NOTE: Throughout this article, the terms Creator, Source, God and Love are interchangeable.
1. Realize that every single decision you make is a choice between Love or Fear
It doesn't matter what the subject of the decision is about - if more than one option is available, then you need to look at them and ask your heart which one is the most LOVING one. Quite often, it will be the most *apparently* difficult - and this is precisely why most people develop fear-based mentalities. When this continues, fear starts to take hold, because every decision seems to lead to even more trouble. Fear is what is used to control people and make them do things they wouldn't normally do. When a person is afraid, their entire system is compromised and they will often give in to something in an effort to escape that fear, not realizing that they are actually giving it even more power over them. There are an almost infinite number of examples, but the trick is (as always) to monitor your own mind and the effect of the thoughts that present themselves. As soon as you find yourself doing something to AVOID a certain situation or because of possible negative consequences, ask yourself "Why am I choosing this ?". Then consider that there may very well be other options, possibly some you have never even considered. A handy saying to remember is "How does it get any better than this ?". By asking this question, you mentally and spiritually open yourself up to other possibilities and quite often, actually USING this as a response in a situation where things do not appear to be going your way will cause the other party to perhaps suggest an alternative themselves. Beware of situations that try to persuade you there is only one way to go - this is representative of someone trying to manipulate or control you - there are ALWAYS options.
2. Be mindful of the questions you are putting out to the universe
One of the primary functions of the creation is to give you what you ask for, hence the proverb "Ask and ye shall receive". However, many people do not realize the *literal* truth of this. For instance, when you ask "Why does [this] keep happening to me ?", the only answers that CAN come back are REASONS WHY THIS KEEPS HAPPENING TO YOU. Now, when you think about it, do you really NEED reasons why [this] keeps happening to you ? - of course not! What you REALLY want are reasons for it NOT happening to you :-). You may think that finding out these reasons will allow you to avoid making that same mistake in the future, but it doesn't, because you *empowering* that very situation you are trying to avoid by adding more energy to it. ("No! - Dig UP, stupid!"). Hence the saying "Where the mind goes, energy follows". In effect, by asking questions of this type, you are showing the universe that you do not love yourself very much, because you are apparently content in following a negative thought train. A much more powerful question is "What can I do that will change things for the better ?". This time, when the answers come back, they will be USEFUL answers - *empowering* ones that you can use to better your situation. The universe responds very faithfully to your requests - it does not "read your mind" and give you what you are really wanting when you ask for the wrong things. By changing your questions from disempowering ones to empowering ones, you will find that the answers you get are far more beneficial to you.
3. Strive to understand the illusion of separation and how it thwarts your efforts
The best way to sum this up is the statement "The quickest way to help yourself is to focus on helping others". The reason behind the truth of this statement is that others ARE you - because, in reality, we are all one. So when you help others, you are actually helping yourself. By helping others, you are showing Love for yourself and if there is ONE thing that the universe most responds to, it is LOVE. Love, in it's most basic form is simple *attraction*. When you look out at the universe and nature, you will see innumerable examples of this attraction at work. Flowers reach towards the sun in an effort to get closer to it, planets and stars are held in their orbits due to the attraction that is inherent between them and people gravitate to those they are attracted to. Divine Love is ultimate expression of that attraction and the Highest form of Love, because it represents the Love of the Creator for it's Creation. By bringing to others what they are truly attracted to, you are actually becoming ONE with the source of all benevolence in the universe - the force of *bestowal* - that guides, supports and nurtures all things. It is our senses that fool us and make us *think* that we are separate to others and the rest of creation. When you have mastered this illusion, your life will be enriched beyond your wildest conceptions. Whilst it is literally true that "God helps those who help themselves", what is not generally acknowledged is that this is actually accomplished by helping OTHERS.
4. Learn to gradually replace your thoughts with thoughts of LOVE
The ultimate Mastery of Life depends solely on your ability to be "One-pointed" - that is, to CONSTANTLY retain Love as your focus of consciousness. When you do this, you are signaling to the universe the very thing which it is most capable of resonating with. Any of the Great Masters who have walked the face of this planet have struggled and often died in an effort to bring us this most important message, but so often, it is seized upon by those of low frequency mentality and perverted and lowered in vibration to the levels of the mundane. This type of thinking is a constant source of suffering in this world and it is because of the replacement of PURE Love with something that is a very distorted reflection of it. When you do something or entertain the notion of doing something, examine it with your heart and let your heart decide as to it's degree of lovingness. The MIND is a perpetual source of confusion and will lead you astray, whereas your heart is a much more reliable indicator of what is truly LOVING. "Think with the heart and Love with the mind" is a very powerful method of sorting out the plethora of confusing and misleading thoughts that you may find yourself presented with from time to time. Often you will find yourself in a negative space. Examine the series of thoughts that led you to this place and you will find that a LACK of love was what brought you there. By cleansing your mind of these non-loving thoughts, you will effectively de-rail these negative thought trains and avoid finding yourself in an unhappy and disempowered state. This will automatically liberate not only yourself, but others who enter are are within your sphere of vibration.
5. Let Go and Let God
One of the greatest hindrances to attaining what you really want is the frequency of *need*. Need, want and desire have different frequencies. Need is the lowest. Those who are living a life in low vibration have many needs... a need for food, money, happiness - all sorts of lacks. Because the universe at large is in a state of bestowal - i.e. boundless and selfless giving, it does not find any resonance with need, for it needs NOTHING. While ever a person is emanating this frequency, they are effectively blocking off any possible flow of energy. Want is a slightly higher vibration, as it contains an element of desire and also has less attachment to results, but it still has little in common with the frequency of unselfish giving (bestowal). Desire however, is different. Desire has a lot in common with *attraction* and is thus something that Source resonates with. You will have no doubt heard the expression "Except ye be as a little child, ye cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven". Children exhibit simple *desire* - attraction. There is no ulterior motive, no preconceived notions of profit and no attachment to results. Children just see or hear something and all they know and feel is a pure attraction to it. This is the substance of Higher Love. Furthermore, they also do not hold onto this feeling when the source of the attraction is removed. Sure, they may exhibit a short period of upset at not getting the object of their attention, but it is soon replaced with attraction toward something else. Herein lies a very important lesson; translated into "adult" terms, it is: "The quickest way of attaining a thing is to give up even the desire for it". Once a request has been made to Source, you should *release* it. This is indicative and symbolic of your willingness to accept the external decision to grant you the wish you have made. It is also a display of your faith in the power of Source to grant it however, most adults will dampen that impulse of energy by trying to 'logicalness' and preconceive HOW the request will be granted and/or how it will appear, when and/or from whom and so on... The most effective form of impulse is a singular burst of energy. Any "hanging onto" of this will corrupt the form of that impulse and render it impure, thus degrading the ability of Source to meld with it. So, in summary, the most effective requests are made when the desire is simply expressed and then released, with NO considerations or notions, thoughts or continued musings about what may or may not come after.
6. Love YOURSELF
Do you entertain negative thoughts about yourself ? Do you devalue your own worth by affirming that you are incapable, too weak, not smart enough or envious of another's superiority ? If so, then you may be making forever impossible the very thing that you so long to see. It is now well known that the subconscious mind is 'blind' and faithfully follows the programming offered by the conscious mind. Thus, if you continually affirm, either by word, thought or action *anything*, you will eventually manifest that very thing in your life. Thought is the progenitor of form and form is the progenitor of substance. You can choose to infuse your mind with positive OR negative affirmations and the subconscious will follow and attempt to REAL-ize those thoughts - it does not and CANNOT discriminate. In that regard, it is like a computer. It does what it is told. Countless examples of the power of the mind are available; people healing themselves of otherwise "untreatable" or "terminal" conditions through nothing more than sheer belief - as well as their opposite - sickness brought into reality from belief as well. All physical conditions and situations are born in the spirit (or aether). It is in this realm that they begin to take form as thought. Thought then becomes word, word becomes action, action then becomes habit. Look at successful people and you will see that they do not sit around feeling sorry for themselves, nor fretting about the future, nor saying or even thinking negative things about themselves. They use the art of 'self-programming' to overcome doubt and fear and replace these with optimism and a sense of real magic. In the context of higher dimensions, the universe is like a great "sorting machine" - working tirelessly and very efficiently to divide those who gravitate to Love from those who are instead drawn to fear. This is the *true* reason behind the often cited "Law of Attraction" and further evidence of the above mentioned statement "Where the mind goes, energy follows".
If you cannot Love yourself, then how can you POSSIBLY love another?
7. Live in the moment
So many people live their lives in a state of dissatisfaction with the present, holding a belief that if only they had [such and such], THEN they would be happy. It might be the ideal partner, wealth, health or a possession or ability - basically anything that can be physically attained. The Bible refers to this as Satan always trying to *tempt* one with visions of happiness if ONLY one had something they do not currently possess. You hear this all the time; "I'll be happy when I get my own place", "If only I had a million dollars, then I could relax", "All I need is the perfect partner and I'd be set". It is an extremely rare instance that attainment of these things actually brings the happiness sought for. The problem has it's roots in dissatisfaction with the NOW. In the realm of the Divine, there is NO TIME. Time is a linear construct - a way for the mind to classify what is a memory (the past), what is current input from the senses (the present) and what is imagined (the future). ALL of them are ultimately no more than electrical impulses in the brain, subsequently processed by one's belief systems and then fed to the subconscious which enacts them. By placing your attention on the past or the future, you effectively relinquish your control and assertion over what is REAL - the NOW. Your mind will tell you that what you are sensing NOW is somehow insufficient or inadequate and present to you either recollection of past events ("It was so much better back when....) or musings of an imagined future ("Things WILL so much better when....). In either case, one is effectively signaling to the universe that one is not happy with their existence as it stands. This creates a dissonance with the true reality. If you cannot be happy in the NOW, you will basically NEVER be happy, no matter WHAT you attain. You may think that a million dollars is all you need to be happy. And, whilst it is true that if you somehow managed to get that money, it would make you happy for a period of time, this happy state would eventually come to an end and you would find yourself exactly back where you started. And when you really look at this, the reason becomes clear. You are ALWAYS in the NOW. So if you cannot be happy in THIS now, then you cannot be happy in all other nows because they are ALL THE SAME NOW. "NOW" is the only moment in which you can exert any real control. You cannot exert any direct influence over the past nor the future by focusing on them - you can only affect the NOW - and that is with your attitude towards it. By loving who you are right NOW and loving the condition you find yourself in NOW, you can only then begin to transform both the past and the future.
Addendum: As I am writing this, I am as happy as I could ever possibly be. The focus is on LOVE, the subject is LOVE and the blog is created OUT of LOVE. While I am engaged in this activity, I am feeling better than ever, my needs are all met, I am protected from all exterior assaults and dangers and I am concreting my connection with the source of all things. The energy flow comes directly back to it's Source, but with GAIN (or amplification), for in it's journey, it has met your eyes and touched your heart - even if only for an instant. It is a testimony to itself and a reflection of it's own content.
Truly it is said "We ARE the very process we seek to understand".
LOVE is the answer to all questions and the solution to all problems.
All else is ILLUSION.
ABOUT THE CREATIVE CRUSADER
Inventor, Social Crusader, Marketing Guru MICHAEL GOEBEL shares a beautiful piece of advice for those who's hearts are open to change.
