The Lighthouse

ARTICLE 1
Let’s start over

The New Year brings with it a promise of ‘new’ possibilities. We gear up to achieve all our ‘new’ visions & aspirations and we feel so good about it. A few weeks into the newness and we find ourselves back in the rat race, chasing time, eluding traffic and becoming slaves of routine. Before long we are exactly where we began, our desires & goals left on the back burner till the spirit of the New Year embraces us again.

Have you ever thought or said ‘If only I had the time, I would…….’

Most people agree that there just are not enough hours in a day to do more. We need to seriously look at this ‘thief’ called TIME! It robs us of ‘quality’ relationships with ourselves & others. It robs us of our age & beauty. It is the reason why we stop designing the life of our dreams. Time is the reason our loved ones grow away from us, our children grow too fast and we cannot effectively manage our home lives. Time is the reason that there are so many broken relationships; single parented homes & unhealthy bodies.

Time seems to sabotage our lives at every turn, doesn’t it?
The answer? ‘NO!’

It is so much easier to point our fingers in blame of others, of circumstances and of time, for all that we don’t achieve. We have made this an acceptable excuse to stay in our comfort zones & to prevent being judged for it. We avoid taking responsibility for our non-actions or lack of achieving our wants.

Human nature is such that we seek acceptance & we avoid rejection. Our personal power to design & build the lives we really want is ripped away by these 2 habits. So how do we overcome this?
1. Know what you really want & list of them. [Be specific]
2. Prioritize & Commit to achieving your wants
3. TAKE ACTION!
4. Gather tools & knowledge from experts to help you to:
* Change your old limited thinking patterns that keep you stuck
* Map out a strategy to achieve your wants
* A full life review then take steps to remedy areas that need fixing
* create a healthy body & mind which is required to overcome & achieve

Believe in yourself and know that everything is possible!

ARTICLE 2

Forgiveness…

Our lives are shackled down by negative emotions, actions and non actions. We then wonder why it is that we cannot take flight into the life that we really want! Yes, we all have struggles, and often there is some person or incident behind the cause of that struggle.

How we deal with this ‘inflict’ is very important; it could be at the cost of our health, sanity & at worst our life! It is natural to the anger, disappointment & resentment. There are many effective ways of dealing with these emotions.

The ultimate danger lies in keeping the ‘poison’ of the hurt alive within you. Reliving the hurt and holding those angry, frustrating thoughts create bitterness; confusion & a need to seek revenge. The compassionate, kind and generous person you are hides behind this cloak of hurt, merely seeking protection.

This contamination spreads silently like a vicious virus, attacking you emotionally & physically. This poison makes you weak & vulnerable to disease. Long held fear, anger & resentment, may cause dis-eases such as infections; arthritis; cancers, tumors, diabetes, etc.
Is holding onto the old hurts worth the trauma of dis-ease? Robbing you of receiving the love & care from those around you because you are so afraid to trust again! What is the reason to keep it within your mind & your body?

Why do YOU have to go through the oceans of emotions while the person who hurt you just moves on, what seems like, unaffected?
It is a difficult task to let go & just forgive right? Yes!

However, it is a matter of choosing YOUR LIFE over a slow ailing death! The only way to gain your POWER BACK is to let go of the person & the situation with an understanding that it does not serve you in any way to hold on. There lies a lesson in such experiences, something from which you can grow, although it may not seem like it at the time.

Take time out. Go through the grieving, the emotions & the desire for fight. Let out the ANGER in constructive ways . This will take a little while. Then slowly build yourself up again. DECIDE to let go of the ‘poison’, then surround yourself with people & activities that motivate you, seek the counsel of someone that can help you overcome the hurdle, & allow yourself the freedom to LIVE!
Forgiveness opens the door of love in your life. If you are battling with relationships, dis-ease or dis-harmony; could it be that there is some letting go of the past to be done?

Forgiveness is the doorway to LOVE.

ARTICLE 3

Looking in…. Looking out

We are living in extravagant times, always seeking more & better than we have. That is simply brilliant! Our homes are adorned with stylish furniture, the latest in technology & luxurious comfort fit for royalty. Our bodies draped in the finest designs defining our ‘status’ of success & wealth. And why not?
Life is to be celebrated right? We deserve the comfort that our hard work has earned. Yes we do! So why is it that sometimes no matter how much money, success and comfort we have in our lives, we are unhappy? There is always something that is just not working?

The old adage ‘money can buy you comfort but not love & happiness’.
Take a close look at your life right now. What is not working for you? What is working for you? What do you need to change? Your internal environment is responsible for how you FEEL about life. What is going on INSIDE? Are there old movies of your past running in your mind? What are you afraid of? What are you avoiding? What results do you have in your life that you don’t want?

What you hold onto on the inside reflects on the outside. It creates obstacles in your life. Holding onto unforgiveness with an ex partner would contaminate your relationship with a current partner. Any unpaid debt that you ignore creates a slow flow of money coming to you. When you hold negative thoughts and feelings about others or situations, you encounter a lot of negative experiences with other people and situations. It is true, what you give is exactly what you get!
No exceptions.

It is absolutely important that you choose an internal environment that is in keeping with what you really want in your life. Give love to receive love. Be happy to receive happiness. Changing from negative to positive brings loads of positive experiences for you. The power of positivity is that it creates movement in your life. Like a river that flows freely and easily, unlike a stagnant lake that negativity breeds. When you are in a space of positive power; you FEEL GOOD.

It is why the rich get richer & the poor get poorer. The rich have an internal environment that is free flowing; this movement keeps bringing new and wonderful experiences to them. The poor who don’t have the awareness on how to create that flow find themselves stuck in a lake where they have limited resources and energy to create.

What about relationships? They seem to reach dead ends & create enormous emotional baggage, enough to fill a warehouse! What is going on inside?

Make a decision to change. Clean up those old thought patterns, habits and feelings. How does it serve you to hold on to them? In order for you to receive new ‘stock’ of all the wonderful things that you really want, clean out those ‘old’ boxes in your warehouse!

Know exactly what you want. Believe that it is possible for you to achieve that want. Create a picture in your mind of what you want & play it over and over. See yourself having it, become excited as you feel like you already have it! Be willing to receive. This is called the creative process.

We can find that perfect internal environment, which creates the perfect external environment. Within our own lives peace, love and joy can be revived. Positivity is a contagious life style that fast spreads from person to person, creating a ripple effect.

Imagine a world in peace. It all begins with YOU!

ARTICLE 4

Anyone can achieve any plan if they can get out of their own way

Although most self-help experts claim that setting goals are the golden key to success, many people set goals and nothing happens. Why?

Harold is obese, went to get a physical checkup, got alarming results, and was sternly warned by his doctor to do something about his excess weight or else….
Motivated by fear, Harold decides to set a goal of losing weight.
His first goal is to read a book on weight loss and to then set a plan into motion.
He reads the book and makes a plan, then months later finds that he did not even follow his plan.

Here is what has probably happened.
He did not write down his goal, and he did not read it daily. He didn’t get excited about it nor did he design a vision board to help him create a reminder of his desired plan. He was not willing to take action.

In effect, he lost track of what goal he had in mind. He drifted away from his goal and looking back, he sees that he did not do any work toward it, he saw that he did not act because-
He felt tired after work, and he did not have the energy to follow his goal of eating right and doing exercise.
He got distracted, and he had to help his mother recover from her hospital visit, his wife deal with the kids and his friend Ed find a new car. Besides, there were ball games, TV shows, and trips to the Zoo with the family.

He justified himself when challenged by his wife on not following his goal with the words
“I was going to it today BUT I didn’t because…”
He got into agreeing while disagreeing by saying, “Yes, that is a great idea, and I’m going to do it, BUT…”
He became eloquent in arguing for his limitations.
“I’m just one of those people who don’t have strong feelings about things.” “If only I had been raised by more assertive parents, I might have been able to deal with the pressures at work better.”
He started to offer reasons why rather than produce results.
“Well you see the reason I can’t do it right now is because…”

He made self-defeating choices, moment by moment, day by day, week by week, and month by month.
He basically felt uncomfortable changing his habits. He felt twinges of fear, guilt, and unworthiness. He felt hurt, angry, overwhelmed and confused. And he just “did not feel good” when he tried to work on changing his habits to align with his goals. He was afraid of being changed. Change is scary for many.
After six months, he remained as obese and as unhealthy as before despite his doctor’s warning about his alarming physical checkup results.

It’s easy to set a goal, and it’s easy to make plan, and when you don’t know how to execute your plan, it’s possible to educate yourself…but the real work is in doing it, diligently, day-by-day, in a highly focused way. The truth is that anyone can achieve any plan if they can get out of their own way and (as the Nike people suggest)

“Just Do It”

ARTICLE 5

Look for your passion and it will find you.

Many people try to hold a raging fire within themselves, but it restlessly and relentlessly gnaws at their core. Some have tried to cover it up with alcohol, numb it with drugs, hide it with shopping, kids, work, or religion, or fuel it with sex. Why? They do not believe that they can achieve it!

The previous generation looked for the American Dream. Some found it. Many did not. The present generation seems to be seeking success. Yet, the gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” widens. Each generation and each individual, in turn, searches for something, but it often slips from their grasp.

This fire carries both energy and discomfort. The key is to use the discomfort as a motivator and the energy as fuel.

When we empower our lives & choose to believe in our own individuality & abilities, when we choose to create a future of peace & love for ourselves and others, to overcome our past hurts & obstacles, when we are willing to change our way of thinking about our selves, we become connected to our roots and our souls, passion rises quickly and pushes us to the next level of life or learning or love.

It does not have to be love of a mate. It could be creative passion, fueling what we do for ourselves, work, community, or family. Anything where the totality of who you are is absorbed in the doing, requires passion. To lose it, is soul death, or at least deep sleep. It will cry to be heard when it sleeps.

It is easy to become afraid of passion. It can seem fierce at times. I guess we fear it will consume us and nothing else will matter. I know that can happen. I’ve had a small taste of it when I work for hours into the night, so absorbed by my work that I forget time, sleeping, and eating. But, I also know that I must have time in my life to live the every day life of doing the mundane things that must be done. Balance is probably still the key, but we must not lose our passion all together. Our life will be too dry and dull without it.

Remember your first love? Nothing else mattered. You felt as if you would walk to the ends of the earth for that love. Remember that? While that first passionate, all consuming love does not last, it gives us a taste of a force within ourselves that carries tremendous energy. Look for your passion and it will find you.

Unlocking your life’s passion starts with YOU!