Make a conscious decision to appreciate and acknowledge all that you have already been blessed with. These emotions are of the highest vibrational frequency, and through the Law of Attraction they will attract even more to be thankful for.

Try to be grateful for even the difficult and challenging situations that arise in your life.

It is often through these situations, that we experience the most profound spiritual and emotional growth. You can learn to view each apparent obstacle as an opportunity to develop a new quality, strength, skill, insight or wisdom and be grateful for the lessons. Each challenge is an opportunity for growth and expansion.

Rise to these occasions, and appreciate all that you are learning in the process. Keeping your attitude positive and appreciative through these times will not only help to avoid attracting more of these difficult situations into your life ─ it will also create a field of positive energy that will attract more of what you do want.

“Of all the attitudes we can acquire, surely
the attitude of gratitude is the most important,
and by far the most life-changing.”
- Zig Ziglar

A Token of Gratitude
Try carrying a small token, stone, crystal, or some other meaningful object with you each day in your pocket. Throughout the day, each time you reach into your pocket for your money or keys it will serve as a tangible reminder to stop and think of something you have to be grateful for. This is a great way to increase your awareness of all that you have to be appreciative of.

Take a moment to breathe, and really feel the emotion of gratitude. This simple mindfulness technique helps to raise your vibrational frequency and keep you in a state of constant gratitude.

Your Gratitude Journal
Start keeping a daily Gratitude and Acknowledgement journal. This is a necessary and valuable tool in the development of your growth and awareness. This book is not intended to be a long, drawn out “diary” sort of thing, just a short, simple list of things you are grateful for on that particular day. This is a place to honor and appreciate the good in your life.

Gratitude:
Each evening, before going to bed, take a few minutes to review your day. Think about the day’s events. Become aware of how many good things actually happened on that day, and remember to appreciate even the challenges that you encountered. Select the five things, or people, or events that you are most grateful for. There is no right or wrong here, just whatever, or whoever you are sincerely grateful for on that particular day. It may be the warm sun on your face, a cool breeze, a kind word, a friend, or just feeling good about what you got accomplished that day. It may be the way you handled a particular situation that would have thrown you into a tailspin in the past.

Anything you are grateful for. As you write them in your journal, feel the gratitude and appreciation. Give thanks.

Acknowledgement:
Take a moment to acknowledge the changes that are occurring for you personally. Write them down. Acknowledge just how well the Law of Attraction is working in your life. Write down any specific event where the Law of Attraction was at work─ the parking space you envisioned, the meeting you wanted to schedule, the bonus check you received, the grade you wanted, the person who said yes when you asked them out.

Miracles can and do occur on a daily basis. They are happening all around you. Honor them, and notice them. Through acknowledgement, you will become more and more aware of the amazing synchronicity that is already at work in your life.

Make the time you spend in contemplation and writing in your Gratitude and Acknowledgement journal a sacred part of your daily routine. Your continued expressions of joy and gratitude will draw even greater joy, love and abundance into your life.

You will begin to notice a change in your perception of each day’s events. You will become more aware of the positive things that happen all around you every single day. Your focus will shift, your energy will shift, and you will begin to appreciate how blessed you already are. And … the Law of Attraction will respond to the higher vibration you are creating.

Enjoy the journey. Live each day in joy and gratitude. An excerpt from Jack Canfield’s KEY to Living the Law of Attraction.

About the author:
Jack Canfield, America’s #1 Success Coach, is founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you’re ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: FreeSuccessStrategies.com

Grab your free copy of my new book:
The Principles of Successful Manifesting - How to make your life dreams come true.
Click here to download

I left a 14 year relationship that had stopped working several years earlier. I quit my job. I cashed in my 401K and lived off it for several years while I explored what I wanted to do for work.  I started to make conscious choices about how I was spending my life’s energy, and I began cutting out the energy drains and focusing on the things that really contributed to the quality of my life.  I started to listen to my inner guidance and I learned that amazing things happen when you listen.

On New Year’s Day 2007, I spent the day with several friends who are artists.  They taught me a technique for creating intricate designs with colored wax, metallics and paper.  I made a few, but I was more interested in using patterns of words to embellish the ones my friends were making. I had never written poetry before, but as I looked at their unique and remarkable designs, I was compelled to write.

Messages about Universal Truth, Spirit and Energy just flowed through me onto the paper. What started out as a crafts project turned into something much more.  Three months later these creations were featured at a local art gallery. Sixteen of the pieces sold on the opening night of the show.  In just three short months I went from a newbie learning a craft to selling these magical creations.

Around this same time I learned about the Law of Attraction and began to study everything I could find about prosperity consciousness.  I studied the work of Abraham-Hicks, Napoleon Hill and many others who teach about harnessing the power of our thoughts to manifest our desires.  I learned about connecting to the divine spirit that is in all of us.  Plus I learned that true prosperity encompasses all domains of our existence – spiritual, physical, financial, social/emotional and mental.

My favorite definition of prosperity is described by Edwene Gaines in her book “The Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity: A Simple Guide to Unlimited Abundance.”  According to Ms. Gaines, true prosperity is:

- “A vitally alive physical body to provide a comfortable worldly home for the spiritual beings that we are.”
- “Relationships that are satisfying, nurturing, honest and work all the time.”
- “Work that we love so much that it’s not work, it’s play.”
- “And having all the money we can spend.”

Since I started actively studying prosperity consciousness and drawing on the fullness of my life experience to make myself open to the prosperity around me, amazing events began unfolding in my life.  I’ve already shared my experience as a burgeoning artist.  Here are just a few more of the amazing things that happened over the past year as I am becoming aware of and open to having an abundance of prosperity in my life:

Having never flown first class, the airline upgraded my seats twice in the last six months. One week after I decided I needed a commuter car, a friend emailed me asking if I knew of anyone who could use the car she was ready to pass on to a new owner.

An unexpected check for $5000 arrived the very day after I discovered a deficit of several thousand dollars in my cash flow for that month. In one year I went from being more than $40,000 in debt, to being debt free. At my current job, my program budget was unexpectedly doubled and our center was given $100,000 of unsolicited additional funding.

After spending months meditating on manifesting a million dollars, I was stunned to discover that as administrator of my late aunt’s estate, I have responsibility for more than one and a half million dollars that, prior to her death, the family had no idea existed.

These are but a few examples of the prosperity that is manifesting in my life now.  I am cultivating a prosperity consciousness and I practice having a prosperous mindset on a daily basis.  As part of my own journey of prosperity, I gathered hundreds of pages of writings and resources from centuries of teachings on the topic.  From those writings I have extracted seven essential steps to prosperity that have guided me on my journey and that I now wish to share with you.

1)  Wake up and be conscious.
In this fast paced world, we too often get consumed with ‘doing,’ caught up in the many activities that make up modern life. Our days are filled with appointments, commitments and activities. We’re so busy ‘doing’ that we forget about ‘being.’ The first step to prosperity is to s-l-o-w down, to be mindful and conscious – awake and aware.

2)  Clear the clutter.
Our mental and physical worlds are filled with stuff.  All of that stuff consumes energy; energy to maintain it, store it, even just to have it around. Getting rid of clutter in our physical environment frees up energy and makes room for other things to come into our lives. Clearing mental clutter is equally important.  As Nick Nolte’s character says in the movie Peaceful Warrior, “Throw out the trash.”

3)  Cultivate a prosperous mindset.
Clearing out the mental clutter - emptying out the negative self-talk and limiting beliefs - makes room to develop a prosperous mindset.  Do I think like a poor person or do I think like a prosperous person?  Do I assume that good things are going to happen to me or bad things?  Our prosperity mindset is reflected in everything that we think and say, from the smallest things, like finding a parking space on a busy street, to the fulfillment of our biggest dreams.

4)  Live with purpose.
Focus on being who we came here to be.  By remembering that we are spiritual beings having a human experience rather than a human being having a spiritual experience, we remain connected to our divine purpose.

5) Tap the power of thoughts.
Students of the Law of Attraction understand the power our thoughts have to create our experience.  Simply stated, like attracts like, and what we think about becomes reality. Wayne Dyer captured this concisely in the title of his recent book “Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life.”  To be truly prosperous we need to be visionaries, believing wholeheartedly in our visions, and not allowing ourselves to remain stuck in what “is.”

6)  Be a good receiver.
I used to be a terrible receiver.  All too often when surprised with a present, I would find myself saying “You shouldn’t have” or “I can’t accept this.”  Later I realized that the message I was sending was “Don’t give me any good stuff.”  Being a good receiver sends a powerful message to the Universe that we willingly and joyfully accept all that is in store for us. We are open to all of the prosperity that the Universe has to offer.

7)  Live with gratitude.
I recently heard a radio interview that reminded me of the power of living with gratitude.  John Scripter was the first person to undergo a heart transplant at a world renowned hospital in Boston. After the historic operation, the doctors told the Scripter family that John might live for five years.  After John’s death, his wife Linda told interviewers of the tremendous gratitude that her husband felt for the additional time he was given.  He greeted each day with thanks and appreciation.  John Scripter has been called a “miracle man’’ living for twenty-two years following the heart transplant; twice as long as the average heart transplant recipient.

We can all follow John Scripter’s example and live with gratitude and appreciation for the abundance and prosperity that exists in each and every day.  Be conscious and aware of the abundance that surrounds us.  Make room for good things to come into our lives.  Clear out the negative beliefs and tap the power of our thoughts to create the things we desire to experience.

This is the journey of prosperity and it is the journey of the conscious entrepreneur.  Central to prosperity and conscious business are a commitment to following one’s inner guidance, a willingness to fulfill one’s divine plan, and making a difference in the world.   Don’t wait for the Universe to send you a big nasty cosmic wake up message. Wake up and smell the Prosperity. Be conscious. Be entrepreneurial.  Be prosperous.  It is your birthright.

About the Author:
For over 20 years Laurel has used her unique talents for researching, analyzing, synthesizing and sharing information in a wide array of nonprofit, private sector and public sector endeavors. A lifelong learner and an avid teacher, Laurel created the Conscious Prosperity Circle – an online community and resource center promoting the transformation of prosperity consciousness worldwide. Download the free special report, “Prosperity is Your Birthright, Claim It Now” at: ConsciousProsperity.com.

Grab your free copy of my new book:
The Principles of Successful Manifesting - How to make your life dreams come true.
Click here to download

Our Sense of Time
The human brain is the most amazing data-processing system yet discovered. In comparison, the most powerful computers yet built are simpler than the simplest single-celled biological organism.
Digital computers encode signal inputs and outputs as bits (strings of 0s and 1s) and process information by electronic on/off switches that manipulate the bits.

In addition, computers have a built-in clock that synchronizes their data-processing operations. While this approach is a working basis of many of our technologies, it is utterly inadequate for carrying out the sort of complex mental tasks that our brains process and that we take for granted. For example, our visual recognition of a face in a crowd is a task we can accomplish without a moment’s hesitation, but computers find it incredibly difficult.

The reason is that our brains comprise a dynamic matrix of some one hundred billion neurons—nerve cells that, like computers, operate electrically. But instead of just acting digitally on or off, they behave in a so-called analog way and are able to respond to inputs and produce output voltages across a range of signal strengths.

Also, we have seen that, unlike computers, there is no inner clock in our brains. Our perceptions of events are accumulated from an ongoing variety of sense-based inputs from our environment. These arrive in a time frame of a few milliseconds; and it is only when they cumulatively pass an energy threshold that a given neuron sends an output signal, whose firing correlates with our becoming aware of the event. Again unlike computers, which are constructed with fixed hardware and programmed software, our neurons are highly plastic.

Neural channels—the connections between neurons—are constantly changing and adapting through interactions with what is perceived as reality. And although for many years neuroscientists believed that when neurons die through aging, disease, or trauma they’re not replaced, as we have noted, this has been shown not to be the case. Through a process called neurogenesis, new neurons are created throughout our lifetime and especially as a result of intensely felt experiences.

The energetic imprints of our experiences encode not only their physical attributes but how we think and feel about them. In fact, it’s our thoughts and emotions about the events of our lives that are their most vivid and long-lasting aspects. Even when we no longer consciously remember a specific event, its related emotions may continue to reside in our subconscious memory. Contributing to our patterns of habitual response, the hopes, fears, anger, regret, and myriad other feelings are aspects of the shadowy terrain from which our “sunlit” waking awareness emerges.

Our brains are continually processing a vast amount of environmental impressions that we initially respond to unconsciously. An enormous majority of these remain unconscious, for only when they are energetically strong enough do they cross the threshold of our conscious awareness. The apparent continuity of our conscious impressions is illusory, because without an inner “clock” our perceptions lag behind the multitude of stimuli, which we are continually bathed in and interact with.

The neural processes that respond to such impressions take around a quarter of a second to accumulate and form into a conscious experience—this is due to different attributes of stimuli, such as their color, shape, and texture. Although they occur simultaneously, they are registered by our brains at different times.

In our everyday awareness, this overlapping of impressions becomes a coherent whole, and we experience our waking consciousness as a unified flow. This is how our sense of the flow of time is formed. The emotional and mental contents that enrich our experiences manipulate our sense of time, ratcheting it up to “fast-forward” or reducing it to slow motion. Traumatic events appear to slow down or even stop time, whereas when we are enjoying ourselves, “time flies.”

Mind over Matter
Such different perceptions of the same reality are an everyday occurrence. But we are rarely aware of just how much our believing or disbelieving affects what we actually “see.” Generally, our ego-selves are culturally conditioned. As a consequence, we not only act in accordance with our prevailing worldview and beliefs, but our identification is so powerful that we are literally unable to see what we cannot imagine.

When we’re able to imagine something, we create an image of it that we can relate to. Without such relationship, there is no resonance, and so we have no energetic and informational means of attuning ourselves to a new phenomenon. When we can imagine a phenomenon and believe in its reality, we can actually experience that reality.

For millennia, the meditative techniques of spiritual traditions have taught their initiates how to embody greater well-being by attuning their minds and emotions more harmoniously. Additionally, they have shown how the attuned power of our mind can overcome physical pain. Tibetan monks, for example, have long been tutored in visualization exercises that enable them to slow or increase their heart rates and alter their body temperatures at will.

Such exercises, over many years, allow them to focus their mind so coherently that there are well-documented cases of overnight snowbound vigils held by monks who melted the snow around them through their body heat alone. Although we may not have their fortitude or training, our beliefs, too, are not only capable of altering our biology but do so all the time.

What is the process that enables our thoughts and feelings to have such power over our bodies? In the last chapter, we introduced biologist Bruce Lipton’s model of cellular membranes as organic information processors that are dynamically linked to the environment. The receptor molecules that are embedded within the membranes resonate and interrelate with specific environmental stimuli, both physical and informational. Their responses are the triggers that organize the behavior and the internal condition of the cell.

But, as Lipton points out, the stimuli that trigger cell activity may be distorted; thus, they rather represent our beliefs about reality. And so environmental signals such as our feelings and thoughts—even, and often especially, when they are subconscious—affect the behavior and thus the health of the cell whether or not they reflect a “real” view of the world.

As biochemist David Hamilton shows in his book It’s the Thought That Counts, the attunement of our conscious and subliminal thoughts and emotions—both of which express our beliefs about ourselves and the wider world—powerfully affect the health of our bodies and our overall well-being at the level of every cell of our body.

The Placebo Effect
One significant way our beliefs and expectations affect our biology is in the so-called placebo effect.
This was first discovered during pharmaceutical drug trials in the 1950s in which the effect of a new drug was tested by comparing its performance against a dummy medication, or placebo, administered to patients suffering from a given condition.

Over many studies, it has been found that on average about a third of patients who are given the placebo feel better. In fact, a number of studies have shown that individuals suffering from mild depression respond to placebos as well as they do to antidepressant drugs—and without any adverse side effects.

For a long time, doctors tended to assume that the mechanism of placebo response is psychological. Researchers at the University of Michigan tested this assumption by scanning the brain activity of healthy volunteers whose jaws had been injected with salt water, causing painful pressure. The volunteers were then told they would receive a new pain-relieving drug when in fact they were given a placebo. The scans showed that their brains responded to their belief in the placebo by releasing endorphins—natural painkilling chemicals that block the pain signals between nerve cells—and as these coursed through their bodies, the volunteers felt better.

The scale of the placebo effect may in fact be increasing. In 1999, in an article for Science magazine, Martin Enserink reported that tests for drugs to alleviate obsessive-compulsive disorder disclosed that for over 15 years, the proportion of placebo responses had grown from virtually nil to where some trials failed—in all likelihood, due to the high level of placebo response. The year before, in a meta-analysis of 19 antidepressant drug trials, psychologists Irving Kirsch and Guy Sapirstein showed that the proposed drugs relied on the placebo effect for three-quarters of their effectiveness.

The power and potential for intentional healing of the placebo effect is finally being recognized - although unsurprisingly, not by drug companies. What it appears to depend on is a person wanting to be healed and his or her expectancy that the treatment will be effective.

One of the pioneering researchers of the intimate connections between our minds, emotions, and bodies is psychopharmacologist Candace Pert, author of Molecules of Emotion. In the early 1970s, biologists were trying to understand how mind- and mood-altering opiates such as morphine worked. Theorizing that such drugs interact with the brain’s cellular receptors, Pert, with her colleague Sol Snyder, discovered the existence of such a receptor.

The discovery opened the door to the realization that if our bodies have such receptors, then we must also have a natural feel-good opiate within us. Subsequently identified by neuroscientists John Hughes and Hans Kosterlitz in 1975, this turned out to be a molecule called endorphin that was found to be released in large quantities through physical exercise, among other things—and also by eating chocolate!

Endorphins are one type of so-called neuropeptides that are produced by emotions and in turn produce them through our continuous flow of experience. Involved in an enormous range of bodily functions from the management of pain to the release of hormones, neuropeptides and the cellular receptors they interact with form a psychosomatic and dynamic matrix operating through our thoughts, emotions, and bodies.

Heart and Mind
For most of us for most of the time, our thoughts and emotions relate to our ego-based, personal, sense of self. The innate separation from others that such a sense of separate self engenders is the basis for the word selfish. When we are unable to go beyond its inherent limitations, we feel lonely and cut off, as indeed we are when seeing the world solely from its narrow perspective.

When our egos are too dominant or, conversely, too fragile, such apparent separation is often accompanied by difficulty in empathizing with the wider world. It is this deep sense of separation, loss, and loneliness that many psychologists feel is at the root of an exponential increase in depression in the last few years. And it’s the negative emotions that are generated by the separations and fears of our ego-mind that lie at the root of so many of the schisms that have divided people from each other. Conversely, the positive feelings of pleasure, joy, and love arise not in the mind but are generated by our heart. These feelings have the capacity to connect us at ever-expanding levels of awareness with the whole-world.

We have seen how our entire body is a coherent energy-information system. This also comes to the forefront in the findings that intelligence and attention are not mediated through the brain. For, as research shows, the heart is able to perceive and has inherent intelligence.

In the 1970s, physiologists John and Beatrice Lacey found that not only are signals sent from our brain to our heart, which the heart considers but does not necessarily follow, but that our heart also sends signals to our brain, which the latter does obey. Subsequently, it has been discovered that the heart has its own nervous system comprising at least 40,000 nerve cells (neurons)—as many as are found in various subcortical centers of the brain. Leading on from this, a two-way biocommunication system of thoughts and feelings is now recognized to operate between the heart and the brain.

Since 1991, stress researcher Doc Childre and his colleagues at the HeartMath Institute in California have undertaken research to demonstrate how negative emotions such as insecurity, anger, and fear throw the body’s nervous system out of balance and engender heart rhythms that are jagged and disordered. Conversely, they have found that positive emotions of love, compassion, and gratitude create coherent energy signals that increase order, reduce stress, and bring balance throughout the nervous system. They are reflected in harmonious rhythms of the heart.

Our hearts generate the strongest electromagnetic field produced by our body—a field that, as the HeartMath team has demonstrated, is measurable a number of feet away by magnetic and electrostatic detectors.

The Power of Positive Emotions
One of the challenges facing researchers studying human behavior outside the laboratory in “real life” situations is to reduce the number of variables that are needed to be taken into consideration to come up with evidence in a particular case. A project to see whether positive emotions are conducive to living longer was able to do this when it investigated the longevity of a group of 180 nuns living the same ordered life away from the distractions and stresses of the world outside the convent walls.

Published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychiatry in 2001, the analysis of the positive words used throughout their diaries revealed that the nuns with the most positive outlook, and who felt more positive emotionally, were not only happier than their sisters but lived significantly longer lives. It does make a difference both to our state of well-being and how long we will live to enjoy our lives.

French golfer Jean Van de Velde was leading the 1999 field at the Carnoustie, Scotland, Open Championship when he hit a critical shot into the water during the play-off and went from leader to runner-up. When asked in 2007 when the Open returned to Carnoustie how he had felt, Van de Velde replied, “I see the world as a glass half full, preferably of wine. And all the better when I’ve already drunk the first half.” Well said!

Emotional IQ
In 1996, psychologist Daniel Goleman reviewed the significance of the heart in the way that we perceive and interact with the world. He noted that the measurement of human IQ, which reflects the quotient of intellectual and cognitive abilities, does not change significantly from childhood onward regardless of our educational opportunities and attainment.

Goleman found that success in life, as reflected in measures of perceived well-being, appears to depend significantly less on IQ and more on our ability to manage and develop our emotional intelligence. He termed the relevant measure EQ: emotional intelligence quotient. EQ relates to self-awareness and our ability to perceive the interrelationship between our thoughts, emotions, and actions and their consequences on others. Unlike our IQ, our EQ can continue to be educated and indeed reeducated throughout our life.

Fear is often seen as a negative emotion. It’s healthy, however, when it enables us to be aware of the danger of an imminent threat and allows us to take appropriate action. The problem arises when we make a habit out of being fearful, for when we feel fear, our bodies literally contract. Biologically, we shut down all nonessential processes in order to focus on the archaic evolutionary choice of fight or flight.

When the danger is past, we relax and our bodies return to a balanced state. But when our fears become chronic, that biological rebalancing cannot occur; instead, our continuing level of fearful thoughts and emotions hold us tightly in the grip of fight-or-flight stress. This inevitably limits our behavior, for as Candace Pert has written: “You can’t grasp new information in a state of fear . . . punishment and threats actually inhibit the learning process.”

Chronic fears often arise in childhood. And by the time we are adults, they have become part of our worldview. When we’re able to be aware of such fears—to acknowledge their limitations and, if needed, seek the help of others to overcome them—our lives can be transformed. When we exchange the resentment, frustration, anger, and pain of such fears for compassion, joy, and gratitude, we literally become another person. This transformation is not only possible but can be experienced by everyone who is willing to try.

Sometimes words are inadequate to express what we really mean or feel, but the English language is remarkable in its inclusion of simple words that can themselves hold a deeper meaning. For example, each of us may have a different definition of the word evil. But when we realize that it is the word live spelled backward, we can perhaps see a meaning that hasn’t occurred to us before: Evil is the opposite of live. To undertake an evil act is then an act of death. And the word love, itself carrying so much association, is only a single letter different from the word live. As evil is death, so love is life.

The stress and depression that accompanies emotional and mental trauma are reinforced and worsened if we continue to solely focus on our ego-based perceptions of ourselves. The age-old adage to “live, love, and laugh” is probably the simplest and most profound self-help advice there is. No matter how it is wrapped up in sophisticated language, leading-edge science and consciousness studies agree that:

to live physically, mentally, and emotionally active lives, to love—in action through service to others - and to laugh - preferably at yourself - is the most effective, and yet sometimes the most challenging, way to wholeness and health.

It’s important for us to appreciate that our emotions and thoughts are energetic patterns that embody awareness, and their reorganization can inhibit or restore health. Our feelings and beliefs about ourselves and the world are crucial. Their limitations are our limitations; their possibilities are our possibilities.

We can no longer separate our thoughts and emotions from our physical well-being.

This excerpt is taken from the book CosMos: A Co-creator’s Guide to the Whole-World by Ervin Laszlo and Jude Currivan. It is published by Hay House (August 2008) and is available at all bookstores or online at: www.hayhouse.com.

Available also at amazon: CosMos: A Co-creator’s Guide to the Whole-World

Grab your free copy of my new book:
The Principles of Successful Manifesting - How to make your life dreams come true.
Click here to download

When a surfer rides an ocean wave, he or she does so by balancing on a surfboard, which is smoothed and polished to minimize friction and thus enable the surfer to flow freely as the wave rises, crests and falls away.

The surfer doesn’t seek to control the wave but to be in harmony with it. Focused  and present, he or she is alert and balanced – flexible and responsive to the nuances of every moment.

We are all surfers, individually and collectively riding a tidal wave of change.

Whilst we can attempt to cling to the past or grasp at the future, we only have the power to make our choices in the ‘now’ of each present moment. In  the eternal ‘now’, we have the   power to choose to be in harmony with the Cosmos and to make our choices on the  basis of love – or we can choose to only perceive the sometimes chaotic foam on the surface of the wave and make our choices from the continuing illusion of separation and on the  basis of fear.

We can perceive and choose to consciously align with the underlying harmony and purpose, which continually co-creates the physical world and align ourselves with its transcendent source.

And each and every one of us can contribute by choosing to focus our energies to the positive re-envisaging of the world – or remain mired in the negativity which the illusion of separation engenders.

Intend
Our familiar experience of the hologram is that it is produced by laser light that is thus coherent and focused.

As our awareness expands and we actively value the wisdom of our hearts and the inner voice of our intuition, our consciousness becomes ever more coherent.

And by attuning our intention to the highest purpose, we become empowered to consciously co-create our realities. What we can imagine, we can become.

Reconcile
Einstein once said that ‘science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind’

Perennial wisdom perceives unified consciousness as the ultimate source of the manifest Cosmos, the transcendent One from which is birthed the essential dance of yin and yang – the means by which consciousness explores the richness and diversity of its own creation. And in the universal experience of tripartite forms and processes – the mediation, resolution and completion of three within One – that wholeness is reconciled.

But the illusion of such expressed separation has become one that we have mistaken as being the only reality. We  have dis-membered our psyche as we have collectively explored its diversity.

It is time to re-member the wholeness of who we really are and to make our choices from that deeper and ultimate reality.  It is time to make our choices from love rather than fear, to include rather than exclude and to co-operate rather than compete.

Co-create
We are spiritual beings undergoing a physical experience. And each of us is powerful beyond measure.

It is time for us to real-ize this. Empowered  by our highest awareness and held in the presence of the universal heart, we can stand straight and lovingly offer the world our unique gifts.

Together, the resonance of our co-creation is greater than the sum of its parts. And each and every one of us can play our unique role in midwiving Heaven on Earth now.

Heal the whole
The spiritual teacher Sogyal Rimpoche has spoken of how, two and a half millennia ago, the Buddha compared the physical universe to a vast net woven of a countless variety of brilliant jewels, each with a countless number of facets. Each jewel reflects in itself every other jewel in the net and is in fact one with every other jewel. Everything is inextricably interrelated and we come to realize that we are responsible for everything that we do, say or think, responsible in fact for ourselves, everyone and everything else and the entire universe.

We are the jewels of creation and we are the creator.

The final step of any initiation becomes the first step of the next stage of the journey of discovery. It is time for us to take a giant leap.

Available at amazon: The Wave

About the publisher:
O is a symbol of the world, of oneness and unity.  O Books explores the many paths of wholeness and spiritual understanding which different traditions have developed down the ages. Our books bring this knowledge in an accessible form, to a general readership, providing practical spirituality to today’s seekers.  Find out more at www.o-books.net

Grab your free copy of my new book:
The Principles of Successful Manifesting - How to make your life dreams come true.
Click here to download

By the time you have poured the entire pitcher out into the glass, you will notice all discolored liquid is gone and only pure, translucent water remains. The same holds true with regard to your mind. As you replace cynical, self-defeating thoughts that crush your self-esteem with a positive, empowering vision that feeds your magnificence, the power of the new thoughts eventually replace the old. This elevates your esteem and dilutes the thoughts that previously consumed your attention. The power in realizing this transformation comes from the magnitude of new positive energy that far surpasses the old negative force.

To mold your new life vision, close your eyes and imagine that a genie has just appeared before you. This genie has offered to grant your every wish, provided you have the courage to envision it, believe it will happen and pursue it. In order to create this vision, you need to temporarily suspend any self-defeating thoughts that you will only have in your life what you have always had.

The past does not need to be a harbinger of the future. Keep in mind that we will be developing a specific plan of action to address the question, “What exactly will it take to manifest this vision?” So, create your dream vision with the expectation that we will be designing a plan to bring each aspect of it into reality.

Let’s start by revisiting what values your vision will honor. These will form the fabric that will weave throughout your vision. Next, review the qualities you previously recorded that you will enhance and further develop. These qualities will speak to who you are being as you construct your dream life. And lastly, make a list of your passions. These are those things you love to do and would gladly look forward to doing every day for the next 50 years. Your passions make life worthwhile.

Think of this vision as a movie script you will watch play out before you on the silver screen as you take your seat in the theater featuring your life story. Write your vision in first person and present tense as if you are describing a scene from the movie as it happens. Create a vivid mental image with as much detail as possible to bring your vision to life.

Utilize all your senses in describing it - sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. See your vision as an already accomplished reality in the present, not merely as something you want or hope to have happen. If you construct your vision as something you hope to have, the wanting, desiring and not having of it will manifest instead of the realization of the vision itself.

Include within your vision the answers to the following questions:

• Who will you be? What qualities and values will you embody? How will you look and come across to others? What will your self-image be?
• What will you do with your life when you possess these qualities and values? How will you spend a typical day at play and a typical day at work?
• What will you have as a result of being these qualities and doing the actions consistent with them?
• Where will you live? In what type of home and with whom? With what physical possessions will you surround yourself?
• What other things such as great friends, abundance, personal freedom, peace of mind, etc. will you have? What goals will you accomplish?
• Who will you assist or support with these accomplishments? Are there any special people, organizations or causes that will be an important part of your life?
• What will your relationships be like? Picture yourself interacting with friends, family, co-workers and all you meet in a way that reflects your high self-esteem and rich friendships.

You can’t do this exercise wrong, so have fun creating your vision as a magnificent person worthy of the best that life has to offer.

Visions supply the creative energy that speeds the metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly. They nourish our ambitions, help clarify our intentions and elevate our self-esteem to the extent that we have the courage to create them, speak them so as to inspire others and believe in their ultimate realization. They serve as the blueprint for the magnificent castle we will build with the granite blocks of our actions and the mortar of our interpretations.

It’s now your turn to create your very own empowering vision. Please do not pass up this opportunity to take advantage of the magic that it can unleash in transforming your life and self-image.

The ultimate value of a vision is that it serves as a motivating place to come from, rather than a place to get to. Visions are also dynamic. As you achieve certain aspects of your vision, it will evolve to include new and previously unforeseen elements. Some aspects of your current vision will also change in time to no longer be part of your evolving vision. For these reasons, visions are always in need of periodic review and reevaluation. They serve to inspire and motivate you and others, not to restrict your options and vitality.

Once you have created your written vision, commit to reading it twice daily without fail, in the morning upon rising and in the evening right before bedtime. As the vision becomes an intention and expectation, your belief in its ultimate realization will support its manifestation into the world.

Exercise:
Write out your personal empowering vision in first person and present tense. Describe in detail what every aspect of your life will be like. Read your vision at least twice each day.

About the author:
To introduce you to his work, Dr. Rubino is making available to you for free a valuable audio recording called “7 Steps to Soaring Self-Esteem” plus a complimentary 1 year membership in his “Success Achievers Club.” I strongly recommend that you visit his website, pick up your free gifts and take a closer look into this life-enhancing book. Visit this special link now to pick up your complimentary gift.

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The first and most important step to living a fulfilling and authentic life that is totally and wonderfully yours is to realize that it’s your life, and you deserve to live it on your terms. The next step is to remember what life you are meant to live, to go back to who you really are, and to let your passions and true personal desires surface again.

The process is more difficult for some than others, but the benefits are well worth it! The following are some of the benefits of living your life:

• Life has meaning and purpose.
• Your self-esteem shoots up.
• You deal with life’s obstacles effectively.
• People just want to be with you.
• You attract positivity to your life.
• You feel fulfilled and happy.

The benefits are many and cannot all be described in words, but the main reason for living your life is this: you deserve to!

I, myself, have been in the darkness of not knowing who am I and what am I meant to do, as well as not experiencing the fulfilment of living a life of purpose. I have made the journey, and I have seen others do it. Now, it is your turn. I believe that every one of us deserves to live an authentic life – a fulfilling and happy life. I have made it my purpose to help as many people as I can to achieve that.

Action Steps
1. Start a journal to follow your progress as you go through this book.
2. Decide on the time of the day that you will spend focusing on yourself – reading, writing, reflecting, applying what you learn – and anything else that helps you grow and move in the direction you want to go.

Can You Really Change Your Life in One Minute?
Your life changes the instant you make a decision to change. So, in reality, it takes even less than a minute to make the change that you want to make; however, you need many minutes to accumulate the information that leads to a particular decision. It is like a puzzle that needs enough pieces to see the whole picture.

Many people get frustrated that, no matter how hard they try, no matter how many books they read or seminars they attend, they still don’t seem to achieve what they want. Unfortunately, many people give up on living their dream lives ¼

If you feel frustrated with the lack of change or progress in your life, you should relax and have faith that what you are doing right now is accumulating the “pieces of the puzzle” that, when the time is right, will lead you to make the changes that you desire.

Action Steps
1. Never give up! You might be just one little piece away from getting what you want. Realize that sometimes it takes twenty years to achieve an overnight success!
2. Keep learning and growing. By changing who you are, you inevitably change your experiences and your life.
3. Take action! However small it is, if it moves you in the right direction, just do it. If you have a dream, take at least one action step towards it in the next half hour – it will make you feel empowered and in control.
4. Then, do something every day, keep your eyes on the destination, and you will get there!

Produce the Results You Are Looking For
Did you know that, statistically, over 90% of people give up on their goals and New Year resolutions within three weeks of setting them? Did you ever wonder why so many people who set goals and New Year resolutions, one year later realize that what they set for themselves they haven’t accomplished?

Then, with new enthusiasm, they do it again, just to get disappointed later. It becomes a vicious circle, and, unfortunately, many people eventually give up making goals in life. They would rather not have goals than feel bad for not following through with them.

Unfortunately, when this happens, people tend to think that something is wrong with them! Their self-esteem goes down, and low self-esteem is one of the major reasons for not succeeding. But here is some good news: not following through with goals has nothing to do with who you are.

If you have a great desire to succeed but are not getting what you want, then you are simply lacking the right tools. By tools, I mean the necessary knowledge, skills, and mindset – all of which, fortunately, you can acquire!

When you stop blaming yourself for not having what you want and start learning all you can in the area that you want to change, you will inevitably become the kind of person who attracts what you desire and produces the results you are looking for!

Action Steps
1. Help yourself grow and develop in the direction you want to go. Decide how much time and money you will dedicate this year to personal development.
2. Decide what it is you really want to learn, and then find appropriate courses and/or teachers for it.
3. Do it today! If you expect different results, then do things differently, be proactive, and be persistent!

About the author:
The One Minute Coach is a great resource for anyone looking for more balance in their life. Order you own copy of The One Minute Coach within the next 24 hours and receive over $9,000 in bonus gifts from experts around the globe. Go to http://mashamalka.com/bookpromotion/

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This is because resource shortages and failing ecosystems will not only limit the ability of the global economy to expand, but cause it to contract. The result will be growing economic and social crises, which will in turn provoke more local, regional and international conflicts. As a consequence the industrial system will weaken while both pre- and post-industrial forces will strengthen.

These three forces will increasingly converge into a single dynamic because there are only two possible outcomes for humanity—either we will continue to destroy our environments until our economies and societies completely collapse, or we will create viable societies and survive. The third alternative, a return to a preindustrial past, is not realistic for most of the people on Earth.

The population of the world is now too large and the environment too damaged to permit most people to live in hunter-gatherer, herder-cultivator or even agrarian societies (i.e. societies dependent on traditional farming technologies). However, it is possible now and will be possible in the future for a minority of the world’s population to live in sustainable pre-industrial communities where they can maintain, restore and develop their traditional lifestyles.

This means that there are only two options available for traditional groups opposed to modernization: they can either develop sustainable solutions that are appropriate for their cultures and physical environments, or they can make futile attempts to restore environmentally and socially obsolete social systems. The latter efforts will only increase chaos and accelerate the collapse of the global system into failed states and warring tribes.

As a result we can say that all events occurring on the planet today are part of two fundamental, major trends: they either support continuing environmental degradation and unsustainable outcomes, or they support the transformation of the global system and sustainable outcomes. At present the destructive trend towards collapse is the dominant trend and the constructive trend towards transformation is the emerging trend. Our futures will be determined by how these two interrelated trends develop.

The Three Possible Future Scenarios
Over the coming decades, the two major trends can produce three possible scenarios: rapid collapse, delayed collapse and (if major irreversible ecological damage has not yet occurred) transformation.

Rapid Collapse
The majority of the world’s political and business leaders resist making major changes and continue with business as usual. As a consequence the pace of environmental destruction will increase and resource shortages will rapidly worsen.

The response to shortages will be to increase the rate of exploitation of the planet’s remaining natural capital, a process that will accelerate the destruction of major ecosystems. At some point in the near future cascading environmental, economic and political crises will become uncontrollable. This will cause irreversible damage to social and biophysical systems and bring about the catastrophic collapse of industrial civilization.

Delayed Collapse
The majority of political and business leaders proactively introduce environmentally friendly technologies and provide emergency economic support to prevent unrest and conflict. These efforts will temporarily stabilize the industrial system and slow the pace of global warming and environmental destruction. However, attempts to improve the system without making fundamental changes to its unsustainable culture and economy will fail.

The environment will continue to degrade, and efforts to manage crises will consume more and more scarce resources. Although system failure will be delayed, the eventual result will be the same as in the first scenario: the inevitable collapse of major ecosystems and human societies.

Transformation
As regional and global crises grow and the world economy begins to fail, it becomes increasingly clear to people all over the world that the current global system is unsustainable and heading for catastrophic collapse.

More and more people will then question the destructive values and institutions of the industrial system and begin to look for constructive alternatives — pathways to survival. Large numbers of people will be attracted to the developing systems-based vision of a sustainable future. The emergence of this new paradigm will enable the rapid constructive transformation of global views, values, technologies and social structures.

Excerpt from Graeme Taylor’s Evolution’s Edge: the Coming Collapse and Transformation of Our World. New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, BC, September 2008. (320 pages, 64 color illustrations, 584 references).

Available at amazon: Evolution’s Edge: The Coming Collapse and Transformation of Our World

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After you have decided what you really want, with specific deadlines, the next step is to determine all of the individual action steps you will need to take to accomplish your goal.

How to Chunk It Down
There are several ways to figure out the action steps you will need to take to accomplish any goal. One is to consult with people who have already done what you want to do and ask what steps they took. From their experience, they can give you all of the necessary steps as well as advice on what pitfalls to avoid.

Another way is to purchase a book or manual that outlines the process.

Yet another way is to start from the end and look backward. You simply close your eyes and imagine that it is now the future and you have already achieved your goal. Then just look back and see what you had to do to get to where you now are. What was the last thing you did? And then the thing before that, and then the thing before that, until you arrive at the first action you had to start with.

Remember that it is okay not to know how to do something.

It’s okay to ask for guidance and advice from those who do know. Sometimes you can get it free, and sometimes you have to pay for it. Get used to asking, “Can you tell me how to go about…?” and “What would I have to do to…?” and “How did you…?”

Keep researching and asking until you can create a realistic action plan that will get you from where you are to where you want to go.

What will you need to do? How much money will you need to save or raise? What new skills will you need to learn? What resources will you need to mobilize? Who will you need to enroll in your vision? Who will you need to ask for assistance? What new disciplines or habits will you need to build into your life?

Another valuable technique for creating an action plan for your goals is called mind mapping.

How to Use Mind Mapping
Mind mapping is a simple but powerful process for creating a detailed to‑do list for achieving your goal. It lets you determine what information you’ll need to gather, who you’ll need to talk to, what small steps you’ll need to take, how much money you’ll need to earn or raise, which deadlines you’ll need to meet, and so on—for each and every goal.

When I began creating my first educational audio program—a breakthrough goal that led to extraordinary gains for me and my business—I used mind mapping to help me “chunk down” that very large goal into all the individual tasks I would need to complete to produce a finished product.

To mind‑map your own goals, follow these steps as illustrated in the example:

1. Center circle: In the center circle, jot down the name of your stated goal—in this case, Create an Audio Educational Program.
2. Outside circles: Next, divide the goal into the major categories of tasks you’ll need to accomplish to achieve the greater goal—in this case, Title, Studio, Topics, Audience, and so on.
3. Spokes: Then, draw spokes radiating outward from each mini-circle and label each one (such as Write Copy, Color Picture for Back Cover, and Arrange Lunch.)

On a separate line connected to the minicircle, write every single step you’ll need to take. Break down each one of the more detailed task spokes with action items to help you create your master to‑do list.

Next, Make a Daily To‑Do List
Once you’ve completed a mind map for your goal, convert all of the to‑do items into daily action items by listing each one on your daily to‑do lists and committing to a completion date for each one. Then schedule them in the appropriate order into your calendar and do whatever it takes to stay on schedule.

Do First Things First
The goal is to stay on schedule and complete the most important item first. In his excellent book, Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, Brian Tracy reveals not just how to conquer procrastination but also how to prioritize and complete all of your action items.

In his unique system, Brian advises goal‑setters to identify the one to five things you must accomplish on any given day, and then pick the one you absolutely must do first. This becomes your biggest and ugliest frog.

He then suggests you accomplish that task first—in essence, eat that frog first—and, by so doing; make the rest of your day much, much easier. It’s a great strategy. But unfortunately, most of us leave the biggest and ugliest frog for last, hoping it will go away or somehow become easier. It never does. However, when you accomplish your toughest task early in the day, it sets the tone for the rest of your day.

By chunking down your goals, and then taking daily action on them, you create momentum and build your confidence, both of which move you farther and faster toward the achievement of your goals.

Now go take some action!

About the author:
Jack Canfield, America’s #1 Success Coach, is founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you’re ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: FreeSuccessStrategies.com

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Within this experience of separation, we search endlessly for union. We strive to try and heal the planet, we create programs for conflict resolution, we march for peace, trying desperately to get humanity to see beyond its differences and live in harmony.

We do this in our personal lives too, putting all of our energy into trying to create balance in our surroundings. We search for the perfect partner, but when we think we have finally found our soul mate, we try to change and control them so they will fit into our ideal. We search for groups of people who will make us feel accepted, by supporting us in our convictions, our opinions, our beliefs. We join a church, a political party, a self-help group, a corporation, in our search to heal the separation in our surroundings, to find the place where we belong.

But in this search, we are vainly trying to accommodate the limiting beliefs and opinions we have adopted throughout our lives. When someone disagrees with how we perceive the world, we avoid them. We try to surround ourselves with people who confirm our convictions, who support us in our ideas, however negative or fear based they may be. Like butterflies, we flit from one experience to another, the mind never fully satisfied on its endless quest to find what feels like home.

The mind will never feel satisfied. Wherever it goes, it will find disagreement. Even within groups that appear to be united, there is separation—religions branch off into countless factions, political parties disagree amongst themselves, football teams argue about tactics, even the Beatles split up. Everywhere we look, there is separation, diversity, duality.

So we continue on our search, rejecting another group as wrong. Or we fanaticize about the particular perspective of our chosen organization, in our desperate need to convince ourselves and the world that we are right. In our quest for union, in reality we are creating more separation, as our prejudices and opinions distance us more from the rest of humanity, instead of bringing us together in love.

The irony is, we are all exactly the same. It is only our perception that is different. It doesn’t matter where you go in the world, everyone is looking for love. It could be the guerrilla in the jungles of Colombia torturing someone, or a missionary preaching in India, helping the poor. We are all looking for love. We are all looking to come back home.

Whether we are in Buckingham palace playing the role of a princess, or a crack junkie in Harlem holding a knife to someone’s throat, we have all suffered abandonment of self. We have all suffered self-abuse and we all perceive ourselves as unworthy of love, a multitude of masks covering the things we consider sins.

Everyone is playing their part in this grand opera called life, like the actors on a stage–each with a different role, each with their own part to play. Some are knights in shining armor, others mysterious villains, but the truth–our essence, our greatness–is infinitely the love. Everyone, everywhere, can choose to be that.

The only way to experience world peace is to elevate consciousness. Until we realize that we are all one, the violence will continue. Until we realize that there is no scarcity, that there is nothing to protect - no fanaticism, no religion, or belief systems - until we realize that we are not our ideas, and that ultimately we are all unconditional love, this cycle will continue, eternally. It might appear a little more civilized, it might be better masked, but until we heal the separation we experience within ourselves, we will continue to witness destruction and conflict, in a society based in fear.

You are what you choose. Instead of choosing for fear, choose for love. As we elevate consciousness, our fear based perception of the world starts to fall away. We increasingly focus on the inherent unity of everything. We embrace the beauty of this moment. We fall in love with life. In the wake of full acceptance come all the changes that are needed, because only love can birth our dreams.

As I embrace every aspect of myself, the judgments I have made about myself dissolve. The more I am at home with myself, the more I become at home in the world. My external world becomes a reflection of how I perceive myself. I stop noticing all of its divisions, separations, inadequacies. Instead, I see its glory. I no longer see good and bad or right and wrong, but see everything as just how it is meant to be.

About the author:
Isha is the author of Why Walk When You Can Fly: Soar Beyond Your Fears and Love Yourself and Others Unconditionally. She is the founder of the Isha Foundation Education for Peace, which is headquartered in Uruguay. You can visit her online at www.isha.com.

Excerpted from Why Walk When You Can Fly: Soar Beyond Your Fears and Love Yourself and Others Unconditionally © 2008 by Isha. Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA.
newworldlibrary.com or 800-972-6657 ext. 52.

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I believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. From the moment of birth, every human being wants happiness and does not want suffering. Neither social conditioning nor education nor ideology affects this. From the very core of our being, we simply desire contentment. I don’t know whether the universe, with its countless galaxies, stars, and planets, has a deeper meaning or not, but - at the very least - it is clear that we humans who live on this earth face the task of making a happy life for ourselves. Therefore, it is important to discover what will bring about the greatest degree of happiness.

For a start, it is possible to divide every kind of happiness and suffering into two main categories: mental and physical. Of the two, it is the mind that exerts the greatest influence on most of us. Unless we are either gravely ill or deprived of basic necessities, our physical condition plays a secondary role in life. If the body is content, we virtually ignore it. The mind, however, registers every event, no matter how small. Hence, we should devote our most serious efforts to bringing about mental peace.

From my own limited experience, I have found that the greatest degree of inner tranquility comes from the development of love and compassion. The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes. Cultivating a close, warmhearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease. This helps remove whatever fears or insecurities we may have and gives us the strength to cope with any obstacles we encounter. It is the ultimate source of success in life.

As long as we live in this world, we are bound to encounter problems. If, at such times, we lose hope and become discouraged, we diminish our ability to face difficulties. If, on the other hand, we remember that it is not just ourselves but everyone who has to undergo suffering, this more realistic perspective will increase our determination and capacity to overcome troubles. Indeed, with this attitude, each new obstacle can be seen as yet another valuable opportunity to improve our mind! Thus, we can strive gradually to become more compassionate; that is, we can develop both genuine sympathy for others’ suffering and the will to help remove their pain. As a result, our own serenity and inner strength will increase.

Our Need for Love
Ultimately, the reason why love and compassion bring us the greatest happiness is simply that our nature cherishes them above all else. The need for love lies at the very foundation of human existence. It results from the profound interdependence we all share with one another. However capable and skillful an individual may be, left alone he or she will not survive. However vigorous and independent one may feel during the most prosperous periods of life, when one is sick or very young or very old, one must depend on the support of others.

Interdependence, of course, is a fundamental law of nature. Not only higher forms of life, but also many of the smallest insects are social beings who, without any religion, law, or education, survive by mutual cooperation based on an innate recognition of their interconnectedness. The most subtle level of material phenomena is also governed by interdependence. In fact, all phenomena - be they from the oceans, the clouds, or the forests that surround us - arise in dependence upon subtle patterns of energy. Without their proper interaction, they dissolve and decay.

It is because our own human existence is so dependent on the help of others that our need for love lies at the very foundation of our existence. Therefore, we need a genuine sense of responsibility and a sincere concern for the welfare of others.

We have to consider what we human beings really are. We are not like machine-made objects. If we were merely mechanical entities, then machines themselves could alleviate all of our suffering and fulfill our needs. However, since we are not solely material creatures, it is a mistake to place all our hopes for happiness on external development alone. Instead, we should consider our origins and nature to discover who we are and what it is we require.

Leaving aside the complex question of the creation and evolution of our universe, we can at least agree that each of us is the product of our own parents. In general, our conception took place not just in the context of sexual desire, but also from our parents’ decision to have a child. Such decisions are founded on responsibility and altruism - the parents’ commitment to care for their child until it is able to take care of itself.

Thus, from the very moment of our conception, our parents’ love is directly in our creation. Moreover, we are completely dependent upon the care of our mothers from the earliest stages of our growth. According to some scientists, a pregnant woman’s mental state, be it calm or agitated, has a direct physical effect on her unborn child.

The expression of love is also very important at the time of birth. Since the very first thing we do is suck milk from our mothers’ breast, we naturally feel close to her, and she must feel love for us in order to feed us properly; if she feels anger or resentment, her milk may not flow freely. Then there is the critical period of brain development from the time of birth up to at least the age of three or four, during which time loving physical contact is the single most important factor for the normal growth of the child. If the child is not held, hugged, cuddled, or loved, its development will be impaired and its brain will not mature properly.

As children grow older and enter school, their need for support must be met by their teachers. If a teacher not only imparts academic education, but also assumes responsibility for preparing students for life, his or her pupils will feel trust and respect, and what has been taught will leave an indelible impression on their minds. On the other hand, that which is taught by a teacher who does not show true concern for his or her students’ overall well-being will not be retained for long.

Nowadays, many children grow up in unhappy homes. If they do not receive proper affection, in later life they will rarely love their parents and, not infrequently, will find it hard to love others. This is very sad.

In the end, since a child cannot survive without the care of others, love is its most important nourishment. The happiness of childhood, the allaying of the child’s many fears, and the healthy development of its self-confidence all depend directly upon love.

Similarly, if one is sick and being treated at the hospital by a doctor who evinces a warm human feeling, one feels at ease; and the doctor’s desire to give the best possible care is itself curative, irrespective of the degree of his or her technical skill. On the other hand, if one’s doctor lacks human feeling and displays an unfriendly expression, impatience, or casual disregard, one will feel anxious, even if he or she is the most highly qualified doctor and the disease has been correctly diagnosed and the right medication prescribed. Inevitably, patients’ feelings make a difference with respect to the quality and completeness of their recovery.

Even when we engage in ordinary conversation in everyday life, if someone speaks with human feeling, we enjoy listening and respond accordingly; the whole conversation becomes interesting, however unimportant the topic may be. On the other hand, if a person speaks coldly or harshly, we feel uneasy and wish for a quick end to the interaction. From the least to the most important event, the affection and respect of others are vital for our happiness.

Recently I met a group of scientists in America who said that the rate of mental illness in their country was quite high - around 12 percent of the population. It became clear during our discussion that the main cause of depression was not a lack of material necessities, but a deprivation of the affection of others. So, as you can see from everything I have written so far, whether or not we are consciously aware of it, from the day we are born the need for human affection is in our very blood. Even if the affection comes from an animal or someone we would normally consider an enemy, both children and adults will naturally gravitate toward it.

I believe that no one is born free of the need for love. And this demonstrates that, although some modern schools of thought seek to do so, human beings cannot be defined as solely physical. No material object - however beautiful or valuable - can make us feel loved, because our deeper identity and true character lie in the subjective nature of the mind.

This excerpt is taken from the new book, In My Own Words: An Introduction to My Teachings and Philosophy by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, edited by Rajiv Mehrotra. It is published by Hay House (September 2008) and available at all bookstore or online at amazon.

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The Principles of Successful Manifesting - How to make your life dreams come true.
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