Remove Your 10 Blocks To Creativity

Encountering blocks to creativity?

Let’s first consider adopting a shift in perspective.

Most people, including yourself, may think about about creativity as doing well in art and music. Hence, if you find that you are nowhere near producing great works in these areas, you may well declare that you are not creative. However, I would like to embrace a broader definition of what creativity is.

To begin with, you need not be a genius to be creative. Creativity is a surge – a burst of imaginative and new ideas or your own unique interpretation of your five senses – that arises within your inner Being and turning this surge into reality. It also involves the the translation of your unique gifts and talents into something new and useful.

Creativity can also be about problem solving. In fact, you do not need to have a big problem to solve, to be considered creative. If you can solve your everyday problems in an ingenious way or come up with solutions to plug gaps, you are creative.

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Travelling Tips For A Happier Life Journey

(Photo Credit: HelloBernard on Flickr)

Consider your life journey.

Have you been a happy traveller mostly so far?

Are you on the driver’s seat, in control of where you want to go, with regards to your life?

What road are you travelling on? Are you on the highway to greater fulfilment?

Or…on a stoned path that is going nowhere?

Well, if you go about your days muttering “life sucks”, if you feel that “luck is what counts”, or if you’ve been thinking that it is best to sacrifice your dreams in exchange for a comfortable don’t-rock-the-boat life, then it is obvious that your journey so far has been less than rewarding and exciting. It may also be that instead of being in charge of driving on your own journey, you have just been cruising along. Possibly, a passenger with little control over the steering wheel to your life.

Notice how you talk to yourself while in your car? I’m not referring to your cursing and swearing at the driver in the next car just this morning; but rather the inner thoughts that go on in your head going through life. Here’s what your inner conversations probably sound like, while you are on your life’s journey…

Inner Talk:“No matter which path I take, it’s going to reach a dead end.”
Limiting Belief: “No matter how I do it, I’m never going to reach success”.

Inner Talk: “To reach the destination, stick to the small familiar roads. ”
Limiting Belief: “To reach success, choose the tried and conventional path. You can’t afford to try anything adventurous.”

Inner Talk: “It’s dangerous to go on the highway.”
Limiting Belief: “Don’t go on the fast track because it is dangerous.”

Inner Talk: “I don’t know how to handle this god-damn 4-wheel drive.”
Limiting Belief: “I don’t know how to take charge because the decisions involved are too big.”

Inner Talk: “I’m going to let my boyfriend do the driving because girls are known to be worse drivers.”
Limiting Belief: “I’m not good enough.”

Inner Car Talk: “I’m going to let my daddy do the driving because he has always been the family driver.”
Limiting Belief: “I need my daddy’s approval.”

Look Who’s Driving

The limiting beliefs as described above are probably implanted in your mind since a long time ago when you started off your life journey. While you are already way past the minimum age of getting a driving license, it is possible that you have not been really the one in charge of your own journey.

The drivers are really the unconscious negative thoughts and beliefs who have already hijacked you and over-written every single dream you may have. Every decision that you make from as little as what to wear this morning to major ones like career choices and whether or not to pursue your dreams, is influenced by what has been fed into your mind over and over again, since you were a child.

Negative self-talk lay seiged in your mind, causing you to apply brakes, go in circles, backing into the quick sand, and never allowing you to reach the top of the hill. When you allow yourself to be guided by a complex map of negative self sabotaging thoughts, you are unable to see clearly or to chart a finishing course for yourself. Sadly, you choose to shelf your hopes, bury your desires and suppress your dreams.

Consistent Thoughts: Repetition and Emotion

As you go through life, more than a million things have already been said to you. Most of them probably did not register much.

It is those thoughts that are made repeatedly and with emotion, that create the most impact. You’ve come to believe as truths what you have been told over and over again. A more emotional choice of words also tend to create a deeper imprint in your mind.

If the thoughts reinforce the positive, chances are that you will turn out to be a more positive and joyful person. You go through life, viewing difficulties as challenges or lessons to learn from. You see the stars in the sky rather than the mud on the ground.

However, if you have been indoctrinated with negative and limiting thoughts, it is likely that you will end up more cynical and disappointed about life. In a way, when you are so tuned into negativity, you will also be the lookout for negative events. You encounter them with a resigned attitude, drawing a deep sigh for the upteemth time “….see I told you so….I’ve never got a good thing coming….I don’t deserve the good things in life!”

So Who’s Been Talking And Driving?

The inner voices responsible for the driving have been echoing since you were a child. Who do they belong to?

1. Your Parents and/or Guardians. You base your life scripts on your early messages. Your parents and/or guardians are probably the most influential people in your life. As a child, you accepted what you’ve been told as “truths”.

These messages can be positive, such as notes of encouragement and motivation, or they can be negative, telling you that you are no good or with little talents. As you think about it now, if the messages have been negative, it would seem easy just to blame your parents and declare yourself as a victim for the rest of your life. However, you cannot move towards happiness if you do not start forgiving and healing. You need to break free.

Here’s how. Think about your parents and guardians. You need to understand why they have told you the negative messages. Have they been told these themselves because of their own upbringing or have they formed these beliefs because of the traumas that they went through? How were their childhoods like? Did they also have negative parents?

When you come from understanding of what it has been like for them, you no longer blame them for saying those things to you. These negative thoughts had been their realities too and they probably did not realise how destructive these beliefs can be.

2. Authoritative Figures. These are people that you look up to because they are older than you or who are your role models. One good example of an authoritative figure is your school teacher. And you’ve probably been taught by quite a number of teachers, since a big part of your early years is spent in school. A teacher who constantly berated you for being slow could have caused you to really feel that way about yourself. On the other hand, a teacher who encouraged you even though you have failed in your exams, in your later school years could have inspired you to make a shift into adopting empowering thoughts about yourself.

3. Your Friends. As a young and impressionable kid, it is easy to get affected by what your friends say. Your emotional vulnerability is also heightened if you suffered from a poor self esteem. The roots in your negative self talk may lay in the repeated taunts by a school bully or a slew of unkind remarks by a thoughtless friend.

4. The Media. Who do you think are the biggest perpetrators of building imprints in your mind? The award surely goes to the advertisers. I can think of no better example than the constant barrage of McDonalds ads that I see on the papers and TV.

Here’s a subliminal messaging that has been embedded by McDonalds in a Food Network show…

Now you can understand why it is so difficult to give up eating fast food even though you well know on a conscious level that it is bad for your health.

If you’ve constantly been exposed to beauty ads on looking good to be popular since the age of 3, guess how your self esteem is going to be like if you do not have an external appearance to match? It is no wonder that there can be so many depressed folks out there with problems like eating disorders, obesity and mental issues.

“Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.” — Leo Burnett (Pioneer American advertising Executive, 1891-1971)

Chart Your Own Journey From Now

Consistent thoughts have the power to influence you in your decision making process at various points in life. They become your reality, when you write out your life script according to what they say. The Law of Attraction is really no surprise. What you think and focus on, becomes a fact. If you are guided by negative thoughts, you will undertake actions that reinforce these “truths” about yourself. By virtue of your actions, you are going to achieve less-than-perfect outcomes. And less-than-perfect outcomes are just going to attract more of the similar ones that have already been happening in your life.

On the other hand, if you are guided by positive thoughts, you tend to take on powerful actions that bring about better outcomes. You increase the chances of success when you are forward looking. You also set yourself up in attracting more wonderful opportunities.

Once you discover who you’ve been allowing to take the driver’s seat and why, you are at liberty to take back the control of the steering wheel. You are free to choose the thoughts that will be helpful in creating the life that you want, and ditch the ones that hinder you in your tracks to true happiness. You can choose to be guided by a life compass that points to greater fulfilment. It is very much in your interest to chart your own journey from now.

“Let your mind start a journey thru a strange new world. Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be…Close your eyes let your spirit start to soar, and you’ll live as you’ve never lived before.”
— Erich Fromm (German born American social Philosopher and Psychoanalyst, 1900-1980)

Mental Viruses That Obstruct Your Work Or Business Success

If you are not getting any real success at work or in business, can it be that your belief system is holding you back? A lack of success is perceived because your competitors or colleagues are scaling new heights and you don’t; or that your business or career is not growing like what you think it should. However, instead of a set of empowering beliefs and a can-do attitude, you are negative and highly stressed out. You work yourself to the bone, believing that hard work is the answer. You often complain that you are not earning enough and worse, if your results continue to be poor, you proclaim yourself to be a total failure!

Obviously, if you feel more positive about work, you are likely to attract more success. Yet empowering thoughts and beliefs are not as effective, if you do not first clear the current installation of your limiting ones. Just imagine your mind as a huge processing computer. The analogy of a mental virus has often been used to illustrate a thought that is toxic, causing you stress, discomfort and can eventually cause you a breakdown in health. Hence, you need to first delete, in your mind, the old infected software that has been preventing you from getting optimal results.

I write this post because I am reminded by the conversation my husband and I had with a friend, Belinda, over lunch yesterday. The discussion that followed, during the meal, was no less stimulating than how it has always been when we gather together. Similar to what my husband does, Belinda runs her own advisory services. I am reminded about how we choose to spend a greater proportion of our time discussing about the inner workings of the mind and our limiting thoughts and beliefs, for we often seen these as the main obstacles that stand in the way of success. The need to make difficult sales calls, marketing proposals, dealing with the occasional irate customers, providing a quality product and good service are challenges in their own right but if we can conquer how our minds work, we can overcome a lot of difficulties brought about by work.

A Checklist of Mental Viruses

Drawing on the many discussions I’ve had with Belinda and my husband, I’ve gathered some of the mental viruses that existed in our old software, so that you can determine if similar ones are limiting your work success.

– Although I think my services are worth more, I am afraid that my customers will not pay.

– Although I think my work is valuable, I dare not ask for more from my employers.

– This is the only way to do business because all other competitors are doing it this way.

– I am not as capable as my competitor or colleague.

– My competitors have all the luck and I don’t.

– Opportunities are hard to come by.

– I am not good enough.

– I am not a good salesperson.

– I cannot smooth talk.

– I do not have the necessary qualifications and experience to do well.

– Only hard work can help me or my business make more money.

– If I do well, I will lose all my friends.

– My business or I don’t need to be that successful.

– It’s good enough to survive.

– I don’t want to be too successful because my relatives and friends will want to borrow money.

– It’s too difficult to sell.

– It’s too tough to grow my business.

On the first look above, you may think that the list contains many points applying to the instance if you’re in business or in sales. However, as I see it, any job that you are in right now, is equivalent to being in the business. You are in the business of marketing and promoting yourself. Even if you are not in a front line job, you still need to compete for a promotion, prove to your boss and survive in the work environment.

Admittedly, many of these thoughts exist at the subconscious level. Hence, you may not even be aware that they may be blocking your path to success at work or in your business. I use a Kinesiology technique known as muscle testing to determine if they exist. If you are keen to know more about this technique, you can read this guide that I found on the web on how to muscle test. Alternatively, get an EFT practitioner who knows how to perform the test for you.

From the list, I’ve categorised the limiting beliefs into three main groups: not good enough, no luck or opportunity or fear of doing better.

Deleting Mental Virus of “Not Good Enough”

Not good enough just means low self worth. When you have limiting thoughts about your self worth, these are bound to affect how well you do in any type of work or business. Poor self worth results in a low energy vibrations being sent out. The Law of Attraction works but perhaps with not enough “pull” to win the customer or seal the business deal.

In the Palace of Possibilities, Gary Craig (the creator of the EFT tapping technique) talked about these beliefs as the writings on your wall. Your thoughts form beliefs which you believe are truths about yourself. He proposed erasing these writings on the wall and rewriting them with more empowering ones. Louis Hay, author of How to Heal Your Life, had similar findings. She recommended the idea that “it is only a thought and thoughts can be changed.” In fact, any other motivational or personal development coach will probably tell you the same about having to get rid of your mental clutter and empowering your mind with positive beliefs.

Hence, what’s there to say that if someone has done it before, and you can’t? What’s there to say that you are not worth every dollar that you decide to quote your customer? Delete your mental virus of not being good enough and build your self worth. Begin by learning how to love yourself first.

“Self-worth comes from one thing – thinking that you are worthy.” — Wayne Dyer

Deleting Mental Virus of “Lack of Opportunity” or “No Luck”

Would you rather believe that old adage “oppportunity only knocks once” and that you have missed it altogether; or would you prefer to believe that there are plenty of opportunities out there and that you should prepare yourself, so that you can seize the appropriate ones as they arise? Well, I would very much prefer to choose the latter.

“I will prepare and some day my chance will come.”
— Abraham Lincoln (American 16th US President (1861-65), who brought about the emancipation of the slaves. 1809-1865)

A good metaphor here is to think about having your antenna up. It is a fact that the Universe is abundant. The Universe is awashed with plenty of opportunities, as it thrives on growth and renewal. There is no scarcity but enough abundance for everyone: success, wealth, happiness, fulfillment, joy and spirituality.

So if there is an abundance of opportunities out there, you simply need to tune into them with the use of your antenna. If you ask me, you put your antenna into where the action is. And where the antenna is simply the marketplace of your business.

An opportunity often comes disguised in the form of adversity or problems: complaints by your customers of a defect in your product, a loophole in the processing system, a failed quality check, etc. If you are alert enough and your antenna “catches” the opportunity that lies beneath what is broken or defective, you are able to turn the situation around creatively.

“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”— AuntGranny Charles R. Swindoll (American Writer and Clergyman, b.1934)

In essence, the point is that it is possible to change the limiting thoughts in relation to the opportunities that your work or business faces. As for luck, read this famous quote

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” — Seneca

More about this point will be said further down the article.

Deleting Mental Virus of “It’s Good Enough To Survive”

If you are truly contented with how your work is currently doing, then there is no virus involved in this instance. Your software may need upgrading but at least, it is working and running okay. However, if there is no harmony within yourself, your software starts to malfunction. In everyday life, you simply fall ill. Health symptoms are typically a sign of imbalance. They can indicate the presence of a virus that is infecting you, causing a standstill or preventing you from flourishing and growing well.

Telling yourself “it’s good enough to survive” can point to the avoidance of fear. Perhaps it is not so much a question of inadequacy on your part but a fear of greatness. Fear holds you back from being at your highest potential or bringing your business to its best level. If you can remove your programming on fear, think about how much lives your work can impact and how much fulfilling work becomes.

“Everything I’ve ever done was out of fear of being mediocre. “— Chet Atkins

Of course, you must clearly distinguish what it is that is really preventing you from growing yourself at work. If you feel that you’ve got other priorities that are more important to you compared to work, then you are not in discord and there is no need to remove any viruses which were non-existent in the first place.

Get Rid Of The Mental Viruses

You remove mental viruses by either searching through your files to zap them one-by-one or with the aid of a detection-and-elimination software, before installing new and better programs. Using a detection-and-elimination or anti-virus software is obviously a much faster process. Some of these softwares form great resources which can help you leapfrog the process of inner healing.

You get to enjoy the benefits of greater joy and fulfillment, from healing internally, throughout all aspects of your life. Not to forget, changing the software in your head is a necessary preparation for the opportunity that is coming along, as much as it is necessary to help you bring your current work or business to the next level.

7 Tips To Surviving Tough Times

Going through tough times? It takes a lot of faith to believe what seems impossible, when life is going rough. From your perspective, you may believe that things are already so bad that they cannot get worse. What unbelievable bad luck, you seem to be tapping into. You may well feel like banging your head against the wall, in frustration and despair. Perhaps, it may be due to a sequence of bad experiences that you have or if you are born with some physical challenges. Somehow, your life just seems a lot more difficult than others.

Well, I’d like to dedicate this post to those of you, who are going through tough times right now and who need a little support. I’ve often been through these episodes myself and what better way, from having pulled myself through countless times, than to share what I’ve learnt on my blog? Hopefully they can help you too. Continue reading

What Is Passion?

(In today’s post, I’ve asked my husband, an ex-fighter pilot with a love for fighter planes, to contribute his views on Passion. He has been the source of my support in asking me to follow my dreams. This is his maiden blog post and written to encourage readers to find their passion)….

What is passion? Why is it important? How does it relate to daily life? How does it relate to abundance? My wife often wonders over these questions. We also realise that many of our friends are not happy in their jobs or work because they basically do not like what they are doing. To which, I often believe, that the root problem lies in not knowing what one’s passion is and/or deciding not to pursue it.

Passion As Described In The Books

According to the dictionary, passion is “An intense desire or enthusiasm about something”.

From books about great company cultures like “Good to Great” by Jim Collins, to books about outstanding individuals like “Success Built to Last” by Jerry Porras and to books about attracting success and abundance like “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success” by Deepak Chopra, you can find some common themes. One of them is passion.

In the book “Good to Great”, companies that were passionate about their products seemed to do well. In the book “success built to last”, individuals that overcame adversity had the attribute about being passionate about what they did, that made them persevere, or endure the challenges and pain. In Deepak Chopra’s book, the seventh law is the Law of the Purpose of Life. While this is not exactly passion, my interpretation links passion with purpose of life, in relation to service to humanity, in whatever small ways one can accomplish.

My Burning Passion

The way I would put it, is something that resonates strongly with your being. For me, it was about resonating strongly with flight.

Since I was a little boy, watching jet fighters gave me an intense thrill, an indescribable feeling of excitement, the source of many day dreams. I would read about them, make aircraft models, go and watch airshows.

Even when I had to wear glasses at age 10, I never gave up the dream of becoming a fighter pilot. I read the Bates method of eye exercises and diligently applied it. I was conscious about not straining my eyes and refused to put on glasses especially if I did not need them.

At 18, I tried to join the air force, but could not get in because they still required perfect eyesight. I joined the army instead, went to Sandhurst, and then to London University. It was then that I found out that the eyesight requirements had been relaxed.

I applied again for entry, and finally made it to the air force! I could still remember my happiness, after the many times of having felt disappointment. And the amazing thing was that after I joined the airforce, my eyesight also became perfect!

I ended up flying F16s, commanding a squadron, before I left the airforce. All through this period, I saw the purpose in what I was doing: I was serving to protect my country, my family and friends. With that purpose, I was pretty much inspired to cultivate some of the highest standards in honor, duty, success and teamwork.

Challenges While Holding On To Passion

While I had left my previous job, I had a new wish: to do my own thing. I decided to run my own business and use my expertise and knowledge to become a consultant in the military aviation industry. I was presented the option of flying for a commercial airline but I realised that my passion had never been to be a commercial pilot. Sure, it would have paid the bills and my family would have a comfortable lifestyle but I was never one to work for money alone.

For the first 2 years, after having starting my consultancy business, I sweated and worried about the cash flow. It was a trying period. I worried about competition, about what they were doing, and whether they were saying bad things about me. It was pure agony. Then I read the books mentioned at the beginning of the article, and learnt that I should not worry about the competition, or the money, but to focus on my passion.

I started working on shifting my paradigm. I worked at letting go of my worries, in believing that I had abundance, and to focus on what I enjoy in my work. In relaxing, I found that I became more positive. Although I still had lots to do in terms of working on my mental stresses, I am nonetheless, convinced of the current path I am taking.

My wife would often tell me of her challenges in running her sites, and I would often remind her to follow her passion and to view difficulties from a learning perspective.

“When work, commitment, and pleasure all become one and you reach that deep well where passion lives, nothing is impossible.”

Seeking Out Your Passion

For some years back, my wife would often agonise that she did not know what her passion was. In the process of her discovery, she found out these truths…..

“Follow your heart, but be quiet for a while first. Ask questions, then feel the answer. Learn to trust your heart.”

“The more intensely we feel about an idea or a goal, the more assuredly the idea, buried deep in our subconscious, will direct us along the path to its fulfillment.” santiz Earl Nightingale quotes

The only way I could describe it is: a passion is what resonates with your being, something you feel good doing, something that you can spend many hours on and still be happy at and something that has a powerful purpose to it.

It may take time to find out what your passion is. Contrary to what many believe, following a passion does not mean that you would necessarily be poor because of it. In fact, when you find meaning in what you do, feeling happy and purposeful, you are already abundant.

A pilot’s business is with the wind, and with the stars, with night, with sand, with the sea. He strives to outwit the forces of nature. He stares with expectancy for the coming of the dawn the way a gardener awaits the coming of spring. He looks forward to port as a promised land, and truth for him is what lives in the stars. — Antoine de Saint Exupéry, “Wind, Sand, and Stars,” 1939

Happy searching!

Cinderella And The Story About Attracting Abundance

Once upon a time, in a magical land far far away, there lived a young maiden, who lived with her stepmother and two ugly stepsisters. They were horrible to her, piling her with loads of housework, making her work near the cinders and eventually calling her “Cinderella”.

Cinderella dreamed of a life of abundance. She dreamed of riches, beautiful gowns and the man who would save her from her wretched life. Nevertheless, every once in a while, she could not help but focused on her rags, her miserable room in the attic and her lack to abundance. She could not help feeling envious about the pretty dresses and the magnificent finery that her stepsisters wore.

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How To Measure Success

(Photo Source: Webshots.com – Success is not found in a gold medal but in the exhilaration of conquering the waves)

Many of us take success to mean a measurable achievement in terms of money, career or physical possessions. We look up to those who are rich and successful. We see success as an end goal. We mistakenly believe that the more possessions we have, the more secure we will feel.

In our efforts to continually become more successful, in our efforts to reach the pie in the sky, we often find that we lose sight of what is important around us and what is the here and now.

“The standard of success in life is not the money or the stuff – the standard of success is absolutely the amount of joy you feel”. – Ask and It is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks

Failure To Experience Joy

Many of us fail to see that we can be very joyful this present moment. Instead, our minds prefer to focus on the problems that we have or the fact that we are far from reaching our goals We feel miserable, choosing to wallow in self-pity and despair.

Many of our desires are like that. They start from some discomfort or a feeling that we are lacking in some areas. We then begin to search for the things that can fill the void. We then decide that we need to have these things to be considered a success.

If we succeed in getting what we want, the desire or hunger dissipates. Sometimes, we may even cheated for what we have attained has not brought us the level of satisfaction that we first anticipated. And so, we develop a new set of higher desires and goals. It is a never ending goal.

Live Fully While Getting There

Indeed, the message here is not about holding back your natural desires of wanting to improve your situation in life or asking you not to continually challenge yourself in self improvement. What is more crucial is to not to forget to enjoy yourself on the journey, even while trying to get there. It is still important to have a direction, an aim, but what you should not forget is to live fully right now.

In having a single-minded focus to reach a narrowly defined goal of success, you may find that you are missing out on much happiness. Half of your life may have already flown by. In the first half, you may have already missed out on many family birthdays, time to bond with your kids while they were young, and loving moments spent with your spouse. What, then, will become of the other half?

“Success is about a happy life and a happy life is just a string of moments. But most people do not allow the happy moments because they are so busy trying to get a happy life.” Ask and It is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks

See Success In Every Moment

It’s time to reach a new level of awareness. Success is not measured by the end goal but the anticipation and excitement that arise in its unfolding. To have reached success, as I know it now, is to see Success in Every Moment: The Letting Go of Our Egos, The Laughter in Our Children, A Reciprocal Act of Loving Kindness By Our Spouse and Friends, The Expansion of Our Hearts to all Living Things, and The Opening of Our Minds to Infinite Possibilities.

"To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty; To find the best in others; To give of one’s self; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived — This is to have succeeded." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Review On The Seven Spiritual Laws Of Success

First, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Christmas is a time for joy and giving. What better way than to spend Christmas reading a book that reinforces on the true human spirit for living?

I have just finished reading Deepak Chopra’s The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success – A Practical Guide To The Fulfilment Of Your Dreams – and would like to rate it an excellent read. This book essentially shatters the myth that success comes about because of hard work, driving ambition and detailed planning.

It tells us that we should obey the laws that exist in nature. Once we can understand our true self and live in harmony with the laws, success will flow to us effortlessly. Success can be anything from fulfiling relationships, material abundance, a great career or good health.

Here are the 7 laws laid out in the book:

1. The Law Of Pure Potentiality. This law is based on the fact that you are pure consciousness and have pure potentially. You need to discover your essential nature and who you are. When you do, you have the ability to fulfil any dreams that you have and to achieve full potentially. Experiencing the Self is from your internal reference and not from an object-referral. Self-referral means that you do not need to seek the approval of others or need to derive external power over things. There is the absence of fear, in self referral. Your power is eminent because of the knowledge of your Self.

To apply this law, to access the field of possibilities or to access the creativity that is inherent in your Self, you need to set aside time for silence, meditation and non-judgement on a daily basis.

2. The Law Of Giving. The universe is in a constant state of dynamic exchange. Giving and receiving are flows of energy that exist. So if we are willing to give what we seek, then we will be able to keep the abundance of circulation in our lives. Hence, if you would like to have more money, holding on too tightly is counter productive because money is life energy and you are interrupting its flow circulating back into your life. In essence, the more you give, the more you will receive. However, your intent behind the giving and receiving should be based on creating happiness, rather than a self serving purpose.

3. The Law Of “Karma” or Cause and Effect. What we sow is what we reap. Hence if we choose actions that bring happiness and success to others, we benefit through “karma” – receiving what we have given to others in the first place.

4. The Law Of Least Effort. For this law, three components are required: acceptance, responsibility and defenceless. You make a commitment towards accepting things as they are, not blaming others and relinquishing hte need to convince or persuade others of your point of view. You gain enormous amounts of energy when you expend little or no effort in pursuing things that do not matter. There is no struggle or any conflicts, when you simply embrace the present moment. When you remain open to all points of view, your dreams and desires will flow to you.

5. The Law Of Intention and Desire. Intention and desire in the field of pure potentiality have infinite organizing power. You can consciously change the energy and informational content of your own quantum body and therefore, influence the energy and informational content of the environment; and cause things to manifest. However, while you have an intent for the future, your attention is on the present moment. Focus your attention on “what is” and your intent for the future will manifest.

6. The Law Of Detachment. The fifth spiritual law has to be read together with the sixth law (Law of Detachment) in particular together. While you have certain intents, you have to let go of your attachment to your desired outcome. Attachment comes from poverty consciousness, because when you are attached, you are really attracted to the symbols (be it money, cars, clothes, airplanes, toys, etc.). Detachment is synonymous with wealth consciousness. When you are detached to the outcome, you experience joy and laugther. Applying this law also means that you need to thrive in uncertainty. For only in uncertainty, can you have the freedom and creativity to create anything you want.

7. The Law of “Dharma” or Purpose in Life. The Law of Dharma says that we have taken manifestation in physical form to fulfill a purpose. It is inherent in you that you have a unique talent and you use this talent better than others. When you match your needs to the creative expression of your talent, you are in the positon that creates wealth wealth and abundance. Hence, you really need to discover your true Self, your unique talents and your service to humanity – how can you help others. It is not a question of “what’s in it for me” but a true willingness to serve your fellow human beings with love and compassion.

It is not easy to digest this book. I have to re-read it several parts to gain an understanding of what the author is saying. I even spent two days discussing with my husband the true essence of what is being taught.

Clearly, what is valuable to us from reading this book, is the clear distinction between “intent” and “desire”. Intent is needed for things to manifest. Intent is desire without attachment to the outcome. Attachment will bring about suffering. Yet the application of the laws is that the attention is not about the future but in the present.

Understanding the laws is important for us to understand because while we have a long list of goals, we do not want to become attached to the results, which are often material. Our intent is best kept in the purest form, eg. “I want to help others find solutions to their problems”, rather than “I want to have that sports car so that I can show off to my neighbours”. The intent must never to harm others but to assist in the growth of the Self and/or to serve others.

Inward looking on the Self, via quiet meditation, is needed. Be comfortable in the present moment. There is no judgement while in this awareness. One is happy “as is”. Doing kind deeds is needed for the process of circulation of life energy to continue.

It is only when we truly know ourselves, and live a life that matches our purpose here on this earth, can we experience true wealth and abundance. The Seven Spiritual Laws are not just laws for success but are laws for living at the highest and most integrated level.