It’s tax time for many people, and so money is in our thoughts a lot right now.  Money has been a big issue for me, and one of the things that I have been working to retrain my mind about in the last year and a half is that money is just another form of energy.

There are lots of cliches about money.  Consciously or not, these cultural teaching affect how we interact with money.  I have been working on my abundance mindset, and being in the flow of money, having it flow to me and through me effortlessly and abundantly.

The other morning, I found myself slipping back into some old thought patterns: I need more money for ______; How am I going to pay for _______; I still owe ______; etc.

Then I gave myself a mental shake.  I recognized the old pathway my mind was travelling down, and I consciously stepped off of that old path.

“Wait a second!” I thought to myself.  “I have just had an abundance of energy and money flow through me in the past couple of weeks!”  Ok, it flowed through me, and went out just as fast as it came in, but I was in the flow.  My bills are paid, and the money I needed for a couple of unplanned things (car repairs!) was there for me when I needed.

In that moment, my whole energy shifted.  Instead of being worried and tense, I was relaxed and peaceful.  Instead of being anxious, I felt extremely grateful.  I am now aware that an experience I was looking for in my life is present, right here and right now, and it gives me the sustaining faith that I will continue to have this experience.  I AM in the flow, and I AM manifesting abundance in my life!

To what do I credit the shift in consciousness?  It started with the Millionaire Mind Intensive in October of 2008, which helped me to start changing my beliefs about money. This led to other courses and events with Peak Potentials, which helped me break through some of the fears that were holding me back and build a network of supportive, positive people who have goals and beliefs similar to mine.  Then my husband and I attended CEO Space in May of 2009, which expanded my vision of what I am here to do in the world and led me to The Peaceful Woman.  Most recently, I have been taking part in The Peaceful Woman’s Inspired Living Coaching Program, and that has helped me be aware of what I want to manifest, and become conscious of when I am manifesting those experiences into my life.

Here are a couple of the books I have read that have helped me create this positive change:

• Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker
• The Energy of Money by Maria Nemeth Ph.D.
• The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist (this one made a particularly large impact on me!)

I’d love to hear about your relationship with money, and any tips you have for making it a positive one!

Blessings,

Mary

Today’s the day…
Miracles are happening in my life.

Today’s the day…
I leave the past behind me.

Today’s the day…
My life is changing
For the better!

Today’s the day…
My dreams are becoming reality.

Today’s the day…
The work I have been doing
Bears fruit.

Today’s the day…
I am aligned with my purpose
And success comes easily.

Today’s the day…
The goals I have been working toward
Are realized, and new goals
Spring up before me.

Today’s the day…
The pieces of the puzzle
The Universe has been moving for me
Fall into place.

I don’t know what.
I don’t know where.
I don’t know who or how.

All I know is
Today’s the day!
I feel truly blessed
And I am so grateful.

Blessings,
Mary

I was going to start this post with a clever quote about how my life was like Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, but being a good researcher, I looked it up first.  And got confused about how exactly I would make the comparison, so I’ll forgo the quantum mechanics analogy.

I feel like there is a lot of uncertainty in my life right now.  The exciting part of that is there is a lot of possibility.  There are many different paths before me, mostly having to do with my work and financial life.

Illustration by Krieg Barrie

But which one is the right one for me? And which ones are only figments of my imagination?

Some of them I have very little control over, as they depend on other people’s decisions.  If it is a yes, the path firms up.  If it’s a no…poof! That path vanishes.  Other paths I have much more control over, but for one reason or another, I do not choose that path.  It may look the most stable and secure, but my heart just shrivels up when I envision myself five years down that road.

I’m on the edge of something big…I can feel it.  (Incidentally, several other friends of mine have expressed the exact same sentiment in their own lives.)  The something big is still shrouded in the mists, though.  I feel like I am hovering in limbo, waiting for the other shoe to drop, or the light to suddenly turn on and the mist to clear.  But what if the mist is waiting for me to make up my mind? What if it is up to me to make a definitive choice, to speak the words of commitment before the mists will clear?

There is one direction my heart calls me towards. From my current vantage point, that direction leads to a huge abyss.  I tell myself that if I didn’t have a family, I would take the leap.  Would I really?  With my children, I don’t feel that choice is really in alignment for me right now.

And so I hover in anticipation.  I flow with each moment as it comes, and I take time to vision where it is that I DO want to end up six months from now.  Because if all possibilities are before me, I feel I’m better off making up a story that I like rather than worry about the options I don’t like.  If nothing else, this time in my life is teaching me to worry less.

I’m curious.  What would you do?  Would you jump off the cliff into the complete unknown?  Or would you bide your time on the safer path?

This email has been sitting in my inbox, unread, for two weeks.  It’s from a writer I respect very much, Barbara De Angelis.  It was totally perfect timing for me today.

HOW TO MAKE 2010 THE MOST MEANINGFUL YEAR OF YOUR LIFE

PERFORM THE SEVEN ESSENTIAL ACTIONS© ONCE EVERY DAY

1. Thank someone you would normally not thank.
2. Express your love in a way that is unexpected, or to someone who is not expecting it.
3. Honor yourself for something you did today that reflects the best of who you are.
4. Forgive yourself for something you did today that reflects less than the best of who you are.
5. Feel compassion for someone you would normally judge.
6. Notice or experience something as miraculous that you would normally take for granted.
7. For one full minute, stop whatever you are and be deeply grateful for the gift of this day of your life. During this minute, contemplate the fact that yesterday, approximately 154,300 people on Earth passed from this world, and that even while you are practicing this very sixty seconds of gratitude, 100 souls will leave their physical forms. Send them your prayers as they journey onward. Then, with great joy and humility, proclaim these words out loud:

“TODAY, I AM ALIVE!!”
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Copyright 2010  Barbara De Angelis  All rights reserved

www.barbaradeangelis.com

I just got this movie in my inbox, and I had to share:

Watch the Magic New Year Movie here… and know that I wish the same for you!

Blessings,

Mary

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Yule, Hannukah, Ramadan or Kwanzaa,
May the growing Light bless you with Peace, Love and Joy this holiday season.

Want to learn more about these different holidays?  ReligiousTolerance.org has a great write up describing the different celebrations at this time of year.  You can read about it here….

Blessings,

Mary

A new guided meditation is now available!

I had a conversation recently on facebook with a friend of mine about faith and trust.  I was planning to copy that conversation and edit it for today’s blog post.  Facebook is not letting me see that message thread right now, so instead I have to have faith and trust that I can rebuild my thoughts on the subject!  How’s that for irony?

My friend was questioning a decision she had made.  She saw it as a test of her personal values, and was questioning the Source that would challenge her in this way at this time in her life, and given other recent events.

The first thing that came to mind was a line from a Babylon 5 episode: Confessions and Lamentations.  In the episode, an entire species (the Markab) was being wiped out by a plague, and the remaining Markabs were quarantined in a part of the space station.  None of the doctors knew if the plague would affect other species, and so they were left to themselves to die.  An ambassador of the Minbari, Delenn and her assistant, Lenier, who are of the religious caste of their race, go in to the quarantined area to give what comfort they can to the last Markabs, not knowing if they will succumb to the illness or not.

They come upon a little girl who is crying:

Delenn: She has separated from her mother. Please find her.
Lennier: [looks around, somewhat lost] How?
Delenn: [to Lennier] Faith manages.
Delenn: [turning to Markab girl] What is her name?
Markab Girl: Mama.
[Delenn turns and looks at Lennier again]
Lennier: Faith… manages.

This quote rings through my head whenever I am facing a seemingly insurmountable challenge, and I have no idea where the solution will come from.  As long as I believe that everything will work out, it usually does.  They did find the girl’s mama, by the way, and Delenn and Lenier survived, though the Markab race was completely wiped out.

Going back to my friend, I reminded her of some of my beliefs.  They may or may not be your beliefs, and that’s ok.

I am a soul having a human experience. I *chose* to come here, and I *chose* many (all?) of the challenges I have faced in this life before I came. Why? So I could experience things my soul may not have experienced before, or perhaps so I could choose to respond differently this time.

The Earth is a big playground, where all these amazing, all-powerful, creative beings have come to experience EVERYTHING! However, on the journey here, we forget that we are amazing, all-powerful creators. So we struggle. But the playground is essentially harmless. It is beneficent even. What is my ultimate goal here? Experience everything with joy and gratitude. So even when, ESPECIALLY when, something “bad” happens to me, something painful, something WAY better is just around the corner.

But do I BELIEVE that? Do I TRUST that the playground is harmless, that it is here to fulfill my every wish? Or will I let myself get bogged down in the pain? Do I celebrate when I pass a test of my resolution? Or do I rail against the Universe for testing me in the first place? As the creator of my Universe, I would only be railing against myself.

Do you see the joke? Once you see it, and can laugh at it, challenges become easier to face.

So I choose to CELEBRATE! In my friend’s case, she could see the pattern of where her previous choices have not brought her joy, and now she has chosen differently! While it may seem painful at the moment, something WAY better is now available to her because she learned and exercised her power of choice. Woo hoo!

Wishing you the vision to see  and the sense of humor to laugh,

Mary

PS. Facebook came through at the end and let me see the thread.  You know, once I had mostly finished writing.

Sacramento women coached in happiness
by Liz Shenaut

“To [Sacramento-based life coach Nancy] Kilgore, meditation is an integral part of each day’s happiness. She claimed meditation allows new ideas to enter one’s mind. During her presentation, Kilgore led a guided meditation with the lights off and calm music in the background.”

Read the whole article…

Blessings,
Mary

Get your free full-length guided meditation here.

I am on a whole bunch of different email lists for one thing and another, and I rarely find time to read all the emails.  I have the best intentions when I sign up, really I do.  Usually there is something I want to learn from the writer, or I like his or her style, or I resonate with the topic.  Many times I will read the first few diligently, but eventually, I end up trashing the messages unread.  I just don’t have the heart to unsubscribe, at least until my mailbox maxes out.

Well, I’m glad I read this one before I trashed it.  There was a link to this incredible video.  It’s 20 minutes long, which may as well be 4 hours for the short attention span on the internet, but it is undeniably worth the time.  See for yourself:

Blessings,
Mary

I went to a healing session a while ago with a practitioner of several different modalities.  I had been wanting to see her for several months, but I kept putting it off for one reason or another—mainly the money. How could I justify the expense when I have all these bills to pay, and children to feed?  At one point while we were trying to get our schedules to connect, she said that we could work some kind of agreement out.  Pride kept me from taking her up on that offer.  I value healing work, and want to make sure there is a fair exchange.

Finally, though, the inner voice that was calling me to go see her could not be ignored any longer, and I decided to trust in the Universe that the money to pay for the treatment would come from somewhere.

She began by asking me what I would like her to work on.  I told her that I had been in a major car accident when I was 8 years old, and that I had back problems because of that.  The healing work started, and I didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary.  She confirmed areas that I know I need to work on, and urged me to trust my instincts.  She said she kept seeing me as a great healer.

At the very end of the session, just as she was about to finish, I asked her to see if she felt a particular energy block.  I almost didn’t ask.  I was afraid of being told there was no blockage.  That’s why it waited until the end.  She worked on that area, even though it put us over time, and managed to remove the block.  And then, as I was putting on my shoes to leave, the breakthrough happened.  She made a suggestion to me, and the floodgates opened.

You see, after the car accident, the doctors and chiropractors told me I would have to live with pain for the rest of my life.  And, as a little girl, I trusted and believed that they were right.  Now, I know that beliefs create reality.  But when the healer made her suggestion, I was suddenly made aware that I was carrying a false belief.  The false belief was shattered, and I was left with an awareness of my own power, the potential to heal myself and walk away from the pain in my body.

I am fully aware that it is going to take a lot of work on my part.  But for the first time, I welcome that work.  For the first time, I am present “in my body with certainty and pride regardless of the body’s gifts and limitations,” to quote Clarissa Pinkola Estes (Women Who Run With the Wolves).  I look forward to this adventure, healing my body along with my mind and spirit.

I have done work spiritually.  I have done some emotional healing.  I have worked on my self-talk and my self-image.  I have even done some healing work on my body.  But I have never made a concentrated effort to restore my body, mind and spirit to their healthy, optimal, DIVINE state of being.  I finally understand that all the parts have to work together.  If I am destined to be a great healer, my first and greatest act of healing will be myself.

Since we are all connected, my wish is that by coming to this new understanding, others may also share in the new awareness.  May you break through your false beliefs and realize your true power!

Oh, and I have no regrets about spending the money for the healing session.  It was 100% worth it!