Nathan Crane 27 Flavors of Fulfillment Ebook

27 Flavors
of Fulfillment
How to Live Life to the Fullest!
27 experts show you how to
experience lasting happiness, health,
and fulfillment!
NATHAN CRANE
Co-created with 27 Expert Authors
Copyright © 2013 Nathan Crane and The Panacea Community
All rights reserved.
ISBN-13: 978-0615798233
(The Panacea Community)
ISBN-10: 0615798233
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by

any means, except the inclusion of brief quotations in a review and with the
exception stated for contributing authors in this paragraph, without permis-
sion in writing from the publisher. Each contributing author retains their
copyright to the sole article they contributed to this book, and have granted
Nathan Crane and The Panacea Community a non-exclusive non-transfer-
able limited license to copyright, use, display, and publish the contributed
content in “27 Flavors of Fulfillment; How to Live Life to the Fullest”
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The Panacea Community determines is valuable for the distribution of this
compilation, including but not limited to The Panacea Community member
site, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Library of Congress. The opinions stated
by one contributor in this book may not reflect the opinion of the other
contributors or Nathan Crane or The Panacea Community.
DISCLAIMER: The information and statements contained herein have not

been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended
to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. The contents of this book
and any additional comments are for informational purposes only and are
not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis,
or treatment. Your reliance on any information provided by The Panacea
Community, its affiliates, content providers, member physicians, employees
or comment contributors is solely at your own risk. Always seek the advice
of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you
may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medi-
cal advice, or delay seeking medical advice or treatment, because of informa-
tion contained herein.
Dedication
This is dedicated to the Divine Spirit which inspired me

to pull together this book for the betterment of human
consciousness. Thank you, I love you.
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Forward xi
Chapter 1 Can Positive or Negative Thoughts and

Emotions Affect Your Body, Mind and
Spiritual Health? 1
Dr. Robert Young
Chapter 2 Happiness is a Choice and Here’s How
to Get it! 9
Brent Phillips
Chapter 3 The Limitless Treasure of Who You Are 15
Gangaji
Chapter 4 Discover the True You through this
New View of Life 19
Guy Finley
Chapter 5 Love Your Neighbor as Yourself 27
Cristina Smith
Chapter 6 Sounding Your Soul Liberating the
Spirit of Your Voice 35
Chloe Goodchild
Chapter 7 Heart to Heart, Soul to Soul:
Communicating from Love 43
Stacey J. Hentschel
Chapter 8 When Do You Get to Enjoy It? 47
Alan Cohen
Chapter 9 How to Live a Fulfilling Life: Discovering and
Expressing Your True Authentic Self 55
Darity Wesley
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vi ■ 27 Flavors of Fulfillment: How to Live Life to the Fullest!
Chapter 10 Enlightenment of the Consciousness 61

Steven Sadleir
Chapter 11 Discovering Your True Self 65
Diana Stobo
Chapter 12 Doing What Comes Naturally:
Making Your Abundant Talent
Your Abundant Source of Income 71
Cary Bayer
Chapter 13 Five Soul Contracts You Want to
Master and How to Start Doing It! 75
Danielle MacKinnon
Chapter 14 Are You Living YOUR Values or
Someone Else’s? 81
Derek Rydall
Chapter 15 Spiritual Sustainability 83
Ernest D. Chu
Chapter 16 Living a Fulfilling Life: Discovering the
Truth of Who You Are 89
Shelly Wilson
Chapter 17 Activate Your Destiny: Experience Life
at Peak Fulfillment 95
Laura Chiraya Fox
Chapter 18 Loose Ends 103
Cindy Kubica
Chapter 19 Every Cancer Can be Reversed in Weeks 109
Dr. Leonard Coldwell
Chapter 20 Living an Extraordinary Life:
Customizing Your Blueprint 117
Lisa Wilson
Chapter 21 The Beautiful Breath: Mindfulness and
Compassion for Well-Being 125
Vidyamala Burch
Chapter 22 Radical Living for an Expanded
Consciousness 135
Colin Tipping
Contents ■ vii
Chapter 23 The Source of Peace 141

Michael Brant DeMaria, Ph.D.
Chapter 24 Intimacy: The Way of Opening Our Hearts 151
Adam Gainsburg
Chapter 25 Living in Your Fullest Potential Choosing
Not to Choose 155
William Linville
Chapter 26 Spiritual Practices for Fulfilled Living 163
David Dibble
Chapter 27 Love Yourself…Live Your Spirit 169
Sonia Choquette
Afterword 175
Bonuses 177
About the Organizer 179
Life Coaching 181
Acknowledgments
Thank you Mother and Father for believing so greatly in me.

We’ve been through some tough times together, and apart,
and it’s made each of us so much stronger. You both deserve
unlimited happiness, health, and fulfillment. Cristina, thank
you for pulling together these chapters in such a short time
and in such a beautifully orchestrated intuitive flow. Thank
you to all the authors and teachers who have spent most of
your lives developing the work you have contributed to this
book. Thank you, the reader, for taking the time to continue
your own personal growth and for being a beacon of light
transmitting the consciousness from these teachings globally.
And thank you, to my dearest wife, Luz Crane, for giving
me the challenges and lessons I so dearly require to continue
my own personal development, and for being here by my side
helping make all this possible. Thank you all, I love you.
ix
Forward
What is it like to truly be fully alive? Have you ever thought about
that? Does an owl, a crocodile, or a monkey need to sit down and think
about how to live their life to the fullest, or do they just do it? Why is it
that we as human beings are more easily persuaded to become enslaved
and domesticated to someone else’s idea of a meaningful life, than any
other living being on the entire planet?
Think about it; when you were born, you didn’t have a choice as
to whether you would come into the world peacefully in a nice warm
bath with the smell of fresh fragrances, chirping birds, and Beethoven
musing in the background – or whether you would be forcefully cut
out of your mother’s womb with a sharp blade, surrounded by scary
monsters with white gloves, poking at you with needles and measuring
every inch of your body with cold, unnatural devices.
You did not get to choose how you came into the world. That was
up to your parents and their idea of what they thought would be best
for you.
Then you were told you must go to school, get good grades, and
play nice with others. You were told that if you did what your parents,
your teachers, your peers told you to do, you would be rewarded with
kindness, freedom to enjoy life, and maybe even the occasional scratch-
and-sniff sticker or chocolate chip cookie.
Again, none of this was your choice. You didn’t choose to go to
school. You didn’t choose to learn math, science, and history. You
didn’t choose whether you were going to be a Christian, a Muslim, or
a Jew. Since birth, your parents and your peers forced these ideas and
beliefs onto you, not realizing that they would ultimately affect every-
thing about who you think you are for the rest of your life.
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xii ■ 27 Flavors of Fulfillment: How to Live Life to the Fullest!
They may not have done this ill intentioned; in fact, it is more
likely that they wanted you to be successful in life than to live with
emotional pain and traumatic psychological suffering. As parents,
that’s all we want for our children - to be happy and to live a success-
ful and meaningful life. The biggest problem is that we often get in
the way of our children’s inner wisdom and we think that they are too
young, too immature, and too inexperienced to learn through their
own free will and inner guidance system.
As we grow older, we begin to realize how wrong many of our
teachers were. 1+1 does not equal 2. In nature, 1+1 equals three. A
Father plus a Mother equals a child. 1+1=3. We begin to realize that our
parents only knew what they knew so that’s all they could teach us. It
wasn’t their fault. There’s no need to blame them.
As we grow wiser we begin to forgive our parents for their mis-
takes, and realize that they were only human and that they were living
their life the way they were told to. This forgiveness of our parents and
our peers, and ultimately, this forgiveness of ourselves, eventually leads
us to inner freedom - a freedom that nothing can destroy. It becomes
like a constant flame of light that nothing can put out. The flame may
waiver in the wind, but it always comes back to its grounded, strong,
illuminating center.
To achieve this freedom, is in my opinion, the greatest gift of being
human. This freedom that comes from within; this freedom from men-
tal and emotional pain; this freedom from anger, hatred, and resent-
ment; this freedom from jealousy, gossip, and envy is the inner freedom
that gives us strength, joy, and enlightenment.
In my opinion, children are pure examples of, enlightened, divine
gifts of God. They are here to TEACH US, not the other way around.
Look at how much joy, happiness, and love they exert to complete
strangers. They don’t judge, blame, or guilt you into believing you are
supposed to be a certain way. Up until they are about 2 years old, they
follow their own path of purity and light. After 2, they then start copy-
catting everything their parents do. They copycat emotions, actions,
and even the exact same thought processes they see from their parents,
peers, and what they watch on TV.
If we want our children to grow up and be loving, caring, suc-
cessful, enlightened adults, all we have to do is purify and understand
Forward ■ xiii
ourselves first, then allow them to follow their own path of truth and
love. A realization I came to before I consciously chose to birth my
daughter into this world is that we don’t actually own our children.
They are not pets. They are free human beings, and we should treat
them as such. We are simply here to guide them. And the best guides in
this world are the ones who ask you questions, get your opinions, share
with you which ways are safe and which ones aren’t, and let you make
your own decisions without guilting you or scaring you otherwise.
Enlightenment, in my opinion, is not about becoming a spiritual
guru, it’s about en-lightening your energy to a frequency that vibrates
and radiates pure love, joy, and happiness.
Being fulfilled, in my experience, is waking up every morning with
the joy and excitement for life; thanking our Creator for giving us this
opportunity to be alive, vital, and healthy; opening you arms wide and
embracing the sounds and scents of the fresh morning; promising to do
your best to live a life worth living and to serve humanity in the great-
est ways possible. That is a fulfilling life – to me.
And it truly is possible.
From a raging addiction to drugs, alcohol, sex, and violence; to a
180 degree turn of complete sobriety, happy marriage, beautiful family,
and spiritual awakening – I now know that living a fulfilling life truly
is possible, and if I can do it, you can too.
Fulfillment to me may not mean fulfillment to you. They may
be similar, but your fulfilling and happy life might require different
circumstances than mine. That’s why this book is so important. I was
gifted the vision through divine inspiration to bring together 27 of the
leading experts and share their opinions, experiences, and best ideas on
what it means to live a life of meaning, purpose, and fulfillment.
I practice the first law of the Universe that says, “anything is possi-
ble,” and so I set forth on this journey. Within 5 months time, the book
was born and you are now reading it. With very little to no financing,
a faint experience in publishing, and no readership, I felt in my heart
that it was the right thing to do whether I had the external resources or
not, and I set forth to fulfill this mission.
My mission is to sell 1,000,000 copies of this book worldwide and
use the money to help humanity get back in touch and live in harmony
with our planet earth and our divine purposes. I truly believe that
xiv ■ 27 Flavors of Fulfillment: How to Live Life to the Fullest!
anything is possible, and by the time you finish reading this entire
book, I hope you too will come to that same conclusion.
I am now happy to present to you a book that could completely
transform your life forever in a positive and meaningful way – if you
will open your mind and your heart to the possibilities that await you
within.
With love and appreciation,

Nathan Crane
CHAPTER
1
Can Positive or Negative
Thoughts and Emotions
Affect Your Body, Mind
and Spiritual Health?
Dr. Robert Young
L
ove, fear, joy, anger, sadness, happiness, and resentment. Can
positive or negative emotions affect your body’s physical, mental
and spiritual health?
Is a woman more likely to become pregnant if she eats a lot of veg-
etables or if she were to go on a long, relaxing vacation?
Are you more likely to get cancer if you have a hot temper?
Do people who laugh a lot live longer?
Does your anxiety or fear of crowds, elevators, blood, heights, spi-
ders, hospitals, or airplanes somehow affect your health?
Not only does the health of your body affect the emotions of your
mind, but your thoughts and feelings can affect the health of your
entire body.
My theory of one sickness, one disease and one health, are set forth
in what I call “The New Biology.” It not only considers how our diet
affects our physiology, but also how our psychology affects our physiol-
ogy and how our psychology affects our spirituality.
Bottom line, your mental state is ever so critical. In so many ways,
your mental state, if it’s negative, can create more metabolic acids than
the acidic food that you’re eating.
1
2 ■ 27 Flavors of Fulfillment: How to Live Life to the Fullest!
In fact, you can create two or three times more metabolic acids from
your thoughts or your mental and emotional state than from ingesting
highly acidic foods like dairy, animal protein, sugar and alcohol.
So your thoughts are critical. Your thoughts or words do become
matter, and can affect your physiology in a negative or positive way.
Your thoughts do become your biology. And the way that thoughts
become biology is as follows:
1) When you have a thought or say a word, it requires electri-
cal or electron energy for the brain cell(s) to produce those
actions.
2) As you carry on with that thought, you are burning or con-
suming energy.
3) When you are consuming energy in your thoughts, you are
producing biological waste products called acids which are an
energetic waste product which can be measured in pH, oxida-
tive reduction potential (ORP), hertz and decibels.
4) Next, if the metabolic acids from your thoughts are not
properly eliminated through the four channels of elimination
which are urination, perspiration, respiration or defecation,
then the acids from your thoughts are moved out into your
connective and fatty tissues because it must not be allowed
to affect the delicate pH of the blood. The delicate balance
of the blood must remain quite constant at 7.365 to remain
healthy.
5) What happens next is this. As the excess and overload of acid
are thrown out into the body tissues, this can easily lead to
all sorts of symptoms: lupus, fibromyalgia, Lyme’s, arthritis,
muscle pain, fatigue, tiredness, obesity, cancerous breasts,
a cancerous prostate, a cancerous stomach and/or bowels,
indigestion, acid reflux, heart burn, heart attacks, multiple
sclerosis, Parkinson’s, dementia, autism, and the list goes on
and on.
For example let’s say you’ve been doing sadness or depression.
This downer feeling is coming from a negative experience that you
keep looping and re-looping in your head. It’s like a mind movie. It’s a
Dr. Robert Young ■ 3
mini-drama that you keep playing over and over. And because you are
constantly thinking about it, eventually you even start to be concerned
or worried about the fact that you are so preoccupied with the whole
affair. So now in addition to the sad drama, you are experiencing upset
about the fact that you’re having the drama itself. All of this thinking
requires energy and when you’re consuming energy you are also pro-
ducing metabolic acids.
Do you know any angry people? You may not know it, but many
people who become angry easily not only get angry at various people,
events, and situations, but eventually they are irritated with themselves
for being so angry at everything else. Anger requires a tremendous
amount of energy and emits a great deal of electrical energy. You have
undoubtedly felt the vibrational energy of someone who is angry. Or
maybe you have felt your own anger and how it can upset your physi-
ology, i.e., especially upset your stomach and bowels with excess acid
leading to indigestion, stomach pain, acid reflux or ulcers.
Some Chronic Emotions Begin Early
Even worse, many of these negative emotions are chronic and can be
traced all the way back to early childhood experiences. So, at one level
or another, it’s been going on for a long time and creating excessive acid
all along.
For many people, early childhood represents some of their most
fearful and vulnerable years. The turmoil between parents and chil-
dren, not to mention the conflicts between children and children,
have been documented by many thousands of social science books and
articles.
Have you ever wondered why you can’t remember much before
age five or six? Many of those years are filled with fears and tears,
“mads” and “sads” and how about the “bads”? Do you remember what
happened when you were “bad”? Imagine the acid from those experi-
ences. In addition to the punitive experience itself, imagine the acidity
a child deals with by simply a) remembering such a “bad” experience or
b) anticipating the possibility of another such “bad” experience…or c)
both! Some “children” remember these events forever!
It is during these vulnerable and unprotected years that we often

plant eternal seeds of emotion that will yield an unwelcome harvest of
acidic internal results, perhaps throughout one’s entire life.
Let’s Take a Look at All of That Emotion
First of all, emotions are energy in motion. When you are (e)motional,
you are energetic, either in a positive or negative way. And if you are
energetic, you are literally energy in (e)motion. You are now producing
metabolic acids at a very high rate which is a waste product of such (e)
motions.
The rate of acid production in an (e)motional state can be even
greater than that of someone who is jogging or working out. So, your
thoughts do become biological or metabolic acids that can make you
sick, tired, depressed, angry and even too fat or underweight.
When you start producing acids with your thoughts, words and
actions, what happens inside? First, you activate the alkaline-buffering
systems of the body in order to neutralize these (e)motional acids. The
body begins making a primary alkaline buffer known as sodium bicar-
bonate. It’s actually made in the stomach cells from salt, water and
carbon dioxide from the blood and during its production, it creates a
waste product known as hydrochloric acid.
Hydrochloric acid is a poisonous acidic toxin and cannot remain
in the blood or stomach. So it is dropped down into the gastric pits
of the stomach. This is why people get upset stomachs or become
constipated when they are (e)motional. This increase of sodium
bicarbonate is critical in maintaining the alkaline design of the body,
the pH of 7.365 for the blood, and for maintaining alkalinity of the
interstitial fluids. If these acids, including hydrochloric acid, are not
buffered and/or eliminated through the four channels of elimina-
tion, they can create serious health challenges in your body, mind,
and spirit.
On the other hand, positive (e)motions, such as love, peace, hope,
faith, joy, forgiveness and charity can be alkalizing to the blood and
tissues. These (e)motions require far less energy and can cause you to be
relaxed in your mind and stop the playing of some acidic movie in your
head. Students of higher consciousness know that you can even enter
into a state of bliss wherein you have no thoughts and wherein you are
producing no metabolic acid.
For myself, I have decided to call this wonderful place “Young
Charity.” That’s because I exercise and meditate every day. And I Love
it! And it raises my level of consciousness and positive connection
with the world. The connections between “Young” and “Charity” are
numerous. My name is Young, of course, but more importantly, being
young is a term we normally associate with being youthful, energetic,
open, optimistic, and filled with excitement. And the ultimate purpose
of life is Charity. And Charity is the sweetest expression of life. So
Young and Charity go together.
To be sure, I Love my exercising and it Loves me back in terms
of its gifts to me. I find myself Loving this state of bliss daily which I
know is helping to alkalize my body. That is why I am addicted to why
I Love this type of alkalizing exercise that I do every day. It’s called a
Positive Addiction. I Love to have my friends and guests work out with
me as I lead them through the steps. I teach them the Young version
of Yoga. I tell them that it is known as Younga Yoga. They Love that.
(Well, at least they laugh.) It incorporates proper breathing, stretching,
toning, meditation, relaxation, and of course some sweating to remove
yesterday’s dietary and metabolic acid and to help bring me into a state
of happiness and bliss.
Through my personal and clinical research, I have found that
maintaining the alkaline design of my body with an alkaline lifestyle
and diet is the most important thing anyone can do to live a happier
and more blissful life. Having an alkaline day is a way of life that I call
Young Living. I guarantee you that what I call “Young Charity” will go
hand-in-hand with the goal of “Young Living”.
(E)motional Dis-Eases
The leading cause of death in the world today is said to be heart attacks.
But people are really having “thought attacks,” NOT “heart attacks.”
There are studies showing that over 80% of all heart attacks are (e)
motionally triggered. I have said that people don’t die of a heart attack.
They die of a “thought attack” that medical science simply refers to as

a heart attack because that’s the end result.
And if you have wondered if you can die from a broken heart, the
answer is absolutely! And the cause? Acids from your energy in motion
or (e)motion. The loss of a cherished love one can increase your meta-
bolic acids from the (e) motion to the point that it can stop your heart
from beating and pumping life-giving blood throughout your blood
vessels. And we all know or should know that life and death is in the
blood, the most important “organ” of the body.
Now this next thought is very important! The negative emotions of
anger, resentment, and fear, being the most powerful and acidifying of
all emotions, are all highly acidic to the blood and tissues and in many
ways are paralyzing to all bodily functions. Over time, the fear of the
unknown is probably the most powerful and acidic of them all. Fear is
so devastating to the body that even if you’re on an alkaline diet, over-
coming a serious health challenge is practically impossible.
When you are in a negative (e)motional state, it can become impos-
sible for you to heal your serious degenerative or acidic challenge. But,
I will say this: if you are willing to commit to change and begin the
alkalizing process, even if you are not completely out of your state of
fear, anger, depression or anger, you will begin to put more “Young
Life” and “Young Charity” into your body, mind and spirit.
I have found over the years that when you start feeling better, you
start thinking better. And when you start thinking better, you start
doing better. So, you don’t have to have your (e)motions completely
under control in order to start losing weight, feeling better, reversing a
serious illness, having more sustainable energy and to start being happy
and more mentally and spiritually connected.
Can Our Emotions Cause Cancer?
I have said that cancer is a four letter word- ACID. When you are
doing negative acidic emotions, such as anger, revenge, hate, sadness or
depression, you are creating metabolic acids that can cause ANY and
ALL cancerous conditions across all body tissues. If metabolic acids
are not removed via urination, perspiration, defecation or respiration,
then they are delivered to body tissues. When constant excess acid from
negative (e)motions are poured into the body tissues, the body tissues
will degenerate causing a cancerous condition.
Pharmaceutical companies are creating drugs addressing symp-
toms that may give you the illusion of feeling better, but they DO
NOT deal with the causative metabolic acids from eating and drinking
and negative acidic (e)motions. This can only lead to more physical and
emotional pain and unnecessary suffering.
So, does a person have a fair chance of healing themselves from a
degenerative disease or dis-ease like heart disease or cancer? Can you
ever achieve a state of blissful happiness? Can you recover from the
devastating shock of a loss or from having been diagnosed with a scary-
sounding health challenge? I say, “Absolutely, YES!”
Why? These changes come about because you feel so good. You are
rewriting your epi-genetics with your positive (e)motions. You are tak-
ing your alkalizing eraser and erasing all your past life’s negative emo-
tions. Your (e)motions or energy in motion will finally be under your
control. You will become the master of your mind, body and spirit. You
will be living an alkaline lifestyle and diet full of energy, happiness,
bliss and love. You will be living and breathing “Young Charity.”
Dr. Robert Young’s research into diabetes,

cancer, leukemia, and AIDS has earned him
worldwide recognition. Founder of the PH
Miracle Living Center and Foundation, his
books have reached more than 5 million
readers. You may contact Dr. Young at
www.PHMiracle.com
CHAPTER
2
Happiness is a Choice and
Here’s How to Get it!
Brent Phillips
I
n our modern world, there are so many demands on our limited
resources – time, energy, etc. - that we rarely have time to reflect
on such seemingly tangential aspects of life such as how happy we
are. After all, if you have bills to pay, a job (or two!) to do, children to
take care of, and/or a million other things to do, can you really afford
to spend a lot of time on something as impractical as increasing your
happiness?
Like most self-improvement and spiritual pursuits, the truth is that
you can’t afford not to. Indeed, the quest for happiness is so fundamen-
tal to the human condition that it is named as one of the three inalien-
able rights of man by the writers of the Declaration of Independence:
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness! It’s pretty amazing that hap-
piness is a cornerstone for modern democracy, eh?
The sad truth is that the busyness of modern life leads us to lose
sight of the forest for the trees. In other words, we lose sight of the
reason why we do all the things we do. When was the last time you
paused to think about why you have a job, work hard, stay in shape,
eat well, date and develop relationships, pursue hobbies, and enjoy
entertainment? I encourage you to take a moment to stop and dissect
your motivations, and I think you’ll find that the core, underlying
motivation for everything you do is rather simple: you want to be
happy!
9
As an example, let’s take a look at the modern obsession with

money. In our current society, money is truly our god, and we worship
at the altar of commerce. No matter how much or how little we have,
what we all want (and think we need!) is more money. This is taken
as an axiom of modern life: money is good and more money is better.
As a result, it is readily accepted - without any explanation required –
that it is OK – even admirable - to do something you dislike, or even
hate, to get money. How often have you or your friends missed out on
a party or barbeque or concert or other social event because you had to
work? I’m not saying this is bad or wrong - most of us are not insane
and there are valid, important reasons for why we do what we do - but
all too often we sacrifice what is truly important in our lives because
“we need the money”.
But why do we really need the money? The most typical answers
involve the so-called necessities of life, including to pay the rent, or to
buy food, or put gas in the car, or to buy clothes, or to pay for medi-
cal care. Other answers stray closer to leisure and involve hobbies or
entertainment. But none of these things is an end in itself. After all,
why do you think you need to pay the rent? Or buy clothes? Or pay
the electric bill? Or repair your car? The answer is always the same:
because if you don’t, you think it will make you feel bad - it will make
you unhappy.
If you are really honest with yourself, the reason you want all the
things you want is simple: you want to be happy! Again, I don’t intend
to sound judgmental - there’s nothing inherently wrong or bad with
wanting money, or food, or clothes, or a big house, or a fancy car, or
medical care, or entertainment. But really, the underlying reason for
wanting all these things is usually the same: you want to feel good and
you want to be happy!
Your life will function better if you can tell yourself the truth
and recognize that more than anything, you want to be happy. And
instead of taking the circuitous, indirect route to happiness pro-
grammed into by society - grow up, get an education, get a job, buy
tons of stuff, get married, etc. - why not cut to the chase and see what
you can do to be happy right here, right now? And if you think that
the quest for happiness is a distraction, or superfluous, or flighty and
Brent Phillips ■ 11
whimsical, let me put your mind at ease by emphasizing a critically

important point:
The fastest way to get anything you want in life is to be hap-
pier, right here and right now!
This may seem counter-intuitive at first, but upon further inspec-
tion you will find a powerful truth. Let’s now take a moment and look
at what I call the “big three”: health, wealth, and love. I call them the
“big three” because they are the three things that most of us think we
need to have before we can be happy. Below, we’ll examine each of the
“big three” in turn.
Let’s start with health. It is said that if you don’t have your health,
you don’t have anything - and as someone who has spent many years
living in chronic pain, I can vouch that this is correct. But when we
think about what it takes to get healthy, most of us get it backwards: we
think that we need to be healthy before we can be happy.
This is not true! In fact, study after study has proven just the oppo-
site: instead, the fact is that the happier you are, the healthier you
will be.
It is now widely accepted in the medical community that if you
are generally happy and able to laugh a lot, you will be healthier. In
particular, your immune system will be stronger, you will be less likely
to get sick or suffer from chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes,
and you will heal more quickly from injuries.
In fact, the dangerous diseases that ruin many lives are caused
by an underlying unhappiness that typically persists for decades
before it manifests as physical illness.
So if you really want to be healthy, get happy - it works!
Next we’ll look at money. If you are new to New Age thinking
and the Law of Attraction, you may not immediately see the con-
nection between happiness and wealth. However, those of you who
have studied this material know that all the wealth building gurus
teach that in order to generate serious wealth, you need to follow
your bliss.
While you may be able to make a living doing something you hate,
know that it is unlikely that you will strike it rich!
To put it another way, your income is directly proportionate to how

happy you are to be doing the work you are doing. If you love what
you do, and if you can bring passion and focus to your day-to-day
duties and responsibilities, you are well prepared to make tons of
money. As with health, it’s really that simple: the happier you are, the
more money you will make! Isn’t it ironic, then, that most of us cite
lack of money as the main reason we aren’t happy? Hopefully now
you can see more clearly how our society has programmed you with a
paradigm that is backwards and directly opposed to the truth of how
the Universe really works!
Lastly, we’ll consider the subject of love. For many of us, an inti-
mate romantic relationship is considered a requirement to be happy. In
fact, our language reflects this attitude, because we often talk about
a significant other as someone who “makes us happy.” But as with
money and health, conventional thinking is backwards, because love,
romance, and sex do not create happiness...instead, the opposite is true:
happiness attracts love, romance, and sex!
If you doubt this, think for a moment about what makes you
attracted to other people, or even what makes you like them. It’s pretty
simple: if you are around someone that makes you feel good, you will
like them - and if you are around someone that makes you feel bad,
you won’t like them. And unless you are seriously depressed, you’ll feel
better around happy people. So, as with health and wealth, if you desire
more friends, more romance, and more people to like you in general,
the solution is simple: you need to get happier!
In summary, it’s important to recognize the real reason why you
want the things you want in life – and it’s nearly always to be happy.
Even things you do for other people have an underlying selfish motive.
Namely, when you do nice things for other people, it makes you feel
good - it makes you happy! (There’s a reason why every spiritual tradi-
tion emphasizes the importance of service: serving others is the fast
track to happiness.)
And if you can be happy right here, right now, not only will you
not need the other things to make you happy, but being happy will
empower you and allow you to manifest health, wealth, love, and
everything else you desire, quickly and easily.
Brent Phillips ■ 13
What is Happiness?
There was a fascinating article published a few years ago (it was actually
on the front page of The Economist magazine) about a study into what
makes people happy. I encourage you to look it up and read the entire
article, but the content can be summarized as follows.
Happiness consists of three different components:
n 10% circumstance
n 40% choice
n 50% “genetic”
At first, this may seem strange, since we tend to give all of our
power to our circumstances. But the study showed that ONLY 10% of
happiness is created out of circumstances!
Even more amazing, a full 40% of happiness is the result of a
simple choice to be happy. This is a profoundly important point. Your
choice as to how happy you choose to be is four times more important
than your circumstances. People have intuited this truth for centuries,
and one of my favorite quotes is from Abraham Lincoln, who observed
that “most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to
be”. Indeed, happiness is a choice!
So what about the 50% of happiness that is attributed to “genet-
ics”? In this context, “genetics” means the way you are wired, which
you seemingly don’t have any control over. From the perspective of
someone who understands the Law of Attraction and the Formula for
Miracles, you can see that this 50% is also a choice, but it is an uncon-
scious choice.
The 50% “genetic” component of happiness is a result of subcon-
scious belief systems. In other words, it is how you are wired, and you
seemingly have no control over it. After all, we’ve all known people who
are terminally happy, even in the face of the most dire circumstances,
and we’ve known other people who find a way to be miserable even
in the best of situations. But because this 50% “genetic” component
is a result of subconscious belief systems, we know that these too are
a choice, because all of the belief systems that dominate your reality
are the result of choices made at some point in the past. It might be a
choice that was made as a small child, or a choice made by an ancestor,

or a choice made in a past life - but in the end, all of your belief systems
are a result of a choice, which (in the proper circumstances) may sink
into the subconscious mind and become an unconscious belief system.
When you know how to work with your subconscious that 50%
“genetic” component is no longer an immutable constant, but actually
becomes something we can change! Thus, even if you are “hard-wired”
to be unhappy most of the time, you can easily reprogram your sub-
conscious mind and become a happier person. From this perspective,
then, a full 90% of happiness is a result of a choice: 40% is a conscious
choice, and 50% is an unconscious choice...and by using a modality
such as The Formula for Miracles, you can change your unconscious
wiring, thus resulting in a full 90% of your happiness resulting from a
simple choice of how happy you choose to be.
Wow! So what is happiness? It’s just that: a choice. Nothing more,
nothing less. And if you want to be happier in your life, the first step is
simple: choose to be happier!
It sounds too simple and too easy to be true, but if you can consis-
tently make a choice to be happier, your life will transform, and you’ll
be amazed at what happens!
Brent Phillips was an MIT trained engineer

whose life was shattered by a devastating
health crisis. After seven years on disability
trying all sorts of treatments, his frozen
elbow instantly healed in a session of energy
healing. You may contact him at
www.FormulaForMiracles.net
CHAPTER
3
The Limitless Treasure of
Who You Are
Gangaji
I
can remember as a very young child recognizing, “I am,” and
feeling both enormous wonder and fear. Before that moment my
attention (in my memory, at least) was focused solely on survival:
mother, breast, food. In that instant, attention was opened to con-
sciousness, expanding beyond my known limits.
As I began to grow up, I attempted to define myself—this presence
of “I”—through endlessly collecting information. I collected many
definitions of who I was from family, teachers and subjects in school,
from my religious beliefs, all my social interactions (every “other”), the
cultural and social conditioning surrounding me, and much later from
various alternative political, social, and spiritual movements. In this
natural process of mental awareness inhabiting a body, I discovered
a symphonic mandala of sometimes competing, sometimes comple-
menting explanations. The sound and light of this mandala was in
itself awesome and often evoked feelings of wonder. And yet somehow
I never found a definition of “I am” that could fully reflect and sustain
that initial innocent wonder.
When I met my teacher H.W.L Poonja (Papaji), he asked me to
first tell the truth about what comes and goes, and second to discover
what doesn’t come and go. He stopped me in my tracks; in that instant
the outward search for a definition of myself was revealed to be the
magic that “creates” a mirage. When I told the truth about the nature
15
of everything (appearance, existence, disappearance), I could stop look-

ing for permanence where there was none. I could stop looking for
myself in anything whatsoever. In that return of my search to its origin,
I overflowed in bliss and self-recognition.
With surprise I discovered that the essential and undefiled truth of
that initial wonder—the nature of recognizing oneself as being—was
still present. I discovered that while all definitions appeared in the lim-
itless presence of consciousness, and each explanation reflected some
aspect of that, none could contain it. Certain unexamined definitions
or explanations had the capacity to either cloud my consciousness or
attempt to define it, but consciousness remained itself, free of all. In
the willingness to stop defining, the wonder of life was freshly, uncon-
tainedly revealed.
When Papaji gave me the assignment to find out what comes and
goes, I saw that both good and bad experiences come and go. My expe-
rience of my body comes when I wake up in the morning, and goes
when I drop into sleep at night. Evaluations of my goodness or badness,
my intelligence or my stupidity come and go. In fact, all thoughts come
and go. All emotions come and go. All events come and go. My vari-
ous identities of myself (all my arrangements of definitions of myself),
come and go. My definition or explanation of anything comes and goes.
But what doesn’t come and go is life. Whether I am aware of it or
not, life is here. Even if I have a thought denying life, life is still here.
When this particular form has no life left in it, life remains. It was here
before this form was made. Life itself doesn’t need this particular indi-
vidual life form for its beingness and presence.
When I turn my attention in the deepest, most intimate way toward
discovering what this universal pronoun “I” points to, I discover life—
life in a way that refuses to be limited by any definition, and yet is
inseparable from any definition; life that is unfragmented regardless
of the various experiences of fragmentation; life that is unfazed by a
formula defining it as limited to a carbon molecule. Life that is not
contained by even the grandest of its names, including God, Self, no-
self, truth, emptiness, or even the word life.
How thrilling is this time in history as scientific discoveries align
with the oldest of spiritual wisdom! How liberating to hear about the
Gangaji ■ 17
scientific proofs that both time and space—our lynch pins for defini-
tions—do not truly exist as we have conceived them. Life is continually
collapsing our mental constructs and showing itself to be both more
ancient, more vast, and more here than can be imagined. The daily
newspaper reveals that the universe is bigger than can be imagined and
older than all previous estimates. (From the San Francisco Chronicle sci-
ence section, January 12, 2012: “The Milky Way is awash in planets by
the billions, and astronomers are finding more every day.”)
How thrilling to hear of scientific discoveries that demonstrate
what we directly discover in opening our minds to the indefinable
yet undeniable presence of life itself. As we recognize ourselves, as we
become more and more conscious of ourselves, we discover no separa-
tion between life and the wonder of life. In attempting to find “I”,
who we are is directly realized to be immeasurable and free of locality.
Immeasurable yet undeniable.
The parameters of who we are collapse as we examine them, yet
the undeniable perception of being remains. As we are unencumbered
by our power to name and measure, we realize the unameable. We
directly know ourselves and realize directly “I is.” Wonder lives! Who
we are is life.
What has appeared in life as a particular form that uses the pro-
noun I, with particular mind-body experiences, is only present because
of life. When the attention of a particular form discovers life it dis-
covers itself. Closer than a name, closer than a gender, bigger than
any mood, bigger than any particular experience or explanation of that
experience, whether that explanation be scientific or spiritual. Con-
scious life discovers itself as being.
The result of this discovery is also the discovery of what in Sanskrit
is called ananda. We could call ananda joyous love. Joyous love natu-
rally overflows in the recognition of oneself as ever present life. Wonder
is freshly in love with itself as life, as beingness conscious of Itself.
If you have given your attention to this mystery of yourself, this
mystery of life itself, you know that wonder is here. I salute this wonder,
I bow to it, and I encourage you to honor it. There are so many ways
that we can overlook it in our mental sophistication. There are so many
temptations to be entrapped by our capacity to explain or define. Yet at
any moment we are free to stop. We are free to simply surrender to what
does not come and go. It is here, it is alive, and it is conscious of itself
as the limitless treasure of who you are.
A teacher and author, Gangaji powerfully

articulates how it is possible to directly
experience the truth of who you are and
in that, discover true peace and lasting
fulfillment. You may contact her at
www.Gangaji.org
CHAPTER
4
Discover the True You
through this New View
of Life
Guy Finley
W
hen we’re in pain, most of us will do whatever seems nec-
essary to bring relief. Almost any behavior can be justified
when pain pushes us far enough. But as we’ve all seen –
one way or another – these old solutions do nothing to change either
our situation, or the level of self that produces our pain. It’s pretty clear:
we need not, and must not, handle what disturbs us in the same way
we have in the past.
What we want is new self-understanding; we need a higher aware-
ness through which we’re able to see that the nature of our situation is
inseparable from the nature within us that helped create it. Only this
kind of interior light has the power we need; it dispels all things dark
and fearful by proving them to be nothing but shadows. And without
this fear we are free.
Certainly, conditions may present themselves that we must deal
with in a practical way, but there are no longer any exterior battles to
fight once we start inviting the light to go before us “and make the
crooked places straight.” With this in mind, here’s the first key to the
door that leads to a new and fearless you: the only power fearful shad-
ows hold over us is in how real they appear to be. But when we stand in
the light of higher awareness, much as the darkness of night flees the
19
rising sun, these shadows are revealed to be without substance; we see

the truth: they are creatures of negative imagination, nothing more,
nothing less.
Look at what this discovery does for us: we’ve always believed there
weren’t too many choices for us outside of remaining unwilling vic-
tims of unhappy conditions that seemed too much for us. Now we’re
starting to realize that most of our unhappiness is really just a case of
mistaken identity born out of believing in mistaken ideas about our-
selves. This can be difficult to accept. Tell some people that their men-
tal or emotional suffering has no real basis and their response will be
to start suffering right before your eyes, justifying their inflamed state
by claiming that in such circumstances as the one they cite, there is no
alternative but this — their pain.
Let’s set the record straight. There are many things that have hap-
pened and that are happening in this world that are, at best, difficult
to deal with. There’s no question about it: human beings can do awful
things to each other. Certainly, compassion is in terribly short supply.
But the key point for our inner work is that events — in themselves —
do not have the power to make us suffer. It is our reaction that throws
us, unaware, into the world of our unenlightened selves. And where
these spirits rule, so does suffering. The proof of this crucial finding,
that events themselves are not the source of our pains, can be found in
the many examples throughout history. In every age there have been
those people who have overcome highly challenging events to emerge
not only stronger but with a new wisdom that can never be made to
suffer again in the same old way. A real-life story illustrates this truth.
Some years ago, a brilliant young athlete was injured in an acci-
dent that left him paralyzed. Instead of falling into despair, he went
on to help other young people who were similarly injured to overcome
their own sense of loss. When he was interviewed about how the acci-
dent had changed his life and about the work he was now doing, he
made some very revealing comments. He said that as a result of his
accident his life had taken on an entirely new dimension that he never
would have been able to foresee. His life-shattering experiences had so
enriched him that, even if given a choice, he wouldn’t change anything
that had happened.
Guy Finley ■ 21
This young man chose to learn the life-elevating lesson in the

event, rather than be defeated by it. Because of that, he came to real-
ize that his true self is not tied to his physical body or to competitive
success. His seeming loss at the level of this life opened the door to
a spiritual awakening that filled him with greater meaning than any
man-made trophy ever could. Although to the eyes of the world he
had become more limited, in fact his universe had expanded to sup-
port a life of freedom beyond anything he could have hoped for in his
former state. An event that could have been devastating to someone
who responded mechanically, or who believed in the necessity of suf-
fering, became a life-ennobling event for someone who was willing to
let himself be shown his own life in a new way. An old Arabic saying
suggests the secret behind this triumph: “The nature of rain is the
same, but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the
gardens.”
In his inspiring book Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl
describes his experiences as a prisoner in a Nazi death camp. While
many became embittered and hardened in their captivity, some were
able to transcend even those horrifying circumstances to develop a
relationship with a higher power. No longer tied to the meanness and
cruelty of the world in which they found themselves physically, they
achieved a spiritual understanding that lifted their lives far beyond the
reach of man’s inhumanity to man. Such self-transformation may seem
incomprehensible to those who take anger at the world’s injustice as
their right. Yet, when each of us realizes that we’re not participating
in the full spectrum of life due to our conditioned misperception of it,
then we’ll start appreciating all of life’s events — good and bad — and
we’ll seek the continuing discovery of our true selves within all events
rather than trying to protect ourselves from them. The difference in
these two life paths is the difference between finding out that life
already has its own higher purpose for you, or struggling your whole
life to prove your own purpose.
Yes, the first path that leads to the higher life is more difficult in
the beginning. It demands rather than just accepting our heartaches
that we investigate them in order to come upon their real source, for
only here can they be ended forever. Instead of that downward slide
into yourself called suffering, this first path provides definite steps up
and out of yourself. So, let’s take another of these upward-leading steps
toward our true self.
As difficult as it may be, we must begin to doubt our own suffer-
ing. This new action may seem impossible at first because our pain
can feel so real. But, if we’ll put ourselves on the side of wanting and
working to see what is the actual truth of our situation, our gradually
deepening perception will show us how to see through that suffering
straight to the heart of its shadowy cause. For example, when we fight
with the person we blame for our discomfort, all we do is increase our
anguish which, in turn, strengthens our belief in that person as being
our punisher. If instead we turn our attention back on ourselves, we
can start to question this habitual view of our situation. Now, instead
of just accepting stock answers as to why we must ache, we can ask
new questions about the necessity of that conflict. For instance, what
is it about us that is vulnerable to being hurt by anything someone else
does? With just this one question in mind, that person’s action is no
longer the issue. The issue is what is happening within us.
To further focus on this important part of our study, let’s look
at two common forms of suffering to reveal how they are based in
our own misperception. First we’ll examine the unsuspected pain we
all feel over the impermanent nature of life. Then we will look at the
pain we unconsciously bear when living under the weight of life’s false
responsibilities.
Shed New Light on the Pain of Impermanence
We all want the comfort of knowing that there are things we can count
on, that there is something in this life permanent. Yet, everything seems
to slip away from us; people, places, and events all change. And as they
go, so does our sense of security, leaving us once again seeking some-
thing to give us a permanent sense of well-being. There is a cure for this
seemingly endless longing. It is a spiritual one. Something does exist
that isn’t temporary. Something is permanent. But to find it, we first
must lose our misplaced faith in those things that have always let us
down in the past. Following is a little story to help us better understand
Guy Finley ■ 23
this problem of impermanence, and why the pain surrounding it is so

persistent.
Suppose that an unsuspecting seventeenth-century sea captain sets
sail on his trade route in a ship fitted with a false anchor. The anchor
looks real and solid, but in fact is nothing more than steel pellets and
salt shaped in a sand casting mold and covered with a thin binding
coat of lead paint. When this anchor is dropped in the water, it is only
a matter of time before the binding paint and salt dissolve, leaving the
pellets to disperse. Nothing is left to hold the ship, which now drifts
aimlessly onto the shoals. The sea captain’s despair is the salvage crew’s
joy! It turns out, not coincidentally, that the owner of this salvage com-
pany also has another company that secretly sells these false anchors to
unwary ship owners.
How many times have we thrown out a false psychological anchor
that has been passed off on us as a solid one? With each one we thought
that this time we would be safe in this job, this relationship, this new
home, only to find ourselves eventually wrecked on some jagged reef.
Even the anchor of anger, which seemed so justified, might have made
us feel strongly solid for a while before it too melted away, leaving us
empty, and perhaps a little embarrassed. And false anchors don’t always
lead us into negative situations. Sometimes things do seem to work out.
Perhaps the relationship does last, but again, the comfort is imperma-
nent. The longing for something more returns, and tells us that even
our best relationship is not the answer to the emptiness inside. So, we
throw out new anchors, so many that we never notice our recurring
crashes on the shoals, because the idea of our next safe anchorage is
ready to rescue us at a moment’s notice. Is there any such thing as a
permanent anchor that doesn’t dissolve and cast us adrift?
A permanent anchor does exist, but before we can benefit from
its steady hold we must break the cycle of suffering inherent in our
unquestioned trust of — and hope for security in — our many false
anchors. This brings us to a very important point to ponder. Let the
depth of it fall into your wish for a still deeper understanding of all that
it suggests.
There can never be a permanent anchor in this physical world of ours
because the sea of time dissolves everything. Even we dissolve in the sea of
time. This is not a fact to fear, but one to understand. Facts like these
lead us to discover the one thing that isn’t temporary, something right
in the center of each of us that can’t come unglued and that is never
blown off course.
Anchor Yourself to an Unsinkable Security
Something permanent exists above the present level of our life experi-
ence. We rarely feel the security of this True Anchor in our everyday
lives where we seldom finish a line of action, or, for that matter, even a
topic of discussion!
However, we need not continue to ache from these aimless actions.
Deep within us lives a true awareness that is a part of our genuine Self.
This higher awareness is both bedded in permanence and is itself part
of that solid ground. The fact that we have the capacity to be aware of
the movement and nature of our own thoughts and feeling proves the
existence of this higher ground, as well as our ability to commune with
its timeless nature. Use the following short exercise to prove this pos-
sibility to yourself:
At least once each day try to connect 5 minutes of your day. That is,
for these five minutes know what you’re doing the entire time, so that
something in you remains aware of each changing thought and feeling
but doesn’t change with them —instead it watches them come and go.
Staying anchored in awareness of ourselves in this way helps us
awaken to and realize our True Self. This higher awareness of ourselves
is both in the flow of what’s going on, yet outside of the flow of time. It
cannot be dissolved. In the beginning of our attempts to stay anchored
within ourselves, we’ll find it difficult to remain newly aware for more
than a few moments at a time. Even our failed attempts bring a new
self-understanding that we could not have guessed at before.
One of our greatest lessons comes when we actually catch ourselves
in the process of dropping an anchor that we think will supply us with
a new sense of permanence, and then watch that anchor dissolve as
things shift once more. We thought the relationship would make us
feel right about ourselves, but soon we felt insecure again. Then, it
was the money that offered a chance at happiness, but no matter how
Guy Finley ■ 25
much we made, it was never enough. As we learn to watch this happen-

ing again and again, we begin to understand that our thoughts about
ourselves, and what they tell us we need for security, have no substance
themselves.
So, bit by bit it dawns upon us: we can’t think ourselves into perma-
nence. We can see ourselves in the act of creating and then dropping a
false anchor, however, and it is this higher awareness, itself, that brings
with it the real permanence we’ve been seeking. Although these
moments of inner-magic don’t last long, as it isn’t in our power to will
ourselves into lasting self-awareness, we always have the opportunity to
catch ourselves again. This inner work of waking up and letting go,
waking up and letting go, is like opening sails and catching fresh
friendly winds over and over. Past troubled waters smooth out. Even
new storms don’t shake us the way they used to, for a new anchor begins
to secure us in the permanent waters of reality.
Guy Finley is the best-selling author of over

40 books and audio programs. He lives
and teaches in southern Oregon at Life of
Learning Foundation, his non-profit school
for self-realization. You may contact him at
www.GuyFinley.org
CHAPTER
5
Love Your Neighbor as
Yourself
Cristina Smith
D
o you believe in synchronicity? Coincidences? Here’s a mind-
boggling one for you. Divinely inspired people all around
the world, who didn’t have the advantages of our advanced
technology, came up with the exact same principle. They found it to
be an essential element to living a spiritually fulfilling life more than
a thousand years ago. Love your neighbor as yourself or the equivalent.
No matter your spiritual path, you have probably heard this phrase in
some form or fashion.
It was so important we wrote it in our holy books. We relayed it in
our oral traditions, passed down from teacher to student. It is so fun-
damental to leading an abundantly meaningful, healthy, happy, and
gratifying life that all great spiritual teachers have lived their lives as
a demonstration of it. There must be something to it. After all, even
though wisdom traditions globally may have their own ways of doing
things, they all seem to agree on this.
Now more than ever, this strong affirmation applies to us. Love
your neighbor as yourself. The truth of this simple phrase resonates with
all of us. It is multi-dimensional in its meanings and applications. And
with the shrinking boundaries on the planet, we are pretty much all
neighbors so we would be wise to start acting accordingly.
How can we learn to love one another at all levels of consciousness?
It’s simple but not always easy. First, we have to want to. Next we have
to acknowledge and address our cultural conditioning before we can
27
experience more advanced levels of inclusion. Then we have to apply

the powerful principle of love your neighbor as yourself to our daily lives.
Here are seven steps you can start with right now. Pick one and experi-
ment with it to discover the difference it makes in your life.
Love Your Neighbor as Yourself- Not Instead of Yourself
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. —Judaism, The

Torah, Leviticus
Are there enough hours in the day? Could there ever be enough hours
in a day? We offer and do what we can to make the planet a better
place. We care about ourselves, but do we really? We find it easier to
care about ourselves as a human giving or human doing rather than as
a human being. It’s crucial that we don’t slip into the love your neigh-
bor instead of yourself model of reality. The loving yourself part is vital
because loving ourselves really helps us to love another. If we can’t love
ourselves, we can’t love anyone else.
Loving yourself means knowing yourself. It means listening to your
body and spirit. Not only is listening important, following through on
what it is being whispered is essential. Why? If you ignore those whis-
perings, they sometimes become hammers. Often your mind is pow-
erful enough to override these subtle messages. If that happens, your
body may often have no choice but to get your attention other ways.
Sometimes unpleasant ways. The hammer generally comes out when
important parts of yourself are out of contact with each other. Most
often the disconnection is between your head and your body. Occa-
sionally those hammers look like stress related dis-ease or a severe bout
with a virus in order to get you to slow down and recharge.
How can you learn to hear the gentle tap on the shoulder and not
need the bigger hammer? Pay attention to how you are spending your
time and energy. Are you applying most of your effort to one aspect
of your life over all others? If so, bring some balance into your busy
schedule. Take a morning or afternoon off for quiet time with yourself
away from all electronic devices. Enjoy a long walk or a hike, or go to
a museum or movie. Go out and do something fun with your kids,
partner or friend. Take a nap and/or a long bath. That short amount of
Cristina Smith ■ 29
time will do wonders for your health and enhance the spiritual, mental,
emotional and physical aspects of your life. It certainly is better than
feeling the fall of the hammer, no matter what size. And, it will make
you much more effective in fulfilling your calling to be the change
your want to see happen in the world.
Have Compassion for Yourself and Others
A man obtains a proper rule of action by looking on his

neighbor as himself. —Hinduism, Mahabharata
Your life is as it is right now. No more, no less. You have the choice as to
how you feel about it. If you think it sucks, it does. Maybe it isn’t what
you want by a long shot but there is no benefit in pouring negativity
into yourself and your life. In fact, these toxic emotions often make you
sick. You can change how you feel about your life condition and decide
to get as much out of it as you can. You can take the risk of looking at
your current situation as a challenge or opportunity rather than torture
and punishment. What you gain when you take that risk is living a life
of expanding consciousness and awareness. As a result, you also may
feel compassion for yourself and shift your inner dialogue and emo-
tions to support you in any circumstance rather than suffer through it.
To take this principle to a higher level, seek to see the life of another
through those same compassionate eyes. Love your neighbor as yourself,
even when he annoys you. By having the courage and strength to shift
your mind and emotions to that perspective, you may be surprised to
find the entire situation can change for the better.
Think of Yourself as the Only Student and Everyone is

Your Teacher
No one is a believer until he loves for his neighbor, and for his
brother, what he loves for himself. —Islam, Forty Hadith of
an-Nawawi
When we approach life with a student attitude, we receive a multitude

of benefits. We get to experience and learn things we couldn’t have
ever imagined. A student attitude cultivates an open mind and an open

heart. It encourages a dynamic spiritual approach to personal evolution
as we allow additional perspectives to enter into our sphere.
Think about this true statement. Everyone knows more about some-
thing than I do. From auto mechanics, to full time mothering, to space
flight, to social networking, to cooking, when we listen to those who
have achieved mastery in something they are passionate about, we can’t
help but feel the love emanate from them. It is fascinating to talk with
and spend time with someone who is passionate about what they do,
even if we aren’t interested in the subject. We all like to help and share
with others, so this practice is a way to love your neighbor as yourself.
The gift we offer to each person we engage as our teachers is that they
get to share their love with us. By doing so, we get to receive and learn.
Consider the Impact of Your Actions
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one
thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to
ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.
—Chief Seattle, Duwamish Tribe
Who are our neighbors? Are we limited to just human neighbors? What
about the plants, animals, rocks and waters? Our planet has always
been interconnected. This new era of inter-dependence is in a delicate
beginning stage. Now more than ever, the fate of the world is in our
hands. It is going to take all of us to nurture and nourish our home
through these growth stages. What are you going to do as your part?
Yes, you. What am I going to do? What are we going to do? What we
all do is important.
When we expand our neighborhood to include all living beings,
the little things matter. Every bottle we recycle, grocery bag we reuse,
and drop of water we conserve makes a difference. Every time we
vote with our purchases, every time we speak up about issues that are
important to us and every time we volunteer to be of service for a cause
in which we believe, we choose to be a part of the expansion and eleva-
tion of planetary consciousness and awareness. These small measures
all become acts of love- the loving of our neighbor as ourselves in our
globe-shaped neighborhood.
Become Bigger
Regard your neighbor’s gain as your own gain, and your

neighbor’s loss as your own loss. —Taoism, T’ai Shang Kan
Ying P’ien
We have the tendency to stick to what we know and what we are good
at. There can be a substantial risk in experimenting with new ideas,
activities, skills or interests. Why? We may not be perfect the first time.
We might fall flat on our faces. Or we might learn new things about
ourselves. We might expand our worlds and comfort zones. With that
expansion come more opportunities on all levels.
We are stretched to become bigger in our roles with all of our neigh-
bors- family, friends, communities, etc. This is not necessarily a com-
fortable feeling. However, in our mission to love our neighbor as ourselves,
it becomes imperative to feel the fear and do it anyway. The results
are worth it. Our open hearted loving and supportive energy makes a
noticeable and direct impact on the lives of others around us. This is
a community-based aspect of love your neighbor as yourself, which may
positively influence many more people than we will ever know.
Honor Each Person’s Path as Right for Them
Full of love for all things in the world, practicing virtue in

order to benefit others, this man alone is happy.
—Buddhism, Dhammapada
There are more of us daily who are becoming aware that we are the
ones who can make our world a better place. We are being the change
we want to see happen. We are making our lives our examples. Part
of being that example is knowing that there are many paths that lead
to the same mountain top of the Divine. Whether a devout scientist,
spiritualist, or skeptical optimist, it’s time for us to take the next step
as the hero of our stories and follow our bliss where it leads. Every path
is unique and the same is true for all of our fellow travelers on this
journey of life.
We each need to courageously navigate our individual paths. This
is what conscious evolution is all about. We have to make it okay that
God has many names and respect each person’s choice as to what
that name may be for them. In that, we embody the love of our neigh-
bor as ourselves. We can then appreciate the myriad methods we, as
global citizens, approach our personal quests for meaning, truth and
enlightenment.
Open Your Heart to Oneness
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all
thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second
is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
There is none other commandment greater than these.
—Christianity, The Bible, Mark
When we look up into the night sky, we see one sky. That sky is
filled with stars, whether or not we can see them all. As it is above, so it
is below, here on our planet. Every man and every woman is a star. We
are all individual stars on a single planet. Now imagine the night sky to
be the Divine, God under every name.
Just as the sky and the stars are one when we look at up from earth
and just as the planet and all of us on it are one when we look at it from
the sky, so each individual is one with the Divine looking at it from
(a) God’s eye view. Most philosophies agree that loving your neighbor
as yourself is an integral aspect of loving the Divine. The world’s wis-
dom teachings have reminded us of this truth through the millennia.
Spiritual seekers, regardless of their path, have reached the destination
of this realization.
Loving our neighbor as ourselves does not necessarily mean that we
will agree with them or like them. It means that we honor the spark
of the divine that resides within them, as it resides within us. When
we look at some of the life conditions and choices people are making
around the world, we will agree that this is simple to say, but not always
easy to do.
The first place to start is with practicing compassion, loving kind-
ness and acceptance toward yourself. Spend a few minutes in quiet
time each day to appreciate those you love, focus on what you are grate-
ful for, and honor your God. You will then emanate that powerfully
beautiful spiritual energy out into your world like the sun.
Next include other neighbors like your family, pets, and plants
then progress to include as many or as few of the rest of us as you are
able. It can be something as simple as sending loving energy to those
you care about, including yourself, for a few minutes daily or spending
five minutes a day in prayer or meditation. Designate specific times to
unplug from the virtual world and go out to engage people, nature and
Divinity up close and in person. Smell the flowers. Hug a real person
with an open heart. Become engrossed in a project that helps make the
planet a better place to live.
The love your neighbor as yourself lifestyle is incredibly rewarding. It
will propel our spiritual understanding to new depths and knowledge
to new heights. We will have more love in our lives than ever before.
We will be doing something extraordinary. We will be changing the
world by changing ourselves to create heaven on earth. Are you in?
Noted medical intuitive Cristina Smith’s

writings, sessions and programs skillfully
weave proven techniques and profound
wisdom from the subtle energy realms of
healing and the esoteric into ways to make
your life better now. You may contact her at
www.Heal-Thyself.com
CHAPTER
6
Sounding Your Soul
Liberating the Spirit of
Your Voice
Chloe Goodchild
An African Story – Thanks to Alan Cohen
T
here is a remarkable story of women of a certain African tribe,
who, go out into the wilderness, when they are pregnant, with a
few friends. Together they pray and meditate until they hear the
song of the unborn child. They understand that every soul resonates or
‘sings’ its unique flavor and purpose. When the women attune to this soul
song, they sing it out loud. Then they return to the tribe and teach it to
everyone else.
When the child is born, the community gathers and sings the child’s
song to the baby. Later, when the child enters education, the village gathers
and chants the child’s song. When the child passes through the initiation
into adulthood, the villagers of the tribe come together and sing the song
again.
At the time of marriage, everyone sings the song once more.
Finally, when the soul is about to pass from this world, the family and
friends gather at the bedside, just as they did at their birth, and they sing
the song as the soul transitions into the next life.
For this African tribe there is one other occasion upon which the villag-
ers sing to the child. If at any time during his or her life, the person commits
a crime or aberrant social act, the individual is called to the center of the
35
village and the people in the community form a circle around them. Then
they sing their song to them. The tribe recognizes that the correction for
antisocial behavior is not punishment; it is love and the remembrance of
identity. When you recognize your own song, you have no desire or need to
do anything that would hurt another…
We may not have grown up in an African tribe that sings our song
to us at crucial life transitions, but humanity is certainly calling out for
a more conscious song of awareness, truth and wisdom at this critical
transition in the evolution of consciousness on Earth.
Some strong and inspiring musical messages and contributions
are surfacing in our global community. Composer and film director,
Michael Stillwater, is presently creating a film, “In Search of the Great
Song” which pays tribute to the transforming power of sound as heard
in all cultures, ancient and modern, across the world. American com-
poser, Eric Whitacre, has created an online worldwide “Virtual Choir”,
galvanizing thousands of singers across the world to join forces and
perform together. Competitive singing programs on mainstream TV
attract millions of viewers each week. Gareth Malone’s acclaimed TV
series “The Choir” has established choral practice as an integral part
of the UK home and workplace. Is shared sound and song becoming a
way for us to navigate the immense environmental, and spiritual chal-
lenges facing us all? Are people – knowingly or unknowingly - turning
to collective singing as a calming, and empowering way to sustain our-
selves, whilst harnessing the community spirit?
Singing in a global crisis However we may feel about the global
crisis, whether we experience it as a collapse, or a renaissance of con-
sciousness, there is no question that it is offering us a unique oppor-
tunity to wake up and re-invent our lives with greater awareness, dis-
cernment, courage and loving kindness. Singing offers a fast way to
access these essential qualities of the soul. If you have ever shared sound
– performatively or therapeutically - with a large group of people you
may well remember the uplifting presence that envelops you, all the
more so in the graceful silence that remains after the singing has fin-
ished. It invites wonder, reverence and a harmonic resonance that uni-
fies everyone.
Chloe Goodchild ■ 37
Singing : a performative activity, or a transformative

healing art form?
Having spent most of my early life singing, choral conducting, and

music teaching I chose to leave formal music education in the early 80s,
to find a more conducive environment in which to explore and research
the deeper significance and impact of singing, as a therapeutic tool, and
spiritual practice.
Whereas I still enjoyed performative voice, my main research shifted
towards the healing properties of sound as a transformative art form.
Following studies with the natural voice work of Cumbrian folk
singer Frankie Armstrong, and the subtle micro-tonality of North Indian
song, with Gilles Petit, I began to discover new inter-connected dimen-
sions of my soul through the vehicle of my singing voice as follows:
1) a metaphor for life – a way to live in harmony with my true
nature
2) a musicianship of love – to explore the full expression of my heart
3) a metaphysics of being – to discover sound as a gateway into
spirit
Birth of The Naked Voice
These early experiences catalyzed a life-long love affair with indigenous

music, as I could immediately hear the soul of an individual or a cul-
ture directly through the songs of their wisdom traditions. In the 70’s
and 80’s I lived for periods in Africa and India. In 1990, I returned to
the UK, following a transformative no-mind experience in India, to
establish The Naked Voice, an experiential vocal training programme of
courses and retreats to explore the spiritual significance of sound and
voice for the human soul. The use of the word ‘naked’ was essential,
as it describes, that sound in every human soul, that is unique, whole,
entirely original, free of separateness and fear, culture and creed. The
‘naked voice’, as I experienced it, had broken through the barriers of all
my self-judgment, releasing my natural authority and presence. This is
what I wanted others to experience too - the true soul of the individual.
Sounding Your Soul
Sounding your soul song requires real courage. The courage to unearth
the music that you already are, the music that is already inside you,
coursing through your veins, moving through your muscle and bone,
flesh and blood, organs, brain, mind and heart. Your soul song is not
an ABBA cover, a symphonic poem, or a nostalgic love song. As beauti-
ful and relaxing as this music can be, the sound of your soul penetrates
a deeper truth.
And all the while a silent laughter sings,
As wind through an open window saying
Be deeper still, be deeper still
Stand at zero, stand at zero.
(Fierce Wisdom CD)
The sound of your soul is the mouthpiece of your spirit.
It is as unique as your DNA and fingerprint with its own resonance and
vibration. It is the voice that bridges the visible and invisible dimen-
sions of your human experience. It is absolutely and uniquely your song,
and no-one else’s. It is already singing inside you, and has been singing
inside you all your life. It has the power to awaken all the energies of
Love within you. You don’t even have to try to sing this unique song of
your soul. You simply have to listen and receive it, and let it sing you.
The sound of your soul doesn’t require an audience or a public acclaim.
It is who you truly are, why you are here, and what really matters to
you. Once you say ‘yes’ to it, you will find yourself awakening to a new
way of being and perceiving, living and communicating that is no lon-
ger overwhelmed by habitual issues of separateness, loss and fear. It is
sourced from a deep awareness of your very self - heart mind and body
- as one integrated community, or field of energy, within an evolving
and ever-expanding and inter-connected universe.
Sounding your soul offers you a new way of perceiving your-
self, your life and the world around you with an all-inclusive aware-
ness and courage, anchored in a direct experience of oneness. The
practice of sounding your soul unifies your highest aspirations with

your true-grounded purpose on earth. To access, embody and fully
embrace the song of your soul as your most intimate & loyal friend,
requires three essential practices:
Sound Awareness – LISTENING with total acceptance. Con-
templative Vocal practices to discover your authentic voice
Sound Values -- LOVING with passion. Creative Vocal prac-
tices that empower you to realize your highest purpose
Sound Wisdom -- LIVING in service. Community-building
Vocal skills that inspire you to inspire others
The One Breath One Voice – Unconditional Listening
You may say, “this is all very well, but how and where do I start if I have
little knowledge of how to sing let alone find my soul song?”
The answer is very simple, simply sit, breathe in, breath out,
breathe in again, and sigh out a long sound on “er” or “ah”. Judge
nothing. Simply breathe in again, and let the sound release with more
volume. Breathe in again and sound out now as if this is the last – or
first - breath of your life, as if your whole life depends upon it, and you
are simultaneously letting it go.
Experience the breath, either as a celebration of your life, and the
beginning of a new cycle; or, with gratitude as you let go of your old
life, as you have known it. Accept everything that you are feeling, as
you receive and release your breath. Step one, is simply to not judge
the sound you are making, begin to accept the emotions and deeper
feelings your sound catalyses, accept it, receive the sound, and let it go,
receive and release. Engage your whole body if you wish. Move, dance,
sound out more freely.
Sound of Oneness
Trust your sound, the emerging naked voice of your soul, prior to condi-
tioning, culture or creed. The central aim at the heart of all The Naked
Voice practices is to share presence, a deep inner peace and stillness.
Ultimately the open-heartedness that your shared sound releases, leads

to a liberating experience of Oneness.
Your sounding soul integrates your highest aspirations, with
your grounded vision. You will soon find out how your voice enables
you to integrate previously disconnected parts of yourself, whilst bal-
ancing your heart with your emotions, and your nervous system with
your thinking mind.
Your sounding soul switches the whole light bulb of your brain
on, and teaches you to surrender to the unknown, to uncover and
reveal what you don’t yet know about yourself, way beyond the limited
stories that your solo left brain straight-jacketed you into.
Your sounding soul inspires an inviolable confidence, a com-
mitment and a willingness to discover the unexpected, unpredictable,
uncertain parts of yourself. What’s really exciting about your soul song,
is discovering within yourself an immense aliveness and once-hidden
feelings that you did not even know were there! After all, it’s precisely
what you don’t know about yourself that is fascinating.
Your sounding soul invites you to ask, “what is it you plan
to do with your one wild and precious life?” *Do you want to live
solely in the safe harbor of your personality’s control, or are you willing
to take a voyage into the uncharted ocean of your deeper Self. With-
out taking this journey you may be in danger of missing that essential
encounter with a life, as yet unlived.
*(Mary Oliver)
The Singing Field – A Collective Experience of Oneness
For over thirty years I have empowered people to recover the original
power of their sound and song, inspired by deep non-judgmental listen-
ing, sacred chant and mantra, the musical chakras, spontaneous and
improvised sound.
We have created ‘singing fields’ gatherings for the purpose of shar-
ing presence through meditative sound and song, as well as spontaneous
vocal expression in dyads, triads and the whole group. Everyone is wel-
come, and every voice is heard, honored, and respected without judg-
ment or censorship. Expressing yourself in the singing field awakens a
wondrous power – catalyzed by sounding your soul in the presence of

others. The Singing Field is not a “performance”, but more of a simple
interactive ceremony to share the universal presence of Love. Once this
presence is touched, life is never quite the same again.
The Singing Field anthem is our message:
Out beyond ideas of right and wrong doing

There is a field, a singing field
I’ll meet you there, I’ll meet you there, I’ll meet you there
A collective wisdom of sound is slowly and gradually starting to expand

along with other related worldwide sound healing organizations. How-
ever, if this collective wisdom of sound is really take effect as a signifi-
cant force for the evolution of consciousness it will require a critical
mass of individuals who are ready and really willing to take a deep
responsibility to remember and to sing their own soul song, alone and
together. May this transformative impact manifest in the world,
consciously, non-violently, compassionately.
Chloe Goodchild is an international

singer, pioneering voice educator, author,
and founder of The Naked Voice, a
radical training program, introducing the
transforming power of sound and voice,
spoken and sung. You may contact he at
www.TheNakedVoice.com
CHAPTER
7
Heart to Heart, Soul to
Soul: Communicating
from Love
Stacey J. Hentschel
A
s we look at our relationships and sense of connection with
others and how we communicate, one of the most exquisite
aspects of life is to relate to others from a state of deep loving
presence. There is richness and fullness when we’re fully there with
another, and the only way we can fully be there with another is by
being fully there with ourselves.
Communication is an art of being present and really the most nur-
turing and fulfilling communication is based on intimacy, the intimacy
of the heart … of being seen and heard from our soul-filled essence and
hearts love. All human beings have a deep desire and yearning to connect
with each other, whether verbally or silently … heart to heart, soul to soul.
Joy, wonder, discovery, and adventure in life are experienced when
we’re open, receptive, grounded, connected to our body and breath,
connected to the earth, and connected to our heart, soul and higher
energies of consciousness. When we are fully present with ourselves we
slow down. We slow down enough to feel our breath, to hear our breath,
experience our smile and our love. This is when we find ourselves really
connecting with another, allowing our joy and wonder to bubble up in a
nurturing, intimate way that comes from deep, deep listening.
We begin by having a connection with our self, a loving and nur-
turing connection. So we do that by bringing a smile to our face and
43
light in our eyes … imagining our eyes with love streaming through
them. As we smile with light streaming through our eyes and we drop
into our breath. As we become aware of our breath, we find it literally
slows down. What is so beautiful about the breath slowing down is
the mind stops racing as much. The slower the breath, the slower our
movements and our mind follows. Many of us think that our mind
leads us, but actually, our heart is what leads us when we slow down
enough to listen … so when we breathe, we access our inner wisdom.
When two people have the experience of no time, when we are both
truly listening and deeply present in a conversation, amazing things will
happen. We’re so fully connected, feeling our own heart and emanating
our love, that nothing else is needed. We may desire to express ourselves,
but we are not in need of anything because we’re whole and complete
in that moment. In that moment, we are simply expressing laughter, joy
and appreciation. In that moment, we will naturally acknowledge the
other person’s richness and joy. When we experience ourselves in this
way, we experience a profound shift. We start to connect more deeply
with ourselves and life starts changing. Life starts changing because we
are really there, really present. We are experiencing life and life is experi-
encing us and things unfold and bloom in the most beautiful way.
One of the first steps in developing a heart-to-heart connection is
to strengthen our core. Our core is the center of our body where our life
force resides: Our connection to the energy force that is always around
us. We can connect to our core by sitting up straight, pulling our rib
cage up, and using our breath to pull in our belly by about ten percent.
This simple exercise improves our posture and allows energy to move
more freely through our body. This freely moving energy allows us
to express our true selves, our gifts, and our joys more openly. With a
strong core and good posture, we can relax into deep breathing.
As we relax into deep breathing, our mind slows down so we may
be receptive to the guidance of our heart and soul. We are able to access
the wisdom of our heart with very slow deep breaths. Listen to your
breath, and pay attention to its rhythm and sound. With your shoulders
back and starting with your belly in about ten percent, gently breathe
and expand in through your belly and rib cage, all the way up through
your chest. Then hold your breath … and receive. Then slowly soften
and let go, bringing your breath slowly down your body.
Stacey J. Hentschel ■ 45
Repeat this pattern of breathing three or more times, slowly breath-

ing and expanding up the body, holding gently … receiving, then softly
letting go slowly down the body. Every time we feel and listen to our
breath and body, we become more present, which is what leads us to
our inner soul’s wisdom.
Now take a moment to visualize yourself with another person,
another soul in front of you. Start with a really good friend you feel
safe with or someone you have a loving relationship with. First visual-
ize yourself as grounded and connected. Begin by coming back to your
core, remembering your posture with belly in about ten percent with
an open heart, breathing fully, smiling openly with light in your eyes.
Allow yourself to bring this natural love to your friend.
With a golden energy send flowing loving energy back and forth to
your friend, begin imagining and feeling an oval shaped energy going
underneath your heart, then up and over your heart and across to the
top of their heart, then down the back of their heart returning to you.
Move it back and forth under and over your heart, then over and under
their heart again.
When you do, it will flow in an oval shape as a natural and loving
connected link. You will feel the loving energy between you and it will
naturally open your heart and theirs. The opening occurs as a result of
your intent, which is subtle, but can be felt. If they’re not connected, if
their pain is too strong, then they will not feel it, but in my experience
they will know there is a subtle opening, even if they don’t have full
awareness, so it is still helpful.
Practice by sending ten oval waves of this loving connected energy
to them, followed by them sending you ten oval loving connected
waves back. Then start imagining you are both sending it out together.
Allow yourselves to be silent with each other, gently closing your eyes
and experiencing these waves going back and forth with each other.
Hear and feel into their soul and see what is being communicated in
the unspoken and invisible … feel into that.
What is it that you want to say to them through the unspoken invis-
ible language of love and light? Experience the experiencing together,
connecting with loving energy, eyes closed right now, heart to heart and
soul to soul. Whatever wants to be expressed energetically, express …
through your intent, through the energy field that you’re sending out.
When you’re ready, gently open your eyes again eye to eye, heart
to heart and soul to soul. Communicate through your eyes everything
wanting to be communicated to your friend. Gently, softly, continue
to feel the loving energy and connect eye to eye. In a romantic partner-
ship, you may actually reach out and touch your partners arm or give
them a hug or gently touch their face. You may also express without
words to your partners heart and soul.
Continuing to feel this loving energy, begin to verbally communi-
cate to your friend from your heart and soul with a smile on your face,
love in your eyes, connected with your body and breathe. Connected
with your body and breathe deeply. Feel and express from your heart
… feeling yourself and your words from your heart. Holding your con-
nection, feel into your expression, slowly and deeply. When you listen,
connect with your body, breathe. Feel and listen from your heart and
soul. Feel your smile on your face and love in your eyes and it will assist
you to stay in your heart … deeply listen and hear your friend. Enjoy
the connection and richness of this loving communication. When the
communication is complete, slowly bring your awareness back into the
present moment and your body sitting right here, right now.
When we are thriving in our heart and soul’s expression, it is beau-
tiful, powerful and rich. You will have a knowing of being deeply loved,
cherished and nurtured … surrounded and connected by this loving
energy all the time. It is what is real, what is true. Feel this heart to
heart, soul to soul connection … see and feel the miracles happen.
Stacey J. Hentschel is an intuitive, business

consultant, and life/ relationship coach. She has
assisted hundreds of businesses and empowered
thousands of people to live from presence,
strength, love, and their highest soul’s design.
You may contact her at
www.QuantumIntegrations.com
CHAPTER
8
When Do You Get to
Enjoy It?
Alan Cohen
The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise

grows it under his feet. —James Openheim
S
everal years ago I decided to take a sabbatical from my business.
At the time I was being coached by a gifted intuitive counselor
who supported me to slow down and take care of myself.
A month into my sabbatical I found myself still working at tasks I
had planned to stop doing. A habit-driven voice inside me urged, “You
must finish these projects and communications before you can relax.”
As a result I found myself still chained to my desk and computer, feel-
ing more frustrated than ever.
Around that time I had a session with my counselor. I told her, “I
still feel overwhelmed with endless tasks.”
She looked me in the eye and replied pointedly, “Have you ever
thought about taking a sabbatical?”
Bam! Right between the eyes. My counselor knew full well that I
was supposed to be on a sabbatical. She was rubbing in the fact that I
had not done what I intended to do. While her comment irritated me,
it prodded me powerfully: If you are going to take care of yourself, the
only time to do it is now. No excuses.
Motivated by her guidance I pulled myself away from my self-cre-
ated obligations and began to travel, spend time in nature, and enjoy
47
my relationship with my partner. The remainder of the sabbatical was

truly a sabbatical — but only when I chose it to be so.
Contentment never comes in the future because the future is never
here. Contentment comes only when you choose it now. If your good
is always waiting for you around the corner, that is the situation that
will continue: It will always be around the corner and it will always be
waiting. If, however, you are willing to let your good be here now, you
will find it here now, and when you come around the corner, you will
find it here now again. What you seek may already be in your hands,
but you must look in your hands to find it. Happiness is like a winning
lottery ticket. Having the ticket is not enough. If you intend to collect
your earnings, you must go to the lottery office and say, “Here is my
ticket. I want my money.” Likewise you must go to the universal lottery
office and say, “Here is my birthright. I want my peace.”
Tigers and Strawberries
A man was walking through a jungle when two tigers began to chase
him. He ran to the edge of a cliff and began to shimmy down a vine
into a canyon. As he approached the valley below, he found two more
tigers waiting for him. He looked up and saw a pair of mice gnawing
at the vine on which he was suspended. Just then he noticed some
succulent strawberries growing out of a nook on the side of the cliff.
He reached out, plucked a handful of strawberries, and ate them. He
smiled as he savored the sweetest strawberries he had ever eaten.
Sometimes it seems that there are tigers behind us, ahead of us,
and all around us. Trouble appears to threaten at every turn and pros-
pects for escape seem dim. Yet if you shift your gaze from the apparent
threat, you might find some delicious strawberries to be plucked and
enjoyed. When you make up your mind to stay in strawberry con-
sciousness you will rise above tiger consciousness and strawberries will
become the dominant theme of your reality.
My friend Victoria owned a gift shop that was often pilfered by
shoplifters in her small town. One day she was robbed by two teenage
boys who lifted over $3,000 worth of merchandise. At that point Vic-
toria grew frantic; it was easy to overlook a five-dollar ring, but now she
had lost merchandise she hadn’t even paid for.
Alan Cohen ■ 49
Victoria called the police, who knew the boys — they were
already on house arrest. She went to the house with the police, and
the boys denied the theft. As Victoria looked into the eyes of one of
the boys, she saw that his soul was aching. Compassion filled her
heart and she understood that these young men were calling for help.
The robbery had occurred for a purpose deeper than appearances
would indicate.
Victoria informed the District Attorney that she wanted to raise
money to enable these boys to attend the Landmark Forum, a trans-
formational program. The D.A. agreed to support her even though the
boys were incarcerated. Six more teenagers who wanted to participate
in the program came forth, and Victoria phoned everyone she knew
and spoke at her church in an attempt to raise money for the pro-
gram. She collected over $3,000 in a short period of time. A gracious
woman offered her San Francisco home for a weekend seminar for eight
teens and four adults, where significant shifts in attitude and behav-
ior occurred. Using that experience as a platform, Victoria founded
a non-profit organization through which many teenagers’ lives were
uplifted. Now Victoria reports that she is grateful she was robbed; the
experienced changed her life, along with the lives of many others. In
the midst of tigers, she plucked the strawberries and ultimately fed the
tigers as well as herself.
What They Serve in Heaven
The places where we seek fulfillment are often not where true fulfill-
ment lives. The world tells us that stuff, power, and prestige will bring
us joy; the more people you control, the more important you are. Yet
real joy is found in connection. The mind fragments, while the heart
joins. Only in the spirit of love will you find peace.
When Dee and I lived in Fiji, we frequented a restaurant called
Oasis in the small town of Pacific Harbour. We dined there not just
for the tasty food, but because we savored out connection with a native
Fijian waitress named Litia. The first night we met Litia we felt as if we
were reunited with a dear friend. She welcomed us with a huge smile,
touched us as she seated us, called us “darling,” and took impeccable
care of us. At the time Dee and I looking at a property to purchase in
the area, and we decided to go ahead in part because we so enjoyed the

warmth of the Fijian people typified by Litia.
Over the years our relationship with Litia deepened and our appre-
ciation for her grew. She was kind and generous with all the patrons,
and made the weariest travelers feel at home. On numerous occasions we
observed tourists from America and opulent countries become demand-
ing, rude, and even insulting with Litia. They were impatient waiting
for their food to arrive, fussy about special orders and substitutions, and
condescendingly spoke to Litia in as if she were a peon. In all cases Litia
maintained her poise and returned their rudeness with extreme kindness.
I was stunned by the juxtaposition of power and peace in these
encounters. Here were wealthy travelers who had the means to afford
expensive vacations, obviously used to have subservients snap to their
orders. Before them was a humble woman living in one of the poorest
countries in the world, who earned a minimal salary (no tips) and used
all of her income to help her children. Yet she was far happier than the
well-to-do tourists. Through those interactions I learned that happi-
ness has nothing to do with worldly power and everything to do with
inner light. This modest waitress was far closer to heaven than those
making demands of her.
Litia was a kind of angel sent to remind me and others who noticed
her that peace is the greatest power. You may have lots of people at your
beck and call, but if you cannot summon joy, you are no supervisor at all.
Beyond Surviving into Thriving
Happiness does not settle for compromise to joy. My friend Tony went
through cancer treatment and emerged healthy. He told me that he
does not attend a cancer survivor support group. He attends a group
for thrivers. “There has to be more to life than simply surviving,” Tony
told me. “I am here to shine.”
There is a huge difference between surviving and thriving. When
I think of surviving, I think of the television series Survivor in which
individuals with separate interests are pitted against each other, com-
peting for who will endure at the expense of the others. It’s a primal
mentality, a scant substitute for real happiness.
Alan Cohen ■ 51
Thriving, on the other hand, conjures far more empowering

images. I think of the school that Oprah Winfrey established in Africa
so children can gain skills for a healthy, rewarding, productive life.
I think of companies like Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, eBay,
Netflix, and Groupon coming up with clever, colorful, and creative
ways to enhance modern commerce, communication, and entertain-
ment. I think of theaters filled with patrons enjoying concerts, plays,
movies, lectures, and gatherings that stimulate our higher senses and
bring us laughter, music, dance, and wisdom.
Abraham Maslow, considered the father of humanistic psychol-
ogy, posited a hierarchy of needs of a human being. The basic level
is survival, having our fundamental life and health needs met. The
highest level is self-actualization, at which each of us becomes all we
can be and experiences the deepest fulfillment in living, loving, and
learning.
The eastern system of chakras, or energy centers in the body,
reflects a profoundly designed ladder of well-being. The first chakra,
located at the base of the spine, is concerned only with survival needs.
At the top of the head the seventh chakra mediates our oneness with
the universe and finds fulfillment in our spiritual nature. While all of
the chakras are functioning all the time, we decide at what rung of the
ladder we choose to stand. The journey from the lower chakras to the
higher ones is the map of human evolution.
Although most people in our culture have everything we need to
survive and we are fully capable of dwelling in a state of self-actualiza-
tion, for some odd reason we tend to gravitate to struggling at a survival
level. Yet, like my friend Tony, you can refuse to settle for an identity as
a survivor and instead see yourself as a thriver.
You may already be sitting at the top of the pyramid of life, but
missing the view. In the Old Testament (Genesis 13:14) God told
Abram (later Abraham), “Now lift up your eyes and look from the
place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and west-
ward.” The instruction was more metaphorical than literal: Raise your
vision from the small and demeaning to the expansive and celebratory.
There is a far greater world available to you than the one you have been
living in.
Happiness Envy
In the film Broadcast News, a neophyte reporter who is intensely happy,

asks a veteran newsman what to do when your real life exceeds your
dreams. The elder tells the fellow to just keep it to himself.
The oddest effect of happiness is that other people are annoyed by
it. Misery does love company, so a joyful person poses a threat to those
steeped in sorrow. This is so for several reasons:
First, people who perceive a reward for being lost, sick, alone, poor,
or victimized have an investment in their reality. When someone comes
along who challenges that reality, teeth show in an effort to rid the
intruder bringing sunshine to a rainy but familiar and dysfunctionally
safe domain.
Second, observing a happy person stimulates the psychodynamic
of envy. If I want something but haven’t been able to get it, and I see
that you have it, your success reminds me of what I am missing. So you
become the bad guy for underscoring my pain. One way I can level the
playing field is to try to tear you down so we are both groveling.
If these responses to happiness sound sick, irrational, foolish,
immature, and self-destructive, they are. But hey, the ego has never
been known for its kindness and love to self and others. Shining the
spotlight on its trickery is the beginning of loosening its hold and
replacing it with thoughts, feelings, and actions that truly serve.
When you choose contentment, happiness, or any other form of
positive self-expression, you are likely to encounter people who mis-
trust, challenge, criticize, and ridicule you. I remember walking into an
office, smiling. Upon seeing me, the secretary snarled, “And what the
hell are you so happy about?”
What to do with people who can’t handle your happiness? Don’t let
them steal it from you. Hold your space and remember that well-being
is far more natural than resistance to it. Don’t take the negativity of
others personally, don’t argue with them, don’t try to prove anything,
and don’t flaunt your glee. Just live it. Regard their envy or jealousy as
a compliment, an indication that your light is obvious. While others
may try to tear you down, they do not have the power to do so unless
you give it to them. You are connected to Higher Power and they are
Alan Cohen ■ 53
disconnected. Though they realize it not, your peace is a gift to them.

On some level you are touching them. Later they will join you.
If you feel envious of someone who is happier than you are, reframe
the experience in your favor. Everyone you observe is a reflection of
your own consciousness.
If you are aware of the happiness or success of another person,
something inside you is already a match to them. They are mirroring
an element of yourself that is emerging. It is only a matter of time, per-
haps a short time, until the good you observe in their life will become
your own. Appreciate such people as role models and harbingers of the
success that you own, deserve, and will manifest.
The world is a smorgasbord of possible realities, and you get to
live in the one defined by the vision you choose. All vision is selective.
Every encounter, experience, and event is testimony to the vision you
are putting into service.
We see more with our mind than with our eyes. If the mind is
steeped in judgments and shrouded with fear, the world it shows us
bears little resemblance to what life was could be if we let it. We must
retrain our vision to see with the inner spiritual eye. When do you get
to enjoy the journey? Now, if you choose it.
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is
essential is invisible to the eye. —Antoine de Saint-Exupery,
from The Little Prince
Alan Cohen, M.A., is the author of 24 popular

inspirational books and CD’s. His radio
program Get Real is broadcast weekly on
Hay House Radio, and his monthly column
From the Heart is featured in magazines
internationally. You may contact him at
www.AlanCohen.com
CHAPTER
9
How to Live a Fulfilling
Life: Discovering and
Expressing Your True
Authentic Self
Darity Wesley
W
ow, “discovering and expressing” myself? “That’s kind of
weird,” you may say, “I think I already am myself, how can
I discover that when I can’t be anyone but me anyway?”
Good question! That is what this chapter is all about because the deter-
minative words in the title are “true” and “authentic.” Therein, lies the
story. Please read on…
Way back in the 1900s, Dr. Abraham Maslow wrote an article enti-
tled “A Theory of Human Motivation” which appeared in Psychological
Review. In this article Dr. Maslow discussed, perhaps for the first time,
a “needs” based framework or perspective of human motivation. The
basis of his theory is that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied
needs and that certain needs have to be satisfied before higher needs
can be satisfied.
According to Dr. Maslow, those general lower, fundamental, needs
like survival, safety, social activities, recognition, attention, and self-
respect, must be taken care of before one can move into what he calls
“self actualization.”
55
Self-
Actualization
Esteem Needs
Social Needs
Safety Needs
Physiological Needs
“Self actualization” is all about the quest of reaching one’s full

potential as a person, which really means growing psychologically and
spiritually, as there are always new opportunities to grow, if you are
paying attention. This system, this hierarchy of needs, allows you to
think about “where you are in life” in a structured way. The acknowl-
edgement of “where you are in life” on this scale, is a good first step in
discovering your “authentic self” because while that “authentic self”
will and does change over time, that ability to be you supports your
ability to have energized moments of profound happiness and harmony
which makes for a fulfilling life, for sure.
To point you in that direction, here are some practical tips to work
on in discovering and/or expanding your true authentic self.
Accept Your Self
One of the first steps along the path on this journey of self-discovery,
real self-discovery, is that you have to accept yourself. Yep, and you
cannot be accepting yourself, your true self, without knowing, under-
standing and accepting yourself as you are right here, right now, warts
and all. In order to do that, you need to take time and think about what
you value, what you believe in, what makes up the essence of who you
are. I was running for Congress once and found I really wanted to be
everything to everybody and it got really confusing for me and I got
really scattered. I knew that was not working for me, so I spent some
quiet time working on what I truly believed about things and created
an “I Believe” speech and beyond it helping me to be true to myself, it
helped me to learn more about who I AM.
Darity Wesley ■ 57
You can learn more about who you are if you take personality tests. I
have always loved the insights I have obtained from these tests but make
sure you do not let them define you. Just see them as a tool to allow you to
see more depth or point you to something you didn’t know about yourself.
Another method of discovery of your true self is becoming con-
scious of yourself. What that means is you check out what you are feel-
ing. Is it real? Is it a conditioned response? Is it something your parents,
friends, co-workers taught you? Is it the way you are “supposed” to
feel in this situation or that situation? What kind of judgments do you
make? Race? Gender? Sexual orientation? Nationality? Tall? Short? Fat?
Thin? All of this consciousness about how you see the world helps you
discover as well as change what you want about your Self.
Losing The Past
The next important step is not to focus on how you used to be. The past
is gone. As you look back instead of forward, you stop growing. Do not
define yourself by some period in your life. For instance, “Ah, in high
school I was so popular. I was a cheerleader and was involved in so many
social activities. Everyone loved me. Those were the best days of my life.”
Do not define yourself by relationships. For instance “Oh, when I was
with “him” or “her” I was a loving, caring, and compassionate person. The
world was my oyster. I could do anything.” Let it all go. Allow yourself the
space to change and grow. To improve and develop, to become wiser.
Part of losing the past is forgiving yourself. Forgive your past
behaviors and mistakes. They were only choices made based on the
time, place and circumstances you were engaged in at the time. Allow
it to be what it was. It does not add anything to your discovery to con-
tinually blame or chastise yourself for something you cannot change.
So, forgive yourself for everything and learn and turn over a new leaf
and begin to open up to the true you not the guilty you.
Stop Caring About What Others Think
Along the road of discovering yourself, you do yourself a great favor

when you learn to stop caring about what others think or how they per-
ceive you. This was a big step for me along the path as so much of my life
was geared to pleasing everyone because I wanted everyone to love me, I

think because I felt I was unlovable and I certainly did not love myself.
When this insight of not caring what others think about me came to
my consciousness, I realized deep in my heart that there will always be
people who won’t like me no matter what I do, that was a big realization.
So, I firmly planted myself in the field of knowing that I would rather
have the people who did like me, like me for who I truly was, not what I
said or did, just for being me. Now, this does not mean stop caring about
what others think or how they perceive you completely, but it does mean
you decide whose opinion matters and what that means to you.
Be Open and Honest
If you have concerns about your flaws, if you are ashamed or insecure
about any aspect of yourself, the lesson is, you have to come to terms
with this. This is done inside yourself, not something you have to put
out to the world, unless you are working with a counselor who can
help you in this manner. What you can do is turn them into quirks or
simply your own humanness, your imperfections. After all, we all have
them and being honest with yourself about this stuff helps you grow.
You have to be discriminating so that you can distinguish between
being critical and being honest. Listen to yourself, watch the way you
say things when you are being “honest.” I have heard some pretty
awful, mean things said when people were “…just being honest.” These
are folks who just have not understood that judgment, criticizing your-
self or others, is not necessarily being honest but many times is mean-
spirited, even doing it to yourself!
Relax and Laugh
The final information I wish to impart on discovering your true, authen-

tic self is to stop worrying about the worst that could happen…so what?
“Worry” according to Wayne Dyer, is one of those useless emotions and as
such wastes your energy. I had a mantra when I was first stepped into this
process of discovering and being who I truly was, I would say to myself
“What is the worst that can happen in this situation?” Then I would say to
myself “Can you handle it?” and the answer was always “Yes” so I learned
Darity Wesley ■ 59
to go with what is in front of me and not create drama around something

that was not happening. So, remember to laugh with and at yourself. That
kind of honesty and openness is very attractive to others.
Now that you have some ideas for discovering and expanding your
true, authentic self, what follows here is some information about how
to express that self to the world.
First of all remind yourself not to go out into the world all willy
nilly – without any thought about it. Put some thought into your per-
sona. Who will I be within my authentic self today? Loving? Orga-
nized? Energized? Quiet? Calm? Peaceful? Childlike? Fun filled? Play-
ful? There are lots of personas to express as your true authentic self,
think about how you want to be as you step out your door or before you
get out of bed in the morning. Express yourself while you continue to
develop and expand your individuality. Go ahead, now you can be you!
It is easier for people to like you when you are being you.
Second of all, be nice to yourself. If you are not being nice to your-
self, start practicing a little bit at a time. Think about treating yourself
as your own best friend, love and accept yourself.
Next, in expressing yourself, practice not comparing yourself to
others. You are unique and no one is like another. We are all different
expressions of All That Is, so follow your own style, don’t let people
change you. Also, know that part of being who you really are is under-
standing the old adage that some days you are the pigeon and some
days you are the statute and you take it all in stride!!!
Part of living a fulfilling life is to understand that the worldview has
shifted from the “old” days. Things really are not the same as they used
to be. The old world was based on an external focus. We had come to
believe that the material world was the only reality. Thus, feeling essen-
tially lost, empty and alone, we have continually attempted to find hap-
piness through addiction to external things such as money, material pos-
sessions, relationships, work, fame, food or drugs. As we begin or expand
the discovery and expression of our true authentic selves, we tap into our
fundamental spiritual connection providing us with the opportunity to
look within for the source of our satisfaction, joy and fulfillment.
Introspection is really what this chapter has been about and it plays
a large part in the way you form your self-identity and sense of personal
self. So much of who we think we are really has been conditioned from
an early age by parents, siblings, schools, friends and a wide variety of

outside influences. Now that you are shifting to become more authen-
tic, more your true self, it is time to go within and check out whether
the values, beliefs and attitudes you hold are still true for you. Do they
still work, do they still mean the same thing.
This process of discovery and expression can provide you a form of
meditative connection to stillness as you allow things to float to the
surface. Those things that float to the surface can be cleansed or kept by
conscious decision. To live a fulfilling life, allow yourself the space to
make some evaluations about your very own self-identity. It is not pos-
sible to conceive of your individual personality traits except that you
observe how they impact how you think about your Self and others.
Remember and give yourself credit as it takes a lot of courage to work on
self discovery, self actualization, mistakes are made along the way, no
problem; work on it every day and it gets easier and easier and remember
too, it is not so much about finding yourself as it is about creating the you
you have always known was there. This process will lead you to more self
knowledge which is helpful in changing your behavior or character traits
as you would like – letting the real you express yourself…go ahead, take
a look inside…do it consciously!!! Self-knowledge leads to self-actualiza-
tion and Dr. Maslow really believed that was a good thing, way back
then. Please, be kind to yourself…love yourself, that’s very important!!!
This does, indeed, lead to a much more fulfilling life!
Darity Wesley, lawyer, author, speaker and

advocate of personal growth, experiences life
to its fullest by integrating her business and
spiritual personas. She is the founder of both
the Lotus Law Center and the Revive Your
Spirit Center. You may contact her at
www.LotusLawCenter.com
CHAPTER
10
Enlightenment of the
Consciousness
Steven Sadleir
W
e have all heard, and intuitively know, that the answers lie
within us. We innately know that the source of happiness
and peace also lies within. We each have a purpose and
a destiny. Sometimes we feel that connection, but for most people the
ability to access that profundity of inner light, love and awareness is chal-
lenging if not seemly impossible. Yet, people have been enlightening for
thousands of years. All that is needed is the right instruction and practice
and a whole magical world opens up to us – it’s called enlightenment.
The enlightenment of man is as old as recorded history itself.
There are ceramic artifacts from the Indus Valley Civilization that
show Yogi’s sitting cross legged in meditation dating back over 10,000
years ago. The world’s oldest spiritual texts and spiritual traditions all
speak to the need for man to “know thy Self” and provide some means
of slowing down the mind and turning the awareness inward to dis-
cover something…to discover our true self and purpose.
Buddha sat in meditation under the Bodhi tree. Abraham and Jesus
would go into the wilderness of the desert to meditate, and Moham-
mad sat in a cave. I spent over twenty years conducting research for my
first book, Looking for God, a Seeker’s Guide to Religious and Spiritual
Groups of the World, which is a compendium of all the major religious
groups, spiritual teachers, new age teaching, indigenous traditions and
gurus and discovered almost all the spiritual leaders of this world prac-
ticed some kind of meditation. They all went within.
61
It is the most natural thing to go within. Your true Self is already

realized. But your mind has its own idea about who it thinks you are.
You came into this world as spirit in a new vessel. You were told you
were a name, a relation, a boy or girl, a Christian, Muslim or Jew,
then you created other associations with your culture, peers, and other
sources and identified with these external relations. We tend to think:
“I’m a man, an American, a Christian, I’m an economist or guru, etc.”
when in fact that is not what we are at all. Those names are just bumper
stickers in our mind; it reflects how we’ve been programmed not who
we are.
We lose touch with ourselves as we begin to identify with our
mental programming and the patterns formed through our interaction
with our environment. We are mostly influenced by others who are still
asleep themselves and have no idea who they are or why they were born.
We get herded like sheep into collective thinking and then squash the
guidance of our own indwelling spirit or even our rational mind. But
all our life experiences are teaching us something about our Self; and
from this we are learning, growing and evolving into higher states of
consciousness. We are developing a sixth sense…consciousness.
Day by day we continue to be guided by our life experiences and
learn from our mistakes and expand our awareness as we read, go to
seminars or take courses to improve ourselves. But once you evolve
your own awareness to the point where you realize that there is some-
thing to be realized, then your realization has begun. Once you have
this realization you will naturally, instinctively, seek out ways to further
evolve yourself to full enlightenment. This awakening of consciousness
is occurring en masse all over the world. The fact that you are read-
ing this now is evidence of your own awakening of consciousness. The
question to reflect upon now is what lies next?
The psychologist Maslow developed the idea that humans have
intrinsic needs to be fulfilled that guide our decisions and destiny. First
we need to take care of our most basic survival or physical needs, then
safety, belonging and self-esteem. At the top of this pyramid lies what
he called self-actualization. We are all seeking a higher purpose, ful-
fillment, meaning and ultimately our reunion with the Divine. This
self-actualization is self-realization; this reunion with God is God real-
ization or the enlightenment of the consciousness.
Steven Sadleir ■ 63
I’ve searched the world seeking enlightenment and studied under

many gurus. I began meditating at five and have practiced each of the
major paths to God. I found what I was looking for. I don’t think you
can say there is only one path or a best path, just be present where you
are and you’ll be on the right path. All meditation is good. But con-
sciousness is transmitted at different levels, so we tend to go from one
level of learning to another. The most powerful training I experienced
always involved Shakti.
Shakti is spirit or life force. Underlying every human being lays a
spirit or life force intelligence that animates our existence. We all sense
we have some kind of energy in our body, most want to believe they
have a spirit. But how many people really know their own spirit? This is
the key. By connecting with the very spirit that you are, your own mind
begins to realize the true nature of your Self.
There is a living presence of God within every human being. The
Kabbalistic book the Zohar states that our true nature is like a spark of
Divinity in a body ignorant of its true nature, but that this living spirit
will be awakened or realized in the coming age. The Bible states that
the Kingdom of the Father lies within. The Gospel of Thomas states
that Jesus said, when asked when the Kingdom will come, “It will not
come by waiting for it. You cannot say that it is here or there. For the
Kingdom of the Father is spread out before man, but he does not see.”
There is something already here to be realized.
So Shaktipat meditation and the path of the Tamil Siddhas involve
attuning into the life force current within you, which is you. You plug
into it. You learn to tune into these more subtle frequencies and cur-
rents that flow through your body. These currents and intuitive incli-
nations are how spirit guides us to the people, places and situations
that give us the information and opportunities to learn and grow and
evolve. To the degree you tune in you flow, and to the degree you are
not attuned you don’t flow and you know it.
As you are reading these words, observe the light bouncing off the
page or screen and entering into your eyes. Just observe light coming
into your pupils. There is an energy within the message that I am shar-
ing with you. Take a deep breath. As you release the breath continue
reading and observe the energy entering into you, as if our spirits were
meeting through these words. As you continue reading, notice the
energy in your body. You may begin to feel buzzing, tingling or floating
sensations. Simply observe your energy opening up. Just feel within.
Breathe in again and feel the energy in your nervous system, feel
it in your chi. Feel it in the electro-magnetic fields around your body,
and feel it flowing between you and me. Take another breath and now
just gaze upon these words without reading them. Just gaze at the page
blankly without moving your eyes and observe the sensation in your
body. See if you can feel the life force within you that is you. Naturally,
tuning into subtle energy develops with practice. So let’s practice.
One practice you can do to develop this expanded awareness is
to gaze upon the point between the eyebrows with the eye lids closed.
Think of this 3rd Eye as your “on” switch. Like turning on a light in
your room, when you focus your attention on this chakra point, you
engage your pituitary gland. This invokes a relaxation response and
engages your spirit, but it also cycles your energy and enables it to
develop. Meditate on your life force or spirit. This is Shaktipat medita-
tion and it will get you so high on God you’ll be out of your mind.
You can meditate on your own and will receive benefits, but will
soar to new heights if you let me guide you. Psychically tune in. Let my
spirit and yours join in meditation and you’ll just naturally start to fly.
We have programs all over the world, teleconferences and distance
learning programs and comprise a spiritual family all over the world.
To find true happiness and peace you need to enlighten, the whole
world is ready for enlightenment. Let’s change the world.
Steven S. Sadleir is a Kundalini master,

director of the Self Awareness Institute, best-
selling author and host of Enlightenment
Radio. Steven also appears in two spiritual
movies: Spiritual Revolution and 3 Magic
Words. You may contact him at
www.SelfAwareness.com
CHAPTER
11
Discovering Your True Self
Diana Stobo
H
ow do you discover your “true self”? I am who I am, isn’t
that right? I have a certain job, I live in a certain type of
community, I help people, I work hard, and I socialize in
comfortable social circles. I have certain types of friends, and my home/
apartment/condo/mansion says a lot about my accomplishments in life.
I mean, I’m pretty clear on who I am. I think.
But who are you when you aren’t being all that you are?
Who are you in the core of your being?
What is your sole purpose?
What is your destiny?
To answer these questions, you must dig deep — usually so deep
that it can seem unattainable, too murky, or simply frightening.
The fear of discovering your true self is a normal fear. It may cause
some shifts for which you are not yet ready. It may change the world
around you. It could upset your social circles, rearrange your priorities,
and confuse family members. It could even cause you pain … darkness
... and internal shifts for which you may not be ready.
Many times we assume that self-discovery will cause too much
change — change that may be hard to deal with.
Will people still like me?
Will I fit in?
Will my shifts and changes cause notice and gossip?
65
If I become more confident and powerful, will others feel

intimidated?
Is my soul searching a selfish act?
How we act in the world may be a shield of protection, a layer of
“fluff” that we created as a barrier to keep us safe from emotional harm.
This layer is a result of fear: fear of others’ responses, fear of not fit-
ting in, and fear of not conforming to a norm. These are obvious fears
placed on us by our upbringing of learning societal values and general
conduct rules. Now, I’m not saying that there isn’t a code of ethics that
all humans would benefit from following. What I am suggesting is that
the code that you were brought up with may be slightly skewed toward
your peer/family/community beliefs and not truly your own.
Fear teaches us how to adjust our behavior to fit others’ needs. We
learn to act differently around different people, based on our intuitive
sense of how they may respond. We have become sensitized to others’
reactions and, in the process, have lost sight of our truth. When we
are not acting from our core, our true self, we become fragmented. We
wear different hats: one for family, one for friends, one at work, one at
play, one for a lover, one for our pets. But which one is REAL?
So I ask you again: Who are you when you are not being all that
you are?
Do you even know where to begin answering that question?
If you think you already know who you are and this does not apply
to you, let me ask you a few questions to make you aware of yourself
in the world.
1. Do you often engage in activities that you don’t really enjoy,
just to go along with the crowd?
2. Can you think of anyone you spend time with who makes you
feel badly about yourself?
3. Do you continue to nurture friendships that you suspect may
be toxic?
4. Do other people influence your decisions, choices, and actions
in work or personal life?
5. When socializing, do you find yourself eating or drinking
foods or alcohol when you really weren’t in the mood for them?
Diana Stobo ■ 67
6. Do you often wish that you had said something that you kept
quiet about?
7. Do you think it is selfish to take quiet time to reflect and
ponder what really makes you happy?
8. Are you afraid to ask for what you want? (Do you even know
what you want?)
If you answered “yes” to any one of these questions, you may find
yourself pretending. Pretending to be other than who you are. Pretend-
ing to live a life that is unsatisfying yet fits the status quo. Pretending
to participate in a society that doesn’t fit your true self.
Who are you really?
The Law of Attraction is a great model that reveals some of those

answers for us. By looking at what we attract into our lives, we see our
direct reflection and uncover what needs to be healed. Take a look
around at your environments: your car, your home space, your work
space. Are they cluttered; clean, light, and airy; or messy and dark? Are
they new and adventurous or old and dated? Are they comfortable or
seemingly un-relaxing?
Observe the people around you: your friendships, peers, and family
members. How do they treat you, respond to you, and act with you?
Do they stress you out or give you great joy? Are they givers or takers?
Do some make you feel whole while others cause you to second-guess
yourself? Do they see you as you see yourself or are you often surprised
at people’s impressions of you?
Let’s play a game:

Take a moment to reflect on your surroundings (people, places, and
things) and with that visual image, imagine how you may be perceived
in the world. Think about how you represent yourself out in the world.
Describe that person in 3 words:

Now close your eyes and dream of what it is that makes you happy,
Ponder, if you will, who you really are internally, in your soul. Take
your time; this could be a new venture for you. Only think of what fills
you with love. Now who is that person with the smile on their face?
Please use 3 words to describe that person:
What do you think might happen if those two versions of yourself

came together into one? Would they like each other? Would they dis-
agree on each other’s lifestyles, thoughts, actions, or friends?
If they are, in fact, similar characters, then you are on your way to
discovering your true self. If these characters haven’t met yet, perhaps
you need to begin affirming your inner self.
A great first step to discovering your true self is working with affir-
mations. Sometimes affirmations feel silly; they may feel trite and hard
to say. But each affirmation you give to yourself brings you closer to the
place you wish to be.
You are not limited to one, nor are you limited to what they may
look like. There is nothing small about saying, “I am “thin.” If that is
important to you, then keep saying it.
“I am beautiful.” Oh yes you are, in every way. Say it over and over
and watch your true beauty emerge.
“I am love, in all the ways that love is.” Say it, be it.
Words are so powerful. The way we speak to ourselves silently in
our own minds is a powerful force in the quality of our lives, whether
we are aware of it or not. With words, we create a positive and loving
vibration for all the angels to hear.
So, with that in mind, prepare an affirmation that is a statement of
something you wish to be true, a part of you that may be undiscovered
but is in the inner core of your being. This is your screenplay and you
get to write it.
Say it in the mirror, say it out loud, say it to yourself — it doesn’t
matter as long as you say it clearly and say it often. It will release your
true self; it will help you create the life you wish to lead.
Diana Stobo ■ 69
Say it as though it already is. I am …

■ Perfect, just the way I am
■ Beautiful
■ Likeable
■ Deserving of love
■ A force of good in the world
■ God’s perfect creation
■ Capable of handling pressure with calm thoughtfulness
Or anything you desire. Say your affirmation 3 times every day
and say it with conviction.
I am
Another way to uncover your true self is to do a detox to clear tox-

ins from your mind and body. When you cleanse your body, you open
the possibility of fusing your outer and inner selves. As you clear out
the foods that weigh you down, you peel away layers and begin to let
down your guard; you start to show your true colors. Each time you do
a cleanse, you peel away more layers and get closer to your true center.
When you live in truth, your life becomes simpler, more satisfying,
and full of authenticity, true friendships, and real love.
Diana Stobo is a raw chef, speaker,

and health coach. She created “Naked
Nourishment” to help others eat for health,
vibrance, and beauty. Diana is the author of
Get Naked Fast! and Naked Bliss. You may
contact her at www.DianaStobo.com
CHAPTER
12
Doing What Comes
Naturally: Making Your
Abundant Talent Your
Abundant Source of Income
Cary Bayer
I
sometimes hear people say that worrying about the future comes
as second nature to them. So I reply, “If worrying is second nature,
what’s your first nature?”
It’s time that, as individuals and as a society, we all start asking
these kinds of questions—and then, answering them. Living our first
nature is living with openness, trust, and being our true Self in the
present moment, and sharing with the world the talents that God gave
us.
For those of you who insist on speaking of second nature instead
of first, I ask you, what is it that you do that is second nature to you?
What is that gift, or gifts, that are so natural to you that you express
them? And you do so with such ease and grace that virtually everyone
who comes into contact with you loves to receive your gifts?
For Luciano Pavarotti, it was singing, and bringing in the sound of
Heaven to Earth. For Michael Jordan, it was performing feats of aerial
acrobatics with a basketball. For Robin Williams, it was making us
laugh and cry with joy over his comic antics, manic mimics, and outra-
geous routines. You don’t have to be that kind of a superstar that your
light shines throughout the planet, as theirs did.
71
You can light up the world around you in smaller and quieter
ways. Perhaps you can bake cookies that have people munching with
much delight and licking their chops sumptuously. Perhaps Nature has
equipped you to fix almost any kind of equipment. Or your neighbors
are inspired in how you beautify the garden outside your home.
Doing any of these things will fill your heart with joy. When you
do them on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, it’s generally called a
hobby. And it’s one of the ways that the Universe enriches the uni-
verse around you. This enrichment comes naturally to you, because it’s
Nature acting through you.
If you take it one major step further, you have the chance to enrich
the world on a much larger scale. And to enrich your bank account
abundantly, as well. That’s because the kind of step further that I’m
proposing is taking what you love to do as a very part-time hobby that
you find delight in, and extending it to full time to serve others so that
they might receive the delight that your talent offers. That makes it a
livelihood. On second thought, that second nature is really more of a
lovelihood.
When you take a hobby that you love and put a few hours a week
into, that pays you no money in return, and turn it into your work, you
can then put 40 or more hours per week into it and serve many people.
The other thing about this full-time “doin what comes natur’lly--as
Irving Berlin put it in Annie Get your Gun—is that you have the energy
to give the world your very best. It’s hard to do what comes naturally
after having given society what doesn’t come so naturally for 40 hours
(or more) each week, plus perhaps a quarter more of that time just
getting to and from there. That’s because you don’t have that much
energy or inspiration left after the depletion and perspiration of that
“rent-paying” straight job.
Is it any wonder that a majority of Americans- and perhaps people
from most industrialized countries, as well-- don’t enjoy what they do
for a living? Is it any wonder that there’s an internationally successful
restaurant chain dedicated to this phenomenon? It’s called TGI Fri-
days. Even an atheist would Thank God It’s Friday if he didn’t like
what he was doing for a living.
Cary Bayer ■ 73
I love working with people who want to change their livelihood

into a lovelihood, It’s inspiring to help them discover what’s deep in
their hearts and souls that’s dying to be expressed in the world-- actu-
ally, living to be expressed in the world- to dawn in their consciousness.
Then, like the dawn that brings light to the darkened heavens every
morning, they can brighten their lives with the light of their soul, and
brighten our world with their light.
When they allow themselves to transform what I call the Money
Rejection Complex, they can let themselves be paid for this work, too.
And they can then follow their bliss-- and follow the traffic- to their
nearby bank and deposit dozens of checks from their neighbors who are
more than happy to pay them for what they do best, for doin’ what
comes naturally. And when those checks grow in size and number, your
bank account can grow abundantly, and so, too, can your portfolio of
stocks and bonds. Most importantly, your abundance of happiness
through living your lovelihood will grow beyond your wildest dreams!
Life Coach Cary Bayer, who’s worked with

Oscar-winner Alan Arkin, David Steinberg,
and Quality Inns, was a TM teacher, and
founded Higher Self Healing Meditation. He’s
authored more than 35 publications. You
may contact him at www.CaryBayer.com
CHAPTER
13
Five Soul Contracts You
Want to Master and How
to Start Doing It!
Danielle MacKinnon
E
very day my clients ask me what is holding them back in their
life. They want to know about their powerful yet tumultuous
relationships with their partner, brother, mother, best friend…
They wonder why they have been unsuccessful at making the changes
they so desperately want to make. They worry they will never achieve
their goals… And every day, I tell them, “Look at your Soul Contracts!”
Your Soul Contracts are deep energetic commitments that you cre-
ated in order to assist you on your path to enlightenment (or happiness,
or fulfillment or peace... whatever you want to call it). Mastering your
Soul Contracts will actually help you create growth, transformation
and access to unconditional love. In the 3D world, mastering your Soul
Contracts will help you make more money, find love, develop true con-
fidence in yourself, buy a great house and more. There is no end to
what you can achieve when you begin to work with the Soul Contract
energies.
Soul Contracts work in a variety of ways: they can be pre-birth
agreements between two souls that create relationships intended to
highlight challenges in your life, they can be pre-birth commitments
to having a certain type of experience intended to bring an “issue” to
light or they can be energetic attachments to certain behaviors created
during your lifetime intended to elicit a specific experience.
75
As you begin to work with the Soul Contracts in your life, you will
find that blocks, tumult and failures in those areas become a thing of
the past. But you can only achieve this once you have mastered the les-
son that the Soul Contract intended to teach you!
Below, I’ve listed five common Soul Contracts. Perhaps you recog-
nize some of these within yourself? Perhaps it’s time to take some action
(I’ll show you how to do that as well!).
Soul Contract of Martyrdom
Do you find that it’s a lot easier to say “yes” than it is to say “no”?
Do you put your own needs and desires aside to help other people (or
animals) – even when it is really inconvenient to you? Do you feel like
you’re a better person if you sacrifice your own needs to make someone
else happy? Do you believe that being called “selfish” is the worst type
of insult, so you make decisions constructed to ensure that no one can
ever apply that label to you? If you answered yes to any of these, you
are probably a) feeling pretty frustrated with your life b) feeling that
other people don’t appreciate you and c) feeling tired and drained. You
probably also have a Soul Contract of Martyrdom... and it’s not pretty.
Once you’ve mastered this soul-level agreement, it won’t mean
you’ll never help another person. Rather, it will allow you to make bet-
ter decisions about who to help and when – and about how to continue
to take care of yourself while giving to others. It will also allow you to
help others from a place of pure love rather than from a place of “I must
do this to show what a good person I am.”
Soul Contract of Loyalty
Do you stand by your friend, lover, parent, boss etc. no matter what
they do or how they treat you? Have you ever heard yourself saying
“yes, she’s pretty mean but family is family” or “I have no choice, he’s
my boss”? Have you accepted other people’s versions of the truth over
your own in order to keep the peace? The Loyalty Soul Contract will
often help a person create a situation in which they are walked over
by those they love and where a person feels helpless or trapped when
Danielle MacKinnon ■ 77
considering changing or leaving the relationship because they don’t

want to abandon the other person.
When you finally master a Soul Contract of this nature, you’ll
be able to make changes in your relationships (personal, professional
and emotional) even if those changes are something you’ve struggled
with for years, such as leaving your husband or quitting your job. The
“hold” that those people have over you will be gone and you will feel
free to make the decision that is truly for the Greatest and Highest
Good for everyone.
Soul Contract of Loneliness
Have you spent year upon year looking for your soulmate only to have
one relationship after another result in failure, dis-ease, sadness and
heartbreak? Have you tried blind dates, online dating, or settling for
someone who isn’t “it?” While there are many different contracts that
could be standing in the way of finding love, the Soul Contract of
Loneliness can be one of the most difficult to experience. When your
soul is adhering to this type of agreement, even if you have found some-
one wonderful – you still feel alone, separate and unsupported.
When you master the lesson behind the loneliness contract you’ll
finally begin to “feel” the support and love that is out there. It IS out
there, after all, it’s just a matter of holding a vibration that allows it in.
Soul Contract of Anxiety
Do you feel anxious, nervous and worried most of the time? Is there a
ribbon of stress running through you every day – even when you are
enjoying yourself? Do you wait, knowing that at any moment the other
shoe is going to drop? When money is coming in – do you count the
days until it will go out again? When one of your worries alleviates, do
you quickly replace it with the next “thing” to worry about? You may be
thinking this is normal human nature, but it isn’t! In many cases, it’s a
soul contract you took on in order to help you learn a major life lesson.
Why would you ever make such a commitment? Perhaps you felt
that if you wrapped yourself in a blanket of anxiety – it would heighten
your awareness so that nothing could ever get by you and surprise or
hurt you again? Filtering life through a blanket of anxiety is not fun for
you (obviously) or for the people around you. When you master this les-
son, you’ll find that you are more in touch with your intuition (after all,
anxiety blocks us from our intuition) so you are more easily and naturally
kept up to date by your own gut on what is coming down the pike for
you. The anxiety that the Soul Contract told you was so necessary to
have in order to create security – turns out to be completely unnecessary
and you’ll be able to experience a mental freedom you’ve never felt before.
Soul Contract: Don’t Rock the Boat
Are you afraid to be seen as someone who marches to your own drum-
mer? Someone who doesn’t break rules or rock the boat? Who doesn’t
even want others to know you’re reading this book? This is a very com-
mon agreement that we humans tend to commit ourselves to as a way
of protection. By standing in the background and blending in, you
run less risk of being ostracized, penalized or pointed out. While this
might have seemed like a good way to live when you were still reeling
from being made fun of for something that you did – the current real-
ity means that it will become difficult to build a business, become an
expert, write a book, align with your soul purpose and more because
you must stand out in order to do these things!
When you master this Soul Contract, things really begin to open
up. So much of what each person has come here to do is dependent on
being able to blaze their own path. Mastering the Don’t Rock the Boat
Soul Contract is like a big “ta-da!”, the lights turn on, your work is
highlighted, you feel comfortable becoming a leader in your own right
and things finally move forward.
The Road to Mastery of Your Soul Contracts
So, what do you do if you realize that you’ve been unknowingly running
up against a Soul Contract or many Soul Contracts (as is most often the
case)? How do you “get” the lesson that Soul Contract was there to teach
you so you can move forward and create the life you know you deserve?
Danielle MacKinnon ■ 79
Understanding
First, realize that you can’t just learn you have a Soul Contract in place
and then break it because it annoys you. It doesn’t work that way –
there is work involved to master the lesson behind it. You must come to
a place of understanding that that Soul Contract was there to highlight
something and bring it to the forefront of your life so that you would
finally address that “issue.” You first must do the work to see how this
agreement has both served and hindered you. It’s like… your under-
standing is loosening the bad tooth so that it can be pulled.
Awareness
Next comes awareness. Spend time witnessing the Soul Contract (or
Soul Contracts) and understanding how it has been rearing its ugly
head in your life. For example, if martyrdom is the issue, take a few
weeks to notice when you’re giving up your own needs for those of
another person or entity. You’ll start to see patterns in your behavior,
and as they emerge, it will become easier and easier for you recognize
those times when you tend to sacrifice for others. This takes some time,
so don’t expect to get it perfectly right away.
Additionally, as you are experiencing the awareness of the contract
in your current life, you’ll also want to experience the awareness of
the contract in your past. Start to trace the contract back to where
it originally began. For example, a lot of people with Soul Contracts
around control (they control everything in their lives in order to feel
safe) can actually trace the beginning of the contract to their childhood
when they didn’t feel protected by a parent and at that early age, they
decided “I’m going to handle everything around me and that will give
me the security I am missing.” The mastery of some Soul Contracts
does depend on your ability to determine what you were thinking (or
what your intention was) when you created it in the first place.
Clarity
After you’re feeling very “aware” of the Soul Contracts in your life a
new piece will emerge: the clarity. If would you normally say, “yes! I’ll
take your Grandma to the grocery store on Sunday so you can stay in
and watch football” despite the fact that you don’t have time - you’ll
now find that there is a small pause just before you give your answer,
because you’re aware now that this is where the contract would nor-
mally show up. Within that pause you have created an opportunity.
Take a moment to ask yourself, “Do I want to follow the same pattern
or do I want to make a different decision this time?” Sometimes you
will make the same decision and you will see the same results – but the
more aware you are, the more clarity you’ll have which will enable you
to make a healthier choice more and more often.
Mastery
Once you have experienced enough moments of clarity, you’ll start
playing with mastery. You’ll know you’ve actually reached the mastery
phase when you no longer have to keep a strong eye on your behavior
regarding the contract. At this point, many people will say to me “it’s
hard to remember how difficult it was to say “no” now that I can say it
so easily!” The ease is a sign that you have truly mastered the lesson that
Soul Contract was there to teach you.
Soul Contract work follows the old adage: the Soul Contract comes
in like a lion (through blocks, difficult relationships, tumultuous
events, challenges and more) – but by the time you have mastered the
lesson behind it – it leaves like a lamb. So just be aware, there is no right
or wrong process here – only your process of discovery, understanding,
clarity and mastery – however that looks for you. It’s basically the pro-
cess of being the best human you can be.
Soul Contract Consultant and Intuitive

Danielle MacKinnon assists you in revealing
the beauty of your soul by helping you
discover, understand and master your life
challenges at the deepest levels possible. You
may contact her at
www.DanielleMacKinnon.com
CHAPTER
14
Are You Living YOUR
Values or Someone Else’s?
Derek Rydall
I
t’s interesting to contemplate the question, “Who were you before
your parents were born?” Then to ask “Where do my current val-
ues, desires, and goals really come from?”
Are they from your parents, schooling, society, or do they come
from that pure, unconditional place within you? Are they a reaction to
a limited sense of self?
Perhaps somewhere along the way, you bought into a belief that
you were lacking in some way, or that the world was, and out of that
sense of lack, low self-esteem, or fear, you adopted a value system to
cope with it, adapt to it, cover it up, or fill up the seeming hole. It
wasn’t your real value system, but a defense structure built over it to
deal with your experience of the world. And you’ve been living from
that ever since.
I’ve discovered over the last year that many of my values weren’t
really mine, but were inherited from family and society; that when
I got really still and clear, and created a gap between the beliefs and
stories in my mind that I had identified with versus the Self behind or
before those beliefs and stories, the values of materialism, acquisition,
worldly success, etc. were actually added onto me from my upbringing
and weren’t really intrinsic.
It was out of my experience of lack, which created a belief that I
was missing something, that I developed the value of ‘getting more
81
stuff’. It was out of my experience of pain, which developed self-esteem

issues, that I adopted a value of achieving to increase my sense of self (a
self that was actually fine already).
The truth, however, is that who you really are is already whole,
complete, and perfect before you arrive here. Just as the acorn doesn’t
come here to achieve an oak tree or self-improve its way to oak-hood
(because it knows it’s already the oak!), you’re not here to add some-
thing to yourself, fix yourself, or even to improve yourself — you’re
here to discover and reveal the infinite, eternal Self that you already are
— that perfect Idea held in the Mind of Universal Intelligence.
As a scriptural passage says, “Be ye not conformed to the world,
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Our daily expe-
riences and challenges offer us opportunities to purify our mind and
heart, to let go of the false concepts and limited beliefs, so that who and
what we really are can emerge.
Just as Michelangelo saw the completed David as already existing
in the block of marble, then chipped away everything that wasn’t it,
we are called to recognize the completed masterpiece that is our life,
hidden in this block of mortal stone, then let go of everything that isn’t
it — including all the beliefs and values and ideas we’ve adopted from
society that aren’t deeply true for us.
Give your block a look, and let me know what you find as you
carve the ongoing masterpiece of your life.
Transformational coach, best-selling author

and The Law of Emergence expert, Derek
Rydall has trained Fortune 500 companies,
coached Oscar and Emmy winners, and
taught tens of thousands globally to live a
more passionate, purposeful life. You may
contact him at www.DerekRydall.com
CHAPTER
15
Spiritual Sustainability
Ernest D. Chu
A
s a Wall St. investment banking executive for many years,
I discovered the power of invested capital to create compa-
nies, build new industries like biotechnology and the Internet
industry, and create billions in stock market value. But as a business
and life coach, minister and spiritual teacher, I realized that the great-
est resources are the inner wealth that lies within us – our spiritual or
inner qualities such as insight, intuition, vision etc. Learning how to
awaken and invest this tremendous inner wealth will enable you reach
your goals, increase your income, and find deep personal fulfillment.
Most importantly, it is a path which you can become what it is you
would like the world to be.
Many of us have heard Russell Conroy’s story of “Acres of Dia-
monds” of the South Asian farmer who sold his rather rocky farmland
to go elsewhere to make his fortune. This seemingly poor quality farm-
land later turned out to be the Galconda diamond mine, one of the
richest ever discovered to that point. How many of us judge ourselves
as not being special enough, not being smart enough, or not knowing
the right people or having what it takes? Each of us is sitting on our
own acres of diamonds and we can lament the cards that were dealt to
us or recognize that not only are we diamonds in the rough, but indeed
most of us are sitting on a huge treasure trove of inner assets that can
be directly correlated to the material world.
83
Share with the World What is Uniquely Yours
Each of us has many choices of how we create income. Most of us

spend the majority of our waking time in work related activities. If
you look at work as simply an activity that generates a paycheck, then
ultimately you will have to find meaning in other parts of your life.
Do what you enjoy, but if you are helping people, you don’t neces-
sarily have to work in a not for profit company. Recognize that it is
what you bring to your work, rather than solely the work itself that is
a major part of that experience. When you begin to value yourself and
what you have to offer, you will ultimately share with the world what
is uniquely yours.
When British author, JK Rowling created the Harry Potter series
of books, she wrote her first book having to rely on what little savings
she had and some public assistance. But her most valuable investment
was her great imagination, her ability to paint pictures with words, and
to envision a fantasy world of muggles, wizards, and dragons. Many
of Rowling’s friends and neighbors certainly had some doubts as to
whether she ever would make any money as a writer. Yet, within ten
years, Rowling’s unique Harry Potter brand, encompassing several
books, movies etc. was worth several billion dollars, a return on invest-
ment that dwarfed even the returns on investment by the early share-
holders of Microsoft.
Come from Your Strengths
When I was growing up, I was ashamed of the fact that I looked dif-
ferent and was shorter than my classmates. What I would have given
to have been 6 foot tall with blonde hair and blue eyes, rather than
being 5’ 6” and Chinese American. But when I went to Wall St., one
of the hottest fund managers at the time was Gerald Tsai, a Chinese
American who had been born in Shanghai. I discovered not only that
it was okay to be Chinese, but that there were quite a few advantages.
I could walk into a crowded room, and while I might have some dif-
ficulty remembering everyone, most everyone would remember me. I
had inherited a solid work ethic and part of my gifts was my ability to
Ernest D. Chu ■ 85
take in what might be an overwhelming amount of information and be

able not only to sort it out, but to glean insights from it.
Steve Jobs, the founder of the great companies, Apple Computer
and Pixar Studios, had the gift of being able to blend creativity with pre-
cision, and insight with imagination. Apple, which competed against
giants like HP, Toshiba, Sony and IBM, not only gained a substantial
market share, but built generations of loyal Apple users. It was the col-
lective investment of the founding group in both Apple and Pixar that
created the inspiration for the products, the impetus for their funding,
and in innovation leaders in their own industries.
Invest Your Soul Currency
When you use your inner assets, direct them with intention and focus,
you only need to add the source energy of love to harness the essence of
source energy – spiritual capital. The feeling of love, which is the soul’s
real currency, is more than a feeling of well-being, but it is creative,
connective and transformative. When you invest your spiritual capital,
the return on investment is not just simply monetary, but it opens up
other possibilities.
My good friend and mentor, the late Jay Wells always looked for
opportunities to help people. He made friends easily, because he was
interested in others, qualities which helped him become a successful
businessman. One day, Wells found himself hospitalized for a routine
procedure. When he was recovering he started talking to some of the
nurses and other patients, asked why there weren’t any TV’s in the
hospital. He was told that there was one in the doctor’s lounges and
that TV’s were a luxury that the hospital couldn’t afford. He began
by offering to donate a few televisions to the hospital, and eventually
this led to the formation of Wells National Services, a public company
that became the leader in installing and renting bedside televisions to
hospital patients.
Joel Roberts, one of this country’s top media coaches, is another
example of investing soul currency. For more than 15 years, Roberts
was the feisty, sarcastic, and often deliberately controversial drive time
radio host of one of the top rated stations in the country – Los Angeles
based KABC. A music aficionado, Roberts found himself at a concert

standing near one of the huge speakers when it accidentally blew out,
causing him to lose most of his hearing in one ear and more than 60%
in the other. From the top of his profession, he suddenly was unem-
ployed. Or so he thought. Today Roberts is one of world’s top message
and media coaches. He helps authors, executives, salesmen, lawyers,
publicists etc. apply some of the same skills he used on the air such as
having a hard hitting message, holding listener interest, and learning
how to use news headlines to build a hook.
The Hidden Power in Soul Currency
The key ingredient to spiritual capital, that perhaps distinguishes it

from financial capital, is love, the source energy. Love is not a feel-
ing which comes from within us, but the creative power of an infinite
source energy which moves through and activates everything. It is a
creative force which has an intelligence of its own, intensifying focus
and enriching intention.
Life imitates spirit, and financial currency flow imitates the flow
of love – the soul’s currency. Being in the “flow” is therefore being in
the flow of soul currency.
Tapping into this extraordinary power is what enables entrepre-
neur extraordinaire Donald Trump, who lives for the challenge of a
great deal, to find a way to get an especially intractable lucrative deal
done, or for Susan Lindstrom, founder of Paper Source, whose love for
artistic presentation innovated a chain of stores to sell fine handmade
papers, with great unusual colors and designs. While going through her
mother’s personal effects after she had passed away, she began to appre-
ciate what a cherished gift handwritten letters could be. Her company
has partnered in supporting the Campaign for Love and Forgiveness to
support the organization’s letter writing initiative.
The energy of love is also a powerful creative impetus for Sandra
Muvdi, whose only child, seven year old daughter Jessica June Eilers ,
died of acute leukemia in 2003. Her grief and love for Jessica led her to
found the Jessica June Children’s Cancer Foundation, whose mission
is “giving hope and comfort to underprivileged children with cancer.
Ernest D. Chu ■ 87
Living from Flow
Soul currency investing is so much more powerful than the limiting

aspects of simply investing the symbols which represent money. Soul
currency enables us to live from possibility rather than investing from
fear and risk. From an open heart, we are able to share and to put our-
selves in the flow of not only material prosperity, but the deep fulfill-
ment and inevitable right action that love always produces. The mes-
sage we receive is one of greater connection, not only to others around
and the collective good, but a deeper inner connection to Spirit that
brings us fulfillment and a sense of greater purpose.
Ernest Chu is a successful green energy

entrepreneur, minister, writer and spiritual
abundance teacher. He has appeared on
hundreds of radio and television programs,
including the Oprah Winfrey show. You may
contact him at www.SoulCurrency.org.
CHAPTER
16
Living a Fulfilling Life:
Discovering the Truth of
Who You Are
Shelly Wilson
I
t took me a long time and much consideration to realize the truth
of who I am. Labels such as “quiet, smart kid who likes to read”
tend to adhere themselves to us physically, mentally and emotion-
ally. These labels tend to define us and will limit us if we allow them
to. As the oldest child and only daughter, my father made it clear to
me that he expected great things from all of his children. I excelled in
school and was able to skip my junior year of high school after chang-
ing schools because of the classes (or lack thereof) they offered.
I attended a nearby junior college out of high school after marrying
my high school sweetheart. I graduated Summa Cum Laude in May
1990 with an Associates of Arts in Accounting. I regretted not continu-
ing with my education and sensed the extreme disappointment within
my father. A 2-year degree was not good enough - period. I knew that
I could return to school at any time and was waiting for the perfect
time to do so. After many years, I set a goal for myself and decided that
I wanted to finish my education before my son graduated from high
school, and I set out to do just that. The college I originally attended
received the necessary accreditation to become a university. I returned
to school March 2008 and graduated in May 2010 exactly one week
before my son graduated from high school, which was exactly 20 years
after receiving my AA degree.
89
My father came to my graduation stating, “You finally listened

to me and got your degree.” I chose not to let his words affect me and
undermine the joy I was feeling for my accomplishments. However, I
will admit that I was longing for something a little more from him in
that moment. I understand that he is who he is and I am who I am. I
am my father’s daughter, but his words and actions do not define who
I really am. No one can make me feel a certain way.
Tools to Discover the Truth of Who You Are
Have you ever asked the question, “Who am I really?” I know that I am
a woman, a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, but who am I
really? I am all of these and also none of these. The truth of who I really
am is that I am a soul in a physical body having a human experience
because my soul chose to be incarnated on Earth at this time.
I could go on to describe my physical body with height, weight, eye
color, and hair color, but these are simply descriptions that will identify
me. My likes and dislikes just happen to be my personal preferences.
I am a soul having physical, emotional and mental experiences. The
experiences I have had are just experiences. They do not define me nor
will I allow them to. The memories of these experiences comprise the
totality of my life as of this moment. As I continue to live my life, more
of these experiences will encapsulate and become a part of my life yet
will not define me. I am at the center of my consciousness, and I am
aware that my perception, through my thoughts, emotions, and senses,
creates who I am.
Allow yourself to also embrace this clarity and greater knowing of
who you really are. The knowledge you receive will help you to under-
stand who you are, who you have been, and who you are becoming.
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.

—William Shakespeare
Perception is how we view or perceive an experience through our

senses – sight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing. We may choose to label
an experience as good or bad, positive or negative. In reality, this is
Shelly Wilson ■ 91
simply our perception or a personal assessment of the experience we

have had.
Therefore, it is important to avoid labeling experiences as much
as possible. If you can simply refer to an experience as an experience
rather than labeling it as good or bad, you will change the energy of the
experience. I am primarily referring to those experiences we choose not
to repeat or the ones we label as “bad.” Each day is a new beginning.
Therefore, with each day, each of us will have new life experiences.
New experiences sometimes involve challenges. It’s up to you if you
view the challenge as the proverbial mountain or mole-hill.
Don’t compromise yourself. You’re all you’ve got.

—Janis Joplin
The fact of the matter is that it is all about perception. When you
change your perception, you will change your life. Remove the con-
straints of the box you have created for yourself, and allow yourself
to view experiences with a new perspective as well as from another
individual’s point of view. Recognize that a group of people may have
all had the exact same experience, but will each perceive the experience
differently based on their own perspective.
Remember that each individual will have their own perception of
an experience. It is next to impossible to alter someone’s perception. In
circumstances that you don’t see “eye-to-eye,” simply listen and then
practice non-attachment to the outcome. This means that you are rec-
ognizing what you have heard, but you are not allowing another indi-
vidual’s perception to influence your own.
Furthermore, when someone asks for your advice or opinion, and
they don’t like what you have said, acknowledge the variance of opin-
ions, and then release it. There is no need to feed it any energy or won-
der if you should have said it differently. Speaking your truth with love
and conviction is necessary. Do not be afraid to do so simply because
you are not sure how the message will be received.
Once you awaken, you will have no interest in judging those

who sleep. —James Blanchard.
I personally believe that we plan each and every incarnation. We

plan our challenges, our triumphs, and our opportunities for learning
and growth. Most of us don’t remember what we planned for ourselves.
When we awaken to the truth of who we are, everything makes sense.
We begin to understand why we chose our parents and our experiences.
All judgment is released, and we are physically, mentally and emotion-
ally at peace with our existence.
Earth school and all of the experiences it entails comprise our
learning. Many of us definitely have a pre-conceived notion of how
something should be or transpire. In reality, the Universe has some-
thing completely different in mind. When we release our expectations
and the need to control the how, when, why, what, and where aspects
of our lives, amazing things will and do happen. With that said, allow
yourself to open to the flow of what the Universe has in store for you.
The unfolding is thrilling to see and to be a part of. Recognize that a
path or plan may change along the way yet the purpose will not. All is
as it should be in each moment of each life.
I recognize that I am Energy
Yes, it is true. We are more than a physical body. We must recognize

that we are a spiritual being having a human life experience. It is impor-
tant to cultivate the spirit, yet equally important to honor the mind and
body. It is imperative to acknowledge that the mind, body, and spirit
are one - a unified entity. Balancing the aspects of mind, body, and
spirit is an integral part of our overall well-being.
I recognize that I am Beautiful
As the saying goes, “beauty is as beauty does.” A person can be per-

ceived physically beautiful, but have an ugly personality meaning they
are unkind and condescending to others. Our physical body is a protec-
tive shell for our soul. The beauty of our soul permeates this shell and
that is what people truly see.
Shelly Wilson ■ 93
I recognize that I am Spiritual
To me, a spiritual person is someone who is walking their talk. They

honor and respect other people’s beliefs yet are true to themselves. They
recognize that each one of us is a spiritual being having a human expe-
rience. Therefore, each person is having their own life experiences to
learn from and to grow.
I recognize that I am Authentic
I strive to live authentically in all aspects of my life. I recognize I was

intended to have all the life experiences I have had and will have. I
choose to view everything through the eyes of love rather than through
the eyes of fear. I recognize that I am not the same person I was yes-
terday nor will I be the same person tomorrow that I am today. My
Spirit is continually healing and growing. I acknowledge the same for
you. You are not the same person you were yesterday nor will you be
the same person tomorrow that you are today. Your spirit is continually
healing and growing. Recognize your power and tap into your inner
knowingness. Allow your Light to shine!
As you awaken to the truth of who you really are - embrace all that
you were, all that you are, and all that you will become for all is truly well.
So I ask you - Who are you? Why are you here? What are you sup-
posed to be doing?
Intuitive Medium, Reiki Master and Spiritual

Teacher Shelly Wilson would love to assist
you on your spiritual journey. She honors
your free will and recognizes that you are
co-creating your reality with the Universe.
You may contact her at
www.ShellyRWilson.com
CHAPTER
17
Activate Your Destiny:
Experience Life at Peak
Fulfillment
Laura Chiraya Fox
T
here is a soft yet powerful voice within you. I imagine you
hear these inner whisperings of inspiration and possibility
inside you, nudging you to do something greater than any-
thing you have done in this lifetime. You may not even know WHAT
it is you wish to do ~ though you probably have a FEELING that there
is SOMETHING you are meant to do that will be exhilarating on all
levels! This whispering voice is the voice of your Activated Being.
A second voice, often louder, may overshadow these feelings with
the suggestion that you are (a) not worthy, (b) not capable or (c) not
ready to be and do these magnificent things. That voice is trying to
convince you to stay where it is ‘safe’, right where you are..
The movement between the two voices will often cause a frozen
experience of reality, in which it is difficult to shift or move, one way or
another. It is as if the tightly clenched fists of the voice of uncertainty,
doubt, self-denigration and shame keeps your energy and insight at bay,
just on the other side of activating that true inner calling that will lead
to your greatest fulfillment. This experience of “frozenness” lends itself
to a unique type of frustration, an inner angst that can be experienced
as anything from mild depression to a generalized annoyance to a less
than 100% experience of physical wellness.
Sound familiar?
95
Yet here’s the good news! There are ways to “break the ice” of this
frozen reality, so that you can find the “inner movement” that will
allow you to decode your very own inner promptings into strong action
steps that will catapult you into swimming in the living waters of your
own divine life’s path and purpose.
Step By Step Checklist for Activating Your Destiny
1. Discovering your true nature

2. Decoding your inner promptings
3. Creating personalized visioning tools
4. Affirming the fulfillment of your Highest Destiny Path
Step 1 - Discovering Your True Nature

Who are you? We are taught that we are a body, a name, a job descrip-
tion ~ that we “are” a certain way, a certain race, a certain gender, etc.
These things do not point to our True Identity, they only point to the
worldly outer garment we wear as a reflection of the state of our culture
and the human society in which we are involved.
Most in this human society have never accessed the possibility that
they are something more than, other than, their body, their mind, their
name, their emotions and their job description.
Who am I? Truly this is the question which will set you free, once you
have discovered from within your very own inner chamber the essence of
the true answer. “If I am not my body, my job description, nor even my
mind or emotions, if I am not what I feel, what I do, what I think, then
who or what am I?” It is a deep topic truly worthy of reflection.
What is My True Nature?

Action Item: Sit quietly in meditation 5 minutes a day or more sim-
ply contemplating this question. Allow your mind to keep returning to the
question even if it should wander. Don’t grasp for the answer, simply keep
returning to the question and paying attention to your thoughts and how
you feel. Don’t try to change anything, just activate your awareness in this
exercise. See if you can do this once per day over the next week. You may
Laura Chiraya Fox ■ 97
wish to journal during this process as well, to help you ground the new
information, taking it in as fully as possible, and also, to have a place to
return to when you need to remember your discoveries.
As you sit with this question in meditation, you will likely first
begin to notice “that which you are not.” Pay attention to your inner
self-talk. What does it reveal to you about your current perception of
your identity? When people have an ‘identity crisis,” they are having a
realization that they are not actually who they thought they were. This
can be temporarily disconcerting, even if it is also liberating. So be
extra gentle with yourself while in this discovery process. It is just the
medicine needed to unfurl and unravel the dysfunctional, less-than-
complete thought forms and frozen, stuck concepts about yourself that
will no longer serve you on your path to awakening.
What you will find, at the very least, is that you are NOT the voice
that says you cannot do great things. And if you are not that voice, then
what IS that voice? Does it really have a place in your life? Is it possible
you can let “it” know, that you no longer choose to believe it?
Step 2 - Decoding Your Inner Promptings

Now, let’s get specific about exactly what LIFE is trying to tell you
about your personal highest destiny path and purpose. The key to dis-
covering this is to follow your joy. Contrary to popular belief, your JOY
is your divine indicator that you are on the right track! If there is any
shadow of a doubt within you any longer, about whether or not you are
(a) allowed to, (b) supposed to, or (c) in your right mind to live in your
absolute JOY, let me dispel it for you now once and for all! This is the
good news! Your mission, your purpose, your highest destiny path, and
your greatest fulfillment are all DIRECTLY related to your joy!
So here are a few questions for you to write about in your journal
to get you started in decoding these inner promptings that have been
nudging you towards your greatness.
1. What types of activities bring you the greatest joy in life?
2. If you could do anything you want to do and you didn’t have
to worry about money at all, what would you be doing with
your life?
3. What kind of qualitative experiences bring you the most

satisfaction? In other words, do you enjoy helping people learn
new things? Do you feel good when you help someone out in
a physical way? Do you feel exhilarated by watching a sunset,
playing with children and animals or being in nature? Do you
feel best when you are alone or with others in a group? Does
making art or creating in any way thrill you?
4. What are the challenges we face on the planet that concern
you the most? Environmental issues? Social or moral prob-
lems? Relationship challenges between groups or individuals?
Now that you have begun contemplating exactly the kinds of
things you love the most, it’s a good time to start painting the fuller
picture of the “Activated You.” How do your responses relate to one
another? What would it look like if your daily life were filled mostly
with activities and experiences such as you’ve described above? How
could that translate into a career, a fulfilling hobby, or a part time job
to get you started on living a life more aligned with your True Inner
Calling?
Step 3 - Creating Personalized Visioning Tools

Every great desire has a ways and means for its fulfillment. Now that
you have a sense of the “more” you can live in life, you can leverage
the power of visioning to assist you in “landing” and “grounding” the
energies of these desires, so that they will come into manifestation more
quickly.
Scripting
a. Take your notes above to write out a script of a possible, and
desired, scenario, in which you are living a completely fulfilled,
satisfying and joyful life - based on what you discovered about
your true nature AND your desire to be of service in some
meaningful way while having a ridiculous amount of fun.
b. Now make a voice recording of this script, on your phone, or
other recording device.
c. Play this recording back to yourself three times a day for the
next week. You can do it for longer than that if you like! In fact,
you can keep listening to it, refining it, upgrading it, until it or
something even more wonderful has manifested in your life!
We don’t necessarily need to know HOW or WHEN it is all
going to come together. We just need to “prepare the fertile soil of our
mind” to receive the “seed” that will germinate and blossom into the
fully developed expression of this Divinely Inspired Reality we wish to
experience.
Step 4 - Icing on the Cake: Affirming the Fulfillment of Your

Highest Destiny Path
Last but not least, a very powerful way to enhance and activate the ful-
fillment of your Highest Destiny Path, is through the use of this prayer.
It has helped me greatly and I hope it will also help you. I recommend
reading it out loud at least three times per day for 21 days or longer.
When you speak this prayer out loud, be as truly genuine, authentic,
humble and receptive as you possibly can. This genuineness is the signal
to Source that you are indeed ready to open up and dissolve away the
obstacles of the past, such that your Highest Destiny Path can emerge as
a Light unto a world hungry and thirsty for the nourishment you have
in your soul to bring. NOTE: Source / God / Love does not mind what
you call it ~ so if the idea of “praying” feels awkward to you, think of
this as a Statement of Truth ~ to be leveraged in concert with your True
Self, your High Self, the essence of Life Itself. If you have a religious
practice or a spiritual tradition you are a part of, feel free to substitute
the words that feel most appropriate to you into this prayer statement.
Action Item: Read the following prayer statement out loud 3x per day for
21 days or more.
Prayer : Part 1
Crystalline White Light of Redemption, Purify Me Now. In the
Name and by the Power of the One Being, Pure Love, in me,
as me, through me, with me, for me and by me.
May all beings be saved. May all beings be well. May all beings be
healthy. May all beings be happy.
And so it is.
Prayer : Part 2
I now awaken the encodings of light in my body so I may fulfill
my earth mission with Joy.
I am at peace and in presence to the new me I am becoming.
I open to my new divine spiritual mission in this lifetime now.
I now awaken to the encodings of light in my soul which allows
me to fulfill my earth mission in total joy.
I now attract perfect people into my Light and sphere who are
a loving, compatible match to my fulfillment of my mission
with joy!
Prayer : Part 3
I release and forgive all beings. All beings release and forgive me.
I now have keen and accurate insight into the immaculate
Truth at all times. I am bountifully and prosperously sup-
ported with all my good NOW.
I crush and destroy and dissolve away all remnants of fear based
thinking, in depth, permanently and in peace now.
I forgive all beings.
I am the Light of the World.
There is only One.
I give thanks for the immediate restoration of my true soul’s call-
ing and memory.
I ask for and accept the totality of my good blessings in this life-
time now and throughout all time, space and dimension.
I delete all programs of lack and fear now and permanently.
I permanently forgive all beings.
All beings now permanently forgive me and we all go free.
I give thanks for all good blessings. I accept all goodness and
healing in my life.
I demand and command the immediate restoration of my soul to
its original pure true nature.
Prayer : Part 4 (advanced)

I forgive and quantify all aspects of Myself into the Oneness.
I forgive and release ALL past karma into the Light now in total
forgiveness.
I ask for and accept complete healing for everyone through all
time, space and dimension permanently and in all ways.
I erase and destroy all records of discord in my existence. I delete
the files of discord now and replace them with Pure Love.
I forgive everyone. I forgive everyone. I forgive everyone.
Everyone forgives me. Everyone forgives me. Everyone forgives
me.
It is my sincere wish that these ideas, exercises and activations assist
you in living, breathing and fully experiencing your Highest Destiny
Path and the fulfillment of your personal mission on earth, such that
you experience GREAT satisfaction and a truly fulfilled life. Know that
my prayers, thoughts and feelings are with you. I celebrate you, your life
and know with you that the unique contribution you are here to make,
will make an enormous difference in the upliftment of humanity for
the restoration of harmony and peace on our beautiful planet.
Laura Chiraya Fox has a personal mission to

assist in the upliftment and enlightenment
of humanity through sharing advanced
awareness techniques and authentic spiritual
comprehension of our nature as extensions of
the Creator in form. You may contact her at
www.ActivateYourDestiny.com
CHAPTER
18
Loose Ends
Cindy Kubica
W
hen I was told I needed to have heart surgery, I had several
friends say, “Cindy, don’t you get tired of getting healthy
only to find out that there’s one more thing you have to
deal with? Isn’t that discouraging?”
My answer was simple, “No. This surgery is simply a loose end.”
Before I tell you about my heart issue, let me give you a bit of
history. I’ve always been athletic and very health conscious. In fact,
for most of my adult life my second job was as a fitness instructor
and trainer. But over the past few years I’ve had one health issue after
another.
It started with a car wreck in 1997. Among my injuries were three
shattered bones and two ruptured discs in my neck. Five surgeries later
I was feeling good and was literally up and running again. Then in
2005, after a series of very stressful events, I started having all kinds
of random health issues. Pain throughout my body, weakness, fatigue,
moodiness, memory loss, weight gain, and stuttering, to name a few.
As an athlete, I’ve had many injuries over the years, but I’ve never been
sick other than the seasonal cold, flu, and allergies.
For over a year, I went from one doctor to another looking for
answers. I finally was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and quite
frankly, I was happy to have an answer. I believe many people reach a
point where they get tired of the search, and are ready to accept any
diagnosis.
103
The doctor decided he needed to treat the MS aggressively and

gave me a steroid drug called Solu-Medrol. He said it would increase my
energy and I’d feel like myself again.
Within 24-hours strange things began to happen. When I reached
for my cup of coffee, instead of my arm moving forward as intended, it
moved behind me—I had no control. My senses went haywire. Light
made noises blare, sound made light unbearably bright, and together
they produced a strong burning smell.
Soon I was slumped over in my chair, unable to move. The sensa-
tions were so weird that I just observed what was going on with my
body—oddly, I found it fascinating. Then my cat, Bandaid, jumped
into my lap and started pestering me to pet him, but I couldn’t move
my arms. Suddenly, the realization hit me that I may never be able to
pet my kitties or even hug my grandchildren again. Tears streamed
down my face.
Surprisingly, my MS doctor acted unconcerned. He said this hap-
pens in 0.5 percent of people and that I’d be fine in time. It took two
weeks to begin getting my motor skills back. I had to use a cane to
walk, and I moved like a sloth.
It was time for a second opinion. It turned out to be a misdiagnosis.
It was not MS, but rather nerve damage from my car wreck injuries.
I was referred to a neurologist who reviewed my previous test
results, asked a few questions, and wrote me three prescriptions—all
without looking at me. I said, “Could you at least look at me when you’re
drugging me?”
His head snapped up as I continued, “Can’t I do physical therapy,
a special diet and take supplements rather than drugs? My body doesn’t
react well to drugs.” With eyes rolling and a cocky intonation, he said,
“I don’t know anything about nutrition, and physical therapy won’t help
nerve damage. It can’t be fixed. You’re only option is drug therapy.” Strug-
gling to stay calm, I said, “Well, I do know about exercise and nutrition,
and I’m going to heal my body naturally.” I fired him on the spot and
went in search of answers.
Even with all the issues I’ve had with prescription drugs over the
years, I want to make it clear that I’m not totally against them. They
are amazing when needed, but I believe in many cases they should
Cindy Kubica ■ 105
not be the first course of action. Plus, they are way overprescribed.
Allopathic medicine should complement, not compete, with a natural
approach. The tricky part is finding a medical professional who will
support you in your decision to go natural. That is why you must do
your own research. There are many doctors like Norm Shealy, Mark
Hyman, and Sara Gottfried who have made it their life’s mission to
help people help themselves.
My personal mission in starting our telesummit, Energized Living
Today, is to be the bridge that connects people to experts and transfor-
mational leaders who can help them heal their mind, body, and spirit.
Like the founder of The Panacea Community, Nathan Crane, I want
people to embrace whole health.
My first step in regaining my health was to detox my body. I
followed Dr. Mark Hyman’s detox program, and within three days I
began feeling better. What really surprised me is that I lost an inch
and a half around my neck. Even after 10 years I still had inflamma-
tion from the trauma. I discovered that anesthesia, medicines, and
inflammation stay in your body until you actively cleanse them from
your system.
Within a month I was running again. My friend, Donna, told me
about a doctor and nurse practitioner who would support me in healing
my body naturally. The correct blood tests revealed Hashimoto’s thy-
roiditis and that my hormones were way out of whack. A rheumatolo-
gist confirmed that the pain was from fibromyalgia.
Determined to ‘heal’ naturally, I reduced my stress, eliminated
gluten, sugar, soy, dairy, dyes, and as many food additives as possible. I
started buying all organic food, stopped drinking out of plastic, got rid
of harsh household cleansers, and even quit wearing acrylic nails. Along
with mild exercise, I did alterative and energy work such as chiroprac-
tic, acupuncture, massage, Reiki, Emotional Freedom Technique, and
Matrix Reimprinting (to name a few).
What happened next was really funny. My rheumatologist fired
me! He said I didn’t need him because I was doing much better than
all of his patients who were on drug therapy. When I asked him why
he didn’t guide his patients to take a natural approach, he sadly said,
“They’re not willing to do the work. They want a quick fix and a pill is
easy. That’s why drug therapy has become so prevalent.” That really sad-
dens me.
Today my thyroid is normal and my hormones are fairly balanced
(menopause). I experience mild pain only if I eat gluten, dye, or too
much sugar. The only time I have wide spread pain is when I work out
too hard.
As for the nerve damage the neurologist said would never heal,
during a routine examination in the summer of 2012, my chiropractor
ran the back end of his reflex hammer up the bottom of my foot. For
the first time since 1997, it jumped. Plus, all the feeling on my right
side is completely restored. I’m even ticklish again!
Now, back to my heart. When I was 21, I injured my back at work
and was taken to the hospital. I was given pain medication and had a
severe reaction—it stopped my heart. I had to be revived. It was a Near
Death Experience, but that’s a story for another day.
From that time on, I had arrhythmia issues due to an artery that
had been damaged from the incident. With age it worsened, in fact the
artery split. Luckily, I found amazing surgeons who did a minimally
invasive procedure to repair it. My heart is now pumping normally giv-
ing me 30% more blood oxygen. I feel amazing!
Several of my holistic friends have asked why I opted for surgery
instead of trying alternative methods. Intuitively I knew I had to have
the procedure—I listened to my body. Energy work and proper nutri-
tion have allowed my heart to heal rapidly. In fact, three weeks after the
surgery I walked the Disney Princess half marathon. My heart surgeon
not only encouraged me, he insisted that I do it. After collapsing in
three previous races, I honestly didn’t think I was going to complete the
race, but at mile 8 I was feeling fresh, and knew I would finish.
It’s possible to be cured but not healed, or healed but not cured.
The difference lies within.
If the journey to restore your health seems endless, don’t give
up—you’re worth the effort! If you have health issues or the stresses
of life begin to threaten your physical and emotional wellbeing, seek
out medical professionals who will encourage your desire for a blended
approach. Then join a supportive community like ours, whose mission
Cindy Kubica ■ 107
is to educate, provide alternatives, and support your journey to optimal

health.
As for me, the surgeons were responsible for my cure. The healing
is up to me. You may get discouraged at times, and there may be some
loose ends, but the road to a healthier you is possible. I know, I’ve run
the race myself!
Cindy Kubica is a stress expert, whole health

energy coach, and the host of Energized
Living Today. She is the author of seven
books and an active member of the National
Speakers Association. You may contact her at
www.EnergizedLivingToday.com
CHAPTER
19
Every Cancer Can be
Reversed in Weeks
Dr. Leonard Coldwell
“Y
ou have six month to live!” That is the sentence that
changed my life forever. Over 42 years ago my mother got
the prognosis of having to die within six months based on
having been diagnosed with Hepatitis C, liver-cirrhosis, and liver can-
cer in a terminal state.
I have been surrounded by the horrors of cancer and its devastat-
ing effects on me and my family members my whole life. All of my
mother’s seven siblings had cancer. My grandmother and grandfather
on my mother’s and father’s side (all four) died of cancer. My father
died of cancer as well as my step-father. My sister had cervical cancer
that I was fortunately able to cure.
At the age of 14, I knew more about cancer and its’ effect on the
loved ones of the cancer patients than anybody else on earth will ever
have! Since the “ Medical Experts” stated that there is no way to cure or
even help my mother, they simply told her that she should learn to live
with the pain and try to make the best out of the few months she had
to live. Meanwhile, the emergency doctor usually came once a day to
shoot some major pain medication into my mom.
In our family, giving up has never been an option. And after a lot
of tears from my mom and myself, I made a deal with God. I promised
God, that if he would help me to cure my mother, I would spend the
rest of my life to ensure that other mothers, parents, and their children
don’t have to go through what my mom and I went through.
109
My physical father just left us stating that he does not want a sick
wife. It was just me, a 12 year old kid, and my mother. I cleaned res-
taurants before school. I worked in sandwich shops after school. I had
to support myself and my mom financially. I had to buy books about
natural health and healing. Later I had to travel the world to learn from
the healers (the good and bad; the fake and real) worldwide how to
produce or reproduce natural health. I learned from so-called healers in
Brazil, the Philippines and even lived with a witch doctor (or medicine
man) in Nigeria, Africa. I traveled with gypsies to learn their natu-
ral way of healing, and talked with every person that produced results
with patients that were sick and regained health again. I analyzed what
worked and what didn’t and put it into an easy to understand and easy
to reproduce system.
To make a very long story short: due to trial and error, and curing
my own mother from hepatitis C, liver-cirrhosis and terminal liver can-
cer over 42 years ago, my mom is still alive today! She is one of the most
vital, alive, and healthiest people on earth. She is 78 years old today and
still active like a 30 year old.
From that moment on, after the word got out that my mother got
better and better (instead of dying) and was finally cured, I became
some kind of a “neighborhood doctor” and helped many people in our
neighborhood with health issues. Not just cancer, but also Multiple Scle-
rosis, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Muscular Dystrophy, and much, much
more. I was so successful that the media got a huge interest in my work
and success. I was written up and presented in all forms of mass media
everywhere. I was writing columns for health newspapers and other
publications starting as a teenager. I wrote my first bestselling book (of
19 bestselling books – over 57 million sold) when I was still a teenager
with the title: “Mama Please Don’t Die”. That became a mega best seller
and I got recognition and support everywhere until the pharmaceutical
and medical industry became aware of my successes in regards of curing
cancer within weeks. For just a few dollars worth of herbs, healthy nutri-
tion, and by teaching the patients how to use their own brain, nervous
system, and natural self-healing system (the natural immune function to
cure themselves from whatever bothers them in their life’s and health) I
created great competition for the medical industry.
Dr. Leonard Coldwell ■ 111
The cancer industry is a $60 billion a year industry. The cancer

prevention and early diagnostic industry is a $230 billion industry. I
learned the hard way that their interest was not to have patients cured
with a few dollars’ worth of natural elements, a stress reduction and
immune stimulating, self-healing training and coaching program.
From now on, I became “Enemy Number One!” TV and radio sta-
tions, and newspapers were threatened that if they promote, or even
talk about me one more time, that the pharmaceutical industry would
pull their advertisement dollars. All hell broke loose.
I could not understand! I had all these cured patients to show. I had
all the proof in results to show, and all of a sudden from being called
the “wonder kid that can cure cancer”, I was called a guy that “practices
medicine without a license” so all that I have done and achieved was
done illegally. So curing my own mother along with so many parents
of my school buddies, friends, and neighbors was all of a sudden illegal?
My life was threatened. I was shot at. My car has been bombed.
Even my family was threatened that if I would cure one more cancer
patient, they would kill us all. Fortunately for me, since I was not old
enough, their legality claim of “practicing medicine without a license”
was invalid. Negative and defamatory reports were now the new real-
ity in my life. Libel and slander, fake and false accusations, were my
daily new realities. I cried more tears than a human being should even
have. I could not understand that just because I helped people that
were dying, given up on by the medical profession and left to die, I was
now the bad guy for helping people to get healthy again? The medi-
cal profession even hired groups of people to ruin my reputation and
name, as I know today. They even tried to stop my books from being
published and also tried to pay me off. I could write a book only about
that time in my life and what they did to me. When I later had my
hospitals, I got my license revoked for the reason of: curing patients
with unrecognized and licensed methods. The patients that were cured
did not matter at all.
Two medical professors and four medical doctors tried to destroy
me live on public TV. After I said, “My cancer patients are alive and
where are yours?”, and, “I have 37 cured cancer patients with me on the
set that even brought their medical files showing what kind of cancer
they had and that I cured them completely, naturally, and often in just
a few weeks.”, they simply stopped the filming processed and threw
me out of the TV studio without even talking to one of my patients or
looking into their patient files. The patient files were from the govern-
ment hospitals that did the tests and diagnostic and confirmation. I
even had Gerda G., one of my breast cancer patients with me that was
set for a surgery nine days after she met me for the very first time, and
had documentation that the day before the scheduled surgery she got
her final physical and no cancer could be found. Dr. Neuman, the
attending surgeon, was blown away when he put the two X-Rays next
to each other and had to admit the cancer was completely gone within
a few days.
Before I was 25 years old, I had to find a way to legally be able to
help dying people to stay alive and to gain his/her natural health back,
while staying out of jail. In Germany, you have to be 25 years old to be
able to work therapeutically with patients. So while I was now study-
ing Naturopathic Medicine, I needed a way to still help the, otherwise,
dying people. I found some loop holes in the law about healing legally.
While studying medicine, I found out that the so-called “Modern
Medicine”, created by John D. Rockefeller, was to sell the chemicals
he produced. Rockefeller’s creation was the main cause of illness and
death in the world. I found to my horror, that a medical doctor only
studies pathology, the science of decay, illness and death, and that they
don’t even have one hour of healing education or even healing diets and
nutrition. I was shocked to find out that Chemotherapy and Radiation
are causing cancer and killing the patients, as well as the fact that surgery
spreads the cancerous growth throughout the entire body, and therefore
kills the patients. I recognized that not one single medical doctor can
cure anybody or anything. They are only trained in chemical inter-
vention to suppress symptoms while hoping the patient’s immune and
self-repair system will heal him or herself, while hiding or suppressing
the symptoms.
Therefore, I concentrated only on natural or naturopathic medi-
cine, which is a medical science in Germany for over 6,000 years. (All
natural medicine is rooted in Germany) Thank God, we have in our
German constitution a law that requires the government to license
Naturopathic Physicians. (equal to the American NMD’s- Doctor of

Naturopathic Medicine). So finally, I had my degree in psychology
and naturopathic medicine, and could officially work with patients. I
invented my own self-help, self-healing, training, coaching, and educa-
tion system: IBMS™ Instinct Based Medicine System® which helped
millions of people today to help themselves from every challenge in
their life.
Today, after having had over 4 million seminar attendees in my
live seminars, and having seen over 66,000 patients, which includes
over 35,000 cancer patients, 19 bestselling books, thousands of publi-
cations, newsletters and being nearly daily on a Radio or TV show, and
after having more proven success than anybody else in my field – the
attacks, defamation, libel and slander has grown into an unbelievable
size. I spent more money on defending the truth and fighting the liars
than most people will ever earn in their lifetime. It is hard to under-
stand when you have all these proven results, the healthy patients, the
successful seminar attendees, the hundreds of thousands of testimoni-
als and without ever having done anything wrong, that there are still
paid people and groups out there setting up defamatory (anonymous)
websites spreading false and fake information!
See, my cancer cures cost only a couple of hundreds of dollars, and
I have never lost a cancer patient in my life that did not have medical
treatment beforehand. I have always had the policy that if a patient is
not to 100% cured, that he or she does not have to pay a dime. (Even
that is illegal – there is a law in Germany that you cannot treat or cure
anybody for free) I still do not understand that people don’t simply look
at the facts and results and instead of paid lies and defamation. I can
cure cancer patients within weeks! I have proven it and I can repeat this
anytime anywhere – if the government would give me the legal way to
practice by IBMS™ System in their country.
Every Cancer Can be Reversed in Weeks
Yes, every cancer can easily be cured within weeks, in my experience,

and as I have shown over and over again. But, not every patient can be
cured. If the patient is not willing to do whatever it takes, in lifestyle
changes, dietary habits, and everything else that is necessary, they will
not survive. Also, the patients that have received medical treatment like
cut, poison, and burn, have a limited chance to fully recover. If the can-
cer rendered the patient unresponsive, or the cancerous development or
medical treatment has done too much damage already, I cannot give
any guaranty or prognosis.
Every illness is caused by lack of energy. The main cause of lack of
energy is mental and emotional stress. 86% of all illness and doctor vis-
its are stress related. That leaves only 14 % for diet, exercise, etc. Even if
you cure your cancer symptoms like the tumors, the cancerous infesta-
tion of the body, with one of the 400 known natural cancer cures, you
are not cured from cancer.
Physically, you have to be detoxified first. Otto Warburg and Max
Planck both got a Noble Prize in medicine by proving that cancer can-
not grow or exist in an oxygen rich, alkaline environment. That means
if you are detoxified, and have no mineral deficiencies, you cannot get
or stay sick, as we know from these two Nobel Prize winners in medi-
cine (1911 and 1936). When you take care of your body with natural
detoxification, all natural and bio-available supplementation, like a gal-
lon of clean water with a half teaspoon of pink Himalayan salt in it per
day, and fresh juicing, there is virtually no physical reason for you to
suffer any form of negative health condition.
Here is the Cure
The only cure for the root cause of every form of disease is revealed only
if you eliminate the 14% of physical causes, as explained before. The
main cause for all chronic or terminal conditions, for all autoimmune
diseases, and most of all cancer, is mental and emotional stress, defined
as living with constant worries, doubts and fears; lack of self-love, self-
respect; without hope for the future or a better life. But most of all,
what kills people most of the time, in my experience, is that people
are making chronic compromises against themselves.
For example, staying in a relationship that they know is wrong,
because of the children or what the relatives would say, etc., Another
example is going to a job every day that kills you in the whole meaning
of the word, because of a boss you cannot stand anymore, poor work
environment, or mobbing etc., that is unbearable. That is also the rea-
son why most deadly heart attacks happen Monday morning between
8:00 and 9:00 am when people get ready for a week of work doing a job
that they can’t handle anymore. They would literally rather die than
going back to that job.
You need to identify and eliminate the root causes of all your life
challenges. You need to find your true self, the person you were sup-
posed to be from the beginning. Learn how to love and respect your-
self, how to create wealth health and happiness, and most of all, how to
eliminate lack of self-confidence, controlling fear, and negative stress
responses. My IBMS™ program is designed to help you with that and
works if you follow it.
Remember: There is always hope, as long as you are not willing to
give up. Every cancer is curable in my experience, but not every patient.
If you are willing to take responsibility, charge, and control, over your
own life and healing process, and are willing to do whatever it takes,
you have a better than great chance to achieve every goal. Remember to
always have a licensed physician on your side for diagnostics, control,
and safety, who uses natural remedies and treatments. Don’t take a risk
with your life; be safe.
Radio and TV personality Dr Leonard

Coldwell is the world leading authority on
natural cancer cures and stress related illness.
He is the author of 19 bestselling books and
Founder of www.IBMS.MastersSociety.com
You may contact him at
www.DrLeonardColdwell.com
CHAPTER
20
Living an Extraordinary
Life: Customizing Your
Blueprint
Lisa Wilson
T
he Mind. The Power of the Mind. The End.
Just kidding... yet I’ve now helped thousands of people
around the globe regain their health. I teach them about food.
Not just upgrading a little bit, but going for outrageously healthy, state-
of-the-art, top-of-the-line food. Super foods, green juice therapy, diges-
tive wellness, sprouts or the living foods, grass juices, dehydration, and
more. I’ve seen people reverse illness and achieve mind blowing results
with their health and with their bodies.
I’ve studied the properties of nearly every plant as well as many
herbs. At night before I slip into bed, I pour over volumes of literature
about the effects of these plants on our bodies. It is my love, my life
passion, my work. I own libraries, studying the work of top physicians
around the world.
After years and years of observation and study, I’ve come to one
conclusion. The most important thing is the power of the mind. The
power of the mind trumps kale, trumps broccoli, trumps garlic, trumps
super foods, trumps green juice, trumps it all. Now, upon first meet-
ing someone, I can generally tell how their outcome will go. You see to
overcome illness, to regain your health, lose weight, or achieve place of
abundant health, the mind must be able to go there first. Without the
decision, the goal is not possible.
117
This leads to a series of questions. These questions are at the core

of the happiness of our existence. Oh, and why does anyone set a goal
anyway? Is the goal the end result? No, happiness is the end result.
Goals are the path that we believe will lead to happiness. Happiness
is always the end result. Happiness is the truest measure of success. So
here we go with the questions:
1) What are the secrets of happiness?
2) Is happiness a choice?
3) If you are born into a family where anger, fear, scarcity and
defeat are daily practice, is it possible to break that cycle and
find genuine happiness?
4) If you are born into a family that practices happiness and
optimism daily, how is life opened up to you in a way it is not
opened up to others?
5) Is a possible to practice these principles and rewrite your
blueprint?
Before we dig into these questions, we must address two critical
points.
1) Gratitude: Someone once explained gratitude to me like this.
Let’s pretend you were to go on a trip. On this trip, you went
hiking in Montana. In Montana you purchased two purple
baseball hats that say Montana. You gave one to your friend
Helen and one to your friend Martha. Helen’s response:
“Uhh, thank you, I guess. You know I’ve never worn a base-
ball hat. And purple? Really not my color. Well, maybe my
nephew will like it. (Weakly says)Thanks.” Martha’s response,
“ You were thinking of me while you were in Montana? That
is so thoughtful of you. I love my new hat. I’m going on a
hiking trip next week. It will come in handy. Thank you so
very much.” Question: Will you ever bring Helen a gift again?
Of course not. Helen was ungrateful and she made you feel
bad. However on your next trip, Martha will certainly receive
another souvenir, or gift from you.
The universe is the same. When you move through your day with
multiple breaks for gratitude, the universe will respond.
Lisa Wilson ■ 119
In those waking moments between sleep and awareness, this is the

first and best time to express gratitude for the day.
As I rise I gently glide my finger tops across my 100% cotton duvet.
I am grateful. I turn, and place my bare feet upon my beautiful 100%
wool rug at the edge of my bed. My attention turns to pitter patter of
little feet making their way down the hallway to my bedroom. In those
early moments of the morning there’s nothing more precious than the
enchanting little hugs and kisses of my children. Their silky hair, their
baby soft cheeks, their sweet smell, the innocent laughter and the one
million “Mommy, I love you’s.” For this tender daily ritual, I am grate-
ful. I’m grateful for my beautiful home that looks out into the forest,
my piece of heaven. I’m grateful for my sunroom with window’ in every
direction so I can thoroughly enjoy the deer, wild turkey & other ani-
mals roaming through our yard. I’m grateful for my thoughtful & fun
husband, whom I love to be around. I grateful that I have a career that
I love. I am profoundly grateful for all the gifts in my life.
I believe in carving out time for many, many moments in the day
to pause for gratitude. Pausing at a stoplight, enjoying a walk in nature,
listening to the birds or catching a moment of sunshine. They are all
wonderful gratitude opportunities.
2) Everyone has something to be grateful for. Everyone. Think
you have nothing to be grateful for? Are you breathing? Then
that’s your starting place. For in a life without gratitude is
little or no opportunity for improvement. Start practicing
your gratitude moments daily. You will see immediate results.
Now, I’m going to invite you now to take a look around your life.
Let’s observe your relationships, your home, your career, your family,
your state of health, activities that you enjoy and your financial situ-
ation. Are you where you want to be? You should be. You’ve created
everything around you.
~~~If we want things in your life to change, you’re going to

have to change things in your life.~~~
The above sentence is printed and hangs on the wall of my office.

It is an important daily reminder.
If you’re not completely satisfied with where you are in your life,
change it. It’s really that simple. Make the decision today.
Have you ever noticed that people are never truly appreciating
the now? They may say things like, “We’ll take that vacation when I
get a new job” or “We’ll drive across the country once I retire.” For
most, those some days never come. And also, most do not recognize
that by activating the power of the mind, those some days can arrive
today.
So let’s activate your new blueprint right now.
1) First take out a pen and paper. I’d like you to write down five
goals.
In the early days when I started doing this with people, I would
ask them to be practical. I was wrong. Be outrageous. Put your greatest
hearts desire down in these top five goals. You know, the things you
want so badly you can taste but you have never dared utter them even
to your closest friend for fear they may never come true. Besides, your
friends will surely laugh at you and bring you back down to earth.
That’s what friends are for. Wrong! If you have friends like this it’s
time to put some space between you and them and look for some new
friends. Surround yourself only with those who will lift you up and
elevate you. You are the sum total of the five people you spend the most
time with. Be very particular with whom you spend your time. Choose
a mate wisely.
2) Next, I would like you to write down what has been coming
between you and those goals.
Let’s get specific and clear here. For example, if your goal is to lose
50 pounds, what continuous messages have even giving yourself? Do
you look in the mirror and proclaim, “You’re fat!”
Would you like a promotion at work? Okay, are you constantly
telling yourself that perhaps Alex or Kelly might be far better suited for
that position than you?
Would you like to be in a loving, caring relationship? Perhaps
you’re often telling yourself that you’re not worthy of a relationship.
You wonder how someone might ever be attracted to you.
Lisa Wilson ■ 121
Are you starting to see how this negative self talk is undermining
your ultimate goals?
Please be specific and clear about what is standing between you
and your goal and also what negative messages have you been sending
yourself? Do this for each of your five goals.
3) Time to rewrite your blueprint!
Before we can change our beliefs we have to change our words.

Words carry muscle and power and strength. Start exercising these
muscles. Every single time you catch yourself in one of those old belief
patterns, pause. It’s time to switch things up!
So for example when you start launching into that same old clunk
myself over the head “you’re so fat” routine.... STOP! Your new lan-
guage is now:
“I’m fit, healthy and strong!”
“I’m the perfect person for that promotion!”
“I know the perfect person for me is out there searching for me.”
“I love my body!”
“I can do this!”
“Better with every decade!”
“I deserve a nice home.”
“I love my life.”
“Life is grand.”
This takes diligence & practice. You see, if you grew up in a neg-
ative & hostile environment, then you have created a lot of neural
pathways & negativity is something you are a true artist at. Come on,
someone you know is coming immediately to mind..... right? Someone
that you love, but can hardly stand to be around because of the con-
stant negativity. Listen to people around you. They love to share bad
news! They stand around the water coolers like cackling hens. How
can you break this pattern? You must commit to only allowing posi-
tive, happy things to drop from your mouth. In the beginning, this
will take a conscious effort. You will however, notice when you begin
to add positive contributions to a conversation, people around you will
pause and begin to make positive contributions to. Happiness and joy
are contagious. But so are fear, frustration, anger and a defeatist atti-
tude. Again, watch the words that drip from your lips and turn that
frown upside down.
My favorite quote by Will Smith is, “I don’t have a plan B.” Do
know that most people go for plan B because they’re too afraid of plan
A? Do know that most people are not afraid of failure but afraid of
success? I mean, what would happen if I were successful? Wow would
the bar be raised! People would expect great things at me over and over
again! Number one reason for failure? Self sabotage- the “I’m not good
enough for that” syndrome.
Here’s reality: You are put in this life to be grand. You are destined
to do big things. It is your purpose. It is your mission. Fulfilling your
life purpose and mission is honoring your highest self.
How are we going to do this?
1) I’m asking you to commit to meditating on each one of your
goals one at a time for 68 seconds every day. 68 seconds his-
torically has proven to be the magic number. Yes 68 seconds.
I like to meditate with power and intensity. As you’re meditat-
ing on that goal I would like you to think about how you are
feeling once you’ve reached your goal. For example how does
it feel to be 50 pounds lighter? How does your body feel? How
do you look? How has it changed your social life? Do you feel
happy? Are you proud? I need you to go to this feeling. It’s the
feeling that is most important because remember, happiness is
the ultimate goal.
2) I’m also asking you to do a vision board or dream board. Con-
crete goals are critical. You cannot find your way there if you
don’t know where you’re going. A vision board allows you to
cut out pictures and words, which are a daily reminder of your
dreams. How will you get to that place in life where you want
to catapult out of bed? The answer: you must have a dream
that’s bigger than you. A dream that’s bigger than you will
make you feel so tickled, so enthusiastic and so excited about
your life you will not be able to contain yourself. You’ll want
to jump out of bed. Life at that point becomes magical. What
Lisa Wilson ■ 123
happens when you reach your dream? Then you need to have
a bigger dream.
3) Make a list of your goals on the computer. Print several copies
of your list. Put your list everywhere. Place a copy of your
list in your day planner, inside your kitchen cabinets, in your
bathroom, in your office, and wherever else use find yourself
spending much of your time. This list serves as a constant
reminder about your daily goals.
You will find that as you move in to the vibrational frequency of
your goal, all of the people, meetings, and circumstances that you need
to see your goal to fruition will magically appear. Have you ever noticed
this working in your life before? The universe is incredible this way!
Thoughts are more important than things. The why is far more
important than the how?
My favorite Deepak Chopra quote of all time is, “Make a decision,
and the world moves to accommodate you.” Truer words have never
been uttered.
Thoughts are more important than things. The why is far more
important than the how.
Don’t waste your life with external programing by television, mov-
ies, the internet, etc. Turn the television off. Be a free thinker. After all,
you become what you think about most of the time. It is true.
And the food? The piece that I love? While it is true, I love the
study of food & natural health, there is something much, much big-
ger behind it. When people are feeling sluggish, worn down, sick and
tired, they cannot possibly live the life they were intended to live on
this planet. So although I get extremely excited about the therapeu-
tic value of plants, super foods, herbs and green juices, there is much,
much bigger reason driving it. Every single person calms with a unique
set of gifts. If we are constantly chasing health and feeling lousy we are
not exploring, expanding and relishing in our own gifts. And our gifts
are meant to be relished! Health is grand. Love is grand. Life is grand.
The other day my 12-year-old son, Ian, was giving me a bit of a
defeatist attitude. I looked him squarely in the eyes and said “Ian, if
I teach you just one thing in life, is that you can achieve absolutely
anything you decide to, or put your mind to. When you leave and go to
college, my wish is that the one thing you take with you.... perhaps the
one thing I have taught you.”
Someone wise once said, “there’s room at the top!” They were right.
So many people are settling for mediocrity, and a few are striving for
excellence. There IS ROOM AT THE TOP!
What we can bring our mind to believe, we can achieve! This is
one of the secrets to living an extraordinary life.
It is absolutely your turn to turn on your life!
I will see YOU at the top!
Lisa Wilson is a national speaker, writer,

consultant, certified holistic health counselor,
fitness trainer, filmmaker, educator,
television personality, founder of The Raw
Food Institute, an award winning national
healing and detoxification center, and Mom
to 3 (rockin) kids! You can contact her at
www.TheRawFoodInstitute.com
CHAPTER
21
The Beautiful Breath:
Mindfulness and
Compassion for Well-Being
Vidyamala Burch
T
hirty-seven years ago, nearly to the day, I was wheeled into
an operating theatre to have my lower spine fused. I was just
seventeen years of age. Up until then, I had been super fit
and dreamed of being a mountaineer. Six months later, I found myself
under the knife again, this time to clean up complications from the
first operation. Five years later, I was the passenger in a car crash and
fractured the middle of my spine, amongst other injuries. So I never
got to be a mountaineer in the traditional sense, and have lived with
chronic pain and partial paraplegia ever since. My bowel and bladder
are paralyzed and I use a wheelchair or crutches to get around.
In another way however, my dreams of being a mountaineer have
come true. I have become a mountaineer, or explorer, of the inner world
through meditation and mindfulness. And this is a much vaster world
than the physical world outside. In the inner landscape the boundaries
and horizons are limitless, and the sky stretches on forever.
The moment I began my life as an inner adventurer was when I
was twenty-five. I had an experience that radically changed my per-
spective on life and plunged me into the wonder of living in ‘the pres-
ent moment’. This opened the door to mindfulness and compassion
becoming central pillars of my life.
125
I was in an intensive care ward at the time, with an acute deteriora-

tion of my condition two years after the car crash. I had been bedrid-
den for several months and unable to sit up, but on this occasion I had
undergone a diagnostic test that meant I had to sit up for several hours
afterwards. During this long night of intense pain, I felt myself sliding
towards the edge of madness.
I spent hours with two internal voices locked in combat - one voice
convinced I could not stay sane till morning, and the other willing me
to do so. It was an incredibly intense, brittle, heart-breaking time.
Then, suddenly, my experience completely changed when I heard
a quiet inner voice saying: “You don’t have to get through until morn-
ing; you only have to get through the present moment”. It was like a
house of cards collapsing, revealing the space that had been present all
along, if only I could have recognized it. My experience immediately
changed from an agonized, contracted state to one that was soft and
rich - despite the physical pain. At that moment of relaxing into the
present moment, just as it was, I knew, deep in my bones, that I had
tasted something true. I had relaxed into a deep and vast space within
me and glimpsed the freedom that comes from resting there.
I later found a way of making sense of this experience through the
teachings of Buddhism and have spent the past 27 years training my
heart and mind, using meditation and mindfulness. In 2001 I founded
a project called Breathworks, along with two colleagues who are expe-
rienced meditators, where we teach meditation, mindfulness and com-
passion to others who live with pain, stress and illness. We now have
Breathworks trainers in over a dozen countries and also offer internet
courses for people unable to access a course – they may be house-bound,
in hospital, or living in an isolated area. It is wonderful to teach others
how to wake up to life in each beautiful, precious present moment.
Below are some tips and pointers drawn from the methods I have
developed to ‘live well’ with discomfort or pain. Please explore these for
yourself, alongside any other treatments or therapies you may be receiv-
ing. Mindfulness practice can ‘complement’ conventional medicine in
a very helpful way.
The first thing is to learn to distinguish between primary and sec-
ondary suffering.
Vidyamala Burch ■ 127
Primary suffering is any unpleasant physical sensations you may

experience as a consequence of illness, injury, fatigue etc. You may not
be able to do anything about this level of suffering and the task is to
accept it and make peace with it as best you can. Breath awareness will
help you do this by learning how to relax into the breath and your body
as much as possible.
Secondary suffering is the human anguish we all experience as a
reaction to primary suffering: feelings like anger, fear, depression, anx-
iety and despair that we instinctively pile on top of any unpleasant
sensation or event in a dense web of reactivity. With mindfulness, or
awareness, you can learn to modify and reduce these experiences of sec-
ondary suffering. This can vastly improve your quality of life, even if
the primary suffering remains unchanged, or even worsens if you have
a degenerative condition.
The tips that follow are aimed at helping you to accept your pri-
mary suffering and reduce your secondary suffering. One of the main
allies in this journey from suffering to peace is learning to rest awareness
on the natural breath. This is why we called our organization ‘Breath-
works’: breath awareness ‘works’ as we undertake the great adventure
of becoming an inner mountaineer and finding freedom, even when
living with pain, illness or difficulty of any kind.
The breath as an anchor to the present moment
Whenever you notice that your mind has wandered off into the future
or the past, gently bring it back by resting your awareness on the expe-
rience of breathing. This doesn’t mean you can’t think about the past
or future, but try not to get too caught up with these thoughts. The
breath gives you an anchor to the present moment because you are right
here, right now, as soon as you feel the breath in your body when your
lungs fill and empty, your belly swells and subsides, and the sensations
in your nostrils as the air flows in and out. It is impossible to directly
perceive the breath as embodied sensations at any other time than in
this present moment. A past breath is just a memory; a future breath
is just an idea. The only breath we can feel directly is the one that is
happening now. This is one of the reasons why breathing meditation
practices have been at the core of many meditative traditions down the
centuries. It builds on the miracle of the breath providing an anchor to
the present moment.
The breath as an anchor to the body
When the body hurts, we naturally try to escape it. But this often leads
to more problems of tension and secondary suffering. You do have a
body, whether you like it or not. So it is important to gradually ‘re-
inhabit’ your body with awareness. Learning to befriend it is an impor-
tant aspect of cultivating inner peace and learning to ‘live well’ with
difficulty. But how do you come back into a healthy relationship with
your body? It is not always easy to know how to do this. If your head
is full of anxious or busy thoughts, then of course this is where your
awareness will tend to congregate, so how can you broaden your aware-
ness and become more grounded and calm? You simply need to feel the
sensations of breathing, and straight away you will be in touch with
your body. What we describe as ‘the breath’ is a whole range of sensa-
tions that are physical and deeply embodied. ‘The breath’ is nothing
other than these sensations, and learning to pay attention to their sub-
tlety and location in the body can be very beautiful. The breath is also
a steady companion throughout all our days. Every time we remember
to drop beneath thinking ‘about’ the breath and instead feel it directly,
we are immediately ‘in the body’.
The breath as an expression of the fluid and changing

nature of all experience, including pain
Once you come back in to contact with your body as direct experi-
ence, you can investigate the process you call ‘pain’. You will notice
it is in fact a range of changing sensations, not a solid ‘thing’. Get to
know it as actual, felt experience, rather than getting too caught up
with thoughts about it. Notice how it is always changing from one
sensation to another, no matter how dense and solid it may feel. Again
the breath can be a beautiful ally in this journey. We should really use
the dynamic language of ‘breathing’, as it is a process that is fluid and

ceaselessly changing. And the thing you call ‘pain’ is also a fluid and
ceaselessly changing process that is never the same one moment to the
next.
The breath as a way to release tension
As you investigate your direct experience of pain a little more, see if

you can soften any resistance you may feel towards it. This is counter-
intuitive, but if you try to ignore it or push it away, it will just scream
louder. When we experience pain we almost always experience second-
ary tension and this will include some degree of holding the breath.
The following exercise will give you a direct sense of this:
Clench your fist and notice what happens to the breath. You’ ll prob-
ably find that you hold your breath and that it feels frozen in the abdo-
men. Now, relax around your breath and breathe into the sensations of
clenching. Do you notice how your fist relaxes a little as well?
Most people automatically hold their breath when they feel pain,
stress or discomfort – just like the fist in the exercise above. The habit
of inhibiting the breath can also manifest as shallow breathing or as
hyperventilation. Such disturbed breathing triggers the mind’s alarm
systems, which, in turn, create tension and stress in the body. The mind
then senses this increase in tension and stress and becomes even more
alarmed. In this way, disturbed breathing can drive secondary suffering
in a vicious and distressing cycle that also fuels anxiety and stress. The
reverse is also true; breathing in to pain or distressing feelings tends to
dissolve them. So mindfulness and breath awareness can be used to
stop this vicious cycle in its tracks. Very quickly, your distress settles
down into a state of peacefulness as the parasympathetic, or calming
aspect of the nervous system is stimulated. Breath awareness is the
greatest ally in this transformation from a way of life characterized by
strain and tension, to one that embraces softness and openness. (see
meditation that follows).
The breath as a kindly, tender breeze
Kindness, gentleness and compassion are crucial qualities to cultivate

if we are to live well with difficulty. See if you can treat your pain as
you’d naturally respond to someone you love who was hurting – with
a tender attitude of heart. Imagine cradling your pain as you’d natu-
rally cradle a child who was crying. Gently sooth and rock your pain,
imagining the flow of the breath in the whole body being saturated
with kindliness and tenderness, the way a breeze on a summer’s day is
saturated with warmth.
The treasure of pleasure
Once you have come into your body and each present moment with
tenderness – seeing into the fluid nature of all things, including your
pain - you will be more able to find pleasure in your experience. Notice
and enjoy ordinary experiences such as the feelings of the sun on your
skin, being with a friend, noticing flowers by the bed, or the blue sky
on a summer’s day. There will always be something pleasurable in your
experience waiting to be noticed. If you can allow your awareness to
rest deeply in your body and the breath, you will find your sensitivity
to life becomes much more refined. Let the pain be just one of many
things you are aware of in the moment. Be like an explorer going in to
a new land with immense curiosity about all you can find there.
Living with choice
With this honest, tender attitude to all the shades of physical, emo-
tional and mental experiences in the present moment, you can then
choose how you respond to things. This is the point of creativity – how
we respond/act in this moment sets up conditions for the next moment.
You can always insert a moment of choice no matter how far down
the line you’ve gone into distress and anguish. Any moment can be an
opportunity for learning if we come back to the actual sensations of
breathing in the body in each present moment rather than getting lost
in thoughts and reactions. See if you can let both pain and pleasure be
held within this broad perspective: neither contracting tightly against

pain nor clinging tightly to pleasure. Allow all sensations to come into
being and pass away moment by moment. Live with flow. A lovely
image for this is to imagine you are out on an ocean. The up and down
waves of the ocean represent pain and pleasure. If you are in a little
rowing boat you will be tossed about by all these passing waves, and
may even be capsized! But if you have developed awareness and kind-
ness, you become like a beautiful yacht that has depth and ballast pro-
vided by the keel, and perspective provided by the mast. You are able
to sail smoothly through the waves of life without being disturbed. You
are at one with the flowing ocean and the beautiful wind of the breath.
You are at one with life itself.
The following meditation will give you an experience of the beauti-
ful breath as a gateway to the inner world.
Guided meditation practice
To begin with make sure your body is in as comfortable a position as

possible, either sitting in a chair or lying down on the bed or the floor.
Allow the weight of your body to settle down towards the earth, taking
a few deeper breaths and letting go a little bit more on each out breath.
Settle into gravity as best you can.
Now allow the breath to find its own natural rhythm. Can you let the
breath breathe itself? Try not to interfere with this process, and notice
all the ways your body moves with the breath: the chest expanding and
relaxing, the belly rising and falling. If your breath is affected in any
way by your illness or pain, then just noting this with a kindly, gentle
awareness. Try to let go of any ideas about how you think it ought to
be, and just rest with an awareness of how things actually are for you
in each moment.
Pause
Sometimes it can help to include an image with a sense of the breath:
you can imagine a wave flowing up the beach, turning, and flowing
back out to sea again, noticing how the movement of the breath has a
rhythm very like this. Or you might have another image that you find
evocative and calming. Perhaps you can imagine your breath is like a
breeze flowing into and out of your whole body, warmed by the sun
on a beautiful day. Use your imagination in your own way to help the
mind and the body settle around the breath.
Pause
Notice how each breath is unique, how no two breaths are the same.
Notice the texture and quality of each breath. If you notice your body
or mind tensing up around your experience, in the noticing you can
gently let go again without judgment. Do this over and over again if
necessary with a kindly, gentle awareness.
Include any pain or discomfort in the body within your broad field of
awareness. Very often we resist feelings of pain or discomfort, and this just
leads to more tension, more pain and more discomfort. Use the breath
to help soften the hard edges around the pain and allow a tender, kindly
awareness to permeate the in and the out-breaths. Allow your whole
body to be saturated with these kindly breaths. As you use the breath to
soften resistance to the pain or discomfort, notice how the experience of
pain is in fact a constantly changing flow of different sensations. Experi-
ence how it comes into being and passes away moment by moment.
Pause
Now you can shift the gaze of your awareness to invite in the pleasur-
able dimensions of the moment. What do you notice in your experience
that is pleasant? It might be very subtle, such as tingling in the fingers,
some sort of pleasure around the breath, or maybe the sun is shining
through the window onto the skin. In your own way scanning through
your whole experience and noticing little moments of pleasure, no mat-
ter how fleeting - arising and falling with each moment. Notice all the
little ordinary, simple pleasures as well as others they may feel more
dominant.
Pause
Now broaden your awareness as if you were pulling back to a wide
angle lens on a camera. Notice how each moment of life contains ele-
ments that are painful and elements which are pleasurable. This is
the way things are in this world for everyone. Notice the tendency to
harden against pain and to grasp after pleasure, and in the noticing
relax back into the broad field of awareness. Can you be like a yacht
sailing smoothly across the up and down waves of the ocean?
Pause
Now broaden out your awareness still more to include an awareness of
others. Become aware that all humanity experiences a mixture of pain
and pleasure moment by moment in much the way that you do. The
stories of our lives are unique, but the range of basic human experience
and emotions will be very similar. We all have hopes and dreams, fears
and regrets, no matter where we live, our age, color or wealth. In this
way we can allow our own experience of pain and illness to become a
moment of empathy for others who are in pain, or who are ill, rather
than a moment of isolation. Everyone suffers in one way or another.
Everyone experiences pleasure in one way or another.
In the same way that you imbued the breath with a kindly awareness
towards your own experience, you can now allow a kindly awareness to
permeate the in and the out-breaths as you think of others. Maybe you
can get a sense of the whole world breathing – in and out. Rising and
falling. Allow a sense of the hard edges of separation to soften, letting
go into a sense of all that we share with a feeling of connection with
all life as you sit or lie here, resting quietly with the breath moment by
moment.
Rest with this quality of awareness for as long as feels appropriate for
you at this time.
Pause
In your own time bring the meditation to a close. Bring the weight
of the body lying on the bed or sitting on the chair to the foreground
of your awareness. Feel in firm contact with the earth. Tune into the
movements of the breath in the body and gradually externalize your
awareness. When you’re ready, gently open your eyes and take in your
surroundings. See if you can take this quality of awareness with you as
you re-engage with the day, moment by moment by moment.
When practicing meditation it is important to let go of craving a

certain outcome, for example a reduction of pain. The pain may go on
for a long time! This does not mean you’ve failed or not meditated cor-
rectly. It is just the way things are when one is ill or has an injured body.
There is no need for blame or judgment. But remember that even if
your body is painful and ill, your mind and heart can experience
moments of peace and calm, even a sense of freedom. Meditation can
guide us through the doorway to these moments and teach us how to
rest there with an honest heart.
Vidyamala Burch is founder of Breathworks,

an internationally respected mindfulness orga-
nization www.Breathworks-Mindfulness.org.uk.
She is author of ‘Living Well with Pain and
Illness’, and co-author of ‘Mindfulness for
Health’. You may contact her at
www.Breathworks-Mindfulness.org.uk
CHAPTER
22
Radical Living for an
Expanded Consciousness
Colin Tipping
R
adical Forgiveness is my passion. I’ve been developing it for
more than 20 years and in 1997 wrote the book, Radical For-
giveness, Making Room for the Miracle. My wife and I have been
doing workshops on it all around the world ever since
There’s nothing really unique about this method of forgiveness, of
course, since it is founded on metaphysical principles that have been
around for centuries, enshrined in many aspects of Eastern philosophy
and other esoteric writings. So what is it?
To be open to Radical Forgiveness is to have the intellectual courage
and willingness to entertain the possibility that God makes no mistakes;
that events happen not TO us but FOR us; and that everything that occurs
is meaningful and on purpose in terms of our self-created Divine plan and
our desire to evolve as spiritual beings. That’s it.
Obviously this differs radically from the kind of forgiveness we usu-
ally think of as being the norm (letting bygones be bygones even though I
am still a victim), so for many people it will indeed seem unique — and
not a little crazy perhaps.
It is a challenging and even a provocative notion that there is a rea-
son for everything, that nothing right or wrong is happening, and that
there is nothing to forgive. It certainly demands a willingness to shift
one’s normal world view and model of reality; that is, assuming one
doesn’t already see the world through this kind of metaphysical lens.
135
Another way of putting it rather more succinctly, thereby making it

more memorable, is that Radical Forgiveness is forgiveness that recognizes
the perfection in the imperfection.
But those who have experienced my work also know me as someone
who is committed to making spirituality simple, practical and applicable
to everyday life. Not just to people who are especially spiritual but for
anyone who might be open to seeing things a little differently and willing
to try something somewhat out of the ordinary in order to heal their pain.
When I first became interested in spirituality and began reading
all the books, I learned a lot about how I should BE but rarely did I
find any instructions on HOW to get there. I found only methods that
required enormous discipline and commitment, neither of which I had
in great abundance.
I realized I was not alone. Like me, few people were up to meditat-
ing twice a day and adopting special regimens that were supposed to
lead to Nirvana but seldom ever did, and almost always were unpleas-
ant and therefore unsustainable.
So that’s why I created a tool that would make Radical Forgive-
ness possible for anyone. A simple worksheet that would take a person
from victimhood to peace in less than 40 minutes. I originally got the
idea from Dr. Michael Ryce who was using one in the 1980’s. His was
firmly grounded in A Course in Miracles. I never was a student of
ACIM, but as I developed my own worksheet and used it with clients,
I realized it was a lot more than just a way to marshall one’s thinking
about some situation causing emotional pain.
To my great surprise I saw that it had the power to actually dissolve
the pain virtually immediately and to release the person from victim-
hood right away. Furthermore, it had the power to actually change the
very situation causing the pain. It was then that I realized the worksheet
was an ‘energy instrument.’ When people used it, the energy attached to
their victim stories automatically dissipated. The energies attached to the
other people involved in the story, like the perpetrators for example, were
also affected. More often than not, their behavior became modified also.
I began to see this was a tool that really did change lives. And, best
of all, it was extremely simple, very easy to use, required no belief in the
Radical Forgiveness philosophy, and was therapy-free.
Colin Tipping ■ 137
There was no necessity to go digging up the past to find the origi-

nal pain. Most of what happens to us in adult life is simply a replay
of old childhood wounds. Forgiving the one that is the most current
means we forgive them all, including the original one — even if you
don’t know what it is. That’s because Radical Forgiveness collapses the
energy field that connects them all, right back to the first event.
This technology is effective because it bypasses the mentality and
the monkey mind, and goes straight to the intelligence of the Higher
Self — our Spiritual Intelligence. This is the part of us that knows the
truth of who we are, what the soul contracts were that we made before
we incarnated, and why we are here doing this ‘earth walk’. And the
worksheet is the key to gaining access to that part of us. The statements
on the worksheet that we read and check resonate with our Spiritual
Intelligence as the truth even while our mind is telling us this whole
idea is crazy. This has now become known as The Tipping Method.
While it was enormously gratifying to be able to help people heal
their pain and find a level of peace about things that up to that point
had, in some cases, immobilized them, it has become clear to me that
doing Radical Forgiveness with individuals alone does not raise mass
consciousness enough to make a difference to the overall vibration of
the human race. Something much broader is required that covers more
of how we think, feel and live our lives. We need what I now call a Rad-
ical Living lifestyle that includes more than just Radical Forgiveness.
When the harmonic convergence occurred in 1986, an opening
occurred. The veil seemed to lift a little and became thinner. Many
millions of people began waking up and realizing who they were and
what this was really all about. It was an exciting time. People started to
work on themselves and began healing their shadows. People attended
lots of workshops and prepared themselves for a great shift in con-
sciousness widely expected to usher in a new age of peace, harmony and
oneness. 2012 was seen as a possible date for that to occur.
For me, Radical Forgiveness was a big part of all that. I had expressed
my mission since 1990 as being “to raise the consciousness of the planet
through Radical Forgiveness and to create a world of forgiveness by 2012.”
Notwithstanding the fact that 2012 is now past thereby rendering
one small part of my mission statement null and void, the core of it still
stands. I am still committed to raising the consciousness of the planet.

But I am now aiming to do it using not just Radical Forgiveness, but a
number of Radical Living Strategies that include Radical Forgiveness.
Let me explain.
Having developed The Tipping Method as the proven technology
for shifting energy in service to Radical Forgiveness, I am now able
to apply it to other related strategies as well. Collectively these are all
called the Strategies for Radical Living. These are:
Radical Forgiveness, Radical Self-Forgiveness, Radical Self-Accep-
tance, Radical Transformation, Radical Empowerment, Radical
Awareness, Radical Consciousness, Radical Reconciliation, Radi-
cal Grieving, Radical Money and Radical Manifestation.
Instead of just using one strategy (Radical Forgiveness) to heal
a particular wound for a small number of people, only to have them
return to their normal patterns developed over a lifetime. – in effect,
going back to sleep again -- what we need to do is show people how
to apply the same philosophy and methodology to all areas of their
lives.
If we can show people how to use these simple and practical strat-
egies for Radical Living in the course of their daily lives to where it
becomes their ordinary default way of being, this opens the possibility
of expanding the consciousness of humanity. Groups first, then com-
munities, then countries and finally the world once critical mass is
achieved.
Ironically, the way to raise mass consciousness quickly enough to
create critical mass is to appeal to what we might think of as the least
spiritual of motivations — money. And the place to start this process in
a big way is with businesses, since they are are all about making money.
Demonstrate to them that introducing spirituality in business is darn
good business sense, and we have the makings of a viral revolution.
It is not difficult to show, at least to owners of small companies,
that adopting Radical Living Strategies and the Tipping Method tools
into their corporate culture and showing the employees how to use
them makes a huge difference to their overall success and to their bot-
tom line.
Colin Tipping ■ 139
This is particularly true for family businesses. Most are hugely dys-
functional because of unconscious, unhealed family dynamics being
played out in the workplace every day, often with disastrous results.
When every employee is shown how to use the tools to resolve con-
flict (realizing we are never upset for the reason we think), reduce dissent
(by minimizing projections), build trust (through a willingness to be open
and vulnerable) and find more meaning in their work, the more they
will give back. When people come to work feeling positive because they
get spiritual sustenance as well as material reward from it, they don’t
leave and they give more.
The shift in perception required of the CEO is only that he or she
become open to seeing the business as an energy system, one that can
be mapped. The map will show where the energy is flowing and where
it might be getting stuck. Most businesses have a good handle on how
money, information and materials flow through the system but have
little idea how to map the flow of human energy, especially that which
is unconscious and attached to old wounds and patterns. If left to fes-
ter, these wounds will inevitably be played out in the workplace, to the
serious detriment of the business. This can be prevented by deploying
the appropriate Radical Living strategy.
The CEO should understand that the overall energy level of the
corporation depends entirely on the energy level of each individual
working there. It is therefore in his or her interest to ensure that each
person’s vibration is as high as possible and that it remains that way.
People with a high vibration are more productive that those with a low
vibration. It’s that simple. All we have to do is show that the adoption
of the Radical Living strategies as a management technique and an
employee benefit will keep the employee’s vibration high and result in
an overall raising of the vibration of the business.
Let’s say the company has 50 employees. Perhaps 10 of them have
used Radical Forgiveness to deal with the pain of loss or a divorce at
some time in their life, but will not have shared that information with
anyone at work. The other 40 have had no experience of this kind of
this kind of work and are oblivious to it. However, if they experience
the strategies at work as part of workplace policy, they will get it by
osmosis. Because they know the strategies work, they will begin to use
them in their own personal lives at home, and their vibration will rise
accordingly.
So, now we have 50 people with a higher vibration than normal
instead of just 10. And they are more likely to share it with others
because, having learned it at work and experienced it as part of work-
place policy, it will have a validity to it. They might even post it on their
Facebook page and tweet about it. Now, wouldn’t that be something!
This is a strategy that is much needed. Maybe it’s my imagination
but it seems the Aquarian Age may have stalled. The portal that was
opened in 1987 by the Harmonic Convergence seems to have narrowed
if not closed. People have stopped working on themselves to heal their
shadows and have become distracted by gadgetry, pornography and
drugs. We are more connected than at any time in our history but feel
more disconnected than ever before. I am still optimistic, however, that
the consciousness of the planet can be raised to a level where we really
do have a world of forgiveness, love and oneness. But it’s either going to
take some work or a wake-up call. I vote for the work option- the work
a lifestyle of Radical Living!
Colin Tipping is the creator of one of the

most powerful leading-edge technologies
for personal and spiritual growth today—
Radical Forgiveness. He applies this life
changing technology to the “healing” of
individuals, families, races, corporations,
and communities. He may be reached at
www.ColinTipping.com
CHAPTER
23
The Source of Peace
Michael Brant DeMaria, Ph.D.
Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

—The Buddha
T
he source of peace is within you. The great struggle and trag-
edy of modern life is that we’re all seeking peace without when
the only true source of peace is within. We live in a culture
that perpetuates the lie that peace can be found outside of us. Today the
seduction of the outside world is greater than ever with smart phones,
smart cars, and smart TV’s all designed to keep the focus outside of
ourselves instead of helping us take the journey to the real source of
peace – within.
Ultimately, no matter what we seek on the outside, we desire these
changes because we imagine it will make us feel better on the inside.
Over and over again, we seek, we search, we hope that perhaps THIS
time, this job, this relationship, this home, and this experience will
bring us lasting peace. With few exceptions, our experience of inward
peace is almost always dependent on external circumstances. This is
the core dilemma of most everyone I have worked with over my last
30 years of working with students and clients from every walk of life.
This has always been true, but perhaps never more so than today.
We live in a world that has become so fast paced, so hectic and over-
whelming that we all suffer from future shock, data smog and informa-
tion overload. In many ways, the world truly has gone mad. However,
there is an antidote. As the quote from the Buddha says, “Peace comes
141
from within, do not seek it without.” How do we seek it within? What

does within mean? How do we unplug and take the journey to the
source of peace that is available to us every moment of every day? Here
are four deceptively simple yet powerful practices to guide you along
your journey.
Finding Your Center
We all intuitively have a sense of what “within” means, but we seldom

practice and explore it in a deep and meaningful way. I’m not speaking
of a conceptual understanding, but rather an actual first-hand expe-
rience of what connecting to our inner world feels like. I’m referring
to what I like to call our felt center. By felt center, I mean an actual
physical, first person experience of being centered in your body, in this
moment, in the here and now. Here is an exercise that can help you do
this.
First, find a quiet and safe place to do it where you won’t be dis-
turbed. Secondly, read through the following exercise first and then
give yourself the gift of actually doing it before going on. The rest of
this chapter builds on this foundational practice. Your ego mind will
say, “Oh, I know that, I’ve done that before.” That is to miss the point
entirely. This is about practice. For those who are well versed, this is not
a tiring old exercise. This is a chance to be welcomed back once again
to the roots of your very being, to the very source of peace, and I dare
say, bliss.
Begin by closing your eyes for a moment and take three slow deep
breaths breathing in your nose and out of your mouth. Notice how
differently you feel in your body by simply closing your eyes and breath-
ing deeply. Now focus on the points of contact between your body and
anything your body happens to be in contact with, feet on the floor,
body on a couch or chair. Begin to allow your attention to scan your
body from your head to your feet as you tune in to your body sensations
flowing through your body in this moment, in this very place and time
you find yourself in. Notice how your body sensations increase simply
by focusing on them. Now, taking another nice deep breath put your
Michael Brant DeMaria, Ph.D. ■ 143
hands on your belly as you continue to breathe deeply this time focus-
ing on breathing from your belly. Now breathing in your belly, become
aware of your whole body, be aware of your whole body. This is your
felt center. Now slowly open your eyes while trying to keep a bit of
the centeredness and softness you felt during the exercise as you orient
yourself visually to the world of objects and light.
We are so visually oriented in our culture that we don’t often
allow ourselves to close our eyes during the day for any length of
time, much less tune into our bodily sensations in the here and now.
By doing so, we immediately reduce our brain activity one to two
thirds – literally quieting the mind and centering ourselves in the
present moment. The simple act of closing our eyes immediately
reduces stress on our systems since it takes 10 times less brain power
to process auditory information than visual information. Of course,
closing your eyes NOT while you’re driving or walking across a busy
street, but most of the time, there are ample opportunities to close our
eyes for a few moments and breathe deeply and drop into the ocean
of peace that lies within you. Depending on how restless your mind
is it may take much more than closing your eyes – but it is always a
powerful beginning.
I encourage you throughout the day to find your felt center on a
regular basis. I do a version of this between each client I see. It is a
powerful practice that is easy to do and allows you to reclaim your
center throughout the day easily, efficiently and effectively. This is your
foundation for the peace within process that we will be building on
throughout our journey together.
The Centering Breath
I spent many years as a wilderness guide and one of the first things I
learned in survival training is the rule of threes. We can survive three
weeks without food, three days without water, but only three minutes
without air. It is far more precious and critical then food or water.
When we stop breathing, the level of carbon dioxide builds up in the
blood leading to overwhelming air hunger. It only takes minutes for
our body’s internal oxygen levels to drop to dangerously low levels.

Yet, we live, for the most part, horribly unaware of the how our lives
truly hang by the thread of the breath every moment of every day. It
truly is the foundation of our life. Without its constant flowing in
and out of our bodies, nourishing our cells with precious oxygen, we
would perish within minutes. Not hours, not days, but minutes. Wak-
ing up to this truth is one of the golden keys to finding peace within
and without.
One of the main reasons Native Americans were fearful of the
white man was because he was unaware of his breath. They knew
anyone who was not aware of their breath was not awake to the
sacredness of life and the interconnectedness of all things. For the
Creek nation, their name for God literally translates as “The Master of
the Breath”. The breath connects the inside with the outside; it con-
nects us to the life around us, to each other and most importantly to
our felt center.
The breath is a river that runs through our bodies and if we ride
this river which connects us to all living things it will take us to the
ocean of peace that lies within us. The river of your breath is always a
sure path to the ocean of peace. In many ways, we are the result of this
breath that has moved through generation to generation, from mother
to mother, until we too took our first breath. The breath is magic. If
you spend any time at all reflecting on and exploring your breath amaz-
ing things will happen.
When you begin to practice breathing deeply and properly you
will notice quite quickly how intimate of an experience breathing is.
The steady, rhythmic even lyrical rising and falling of our lungs is an
extremely sensuous experience we all but ignore. Taking the air around
us deeply into our inner most cores – while breathing out CO2 that
has been created by endless biochemical processes within every cell of
our body.
Our breath sustains us. Our breath is the very wings of life flow-
ing and pulsing through us. Our breath is our best friend. If there is
one thing you take away from this chapter and one thing that changes
your life for the better, I hope it is to become profoundly aware of your
breath and allow it to become a best friend you can tend to, listen to
and flow with even during the darkest of times. The breath truly is
the great river flowing from and to the endless ocean of peace that lies
within you.
Centering Breath Exercise
This centering breath exercise begins by positioning yourself sitting or

lying down. The key to the centering breath is breathing deeply from
the diaphragm. A good way to do this is to place both hands on your
belly button. You will also notice some nice warmth develop between
your hand(s) and your belly. Enjoy this warmth as this is also a self-
soothing exercise which is very helpful in providing self-nurturance
during times of stress or anxiety. I liken this to giving yourself a hug.
Now take one deep cleansing breath, breathing in through your nose
and out through your mouth, while focusing on raising your hands
with your belly as you breathe deeply into your belly. This first breath
should be a particularly deep breath as you breathe in through your
nose and out through your mouth. Now take 10 more deep, slow
breaths in this way. To make sure your breaths are slow, rhythmic and
deep, you can try counting to four as you breathe in and counting to
four as you breathe out. The more you become aware of your breath,
the more you breathe in a healthy, full way – the more peace you
will welcome into your life on an ongoing basis. This is YOUR breath
work, your breath practice. Deep breathing and the centering breath is
the foundation to meditation.
You will find as this journey together goes on that the breath is at
the center of quieting the mind, opening the heart, and developing a
better relationship with yourself, with others, your creativity and with
life at large.
Releasing Into the Now
Teaching people to close their eyes and breathe deeply is a good begin-
ning, but most of us live with such endless chatter in our minds,
much more is needed to experience lasting peace within. Our culture
continually reinforces the endless chatter in our minds that we spend

most of our time regretting the past or being anxious or fearful about
future. In this way, the very place where peace resides, within our own
hearts in this moment, is lost on us. Fortunately, the moment is always
present and there are many ways to rediscover what is right under our
feet, one of my favorite ways is releasing into the now.
Release means to liberate, surrender and let go. So much of our
inner unrest comes from holding on to and replaying endless stories
in our minds about ourselves, each other and our lives. The central
practice of the peace within process is to learn to let go of all the stories
that you endless replay in your mind. To find lasting peace, you need to
learn to step back from the stories and thoughts that cause such chatter
and unrest.
Imagine for a moment that all the stories you tell yourself are
like so many waves on an ocean. Beneath the surface of the stories of
your life and the inner chatter of your mind, lies a deep and endless
ocean of peace. Unfortunately, we are so busy focusing on the surface
(boats, islands, changing weather patterns), that we forget the peace
that lies beneath the surface of our lives. To find peace within, you
must dive beneath the surface and discover the deep sense of peace
that lies below.
There is such silence and peace beneath the surface of our lives.
This exercise will help you find the natural and endless peace that is
always waiting for you.
Release Into the Now Exercise
Once again I would like you to read through the following exercise
first and then get up and do the exercise before reading on. Stand
with your feet about shoulder width apart with a slight bend in your
knees – remembering your centering exercise, put your hands on your
abdomen, over your belly button and begin to rock from side to side
and front to back, and then begin to make some slow circles until you
establish your center point and felt center. Now this time, take a nice
deep breath and turn your palms facing skyward at waist level finger
tips facing each other. Now you will begin breathing in and raise your
palms slowly towards the sky. When your palms reach your neck, rotate
your hands 180 degrees, rotating your forearms so your palms are still
facing towards the sky but you are now free to raise your hands (still
finger tips pointing at each other) over your head until your arms are
outstretched straight up towards the sky. This whole time you’ve been
breathing in you also are gently straightening your legs as well. At the
very top of your inhalation, your arms and legs should be outstretched.
Then while breathing out with a sigh, you begin dropping your arms
outstretched to either side with palms now facing towards the earth.
As you do you breathe out, accentuating the ahhhh sound of your sigh,
and continue as your arms fall to either side and your legs relax with
a slight bend in them once again. When you breathe in and you’re
raising your arms and slowly straightening your legs, it is almost like
you are inflating yourself like a balloon. The key is to do this whole
sequence slowly. As you approach the apex of the release, you really
allow yourself to release all stories, all thoughts, whatever has just hap-
pened, in fact, you’re entire past. Let it go and release into the now. Do
this at least three times and then close your eyes and feel how differently
you feel in your body.
This exercise allows you to release into your felt center in the here
and now, preparing you for any activity you might be focused on. I
encourage you to do a release whenever you need to throughout the
day. Ideal times are whenever you are getting stuck in an activity and
feeling fatigued, stressed or overwhelmed. It is a powerful and sim-
ple way to de-stress and re-center, anytime you need to, in particular,
before a sporting event, creative performance or picking up your kids
from an ex-spouses house. The release incorporates a centering breath
with a centering exercise, while adding the dimension of deeply releas-
ing and becoming more present and focused in the here and now. Try
it, you’ll like it!
Finding Your Ground
When God says to Moses “Cast thy shoes from thy feet,” he is helping
Moses wake up to the miracle of being present in the here and now. I
have always loved this image and I love to ‘cast my shoes from my feet’,
wherever and whenever I can. Becoming grounded in our bodies in the
present moment is greatly aided by feeling the earth under our feet.
When I speak of having a first person experience of grounding, I am
referring to listening to the truth your blood whispers to you through
the language of sensation.
When was the last time you took your shoes off and stood on the
grass on the bare earth? When was the last time you took a walk bare-
foot where you could feel all the different sensations under your feet?
Because we grew up in a culture that shields our feet from the ground,
we have tender feet with poor ability to feel and experience the earth or
grab and connect the earth with our toes. I have witnessed the miracle
of people grounding and centering many times with the simple act of
taking off their shoes and feeling the earth under their feet the way
lizards, primates and animals of all shapes and sizes do. Watch animals
for any length of time and you will see how they are so grounded to the
earth it is almost as if they are growing out of the earth through their
feet. This is what we need to relearn to feel more peaceful as we walk
and live our lives on the earth.
Finding your ground has everything to do with experiencing your
first person, first-hand experience of the world. Your ground IS your
center of experience, is YOUR experience of the world.
The best place to start is feeling the earth beneath your feet. Your
feet not only connect you to the earth you are standing on but to the
entire planet. Our ancestors listened with their feet. Their feet were lit-
erally additional ears that help them feel and sense vibrations, changes
in temperature, moisture as they maneuvered through their harsh,
challenging and difficult lives. We know in particular elephants liter-
ally hear with their feet as ears opening them to a vast world of infor-
mation, sensation and experience and alerting them to danger. So take
off your shoes for this grounding exercise.
Grounding Exercise
Once again read through this exercise and then perform it before
reading further. First, ‘cast thy shoes from thy feet’. Now, stand with
your feet shoulder width apart as you begin to breathe deeply from the
belly. Legs should not be locked, but rather very slightly bent and your
spine nice and straight. Again, find your experiential center as before
by putting your hands on your abdomen and rocking back and forth
and side to side, then slowly in circles until you come to a grounded,
resting center point. Imagine a string attached to the top of your head
pulling you up towards the sky while gently allowing your shoulders
to melt down your back. Now remove your hands from your abdomen
and let them hang loosely on either side of your body. Now extend
them downward, while stretching your fingers downward towards
the ground while also spreading them apart. Pull in your abdomen,
imagining your navel pulling towards the spine and engage your
quadriceps pulling up your knee caps. I now want you to breath from
the tip of your toes up to the top of your head, and as you do imagine
breathing up from the souls of your feet from the energy in the earth
up the front of the body, down from the top of your head towards the
earth down the back of your body as you breath out in what is called
in yoga ‘mountain pose’.
Now, if you haven’t already done so, close your eyes and imagine you
are a mountain – a mountain that has seen endless seasons come and
go. Imagine the ageless weather patterns you have experienced over
eons – winter to spring, spring to summer, summer to fall, over and
over again. Imagine the animals that have come and gone, the civili-
zations that have come and gone, and the deep snowy winters and hot
scorching summers you have experienced and yet, through it all you
have held and stood steady, strong, still and peaceful as mountain.
Take your time and when you have experienced the sense of stillness
of the mountain through endless changes on your next in breath, open
your eyes.
To find peace within means coming back to your first person expe-
rience of the world in this body in this moment. Most stress comes
from being lost in thought. Thoughts takes us into the past and future
and by definition are never IN the moment – because thoughts are
always about something, that is, they are a commentary on what hap-
pened, what is happening or what is going to happen, they are always
about and never the experience itself at the level of sensation. Ulti-
mately, all thoughts to some degree in this way are delusional – that is
not IN the here and now. To experience what is happening, we must
drop out of our heads and into our bodies and experience the place
upon which we stand in this moment as sacred. We can do this with
these four simple yet profound exercises and directly experience true
and lasting peace from within.
Dr. Michael Brant DeMaria is a psychologist,

yoga instructor, meditation teacher, author,
speaker and Grammy-nominated recording
artist. He loves helping people wake up to
the miracle of just being and experiencing
the ocean of peace that lies within. You may
contact him at www.MichaelDeMaria.com
CHAPTER
24
Intimacy: The Way of
Opening Our Hearts
Adam Gainsburg
T
o be intimate is one of the more challenging experiences for
most of us. This isn’t because it is more difficult than another
experience, say, to have passion for something. Intimacy is dif-
ficult because we’ve trained ourselves to lead our lives through our heads
and our need to first know. “What am I getting into?” “Who’s going to
be there?” “What’s the worst that can happen?” Energetically, intimacy
is the experience of seeing and being seen nakedly, behind our defenses
and self-images. The old play-on-words is still a great way to remind
ourselves what intimacy brings about: IN TI MA CY = in to me you see.
At a higher level, intimacy’s function is to unify who we perceive
we are with who we perceive the Other is. And to do so in the space of
our hearts, the heart in which we feel most deeply and most honestly.
What we can learn from this is that in each one of us, we possess a cel-
lular instinct to explore our individualized self – indicating a departure
from Source – and an equal need to explore and merge with Other/All
– indicating a return back into Source.
Our Two Divine Urgings
The first urge – to individuate – symbolizes the masculine, or yang

principle. We are seen for who we are, in our naked, raw, genetic, and
shining individuality. We are exposed and accepted as worthy/lov-
able/powerful/good. This is allowing ourselves to re-enter life without
151
compromising or hiding our inherent uniqueness. It can be an ecstatic

un-forgetting of our unworthiness. We birth the capacity to dissolve
our false requirements for love (anger, helplessness or indifference) and
release our false ideas of security. This is the realization of the mascu-
line impulse of the Soul, to emerge boldly and be received in our boldness.
With the second archetype – to merge or return back into Source –
we emotionally open to Other and allow Other to move into our inner
protected places. We experience the formerly threatening ‘foreigner’ now
as the ‘entrusted’. Connecting with those we care for most or those we’re
attracted to no longer depends on the Other’s qualities but on our capac-
ity to remain connected with ourselves in each moment. A wonderful
benefit of this type of healing is that we come to choose more wisely
those with whom we wish to grow and share our lives with. Our joining
together harmonizes us into the broader identity of the union, one woven
from individuals. We find that our thoughts become enhanced, our feel-
ings vitalized and our past-obsessed concerns diminished. This is the
second Soul impulse satisfied, the desire to be absorbed back into Source.
With both impulses fulfilled, an alchemy occurs in which our per-
ceptions of ourselves and the Other elevate to a higher level. We begin
to experience and feel a deeply mutual sameness with them. This is
just one way to describe the magic of union with another person, with
Nature, with our beloved planet or with the entire universe. What is
actually happening is that we are becoming a conduit for Love itself.
The need to know ‘who I am’, ‘what is happening’ or ‘what I should do’
drops away. Our inner sense of ourselves is released from the ego and
finds a natural fit with the Other, and we experience ourselves instead
as a cresting wave of energy or intelligence. In this way, true intimacy
breeds a supra-personal experience formed from the laws of matter
(physical vessel) but no longer bound by them (greater realized heart).
Astrological Paths of Intimacy
Cultivating our ability to be intimate with life is symbolic of

our intimacy with our own Soul.
In some forms of astrology, we are able to understand the paths of intimacy

by understanding the sign energies. Relative to the domain of human
Adam Gainsburg ■ 153
intimacy, astrological signs show us ‘the way in’ as well as ‘the fruits of’
our authentic intimacies. Each sign has certain requirements that must
be met for us become intimate. Once these needs are met and intimacy is
established, there is a particular quality that arises within the our heart.
The following table presents the 12 astrological paths to intimacy.
For each sign, the Requirement describes what quality must be present
for a person with that sign to become intimate: to ‘let down their guard’
and open to their partner. The Requirement is what we feel we need to
be really met in a deeper way. The Emerging Quality describes what
arises when the Requirement is present, who our Intimate Self really is.
Sign Requirement Emergent quality

1 Aries A partner to match or accept Easefulness; a slowing down;
one’s own level of activity/ letting go into joy of being
power/freedom. together without need to com-
pete; being met.
2 Taurus A partner to entrust and rely Experience of giving/receiving
on; who can love and be loved coming through one, rather
sensually, loyally and deeply. than originating from oneself.
3 Gemini A partner who can loves Quiet clarity or joyful accep-
learning and use of the mind; tance; easefully remaining
quick-witted, informed and present rather than mentally
without seriousness. jumping; possibility of true
commitment.
4 Cancer A partner who can receive Deep receptivity; emotional
nurturing and love; who experience can become like
can affirm one’s emotional paints with which we co-create
security. beauty and truth together;
awakens our ability to be nur-
tured ourselves.
5 Leo The adoration, attraction or Two equal powers meeting; not
desire of another. being threatened by or needy
of other.
6 Virgo A partner who is non-judg- Healing; deep experience of
mental; or who is ‘serious relief and harmony with one
about the sacred’; who is in another; access to more power-
tune with higher energies. ful realms.
7 Libra A partner’s commitment to Full immersion into the lov-
the relationship; honors, ing power of a mutual bond,
trusts, respects and listens; beyond normal reality.
equality.
8 Scorpio A partner who is direct in Magic; tantric experiences;

what they want; who meets transformation and/or
or exceeds the power of one’s alchemy; empowerment.
own passion, desire and
insight; who accesses deep
realms of experience.
9 Sagittarius A partner who loves adven- Illumination/Samadhi; heart
tures; who is free to roam; opens more to spirit, allowing
who is devoted to spiritual/ more of the spiritual realm to
higher reality. enter.
0 Capricorn A partner who truly respects Returning to the wisdom of
and honors one’s knowledge, innocence (non-ego attach-
life experience and maturity. ment); experience of transcen-
dence or transparency.
- Aquarius A partner who is intelligent, Embodiment; true love
unattached, and uniquely becomes possible from the
‘different’ than the norm; heart (instead of the head only);
who can track with one’s own tremendous creativity and
vision. innovation.
= Pisces A partner who honors, Sovereignty; self-identity
understands and meets its strengthens which increases
empathic nature, visions, how deeply one can feel, give
idealism; who gets one’s own and receive love. The Divine
expansiveness. Child matures into the Divine
Human Being.
Adam Gainsburg is an acclaimed teacher,

author and guide for souls. His classes and
private consulting work catalyze lasting
transformation, deeper intimacy, and the
conscious, joyful integration of the two. You
may contact him at www.SoulSign.com
CHAPTER
25
Living in Your Fullest
Potential Choosing Not to
Choose
William Linville
W
hen you start looking at your life-stream and Living in
Your Fullest Potential and explore choosing not to choose,
you can now begin playing with your divinity. As you’re
playing with your divinity, you’re playing with openness and freedom.
As you’re playing with openness and freedom, you’re playing with you,
your divine order, the divine order of you that has always been avail-
able for you, the divine orchestration, the divine dance, the divine
presence, the divine emanation of letting you and your higher levels
provide you with all the divine opportunities and doorways for you to
walk through. And as you walk through the opportunities and door-
ways presented to you from you and your higher levels, watch how
all the sequences of events start to unfold all around you without the
head-level getting involved, without the emotional states having all this
impact, and most importantly, without past, present, future sequences
of events that have been so based in a polarized state of what has been
and creating pre-destined outcomes to take place that no longer serve
nor compliment you.
Choosing not to choose sounds quite colorful doesn’t it? A choice
is a beautiful wake-up call, even starting to realize you have a choice
about your own life’s journey, that you have a choice even when you
155
begin to wake up and that you need not be a victim nor a victimizer,
you need not attempt to hold yourself or outside situations such as
jobs, families, relationships, homes, parenting, etc., together; you need
not attempt to dominate in the world nor be dominated. You need
not attempt to survive within the world. Survival is even what you’d
call ‘A Metaphoric Choice’ and it’s such a beautiful gift for you because
even as you begin to arise into choice, choice becomes such a strong,
powerfully integrated state of the embodiment of change within your
life-stream. You can choose to become victimized, you can choose to
become a victimizer until you begin to supersede and outgrow that
choice, for choice begins to come in the way.
Choice becomes also a beautiful attribute of a domination of being
controlled by the head-level because the head-level is going to make
controlled, limited choices that are based on limited past experiences
that have been seen and embodied and assumed to be accurate based
on confined filters of emotions and protection of the egoic structures,
of survival of a little carnal you. The head-level is even going to attempt
to make choices that begin to get in the way and hold yourself back
from all that is fully accessible for you and is awaiting to come to you.
Let’s honor choice for what it is as the beautiful gift that it is - your
choice to even step into a body on a planet.
When it comes to choice, there’s a life-stream of what you will play
with-- I’m going to choose to go this direction, I’m going to choose
to go that direction, I’m going to choose not to, I’m going to choose
to resonate with this, resonate with that, I’m going to choose to have
an apple rather than a banana, I’m going to choose to let my body go
through the metaphoric lifting of an inanimate object, I’m going to
choose to go hiking, not hiking, and so forth.
What happens when you start to be presented with so many mul-
tiple different attributes around possible choices that unfold and unfold
around you? How are you going to make a choice when the opportu-
nities of what you’re presented with right in front of you are filtered
through the pineal and pituitary glands, that are then being filtered by
the mental-level of consciousness based in past experiences? Because
remember, those past experiences are also having a huge impact and
are playing a large part in decisions or choices that are made via past
William Linville ■ 157
experiences that say that I will enjoy or not, been there and done
that, done this, so I don’t enjoy that, but I will enjoy this, maybe I
will, and maybe I won’t all flash through the powerful mental-level
consciousness.
This is about your whole life-stream, because remember you
have the right choices and the wrong choices, based in past experien-
tial realms. Then you have the colorful outcomes also from the right
choices, or the equal opposite outcomes from the wrong choices being
made. It all comes down to a colorful, tiny little attribute, tiny little
construct called ‘the mental-level, the emotional-level’ based in the past
that’s taken into the metaphoric future from a linear time continuum.
You have all these journeys to take on, or not. But more often than
not your mental and emotional levels are controlling and restricting
yourself from your divinity. You may refer to controlling as a ‘ discipline
of the mind’ that can transform into a self-inflicted discipline called a
‘ false sense of self mastery’ when really, your mental and emotional levels
are restricting yourself from living in your fullest of potential as the
divine presence you are.
When you go way back to the choosing part, do you see now how
complicated it all becomes because now you have outgrown the neces-
sity of it when at one point it was such a priceless gift? It’s all mental
and emotional based in past-experiential realms rather than you, rather
than the enjoyment of you, rather than the exquisiteness, the vibrancy,
the divinity, the brilliance of you. How do you become loved when you
are love? How do you work to receive love when you are love? How can
you choose to become love when you already are love and it’s all around
you? How do you decide you’re lovable when you’re already emanating
love beyond all these other barriers? How do you choose to become the
alpha and omega when you already are the alpha and omega as one,
now beginning to emanate exponentially in a body on a planet?
What happens when you choose not to choose; i.e., that you no
longer have a frame of reference? Remember the mental and emotional
frames of reference have been exactly what have been creating colorful
outcomes. So, mentally speaking, the mind is going to process, process,
process, until there’s nothing left to process and it’s going to process
some more and even at times it may create something to process just
for the sake of having something to process so it can finally feel good
about itself. As it feels so good about itself, it starts creating another
ego about itself, so it has to process that too, because now it even has a
false ego to re-process; it can’t feel too good, it can’t feel too bad, so it
has to find a middle line just to feel something. So now that you have
that going on, this is where things become really colorful, because you
may feel too great, or if you feel not too great then there’s something
else to process, so you have to process feeling too great and you have to
process the same sequences of not too great, not great enough as well as
all of the mental, emotional additives such as you should be, shouldn’t
be, could be, couldn’t be with your relationships, your abundance, your
jobs, and now you’re really beyond busy and conflicted. These conflicts
are just the mind attempting to make choices and attempting to create
a perceptional balance that literally is just not you. But as you choose
not to choose, you begin to arise. The heart and your presence begin to
arise and you get to enjoy everything. You are well beyond great, you
are divine.
Choosing not to choose lets you Live in Your Fullest of Potential
as your whole life-stream begins to run forth and open up overtime. So
as you’re choosing not to choose you’re bringing yourself right into a
state of neutrality, but also to a wide-openness state – a wide openness
state that’s speeding up your life-stream and opening up your world.
It is also letting the organs begin to separate and segregate and open
up as the particles that they are and the particles they were created
to be. With the emotional and the mental states no longer being in
charge, no longer controlling the unique attributes of the physicality,
it allows your particles of consciousness to open up, to amplify and
to re-regulate, to re-generate, re-stabilize and re-amplify themselves in
your image, the image that they were created to be rather than the old
genetic blueprint of consciousness that you have heard so much about.
As your particles of consciousness are re-amplifying, your DNA is
re-activating and the magnetics of the physical re-activates, watch the
physicality be the matrix of pure consciousness of divinity that it is.
The matrix of divinity that you are has been waiting and wanting you
to claim it and step into it fully and completely, letting yourself open,
amplify and run forth, but also demagnetizing one’s self, un-polarizing
one’s self from the dualistic planetary journey and the planetary matrix
that is also going through eons of amplifications as well as going
through perceptional changes that are also unlocking the magnetics of
your physical portal, allowing your physical portal to open up to fully
compliment you as well.
By choosing not to choose, you’re letting your whole life-stream
begin to take off, open up and expand upon itself and the receptiveness
of its self, letting the outside and the inside begin to dissolve to where
there is no outside, there is no inside, there is only you amplifying
exponentially, also eradicating both sides to where there are no sides.
There is only a complete one-ness communion and a harmoniousness
and your whole life becoming much more fluid, much more harmoni-
ous to fully completely dance with you and for you; no longer having
magnetic arrays that are throwing off your outside world, no longer
creating blockages nor conflicts on the inside, no longer a past, present
and future, no longer a frame of reference even from the sub-psyche,
even through the psyche, letting the real you that exists well beyond
the sub-psyche and the psyche run forth to fully completely amplify
within every level, every realm and every facet of creation, letting all of
creation become available for you.
As all of creation becomes available for you, you can now begin to
arise through a whole new beginning and let the outside world begin to
compliment you, no longer from a thought-processes, no longer from
protection, no longer from a mental construct, no longer from deities
of the sub-psyche that have been running your life-stream and creating
colorful outcomes, but yet letting all of that collapse and dissolve and
crash to where it’s no longer having any say-so within your life-stream;
for it’s no longer having any impact even within your physicality which
allows you, your Universalis DNAs, your whole Universe, your higher
levels, your creator levels, your manifest levels, your angelic, archan-
gelic, ascended host realms, your guidance realms begin to integrate,
amplify, implement and walk with you, rather than be segregated and
separate from all of what the whole Universe has to offer you and sooo
much more.
As you’re allowing these portals around you, your dimensional
plains to fully completely become embodied and re-amplified,
dissolving all the debris that has been embodied all around you, shed-
ding all the debris that has been happening for you and also shatter-
ing all the control dynamics and all of the dynamics that have been
in control of you, you are letting everything fully completely resolve,
letting resolution take place and arise and dissolve, for there’s nothing
more to arise except for you arising through the physical conduit to a
fully completely integrated and amplified state - un-magnetized, un-
polarized through a full, complete embodiment as Creator Incarnate
Living in Your Fullest Potential letting your life-stream open for you
and around you to honor you.
What a beautiful time to celebrate with all of the beautiful unfold-
ments that are eminently unfolding for you as your matrix is changing
and arising and coming to life. Your Universalis states are amplifying
and running forth and taking off faster than ever and at the same time
there is so much going on physically, emotionally and mentally. But
the really fun part is you continue to step up and run forth even while
the mind is so brilliantly uncomfortable that so much is coming to
the forefront with all the lower energies collapsing and as all the new
unfoldments continue to be offered.
Now if you take that further for a moment, looking at all of your
life-stream now that you are no longer being controlled by the mental
and emotional levels, you have one opportunity and another oppor-
tunity, or one calling and another calling, one opening and another
opening, or another creation to enjoy and create. Why don’t you even
call it ‘An Ideal To Create’. Now you have this opening, you have that
opportunity, you are even presented with a calling, you’re presented
with creating; if you start putting yourself out there, letting yourself
become available for humanity, running with this opportunity, run-
ning with that creation, running with this ideal to begin brining into
the manifest world, if you start giving yourself the go-ahead to start
creating, WOW, can you imagine where you manifestations can take
you?
But then, well, “May be not”, says the mind. May be it won’t suc-
ceed. Well if I start going that direction what are others going to think?
What’s going to happen? What might not happen? So you know, I’m
not going to go there, but I will go there when my manifest levels; i.e.
entourage, presents this, then I’ll start running with it, or when this
opening presents it’s got to be this way, it’s got to look this way, then
I’ll show up.
But what if, you just for a moment, you start playing with all of it
and choose not to choose? Because if you follow one ideal that’s being
presented for you - just one - what I love so much about that, it’s going
to fully encompass the rest of the ideals, openings, callings and more,
because now you are wide open and you can now let the whole Universe
do what it has been waiting to do, which is give you everything beyond
what the mind could conjure up as an outcome.
If you follow this calling, that calling, if you start writing, if you
start creating, if you start saying, I am ready, show me, take command, I
want to know what I want, because remember everything going on now
Universally is occurring faster, lighter and simpler and more vibrant
than ever, plus now with all of the old debris leaving you’re becom-
ing lighter, clearer and free of density, you’re becoming your natural
vibrancy, as the priceless conduit, the priceless matrix of light that you
are, as Creator embarking and expanding within creation, Creator cre-
ating within creation, now you’re being offered everything. Now the
many facets of ideals that are being presented and given to you by you,
are you. You are now ready to start to act on them. It’s really willingness
- the willingness to go there - that is when the support of the Universe
comes in, especially your entourage.
This is well beyond choice; it is simply willingness.
The really fun part here, Dear Brothers is that the ideals and door-
ways start to take on a life of their own. Doorways are what you’re
stepping into, stepping forth with - not waiting for because waiting is
waiting any way you want to look at it - but where everything can and
will begin dancing, booming, blossoming and running forth within
you. Anyway you look at it you are taking off, flourishing faster than
ever, more than ever. You are flourishing, singing, dancing, taking off,
opening more and becoming more available faster than ever, so let’s
dance with it. All of you is now offering ideals so let’s be willing to let it
present; say, Show me. Show me where this will go, show me where it can
go – not all this unlimited stuff called ‘ungroundedness’ - show me where
it’s going. I’m willing, let’s go. I am not going to question my divinity with
a limited mental/emotional structure, so higher levels, creator levels, show

me the whole picture. Let’s go.
Because as Creator Incarnate, Creator Consciousness, you’ve said,
I’m willing. Not tap, tap, tap, I’m willing; but really you have said, I’m
willing, let’s go, let’s Live in My Fullest of Potential. Well, automatically,
this ideal is going to grow upon itself and continue to come into frui-
tion in the manifest world and automatically dear ones will start to
continue to come forth to compliment and support you. Watch how
you’re not alone here. It’s impossible to be alone within it. The entire
Universe; your family, your higher levels, your creator levels, your man-
ifest levels, your angelic, archangelic, ascended host realms and your
guidance realms are celebrating you as you are celebrating it. The Uni-
verse is definitely walking with you, showing you, offering to you, put-
ting its hand out to you and giving to you, and then you’re going to
walk through these callings and openings, openings and callings. It
doesn’t really matter where you’re playing, whom you’re playing with.
Let’s not get wrapped up with whom or what you’re playing with. Let’s
get more wrapped up into; I wonder how many, how much I can play
with all at once? Bring It On!!! Higher Levels Take Command!
William Linville is an instrument of the

Universal and Creator Consciousness and
is here to assist you in accelerating and
amplifying the process of you remembering,
embodying and expanding into your Creator
Essence. You may contact him at
www.WilliamLinville.com
CHAPTER
26
Spiritual Practices for
Fulfilled Living
David Dibble
I
t is probably safe to say that most of us want to live more fulfilling
lives. But fulfillment can be different for different people. I know
my definition of fulfillment has changed greatly over the years.
However, I think most of us might agree that being happy and at peace
are at least part of feeling fulfilled. I’ll take a little liberty here and
merge fulfillment, happiness and peace into the same state of being.
Fulfillment and the American Dream
Growing up, we didn’t have a lot of money. My dad was a tuna fisher-
man and I was proud of him. I, for some reason, liked being the son of
a fisherman. However, having a fisherman as the only breadwinner for
the family had its challenges; there were paydays spread over months
with no guarantees money earned being sufficient to pay the bills.
Although the family lived quite modestly, it seemed we were always
stressed about money. One day the money simply ran out and my dad
was forced to look for another type of work. I think that day my dad
died a little bit. It was also the day I resolved that when I grew up, I was
going to make a lot of money. I was going to live the American Dream.
After college, I started a business with five thousand dollars in the
back of an old paint warehouse. We grew the company to profitable $10-
$12 millions in sales with 200 employees. At 34 years of age, I found
myself living the American Dream. I had a beautiful wife, amazing kids,
163
big house in an exclusive neighborhood and more money than we needed

or was probably good for us. I had one other thing, too—a more than
nagging feeling of emptiness. I’d always assumed that once one achieved
the American Dream, one would feel whole, complete—fulfilled. I filled
the hole in me with money-fueled distractions and fast living.
Turning Inward – A New Path to Fulfillment
In 1980, I had a spiritual experience that changed everything. I quit

the fast living, became a better husband and father, and, importantly,
began a lifelong journey on a meandering spiritual path to self-discov-
ery and deeper meaning. Luckily, my incredible wife, Linda, joined me
on this journey and we dove into anything “spiritual” that presented
itself to us. The est training, New Thought, A Course in Miracles,
eastern teachings, mediation, chanting, yoga, NLP, Native American
teachings, Bucky Fuller, Law of Attraction, gurus, ashrams, temples,
tepees, sweat lodges, vision quests, pyramids, power spots all over the
world—you name it—we were up for it. Over these years we found
ourselves feeling happier, more connected and even somewhat fulfilled.
Still, it was clear that there was much more to do and be.
The Blessings of DreamWork and The Four Agreements
In the late 1980s we stumbled upon two bodies of knowledge that

accelerated everything we were doing on our spiritual journey. The first
was DreamWork, which, through a process called Dream Assignments,
allowed us to ask our Higher Self any question and receive perfect guid-
ance in a dream. The second was learning to live the Four Agreements,
taught to us by our teacher for eight years, don Miguel Ruiz. Let’s first
look at the power of The Four Agreements.
The Four Agreements, which are outlined in Miguel’s wildly pop-
ular The Four Agreements, are:
1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
3. Don’t Make Assumptions
4. Always Do Your Best
David Dibble ■ 165
Although the Agreements are very simple, they are not easy to
incorporate into one’s everyday living. This is because violation of the
Agreements usually happens unconsciously—in the mind. We don’t
choose to take things personally or make assumptions, the mind, run-
ning on free spool, gets triggered and simply creates negative or unex-
amined thoughts and emotions and we identify with them. We say to
ourselves, “I” am hurt (taking things personally) or “I” know this to be
true (making assumptions). Learning to live the Agreements is learning
to become masters of our own minds. When we master the mind, we
master the Agreements. Luckily, mastering the mind comes with an
equally simple set of power tools—The Masteries.
The Masteries (of the Mind)
There are three Masteries that are the tools for learning to gain control
of the mind and begin living the Agreements. They are: 1. Mastery
of Awareness, 2. Mastery of Transformation and 3. Mastery of Intent
(energy). The first two Masteries lead to the third. The first two Mas-
teries are also where you will want to focus your attention and practice
on the road to being deeply and meaningfully fulfilled.
The Mastery of Awareness
To become a master of change is to become a master of the mind. To

become a master of the mind is to become a Master of Awareness. For
those of us desirous of living the Agreements, here are the three simple
steps to practice the Mastery of Awareness.
1. Become Aware: The key to changing is not to try to change,
but first to become aware of our experience in the moment.
Almost everything that we do as human beings, we do on
automatic. My mind thinks something and I react to those
thoughts, describing the result as my life. If we cannot become
aware of the thoughts our minds spew out, we have little
chance of living our dreams and life purpose. On the other
hand, when in real time we become aware of the thoughts
that are preventing us from living the Agreements and feeling
fulfilled, we gain a powerful advantage over being on auto-

matic. It’s then that we can move to the next important step
in the practice of this Mastery, observation.
2. Observe: After becoming aware, we can move to the next step
of proactive change, which is to observe the thoughts that are
going against the Agreements. Science has shown that the
very act of observing something changes that which is being
observed. Normally, the mind spins out thought after thought
the way a computer might spit out random numbers. The
mind has no control over what it thinks. It’s simply action-
reaction. Only we can learn to control our minds. Only you
and I can control what our minds think and we must become
very observant of particularly fear-based thinking of the mind.
The mind, however, does not like to be watched. It much
prefers to churn out thought after thought, with complete
disregard to our dreams and life purpose. The mind is tricky
and, particularly in the beginning, will do all it can to distract
you from observing it. However, your careful observations will
inevitably bring you to a powerful point, the point of choice.
3. Choose: As we master awareness and observation, we reach a
point of power. We reach the point of choosing our thoughts.
Now, instead of reacting to everything, we begin to gain
control of our lives and dreams. The more choices we make,
the faster we change. Importantly, any choice is a good choice.
The very act of choosing either “good” or “bad” thoughts is a
step in the right direction toward mastery.
The Mastery of Transformation
After becoming aware of your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors (The

Mastery of Awareness), the next step is to choose different thoughts,
as opposed to the old fear-based ones that violate the Agreements.
Although greatly simplified here, this is the basis of the Mastery of
Transformation. When you are aware of energy draining thoughts,
beliefs and memories, you can choose new ones based in love rather
than fear. Fear or love, there’s always a choice.
David Dibble ■ 167
Suppose you’re an impatient person trying to be impeccable with

your word. Now let’s suppose you’re upset because a little old lady is
writing a check in the “Cash Only” line at the super market. You’re
about to tell the little old lady off, violating the Agreement; Be Impec-
cable With Your Word. You think to yourself; What’s the matter with
her! Can’t she read! (notice that every word starts with a thought). What
can you do to be more impeccable with your word? You could choose
to change your thoughts to the following:
-- The little old lady writing the check probably didn’t mean to make
me wait.
-- No big deal, anyway.
-- The extra three minutes in line really isn’t going to affect me.
-- Maybe the delay will prevent me from getting in an accident.
-- Besides, this is a wonderful time to practice the Mastery of Awareness.
-- I can practice the Mastery of Transformation too.
-- Actually, this whole experience is a gift.
When you choose different, more loving thoughts, you’re choosing
to be impeccable. And, sometimes the most impeccable words are the
ones not spoken.
The Mastery of Intent
The third mastery is the Mastery of Intent, which is really the mastery
of the energy. Science has shown that everything in the universe and
on earth is energy in its many different forms. What we have believed
to be solid turns out to be aspects of energy and possibility. To master
Intent is to master life as energy and might also be referred to as a form
of enlightenment. This way of being is beyond fulfillment and begins
to emerge as we master the first two Masteries.
DreamWork – A Powerful Guide on the Road to

Fulfillment, Happiness and Peace
With DreamWork, Linda and I began doing Dream Assignments to

ask Inner Wisdom for guidance in answering our biggest questions and
resolving our greatest challenges in life. When we found ourselves in

challenging circumstances, rather than trying to figure it out working
at the level of the rational mind, we simply did Dream Assignments
asking Inner Wisdom for divine guidance. Interestingly, following the
guidance we received not only resolved the issues at hand, but always
seemed expand our consciousness in some way.
We used DreamWork in handling issues in our marriage, in
addressing problems with our children, in understanding health issues
(once we get the message, we probably don’t need the disease), making
sense of troubled relationships, financial challenges and of course, in
working with our coaching and consulting clients. We didn’t make big
decisions without doing a Dream Assignment to be sure we were align-
ing ourselves with what our Higher Self had in mind for us. True, it
was often challenging to follow the guidance of Inner Wisdom, but we
always came out the other side just a little happier, a little more fulfilled
and, importantly, less affected by negativity from any source—more at
peace.
If you want more happiness, peace and feelings of fulfillment in
your life, consider making DreamWork and The Four Agreements a
part of your daily practices. You will be well on your way to creating the
meaning and fulfillment that make life the great adventure it is meant
to be. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
David Dibble is a master of DreamWork, the

Four Agreements (at work) and Conscious
Systems. In the workplace and at home, he
has been coaching/training/consulting using
these powerful bodies of knowledge for
20 years. You may contact him at
www.NewDreamWork.com
CHAPTER
27
Love Yourself…Live Your
Spirit
Sonia Choquette
E
ver since I was a child I have worked intimately with others,
guiding them through life’s challenges and helping them find
the most direct and satisfying path to fulfillment.
I’ve spoken with people around the world, from India to South
Africa, Europe, Canada, South America, as well as here in the United
States. I’ve talked with people with advanced academic and profes-
sional degrees, with those in the working class, and even with people
who had no idea where their next meal was coming from.
I’ve spoken with young people, old people, single people, married
people, divorced people and widowed people. I’ve talked with people
who have lived charmed, graceful lives, as well as those who’ve suf-
fered abominable tragedy. And in all of this, I’ve learned a thing or two
myself.
The first thing I’ve learned is that life is school. We are here to
learn to overcome circumstances and create, with what we are given,
the lives we really want.
I’ve also learned that if we work from ego, intellect, or emotion
exclusively, we will never successfully achieve our dreams.
Observing thousands and thousands from virtually every walk of
life and every advantage or disadvantage, I can confidently say that
the only ones who genuinely succeed, who find peace and joy in their
hearts and take great pleasure in their life experiences, have a different
way of going about things.
169
Rather than relying solely on their ego- their defended, insecure

personality, and intellectual mind, suffering the assaults life renders on
it, they turn to a higher aspect of their nature, the Spirit within, and let
this direct their lives.
Those who remember that we are Divine Spirit, and love and live
in harmony with their Spirit, are the most successful ones. People who
love themselves and live their Spirit are not necessarily subjected to
any fewer challenges in life than those who rely solely on their egos
and intellect to guide them. Life is life. For all of us, just when we are
comfortable, an entirely new set of challenges or circumstances arises
to which we must adapt--and often, quickly.
No, loving and living the Spirit within doesn’t prevent you from
facing life’s storms. It does, however, greatly assist you in navigating the
treacherous waters as painlessly and creatively as possible. And it allows
you to do this while enjoying the journey.
The only problem is, so many of us are so disconnected from our
Spirits that we don’t even know we have one to love, let alone live. If we
are not aware of our Spirit, we cannot nurture it and trust it as the most
essential part of our authentic self, our guiding light. So we remain
stuck in a vicious cycle of fear and pain, and miss out on the joy and
creative wonder of living a Divine existence. This is not what Our Cre-
ator intended for us. Our Creator intended for us to live creative lives
filled with joy and inner peace, as Divine and holy beings.
The very first step toward overcoming this illusion and begin lov-
ing yourself and living your Spirit is recognizing who you really are. So
many of us have grown up believing that we are unacceptable, sinful,
even contemptible beings. We’ve even been told that we are somehow
tainted, broken, and consequently basically unlovable.
Whatever the cultural, religious, or psychological reasons are
behind this message, our acceptance of the notion that we are unwor-
thy comes from our tendency to seek love from the outside. We have
been led to believe that we are only our ego or personality and the ego
we have is just not good enough. Along the way, we have also been
told what feels like a billion times, from a billion different people, that
unless we do what other people want us to do, we don’t deserve to be
loved and won’t be.
Sonia Choquette ■ 171
In relentless ways we have been indoctrinated to have low self-

esteem, and to measure our worth and lovability by our capacity to
win approval. If we are good at winning approval, we feel loved and
lovable. If we aren’t so good at winning approval, we feel unloved and
unlovable. The trouble is, no one can possibly win enough approval
to feel securely loved for their entire life. Approval is much too fickle
for that.
Seeking love through our ego, from the outside in, is a doomed
prospect. Because our ego, which is not our true self, can never be loved
enough to feel satisfied, and because we can never control what’s out-
side of us consistently, we will never succeed if we seek to love ourselves
this way. Furthermore, having worked so intimately with people for so
many years, I venture to suggest that on an intuitive organic level we
know this system won’t work. Deep down most of us realize we can-
not find adequate self-love through winning approval from others. We
can only find self-love from appreciating and valuing ourselves from
within, from a place that goes deeper than ego or personality.
The key is recognizing that we are all Divine Spirit--as beautiful,
unique creations of God. The Holy Mother/Father God breathed us all
into existence, and delights in our existence in every way. It is up to us
to do the same.
To self-love starts with knowing we are Spirit. We have bodies. We
have personalities. We have histories, stories, experiences. But we are
not those things. We are Spirit. Our body, our ego, our intellect and
personality are tools our Spirit uses to express ourselves in our physical
embodiment. They are useful. They color and influence our experi-
ence. They affect our outlook, behavior, responses, and choices. They
make life interesting, but they are nevertheless only implements for our
Spirit to use. They are not who we are.
I say, “Our Spirit,” because just as there is only one fire, there is
only one Spirit. Just as a fireplace, a lighter, a furnace, a barbeque, and
a forest fire are all expressions of one fire, so we, too, are all unique
expressions of one Spirit.
If that is true, and the One Divine Holy Spirit gives all of us life,
then it leads us to conclude there are no “others,” no outsiders whose
approval we must seek. There is just us. In other words, there is no
other Spirit, separate from you, judging you. We are made of the same
stuff, evolving and learning at different paces and in different ways, of
course, but still the same.
If you look at yourself and at life through the lens of your ego, you
will feel isolated, ganged up upon, alone, different, and not part of the
crowd. If you look through the lens of Spirit, knowing we are all one,
you will always feel safe, secure, and loved.
Though you may have a less-than-stellar personality, a less-than-
sharp intellect, and less-than-Hollywood figure, you are nevertheless
a gorgeous, beautiful, wondrous, miraculous manifestation of Spirit.
For it is nothing short of a miracle when the Holy Spirit descends
into your being with your first breath. The body is formed, but without
that breath of life, that spark of Divine consciousness, there is no you.
You are Divine. You are made of light love and grace. You are holy,
and your body and personality are the caretakers of this holy presence.
To house this Divinity in your being, in your body, is a gift and should
be a pleasure. To accept your true nature is a huge, undeniable step
toward self-love.
Once you decide to love your Spirit, the next step is to live your
Spirit. To live your Spirit is to honor and respect your most authentic
Divine self. To live your Spirit is to remember who you really are and
express it in the world. To live your Spirit is to rise above the pain and
confusion of human ego and travel through life as the Divine being you
are designed to be. It’s your true identity. This is your purpose. This is
the Divine plan. This is the only way.
Einstein said it best, “The Intuitive Spirit is a sacred gift, and the
rational mind its faithful servant. Sadly, we have thrown away the gift
and have become enslaved to the servant.”
This is why we fail to find success through the ego. This is why
life, for many, is an endless drama and struggle: because we follow our
inferior guide, the one that is defensive, unclear, poorly informed, con-
fused, easily intimidated, self-absorbed, and fearful.
Furthermore, no matter how we cater to the ego (which it loves,
by the way), it will never be other than what it is: a posturing confused
defensive insecure, needy, demanding dictator who basically holds us
hostage and robs us of joy and peace.
Sonia Choquette ■ 173
To live your Spirit is simple. All you must do is detach from your
ego and follow your heart. By adopting certain daily practices, which
are simple but honest expressions of you, such as listening to your inner
voice, being flexible and changing direction if it is called for, keep-
ing your heart open, and laughing throughout the day, you will natu-
rally raise the energetic frequency of your Spirit above the frequency of
ego. The more you resonate with the frequency or vibration of Spirit,
the stronger the connection becomes. The stronger the connection
becomes, the clearer the direction your Spirit offers in your life.
When you begin to live your Spirit the first thing you will feel is
the presence of your Spirit in your heart. The Spirit conveys an actual
energetic sensation. For some this energetic sensation is a subtle flutter-
ing. For others, it is a warm intense buzz. For some it feels like relief,
as though a missing piece to the puzzle has been found. For others it
“pings,” “clicks,” “rings true.” In all cases the minute you raise your
vibration enough to connect with your Spirit, you feel real, genuine,
authentic, whole, and satisfied. The empty restlessness in you quiets
down. The void fills up and physically, you begin to relax and enjoy
life.
You begin to experience what I call “catching the wave.” Others
have called it “getting into the flow” or my favorite, “entering a state
of grace.” Whatever you call it, it feels great. You no longer have to
agonize or try to control life. You just show up, and life carries you to
greater and greater experiences.
This all sounds incredible, doesn’t it? Well, as one who lives this
way I can assure you it is. Again, it is not difficult to live the Spirit. All
that it requires is that you choose to live as a Divine being and follow
your Spirit, as opposed to living as an ego-bound being, following your
fears. Only the decision is difficult. Once you make that decision, the
rest gets easier and easier and easier.
The best part is that living your Sprit is that it the greatest contri-
bution you can make to the world. The more of us who live our Spirit,
the greater the chance of our encouraging those who don’t or won’t.
When the greater majority of us live the Spirit, the false perception of
“them” will fade away, and we, us, humanity will start living the peace
we all deserve. My teacher Dr. Tully said it best years ago when he
stated, “The best way to help the miserable of the world is not to be one
of them.” When we love and live our Spirit we stop separating ourselves
from the love, joy and peace that are rightfully ors to enjoy. Start right
now loving your Spirit, and living the Divinity that you really are. It is
the best gift you can give yourself, and others.
Sonia Choquette is a spiritual teacher,

six-sensory consultant, and NY Times
bestselling author. She is the author of 19
international bestselling books on intuitive
awakening, personal growth, creativity,
and transformational leadership. You may
contact her at www.SoniaChoquette.com
Afterword
As you can now see, having read this book, this material is not just your
typical personal growth, motivational, hoo-rah book. Actually, it could
hardly be considered a book at all. It is a complete set of guidelines and
“workbook” for designing and living a meaningful, healthy, happy, and
fulfilling life. With exercises, meditations, life-practices, and thought
provoking stories, you will benefit greatly by perusing through this
material time and time again.
Each author shared their personal wisdom in a meaningful and
creative way; whether through personal stories and adventures, or
through metaphors and exercises - though the most beautiful aspect
of all is that they were each given the freedom to express their unique
talents individually, and once collectively pulled together and massaged
into a single compilation, the end result is a mosaic of artistic self-
expression as diverse and strongly interwoven as the magnificent colors
of a glistening rainbow.
One of the greatest lessons of life we all get to benefit from is
expressed in this very masterpiece - working together is much more
valuable, fun, and dynamic than working apart.
My wish to you and to the rest of the world is that we all get to
experience a place in our hearts where we, as Cristina Smith wrote
about so elegantly; “Love our neighbors as ourselves,” and just as
importantly, love ourselves for who we are, and accept everyone else for
who they are as well.
Together we can end poverty, we can end war, we can end self-
destruction and planetary mutilation. With over 7 Billion people on the
planet, we can, one by one, begin to reshape and co-create the majestic,
beautiful, healing, natural paradise on earth that we all deserve.
175
Your voice counts. Your actions affect everyone around you and
every living being in the Universe. When you think positive, it not
only changes your life, but adds beneficial energy to the collective con-
sciousness that permeates the entire planet, and can change the lives of
others in a meaningful and positive way as well.
Thank you for doing your part in helping create a better world. If
you wish to share your personal story of transformation or “aha’s” you
received from reading this book, I would love to hear from you and
share them with our community on Facebook and on the website. You
can reach me directly at [email protected].
Wishing you a fulfilling life of health and happiness!
Yours Truly,
Nathan Crane
Organizer - “27 Flavors of Fulfillment; How to Live Life to the Fullest!”
Founder, The Panacea Community
http://www.ThePanaceaCommunity.com
Bonuses
Thank you for downloading 27 Flavors of Fulfillment; How to Live

Life to the Fullest! Some of our authors have agreed to share some
valuable programs, ebooks, audios, meditations, and courses with you
as a thank you and to help you take your personal and spiritual devel-
opment to the next level. These bonuses are for those who have pur-
chased the book either online or in person at full value. To receive the
$716.00 in bonuses that come with ordering this book, please go to
www.27flavors.net and order your copy today.
177
About the Organizer
Nathan Crane is the Founder of The Panacea Community; a con-

scious publishing company dedicated to helping humanity experience
an abundance of harmony, health, happiness, and divine purpose,
author of The Panacea Cleanse, and is the organizer and host of “27
Flavors of Fulfillment; How to Live Life to the Fullest!” Nathan loves
helping people connect to their deepest innate and divine qualities of
life and continuously works towards living in perfect harmony with
the planet and helping others do the same. You may contact him at
www.NathanCrane.com
179
Life Coaching
Dear kindred spirit, would you like to have dozens of the world’s new-
thought and consciousness leaders personally coach you and guide you
to live a more meaningful, healthy, abundant, and purpose-driven life?
We all know that the most successful people on the planet have a
coach. All professional sports athletes have a coach, as well as all ama-
teur athletes on their way to becoming a professional. Most success-
ful business people have a coach. Personal Development leaders have
coaches like Oprah, Wayne Dyer, and Eckhart Tolle. Even the coaches
themselves have coaches.
Being coached through life, personally and professionally, is the
fastest, smartest, and most enjoyable way to progress and become better
at everything we do. That’s why we have put together a complete live
coaching program for you called
Panacea Life School - Conscious Education Coaching to Help You
Fulfill Your Highest Potential.
Panacea Life School is the next level of conscious education on
the planet. There is nothing like this coaching program available. It is
the first of it’s kind. Every week you will get to personally learn from
and ask questions to many of the master teachers who co-authored the
book; “27 Flavors of Fulfillment: How to Live Life to the Fullest!”
These teachers will personally walk you through the 13-Tribes model
as part of the new-life curriculum we’ll talk about shortly.
To find out more and register for Panacea Life School, please visit
www.PanaceaLifeSchool.com
181

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DISCLAIMER: The information and statements contained herein have not

This is dedicated to the Divine Spirit which inspired me

Chapter 1 Can Positive or Negative Thoughts and

Chapter 10 Enlightenment of the Consciousness 61

Chapter 23 The Source of Peace 141

Thank you Mother and Father for believing so greatly in me.

With love and appreciation,

Some Chronic Emotions Begin Early

It is during these vulnerable and unprotected years that we often

Let’s Take a Look at All of That Emotion

They die of a “thought attack” that medical science simply refers to as

Can Our Emotions Cause Cancer?

Dr. Robert Young’s research into diabetes,

As an example, let’s take a look at the modern obsession with

whimsical, let me put your mind at ease by emphasizing a critically

To put it another way, your income is directly proportionate to how

choice that was made as a small child, or a choice made by an ancestor,

Brent Phillips was an MIT trained engineer

of everything (appearance, existence, disappearance), I could stop look-

A teacher and author, Gangaji powerfully

rising sun, these shadows are revealed to be without substance; we see

This young man chose to learn the life-elevating lesson in the

Shed New Light on the Pain of Impermanence

this problem of impermanence, and why the pain surrounding it is so

Anchor Yourself to an Unsinkable Security

much we made, it was never enough. As we learn to watch this happen-

Guy Finley is the best-selling author of over

experience more advanced levels of inclusion. Then we have to apply

Love Your Neighbor as Yourself- Not Instead of Yourself

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. —Judaism, The

Have Compassion for Yourself and Others

A man obtains a proper rule of action by looking on his

Think of Yourself as the Only Student and Everyone is

When we approach life with a student attitude, we receive a multitude

ever imagined. A student attitude cultivates an open mind and an open

Consider the Impact of Your Actions

Regard your neighbor’s gain as your own gain, and your

Honor Each Person’s Path as Right for Them

Full of love for all things in the world, practicing virtue in

Open Your Heart to Oneness

Noted medical intuitive Cristina Smith’s

An African Story – Thanks to Alan Cohen

Singing : a performative activity, or a transformative

Having spent most of my early life singing, choral conducting, and

Birth of The Naked Voice

These early experiences catalyzed a life-long love affair with indigenous

Sounding Your Soul

The sound of your soul is the mouthpiece of your spirit.

practice of sounding your soul unifies your highest aspirations with

The One Breath One Voice – Unconditional Listening

Ultimately the open-heartedness that your shared sound releases, leads

The Singing Field – A Collective Experience of Oneness

wondrous power – catalyzed by sounding your soul in the presence of

The Singing Field anthem is our message:

Out beyond ideas of right and wrong doing

A collective wisdom of sound is slowly and gradually starting to expand

Chloe Goodchild is an international

Repeat this pattern of breathing three or more times, slowly breath-

Stacey J. Hentschel is an intuitive, business

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise