to acquire the power you need to change your life, your exercise program must begin now with you acting as your own personal trainer.

"As a trainer, you assume expert status as someone who is eminently qualified to guide you during your mind-conditioning training.

"This type of thinking requires you to assume two roles: first, as someone who knows what you need, and second, as someone who willing to listen.

"The two roles occur within your mind as your intuitive (unconditioned) consciousness and your victim (powerless) consciousness. The former is free of the illusions that victimize the latter.

"The similarities between power and powerless are  present in all of your activities. Unfortunately, those who think of themselves as victims (powerless) seldom recognize  the distinctions between the two. It is this lack of recognition that stifles your empowerment training.

"Nevertheless, power or the beliefs you have about power are simply what you think about yourself. So train yourself to know that its important to think that you are powerful rather than thinking of yourself as powerless."

The power we seek is always found within us. So let's stop looking for it in others.






Monday, August 15, 2011

"It's Never too Late to Change"

Sometimes, when the road becomes bumpy, our hearts become weary, and the battles overwhelm us, these are the times to focus on what's really important to us. It's not the time to cling to worn out beliefs about time and failure.

Regardless of our present situations, we are still alive. And while we're alive we are going to spend our time doing something. So, why not spend it doing what we enjoy. Now is not the time to succumb to the vicissitudes of the years.

Someone said to me a few days ago at a meeting for positive thinkers that she was too old to learn anything new. She was pretty much set in her ways. I asked her age and she said in her 40s. Wow! That's heavy.

Nevertheless, there are many of us fixed in our ways:  our beliefs and habits. We cling to traditional beliefs and time tested actions. This means there's little space in our minds for anything new.

So we don't attend meetings that offer new or insightful information. Nor do we reach out to explore what's happening outside our small circle of people who think and act the way we do.

Similarly, by reaching out to others to learn about their ideas and beliefs, we create the space for growth within ourselves. We lose our fears of the unknown by releasing our judgments about people whom we don't agree.

Some ways to examine our willingness to go beyond our comfort levels and check out what others believe and how they acquired their beliefs are:

KEY BELIEFS:  Religion. Politics. Race. Nationality. Gender. Beauty. Materialism, and Others.

It's difficult for us to discuss these beliefs with people who don't believe the way we do.

So the challenge is to talk with someone with different religious, political, and of different races and nationalities. That's when we get the opportunity to discover the level of our willingness to change.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Liberating our Minds of Toxic Beliefs

Some of us have been stuck in the same position for quite some time. We seem to always come up a little short in accomplishing our goals.

Many of us are still struggling with self-identity and purpose issues. Most of our time is spent chasing after something -- money, happiness, status, power, and so on -- but never finding it.

Similarly, some of us continue to believe our suffering is divine fate: it's our destiny to suffer. While a few of us eschew this type of thinking, we too are unwilling to engage in serious self-discovery.

Nevertheless, for those willing to delve a little deeper into our thinking process, we find that somewhere beneath the layers of beliefs concealing our essence, there are some dormant thoughts yet to be used.

These thoughts exist only in our unconditioned consciousness; that part of us that maintains the clarity of purpose.

However, for us to effectively use these thoughts we must remove the toxic beliefs causing us to search outside of ourselves for answers to our problems. There are many of them; however, we're going to only focus on six primary ones.

We will discuss them over a period of time due to the amount of information that we're required to cover.

So, what follows are some of the troubling toxic beliefs poisoning our minds with powerlessness.  

1.  Fear  --  "Fear is a state of consciousness one uses to escape from doing something one desires to do"
Some examples:

       1.  Fear of losing.
       2.  Fear of peer ridicule.
       3.  Fear of success.
       4.  Fear of failure.
       5.  Fear of living.
       6.  Fear of dying.
       7.  Fear of rejection.

Some suggestions for overcoming our fears:

1.  Create a vision of ourselves with complete power over our actions.
    
2.  Imagine ourselves living completely free of all fears in the present moment.
    
3.  Act as if you are free of fears. Write a minimum of five things you can do to ensure you maintain your freedom.
    
4.  List at least five fears that constantly occur in your life: for example, fear of losing your job, home, spouse, clothes, business, or life.
    
5.  Identify the sources of your fears. Examine what causes you to believe your present challenges (problems) cannot be removed. Exactly what do you anticipate happening if you take action to remove the fear?
    
6.  Imagine the best-case scenario and the worst-case scenario. Which one has the greatest power in your life?
   
7.  Remove the fears one at a time until their individual and collective powers are harmless to you. Challenge every fear with a positive action of empowerment (enlightenment). To do this requires that you deny the existence of the illusions (beliefs) created by the senses.
 
8.  Go within yourself and tap into your intuitive-unconditioned consciousness to make your decisions. Continue to do this, even if your senses tell you that your actions do not make sense.

We will continue to discuss the following toxic beliefs by incorporating them in future articles.

Worry -- "My face displays no worry because I have seen the face of empowerment (enlightenment) and it is mine."
   
Doubt -- "My thoughts are free and I see the path with great clarity."
   
Lack --   "I am complete in myself."
   
Limitation -- "I have the limitless power within me to express all of my desires."
  
Struggle --  "My power of creativity frees me of all struggles."