THE WHEEL OF SELF-CHANGE

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I want to change myself.”

-Rumi

I’ve finally come to see that the only way we really can change the world is through changing ourselves. So often we spend all our time out there pushing against things in order to shift them.  But all that pushing against only keeps those things tightly formed into being, since through Law of Attraction whatever we give our attention to grows stronger.

Since consciousness is at the heart of all form, it is only through a shift in consciousness that a shift in form can follow. Even more beautiful, our individual consciousness isn’t separate from the whole. That means that when each of us shifts our own consciousness to a higher level, we affect mass consciousness.

This is how we change the world. It’s not necessarily easier to change ourselves rather than going out and pointing at all the things in the world that displease us, but it certainly is simpler and much, much more powerful.

Would you rather turn a ship by jumping into the water and trying to push it, or use one little finger to simply turn the wheel?

Grab hold of the wheel of self-change. Don’t worry, the world will follow.

THE BIG BANG AND YOUR CORE SPIRITUAL VIEW OF LIFE

I’m currently reading Andrew Cohen’s new book, Evolutionary Enlightenment: A New Path to Spiritual Awakening, which I highly recommend. Here’s something he had to say about the big bang that caught my attention, as I’d never thought about it in quite this context before:

“When something came from nothing, when the universe burst into being fourteen billion years ago, was that a positive event? Was it a terrible mistake? Or was it a meaningless accident?” (p.35)

He goes on to explain that the way we answer that question fundamentally determines our entire core spiritual view of life. Do you believe life is inherently good, bad, or neither? Was the big bang a “Yes!” a “No!” or a “Neutral”?

It’s an interesting thing to ponder, because your answer reflects a core view you hold about life, which profoundly affects everything else–the beliefs you hold about your own empowerment and safety, the decisions you make, and the actions you take.

To me, spiritual awakening is really about coming to the realization that life is inherently good, that the creative process of the big bang (which is not something that “happened” but that is still happening) is a giant enthusiastic ”Yes!” It’s about knowing that there is only benevolence in the universe. The creative process is benevolent, is rooted in love, and is carried out with incredible joy and enthusiasm.

Spiritual awakening is also about claiming your own power as an extension of that creative cosmic impulse. When you claim your spiritual power, you understand that not only are you not separate from this process of expansion, you are the means of carrying it out. In this context, your life has great purpose to it.

As an extension of Source energy, you are here to joyfully romp through the fields of form with the express purpose of expanding all that is through conceiving and achieving your desires. Are we having fun yet?

-Melody

THE LAW OF ATTRACTION IN 5 EASY STEPS: The Beginner’s Guide is Back! (sort of)

Okay, I’ve been listening. In 2010 I pulled my very first print book, The Beginner’s Guide to Abundance, from the shelves. I was fed up with the media circus surrounding the Law of Attraction and didn’t want to be associated with it anymore. But then people kept asking me, “where can I get a copy of that first book you wrote?” Sigh.

In response, I’ve just republished a bit of that book as a kindle article. This article explains the Law of Attraction in simple terms that beginners can easily grasp. Key Law of Attraction tips that many popular books leave out are also covered here.  It breaks down the process of manifesting your desires into 5 easy steps that you can follow as a guide in applying the Law of Attraction successfully in your own life:

1. Asking for what you want
2. Knowing that you are worthy of having it
3. Removing all doubt that it is coming
4. Remaining in a positive emotional state
5. Receiving it through right action

The Law of Attraction is already working for you. The trick is not so much about learning how it works, but about doing your necessary emotional work of self-empowerment so that you can apply the Law of Attraction deliberately rather than by default.

Do you want all the wealth, health, love, and personal success you could imagine? Of course. Do you realize that at the core of those things is really an emotional yearning to be happy? Can you have, be, and do absolutely anything? Yes. The trick is believing you are worthy of it. This article explains the Law of Attraction in the simplest of terms, without leaving out the emotional empowerment part of the process.

If you want to check it out, here’s the amazon link.

THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY: 12 STEPS TO HELP YOU FIND YOUR WAY

What is the spiritual journey to awakening?

The spiritual journey appears to be an evolutionary movement forward from ego, to soul, to spirit. In reality, it’s the circular journey of re-membering and returning to who and what we already are. It’s about awakening from the dream of separation.

From our human perspective, it’s about shifting our attention from suffering to acceptance, from judgment to allowing, from success to significance, from disease to wholeness, and from powerlessness to empowerment. Ultimately, it’s about shifting from a state of fear to a state of love.

How do you move forward on the spiritual journey?

As with any journey, it helps to have a map. The map I’ve drawn is a practical breakdown, or synthesis, of the many “paths up the mountain” to awakening. It consists of 12 steps that can be found in many esoteric teachings. These 12 steps correspond to the 12 chakras, the 12 signs of the zodiac, and Jung’s 12 archetypes, for example.

The map marks the terrain that all of humanity traverses, but it’s not the terrain itself. How you experience the universal journey is as unique as you are. You will walk it according to your soul’s purpose, discovering the nooks and crannies of the lessons you’re here to learn, and the wide open vistas of the gifts you’re here to master and share with the world.

Where are you now in your journey?

By exploring the 12 steps & the 3 stages of the journey, you can begin to find your place on this grand evolutionary adventure to awakening. This is a brief listing of the 12 steps and 3 stages to assist you.

Stage One—Preparation. Strengthening the Ego.
1)     SEPARATION—Just trying to survive & thrive. “I am alone.”
2)     BELONGING—Wanting to fit in and be loved. “I’m part of a tribe.”
3)     SELFHOOD—Rebelling & making changes. “I want to be free.”
4)     COMMUNION—Finding compassion. “I accept myself & others.”

Stage Two—The Adventure. Healing the Soul.
5)     SOVEREIGNTY—Enjoying authenticity & success. “I am secure.”
6)     SEARCHING—Lost & seeking meaning. “There must be more.”
7)     SURRENDER—Cultivating faith. “Not by my will alone.”
8)     HEALING—Getting over the past & karma. “I am becoming whole.”

Stage Three—The Return. Merging Soul with Spirit.
9)    GUIDANCE—Opening intuition & finding purpose. “I know my  contract.”
10)  CO-CREATION—Serving. “I use my gifts for the highest good.”
11)  TRANSMUTATION—Mastering Laws & Forces. “I create multiple realities.”
12)  UNITY—Awakening, Enlightenment. “All is one. I am THAT”

Navigating your life

These 12 steps appear linear, but in reality the journey is never so. A map is a two-dimensional image, while the journey is not. You’ll inevitably encounter setbacks, retracing of steps, skipping over steps, traversing several steps at once, and many jumps back and forth. You may accomplish all 12 steps in one lifetime, or take several lifetimes to do so. Awakening, the wild card on this journey, may occur at any time.

Remember: the journey is happening now, and it’s important to fully embrace wherever you are on the path without resistance or judgment. All steps are vital. All steps are equal in importance. You are where you are, and the adventure of your life is unfolding beautifully, perfectly, and profoundly.

_________________

Update: This article is now available in an expanded version as a kindle book: The 12 Steps of the Spiritual Journey: A Path to Spiritual Awakening and Self-Empowerment

WHAT IS SPIRITUAL AWAKENING? 12 Spiritual Awakening Signs & 7 Myths about Enlightenment

Are you yearning for greater freedom, purpose, or inner peace? Do the things you have or do no longer seem to satisfy you? Rather than breaking down, you may be waking up. What is spiritual awakening? Are spiritual awakening & enlightenment the same thing? What are the 12 traits of an awakened person? What are some of the common myths about enlightenment that may have been keeping you from pursuing your own spiritual awakening?

I explore these questions in a 9-page article I just published on Amazon Kindle: What is Awakening? 12 Spiritual Awakening Signs & 7 Myths about Enlightenment.

BEYOND NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS: Releasing Your Inner David

With the New Year approaching once more, millions are sitting down with keyboard or pen in hand to pound out their list of resolutions, goals, and self-improvements. Are you among them? It’s well known that resolutions rarely work. The reason they don’t work is that you cannot change your outer world without changing your inner view. The key to any life change lies in first shifting your self-perception.

I challenge you to move beyond resolutions this year and towards something infinitely deeper: a shift from continually resolving to fix something you perceive as broken, to holding one single intention. This one intention is the only one you will ever need. It is the intention to release from within you that perfect, worthy, limitless, sacred being that you truly are.

Modern society has done a very good job of telling us what our inner self-perception should be. We are broken, incomplete, dysfunctional, imperfect and in need of much improvement. Both secular and religious advertising call us towards fixing ourselves, be it to save our souls or to take our dollars, or in some cases, both.

The truth is that, from a sacred perspective, there is nothing about us that needs improvement. Nothing! We are inherently perfect just as we are. What is required is not improvement, which is rooted in ego, but acceptance, which is rooted in spirit.

It really is only from a place of self-acceptance that we can ever expand upon who we already are, releasing more of our greatness and perfection from under the veil of lack and incompletion. When we try to improve ourselves based on the false premise that we are somehow incomplete, we have already cut ourselves off from the one power within us that is capable of making any changes in our lives: our infinite perfect Self, Source, or Soul.

All of our greatness, empowerment, beauty, creativity, abundance, health, joy and love are within us. They are not things to achieve, but the very qualities of who we really are. These qualities are just waiting for us to see them and claim them. We must use our free will, setting that one intention to discover and release our own inherent worthiness.

Instead of sitting down and making a list of things to change about yourself and your life, set one high and holy intention for the New Year: to see yourself clearly, as you truly are, through the master’s eye. For you are both a master creator and its creation. Everything you long to be, have or do is already within you, just waiting to be seen, accepted, and believed in.

When Michelangelo was asked how he was able to carve the perfection of David from a lump of marble, he answered that David was already there. All he did was remove all the bits that weren’t David. You must do the same.

Remove the “bits” covering up your sacred Self, your inner David.  Realize that all the beliefs you have about your own imperfection, your feelings of “not enoughness”, and your ego desires for more and more are all false. They are not real and they hold no power. They are just the lump of mental marble covering up the perfect masterpiece that is the real you.

There is nothing to fix, no marble to transform. There is only the seeing of the David within you and the removal of anything that isn’t David. The only tool you need for this work is worthiness. Try this New Year’s intention rather than resolutions:

“With this new year, and for every moment after, it is my high and holy intention to claim my true worthiness, my true power, and my true innate perfection; for I am an eternal, all-powerful, master creator. I am joy, therefore I am joyful. I am peace, therefore I am peaceful. I am wholeness, therefore I am healthy. I am abundance, therefore I am prosperous. I am wisdom, therefore I am capable of solving any problem. I am love itself, therefore I am loving—towards myself, my human family, and my Earth. So be it, and so it is.”

THE PATH OF AUTHENTICITY: 7 stepping stones to a life of joy

What does it mean to live authentically? Authenticity holds a power that is almost mystical in nature. It’s magnetic and we long for it now more than ever. Why? My view is that authenticity opens the doorway to a life of spirit. What does the path of authenticity look like? Let’s explore the seven stepping stones that lead to a life of freedom and joy.

FIRST STONE: Be happy for no reason. There’s nothing you need to become, nothing that needs to happen, in order for you to be happy. Happiness is simply a choice. Let go of the ‘when/then’ game: When I lose 10 pounds, then I’ll be happy. When I’m in that perfect relationship, then I’ll be happy. Here’s the deal: Happiness doesn’t come when you’ve achieved your goals—it’s what allows you to achieve them. The happiness that you seek is not the reward waiting for you at the end of your journey. It’s what makes the journey possible in the first place.

SECOND STONE: End the blame game. Do you blame others for the way your life has unfolded or is unfolding? Is it the fault of your childhood, your spouse, your boss, or the current state of world affairs that you are not happy? Are you giving away your power by seeing yourself as a victim? To become empowered you have to take responsibility for yourself and for the way your life is going. No person or event can determine the shape of your life unless you allow it. You allow it when you choose the safety of powerlessness over the risk of self-determination. The only failure in life is not choosing for yourself how you’re going to live it. When you choose responsibility, a glorious thing happens: You stop living life in half measures and your life blooms in all its richness.

THIRD STONE: Simplify. Authenticity has a very hard time flourishing in the weed-strewn soil of complexity. You must pull out the weeds and make space for your soul desires to flourish. Simplifying involves ridding yourself of materials, activities, and people that drain or scatter your energy. Clutter is the most visible sign of an overgrown life. Go through your stuff and clear out everything that you don’t use or that doesn’t please you emotionally. After you’ve cleared some physical space, see if you can free up some time. Without time to slow down and connect to your heart, you won’t be able to hear its whisperings. Finally, you’ve got to rid yourself of people who are toxic to you, who weigh you down instead of uplifting you. When you’ve cleared a clean, fertile space in your life you can plant the seeds of your authenticity and cultivate your passion.

FOURTH STONE: Relish being selfish. Oh no, I used the ‘S’ word! We’ve been told for so long that being selfish is bad. If you stop to think about it, anyone who says so is probably saying it out of a selfish desire for you to follow their rules! If you want to live freely you have to become selfish. There is nothing wrong with serving the Self. You have to put your own needs and desires above everyone and everything precisely in order to serve everyone and everything. It’s exhausting to try to be all things to all people. You were never meant to apply your energy in this scattering way, but to concentrate your energy into the singular expansion of your own genius and uniqueness. Selfishness in the highest sense of the word is about being yourself so fully that you can share yourself fully with others.

FIFTH STONE: Do your healing work. Healing work is about confronting the habits, hurts, and fears that keep you living small. When you allow the fullness of who you are to step into the light, healing happens. The need for escapism, cures, and self-destructive habits diminishes. When you let go of any guilt, pain, anger, or unworthiness that you’re experiencing you open up the channel of effortless being. Universal Energy can flow through and you become the instrument of spirit you were meant to be. There are many practices for doing healing work, from therapy to EFT to prayer. Find what works for you and commit to shifting any beliefs or feelings that are holding you back.

SIXTH STONE: Cultivate compassion. Compassion is a profound human emotion. It pulls us out of egocentrism, enabling us to experience oneness with another and with all things. This is another facet of authenticity because compassion removes the ego’s false gods of competition, morality and judgment from their thrones. It allows us an expanded view of the world—as spirit sees it. There is nothing more freeing than allowing others their choices, than supporting them instead of trying to change them, or than honoring their own ability to guide themselves.

SEVENTH STONE: Hand over your keys. We’ve all heard the adage of surrendering to a higher power, of “letting go and letting God.” The key here is to realize that this higher power is not something outside of you, it’s within you. Surrender, then, is not powerlessness. Surrender is about turning over the driver’s seat of your life to your soul–to the full, intelligent, powerful, creative being that is the true you. It’s about freeing yourself from the reckless driving of your personality that keeps crashing you into one dissatisfying conundrum after another or that keeps speeding you right past all those lovely, magical roadside attractions. When you let your soul guide you, you surrender to the need to reach any destination, knowing that wherever you are in the moment is perfect.

The path to an authentic life is a journey inward to our inner being instead of outward into the world. It’s about claiming the power within us instead of seeking our power externally. Authenticity means honoring the self, not the self-image. It means listening to soul rather than to ego. It allows our hearts, so long shushed by our intellects, to finally speak.

(UPDATE: This article is now available in an expanded book version: Spiritual Power and the Law of Attraction: 7 Steps to Self-Empowerment, 5 Steps to Deliberately Creating Your Reality)

Live who you are out loud!
Melody