Spiritual-one: Blog on Spiritual Growth & Development

Take Responsibility for Your Life

By Justice Mandhla

Take and accept hundred percent responsibility for everything you are and everything you will ever be. Refuse to make excuses and stop blaming other people for your failure. Stop complaining about other people and things you are not achieving in your life. Never criticize other people for anything. If there is anything in life you do not want it is up to you to change it. You are in charge of your life.

- Decide what you want
- Develop a plan
- Take action

Decide what you want

Success and happiness are not matters of chance but of choice - you choose what you want in life.

This is the first step to getting the things you want in life. The reason why most people do not get what they want is they have not decided what they want, they have no goals and they have not taken any action towards what they want. They refuse to take calculated risks. They believe in wishes and luck that if only such and such could happen. In life such wishes never materialize. Some believe that the government owes them something, their employers owes them that promotion. This is pure 'entitlement mentality.' These people are disillusioned with their lives because they have no clear idea in their minds of what they want in life and how to achieve it. If you are not making any head way in your life, it is possible that you do not have a clear vision, purpose and goals in life. Do not worry, if this is you, because by the time you finish this special report, you will know what you have to do.

Develop a Plan

It is all well and good that you have written down your goals, but the equation is incomplete and will be of little benefit towards your success. Your written goals have to be supported by an intense burning desire to achieve them. How do you create this burning desire? There is a difference between a burning desire and worry. I am not advocating that you should worry about what you want, but I am urging you to develop an unshakable belief that will excite and inspire you to accomplish your goals. Write down all the rewards, advantages and benefits you will derive from achieving your goals. These will stimulate your desire and motivate you to accomplish all your goals.

There is no hard and fast rule to develop an action plan. You can use mind mapping or brain storming for creating a detailed to-do list for achieving your goals. Through this process, you can determine what information you will need to gather; people you need to talk to; how much money you will need to raise; which deadlines you will need to meet and what small steps you will need to take for each and every goal.

Once you are done with your mind map, convert your to-do list into daily action list. Organize them in terms of their priority and slot dates by which to start and finish each step and goal.

The difference between a dream and a plan is that a dream expresses a desire to achieve something while a plan expresses a method for accomplishing the dream.

Take action

The only way to start is to start. Do not procrastinate and postpone getting started. Do not think about the difficulty, obstacles or unpleasant features of the task, just start. Jump right in and get going without a lot of deliberation. The moment you start providence moves in too, and all sorts of things begin happening that would never have occurred. A stream of unforeseen events, circumstances, situations and material assistance come your way.

When you take action, you trigger all kinds of things that will inevitably carry you to success. People with similar goals become aligned with you. You begin to learn things from your experience that which cannot be learned from listening to others or from reading books. You begin to get feedback about how to do it better, more efficiently and more quickly. Things that once seemed confusing begin to become clear. Things that once appeared difficult begin to be easier. You begin to attract others who will support and encourage you. All good things begin to flow in your direction once you begin to take action. It's true the defining moment of taking action always gets the miracles going - it's magical. Try it.

Open a special file marked 'goals accomplished' and file all the information you will gather on a specific goal; your research notes, minutes you took with companies, notes you made with people you talked to; dates of appointment and dates of telephone calls you made. Once after a quarter, half yearly and year end, go through the list of your achievements no matter how small they may look in your eyes, this will inspire you to persevere when the going gets rough.

Justice Mandhla is the author of What they did not teach you in school: Life Long Learning Tips to land a job straight out of school and he spends a great deal of his full-time writing day researching and writing about job search strategies
See more at http://www.mystudent4life.com

Are You at Cause Or at Effect with the World Around You?

By Edward Leyton M.D.

At one time or another we have probably all felt taken advantage of or hard done by. It's an unpleasant feeling of dis-empowerment and helplessness, as though something has happened, or someone has said something or done something to us that we feel powerless to change. Sometimes it is true that we are unable to change a particular situation, because it requires that the other person change their behaviour in some way to satisfy or ameliorate our feelings and emotions. When we require someone else to behave in a certain way in order to make us feel better we immediately place ourselves in a one-down position.

A feeling of dis-empowerment can occur any time that we require external conditions to change in order to make us feel better. For example, we buy something that doesn't satisfy our needs, or a product does not perform as expected. This could be something we buy at the store or something that we purchase at a restaurant that doesn't taste good. Or perhaps our boss is demeaning or a bully. Sometimes, if we don't speak out about these things, then the dis-empowerment continues and we continue to feel cheated or hard done by. So speaking out about what it is not right for us is important. It helps to maintain our self-respect. However, realizing that we are angry, frustrated or sad and speaking out does not necessarily mean that we get what we want.

 Assertiveness, something that doesn't always come easily to us, is important but not always empowering. Recently I had a piece of custom jewellery made at what I thought was a quality jewellery store. During the first week the stone fell out of the setting. I returned it, and the repair was poorly done with the stone set crookedly and rattling around in the setting! Unfortunately, the owner of the store tried to argue that it had been "abused", not something to which I took kindly. I managed to get most of my money back, which was only a partly satisfying solution for me. However, that was definitely better than nothing. Although I was still rather angry that I had to spend over $100 for nothing, I was able to let that anger go knowing that I would never shop at that store again, and I would make sure that as many people knew about it as possible.

In relationships with other people, particularly close family members and those in authority at the workplace who are "above us", it is often more difficult to get what we want by being assertive. Family members are often recalcitrant in their behaviours, refusing to change and insisting that the other person change. This often results in a standoff that can be unpleasant and divisive. These kinds of situations actually require a change in perception on our part. We may need to find a way of "seeing it differently".

 Sometimes it is helpful to step into the other person's shoes. You can do this in the privacy of your own home -- just imagine the other person in the chair opposite you, and then hear them saying what it is that they are proclaiming to be correct. Accept the emotions that you generate within yourself - you have a right to feel them. Then get out of your chair and sit in their chair. This will help to give you some perspective on their position, if you imagine what it is really like to be them. Are they feeling small and insecure? Do they feel threatened or afraid? At that point you can sit back in your own chair and see if you get any understanding from your own perspective. If you do, it may be unnecessary to do the next step, and you may be pleasantly surprised that you can "let go" of any bad feelings.

If not, it is often helpful to step into another "perceptual position". Imagine someone who is totally objective who does not even know you, or even a wise part of yourself who is non-judgmental and compassionate. Now stand up, move away from the two chairs, and look at those two people who are at odds, opposite each other in their respective chairs, and see if you have any kind, compassionate, and non-critical advice for them. You can even talk to them out loud if you want, but otherwise imagine you can project that advice to each of them. Now sit down in your original position and see how you feel. Notice the changes that occur in your feelings about the situation.

When we are at the effect of other people, it is because we believe that other people have the power to make us have certain emotions - usually negative ones. This is impossible. We choose how we feel. How we perceive the world 'out there', and how we feel as a result, is our decision. It is not usually a conscious decision, and often comes from unconscious old patterns of behaviour, limiting beliefs, and attitudes that we learned long-ago. Nevertheless if we hold onto the idea that someone else can cause us to feel a certain way, then we will always feel at the effect of others and relatively powerless compared to them.

So here is an opportunity to take a step towards self-empowerment by owning your emotions, and speak them out when you can. If you think you cannot speak out your emotions in reality, then do the chair exercise. Sometimes, even writing out your feelings and the perceived feelings of others can be helpful. Look upon this initially unpleasant event as a learning experience, and ask yourself - how can I feel better under the circumstances and retain my self-respect? You can find a way to feel better.

© Edward Leyton MD 2007
© Accessing Resources for Empowerment™ 2007
15/04/07

Dr. Leyton uses Humanistic Neurolinguistic Psychology (HNLP) and the unconscious mind paying special attention to the sensory cues from you the client, and using the language of suggestion to re-wire your old, unwanted patterns at the unconscious level.

At http://www.arfe.caand http://www.integrativemedicineclinic.cayou can access resources to help you change your mind - now. Through high quality CDs, MP3s, and phone coaching Dr. Leyton uses his 30 years of experience to help you.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Edward_Leyton_M.D.

How to Restore Your Power to Create

By Roy Klienwachter

You came to Earth as spirit with all the power of the universe to create anything that you desired. Your name was "I Am" and from the time you could open your eyes you were a part of all that surrounded you. There was no crib, no mom and dad, brother or sister, walls or ceilings. You were they and they you. Although there was time and space between you and what you saw, you did not understand that you were not what you saw, felt, tasted or heard. Even smelly diapers had no meaning for you. There was nothing you wanted or needed because it was outside your awareness and experience.

Then something happened; you began to communicate with your parents and they started educating you in the ways of the world. Eventually you responded to a sound every time someone came into the room - it was your name. Now, you became "I am Roy" and you began to discover that you had some personal power in the new world; when you cried someone came to you. But this power was very limited and you did not understand why you did not always get what you wanted, and people did not always respond to you the way you would have liked.

As you grew older the people around you limited your power by telling you what you could and could not do or have, and of course by this time the power you entered into life with was severely restricted. You were expected to act within the boundaries set by your parents, you community and country. You were given a belief system or religion inherited from your parents, laws, and the correct detergent to use as handed down from your grandmother.

You were given five words to use every day which disempower you, kill the spirit, and make you dependent; these words are "right and wrong," "good and bad," and the most disempowering of all, "can't!"

So far the only way that you had to fight back was to break their laws, turn away from their beliefs and use your own language. And it is because you still believe that you are only the physical body, that you are powerless to change the world and God is punishing you. You are completely disassociated with who and what you are. You do not know that you are the creator and that you are not a victim.

You were limited not only by the ones who had power over you, but by a punitive God who had power over your parents. If you wanted anything you had to get down on your knees and beg for it and more than likely you would not receive it because you were undeserving. Also you were required to support the institutions that taught you these things. Failure to comply would mean even less control over your destiny in this life or any other.

Time has demonstrated that humanity is unable to comply with systems, rules or commandments that are meant to control the spiritual nature of humanity. The system that has taken away our power is now breaking down. It was an era, a time in our history that no longer has any relevance to were we are in our evolution.

The damage however is not irreversible and we now have more freedom to explore other aspects of humanity or the human condition. For centuries we have limited ourselves to the five senses, and anyone exploring or demonstrating their other capabilities were condemned by the church and or killed. The progress from the earthly perspective is very slow; however, from the perspective of the universe, it has happened over night.

In our present time, religion represents approximately 84% of the world's population. It is religion that has brought us to this step in our evolution and is the greatest influence on how we live our lives today. It is religion that is therefore responsible for most of what is going on in the world at this time in our history; "the religious revolution." Because we have been so disempowered we believe that we are not creating or are responsible for the way we act, whether it is personal, world or natural conditions. God has been the scapegoat and convenience for us to unburden ourselves of responsibility or accountability. Until recently the extent of our personal power was only known to a few who used it exploit the less aware.

Development of our spiritual awareness comes slowly the longer we leave it. It is usually because we have bought into what we have been taught and we don't see the necessity. However, with age comes the wisdom to know what is and what could have been. By that time many have given up and find it just too much bother or effort to try and change. The fact that I am sixty years of age and have 9 years of experience writing about these things only makes it a little easier. I still have to deal with over fifty years of past experience and it is a slow process, but it's not impossible.

As a child and even into my teens and adulthood I felt powerless. I also felt like a victim and limited in options. I fit in well with those around me because I gave away my power to them. At the back of my mind I knew that this was not who I was; patience, stubbornness and a glimmer of light into the future would help me break the mold.

For those who have ever felt this way and for those who want to take back their power there is a sure way of doing it one step at a time.

Simply put and explained it can be summed up in one word; responsibility. It is a simple methodical procedure that will allow you to own your life and allow you to become aware of the power you always had to create abundance, good health, and happiness.

In order for this to happen you must own the circumstances of your life; everything you do, and everything that others do to you and everything that comes naturally. You cannot give away what you do not own.

You are one of two things; you are either a victim or a creator. The exercise is to know yourself as the creator of all you experience. That very concept will be difficult even for the most enlightened. But you must remember that it is your past that is dictating those thoughts. That is why you must take small steps to overcome them. Remember I said the exercise is simply, but it certainly is not easy.

From now on everything that happens to you is a direct result of your desire to have it happen at some level of your consciousness. Whether it is good or bad, works or does not work for you, you must own it. You are the creator and there is a reason for it to happen. You are creating all the circumstances of your life. So the scapegoat here can be your subconscious it you are not ready to own it at a higher level. It's not God's will, and it is not that you are deserving or undeserving or are a victim of natural circumstance or in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's not that you are even lucky or unlucky or something happened by change. Everything is your creation for a reason that may or may not be known to you at this time. Even if you have to lie to yourself for a period of time; you must own all that you experience.

You must know that accidents and illness are also your responsibility. You create them for your own purpose at some level of consciousness. Take that responsibility whether you like it or not and know that you created it for purpose - don't give it away or blame anyone or thing. By doing this you will eventually own your power to change or avoid these things. If you give away your power, you automatically become a victim and powerless to change your circumstances. Don't try to outthink yourself, and ask yourself; why would I want this, why would I do that to myself or I can't make that happen. Accept your power to make them happen for whatever reason known or unknown and eventually you will be in control and able to turn those things around. Know also that any event or circumstance is not a "bad" or "good" thing. All things are created for your purpose, whatever that may be. In hindsight you will discover the reason.

Dropping a hammer on your big toe can be a good thing if it gets your awareness - it works for you. It may be a sign that something is not working in your life; time to make a change. A trip to the doctor may provide an opportunity for you to meet your soul mate. It happens for a reason; your reason, accept that, and you will know your power to create all the circumstance of your life. It is not God's will, you are not a victim, and it is you who is manifesting all the events of your life.

In every moment of your life from this point forward accept your power don't give it away any longer. Don't listen to those old thoughts; create new ones. In every minute of every day, tell yourself that you are the creator; that whatever you are doing is for reason, for your purpose. It doesn't matter what others may say or do, you are not giving your power away. This may be slow and painful, but it works. Create this awareness in you and you will become the person you have always known yourself to be. You will never be a victim again.

Remember it never works in your favour to give your power away no matter what the circumstance. Even if for the moment someone has physical power over you; know that at some level you have created the situation for your purpose, hang onto that thought and at some point you will have the power to change it. Most importantly as you become aware of your personal power to create, you will no longer need undesirable experiences to awaken you to things in your life that are not working.

Avoid judgment, for even in judging your own experiences; you will fail.

So, if the boss calls you into his office today and fires you, you made it happen for a greater purpose. If you win the lotto; it was not luck or chance; it was your desire, your power that made it happen. All things work for your greater purpose. And you have the power to change them, whether you believe it or not. This exercise will help you get reacquainted with your power. Recognize the doubt when it comes up and understand that it is natural for it to happen, own the doubt and give it away. It is your doubt, not someone else's, and you have the power to overcome it. The more you work at this the faster it will be made manifest in your life.

Roy is a resident of British Columbia, Canada. An international published spiritual author, a student of NLP, spiritual philosopher, New Age Teacher and Phenomenologist. Think outside the box - discover who you really are. Find out why the "Law of Attraction" won't work for you, and how you can turn it around.

Visit Roy at http://www.klienwachter.com