SPIRITUAL PROSPERITY

Visualization is by far one of the most powerful tools for good setting and attracting what you want.  Yet few people know how to properly visualize.  With the right technique you can begin to see outstanding results in successfully attracting what you want, granted you full apply what you learn.

First you are visualizing all the time.  You may not be aware of it but you are always conjuring up images in your mind.  When you are speaking on the telephone to someone you are most of ten times trying to see in your mind what they are telling you.  You also visualize when you are deep in thought.  When you are worrying about paying your debt or worrying about the way you would really like to live your life you are also visualizing what you want.

The hard part however is to use that creative force to actually attract the things you want.  This is where many people go terribly wrong.

Here is a great test to help you understand the most effective way visualize.  Think of the last time you were deep in thought.  Now try to remember what that felt like.  If you can recall that time, you will notice that you were deep inside of yourself.  You were unaware of anyone or anything and as you were allowing yourself to visualize you could feel clearly that you were having the experience as if it were real.  That is the power of visualization.

When people ask all the time How do I visualize the things I want, I tell them the same way you visualize the things that you don’t want.  You see when you are feeling anxious and fearful you lock yourself away in your inner mind with those images.  You loose sight of other possibilities and if it is something that happened to you, then you recreate it in its full detail with all your emotions all over again.

Try to immerse yourself with full emotions when you are trying to create the things you want.  Many thoughts may come to distract you but if you will redirect your mind to what you do want your mind will be trained to hold that thought.

There are many tools and techniques that can greatly empower your ability to visualize if you really have a hard time.  You can add extreme magnetism to any mental image you want to create as long as you apply the right technique.

Internal defeat is a mindset, where you begin to believe that most new ideas will fail. You might think -”After all, what I tried in last week's Yoga class, failed.”

You will always learn from mistakes.  When you see them clearly as a test, examine the results, and study them closely for the reason why they went wrong.

Whether it is a lesson plan, trying mantras, Hot Yoga, Gentle Yoga, a pro shop, or trying anything new, it is better to make mistakes than do nothing at all.

Some of the most successful Yoga teachers, I know, deal with mistakes as part of the learning curve. They turn all of their defeats into learning experiences. This is extremely powerful when you consider the cost of learning anything of value.

After all, what did you spend on your education, so far? Did you think you would stop learning at a certain point in life? Did you learn from your past mistakes? Of course you did, and now you are stronger due to the corrective adjustments, you have made.

When a child learns to ride a bicycle, there are plenty of falls along the way, and then the falling stops. However, even skilled adults fall off bicycles, sometimes.

So, don’t take past failures personally. Put them behind you and learn from each one.

Henry Ford and the Wright Brothers had failures, but nobody seems to remember that. Just like them, you are not a failure, but you may have failed in the past, just like they did. When you get down on yourself, look back at what you have accomplished.

When you take on your next project, do the research first, assemble a team, make a full commitment to succeed, and never mentally quit before you start.

Lastly, whenever it is possible, learn from the mistakes of others. This is why Yoga businesses approach me for consulting services: To save money by avoiding known mistakes, pitfalls, and traps.

Living with joy can sometimes be a challenge.  When things appear to be going against our will, we tend to experience this as pain, suffering, or that we’re having a bad day.  Recognizing that we are in control of our feelings, and that we have the choice to live in joy, or in fear is the first step to creating a life full of joy and positivity.

One principle that we all need to acquire is the ability to see all situations, people, and events from a positive perspective.  Instead of viewing bad things in life as a prompt to get upset and angry, try to view the “bad things” as lessons that are helping you grow, helping you to become as whole of an individual as possible.  Too many times, we think that the outer world, the physical reality is creating our day, causing us to be sad or unhappy; however it is the opposite that is true.  We create our day, we create the circumstances for joyous living.

The most important lesson is that “beingness” precedes experience.  In order to be happy, we first need to “be happy” inside, and this internal happiness radiates outward through every cell of our bodies and creates the outer experience of a smile, or a laugh, or an intimate connection between two people.  It is in this “beingness” that we have the ability to see and to choose our feelings, desires, goals, and dreams, which then enables us to manifest an outer reality based on our true selves.

We create the reality in which we experience joy, anger, love, and fear.  Because we have the ability, the free will, to choose our reality, we can make that conscious choice to try to just be happier, more grateful, and more sensitive.  This happiness though will never come if you are looking outside of yourself first.  Because, what we just learned is that in order to be happy we have to have the internal feeling of happiness to then create that happiness in our daily lives.   Remember that your beliefs about reality create your experience of it.

So, start changing your negatives into positives, gain clarity, and open your heart by looking inside yourself.  When we start changing ourselves from inside out, the universe will respond to us in ways in which we could never imagine.  The ability to start manifesting your goals and dreams is already inside of you.  Take the leap to start living in joy today.

We are a pleasure seeking society. Most of us spend our energy seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. We hope that by doing this, we will feel happy. Yet deep, abiding happiness and joy elude so many people.

There is a huge difference between happiness and pleasure. Pleasure is a momentary feeling that comes from something external – a good meal, our stock going up, making love, and so on. Pleasure has to do with the positive experiences of our senses, and with good things happening. Pleasurable experiences can give us momentary feelings of happiness, but this happiness does not last long because it is dependent upon external events and experiences. We have to keep on having the good experiences – more food, more drugs or alcohol, more money, more sex, more things – in order to feel pleasure. As a result, many people become addicted to these external experiences, needing more and more to feel a short-lived feeling of happiness.


Thomas sought my counseling services because he “had everything” – his own successful business, a lovely wife and children, a beautiful home, and time to enjoy life. Yet he was not happy. While he had momentary feelings of happiness while watching a ball game or socializing with his friends, he also felt anxious and depressed much of the time. In fact, the anxiety had become so bad that he was having almost constant stomach pain, which his doctor told him was from stress.

As we worked together, it became apparent that Thomas’s main desire in life was to have control over people and events. He wanted others to do things his way and to believe the way he believed. He was frequently judgmental with his employees, wife, children and friends, believing that he was right and they were wrong and it was his job to straighten them out with his judgment and criticism. His energy would become hard and tough and he would be like a steamroller in his efforts to get his point across and get others to do things his way. When it worked and others gave in, Thomas felt a momentary pang of pleasure. But the pain in his stomach kept getting worse and worse, which is why he decided to consult with me.

Thomas also wanted control over his own feelings, and would often judge himself as harshly as he judged others in an effort to get himself to perform well and feel okay. He especially judged himself harshly when he felt rejected by others, frequently telling himself that he was an inadequate jerk.

As we worked together, Thomas began to see that happiness is the result of choosing to be a kind, caring, compassionate and gentle person with himself and others – quite the opposite of the judgmental, controlling person he had chosen to be. Thomas learned that happiness is the natural result of being present in each moment with love and kindness toward himself and others, rather than with being attached to the outcome of things and trying to control the outcome regarding events and others’ behavior. He discovered that he felt deep joy whenever he let go of control and chose caring instead. The anxiety in his stomach went away whenever his intention was to be a kind and caring person rather than a controlling one.

It is not easy to shift out of the deep devotion to control and become devoted to love and compassion toward oneself and others. Our ego wounded self has been practicing control since we were very little. Yet the moment our intent is to control, our heart closes and we feel alone and anxious inside. Our intent to seek safety and pleasure through controlling others, outcomes, and our own feelings leads to an inner feeling of abandonment and emptiness. We abandon ourselves when we are trying to control our feelings rather than be kind and compassionate with ourselves. Our anxiety and feelings of emptiness lead to more seeking outside ourselves to fill up with pleasurable experiences. The momentary pleasure leads to addictive behavior.

When the intent shifts out of controlling and not being controlled to becoming loving to ourselves and others, the heart opens and joy is the result. Deep and abiding happiness and joy are the natural result of operating out of the spiritual values of caring, compassion and kindness.

Worry is a silent killer.  It is like a slow poison.  It is a chronic illness.  In fact, it is an illness which is many fold dreadful than the physical illnesses.  Worry not only affects our body but our mind too.

If you think seriously, you would find that it is really no use worrying about anything.  It is really foolish to worry about past or future.  Nobody can change the past.  Whatever has happened has happened.  Why worry?  How can something that has yet not come to pass affect us?  How are we so certain that the future is so bleak?  Things may turn out well.  Why worry then?  Worrying just tires us and diminishes our capacity of clear thinking and planning.  It promotes negative thinking.  Instead of worrying we should use positive affirmations and resolutions.

If worry could solve the problem, everybody would worry as much as possible.  Problem solving requires clear thinking and planning.  But worry makes us incapable of clear thinking and planning.  Many things, if they are going to happen, will happen regardless of our worry.   If it is going to rain, it will.

We worry for small things.  The worst-case scenario may not even be bad enough to worry.  You have made your boss angry.  You worry that he may fire you.  What of it?  That is not the end of the world.  You are still alive.  Perhaps you would get a better job.  You dread to go to the office next day.  You think of sending in your resignation letter.  Worrying you reach office.  The boss calls you.  He apologizes.  It was his mistake!

Not only we should not worry about little things, but we should also not worry about seemingly big things. The things that seem today very big and important will seem trifle tomorrow.  In your student life you must have worried for days about the wrong answer you gave, even though you knew the right answer, to an objective type of question carrying just half mark.  How much you worried about a dress on a special occasion, meeting a boy or girl whom you fancied, or the change of residence of a friend’s family?  Do these matter a bit today?  Why worry about spilled milk, or a broken glass, or a missed bus?

Of course, no body worries for the sake of worrying.  Worry just comes into mind and then never leaves.  But many people never worry.  It seems that worrying is a sort of bad habit.   As all bad habits the habit of worrying is also difficult to get rid of.  So, in the first instance, never make worrying a habit.  Secondly, try to divert your mind.  Think of positive things.  Get busy with some physical activity.  Keep yourself away from people who are habitually worrying type and who always see the negative side of a thing.

Instead of useless worrying, one should take positive action—

BE HAPPY!

I am one of those people who can easily slip into a very negative state of mind. The slightest knockback or problem can lead to a cloud of doom descending over me, a cloud which I find hard to push away and remove. This article looks at ways in which we can fight back, to quickly get us back into a happy mode.

I used to be quite a fragile character, some would say that I was even scared of my own shadow. I was always paranoid that people were talking about me and laughing behind my back.

Even though my parents are superb, I was not a happy child or a happy teenager. I am so unlucky you see or so I thought. I walked around as if the world owed me something and would often feel very sorry for myself. I was bullied at school, it was more mental bullying rather than anything physical. I am sure that most people also get bullied and deal with it. It would leave me in a state of panic and depression. Looking back I have to say I was a bit of a wimp in reality.

I decided that enough was enough by my mid-twenties and decided it was time to toughen up. I could not continue to live my life as I had been, as I would probably be dead by the time I was fifty.




I then went about a self-help program to increase my overall self-confidence and self-esteem. I wanted to learn more about stress-management, dealing with depression, relaxation and about how to become successful in life.

What I found out over the next twelve to eighteen months would change my life forever.

These are the things I had to do:

I had to stop feeling sorry for myself. Yes I am not perfect but who is.

I had to think in a more positive way.

I had to stop worrying about the future.

I had to stop caring what other people thought of me.

I needed to smile more.

I needed to learn to relax. I now use meditation for this purpose.

I had to learn to like myself.

I needed to become stronger to fight away the negative thoughts in my head.

I needed to appreciate what I did have in life, rather than concentrating on what I had not.


I started to implement the above and it helped me no end. That horrible cloud of doom, still descended however, around once a month. When it does descend, I now write two lists. What I am happy about in life and what I am sad or worrying about. I then analyse both lists and more times than not, I am actually over-reacting.

In conclusion, life is a battle. There are good times and bad. We need to become strong and learn to think in a more positive way. We have to fight back against people who bully us and against the voices in our head who are trying to make us panic. This is not easy, however with determination people are able to turn their life around just like I have.

I used to feel anger towards the people who bullied me at school. I now feel sorry for them. They are the bad apples and I prey for them. I prey that God will one day make them pure.