If you missed the Annemiek Douw interview last week you can listen to it here by clicking on the BlogTalkRadio logo:
Annemiek Douw says you can tap into and master your inner GPS. Annemiek Douw is the author of 21 Layers of the Soul: Healing the Karmic Ties with Friends, Lovers, Family and Enemies.
Here are some talking points from the interview with Annemiek Douw:
An illness caused her to re-arrange her life
Those who “pass over” remain much as they were in life
People take their issues with them when they pass on
Some people can’t stop cheating on their partners
Article: Normal Is An “N” Word: Strike It From Your Consciousness Dictionary
Are you normal? Are you sure? Then again, what is normal? Is it wearing the latest styles, or voting as your parents did, or being blonde, or adhering to the “true” religion?
Starting early in life most of us felt the pressure from our schools and our tribes to be normal. For generations society has put the emphasis on not being individual but on being like other people. Think, talk, and act like the crowd and you fit in. Step outside that box and you are called “weird” or at the very least “different”. But, drill down on this idea just a bit and you find that there is no such thing as normal. All of us are different. We all come from different backgrounds. Different nationalities, Different families with different looks, sounds, and actions. So why is it so important to be normal?
History is packed with the names of people who had no time for the notion of normal. The names are familiar- Socrates, Galileo, Jesus to name a few. Those who dared to live their truth knew that walking that path means not always being comfortable, reasonable, and “normal”. They knew that living in the moment set them free. They accepted the challenges and ignored the voices that said they won’t be able to or should not try to bring about positive change in their world.
At times you’ll hear “you can’t” or “no one has ever done that”, or “it’s impossible”. Resist the call to return to normal. Instead, go inside and find that strength that is born of who you really are. What I call your genuine self. All my life I heard the reasons why I must not do what I knew in my heart was really right, such as “we don’t do that”, “it’s too difficult”, and one of my favorites: “what will the neighbors think?” I was forced out of normal and onto the fringes of my environment. But as the years passed I felt more and more comfortable on the fringes. And as the years go by I find that a bonus of living my genuine life is a continuing sense of serenity. No feelings of euphoria, no bells and whistles. Just a knowing that I’m on the path laid out by my inner GPS.
Normal is realizing that all of us are different. Make self love your motivator and know that there is perfection at your inner-most level. You are unique. And that’s just fine.
Overheard
Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakes. – Carl Jung, 1875-1961
If you missed the interview with Kuwana Haulsey last week, you can listen to it here:
Here are some talking points from that show:
The birth of Kuwana’s daughter helped her focus her attention
Having a child helped her ask for what she wants in life
She sees kindness as a trait to pass on to her kids
The antidote to overwhelm is to let go of perfectionism
A mother’s fear for her children now and in the future
Learning compassion for yourself and others
This week’s Chi For Yourself is scheduled for Wednesday November 13th at 3pm Eastern, Noon Pacific time. Our guest will be Annemiek Douw..Join us at chiforyourself.com.
ANNEMIEK DOUW, MSc is a management coach, lightworker, medium, energetic therapist, trainer and author. Her personal experience with long-term illness combined with her own work as a healer have led her to see the soul as an internal compass that continuously guides us. She has worked with clients at many levels, with the intention of teaching them how to read this compass for themselves. Annemiek Douw is the author of 21 Layers of the Soul: Healing the Karmic Ties with Friends, Lovers, Family and Enemies.
Finally got the problems with the BlogTalkRadio/Echo Bodine post ironed out. We seem to have our challenges with BTR from time to time and if you listened to Friday’s (attempted) airing of Chi For Yourself you know what I mean. So if you didn’t get to hear Echo on BTR here’s a fresh (and corrected) version of that interview..
Here are some talking points from last week’s show with Echo Bodine:
Describes the soul as a sort of ‘personality’
Wrote the book after watching the dying process
Says we should ask the dying about their lives
What grieving is like for a psychic
She’s not afraid of what death will bring
Some very well known souls are doing well on the ‘other side’
I guess it’s only natural that our Chi For Yourself guest this (Halloween) week should be a ghostbuster..!
But Echo Bodine is much more than that- she’s also a spiritual healer, psychic, bestselling author, and lecturer. This week she’ll talk to us about a subject that many of us prefer to avoid, but one that we’ll all face at some time–death.
Echo says “it would be beneficial for all of us to learn how to have open discussions with our loved ones when they are in their dying process and when we are going through our own dying process.” Her new book is called What Happens When We Die: A Psychic’s Exploration of Death, Heaven, and the Soul’s Journey After Death.
Echo Bodine will do her second Chi For Yourself interview this Thursday October 31st, at 4pm Eastern, 1pm Pacific. Look for the Google+ Hangouts screen on the start page of chiforyourself.com.
Echo Bodine
Echo Bodine’s new book is called What Happens When We Die: A Psychic’s Exploration of Death, Heaven, and the Soul’s Journey After Death.
If you missed last week’s episode of Chi For Yourself, our guest was Erica Tucci. She talked about how her world was rocked when she suffered a stroke, and how she learned life lessons during her recovery. You can hear that interview when you click on this BlogTalkRadio banner:
Key takeaways mentioned in the Erica Tucci episode:
balancing the male and female aspects of the self
bad things can happen for good reasons
sometimes the universe moves in to move us to make change in our lives
disciplines such as reiki and meditation can help re-enforce spirituality
believing in yourself can help move you forward on your life path
corporations are incorporating more feminine energies into the way business is transacted
never give up in life..find your passion..keep a strong connection to your spirituality
…and, we’ve re-scheduled the Kuwana Haulsey interview that was cancelled on October 16th. It’s now planned for Wednesday November 6th at 4pm Eastern, 1pm Pacific.
We start out this week by saying Happy Thanksgiving to our friends in Canada!!
…and, don’t forget this week’s guest will be talking to us on Wednesday at 1pm Pacific time. You’ll be able to hear Kuwana Haulsey discussing motherhood and her book Everything I Needed To Know I Learned From My Six-Month Old when you visit the chiforyourself.com ‘Start’ page.
The scheduled guest for October 24th (Thursday) is Erica Tucci, author of Radiant Survivor: How to Shine and Thrive through Recovery from Stroke, Cancer, Abuse, Addiction and Other Life-Altering Experiences.
And I promised to tell you about a show planned for later this month- In fact, on Halloween. Our scheduled guest will be Echo Bodine. Echo is the author of What Happens When We Die: A Psychic’s Exploration of Death, Heaven, and the Soul’s Journey After Death. She’ll offer us answers to some of life’s biggest questions: Is there a heaven? Are there people who have been there and come back? Do we have souls? Can we communicate with deceased loved ones? It’ll be Echo’s second visit to Chi For Yourself and you can hear it On Thursday, October 31st at 1pm Pacific.
Echo Bodine
That’s the lineup for the rest of the month. Plan to be with us!!
The next first-run Chi For Yourself interview is scheduled for Wednesday October 16th at 1pm Pacific. We had to move the date from our usual Thursday to Wednesday because of a scheduling conflict. I hope you’ll be with us for the streamed interview. I’ll be talking to Kuwana Haulsey, author of Everything I Needed to Know, I Learned from My Six-Month-Old. KuwanaHaulsey fuses memoir, spirituality and self-development into the unique perspective that babies are actually extraordinarily divine teachers who are capable of showing their caregivers the way toward inspired living.
Kuwana Haulsey
The following week we get back to a Thursday interview schedule. Chi For Yourself will welcome Erica Tucci on October 24th at 1pm Pacific. Erica is the author of Radiant Survivor: How to Shine and Thrive Through Recovery From Stroke, Cancer, Abuse, Addiction and Other Life-Altering Experiences.The book is about healing, and it offers hope,inspiration, and encouragement to anyone facing trauma in their lives.
Erica Tucci
On October 31st (Halloween) Chi For Yourself welcomes a woman who will be making her second visit to the show. I’ll tell you more about that in a future post.
Article: For Good Vibrations Focus on the Good
I like to say that everything is energy, and energy is everything. Energy differs according to the speed at which it vibrates. Light energy has a high frequency vibration, while something like a dining room table has a lower frequency. Human beings have different frequencies of vibration, too. The ways we think and feel go a long way toward determining the frequency at which we vibrate. We then send that vibration out to the world, much like a radio station sends out its signal. The result, as Universal Law tells us, is an attraction to that which vibrates at a similar frequency. And what we bring to us determines our reality. So, it makes sense to raise our vibration in order to make a positive shift in our lives.
You probably know or have been around someone who is vibrating at a high frequency. They strike you as spirited and dynamic. This type of person can be an inspiration to us for working on raising our own vibration. Then there’s the other side of the coin- someone who is very negative or cynical. This is a person who vibrates at a lower frequency. Do a simple test to find out where you stand on the vibration scale. Think about where you fall on a scale between the most negative person you know and the most vital. You’re not doing this to be critical of the person. Rather you can find your place on the vibrational scale. This is a good way to measure your progress and to remind you that you may have some vibration raising left to do.
There is no shortage of ways to raise your vibration. You can say affirmations or start a meditation practice. And it’s always wise to monitor your thoughts. Choose where you send your attention. You can see how effective this is by visualizing- just a few minutes a day. You might want to spend those minutes focused on the good in your life. As you do this you’ll be training yourself to be more mindful and in the moment. And over time you’ll start to see a real shift in your vibration.
Okay..this is something a little different. I don’t usually post on a Friday, let alone a Friday evening. But, it’s been a busy week for me and probably you, too. And I got to thinking about our tendency to live for the weekend. We let out a collective sigh, glad that the rigors of the week are behind us. Now we can ‘let our hair down’..maybe party a bit, or just grab some serenity.
It was serenity I had I mind when I chose to bring back the 2011 John Selby interview. John talks to us about meditation and his book Expand This Moment. But, it’s the subheading that I think resonates with ‘Friday-philes’- Focused Meditations to Quiet Your Mind, Brighten Your Mood, and Set Yourself Free.
But, first I want to tell you about a new feature on chiforyourself.com. If you look at the top of each page on the web site, you’ll see a small box on the left side of the page that reads ‘send voicemail’. If you click on that box you can send us a voicemail. No phone necessary..no downloads, nothin’. Just click on and follow the directions. You can send your message right from your browser. It’s a great way for me to hear what you would like to hear on Chi For Yourself!
Now, for a heapin’ helpin’ of serenity, courtesy of John Selby- This week’s guest on Chi For Yourself..
Click on the BlogTalkRadio banner to hear the show:
If you didn’t get to hear Chi For Yourself guest Thomas Bien talking about happiness last week you can listen to the show by clicking on this player:
Before we put the happiness topic away for awhile I want to tell you about some of the guests we plan to bring to you in upcoming episodes, and healing is definitely the operative word here..
October 24th at 1pm Pacific- Erica Tucci (Radiant Survivor) talking about healing from a serious illness.
November 13th at Noon Pacific time- Annemiek Douw shares her case histories of healing.
November 21st at 1pm Pacific- Dr. Bernie Siegel returns to CFY to talk about The Art of Healing.
All the interviews are scheduled to be streamed on the Chi For Yourself home page…should there be any changes, you’ll hear about them here in GenuLines.
Now, for that one last mention of healing..and it comes from a great source!
Article:
Looking for Happiness in “All the Wrong Places”
By Marci Shimoff
I was 41 years old, stretched out on a lounge chair by my pool and reflecting on my life. I had achieved all that I thought I needed to be happy.
You see when I was a child, I imagined there were five main things that ensured a happy life: a successful career that helped people, a loving husband, a comfortable home, a great body, and a wonderful circle of friends. After years of study, hard work, and a few “lucky breaks,” I finally had them all. (Okay, so my body didn’t quite look like Halle Berry’s–four out of five isn’t bad!) You think I’d have been on the top of the world.
But surprisingly I wasn’t. I felt an emptiness inside that the outer successes of life couldn’t fill. I was also afraid that if I lost any of those things, I might be miserable. Sadly, I knew I wasn’t alone in feeling this way.
While happiness is the one thing that we all truly want, so few of us really experience a deep and lasting fulfillment that feeds our soul. Our Founding Fathers even guaranteed us the right to pursue happiness, so why aren’t we finding it?
Because we’re looking for happiness, in the words of the old country western song, in “all the wrong places.”
That week I threw myself into the study of happiness. The culmination for me was when I discovered a state I call Happy for No Reason, a neurophysiological state of inner peace and well-being that isn’t dependent on circumstances. I believe this is our essential state.
When you’re Happy for No Reason, you don’t need to manipulate the world around you to try to make yourself happy. You bring happiness to your everyday experiences rather than trying to extract happiness from them.
Most of us spend our time struggling to string together as many happy experiences as we can, like beads in a necklace, to create a happy life. We do our best to find just the right beads that will fulfill us. Being Happy for No Reason, in this analogy, is like having a happy string. No matter what beads we put on our necklace–good and not so good–our inner reality, the string that runs through them all, is happy, and we experience an unshakeable positive state inside.
So, how do we get there?
I found the answer in the lives of the 100 deeply happy people I interviewed as research for my book Happy for No Reason. The only difference between happy and unhappy people is that they have different habits. In fact, I identified 21 core happiness habits that anyone can practice to be happier.
One of the most important habits that happy people share is that they let love lead. Although they have the same fears, pain, and disappointments as the rest of us, they’re able to keep their hearts open and flowing. This is the key to making your life–and every relationship in it–successful and fulfilling.
How do you let love lead? Here are three tips to get you started:
1. Reach Out and Touch Someone. Schedule time every day to call or visit someone you love or care about. It doesn’t have to be a long call or an elaborate outing. Remember to focus on expressing your love or care for them, rather than looking for them to fill you up.
Taking the time to connect with someone from the level of your heart has been shown to make the actual rhythms of your heartbeat coherent, which is correlated with increased calmness, strengthened immune system functioning, normalized blood pressure, and improved general well-being. For some people, a much-loved pet can be a great heart connection. What’s important is focusing on the bond you feel radiating from within you that links you to the special beings in your life.
2. Spread Lovingkindness. One way to power up your heart’s flow is by sending loving kindness to your friends and family, as well as strangers you pass on the street. Next time you’re waiting for the elevator at work, stuck in a line at the store, or caught up in traffic, send a silent wish to the people you see for their happiness, well-being, and health. Simply wishing others well switches on the “pump” in your own heart that generates love and creates a strong current of happiness.
3. Hang with the Happy. We catch the emotions of those around us just like we catch their colds–it’s called emotional contagion. So it’s important to make wise choices about the company you keep. Create appropriate boundaries with emotional bullies and “happiness vampires” who suck the life out of you. Develop your happiness “dream team”–a mastermind or support group you meet with regularly to keep you steady on the path of raising your happiness.
“Happily ever after” isn’t just for fairytales or for only the lucky few. Imagine experiencing inner peace and well-being as the backdrop for everything else in your life. When you’re Happy for No Reason, it’s not that your life and your relationships always look perfect–it’s that however they look, you’ll still be happy!
Author’s Bio:
By Marci Shimoff. Based on the New York Times bestseller Happy for No Reason: 7 Steps to Being Happy from the Inside Out, which offers a revolutionary approach to experiencing deep and lasting happiness. The woman’s face of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and a featured teacher in The Secret, Marci is an authority on success, happiness, and the law of attraction. To order Happy for No Reason, newly released in paperback, and receive free bonus gifts, go to http://www.happyfornoreason.com/mybook
Overheard
“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
The subject of happiness, how to land it and how to keep it has been taking a front seat in many major magazines and news periodicals recently. Figures show that the US currently ranks 23rd on a list of happiest countries despite all its apparent wealth and freedom. What gives? Our guest on this week’s Chi For Yourself says there’s a difference between the usual Western concept of happiness and the experience of deep contentment and joy. Dr. Thomas Bien is a leader in the field of mindful psychology and conducts workshops on mindfulness and meditation. He is also the author of numerous scientific articles and book chapters on spirituality and addiction.
Thomas Bien
Thomas Bien is the author of The Buddah’s Way of Happiness: Healing Sorrow, Transforming Negative Emotion, and Finding Well-Being in the Present. The interview is scheduled for Thursday September 19th, at 4pm Eastern, 1pm Pacific on chiforyourself.com.
Do you live each day consciously or unconsciously? We would all like to think that we are conscious during our waking hours; that we are consciously making decisions, consciously choosing how we act, react, speak, listen, and think. But do you know that in order to be conscious you must be aware of your Self? Do you know who you are? Are you living out who you truly are? Take a moment to think this over, and continue reading on…
Now that you’ve taken a moment to consider how your actions reflect your inner Self, did you come to the conclusion that how you live just may not be who you really are? You may become angry or frustrated from experiencing certain circumstances, but anger and frustration is not what is composed of your Self. All those molecules and compounds that make up your body, mind, and soul are certainly not angry or hostile ones. This you must realize. So why is it you express every emotion within the spectrum of human emotions? Do you choose to? Or is it a reaction?
If you stop before each thought and action to give yourself time to decide first, you begin to live consciously. If you do not let yourself decide, you defer to reaction: you go into autopilot mode and act or think in terms of your strongest emotion (anger, fear, sadness, etc.) since it is what has taken over. This is how you allow your ego (your mind) to take over and take control away from your real Self (your soul). This does you no good because this is what living unconsciously is. If you are not consciously making a decision, then you are unconsciously and mindlessly reacting. Your ego is not YOU. If you believe there is a difference between your physical body, your mental mind, and your spiritual soul, then you must take into consideration each of their downfalls and learn how to allow your soul to shine through with everything you do.
Do you notice how sometimes after a typical reaction, you may feel a little remorse? Perhaps it really wasn’t very necessary to tell off that waitress who got your order wrong for the second time, or speaking rudely back to that customer service representative who was just trying to do his job.
Life can be hard; it can get frustrating no doubt about it, but it doesn’t mean we need to project negativity right back at it. This does nothing for us.
How can we begin to live consciously? Here is the secret: right now, close your eyes and find the greatest feeling you have ever felt: such as the immense love you have for your child(ren), or that time when you were the most in love with a partner. Pinpoint that highest note of all your experiences. Feel that fulfilling joy and let it linger until your whole being is saturated with it. Hold onto this…
Love is the purest thought, emotion, and experience a soul can choose to live out. Yes, choose! We can choose to think, act, and live the rest of our lives with love being the core of it all; the seed that grows our human experiences; the cell that divides exponentially. We have this awesome Godly power because we are all God.
Now take this feeling that you have just re-experienced within your Self. Take it with you every morning when you get out of bed; take it with you to work or school; take it with you when you go out with your friends; take it home to your family; and take it to bed at night. This ultimate essence is what you will base all of your thoughts and actions on (notice I did not say reactions!). You will re-experience this each time you are confronted with a problem, a situation, a confrontation. Then, after some practice, you will call upon this beautiful part of you every time you think a thought, speak a word, and take an action. Love will be the root of everything you do. Your ultimate goal is to be who you really are, and who you really are, is love. Love is what creates us, the universe, and everything in between. We attract what we project out. So project out only love!
The funny part about this is that in order to know your Self (love), you must also know and have experienced love’s complete opposite: fear. If love attracts like things, fear deflects the same way. So we know fear because we act on it. We make decisions based on fear. We fear our boss, we fear not having money, we fear rejection, and we fear physical pain and death. We know this because we end up reacting out of fear everyday for many of us.
So turn it around. Turn our fear into love. When we stop fearing, we end anger and frustration. We stop feeling like we need to take those negative feeling hostage, only to release them out onto others. We can begin to fill those empty places with much needed love. Fill your life with more of YOU by bringing consciousness into all you do. Love is all there for us to use. So take it. Take it and run with it.
It will not be easy. You have to practice and practice until it becomes second nature to you. It will require intention on your part, which requires energy. If you invest in this, the universe will invest in you.
Love before and after you think or do and your life will evolve. I promise.
Emily A. Rider invites you to browse more great articles she has written about living a more spiritual life at http://www.higherspiritualliving.com. This site contains may topics from meditation to evidence-based research; from spiritual cleansing to the paradigm shift the U.S. is currently beginning. Come gain knowledge and new perspectives on living spiritually now at http://www.higherspiritualliving.com
Since this is Labor Day for many in the West, I thought today’s article should reflect the mood of the day. But first, I want to remind you that the interview with Cynthia Gill has been posted. If you are the parent of a grade school age boy you’ll want to listen in. Cynthia has lots of experience in the classroom, and her book Jump Starting Boys addresses the difficulties many boys have by the time they reach 4th grade.
Listen to the show on this player..
Article:
Don’t Let the Collective Consciousness of Others Control Your Life
There is a common mistaken belief that suffering, agony and distress can be placed upon us by other people. However, such conditions never exist due to the actions of a single individual. Negative circumstances that plague certain people within any community, family, country and culture are brought on and sustained by the collective consciousness of that group. Both the origin and resolution to our troubles lie within us and not in the criticism of some vague external force.
Every situation in life is an effect that was produced by a cause. This cause-and-effect sequence applies to both the good and bad things that appear in any individual’s experience. However, people often make the mistake of attributing the cause of negative consequences to the doings of some other person, system or organization. This reasoning is entirely off the mark when it comes to identifying the true basis of our everyday difficulties. The deliberate creation method puts you in command of your everyday experience.
If you were confronted frequently by an aggressive coworker, you may start to think of this person as the sole source of your problems. The real basis for your troubles, however, lies within the collective consciousness of your particular company or department. Each organization of people is held together by a popular body of ideas. This set of concepts is known as the group’s collective consciousness. If your colleague has assumed the role of workplace “tormentor,” it is because the collective consciousness of your company supports him in this position. He could not operate in such a capacity by his choice alone. He is just one person among many. Each person of the group, yourself included, must cooperate with the implied terms of your adversary, either consciously or unconsciously. Otherwise, he would be rejected from the group and replaced by someone who was more in harmony with the common line of thought.
Look around and you will notice that the same state of affairs is played out daily wherever you turn. Why do very cruel people sometimes assume and remain in positions of power? It is because the belief set of those under them allow the unjust possession of authority and status. The same circumstance can also be seen in abusive families and relationships, where one individual can control others through coercive strategies. If the people who make up such groups were not aligned with such an oppressive reality, either consciously or unconsciously, it would not be able to exist.
Now, let’s expand on how the collective consciousness of others can control your life. Remember, that which you frequently focus on creates the basis of your reality. Everywhere you look, negative messages are being sold. News reports are filled with warnings of present and pending disaster. Marketers are continually producing advertisements that make you feel bad about yourself and then pitch their product as the sole solution. We have come to live in a world that begins teaching us to think negatively very early in life. When millions of people spend most of their days focusing on bad things, the collective consciousness of those people will assure that the things they fear continue to exist.
The process of deliberate creation requires you to take responsibility for what you experience. Blaming another person for your troubles places you in the role of a victim. If you hold an idea of victim hood in your mind, you will attract more occasions to be victimized. This is a vicious and self-perpetuating cycle. Any form of energy you send out will resonate with and attract that which is on the same vibrational frequency. History shows us that declaring war against ideas like poverty and drug use only produces more of the same. As long as we look outside of ourselves for solutions, they will continue to elude us.
The only way to improve society is to teach others through example how to produce through deliberate creation. You can not give what you do not have. In order to improve the circumstances that you observe on a day to day basis, you must be the good that you wish to see. One of the best ways to get what you want in your life is to help another person have it first. Focusing on the negative will only serve to prevent what you from getting what you want. When you assume an attitude of giving, however, you place yourself in direct alignment with that which you give. We are all individual parts of one creative mind. By sending out thoughts of what you want for yourself and others, you add to the solution and not the problem.
Annemiek Douw says you can tap into and master your inner GPS. Annemiek Douw is the author of 21 Layers of the Soul: Healing the Karmic Ties with Friends, Lovers, Family and Enemies.
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