I received an interesting phone call from my niece. First she left a message that my mother had given her a message from the other side and that I would be very interested in what it was, she was tearing up I could hear it in her voice. She and I have had many talks about the visits we have from those we love who have gone on to the next stage. It took me a few days to get a hold of her by telephone, I was very curious. She told me that while her mother, my sister, was arranging a room for her to come and stay in for awhile, one of the paintings that my mother had painted fell off the wall.
While picking up the painting she saw that there was some writing on the back. She said it read "The Praying Place" to my daughter Jackie. Needless to say I was very surprised and emotional about this news. So my Mother had left me a painting. WOW, I didn't think I would get anything that she painted after how everything went down. I am still feeling somewhat shocked. I know the painting well. My Mother and I talked about the painting several times while she was still alive. We discovered that we went to the same spot to pray near the lake we loved so much. If there is one thing I learned from my mother that was to pray. I use to pray and beg God to give me what I wanted. My Mother prayed like that too. But over the years I learned that prayer is to commune with my spirit, my higher self, and also to commune with a presence that is all knowing and all being. My mother believed in the power of prayer and I do too.
I think she is telling me to keep praying. To pray more. I also know that she is telling me that she is here now with me. That she will help me now.
I have always loved her so much. There was not always the closeness that I longed for as a child with my mother. I will just say that she was closed down while I was a child and she didn't really start giving love until she was in her 50's. She had been hurt so badly as a child and young girl that she just shut down. Well, I can say that I pretty much have done that too in my life. I feel that I am more open now, a lot more open. But the one thing that has never changed for me in my entire life and that is my desire to talk to and hear God. Now I see God as a whole group of beings that really love me and and are always supporting me with love.
I am so happy just to know that she has reached out from her place in a very spiritual way, publicly to my sisters and my nieces and nephews and my children that this painting had a name a special place to go and pray. Thank you MOM. I love you. You have given me a wonderful gift from your place in heaven. A gift of caring, it reached me to my inner child, it reached me to my broken heart, it reached me to my knowing. I love you MOM.
I wrote this to all of you to let you know that we are loved and we are reached out too, in many ways. There is so much love to receive and give.
I love you all, Jacklen
Monday, August 2, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Breath Work
Many of you know how much I believe breath work is the way to restore our authentic self.
I actually was able to go clear to my emotional body of age 1 years old. This has been on the rise ever since I started The Presence Process. I didn't know it when I started but through the weeks and months of my work with breathing, I could feel it deep in a part of me that was, lets say, put to sleep for ever. Last night I could feel my inner self, my conscious self start to stir, it was like a slow vibration which turned into a full blown storm. This work is not easy and sometimes very painful feeling before it opens up. But when it finally does oh! what peace and love you feel.
I was feeling very what I call duped. I know that is not a word really but it is the only one I can find that fits the feeling from my childhood memories.
By duped I mean that I felt some people in my life and in the past had led me to believe in them but it turned out it was a trick. So you might add tricked to my feelings too.
When a child feels duped, tricked, it means they start to not trust. First it is the person they feel duped or tricked them, they don't trust. Then it is people with certain characteristics, then if it continues, or they think it continues, they begin to just not trust at all.
That is my story. I felt duped and tricked. By significant people in my life at a very young age. Starting at age 1 years. My grandmother Addie, told me one day about my 1st birthday. Little did I know that what she told me would be so significant at age 59. She told me that my parents had brought me and my sisters to her and my grandfathers house for awhile. I don't know how long I was there, but it sounded like it was for quite some time. She said that my parents went to California to see some doctors for some tests for my Mother. I had my very first birthday while there. My grandmother said I was so cute I went around looking for my birthday.
That thought and this information has surfaced from time to time in my life. But I did not know that it was very vital information to help me with a significant emotional feeling that was a major block in my life. I don't remember this incident in detail because I was so young. I just know that there was a very strong feeling that I could not trust certain people. It was a feeling more than any certain experience that I had with these people. But because of my personal belief and my emotional memory I got hurt so bad in my life. I became so good at smothering these feeling that I didn't see it in my life until last night.
I decided to watch a moving on TV. I was feeling very agitated. I am making a move again and I am very afraid to make a mistake. It is not just my life but my Son's life too. This feeling is an old one that I have seen before but not for a very long time so something inside of me said to watch this movie. I am more knowing now because of all the breath work and the presence process, that I know when my inner soul tells me that there is something in the movie that will help me to see more of me. So I watched it. It is called the "Good Son". It has the actors, Elijah Wood and Macauley Culkin in it. Elijah plays a young boy Mark, who's mother died. Macauley plays a boy Henry, who killed his little brother but know one knows. Elijah, Mark's father has a big job he needs to complete out of the country for 2-3weeks, which will bring in financial freedom so he can be with his boy., So he takes his son to stay with some friends who he believes is a safe place for him. At first the two boys play very well and Elijah, Mark is less sad about his mothers death. He falls in love with the family which also includes a little sister,Mother and Father.
As the movie progresses Elijah, Mark sees that something is very wrong with the other boy. Macauley, Henry kills a dog, causes a huge mass car wreck by throwing a dummy off an overpass, and creates many dangerous events to scare Elijah, Mark. Mark sees how mean Henry is to his little sister too. When one day Henry takes his sister ice skating Mark follows and sees Henry swing her out into the ice that was marked off as not thick enough to skate on. She falls in and is luckily rescued by some men. Mark runs back to the house and tells the Mother about it. So the mother is angry about the news but she starts investigating and finds evidence that Henry had something to do with the death of her little baby.
The part that really sent me to my emotions was when a struggle came between her and Henry, he tried to push his mother off a cliff, she slipped and almost fell all the way down, she caught herself and worked her way up to the top again, but Mark and Henry were fighting now at the top, and they both rolled over the edge the same time the Mother leaped forward and caught both of them by their arms. They were slipping out of her grasp, she had to choose which one would go down. She chose Mark, not her son. She knew her son had killed his brother and tried to kill her.
This movie was a messenger to me, because there was a time in my life that I had to chose between the two of my children, I balled my eyes out for hours after the movie. I could not sleep it was 12:30pm I went out side and walked, and walked for 2 hours. I could not stop crying. I must have said I was sorry thousands of times. I felt the times I had not been there for my son, and my other daughters. I felt guilty about the accident. I felt it all. I have kept it so hidden all these years. I could not forgive myself for my children's tragic experience in 1981.
I sent my little 4 year old son down the hill about 7 acres away to our neighbors house for help. I stayed with my baby until the ambulance arrived. I don't know why I did that. I think I wanted to spare my son the pain of what he might see with his little sister. I will really never know how harmful that choice was for him. He is just waking up into his life and he is 34 years old now. In a way he is so much a little boy.
So for those many hours last night I felt what I couldn't feel on April 9th 1981. But it was time to feel it. To feel all the pain of guilt, my guilt that I had not been careful enough, I had let them go play, I had let them go outside alone. I didn't notice all the things that were not safe for my children to be around, and so on. But eventually after many deep sorrowful tears, I forgave me. It took a lot to do. I went to my innocence, my authentic self and saw how I had not done any of it on purpose. I could see that because, I as a child had felt so duped tricked that I created the biggest trick and duping that ever excised on earth. I hurt my kids. I wasn't careful.
So after I felt all that pain I took it to my breath work. I opened up the highest part of me and the Universe and asked for a healing, a reprogramming to occur in my life, in my cells of my body, in my emotional body, in my spiritual body.
I asked for a healing of my whole family, and everyone that has a connection with our family.
It is so interesting that it took that movie to open me up to feel that pain. I can't imagine a mother ever having to chose which child gets the time and care. My son was just as hurt as my daughter and yet I felt I had to chose. I don't know what is the right way, or if there is a right way to have done that. I just know that it was so painful for me and now I know how painful it was for the whole family.
But our family is so close and in love with each other. My son is getting his turn now. He has just started to be with his family. Time will heal him too. He has a huge healing coming in his child innocent self.
My daughter has more healing coming very soon. I know that this will make a big difference too.
As for me feeling emotionally duped, or tricked, that is integrated now.I felt tricked out of my first birthday, I was hurt my parents dumped me off with people I hardly knew. I felt hurt that I didn't know if or when they would be back for me.
I now feel nothing but love for those who I thought were doing that. I know that I am not doing that anymore to myself. Thanks to my higher self who showed me the way last night.
I was asking to know. I was choosing it, I wanted freedom from it.
I asked for new programing to take it's place. I know more of what I want to do for my son now. I feel like I can do that now that the guilt to gone. I am thankful for the opportunity to be with him now in his life. He is so dear to me. I want him to know this too,soon.
I would like this entry to help all my girls too. To know that they are so important to me and my 9 grandchildren are so precious to me.
I trust this work from the bottom of my heart I will encourage all to use it for their own healing. With all my Love!
Namaste'
I actually was able to go clear to my emotional body of age 1 years old. This has been on the rise ever since I started The Presence Process. I didn't know it when I started but through the weeks and months of my work with breathing, I could feel it deep in a part of me that was, lets say, put to sleep for ever. Last night I could feel my inner self, my conscious self start to stir, it was like a slow vibration which turned into a full blown storm. This work is not easy and sometimes very painful feeling before it opens up. But when it finally does oh! what peace and love you feel.
I was feeling very what I call duped. I know that is not a word really but it is the only one I can find that fits the feeling from my childhood memories.
By duped I mean that I felt some people in my life and in the past had led me to believe in them but it turned out it was a trick. So you might add tricked to my feelings too.
When a child feels duped, tricked, it means they start to not trust. First it is the person they feel duped or tricked them, they don't trust. Then it is people with certain characteristics, then if it continues, or they think it continues, they begin to just not trust at all.
That is my story. I felt duped and tricked. By significant people in my life at a very young age. Starting at age 1 years. My grandmother Addie, told me one day about my 1st birthday. Little did I know that what she told me would be so significant at age 59. She told me that my parents had brought me and my sisters to her and my grandfathers house for awhile. I don't know how long I was there, but it sounded like it was for quite some time. She said that my parents went to California to see some doctors for some tests for my Mother. I had my very first birthday while there. My grandmother said I was so cute I went around looking for my birthday.
That thought and this information has surfaced from time to time in my life. But I did not know that it was very vital information to help me with a significant emotional feeling that was a major block in my life. I don't remember this incident in detail because I was so young. I just know that there was a very strong feeling that I could not trust certain people. It was a feeling more than any certain experience that I had with these people. But because of my personal belief and my emotional memory I got hurt so bad in my life. I became so good at smothering these feeling that I didn't see it in my life until last night.
I decided to watch a moving on TV. I was feeling very agitated. I am making a move again and I am very afraid to make a mistake. It is not just my life but my Son's life too. This feeling is an old one that I have seen before but not for a very long time so something inside of me said to watch this movie. I am more knowing now because of all the breath work and the presence process, that I know when my inner soul tells me that there is something in the movie that will help me to see more of me. So I watched it. It is called the "Good Son". It has the actors, Elijah Wood and Macauley Culkin in it. Elijah plays a young boy Mark, who's mother died. Macauley plays a boy Henry, who killed his little brother but know one knows. Elijah, Mark's father has a big job he needs to complete out of the country for 2-3weeks, which will bring in financial freedom so he can be with his boy., So he takes his son to stay with some friends who he believes is a safe place for him. At first the two boys play very well and Elijah, Mark is less sad about his mothers death. He falls in love with the family which also includes a little sister,Mother and Father.
As the movie progresses Elijah, Mark sees that something is very wrong with the other boy. Macauley, Henry kills a dog, causes a huge mass car wreck by throwing a dummy off an overpass, and creates many dangerous events to scare Elijah, Mark. Mark sees how mean Henry is to his little sister too. When one day Henry takes his sister ice skating Mark follows and sees Henry swing her out into the ice that was marked off as not thick enough to skate on. She falls in and is luckily rescued by some men. Mark runs back to the house and tells the Mother about it. So the mother is angry about the news but she starts investigating and finds evidence that Henry had something to do with the death of her little baby.
The part that really sent me to my emotions was when a struggle came between her and Henry, he tried to push his mother off a cliff, she slipped and almost fell all the way down, she caught herself and worked her way up to the top again, but Mark and Henry were fighting now at the top, and they both rolled over the edge the same time the Mother leaped forward and caught both of them by their arms. They were slipping out of her grasp, she had to choose which one would go down. She chose Mark, not her son. She knew her son had killed his brother and tried to kill her.
This movie was a messenger to me, because there was a time in my life that I had to chose between the two of my children, I balled my eyes out for hours after the movie. I could not sleep it was 12:30pm I went out side and walked, and walked for 2 hours. I could not stop crying. I must have said I was sorry thousands of times. I felt the times I had not been there for my son, and my other daughters. I felt guilty about the accident. I felt it all. I have kept it so hidden all these years. I could not forgive myself for my children's tragic experience in 1981.
I sent my little 4 year old son down the hill about 7 acres away to our neighbors house for help. I stayed with my baby until the ambulance arrived. I don't know why I did that. I think I wanted to spare my son the pain of what he might see with his little sister. I will really never know how harmful that choice was for him. He is just waking up into his life and he is 34 years old now. In a way he is so much a little boy.
So for those many hours last night I felt what I couldn't feel on April 9th 1981. But it was time to feel it. To feel all the pain of guilt, my guilt that I had not been careful enough, I had let them go play, I had let them go outside alone. I didn't notice all the things that were not safe for my children to be around, and so on. But eventually after many deep sorrowful tears, I forgave me. It took a lot to do. I went to my innocence, my authentic self and saw how I had not done any of it on purpose. I could see that because, I as a child had felt so duped tricked that I created the biggest trick and duping that ever excised on earth. I hurt my kids. I wasn't careful.
So after I felt all that pain I took it to my breath work. I opened up the highest part of me and the Universe and asked for a healing, a reprogramming to occur in my life, in my cells of my body, in my emotional body, in my spiritual body.
I asked for a healing of my whole family, and everyone that has a connection with our family.
It is so interesting that it took that movie to open me up to feel that pain. I can't imagine a mother ever having to chose which child gets the time and care. My son was just as hurt as my daughter and yet I felt I had to chose. I don't know what is the right way, or if there is a right way to have done that. I just know that it was so painful for me and now I know how painful it was for the whole family.
But our family is so close and in love with each other. My son is getting his turn now. He has just started to be with his family. Time will heal him too. He has a huge healing coming in his child innocent self.
My daughter has more healing coming very soon. I know that this will make a big difference too.
As for me feeling emotionally duped, or tricked, that is integrated now.I felt tricked out of my first birthday, I was hurt my parents dumped me off with people I hardly knew. I felt hurt that I didn't know if or when they would be back for me.
I now feel nothing but love for those who I thought were doing that. I know that I am not doing that anymore to myself. Thanks to my higher self who showed me the way last night.
I was asking to know. I was choosing it, I wanted freedom from it.
I asked for new programing to take it's place. I know more of what I want to do for my son now. I feel like I can do that now that the guilt to gone. I am thankful for the opportunity to be with him now in his life. He is so dear to me. I want him to know this too,soon.
I would like this entry to help all my girls too. To know that they are so important to me and my 9 grandchildren are so precious to me.
I trust this work from the bottom of my heart I will encourage all to use it for their own healing. With all my Love!
Namaste'
Friday, May 7, 2010
What my dreams mean?
I have been reading a Shaman book, it says that I will want to know what my dreams are so I can get guidance from them. Well, I don't remember my dreams very often. However when I do have one that comes through and I remember it, it is really a doozy.
So I have my pad of paper and my pen next to my bed so I can journal when ever I have a dream and I also have been meditating on remembering my dreams. Hopeful I will start remembering them more often.
During my run yesterday, which was with out OZ our dog this time, I saw this little lizard in the road, as I ran up to it, it started going fast down the road with me. He stayed right with me for about 100 yards then turned off, right were I was turning off to another road. He went his way and I went mine. I have been making a point to notice everything in my life now, especially when it stands out like a lizard running with me. He was so sweet greenish gray with a blue strip down his back.
When I got home I got out my book "Animal Spirit Guides" by Steven D, Farmer. I am so glad I bought this book. In this book it tells you what the energy of each animal can teach you through their energy messages they have to give. So of course I read about lizards. It said to pay close attention to your dreams-especially recurring themes and images by keeping a dream journal and meditate on your dreams meanings and their messages. It tells much more, but this was so much what I needed to hear in this time of my life. I don't get surprised as much any more about how things show up so profound for me and let me know that I am on the best energy track. I love when I can be given messages all along the way from Source that will lead me and guide me to what is next. I was so happy that that little lizard was such a blessing to me. I know that I will soon be remembering my dreams because that is were some of my attention is going. Meditation is a very important part of my life always. I look forward to meditating so much every day.
I love knowing that animals and birds insects etc. all can be there for us too.
The most important person that you want there for you is you. Still working with "The Presence Process" I have been feeling that there was something coming up from my childhood. It would surface, I knew when it was time. The feeling was getting stronger after 2 weeks.
I had sat down in a comfy place I built for myself on my bed. I picked up a fairly new book that I have had for quite awhile but timing again hadn't been in place until I sat down to begin it. The name of the book is "Awakening to the Spirit World. The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation. It comes with a CD with native American drumming and rattles, I had been listening to some of the time to get to a theta level while meditating. I was into reading an exercise for seeing. This is the sentence that broke me loose. Think of something you did as a child for which you were punished or that you felt bad about at the time. I have been restoring and balancing many childhood memories for a very long time and especially since I found "The Presence Process" so this was familiar to me. However when the thought that I felt bad came up, I started crying and couldn't stop for many minutes. I don't ever remember being bad, I remember people thinking I had been bad, blaming and accusing, but I know in my heart and the heart of my inner child that I was never bad as a child. I remember wondering why people would think that I was bad.
Here is were an animal can really help you out, OZ our dog came into my room he had heard me crying, he put his big black and white nose on the edge of my bed and just looked up at me with his big doggy eyes. I laughed and cried at the same time, and thanked him for coming in and telling me that he has never thought that I was bad. I could just feel his energy and the vibration he was putting out was so much love for me. I looked in the Animal Guide book on Dogs and found a part that really hit me. Keep your faith strong no matter what is going on in your life, and call on a dog when: You've been working on a project and your resolve is beginning to fade. OZ helped me to see that I could give my inner child more love, give myself all that love that I send to my grandchildren. I closed my eyes and pictured myself with my little Jackie, I told her she would be safe with me and that she could never be bad to me. I also told her she is sage with me. I know this sounds funny but I cuddled with her and she just faded back into being.
Our little child inside is begging to be released from all those emotional hurts that were put there buy someone who was not awake yet. They are those who can not see yet. If they can't see they can not bless others lives.
Love and cuddle with your inner child, nurture him/her this is part of becoming a loving awake person who can love All there is.
Namaste
So I have my pad of paper and my pen next to my bed so I can journal when ever I have a dream and I also have been meditating on remembering my dreams. Hopeful I will start remembering them more often.
During my run yesterday, which was with out OZ our dog this time, I saw this little lizard in the road, as I ran up to it, it started going fast down the road with me. He stayed right with me for about 100 yards then turned off, right were I was turning off to another road. He went his way and I went mine. I have been making a point to notice everything in my life now, especially when it stands out like a lizard running with me. He was so sweet greenish gray with a blue strip down his back.
When I got home I got out my book "Animal Spirit Guides" by Steven D, Farmer. I am so glad I bought this book. In this book it tells you what the energy of each animal can teach you through their energy messages they have to give. So of course I read about lizards. It said to pay close attention to your dreams-especially recurring themes and images by keeping a dream journal and meditate on your dreams meanings and their messages. It tells much more, but this was so much what I needed to hear in this time of my life. I don't get surprised as much any more about how things show up so profound for me and let me know that I am on the best energy track. I love when I can be given messages all along the way from Source that will lead me and guide me to what is next. I was so happy that that little lizard was such a blessing to me. I know that I will soon be remembering my dreams because that is were some of my attention is going. Meditation is a very important part of my life always. I look forward to meditating so much every day.
I love knowing that animals and birds insects etc. all can be there for us too.
The most important person that you want there for you is you. Still working with "The Presence Process" I have been feeling that there was something coming up from my childhood. It would surface, I knew when it was time. The feeling was getting stronger after 2 weeks.
I had sat down in a comfy place I built for myself on my bed. I picked up a fairly new book that I have had for quite awhile but timing again hadn't been in place until I sat down to begin it. The name of the book is "Awakening to the Spirit World. The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation. It comes with a CD with native American drumming and rattles, I had been listening to some of the time to get to a theta level while meditating. I was into reading an exercise for seeing. This is the sentence that broke me loose. Think of something you did as a child for which you were punished or that you felt bad about at the time. I have been restoring and balancing many childhood memories for a very long time and especially since I found "The Presence Process" so this was familiar to me. However when the thought that I felt bad came up, I started crying and couldn't stop for many minutes. I don't ever remember being bad, I remember people thinking I had been bad, blaming and accusing, but I know in my heart and the heart of my inner child that I was never bad as a child. I remember wondering why people would think that I was bad.
Here is were an animal can really help you out, OZ our dog came into my room he had heard me crying, he put his big black and white nose on the edge of my bed and just looked up at me with his big doggy eyes. I laughed and cried at the same time, and thanked him for coming in and telling me that he has never thought that I was bad. I could just feel his energy and the vibration he was putting out was so much love for me. I looked in the Animal Guide book on Dogs and found a part that really hit me. Keep your faith strong no matter what is going on in your life, and call on a dog when: You've been working on a project and your resolve is beginning to fade. OZ helped me to see that I could give my inner child more love, give myself all that love that I send to my grandchildren. I closed my eyes and pictured myself with my little Jackie, I told her she would be safe with me and that she could never be bad to me. I also told her she is sage with me. I know this sounds funny but I cuddled with her and she just faded back into being.
Our little child inside is begging to be released from all those emotional hurts that were put there buy someone who was not awake yet. They are those who can not see yet. If they can't see they can not bless others lives.
Love and cuddle with your inner child, nurture him/her this is part of becoming a loving awake person who can love All there is.
Namaste
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Financial What?
I had to put this blog here. It is part of an answer I have been looking for maybe it is for you too.
A WOMAN’S GUIDE TO FINANCIAL HEALTH
It Starts with Trusting Your Intuition
One midnight, serving behind the counter of a Dunkin’ Donuts, Jen Smith could see the future—and it terrified her. She was working the graveyard shift at a job she hated, living in a cramped apartment and knew nothing about entrepreneurship or investment strategies.
When a homeless woman clad in rags wandered in for a warm cup of coffee, Smith shivered. “The only thing standing between her and me was one paycheck and that counter,” recalls Smith, 45, of Fort Collins, Colorado. “I realized that I was in a vulnerable spot, with no backup plan.”
Fast forward two decades to today; Smith now boasts a $2 million net worth and the financial independence to work only when she wants to. When you ask for her secret, she makes little mention of how to create a winning stock portfolio. Instead, she says, her decisions about how to earn and how to spend have come from a deeper, more esoteric source.
Says Smith: “I asked myself: ‘What is it that I love to do?’” Then she went to work investing in herself and a succession of six small businesses, starting with $1,500 per bootstrap operation. Initially, she earned her way working with animals while investing her dollars with an eye toward environmental stewardship. In 2007, she founded a personal finance blog, www.MillionaireMommyNextDoor.com. Along the way, she discovered that, “Mindfully identifying what truly makes you tick, and then aligning your decisions with your own personal values, is key to financial well-being.”
Smith is among a growing number of women looking beyond the traditional world of personal finance to summon emotions, spirituality, intuition and personal values in the pursuit of economic abundance. Many books, blogs and magazines, too, have begun to explore the unlikely intersection of right-brain, inner voice consciousness and personal finance.
“Our culture has always been very much focused on facts and research, but people are starting to realize we can’t just continue to rely solely on what we have relied on before, because it doesn’t work,” remarks Lynn Robinson, a Massachusetts-based “business intuitive” who advises executives on how to use their intuition to make better business decisions. “We are all looking for a deeper knowledge base, and that means looking within.”
Setting the Stage
The shift comes at a time when, according to national statistics, women are facing unprecedented financial responsibility. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 2010 marked the first time in U. S. history that women comprised more than half (50.3 percent) of the workforce. Fifty-seven percent of all current college students are women, according to the American Council on Education. Thirty-eight percent of all working wives earn as much or more than their husbands, as of the 2009 Shriver Report. Nearly 16 percent of wives are the sole family breadwinners. Meanwhile, women continue to do the bulk of the housework (97 minutes per day for married women, versus 29 minutes per day for married men, according to a 2009 study by Vanderbilt University).
Despite these employment trends, women still make roughly 80 percent of what men do for the same work. Complicating the situation, when it comes to making financial decisions, many females still tend to be fearful, naïve and disempowered, according to financial health guru Suze Orman.
“Women have been thrust into an entirely new relationship with money that is profoundly different than anything we have ever encountered before… Yet when it comes to navigating the financial ramifications of this new world, they are using old maps that don’t get them where they want to go,” writes Orman, in Women and Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny.
Orman notes that only 12 percent of women feel confident about retirement and many continue to either leave their financial decisions in the hands of a male or ignore them altogether. This may be due to feeling embarrassed about their lack of knowledge, or a sheer lack of time.
New female graduates are facing a brutal job market; many laid-off women find themselves in a mid-career job search and widows and divorceés are facing retirement with a smaller-than-expected nest egg. All these women want to know, “How can I confidently embrace my new role in the evolving economy in a way that leads to financial independence?”
First Steps to Solvency
Understand the Underlying Emotions
Few heard in high school economics class that our relationship with money is intricately intertwined with emotion, comments Julie Murphy Casserly, a Chicago-based certified financial planner. Some of us are spenders, whipping out the credit card at the mall to ease some inner pain. Some are givers, picking up the tab at group events in an effort to feed a need to be liked. Others—perhaps those who grew up in poverty—are hoarders, holding on so tightly to their money that they cease to enjoy it or make it grow via sound investments.
Recognizing which type we are, and when our emotions are sabotaging good financial decisions, is an important first step to attracting wealth. A tip for spenders and givers, who both tend to end up carrying debt, is to cut up credit cards and start using cash. “There is no emotional connection with sliding a debit or credit card, but when you physically hand over $200 in cash, you feel that,” says Casserly.
Create a Life Map
With her Dunkin’ Donuts job behind her and a blank slate ahead, Smith took a serious self-inventory. When she concluded that she wanted to work with animals, she called a kennel and agreed to groom dogs a few hours each day in exchange for an education in dog training. Within a few years, she owned a lucrative dog training and boarding business.
“Our lives are the stories we narrate for ourselves,” she says. “If we don’t like the story our life has become, we can tell our self a better one… and act on it.” Smith recommends making a “Treasure Map to a Rich Life” out of poster board as a visual reminder of what’s important to us (e.g., travel, family, a career in a specific field). When life circumstances derail those aspirations, which often happens, we can take a reminder peek.
Say our leading aspiration is getting out of debt. Imagine what the day would look, feel and taste like absent that nagging credit card bill. Would we start saving for a son or daughter to go to college or quit that second job? Write it all down and post the intention in full view. “Surround yourself with all the things you are trying to create,” advises Casserly. “Persistently replace any shame, blame and guilt with dreams and desires.”
Earn with Our Spirit in Mind
As Rosemary Williams, founder of Women’s Perspective (www.WomensPerspective.org), puts it: “Spirituality and money come together easily when we realize that we cannot live a satisfactory life when we don’t engage our own spirits or when we operate against our soul’s purpose.” No one would argue that we all tend to do our best work when we choose jobs we are passionate about, and that when we invest in things contrary to our beliefs, they are never as satisfying.
“Part of what the chaos of the current economy is bringing up for people is the question, ‘What am I here to do and what calling do I have?’” says Robinson, noting that the root of the word enthusiasm is entheos, or “God within,” in Greek. “Try to figure out what it is that enthuses you,” she counsels, “and then ask, ‘How can I make a living at this?’ at least part of the time.”
Trust Gut Wisdom
Whether deciding in which stock to invest or whether to trust a potential business partner, the power of intuition cannot be understated, advises Robinson. Some view a gut instinct as the subconscious synthesis of past knowledge that rises to the surface when our brain needs it. Others see it as a manifestation of a Higher Power. Either way, it’s worth listening to, as a critical adjunct.
A good way to start each day is with a 10-minute prayer/meditation, asking that inner voice to provide three ways to help advance our financial health, and staying alert the rest of the day to listen for the answer, which can come when we least expect it. “I often find that when a woman asks these questions, it primes the pump, and when she is walking the dog or doing the laundry, she may hear an inner voice speaking,” Robinson says. “Pay attention.”
Spend According to Personal Values
To Washington-based writer Vicki Robin, author of The New York Times best seller, Your Money or Your Life, financial independence is as much about spending less as making more. “It’s not about going out and getting a financial advisor or turning over your savings to the stock market. It’s about living within your means, saving money and getting out of debt,” she observes. “Every financial decision you make is a chance to say ‘What are my values, really, and how does this serve them?’”
Robin recommends viewing money as “life energy” and assigning value as such to each purchase we make. Is that high-end haircut and coloring really worth the stress or time away from family for what it costs? What is worth that much to us? Once we start aligning our spending with that inner conversation, we will inevitably spend less, which results in less debt, more savings and ultimately, more freedom, she says.
Smith agrees. With the money she made working with animals, she invested first in real estate, and then in stocks. When she acknowledged her four-bedroom, three-bath home didn’t jive with her Earth-conscious values, she downsized. She still drives a 12-year-old car, frequents Craigslist and sticks with a frugal but gratifying “values-based budget.” The payoff for her, her husband and her young daughter has been huge.
“We spend very little on housing or transportation, but we buy organic food. We travel when we want to, we homeschool our daughter and we spend as much time as we want together,” she smiles. “Probably the biggest thing this has all bought us is time.”
Lisa Marshall is a freelance writer who lives in Lyons, Colorado. Contact her at LisaMarshall08@gmail.com.
“A wealthy woman absolutely has money, but she also has happiness, courage, balance and harmony. A wealthy woman is generous, clean, wise and therefore, beautiful. It’s my wish that you will carry these eight qualities within you wherever you go and that they will serve as your guideposts to make sure you are always walking toward wealth, rather than walking away from it.”
~ Suze Orman
Sources: Your Money or Your Life, by Vicki Robin, Women and Money, by Suze Orman, and Rosemary Williams, author of The Women’s Book of Money & Spiritual Vision
Source:
Lisa Marshall
A WOMAN’S GUIDE TO FINANCIAL HEALTH
It Starts with Trusting Your Intuition
One midnight, serving behind the counter of a Dunkin’ Donuts, Jen Smith could see the future—and it terrified her. She was working the graveyard shift at a job she hated, living in a cramped apartment and knew nothing about entrepreneurship or investment strategies.
When a homeless woman clad in rags wandered in for a warm cup of coffee, Smith shivered. “The only thing standing between her and me was one paycheck and that counter,” recalls Smith, 45, of Fort Collins, Colorado. “I realized that I was in a vulnerable spot, with no backup plan.”
Fast forward two decades to today; Smith now boasts a $2 million net worth and the financial independence to work only when she wants to. When you ask for her secret, she makes little mention of how to create a winning stock portfolio. Instead, she says, her decisions about how to earn and how to spend have come from a deeper, more esoteric source.
Says Smith: “I asked myself: ‘What is it that I love to do?’” Then she went to work investing in herself and a succession of six small businesses, starting with $1,500 per bootstrap operation. Initially, she earned her way working with animals while investing her dollars with an eye toward environmental stewardship. In 2007, she founded a personal finance blog, www.MillionaireMommyNextDoor.com. Along the way, she discovered that, “Mindfully identifying what truly makes you tick, and then aligning your decisions with your own personal values, is key to financial well-being.”
Smith is among a growing number of women looking beyond the traditional world of personal finance to summon emotions, spirituality, intuition and personal values in the pursuit of economic abundance. Many books, blogs and magazines, too, have begun to explore the unlikely intersection of right-brain, inner voice consciousness and personal finance.
“Our culture has always been very much focused on facts and research, but people are starting to realize we can’t just continue to rely solely on what we have relied on before, because it doesn’t work,” remarks Lynn Robinson, a Massachusetts-based “business intuitive” who advises executives on how to use their intuition to make better business decisions. “We are all looking for a deeper knowledge base, and that means looking within.”
Setting the Stage
The shift comes at a time when, according to national statistics, women are facing unprecedented financial responsibility. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 2010 marked the first time in U. S. history that women comprised more than half (50.3 percent) of the workforce. Fifty-seven percent of all current college students are women, according to the American Council on Education. Thirty-eight percent of all working wives earn as much or more than their husbands, as of the 2009 Shriver Report. Nearly 16 percent of wives are the sole family breadwinners. Meanwhile, women continue to do the bulk of the housework (97 minutes per day for married women, versus 29 minutes per day for married men, according to a 2009 study by Vanderbilt University).
Despite these employment trends, women still make roughly 80 percent of what men do for the same work. Complicating the situation, when it comes to making financial decisions, many females still tend to be fearful, naïve and disempowered, according to financial health guru Suze Orman.
“Women have been thrust into an entirely new relationship with money that is profoundly different than anything we have ever encountered before… Yet when it comes to navigating the financial ramifications of this new world, they are using old maps that don’t get them where they want to go,” writes Orman, in Women and Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny.
Orman notes that only 12 percent of women feel confident about retirement and many continue to either leave their financial decisions in the hands of a male or ignore them altogether. This may be due to feeling embarrassed about their lack of knowledge, or a sheer lack of time.
New female graduates are facing a brutal job market; many laid-off women find themselves in a mid-career job search and widows and divorceés are facing retirement with a smaller-than-expected nest egg. All these women want to know, “How can I confidently embrace my new role in the evolving economy in a way that leads to financial independence?”
First Steps to Solvency
Understand the Underlying Emotions
Few heard in high school economics class that our relationship with money is intricately intertwined with emotion, comments Julie Murphy Casserly, a Chicago-based certified financial planner. Some of us are spenders, whipping out the credit card at the mall to ease some inner pain. Some are givers, picking up the tab at group events in an effort to feed a need to be liked. Others—perhaps those who grew up in poverty—are hoarders, holding on so tightly to their money that they cease to enjoy it or make it grow via sound investments.
Recognizing which type we are, and when our emotions are sabotaging good financial decisions, is an important first step to attracting wealth. A tip for spenders and givers, who both tend to end up carrying debt, is to cut up credit cards and start using cash. “There is no emotional connection with sliding a debit or credit card, but when you physically hand over $200 in cash, you feel that,” says Casserly.
Create a Life Map
With her Dunkin’ Donuts job behind her and a blank slate ahead, Smith took a serious self-inventory. When she concluded that she wanted to work with animals, she called a kennel and agreed to groom dogs a few hours each day in exchange for an education in dog training. Within a few years, she owned a lucrative dog training and boarding business.
“Our lives are the stories we narrate for ourselves,” she says. “If we don’t like the story our life has become, we can tell our self a better one… and act on it.” Smith recommends making a “Treasure Map to a Rich Life” out of poster board as a visual reminder of what’s important to us (e.g., travel, family, a career in a specific field). When life circumstances derail those aspirations, which often happens, we can take a reminder peek.
Say our leading aspiration is getting out of debt. Imagine what the day would look, feel and taste like absent that nagging credit card bill. Would we start saving for a son or daughter to go to college or quit that second job? Write it all down and post the intention in full view. “Surround yourself with all the things you are trying to create,” advises Casserly. “Persistently replace any shame, blame and guilt with dreams and desires.”
Earn with Our Spirit in Mind
As Rosemary Williams, founder of Women’s Perspective (www.WomensPerspective.org), puts it: “Spirituality and money come together easily when we realize that we cannot live a satisfactory life when we don’t engage our own spirits or when we operate against our soul’s purpose.” No one would argue that we all tend to do our best work when we choose jobs we are passionate about, and that when we invest in things contrary to our beliefs, they are never as satisfying.
“Part of what the chaos of the current economy is bringing up for people is the question, ‘What am I here to do and what calling do I have?’” says Robinson, noting that the root of the word enthusiasm is entheos, or “God within,” in Greek. “Try to figure out what it is that enthuses you,” she counsels, “and then ask, ‘How can I make a living at this?’ at least part of the time.”
Trust Gut Wisdom
Whether deciding in which stock to invest or whether to trust a potential business partner, the power of intuition cannot be understated, advises Robinson. Some view a gut instinct as the subconscious synthesis of past knowledge that rises to the surface when our brain needs it. Others see it as a manifestation of a Higher Power. Either way, it’s worth listening to, as a critical adjunct.
A good way to start each day is with a 10-minute prayer/meditation, asking that inner voice to provide three ways to help advance our financial health, and staying alert the rest of the day to listen for the answer, which can come when we least expect it. “I often find that when a woman asks these questions, it primes the pump, and when she is walking the dog or doing the laundry, she may hear an inner voice speaking,” Robinson says. “Pay attention.”
Spend According to Personal Values
To Washington-based writer Vicki Robin, author of The New York Times best seller, Your Money or Your Life, financial independence is as much about spending less as making more. “It’s not about going out and getting a financial advisor or turning over your savings to the stock market. It’s about living within your means, saving money and getting out of debt,” she observes. “Every financial decision you make is a chance to say ‘What are my values, really, and how does this serve them?’”
Robin recommends viewing money as “life energy” and assigning value as such to each purchase we make. Is that high-end haircut and coloring really worth the stress or time away from family for what it costs? What is worth that much to us? Once we start aligning our spending with that inner conversation, we will inevitably spend less, which results in less debt, more savings and ultimately, more freedom, she says.
Smith agrees. With the money she made working with animals, she invested first in real estate, and then in stocks. When she acknowledged her four-bedroom, three-bath home didn’t jive with her Earth-conscious values, she downsized. She still drives a 12-year-old car, frequents Craigslist and sticks with a frugal but gratifying “values-based budget.” The payoff for her, her husband and her young daughter has been huge.
“We spend very little on housing or transportation, but we buy organic food. We travel when we want to, we homeschool our daughter and we spend as much time as we want together,” she smiles. “Probably the biggest thing this has all bought us is time.”
Lisa Marshall is a freelance writer who lives in Lyons, Colorado. Contact her at LisaMarshall08@gmail.com.
“A wealthy woman absolutely has money, but she also has happiness, courage, balance and harmony. A wealthy woman is generous, clean, wise and therefore, beautiful. It’s my wish that you will carry these eight qualities within you wherever you go and that they will serve as your guideposts to make sure you are always walking toward wealth, rather than walking away from it.”
~ Suze Orman
Sources: Your Money or Your Life, by Vicki Robin, Women and Money, by Suze Orman, and Rosemary Williams, author of The Women’s Book of Money & Spiritual Vision
Source:
Lisa Marshall
Friday, April 30, 2010
Aloneness
We are born alone, in a sense live alone even if we physically live with others, and die alone. Aloneness is an integral element of our true nature. But this feeling of aloneness that’s with us our whole life long is actually the wholeness of the divine, which is already within us.
Loneliness carries with it feelings of sadness, sorrow, depression, and pain. We experience it as a form of negative emptiness like a hole in the heart, a deep wound, a negative darkness. We seek to avoid the pain by trying to find someone or something to fill it—often through the experience we call “love.”
When we avoid our One Self, unconsciously clinging to anybody or anything that helps us forget our feeling of emptiness, the relief we receive is temporary because our suppressed feeling of loneliness only intensifies.
In contrast, we can transmute loneliness into aloneness, which creates meaning in our life. This is because aloneness is our presence meeting us within. To be alone is to be with ourselves in oneness, where nothing is lacking and we are never separate or abandoned. How can we be, when our essence is one with the whole?
When we open our inner eyes, “alone” becomes all one.
In our solitude, we grow deeply in love with our One Self. Love is the experience of fullness inside us. In this bliss, we don’t miss anyone, not even God. On the contrary, we meet the divine in a profound reunion.
When we transmute our loneliness into aloneness—all-oneness—we realize that the silence within has no tinge of sadness but is a radiant peace. The more we settle into aloneness, the more we settle into this peace. No sadness remains and we start enjoying our One Self because we are in tune with our being, the whole.
When we are lonely, we seek outside our One Self to find the meaning of life. This is avoidance of our true being. As we embrace our aloneness by going within, we realize we are the meaning of our life.
Outside us, there are crowds of people experiencing deep loneliness. But inside our One Self, we find fulfillment. Out of this deep sense of inner fulfillment, we share ourselves with the world around us, no longer needing anything from others but instead bringing our fullness to them. (From Namaste Publishing)
Loneliness carries with it feelings of sadness, sorrow, depression, and pain. We experience it as a form of negative emptiness like a hole in the heart, a deep wound, a negative darkness. We seek to avoid the pain by trying to find someone or something to fill it—often through the experience we call “love.”
When we avoid our One Self, unconsciously clinging to anybody or anything that helps us forget our feeling of emptiness, the relief we receive is temporary because our suppressed feeling of loneliness only intensifies.
In contrast, we can transmute loneliness into aloneness, which creates meaning in our life. This is because aloneness is our presence meeting us within. To be alone is to be with ourselves in oneness, where nothing is lacking and we are never separate or abandoned. How can we be, when our essence is one with the whole?
When we open our inner eyes, “alone” becomes all one.
In our solitude, we grow deeply in love with our One Self. Love is the experience of fullness inside us. In this bliss, we don’t miss anyone, not even God. On the contrary, we meet the divine in a profound reunion.
When we transmute our loneliness into aloneness—all-oneness—we realize that the silence within has no tinge of sadness but is a radiant peace. The more we settle into aloneness, the more we settle into this peace. No sadness remains and we start enjoying our One Self because we are in tune with our being, the whole.
When we are lonely, we seek outside our One Self to find the meaning of life. This is avoidance of our true being. As we embrace our aloneness by going within, we realize we are the meaning of our life.
Outside us, there are crowds of people experiencing deep loneliness. But inside our One Self, we find fulfillment. Out of this deep sense of inner fulfillment, we share ourselves with the world around us, no longer needing anything from others but instead bringing our fullness to them. (From Namaste Publishing)
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Took A Trip
Last week I went to see my daughter Bree. I also was dieing to see my little grand children Sawyer and Isla.
I wanted to see them and feel their little body's just to know they were all alright after that frightful event of going down the falls. They are all looking good and healing from the bruises and bumps and teeth work. Bree had a few appointments I took her to because it is hard for her to drive. She was moving very slow and calculated. I was so relieved to see that they were still all in one peace.
I went for a walk outside after getting back, it is a long drive but such a beautiful one from New Hampshire to Alabama. It was one of those walks that I take just to get as much outdoors into me as I can. I go out and just breath in the air, the sky the trees. I got to a certain spot on the street and I saw a huge bright orange yellow Moon that was full.
It gave me the biggest warm feeling to see into the night sky and have this wonderful big light shining out to me. It is the reflection from the Sun to us at night. To tell us we are being looked over by our source of light and warmth energy. I felt so up lifted and full while breathing in our Mother Earth and being nurtured by our Full Moon last night. We are so blessed to have all things on this earth show and tell us that we are so loved. Take a walk outside often, breath deep, take in all the wonderful energy that will fill you up and help you feel whole and blessed.
Go tonight!
I wanted to see them and feel their little body's just to know they were all alright after that frightful event of going down the falls. They are all looking good and healing from the bruises and bumps and teeth work. Bree had a few appointments I took her to because it is hard for her to drive. She was moving very slow and calculated. I was so relieved to see that they were still all in one peace.
I went for a walk outside after getting back, it is a long drive but such a beautiful one from New Hampshire to Alabama. It was one of those walks that I take just to get as much outdoors into me as I can. I go out and just breath in the air, the sky the trees. I got to a certain spot on the street and I saw a huge bright orange yellow Moon that was full.
It gave me the biggest warm feeling to see into the night sky and have this wonderful big light shining out to me. It is the reflection from the Sun to us at night. To tell us we are being looked over by our source of light and warmth energy. I felt so up lifted and full while breathing in our Mother Earth and being nurtured by our Full Moon last night. We are so blessed to have all things on this earth show and tell us that we are so loved. Take a walk outside often, breath deep, take in all the wonderful energy that will fill you up and help you feel whole and blessed.
Go tonight!
Friday, April 16, 2010
Patience & Answers by Micheal Brown
I just wanted to put this from Michael Brown on my post. This is exactly what I am learning to be now at this time in my life. I am sharing it with you.
Friday, April 16, 2010
PATIENCE & ANSWERS
PRIMARY INTENT: Consider that there is seldom a question sincerely asked within the heart that is left unanswered - however - there is also seldom a relevant answer that arises according to the imposed mental schedule of the head.
HEART INTENT: Patience. Consider that patience is not a state of waiting, but rather a trusting resonance born of felt-knowing. Consider that patience arises naturally within the realization that there is a dedicated time and place for everything to be made manifest and known in the flow of creation. Consider the resonance of patience effortless to embrace once we discern the difference between 'what we want' and 'what is required'.
VIBRATIONAL INTENT: Answers. Consider that the questions arising within us about the nature of our personal journey through this world do so so we may consciously and sincerely ask them, not so that we may attempt to mentally answer them. Consider that a question, when asked internally through the heart without any attempt to answer it mentally, becomes a powerful causal activity. Consider that asking in this manner automatically initiates the answer as an inevitable integrated physical, mental, and emotional encounter arising organically within the natural flow of our human experience. Consider that it is "ask and receive", not "ask and go get". Consider that all relevant answers to the unfolding of our experience are given, not gotten, and so require receiving, not getting.
Posted by Michael... at 9:11 AM
Friday, April 16, 2010
PATIENCE & ANSWERS
PRIMARY INTENT: Consider that there is seldom a question sincerely asked within the heart that is left unanswered - however - there is also seldom a relevant answer that arises according to the imposed mental schedule of the head.
HEART INTENT: Patience. Consider that patience is not a state of waiting, but rather a trusting resonance born of felt-knowing. Consider that patience arises naturally within the realization that there is a dedicated time and place for everything to be made manifest and known in the flow of creation. Consider the resonance of patience effortless to embrace once we discern the difference between 'what we want' and 'what is required'.
VIBRATIONAL INTENT: Answers. Consider that the questions arising within us about the nature of our personal journey through this world do so so we may consciously and sincerely ask them, not so that we may attempt to mentally answer them. Consider that a question, when asked internally through the heart without any attempt to answer it mentally, becomes a powerful causal activity. Consider that asking in this manner automatically initiates the answer as an inevitable integrated physical, mental, and emotional encounter arising organically within the natural flow of our human experience. Consider that it is "ask and receive", not "ask and go get". Consider that all relevant answers to the unfolding of our experience are given, not gotten, and so require receiving, not getting.
Posted by Michael... at 9:11 AM
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