Category Archives: Spiritual Laws

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What Story Are You Telling?

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book_character_reading_400_clr_9091What? What the heck are you talking about Terrie? What do you mean by my “story”?

Everything we talk about is in story form in one fashion or another.

There are facts and there are stories that revolve around those facts. The stories vary from person to person. Look at so-called “eyewitness” accounts. They can differ dramatically. It’s all about interpretation. You’ve heard “perception is reality” I’m sure. Well that is true.

And there is a definite vibration surrounding your story. So why not tell the story the way you wanted it to be? “But that would be lying” you say. Not really. You can talk about facts without putting lower level vibrations (also known to some as “negative” vibrations) into them. Let’s take a recent example that I mentioned Sunday about not getting into the 100 mile endurance run I wanted to get into.

Facts:

  • I prepared really well:
    • I wrote in my gratitude journal that I got into this event
    • I had no other activities planned for that day until after the sign up time
    • I rebooted both of my computers and shut down everything that would use up resources
    • I was online on both computers on the right site so that I just had to click refresh
  • I clicked refresh repeatedly when the registration link did not show up
  • I repeated this action for 30 minutes, never getting a live registration link
  • I did not get into the event

Stories:

  1. It’s just not fair that I didn’t get in. I did everything right. It must be fixed so that only certain people get in. Why couldn’t I get in. It’s not fair. They don’t want people to participate unless they are specially chosen. I can’t do anything right. This must mean that all this Law of Attraction and gratitude stuff doesn’t really work. I’m so hurt, sad, disappointed, frustrated. I’m really mad I wasted my whole Saturday.
  2. I didn’t get in. There is a reason and it’s one I can’t see right now but I know that “everything always works out for me” and this will too. I had considered whether the dates of this event were too close to the more important 150 mile event I am going to do for MS so maybe this is the Universe’s way of confirming that. It also means I can find other events to run in. I just have to look and will find something even better for me.

See how the facts are pretty straight forward but the two stories are completely different? And there are multiple variations on the story that I could have written.

Which story do you want to tell? Practice changing your story. We’ll talk more about this later this week but right now it’s time for a run!

Terrie

 

 

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What Are You Thinking?

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what are you thinkingYou’re sitting there kind of zoned out and all of a sudden someone says “what are you thinking?” and it pulls you out of your reverie. You probably answer “uh, nothing. What’s up”?

Does that sound familiar? You may actually believe the “nothing” part of that story but it’s not true. There is almost no moment during any day that you are NOT thinking something.

The challenge I have for you is to pay attention to what you are thinking ALL the time.  Decide to be diligent for at least ONE day this week (preferably more) to monitoring your thoughts – be your own “Big Brother”. You’ll be very surprised.

It’s pretty simple – you can use a small notebook you can carry in your pocket or your purse or you could even use a portable recording device (there are many apps for your smartphone that would serve that purpose).

 

Yes, I know you have to work and you have to take care of your family and more. But these busy times are the times when you’ll usually find the most revealing thoughts – things like:

  • “I can’t believe it, I don’t have any time to myself”
  • “I’m so overwhelmed”
  • “Gees, what more do they expect me to do”?
  • “Get out of my way damnit, I’m in a hurry”
  • “I’m so stressed out. I can’t take it any more”
  • “I hate this job (or fill in any blank)”
  • “It sucks to be me”
  • “Why me”?
  • “I can’t win”
  • “I can’t catch a break”
  • “How did I get myself in this mess”?
  • “I’m so angry/mad/p.o’ed”
  • “I’m afraid that ……”
  • “I’m so tired”
  • “I’m sick and tired of …….”
  • “You’re killing me with all this”
  • “I’m so ashamed that….”
  • “I”m so embarrassed”
  • “I wonder what he’s looking at”
  • “I wish I weren’t so ….. (fat, dumb, stupid, lazy, etc)”
  • “I wonder what would happen if…”
  • “I’ll never get all this done”
  • “That’s ugly”
  • “I wish I had that”
  • “God I’m starved”

These are just a few common thoughts I came up in a few seconds. There are millions more that you have going through your mind repeatedly.  The key word is “repeatedly” – we think the same things (perhaps with minor variations” over and over again. And if you remember how Abraham defines a belief, it’s “a thought we keep thinking over and over again”. So, guess what? You’re creating or reinforcing beliefs with all these “simple” thoughts.

Write down (make an effort) or record all your thoughts. It is important that you pay attention to all of them, not just the good ones, not just the bad ones – all of them. The idea is so that you can see how your thoughts balance out – what percentage of the time do you spend thinking positive thoughts and how much time do you spend thinking less than positive thoughts. And then, what thoughts are you repeating throughout the day – whether positive or not. Those are the ones you’re cementing in your subconscious as beliefs. You really want to make a conscious choice about what beliefs you cultivate, don’t you?

When you write these thoughts down, pay attention to what’s going on at that time – are you stressed, relaxed, working out, in the car, what? Make sure to pay attention to any follow-on thoughts and actions. For instance, if, after you think, “God I’m starved”, you your thoughtshead to the snack machine or the refrigerator and pick something you wouldn’t necessarily describe as “healthy”, write down what thoughts (if any) are going through your mind as you hit that button or pull open the frig door. Is it “I really shouldn’t be doing this” or is it “some chips or ice cream is just what I need right now”.  Perhaps you’re not even thinking – you’re just rushing to the machine so that you can take the food to numb the feelings. Unfortunately, you may be using the food to numb the feelings (stress, overwhelm etc) but you’re probably still thinking while you’re doing it. And you’ve made a conscious choice to pick the food regardless of the negative thoughts because feeling the pain from the emotion is worse than feeling the guilt or shame from having eaten that ice cream.  Some people use cigarettes, alcohol, food, drugs, abuse, exercise or many other actions to keep from feeling certain emotions.  Do you want to keep using your “drug of choice”? Or do you want to change your behavior? If you want to change your behavior you have to change your thoughts.

Here’s a short example. Yesterday was the day runners could try to get into a popular 100 mile race (Umstead- one I know I could do well at). I had planned the day around the “registration attempt” time (11 am my time) and I’d used affirmations and beliefs that I was definitely going to get in. I had written in my gratitude journal every day that I was grateful that I got into Umstead 2014 (being specific so that the Universe knew that this was the one I meant, not sometime in the future).

11 a.m. came and I tried and to make a long story short, I didn’t get in. I could have spent the rest of the day being really bummed out and saying that all this stuff really doesn’t work and I’m just a hypocrite, blah blah blah. But you know what? That would have done absolutely nothing but bring my mood and vibration way down. I chose not to experience that so I realized that “everything always works out for me” (Lord knows I’ve experienced that so many times in my long life) and began to think about the alternative runs I could do or apply for. And my day improved. It took some conscious work but I chose to feel good, not to plummet to the depths of despair which I could easily have done had I not paid attention to my thoughts.

Are you up for this challenge? Can you commit to at least one day and hopefully more? Let us know by putting your comments in the box below.

Have a great day!

Terrie

 

 

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Is It Really Failure?

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street_sign_success_failure_400_clr_5768 What do you think Diana Nyad would say if you asked her if she had failed in her other attempts to reach Florida from Cuba? She’s very smart so I don’t know what her real answer would be but my answer would be that it depends on what you mean. Do you mean, “did I not succeed in actually swimming all the miles from Cuba to the Florida shore” she would probably say “no I did not swim the distance those other four times BUT I did not fail”.

As usual with words there are several definitions in the dictionary. Here’s one for failure: “omission of occurrence or performance” – so by that standard and to answer the strict question  of did she swim to the other shore, the answer would be no and that was a failure.

But here’s another definition of failure: “a subnormal quantity or quality” – All of her attempts were anything BUT subnormal. She has attempted more than most of us could even conceive of – that is not subnormal. Diana Nyad is very much supernormal!

Do we really care about the dictionary definitions? Not really. Because it’s your outlook that means everything in life. Your outlook reflects your attitude, your vibrational state. And it’s your vibrations that determine your outcome in life.

How do you look at things? How do you view what happens when you attempt something? Is your feeling and attitude dependent on the outcome – is your day measured by how well you stuck to your diet, by the number on the scale, etc? We use numbers so often to determine whether we succeeded  at something. And worse yet we do it subconsciously because it’s been so ingrained in us. I noticed that last week when I was doing my long run. I was feeling good about the run, I felt happy and was really enjoying everything. Then I glanced at my GPS (to see the distance but my eyes caught the time) and when I saw the time (a number) I was bummed out big time. If I had not been paying attention to how I reacted to things I would have let that one number ruin my entire day and run. How stupid could I be? How often do we do that? Instead of focusing on the good and the fun and the progress, I was about to focus on a stupid number as an artificial measure of my success or failure. I have to say that that’s pathetic (and this will be a big part of learning to hand our emotions surrounding weight in my upcoming coaching program). Fortunately because I had been attuned to this “number” issue over the past few weeks, I decided to do some EFT and get the concept that I failed  out of my head and go back to enjoying the great day!

diana-successDiana’s strategy, techniques and equipment changed with each attempt. I imagine some of her training may also have changed during the hiatus between jumps into the Cuban waters. But more importantly she noticed what she experienced that adversely affected her solution_puzzle_piece_box_400_clr_3988while she was on the swim and analyzed it to see what could be changed and then set about changing it. She took a medication for a sore shoulder that caused her to have an asthma attack. She investigated that and found the medications that she could take without having problems. She had already researched how to deal with the danger of sharks but I imagine that has even improved over the attempts, how to get hydrated and fed was most likely refined all this time (especially after swimming longer and being seasick and having all the salt water ingested), how to handle bites and stings were dissected and analyzed. And as you know, great research with many groups of people went into fighting the box jellyfish and they were finally conquered (thanks in part to Mother Nature).

Diana also went deep within to find ways to continue to swim in the face of hallucinations and sleep deprivation and immense fatigue. She created mantras (“Find a Way”) and the one I like the most – she used one hand to pull Florida toward her when stroking up and the other hand pushed Cuba behind her with the other direction stroke. How clever that was.

She also beefed up her social media team and they did an outstanding job during the swim. That not only generated more people following her but also kept those devoted followers (like me who was pretty much glued to the computer all weekend) constantly informed – much different than the other attempts.

All of these are successes – in no way can they be considered failures. Perhaps the only “failure” would have been to not try again this time. Everything else was training and she took all the results and made something special and positive of them!

Take a look at things you’ve considered failures in your life. Change your outlook and your vibrations regarding them and see what successes came out of them. Remember that everything always works out for you!

Terrie

 

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Inspiration vs Motivation – Diana Nyad

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georgespatton164737_m-resizedYou often hear these two words, inspiration and motivation, used interchangeably. But they are significantly different. Abraham discusses this and I had never really differentiated them before hearing it from him.

Motivation comes from the external, outside of you; inspiration comes from within – it’s internal.

Which do you think is more powerful?

Take this picture for example. When you hit bottom, people can cheer and jump up and down yelling at you to get up and keep going (think “Drill Sergeant” or perhaps “volunteer” 🙂 ). Think about this situation. Would that make you get up and bounce right back into the fray? It might help but what will really get you back up and raring to go is what’s inside of you – what’s driving you to keep going.

Think of Diana Nyad who right now is almost 24 hours into her swim of about 103 miles. This is probably not even 1/3 of the way – swimming continuously, no stops (has to tread water to eat and drink), no sleep, no rest, nothing! You and I got to go to sleep last night. Or even if we were good friends and wanted to continue to track her, we would not be exerting every muscle of our body over and over again with no end in sight.  Do you think that the motivation that Diana is receiving from her support team and friends is enough to keep her going through such fatigue, hallucinations, pain, exhaustion, etc? Heck no! That would never be sufficient to get her to “bounce back up” or keep going. Of course it helps and is actually vital in someone’s success.

However, this kind of drive comes from within – deep within. It has to come from within or otherwise there is absolutely not definitive reason to put yourself through all this. Even love can’t provide that much inspiration. But when you combine love with a dream, there is NO stopping you at all. That is what is driving Diana. This is a dream she has held within and cultivated for 35+ years.  Think of wine and how valuable it is when it’s aged. People cherish it and know how much it means. There’s no difference with this. Diana’s dream has been planted, marinated, loved, nurtured and even brought out to see if it was “ready” for fulfillment (her other attempts). But it wasn’t ready to be put out there as complete. Now it is. And it will be her internal inspiration more than anything else that will get her across the Ocean. She has pulled out all the stops to conquer those darn Box Jellyfish and now is her time.

Take today to look within and find out what your true desire and inspiration is.

Go Diana, Go!

Terrie

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Law of Attraction – Rule #10 – Thank You!

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loa rule 10Ah – we come to Rule #10 – the last in this series. Of course, you can make as many rules as you’d like. One (of many) definitions of the word “rule” is: “a principle or regulation governing conduct, action, procedure, arrangement, etc.”. A rule is not a law. The Laws of the Universe are not things we make up. They exist no matter how much we try to deny them or change them. When trying to understand this, always remember the Law of Gravity and then go sit under the apple tree :-). But the interpretation of how to work with these Laws (or even the man-made laws) is set down in rules that we create. So you see, I have presented these 10 rules on how to get the most from working with the Law of Attraction. I have found them the most effective over the years and even more importantly the most consistent.

So what the heck is rule #10? It’s the most important rule in the Universe and the most powerful force in the Universe – GRATITUDE! Showing gratitude all day long as much as possible will bring you everything you want. It’s like the Energizer Bunny for the Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction will work no matter what you do. However, we want it to work FOR us, don’t we? Of course we do. You can start small and see how it snowballs in your life. Start by being thankful that you woke up and that you have a house, your health, family, pets, friends, automobile, job, whatever in your life. Even if things are not perfect for you right now, they are a lot better than they could be gratitude-journal120x150and they are certainly a lot better than they are for many people around the world. Find something! This should not be that hard. Then as you go throughout the day continue to be grateful no matter what. Get stopped at a stoplight and you’re late? Be grateful anyway. Say “thank you for having me stop at this stoplight. I know there is a divine reason and I am grateful for it even if I do not know what it is at this moment.” I tell the story about the time I worked in Washington, DC and lived 60 miles south of there. One day it had started to snow and I had asked my boss if I could leave early (people in that area do not know how to drive in the snow and even if they did, there are a whole lot of them out there). He said “no” because we were in an important class. Naturally I was grumpy and moped around until we got released. And yes it took me 8 hours to get home that day. But you know what? If I had left at the time I asked him, I would have been right in the middle of the 100 car pileup on Interstate 95 that the snowstorm led to. Instead I was just inconvenienced by a longer drive home – but I was safe and sound. The Universe was looking out for me even though I didn’t have any idea of what was happening or what would have happened to me had I left when I wanted. Instead of grumbling I should have been praising the Universe. I did that later but it would have been more effective had I done it when I was told I couldn’t leave. Remember the mantra “everything is always working out for me”. Say that over and over. It will be the topic of a separate post soon.

Start a gratitude journal. You can combine your gratitude journal with your pleasure journal if you want and it will become a very powerful tool. Especially if you carry a small notebook around with you all day and are continually writing both your pleasures and your gratitudes in your notebook.

You can also use our Gratitude Journal software program (for the PC) we created for everyone to use.

I bet that if you keep track of your gratitudes for the next month, you will see a remarkable change in your life. Try it. What do you have to lose?

Terrie