Wayne Dyer at I Can Do It Tampa 2009 - Part 1

Often, when we've been anticipating something for a very long time, the actual receiving of it seems kind of a letdown.  We tend to build things up in our head to such a high level of expectation that no mere mortal can ever hope to deliver.  Sometimes, though, the reality turns out to be even better than we could have ever imagined.  Wayne Dyer gave the opening keynote at Louise Hay's I Can Do It Conference in Tampa, November 20, 2009.  I've been dreaming about hearing him speak live for many years.  I was not disappointed.

He opened by challenging each of us to help raise the collective consciousness of our world.  In order to do that, he explained, we must change the concept we have of our Self.  All in life -- relationships, finances, everything -- is a function of our self-image.  If we want to make our world a better place, we must change our beliefs about who we are and what is possible for us.

Be Where Your Feet Are

For the past few days I've been basking in the luxury of being completely alone.  All of the people who usually share this space with me have gone away to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday elsewhere.  I remained behind, exhausted from overwork, grateful for the chance to catch up on sleep and clean the house.

The cleaning took days, and required quite a few nap breaks.  It's not just that I've been focusing all of my energies outside my home lately.  It is also the fact that I've never really unpacked my things.  I moved in here a year ago.  This is the home where both The Attitude of Gratitude Project and the Prosperity Project were born.  This is the home whose energy was perfect for me to finally begin writing the words that have been swimming around in my brain for decades.  Until this weekend, though, I've never quite allowed myself to feel at home here.  Parts of my spirit have been scattered in homes that exist in other places and in other times.  This weekend I have decided to call back those pieces of myself so that this space in the here and now can finally become my true home. 

Learning to Reconnect With My Body and the Physical World

"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important."  Bertrand Russell

Life has a beautiful way of teaching us far different lessons than the ones we think we are here to learn.  Have you noticed that?

I spent this past weekend at the I Can Get It! Conference in Tampa, Florida.  I've had my eye on this Louise Hay event every year for the past several years.  I always see it advertised in Andrea de Michaelis's Horizons Magazine, and every year a perceived lack of time and money keeps me away.  Not this year.  This year I cleared my calendar and scraped together enough dollars to make it happen.

Tarot Reading after I Can Get It Conference, Tampa

Tarot images © US Games Systems

 

Three Card Reading:  LEARNING TO RECONNECT WITH MY BODY


Self: Nine of Wands
Main (positional) meaning | General | Position

Exhaustion ruins the ability to make good judgments; find someone who can fill in for you until you are refreshed.

The card in the Self position reveals aspects of how you perceive yourself right now.

When the Nine of Wands is in this position, putting things off and giving yourself some time to rest is important, although it may be psychologically difficult for you to do so. In situations where we think we are irreplaceable, we all too often neglect to give ourselves time to rest and recuperate.

It would be to your advantage to find a competent ally who can fill in for you until you regain your energy. Try to remember that exhaustion impairs the ability to make good decisions, giving negative forces an opportunity to gain an advantage. For the sake of yourself and the entire situation, take a break!

Situation: Judgment - Rejuvenation!

Main (positional) meaning | General | Position

A dramatic wake-up call is getting the attention of your circle.

The card that lands in the Situation position refers to social or circumstantial factors which could be affecting your life at this time.

With the Judgment card in this position, it's as if you and the people around you are coming out of a profound trance. You are gaining greater powers of discernment about the interrelationships that support all life, thus breaking through barriers that formerly divided you.

Looking at everything with fresh eyes, you can re-evaluate current conditions with renewed zeal toward the common good. In this way, you can reclaim your place in the long chain of awakening souls stretching throughout the ages. The circumstances are extraordinary for evoking simultaneous awakening across an entire group. By all means, take advantage of them.

Tarot images © US Games Systems

Challenges/ Opportunities: Two of Pentacles
Main (positional) meaning | General | Position
Stay flexible while the outcome is still unknown.

The card that lands in the Challenges/Opportunities position refers to ways that you can turn obstacles into stepping stones.

The Two of Coins in this position suggests that you stay flexible even when the outcome is still unknown. It's a good time to develop plans for various possible outcomes, both good and bad.

Once you are prepared for any eventuality, you can maintain some serenity even if everyone around you is worried. The best thing to do is stay calm and you will have energy at your disposal for the moment when you can again take action.

What is a Lightworker?

Someone called me a Lightworker a few days ago.  It was very flattering, even though I don't really know what it means.  It just sounds nice:  Lightworker.  I get an image of someone who takes light and uses it to create something new ... kind of like a woodworker, but with light.

When I hear the word, Lightworker, I conjure up images of Leo the Whitelighter in Charmed.  Whitelighters can orb, which is a way of travelling instantly from one place to another in a sparkly white light.  They also have tremendous healing powers.  If I were to choose superpowers, these would be two very cool superpowers to have.  But I'm pretty sure when that person called me a Lightworker, this is not what they had in mind.

Ride the Wave

I'm not really a fan of roller coasters. Other people scream in delight as the bottom drops and they go hurtling down as fast as gravity can pull them.   My boyfriend has a picture of himself with his family on the Kumba roller coaster at Busch Gardens in Tampa.  They all have huge smiles on their faces, with their hair and cheeks blowing straight up.  The one time I rode on a roller coaster, I was screaming in sheer terror, and definitely not having a good time.  I can't seem to just let go and enjoy the ride.

My life has been like that lately, and I've been experiencing much of the same kind of fear.  Things are happening fast, and it terrifies me.  A few months ago, we did the Prosperity Project here on these pages.  During that exercise, I spent quite a bit of time every day visualizing myself earning increasingly larger amounts of money and using that money to fulfill my heart's desire.  I imagined that I earned that money as a writer and keynote speaker, and I imagined how happy I was using that money to support the arts, build an office, and tweak my home space.  The project part of the Prosperity Project was designed to test the theory that if we consistently visualize something for one month, we should see some powerful manifestations occurring in our real world.  They have, and it's kind of freaking me out.

Learning to Love Who You Really Are

I'm a dork.  No, really.  For most of my life I've always been the odd one, the one who doesn't quite fit in.  It used to torment me, wreaking havoc on my already low self-esteem.

When I was a little kid growing up in Auburn, Maine, I was the only kid on my block who came from a French family.  All the other families spoke English.  You wouldn't think that was such a big deal, but then you'd be forgetting how cruel children can be to each other.  Where I grew up, people didn't discriminate on the basis of color -- everyone was white, so it would have been kind of pointless.  They discriminated based on language.  My father knew this, which is why he moved us to an English-speaking neighborhood.  He wanted me to grow up without a French accent so that people wouldn't discriminate against me.  The accent part worked out the way he planned; the other not so much.  Every time I left the house, kids taunted me.  They all played together, because it's the nature of kids to play together.  But when I came around they would send me away.  All except Melissa.  She would beat the holy daylights out of me and send me home crying.  Nice.

Prosperity Project Revisited

When we ran the Prosperity Project here on The New Book of Clues, it was so that we could get some practice in overcoming whatever resistance we might have to receiving abundance from this generous universe in which we live.  Many people, myself included, had difficulty spending all that imaginary money on ourselves.  Somehow it was easier to give it away or spend it on others.  Over the course of 28 days, though, even the most resistant of us finally broke down and allowed ourselves to actually benefit personally from our imaginary prosperity. 

I have since received many letters from other people who were not able to participate in the Prosperity Project because their resistance was simply too great.  There were quite a few people who could not break through their belief that it is somehow wrong to ask God for material things.  Here is one of those letters:

Ten Clues About Dealing With People, from Dr. Phil

This morning I was thumbing through the original Book Of Clues, a tattered old composition book where I used to jot down important clues about life.  I came across this list that I borrowed from Dr. Phil (this was many years ago, before he jumped the shark and out-springered Jerry Springer).  If your life requires that you deal with people at all, these clues will be very helpful.  If you are a manager, sales person or professional business networker, understanding these clues will make you much more effective at your job.

The Duck Wall of Fame

Yesterday I had a party.  It was an open house for the pool store I manage, to celebrate 32 years in business.  I invited all of our customers, who didn't come, as well as my colleagues from the Cocoa Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, who came in droves to eat, drink, and help me be merry.  What made the event extraordinary, however, were the hundreds of little yellow rubber duckies that helped to promote this event. 

I didn't come up with the idea for the Duck Wall of Fame all at once; it kind of evolved over time.  Originally, I had planned to deliver ducks to homes in particular neighborhoods where I would like to capture the swimming pool maintenance market.  I was going to put a little yellow duck on everyone's doorstep, along with a flyer.  Then I realized how annoying that would be.  Cocoa Beach is a small town; if these people wanted to buy my services they would already be here, buying.  The one thing I've learned as a Chamber of Commerce Ambassador is that you don't get new business by pestering people to buy your stuff; you get new business by referrals from other business owners who know and respect you enough to tell their customers about you.

Jumping at Opportunity

When we're in the Vortex, when we're actively aligned with our heart's desire, opportunities come at us fast.  The Universe is always conspiring to give us whatever it is that we focus on most.  When we are eagerly focused on what we want instead of focusing on everything that is wrong with our life, when we are happy and actively working toward our dream, then doors begin to open for us.  It is up to us to be prepared to walk through those doors and to claim our prize.

Opportunity is a funny thing.  It generally comes when we least expect it, and often comes when we're busy doing something else.  Take finding a partner, for instance.  You go through years of dating and wishing, wanting to couple up with someone so badly that it hurts.  Then, when you get busy working on a personal project or finally become contented living on your own, that's when the perfect person tends to show up.  It always seems to happen when we're not actively wanting it.

Budget the Luxuries First

Every now and then we get a teacher who changes our lives.  One such teacher for me was Dr. Charles Micarelli, now Dean and Professor Emeritus of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Central Florida.  I was a foreign language major, and Dr. Micarelli taught several of my classes in both French and Spanish literature.  He was a happy and a kind man, and one of the most brilliant men I've ever known.  Literature classes are all taught in the target language, so we were faced with the double challenge of first understanding the language and then also understanding the literary themes and historical background.  Dr. Micarelli was equally fluent in both languages, and taught me a lot of what I know about how to read literature.  He was the only teacher I ever had who received a standing ovation from the students when he entered the classroom on the last day of the year. 

As all good teachers do, Dr. Micarelli also gave us life lessons.  He was no longer young when I met him, and had lived a wonderfully full life, managing to become wealthy as a college professor by buying up empty land around the campuses where he worked.  Like I said, he was a smart guy.   He told us that even when he was young and struggling financially, he always made it a point to end his day with a snifter of top-shelf brandy and an excellent cigar.  He said that making it a point to enjoy his two favorite luxuries every day, no matter how tight money may have been, allowed him to feel the prosperity that he knew to be his.   It was also a leisurely ritual; during the time it took him to savor his drink and his smoke, he could enjoy the feeling that he had all the time and money in the world.  Dr. Micarelli taught me that life is meant to be enjoyed.  He also taught me that I deserved the best things that money can buy.

He reminded me of one of my favorite fictional characters, Lazarus Long.  In the Robert Heinlein future history series, Lazarus Long is a character who, through some genetic fluke, managed to live 300 years before he had to undergo rejuvenation treatments.  At one point he had been alive for so many centuries that he no longer saw any point in continuing, but the powers that be refused to allow him the dignity of taking his own life.  As the oldest living human ... he was born before World War I and this story takes place thousands of years into our future ... they decide that his memories are far too valuable to lose.  They lock him in a room and have pretty girls and a computer record every single one of his utterances so that they can later be culled for any sayings resembling wisdom.  Of all of the sayings of Lazarus Long, this is the one that I remember most:

BUDGET THE LUXURIES FIRST

Dr. Micarelli did that.  Young college professors do not make much money; but with every single one of his paychecks, he first bought the finest brandy and cigars he could find ... and then he worried about paying the bills.  Because I admired both men ... the fictional character and the teacher of fiction ... I took this advice to heart.  No, I don't drink brandy or smoke cigars, and I'm certainly not advocating an evening ritual that involves alcohol; but I did find my own personal version of brandy and cigars.  I chose one evening ritual that speaks luxury to me, and I have always paid for that first ... before tithing, paying bills, buying food.  And every evening when I sit down to enjoy my chosen ritual,  I still repeat Dr. Micarelli's words.  "Ah, brandy and a cigar!  Makes everything worth it." 

What is your brandy and cigar?  You already know what it is.  You've been thinking about it the whole time you've been reading this.  It is that one guilty pleasure that you simply will not allow yourself to enjoy because it costs too much, and there are far more important things to spend your money on.  The kids need stuff, your bills aren't all paid, you need to save up for that new water heater.  Go ahead ... indulge.  Don't worry that it's frivolous and extravagant.  Choose one ritual that speaks luxury to you, and make it a point to enjoy it every single day. 

We live in an abundantly generous universe.  Yet, sometimes we forget that fact.  We tend to focus on all the things that we don't have, and it stresses us out so bad that we forget to notice all of the abundance that surrounds us every day.  Having a luxurious daily ritual serves to affirm that abundance for us.  It turns out that Dr. Micarelli was more than just a brilliant linguist and professor of literature; he was also a master at the Law of Attraction.  Even when money was tight, his nightly brandy and cigar kept him focused on abundance, so abundance is what he ultimately attracted.  I owe him a great debt for teaching me that.  Here's to you, Dr. Micarelli! 

Finding Clues in Port Charles

I am totally hooked on General Hospital.  For those of you living on the other side of the planet, General Hospital is a soap opera -- a telenovela, to my Spanish friends.  It is a television program euphemistically classified as Daytime Drama.  Soaps, as they are called here in the States, are generally considered trash TV.  They are melodramatic and over the top.

Generally, people start with one soap, and then tend to get hooked on the others being aired on that same channel.  Yes, I've also bled into One Life to Live and All My Children.  When I worked at home there was time to have the TV on for three hours a day.  But keeping up with 15 hours a week of TV shows is like having a part time job, so I had to quit.  These days, I don't have time to watch any TV.  I barely have time to sit down to watch a movie with the boyfriend anymore.  And yet, I can't seem to tear myself away from GH.  Like I said, I'm hooked.

Life Without Doctors: Learning Medical Intuition

Years ago, I fired all my doctors.  There was a time when I was a walking medicine cabinet.  I took pills for everything.  My handbag was always heavy with aspirin, immodium, allergy pills, and of course Xanax, because you never know when a day will turn bad.  I carried Prozac and Luvox, Trazadone and Paxil, plus creams and salves for the rashes and itchies that all those pills caused me.  I spent a fortune on doctors and pharmaceuticals, and yet was sick much of the time.  For most of my life I've been uninsured, so doctors and pharmacists got the bulk of my money.  I ran to the doctor for everything, expecting them to keep me healthy.

Then one day, I became defiantly angry.  I was sick and tired of always being sick and tired.  I decided to take back my own medical power, and began to learn to take responsibility for my own health.  I signed up for an herbalist certification course and learned to make my own medicines out of the roots, stems, and leaves of common plants.  I threw away all of my pills.

As Pearl Lay Dying

I've been looking for a book for a few days.   It's called, Now Boarding:  Next Stop Your Remarkable Life, by Kandee G.  Kandee G sent it to me herself; it's autographed and everything.  I've been reading it, planning to use it as a source book for an article I'm working on.  I remember the last time I was using it, and even remember where I set it down.  But it seems to be nowhere in this house.

As I usually do when things around the house come up missing or have been left undone, I asked the cat about it.  Pearl spends all day inside this house, hanging about like cats do.  She knows everything that happens.  She's a cat.  But then I remembered that there is no cat.  Pearl died a few weeks ago, and I sometimes forget that she's no longer here.  She was with me for over 16 years, and I'm not quite accustomed to having to do things without her.

At Home In the Muddy Water

-Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear?  (Lao-Tzu) 

Life is complicated. Have you noticed?

When we first start out along our spiritual path, most of us do so partially because we secretly hope that if we become more spiritual, if we are more in tune with our true selves, if we are walking in the will of God, that life will become easier.   We envy monks who get to live in seclusion, because they can practice undistracted by screaming kids and mind-numbing jobs and the demands of spouses and colleagues.  We long for a time when we can remove ourselves from life's messiness so that we can concentrate on being more spiritual and centered. 

The Wisdom of Doing Nothing

Sometimes, the most productive thing that we can do is to do nothing at all.

We are always in such a hurry to do the next thing, especially those of us with dreams and ambitions and goals. We've got some place to go, and we know that the only way to get there is to keep making progress. So we push on. My brother and I have a saying about this that cracks us up. It is a syllogism, an illogical statement couched in terms of logic:

I must do something.

This is something.

Therefore, I must do this.

 Sure, it's easy to laugh now, while you're sipping coffee in your big puffy chair; but when you're in the midst of a critical moment, when you're just certain that what you do next will make or break you, it's easy to forget that sometimes it really is better to do nothing at all.

What If God Really Was One Of Us?

Sooner or later, we all have to deal with the God issue.  It is amazing to me that so many people today who are walking a spiritual path avoid ever actually talking about God.  I do it myself.  When I write, I will say that Spirit answered my call, or that the Universe is looking out for me.  Rarely will I come right out and say the word God.  It is a word infused with way too many conflicting meanings, and I don't want my readers to have to deal with all of that confusion right in the middle of my article.  I want them to actually hear my message.  It is the same reason that AA uses the term higher power.  No matter where we stand on the God issue, even if we are not addicts or alcoholics, coming to terms with the concept of a higher power is a necessary step on our spiritual path.

A Butterfly By Any Other Name

Yesterday, in the Living Gratitude Blog, I wrote about being willing to let go of the past so that we can be free to grow.   I used the metaphor of the butterfly, who cannot be born without killing off the caterpillar that came before her.  For many years, I have claimed the butterfly as my animal spirit.  A butterfly flits about from flower to flower to gather her own nourishment; in the process, as a by-product, she helps to pollinate those flowers, thereby ensuring that she will continue to have food in the future.