Category: Year Two

Week 2-22A – Silence Prep

The class has been discussing emotions as tools — the positive aspects of fear and anger and other notorious “negative” emotions. It’s also been “silence” week. I know that was a shocker for me last year, but I have it planned this year — just not when the class is doing it.

In May, I’m taking a cruise to Alaska by myself. My whole intention is to embrace Silence at certain times, do some creative work at other times, and, of course, to check off the final state of the fifty US states for visiting. I was tempted to skip all the shore excursions and remain on the boat, but that would defeat the purpose of visiting Alaska, wouldn’t it?

Since I’m not likely to get back there, I scheduled shore excursions for all but one stop. I’m going to wing it on the one stop and see how that goes. I imagine I’ll meet people on the cruise. I may strike up conversations and it’s feasible I could make friend or two. Or, maybe I wind up embracing the Silence as I savor the trip. Either way, I’m looking forward to it.

Week 2-22 – Nutritive Properties

The part of this week’s lesson that caught my eye was in the lesson intro about nutritive properties.

The life processes are carried on by two distinct methods; first, the taking up and making use of nutritive material necessary for constructing cells; second, breaking down and excreting the waste material.

For the last year and a half, I’ve been learning about essential oils. I have a lot of other things going on, so the process has proceeded by fits and starts. The thing I find most fascinating about essential oils is the chemistry and physics behind them. I’m not a chemist or a physicist, but I’ve had enough classes in both subjects to understand their criticality to how the human body works. In fact, I think quantum physics will be the area where our greatest breakthroughs will be in the near future.

Essential oils affect different people differently. One person may achieve a healthy balance with one combination, while another person achieves a healthy balance with a completely different or slightly altered combination. That’s because the deficiency that’s being balanced is likely different for two different people.

Because of this, I’m researching and experimenting with oils that might work to support areas where I feel I’m deficient. For instance, late last year, I began experiencing terrible tingling in my hands. I figured a nerve was being pinched somewhere in my shoulder while I was sleeping, but that and the tingling indicated to me I might benefit from oils that are known to support neurological systems. There are a number of them, but Young Living has supplements called Sulfurzyme, Super B, and Super C as well as OmegaGize, which are all purported to help support neurological systems — along with several other systems.

I was already taking OmegaGize (fish oil) to help with cardiovascular support. I had also recently began taking Sulfurzyme to support strong fingernails. I thought I was getting enough B vitamins in my morning multivitamin, but maybe not, so I started taking Super B at night. When I noticed my reference guide suggested Super C might work synergistically with the others, I added that to the routine. After a couple of months, I have noticed I am not bothered nearly as much by the tingling in my hands as I had been. I think that routine has assisted with balancing my neurological system to the point where I may need to do just a little more tweaking, but I firmly believe I found the right nutritive material to achieve more optimal cellular construction.

Like the MKE, this is a lifelong journey, and I’m happy I’m making positive progress in creating harmony within my body.

I’m late to post this week. It happens once in a while. I almost forgot to get it in tonight, but I checked a friend’s blog and remembered I needed to do mine!

Week 2-21 – How To Pray

This week we learn if prayer has ever been answered, it is always answered. Unfortunately, too many people do not know how to pray. Just like there are physical laws, there are also spiritual laws.

The power of prayer is not in its fleetingness. It’s in our posture of constant prayer.  Let’s look at paragraphs 10-12 from this week’s lesson:

10. From this science we learn that every thought creates an impression on the brain, that these impressions create mental tendencies, and these tendencies create character, ability and purpose, and that the combined action of character, ability and purpose determines the experiences with which we shall meet in life.

11. These experiences come to us through the Law of Attraction; through the action of this law we meet in the world without the experiences which correspond to our world within.

12. The predominant thought or the mental attitude is the magnet, and the law is that “like attracts like”, consequently the mental attitude will invariably attract such conditions as correspond to its nature.

We are constantly practicing the Law of Attraction. As we remain focused upon that which we want most, the tendency is to imprint it upon our brain, and that constant imprint adjusts our tendencies.

What we think about grows. Our subconscious works 24/7 to manifest what we plant. What we practice daily allows us to perform amazingly because of practice. Our relaxed, calm state of mind helps us access infinite intelligence. We can instantly replace a negative thought with a positive thought. We can attach any feeling we desire to any thought. We forgive everyone. This brings us to paragraph 27 of this week’s lesson:

27. The Divine Mind is the Universal Mind; it makes no exceptions, it plays no favorites; it does not act through sheer caprice or from anger, jealousy or wrath; neither can it be flattered, cajoled or moved by sympathy or petition to supply man with some need which he thinks necessary for his happiness or even his existence. The Divine Mind makes no exceptions to favor any individual; but when the individual understands and realizes his Unity with the Universal principle he will appear to be favored because he will have found the source of all health, all wealth, and all power.

Prayer is not a casual, fleeting thing. Build it into your thoughts. Imprint it onto your mind. Weave it into the fabric of your soul. You’ve realized the power of prayer from casual, fleeting prayers. Now. Imagine the power of concentrated prayer. Focus your power wisely.

Week 2-20 – Thinking and College

This week, we begin to catch a glimpse of where that idea that thinking and college was the path to success and power. Look at paragraphs 4 and 5 for this week.

4. Thinking is the true business of life, power is the result. You are at all times dealing with the magical power of thought and consciousness. What results can you expect so long as you remain oblivious to the power which has been placed within your control?

5. So long as you do this you limit yourself to superficial conditions, and make of yourself a beast of burden for those who think; those who recognize their power; those who know that unless we are willing to think we shall have to work, and the less we think the more we shall have to work, and the less we shall get for our work.

That final phrase seems to support getting a college education so you can think and not have to work; however, it’s incomplete and out of context. If colleges taught the kind of thinking we’re learning in this course, the theory that getting a college education was the secret to success might hold some water.

I have done post-Master’s work, but the older I get and the more experienced I become, the less respect I have for a college education as an indicator of someone’s likelihood of success in any particular endeavor. A college education has become merely an indicator that someone could be a good worker. The diploma means they showed up within a prescribed number of times and turned a prescribed amount of work in for evaluation and did so in a manner that earned a satisfactory assessment. This tells employers the job candidate might be counted upon to show up for work on a regular basis and complete assignments to company standards in exchange for a paycheck.

There’s no indication that the person will be innovative, resourceful, or demonstrate initiative. And for the vast majority of companies, they are just fine with that. Go back to paragraph 4. Has anyone who has taken college-level coursework been challenged to achieve anything in paragraph 4? I wasn’t.  No, without learning paragraph 4, the value of college education that paragraph 5 would seem to encourage will not appear. Most of today’s college graduates are glorified ditch-diggers who rarely have to muddy their hands or clothes.

No, the true power of thought can be employed with, dare I say it? I will. An elementary school education. If we would teach these principles to children that young — and I’m saying we should.

I’m not saying formal education should cease after elementary school, but I believe if we taught children these principles are part of their reading, writing, and arithmetic basics, they would fare more favorably with the subsequent formal education they did receive — whether if was academic or trade-related.

I’m always encouraged on the webcasts when I hear about parents employing what they’ve learned with their children. I’m thrilled when I see high school-aged participants engaging in the course. Teach children to think and engage the Silence. They will emerge with Power and make the world a better place, one mind at a time.

Week 2-19 – Thought

I’d like to examine paragraph 24 from this week’s lesson material, focusing on thought:

24. Thought is the vital force or energy which is being developed and which has produced such startling results in the last half century as to bring about a world which would be absolutely inconceivable to a man existing only 50 or 25 years ago. If such results have been secured by organizing these mental powerhouses in 50 years, what may not be expected in another 50 years?

Many things came into play to bring about the physical changes we have seen in our world over the last 25-50 years, but this book was written nearly 100 years ago, and the statement was just as true then as it is today.

Most of you reading this can remember a world without cell phones or Twitter or Facebook or the internet, but you have to think hard about how we managed to do the things we did. Despite all that, each material thing in the world today originated with a thought. Someone had to first imagine the item and then puzzle out how to create the physical item.

So, the key to everything lies in the power of thought. Anyone from any economic situation can think. The introduction to this lesson opens by saying,

Fear is a powerful form of thought. It paralyzes the nerve centers, thus affecting the circulation of the blood. This, in turn, paralyzes the muscular system, so that fear affects the entire being, body, brain and nerve, physical, mental, and muscular. Of course, the way to overcome fear is to become conscious of power.

If the key to everything is the power of thought, use thought to overcome fear. Use thought to focus on the power of good. The power of truth. The power of positive in our world. Collectively, with our thoughts and the actions that result from them, we can each be a positive force for a positive world.

Week 2-18 – Is This Your Last Day?

Is today your last day? You probably don’t like to think about that, but you simply don’t know. This month, we’re focusing on living our lives as if each day is our last day. And if it isn’t? I shall fall to my knees and give thanks.

To live life to the fullest, you want to know what matters most to you. What matters most to me? Harmony, True Health, Writing, Cats, Travel, and Prioritization. These are the areas where I spend my time.

Week 2-17HJ – Conceived in Love

Last year, I transferred the phrase, “Nature knows not defeat” forward. This year, I’m transferring, “I was conceived in love and brought forth with a purpose.” I was liking, “I’ve been given eyes to see and a mind to think and now I know a great secret of life for I perceive, at last, that all my problems, discouragements, and heartaches are, in truth, great opportunities in disguise.” I still love that, because, isn’t it the truth? Everything that’s happened in my life up to now has prepared me for whatever is waiting around the next bend in life. I love that phrase.

I almost transferred it forward, but I decided I want to focus on being conceived in love and my life having a purpose. Honestly, I’m not completely sure what that purpose is. I trust God knows. The Universal Mind knows. I trust.

Week 2-17: Concentrate on What You Want

This week seems like a good time to remind ourselves we each need to concentrate on what you want. Eradicate the thinking about what we don’t want. As MasterKeys Lesson 17 says, ” If you wish to eliminate fear, concentrate on courage. If you wish to eliminate lack, concentrate on abundance. If you wish to eliminate sickness, concentrate on health.”

Always concentrate on the idea as an already existing fact. Using this, we need to consider our country is a united, peaceful nation, filled with love and caring. We need to look for and delight in those examples as we find them. There are plenty of examples. Flood the internet with them as they are discovered.

I had an appointment with my surgeon last Friday. I needed to check on a loud crack I’d heard from my knee (both my knees have been replaced) the previous Saturday. Before going, I applied a few drops of Clarity essential oil behind my ears. I wanted clarity in whatever he was going to diagnose, so the oil helped with that. That crack I heard was my kneecap cracking. I’m in an immobilizer brace for the next few weeks at least to allow the kneecap to heal. Can’t get much more clarity than that. I’m focusing on True Health, and it’s all coming together, slowly but surely. This does slow down my yoga participation, though. Grin.

Week 2-16 – Cycle of Sevens

I noticed this when I read this lesson last year. I thought about it, but it didn’t resonate with me the way it does this year. I’m 56 going on 57, so I’m in my 8th Cycle of Sevens for my life. I have a comfortableness with where I am. I’m a work in progress, but I’m okay with where I’m at. I’m at peace with the journey for now.

I’m reminded there are people who think the world is entering it’s Seventh Period, so there is much adjustment, reconstruction, and harmony. We are certainly in a period of adjustment — that’s been going on for probably the last sixteen to twenty years if not longer. Perhaps our world’s blueprint is changing. As witnessed, change is challenging, but imagine how much more challenging it is when millions of people are trying to hammer out a DMP for the world?

But it comes down to our personal lives, getting ourselves settled with the Universal Mind, and the rest will come together in due time. My Mastermind Partner and I continue to work together, supporting one another. We’re each tailoring what we’ve learned (and continue to learn) to fit our lives and our DMPs. We each seem them manifesting, sometimes deliberately, and sometimes inexplicably, but it’s all toward an future us we’ve envisioned. It’s exciting, satisfying, and mystifying.

Week 2-15 – I See What I Look For

We’re beginning the Franklin Makeover this week. This exercise is wonderful for proving that in all situations I see what I look for. The easiest example of this is cars. After I get a new car, I find myself noticing other cars like mine on the road. Those cars were always there, but I never noticed them until I got one, and it occupied a greater place in my attention. (Possible exception: Lamborghinis outside of the LA area — I know if I got one, I would not see more of them on the road in my little Central Texas town — but I would notice them more when they were there.)

In today’s world, this is more important than ever. Do I think there’s more division and strife in the world? It’s easy to find. Especially when I believe it’s there. But guess what? There’s a whole lot of good in the world, too. Look for it. Seek it. Comment on it when I see it. People say kids are up to no good, but if I go looking for all the good, hard-working kids out there playing by the rules doing what they should do, they’re there, too. Look for them. Notice them. Remark on how many great young people there are in the world today.

I was in an elevator with my mom a few years ago. The elevator had two posters. One with a little kid, and one with a puppy. My mom oohed and ahhed over the little kid. I melted for the puppy. I’m wired differently. I see a family together in the park, and even though I grew up in a family, I cannot fathom being in a household with all those people raising kids and doing what you have to do to help them become the responsible next generation for this world. I’m a little better at it now than I was ten years ago. You won’t believe how I got that way. Six and a half years ago, we fostered a stray cat who turned out to be pregnant. We kept her in the house. We made sure she got good food, clean water, and veterinary care. We did what we could to help her have healthy kittens. I was there when she gave birth to those four kittens. At that point, I began to get just an inkling of what human moms might feel for their human babies, but I have to do it through the filter of those kittens.

I have to get better though, because the Blueprint Builder, paragraph five says I must “develop a love for all humanity, because I know a negative attitude toward others can never bring me success.” Paragraph five has some challenging areas, and, for me, this is one. I’m getting better. I have a long way to go. I need to actively look for what I’m seeking. It’s there.