Happy NOW Year!  A NOW Year is a lot different than a New Year. You can begin it and celebrate it again and again…every moment of the day. There is an old saying, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”  NOW is the moment of your life.  If you made a New Year’s resolution to start or stop doing something or to do something in a different way, and you haven’t been successful yet, it’s okay. You get to start again NOW. When you are present in the NOW, you OWN it. You’ve WON!

Your health is the sum total of all the impulses, positive and negative, emanating from your consciousness. You are what you think.”    ~ Deepak Chopra

Scientific American Mind’s November issue cites a University of Toronto study last year where, “people who were unconsciously exposed to images of fast food logos became more impatient and less likely to be thrifty”. In another study, published in the March issue of the Journal of Psychosomatic Research, when participants recalled an illness-related memory, they were less able to tolerate pain.

Your subconscious mind is constantly picking up on subliminal cues. You do not have to be at the mercy of these unconscious culprits! When you recognize the phenomenon, you can take control.  More self-awareness is a simple way to outmaneuver it. Take control of your thoughts. Choose to give yourself a treat! Think about what makes you feel good. Live your life by choice, not by chance.

What are you telling yourself? Pay attention to your thoughts and how they affect your body. If it doesn’t feel good, choose another thought.

Think about what you want. Think only in terms of the positive. It is far more powerful to be in favor of something positive rather than to be against something negative. Be “for” peace instead of “against” violence. Be “for” prosperity instead of “against” lack.

2. Praise Yourself

Eliminate negative self-talk! Appreciate your talents and gifts. Acknowledge your skills and abilities; your strengths and positive attributes. Treat yourself with the same loving respect you give to others. Love and accept yourself as you are right now.

Appreciate your body and how it serves you. Daydream and imagine yourself as the ideal…physically, emotionally, mentally. If you can see it, you can be it. The mind doesn’t know the difference between what you imagine and what you perceive as reality.

When you see yourself as healthy and successful, your mind becomes comfortable with it. Your confidence is boosted and you are able to achieve your goals.

3. Practice Gratitude

Note five things every night that you are grateful for. The essence of all you appreciate is constantly flowing into your reality. “This. I want more of this.”

Grateful people report higher levels of positive emotions, vitality and life satisfaction and lower levels of depression and stress. They tend to exercise more and feel better physically.

Robert Emmons, a psych professor at UC Davis found that a 21-day gratitude intervention produced high energy, positive moods, greater sense of feeling connected, more optimistic ratings of one’s life and better sleep duration and quality.

4. Focus on the solution, not the problem.

Einstein said that all of his most important and productive thinking was done by “combinatory play” with “images” in his mind. Thought experiments. Ask a question, Visualize a situation and perform experimental action.

Whatever you are thinking about is literally planning for the future. When you are worrying and doubtful, you are planning for and attracting something you don’t want. Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what is thought about. Choose the good thoughts.

5. Be present in the Now.

Stay focused on the present moment. Life begins now. Life is happening right now. If you are thinking about the past, you are thinking about it now. If you are thinking about the future, you are thinking about it now. The past and future exist in our thoughts.
Life exists in the moment.

Life is a series of moments. Each and every moment is an opportunity for choice.Focus on what you can do today, right now.
Breathe. All is well.

but that you live the reality of what you expect.

What are you expecting?

Remember that the future only exists in your thoughts. We are making it up as we go. We tell ourselves a story about what might happen. Sometimes it’s a good story and we feel good. When we allow ourselves to imagine and experience a positive expectation, we benefit from those thoughts. We are more prepared and at ease in new situations.

Sometimes we tell ourselves a very bad story which makes us feel out of control. We experience fear and anxiety about things which don’t even exist! When you’re worrying about the future, you are literally planning for things you don’t want to happen. All the time and energy you spend in this negative emotional state is working against you. You are literally creating your worst fears. And your physical body is suffering from those thoughts!

Why not spend your time and energy focusing on your desires instead of your fears? Imagine the best case scenario. Focus on what you want instead of what you don’t want! Just that shift in thinking will make a difference about how you feel and how you react. In that moment, you actively take part in the creation of your life. You take control of the situation.

Are you aware of an even better system of keeping yourself going in the right direction? It’s factory-installed with every unit and it’s absolutely free of charge! You have a personal and powerful Emotional Guidance System (EGS). To access the system, all you need do is pay attention to what you are thinking and how you are feeling. If you pay attention to your emotions, you will always know if you are traveling on the right road.

EGS sends you down the right road.

Your “home” or your “natural” state of being, is a condition of well-being and joy. Consider a baby. Whether a human baby, a puppy, a kitten…all exhibit a state of ecstatic joy. When you are thinking thoughts which bring about the feeling of joy, you are traveling on the right road. Your EGS is pointing you to exactly where you want to go! You are happily in alignment with who you are. Of course, it’s not always possible to be thinking joyful thoughts every moment of the day! Life happens. But your awareness will allow you to make the conscious shift to a better thought. It’s a choice you can make.

There are really no “good” or “bad” emotions. All emotions serve a purpose. All emotions are valuable because they are an expression of you. Honor your emotions. When you try to ignore or swallow your emotions, your EGS will send out an alarm! A distress signal of nausea or headache. Even the “bad” emotions, such as anger, serve a purpose and are to be recognized and then let go. When you’re thinking the thoughts that are creating the feelings of anger, you may not be able to just “let go”.  Again, it’s a choice you can make. Be aware of the thoughts which are creating the emotions. Choose a different thought.

Your EGS can direct your thoughts to a higher state. What if you took a turn towards disappointment instead of anger? That feels better. Perhaps your anger is really because someone acted in a way other than you expected. You feel doubtful and hurt. And then maybe your EGS would help you to consider that the disappointment was triggered by boredom. Are you angry because your plans have been changed? And you have nothing to do? Boredom doesn’t feel as “bad” as anger, does it? And you have control over your own boredom, don’t you? Maybe if you recognized that you were bored, your EGS would tell you to go entertain yourself. If you thought about entertaining yourself, you would turn directly to enthusiasm, which would feel really “good”. And once you were feeling that enthusiasm, you could consider what activity would bring you joy.

Your journey from anger to joy doesn’t have to take a long time. You can avoid the traffic jams. The only roadblocks are the ones you create. Your EGS will show them to you by making you feel “bad”.  And it will direct you around the barriers by pointing the way to feel “good”. It helps you to find the way when you don’t know how to get to where you want to go. You can always find your way home…to your state of ecstatic joy!

When you are experiencing a problem or difficulty or challenge, the most productive thing you can do is to let go of the focus on that problem. Instead, focus on the solution. Think about it often. Think about it as if it has happened. Your thoughts are powerful. Your thoughts create. As you become more familiar with the solution and more aligned with it, you bring forth the resources to create it. Your thoughts create your beliefs. Your beliefs create your experiences.

I know and believe that 2011 will be a prosperous and joyful year. What do you choose to believe?

A Time To Believe

To believe is to know that every day is a new beginning. To believe is to trust that miracles happen, and dreams really do come true.

To believe is to see angels dancing among the clouds, to know the wonder of a stardust sky and the wisdom of the man in the moon.

To believe is to know the value of a nurturing heart, the innocence of a child’s eyes, and the beauty of an aging hand, for it is through their teachings we learn to love.

To believe is to find the strength and courage that lies within us,
when it’s time to pick up the pieces and begin again.

To believe is to know we are not alone,
That life is a gift
and this is our time to cherish it.

To believe is to know that wonderful surprises are just waiting to happen,
And all our hopes and dreams are within reach.

If only we believe.

                                                                                      by B.J. Morbitzer

Marcus Aurelius believed happiness was to be achieved by living “according to nature” in harmony with the principle which orders the universe. A Roman emperor and philosopher who composed bits of wisdom in a work called Meditations, he believed that the serenity of someone who lived in the present moment could not be affected by misfortunes of the past or the fear of the future. 

Have you considered this? When you’re thinking about the past, you’re thinking about it now. When you’re thinking about the future, you’re thinking about it now. There is only the now.

Your thoughts are a constant stream of consciousness. They exist in the moment. And you are in control of your thoughts…in the moment. When you think about things in the past that disturb you, you create the same vibrational energy that you felt during that time in the past. Law of Attraction responds to your vibrational thought energy right now. The Universe responds to your focus and how you are feeling about it. Do you want to re-create past problems?

You get what you’re thinking about. When you think about things in the past that make you happy, you get the benefit of re-creating that vibrational energy now. When you’re thinking the happy thoughts in the present, it insures that you will be receiving more happy thoughts in the future! 

“The only way to deal with the future is to function efficiently in the now.” ~ Gina Bellin

Dr. Masaru Emoto, author of Hidden Messages in Water, has done extensive research about the characteristics of water and how, among other things, water physically responds to emotions. In light of the disaster, he has proposed the following prayer for the Gulf situation.

“I send the energy of love and gratitude to the water and all the living creatures in the Gulf of Mexico and its surroundings.

To the whales, dolphins, pelicans, fish, shellfish, planktons, corals, algae and all living creatures…..I am sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you.”

We are not powerless. We are powerful. Our united energy, speaking this prayer daily…multiple times daily….can literally create a shift in the balance of destruction. Thoughts create things.

We don’t need to understand “how”. We just need to believe in the power of love, which is greater than any power active in the Universe today.

“Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.”                           — Karen Kaiser Clark

Life is constantly changing due to many factors beyond our control. We can not stop time. Imagine yourself five years from now. Do you appear the same? Do you have the same level of wealth? Do you see yourself as sick or destitute? Do you imagine yourself as healthy and successful? In essence, you can stay the same; you can suffer and be a failure; you can enjoy great abundance and prosperity. Most would consciously choose abundance and prosperity. Unfortunately, some of us, subconsciously, are choosing to stay stagnant or worse!

You have the power to decide how you live your life. You determine the level of joy you experience. It’s all as simple as choosing your thoughts. Choose to focus on what you want, NOT on what you don’t want! If you’re worrying about something, you’re planning for something you don’t want to happen. When you focus on solutions, you solve problems. Decide on a positive outcome and take the necessary steps to achieve it.

Your mind is a garden. Your thoughts are the seeds. You can choose to harvest flowers or choose to grow weeds. Spring is a time of new beginnings and growth. It’s a time to prepare our gardens for a bountiful harvest. What are you planting?

 Anything can be your reality once you make the decision to create it. Let the first thought be, “Yes”.

Nothing more is needed to begin. One step at a time,  one choice at a time,  one thought at a time… until you are there.

~ Patricia Lynn Belkowitz

In 1973, three Russians hypothesized a matrix of cosmic energy. They traced a latticework pattern of electromagnetic energy that geometrically subdivided the earth’s face into a combination of two shapes – an icosahedron and a dodecahedron (shapes found naturally in crystal formations). The positioning of these lines explains various natural phenomena such as high and low barometric pressure and magnetic deviations as well as migration routes. When envisioned as a lattice over the earth’s surface, the icosa-dodecahedron grid was found to correspond with the birthplaces of ancient civilization. Some sources liken these power centers to the chakras of the body.

The earth is a living organism. The ancient Chinese articulated an underlying energy they called chi (prana in Sanskrit). There are three different kids of chi. One circulates the atmosphere, one flows through the earth and one is in our bodies. We are a microcosm of the macrocosm.

The cosmic current is the energy force that includes all the scientifically described energies that interact to create magnetism and gravity. This current carries the specific vibrations from each planet and star. The signals are experienced as invisible rays of energy.

We receive or respond to higher or lower rates of energy or light through the extended body. In the nearly non-physical dimension of light, quantity of light is far less important than quality. And quality is dependent upon frequency, which we experience as color.

Color is light that is directed by the rays of a certain planet or star. Light as we know it has a vibrational rate, or wavelength. The range of this visible light is what we call the spectrum. Wavelengths of color longer than our range of vision are referred to as radio waves or infrared. Those shorter than our visual range are ultraviolet, x-ray or cosmic. We obtain information about the world around us through the sensory interpretation of light.

By understanding that the chakras, within the extended energy body, respond to the energy of the color rays directed by the energy currents of the universe, we can then understand how crystals and colored gemstones can be used to affect the energy in a specific chakra, thereby aiding health and well-being.

This brings us to the concept of prana, the energy that fills the spaces between atoms.

In Sanskrit, prana means “absolute energy”. It is the force that pervades all being, connecting all living things and all energy matter. In the Hindu concept, prana is made from sunlight and air. As it is drawn into the etheric body, the seven atoms that compose prana separate and each travels to the chakra it nourishes. The chakras draw prana or vitality into the extended body through the solar plexus chakra, which is the hub of a 10-spoked wheel, distributing the prana color rays.

As a hypnotherapist, I use the practice of pranayama by aiding my clients in the practice of focus on the breath. By taking deep, full breaths, the amount of air that enters and flows is increased. This very action stimulates the power of healing, balance and well-being by directing maximum prana to all the chakras, resulting in healing throughout the extended body.

When there is an excess or deficiency in prana flowing through a given chakra or throughout all energy centers, an imbalance occurs. It manifests in emotional discomfort or physical disease in an area and a form reflective of the chakra which is out of harmony. Healing takes place on all levels of the extended energy body before physical well-being manifests. Remember all matter is energy.

Do you wear a watch or have a wall clock at home? Do you wind it? Do you plug it in to electricity? Or is it powered by quartz, which synchronizes accurate time by vibration?

Do you listen to the radio? All radio transmitting uses quartz to communicate broadcast frequencies. You dial in to a particular vibrational frequency.

Have you taken a biology class where you were required to use a microscope? Have you experienced an ultrasound procedure? Both technologies use quartz crystal.

Have you had laser surgery to correct your eyesight? Quartz crystal is used to transmit and focus energy in all laser technology.

Have you gazed at the stars through a telescope? Quartz crystal is used to transmit whole spectrum light in optical lenses.

Do you use a credit card? Do you store information in your computer? Quartz crystal…silicon dioxide … is used for that purpose.

It is obvious that crystal has properties that allow it to store, transmit, transform, focus and amplify energy. Science has been using this technology for years by producing synthetic quartz crystals with the same atomic structures and properties as their natural counterparts.

Imagine the power of the energy available in the natural form, where each crystal system, obeying the Law of Attraction, gathers together those atoms which can vibrate together in unison and harmony, producing a form…a crystal… an aggregation of atoms.

When we send our intentions through the crystal, the vibration of that thought is amplified, bringing it nearer to physical manifestation. It is your thought energy, your mental body, which activates the power of crystals.

Quantum physics shows that what we perceive as solid matter is actually 99.9999% empty space filled with energy.  (If one atom of the physical body were the size of an apple, the closest atom next to it would be 2000 miles away.) By understanding that all matter is energy, it is easier to understand how people can interact with crystal.

The ancients may not have been aware of quantum physics, but they understood something about energy and color. They used crystals and gemstones to harness the cosmic forces. As we continue to do today, they adorned their bodies with stones.

The legends of quartz crystal as a healing tool are world wide, crossing every culture from Japan to North America, from Africa to ancient Rome.

The oldest legends and lore lead back to Lemuria and Atlantis. It is supposed that this advanced race used crystals to channel and control the cosmic current. Legends state that the survivors of Atlantis began anew and continued to perpetuate the knowledge of crystals in Egypt, South America and Tibet. They built pyramids using crystalline theories.

An Egyptian hieroglyphic papyrus more than 4000 years old described medical treatments using gemstones. Complete therapeutic manuscripts dated 1500 BC called “Papyrus Ebers” give detailed prescriptions using gems and minerals. The Egyptians were the first to use ground up gemstones such as malachite and lapis as a cosmetic.

A text derived from the Alexandrian School of Greece written by Theophrastus (372-286 BC) was quoted by the Roman historian Pliny (23-79 AD) in some of the earliest writings on the power of crystals.

 The ancient Greeks regularly meditated by visualizing five three-dimensional, geometric shapes known as the Platonic Solids. They believed they could alter their consciousness and achieve mystical experiences. The five shapes – tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron and icosahedron – all occur naturally in crystals.

It is recorded in Exodus that a breastplate made of twelve precious jewels, (signifying the 12 tribes of Israel) combined specifically together in four rows, and worn over the heart, would endow the wearer with the power of God. It is recorded as being divinely inspired and having incredible spiritual powers.

Early works on astrology, written in Sanskrit and dating back as early as 400 BC, make elaborate observations on the origin and power of stones.

Incas and Mayans knew gemstone and crystal work. Native American Hopi shamans use crystals for diagnosis as well as treatment of disease, as do Cherokee, Apache, Navaho and other native peoples. They believe crystals are home to supernatural forces.

Chinese healers call quartz “the essence of the dragon”, the dragon being a symbol for the life force, the “chi”.

In every religion found on earth, jewels are mentioned as significant to esoteric mysteries. There are references made to precious stones in the Bible, the Talmud and the Koran.

We now know that we are beings of light and energy who are affected by the light and energy of the universe. The seen is dependent on the unseen.

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Ask and it is Given by Esther & Jerry Hicks

The Power of Intention by Dr. Wayne Dyer

What the Bleep do we Know!? by Lord of the Wind Films

The Law of Attraction states that whatever we are thinking about, we will attract into our life, whether we want it or not! We could almost call this law the Law of Creation, because what we are thinking about is what we are creating. What we are feeling about what we are thinking is how the creation process begins. Emotions help to create reality. When we believe in something, and when we love, desire, and want it, we create it more quickly. If there is anything we want to experience, we need to focus upon it. Whatever we turn our attention to, we will create.       

As energy, every single thought directly and instantly influences the quantum field. Quantum physics has shown that everything in the Universe, in all dimensions of life and reality, ultimately is made up of “quanta”, of Energy, vibration. This Energy is integral to everything in existence. When something is observed, imagined, visualized… “quanta” come together to form sub-atomic particles, which in turn become atoms, then molecules until finally something manifests in the physical world. “Quanta” never, ever differentiate between what we want and what we don’t want. They merely respond to and obey our thoughts. Ask and it is given. No exceptions. Conscious creation is the basis of the Law of Attraction. Isn’t it interesting that the most effective way to consciously create something is to use the imagining powers of the subconscious Mind?

As human beings, all we do is create experiences. There is nothing else we do. In order to create an experience, we must first imagine it. As we focus on what we want, our thought energy (traveling at the speed of light!) has creative power. The subconscious mind accepts whatever we are imagining in our inner world and uses it to create our outer experience in reality.

The world of images is the source of power in our physical world. The images direct the Energy in our body. Imagining what we want is like creating a model before we build the real thing. We need to dream, but dreams are too big to realize all at once. Dreams come a size too large so we can grow into them. They must be broken down into manageable pieces. Pieces which can be created right Now. Always think as you wish things to be. Now.

And as you are thinking about what you want right Now, remember the Universe responds to absolute terms rather than any human concept. When you are dreaming, always be aware of a statement that implies the future tense and change it into the present tense. So, “I will” becomes “I am”… “I want” becomes “I have”… and “I might” becomes “I do”.

 Also keep in mind that the Universe does not understand the concept of “try”. We either do something in the present Now or we do nothing. “Try” simply does not exist.

The Universe responds to Now. Everything is happening right Now. If you are remembering the past, you are doing it Now. If you are planning for the future, you are doing it Now. There is Only the Eternal Now.

Remember when you obey the laws, you enjoy the benefits. Thoughts are creative energy. Think only of what you want. Now. Be a Conscious Creator.

Hypnosis and Imagery are incredibly powerful tools to access the visionary power of your subconscious mind. When your mind is in the Alpha state, you are more creative and focused and better able to imagine your ideal way of being. As you imagine your ideal, you are emotionally connected to that image right Now. The process allows you to speak more clearly to the Universe, because whether you believe or not, it is listening to your every thought. Choose the good ones.