Slip and Slide

Ah, the life of a procrastinator is never done…primarily because we do not get around to beginning.  So here I am a full month since the last time I posted and I bet your wondering if I attracted endless wealth, family peace, and retired to an island somewhere in the tropics. No, no I have not.

So what has The Secret done for me? Well I could say that in the first week I discovered a check that had been sitting in a pile of mail for a couple months, my wife received an opportunity to teach a class on Reiki for a quick $70 of unexpected income, and she was given a pair of tickets that allowed us to take a free dinner cruise one Saturday night. Mere coincidence? Quite possibly, but what if it isn’t.

Around the same time the writer’s block I was sure I had been experiencing suddenly lifted one morning and I began working on my novel again. Inspiration flowed, the words followed, and two more chapters were written. Woohoo, I am on a roll!

Anyone who knows me understands I can be a bit capricious and easily distracted. I started reading a new fiction book that caught my eye, was concentrating on our diet and nutritional intake while keeping our meals interesting and varied, and found a new game on the computer that was a tad diverting.  I let meditations and affirmations slide and soon find myself feeling uninspired and unmotivated. My wife tells me I need to write on my blog some and I figure I will get around to it sometime. I am feeling tired again, lazy.  I start to detect a pattern between my thoughts, emotions, and even physical health and my lack of inner peace.

I picked up The Secret again, opened to a random page and my eyes were drawn to a passage that reads “There is no such thing as a hopeless situation. Every single circumstance of your life can change!”  Interesting, I surmise, then drop the book. Oops!

I pick it up again and open again to a random page and my eyes are directed to the passage “Decide right now that you are going to think only good thoughts. At the same time, proclaim to the Universe that all your good thoughts are powerful and that any negative thoughts are weak.”

I start thinking back over the last month about how when I was doing my morning meditations and daily affirmations, monitoring my thoughts and actively participating in my life, things were moving in the direction I wanted. When I reverted back to being a spectator to my life, things reverted back to as they always had been. 

Constantly trying to remain positive can be challenging and as I wondered how to better achieve this I read “One way to master your mind is to learn to quiet your mind…Meditation quiets your mind, helps you control your thoughts, and revitalizes your body.” Que the minor epiphany!

Meditation is a powerful tool and key. The best part is that you do not have to obligate yourself to hours of meditation. Ten to twenty minutes a day, even less to begin with, can be incredibly powerful for gaining control over your thoughts.

So each morning, if you choose to follow along, we will commit to ten minutes of meditation during that day. It is only for ten minutes, and only for that day. Surely we can find ten minutes just for today. Tomorrow is another day and we can be concerned with finding ten minutes tomorrow when tomorrow gets here.

Namaste!

The Secret is Out

The movie “The Secret” and the later released book by the same name, boils down to the basic philosophy that “you can have, be, and do anything you want.” At first glance this appears to be like so many other self-help publications that tote the benefits of positive thinking. After a more critical review, however, it is obvious that it is far more than mere wishing and thinking happy thoughts.

The theory is that your life today is a physical manifestation of the thoughts you have had up to this point. The past is the past, it defines who you were, never who you are or who you can be. Simply put, no matter where you were at yesterday, your thoughts and actions today can affect your tomorrow. 

The key takeaways I have found are that thinking good thoughts will do little more than make you a positive person. This is not necessarily a bad thing; everyone likes to be around positive people. You also have to feel good about yourself and who you are, even if you are not even close to how you wish to be. You must believe your desires will come to you. You do not need to know the “how” those desires will come, just know that they will come with unending conviction.

Sounds tough since most of us are used to being beat down by naysayers and people in our lives that feel they have only our best interests in mind when they try to push their idea of reality on us. I thank and love each one of them for caring so much for my wellbeing, but I choose to embrace my own future on my own terms.

Here is rough idea of my current situation in three areas of my life:

Finances: I have accumulated debt currently equal to three times my current annual salary, not including the house we had to let go to the bank due to health issues arising from it.

Family and Relationship: Okay, here I am blessed with a loving wife who I believe to be my soul mate, 4 brilliant children, the two youngest live here with me and are at their most impressionable age. I do not have near the time to spend with them I would like or the ability to allow them to try all the things that are available to them.

Job: As most others, I have found myself in a job that requires real effort to find meaning in. Yes, my position is important to the company, but after returning from a recent staycation I found it to be business as usual; not a person I talked to had any inkling that I had been gone for a week. It is far from my dream job and certainly nothing I ever envisioned myself doing. I am just about maxed out on the pay scale and little opportunity to move up to a more meaningful position.

I have been an average 50 year-old guy who can’t even afford a proper mid-life crisis. Boo hoo, Boo hoo. That is the last time you will hear me cry or whine about my situation. It is not who I am, it is who I was. 

What will the secret do for me?

Finances: I live a life of abundance and financial security

Family Relationship: I have an abundance of time to spend with my family and provide them every opportunity to experience life.

Job: What job? My career comes from doing what I love to do.

For my next post, I will explain how this is all going to occur!

Why am I here?

So why this blog? Why now? The short of it is that I was watching The Secret by Rhonda Byrne and I wondered as I believe so many others do, does it work, is it for real? I recall the old adage "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" and "if it seems easy you are doing it wrong". So the skeptic in me immediately rears up and says, "Really? I mean really?"

I did what anyone would do, I searched the internet for a blog like this but came up short. Sure, there are plenty of published authors out there that swear it is real, many of which appeared in "The Secret" and have their own self help programs and books. But what about the average person out there in a less than exciting job with over three years of their annual salary worth of debt? The folks making barely enough to live a lifestyle they have forced themselves to believe is as good as it gets. Is this too good to be true? Or is it real? More importantly, at this point, can I afford to not live the experience?

So here is the promise I make to you the reader. I will incorporate the suggestions in the film, purchase and read the book, outline and live by the recommendations, and will report to you with full transparency of what occurs. In future posts I will provide a better understanding of where I am starting at, my goals and desires, and what occurs be it for better or worse.

Join me in this adventure and if you decide to share the journey, so much the better!