Connect to the Spirit and Grow

“Sometimes valuing the life you have, and becoming more engaged with life is the greatest change you can achieve. Connecting to your spirit in this way is certainty of growth, but don't be afraid of growing slowly, only be afraid of standing still. For transformational change isn't necessarily about changing but becoming "you" - the best possible "you" there is the potential to be.”
— Mickie Kent

We've heard the saying that "we are our own worst enemy", well some experts believe that in some instances we are subconsciously sabotaging ourselves to ensure failure, because we are disconnected from our true self. Some of us can get into what we see as a cycle of "bad luck", where no matter what we do or say, everything goes downhill, and we just don't know where it all went "wrong".

No amount of effort on your part will assure your success. Not even "luck" will work. If you won a fortune on the lottery, and yet you didn't believe that you were worth winning it, then within a short while it would be gone, slipping away through your fingers, frittered away on useless schemes and ideas.

The actual work associated with achieving your goals in life represents only 25% of the task. Believing in yourself, believing that you are worth it, represents over 50% of the task. If you do not truly believe that you are worth it, all your hard work will come to nothing. You can work hard, day after day, trying, striving and sweating towards your goals, when all along, your subconscious mind is assuring your failure.

Because although consciously we may try really hard for success in our lives, the experts say subconsciously we don't believe that we are worth it, and so consequently our subconscious takes the necessary steps to ensure we fail. People who do this are said not have a positive self-image. Experts tell us that self-image is basically the perception you have of yourself - your identity, abilities, worth, and so on. It is your mental blueprint that determines:

• How you feel about yourself on a daily basis
• Who you think you are and your "role" in society
• The results you expect (and receive) in life
• How you react in certain situations
• Where your "comfort zone" is (for example: the things you would and wouldn't do)

Authorities on the subject say that self-image is one of the most powerful parts of our personality, yet we pay so little attention to it mainly because we were never taught about it in school, at work or by our parents. It's thought that self-image regulates everything you think, everything you feel, and everything you do, everyday, automatically.

For example, if you've ever tried to set a goal that's larger than what you are currently used to, then quietly backed down, returned to your comfort zone and fell into your old habits without realising it, then that's because your self-image was regulating the amount of success you can achieve. You backed down because deep down inside, it didn't feel like something "you" would do.

Another example experts give is that you wouldn't comfortably enter a room full of strangers, and happily go up to every single one of them and introduce yourself unless you "thought of yourself" as a naturally outgoing and likeable person. The thought of it might even make "you" nervous. You might say something like, "Oh, that's not who I am." Or "I'm not that kind of person."

But, how do you know who you really are? Most people have just accepted the self-image they were "given", or programmed at birth, instead of designing and installing the one they truly want. (You know this is the case when you keep trying to change but the change never sticks.) You may think you can't fight your self-image, but experts say you can change it.

Therefore, if you want to be the kind of person who gets the things you want in life, you have to see yourself as that person. Think of change as something that happens from the inside out. As you believe yourself to be this new person, your behaviours will naturally follow. This, so the experts say, is the secret to creating long term change.

Rewire your mindset for success.

What do we think of when we think about changing our lives? Experts will often endorse changing our thoughts, our behaviours, re-training ourselves, getting new habits, and then going out to try them out to bring about transformational change. Some experts have simplified changing your self-image suggesting it lessens the difficulty if you view it as 2 simple steps.

2 steps to self-change

First, spend some time designing who you want to be. Forget your past and everything you believe about yourself and allow your mind to wander and think about all the qualities you would like to have. How you would like to think, act and feel about things (with an open, non-judgemental attitude.)

Next, once you have a clear, inspiring idea of who you want to be, install it into your mind. You want to imagine yourself as this new person. There are a variety of visualisation techniques you can use to do this, you need to choose one that is right for you. Make it real by thinking of specific situations and see, hear, and feel yourself acting as this new person.

We mustn't underestimate the power of the imagination to transform and illuminate our lives. Right now, the greatest treasure on earth is energy - personal, magnetic, creative energy. This means having enough drive every day, not just to get up and take the actions necessary to materialise your goals from a sense of "flow" and vibrant passion, but also to ignite and radiate the strong magnetic presence that helps you "manifest" the things you long for in life and the opportunities that help you make your dreams reality. We can do that with imagination.

The more you do this, the more you become this new person, naturally. Maybe you want to be more outgoing, slimmer, happier. Or maybe you would rather be financially free. Whatever it is, it's now possible.

These steps include what some experts consider the hardest part of the process, changing our thoughts. "Change your thoughts to change your life" is a catchy mantra, but it's easier said than done. From the body of research out there, it entails changing the way that we use our minds - and process memories and events - to make our lives totally shift and change around. Breaking out from the shell of past programming may for some mean detaching and de-cluttering themselves from a lifetime accumulation of material things, for others it could be letting go of people or circumstances that no longer serve you.

It's a transitional time, and indeed, the one thing that marked 2012 was the term "transit period". The phrase has been used a lot; especially by those interested in the Mayan mythos about the long countdown to "the end of the world" in December. Future readers of this article might smirk at that; but they have to see it in context of the world as it was then, but is for us now. With a tsunami threat to the island chain of Hawaii just recently downgraded, and several states in the United States shutting down for the arrival of Hurricane Sandy - you can't blame people for entertaining apocalyptic ideas.

Some hope it will be the end of an era, and the birth of a new tranquil phase in our human history. Astrologers describe transit periods as the time where the planets align and all of the powerful influences in the universe are poised with their powerful energies to be a guide to peace, prosperity and personal power. They believe that people on the cusp of their transit period are energised by these enlightening energies.

It can be overwhelming, however, when the life we know breaks down; we fear the changes inside us as we fear change in the world. To some in 2012, it will feel like the world has been shovelling the dirt of the centuries, with a lot of it coming to the surface, creating hard times that we must all deal with. Likewise with change in our own lives, the fear can be debilitating. However, although we experience this as the life we knew "breaking down", what we're really doing is breaking through to a new reality and thus to a new life experience.

Once you make the conscious decision that you want to break out and bring about a transformation and change your life, the field of "infinite awareness" (often dubbed "the universe") is believed will come to your aid, but "being spiritual" - which people often associate with romanticised images of birds flying, flowers blossoming, and having a choir of angels rhapsodising in the background as they speak - is hard work.

Connect with your spirit

“We see and experience God within us, yet we deny it. Some say God exits, but away from us. Way out there somewhere. And the further away we imagine God to be, the further away you step from your own truth. By ignoring it, or by seeing it and denying it, or by changing it, twisting it, contorting it to fit a preconceived notion others have had through the centuries on how things must be, only serve to further disconnect us from what we know in our hearts. That God is with us, inside us, and we are one. Call it by any other name - soul, spirit or universal energy - but the source is still the same.”
— Mickie Kent

Connecting with spirit is about cracking through the energetic concrete that may have been holding you back from experiencing your true desires in the first place. And some believe that's the crux. We're all projecting a vibrational field that reflects our current mental, emotional and spiritual state. If all three are not aligned in harmonious synergy to work with each other, then our vibrational field won't be at its optimum. It might sound like we have to train to have the balance of a tightrope walker, but we had to learn to walk as babies - and this is much the same thing.

Some experts claim that it's our belief system (of mind, body and soul aligned) that dictates which energy fields within "all that exists" (i.e., the "universe") our consciousness decides to ignore or to "read" (and thus manifest). It's like our consciousness chooses which track to play on a "universal DVD", and then makes that one visible. And the choice which track to play is based on what we currently believe and think/feel of ourselves.

Experts in this field therefore say, once you make the conscious decision to change yourself and your life experience, you make the decision to change in a total way. It's not like you can change just a bit, so you can attract some specific "thing" to you, while everything else in your life stays the same. This isn't about ego, or artificial confirmations of "success" or "power"; instead it's about negating what doesn't serve you.

The power to lighten up

One particular aspect we tend to highly underestimate the potential to radically turn things around in your life is the power to lighten up. We might not realise the extreme impact of this on our state of being, and it probably sounds extremely simplistic, but if we believe that we are not our bodies, but something more - then it makes sense.

Some thinkers have tried to explain this by saying that all things "physical" are really illusionary; we are consciousness having an experience through an illusionary "space suit" (i.e., our bodies) that we think is "us".

This "space suit" is just a vehicle that allows "us" to experience this tiny frequency range that we can perceive with our physical senses, which we call "the world". The space suit isn't who we are really. It's only what we think we are. But when we buy into the belief we are merely the physical aspect, then we are restricted to the reality of the body - the illusionary "space suit" - and so we confine ourselves in a very limited perception, which can make us lose the connection to what we truly are.

Consciousness means infinite possibility. It is more than the eye can see. Life as a struggle is part of the reality of the body - the tiny bandwidth within infinite possibility that we're able to perceive. But it doesn't have to be a struggle if we can break through the vibrational concrete that enslaves us to the will of the body, and the physical program in which it interacts.

Interpreting the struggle as "real" and thus succumbing to the whims of circumstance will only create a denser vibrational state that further disconnects us from a conscious connection with what we really are. The more you think you are your body, the more you think "limited possibility". And the more you think limited possibility, the more you are not in full consciousness, but in an energetic density that's usually a manifestation of states like worry, anger, guilt, depression, resentment, or in short just an overall discord with the way things are. This is when we feel tight and heavy, and ultimately, these emotional states are all expressions of fear, and they lock you up even more into a sense of limited options and choice.

Our human energy fields that we call our bodies exist on multiple subtle levels, beyond the apparently physical level alone that we're most familiar with. Seen from the limited perspective of the physical sense (the "space suit" perspective), these emotions are all chemical reactions, with a significant role played by hormones and other chemical substances. However, the chemical reaction is merely the "physical" expression of what's happening at the subtle levels that we can't observe with our physical senses - a vibrational reaction. As such, we mistake the effect for the cause.

But meanwhile, we end up in a vicious cycle in which your denser mental and emotional state impact your perspective of possibility, which gets denser and denser, which in turn adversely influences your mental and emotional state, which in turn impacts your perspective of possibility, and so to goes on. It's a vicious cycle, or rather, a downward spiral. Experts say this cycle can be broken by laughter.

It may sound ridiculous at first, but think about it: Try to be serious (tight and heavy) when you're laughing or someone else is, and you can't. You can look at the struggle of life, and you can laugh, or you can cry. It's just a matter of choice. Most people who struggle to "manifest their desires" and "make their dreams a reality" need to break through the vibrational concrete that's keeping them small, tight and dense - be it due to physical, mental, emotional or even "essential" and "spiritual" factors.

Experts say you have to break the shell of this dense "force field", and widen your perspective to a bigger picture that provides you with a blueprint to the real you. This requires you to being concious of limiting perspectives. Some recommend we can do this by switching to two perspectives at the same time:

1. The participant
2. The observer

The participant is the part of you that's actually living the experience through your body. This is the part of you that really undergoes the struggle, like the hero or heroine in a film. And then there's the observer. The observer is the part of you that's able to step back just a bit, and watch the "film" with the other part of you participating in it.

This is the part of you that realises that all is well, because you're really infinite consciousness going through an illusionary experience that only seems real. It realises that it's okay to be in "negative" emotional states, because that enables you to identify your problems, and then get rid of them.

You can only get rid of a problem - regardless of whether it's emotional, mental, physical, and/or spiritual – when you can consciously identify it. If you don't even realise you have it, it'll stay put and remain strong outside of your conscious awareness. Once you've clearly identified the true causes of your problems, then all you need are some methods to get rid of them.

And that's what the observer part of you can do, because the observer can see the bigger picture beyond the illusionary realm of the physical senses and "negative" emotional states that are mere chemical reactions. And thus can see the funny side of life.

Thus, if we want to shovel the dirt from our own lives in this transit phase - when it seems the entire planet is going through the same processes - we have to distance ourselves from it and see it as an observer, rather than a participant. It's believed that the participant part of us can try to hamper our healing, because it treats our issues very seriously and wallows in self-pity. However, the observer part of us can see the bigger picture, that what doesn't kill us can make us stronger - and even see the funny side of certain problems.

Laughter can be a great medicine, and a great way to connect with your spirit; it raises your vibrations, and a laugh can help you shovel a lot of dirt from your life, too. We all have days that we simply feel depressed, and then we watch or hear something we think is funny, and all the tension just breaks. It's the same when you manage to make other people laugh when they feel like crying. Laughter breaks up the density and frees the energy to flow.

It has even been shown in medical trials that laughing has a wonderful healing effect on your body. Now, I don't recommend we should all laugh uncontrollably all day. But I am saying that we don't have enough laughter in our lives. And then there are people who hardly laugh at all. An English comedian called Ken Dodd put it like this: "We're all born with a chuckle muscle, and if you exercise it every day, it'll keep you young and frisky all your life. But if you don't, it dries up and drops off."

In our lives, how many times are we told we mustn't laugh? As children and throughout school we were probably told often told not to laugh. But it's time to lighten up, especially when at our most serious - because it can be like holding a candle up to chase the dark away. A situation can be depressing or fearful, or ridiculous and funny. It's just a point of observation, depending on how you look at it. Find stuff that you think is funny, and spend time with it. Use laughter as a way to connect with your spirit. Develop that chuckle muscle, and apply its strength at times you notice you feel tight and heavy.

And laughter is infectious. Use it to help others. When one person laughs, it's like permission has been granted to others to laugh as well. And when we step out of the density of our physical being now and then and see things from a bigger perspective, we can see that there is a lot to be grateful for. There's a lot of joy in just "being".

After all, if we're more than just a body and we are infinite consciousness, then we can make it a "fun" experience if we want - if only we learn to celebrate who we are and express the joy of that. Transformational change is the same - it is hard work, but it doesn't have to feel like a punishment. We can make it fun, and take it easy and at our own pace.

Discover your life goals in your own way

Transformational change means you either change in a total way, or you don't change at all, but that doesn't mean it has to be radical, or immediate. It can be a continuum - gradual steps of change that imperceptibly lead you from the "old" you into the "new". Transforming yourself is a matter of complete change, but it's no use radically trying to turn yourself inside out in a matter of months if in the long run it's going to freak you out and hinder change, rather than encourage it. If you have a lot to break free, making way for a "new" reality can be like ploughing through snow.

If you don't take a sure-footed approach, we can get consumed in all that "snow", but we have to pick up the spade, and clear away the snow from our path, a shovel at a time. The big lesson to learn from the challenges we face is to deal with things, no matter how big and scary they are. Action really does alleviate anxiety, and I always say that our fears can chase us, but they can't face us.

Learn to trust your intuition

Experts tell us that we create our reality based on what we believe, consciously and unconsciously. We may appear to believe something on a conscious level. But that's often a front to hide what's really going on subconsciously. For example, you can see this with apparently highly confident people who are really consumed by severe self-doubt just below the conscious threshold.

The way what people call the "Law of Attraction" works, is that energy (your energy) attracts energy of similar vibration. These energies manifest in the form of people, places, jobs, relationships, experiences, and the like. So once you awaken from your programming and consciously decide to make a change, the "energy matrix" that you've been calling "your life" begins to break down and change as well.

As a consequence, this must reflect itself in your "outer" world of people, places, jobs, relationships and experiences. After all, the "outer" is a reflection of the "inner", and must and cannot do anything else but follow changes in the "inner". Your energy changes, which means that the people, jobs, places, experiences and relationships you "attract" change as a consequence.

Obviously, this transformation can be extremely challenging. After all, often times needing to shovel your own dirt out of your life isn't even all you have to contend with. You're also pressured to "stay in the box" - the box that everyone is used to (or rather programmed) to accept.

For example, those around you can be ruthless in their use of some sort of "emotional blackmail" to stop you from expressing who you feel you truly are inside. Parents and friends can be extremely cruel as we try to experiment to find our own way. And they're often not even doing this consciously. It's just that apparently the change you're bringing about in their programmed reality can be quite confronting.

In the same way, we ourselves are often more concerned with what the neighbours, parents, loved ones, etc., think about what we do, rather than with pursuing with full dedication what we know makes our hearts sing. So many people don't pursue their dreams, simply because they're afraid of the reactions of other people. To break free, we must not succumb to this, and let our intuition be our guide.

You have to strengthen your connection with your spirit to such an extent that you have full trust in your inner voice to guide you. Awakening people may experience challenges like losing their jobs, and seeing their friends, relationships and acquaintances change. But experts say that you can't free yourself from your programmed reality - the one you're somehow not satisfied with in the first place - without changing the very lifestyle and mental/emotional/spiritual atmosphere that created that very programmed reality to begin with.

This doesn't mean you should "drop" your loved ones, rather you should seek the support of those who really love and accept you for who you are, and shield yourself from negativity by loving those who don't support you regardless. Laugh off the naysayers, and listen to your intuition, because listening to your soul is where true wisdom resides.

It's all about what works best for you. Turning yourself inside out can be different for everyone. After all, we all have our own issues locked up inside. So for some the process can be heavier, scarier, more unpleasant than for others, who might naturally flow into their new experience. But experts emphasise that the underlying mechanism is still the same. You have to change what you do and what you are, in order to change what you get. And what you attract is tailored to what you need, in order to experience whatever you want to experience.

We can set goals to achieve the things we want in life, but how many of us think about setting life goals for the way we should live our life? The way we live will have a profound influence on the choices we make, and this why experts says that transformational change is a complete one - not merely a slight modification, but a complete rethink of the way we live our lives. This will also help us focus on key areas of our life that we may have previously neglected, and help you make choices that are "right" for you.

One way of doing this is by breaking your life down into several key areas, assessing where you're at, and setting life goals (or working out your core values) for each. Experts suggest you can break this down into many areas, such as:

• Physical
• Mental
• Emotional
• Social
• Relationships
• Living environment
• Spiritual
• Career
• Financial

I don't think you need to make it quite that exhaustive, but it's beneficial to address at least the first four key areas of the physical, mental, emotional and social (which includes your core relationships) because these four will influence all the others (e.g., your financial areas, which include your source of income). Moreover, in my opinion, your spiritual beliefs are what will guide your core values towards your purpose, and thus be the direction your life goals will flow towards.

For example, if you have strict religious beliefs, your life goals will subconsciously be based on these anyway, or if you're an atheist, then your personal philosophy will fit in with the other aspects. But these categories can also be incredibly helpful because sitting down and closely examining all areas of your life will mean that you never focus solely on your strengths, while paying no attention to areas of imbalance.

It's fine to work on your strengths. but it isn't sustainable to ONLY work on those things. What is imbalanced will eventually have to be balanced. We must also embrace the side of us we may not want others to see - when all of our aspects has a say in our life, we will feel more connected to our whole being.

Once you have assessed the key areas of your life, experts then recommend you take a large piece of paper and divide it into three columns. In the left hand column, list the lifestyle categories you've chosen (you can choose from the list provided above, or just use the four main ones I've suggested). Leave some room in between each one so you have plenty of space to write.

In the first list under the chosen categories, write your core values, or your spiritual beliefs. For me, my physical belief is that body not all we are, but it is a beautiful organic machine that houses our existence. So I will want to align any physical goals I have with my life goal of protecting, respecting and looking after its health. My social beliefs are based on love and the sacredness of life, and so my actions and goals that drive me socially will be underpinned by that personal philosophy - and thus would include no self-harm or injury to others, for example.

Next, in the middle column, write where you find yourself right now in each category. Be brutally honest. Then in the right hand column, write how you would like your life to look in five years, in each of the categories you listed. It's fine if this right hand column is a little bit vague - just start forming images in your mind about where you might want to be, and to see those images in relation to your current position.

Now sit back and take stock of what you've written: how many of your goals in the third column are in harmony with the first? In other words, are your core values in alignment with your purpose? You'd be surprised what a difference this simple exercise can make. It can feel like an extraordinary light inside of you that has been caged has been let free, and that is what transformational change is at its core. It means it is your time to shine - to release your light into this world so that you can realise your potential. And when your energy changes, this means that the people, jobs, places, experiences and relationships you "attract" change as a consequence.

If we uphold love as a central theme in our life, it will makes us approach most things with a passion. We'll apply ourselves to greet problems with age-old wisdom we've learned. We'll realise that we deserve happiness, but more importantly, that everyone deserves happiness - because a full life is the sum of its happy parts.

Discover your passions.

We'll be energised by positive people around us, and greet loved ones with thankfulness. We'll search for answers to bypass obstacles that we feel are holding us back, and we'll be repelled by people that are negative, that we feel suck our energy from us. But just because we don't want them in our lives, doesn't mean we must resent them, either. If we know how to use the difficulties they pose to our advantage, their negativity will have helped move forward. This is part of the greater perspective.

All that happens, happens to move us on

“It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right ... you had the time of your life.”
— Green Day (from their song "Time of Your Life")

They say that you can read about the subject of self-improvement and self-mastery in an afternoon, but to study it takes a lifetime. Indeed, it is the study of a lifetime. All the different schools in this area believe there are two main aspects to self-improvement, the universal and the personal aspect. Most people know a lot about one aspect but little of the other.

The universal aspect of self is what some describe as the "source", "spirit" or "universal power" outside of us, while the personal aspect is that universal power moving inside us. In this context, some believe we are creators of our own reality (the microcosm), in the same way as scientists say the law of physics creates the entire universe (the macrocosm). Some suggest the "laws of physics" is what others have perceived as "God", and is nothing supernatural at all, but rather a misinterpretation of the way things in the universe function.

Enlightenment means "finding God" in ore ways than one. Knowledge makes us godlike; the more knowledge we acquire the more equality it gives us with "God". Thus something unknown does not automatically make it supernatural; it is simply something yet to be discovered or understood at present time, through laws that we as humans do not fully grasp yet, and which are viewed by humankind through the eyes of religion and myth.

Yet others view it as both, there are things that can be explained by science, and things that are supernatural. They argue it's a misconception that one of the goals of science is to disprove the existence of the supernatural (which sceptics claim is the case), it's just that scientists haven't encountered anything supernatural yet, hence the scepticism. However, if scientists theoretically found explicit evidence of a soul or a universal mind, would it still have to obey the laws of physics - even if it's a set we don't understand yet?

Either way, scientists argue there is still much we don't know about the natural universe as it stands. So what is the story that sustains the universe? What we do know in 2012 is that dark matter and dark energy are considered to make up a majority of the universe, in addition to the twelve fundamental particles of matter, and four forces of nature - being gravity, electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force and the strong nuclear force.

But although scientists believe they know what the universe is made out of, there is little agreement to what or who made it (if anything at all), except to remain in awe of a world that works in a seemingly dynamic mess. Sometimes we may have to even look beyond science; just because science opens the mind, it doesn't mean all scientists are open minded. Some close their minds to things that may not be empirically recorded in a laboratory. So, what are we really made of? Dig deep inside the atom, and you'll find tiny particles held together by invisible forces.

Everything is made up of tiny packets of energy born in cosmic furnaces. Our adult bodies are made up of around 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (7 octillion) atoms. The atoms that we're made of have negatively charged electrons whirling around a big bulky nucleus. This is one view of our world, and yet quantum theory offers a very different explanation. Nothing is really as it seems. In the quantum world, the world of particles, nothing is certain. It's a world of probabilities.

Is there a quantum theory to the soul?

The quantum theory is so strange and bizarre, that even Albert Einstein couldn't get his head around it. The "ultimate triumph of science", as Professor Stephen Hawking described it, would be a theory of everything, which in 2012 still lies beyond our grasp. But Hawking - arguably Britain's most famous living scientist - contests another giant in the field, Sir Isaac Newton's belief that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have been created out of chaos. Hawking said:

Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.

Thus, the argument goes, human beings must rule their world like physics governs the universe. Some schools of thought claim that this universal power is the divine nature of our being, a reflection of the greater power of creation within our spirit (and proof, therefore, that a greater power exists). As this source is tuned into via the brain, some describe it a mental power (rather than a spiritual one), which they believe can be accessed and used at will with the right training.

Proponents of this theory claim that we can use our mind at will. All power is within and is absolutely within our control. We can all train and develop our skill in using mental power. Visualisations, affirmations, reality creation, manifestation, mental influence, hypnosis, subliminal messaging and subconscious programming are all forms of using mental power. What you create in your mind becomes manifested in physical reality over time. The "Law of Attraction" is based on whatever you focus on most of the time, you get. That is why we all create our individual realities by the thoughts we think.

Thought leads to knowledge and knowledge influences thought. To be in control, you must know. It is knowing how things work and understanding what is going on that gives you awareness of the governing dynamics of reality. Some believe it is awareness that puts you in a position of being a master player instead of a pawn on a chessboard.

Does Destiny play chess?

However, others claim that mental power is spiritual power, because mind and spirit are one and the same. With the power of the universal mind, you can accomplish all miracles and do great things. The power is a natural power because it follows natural laws. Natural law, or the law of nature (as opposed to human-made laws) is a system of law that is purportedly determined by nature, and thus universal. We might think that certain things defy natural laws but that is because we are seeing things from only one level. Natural laws exist on every plane of reality, both the physical as well as the mental planes. The theory goes, therefore, that everything supernatural is actually natural when we have an understanding of a multidimensional universe.

Some say the universal laws are essentially the whole process of divinity, consciousness or energy in motion, and that we can use them to understand human nature. When we understand these laws and apply them in our life anything we want can be created. Because the same laws that nature uses to create a forest, or a galaxy, or a human body, can also bring about the fulfilment of all our desires.

All things in the universe have a connection with the universal mind. Nothing can exist without that connection. It is the universal mind by which all things consist and have their being. We are connected to everything else through the universal mind. In this sense separation is an illusion for we are all one, and disconnectedness is against our very nature.

Our physical bodies are simply channels of our energy bodies. Consciousness affects our state of being in all aspects. It is the metaphysical understanding of bodily function in holistic health surpassing the understanding of formal medical science that many believe enables curing of many incurable diseases and physical conditions.

Use food to shield yourself.

Realising the psychic nature of our thoughts, and how they connect us to our spirit, and learning how to use them consciously and effectively enables us to be much better at creating the reality we desire in account of the greatest good of all. Although adherents say there is no good or evil, merely the intent - there is no one right way, simply what is right for you - the more enlightened we become, the more powerful our thoughts.

Knowledge of this universal aspect is enough to give us a tremendous amount of power to achieve our dreams, desires, destiny and almost everything we could ever want in this life on Earth, but working for the betterment of life and the universe will double the rewards in the personal aspect of our lives. Sending thoughts of love, joy, peace, well being and happiness to someone will influence that person's mind in a positive way, but will also influence ours as well. Sending thoughts of intimidation, discord, doubt, weakness and discouragement might influence another's mind in a negative way, but at the detriment to our own. We are in essence, it's believed, "poisoning our own well".

Consequently, the universal aspect is the realm of inspiration, creativity and genius. It is the power of the universal mind that is accessible by everyone without exception. The individual mind is connected to the universal mind by thought. The ability to think makes us conscious creators. The better a person is able to think, the more intelligent he or she is. In this way, it's believed that intelligence is what separates one level of being from another. We are all equal aspects of creation, but we all manifest the power of creation at varying degrees.

And one aspect of creation is transformational change - if life is energy, then energy is in constant movement, or flow, and thus we must grow by moving forward, rather than allowing our fears - which tie us into a limiting perspective - to make us stand still. And sometimes to move forward, we have to shovel dirt from our lives.

As much as we want to be an observer in our lives, and find the funny side to our problems, the reality is that it won't always be pleasant. But clearing a path towards our passions will be the greatest liberation we ever feel. And our life will transform magnificently; we will realise that everything that happens, happens to move us on - and what we see as "good" or "bad" is just a limiting perspective.

Similarly, true love does not always give the receiver what it would like to receive. But it will always give that which is best for it. So welcome everything you receive, whether you like it or not. What appears to be a problem can be a wonderful opportunity waiting to be discovered. Life often so brilliantly disguises our greatest gifts as what might seem "our worst nightmare" because of our lack of self-image.

The trick is to trust your intuition, to trust what you know is right for you. Be confident in yourself. Trust who you truly are, and live that image with full self-esteem. Before you know it you'll notice your life has changed because of what you've experienced going through these challenges, not in spite of it - to transform your energy and experience in order to live you dream.

If you are feeling tempted to give up, think about a time when something great happened in your life. Then look further back at all of the events that went on before that thing happened - all the trigger points, all the coincidences, all the pieces that fell into place. Then look for the point in that journey when it seemed that nothing was going to turn out right, when in fact it seemed that everything was falling apart. Those times that you look back on after the amazing thing has finally happened and you say, "Oh I get it, that's why that happened!"

Use that to keep you going, and to remind you that sometimes it is in the moment you most want to throw in the towel, that the "thing" happens which triggers you to start down the right path and ultimately leads you to success. What is transpiring in your life right now could crossing your path for a reason, to connect you with the next stage in your life.

Ponder on anything you do not like, and see if you can understand why it was necessary. Acceptance will then be very much easier, and in doing so we grow, in perspective, in spirit - but just as importantly, with love.

Yours in love,