I want to invite you to join me for this FREE 5-week course starting Monday, November 21st at 6PM PST.  If you’ve been struggling with money, if you are tired of playing the ‘money may I?’ game, if you have it a ceiling in your earning and you want to break through, this course is for you.

Over the past year I have heard WAY too many stories of struggle around money.  It’s not meant to be that way.  We are meant to live in a flow of abundance in every possible way, including our money.  The desire for more money is not greedy or selfish as some may contend. Rather, the desire for more money is the same as that which makes a plant grow, it is LIFE itself seeking a greater, freer, fuller expression through YOU.  Imagine being able to be, do, have and give in the ways you’ve always wanted to.  I want to support you in stepping into that kind of freedom and flow.

I hope you will consider joining me on this 5-week journey.  You can register HERE.

PLUS – When you register for the course, you will immediately receive a FREE PDF download of Think and Grow Rich. Think and Grow Rich is the quintessential success blueprint.  Every success book written since then has been based on these principles.  It was written by Napoleon Hill after spending 25 years studying the wealthiest people in the country.

Don’t miss this opportunity to master YOUR money mindset.  Register HERE now.

Half empty or half full?

Face or vase?

Big or small?

Good or bad?

The way we answer these questions is based on our perception. Perception is the mental faculty that enables us to assign meaning to something.  Nothing has meaning in and of itself – no situation, no action, no comment, no circumstance – nothing has meaning in and of itself.  Everything is neutral. Everything.  The only meaning something has is the meaning we give to it based on our perception.

For most of us, this idea is totally foreign. For example, most of us would think that winning the lottery is good, while becoming paralyzed is bad, right?  But consider this fascinating bit of research conducted by Dr. Ronnie Janoff-Bulman and her colleagues.

The researchers compared 22 lottery winners to 22 average people as the control group, and also to 29 victims of sudden paralysis.  They found that after a temporary rush of jubilation, the lottery winners were no more happy than the people in the control group, and in fact, they had lost much of the joy that comes with small pleasures.  On the other hand, they found that once the paralysis victims got over the initial shock of their misfortune, they had a greater capacity for enjoying the small pleasures than lottery winners, and believe it or not, were even more optimistic about the future than the lottery winners!

One of the most freeing concepts for me has been to realize that nothing is bad unless I call it bad.  This doesn’t mean denying our circumstances, but it does mean denying the power of our circumstances to control us.  There is a big difference between having a circumstance and that circumstance having you.

At first blush, you might think losing your job is bad, then I am reminded of Walt Disney who was fired from the Kansas City Star because he was “not creative enough” and the rest is history.

One might think that a stage IV diagnosis is bad, then I am reminded of my friend Denise DeSimone, who was given a stage IV diagnosis and three months to live on her 50^th birthday.  Denise became an inspiration to us all when she decided to ‘treat’ her cancer with love rather than fear. Two and a half years later she sang the national anthem at Fenway Park to open the Red Sox game.  This year she published her book, From Stage IV to Center Stage. 

Most of us would think that losing our home is bad, then I am reminded of a client whose home was destroyed in the San Diego fires.  As a result, she and her husband were forced to relocate.  But the home they are in now is much closer to their grandchildren and now they can’t imagine living without the joy of their grandchildren in their home everyday.

Nothing is bad unless we call it bad.

When we change our perception, we literally change our whole life.  So how do we change our perception? How do we train ourselves to see things differently?  Here are a few suggestions…

Postpone judgment.

Consider this experiment. When something happens that seems bad, give yourself three days to before you decide if it is good or bad. Make a decision to delay judgment and when everything in you wants to hit the panic button, just tell yourself that you can panic in three days if you want, but for now you are believing that nothing is bad unless you call it bad.

Mary Morrisey tells a story about her husband coming home form work one Tuesday announcing that he had lost his job.  Mary’s immediate response was to panic.  After all, they had four young children to feed.  But prior to this happening, someone had suggested that she enter into this same experiment – and so she practiced delaying judgment and told herself that she could panic on Friday if she wanted to, but until then, she was going to stay open to the possibility that nothing is bad unless you call it bad. On Thursday, her husband was offered a new job he liked even more, that was closer to home, and that paid better.  Next time something happens that seems bad, I invite you to consider delaying judgment for three days.

Think Illogically.

Our paradigms, the filters through which we apply meaning, are ruled by our logic.  One way to begin training ourselves to think differently, and with a new set of eyes, is to consciously make decisions that feel illogical.  When we do this, we shake up our logical mind, and open ourselves to a different way of looking at the world and the circumstances and situations in it. Think of Christopher Columbus.  The only way he could sail off to sea in search of the new world was to think illogically.  The logical thinking of his day said that the world was flat and that to sail toward the ‘edge’ meant certain death as it was thought they would literally fall off.  But because he was willing to think illogically, he not only changed his own perception, he changed the perception of the world.

Look for the opportunity.

One of the most helpful tools I’ve found to help shift my perception when something seems really bad, is to ask myself – and the Universe – What’s the opportunity here? What’s the opportunity in this for me? By looking for the opportunity, rather than focusing on the situation, it helps me ground myself in the understanding that God is on my side, that there is a Truth bigger than the facts, and that there must be something greater seeking to emerge.  The answer to the question may not come right away, but my experience has been that, as I continue to look for the opportunity, the opportunity always emerges.

Put it down on paper.

This is a trick I learned from Bob Proctor that will enable you to literally, give yourself a different perspective.  When you are facing a circumstance or condition that feels challenging and where there appears to be no solution, write the circumstance down on a piece of paper and describe it in as much detail as you can.  Then place that piece of paper in the middle of your dining room table.  Stand on one side of the table and look at the problem you have written down, and listen for and write down possible solutions that come to you.  Then change to another side of the table, giving yourself a different perspective, and again listen for and write down possible solutions that come to you.  Continue doing this until you come up with a solution you would like to pursue.  You have just trained yourself to literally look at a circumstance from a different perspective.

Surround yourself with people who are not impressed by your circumstances.

Have you ever found yourself saying – this is really BIG.  This is a huge.  It doesn’t matter if the thing we are talking about is perceived to be good or bad – we are impressed with the enormity of something – a new opportunity that has come to us, the amount of responsibility on our plate, the amount of debt we owe, the thought that the person we met at the party last night might be ‘the one’.  Whether something is big or small is simply a matter of perception.  Is the room you are in right now big or small?  Is your income big or small? Is the amount of responsibility on your plate a lot or a little?  The truth is neither.  It just is.  But we charge our circumstance with the energy of being big or small based on our perception.  This is when it is helpful to surround ourselves with people who aren’t impressed by our conditions – someone who can make a million seem small, someone who is not impressed with the tasks on our to do list, someone who can remind us that there is a Truth that is bigger than the facts. Jesus did this with the paralytic who had been hoping to be healed for 38 years.  Jesus was not impressed by the man’s condition.  Jesus was more impressed with the power within him.  And so instead of making agreement with his condition, Jesus simply said take up your bed and walk.  One of the ways to shift our perception, is to surround ourselves with people who are not impressed by our conditions and do not make agreement with our perception.

I don’t know what your conditions or circumstances are today, but I do know that the meaning you make of those circumstances is completely up to you – based on your perception.  You get to decide if something is good or bad.  You get to decide wither something seems big or small.  You get to decide whether something closes the door on hope or opens the door to opportunity.  Perception is one of the most powerful tools we have available to us.  I encourage you to use it to step into the larger Truth of who you are and what is possible in your life.

Are you struggling with the circumstances of our life?  I offer a complimentary Quantum Leap Strategy Session.  Click HERE to sign up or learn more.

We are approaching the holiday season and for all of the fun and food and lights and love the season holds, for many, this can be a stressful time.  It’s not necessarily stressed-filled for the wrong reasons, often it’s because we want to be able to give in ways that end up overwhelming us – making the dinner for 20, finding the perfect gift for each of our friends and family, delivering Thanksgiving dinner to the families in need, baking dozens of cookies for the church bizarre, serving Christmas dinner at the soup kitchen.  All of this is wonderful, rewarding and in the spirit of the holidays, but it can also be stressful.  To avoid becoming overwhelmed with holiday stress, I suggest we take some helpful advice from our friendly flight attendants – put your OWN oxygen mask on first, then help those around you.

I want to invite you this holiday season, to take care of yourself first; fill-up your own well first, so that you have a deep well of resources from which to draw.  Here are some tips for putting your oxygen mask on first…

Breathe.

I mean, really breathe.  Deep, expansive, exaggerated breaths.  Gay Hendricks, author of Your Big Leap and 30 + other books on life and love, suggests whenever we feel low energy, or contracted in our body in any way, that we throw our arms back, throw our chest out, open our mouth wide exercising the muscles in our face and take a deep, deep breath.  Do this three or four times in the privacy of your home or in the middle of the mall.  Don’t worry about how you look. Know that you are filling your energetic gas tank while those around you are running on empty.  Just breathe.

Connect with the calm.

As much fun as the holiday activity can be, it can also be draining.  Connecting with the calm is a way to replenish your energy. Connecting with the calm requires finding that place or space where you can connect quietly with yourself. It doesn’t need to be a long drawn out thing – 15 minutes a day will help.  There are many ways to connect with the calm – spending time in meditation, taking a walk on the beach, sitting and listening to soothing music, taking a drive… by yourself, going to a yoga class – it doesn’t matter how you do it, the important thing is to find a way that works for you, and go there. Connecting with the calm is like charging your cell phone.  Keeping yourself charged up will enable you to connect with others in the ways you that really matter to you this holiday season.

Give yourself a gift.

Giving is one of the most rewarding and fulfilling things we get to do as human beings.  One of he best ways to put your own oxygen mask on this holiday season is to give yourself a gift you LOVE.  This is like a secret gift that no one needs to know about… except you.  It is that illicit rendezvous with the spa for a day of pampering, it’s getting yourself that special necklace you’ve wanted, it’s taking yourself … and maybe a loved one – for a special dinner, its giving yourself a bouquet of beautiful flowers, its buying that piece of home décor that you’ve been considering for a while. In the flurry of giving to so many others, give yourself a gift you LOVE this holiday season.

Putting your own oxygen mask on first is a way to ensure that this holiday season, you will be able to give in the ways you really want to, without the personal toll that perhaps the holidays have taken in the past.  Breathe, connect with the calm, and give yourself a gift you love, and this holiday season will end up being not only reward, but renewing as well.  Happy Holidays.

If you have not yet taken advantage of the complimentary Quantum Leap Strategy Session that is available to you, I invite you to click HERE to learn more and find out if  a strategy session is the next right step for you.

If you Google 11.11.11, thousands of websites come up offering interpretations of its meaning.

Rather than ascribing to someone else’s interpretation, I wanted to be conscious today of my own meaning.  What is the significance of 11.11.11 for me? What is the promise it holds for me?  What I have been profoundly aware of today is my AWARENESS. I have been literally looking forward to this day and anticipating this date since we turned the calendar on 1.1.11.  As the date got closer I wanted to open myself to anything and everything it had to offer.  This configuration of numbers only comes around once every 100 years. I didn’t want to miss the significance. I was particularly looking forward to 11:11AM this morning – 60 seconds in time that I will never see again in my lifetime. When it came, I stopped, closed my eyes, breathed into it, embraced all that my life is today and opened myself with attention, intention and grateful expectation to everything that is to come.  Those 60 seconds were magical.

But the awareness of this day, and that 60 seconds, brought an even greater awareness – that this day, this moment, and the moments to follow are all once in a lifetime, irrepeatable, never-to-be-seen again moments.  We may not see this configuration of numbers again for another 100 years, but the truth is, we will never see this 24-hour period or these 60 seconds, or this moment EVER again.  A part of me is saying – No Duh! It isn’t like I haven’t known that, believed that, or even spoken that truth before.  But today I experienced that truth on a different level… I felt it in my cells.  Something in my being shifted.  I feel a newfound commitment to approach every day, every 24 hours, every 60 seconds with that same level of awareness – This is the moment.  This is all there is.  BE in it.  LIVE into it. Be grateful for it. Don’t miss it.

So what’s the significance of 11.11.11 for me?  A new level of awareness that each and every moment is irrepeatable, magical, new, and full of possibility, and a new commitment to lean into it, be present to it, breath it in and taste all the deliciousness it has to offer.

Happy 11.11.11

Genivieve Behrend isn’t exactly a household name, but she’s someone you’ll want to get to know. Genevieve Behrend was a master manifestor.  She mastered the art and science of manifestation and demonstrated that by manifesting $20K in just 6 weeks.  But here’s the catch… that was in 1912!  Experts say that a comparable amount today is around $450K to $500K!  Have I caught your attention?

What I am about to share with you is the template Behrend used to manifest the money.  This is also the template that, if you use it, will enable you too, to become a master at manifesting whatever it is you want to be, do, have, give, or create.

Some Background…

Genivieve Behrend was widowed in the early 1900s and although her husband left her pretty comfortable financially, and even though she was surrounded by wonderful friends, inside she felt a deep sense of loneliness, emptiness and isolation.  This feeling sent her on a quest to find peace, meaning and contentment.  In her quest, Behrend stumbled upon the lectures of a man by the name of Thomas Troward.  In his lectures, Troward taught that our thoughts cause of our results.  There was one paragraph in particular that leapt out at Genivieve and changed the trajectory of her life.  The paragraph reads:

“My mind is the center of Divine operation. The Divine operation is always for expansion and fuller expression, and this means the production of something that is beyond what has gone before, something entirely new.”

When she read this, Behrend realized that there was a Divine essence that lived within her and that it was the ever-expanding source of the peace, contentment, meaning and joy she had been looking for.  She was so inspired, that she decided she wanted to go to London to study with Troward.

This is where our story of manifestation begins… Behrend calculated that to take a ship from New York to London and stay there for a year or two to study with Troward, would cost about $20,000.  But she didn’t have it and had no idea how to get it. So here is what she did…

Start with the mindset that you are co-creating with the Universe.

The life you want wants you.  This isn’t an us and them proposition. That desire you have for more money, or more love, or better health, or more fulfilling work in the world, that desire is LIFE itself seeking fuller expression through you. Start by seeing yourself at one with this Universal presence and power in the co-creative process.  Manifestation is done in partnership with this Power.

Behrend did this by focusing her mind on this quote… My mind is the center of Divine operation…  and that means expansion into something that is better than anything that has gone before.

Next… Visualize your arrival.

The next step to manifestation is to visualize yourself already living the life you imagine and to do so so vividly, that you FEEL yourself in it. I call this five-sensorizing.  When you imagine your vision, What do you see? What do you hear? What does that life taste like? What does it smell like? What do you feel?  Feel yourself in it now.  Visualize your arrival.

Behrend vividly imagined her arrival by sitting on her bed every night and counting out 20 imaginary $1K bills.  But she didn’t stop there.  To more emphatically impress upon her mind he reason for the $20K, she imagined herself riding on the ship to London, walking the deck and talking with other passengers, she imagined herself meeting Troward, asking to be his pupil, and she imagined him enthusiastically saying YES (even though he had already replied NO to her letter).  She imagined this in such a way that she felt it in every cell of her being.

But Behrend didn’t just think it, she “inked” it.  In order to more emphatically impress her mind with the purpose for the $20K, she wrote out her picture.

One of the most important, but often missed steps in manifestation, is to write out in vivid detail, the picture of what you want AND the purpose for which you want it.  The action of writing actually stimulates both the left and right hemispheres of the brain so as to more emphatically impress your whole brain with your vision.  So if you want to manifest $200K, write out in detail how we see yourself using that money – to help my daughter pay off her $50K in student loans,  $10K to take my parents on a trip to Sweden, $50K to remodel the kitchen with black granite and cherry cabinets, $35K for my new midnight blue Prius, $20K to be able to support my church in their building fund… you get the picture.  Visualize your arrive, in your mind and on paper.

Then… Proceed with absolute certainty

There is a moment in the manifestation process where we must move from a belief that it is going to happen, to absolute certainty that the thing we desire will come to fruition.

To illustrate the difference between belief and certainty, consider the following true story…

Inarguably the most famous tightrope walker of all time, Charles Boldin, crossed Niagra Falls many many times, always with a different antic – crossing blindfolded, crossing on stilts, even stopping midway to fry and eat an omelet. One day before he set out across the falls, he asked the people watching him if they believed he could cross the falls with out falling. They all cheered and said YES, we believe!  He then asked who then would be willing to ride on his back while he crossed the falls.  No one in the crowd raised their hand.  His manager, however, stepped forward and rode safely across the falls on the back of Blondin.  This is the difference between belief and absolute certainty.

When you have absolute certainty, all doubt and fear disappear because we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt that we can create what we want to create, have what we want to have, and be what we want to be.  When we have absolute certainty, we live in grateful expectation – as grateful as we expect to be when the thing we desire actually shows up.

This shift happened for Behrend when she realized that if the Universe gave her the idea to study with Troward, then all the power of the Universe must be behind the fulfillment of that idea.

The same is true for each of us. We can’t have an idea but that the Source of that idea wouldn’t provide for its fulfillment.  Say YES to your vision and then step into absolute certainty, knowing that the Universe will provide everything necessary for it’s fruition.

Finally, when an idea comes… Act quickly, calmly, and confidently… leaving no stone unturned.

It is ideas that open the doors to your imagined future. Ideas are the first currency of the Universe.  They are gold in your pocket.  When you get one, act on it.  And don’t act casually.  Act quickly, calmly, and confidently, leaving no stone unturned.

Wallace Wattles, author of The Science of Getting Rich, said that it is on this point that many a great thinker has met shipwreck. As they have failed to connect thought with the need for personal action.  It is action that puts us in position to catch the ball that’s been put in flight through our thought, vision and grateful expectation.  We cannot expect the Universe to do for us what it can only do through us.

After focusing her thought on her oneness with the co-creative power of the Universe, counting out her 20 imaginary $1000 bills every morning and night, and stepping into absolute certainty, Behrend got an idea.  It was an idea that seemed to come “out of the blue”.  But she soon realized that it was a $20K idea.  She never said what the idea was, but once she realized that this could possibly produce the money she needed, she took immediate action, proceeding calmly and confidently, and leaving “no stone unturned”.  She said that, “By so doing, one circumstance seemed naturally to lead to another, until step by step, my desired $20K was secured.”  The whole process she, from the point she realized she needed $20K to actually manifesting it, took about six weeks.

Don’t stop short of action.

What is it you would like to manifest in your life?

Start by knowing that the life you want wants you.  This is a co-creative process with the Universe.  Visualize yourself already living that life – write out your vision and five-sensorize it – let yourself feel it in every cell of your being.  Continue to work with your thoughts and your vision until you are able to move into a place of absolute certainty that that which you desire will become a reality – this is a place where there is no fear or doubt.  And finally, when you get an idea… and you will, act on it!  Act quickly, calmly, and confidently, leaving no stone unturned.

When you put in place these four steps, you are bound to follow in the footsteps of Genivieve Behrend and become a master manifestor.

Some like it hot… and I’m becoming one of them!

For the past three weeks I have been a faithful attendee of the 6AM hot yoga class at the Bikram Yoga Studio in Irvine, CA.  I had done a bit of Bikram Yoga this past summer, so I knew what to expect – 26 postures, each repeated twice, in a very specific sequence, bookended by two different breathing exercises, over the course of 90 minutes.  Oh, and the room is heated to 105 degrees and set at 40% humidity… Ya, I know, that’s what I thought at first too. 

The first time I did Bikram yoga, I couldn’t finish half the postures and for the two days following, I felt like had been hit by a mack truck.  I gave up after 3 classes.  But when I gave it a second try this summer, I began to like the heat and the sweat and the progress I made.  This time around, my most consistent effort yet, I believe I have discovered the magic of it.  I passed some sort of invisible boundary one day last week when, in the middle of class, drenched in sweat, lying in shavasana (corpse pose), I noticed how absolutely incredible I felt, like my insides had been washed clean and wrung out, and I knew in that moment, I had found the ‘it factor’ of Bikram yoga.

They say that the Bikram Method stimulates the organs, glands, and nerves – systematically circulating fresh, oxygenated blood to your entire body.

Birkram yoga reshapes your body, restores flexibility, strengthens your spine, provides relief from pain, increases your energy, reduces your stress, burns calories and builds endurance.

The heat allows for a safer, deeper practice by warming up the muscles and joints. It also helps to detoxify the body through sweat, strengthens your immune system, and promotes blood circulation by expanding the blood vessels.

One of the benefits for me has been a strengthening of my focus and determination.  I wanted more focus in my work, and now I use my yoga practice as an opportunity to build that muscle by maintaining stillness in the postures, moving efficiently between the postures, focusing my eyes on a fixed point in shavasana, and maintaining calmness of breath throughout the practice.

For all these reasons and more, I look forward to my 6AM yoga class, to seeing my Bikram yoga buddies, and to hearing that familar Bikram phrase… “lock your knee, lock your knee, last chance, lock – your – knee.”

The Queen remarked to Alice…One’s memory works both ways.
I’m sure mine only works one way. Alice remarked. I can’t remember things before they happen.  It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards, the Queen replied. ~ Through The Looking Glass

It’s a pretty poor memory that only works backwards indeed.  In fact, the most powerful use of our memory is our ‘future memory’.  Huh?

OK, let’s back up a bit….

Memory is our ability to re-call something.  If we think we have a lousy memory, what we really have is difficulty recalling something. The fact is, each of us has a perfect memory. Under hypnosis we can recall the color of the room in which we were born, and the first words ever spoken to us.  We have a perfect memory.  And although our ability to recall things from our past – directions to someone’s home, the names of our client’s spouse and children, a good joke – can serve us and in fact build our confidence and contribute to our success, the real power of our memory is in re-calling our future.

As children, you and I imagined ourselves in possible futures – and we put on that future when we pretended to be a firefighter, or a doctor, or a teacher, or the President of the United States. But for many of us, that ability to ‘put on’ a possible future, to engage our future memory, got left behind with our childhood.  It’s time to re-engage that future memory.

I want to invite you to play along with me… Just like when you were a kid, imagine the life you would LOVE to live. What does it look like? Imagine your work in the world, your creative expression.  How are you bringing your gift to the world? What do you do each day? Who do you interact with? What is the setting?  Now imagine your relationships.  What kind of people do you have in your life? What do you do together, what kinds of conversations do you have? Do you have a partner? What is that relationship like?  Now imagine your health.  How do you feel? What do you eat? What is your weight? What are you able to do with your body – climb mountains, dance, compete in a triathlon, play golf, do yoga?  Finally, imagine your financial freedom. How much money do you make? What are you able to be, do, have and give with your money? Where do you live? What is your home like? Do you travel? To which organizations do you contribute?

Do you have the picture of that life?  Good – now step into that picture.  Imagine yourself as the person who is LIVING that life right now. How do you feel in your body, in your emotions, in your cells? What do you think about? What kinds of conversations do you have? What books do you read? What is your daily routine?  How do you dress? What kind of car do you drive? How does it feel to drive that car?  How do you carry yourself when you walk down the street?  How does that life look, taste, sound, smell, and feel?  Put on that life and remember how it feels.

The future you have imagined has a frequency to it, a vibration, a feeling tone – and you want to memorize that frequency.  As you memorize and hold that frequency, you begin to step into that future. It starts to become your life. By using your future memory to recall this state, you will draw to you all the pieces of the puzzle – the people, the circumstances, the opportunities, the money, the ideas – required to create the very life you have imagined.  This is not hocus-pocus, this is simply the way it works.

So I want to invite you to do an experiment for the next 30 days.  First, get a very clear picture of what it is you want to create in your life – the more vivid the picture the better.  Now put yourself inside that picture and let yourself feel it with every cell of your being.  Memorize that feeling tone.  Now for just five minutes a day for the next 30 days, let yourself enter into that place where you feel yourself in that life – you hear it, you see it, you taste it, you smell it, you live in that frequency. You ARE it.  Then begin to notice what happens. What ideas come to you? What circumstances open up? What people show up?  Begin to notice the power of your future memory at work.

The world is your kaleidoscope, and the varying combinations of colors which at every succeeding moment it presents to you are the exquisitely adjusted pictures of your ever-moving thoughts. ~ James Allen

This week I read this excerpt from Napoleon Hill’s classic, Think and Grow Rich.

“A long while ago, a great warrior faced a situation which made it necessary for him to make a decision which insured his success on the battlefield. He was about to send his armies against a powerful foe, whose men outnumbered his own. He loaded his soldiers into boats, sailed to the enemy’s country, unloaded soldiers and equipment, then gave the order to burn the ships that had carried them. Addressing the men before the first battle, he said, “You see the boats going up in smoke. That means that we cannot leave these shores unless we win! We now have no choice—we win—or we perish!”

They won.  Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn ships.  The word ‘decide’ means to ‘cut away from’.  When we make a clear decision for what we really want in our life, often it requires that we ‘cut away from’ anything that is unlike that clear choice.  Sometimes this cutting away is painful, especially when it involves cutting away from people or communities we have loved.  But if we are to move into the next phase of our evolution, the next turn of the spiral, we must realize that not everything in our life right now can come with us.  If we are to succeed in our own becoming, we must be willing to release, to cut away from, to burn anything that is unlike that which we are choosing.  This is the hard but necessary part of change.  What is your vision for yourself?  What do you need to release, cut away from, burn, in order to support the manifestation of that vision?

Viktor Frankl – psychiatrist, holocaust survivor, and author of Man’s Search for Meaning, is the founder of logotherapy, the idea that we shape our experience based on the ideas we hold about that experience.

While in a concentration camp, after his entire family had been murdered, Viktor Frankl wrote a manuscript, which he hid in a secret place.

The guards however discovered the manuscript, and when they did, they brought him before the tribunal, stripped him naked and burned the manuscript in front of him.  While standing there watching his manuscript burn, one of the guards noticed that Frankl was wearing a very thin gold wedding band, and he demanded that Frankl give it to him.  His wedding band was the last vestige of any connection Frankl had to the life he had known. He said that as he reached down to pull off the wedding band, something happened inside of him. He said he touched a place inside himself that he would later call the last authentic human freedom, a freedom that every individual has… the freedom to decide how one will respond.

Viktor Frankl said in that moment he exercised that freedom for the first time consciously when something rose up inside of him, and he said to himself, no matter what you do to me, you cannot make me live in hatred.

I find his response incredible… almost unbelievable. How could he have found it within himself to respond in this way?  Then I am reminded that, what is within us, is greater that anything outside of us.  The freedom to choose how one will respond is a freedom that is available to each of us.  In any circumstance, each of us has available to us this same kind of liberating freedom to choose gratitude over greed, love over hatred, compassion over contempt, forgiveness over resentment.  Each of us has the opportunity to choose the incredible.  What circumstance are you facing today?  Where do you have an opportunity to exercise the last authentic human freedom… the freedom to respond?