“I will say yes to every favor, request, suggestion and invitation. I will swear to say yes where once I would say no.” – Danny Wallace

“No!” is a wonderful word.

It’s powerful, it’s universally understood, and it stops everything in its tracks. By saying no, you’re instantly slamming the door and holding it shut, ensuring nothing else gets through.

But how many of us say “No!” way too often?

You see, “No” really holds us back in life. It closes us off to many of life’s wonderful experiences, and causes us to resist what happens around us.

When we say no, we’re swimming against the current. When we say yes, we’re swimming with the current.

Which do you think is easiest? Which produces less stress? Which is faster, and more enjoyable?

We say “NO!” to life’s funny randomness, when a passing bus splashes rainwater all over our new jeans. We shout “NO!” to our emotions, resisting and fighting grief, when our pet rat passes away. We yell “NO!” when we don’t get that promotion, which we’d been working so hard to achieve.

Long story short: we say NO to everything, too often.

We fight against what happens to us in life, rather than allowing it to be as it is. We resist it, rather than accepting it. We say “No!” rather than saying “Yes” – or even just “Okay.”

By saying “Yes!” more to life, we go with the flow. Things become more enjoyable and positive, less stressful and anxious, and often the situation turns out for the better regardless.

So, SAY YES MORE.

And what about saying “Yes!” more socially too? Say “Yes!” when you’re invited to that party. Say “Yes!” when you’re asked if you’d like lunch with the boys. Say “Yes!” when you’ve asked to go on that speed dating night, which you wouldn’t normally even consider.

(That’s what Danny Wallace did in his great comedy cum self-help book, Yes Man. He said yes more. It changed his life.)

So, if you’d like to flow more with the current of life… If you’d like to inject a little more excitement into your day… If you’d like to enjoy the random twist and turns of fate…

Then SAY YES MORE.

The Australians call it a “bias for yes.” The Spanish say “Si a todo.” Buddhists describe it as flowing with the river of life. In this book, we simply say yes more.

Try it out, even if just for a week. It’ll change your world.

Say yes more – and you will be happy.

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“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” – Meister Eckhardt

We live in a fast-paced, microwave, drive-thru, Buy-It-Now society.

It’s a society that has forgotten to be truly grateful for the things around it. We only tend to be grateful for things when we no longer have them.

Think of the sense of relief you gain when you just get over an illness, and are so thankful that your turbulent tummy has now settled. Consider how appreciative you are when those tests come back clear. Or when the speeding camera doesn’t flash. Or when you finally find your lost child in the supermarket.

These are the moments in life when we realize how blessed we truly are.

Yet how many of us truly appreciate that on a day-to-day basis?

My guess is very few of us. We only become grateful of things when we think we don’t have them.

But here’s the thing: by counting our blessings every day, in a very literal way, we become happier people. Research across the globe in countless studies has proven this over and over again.

So, when was the last time YOU were truly grateful?

Think of all the wonderful things you have to be grateful for right now. It could be your family. Or your health. Maybe your home. Your friends. Your brain. Your heart. Your spirit. Even your DVD collection.

We’ve all got amazing things in our own lives that make us smile with joy. Things that bring a secret, loving tear to our eyes.

And if we can only learn to count these blessings every day, we’ll discover a true happiness and greater appreciation of the beautiful world we surround ourselves with.

So, if you can, make that part of your daily ritual. Count your blessings, briefly in the morning, and briefly at night. Then smile at the world for sending such great things your way.

Be grateful – and you will be happy.

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How exciting to start a race without a clear direction to the finish line. As I blasted across the starting line, my heart racing and senses on high alert, my fellow hashers and I looked like a bunch of blood hounds desperately searching for clues and signs to follow. Always working as a team I could  hear someone yell “On, On” meaning they had found  “True Trail” and were heading in the correct direction.  When I found the marks of True Trail I was at once excited and reassured that I was finally on the correct path. There were no guarantees for success. Many would find their way, some would arrive faster than others, and a few remained lost until we sent out search teams. I have been lead through shopping malls, flea markets, across golf courses, up hills, and down many blind alleys.

In the end it was never about who came in first or last, but about the thrill of the adventure, following our intuition, working with team mates, laughing, cursing, and always smiling over finding the elusive True Trail or the frustration of yet another dead end.  The finish line was always a celebration of the hunt, of comradeship, and living life to the fullest.  Of all my road racing events, my time with my fellow Hashers has provided me with the biggest smiles and fondest memories.

“Wow, what a wonderful metaphor for life. I often step back and look at my life and wonder, “Am I On, On”, am I on “True Trail” or am I chasing a rabbit down a blind alley or worse yet, just settling for the same old comfortable trail?”

There are many lessons to be learned from the Hash House Harrier experience which  applies to finding Balance in our Minds, Bodies and Spirits:

1. The path to finding one’s true trail works well in a community with a common goal.

2. The willingness to take a risk going down a false trail in life but ready to make the necessary course alteration to find your  true trail.

3. Finding true trail requires an open heart and an adventurous spirit.

4. A willingness to leave your ego at home, not afraid to fail, look foolish, or asking someone for help is a formula for success.

5. Finding true trail is about the journey, the joy of seeking, learning, working together, the exhilaration of being a member of a team, and the joy of just doing it.

6. Learning to trust your inner voice, your intuition, and willing to take a Leap of Faith to find the answers.

7. Knowing that the risk of finding true trail may mean letting go of a strongly held belief or core value which we have held our entire life.

8. The rewards of finding true trail can be the joy of knowing your life is in balance, your body is healthy, your spirit is soaring, and your emotions are free from the burdens of fear, lack, and the unknown.

9. The excitement of joining others just like you who are seeking, willing to share, who will support you, never judge you, and are ready to catch you if you fall.

10. Ready to keep life in perspective, be willing to laugh, be silly, let your hair down, get in touch with your playful energy, and make every moment important.

Finding your “True Trail” is a metaphor for finding Balance in your Life. It is about opening your heart and mind to all of the wonderful possibilities in life. It is about revealing all of your beauty, radiance, and magnificence  in the human experience.

Happy Trails

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Sitting in a quiet place with your eyes closed, take a slow, deep breath as you say to yourself: “I don‚t know”. This is a statement of surrender to the unknown. I don’t know what will happen next. Then release your breath.

Now on another inhale, say to yourself: “I am open and curious.” This leaves you open to change. Then release your breath. Now say to yourself on an in-breath: “I am OK with whatever happens.” This opens you to acceptance.

Use these three phrases, created by Eric Knouse, founder of The Practice,  to keep you focused as you quiet your mind. Soon you will relax into emptiness and all thoughts will cease. See how long you can maintain a conscious awareness of the empty space in your mind before the next thought arrives.

As you shift gears, you will be able to create a positive future for yourself by focusing on the positive, rather than what is breaking down. This also holds true for human society as it tries to solve local, national or global problems. When the dominate thought or focus is on breakdown, that is what occurs. Shift each thought, as you catch it, to the positive.

As you empty your mind, slow your breath. Notice each in and out-breath. Feel a sense of peace within you. Send this feeling of peace outward, let it radiate into the world.

Shifting Gears
Why leave a good job? Here are three people who left high paying jobs for similar reasons: their jobs were not soul satisfying.

The first, the father of two young children, left his job at a software company to do fund-raising for a non-profit. Its mission is to raise public awareness about the melting ice in the Arctic and Antarctic.

With a small cash reserve from his previous job, he volunteers his time to travel to the north and south poles to help with photographic and video recordings of the loss of glaciers. He then uses the passion of his commitment to contact philanthropists and other potential funding sources.

The second person, Sebastian left a job in the retail sector for a six-months *time out*. He spent six months traveling around Southeast Asia, which included a 10-day meditation retreat in India. I met him on the van to the airport in Bali. “Every young person I’ve met while traveling” he told me, “is either traveling to get away from something or to find themselves.”

On the ride, I had him take a few minute to do the following Life Purpose exercise. In only three minutes, I asked him to quickly list 10 possible careers. His list of 10 careers included: a skydive instructor, journalist, teacher, owner of an Eco Lodge, and fund raiser for a non-profit. When he had difficulty deciding between a career as a journalist or owner of an Eco Lodge, I pulled out a coin from my purse and gave it to him.

He decided that Heads would mean: journalist. A flip to Tails would mean that he would become the owner of an Eco Lodge. Then he flipped the coin. I watched his reactions to the coin toss. When it came up heads, meaning journalist, he gave a big smile. “OK, I’ll become a journalist.”

I then reminded: it wasn’t the coin that made the final decision. It was his emotional reaction to the results of the coin toss.

Another man, back in the States, also opted for the coin toss. This man was a successful Deputy District Attorney who was going through a difficult divorce. I was asked to meet with him and his wife. His wife was a nurse and quite happy with her career. He, however, imagined that one day he would enter politics and become the State Attorney General.

When he wrote down a list of 10 possible careers, the list included: State Attorney General AND owner of a charter fishing boat in Florida. I asked him to choose only one. He couldn’t decide. So I said: “OK, let the coin decide your future.” He flipped it and it came up State Attorney General.

When he saw the choice that had been made, his shoulders slumped forward and he put his head in his hand. I then reminded him that his response told him that what he really wanted – what his heart really wanted – was to move to Florida and buy a charter boat.

When his wife heard this, she smiled and said, “My job requires that I work with the elderly who are suffering from Alzheimers. There are a lot of elderly people in Florida. If we move there, I know I can easily find a good paying job in my field.

As they left, arm in arm, she called back: “We’ll send you a photo from the boat!”

Buy her book from amazon: Parkinomics: 8 Ways to Thrive In the New Economy

About the author:
Alexia Parks is an author, speaker, and social media blogger who focuses on trends in the fields of green energy, the environment, education, & communications. Her books include Parkinomics, 8 Great Ways to THRIVE in the New Economy, Rapid Evolution, and An American Gulag.

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On this afternoon, April 16, 2008, Dalton was describing the satyagraha of Mahatma Gandhi, building the discussion around the Amritsar massacre in 1919, when British colonial soldiers opened fire on 10,000 unarmed Indian men, women and children trapped in Jallianwala Bagh Garden.

For 39 years, Professor Dalton has been inspiring Columbia and Barnard students with his two semester political theory series that introduces undergrads to the ideas of Gandhi, Thoreau, Mill, Malcolm X, King, Plato, Lao Tzu. His lectures are about themes, connections between disparate minds, the powerful role of the individual in shaping our world. Dalton is a life changer, and this was one of his last lectures before retirement.

Over the course of a riveting 75-minute discussion of the birth of Gandhian non-violent activism, I found myself becoming increasingly distressed as I watched students cruising Facebook, checking out the NY Times, editing photo collections, texting, reading People Magazine, shopping for jeans, dresses, sweaters, and shoes on Ebay, Urban Outfitters and J. Crew, reorganizing their social calendars, emailing on Gmail and AOL, playing solitaire, doing homework for other classes, chatting on AIM, and buying tickets on Expedia (I made a list because of my disbelief).

From my perspective in the back of the room, while Dalton vividly described desperate Indian mothers throwing their children into a deep well to escape the barrage of bullets, I noticed that a girl in front of me was putting her credit card information into Urban Outfitters.com. She had finally found her shoes!

When the class was over I rode the train home heartbroken, composing a letter to the students, which Dalton distributed the next day. Then I started investigating. Unfortunately, what I observed was not an isolated incident. Classrooms across America have been overrun by the multi-tasking virus. Teachers are bereft. This is the year that Facebook has taken residence in the national classroom.

Students defend this trend by citing their generations enhanced ability to multi-task. Unfortunately, the human mind cannot, in fact, multi-task without drastically reducing the quality of our processing. Brain activation for listening is cut in half if the person is trying to process visual input at the same time.

A recent study at The British Institute of Psychiatry showed that checking your email while performing another creative task decreases your IQ in the moment 10 points. That is the equivalent of not sleeping for 36 hours more than twice the impact of smoking marijuana. But to be honest, on the educational front, multi-tasking feels to me like a symptom of a broader sense of alienation.

I know what it is like to be disengaged. In fact, the crisis that played a large role in ending my chess career was rooted in becoming disconnected from my natural love for learning. Throughout my youth, I had been a creative, aggressive chess player. I loved the battle, and wild, dynamic chess felt like an extension of my being.

Then, in my late teens a coach urged me to play in the opposite style, his style of quiet, positional, cold-blooded prophylaxis. Instead of cultivating my natural strengths, he boxed me into the cookie cutter mold he knew. In time, I lost touch with my intuitive feeling for chess, and without an internal compass I foundered in the swells of fame and high-pressure competition.

I see myself in the eyes of so many kids today. Too many primary, elementary, and high schoolers are being boxed into the mold of conformity required by big classes, competition for grades, tests with multiple choice questions. The first grader who leaps to his feet when he figures out the math problem is diagnosed as ADHD and medicated to sit quietly with the class. Young learners have immense pressure to perform, to get good grades, but no one is listening to the nuance of their minds.

They feel suppressed, they are suppressed, and by the time students get to college, they have become disconnected from the love of learning. Then they are asked to read 1000 pages in a week and skimming is the only solution. Many of the students who actually were engaged in the Gandhi lecture, the ones who wanted to learn more than to shop, were taking notes on their computers in a frenzy, researching events online while Dalton described them, typing every last word of the lecture.

But Dalton had already supplied them with a detailed course packet with all the relevant dates and facts. His classroom is an environment for reflection, introspection, and letting resonant themes sink into your being. Unfortunately, to these college students the notion of delighting in the subtle ripples of learning is almost laughable. Who has the time?

The societal implications of this educational crisis are huge and the issue must be addressed creatively. We cannot afford to lose a generation to apathetic disengagement. Part of the responsibility lies in public policies like No Child Left Behind, the standardized tests that are turning education into a forced march, and a culture that bombards us with so much stimulation that it is difficult to know what to focus on. But part of the burden also lies with parents, teachers and coaches, and with students themselves.

I recently tried to persuade two smart 11-year-olds to give up video games for three weeks. One agreed to the experiment, and to send me a description of how the process feels. The other simply couldn’t imagine life without the PSP, even for a day. Here was an eleven-year-old self-proclaimed incorrigible video game addict!

This story has a happy ending. In the final month of classes, Dennis Dalton discussed the issues of multi-tasking with his students, and many responded. Last week when I went back to hear the final lecture of Daltons Barnard career, there were only a few kids surfing the Internet nearly all the students seemed riveted. Many told me they were relieved to have turned off their computers and relaxed into listening.

A number of my old classmates came, and afterwards we threw a party for our teacher. After four decades inspiring college minds, he has decided to nip apathy in the bud by teaching younger kids. He will start with high school, but Dennis Dalton, one of our cultures greatest minds, dreams of teaching kindergarten.

A note from Josh: Dear Teachers and Parents, I am researching the effect of video games on young minds. If you think it might be a healthy experience for your kids, please ask them to give up video games for two or three weeks, and write me about the experience at TheArtofLearning@gmail.com. Thank you! – Josh Waitzkin

About the author:
Josh Waitzkin, author of The Art of Learning, was the subject of the book and movie, Searching for Bobby Fischer. An eight-time National Chess Champion in his youth, he is now a martial arts champion, holding a combined 21 National titles in addition to several World Championships. Josh is president of the JW Foundation, an educational nonprofit -  www.jwfoundation.com He is currently training for the World Championships of his third discipline, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and lectures nationwide on the subjects of the learning process and performance psychology. Waitzkin lives in New York City.

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Imagine for a moment a woman who inherits an antique jewelry box from a loving grandparent.  She puts the cherished keepsake on her makeup bureau, next to her own collection of rings and pearls, but never really pays it much mind. And there it sits. But what she doesn’t know is that her grandmother hid a priceless diamond ring within it, in a secret compartment. It’s hers to have, if only she knew where to look for it. But will she?

In many ways this is a story not unlike our own: for “hidden” within each of us, and yet in plain sight, is a power unmatched in its brilliance. What is this potential diamond of the mind that awaits whoever will find it? It is our ability to attend to what we will. Coupled with awareness, attention empowers us to unite ourselves with whatever we wish to know and be. Let’s examine this largely unexplored gift of ours.

Much as we just learned in the preceding section – that we have the right to remember what we choose to – so are we graced with an immense interior gift: the power to give our attention to what we will – to what enriches and serves us.

Continuing states of stress and sorrow are the result of having mistakenly placed our attention upon what punishes us, stealing from us our happiness as a result. The following new self-knowledge reveals the secret ins and outs of this dark dynamic: Any time our attention is given to some thought or feeling, it animates that condition; our attention invests what it falls on with a certain kind of life energy.

Another unknown phenomenon about attention is that when it is given to something – for instance, a timeless night sky – it facilitates within us a union with the qualities of that “world.” And this dynamic is in operation all the time: to consider something is to be connected to it. So, our attention connects, animates, and nourishes whatever we lend it to in life. And more than this, but as a part of its power, we have all witnessed the following:

You’re stopped at a red light, and you look out your car window at someone passing by. You follow him with your eyes – interested in something about his appearance or manner. As you remotely study this person, the power of attention moves through and across time and space and it “touches” him in some way. The next thing you know he turns around and looks at you!

This power can be used for good or bad. When we use it for practical work, or for honest self-observation, we use it to our own benefit. However, when this power operates on its own, within us, without our awareness of what it’s interacting with, it can cause many problems. Here is where the unattended mind becomes the breeding ground of self-defeat. For instance, any time our attention is placed, without our knowing it, on some way to escape ourselves, here’s what happens: more often than not we find out – too late – we got hooked up with some self-harming idea that ultimately led us to compromise ourselves.

This new kind of self-knowledge places us on the threshold of a wholly different, brighter life. If by being inattentive to our own interior life, we see how much of our unhappiness is self-created, then, we can learn to redirect our attention, placing it within what is right and bright. But, there is only one way to realize this reversal: we must work to see how wrongly directed attention works against us.

Perhaps a thought pops into your mind about a problem that’s been bothering you. Appearing with it is some emotional disturbance. Now the thought starts rolling, growing in its demand for your attention. Almost instantly it has defined what needs to be done, or what you are powerless to do. And both states accomplish the same dark end: You’ve unknowingly animated that thought and given it a life – and the life you’ve given it is your own! Here’s an example of how this scene might unfold:

A man is walking through his office when his boss walks by and gives him a blank look. The thought pops into the man’s mind that his boss is criticizing him or doesn’t like him. Now, as he starts to fear this idea – a negative picture produced by his imagination – his mind focuses its attention on this disturbing image. And the more he attends to this dark dream, the further into its labyrinth he descends, strengthening its presence and power to further irritate him. A heartbeat later, he has no doubt: the boss has it in for him! This thought grows in authority for him, tormenting him for the rest of the day and causing him to snap at his family when he gets home. And all of this suffering is born of what? The conjunction of a passing glance and a moment of misdirected attention!

Here’s the amazing thing about this illustration, and what we want to learn from it: this whole drama has been played out inside of the man – storyline, stage, cast, and leading characters. But he doesn’t see how this painful state is self-created; instead he believes it has been cast upon him by someone else – his heartless boss! So, what else can he do – being in the dark as he is to his true condition – but try to rid himself of his stressed feelings? How? By arguing with his boss, either outwardly or in his mind.

The more he feels punished by the situation that he sees in his mind, the more he wants to fight with it. He’s sure his unwanted experience exists independent of his perception of it, but we can see he’s mistaken. His pain is a product of how he sees the event and then all of the misery that comes with resisting his own mistaken perception. He is quite literally lashing himself, and the more he resists what he thinks is happening, the more it happens to him! This is a good description of what I call the “circle of self.” In it we can see how the pain of our own mistaken perception produces the enemies it needs to keep itself alive.

From our vantage point, we can see how the man’s unattended mind first animated a fearful thought, which leads to wrongly feeding it with his own life. We can also see that nothing can change for him until he sees the truth behind his trouble and withdraws his consent from it.

We suffer because we consort with painful thoughts and feelings, thinking somehow that not wanting them makes them go away. But our unconscious actions betray us: first, by animating what makes us ache, and then by binding us to that relationship through our resistance to it. Here’s a simple way of saying these last few ideas: Not wanting our negative states actually nourishes them!  I can almost hear the question that comes next: “Wait a minute! You can’t be saying these dark thoughts and feelings are good, and that we should want what’s hurting us, are you?”

Of course not! Negative states have no right to exist in us as they presently do. And that’s just the point. We literally give them a place to live in our psychic system – feed them, as it were – by trying to rid ourselves of them in the usual ways. But there are other ways of dealing with pervasive dark states besides resisting them, suppressing them, or trying to change the conditions seen as being responsible for them. Instead of these acts of willfulness, we choose in favor of watchfulness.

Rather than struggling with dark states, learning to be quietly watchful of them does two things at once: first, it separates us from being wrongly identified with our own thoughts about that troublesome state. Second – by the light of our newly liberated attention – we catch a glimpse of a powerful insight whose light helps set us free:

If we mistakenly give any negative state its “life” – then the opposite must hold true: we can consciously withdraw that same life any time we so choose!

Here is a simple exercise to help you get started with this new kind of seeing that is the power behind freeing you. Several times each day, whenever you can remember to do it, deliberately disconnect yourself from your own thinking. Choose awareness of your thoughts over being absorbed in the sensations they produce as they carry you along to get what they want. The aim here is simple: reclaim your attention in order to be where you are, and then just quietly notice all that you can about yourself.

The light of this new order of awareness empowers you to catch and release what your own unattended thoughts had been busy cooking up for you, using you as stock! Each time you remember to reclaim your attention in this manner, with it you regain your life. And here is a bright bit of encouragement to help you get started. The words that follow are those of Simone Weil, a brilliant French writer, activist, and lover of the Light: “Even if our efforts of attention seem for years to be producing no result, one day a light that is in exact proportion to them will flood the soul.”

Excerpted from The Essential Laws of Fearless Living, Weiser Books, 2008. Available in major bookstores and on Amazon.com.

About the author:
Guy Finley is the best-selling author of more than 36 books and audio albums on self-realization. He is the founder and director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit center for self-study located in southern Oregon where he gives talks four times each week. For more information visit www.guyfinley.org, and sign up to receive a free helpful newsletter emailed to your desktop once each week.

Special Book Promotion: Order Guy Finley’s life-changing book The Essential Laws of Fearless Living from BarnesAndNoble.com today for just $13.45 and receive over 50 FREE bonus gifts.

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Your luck is your psychokinetic resonance with the environment you are in. Like everything else, luck is an energy. It is something that is quantifiable not in physical but in nonphysical ways. You can quantify it physically only in terms of its physical manifestations in your life. Luck is dependent on time, place and consciousness. When you are lucky, you are in mental and emotional resonance with your surroundings. When you are unlucky, it is the opposite. The level of resonance is the level of your luck.

Luck is also a feeling or emotion because emotion is energy in motion. When you are lucky, you are also feeling lucky. Your feeling is your vibration and therefore you are vibrating luck and feeing it. You feel and experience that everything is working for you when you are lucky. You feel that everything is working against you when you aren’t lucky. A state of vibrational harmony or disharmony with your environment is the whole explanation for this. You either feel that things are in a flow or things are disrupted.

Your energy level determines your luck vibration. At times when you are feeling low of energy, that is also when your luck vibration is at a low point. You are more likely to make careless mistakes, become more accident prone and flop up in some way. When you are feeling high of energy, that is also when your luck vibration is in a high state. You are sharper, clearer and more in the zone. You seem to be able to do amazing things in ways that baffle others to the point that makes you seem very skillful or lucky.

Actually luck and skill are one. The more in energetic resonance you are with your environment, the more your skill will work and the luckier you’ll seem. You can always observe that when the best are in action, they always seem to have both their skill and the situation working for them. You can never separate luck from skill because after all, they are both part of the same thing called psychokinetic resonance with the environment. Your skill is your capability of handling the situation which depends on luck.

Once you know that luck is an energy, you can depend on it in that manner. You cannot depend on luck that is considered to be random chance occurrence. You can’t depend on such things because they do not exist. A non existent thing cannot be depended upon. Everything that exists is a part of consciousness and can be controlled by consciousness. Therefore luck exist and is fully under your control. Knowing this, you never have to fear of bad luck because you can make all things work in your favor.

Since luck is dependent on energy, you have to pay attention to your level of energy in every moment and take charge of it. When you notice that your energy level is low, be more careful with the things you do especially if they are important. You may make mistakes that usually never happen, and wonder how could you be so unlucky or stupid. You may realize that every time you have made careless or stupid mistakes that seem to be like bad luck, it was when your energy level was indeed at a low point.

Lack of focus and lack of being adequately present minded also creates bad luck. Do you notice that when you make stupid mistakes in situations, you felt that you were not ready? What do you mean by not being ready? You mean that you weren’t focusing properly or fully enough, and you weren’t being adequately present minded. The first step to controlling luck is to be present minded. If you want to be lucky, you must put your focus in the activity you are doing. Or else you’d create bad luck and mistakes.

Your level of focus and placing your mind in the present determines your psychokinetic resonance with the environment. Focusing is how you channel energy towards a particular time and place. When your focus is here, your energy is channeled here and you experience luck here. Where you focus is where you generate luck in. That is why the secret of success is focus. Successful people are lucky people because they have more focus than the unsuccessful and unlucky ones. Focus to be a lucky one.

Seek to maintain a high level of energy or vibration at all times. People who experience their luck going up and down throughout the day allow their energy to go up and down. People who experience their luck being consistently high all the time maintain their energy and vibration at a high level. At times when your energy is low, seek to increase it to a higher level again. Do not continue doing any work at a low level of energy because you will tend to make mistakes. Recharge your energy first, then work.

Be aware of negative thoughts and feelings that will bring your level of energy or vibration lower. Positive thoughts and feelings bring your energy level and vibrations higher. Therefore choose to think positive thoughts and feel positive emotions, and you will experience more luck and success in your life. You can also increase your luck when you are more intent of succeeding in a certain situation. Your energy of intent will energize you with the luck you need, and that is why willful intent bends the world to you.

About the author:
Enoch Tan aims to help people achieve greater awareness in living and experiencing life, to evolve human consciousness to higher levels and to revolutionize the way we understand the mind and reality, because that’s what governs every area of life and destiny. When you learn Secret Knowledge of The Universe and Answers to Life Greatest Mysteries, you can have Wealth, Power, Freedom and Anything you want! Visit the site: Secrets of Mind and Reality

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Nothing is free. If you want to be wealthy, you must pay the price for wealth; if you want success, there’s a price for that. The price of achieving these things is applying the law of mind – and not everyone is willing to do that. For example, I knew a wonderful metaphysical teacher in New York City named Mrs. Menier. She lived in the Lucerne Hotel and had a friend who would visit her, borrow books, and accept the old clothes that were offered to her. I asked Mrs. Menier one time, “Why doesn’t this woman listen to you – to your teaching? She doesn’t have to wear your old clothes. She could become successful on her own.” Mrs. Menier replied, “She’s unwilling to pay the price. She’s unwilling to pay attention and apply these truths. She prefers old clothes to wisdom.”

I think Mrs. Menier was right. Her friend preferred old clothes, secondhand umbrellas, and things of that nature to the application of mental and spiritual laws. All she had to do was take an interest in the great truths, but she was unwilling to pay the price. That’s true of many people. Mrs. Menier was very sympathetic and kept on giving her old clothes, but I don’t think that actually did her friend any good.

Whatever you desire, you must give your attention, devotion, and loyalty to it. There’s always a price to be paid. When you learned to drive, you had to make a conscious effort to learn how to steer, merge, and park. You can probably do all these things effortlessly now. At this point your subconscious mind is actually driving the car. You paid the price by paying attention to learning how to drive a car, and now you can do it automatically.

The price of getting what you want includes having faith that your desires can be fulfilled – and not everyone has this faith. For example, at a summer seminar I was teaching in Denver on the powers of the subconscious mind a few years ago, I met a woman who had been praying for ten years for her eczema to be healed – with no results. She had applied various astringent lotions and other topical medications without any appreciable relief. Although she had tried to be healed, she had never paid the price, which was to have complete faith in the Infinite Healing Presence and the law of her own subconscious – to trust the law and believe that the Healing Presence would respond and heal her skin. She had been giving power to externals, saying, “My skin is sensitive to the sun. I’m allergic to the cold weather. I believe this eczema is spreading all over my arm due to heredity. It’s my genes and chromosomes that are at fault.” After I explained the importance of having complete faith in the One Power, she began to pray as follows:

The Infinite Healing Presence that created my body and all its organs knows all the processes and functions of my body. I claim, feel, and know definitely and absolutely that the grandeur and glory of the Infinite are made manifest in my mind and body. The wholeness, vitality, and life of the Infinite flow through me now, and every atom of my being is transformed by the Infinite Healing Presence. I fully and freely forgive everyone, and I pour out love, truth, and beauty to all my relatives and in-laws. I give thanks for the healing that is taking place now, and I know that when I call, the answer comes.

She repeated this prayer slowly, quietly, and reverently several times every day. She told me prior to my leaving Denver that a remarkable change for the better had come over her entire being and that her skin had completely healed. She had faith and received the gift of healing.

Faith is attention, devotion, and loyalty to the One Creative Power. You have faith when you know that thoughts are things; that what you feel, you attract; and that what you imagine, you become. You have faith when you know that any idea deposited in the subconscious mind comes forth as form, experience, and conditions. For example, a group of hikers was lost in a forest but had faith that they would be guided to safety. They had no compass and didn’t know anything about navigating by the stars, but they sat down and said: “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He will lead me to safety. He is guiding me now.” They followed the lead (an intuition or hunch) that they received from the Supreme Intelligence, and they found their way to safety.

They paid the price by having faith in the Divine Source and calling upon it. Faith comes through understanding the laws of your mind and applying them diligently in all your affairs. Scientists have faith that their research will lead to a greater understanding of nature. Farmers have faith that the seeds they deposit in the ground will result in a harvest. Before you can receive wealth, you must have faith that you will get it. You must impress your subconscious mind with the idea of wealth, for whatever is impressed on the subconscious is expressed on the screen of space.

There are a number of qualities that contribute to personal success in life. Some of these – such as being born to good parents, in a favorable country or social class, or with natural physical and mental endowments – are completely out of our control. Fortunately, the qualities that really count are the ones that we can cultivate, and the most important of these is persistence. If you examine the biography of any man or woman who has made a lasting contribution to humanity, you will find that the majority exercised uncommon persistence.

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent won’t – nothing is more common than talented people who are unsuccessful. Education alone cannot. The world is full of educated derelicts. Only persistence and determination are omnipotent.

Give all of your allegiance and devotion to the God Presence and realize that it’s your guide, your counselor, and the source of all blessings. There’s no other power. Think of the wonders that would happen in your life if you gave your complete attention and loyalty to that great truth. But if you give power to sticks and stones, to men and women, to the weather, and to all these other things, you’re worshiping many different gods and won’t get what you want. When you awaken to the truth that there’s One Power, One Presence, and One Cause, then your good will flow to you.

In a Nutshell
Nothing is free. If you want to be wealthy, you must pay the price for wealth; if you want success, there’s a price for that. Whatever you desire, you must give your attention, devotion, and loyalty to it; and then you’ll get a response, of course. The price is recognition, belief, and conviction. There’s always a price to be paid.

Give your attention, devotion, and loyalty to any subject and it will yield its secrets to you. If you don’t give your attention to a particular subject – whether it’s chemistry, mathematics, or your job – you’ll remain in darkness about it.

In order for you to receive, you must first give an idea to your subconscious mind. Before you can receive wealth, you must first impress your subconscious mind with the idea of wealth. Whatever is impressed on the subconscious is expressed on the screen of space.

Cast from your mind all preconceived notions, false beliefs, and superstitions; and realize that before you call, God will answer. Whatever you’re seeking already exists in the Infinite Mind. All you have to do is to identify mentally and emotionally with your desire or idea, realizing that it’s as real as your hand or heart.

Wisdom is the Presence and Power of God functioning in you. Acknowledge God in all your ways, and He will make plain your paths. Trust and believe in God, and your desires will come to fruition.

About the author:
Excerpt from Dr. Joseph Murphy’s Maximize Your Potential Through the Power of Your Subconscious Mind -To Create Wealth and Success. Dr. Joseph Murphy (1898 – 1981), the founder of The Church of Divine Science, produced books, tapes, and radio broadcasts on spiritual matters, the historical values of life, the art of wholesome living, and the teachings of great philosophers – both from the Eastern and Western cultures. Dr. Murphy wrote more than 30 books. His most famous work, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, was first published in 1963, became an immediate bestseller, and was acclaimed as one of the best self-help guides ever written.

For more information, please visit: hayhouse.com

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Since this process is one of discovering yourself, and how you create your experience of life, it’s a fascinating undertaking, with profoundly positive rewards. Mastering your Internal Map of Reality is much the same process a jazz musician uses to learn to improvise. The musician practices chords, scales, and other pieces of musical vocabulary. He consciously thinks of these things and how to arrange them while he practices.

At some point, however, his ability to play no longer requires conscious thought. He relaxes his linear mind and turns his playing over to that part of his mind I mentioned a moment ago, a part that knows how to utilize the skills he has practiced. This other part of his mind can see all the possible choices for what to play in each next moment, evaluate them, choose the best one, and then play it – all in a fraction of a moment, and without conscious thought.

The musician must play this way. The music happens much too quickly to allow him to think his way through it with his linear mind. So, he plays with little or no linear thought, in the same way you talk to others without considering grammar, syntax, or even giving much thought to the content of what you say.

Okay, so you aren’t a jazz musician. But you probably do know how to drive a car.

When you first learned to drive you had to think your way through each move. “Time to stop. Where is the brake? When, exactly, do I step on it, and how hard – in order to stop at the right place and the right moment?” “Okay. Time to change lanes. I’ve got to look over my shoulder, judge how much room I need, decide how fast to go, and when to go, and then use the right amount of gas, breaking, and steering, all at the exact right time.”

It was a lot of work because you had to do it all with your conscious, linear mind. Now, though, you drive with little if any conscious thought. To be a little bit Zen about it, when you drive you’re one with the car. How did you get that way? By practicing, by driving until you developed the ability to evaluate all the possibilities in each moment, choose the right one, and then do it – all without consciously thinking about it. Just like the jazz musician, you began by being unconsciously incompetent (you didn’t know how, and you didn’t even know what you didn’t know).

Then, with a little bit of practice, you became consciously incompetent (you began to realize what you didn’t know, and what you needed to work on). Next, you became consciously competent (you could do it, but you had to think your way through it). Finally, you became unconsciously competent (you turned it over to a part of your unconscious mind that can evaluate an infinite number of variable, instantly, decide what to do, and then do it).

The ability to move through these various stages, by the way, is connected to the amount of neural real estate devoted to whatever it is you are learning. Once you have practiced enough, the part of your brain responsible for driving, or playing music – or consciously and intentionally operating your Internal Map of Reality – takes over and does its job.

So you can learn to take charge of your Internal Map of Reality. First, you learn the basics of how it works. Next, you notice how you’ve been using it and what results your way of using it has been creating. Then you play with each part and find out what it does, and notice all the other choices you haven’t been exercising. You play with those and find out what they do. Eventually, the same mechanism that allows you to drive a car while you eat, talk on the phone, change the radio station, put on your makeup, and talk to your passengers, will take over.

You’ll be just like the jazz musician who, after practicing for many years, effortlessly generates beautiful music. The fact that you may not know anyone with this kind of control over his or her mind shouldn’t keep you from believing that you can learn to do this.

It can be done (I’ve done it, and I have taught many others to do it). All that’s required is the desire to do so, and the persistence to practice. The process is fascinating, and the rewards are huge. What would you do if you really could be in charge of what you feel, how you behave, and what people and situations you attract into your life?

We each have a choice. We can continue to automatically create whatever our Internal Map of Reality has been pre-programmed to create, or we can develop the awareness, and the flexibility, to intentionally and fluidly change our Map of Reality, moment – by – moment, as needed, in order to create whatever we want.

You may not have realized, up to now, that this choice existed, but it’s a real choice. You can take the reins of your mind, and in mastering your mind, you can master your life.

Centerpointe’s Life Principles Integration Process
(LPIP) is a step-by-step method for mastering your Internal Map of Reality. To experience a free preview lesson, just click here.

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The Direction Filter determines whether, when you look at a given situation, you move toward what you want, or away from what you don’t want. If someone asks you why having a good job is important to you (assuming that it is), you might say that having a good job creates a good living and allows you to exercise your creativity.

In this case, you’ve described what you want to move toward – a good living, and exercising your creativity. You might, though, use this filter in the opposite way and say that without a good job you would struggle to make ends meet, and you would feel bad spending forty hours a week doing something you find uninteresting. In this case, you’ve described what you want to move away from – not being able to make ends meet, and spending your time on something that does not interest you. In both cases, your intention might be the same, to have what you want. In the first case you want to get it by moving toward it, while in the second you want to get it by moving away from the opposite.

These two ways of focusing your mind, however, will create very different outcomes. To move toward what you want, you have to focus on it. In most cases this means picturing it internally or talking to yourself about it. As with all focusing, this will create certain feelings and behaviors, and it will cause you to attract or be attracted to the people or situations that will help you make what you’ve focused on happen in reality.

As always, your mind figures out how to create what you focus on. When you move away from what you don’t want, something very similar happens, but with an interesting twist. To move away from something you don’t want, you also have to focus on it. Unfortunately, your mind takes what you focus on very literally. It assumes that you want whatever you focus on. It doesn’t register the negative and, as before, it gets busy attracting or creating what you’ve focused on – even though you don’t want it.

If, for instance, you are afraid that people don’t like you, you will find ways to attract people who don’t like you. You might become attracted to people who don’t like anyone. You might act in such a way that people don’t like you. You might interpret what people say and do in a way that makes it seem that they don’t like you, even if they do. You can see that automatically focusing on what you don’t want is not resourceful, yet many people do it.

To be in charge of what you create, you need to use this filter consciously. You cannot allow it to operate unconsciously.

A second metaprogram filter, The Reason Filter, determines why you do whatever it is you are doing. Do you do it because it’s possible, or because you have to? Many people unconsciously and automatically follow a set of rules or “supposed-to’s” they learned while growing up. These rules create pre-programmed focusing and pre-programmed behavior.

There are certain benefits to this – rules act like shortcuts, allowing us to act in ways that have worked in the past). However, no set of rules can cover all possibilities, and what do you do when you can’t find a rule that works? And, many of the rules we carry with us from childhood are nothing more than hand-me-down limitation from our parents.

Rules and “have-to’s” filter out other possibilities, and if you filter out the possibilities, you don’t see them. If you don’t see them, they don’t exist. If you focus on the possibilities in any given situation, you may still end up with the same action the rules would have generated, but you’ll be doing it for a different reason, and you’ll have considered many possibilities that might generate a much more resourceful outcome.

But what about the shortcut advantage?

Won’t you need to consider all the possibilities – which could be infinite – in every situation? Relax. There is a part of you that can consider them all, evaluate them, and choose the most resourceful, and do it in an instant. It isn’t your linear mind, though, which does everything one step at a time, but rather another part of you that can handle an unlimited number of variables all at once. (More about that in a moment.) These (and about twenty more) metaprogram filters determine what you pay attention to.

You can either use them unconsciously, as you probably are now, or you can master them and use them consciously and intentionally. When these filters operate unconsciously and automatically, you will create your life in a certain pre-set way. If you operate them consciously and intentionally, you can create whatever you want. It’s that simple.

Centerpointe’s Life Principles Integration Process
(LPIP) is a step-by-step method for mastering your Internal Map of Reality. To experience a free preview lesson, just click here.

Stay tuned for part III of “What You Pay Attention To Creates Your Life”

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