Author: Jean

Week 25 – Embarking on Self-Directedness

First post after Commencement, practicing self-directedness. As I’m sure you know, Commencement means beginning, even though many traditionally think of it as an end. That’s our built-in negative bias shining through. I’m beginning my first week as an independent, self-directed person. I’ve worked all my life to get to this point, and, in reality, I’ve been here for many years. My parents raised me to be self-directed, so, technically, this is nothing new. On the other hand, decades of life chipped away at how effective that self-directedness was.

We had a few weeks without a webinar during the course to help us practice working on our own. I feel confident going forward. Still, as the webinar blinked off at the conclusion of of our Commencement Master Mind session, I felt a brief sense of loss. I texted with my Mastermind partner throughout the session, and we’re embracing our future as we step out on our own and employ what we’ve learned.

I signed up for Continuation, which retains access to the course material and a few other things. Mostly, I’m evaluating what this self-directedness will look like. I’m reading Think and Grow Rich, so those chapters may replace my weekly Master Key lesson. On the other hand, I think a periodic review of those weekly lessons will add fresh perspective as my perspective has changed with more complete learning.

There are a few more months of scroll reading to finish The Greatest Salesman in the World. I’m nearly done with my Definite Major Purpose revision. What worked at the beginning of the course needed more dates, more customization, and more emotion. Very little of my original DMP remains; however, I had to put a segment back in, because it was so important. My new guide convinced me about why my “Recognition for Creative Expression” personal pivotal need wasn’t valid. As you may recall, I’d been wondering about that. “Autonomy” is my new PPN. It feels right.

Of course, I will continue adding my service each week. I’m taking a closer look at my Plan of Action card. It needs updating. There’s a lot of good crammed in there, but I want to ensure it still aligns with my DMP. I rewrote my Blueprint Builder without the “wills” and added the Laws of the Mind to the back — just to keep them handy.

This was never addressed, but I’m absolutely certain Davene and Mark J are not hauling around fifteen years of gratitude cards, so I’m periodically “retiring” some to another pile. I have four sizable piles of gratitude and success cards. It seems practical to retire some every now and then to keep those piles manageable. I plan to add a few cards to cover the “carry over” phrases from The Greatest Salesman in the World. I’m going to devise a method of keeping the thirteen virtues front and center, and I suspect that involves index cards as well.

So, like a kid happy to be in her first home after moving out on her own, I’m arranging and rearranging the furniture. Oh, and I bought the P90 video series. I decided with one replaced knee and another knee awaiting replacement and a ton of excess weight, I wasn’t ready for P90X, but I’m looking forward to checking this series out. Thanks Mark J. What an influence you have been.

Week 24 – Tuning Our Minds

We’ve been tuning our minds for the last twenty-four odd weeks, and it’s no surprise that Haanel’s final lesson talks a little more about this. So does another related resource, the book by Napoleon Hill titled, Think and Grow Rich. Many of you probably have that book in your library, unread. In the introduction to Haanel’s lesson 24, Haanel reminds us whether our focus is religious, scientific, or philosophical, these teachings are valid. Are you an alchemist? Here’s the secret: “Gold in the mind may be transmuted into gold in the heart and gold in the hand.”

The paragraphs of greatest interest to me this week are 13 and 14, so I’ll highlight them here:

13. If you desire to help someone, to destroy some form of lack, limitation or error, the correct method is not to think of the person whom you wish to help; the intention to help them is entirely sufficient, as this puts you in mental touch with the person. Then drive out of your own mind any belief of the lack, limitation, disease, danger, difficulty or whatever the trouble might be. As soon as you’ve succeeded in doing this the result will have been accomplished, and the person will be free.

14. But remember that thought is creative and consequently every time you allow your thought to rest on any inharmonious condition, you must realize that such conditions are apparent only, they have no reality, that spirit is the only reality and it can never be less than perfect.

This is where tuning our minds comes into play. You may be familiar with a radio. You tune it to a certain frequency, and a radio station you’ve been told you will find at that frequency will play. It could be a music station or a news station, or a sporting event, but when you tune to that frequency on your receiver, you get that information. Our mind works the same way. We can receive all the stations. We can choose to tune our minds to the positive, rewarding, abundant stations, or we can choose the negative, brow-beating, poverty-filled stations. Once we choose what to tune to, that will be what we see and experience in our lives.

On page 37 of Think and Grow Rich, we are reminded “the human mind is constantly attracting vibrations which harmonize with that which DOMINATES the human mind. Any thought, idea, plan, or purpose which one holds in one’s mind attracts, from the vibrations of the ether, a host of its relatives, adds these “relatives” to its own force, and grows until it becomes the dominating, MOTIVATING MASTER of the individual in whose mind it has been housed.”

Which do you want to tune into and receive?tuning our mindtuning our mind The destruction or the growth frequency? We can choose which frequency we tune our minds to receive. Choose wisely.

Week 23 – The Ides of March

Twenty-nine years ago today, the Ides of March opened the worst period of my life (to date–I learned to never challenge worse) — my then-husband suffered a serious head injury and was never the same (I’ve since realized that my eyes were opened to who he really was), my dog died, and my youngest sister was diagnosed with an eventually fatal brain tumor. The Ides ushered in the head injury. My parents were visiting us, for the first and only time in my adult life. They had to leave before the true extent of my husband’s head injury became apparent. My sister was still a happy seven-year old, unaware of the tumor that would begin her final journey just a few months later.

Eventually, I divorced the husband, I still have the ashes of the dog, and my sister, after guiding the rest of the family spiritually, met our Maker six months before her tenth birthday. Just before her first surgery, she reassured our grandmother, “Don’t worry Grandma. Jesus is with me.” I learned a lot about what is currently called “adulting” during those few terrible years of my life, but there were many good memories during those tough years, too.  She made a huge difference for my father, too. My father has lost two children in his life, one shortly after I was born, and Debbie. They played an incredible synergistic role in his life. He shared his faith journey in this YouTube video for his church, and it’s worth a listen.

Life is a series of ups and downs, and this month’s scroll assures us these ups and downs are normal, even essential. The scroll’s lyrical tone is comforting, but the message is clear. While the ups and downs are normal, how we deal with them is critical.

If I bring rain and gloom and darkness and pessimism to my customers then they react with rain and gloom and darkness and pessimism and they purchase naught. If I bring joy and enthusiasm and brightness and laughter to my customers they will react with joy and enthusiasm and laughter and my weather produces a harvest of sales and a granary of gold for me.

Equally important, we also understand and recognize the moods of the people around us. We make allowances for their anger and irritation, because they do not know the secret of controlling their minds. We understand that while today they may be grouchy, tomorrow, they may be pleasant and a joy to be with. In the same vein, today, they may not be interested in our tremendous bargain, but tomorrow, they may pay us twice what a useless trinket is worth. Because of that, we do not form our impressions upon just one meeting, but keep an open mind.

What have your Ides of March been? How have you recovered?

Week 22A – Mental Housecleaning

I’m looking back to Week 5’s Master Key and doing some mental housecleaning tonight. I am also reminded that knowledge does not apply itself, so a few DMP areas not manifesting as I would like will need some attention. I’m going to include excerpted highlighted areas from my Week 5 Master Key reading.

From the introduction: But thought works no magic transformations; it obeys natural laws; it sets in motion natural forces; it releases natural energies; it manifests in your conduct and actions, and these in turn react upon your friends and acquaintances, and eventually upon the whole of your environment. You can originate thought, and, since thoughts are creative, you can create for yourself the things you desire.

Paragraph 2. The subconscious can and will solve any problem for us if we know how to direct it.

Paragraph 5. We can consciously use all the desirable characteristics with which we have been provided and we can repress and refuse to allow the undesirable ones to manifest.

Paragraph 8. This, then is the way we are consistently creating and recreating ourselves; we are today the result of our past thinking, and we shall be what we are thinking today, the Law of Attraction is bringing to us, not the things we should like, or the things we wish for, or the things someone else has, but it brings us “our own,” the things which we have created by our thought processes, whether consciously or unconsciously.

Paragraph 12. The thing to do is to have a mental housecleaning, and to have this housecleaning every day, and keep the house clean. Mental, moral, and physical cleanliness are absolutely indispensable if we are to make progress of any kind.

Paragraph 16. To gain this estate, three processes are necessary: You must earnestly desire it. You must assert your claim. You must take possession.

Paragraph 29. Now, go to your room, take the same seat, the same position as heretofore, and mentally select a place which has pleasant associations. Make a complete mental picture of it, see the buildings, the grounds, the trees, friends, associations, everything complete. At first, you will find yourself thinking of everything under the sun, except the ideal upon which you desire to concentrate. But do not let that discourage you. Persistence will win, but persistence requires that you practice these exercises every day without fail.

Pay close attention to paragraph 8. It makes it very clear we are an ongoing evolution. If our past thinking was not to our liking, we can change that by changing our thinking effective immediately. Persistence, continued, will eventually result in our new thinking becoming a reality in our lives. Do your mental housekeeping.

Week 22A – Spiritual Seeds

Last week we talked about our thoughts being spiritual seeds, which, once planted in the subconscious, have a tendency to sprout and grow, resulting in a crop not always to our liking. As you remember, using the Law of Growth, what we think about grows. If we’re not thinking about what we want, we’re going to reap a crop we don’t want. The theory is the various ailments we experience in our lives “inflammation, paralysis, nervousness and diseased conditions” are a manifestation of fear, worry, anxiety, jealousy, hatred, and similar negative manifestations. That’s a tough pill to swallow, isn’t it?

This was last week’s reading, but I’m so intrigued by it, that I’m carrying this reading over into this week when we can choose what master key to read, or not read, as we wish. The reading goes on to say life needs only food, water, and air to be sustained, so it would seem life would be maintained indefinitely, right? But it isn’t. Let’s look at destructive activity, which is the breaking down and excreting the waste material produced by the body as a result of its daily operation. That, the reading surmises, is the cause of all disease. Waste material accumulates and saturates our body’s tissues. This may be partial or general, affecting either a portion of or the entire system.-

One question I’ve had and so have other people I’ve discussed this with is, why don’t we live forever if we have our thinking right? I surmise it’s because we are all flawed as human beings. I presented this thought to a friend of mine, and she surmised this allowed us to experience emotions, which allows us to be empathetic. Many of you may have other questions about this, and I probably don’t have answers. I’m an imperfect practicer as well, early in my journey. All I can offer is it’s worth contemplating and seeking the answer within your own mind. Quiet your mind, and, with practice, an answer will come. We know that what we think about grows, so to increase our health, we must concentrate on that, “eliminating thoughts of fear, worry, care, anxiety jealousy, hatred, and every other destructive thought.” Nourishing foods and tonics are only secondary aspects of life. If our thinking is not healthful, all the healthy tonics in the world cannot restore our health. We must believe it. Remember, we must focus on what we want and ignore what we don’t want.

Strangely, I believe I’ve been benefitting from this. I’m preparing for a second knee replacement. I got a steroid shot in December, and my knee was quite painful then and for a week after that shot. Then the knee wasn’t painful. I’ve been focusing on true health and positive aspects of things, and that steroid shot should have worn off by now, and I should be in a great deal of pain; however, I rarely notice pain in that knee. I can still hear it crunching, so there are still problems in that knee, but my mental approach has been of a positive nature, and I believe I’ve benefitted from it.

We’re using this method, but most of us use it unconsciously and experience undesirable results because we have not practiced using our thought processes for producing the results we desire. We’ve spoken about our mind controlling our body often. Laughter results in our body shaking, bladder leakage, or tears pouring from our eyes. This is an example of our mind controlling our muscles and our glands. When we get angry, how often have we spoken about our blood pressure rising or someone’s face growing red? Our mind controls our blood circulation. These are examples of our mind controlling our body, but it’s short-lived. Our subconscious mind does the same thing when white blood corpuscles rush to deal with an infection. How about a broken bone healing? A doctor can’t heal it. The body takes care of that. If we let the body work and don’t interfere, it takes quite good care of us. The secret of health is in vibration, also known as frequency. When we look at chemistry, each cell is in constant vibration as electrons form and reform bonds with neutrons. We’re one large vibrating entity. We aren’t usually conscious of it (until that leg gets to bouncing – you know what I mean), but each of us has a frequency. The healthier we are, the higher our frequency rating, but most of us “vibrate” at around 62-68 MHz. You begin to die at around 25 MHz. If you’re experiencing cold symptoms, your frequency is around 58 MHz. Flu symptoms? Around 57 MHz. Cancer? 42 MHz. Your healthy brain operates at around 71-90 MHz.

This isn’t just this Master Key weekly reading that says this. I obtained those frequency readings from The Chemistry of Essential Oils Made Simple by Dr. David Steward, PhD, D.N.M, page 182. We know mental action is a rate of vibration. The higher rate of vibration overrides the lower rate of vibration. We can affect our overall health by how and what we think about. Most people are not aware of the powerful impact they can have upon their own lives, and doctors are not taught this in medical school. Some doctors know it and act accordingly, but many do not.

Whether you believe this or not, what harm is there in practicing it? Why not think positive, happy, healing thoughts? Why not concentrate on envisioning the life you want to experience? When the opportunity comes along to create that life you’ve created in your mind, you’ll be better prepared to recognize it?

Week 22 – Mastering Emotions

In Scroll VI, we are mastering emotions. I’m having more fun with this scroll than most. “Inside me is a wheel , constantly turning from sadness to joy, from exultation to depression, from happiness to melancholy.” I immediately thought of those lights people used to put at the base of their Christmas trees. mastering emotions

Then, whenever I read this section, I laugh or smile. “Each day, when I awaken, I follow this plan of battle before I am captured by the forces of sadness, self-pity and failure –” How many of you view the day in this manner? Well, there’s a plan for that.

If I feel depressed I sing.

If I feel sad I laugh.

If I feel ill I double my labor.

If I feel fear I plunge ahead.

If I feel inferior I wear new garments.

If I feel uncertain I raise my voice.

If I feel poverty I think of wealth to come.

If I feel incompetent I remember past success.

If I feel insignificant I remember my goals.

Today I master my emotions.

The scroll goes on to talk about the forces “which approach with a smile and the hand of friendship and they can also destroy me.” Again. Never relinquish control

If I become overconfident I recall my failures.

If I overindulge I think of past hungers.

If I feel complacency I remember my competition.

If I enjoy moments of greatness I remember moments of shame.

If I feel all-powerful I try to stop the wind.

If I attain great wealth I remember one unfed mount.

If I become overly proud I remember a moment of weakness.

If I feel my skill unmatched I look at the stars.

Today I master of my emotions.

It gets better still!

“I no longer judge a man on one meeting; I no longer fail to call again tomorrow on he who meets me with hate today. This day he does not buy gold chariots for a penny, yet tomorrow he exchanges his home for a tree. My knowledge of this secret is my key to great wealth.”

This scroll, valuable as it is, has me smiling all the way through because of it’s way with words.

(Yes, the Silence has been wonderful – I’m not in complete Silence during this period, but I’ve been experimenting and learning many new things.)

Week 21 – Prayer

This week emphasizes prayer, and I think many people will find what the Master Keys have to say about prayer encouraging. The introduction tells us “In paragraph 8 you will find that everything which we hold in our consciousness for any length of time becomes impressed upon our subconsciousness and so becomes a pattern which the creative energy will wave into our life and environment. This is the secret of the wonderful power of prayer.” It goes on to remind us of the spiritual laws, which tell us that “if prayer has ever been answered it will always be answered.” It also says, “Unfortunately, there are comparatively few persons who know how to pray.”

Let’s skip ahead to paragraph 8. “When we realize these facts concerning mind, we understand how we may bring ourselves any condition by creating the corresponding conditions in our consciousness, because everything which is held for any length of time in the consciousness, eventually becomes impressed upon the subconscious and thus becomes a pattern which the creative energy will wave into the life and environment of the individual.” This, you will recall, is the secret of the wonderful power of prayer.

Returning to paragraph 5, I’d like to note, “The ability to eliminate imperfect conditions depends upon mental action, and mental action depends upon consciousness of power; therefore, the more conscious we become of our unity with the source of all power, the greater will be our power to control and master every condition.”

Remembering the Law of Attraction and that like attracts like, we take a look at paragraph 13. “This mental attitude is our personality and is composed of the thoughts which we have been creating in our own mind; therefore, if we wish a change in conditions all that is necessary is to change our thought; this will in turn change our mental attitude, which will in turn change our personality, which will in turn change the persons, things and conditions, or, the experiences with which we meet in life.”

This is darned hard for some people to do. The old blueprint in strong. But paragraph 14 offers hope for those frustrated by the process. “It is, however, no easy matter to change the mental attitude, but by persistent effort it may be accomplished; the mental attitude is patterned after the mental pictures which have been photographed on the brain; if you do not like the pictures, then destroy the negatives and create new pictures; this is the art of visualization.” I won’t repeat what I wrote in the margin of this paragraph. It translates to “No kidding!” But paragraph 15 goes on to say, “As soon as you have done this you will begin to attract new things, and the new things will correspond to the new pictures. To do this: impress on the mind a perfect picture of the desire which you wish to have objectified and continue to hold the picture in mind until results are obtained.”

It goes on to reiterate to use as much detail, determination, and anything else that is needed to form and create this picture. This is consistent with what the Master Keys have been telling us all along, but at this point, I feel more able to bring this picture into focus. With practice, it will come more easily and more completely.

 

Week 20 — Crushing

I’m experiencing a crushing feeling, and not in the sense of “I’m crushing it.” More in the sense of “it’s crushing me.” First, I’m going to hit the good stuff, and maybe the “crushing” stuff will go away.

Week 20 expands upon the Week 1, paragraph 24 statement, “All agree that there is but one Principle or Consciousness pervading the entire Universe, occupying all space, and being essentially the same in kind at every point of its presence. It is all powerful, all wisdom and always present. All thoughts and things are within Itself. It is all in all.” I wrote in the margin beside this paragraph, “God is in me.”

Back in Week 20, let’s look at Paragraph 8. “When you begin to perceive that the essence of the Universal is within yourself — is you — you begin to do things; you begin to feel your power; it is the fuel which fires the imagination; which lights the torch of inspiration; which gives vitality to thought; which enables you to connect with all the invisible forces of the Universe. It is this power which will enable you to plan fearlessly, to execute masterfully.”

Paragraph 9 goes on to say, “But perception will come only in the Silence; this seems to be the condition required for all great purposes. You are a visualizing entity. Imagination is your workshop. It is here that your ideal is to be visualized.”

Paragraph 28 advises us of the power of thought. “Every time you think you start a train of causation which will create a condition in strict accordance with the quality of the thought which originated it. Thought which is in harmony with the Universal Mind will result in corresponding conditions. Thought which is destructive or discordant will produce corresponding results. You may use thought constructively or destructively, but the immutable law will not allow you to plant a thought of one kind and reap the fruit of another. You are free to use this marvelous creative power as you will, but you must take the consequences.”

And there’s the rub. I repeat the thought I want to grow, yet half the time I say the thought, even managing enthusiasm sometimes, the opposite of that thought pushes it’s way back into my mind. I keep trying to push it out, but it keeps coming back. I’d hoped to eradicate it by now.

Which brings us to Paragraph 29. “This is the danger from what is called Will Power…the fundamental principle of creative power is in the Universal, and therefore the idea of forcing a compliance with our wishes by the power of the individual will is an inverted conception which may appear to succeed for a while but is eventually doomed to failure, because it antagonizes the very power which it is seeking to use.”

Hmm. This could be a problem.

Paragraph 31. “For your exercise this week, go into the Silence and concentrate on the fact that “In him we live and move and have our being” is literally and scientifically exact! That you ARE because He IS, that if He is Omnipresent He must be in you. That if He is all in all you must be in Him! That He is Spirit and you are made in “His image and likeness” and that the only difference between His spirit and your spirit is one of degree, that a part must be the same in kind and quality as the whole. When you can realize this clearly you will have found the secret of the creative power of thought, you will have found the origin of both good and evil, you will have found the secret of the wonderful power of concentration, you will have found the key to the solution of every problem whether physical, financial, or environmental.”

I should draw some conclusions here. I still draw the conclusion “God is in me.” That’s distinctly different from me saying “I am God.” No. “God is in me.” is a very uplifting concept, because if God is in me, He is always with me. It also gives credence to the “your body is a temple” idea, which plays to my True Health personal pivotal need (PPN). If my body is a vessel for The Lord, that’s all the more reason to take care of it, so that supports my need for physical health (besides the fact that physical health just makes life a whole lot easier to participate in). The emotional health aspect is what’s causing me challenges. While I’m expressing that “crushing” feeling from addressing this challenge, I welcome it, because when I find my way through this challenge, life will be better.

My recent concern has been whether I need to abandon my PPN of “Recognition for Creative Expression” for another PPN of “Helping Others.” I don’t want to do this, but I’m being required to devote more time to this to achieve my emotional health. Sorting this out is contributing to the “crushing” sensation, so multiple Sits are in order. It’s not a good place to be in right now, but it will be a good place to HAVE BEEN in, if you know what I mean.

Week 20 – Table is Full

My table feels full this week. I’d like to write something deep, witty, and inspiring. But this week, I feel like I have a couple dozen rubber balls on a tilty table, and only my arms to keep them from dropping off into the abyss. It’s not quite that bad. Not really.

I did almost forget about the Tools for Expanding requirement in the Alliances this week. I logged in to download primary ballots to print so we can plan our primary voting strategy and checked the Alliances while I was in (we’re mobile in San Antonio this week, so I don’t have an always on internet connection). Whew. Caught that rolly ball.

It will all come together. I may even get a more coherent post after we get back to Central Texas on Friday, but until then, this will cover me.