Principle One - Theory

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.”
—Marianne Williamson

I guess this is an obvious place to start isn’t it? Because let’s face it – if you don’t believe in you why should I? You can whine and moan about your lot in life and search madly about from book to book, course to course, guru to guru desperately seeking THE answer. The one that will make you feel better about yourself. The one that will finally solve your deep need to belong.

But the bottom line is – you need to find this within yourself. Any belief that you obtain from outside of yourself will be short lived. A short period of exaltation will be followed by a fall because the energy exchange will always be a parasitic one. Yes – you’re the parasite! That makes the other person the host – the one with the power. And YES – that makes you the dependent POWERLESS one… Ho hum – and destined to feel bad about yourself because after the glow has gone you will soon realise the reality of the situation. You will soon realise that you are weak without the other person – and you will come to loathe this weakness within you and in turn loathe the other person.

So – take responsibility! No one is better than anyone else. We are all in this together, all unique beings with unique gifts to offer the world.

Remember – you are the story AND you are the storyteller. We all come into this world with the pure fire of spirit burning in our hearts. For reasons that we don’t need to know we go through various experiences that influence the story that we tell about ourselves and what we deserve from life – our deepest beliefs and expectations.

Now as you begin on the journey of Self Mastery the first task is to uncover these stories and, if they are negative ones, change them around so that they are positive ones.

No matter what happens outside of us. No matter how bad, traumatic or vile it is – it will not influence us as much as what happens within us. We can be our own worst enemy or we can be our own best friend. Which do you want to be?

In this time of great change, we must learn to trust our intuition and inner guidance. If we do not believe in ourselves then we will constantly doubt this inner guidance and second guess ourselves all the time. We will be open to influence from others and become mere pawns in a game.

The story you tell about yourself becomes who you perceive yourself to be. If you perceive yourself to be a certain person then deep within your brain as it seeks to filter out the myriad of inputs it receives, it will sort the information so that it supports this story. Remember how the brain makes decisions BEFORE you begin thinking about making a decision?

Well, if you perceive yourself to be a certain person then what do you think the default decisions your brain makes will be? If you guessed, decisions that match the perpetuation of this story you’d be right.

Remember too that the neural pathways in the brain also take some time to change so you need to present a consistent message over time. If you have been telling yourself a negative story for years then don’t expect your brain to suddenly take off down a different path overnight. Just try brushing your teeth with your other hand if you don’t understand what I mean…

Now go back to the ontological philosophy stuff. The self belief, or lack of self belief story lives in the past/present loop. That means that over a long period of time you have been gathering lots and lots of EVIDENCE to support this story. You may even have friends and family that will support this view of yourself and may even assist in the perpetuation of the story by recounting to you events that have happened in the past. Gee thanks…

Anyway, the point is that for a long time you’ve been gleefully and mindlessly spinning around and around in the past/present loop. Now suddenly you wish to tell a different story and change direction.

Be patient, be consistent, be mindful.

Understand the theory. Understand the story and work on it remembering that:

Intention + Belief = Creation

So you can have crystal clear intention – for example you’ve just gone away and done a week long retreat where you’ve put together an amazing new vision for your life. If you don’t believe it then you won’t create it. If your new vision doesn’t match your deep held story of who you are and what you deserve from life then you won’t create it.

Imagine that the past/present loop is a flywheel and so is the future/present one. The past/present flywheel has been spinning for a long time – it has lots of momentum. The future/present one is only just barely turning – it has very little momentum.

Your job is to get the future/present wheel turning as fast as the past/present one.

The goal is to reshape your brain at the belief level.

Quantum physics says there is an observer effect in the brain. What you focus on strengthens.

Your intention is equivalent to whatever you pay most ATTENTION to.

By paying ATTENTION to the story that you want, you strengthen the neural networks around that story and its underlying beliefs. 

By resonating with that story you radiate out into the quantum field and according to quantum physics – like attracts like. So you attract to you circumstances that will match your story.

Hence you create EVIDENCE for the new story thus creating MOMENTUM which in turn strengthens your BELIEF allowing the CREATION of what you INTEND.

Neat eh?

So, number one – Believe in Yourself. Nothing much else will work if you don’t have healthy, self generated belief. You will always be looking for evidence BEFORE you act if you haven’t got self belief. Whenever anything goes wrong a little voice inside your head will scream ‘SEE! Told you so!’

And remember – IT’S UP TO YOU !!!! No one else can give it to you.

Principle One - Toolbox

Now that we have covered the eight principles of Self Mastery and the pathway to Self Mastery, this section moves on to the tools.

What can we do to help ourselves along the path?

For each of the eight principles I have put together a series of questions, affirmations, exercises, visualisations and meditations that may assist you to gain mastery.

The questions and exercises are important because they challenge your current thinking and encourage you to ‘get out of the proverbial box’. Affirmations provide a positive story to tell.

Visualisations are crucial because the brain does not know the difference between what we experience in reality and what we visualise with strong emotion. Therefore it is a way of practicing a new way of being. You may like to record the visualisations so you can play them back to yourself whilst you sit quietly alone somewhere.

Meditations are also a way of training the brain to a particular way of being – and are especially useful for calming and centering the thought processes to allow better focus.

Some of these tools may suit you, some may not. Just like a car mechanic has favourite tools, it is up to you to decide for yourself which ones you like and how to use them.

It is important also to start journaling these exercises. Go and buy a new journal and call it your ‘Self Mastery Journal’. As you go through these exercises write down your thoughts and answers in the journal. As you go through life write down any other practices that help you along the way.

As you learn the tools and practice them you will slowly find that as you come up against certain challenges in life, you will begin to know which tool to reach for and will do it without thinking. When you find yourself doing this, you will know that you are getting beyond concept. At this point I hope you take a moment, stop and give yourself a pat on the back, a secret ‘high five’, or buy yourself a present – whatever rocks your boat – because this truly is acknowledge yourself for making a quantum leap.

The reason this is so important is that getting beyond concept is getting out of your head – getting out of your thinking – and getting into ‘being’. And ‘being’ from an ontological perspective is pure genius!

So – here are the tools.

For each principle begin by ranking yourself out of ten. So a ten out of ten ranking for self belief would mean that you have nothing to work on. You probably already have some good tools in this area.

A two out of ten ranking however would mean that you need to take some time and working on it.

Periodically, review your ranking and then reflect back in your journal and see if you are making any progress. If you are congratulate yourself – if not don’t beat yourself up. Take some time instead to focus on possible solutions – then get back into it.

Patience and persistence is the key here.

Ant medicine – as the American Indians would say.

An ant will slowly and deliberately work away at something knowing and trusting that what is yours will eventually come to you.

1. Believe in Yourself

Believing in your self is really so much about learning the discipline of redirection and focus.

So – the first question is – redirect to what?

Affirmation

I am ok, I am loveable, I am valuable, I honour myself

Telling A Better Story

Let’s see first what story you tell about yourself now. Take yourself away somewhere quiet and answer the following questions:-

• What story do you tell about yourself?
• What’s your background?
• What’s your place in life?
• Are you average or better than average?
• What do you deserve from life?

Think of all the things that you’ve been told about yourself through your life that have stuck inside your head. All of the stories about you that tell you who you are and what you deserve from life. What does the little voice inside your head tell you when you try to do something new or different?

When you have done that have a go and turning it all around think back on all the things in your life that you have done that have been good or right – write them down.

Now imagine that a good friend (you) comes to see you. They are very upset with their lot in life – something bad has just happened to them. They tell you your story picking out only the negative points.

You try to console your friend (you) but they keep repeating the story and eventually they go away to drown their sorrows.

Now take a piece of paper and write yourself a letter pointing out to yourself all of the good things that you have done in your life. All of the times when you have been proud of yourself and all of the achievements that you have had. Tell yourself what you have to offer the world and why you deserve to receive so much from the world. Tell yourself how you FEEL about you and how much you WANT for you.

Keep writing and re-writing the letter until you think it is perfect. Then write ‘A letter from your best friend’ on top of the page, take it and post it to yourself.

Stick it up on your wall and keep reading it to yourself until the new story begins to gain momentum.

Pay as little attention to the old story as possible. Whenever you hear it come up, whenever you hear that little negative voice inside your head, don’t pay it any attention at all. Don’t tell it to shut up, don’t get angry with it, don’t even talk to it. Redirect instead – read your letter from your best friend and make a vow to yourself that you will be your own best friend.

After all – if you don’t believe in yourself why should I?

A Visualisation

Take yourself off somewhere quiet, sit comfortably and take a few moments to calm your breathing.

Now imagine you are walking across a field along a dirt path which winds its way through some long grass. As you follow the path you come closer and closer to a forest and then slowly the track winds its way deep into the forest.

Past huge trees and under a green canopy. You can hear birds singing in the distance and insects buzzing about their business.

Eventually you come to a clearing and in the middle of the clearing is a large rock pool. On the other side of the rock pool you see children playing and laughing.

As you come closer to the water they all stop playing and come to meet you.

You realise that you have come to the place where the inner children live.

What would you like to say to them about what they deserve from life?

They listen to your words and thank you for them. Then one by one they run off to play again until only one child remains. As you look at the child you realise that it is you – your inner child.

“Do you have a special message for me?” he or she asks you.

Tell him or her what you feel in your heart then ask them if they have a message for you.

When you are complete, thank all of the children for the opportunity to meet with them.

Wish them well then turn and walk back along the track through the forest and out into the field. As you walk through the long grass feel the soft grass brush against your open palms. Slowly bring yourself back to where you are now thanking your guides for the experience you have just had.

When you feel ready – take some time and write down the message that you gave to the children and what your inner child may have said to you.

Use this message as an affirmation or as a reminder of what you need to tell yourself on a daily basis.

Once you have done this exercise and the visualisation your task is now one of mindfulness. When we get to the BE PRESENT part of the toolbox I will share some tools for this with you.

The key is to be so aware of what you are telling yourself at any time so that if you find yourself telling a negative story you can very quickly stop it and redirect to a positive one.

What you focus on expands.

Intention + Belief = Creation

Intention = whatever you put most of your attention or focus on.

Manage your attention and focus and you can manage your brain neural pathways, your being and your resonant vibration in the quantum field.

Principle Two - Theory

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart.”
—Helen Keller

Once you have a healthy level of self belief the next thing is to get out of your head. The true joys of life are experienced through the heart not through the head. Feelings give substance to life.

If you think back on the great moments of your life it’s not the events themselves that make them significant it’s how you felt about them. A low level of self belief often leads to a fear of life and of being hurt by the events of life. But this is not to live.

New developments in neuroscience have led to the field of neurocardiology.

In layman’s terms what the neuroscientists have discovered is that there is a network of neurons around the heart – yes – a heart brain. But this ‘brain’ doesn’t think so much about things rather it feels about things.

More importantly it feels about things more quickly than the brain in our heads thinks about things.

So yes – scream from the rooftops ! You were right all along – you really have been getting some guidance from your heart and YES – if you have been overruling your heart brain with the logical, rational, oh so boringly evidence based thinking of your head brain – then maybe you have been on the wrong track.

You see the other thing about this is that in terms of resonance – the ability to project out into the quantum field – the heart brain is MUCH MUCH more powerful than the head brain.

So… If you have been dismissing your heart brain and trying to do something that you think has been the right thing for you to do BUT you have found that it has been a real struggle and you have found yourself constantly self sabotaging – wake up and smell the roses!!

Self Mastery – creating what you want – is so much about being in alignment.

If your head and you heart are not aligned then you are in for a tough time.

Opening your heart is therefore essential. Engage your heart brain. Be who you are and not afraid of who you are. Trust that at essence you are a good being. That at your core you are love.

Protecting your heart, trying to stop yourself from getting heart because of fear will simply slowly but surely shut you down. The field of neuro-cardiology has very interesting implications for people who have heart attacks – how much of the heart ache is caused by the unwillingness to feel?

Rather than thinking our way through life maybe we should be FEELING our way through life?

In terms of creating what we want in life deep feelings anchor memories in the brain. If we wish to change the patterns that we have and the stories that we tell about ourselves and what we deserve from life then we must tell it with FEELING.

• The stronger the emotion then the stronger the anchor in the brain.
• The stronger the emotion the stronger the memory.
• The stronger the emotion the stronger the evidence.
• The stronger the emotion the stronger the resonance in the quantum field.
• The stronger the emotion the richer is life.

If you can open your heart then you enable yourself to feel flow. The research of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Shows that being able to get into flow is essential to happiness. I think though it is more than that. It is about finding and sensing the sacred path through life.

If you imagine that life is like swimming along a stream then it is much easier to swim with the current. Belief in yourself so you can trust your intuition and inner guidance combined with an open heart will support you on this path.

The next challenge is to let go of what happens next!

Principle Two - Toolbox

Opening your heart is about training yourself to become more sensitive to the messages that your heart is giving you and also to listen to them and act on them.

I think also that as you go through the process of opening your heart it is really about opening yourself up to the other forms of guidance and intuition we all receive. If the brain inside your head is about ‘thinking’ the brain in your heart is about ‘feeling’. But there is also another ‘brain’ – yes I know it sounds a bit Frankensteinish – around our stomachs we also have neural networks so when you get a ‘gut feeling’ you are actually getting some guidance from your ‘gut brain’.

So – head, heart, gut – thinking, feeling, knowing.

Being able to recognise the messages from these three ‘brains’ and use the information and guidance is crucial to achieving a state of Self Mastery.

Affirmation

I honour and embrace my feelings

Exercise – Finding The Place Where You Hold Things Most Dear to You

This exercise if about locating the place within you where you hold the things that are most dear to you. It is aimed at opening you up to this place and allowing you to tune in to that guidance when you need to make difficult decisions. And also to check that the path you are on is in alignment with what you feel deep within yourself.

The more deeply and realistically you can visualise this exercise the better. So if you can take yourself off to a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed for about half an hour that would be perfect.

First imagine that you have recently been to the doctor to have a complete physical check up so that you can update your life insurance.

The phone rings and it is your doctor’s receptionist telling you that the doctor would like to see you to discuss the results of the tests. You work out an appropriate time with her and soon you are sitting in the waiting room ready to see your doctor. Think at this point about what your doctor’s waiting room looks like. What do you see? How many people are there? What do you hear?

After a short wait your name is called and you are led through to the doctor’s room. The doctor sits down in their chair and invites you to sit also. Visualise what the room looks like, what your doctor looks like, what the room smells like.

The doctor looks you in the eye with a grave expression, “We’ve got all your results back” they say “but I’m afraid there are some anomalies in your tests and I have some bad news for you. You are going to die in thirty days. There will be no pain or degeneration. In thirty days from now you will simply and peacefully pass away.”

Think now about this news. Look at today’s date – think that on the same date in a month’s time you will be dead.

Now – what are the three to five most important things you would like to do in that time??

Assume here that you can teleport yourself all over the place instantaneously so if you wish to see loved ones who live far away you can do that immediately.

When you have written the three to five things down continue the visualisation.

Now – go back into the vision of being in the doctor’s room. Same scenario except his time the Doctor says to you that you have seven days to live. So, if today is Saturday – next Saturday you will be dead.

What are the three to five things you would most like to do in that time? These may be exactly the same as the first part of the exercise or they may change.

When you have written these down – continue below.

So – back to the vision again, except this time the Doctor says you have one day to live. So this time tomorrow you will be dead.

What are the three to five most important things you wish to do?

Write these down and continue.

Back to the vision again for the last time. This time the Doctor says you have one hour to live.

• What are the three most important things you wish to do in that time? And what are the thoughts that are going through your head?
• What are the feelings that you are having?
• What is your sense of self?
• What are the physical sensations you are having?

When you have written all of these things down tune into them all and determine where in your body is all of this located? Where is the centre of this feeling?

When you have located this spot you have found the place where you hold the things that are most dear to you.

Now imagine a sphere of white light in this place. Imagine this sphere as a portal into which you can place things and get a feeling reaction.

From now on you can use this to make intuitive feeling based decisions about crucial things.

For example – if you have a problem you have been thinking about for a while but are unable to make a decision. Take the question and literally place it within your white light sphere. Now without thinking about it just feel whether or not it feels right or not.

If yes – do it, if not – don’t.

This is the process of opening yourself up to feeling based intuitive guidance.

The more you use this method the easier it will become to ‘hear’ what you heart and gut are telling you.

Exercise – Opening Your Heart To Others

Sometimes we find ourselves angry with those we love. This may be our parents, friends, partners or lovers. Rational thinking can get you stuck on who’s right and who’s wrong type thinking which in turn gets you completely stuck in that past/present way of thinking and by definition – going round and round in circles.

We need to find a way of shifting our thinking so that we can open our heart to the other person and find some space within ourselves to see a higher possibility for them and our relationship.

A relatively quick and easy way of doing this is to get a photo of them when they were about 3 or 4 years old.

Write down all of the negative thoughts, judgements and opinions about that person that you have been having. Then take the photo of the little girl or little boy and look at it deeply until you can imagine that little person standing right in front of you.

Close your eyes and imagine taking their hands in yours. Ask then for their forgiveness for thinking such negative thoughts about them and for being so judgemental. Explain to them what you really want from your relationship.

Now give them a hug, release them, set your intention to release the thought patterns that you have been having and to open your self to loving possibility instead – then slowly come back to this reality.

Exercise – Opening A New Pathway

You may be ware that what your eyes actually ‘see’ is simply different spectrums of light. This information is sent to the back of your brain to an area called the Visual Cortex.

This part of your brain translates all the little bits of information into a picture which is what you see when you look at things.

You can train your brain to take information from your heart as well.

Start by tapping on the middle of your chest with two fingers from each hand. Be conscious of the feeling of tapping on your chest and let your brain be very aware of where this is in your body.

Now slowly tap up your body, going with either hand around your collar bone, behind your ears and up to the back of your head where your two hands will come back together again.

Tap there for a while – again being very aware of where you are having this feeling in your body. Now tap back down to your heart again. Pause there for a moment and then tap back up to the back of your head again. This time visualising opening an energy pathway between your heart and your brain. When you get to the back of your head. Consciously ask your brain to start paying attention to what information is coming to it along this pathway.

This exercise may sound a little weird but it will slowly but surely open you up to the information that is coming to you from your heart and allow you to integrate it into the ‘picture’ that you have of the world.

Journaling

What you focus on expands remember?

So – focus – start writing in your journal about the feelings that you are having.

Note down any intuitive hunches or gut feelings you have. Note down the times when you find that these feelings have given you good direction.

When you feel like you are in touch with your feelings set your intention one day just to follow your feelings alone. Spend an entire day simply making decisions based on what you feel. Ignore what your rational brain tells you to do. Ignore that nagging little voce of righteousness. Follow your feelings instead and see what happens.

Reflect on what it is like to ‘feel’ your way through a day rather than ‘think’ your way through a day.

Principle Three - Theory

“Since there is no escape from the now, why not welcome it, become friendly with it?”
—Eckhart Tolle

So there you are now with self belief and an open heart. Can you step into the universal point of power now? Can you be present?

Life is now, not the past or the future but right now.

As Eckhart Tolle points out – you can try but you can’t escape from the now so why not consciously embrace it?

The problem is this momentum of old thoughts and patterns. The essential physicality of our existence means that we default into doing this and being the way we have always been.

It’s easy to look at that model of being and see that it makes perfect sense to just be in the present. That it makes perfect sense to let go of the old judgements and thinking that trap you in an old way of being. Oh but to break that pattern is so much harder to do.

Where we are now as a civilisation with our current thinking around money money money has taken about 200 years to evolve. The pattern of thinking that is the collective fixed view of the world has lots and lots of momentum behind it. If you live in a city you are bombarded on a daily basis by messages that support this view of the world. Advertising, news stories, even discussions in the street support a way of living that says – money and materialism = success, be very afraid if you haven’t got any.

It is very difficult to go against this collective view.

In just the same way it is very difficult to go against the collective view of who you are. The momentum of events that has brought you to this point has a life of its own.

Consider this for a moment – we think that time occurs in a linear way, always stretching out before us. But what if you imagine for a second that time stretches backwards?

If you look back on your life now and see all of the significant events that have led you to this point right now could you consider the possibility that this point right now created all of those events? That it was not them that led you here but rather here that necessitated the particular sequence of the past?

Is it possible that could be true? If your brain is making decisions about things before you even start thinking about them, how far into the future could your brain be working? Could it be possible that based on your deep held beliefs and expectations about yourself and the world, your brain has constructed a ‘most likely’ future for you and is indeed just picking the path that most suits that future every time it comes to a ‘fork in the road’?

“The mind does not know the difference between what it sees and what it imagines or remembers.”
—Dr. Joe Dispenza

If that is the case we need to break free of the temporal cycle. We need to break free of the notion that who we are now is a result of events that have happened in the past. We need to break free of the linear singular direction of time and consider the possibility that time could run in both directions. We need to consider the possibility of ‘being’ not only from the past but of ‘being’ from the future – ‘being’ from ‘becoming’.

Interesting eh?

Consider what Carlos Castaneda says about it from a Shamanism perspective.

“All of us, whether or not we are warriors, have a cubic centimetre of chance that pops out in front of our eyes from time to time. The difference between the average man and the warrior is that the warrior is aware of this, and one of his tasks is to be alert, deliberately waiting, so that when his cubic centimetre pops out he has the necessary speed, the prowess, to pick it up.”
—Carlos Castaneda in ‘Journey to Ixtlan’

See, the world’s not set. We have choices along the way. Our brain may be making decisions BEFORE we start thinking about them BUT we do have the power of veto.

IF WE ARE AWARE ENOUGH.

And being aware is about BEING PRESENT. Having the self belief to trust your deepest intuition and guidance. Being open hearted enough to FEEL the flow of energy and emotion. Being present and sensitive enough to pick up on the opportunities that arise. The opportunities to ACT not from the past but from the future. To bring into line our ‘being’ and our ‘becoming’.

Being present requires us to stop fretting about the past and worrying about what the future may bring and relax and be here now.

Being in the present is about disengaging from the stories and momentum of the past and embracing this moment instead.

Principle Three - Toolbox

The quickest way to change the world is to love the world exactly how it is right now. The quickest way to change yourself is to love who you are right now.

Affirmation

I am here now, I love right now.

Breathing – The Four Fold Breath

When you get caught up in the drama of life it’s good to take a moment and centre yourself in your body. The four fold breath is a way of doing this quickly and easily.

Sit quietly either cross legged or in a chair with your feet flat on the floor and your back straight.

Now breathe in to the count of four through your nose allowing the breath to go deep within you. Visualising as you do this the white light and oxygen coming into your body.

Hold for the count of four. Visualising the oxygen coursing through your body to every part and the white light filling you up.

Exhale through your mouth to the count of four. Visualising any dark energies, blockages, toxins and negativities going out of your body and up into the ether.

Hold for the count of four. Visualising the energy around you and within you settling like the silt in a glass of dirty water settles to the bottom if it is left alone.

Now breathe back in through the nose to the count of four and repeat the pattern.

You can do this breathing exercise several times in a row until you feel yourself become more centred and your body more oxygenated. I often find that it causes me to yawn, letting me know that I haven’t been breathing as well as I could have been. I also find that if you are particularly stressed when you exhale let out a deep sigh of relief at the same time.

Exercise – Non-Automatic Behaviour

Recall the past/present/future model for being and also remember how our behavioural patterns keep us in the past/present loop with a momentum that keeps rolling along whether we like it or not.

Now – the challenge is to break out of that automated behaviour and expand the present moment. In other words – to do something differently so our neo-cortex cannot pass it on to the lower parts of our brains that handle automated tasks.

Any type of non-automated – or out of the ordinary behaviour will allow you to do this. So, what I mean here is if you can identify any behavioural pattern that you have – no matter what it is – then deliberately do something different then you will be breaking out of that automated behaviour.

Here are a few examples:-

• doing your morning routine in a different order
• taking a different route to work or using a different method of transport to get to work
• walking half as fast as you usually do and taking note of all the things along the way

Do you get the idea?

Anything that is going to bring you into the present is good.

Visualisation – Getting Grounded

Go to a quiet place. Sit quietly and close your eyes.

Imagine you are walking through a field following a winding path through the long grass. You can hear the birds in the distance, feel the wind in your hair and the sun on your face.

You come to a clearing and in the middle of the clearing is a huge rock. You walk over to it and touch it, feeling the coolness of its surface. Slowly you walk all the way around the rock looing at the different makings on it. As you complete the circuit you realise that there are ridges in the rock face so you reach up and start climbing to the top.

When you get to the top you stand up and look around realising now that you can see for miles and miles in every direction.

As you take in the view you breathe deeply into your lungs and feel the solidness of the rock beneath your feet. You feel the dense energy of the rock and its connection to the earth beneath and you feel deeply connected to the earth energy and extremely grounded because of it.

You breathe deeply and then sit down and begin to enjoy this feeling of sitting on something so solid and still.

This is your grounding rock. This is a place that you can come to whenever you feel out of balance or lost in the worries of the past or the future. This is where you can come to sit, be still, be grounded and connect with Mother Earth.

When you have sat on your rock and collected your thoughts and centred your being turn and slowly climb down from your rock. Thank it for helping you to be grounded. Thank Mother Earth for the support she has given you.

Now turn and walk back along the path through the field and when you feel ready come back to this moment.

Meditation – For Focus (Extracted From ‘Be’)

If you want to achieve Self Mastery, firstly, you’ve got to get your mind to the stage where you just stop mindlessly reacting to things. Be still.

Imagine that your mind is like a glass of silty water being carried by a monkey swinging from branch to branch (bizarre image eh?). Just as the silt begins to settle the monkey sees something in the next tree and swings over to it, stirring up the silt again in the process. Can you relate to that?

See it this way – you decide that you’re not happy with the job you’ve been doing so you decide to sit down and quietly have a think about how you might change your life for the better. Just as you are deep in thought the phone rings. It’s one of your best friends and they have a great story to tell you about a guy that you’ve been keen on for a while. Before you know it you’re in the car on the way over to her place to plot your next move.

So, we’ve got to get the monkey to sit still for a while so that the silt can settle in the glass and the water will become clear. Single point focus is what is needed here – a meditative approach.

Although there are lots of really weird meditation practices you can do, meditation itself is nothing out of the ordinary. If you look it up in the dictionary it means “contemplation on a subject”. Christian monks have been doing it for years, as have Buddhists, Muslims and elite athletes. Elite athletes? Yes, when Nadia Comaneci, the Romanian gymnast who shocked the world by getting a series of 10/10 scores at the 1980 Olympics, was asked how she managed to achieve all of those perfect results she answered “My mind is always full of getting it right” – sounds very meditative to me.

So, meditation - focus on one thing so that monkey will stop jumping around.

I’ve found the best way to meditate is to find somewhere quiet where there are no distractions and where you’re unlikely to be disturbed. Inside is generally better than outside because the energy tends to be calmer.

Sit quietly with your back straight and legs crossed. This is not just to be tortuous but rather because if you sit with your back straight you will align all of the energy centres, or chakras, in the body. From a Yin and Yang perspective, we are the bridge between Heaven and Earth – the Chi, or life force, flows in through the top of our head, down through our body and into the earth.

Once you are comfortable, focus your mind on one thing. This can be a mantra, which you repeat over and over again, an image, which you concentrate on, or a thing, like the breath. Personally, I like the breath because breathing is an unconscious action, so by focusing on the breath you link mind and body. To focus on the breath you concentrate on the touch of the breath on your top lip as you breathe in and out. Initially you may find that you have to either breathe hard or wet your top lip to be able to feel the touch of the breath, but eventually your mind will become sharp and you will find it easy.

Now, remember that what we are trying to do here is just to stabilise the mind so that we can tap into our true nature. Visualise that silt sinking slowly to the bottom of the glass and focus your mind gently on the touch of the breath.

What you will find is that after a very short space of time, your mind has wandered off. You may not even realise that it has happened until you’ve gone through several thought processes.

For example, you start meditating and a thought pops into your head about what you’re going to have for dinner. Then you realise that you haven’t had dinner with your parents for a while. Then you remember the last time you had dinner there and recall how good the desert was. Then you remember that you meant to ask your mother for the recipe. And suddenly you remember that you’re supposed to be meditating and you get pissed off that you’re so useless that you can’t even focus on one thing for five minutes. This is too hard, meditation is for those hippie people that are probably stoned when they do it anyway so they’re cheating, a voice inside your head says, why not just forget about all this and go and have a drink with some friends at the pub.

Gentleness is the trick! For a long time your mind has been allowed to do whatever it wanted, the monkey has been exploring wherever it pleased. It’s been swinging you around, not the reverse. You can’t change all that overnight and getting angry with yourself will only make it harder.

Humour and gentleness are much kinder masters. Anyone can meditate, it just takes a bit of time to settle into it. When you find that your mind has wandered off, just chuckle to yourself and gently come back to the breath.

After a while you will find that you can focus on the breath for longer and longer periods without wandering off. What you will also find is that more and more of that silt will settle to the bottom and your mind will become clearer and clearer.

This is the first, and maybe one of the hardest, steps to finding meaning.

Finding some degree of space and clarity.

Meditation doesn’t have to happen sitting down though. It can be done whilst walking, running, riding, and in the midst of many other pursuits.

Remember all you’re trying to do by meditating is to calm and focus the mind. You can do this as you go for your daily walk. Instead of allowing your mind to wander aimlessly, focus it instead on a point a couple of feet in front of your feet (be careful not to run into any poles!) and visualise that silt sinking to the bottom of the glass as you walk. Likewise as you run, concentrate just on your breathing (and ditto for the pole thing!).

The more you meditate, the more you’ll find a calm space within yourself where you can contemplate your life free from the chatter of society. Now you’re in a good space to act pro-actively rather than re-actively.

Intention Setting

Part of being present – and one of the reasons for the importance of being present – is that whatever you’re present intention is influences what you are creating in every moment.

Remember the equation:

Intention + Belief = Creation

So – be present to your intention in every moment.

One way to do this is to recognise when you are going into a new part of every day or a specific activity. For instance, going from your home environment into the work environment and vice versa. Or going into a meeting, presentation, dinner date, whatever…

The point is to take a moment before you go into that segment and set your intention for how you would like to BE in that segment.

So, you may have had a busy day at work with lots of deadlines and demands from other people on your time. You’ve might have drunk too much coffee to keep up, eaten too much for lunch and been a bit short with a couple of people.

Now you’ve raced out of the office to get home in time to have dinner with the family. On the way the traffic has been bad and you’ve been cut off by a rude bastard who gave you the finger when you tooted your horn at him.

You pull into the driveway, trip over your son’s new bike ripping a hole in your new pants and suddenly there’s your three year old daughter screaming at you to adjudicate on a fight she’s having with her brother.

“Hi honey I’m home…”

I don’t think so.

Try it this way.

You leave the office and on the way down to the car park in the lift you reflect on the day you’ve had. You acknowledge that you’ve been a bit stressed but you pat yourself on the back for all that you’ve achieved and you resolve to apologise to the people you snapped at late in the day. By the time you get to your car you’ve let go of the work day and set your intention to have a pleasant drive home acknowledging that no amount of pushing will make the traffic go any faster. So you put on some relaxing music, loosen your shirt, dial up the aircon and begin being present to what happens on the way home all around you.

Before you know it you’re only a couple of streets from home so you pull over and take a moment to think about how you’d like to be when you get there.

You think of your kids and your partner and a smile comes to your face. You set your intention to enjoy the next few hours with them.

As you slowly pull into the driveway you notice the bike and pick it up as you get out of the car. As your daughter comes running out of the front door you pick her up, swinging her around as you do so and give her such a big hug and kiss that she forgets all about her brother and hugs you back instead.

Now which scenario would you prefer?

Principle Four - Theory

“Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.”
—Denis Diderot

If you can’t live life with passion then what’s the point? I mean really – do you want to go through life just going through the motions maybe waiting for some perfect day when joy will tap you on the shoulder? Or maybe even waiting for that moment of judgement in the afterlife when God looks you in the eye and says “Gee you’ve lived a fine austere life – well done!”

Sorry – not for me – without passion life is just the domain of Mr Plod – BORING!!!

As we’ve already discussed, the true joy of life comes through experiencing FEELINGS. Living is about being open in your heart and finding and following your passions is a key to achieving this.

Passion is essential for getting in flow. If life is a balance between the head and the heart then passion draws you out of your head and into your heart. If you live life just in your head you are constantly THINKING and the thing about thinking is that by necessity it takes you out of the present.

Just think about that for a second – ha ha see what I mean? Immediately your brain wants to go backward – “Does thinking take me out of the present?” you wonder as the amazing super computer inside your head whirrs into action and you start riffling through the old memory files – oops – note the word ‘old’ as in ‘past’ as in ‘not present’…

Thinking in the present moment is a very short thought – hmmm let’s see “I’m sitting here reading this book thinking about the present moment”. Now quick ! Stop there before your brain takes you on a ride back to the past or into the future…

I think we think too much.

Try feeling about the present moment instead. If you can be very aware of how you are feeling you will begin to notice there is a flow in the moment and there is no worry about what is about to happen or what has already happened – there just is.

The more strongly you can open your heart and connect with your feelings the more present you can be to the here and now. Passion – that indescribable stirring deep in the heart that arises when you do something you love to do – is a sure fire way of connecting with your heart.

By following our passions we open our heart and in doing so get into flow which then allows the present moment to expand. Yes, the linear construct of time which our left brain is so familiar with begins to break down and time stands still allowing the present to become bigger.

Think about it. Remember the moments in your life when you have been doing the tings you love, the things you are passionate about. Time becomes irrelevant. Passion – the arising of strong emotion draws you away from everyday concerns.

By following our passions and connecting with our open hearts we keep the flow open.

If we feel strong emotions but then override our feelings with our thinking then we slowly but surely close the door to our hearts and deny ourselves the opportunity to pursue the things we love.

The other thing here is if we look at the notion of creation in the form of the equation:-

Intention + Belief = Creation

Note that belief is a feeling – not a thinking. You can believe whatever you want to believe in and to a large extent your world will be shaped by this belief and the logical extension of what you perceive that to mean.

The more passionate you are about something, the stronger will be the belief and hence the more able you are to create it.

So – a quick question or two – do you think you deserve to live and be materially supported in the world by only, or at least mostly, doing the things that you are passionate about and love to do??

If not, why not?

Why is it then that some people are able to go through life doing exactly what they love and receiving material support for that?

If they can do it then why not you?

What story have you been told about life, who you are and what you deserve that stops you from believing n the possibility that you could live life with passion and STILL be materially supported?

Principle Four - Toolbox

Finding your passion in life is key for being able to get into flow. Passion allows flow which allows expansion of the present moment.

Passion though is not just about wildly going wherever your whims take you.

It’s about getting onto a Sacred Path which will allow you to BE who you want to BE and DO what you want to DO. Not from a base hedonistic perspective but from a higher self – all that you can be – perspective.

Being on a Sacred path then is about finding your passions and then translating them into a Vision for your life so you have an anchor point in the future for your ‘becoming’. Importantly you also need to clarify what your core values are. In other words – what’s most important to you in life?

If your Vision clashes with your Values then you will simply create unhappiness deep within yourself so it is important to get clarity around this.

Affirmation

I am free to be who I want to be.

Exercise – The Vision Quest

If you want to shift from a reactive way of living to a proactive way of living then the first thing you need to do is create a compelling VISION for your life.

Mostly when we try to create a vision we lapse into thinking purely about material things but life is not just about materiality. Leading a good life is all about balance. Having good friends and family around us, being physically well, mentally sharp, spiritually nurtured, and enthusiastic about life.

The first step in creating a vision is simply to try and come up with an ideal vision for your life. Take yourself off somewhere quiet, sit under a tree, walk along the beach, release yourself from your limiting thought patterns, let your mind wander and imagine ‘What if everything worked out the way I wanted it to – what would my ideal life look like?’

You can break this down into - Physical, Mental, Emotional, Spiritual and Material - you need to nurture all of these areas of your life so:-

• Physical
  How are you physically in this vision and what are you doing to maintain it? Do you exercise? Do you eat specific things?
• Material
  What do you have materially - car, house, toys etc.
• Mental
  What would you be doing to nurture yourself mentally? reading, playing chess, having stimulating discussions with friends etc
• Emotional
  What do your personal relationships look like, who is there, how do they see you?
• Spiritual
  How are you feeding your spiritual needs? Prayer, meditation, quiet strolls with the dog etc.

The key to all of this is not just to focus on the material successes in life but to think about things in a more holistic way and to try and develop a picture/vision for how your ideal life might look.

If you have trouble with this exercise – which is not surprising as most of us have spent our entire lifetime listening to people tell us why we CANNOT do something… Try these prompting questions:-

• What would you do if you knew you could not fail?
• What are you passionate about? In other words, what would you do regardless of whether or not you got paid for it and regardless of whether or not anyone acknowledged you for it?
• What have you been good at in your life?
• What is the pattern similar in both your passions and what you have been good at?
• Who do you look up to and why?
• Go back to your childhood – what did you want to do and be?

You can also break the exercise down into three parts – who do I want to BE?

What do I want to DO? what do I want to HAVE?

Take some time to do these exercises - please don't just write some things down - take the time to visualise it, feel it, see it, smell it - see how it fits with you - does any of it make you feel uncomfortable? Does any of it raise a thought in you something like - 'I'll write this down but really it is not a vision just a dream'. If that sort of feeling comes up try to identify exactly what it is that causes that feeling and any other concerns you may have.

The next part of the exercise is to try and massage this ideal into a manageable vision statement for your life. This should be as short as possible whilst covering what it is you believe you are here to do. Maybe it is something along the lines of 'To help people unlock their passions by helping them achieve in the business arena'.

This may take you a while and a lot of playing around until you get something that fits your life and resonates with you. When you have it, write it on a sheet of paper and stick it up on a wall where you will see it every day.

Next get an A4 size sheet of paper. Turn the sheet sideways and divide it into 6 columns. At the top of the columns write - Spiritual, Physical, Mental, Emotional, Material, Other. Under each heading write the sub vision - that is for physical it would be 'To live a life with boundless/limitless energy'.

Take some more time to keep revisiting these statements and see if they fit. If they don’t fit, then re-write them and re-write them again until they inspire you to take action.

Now – ask yourself – Why do I expect this to happen?

Finally – let’s make it more concrete – imagine a time six months from now – everything has gone to plan. Write a paragraph describing what has happened and how you feel about it and what it means to you.

Exercise – Clarifying Your Values

Values are the things that we care about most. Values determine what we consider to be worth pursuing in life and they give meaning and purpose to our lives. They provide motives and determine quality of life. They give direction to our lives like the rails that keep a train on track and as such they provide our foundation.

Common values include; love, truthfulness, fairness, freedom, tolerance, responsibility, respect for life, accountability, achievement, duty, justice, empathy, humour, integrity, humility, obedience, patience, self confidence, wisdom, independence, serenity, creativity, generosity, loyalty, safety, dignity, service, generousness and purity.

Amidst the Chaos all around us, values allow us to see what is most important and to pursue these things in our lives.

Martin Luther King Jr. pointed to this when he said,

“If you haven’t found something you are willing to die for, you are not fit to live.”

Nietzsche also referred to the importance of values, and the meaningless of life without them, when he said,

“He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.”

Values are based in the head where we are intellectually convinced of something. That is, we can be intellectually convinced that it is good to respect life, or that it is good to uphold the value of justice. Values are also based in the heart, where we are affected by something’s worthwhileness.

So we see it as being worthwhile to be generous to people for example.

Finally, Values are based in the hand where they commit us to decision and to action. If we value something we generally Feel, Think, Communicate, Choose and then Act.

Although we can’t see values, just as with molecules, we know they are there because of the material things that they form. A good analogy is the Iceberg, shown in the drawing below, we only see part of the Iceberg but the part that is hidden below the surface is in fact much larger than the visible part. Values form the foundation below the surface, which we can’t see.

What we can see are actions and these give an indication as to what is hidden.

Stand for something or you’ll fall for anything

Why is it so important to identify what you stand for?

John Paul Mellencamp said,

“If we don’t stand for something, we will fall for anything.”

and if you don’t actually determine what you stand for then you are at the whim of people trying to lure you with various sort of temptations and it is very easy to be caught up in the conflicts between different ethical systems.

If we refer back to the Iceberg analogy, a person without values is like an Iceberg with nothing below the surface, it is unstable and if we stand on that Iceberg we are likely to fall in and be eaten by sharks.

Questions

1. What are the principles and values that you care about most? Try to make a list of your values
2. Can you think of times in your life when you have upheld these values?
3. What have been the ‘Defining Moments’ in your life when your values have been tested?
4. In terms of your Vision, how will your values guide your behaviour? In other words if I came to see you when your Vision was complete what would I SEE that would tell me about your values?

Principle Five - Theory

“Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle The skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”
—Samual Ullman, Poet

Here’s the hard part eh? Where you actually have to step up to the plate and take a swing. Where the possibility of failure stares you right in the face.

Where the demon of fear creeps into your bones. Where the oh so logical and rational little voice inside your head whispers “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea”.

Hmmm. We live in a material world. There can be no denying that. Although Quantum Physics tells us that there is a quantum field that links us all together and the non-locality affect allows us to influence things in the world without even being there. There is also the stark reality that the best way to shift energy. The best way to influence the ‘field’. Is to act.

Mostly, if we are afraid to act then we are not afraid of the action itself but rather the consequences of the action. The constant chatter of “What if?” throws a spanner in the works and stops us from actually doing what we really want to do.

Ha! We think about it too much!!

Regret is worse than fear. Think back on your life at the significant turning points in your life. The defining moments – and you will find that the ones that disappoint you are the ones where you failed to act – much more so than the ones where you did act and things went pear shaped. At least you can have a laugh about the failures. Inaction simply leaves you wondering “What if? What if?” Regret has a trail that lingers for many years.

To allow yourself to get into flow you have to turn the wheel of life. You have to act. Stagnation – a blocking of the energy flow – is the worst thing that can happen to you.

Allowing flow is about making decisions and acting.

Acting courageously is about acting on our feelings. Opening our hearts, connecting with our passions and then acting. The more you connect with your feelings, intuition and inner guidance – and ACT on them. The more you will learn to trust yourself and believe in yourself.

“Once I made a decision, I didn’t think about it again It was strictly off gut. That’s how I made decisions… I didn’t think about it again from that point forwards.”
—Michael Jordan

How many times have you been in a situation where you felt something was wrong or felt that you should speak to someone – and not taken any action?

How often have you thought in retrospect “I knew it!”

Acting courageously is the ‘doing’ part of having self belief, opening your heart and following your passions.

Acting courageously is about allowing yourself to be comfortable in uncertainty. It is ok not to know what the outcome will be. It is ok not to be sure that you are right. It is ok to be open to the possibility that you may be wrong.

But the quickest way to find out the answer to all of these things is to stop wondering and ACT!

From a neuroscience perspective, acting courageously changes the focus in your brain. Instead of constantly mulling over things and getting causing in the paralysis of analysis you become action biased instead.

From an ontological perspective, or a ‘being’ perspective, acting courageously requires you to be present. And acting based on your feelings and in line with your ‘becoming’ allows you to create what you envisage for the future rather than perpetuating the past.

Then there is Quantum Physics. So we live in this quantum field that links us all together – kind of like a big swimming pool. As you float along you are ALWAYS being buffeted by the actions of other people. You are ALWAYS being affected by the resonance that other people are putting out into the pool.

Research shows that if you come into a room of people then the person who is resonating the strongest will dominate the energy and everyone else will tend to align with that person. So, if a strong character comes into a room and starts bitching about life it is very hard to stay in the room without bitching along with them.

To stay in the room and not take any responsibly for what energy you are putting out into the field is to be passive. Courage requires you to take responsibility for the quantum field and how you are participating.

Courageous action might be to leave the room or even just to sit with the person and give them some love.

Self Mastery requires action.

“All that is needed for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”

Principle Five - Toolbox

Well here we are at the million dollar moment. It all comes to nought if you can’t act on it doesn’t it?

Like it or not we live in a cause and effect world. Visualise all you like, intend all you like, meditate all you like, pray to whichever God takes your fancy – you may experience some degree of divine intervention and serendipitous circumstance BUT action is what really gets things moving.

Action is in the present where spirit and matter connect – where power lies.

So we need to find ways to get our selves out of old habit patterns, fears and doubts and into action.

Affriamtion

I choose to consciously create my vision. I choose to act now.

Exercise – Visualisation

Ha! Thought I just wrote that visualisation wasn’t everything?

Well it isn’t but research shows that by visualising what you are about to do it activates the prefrontal cortex – the part of the brain that performs executive functions and moves you into action. If you don’t prepare then the prefrontal cortex does not activate in advance. Thus the better the prior activation the better the person does at the task.

So, practice, practice, practice. This is why elite sports people sit around these days visualising what they are about to do.

If there is something that you want to do but are afraid to do it then take some time and quietly go and visualise the action. Keep visualising it until you can easily see a positive outcome and then keep practicing again and again until the positive outcome comes with little effort from you.

Create some momentum around the new pattern in your brain.

Visulisation - Bullet Proof +VE Attitude

Once you have practiced a positive outcome over and over again the next thing to do it to seal your energy around it.

Remember that because we are all linked together in the quantum field, we are all affected by each other. So you may have practiced practiced practiced whatever the action and desired outcome is but if you are not impervious to the effects of others attitudes it is easy to be influenced by those around us that wish for an alternative outcome.

At any one time we are either being influenced by the field or we are influencing the field. That is, we are either putting in proactively or reacting to what we are getting.

Power is to be pro-active.

If you want to ACT courageously you need to seize your power and be proactive.

So, imagine that you have a cocoon of energy around you, extending above your head, below your feet and about an arms length in front and behind you. This is YOUR energy field which is linked into the quantum field – so effectively this is YOUR part of the quantum field.

Consciously choose to take control over this part of the field. Make the edges of this sphere a tangible barrier. Fill the content of the sphere with white light.

Consciously say to yourself that you will not let any negativity into this field.

Consciously say to yourself that you will project your positive energy and intentions into the field.

YOU ARE IN CONTROL.

You have a bullet proof positive attitude that nothing and no-one can shake.

Now go act!

Set The Context

A note here about context.

At any one time our context can either be from the past and what we know to be true. Or it can be from the future and what we desire to be.

Fear lives in the past but tries to creep over into the future and corrupt our vision and belief.

Fear for the most part is fear of the consequences based on something that may have happened in the past to affect our beliefs about what is possible.

By shifting our context around fear we can shift our perspective on the world and hence influence our behaviour.

Fear is False Energy Acting Real.

In other words it is an illusion that part of you is making up. Recognise it for what it is and you can begin to dismantle its power.

Faith – which comes next – allows you to confront and dismiss fear.

Little By Little

In Japan they call it the Kaizen way – the improvement by a thousand tiny steps.

Bit by bit by bit. Little by little by little.

Slowly, slowly gain more and more momentum and at every step, every little action congratulate yourself.

So – take your task and break it down into little bite sized pieces then start acting on them one at a time.

As often as possible keep asking yourself:-

What am I doing right?

Practice strength training and reinforce the positive story and the positive patterns in your brain.

Principle Six - Theory

“Let faith fuel your determination. What you need is nearer than you think.”
—Anon

To be able to truly let go of the consequences of your actions requires that you have some faith that there is some meaning in life. If you believe that life is really just a series of random events with no greater purpose then you probably wouldn’t be reading this book – because what would the point be of gaining any mastery over the self. Surely the simple solution then would just be to take the most hedonistic pleasure out of every moment.

Faith is the bridge that links the future with the present. It allows you to trust that what you are getting right now will somehow, in some yet to be known way, lead you to what you most need.

Strong faith that what you are getting right now is perfect creates the most fertile ground for the future you want to occur. If you doubt and question all the time – you doubt and question the future – hence you limit or hinder its creation.

How can this be?

Well this is the tautological nature of this metaphysical existence. You see you are the storyteller AND you are the story. You as the object are intimately tied to the subject. What you do, what you observe, what you focus on with your thoughts changes the nature of that object.

The resonance that you put out into the field draws a mirror back to you – even if you are not consciously aware of what you are resonating. For instance – as an aside – if you’ve had a particularly traumatic childhood and you have suppressed those memories and emotions to such an extent that you are not even aware of them – you will still resonate that vibration into the quantum field and hence you will still draw to you experiences that will give you the opportunity for healing. So what you are getting will still be perfect for you even though you may not believe that it is or may not even be able to comprehend why you have to go through the same traumatic experience over and over again.

But I digress.

If you can accept that what you are getting now is perfect for you right now then you can let go of the need to know why. The need to ask “Why me??” and instead – however joyous or painful it may be – embrace the experience with your whole presence.

In doing so you will not hinder the flow of energy. You will allow what needs to occur to occur and you will be able to get what ever you need to get and move forwards much more quickly.

“The trick is not to be in the know but to be in the mystery.”
—Dr Fred Alan Wolf

So, don’t doubt the process. Don’t fight with reality – you will always lose.

Stop asking “Why me?” and let go of worry instead. If it is meant to be IT WILL BE.

If it is not meant to be there is nothing you can do that will make it come into reality. Let it go!

Having faith again allows you to be comfortable in uncertainty. It allows you to surrender to the will of the divine which in turn allows you to embrace the present.

Having faith allows you to release your fears and act courageously so that you can follow your passions and you can be in flow.

Have faith in yourself, in others and in life.

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”
—Mahatma Gandhi

There is meaning but right now, right here, you don’t need to know what it is.

Just let it go and believe !

Principle Six - Toolbox

Faith is really all about release and surrender. From a neuroscience perspective the left hemisphere of your brain desperately seeks meaning in every situation – and in fact it will make up a reason or meaning behind things if one is not readily available. The right hemisphere of your brain is happy just to go with the flow.

So, Step 1 – create a logical, rational meaning behind life to satisfy good old left brain, and Step 2 – allow right brain to take the reins and be in the flow.

Simple eh? Maybe a bit cynical?

Maybe. But consider it this way – spiritual teachings generally tell us that the world is a mystery and we should never stop trying to understand it but we should never expect to be able to. Religious teachings generally say – we cannot comprehend the workings of the mind of God in action, we can only understand in retrospect.

Neuroscience and quantum physics says – be present and be careful what you focus on – so – don’t worry about the future because it only makes you a worrier.

Ontological philosophy says – plant the seeds for the future and then let it go and be truly present.

So…

Affirmation

I choose to release by concerns and worries about the future and I trust that what I am getting right now is perfect.

Breathing Exercise

Whatever it is in the future that you are worried about you can consciously surrender and release it to a higher power.

Sit quietly with your eyes closed and relax – try doing some four fold breathing.

Then focus on the issue you are concerned about.

As you breathe in say “I am concerned about…”

Visualise breathing the issue into your heart and lungs.

Then breathe out and say “I realise and surrender this issue to a higher power”

And visualise exhaling the issue out of your heart and lungs and into the ether.

Do this as many times as it takes to find some peace with the issue.

Exercise – Time Goes Backwards Doesn’t It?

This is an exercise to satisfy an existential construct for the benefit of your logical left brain.

Think about where you are in life now. Take a quiet moment and look backwards through time to see all of the events that have led you to where you are now.

Write them all down and join the dots through time.

Now write them all down in reverse order – that is from now going backwards through time.

Now trace a line backwards and consider the possibility that where you are now created all of the things that have already happened.

If that is the case – can you focus on your vision and completely let go of the path that will get you there? Just trust instead that if you hold it clearly enough in your mind and it is aligned with the highest good then you will be led there by spirit?

Journaling – Synchronistic Events

This is another exercise to satisfy your left brain.

It is again about focus and redirection.

Every time something happens to you that is in some way synchronous – write it down in your journal. By focussing on these events you will increase your awareness of them and in turn increase the frequency of them.

That means – any time you are just thinking about a friend and they phone – write it down. Any time anything happens by chance that is in alignment with what you want – write it down.

Principle Seven - Theory

“Life can be lived as a prayer in action.”
—Caroline Myss

You might have realised by now that Self Mastery is not about thinking your way through life but nor is it a passive way of living. There is a Sacred Path that we can follow through life and to be aware of it is the trick. When we start to look, we can barely see it but as we relax and allow ourselves to be guided along the path it becomes clearer and easier to follow.

Gratitude is like the lubricant for the wheel of life. To receive joy from life or the universe we need to give back our gratitude. As we give our gratitude we get more joy and so on.

From a neuroscience and neuro-plasticity perceptive – what we focus on expands. If we focus on what we appreciate in life then we reinforce the neural pathways around this type of thinking.

Looking at it from a past/present/future perspective gratitude supports the flow from future to present to past.

Likewise Quantum Physics would tell us that as we resonate with the vibration of gratitude that is what we are putting into the quantum field so again we create fertile ground for the creation of more events that make us feel grateful.

This is where it’s all about perspective.

It’s also important not to get hung up about the form of things but rather to focus on the essence.

Consider this story.

There was a great storm brewing and the people in the small village were warned to put all of the lose things inside, batten down all the windows and get ready for heavy rain and winds.

As the storm hit it brought with it much more rain than was anticipated and slowly but surely the river began to rise and before long broke its banks and started flooding the village.

The emergency people went from house to house in a big truck telling people to evacuate their houses and move to higher ground.

One man, Jonar, who was very religious decided to stay in his house and replied to the pleas of the emergency people, “Don’t worry my God will save me”.

More time passed and still the storm did not abate. The rains continued and the river kept rising. Soon the streets were so flooded the truck could not drive around so now the emergency people used a small boat to go from house to house.

“Come now!” they called to Jonar “The water is still rising, you will drown.”

“No” said Jonar “My God will save me.”

Several hours later the waters were so high they were flowing through the houses and washing everyone’s belongings away. By this stage Jonar was perched on his roof watching the raging flood waters below.

This time an emergency helicopter flew in. Using a loud hailer they begged Jonar to climb up the rope and into the helicopter.

“No” replied Jonar defiant “My God will save me.”

During the night the waters continued to rise and by the next morning many houses had been swept away in the flood killing the people who had stayed.

In heaven Jonar stood before God, “Why didn’t you save me?” he asked.

God smiled at him and laughed, “Who do you think sent the truck, the boat and the helicopter?”

We think too much remember?

We try so hard with our serial processor left brains to work out some meaning in life.

But we will never truly work it all out – and if we did – how boring would life be then?

To be Masters of our Self. To be contributors to the creation of a new world – we need to let go of the form and focus on the essence of what we desire instead.

If we can do that. If we can trust that what we are getting right now is perfect then we can allow the universe to work its magic and deliver to us what we desire in a way that we cannot possibly imagine.

Gratitude lubricates the flow of the wheel of life.

Gratitude shows our faith and allows for the flourishing of joy.

Gratitude shifts our focus and therefore our attention and our intention thereby allowing creation to weave its magic.

Principle Seven - Toolbox

This one is all about focus as well. Gratitude completes the loop that links with joy. Give gratitude – receive joy…

Affirmation

I am grateful for all that I have right now. I am grateful for all of the lessons I have learnt, good and bad, that have made me who I am today.

Journal of Joy

As part of the Self Mastery process I strongly recommend keeping a journal.

However my advice to you is to be very careful about what you write in your journal as the simple act of going through the process of formulating the thoughts and putting them into words causes you to focus your attention on them and helps to manifest them into the world.

Many people going through heart rendering situations write their worries and concerns in their journals hoping this will somehow relieve them of the burden. But then they keep going back and reading back through the drama thereby reliving them.

Do you do that??

If so – try this instead.

In your journal – only write things that have brought you joy. Write down how they made you FEEL and why you are grateful for them. Don’t just write – “I am grateful for my partner, my wonderful kids, my new job and my dark blue Ferrari California convertible with tan leather interior” (oh sorry just visualising…)

Anyway – try instead writing things like “Wow! I am so grateful for my beautiful daughter and the amazing experience of being with her. Today she got into the pool and swam a few strokes for the first time. Then she turned and looked at me with a huge smile on her face as if to say ‘See Dad I can swim!’.

I felt so proud of her in that moment that I could have cried. My life is truly a precious gift.”

See what I mean?

You need to be able to go back and read the entry and relive the experience. Relive the joy and re-presence yourself in gratitude.

Try to get into the habit of writing down two or three things every day that give you joy. This will serve to refocus your attention on the good things that happen to you every day.

Now – those other negative things that you’ve been writing. DON’T WRITE THEM IN YOUR JOURNAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And if you have already done so get a new journal.

With those negative things you need to do a proper release with them so – take some loose paper and write all your worries, concerns, frustrations, aggravations etc on the paper – anything you wish to let go of.

Take the piece of paper and tie it with some string to a stick to symbolise a spear – to pierce the veil of negative energy and allow it to escape into the ether.

Light a fire – get focused, say a prayer for letting go – something like “I choose now to let go of all of these things and I ask that the energy of them be transmuted into something positive”

Then take the stick and throw it into the fire. As you watch it burn envisage the energy around those negative things being vaporised by the fire and sent up into the ether to be transformed.

Now you may not be able to light a fire – especially if you are living in an apartment in Manhattan…. So, just use the same principle of fire to do the job. That is, write down all your stuff on paper. Bundle it up. Light a candle as your fire then set the piece of paper on fire and allow it to burn down in a pot or other suitable container.

Gratitude Walks And Claps

Any activity that stirs the energy and focuses your attention is good, and also be aware that the acts of speaking, writing or any other activity gives more weight to it.

So, try going for a walk and as you walk along think of all the things you are grateful for – and especially the people you are grateful for. Each time you think of something or someone say out loud “I am so grateful for … and clap three times”

As you clap imagine the energy of gratitude being radiated out by the clap like the way sound waves radiate out.

Consider the Butterfly Effect. This is a phrase that tries to capture the technical notion of ‘sensitive dependence on initial conditions’ in chaos theory.

WHAT??

In simple terms this is the idea that a small variation of the initial condition of a dynamic system may produce large variations on the long term behaviour of the system.

So a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon may create small changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately lead to a tornado in America.

Hmmm…. So clap, clap, clap – send out the resonance of gratitude.

Gratitude Visits

This one’s elegantly simple.

Write a testimonial to someone you are grateful to and then go pay them a visit and read it to them.

Principle Eight - Theory

“The important thing is not to think much but to love much”
—St Theresa of Avila

Love is divine power. Love is the glue that holds everything together. It is the shield that wards off the arrows of hate and anger. It is the sea that quells the fires of fear.

It is the last of the Self Mastery principles and the most essential. To be able to love yourself, others and life is key to being able to step out of the ‘also ran’ reactive state of being and step up to self mastery.

What is love though? So much is written about love. So much of our lives are spent in the pursuit of love. But who of us could really define what it is?

The Oxford dictionary defines it as “warm affection, attachment, liking or fondness”. Does that do it for you?

No – me neither!

“Darling I’m very fond of you” just doesn’t quite cut the mustard.

Love to me is a feeling that wells up from deep within you, rising from the solar plexus and up into the heart. It is a warm, gentle, euphoric sensation that brings a smile to the lips and a glow to ones being.

We can tell when people feel love. And I don’t just mean sexual love here – think about the love that your parents have for you – reflect back on the moments in your life when you just knew – you felt – that they really did love you. Think about the love that you have for yourself – the moments when you have done something or been a certain way that, when you reflected back on it, made you feel a sense of deep love for yourself.

Or what about when you have experienced love for a place or a moment of time in nature. Sitting on the beach watching the moon rise over the ocean as the sun sets behind you. Children running and playing around you under an orange sky full of shimmering clouds. Waves gently lapping at the shore as the heat rises from the sand and the cold of the evening begins to descend.

• Love. To be so in the moment that time stands still.
• Love. To be so in the feeling that thinking is impossible.
• Love. To be so aglow with light that no darkness is possible.

Remember the three things – story, focus and resonance in the quantum field.

Your story – if you can’t love yourself – how can anyone else love you? If you can’t tell a loving story about yourself then it is hard to energise and imprint any new pathways in the brain.

The story about humanity you tell – is it about love? Or about the failures of humanity?

Focus – what you focus on expands – the subject influences the object. The storyteller tells the story that changes the storyteller.

Can you love life? Can you manage your focus so masterfully that you focus on the things that you love in life?

Resonance – are you putting into the field or just reacting to what you are getting? Opening your heart allows you to follow your passions and to feel love.

• Love for others is the divine power that you can put into the world.

We are the bridge between heaven and earth. Our role in this world is to anchor light and love on the earth. We are the link between the spirit world and the material world. By focusing on love we have the power to bring it into the material world. We don’t need any money to buy it. We don’t need any resources to make it. We don’t need any time to create it. We just need to tap into it and then let it flow through us onto this earthly plane.

Can you do that? For that is the final challenge in self mastery – to stay in love – to manifest and create love.

“Where there is great love, there are always miracles.”
—Willa Cather

Principle Eight - Toolbox

Love, love, love. Love is all you need.

Affirmation

Love is divine power. I give love. I receive love. I am love.

Visualisation – Getting Into a Place Of Love

OK off to that quiet place. Sit comfortably, do some four fold breathing – you know the drill by now…

Imagine a place or a person that makes you feel joyful and loving. Go to that place. Feel the breeze on your face, listen to the sounds that surround you, smell the aromas. Allow yourself to bask in the feeling of love. Notice what the sensations are in your body. Notice how the energy around you changes.

Allow a smile to come to your face. Imagine your entire aura – the energy sphere around your body – filling up with this loving energy.

Now set your intention that you will stay in this energetic space for the rest of the day and allow yourself to slowly come back to the present moment.

Visualsiation – Radiating Love Out to the World

Sit quietly get centred and when you feel comfortable start by feeling out the edges of your energetic sphere. See if you can consciously sense where your energetic sphere ends.

Once you can do that start pushing it outwards allowing it to expand bigger and bigger. See your energetic sphere expanding out beyond the bounds of the room you are in, beyond the bounds of your house. See your viewpoint shift as you rise up above your house as your energetic sphere continues to expand taking in the whole city then the whole country. Keep expanding your sphere until it encompasses the whole earth and your viewpoint is from space.

Notice that your energetic sphere is now one with everything. Say to yourself “There is no I, there is no me, just all of us”

Now start radiating loving energy to all of the beings in the world. You can visualise this as pure white light or bright blue light. See it filling up the entire sphere covering the entire earth. Think of all the other people out there who are, at this very moment, sitting and meditating in places all round the world, sending love to the world also. See your loving energy linking up with theirs and forming an ever stronger swirling pool of love.

Stay in this space for as long as possible allowing the love to go to where it is most needed.

Then when you are complete slowly allow your energetic sphere to shrink back down to normal size. Seal your sphere up with white light. Set your intention to see all beings as just another part of you and then slowly come back to the present moment.

“Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.”

—Anon