Life 01 (May 08 - Oct 08)

[winston]

Enlightenment means literally aligning to the Energy of my Source. And genius is only about focusing. Law of Attraction takes care of everything else. Physical humans often want to make enlightenment about finding some process and moving through the process that has been pre-described.

But true enlightenment is moving to the rhythm of the internal inspiration that is coming in response to the individual desire. Enlightenment is about allowing my Connection to the Source that is me for the fulfillment of the things that I have individually defined here in my time-space-reality. That's as good as it gets! --- Abraham

[winston]

We are all Vibrational Beings. You're like a receiving mechanism that when you set your tuner to the station, you're going to hear what's playing. Whatever you are focused upon is the way you set your tuner, and when you focus there for as little as 17 seconds, you activate that vibration within you. Once you activate a vibration within you, Law of Attraction begins responding to that vibration, and you're off and running--whether it's something wanted or unwanted --- Abraham
Excerpted from the workshop in North Los Angeles, CA on Sunday, August 18th, 2002

Think of this random Universe where everything is possible. The organizational skills belong to Law of Attraction. If you will relax and allow Law of Attraction to do the organization, the managing, then you can spend your time doing the things that please you. --- Abraham; Excerpted from the workshop in Cincinnati, OH on Saturday, September 21st, 2002

Law of Attraction says, "That which is like unto itself is drawn." Vibrations are always matched. So, as you experience the contrast which inspires the new desire, this new desire, whether it is a strong one or a soft one, is summoning unto itself proportionately. And as it summons, it is always answered. It is the basis of our Universe: When it is asked, it is always given. Humans think they are asking with their words, or even with their action, and sometimes you are, but the Universe is not responding to your words or your action. The Universe is responding to your vibrational calling. --- Abraham
Excerpted from the workshop in Cincinnati, OH on Saturday, July 15th, 2000

Within the seed of your desire is everything necessary for it to blossom to fulfillment. And Law of Attraction is the engine that does the work. Your work is just to give it a fertile growing place in order to expand --- Abraham
Excerpted from the workshop in Albuquerque, NM on Sunday, May 9th, 1999

Everything is valid and everything is truthful, because Law of Attraction lets everything be. The question is not whether it's right or wrong, whether their approach is right or wrong, or whether my approach is right or wrong. The question is: Does their approach feel good to me? And if it doesn't, then I choose a different approach. --- Abraham
Excerpted from the workshop in Los Angeles, CA on Sunday, August 2nd, 1998

Law of Attraction abounds, and when it is said to you, "Ask, and it is given," there is no more powerful statement that is at the basis of what makes things happen than that. Now, how is it that you think you ask? With your words? The Universe doesn't hear your words. You ask with your desire. The desire that is born out of the contrast. That desire. That wanting. That's what summons the Life Force. --- Abraham; Excerpted from the workshop in Seattle, WA on Sunday, June 21st, 1998

When you begin to understand Law of Attraction, and you understand that which is like unto itself is drawn, then it is easier and easier to understand that you are offering a signal, and the entire Universe responds. And when you finally get that, and you begin to exercise some deliberate control about the signal that you offer, then it really begins to be fun, because then you recognize that nothing happens outside of your creative control. There are no things that happen by chance or by circumstance. There is nothing that is happening because of something you vibrated a long time ago or in a past life. It is not about what you were born into. It is only about what you are, right now, in this red hot fresh moment emitting. --- Abraham; Excerpted from the workshop in Seattle, WA on Saturday, June 20th, 1998

Law of Attraction says, "That which is like unto itself is drawn." Which means vibrations are always matched. So as you experience the contrast which inspires the new idea within you, this new idea --this desire -- whether it is a strong one or a soft one, is summoning unto itself proportionately. And as it summons, it is always answered. It is the basis of our Universe: When it is asked, it is always given. The confusion that humans feel is that they think they are asking with their words -- or even with their action -- and sometimes you are. But the Universe is not responding to your words or your action. The Universe is responding to your vibrational calling. --- Abraham; Excerpted from the workshop in Cincinnati, OH on Saturday, July 15th, 2000

[winston]

If you examine your history, you cannot help but repeat it! Law of Attraction says it is so: "Whatever I am looking at, I am including in my vibration." --- Abraham; Excerpted from the workshop in Boston, MA on Sunday, October 10th, 1999

Within the seed of your desire is everything necessary for it to blossom to fulfillment. And Law of Attraction is the engine that does the work. Your work is just to give it a fertile growing place in order to expand. --- Abraham; Excerpted from the workshop in Albuquerque, NM on Sunday, May 9th, 1999

What we would do for yourself -- for your next physical experience (and you can do this). . . We would begin, right now, by infusing this physical time/space reality with as much understanding of the Law of Attraction as you can, so that you add to this vortex of knowing. That makes it more likely that -- as you and others participate within it -- you will have easy access to this understanding that all is well. --- Abraham; Excerpted from the workshop in Los Angeles, CA on Sun, Jan 31st, 1999

Is it possible to be the visionary and the actionary of your own life? Not only possible, it's the way most of you intended it to be. It's the best of all worlds. What can be more exhilarating than to find a dream from the contrast, to fixate on the dream and let it give you pleasure as it grows, and then to watch Law of Attraction bring it into manifestation while you help with your action? Does it get any better than that? You didn't think so as you made the decision to come forth into these physical bodies. You said, "This is the best time in all eternity for a Creator to Create." --- Abraham; Excerpted from the workshop in Kansas City, KS on Sunday, September 27th, 1998

You have more harmony points with every person on the planet than you have disharmony points, because there is much more of you that is in harmony with your Core than you realize or that most of you allow. The closer you come to being in harmony with your Source Energy, the more in harmony you are with each other. When you think about other people and what they think of you, do you understand that what they think of you has very little to do with what you are? It has mostly to do with the habits of thought that they have developed. It has more to do with them as thinkers than it does with you as the subject of their thought. If nothing is more important to you than that you feel good, you can form a fantasy about someone who is in your life and they will begin to modify to meet your fantasy, because Law of Attraction is a very powerful thing. --- Abraham; Excerpted from the workshop in Asheville, NC, on Saturday, September 5th, 1998

As you perceive something, you give birth to a thought, and this thought now thinks. Now that it exists, now that it has been conjured, now that it has been focused,now it vibrates. Now, by Law of Attraction, other thoughts that are vibrationally same will come to it. So it begins its expansion immediately. --- Abraham; Excerpted from the workshop in Philadelphia, PA on Thursday, October 15th, 1998

[winston]

It's not your work to make anything happen. It's your work to dream it and let it happen. Law of Attraction will make it happen. In your joy, you create something, and then you maintain your vibrational harmony with it, and the Universe must find a way to bring it about. That's the promise of Law of Attraction. --- Abraham; Excerpted from the workshop in Larkspur, CA on Sunday, August 16th, 1998

Genius. It is just attention to something specific. That's all it is. Law of Attraction makes it happen, and so anyone who gives attention to any subject for a period of time will evolve in the direction of that understanding. --- Abraham; Excerpted from the workshop in San Diego, CA on Saturday, February 7th, 1998

Law of Attraction is Universal, and every person is affected by it. And it is always true that what I think and what I feel and what I get are always a match, and there is not a person on the planet that did not know that when they were born, and there is not a person on the planet that would not benefit by knowing it. But many, many, many are not yet asking and therefore are not yet ready for the answer. And so, we would say that -- although everyone wants this information -- everyone is not necessarily ready for it. We would not spend any time trying to convince anybody of anything because if they're not asking, your answers are just irritating. --- Abraham; Excerpted from the workshop in San Diego, CA on Saturday, February 7th, 1998

Use whatever excuse you can to vibrate in harmony with those things you've been saying you want. And when you do, those things that are a vibrational equivalent flow into your experience in abundance. Not because you deserve it, not because you've earned it, but because it's the natural consequence of the Law of Attraction. That which is like unto itself is drawn. --- Abraham; Excerpted from the workshop in Silver Spring, MD on Saturday, April 19th, 1997

If you've got somebody's aspects in your experience that you don't like, there's only one reason they're there. You keep evoking them with your attention to them. Without knowing about Law of Attraction, you have -- through your old habit of observation -- achieved vibrational harmony with the parts of them that you do not like, and you keep summoning those parts from them by your constant vibrational offering of them. --- Abraham; Excerpted from the workshop in San Francisco, CA on Saturday, January 1st, 2000

As you identify the thing that you want and you achieve vibrational harmony with it, by Law of Attraction you summon the Energy through you, and that is what life is. When someone stops desiring, Life Force no longer flows through them, and then they re-emerge into the Nonphysical where you have all kinds of goals and intentions. --- Abraham; Excerpted from the workshop in Lincroft, NJ on Tuesday, October 15th, 1996

Your prayer causes you to focus, and the Law of Attraction causes everything in the Universe that's in vibrational harmony with your focus to come to you. --- Abraham; Excerpted from the workshop in Lincroft, NJ on Tues, October 15th, 1996

There has never been an injustice anywhere in this physical time/space reality or anywhere else. Law of Attraction does not promote injustice. Law of Attraction amplifies the vibration that is within you. --- Abraham; Excerpted from the workshop in Tarrytown, NY on Saturday, May 8th, 2004

The thought that you think, you think, which attracts to it; so you think it some more, which attracts to it; so you think it some more. In other words, when you have an expectation, you've got a dominant thought going on, and Law of Attraction is going to deliver that to you again, and again and again. And you say "The reason that I believe this, is because it is true." And we say, the reason that you believe it, is because you've practiced the thought. All that a belief is, is a thought that you keep practicing. --- Abraham; Excerpted from the workshop in Indianapolis., IN on Tuesday, May 28th, 2002

Just love everybody that interacts with you no matter how personally, or how peripherally, involved with you they are. The efficiency of the people who deal with you... everything is orchestrated by the manager called Law of Attraction. And your vibration is setting all of it into motion. Everything affecting you is a reflection of the vibration that you are emitting. Spend more time focused upon your dream than upon the reality. The reality gives birth to the dream -- but the dream is where you are wanting to put your attention. --- Abraham; Excerpted from the workshop in Houston, TX on Sat, January 13th, 2001

[winston]

Panic No More by Bob Tschannen-Moran

How many ways can we catastrophize a change? Over the course of the past week, financial headlines ran out of adjectives. Consider, as a case in point, the following headlines taken from the Wall Street Journal digital network:
Global stock free-fall
Worldwide wreckage
Japan dives further
Capital fears slam capitol
Recession fears hit Europe
Bears maul global markets
No end to the bleeding
Sell-off tsunami
Worldwide wipeout

You get the idea. Indeed, you probably get the feeling as well. That's what behavioral scientists call "emotional contagion." When one person feels something, a person close to them, either in proximity or in affinity, feels it as well. When enough people feel something, everyone feels it as well. It's the flock of birds phenomenon: when a few birds get spooked, the whole flock takes off. No sense waiting around to find out you were wrong.

That's what's been happening with many people and the market. As the headlines come in and anxiety levels increase, panic ensues. The resultant decisions of large numbers of sleep-deprived and panic-stricken people, from those trying to manage the situation to those being victimized by the situation, end up being tainted with stress hormones. And we just don't do our best thinking under those conditions.

I know. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, in my Provision titled Step Back, I suffered a panic attack in December of 2007. I bring it up again now, for three reasons. One, panic is becoming a more ubiquitous experience. Just look at the headlines; panic is a virulent virus. Increased ER admission for mental health problems in the wake of the current crisis testify to the problem. Two, I've made a lot of progress in both my understanding and management of the condition. The experience of panic and of an overactive nervous system has largely abated in my daily life. Three, when I wrote about panic attack the first time many people responded with panic stories of their own, suggestions for me, and requests for help.

I appreciated that outpouring of concern, sympathy, and support. In this Provision I would like to share a little more of my own experience, particularly during these anxious times, in case any more readers find it helpful.

Sleep deprivation, in my experience, is both cause and symptom of panic. Let's understand the basic rhythm of work and rest, day and night. During the day we exert ourselves and work to meet our needs. Such exertion stimulates the production of stress hormones, whether we think of something as stressful or not. We may enjoy chasing down that tiger, whether literally or figuratively, but it still exacts a price on our systems. Whether it be the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat, we still experience the same rush of effects.

Stress hormones that our bodies produce naturally during the day include epinephrine, norepinephrine, and corticosteroids. The more stimulation we experience the more stress hormones we produce. That's good, up to a point, since those hormones assist us to get our work done. In the extreme case of chasing (or being chased by) real tigers, these hormones gear us up for the fight-or-flight response. Our blood pressure rises, our hearts pump faster, the flow of blood is diverted from the digestive system to the muscle, our metabolism rises, our pupils dilate, and our blood sugar levels soar to provide fuel for the muscles to burn.

Anyone who's ever had a panic attack will recognize those symptoms. They're not fun, but they have their place. The problem arises when these hormones accumulate in our systems to high levels over time. That's when they injure every organ system in the body, from our hearts to our brains. Stress literally kills by damaging tissues, triggering diabetes, weakening bones, injuring brain cells, agitating the nervous system, and suppressing the immune system. There's no way to be happy and healthy with ever increasing levels of stress hormones in our bodies.

So what's a person to do? There's really only two strategies, and both are important. First, we need to manage our stress by day. Then, we need to sleep well by night. Since my panic attack last December, I have focused on both strategies. By day I have done such things as breathwork, meditation, taking breaks, automating systems, bolstering reserves, avoiding stimulants like caffeine, and appreciating the present moment.

Such stress-relieving activities are essential daily habits. They are not effective as one-time treatments. The more we do them the more relief they offer from the daily influx of stress hormones. That's especially true now, as people deal with the changes in global markets and financial systems. The more threatening we perceive the changes to be, the more stress hormones they generate.

One way to take a break from the catastrophizing headlines is to just not look at them for certain periods of time. It's called a news fast, where for 24-hours you don't look at any of your normal information outlets (print, screen, radio, etc.). The point is not to bury your head in the sand or to pretend that nothing is happening. The point is to lower both the volume and the frequency of those stress-stimulating stories. Taking intentional breaks can be an effective strategy for managing stress by day. So, too, with reducing or eliminating caffeine and other stimulants from your diet.

But stress management by day, in and of itself, is not enough. Stress recovery by night is just as important, and perhaps even more important. The function of a good night's sleep is to neutralize any stress hormones that may remain in your system from your daily activities. No matter how good you may be at managing stress by day, there will always be some stress hormones left over at the end of the day. Restful sleep mops those up so we can start the new day refreshed and ready to go again.

Just as stress generates its own set of hormones, so does rest. The primary rest hormone is melatonin, produced primarily by the pineal gland in response to darkness and sleep (small amounts are also produced by the retina and the gut). The natural production of melatonin declines with age and is also restricted or even eliminated altogether when we stay up all night with electric lights, electromagnetic fields, and 24-7 stimulation.

That's part of the problem with our current worldwide panic attack. The people managing the attack may be competent and well intentioned, but in their sleep-deprived and stress-full states they cannot be expected to consistently make good decisions. That's why we've seen so many deals come apart at the seams; they were designed poorly in the first place by the raging course of stress hormones.

Those same people, bless their hearts, are also suffering the health effects of having so many stress hormones continually coursing through their bodies. When every moment is a fight-or-flight moment, the body eventually gives out and succumbs to all manner of physical and psychological maladies. Without enough melatonin in the system to off-set the adrenalin, the body eventually shuts down.

That's why many doctors and health practitioners recommend supplementation with melatonin before falling asleep at night. Travelers have long used melatonin when they cross time zones, to reset the body's circadian rhythm to the new setting of the sun. That takes advantage of melatonin's ability to induce sleep, but melatonin does far more than to just make a person drowsy. Taken regularly, it also promotes good health by assisting the body to recover from the stresses and strains of daily life.

Although it's always valuable to check with your doctor before taking any supplements, especially if you are taking medications, the following dosages of melatonin are recommended by Drs. Pierpaoli & Regelson to be taken at night, within 60 minutes before going to sleep:
Ages 40-44: .5-1 mg at bedtime
Ages 45-54: 1-2 mg at bedtime
Ages 55-64: 2-2.5 mg at bedtime
Ages 65-74: 2.5-5 mg at bedtime
Ages 75 plus: 3.5-5 mg at bedtime

People younger than 40 can take melatonin, particularly if they have troubles with hyperactivity and attention deficits, but most people younger than 40 are making enough on their own. Once we hit 40, however, the natural production of melatonin goes down until it all but disappears after the age of 60.

I have found that taking melatonin according to the above schedule has improved my sleep and brought tremendous relief to my overactive nervous system. I no longer feel as if I am continuously managing my condition; instead, I feel as though my body has reset itself and is better able to recover naturally from stress. Even in the midst of a worldwide panic attack, I feel calm. That's not because my investments are doing better than anyone else's -- they're not. That's rather because my system is getting the support it needs to recover from these and other strains on a daily basis.

If you are having a hard time coping with the changes and challenges of life, then it would serve you well to develop new stress-management and sleep-enhancing routines on a daily basis. You may want to try melatonin; if so, I have two recommendations. First, I like the sublingual formulations where you let a small pill dissolve slowly under your tongue as you go to sleep at night. It's both soothing and more rapidly absorbed into your system. Second, I like melatonin-only formulations. Some brands come mixed with vitamin B-6 or other compounds. Those are known to cause problems with some people.

No one can go-go-go all the time without burning out and breaking down. So do what you can to make sure that doesn't happen to you. Take charge of your days and nights to stay happy and healthy on the trek of life.

[winston]

It's the 15th day of the Lunar Calendar tomorrow. The moon is very bright tonight.

Have a look at it now. It's so beautiful.

[winston]

Look in the Mirror: Your Teacher Awaits You By Andrea Lee Avari, Ph.D.

It is time to stop looking for others to guide us to inner peace. It is time to look in the mirror and see our teacher. It is us; it has always been us.

We have been looking for signposts to guide our way and somehow we tend to get caught up in another’s story and their interpretations. The bookcases full of books we all have may have been helpful and uplifting in some cases but after awhile we realize in different ways and in different words, they all say the same thing: inner peace is within us.

There are self-proclaimed gurus and spiritual teachers everywhere and a new product to buy to help us find enlightenment at every turn. They all hold the hope that we can make it; we can get where “they” are. There is no ‘where’. We are the ones we are seeking.

It sounds so simple as we put down the books and discuss it with our friends, but then life happens and we are challenged to respond in non-attachment and allowance rather than falling back into the same old thinking and reacting patterns of lower vibrations. How do we actually create and sustain the process within ourselves?

Look in the mirror. There is the person who knows, who contains the essence of inner knowing and always has. This person knows by an inner resonance. There is a felt sense of knowing what is true in the heart and the body. When this person is quiet and calm, the inner voice can be heard whispering the way. This person is each one of us.

A life has been lived by each of us and continues to evolve from fear to love if we make a higher vibrational choice in every moment. Our entire life is a meditation. Each one of our lives is continually pointing to that which yearns to be gathered into love. Sometimes we are embarrassed by choices we have made in our lives but these points of shame are the very points of healing for us, if we are willing to hold them in the transforming light of acceptance.

Sometimes we may feel victimized by relationships or events in our lives. In order to be a victim there must be a persecutor for us to blame for our troubles. And then we hope for a rescuer to ease our pain. That ‘saving grace’ may come in the soothing form of another person, approval, chocolate, sex, TV, drinking, something to smoke, shopping, anything that suppresses the painful feelings for a while.

If we can see the distressing event as a gift for our growth, a doorway of opportunity to learn how to love ourselves more deeply, then we create our own process of healing. We can learn to observe the distress within a state of mindfulness, bringing our full attention to it. We learn to hold the circumstance with compassionate awareness as it dissolves. By allowing the highest vibration of compassion, we transmute the fearful thoughts into light. We take responsibility for our lives rather than turning our attention outward to temporary external solutions.

The life that has been living in fear keeps knocking on the door of healing which is our heart. Our stories contain every bit of wisdom we need. And then we realize that we are not our stories. We remember that the earth is a classroom for our learning. Our own particular stories were created by our souls to help us transform the places of fear into places of awareness and acceptance. And in that way our human opaqueness becomes translucent and luminous and the world becomes brighter because of each individual process of courage to open to what is.

It is our job to hold those points of blocked light in an embrace of compassionate awareness. We know those areas of resistance better than anyone else. The old proverb says when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. So often we thought it meant someone else was coming to help us find the way. We are the way.

The signposts on our path are the circumstances and relationships in our life. We become our own best friend who will never leave us as we continue to act out of that place of self-compassion. We are not our life stories. Our lives are not something that happens to us or is done to us. Our lives are our most profoundly creative meditation.

[winston]

Success Begins After You Fall by Mike Brescia

"Everyone has his superstitions. One of mine has always been when I started to go anywhere, or to do anything, never to turn back or to stop until the thing intended was accomplished."
-Ulysses Grant, 18th President of the United States

"Is that task really so big and bad that I can't get it done in a relatively short time? How will I feel when I'm done?"

I'm convinced of it. It's your day. And today you're going to get up all your courage and just do what you've been aching to do.

Just before you begin taking the first actions in attacking your challenge, you might be shaking like a leaf. I don't know.

But it's at that moment, when you're feeling the most frightened that you'll be making your biggest strides.
Because today, you're not going to back down. You're going to take a deep breath and go forward.

Are you guaranteed success? Will you reach your goal for sure? Will you absolutely get the outcome you're hoping for?

Not a chance...

But you'll prove to yourself and everyone that thinks that sometimes you're a dead person who just hasn't been buried
yet, that you're alive and starting to kick.

People who know me well can tell you that I have failed at more things than I have succeeded at. But every time I get
thrown for a loop, I immediately jump up. I ask myself what I should learn from it. And if I have to, I start completely over.

So many years after my "awakening," I'm still growing as fast as I ever have.

I remember my football coaches yelling at me after getting knocked down to "Get up! The play's not over yet!"
It's true...

In your own life, when you make a mistake or get laughed at, if your immediate response is to put your head down and
start crying, you won't be able to see the next opportunity that's passing right in front of you, riding in the wake of your agony.

Get up!

I'm your coach now. Don't you dare give up. Not while I'm breathing will you ever again put your tail between your legs and turn away from what might be your greatest accomplishments. I won't accept that from you.

Not from you. You're too good.

Is that an odd way to describe your failure and humiliation?

Well, whenever you've succeeded at getting your way at just about anything, it's rarely been on the first try.
Right? It's usually been after being told 'No' a few times, or screwing something up a bunch of times before finally getting it right.

Well, isn't that true?

Take that template for success and place it over everything you want to do. Everything.

When you think about some goal that seems quite a stretch for you, and the thought comes in that says, "I couldn't do that," stop and place your previous success template over it. Know that no matter how big it is, if you just "remember" that, while it might be difficult, you CAN do it. And you're already half way there.

Do this all day today. "I can do it" needs to be your mantra.

If you do, I promise you that your muscles will be stretched. Your mind will be stretched. And those goals that "looked" impossible will suddenly seem do-able.

It'll be like you've been given a new pair of eyes.

Don't just sit there...

Get up. Today's not over.

It's your day. Tomorrow may never come. Today is your whole life. Do what you fear today. You may never have another chance. Take your shot.

Oh heck. Take 20 shots.

And take them all today.

[winston]

Let’s Talk About Money, Honey: Using the Law of Attraction to Create Abundance in a Shaky Economy By Elizabeth A. Grant

We’re all aware that we are in a down economic cycle. And if you have enough life experience, you probably know that the economy is cyclical (like everything in life). This isn’t the first economic down cycle I’ve experienced, and it surely won’t be the last.

But what do you do from a Law of Attraction standpoint with all the doomsday news going on around you? Here are some tips:

1) Keep informed if you’d like, but do not inundate yourself with information. If you hear it enough times, you will actually start to believe that no one will thrive in this economy --- yet, that is simply not factually true.

2) Every time you see this doomsday evidence, correct the thought in your mind with something truthful and positive that’s the opposite of the news you’re hearing.

For instance, if you hear, “Things are going to get a lot worse before they get better,” choose a thought like, “There are billions of people in the world. I only need to attract 20 clients into my life at any given time who can afford my services. Easy!”

3) Remind yourself that your happiness does not come from external conditions. It comes from deep down inside of you. Even if you lose your job, home or some other external part of your life, you do NOT have to let it ruin your life. Embrace whatever comes your way and let your life take you where you want to go.

4) Find gratitude in every experience you have. Whether it’s a learning experience, the chance to really put your spiritual bliss to the test and prove your happiness comes from a deeper place, or just the chance to gain empathy for others, there is something to be grateful for in every experience we have.

5) Do not let economic news create doubt in your mind. Continue to put all of your attention on achieving your goals as if it is a given they will manifest. Does a downturn in the stock market mean you don’t get to live the life you dreamed of? Somebody’s script will be bought, somebody’s coaching practice will thrive, somebody’s products will sell. … might as well be yours! Assume it will be yours and keep going forward. Keep your attention on what you want and what you like.

6) Take daily steps to feel abundant. Here are some ideas: Do something nice for yourself, plan how you will invest that money when it arrives, test drive the car you want, take financially responsible action, develop a future budget that you will implement when your income increase to your target level.

Make plans as if it’s a given the money will arrive. And for goodness sake, don’t spend money you don’t have. You must take in more money than goes out … if you don’t do this, you cannot create wealth consciousness. Your sponsoring thought will continue to be worry.

7) If your budget falls short, look at ways of evening it up. There are only two ways to do this: cut back on spending, or bring in more money. There are lots of ways to bring in another income stream. You could start a direct selling business. Or you could get a second job. You could call your creditors and ask them to lower your interest rates. You can make sure your withholding is appropriate so you’re not overpaying Uncle Sam all year.

8) Through life’s greatest changes and transitions come life’s greatest opportunities. Embrace what comes your way, and let the universe take you where you want to go. A few years ago, I was laid off. It was the best thing that ever happened to me. I was given a little push to do what I’d always wanted – become a writer and find deeper meaning in my life. Out of that came a thriving freelance writing career, abundant book editing work, an audio book, a coaching practice and a budding additional career as a singer/songwriter. Wow! All from one layoff. I’m so grateful!

Economic conditions do not have to affect your mindset, beliefs or your personal happiness. Use these tips and you’ll continue to feel abundant — a key to attracting more abundance into your life.

[winston]

Stumbling On Happiness by Alexander Green

The recent decline in home values and the stock market - not to mention corporate and municipal bond markets - has left most investors with less than they had a year ago.

To meet their long-term investment goals, many will have to spend less and save more than they originally planned.

This is not easy. As the economist Adam Smith wrote in "The Wealth of Nations" in 1776:

"The desire for food is limited in every man by the narrow capacity of the human stomach; but the desire of the conveniences and ornaments of building, dress, equipage, and household furniture, seems to have no limit or certain boundary."

In the coming economic downturn, many of us will be unable to afford all the things we want. That will pinch. But should it make us unhappy?

It depends. But for most of us, the answer is a resounding no.

As Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert writes in "Stumbling On Happiness":

"Economists and psychologists have spent decades studying the relation between wealth and happiness, and they have generally concluded that wealth increases human happiness when it lifts people out of abject poverty and into the middle class but that it does little to increase happiness thereafter. Americans who earn $50,000 per year are much happier than those who earn $10,000 per year, but Americans who earn $5 million per year are not much happier than those who earn $100,000 per year.

People who live in poor nations are much less happy than people who live in moderately wealthy nations, but people who live in moderately wealthy nations are not much less happy than people who live in extremely wealthy nations. Economists explain that wealth has 'declining marginal utility,' which is a fancy way of saying that it hurts to be hungry, cold, sick, tired, and scared, but once you've bought your way out of these burdens, the rest of your money is an increasingly useless pile of paper."

If this is true, why are so many people out there busting their humps for more?

For some, it is the pursuit of financial independence, a worthy goal. But for others, the answer lies in their increasingly materialistic ways.

We all must consume to survive, of course. But when consumerism becomes an end in itself, when it overruns more important ideals, provides the measure of our success, or corrodes our capacity to know truth, see beauty or feel love, our lives are diminished.

Some will argue that for economies to flourish, we need rampant consumerism. It is consumers' insatiable hunger for more stuff that fuels the economic engine.

In many ways, this is true. In fact, the notion itself is hardly new. In 1759, Adam Smith wrote in "The Theory of Moral Sentiments":

"The pleasures of wealth and greatness ... strike the imagination as something grand and beautiful and noble, of which the attainment is well worth all the toil and anxiety which we are so apt to bestow upon it ... It is this deception which rouses and keeps in continual motion the industry of mankind."

Notice that Smith, the father of free markets, refers to the endless pursuit of more as "this deception." He recognized that the needs of a vibrant economy and the requirements for us to be happy as individuals are not the same.

Studies show that the riches and material goods we desire - should we have the good fortune to acquire them - won't necessarily make us happier. Yet we often imagine they will, even when experience teaches us otherwise.

Walk into your local auto dealership, for example, and check out the cars in the show room. They look sharp. They smell good. The tires have been blackened. The exteriors have been waxed and polished and Windexed until they gleam. In short, we are seduced by their newness.

And even though we know that a new automobile is perhaps the world's fastest-depreciating asset - and within weeks we will be mindlessly traveling from point A to B without a second thought about our vehicle's make or model - we plunk for one.

As my grandmother used to say, "Most people can't tell the difference between what they want and what they need."

(This remark, incidentally, was generally directed toward me - and my latest two-dollar object of fascination - at F.W. Woolworth's.)

Look around today and you'll have no problem finding folks with plenty of neat things: big cars, fancy boats, the latest electronic gadgets and all sorts of expensive "bling." They seem to have it all.

What you may not realize is how many of them are two payments from the edge...

Yet some middle-class Americans remain obsessed with what they don't have. To some, it just doesn't seem right - doesn't seem fair - that others have so much more than they do.

But as political satirist P.J. O'Rourke observed:

"I have a 10 year old at home, and she is always saying, 'That's not fair.' When she says that, I say, 'Honey, you're cute; that's not fair. Your family is pretty well off; that's not fair. You were born in America; that's not fair. Honey, you had better pray to God that things don't start getting fair for you.'"