Visualization And Social Anxiety

by: Gary M. Miller

Social anxiety disorder greatly reduces the quality of a person's life. People who suffer from social anxiety miss out on so much that life has to offer. Opportunities are greatly limited, because the person who suffers from social anxiety cannot take advantage of any opportunity that might require social interaction - and most opportunities in life do require some sort of social interaction.

Visualization has been proven to be a very effective tool for dealing with social anxiety. Visualization is used to treat many disorders, and it is even used for pain management. Visualization can work in two ways: You can visualize yourself somewhere else, doing something else when you are in a social situation that is causing you anxiety, or you can visualize how a social interaction or event will play out before it occurs to prepare your mind for it.

The first method of visualization, where you visualize yourself in a different place from the one you are currently in is often used for pain management, or to calm down during anxious or stressful situations. The second method of visualization, where you visualize how a situation or event will play out, is the best visualization method for treating social anxiety disorder.

Using the second method of visualization, the concept is fairly simple. The theory is that if you visualize the situation or event in a positive way, over and over, before the event occurs, not only are you more prepared to handle it mentally, but it has been proven that if you think in a positive way, and visualize in a positive way, you will get positive results.

The second method prepares you for the event, but the first method is used during the event, in case you are feeling totally overwhelmed with the social situation that is going on around you. You simply remove yourself from the situation - mentally. People who suffer from social anxiety often use this method, but it should be considered a back-up plan, in case the first method fails to work once you are in the situation.

Visualization can be done with or without the aid of visualization tapes. There are tapes that can be purchased, but in the case of social anxiety, it is better to make your own tapes, since each tape will need to pertain to a specific social situation or event that is coming up in the future.

Visualization begins with some deep breathing exercises. Then, you close your eyes and begin to visualize the event. It is important that you visualize the event completely, starting from where you leave your house to go to the event. Make sure that you use all five senses to make it as real as possible in your mind. Be able to feel the clothes you are wearing, the smells that will be around you, the taste of the food that will be served, and the sound of people talking or music playing. Whatever the social situation will be, imagine it as clearly and realistically as possible.

Do not allow negative images to come into your mind. In your visualization, you should be handling the social situation very well. There is no fear. Nobody is staring at you or judging you. You are saying all the right things at the right times, and it is all going very well. Keep it positive!

Visualize a successful social interaction as many times as possible before the event, and make sure you do the visualization again right before the event. Also, prepare your backup visualization - the first method of visualization. You will need to practice the first method of visualization, where you can mentally remove yourself from an anxious situation, over and over again, until you are able to visualize yourself somewhere else that you consider safe and stress-free, without the use of visualization tapes.

If both methods fail you, first realize that it may take quite a bit of practice until it stops failing you. Then, just tell yourself that the event will end soon, and picture yourself arriving back at your home, where it is safe and comfortable. See yourself kicking your shoes off and fixing a bowl of ice cream. The event will be over soon, and then you can practice for the next event.

The important thing is to not stop trying. You will get it down eventually, and visualization will start to work for you, allowing you to do things that you never dreamed were possible!

Gary Miller is the author of "Prisoners of Our Thoughts: How to break free from the grips of Social Anxiety and Fear." To learn more about the book click here to go to the website at www.social-anxiety-cure.com.

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The Gallery of Life - What is the spiritual purpose of fine art prints as greeting cards?

by: H. Veronika Gaia

Greeting cards. Have you ever really pondered our real intention when sending greeting cards? Of course, you might reply. We want to celebrate; we want to offer inspiration; we want to console; we want to communicate. We often choose landscape photography or nature photography as the basic foundation of our greeting as these scenes display a fabric of life that is both beautiful and peaceful.

Yet, our intentions with greeting cards can have a spiritual purpose. Our greeting can inspire a be-attitude: be happy, be hopeful, be courageous, be comforted, be aware that you are not alone. These are all attributes of character development and reminders of our strength and courage during times of celebration and during times of adversity. Ultimately, greeting cards connect us to each other as immediate family, extended family and a global family.

So, when choosing unique greeting cards, have a new level of consciousness concerning its potential. The magic of your selected beautiful scene and inspirational thoughts may literally be your contribution to change our world, and make it better, one person at a time.

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Change Means Action

by: John Cyr

"Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies." - Robert Kennedy

Change does have enemies and Robert Kennedy knew that truth and paid for it with his blood. Change can be dangerous. That is why our natural instinct is to stay the course; stay put; avoid trying something new; leaving well enough alone; being safe; and I could mention another twenty or so excuses. If you are the type that wants to stay in your comfort zone, you will never experience the immense joy that comes from living. In order to succeed we must take risks and that means we have to change. Robert Kennedy said this in the context of politics. He referred to making progress as a nation. The only way to make progress as a nation is to change our point of view, to change the way we govern ourselves, to change certain laws that are unfair, and change the way we deal with the bad guys.

But his words can apply to any aspect of life, not just politics. In my career as a trainer I can say that change is the one thing that is needed the most and done the least. I have seen people go way out of their way just to avoid change. I trained adults in job readiness skills. Let me tell you that there were times I couldn't even get an adult to change their seat after 20 minutes of being seated in class. That is how ridiculous we can get about change. We all need to train ourselves to be more open. But it goes further than that.

Change is an action word and that means we need to act if we are going to progress. Change is not a theoretical practice of the mind, it implies real physical movement. For example, we may say that we have changed our attitude towards someone, but unless that is followed up by an action towards that certain person, they are only shallow words. Change means to repent. I instantly scare people away as soon as I say that because of the religious overtones. Well you can apply this to religion if you like. All I am saying is when someone says to you to repent, it simply means to change what you are doing. Change requires 3 things. The first is to recognize the need to change. The second is you actually do the action that is required. The third is you maintain the new course of action. Those happen to be the same three things involved in repentance. They say that recognizing that you need to change is half the battle and that is so true in my experience. The changing part is actually a lot less difficult to do than the first part which again is recognizing that you need to change. The final part is easy. It just requires that you keep on doing the new action over and over again. The second part in the middle means you must turn around and do something different to prove that what you recognized as needed to be done will be done. Change is empowering no matter how small it is as long as it is positive. Today, why not give change a chance and perform an action that you know needs to be done in your life. You will be gratified and empowered when you do it!

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The Real Secret of Getting What You Want In Life

by: Tony Hall

Have you ever heard the old saying, "If you don't ask, you don't get!"?

It's well worth taking heed of because far too many of us are afraid to ask for the things we need in order to succeed in life. Asking questions can open doors and bring to us the opportunities that without doubt are already out there. So why do we find it so hard?

The chances are that if you went to a good school you were always encouraged to ask questions. If you didn't quite understand what the teacher was telling you the only way to get it was to ask the meaning. As a Dad I certainly urge my sons to ask questions, it's the only way to learn.

But maybe as a child it's easy to say you don't understand and accept that you don't know something. Then it's easy to do something about it, ask for help and find the solution.

But sadly as we get older we stop asking! Maybe it's because we feel that as adults we should know what things mean and how to do them and so we don't want to appear foolish, particularly in front of our friends, family or work colleagues.

Or perhaps we have just stopped caring enough to want to learn new things and gain new experiences. It's sad, because when you do start to ask you usually start to get!

Sure, we all ask for things every day. We have to when we go shopping, go to the cinema, or go to a restaurant. But we only ask for the simple things!

Take that last example. When you go to a restaurant and see something on the menu that is unfamiliar do you ask the waiter what it is? Congratulations if you do, but most people will simply pass it over and stick with what they know. That's an opportunity lost!

And how many times, when in conversation with a group of people has something been mentioned that you don't understand? Instead of saying so and asking for an explanation it's so easy to just stay quiet and stay ignorant. Another chance wasted!

It's true isn't it? You just don't want to appear foolish.

Well it's time to change!

If you really want to move forward then you need to learn new things every day. You need to broaden your horizons, take on new experiences and discover all you need to get where you want to be.

So start asking. Ask what things mean, how to do them, and above all ask for the things you want in life.

The fact is that one of the keys to good conversation is asking questions. People won't think you're dumb or get annoyed. Instead they'll warm to you and you'll soon find that you are gaining all sorts of benefits. So don't be afraid to raise questions. Ask especially about the topics that you need to find out about to help you to achieve your goals.

Ask why, ask who, ask what. All those questions will get people talking and you'll soon to start to learn lots of new facts and information. You'll gain new knowledge and you'll discover new opportunities that will bring success to your life. And don't ever be afraid to ask for help.

So why not start right now by asking yourself some searching questions. Ask what it is you really want in life and what you need to do to get it. Search inside to find what will really bring you the happiness and fulfillment you desire. Because if you don't know what motivates you then you won't get to where you want to be.

So ask, and very soon you will begin to "get"!

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Success Is Simple!

by: Mohamed Tohami

Are you determined to become a mega success story?

Then this article will show you the simplest formula for reaching heights of success you've only dreamed about.

Remember that simplicity is not the same thing as ineffectiveness, for true power lies in simplicity. As the saying goes, "Common sense is not always common practice."

Let's begin.

Psychologist Arnold H. Glasgow has said, "Success is simple: do what's right, the right way, at the right time."

That's a simple concept, yet very profound.

The quote lays out three easy steps to simplify success, but those steps must be integrated to work effectively ' you can't afford to skip even one of them.

The first step is to do what is right. If you skip the FIRST and most important step, you're eliminating your chances to succeed.

But how do you know what is right for you?

Simply put, the decisions you make every day must match with your true purpose in life. Every action you take must enhance and solidify who you are and what you were meant to accomplish in this life.

When you have a purpose, your actions naturally become more powerful because they are focused and united to fulfill a sole objective. Consequently, you achieve faster and better results.

The second step is to do it the right way. If you skip this step, you'll find yourself in a never-ending loop of trial and error where you'll just keep re-inventing the wheel, instead of re-inventing yourself.

It has often been said that the easiest way to become successful is to find someone who is already successful and follow in his footsteps.

Take that advice and learn from the best. Look for successful people who have reached the same level of success you want to reach, and learn from both their mistakes and their accomplishments. Imitate their lives, learn their methods, and discover their secrets.

The third and last simple step to success is to choose the right time. Take small actions every single day that lead you toward fulfilling your purpose. Prepare yourself so that when the right opportunity presents itself, you'll be ready to seize it and ride it to unimaginable levels of success. The right time to start taking action is NOW. Even the smallest action can make a big difference. Don't worry about the magnitude of your every move; focus instead on the collective power of all your small actions combined.

"Success is simple. Do what's right, the right way, at the right time."

Do what is right by discovering your true purpose in life.

Do it the right way by learning from the best.

Do it at the right time by taking small actions and preparing yourself to seize opportunity when it presents itself.

Can success be that simple?

It can be if you start NOW!

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Now Mary - Now Martha!

by: Linda Fitzgerald

While downstairs for a lunch break (ah, peanut butter passion ice cream!), it occurred to me to talk about “Mary and Martha”.

Now don’t ask me why. The thought just occurred to me. But I think it has something to do with the Odds/Ends I first talked about here earlier this a.m. You know, the task-oriented vs the not so task-oriented (or something like that).

I’m sure most of you know a little something about Mary & Martha. Mary, Martha and their brother Lazarus were all close friends of Jesus. Not only was he their friend, but he was their Rabboni (means ‘teacher’ in Hebrew). They lived in Bethany, a small village within a days walk of Jerusalem. Whenever Jesus needed a break, he would drop by their home just to chat, eat, relax and recoup his energy.

The two women were dramatically different. Martha, the type-A personality with anal tendencies and a slight persecution complex, would have a “dither-fit”. Clean house, do laundry, kill the fatted calf and generally set about taking care of the domestic needs required to entertain the “teacher”. I imagine she worked herself into a “dither” as she scurried about to make everything ‘perfect’ for their visitor.

Mary on the other hand, had a more other-worldly approach to life. She was studious, eager to learn, more in touch with her inner life and less concerned about domestic matters. Oh I’m sure she did what was required of her in preparation for his visit, but when he got there - forget cooking, cleaning or anything else remotely related to domestication. While Martha ’slaved’ in the kitchen, Mary was perfectly content to sit at his feet, pry him with questions about life and matters of the spirit while her sister ’slaved’ away.

Being a good anal persecutory personality as she was, Martha complained loudly about her sister’s lack of respect for her (Martha) by leaving the preparation to Martha alone to sit at Jesus’ feet and soak up his every word.

Can you blame Martha? There’s a job to be done and “oh my goodness, do I always have to do it by myself!” Spoken by a tried and true task-oriented woman who has little or no time for the ‘fluff’ of wasting time learning something new and exciting from the “teacher”.

Martha must have proclaimed and complained loudly. Anyway, as the story goes, Jesus chided Martha for her uncharitable attitude toward her sister and gave Martha something profound to ‘chew on’. Basically his viewpoint was that “what difference is it to you, Martha, if your sister wants to focus on the things that make a true difference in life?”

Oh that must have boiled Martha’s blood! How dare he put her down in that way! After all, if it weren’t for her, he’d have nothing to eat or drink.

Now, what’s the moral or purpose for my retelling in modern context this ancient story? What occurs to me is that in each of us there is a Martha and a Mary! One to get the job done efficiently, effectively and in timely manner and one to take time to rest, relax, question, contemplate and take stock!

Last night, my “Martha” was on full display! Yes, I was typical “type-A”; somewhat “anal” and complained bitterly to ’self’ that I had to keep going over and over something with which I was quite comfortable and that time was ‘fleeting’ and nit-picking each word seemed a waste of time . . . etc, etc, etc!

Yet no one loves taking time to ’sit at the teacher’s feet’ and listen, contemplate and otherwise grow in wisdom, stature and hopefully ‘grace’. I love to learn new things. And I love to ‘vegetate’ from time to time - you know - do nothing. ABOLUTELY NOTHING!

As I reflect on this conversation and what prompted it, I’m amused. I’m amused that in one human person, there can be so much contradition. Before you think we’re not all included in this - please be advised that none of us gets a ‘pass’ on this one.

‘Tis true! There’s a Martha and a Mary in each of us. And that ‘ain’t bad. The key is knowing when it’s fully appropriate to let ‘Martha’ have her way and when it’s best to be a ‘Mary’.

And when in working with others, know which ‘lady’ ought to have the upper hand for the task at hand so that our human dealings will be one of cooperation, coordination and collaboration rather than a trip down ego-lane with Martha shouting from the kitchen while Mary turns a deaf ear.

Ah, just something to comtemplate as we head into the weekend!

May it be awesome, love-filled and rich with great ’stuff’!

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People Are Our Greatest Wealth - 10 ways to make the most of your treasure

by: Gina Gardiner

I believe that the work force of any organization represent their true wealth for without them the organization is going nowhere.

If you are the owner or Managing Director of any organization you will know what the assets of your company are worth. Your Financial Directors and accountants will no doubt provide you with balance sheets of your net worth, those assets which are depreciating and those investments which are growing in value.

What value do you put on your staff?

For many organizations the monthly staffing bill is the major expense of the organization and yet they appear to undervalue the amazing resource they have at their disposal.

The collective intelligence, skills, expertise, energy and enthusiasm of your staff is so much bigger than the sum of the individual parts. Optimising the potential of your staff can lead to a competitive edge and a more settled contented workforce it is well worth the investment in time and money.

Ten ways to ensure you maximise the staffing treasure you have at your disposal:

1) Have a clear strategic vision which is shared by everyone

It is particularly important in times of change or difficulty. Uncertainty and lack of clarity creates huge amounts of stress for the majority of people. Having a shared strategic vision enables all staff to understand what the organisation wants to achieve. It works like a light house in stormy waters.

2) Create effective systems of communication which work at every level within the organization. This is vital as the “Chinese whispers” and “Rumour” style of leadership are ineffective and divisive. Involve staff in creating a system of communication which works for everyone.

3) Ensure your decision making process has integrity

Where people have faith that decisions have been made for the right reasons they are much more likely to accept them willingly. There are still too many managers who opt for the easiest decision rather than the right one or they base their decision on the last person they spoke to.

4) Create a culture where everyone feels their ideas are welcomed and valued

Encouraging everyone to do their best is good business. Giving credit for the contribution that they make is a great way of achieving a culture of contribution.

5) Have high and explicit expectations of yourself and your staff.

These should be set out from the outset and provide the measure of performance. Where people are doing well ensure that this is noticed and that staff are made aware that their efforts are valued. Where people are found wanting they should be given constructive feedback and training if necessary. The “hard conversations” should take place in a professional and supportive way.

6) Encourage your staff to be solution finders rather than problem givers

This has a number of incredibly positive spin offs. You minimise the role of the “victim”, and encourage everyone to take responsibility for their contribution, it shares the work load and encourages a positive approach to the future.

7) Train everyone in good team behaviour
Leaders and managers should model the behaviour they want to encourage. The role of “ego” should be minimised and people encouraged to listen actively and contribute willingly.

8) Create a reward system which encourages collaboration and co-operation rather than competition

Encouraging staff to see each other as competition rather than as a useful resource may have short term benefits but in the end encouraging everyone to engage the customer or client to provide the best possible service will protect your future market and enable you to grow consistently.

9) Look for ways to grow and retain your staff.

The cost of recruiting Middle and Senior Managers is extremely high. Ongoing professional development leading to promotion will act as an incentive to improve performance and facilitate effective delegation and succession planning. Of course there will be times when you need fresh blood into the organization, then your track record for ongoing training and treating your staff well will become a great encouragement for others to join you.


10) Never take “good will” for granted.

Staff will give their time and energy willingly when they feel that their efforts are appreciated and valued. Take them for granted and they quickly become resentful and start to think “Why should I bother?” A simple thank you for a task well done goes a long way but be aware the simply going through the motions of showing appreciation has the potential to do harm to relationships.

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Compassion

by: Mary E. Martin

I never considered myself a particularly spiritual, or for that matter, a religious person. But I've found that in writing The Osgoode Trilogy, particularly the third, A Trial of One, that compassion has become very strong theme which runs through all three novels.

I just found this quote from Thomas Aquinas — "I would rather feel compassion than know the meaning of it." Surely, this must be the difference between the understanding of the head and the heart.

In the first novel in the trilogy, Conduct in Question, we have a man dubbed by the media as the "The Florist" who is a serial killer — so named because he tries to capture the easy flow of the line of the master painter, Matisse, in his carvings on his victims. He is a sadistic killer with an artistic bent.

You may feel [as I do] that the world has plenty of novels with serial killers and so, rather than detailing his rampages, I wanted to add some provocatively human touches to the character of the "Florist." More than anything else, he wants to experience the emotion of compassion.

When he speaks to his mother, who is long since dead, he says in frustration — "I know what the word compassion mean, mother, but what does it feel like?"

As the story nears its conclusion, the "Florist" gets his wish —a fleeting sense of compassion. About to murder his next victim, John, who is a truly simple soul — the church caretaker — the "Florist" is overcome with a compassionate sense and decides to spare him.

When the Florist silently stepped into the room, a strange sensation passed over him. Was this what Mother spoke of? As if disoriented, he stopped and shook his head. Was this compassion?

"It’s you!" said John, his smile radiating a sweetness the Florist had never seen before. He saw the muscles of the huge man flex; John's damp white shirt was matted to his skin. He saw the thinning but baby-fine hair, neatly combed in place. Suddenly he saw the simple man as more than an obstacle in his path. He thought that life could not have been easy for such an imbecile. He should be spared. Mother would be proud of his act of compassion.

In Final Paradox, our hero, Harry Jenkins learns that compassion means stepping into another's shoes and understanding what it feels like. Easy to say — hard to do! When Harry was eight, his father withdrew from almost all contact with his family after the death of Anna, his daughter —Harry's sister. Now, years later, while his father is in surgery for a brain aneurysm, Harry waits in the Quiet Room trying to understand how his father could have abandoned him as a child.

At the very moment of his asking, Harry gets his answer as he witnesses the following played out before him.

Harry caught his breath. An unearthly wailing came from the hallway. The door to the Quiet Room flew open. A tall, bony woman, wearing a mauve dress and yellow shawl, clung desperately to the arms of two men. One was old and hunched and the other muscular and attentive.

The florescent lighting illuminated the woman's face raw with agony.

"No! No!" As if possessed, she shook violently and her voice slid up octaves. "By the blood of Christ, no!" Clasping her hands to her ears, she began to moan, her eyes ricocheting about the room.

She screamed at the ceiling. "Why have you cursed me? He cannot be taken so soon."

Harry pressed his hands against his face. With all his heart, he wanted to pray. He had just witnessed the unholy wrenching of the spirit at the loss of a child, caused by blind hatred. As he touched the tears on his face, he began to understand. "God forgive me," he whispered. "I have known nothing! My father died along with Anna. I did nothing to help."

And that's exactly where Harry begins to understand his father and compassion — by actually experiencing his pain and loss. True, you may study compassion and quote clever sayings about it, but if you never feel another's pain and suffering in your heart and your gut, as if it were your very own, you do not know what it is.

Do you think some people are naturally more compassionate?

In A Trial of One, Harry's beloved, Natasha has her own struggles with compassion. She is forced to choose between two people she loves — Harry and her friend Sheila. Natasha recollects a conversation, years back, between her mother, Renee, and her Aunt Mila. The boss has demanded that Renee sleep with him so she can advance in the business.

"Oh, Renee! You poor kid!"

After a long silence, her mother said softly, "Once we'd done it, his eyes looked so sad and ashamed, like being him just wore him down."

Mila was aghast. "You felt sorry for him?"

"No, not really. But I can see how loneliness can make you crazy." Afterwards, we talked a bit, sitting on the bed in the motel. He was living all alone there because his wife had run off with the kids."

Natasha’s compassionate nature makes choosing between Harry and Sheila so difficult for her. Hurt and angry, Sheila has betrayed Natasha who now considers her next step as she wanders the beach.

Natasha turned and walked slowly past the riot of weeds and up to the cottage. Soon she would drive back to the city. She knew Harry was her passion, the one who had awakened her to herself. But she still heard Sheila's cry — one of all humanity — because it hurts! Sheila's pain, from fear of loss, was a pain shared by the whole world. She did not reach it by reason, but she knew there was only one thing she could do — act with love, care, and compassion.

Talking about love and compassion… having to decide between two people who love her, [Harry and Sheila] Natasha must find that balance between passion and compassion. Easy to say: hard to do!

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Relativity as a Spiritual Concept

by: Richard Blackstone

God as a spiritual absolute causes us to examine spirituality information in a manner that connects the one source known as God with the dualistic nature of the universe. Our spiritual growth depends on making this connection. How we interpret the concept of God as an absolute and God as the all of everything is the esoteric concept we are going to examine. We will begin our spiritual quest with the idea that prior to the creation of the universe God exists in what we call the realm of the absolute.

So here was God's quandary: God, who knows all things and is all things, absolutely knew that she was this beautiful, majestic, noble, glorious beingness but she could only know herself in all her magnificence conceptually. God yearned for the experience of being beautiful, majestic, noble and glorious. God aspired for a true knowingness of her magnificence that would require her to view her complete grandeur from all perspectives.

God knew that this could not be achieved in the absolute because the very ideas of beauty, majesty, nobility and gloriousness are relative to what beauty, majesty, nobility, and gloriousness are not.

You see, in the realm of the absolute everything that is known is absolute. Beauty is beauty. Majestic is majestic. Noble is noble. Glorious is glorious. Only by matching a concept to something the concept is not you can see the concept from a different perspective.

You need to view the concept relative to what the concept is not. You need relativity. It is only through relativity that you can match a concept to something the concept is not and thereby experience it.

In order to experience hot you must see hot in its relationship to what hot is not. Something we call cold. You have hot on one end of the spectrum and you have cold on the other end. Now you can experience hot and cold and all the varying degrees of the spectrum between hot and cold.

This is what relativity is all about. This is what physical life is all about. In order to experience something, you must see it in relation to what it is not. You could say that in defining yourself you must see yourself in relation to everything that you claim you are not. If you are good then you claim that you are not bad. If you are tall then you claim that you are not short. If you are honest then you claim that you are not a liar. It is by that which you are not that you, yourself, are defined.

So God, while residing in the realm of the absolute, knows all things, conceptually and God is all things, conceptually. God knew that in order for God to experience and be all that God knows and is, God would have to create a space that would allow all God knows and is to be in relationship to the opposite of all that is known and is.

God would have to create a place where concepts were allowed to exist in relationship to what the concept is not. God would have to create a place where God was allowed to exist in relationship to what God is not. God would have to create a relationship world, a universe of relativity in order for God to know experientially all that she knows of conceptually.

Wow! What a great project. What a magnificent undertaking. What a supreme answer to God's desire to experience all that she knows conceptually.

So where is God going to build this magnificent creation and how is it going to function? That is an excellent question and one that requires a whole article itself in order to answer.

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Essential Spirituality Information: Your Mind, Body, Spirit Beingness

by: Richard Blackstone

Your spiritual growth is always centered on the question of, “Who am I?” The essential spirituality information needed to answer that question is the triality of your beingness known as your body, your mind and your spirit. Each aspect of your being is no more important than the other but none can be ignored in your spiritual journey to understand yourself and the true nature of how the universe works.

You are a three-part being made up of mind, body and spirit. When you are born into this world, your beingness is evenly balanced and each of these aspects of your beingness contributes to the whole in equal partnership. You are a divine being radiating the love that is the core of your essence. Each part of the beingness equation is honored and required in order for you, as a baby, to function and be a whole person.

Every waking moment, hour, day, week, month and year that we exist, as this entity we know as ourselves, we are being sent external stimuli that forms our thought process and thereby our belief system. The stimulus that we receive begins to develop patterns that allow the infant child to make choices as to how the world is interpreted.

During our infancy, we freely exercise our physical and nonphysical senses. We are not restricted by convention or tradition. We are truly free to be whatever we choose to be in any given moment. We are guided by all aspects of our beingness, as the spirit, the mind and the body work in harmony to develop and grow.

Parents allow this wonderful natural symmetry to manifest itself because they understand that in the early infant stage of life, they cannot control how the baby chooses to be in any given situation. At this stage of our lives our innate beingness is in charge and the mind, body, spirit being that we are is working in harmony.

The baby accepts the input and influence generated by the mind. The mind is functioning as a processing center to receive external stimuli, interpreting it, storing it and creating its own “data command center.” The baby doesn't need any prompting from anybody to begin these typical and natural functions that establish the base for information the baby will need throughout its life.

The baby accepts the input and influence generated by the body. The body is functioning as a perfectly tooled machine that takes in energy, builds new cells and discharges spent energy. When baby wants to poop, baby poops. The baby doesn't need any prompting from anybody to begin these typical and natural functions that establish the base for bodily functions the baby will use throughout its life.

The baby accepts the input and influence generated by the spirit. The spirit is functioning as a perfect reference source of the love that is the essence of our being. As we look into the baby's eyes we see the wisdom of the ages and know that we have a spiritual connection to all that is. The baby doesn't need any prompting from anybody to be connected to the spiritual nature of our beingness. It just is “what is.”

Eventually the infant reaches a point in its own maturation where it is able to see the connection between the external stimuli that it is receiving and the decisions that it makes concerning how it responds to that stimuli. The baby learns to eat, poop, talk, walk and grow into the ability to make choices about all things.

We are all made up as three-part beings. That is who we are. Always have been and always will be for eternity. That is who we really are.

We are all spirit children of God, Love and Life.

At our essence, we are a three-part being rather than a two-part being. It is only when we wake up to the fact that besides our mind and body, we are also this spirit that is integral to all that we are and everything we do, that we can begin to understand the true nature of how things really work.

This is the first stage of answering the question, “Who Am I?” You must first become aware of your triad beingness which is body, mind and spirit. Never forget the spirit as an integral part of your beingness.

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Spirituality Information: A Simple Four-Word Question

by: Richard Blackstone

Spiritual growth doesn't happen in a vacuum. All the spirituality information that we gather can be used as tools to help us in our quest for understanding. Your own spiritual growth depends on tools that are practical and useful. To help us along in this journey we will be using a tool to help us gauge if we are on the right path. The tool we will be using is a simple four-word question.

“Does this serve me?”

Does it serve you to live your life more consciously and understand the true nature of how things work? Does it serve you to stumble through life never understanding the relationship between the thoughts you think and what manifests in your life? Does it serve you to seek to improve your life by asking the questions that are important to you and then allowing the universe to provide the answers? Does it serve you to continue to react to life situations using the same conditioned responses that you have used throughout your life and getting the same results?

What serves you? Only you can answer that question. That is why it is such a powerful tool for you to use on this journey that we are taking together. I invite you to incorporate it into your own evaluation system and ask it of yourself as often as you see a need to.

That is the beauty of the spiritual adventure that we call life on planet earth. It is an individual journey that only you can examine and evaluate as to whether it serves you or not. You are your own arbiter. You are your own playwright. You are the decision maker of your life. You are, in the final analysis, the creator of your life and the world you live in.

Are you creating a life that serves you? How will you ever know if you don't occasionally ask the question, “Does this serve me?” And the beauty of asking this question to yourself is that you must be conscious and aware of your self in order to ask it.

You will never ask yourself this question if you are living unconsciously. So rejoice when you notice yourself asking “does this serve me?” because in the asking of the question you are acknowledging that you are consciously aware of your self.

Who is this self that is asking this question? Who is the asker and who is the answerer? These are questions that never get asked or answered when you are living unconsciously. You are going to explore these questions in depth as you journey further into your life but for now it is important for you to understand that the mere asking of the question “does this serve me?” is a benchmark in your awareness of who you really are.

Who you really are is consciousness and consciousness is only aware of itself when it is conscious of itself. There are four levels of consciousness and they range from subconscious to conscious to superconscious to supraconscious. You operate within these four levels of consciousness at all times but you are not aware of all these levels of consciousness until you move up the hierarchy of consciousness through understanding and awareness.

Each level of consciousness taps into the part of our three-part being that we call our mind. Our individual mind is totally connected to the universal mind and allows us to bring forth anything that we desire from the unmanifest to the manifest. So it would seem to “serve us” to have a rudimentary understanding of where we stand on the scale of consciousness.

The subconscious mind is that part of our existence that handles those tasks of the body that are automatic, such as breathing and creating new cells and beating the heart. It also serves as a memory station for all the people, events and experiences that the physical body has been privy to.

The conscious mind is the workhorse that collects every piece of data from each and every moment of the now of your existence. This conscious mind also analyses your past, projects your future, comprehends, with limited awareness, your present moment decision making and provides you with your physical sensory feedback. Through this process the conscious mind is how you interpret your present moment experiences. The analysis you are going through right now, while reading these words, is filtered through your conscious mind. You are seeing whatever you are seeing from your current perspective of your conscious mind and you can actually change that perspective at any given moment by merely moving your perspective to a higher level of consciousness. One of the reasons you are reading this article is to allow you to move to a higher level of consciousness. Did you know that?

Does that serve you?

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Spiritual Growth Requires You to "BE" what Serves You

by: Richard Blackstone

There is a lot of spirituality information out there talking about what you need to do to advance your spiritual growth but it is actually more important to focus on what you are “being” more than on what you are doing.

A human being is the label that we have attached to ourselves as we reside on this beautiful planet that we call earth. We had to describe ourselves in some fashion so that we could distinguish ourselves from all the other entities that occupy this planet with us.

We call ourselves humans as a label to distinguish us from a cow or an eagle or a tiger or, my favorite, a dog (God spelled backwards). Just as these are cow beings and eagle beings and tiger beings and dog beings, we are human beings. We are not human doings. We are human beings.

The difference between us, as human beings, and all the other living entities that we share this planet with, is that they are not able to use thoughts in the same manner that we do. This is not to say that they don't have thoughts, but our observations tell us that the human being is the only life form that can use those thoughts to analyze and quantify our beingness.

When we observe a dog or a cat or any other animal we see them being a dog or a cat or whatever. They don't have to think about being a dog or a cat. They just are a dog or a cat and that is what they are being. A bird doesn't have to think about flying. A bird flies. That is part of its beingness.

The beingness of a non-human is to act in accordance with its nature. The beingness of a human is to use thoughts to create whatever he or she desires. Humans use thoughts to create the beingness of their nature that will fulfill the intention of what they choose to be.

It is a beingness thing, not a doingness thing. This is a critical concept in defining who we are and it is important to know the distinction between being and doing.

What you will come to understand very clearly as we proceed into this book is that your doingness is a function of who you are being. In other words, your beingness creates your doingness.

This is a critical point in your awakening. It is important to understand the concept that your beingness creates your doingness. That is why there is so much frustration and turmoil in the world today. Most people are real concerned about what they are doing and not giving a thought about who they are being.

When you wake up and start living life more consciously, you become more concerned with, and start concentrating on, who you are being and less concerned with what you are doing. You realize that by putting your conscious efforts into who you are being you will ultimately determine what you end up doing.

And why is that? Because your beingness creates your doingness.

That is why the title of this article is “Be What Serves You” instead of “Do What Serves You.” By being what serves you, you will put yourself in alignment with who you desire to be and then trust and understand that your doingness will spring from that.

You are a human being not a human doing, so we are going to place our emphasis on our beingness. Even though we have labeled ourselves as human beings and that is how we define ourselves, I need to tell you once again that that is not who we really are.

The label “human being” is too limiting to describe who we really are. When you describe yourself as a human being you get a vision of yourself as a humanoid body. At surface value that vision includes a being that can think and make decisions. So our initial description is a physical body with the nonphysical ability to think.

That is how most people would characterize themselves if they were ever asked to define what it means to be a human being. Most people are conditioned to believe that they are a body and a mind.

But in actuality we are a three-part being made up of mind, body and spirit. Most people have heard this description of the human life form. Your spiritual growth requires you to go into depth about this amazing triad being that we really are.

Are you ready to grow spiritually? For now, just begin the self inquiry concerning your relationship to your spirit? Do you have a deep mutual respect for your spirit or do you hardly know about your spirit at all?

Your assignment today is to continue to ask yourself this question today and see what the answer is.

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Spirituality Information: Planting the Seeds of Conscious Creation

by: Richard Blackstone

Your spiritual growth requires a consciousness that actively manifests your desires. Spirituality information is unavailable to people who are living unconsciously. They haven't planted the seeds of awareness and cannot therefore reap the harvest of conscious creation.

This article is designed for both the conscious and the unconscious creator. It is spirituality information that is meant to clarify the necessity for your awareness of consciousness.

When you are creating consciously, you are aware of the connection between the cause and effect of what shows up in your life. Just as you plant tomato seeds in the spring, so do you reap the benefits of tomatoes in the summer.

You can see the physical manifestation of the tomato seed as it begins to sprout through the ground, take form as a living, growing tomato plant and then actually bear the fruit of its genes in the form of nice, juicy tomatoes. You can actually view this as it happens and document each stage of this beautiful life process of a tomato from the unmanifest to the manifest.

The process that produces juicy, delicious tomatoes is the same process that manifests your innermost desires into physical reality. You plant the seeds of your desires by choosing a thought that you wish to pursue. You water and feed this seed by your words and then you bear the fruit of your creation by the deeds and actions you take to bring forth your creation into your reality. It is the universal creative process at work and just like the farmer who plants her tomatoes in the spring, so too do you plant the seeds of your creations with every thought that goes through your head.

When you put your intentions and desires out into the universe and then tend the garden of your intentions, so too do you see your intentions and desires manifest themselves into your life.

When you are creating unconsciously, you are unaware of this cause and effect relationship. You put your intentions and desires out into the universe unconsciously and you don't tend the garden of your intentions, so weeds and drought may cause your intentions to be stunted, not fully developed or just die on the vine.

When your unconscious intentions and desires show up in your reality you don't recognize them. You remain unconscious to the fact that you initiated your creations in the first place and you continue to remain unconscious to the idea that “you are the cause of what shows up in your life“.

You don't recognize your creations because they may not show up in the exact form that you envisioned when you thought about them as an intention. You don't have the ability to detach yourself from the vision you have of your desires, so you disavow yourself of any responsibility you have in creating what shows up in your life.

It's a double-whammy. You are unconscious about initiating your creations and then you are unconscious as to why your creations manifested into your reality. The sleepwalker, the person who lives unconsciously, does not see the relevance of their role in causing “what happens” in their life as well as accepting responsibility for the effect of “what's happening” in their life.

This is perfectly logical because they are unconscious. They are sleepwalking. They are not “being what serves them.” They are not awake to the idea of who they really are.

What does it mean to say that sleepwalkers are not awake to the idea of who they really are? Are not all of us human beings traveling this earth together? Isn't a human being who we really are?

The answer is “No.”

Whoa, wait a minute; hold your horses there. What do you mean? Are you saying that I am not a human being?

Actually, I am not saying that you are not a human being. I am saying that a human being is not who you really are.

You see, you are more, so very much more, than a human being. You are a mind, body, spirit being occupying a human body with the ability to create whatever you desire into your life with this wonderful gift of your thoughts.

Use your thoughts wisely and create a magnificent life.

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Spiritual Growth asks, "Are You Being what Serves You?

by: Richard Blackstone

Most spirituality information has an emphasis on your being, not your doing. For those seeking spiritual growth it is critical to keep your beingness in alignment with what serves you.

Be what serves you. What does that mean? Of course, we are all trying to do the things in life that serve us and make us happy. Why wouldn't we? We certainly wouldn't consciously make decisions that do not serve us, would we? No, we wouldn't consciously be that way.

If we are living consciously we would be able to clearly see the concepts and values that are important to us and then consciously make the choices and decisions that would keep us in alignment with them. What is so hard about that? Obviously, we would make the choices that serve us and take us to where we desire to be.

We, as individuals and societies, all agree that one of the places that we “desire to be” is a place called “world peace.” This is a concept that most people in the world embrace as a God-given right. We should all live with the full expectation that we can all get along with our fellow human beings.

If most of the people in the world subscribe to this concept, then why is there so much killing and destruction going on in the world in our avowed attempt to achieve “world peace?” What is keeping us from reaching this fundamental goal of just getting along with each other? If we say that we, as individuals and societies, would be better served by achieving this goal then why haven't we achieved it? Or even come close to achieving it?

For the past two thousand years of recorded history we can document that we have pretty much done whatever it takes to not achieve this goal. Could it be that we are unconsciously choosing to attain other short term, less all-encompassing goals than our stated goal of world peace?

Could it be, in fact, that we are not living consciously, as individuals and as societies, and that the consequences of this unconscious living is being manifested in the way we live our lives and view the world as it is today? This is but the tip of the iceberg concerning the questions we have been asking ourselves regarding our inability to attain even our most fundamental values. Values such as inner peace and world peace.

Our questions concerning life and our relationship to all things that make up life are valid, and it is well within the human psyche that we should expect we could come up with some answers. This is not an unreasonable expectation.

You need to look at life's questions with the intention that you will reach clarity on what you decide is the best path for you to follow. You must be the final arbiter in the decisions you make about your life. The decisions that you make concerning your own life will ultimately determine what your world looks like.

Because here's the deal: You are creating your life as you go along. You are not only creating your own life, you are also creating the world we live in by every choice and decision that you make concerning every aspect of life.

This is a huge Ah-haaaaa.

Yes, I am telling you that you that you are a powerful creating machine and you are creating all the time. The difference between you knowing this or not is answered by the question, “Are you creating consciously or unconsciously?”

The question is not whether you are creating. You are creating! Now the question becomes, are you creating consciously or are you sleepwalking through life and accepting the consequences of your unconscious creations and being unaware of “what's happening?”

How do you determine if you are being served by your beliefs. Well, you simply ask yourself this four word question, “Does this serve me?”

Can it be this easy. Yes, life is effortless if you choose for it to be effortless. Ask yourself this question, “Does that serve me?”

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Spiritual Growth is a Personal Quest

by: Richard Blackstone

The more spirituality information you are exposed to the more you understand that your spiritual growth is a quest for understanding your relationship to life, love, God and the true nature of how the universe works.

There is this wonderful thing you need to know about your eternal life quest and it is one of the reasons that I love the concept of spirituality so much. Spirituality tells us that each person must follow their own particular path in their quest for spiritual understanding and knowledge about the true nature of how things work. It is an individual journey and you get to take the journey in any manner that suits you best. There is no “one right way” that fits everybody. There is only “the way that works for you.”

The words and concepts in this article are here to help you see another way of looking at life (or God, or love) so that you might incorporate these understandings into your own life creation. My request is that you view this material with an open mind and an open heart. Some of the concepts you will explore here may be new to you, and some of them may be ideas that you have heard before and revealed to you through my own particular filter. None of what you will be reading here is new news. We are not re-inventing the wheel. The wheel is already known to us, but the wheel is cyclical and as it turns and turns we get to view it from all different perspectives.

You are reading this article because you are on a quest to improve your life. I am on a quest to improve my life. And by improvement, I don't mean that my life, just like yours, isn't already perfect. Mine is, just as yours is. It is just that there are ways to live life and go through the life process that serve us, and there are ways to go through the life process that don't serve us, given what it is that we say we are trying to accomplish and who we are being.

If you desire to live your life effortlessly and in abundance, then there are ways of interpreting the process of life that serve you better than other ways of interpreting the process of life. All of life is a choice, but in order to make the preferred choices you must have an understanding of all the choices available to you. This article is designed to allow you to see some different perspectives on the life process and thereby allow you make choices that serve you.

Whether you make those choices is entirely up to you. That is what I love about this concept called spirituality. It is entirely up to you to interpret what is best for you, given who you define yourself to be. Once you have defined yourself, then you have the opportunity to choose those experiences that reveal your innermost desires and aspirations to the world. If you so choose.

As you wake up to who you really are, you become inspired (in spirit) to create the life of your innermost and deeply held intentions and desires into your physical reality.

As you wake up to who you really are, you begin to understand the true nature of how things work.

As you wake up to who you really are, you begin manifesting into your life those people, events and experiences in your life that fulfill your innermost desires and aspirations.

As you wake up to who you really are, you align yourself with the universal forces that allow you to live effortlessly.

As you wake up to who you really are, you begin to see the abundance that is your inheritance by the fact that you are here, right now, in this present moment of now.

As you wake up to who you really are, you bring yourself into balance in the mind, body, spirit being that is inherent to your beingness.

As you wake up to who you really are, you begin to understand fully that you are not a human being having a spiritual experience, but rather you are a spiritual being having a human experience.

So that is our quest. We are going to venture deeply into the process of life with the intention of coming to clarity on the true nature of how things work. It is with this deep understanding that we will be able to incorporate the concepts and ideas in our lives that will allow us to be and therefore do the things that serve us as we move toward the vision that we hold of ourselves.

This is not the only way to view life and the life process, it is just another way. Once again, the beauty of life is in the free will to make any choice that you desire that will help define who you are and how you wish to manifest into your life that which you truly desire and intend to experience.

You see, all of life is an experience. That is why we are here. To experience life, to experience God, to experience love. (They are interchangeable) We are here to experience life in all of its different perspectives in order for us to see the core of who we really are, which is Love, from all of its different perspectives.

With an open heart and an open mind, let us begin our journey. By taking an in-depth view of Life As A Process we will gain some perspective on the true nature of how things work. Once you understand how the universe really works you can incorporate that understanding into your life and let the love and abundance of life flow to you effortlessly.

Let the journey begin.

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Spirituality Information: God, Life and Love are Interchangable

by: Richard Blackstone

Your spiritual growth is not a static event; it is an on-going process. Once you are locked into the process you begin to receive spirituality information through a variety of sources.

Spirituality, as a concept, is not an external manifestation of our beliefs or an explanation of how we express ourselves in physical form. Spirituality is internal and eternal. Spirituality is our interconnectedness with all of life, the physical, the nonphysical and the metaphysical. It is an interconnectedness that begins by knowing who you really are and creating life from that point of awareness.

Spirituality is life itself, revealing itself to you. Replace the word “life” in the last sentence with the word “God” and you will begin to understand the deeper part of the life (God) process. You see, God, life and love are interchangeable.

If you have a misunderstanding about this essential part of life's (God's, love's) equation, then you will be throwing your whole life (God, love) experience into a perspective that is not in alignment with the true nature of how things work.

Think about these concepts. What if you started your whole life experience on a foundation of sand? What if the basic concepts and beliefs that you have lived your whole life by were not based in essential truths about the true nature of how the universe works? What if your core values and life perspectives were not designed to serve you in your quest to be the grandest vision of yourself? What if most of what you believe about the life process is based in fear? What if living within this paradigm of fear has kept you from viewing life another way that might actually serve you better?

Now let us try this sentence again and substitute the word “God” for “life.”

Just think about these concepts. What if you started your whole God experience on a foundation of sand? What if the basic concepts and beliefs that you have “Goded” your whole life by were not based in essential truths about the true nature of how the universe works? What if your core values and God perspectives were not designed to serve you in your quest to be the grandest vision of yourself? What if most of what you believe about the God process is based in fear? What if living within this paradigm of fear has kept you from viewing God another way that might serve you better?

Now let us try it with the word “love.”

Just think about these concepts. What if you started your whole love experience on a foundation of sand? What if the basic concepts and beliefs that you have loved your whole life by were not based in essential truths about the true nature of how the universe works? What if your core values and love perspectives were not designed to serve you in your quest to be the grandest vision of yourself? What if most of what you believe about the love process is based in fear? What if living within this paradigm of fear has kept you from viewing love another way that might serve you better?

Wouldn't it behoove you to really understand the true nature of how things work? If you really understood the true nature of how things work in this universe, then you would be able to align with that understanding and bring into your life that which you truly desire.

Your spiritual growth requires you to seek clarity on the interconnectedness of all of life. Not just the physical universe but also the unseen metaphysical aspects of the nature of our being. It is truly a grand quest and one that is not only soulfully fulfilling but also one that is guaranteed to improve your life and the world we live in.

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Spiritual Growth Question: What is Inside of You?

by: Richard Blackstone

Your spiritual growth is a process of going within. Most spirituality information prioritizes what is inside of you rather than what is exterior to you. So your first concern about your spiritual growth is whether you are choosing to go within for answers to your innermost questions.

When you are living unconsciously you are making choices all the time that are mainly concerned with the world that is outside of your physical body. Everything in life is a matter of choice.

Now, you may think that you are not choosing. You may think that what you do in life is automatic, but that is because you have conditioned yourself to believe that way. You have conditioned yourself to keep choosing the same reactions to similar stimuli. You have forgotten that you have free will to choose any state of being no matter what confronts you in life.

If you come upon a situation that has caused you to be sad in the past, then you will probably choose to be sad if you come upon a similar situation in the present. But it is your choice to be sad. It may be made automatically, but it is a choice. When you are walking in awareness you may consciously choose to be happy. If you consciously choose to be happy in a sad situation, you will do different things then what you would do if you choose to be sad. It is entirely your choice.

It all depends on what is inside of you that you choose to bring forth and deal with in the present situation. What you choose to bring forth will be a state of beingness. What you end up doing will depend on which state of beingness you call forth.

If you are sleepwalking you will just think that you are doing something about your present situation, but as you begin to live life more consciously you start to understand that yes, you are doing something, but the something you are doing is determined by who you have chosen to be in the present moment.

When you make your choices unconsciously you have no idea what state of being you are demonstrating. You just know you are doing something to react to the situation in front of you. What will you choose to react with? Once again, it depends on what is inside of you.

What is inside of you?

I want you to think of an orange. If you cut this orange open and squeeze it really hard, what comes out? Orange juice, right? And why is that? Well, that is what is inside of an orange. You are not going to get lemon juice or motor oil; you are going to get orange juice.

Now, let us take this analogy and apply it to ourselves. If somebody squeezes you really hard, that is, they confront you or antagonize you in some way, what is going to come out of you?

Typically, if you are a sleepwalker, what is going to come out of you is anger, confrontation and fear. Why is that? Well, that is what is inside of you. Right at the surface of your feelings are the reactionary qualities that allow you to bring forth those aspects of yourself that reflect who you define yourself to be.

Most of our conditioning has caused us to bring forth those aspects of our beingness that we have been told are the appropriate responses to certain given stimuli. And because we have been told that these are the right and appropriate responses for a given situation, we dutifully fulfill everybody's expectations by regurgitating those responses as a reaction to whatever we have been confronted with.

My question is two-fold. First, “Where is the free will in that?” Second, “Does that serve you?”

My second question is answered by the first. You only serve yourself by exercising your God-given free will. Of course, the key to all of this is to make these choices consciously instead of unconsciously. And how do we do this consciously?

You must be conscious.

Remember, our beingness creates our doingness. Only by being conscious can you do things consciously.

So here is another big Ah-haaaaa. In order for you to understand what serves you and what does not serve you, you must be conscious of who you are being as you encounter the people, events and experiences of your life.

Say “Ah-haaaaa.”

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Spirituality Information: Choice and the Big Picture

by: Richard Blackstone

If your intention is for spiritual growth then this spirituality information is invaluable in that pursuit. God created you with the ability to be, do and have whatever you desire. The concept of who you choose to “be” is critical in whatever you end up doing and having.

This article is designed to allow you to see these concepts from a larger, clearer perspective. Once you see the bigger picture of life you will be able to see your own life with more clarity and awareness.

Unless you don't. You see, it is all a matter of choice. We, as individuals and as societies, have the free will to make any choice that we desire concerning how we live our lives and what we choose to believe.

That will never change because that is part of our beingness. We have free will to be as we desire. There is no agenda set out for us except what we choose as an agenda. We are free to be whoever we choose to be. The two key words in this last sentence are be and choose. Let's read that again. We are free to be whoever we choose to be.

Life is not what we choose to do; it is who we choose to be. Beingness is what we seek. Remember, you are a human being, not a human doing. This distinction is critical to your awakening because you will come to understand, as we start to see things from a larger, clearer perspective, that your beingness creates your doingness.

If this is your first big Ah-haaaaa go ahead and say it out loud: “Ah-haaaaa, my beingness creates my doingness.” Well, what does that mean?

It means that most of us, as individuals and as societies, have been focusing on the wrong thing for most of our lives. We have spent a lot of time and effort concentrating on what we are doing, but rarely thinking about who we are being.

This has been the cause of so much of the trouble, turmoil and drama that pervades our lives. We constantly react to the people, events and experiences in our lives in an attempt to do something about them.

When you wake up and live in awareness, you begin to understand that it is more important to concentrate on who you are being when you confront life's situations. You understand the concept that your beingness creates your doingness. Not the other way around. You don't do happy. First you be happy and then you do happy things. If you want to experience that aspect of yourself that you call compassionate, then go to that state of being and you will begin to do compassionate things.

What we see here is that everything we do comes from who we are being. If you want to see what kind of person you are being look to what you have been doing.

If you have been cheating on your golf score, you are being a cheater. If you have been cheating on your spouse, you are being an adulterer. If you have been lying to your friends in order to make yourself look better, you are being a liar. If you talk about your friends behind their backs, you are being a gossip. If you share your bounty with the panhandler on the street, you are being compassionate.

Everything we do comes from who we are being. We can change our beingness in an instant. That is why it is hard to be a sleepwalker and not be able to understand why you keep doing things that don't serve you. You continually change who you are being. You may think you do this without thinking. You may think you don't have any choice in the matter. But that is wrong thinking. You have choice in everything you do because you have choice as to who you choose to be in any given moment.

Reflect on the last twenty four hours of your life and notice what you have done and then take it back one step further and determine the state of being you were in when you did the things you did. Monitor this for a couple days and become consciously aware of “who you are being” and “what you are doing.”

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Spirituality Information: Life is a Process of Inquiry

by: Richard Blackstone

The quest for spirituality information requires you to inquire within for the answers you seek. There is no God or universe “out there”. Your spiritual journey is one of seeking, attaining and then going beyond. Begin your journey by looking at the physical world that you have created.

We live in a relationship world. Everything in the physical universe is defined and categorized in relation to what it is not. Nothing is absolute except change.

The nature of the universe is a constant, on-going, never-ending, moment-to-moment participation in change. The whole universe changes from nano-second to nano-second.

We, as individuals, change with every breath we take. Every cell in our body changes and it has been documented that in seven short years every cell of our body is different.

Life is change.

We aren't totally cognizant of this phenomenon because we live our lives at a vibratory level that allows the senses to slow down our perspective so that we view these on-going changes at a slower pace. Although we can step back from this slower perspective and view this higher vibration self any time we desire, during our day-to-day living we usually choose not to do that. We are too caught up in our on-going dramas to truly stop what we are doing and reflect on “what serves us.”

The changes that we do see in life are recognized and analyzed through our five physical senses of sight, sound, touch, smell and taste. As we delve deeper into this exploration of change, we begin to understand that we also interpret our world through our metaphysical senses. This is where we get into those concepts that are known to us on a more esoteric level but known to us nonetheless.

Concepts such as intuition, clairvoyance, second sight, déjà vu and synchronicity are also part of our makeup when we look at ourselves from a more detached perspective. When we allow ourselves to step back from this physical mass of skull and bones and skin and blood and guts and gray matter and lots of fluids we begin to understand that we are so much more than this physical, three dimensional body.

This is when we come to know that we are truly, at our essence, a three-part being made up of mind, body and spirit.

That is who we really are.

We are three-part beings living in a world of dualities. This statement alone goes a long way in explaining why we are not always “being what serves us.” It is because we are not always being who we really are.

Who we really are is a three-part being made up of mind, body and spirit. That is who we really are. However, we live in a universe based in duality relationships, so most of us have carried that pervasive duality definition into how we define ourselves.

We tend to define ourselves as a two-part being made up of a body and a mind. This makes sense because our “senses” are the tools we use for analyzing who we are and what we do. It makes sense to use our senses in this manner, doesn't it?

Unfortunately, we are only using our physical senses. But remember, who we really are is a three-part being and we possess not only our physical senses but also our nonphysical and metaphysical senses.

What are these you ask? They are the mind and spirit part of this three-part being that we really are. We are all triad beings living in a world of dualities. Herein lies the crux of the troubles and turmoil in which the human species finds itself at this particular point in our never-ending evolution, but fortunately this is also our salvation from these very same troubles and turmoil.

We, as individuals and as societies, need to understand from a larger, clearer perspective what this concept of our triad makeup is all about.

We, as individuals and as societies, need to understand from a larger, clearer perspective what this concept of living in a world of dualities is all about.

We, as individuals and as societies, need to understand from a larger, clearer perspective “what serves us” and “what does not serve us.”

The answers to these questions and, indeed, every question you have about life, are not found in the exterior world of physicality, they are found in the interior world of our spiritual self.

Go within and begin the process of awareness and understanding of “Who you really are” and continue this process as the universe sends you the answers.

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Spirituality Information: The Realm of the Absolute

by: Richard Blackstone

We live in the world of physicality and relativity but your spiritual growth demands that you understand spirituality information that only comes from “The Realm of the Absolute.”

We know that this physical universe exists and we know that we, as human beings, occupy this physical plane and have, within us, these powers of reason, logic and thinking. This separates us from all the other physical things that occupy this planet with us. The mountains, the oceans, the animals, the plants and all the other entities that occupy this world are not able to exist and use thoughts in the same manner that we do.

But why are we here at all? What is our purpose, if any, to exist? To answer these questions let's go back to the beginning of what we call time and delve into the mystery of mysteries.

What existed before time and the universe? Well, God (Life) existed. Before the universe came into being God existed in another realm. God existed in a realm that is entirely God. This is not a physical, relative realm such as the universe. This is a realm that is not ruled by polarities and relationships. This is the realm of the absolute.

In the realm of the absolute God is all things and there is nothing else. In the realm of the absolute God is all being and at the core of God is love. The only love that God knows in the realm of the absolute is unconditional love. God is all, God knows all, and Love is what God is.

Now, this God of all is all there is. There is nothing that is outside of God. There is no point where God stops and something else exists beyond that. God is all there is and there is nothing else. This is the realm of the absolute where God is all things and God is no thing. Because this realm of the absolute is unknown and unseen by anybody or anything other than God. Because God is all there is. There is no other reference point outside of God, outside of all there is because God is all there is. Only one reference point exists and that is God.

There is no universe, there are no other Gods. Only one thing exists and that is God, the omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient God. This is the realm of the absolute with no lefts or rights, no male and female, no hot and cold, no here and there, no shoulds and shouldn'ts or needs. In the realm of the absolute there is no right or wrong. There is only “what is.”

In the realm of the absolute there is no time. There is only the present moment that includes all “time.”

In the realm of the absolute there is no fear. There is only love and the only love that God knows in the realm of the absolute is unconditional love. God is the all of everything and love is what God is.

Now God (Life), while existing in the realm of the absolute, knows all things conceptually. She has to. If you are the all of everything, then you know all there is to know all the time.

Even though God knows all things conceptually, that was not enough for God. You see, you can believe yourself to be compassionate and you can understand all aspects of what being compassionate is about, but if you only know this as a concept then you are missing out on something. You are missing out on the experience of being compassionate.

God longed for the experience of all that she knows conceptually. Once again, in the realm of the absolute God knows all things, conceptually. God is all things, conceptually. It was God's desire to turn her grandest concepts into her greatest experiences. You see, until concept becomes experience, all there is is speculation about what the concept truly is when experienced and viewed from all of its different perspectives.

Each concept that was known to God could be visualized by God but only from the perspective of unconditional love because in the realm of the absolute unconditional love is all there is. There is no fear.

We are talking about the absolute here and when you get down to the core of what God is you see that all there is, is Love. Love is what God is. The words God and Love are interchangeable. Love is the glue that holds the universe together.

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Spirituality Information: The Case for Knowing "Who You Really Are"

by: Richard Blackstone

Your spiritual growth requires you to continually ask the question, “Who am I?” The spirituality information you obtain from this question will guide you to abundance, health and harmony.

This article deals with many esoteric aspects of the origin of the universe, so it is important that you are open and receptive to the information you are about to receive. I would like you to open your mind and open your heart before we explore these ideas and concepts.

I am going to ask you to suspend any judgments or preconceived notions you may have about the origins of the universe and just listen to the words and the ideas. Please don't put any labels on these concepts or classify the ideas into categories. When you label or classify an idea you are limiting your perspective, and with a limited perspective you can't see the whole picture.

We are looking for a broad picture here. We want to develop a picture that can be seen from all perspectives. This is the only way to see the truth of an idea. If you can view an idea from an unlimited number of perspectives and they all tell you the same story, then you are surrounding the idea with truth.

That is our intention. We, you and I, are going to co-create this experience of really seeing ourselves, perhaps for the first time, from a much larger perspective than we ever have before. This larger, all-encompassing perspective is going to open ourselves to the symmetry of this huge creation of the universe in a way that allows us to see our own lives with more clarity and understanding of our larger purpose.

Albert Einstein understood this concept of nonjudgmental thinking. He said “You can't get any revolutionary ideas from using the same thoughts you have been thinking. You must change the way you are thinking and think different thoughts.”

Sometimes you have to be “out of your mind” or, at the very least, “out of your comfort zone” to truly evolve and change the way you expect your future to be.

So as we explore these ideas and concepts concerning why the universe was created in the first place and then, what our purpose is in that creation, it will be necessary to use all of our senses. Not just our physical senses but also our nonphysical senses. Please allow your nonphysical senses of intuition, altruism and feelings guide you as we begin our journey.

Even though I have asked you not to use labels as you interpret this material I am going to say that this information is “supremely important” in the ultimate understanding of who you really are.

It is in the knowing of who you really are that you will be able to liberate yourself from your own fears.

It is in the knowing of who you really are that you can throw off any limitations that you have placed on yourself and begin to live a life without limits.

It is in the knowing of who you really are that you can bring yourself into balance in the mind, body and spirit.

It is in the knowing of who you really are that you will actually incorporate the concept of unconditional love into your life.

It is in the knowing of who you really are that you will begin to create your life as you intend it to be.

It is in the knowing of who you really are that you will experience the utter magnificence of yourself.

It is in the knowing of who you really are that you can begin to understand what true freedom really is.

If this sounds (physical sense) or better yet feels (nonphysical sense) like the truth to you, then you have opened your mind and your heart as I requested at the beginning of this article. This frees you to receive information without judgment. This is critical because there is information out there that is going to make all the rest of your life make sense.

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Spirituality Information: Origins of the Universe

by: Richard Blackstone

Spiritual growth often combines science and mysticism. Any spirituality information concerning the origins of the universe must take into account both of these fields. Your spiritual quest will be enhanced by the information contained herein.

Our scientists can trace the origins of the universe back in time and they tell us that everything that makes up the universe came from a huge explosion of energy about fourteen to fifteen billion years ago.

This is called the BIG BANG THEORY and it is the most widely held theory about the origins of the universe. So for our discussion in this article, we are going to accept this scientifically documented theory and, by doing so, we must agree that everything that exists, the galaxies, the stars, the planets, the moons, the oceans, the mountains, the plants, the animals, the air we breath, you and I and everything that exists came from the source of this BIG BANG. This is the premise of the BIG BANG THEORY and it is perfectly logical that everything that exists came from the source of everything.

Now, this source of everything is what most people in the world call God. You can use many names to refer to this source. You can call the source God or Allah or Jehovah or Nature or Jawah or Brahma or Elohim or Life or many other names for this source of everything, but for our discussion in this book we are going to call the source God.

Now this God, this source of everything, is neither male nor female, but rather both male and female and everything in between, so for our discussion we are going to use both genders when we speak of God.

We understand that the BIG BANG THEORY tells us that everything that makes up the universe came from a very small dense amount of matter that burst into being that kept expanding and, from what our scientists tell us, is still expanding today.

Our first question of importance about this BIG BANG is where was God residing prior to the creation of the universe? What space was she occupying and how was that space defined?

Prior to the creation of the universe, this process we call God, occupies (a concept we will use for the sake of clarity) a space that we are going to call the realm of the absolute. This God that existed prior to the creation of the universe is the same God that exists after the creation of the universe. There is one source and that one source is what we call God.

Much of our thinking, as humans, would have us picture this God as being human like in appearance. This would only be partly true. The omnipresent God that we have been told about in our philosophies can indeed take on a human persona if she desires, but that would not be an accurate description of God.

A more accurate description would be one that defines God as an infinite intelligence that is everywhere. It is here, it is there, and it is everywhere in between. God is all things seen and unseen. God is in all things physical and nonphysical and metaphysical.

This all-encompassing description of God as a universal energy that flows through all things is critical for you to grasp and accept. Our scientists have been assigned the noble task of understanding the universe and how it works. They have poked and prodded the nature of things and the conclusions that they are bringing us all point toward the same thing.

They are telling us that whatever they observe responds in a manner that is in alignment with the intentions of the observer. Each atom, subatomic particle, proton, neutron, light wave, light pulse, or any other object being observed seems to have its own intelligence that responds to the objectives of the observers.

Einstein tells us that if we truly want to understand how things work we must look deeply into nature. Nature is another way to describe God.

So our scientists, as well as our theologians, tell us that there is an intelligence that is part of every single thing that can be seen and observed as well as the unseen and unobserved. They tell us what all of our greatest spiritual masters have told us. All of our most revered spiritual teachers, people such as Jesus, Mohamed, Buddha, Krishna, Moses, Abraham and many, many more all taught us that God is in all of us and that God is present in all things.

Our most venerated spiritual teachers and our most esteemed scientists are all telling us the same thing. There is a universal intelligence that flows through all things seen and unseen. This universal intelligence, this infinite energy that flows through all things seen and unseen, is what we call God. It is important that you comprehend the universal nature of God and think of God more in terms of being omnipresent rather than as a single entity.

What we want to do here is go outside of our normal range of thinking. We want to do as Einstein told us and “change our way of thinking and think different thoughts.”

Sometimes you have to be “out of your mind” or at the very least “out of your comfort zone” to truly evolve and change the way we expect your future to be.

Think of yourself as an explorer on a great adventure. This adventure is full of great rewards and riches that only you can imagine, because you are going to determine what those rewards and riches are as they show up in your life. You may reward yourself with that most precious of commodities, inner peace, or you may wish to be rich in the ideal of brotherhood with all of mankind. Natural abundance will be reaped upon you as you reveal to yourself the treasures of conscious living.

All treasures of this earth, in both the physical and metaphysical realms, are available to you if you but wake up to the knowledge that every fiber of your being is imbued with the infinite intelligence of God.

So, I want to thank you for viewing this material with an open heart and an open mind, free from any preconceived ideas about how you have viewed the life process and what it means to be who you really are.

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Spirituality Information: Consciousness and You

by: Richard Blackstone

No other concept defines your spiritual growth more vividly than consciousness. This is spirituality information that lets you know where you lie on the ascending scale of consciousness.

Who you really are is consciousness and consciousness is only aware of itself when it is conscious of itself. There are four levels of consciousness and they range from subconscious to conscious to superconscious to supraconscious. You operate within these four levels of consciousness at all times but you are not aware of all these levels of consciousness until you move up the hierarchy of consciousness through understanding and awareness.

Each level of consciousness taps into the part of our three-part being that we call our mind. Our individual mind is totally connected to the universal mind and allows us to bring forth anything that we desire from the unmanifest to the manifest. So it would seem to “serve us” to have a rudimentary understanding of where we stand on the scale of consciousness.

The subconscious mind is that part of our existence that handles those tasks of the body that are automatic, such as breathing and creating new cells and beating the heart. It also serves as a memory station for all the people, events and experiences that the physical body has been privy to.

The conscious mind is the workhorse that collects every piece of data from each and every moment of the now of your existence. This conscious mind also analyses your past, projects your future, comprehends, with limited awareness, your present moment decision making and provides you with your physical sensory feedback.

Through this process the conscious mind is how you interpret your present moment experiences. The analysis you are going through right now, while reading these words, is filtered through your conscious mind. You are seeing whatever you are seeing from your current perspective of your conscious mind and you can actually change that perspective at any given moment by merely moving your perspective to a higher level of consciousness. One of the reasons you are reading this article is so that you can move to a higher level of consciousness. Did you know that? Does that serve you?

One of those higher levels of consciousness is the superconscious mind. This is where you truly understand the concept of the mind-body- spirit connectivity. By understanding and acknowledging this definition of who you really are you take on aspects of being totally aware of your true nature.

Total awareness and understanding of the true nature of how things work allows you to create in a spontaneous manner in alignment with the manifesting impulse of the spirit side of your being. You are able to live with greater visionary insight and intuition.

The other level of higher consciousness is the supraconscious mind. This level of consciousness encompasses all of the above tasks combined while taking you to the most critical aspect of your being, and that is to know that the individual self that you know of as yourself is, in fact, one with all that is. It is total Life consciousness or, in other words, total God consciousness. At this level of consciousness you are able to identify yourself as a manifestation of God while still understanding that you are an individual life form.

Isn't this fun? It is not necessary for you to fully understand all of the implications of what state of consciousness you are now choosing to experience. As the life process evolves you will keep asking yourself this question, “Does this serve me?” Does it serve you to live your life at the lower levels of consciousness that essentially keep you entrenched in a mentality that says you are a separate individual who has no idea of their relationship to life and God and all that exists? Or does it serve you to explore the concept that by moving to a higher level of consciousness you can be more in the flow of universal forces that will bring into your life your every intention and desire effortlessly?

Which of these concepts serves you? Only you can answer that question.

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Use Your Spiritual Growth to Release Limits

by: Richard Blackstone

The spirituality information that serves you the most is accepting the spiritual aspect of self as part of your being human. This concept will advance your spiritual growth faster than any other concept because your spirit is your eternal direct connection to your source.

If you choose to continue to live and define yourself as mostly a body and a mind, that is okay. You have free will to believe and experience life in any manner that you choose.

If you choose to open yourself up to the spirit part of your beingness and allow your spirit to be an equal partner in the decisions you make about your life, then you will begin to do different things than you have been doing in the past.

You are introducing new ideas into your thinking. You are no longer limiting yourself to two dimensions of your beingness. You are being more of yourself than you were previously. You are expanding your consciousness.

You are beginning to eliminate a limiting belief that you may hold about yourself that says “as a human body I can only be, do and have so much because I am tied to the limits of my physical capabilities.” When you allow the spirit part of your being to be included in your definition of self, you become aware that this aspect of your being is limitless and not confined to physical parameters.

More importantly, you are letting the love that is the core of your being expand with every input from your spiritual nature. You are removing the limits that you set upon yourself when you were limiting yourself to your mind and body.

What's this? You are becoming unlimited? Wow! What a concept! But what about all those shackles and conditioning I put on myself when I didn't open myself up to my spiritual side? What? You say I am liberating myself? Wait a minute. I have to ask myself a question.

“Does this serve me?” If it does then I should “be what serves me.”

In order to reach clarity on “what serves us” we need to have a clear understanding of what it is that we are trying to accomplish. So what are we trying to accomplish? What is our mission? What is our purpose in the life process? How are we going to know “what serves us” if we don't know where this service is taking us?

Until we can answer these questions we are just spinning our wheels with no sense of direction or reason. Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is just taking up time. Vision with action can change the world.

So now it is time to take a look at these larger issues of life. We need to explore the areas of our existence that can shed some light on “being what serves us.” We need to get a better handle on this concept of understanding who we really are. When we know who we really are we will be able to see “what serves us” from a much clearer perspective.

So let us go back to the beginning of time, as we know it, and answer some of these larger questions in order to get a better idea of who we really are and how this knowledge of who we really are will show us how we can “be what serves us.”

Usually, we go back to the beginning of the story and follow the progression of the human species to see how we evolved to this point in time. This history of human evolvement usually starts out with “In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth.” We all know Genesis I:I, but in order for us to understand who we really are we need to ask an even more basic question.

Our question needs to be, “Why did God create the heavens and the earth in the first place?” Our next question needs to be, “What is our purpose in that creation?”

When we can answer these questions, we will be able to see the bigger picture of life. From this larger perspective, we will see what serves the universe as a whole and can then more easily determine what serves us as the human species because they are one and the same. When we can see what serves us from the larger perspective, we can put ourselves in alignment with that and use it to serve us. We then move into “being what serves us.”

Life is a process and understanding life is a process as well. Let us explore this life process and see the logic and reasoning behind some of the essential foundations that have taken us to this point in our human experience. Once we have gained some insight about the totality of the very reason for our existence we can use that knowledge to better navigate the journey that lies before us. It is such a fun adventure made even more so when you have a well-lighted path before you to help you from taking u-turns and running into obstacles along your way.

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