So I’ve always considered myself a very motivated person.  In fact, I’m sure somewhere on one of my old resumes “self-motivated” is on there!  Then it occurred to me just recently that being motivated isn’t a bad thing necessarily, but to be motivated means that I’m pushing myself to do something that I don’t really want to do, or that there’s some incentive to doing something that I wouldn’t typically want to do.  Hummmm… Sometimes I’m motivated to clean the house (I don’t really want to do that).  I need to get motivated to clean out my closet (I don’t really want to do that either).  When I was in sales I was motivated to make cold calls (Yuck, I hated doing that!).  I was motivated to make sales calls because if I didn’t then I wouldn’t make any money and I’d be fired.  So really motivation comes out of a feeling of fear, lack, and negative repercussions.

If you’re not motivated to do anything then eventually you have nothing, right?  But what about inspiration?  What if you were to take inspired action, rather than action out of negativity?

Inspiration comes from a place within.  It is always within you, it just has to be found.  It’s part of your inner light that wants so badly to shine, but life happens, stress happens, ego happens, and it gets lost in all the darkness.  When you find your inspiration, you know what do to and you want to do it.  You’re inspired!

Inspired action is easy, and fun.  You feel like you’re not doing anything, but rather you’re just being you.  I was inspired to write this.  I don’t feel like it’s “work” (even though that’s what I told my son I was doing…I should reword that to him next time!).  I don’t feel like I have to do this or else.  I am writing this because this is what I want to do!

What’s cool is that when you align to your inner being, you know exactly what it is you want.  When you clearly know what you want, inspiration is there.  You don’t have to motivate yourself to do anything.  You just do it.  (Side note – Nike really had something there.  I wonder if they actually knew what they were saying??… Things I ponder!)  You want to do it.  When you find that inspiration and take action out of that, everything else lines up for you.  Things, people, places, whatever, are lined up for you so that your inspired action is easy, and you get the outcome you want.

“F” this motivation stuff…I want to be inspired!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Igniting Inspiration (revenews.com)
• Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying? (docinthebiz.com)
• What Do You Do Because Sometimes You Know How? (successful-blog.com)

My new friend, Darla at Share Yoga, gave me the opportunity to be a guest writer on her site.  Share Yoga is a great site that offers all things yoga….”Once we feel the benefits of yoga in our own lives, we can help others and that is a wonderful thing. When we live within the spirit of yoga and then share it with others we have initiated a positive energetic chain of action.”  Share Yoga’s mantra is Share the Om. (I just love that!)

Yoga is the union of the mind, body & spirit.  I decided to write something on the mind and spirit side of it.  (Are you surprised?)

If I must say so myself it’s a really good article, and I hope it gives you another perspective on the current economic climate.  My intention is to help you open your eyes to a different way of looking at your life.

So, please visit Share Yoga’s website and read my article.  I would love to hear your comments (you can comment on their site or mine).  Browse around their site too, as it has a lot of great information.

Here it is:

To be Supplied With Goodness, We Must Demand It!

Thank you Darla, Share Yoga, and all of you who are reading this – Thank You

Related articles by Zemanta

• The Yogi In Me. (busylivesmadeeasy.blogspot.com)
• Yoga Techniques Practices For Beginners (healthlifestyleforever.com)
• Psychotherapy Goes from Couch to Yoga Mat (time.com)

This came to my inbox this morning and I just love it.  It’s an excerpt from the book “Money and the Law of Attraction: Learning to Attract Health, Wealth and Happiness” by Jerry and Esther Hicks.

Love and appreciation are identical vibrations. Appreciation is the vibration of alignment with who-you-are. Appreciation is the absence of everything that feels bad and the presence of everything that feels good. When you focus upon what you want – when you tell the story of how you want your life to be – you will come closer and closer to the vicinity of appreciation, and when you reach it, it will pull you toward all things that you consider to be good in a very powerful way.

I find this to be so true.

I have a gratitude journal that I write in everyday…okay, not everyday, but 5 or 6 times/week!  And what I’ve found in doing this is that out of the blue, almost when it’s least expected, I’ll have this overwhelming feeling of appreciation.  It’s this amazing feeling that just comes over me out of nowhere.  Sometimes it’ll last for just a few seconds, and other times it’ll stay with me longer.

It makes me smile just thinking about it!

Each journal entry starts with “I’m so happy & thankful now that…”.  I’ll list things that have happened (or I’ve gotten), things I currently have, things I want to happen, and how I want my life to be.  So it’s important to understand that it doesn’t just have to be things that have happened, but how you want your future to be…all put into the present moment.

My suggestion today…get a gratitude journal!  Quick!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Why Show Gratitude When We Can Be Selfish? (healthmoneysuccess.com)
• What Are You Thankful For Today? (mashable.com)

I’ve got this great little book called “The Secret Daily Teachings”.  Everyday I open to the daily teaching for that day and see what it has to say.  Here’s today’s:

Here is something you can do that is one of the most powerful uses of the law of attraction.  This exercise is thirty days of an avalanche of giving.

Every day for thirty consecutive days, give.  Give joy, smiles, warm words, love, appreciation, and compliments to everyone you meet, including strangers, friends, and family.  Speak from your heart, giving the very best of you in every moment of your day, and make it your mission to make every single person’s day better with kind thoughts and words.

As you give the best of you, you will be staggered by the speed that it comes back to you.

So from today, April 20th until May 20th, I will be giving – giving smiles, compliments, love, a helping hand, basically whatever I can give in any given moment.

I would love to have you join me.  If you’re up for the challenge, please post a comment &/or send me an email.  I think it’ll be fun to do this together, and help each other out.  And, I know the rewards will be awesome!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Getting to the Root of it All (earthharmonyhome.com)
• Mea Culpa (ambianceofwellbeing.blogspot.com)
• I’m a proud Spirit Jumper. (the-secret-resource.com)

We all have dreams and desires (at least I hope we all do), but do we expect those dreams and desires to come true?  I mean without expecting them to come true then we’re basically just wishing for something to happen.  I’ve wished many (many) times to win the lottery, but I didn’t necessarily expect that I would.  I’ve even wished to win the lottery, but didn’t buy a ticket!  How crazy is that?  Expectation is a big thing when it comes to your desires, and it’s a big thing when it comes to the Law of Attraction (LOA).

Expectation is the force that pulls your desires to you.  It’s easy to see this on the negative side.  For instance, if you’re taking a class, and say it’s not something that you’re particularly interested in, and you haven’t been going to class or listening while in class, you will probably expect to fail or make a below average grade.  When you are expecting something that you don’t want, you will likely get what you expect to get.  It’s real easy for us to expect when it’s something we don’t want.  Now, can we expect things that we do want?

Expecting our dreams and desires to become a reality takes some work.  It takes confidence.  It takes a true belief that you’re worth having it.  It takes a real yearning for whatever it is you desire.  And, it takes action.  You can’t just lay around daydreaming about wanting a yacht and then expect it to be sitting in your driveway when you get home (I know.  I know…bad example!).  It’s not that easy!  You have to put the work in.

There’s a saying that God feeds the birds and supplies them with an abundance of food, but he doesn’t put the worms into the bird’s mouth.  The bird must go out and search of the food.  So, like the birds, we must do something more than just wish or even pray.

When you expect to achieve your dreams and desires, you are essentially believing in the probability of it.  You have a belief that you will succeed in getting what you want.  When your expectation is there, your energy is then drawn to the interest of your desire even more.  Your eagerness, enthusiasm, and keen interest of whatever it is you desire is then intensified.  It’s through this intense desire that the LOA works its’ magic.  It’s through this intense desire that your interest and attention are drawn to the desire; therefore, giving you inspiration to take right action to achieve it.

The LOA says that like attracts like, and the more powerful your magnet (which you get with intense desire), the easier it is for this Universal law to give you what it is you’re attracting (your intense desire).

In the words of Raymond Holliwell: To desire is to expect, and to expect is to achieve.

Now start expecting your dreams to come true — I know I do!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Using Law of Attraction to Win the Lottery (the-secret-resource.com)
• Accepting personal responsibility for our fulfillment in life (somedaysyndrome.com)
• Actualize Your Dream Now (the-secret-resource.com)

If you were to walk into my bathroom right now and look at yourself in the mirror, not only would you see your beautiful self but you’d also see this:

Gratitude

$$$

What is your relationship with the present  moment?

Abundance

Ease

All you have to do is feel good now!

Only good things come to me!

What do I want?

I wrote all this on the mirror with red lipstick so that while I’m brushing my teeth, my hair, or washing my face I can be reminded of these things.  I love starting & ending my day with the awareness of the present moment, the awareness of all I have to be grateful for, and the awareness of the things I want to manifest in my life.

It’s so easy to go throughout the day and never once be conscious of your breath.  For that matter, it’s so easy to let weeks, months, and years go by without ever getting out of your head.  We tend to live in our thoughts, and when we do that we’re either thinking about the past (I can’t believe he said that to me!) or worrying about the future (if I don’t get this job, how am I going to pay my bills?).  There’s such a peace when we get past all that head stuff!

Being a yoga teacher and a student to spirituality, I know to pay attention to my breath and get present, to notice how I react to things, and to be aware of how I am thinking and how I feel, but it takes more than just knowing these things.  It takes practice…and lots of it!  I’m not going for perfection, just that place where I’m in touch with my Being.  That place where my Being (true Self, Higher Self, Spirit) is leading me in all I do so that life is easy and I’m just going with the flow.  I want to be in a place where opportunities comes my way and I’m awake enough to see them.  I want my actions to be inspired by my Being, not a reaction out of fear or stress.  I want to always be learning.  And, I want to live in peace!

I say all that to say this:  I have created another way (besides my bathroom mirror) for me to remember to connect to my Being.  I started making charms that I call BE Charmed.  These charms can hang from just about anything.  I have one on my yoga bag, one on my diaper bag, and one on my handbag (they make great keychains too).  The idea is that when you see your charm you connect to your breath and find your stillness.  You’re not thinking, not judging, not doing, you just BE Charmed!

If you’d like to be reminded of the present moment, or even have a personal affirmation you’d like to repeat, then these are for you!  You can either order one, that I’ve already made, from my website or send me an email and I’ll custom one for you.

Until next time, Be well and BE Charmed!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Yoga Techniques Practices For Beginners (healthlifestyleforever.com)
• Why Show Gratitude When We Can Be Selfish? (healthmoneysuccess.com)
• Practice Awareness and Stress Less (the-secret-resource.com)
• The Use of Affirmations As Positive Brainwashing (the-secret-resource.com)
• Using Positive Affirmations Effectively (the-secret-resource.com)

Image via Wikipedia

Today, I sit outside on the patio taking in the slight breeze, sun, and perfect weather.  I love March.  It’s a time to reawaken, and a time for growth.  It’s a time to clear out the cob webs, not only in our closets, but in our minds.  Just like the tulips bloom, so can our minds!

I want to share with you a story I really enjoy and get a lot out of.  I hope you do too~

This story is about a farmer who worked really hard every single day to earn a meager wage for him and his family.  One day he saw a couple of men walk across his land and they stopped when they came to a stream of water.  One man scooped up some of it and drank it, and the other man put some of the water into a canteen.  The farmer was puzzled as to why anyone would be interested in the water .  The cows weren’t even interested because of the scum and filth that was in it.

A few weeks later a man called the farmer and offered him a great price for his farm.  The farmer thought this guy must be crazy.  How could he ever get his investment back by farming the land that the farmer had for years.  The farmer gladly sold the property and moved.

Well, it wasn’t long before word spread that oil had been found on that land, and millions of dollars was made because of it.  The farmer, however, remained poor and worked so hard because that’s all he knew.  He could only see that farm as stones and dirt.  He only knew how to scratch the surface and till the soil.  Nature had given this man an abundance, but he could only realize a small portion.  Man will always remain poor if he only demands a meager living, and sees life as a struggle.

Throughout my life, I’ve ran across many people like this.  They believe that life is hard, and it’s a daily struggle to make ends meet.  They work so hard living check to check.  And…(this is what really gets me), they teach their children this!  That yes, life is hard and you can’t have everything you want.

Since I have an economics degree I have to add a little supply and demand talk in here!  Demand determines supply.  We demand a more fuel efficient “green” car…automakers supply us with those now.  We demand a faster internet connection, we are given that.  We must open our minds and let it expand.  We would never have a “green” car or speedy internet connection if someone hadn’t educated their mind to open and to realize there’s something greater out there.

Supply is not the issue here – demand is!  Whatever it is we demand, it will be supplied.  If you ask any scientist, he will tell you there is plenty of food.  If you ask any farmer, he will tell you there is actually an oversupply of crops.  If you ask any miner, he will tell you there is way more silver, gold, and diamonds than is being demanded.  The supply is here.  Can we just open our minds a little, or a lot, and see that we may actually be sitting on abundance, sitting on all this undiscovered supply?  We just have to get out of our own way.  It’s right there waiting for us.

If the family struggling on a daily basis believes this is just how life is, then they don’t demand much and thus are not given much.  So, just like the farmer, we can choose to just scratch the surface OR we can be willing to break away from what we believe (life is tough), open our mind, and demand a great life, demand abundance.  It’s here waiting for us, we just have to step up to the plate!  Are you ready?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Get Happiness Now! (selfimprovementsites.com)
• How to Create the Abundance Mindset (cheerfulliving.com)
• Change Your Thinking (ambianceofwellbeing.blogspot.com)