Learn about Human Design when we bring back a previously aired Chi For Yourself episode- today at 1pm Eastern..10am Pacific Time
Click on the BlogTalkRadio logo to hear the show..
If you logged on to chiforyourself.com for the Meagan McCrary interview on January 9th you noticed that there was no Google+ Hangouts on the Start page. I’ve been doing test posts on Hangouts and I believe the problem in getting our embed code has been worked out. I’ll have more to say in a future post about who our next guest will be. If you have yet to hear the interview you can get caught up here…
Meagan McCrary
It seems that everyone, from athletes to celebrities to high-powered executives and politicians to stay-at-home moms and college students, is practicing yoga. Our Chi For Yourself guest has put together an encyclopedia of different yoga styles as a reference for those new to yoga and experienced yogis and teachers alike. But Meagan McCrary’s approach digs deeper than the physical descriptions of the practices to include everything from a style’s philosophical foundation and teaching methodology to what-to-expect and health benefits. Meagan is a certified yoga instructor and freelance writer. Her teaching path has been greatly influenced by Anusara yoga founder John Friend as well as Noah Mazé, Elena Brower, and Martin and Jordan Kirk. Her yoga, wellness, and lifestyle writings are widely featured in print and online in publications including Elephant Journal, GaiamLife, and Glo. Meagan McCrary is the author of Pick Your Yoga Practice: Exploring and Understanding Different Types of Yoga.
Click on the player to hear the show:
Restore After the Holiday Season with Yoga | 16 ROUNDS to …
Affirmations for Healthy Eating | Afro Flow Yoga
Make resolutions that are more about how you want to be – how you want to relate to the world – than about specific changes in behavior. They should be spiritual goals. Changes in behavior don’t last unless preceded by a change in consciousness. New Years Resolutions, to be effective, must be about changing our consciousness to be receptive to our desires.
Let your resolutions take the form of affirmations. That way you can say them or sing them or chant them to yourself, have fun with them, and remind yourself of the energy you are stepping in to.
One of my resolutions is the same as last year: to know that “I have multiple sources of passive income that support me lavishly.” This one is in wonderful unfoldment. I developed a product this year that is doing better than I expected and I have a lot of ideas to create in the future. I’m even hiring a virtual assistant to help me. This is so much fun! My work this year is to appreciate what I have while expecting more to come.
My second affirmation is that “I consciously, constantly practice the presence of Spirit within me.” This one is huge. It encompasses just about every spiritual goal I have and it influences every part of my life and my behavior. It says I am always aware that Spirit is my Source – so there can be no lack or limitation. It says that Spirit is always present and acting in my life – kind of like having an imaginary friend, except its not imaginary – more like an invisible friend beside me (or in me) at all times. It says I am always allowing Spirit to express through me – so I am non-judgmental. I speak kindly – even when aggravated. It causes me to allow my good to flow to me – to keep the channel open for the flow of love and energy and inspiration and comfort. This affirmation keeps me healthy because where Spirit is there is only vitality, ease and health.
A few years ago one of my resolutions was to more often find thoughts that feel good and do more things that I enjoy. This year my affirmation is to “Love myself”. Similar, but broader this year. As I love myself I bring to me all things that are loving. That means bubble baths, and fresh flowers; satellite radio and laughter; friends who brighten my light not diminish me; and it means appreciating myself, encouraging myself, and saying kind words to me. The only relationship we really want is between self and SELF. And that self love is the key to allowing. Self love leads to feeling deserving which leads to more allowing. Self love also lets us feel a little bit of the vast and endless love that Spirit has for us. I want a taste of that this coming year!
Copyright 2005 All rights reserved.
Lorna maintains an international Law of Attraction Coaching practice. From time to time she has openings for new clients. If you would like some help in consciously using the law of attraction in your life with ease, visit her website: http://www.transform-u.com.
John K 1-20-2014
We’re off to the resolution races- lose 20 pounds..move to a nicer address..take that tropical vacation.
May I suggest some inward inspection to start the new year? Ask yourself:
Just a few ideas to take care of the inner self so that the outer results might be more satisfying.
Happy New Year!
Don’t’ forget that we’ll be launching another year of first run Chi For Yourself episodes on January 9th. Our guest on that day will be Meagan McCrary. Meagan is a Los Angeles based freelance writer and yoga teacher who has worked one-on-one with some of the entertainment industry’s leading professionals. Millions of us practice yoga, but what kind is best? We’ll “pose” the questions to Meagan at 1pm Pacific..4pm Eastern time. You’ll be able to hear the interview live on the Start page of chiforyourself.com.
Meagan McCrary
And finally, we say goodbye to 2013 with a heartfelt thanks to the guests whose Conscious Talk helped to keep us on course toward genuine living! If you missed any of the shows you can catch up here..
JohnK 1-1-2014
Finally got the Dr. Bernie Siegel interview edited and up on YouTube. If your listening preference runs toward the ‘Tube then you can hear Bernie here:
The week of December 2nd saw an encore presentation of Chi For Yourself. We heard the 2012 interview with Jason Lincoln Jeffers. Jason is the author of The Next Human:A Guide to Personal and Collective Evolution. In this time of shift Jason brings us his own message for the evolution of humanity.
Click on the BlogTalkRadio logo to hear the show:
Allen Klein
Our final first-run interview for 2013 is scheduled for Thursday December 19th. Our guest will be Allen Klein, AKA “The Jollytologist”. Allen returns to Chi For Yourself with another book: Always Look on the Bright Side. We get started at 4pm Eastern, 1pm Pacific time. You’ll be able to hear the interview on Google+ Hangouts or at chiforyourself.com on the Start Page.
JohnK 12-10-2013
Back to chiforyourself.com
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:
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
JohnK 11-18-2013
return to chiforyourself.com home
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. Kuwana Haulsey 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.
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.
JohnK 10-8-2013
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:
JohnK 10/4/2013
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:
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!
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!
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
JohnK 9/25/2013
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
JohnK 9/16/2013
Before we get into today’s heart of today’s matters I want to give you a link to last week’s re-airing of the E. Dee Conrad 2010 interview. E. Dee talked with us from her home in Dubai..say what?? Dubai? That’s right. She folded up her successful life in the U.S. and moved to the United Arab Emirates to go in a completely different direction. I love stories of folks who leave everything they’ve known and set out on a new (risky?) life adventure. Did the same myself a few years ago..Listen to the show here:
Speaking of the show, our scheduled Chi For Yourself guest on July 25th will be Tony Burroughs, author of Get What You Want: The Art of Making and Manifesting Your Intentions. He’ll talk about manifesting and he’ll share an interesting personal story of the kind I like to feature on CFY. I plan to put it on the CFY home page as a Google+ Hangout On air.
And..this just in- as radio news folks sometimes say- I found out just minutes ago that Brad Warner will be a guest on Chi For Yourself on July 11th. Brad is a Zen priest, filmmaker, blogger and the author of There Is No God and He’s Always With You. No, it’s not a typo. That’s the name of the book and he explains the title in that cool head-scratching way that only the “Zens” can.
Now, time to take yet another look at The Law of Attraction. For some reason today must be LOA day because I’m hearing or reading about it at every turn. I was listening to the radio today and I heard a guy make reference to LOA as part of that “New Age Stuff”…his answer to manifesting is good old fashioned hard work and sweat.
A few minutes later, again on the radio, I heard an interview host say that ‘if you don’t change your thoughts and keep on doing what you’re doing you’ll keep getting what your getting.’ Sounds like Law of Attraction to me!
Here are a couple of more views…see what you think. This is from The Self Help Hipster:
The Law of Attraction: An Analysis.
My preaching of the Law of Attraction and manifesting has always been accompagnied by disclaimers and a message of common sense/reality. At least, I hope so. I know I run a total positivity-for-president website, but still. I hope you noticed.
In case you hadn’t, let’s take a trip down memory lane..Continue reading..
….and, this from examiner.com:
Getting what you want through the law of attraction
We’ve all heard about the Law of Attraction and how it can help us get the love we desire, job we want and that new car. But, how many people have you ever talked to that put it into use? Not many people seem to actually put it to use. Continue reading..
Hmmm. I may do a poll about the effectiveness of the Law of Attraction. More on that later.
Be well..
JohnK 7-1-2013
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