by Lori Fields
Self-motivation flows from the importance we attach to today.

I am reading this amazing book called, “100 Ways to Motivate Yourself” by Steven Chandler and each chapter is a HUGE nugget of thought provoking, spirit lifting, energizing inspiration. This morning I randomly open the book to this entry, “Make today a masterpiece.” Chandler says that most of us live our lives hypnotized, thinking that we have all the time in the world to do what we want. When we live this way we end up sleepwalking past life’s finest opportunities. He states that the key to personal transformation is in your willingness to do very tiny things – but to do them today. Today is a microcosm of your ENTIRE life. What would happen to our behavior if we started thinking that each day when we wake up we have been “born” and each night when we go to sleep we “die.” In this way we only have each day to live our best life. We only have each day to create our masterpiece.

I am certainly guilty of wasting my moments and instead of creating a masterpiece I allow things to flop. I put off doing the laundry, I am distracted online instead of focusing my energy on my work, I veg out in front of the tv instead of paying more attention to my husband. I get caught up in my thoughts, overwhelmed by all the tasks I need to complete instead of taking action. I put off writing my blog bc I am not feeling at my best. But what if today were the only day I had to perform at my best? Well, I still might put off doing the laundry and cleaning the kitchen floor, but I certainly wouldn’t waste my energy on distractions and I wouldn’t waste an opportunity to be fully present for my daughter, my husband, and my passion.

So while I can’t promise that for the rest of my life each day will be a complete masterpiece, I can (starting today) really show up for myself. I can fill my spirit with an unstoppable internal motivation. Today I am going to live as if each moment represented my entire life. I will live each moment with my eyes wide open so as not to miss an opportunity. I will try to live hard so that I go to bed thinking “today, I was at my best.”

What will you do to create your masterpiece today?

Share it with us at www.realbeautyis.com

Author’s Bio
Lori Fields, clinical social worker and founder of the website www.realbeautyis.com
Expert in woman’s issues and on the beauty of embracing your imperfection. Has helped countless women increase their self-esteem and live the life they imagine.

The Real Beauty Is website brings together in one place the latest news, articles and inspiring stories. Our interactive forum allows women to overcome the obstacles to feeling good and to celebrate their beauty. At Real Beauty Is we are on a mission to help women let go of body conflicts and limiting beliefs about themselves.

Anthony Robbins was having dinner with Sylvester Stallone a few years back and Robbins asked Stallone to tell him his life story. Stallone explained that he knew his whole life, ever since he was a kid, that he wanted to be in the movie business. He went to every agent in New York—many of them several times—but he couldn’t get any parts because they kept telling him that he looked and sounded stupid (which, incidentally, is because he was pulled out by forceps when he was born).

Stallone kept trying to get parts, and he kept getting rejected. He was starving and couldn’t even afford heat in his apartment. His wife kept screaming at him to get a job, but he wouldn’t settle for something that wasn’t his dream. He was going to be a movie star and he was going to burn all other bridges.

He then decided to write a screenplay. The first screenplay he sold was titled “Paradise Alley” and he sold it for $100. Unfortunately, nothing much happened after that and he got to the point where he was so broke that he hocked his wife’s jewelry. She hated him after that and their relationship was basically over at that point.

Now all he really had left was his dog. However, he didn’t have the money to feed him, so he went to a liquor store near to where he lived and stood outside trying to sell his dog to strangers for $50. Finally, one man stopped and negotiated with him and bought his dog, his best friend, for $25. Stallone says that was the absolute lowest point of his life.

Two weeks later he was watching a fight between Muhammad Ali and Webner, this white guy that’s getting bludgeoned but just keeps on coming, and he got an idea. When the fight was over he started writing and he wrote for twenty hours straight. The screenplay he wrote in twenty hours was “Rocky”.

He then went out and tried to sell the script to agents. He was turned down several times but he finally found some people who wanted to buy it for $125,000. However, Stallone told them that part of the deal was that he had to star in the film. He told them: “That’s my story; I’m Rocky”.

But they didn’t want a no-name to play the lead role in the movie, they wanted a star. In fact, they were thinking of Ryan O’Neal. Stallone indicated that either he got the role of Rocky or he wasn’t selling them the script. When they told him he couldn’t play Rocky, even though he didn’t have a cent to his name, he turned around and walked out.

They called him a week later and offered him a quarter of a million dollars not to star in his own movie. He turned them down. They then offered him $325,000 and again he said, “Not without me in the role of Rocky.”

Finally, they compromised: they gave him $35,000 and a stake in the movie, and he got the role of Rocky. They made the film with a million dollars and it grossed $200 million.

The first thing Stallone did when he got paid for the script was to go back to the liquor store and buy his dog back. Know your outcome, believe in yourself, and persist, regardless of naysayers.

In 1912, Charles Haanel wrote The Master Key System.  This book was originally a mail order course that consisted of 24 lessons over 24 weeks.  You can find this book online in a PDF format, as it is now in the public domain.

However, many people read this book as a novel, not truly acquiring the lessons in the way it was originally conceived.  So, One Consciousness is going to put this text on this website, in its original format, one a week for 24 weeks, as it was originally intended.  If you do these lessons as they arrive, you will be truly be able to unlock a very special key to success and happiness.

The whole world is on the eve of a new consciousness, a new power and a new consciousness, a new power and a new realization of the resources within the self. The last century saw the most magnificent material progress in history. The present century will produce the greatest progress in mental and spiritual power.

It is my privilege to enclose herewith Part One of The Master Key System. Would you bring into your life more power, get the power consciousness, more health, get the health consciousness, more happiness, get the happiness consciousness. Live the spirit of these things until they become yours by right. It will then become impossible to keep them from you. The things of the world are fluid to a power within man by which he rules them.

You need not acquire this power. You already have it. But you want to understand it; you want to use it; you want to control it; you want to impregnate yourself with it, so that you can go forward and carry the world before you.

Day by day as you go on and on, as you gain momentum, as your inspiration deepens, as your plans crystallize, as you gain understanding, you will come to realize that this world is no dead pile of stones and timber, but that it is a living thing! It is made up of the beating hearts of humanity. It is a thing of life and beauty.

It is evident that it requires understanding to work with material of this description, but those who come into this understanding, are inspired by a new light, a new force, they gain confidence and greater power each day, they realize their hopes and their dreams come true, life has a deeper, fuller, clearer meaning than before.

And, now, Part One….

PART ONE

1. That much gathers more is true on every plane of existence and that loss leads to greater loss is equally true.

2. Mind is creative, and conditions, environment and all experiences in life are the result of our habitual or predominant mental attitude.

3. The attitude of mind necessarily depends upon what we think. Therefore, the secret of all power, all achievement and all possession depends upon our method of thinking.

4. This is true because we must “be” before we can “do,” and we can “do” only to the extent which we “are,” and what we “are” depends upon what we “think.”

5. We cannot express powers that we do not possess. The only way by which we may secure possession of power is to become conscious of power, and we can never become conscious of power until we learn that all power is from within.

6. There is a world within – a world of thought and feeling and power; of light and life and beauty and, although invisible, its forces are mighty.

7. The world within is governed by mind. When we discover this world we shall find the solution for every problem, the cause for every effect; and since the world within is subject to our control, all laws of power and possession are also within our control.

8. The world without is a reflection of the world within. What appears without is what has been found within. In the world within may be found infinite Wisdom, infinite Power, infinite Supply of all that is necessary, waiting for unfoldment, development and expression. If we recognize these potentialities in the world within they will take form in the world without.

9. Harmony in the world within will be reflected in the world without by harmonious conditions, agreeable surroundings, the best of everything. It is the foundation of health and a necessary essential to all greatness, all power, all attainment, all achievement and all success.

10. Harmony in the world within means the ability to control our thoughts, and to determine for ourselves how any experience is to affect us.

11. Harmony in the world within results in optimism and affluence; affluence within results in affluence without.

12. The world without reflects the circumstances and the conditions of the consciousness within.

13. If we find wisdom in the world within, we shall have the understanding to discern the marvelous possibilities that are latent in this world within, and we shall be given the power to make these possibilities manifest in the world without.

14. As we become conscious of the wisdom in the world within, we mentally take possession of this wisdom, and by taking mental possession we come into actual possession of the power and wisdom necessary to bring into manifestation the essentials necessary for our most complete and harmonious development.

15. The world within is the practical world in which the men and women of power generate courage, hope, enthusiasm, confidence, trust and faith, by which they are given the fine intelligence to see the vision and the practical skill to make the vision real.

16. Life is an unfoldment, not accretion. What comes to us in the world without is what we already possess in the world within.

17. All possession is based on consciousness. All gain is the result of an accumulative consciousness. All loss is the result of a scattering consciousness.

18. Mental efficiency is contingent upon harmony; discord means confusion; therefore, he who would acquire power must be in harmony with Natural Law.

19. We are related to the world without by the objective mind. The brain is the organ of this mind and the cerebro-spinal system of nerves puts us in conscious communication with every part of the body. This system of nerves responds to every sensation of light, heat, odor, sound and taste.

20. When this mind thinks correctly, when it understands the truth, when the thoughts sent through the cerebro-spinal nervous system to the body are constructive, these sensations are pleasant, harmonious.

21. The result is that we build strength, vitality and all constructive forces into our body, but it is through this same objective mind that all distress, sickness, lack, limitation and every form of discord and inharmony is admitted to our lives. It is therefore through the objective mind, by wrong thinking, that we are related to all destructive forces.

22. We are related to the world within by the subconscious mind. The solar plexus is the organ of this mind; the sympathetic system of nerves presides over all subjective sensations, such as joy, fear, love, emotion, respiration, imagination and all other subconscious phenomena. It is through the subconscious that we are connected with the Universal Mind and brought into relation with the Infinite constructive forces of the Universe.

23. It is the coordination of these two centers of our being, and the understanding of their functions, which is the great secret of life. With this knowledge we can bring the objective and subjective minds into conscious cooperation and thus coordinate the finite and the infinite. Our future is entirely within our own control. It is not at the mercy of any capricious or uncertain external power.

24. 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.

25. There is but one consciousness in the universe able to think; and when it thinks, its thoughts become objective things to it. As this Consciousness is omnipresent, it must be present within every individual; each individual must be a manifestation of that Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent Consciousness.

26. As there is only one Consciousness in the Universe that is able to think it necessarily follows that your consciousness is identical with the Universal Consciousness, or, in other words, all mind is one mind. There is no dodging this conclusion.

27. The consciousness that focuses in your brain cells is the same consciousness which focuses in the brain cells of every other individual. Each individual is but the individualization of the Universal, the Cosmic Mind.

28. The Universal Mind is static or potential energy; it simply is; it can manifest only through the individual, and the individual can manifest only through the Universal. They are one.

29. The ability of the individual to think is his ability to act on the Universal and bring it into manifestation. Human consciousness consists only in the ability of man to think. Mind in itself is believed to be a subtle form of static energy, from which arises the activities called ‘thought, ‘ which is the dynamic phase of mind. Mind is static energy, thought is dynamic energy -the two phases of the same thing. Thought is therefore the vibratory force formed by converting static mind into dynamic mind.

30. As the sum of all attributes are contained in the Universal Mind, which is Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent, these attributes must be present at all times in their potential form in every individual. Therefore, when the individual thinks, the thought is compelled by its nature to embody itself in an objectivity or condition which will correspond with its origin.

31. Every thought therefore is a cause and every condition an effect; for this reason it is absolutely essential that you control your thoughts so as to bring forth only desirable conditions.

32. All power is from within, and is absolutely under your control; it comes through exact knowledge and by the voluntary exercises of exact principles.

33. It should be plain that when you acquire a thorough understanding of this law, and are able to control your thought processes, you can apply it to any condition; in other words, you will have come into conscious cooperation with Omnipotent law which is the fundamental basis of all things.

34. The Universal Mind is the life principle of every atom which is in existence; every atom is continually striving to manifest more life; all are intelligent, and all are seeking to carry out the purpose for which they were created.

35. A majority of mankind lives in the world without; few have found the world within, and yet it is the world within that makes the world without; it is therefore creative and everything which you find in your world without has been created by you in the world within.

36. This system will bring you into a realization of power which will be yours when you understand this relation between the world without and the world within. The world within is the cause, the world without the effect; to change the effect you must change the cause.

37. You will at once see that this is a radically new and different idea; most men try to change effects by working with effects. They fail to see that this is simply changing one form of distress for another. To remove discord, we must remove the cause, and this cause can be found only in the world within.

38. All growth is from within. This is evident in all nature. Every plant, every animal, every human is a living testimony to this great law, and the error of the ages is in looking for strength or power from without.

39. The world within is the Universal fountain of supply, and the world without is the outlet to the stream. Our ability to receive depends upon our recognition of this Universal Fountain, this Infinite Energy of which each individual is an outlet, and so is one with every other individual.

40. Recognition is a mental process, mental action is therefore the interaction of the individual upon the Universal Mind, and as the Universal Mind is the intelligence which pervades all space and animates all living things, this mental action and reaction is the law of causation, but the principle of causation does not obtain in the individual but in the Universal Mind. It is not an objective faculty but a subjective process, and the results are seen in an infinite variety of conditions and experiences.

41. In order to express life there must be mind; nothing can exist without mind. Everything which exists is some manifestation of this one basic substance from which and by which all things have been created and are continually being recreated.

42. We live in a fathomless sea of plastic mind substance. This substance is ever alive and active. It is sensitive to the highest degree. It takes form according to the mental demand. Thought forms the mold or matrix from which the substance expresses.

43. Remember that it is in the application alone that the value consists, and that a practical understanding of this law will substitute abundance for poverty, wisdom for ignorance, harmony for discord and freedom for tyranny, and certainly there can be no greater blessing than these from a material and social standpoint.

44. Now make the application: Select a room where you can be alone and undisturbed; sit erect, comfortably, but do not lounge; let your thoughts roam where they will but be perfectly still for from fifteen minutes to half an hour; continue this for three or four days or for a week until you secure full control of your physical being.

45. Many will find this extremely difficult; others will conquer with ease, but it is absolutely essential to secure complete control of the body before you are ready to progress. Next week you will receive instructions for the next step; in the meantime you must have mastered this one.

PART ONE Study Questions with Answers

1. What is the world without in its relation to the world within? The world without is a reflection of the world within.
2. Upon what does all possession depend? All possession is based on consciousness.
3. How is the individual related to the objective world? The individual is related to the objective world by the objective mind; the brain is the organ of this mind.
4. How is he related to the Universal Mind? He is related to the Universal Mind by the subconscious mind; the Solar Plexus is the organ of this mind.
5. What is the Universal Mind? The Universal Mind is the life principle of every atom which is in existence.
6. How can the Individual act on the Universal? The ability of the individual to think is his ability to act upon the Universal and bring it into manifestation.
7. What is the result of this action and interaction? The result of this action and interaction is cause and effect; every thought is a cause and every condition an effect.
8. How are harmonious and desirable conditions secured? Harmonious and desirable conditions are obtained by right thinking.
9. What is the cause of all discord, inharmony, lack and limitation? Discord, inharmony, lack and limitation are the result of wrong thinking.
10. What is the source of all powers? The source of all power is the world within, the Universal Fountain of Supply, the Infinite Energy of which each individual is an outlet.

Above, is my friend Matt.  He was working an overnight shift at a twenty-four hour cafe when I snapped this shot.  Let me tell you he was grateful for that clove cigarette when he was smoking it, even though it was the middle of winter in Michigan, freezing and damp.  Since, he has quit the habit of smoking and is thankful for much more in life.  Matt is a good friend of mine, and not only do I admire him, I am grateful for him and endebted to him. Gratitude, is it a sentiment, or central to our spiritual wellbeing?  

I believe the more gratitude speaks in our lives, the less we have to really say.  Should gratitude be a passing senitment in our experience, we have lost a guiding force.  Therefore, it follows that gratitude is central to our spritual well being. We may act out of gratitude, we may feel grateful and we are grateful for things.  But do we know gratitude? Do we understand gratitude? Spiritually speaking, gratitude is the forces of kindness, compassion, love, understading, humility, tolerance, faith, acceptance, fortitude, guidance, teachability, honor, trust and decency working together to conjure a manifestation of true feeling or emotion in the workings of human kind.

Humility and humbleness aid us in our mission to understand gratitude.  Here in this 7 billion + human race we sometimes enjoy taking advantage of each other.  This is the opposite of gratitude. Imagine the following: I am your friend.  I follow you through you darkest moments and days of revelry.  We have much to be grateful for.  Then I start to lie, I steal from you, I use you vainly and for the sole intent of personal gain.  All of the spirituality between us has vanished in a cloud of resentment.  All because I took the friendship for granted.  I discounted it.  I took advantage of you and your good nature, and our firendship. Gratefullness is something that is know in Human-ness.  We experience gratitude on a daily basis but, I feel we overlook it.  Just like the above story.  We assume all the good in our lives will always be good and the bad will just fix itself.  

Gratitude is one of those things where we misplace it until we really need it most. Today’s assignment?  I suggest that we all compile a gratitude list of things that we are grateful for in our lives today.  Should you wish, compile it in the comment section of this blog post and I will start one now. I am grateful for another day. I am grateful for my mistakes, flaws and character defects as they are my biggest liability and best teachers. I am grateful for my work. I am grateful for oneconsciousness.org I am grateful for you. I am grateful for life. That is a short list but I don’t want to tie up all your time with my gratitudes.  

However, should you make a daily meditation on gratitudes, you will carry around a lot less resentment toward  yourself and others.  By keeping gratitude central we may push out the unwanted or unhealthy spiritual properities.

Be courageous!

Each step you take into fear will strengthen you and help you confront future fears with poise, courage, and confidence. You will also find that when you are willing to stare your fear in the face, the universe will always offer you some form of aid or support. When you see the heights of accomplishment and personal evolution you can attain when you walk through your fears, your faith in yourself will grow, allowing your next step to be easier.

Nature's Balance

Being in balance in all areas of our lives is a perennial topic for discussion and contemplation. Often we may find ourselves over-committed, under-rested, over-fed yet under nourished, generally or very specifically unhealthy in some way and the key to clarity and wellness turns out to be that magic word – Balance.

Finding balance in a world where we are either pushed or pushing to be performing at our peak 24/7 365 can be a major challenge for many of us. It’s important to Take Back Control of your own life. To remember that you and you alone are responsible for creating your own reality and that you have the power to change what isn’t working can be the greatest gift you will ever give to yourself.

Start right now-are you willing-right now- in this moment – to take a time out? – To come back into balance? We are taught by some of the greatest of teachers to literally “stop the world”. It is our world, our creation, and we can and do have the power to stop everything right here, right now and ask some soul searching and very serious questions.

The first question you might ask yourself is this – When was the last time you took some time just for you? Not just a day off from work but some serious time out – 3 – 4 days, maybe even a week or two that is totally and completely unscheduled – time to reflect, to journal, to meditate, to rest, to review your life, to see where you are and where you’ve come from, to decide, really consciously decide who you are and who you want to be, to see where you are and where you really want to be going.

When we make the choice, the conscious decision, to stop, to take a time out and to deeply contemplate our passions, our purpose, our soul’s journey, we may find that there are some changes that need to happen and soon. Change can be very frightening for people and yet it’s the most natural thing in the world. Nature herself is a perfect example of the ever changing nature of our universe. All too often we busy ourselves to the point of exhaustion and collapse, merely because we are afraid to face the necessary steps that we need to take in order to change our lives, change our world and bring things back into a place of balance.

In the Peruvian Tradition of the High Andes we are taught about a concept known as Ayni. Ayni is a way of living in the world that is in balance with our own nature as well as with the natural world around us and all of our relations. The native peoples believe that we are all connected and strive to live lives of balance and communion with all that is.

A simple way to start the process of breaking through to balance is to track for yourself your own natural energy rhythms. Using a calendar and a scale from 1 – 10, each day mark a number for that day that is a measure of your energy level,. For example today you might be feeling very lethargic, not really wanting to do anything – maybe today is a 2 day. Tomorrow you might get up and feel all full of “piss and vinegar” as my mom would say – ready to take on the world and accomplish mighty feats – tomorrow might be a 10 day. When you have tracked your own energy for a month or so (at least 30 days is recommended) you then have a picture of your own flow – perhaps during the full moon you are totally charged, later in the month might be your down time. Chart the flow and begin to match your commitments and activities to your own true nature. Don’t say yes to that party when you know if falls on a day when you will likely be in the 2 zone. Go for it and book three appointments with clients and host a dinner party on your usual 10 day. Just bringing some consciousness to your own energy will start you on the road to balance. Make it a prayer – Lord may I bring a little more balance to my life and to the world today and may I begin with me.

Amethyst Wyldfyre, MsD Is a Multidimensional Metaphysician with a thriving practice in the Merrimack Valley of Southern NH – she can be reached through her website at http://www.amethystwyldfyre.com

Yoga has been such an amazing part of my journey to wholeness and balance and I am so grateful to myself for making and sticking with my commitment to the practice. This week I was reading Yoga Journal and there was an article about having a home practice. I started my practice at a gym a little over 5 years ago and about 4 years ago I brought it home with a video that a friend had given me of Rodney Yee.

Rodney and I have a date now just about every morning for AM Stretch. I love this video because its only 20 minutes. Heck anybody can squeeze 20 minutes in right? “They” say that 20 minutes of practice several times a week is as good for you if not better than a full hour and a half practice.

So I’m reading this article and it’s talking about different sequences you can try and different times of the day that you can practice and how having a home practice can seem a little daunting at first to most people because they just can’t figure out how to do yoga with out a little help and guidance from a teacher.

This is why I love Rodney, he’s with me every morning – by now I’ve actually memorized the entire video. He’s consistent, always there and he’s my favorite way to start the day. The thing that’s nice about doing the same video every morning is I really get to see where I’m at. Some days I’m not on the mat at all and I catch myself doing my leg stretch about 10 seconds ahead of Rodney – this would be a day where I’m ahead of myself. Other days I listen to my body and give myself extra time in Down Dog – this is where I’m really in touch with what my body needs. Then we have days like today. The funny thing about home practice is of course you are doing it at home!

So here we go starting out with a little relaxation to get present:

Rodney – “Surrender to the Earth”

Upstairs – CRAAASH (“Sorry Ms. Wyldfyre – I dropped the chair”, says Nate my son’s buddy who slept over)

Now we move through the relaxation process and we are really cooking – moving our legs left, and right, stretching the arms out to the side, now we’re in bridge pose. What a great morning! Moving along now we roll over into cobra, now back to the mat, now updog – What’s that? Updog????

Kack, Kack, Kack – It’s the sound of my 17 year old labrador making vomit on the floor – quick off the mat, run to the kitchen, shoo the cat away, grab the paper towels! Bend, stretch, squat, wipe, run for the rubbish barrel, Ack out of paper towels – shoo kitty get away from the there, wipe some more, ok all cleaned up! Now where were we?

Oops – missed Downdog, missed Lunge, missed Supported Chair Pose – God Rodney’s already back on the floor, no standing poses today.

Alright, lets get focused and back on the mat again – Staff Pose into the twist, moving right along twisting to the left, twisting to the right, cleanse those toxins, now cross legged, now up on the pillow for the final forward bends and prepare for meditation.

Closing the eyes, feeling the head right over the chest (WOOF!) , focusing on the breath (WOORF!), feeling the eyes relax back into the head (WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! Pukey dog wants in but he’s going to have to wait) Now entering into 2 minutes of meditation to center the mind (WOOF! WOORF! WOORF!) (MEOW, MRow – now Kitty is joining the chorus).

And me? I’m in the silence. Centered, balanced, focused, and serene – WHAT??? My 2 minutes is up? Thank you God for Yoga, for Rodney, for Kids and Cats and Dogs and Life. It’s all good. Wonder what my practice will be like tomorrow…….

Have a great day!

Amethyst Wyldfyre is a multidimensional shaman, healer, artist, author, blogger, performer, speaker and psychic who lives and works in the Merrimack Valley of NH. She can be reached through her website or blog for more information. She can also be followed on Twitter at @AWyldfyre. (This article was originally published online in my blog at Gaia.com in 2007 – my good old dog has since passed – I still workout to Rodney Yee only now I have 3 more tapes that a dear shaman friend gave to me so I have a little variety – they say that’s the spice of life!)

The New Year is always a special and magical time – a time to reflect on the joys, blessings, challenges that have been surmounted and opportunities that have been taken in the previous year, a time of celebration of the year past. It is also a time of freshness, newness, a time of contemplating possibilities and your own capacity to create and to change.

In our culture we celebrate New Year’s on January 1st – but did you know that this was an arbitrary date picked by the Church when the Gregorian calendar was adopted and that traditionally the New Year was celebrated in the springtime when the time for planting new seeds was upon the people?

Is it time perhaps for you to think about the seeds you’d like to plant for the coming year? Often we create a New Year’s Resolution list, setting out the goals for ourselves and our becoming at a time when the energy is most supportive for the work that goes along with making change in our lives. Here in New England we are truly blessed with a noticeable difference in the seasons. When the winter arrives, we are invited to move inward – in to our homes, in to ourselves, in to our hearts, in to that place of stillness where we can connect most deeply with our Source.

All change is initiated from within. By going within and consciously choosing to make a connection to our Spirit, to the Source of our Being we are granted the gift of insight. Here, deep within, we have the opportunity to see for ourselves who we are and where we are going. Here too we can see, with compassion and great self-love, those areas of our lives that are not in alignment with our true self.

When we allow ourselves the time and the space to contemplate deeply who we are, to assess where our way of living is out of alignment with our truth, we are energized to make the necessary shifts in our patterns of behavior that will allow us to more fully express our deepest essence.

Take some time in your sacred space today. Sit with a journal and some meditative music to set the mood. Shut off the outside world (yes this means the cell phone, the regular phone, the computer, the TV!) and withdraw your senses. Come into your center, to that place of stillness where there is nothing but the breath. Let yourself be nurtured here. Don’t strive to find out anything. Just be. Allow the nature of who you are, of your essence, to arise naturally and beautifully in the moment. Give yourself the gift of silence. What you find there may surprise and delight you!

Spring is just around the corner – only a few days away in fact – all of the ruminating, mulching, deep inner work and energetic shifts of the winter have produced fertile ground within which our seeds may be planted. Now it’s time to choose – which seeds do you desire to plant, cultivate, fertilize, tend and grow in the coming months? What harvest are you visualizing for yourself?

Enjoy the newness of this time and be grateful for your own gifts, gifts that the world is waiting to receive from you when you are ready to emerge from your cocoon to share. Take a deep breath and enjoy just being. May peace and harmony be with you in this time of reflection and resolution and may you find joy on the journey of Living Your Spirited Life!

Make Sure You Stop to Notice the Blessings All Around You! Original Photo @2006 by Amethyst Wyldfyre

Blessings like butterflies come to us and often catch us unawares. How many times have we heard the words “Count your blessings!”? When we take the time to become consciously aware, to slow down, to breathe, we are able to make the space in our lives to truly acknowledge all the many ways that we have been blessed. As we count our blessings we automatically create an energetic link to Spirit which activates an infinite feedback loop that garners us greater and greater blessings to count.

The Universe is filled with raw un-manifest energy, where our attention flows that is where the energy goes. This concept called Ma Te Ah in Hawaiian is a wonderful idea to hold in our consciousness. When we think about our blessings we create an incredibly powerful force field or strange attractor as it’s known in physics that begins to both spin and magnetize more of the same to us.

Along with counting our blessings we also have the opportunity to take a moment to express our gratitude to the Universe for each and every one of them. Gratitude is the currency of the Universe and of course currency is gratitude in action. When we draw upon these powerful forces of good, naturally more good will manifest in our lives, in many forms, including financially.

As we garner greater and greater good it becomes vitally important to maintain the flow of acknowledgment for our blessings and gratitude for what we have received. It is wise to have awareness that what we have to work with is to be used and stewarded wisely for the greatest good of all concerned and not squandered haphazardly to satisfy the whims of the ego. Humility and an understanding that we have the capacity to harness these forces through the grace of Spirit is important to cultivate as is a state of balance in how we manage our resources.

Take some quiet time in your own sacred space today and let us begin to count the many blessings that we possess. Perhaps you will start your list with the physical: Are you healthy? Do you have a warm snug home? Are you well fed and clothed?  When you have exhausted all that you are blessed with in a physical way then move on to your emotional world: Are you loved? Are you surrounded by a supportive group of friends? Are you involved and connected with your family? Is your neighborhood or community a breeding ground for goodness? Moving on from there take a mental inventory: Are you well educated? Do you have access to books, literature, theatre, art, culture, and music? Are your colleagues mentally stimulating? Does your work enrich and excite your mind? Finally let’s look at the Spiritual: Do you have freedom to worship as you choose? Are you intimately connected with your inner world? Does Spirit speak to or through you? Are you free to share what you believe with others?

During the holiday season our many blessings become more obvious as we create outward displays of our celebration of the season and exchange gifts and spend time with our family and friends. It’s vitally important to remember that this time is a time for celebrating and sharing with others and that material goods are meant to be a small symbol of the deeper underlying energy of our feelings for each other.  Now that the season has passed and the focus has shifted we sometimes need to be reminded that these blessings are still here with us!

Blessings come in many shapes and sizes, sometimes those that appear to be the smallest in the end turn out to be the most valuable. The blessing of an open heart, a compassionate ear, the hug of a small child, a sunshiny day, a beautiful flower, a delicious ripe tomato, the mundane, everyday tasks that make up a life like fresh sheets on the bed, hot tea on a cold afternoon – everywhere you look there’s another blessing. By truly choosing to pay attention, to attend to that with which you are blessed you will discover a whole host of blessings surrounding you each and every moment. So the next time you feel down, sad, angry, lost, hurt, or fearful take a moment, take a breath, count five things right in front of you that are blessings and watch yourself become lighter and clearer before you know it! Thank you for blessing me with your attention today. The light within me recognizes the light within you and we are one – and blessed!

Amethyst Wyldfyre is a multidimensional shaman, healer, artist, author, blogger, performer, speaker and psychic who lives and works in the Merrimack Valley of NH.  She can be reached through her website or blog for more information.  She can also be followed on Twitter at @AWyldfyre.  (This article was originally published online by Aspire Magazine Dec./Jan. 2008)

Grandfather's Clock Stopped - It's always 6:05!

I‘ve been thinking and dreaming a lot lately about time – in the teachings of my medicine lineage we work in the North Direction with Hummingbird Medicine and Hummingbird teaches us about how to move back and forth through time and how to step outside of time.  The three areas that I’ve been pondering are Measurement, Management and Mastery.  We have organized our reality around the Gregorian Calendar for quite some time now – we measure time in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years that are not exactly aligned with our sweet Earth Mama’s cycles and rhythms.  Our bodies – natural extensions of the Earth – created from her elements – have their own internal clock – they know when to rise, when to rest, when to eat, when to go inward, when to act, when to be still.  We can actually bring the light of our conscious awareness to our own natural rhythms – track them and see how much alignment we’ve created in our outer world with our inner clock.   What if we consciously chose a more natural way of measuring – perhaps in alignment with the cycles of the moon, the earth’s rotation on it’s axis, the rotation around the sun – what would happen if we threw out the calendar all together – put the clocks and the watches in the trash and just tuned in to the rhythm that has rocked the cradles from the beginning?

Hatun Kinte - Sewa Kinte - Great Hummingbird - Teach Us To Move Through Time - Step Outside of Time - to Embark on Our Epic Journey

How about Managing Time – how often do you feel as if you are squeezed for time, pressured into moving at a pace that is just not who you are at your core, do you try to schedule every moment of your life – breaking up each precious moment of the day and allocating something to DO for yourself in those moments?  What if you took a different view of time – and realized that there is no race – there is no need to rush – there are no “dead”lines other than the ones you make for yourself.  Death is the BIG CLOCK that is ticking for everyone – notice we use the word “dead” in deadline – to put the pressure on – to bring on the fundamental fear that is at the core of our fear matrix – that we must “get it all done” before we run out of time!  What if instead of trying to manipulate, manage or manhandle time to suit your purposes, you instead allowed yourself to surrender to a larger view – a larger perspective of time and a larger perspective of life, death and the way the Universe actually works?

Mastery of Time is when you Re-member that this whole concept is MADE UP IN YOUR HEAD!  You get to decide – about everything!  You can, if you wish to expand your conscious awareness, begin to see how you can move through time, bend time, stretch time, move back in time, step forward in time, and even if you really wish to hone your skills step outside of time all together.  Time I have found, is highly elastic.  Sometimes I set an “appointment” for myself here in the 3D and discover (sometimes to my consternation when I’ve let myself re-attach to the collective notion of time) that I’m not going to be arriving at the appointed hour.  Some would say “I’m late!”  some actually do speak about themselves and say “I’m ALWAYS late!”  When we speak to ourselves in this way – of course we are – we create our own late!  Every TIME!  I have come to understand much better (I think that the 9/11/01 example was a wonderful clue for us to see) that there is Man Time and then there is DIVINE Time – In DIVINE Time – thousands of people who would normally have been to work “On TIME (in Man Time)” didn’t get there – and of course were spared from the experience.   When you become a Master of Time – you RE-Member that you are ALWAYS EXACTLY ON TIME!  Because the only place you can ever be is HERE, NOW.  Time (as is Death) is an illusion.  Being is the Truth.  BE – HERE – NOW.  Bring the fullness of your presence to this and every moment – let go of time and you will be immeasurably blessed by the river of life that is timeless.

Amethyst Wyldfyre is a multidimensional shaman, healer, artist, author, blogger, performer, speaker and psychic who lives and works in the Merrimack Valley of NH.  She can be reached through her website or blog for more information.  She can also be followed on Twitter at @AWyldfyre.

(An Excerpt from The Visionary Vibe Report from my own blog dated 12/15/08)

Stillness – cultivating stillness.  Being still even in the midst of much activity, even in the midst of major shifts and adjustments going on all around us, even in the midst of external crisis both large and small.  Breathing and being.  Breathing and being.  We are now called to still ourselves and to be the Eye again.  So much is being shifted and re-configured both externally and internally and we are being called to allow the “upstairs team” to work on us – helping us to heal and recharge from the work of the last year and to allow the clearing of the canvas as we look towards the new.

How can we best cultivate stillness?  Time in nature – watching and observing the moment by moment movement of the Earth.  Being in touch with the heartbeat of the Mother – the Schumann Resonance is a great start.  Can you go inward and focus?  I’ve posted here an audio meditation that will help you to connect to the deep feminine, the heart core of the Mother that is the place from which our ability to be still lies.  

Connecting With The HeartBeat of the Mother – Meditation

Sometimes (usually!) the biggest challenge to being in a state of stillness is our mental body!  Our mental body is highly enmeshed with the idea of time and is like a caged animal – pacing and fretting that there isn’t enough.  There isn’t enough time to get A B or C done, there isn’t enough resources to go around, there isn’t enough room for everyone,  these are some of the thought forms that our mental body sends through our minds that cause us to be continually in a fight or flight mode.  When we are in fight or flight mode – there is no way that we can be fully present to what is unfolding in the moment.  When we are in fight or flight – that pacing, frustrated, caged beast place -  we are very ineffective in what it is we wish to manifest and all of our creations are tinged with this energy.   When we are in fight or flight it can be very difficult to disengage too and to settle into the place where nature/Universe just brings us all we need synchronistically.   We are caught, trapped, emotionally and mentally either paralyzed or running in circles and not really getting anything accomplished at all other than raising our blood pressure and often “stirring the pot” and causing those around us to have the flight or fight response activated too!  Ultimately the fight or flight mode leaves is in a place where all we can concern ourselves with is survival – the impetus for this is the fear of death.

Cultivating a practice of coming into stillness at least once each day (more often is even more wonderful!) will allow your body/mind time to re-set and relax – and provides great benefits – physically, mentally and emotionally.  Be like the great trees – grow slowly – enjoy each unfolding moment – bring awareness and presence to your days.  Breathe, take time and make it your friend.  Make death your friend.  When you can befriend death you can bring meaning and purpose and presence to each and every moment – you can realize that you are eternal, immortal and everlasting at the core of your being and that your consciousness can never be extinguished.  From this mindset you begin to thrive in the world, you begin to truly step into your power and become eminently effective in the world.

Amethyst Wyldfyre is a multidimensional shaman, healer, artist, author, blogger, performer, speaker and psychic who lives and works in the Merrimack Valley of NH.  She can be reached through her website or blog for more information.  She can also be followed on Twitter at @AWyldfyre.

Awaken Humanity to One Consciousness!

Part of the reason that OneConsciousness.org is set up, is because of the constant message in my brain to help awaken others.  Most people in the world have totally forgotten their soul’s power and have yet to reawaken to certain Laws of the Universe.

Perhaps it is our responsibility to help awaken the sleeping people?  Let us bring to their attention waves of influence and information that helps unlock the hidden perfection within the mind/body/soul of all living people.

Next, ask yourself “What am I doing RIGHT NOW to help awaken others to path of spirituality?” Perhaps you could do a blog post, comment on someone elses post with additional clarification to help lead someone down the path with a link, maybe you could tweet something other worldly or something fresh that comes your mind from your spirit guides.

Mother Earth has received quite a beating these past 110 years. Cities have grown at an obscene pace, people spend most of their time in a 9-5 haze, and most people have no ideas who their neighbors are… In a way, we are very secluded, yet always very connected.

Rediscover your inner wisdom and help others discover the same. Chances are, that by helping others, that you will move down the path to enlightenment a bit quicker?

In Love, Guidance & Oneness…

Travis Wright

(The top half of this post was originally published in December of 2007 on Applaud Magazine’s blog)

As is customary at this time of year we all take a few moments to say goodbye. Saying goodbye to the year past, saying goodbye to the frenzy of holiday preparation and celebration, saying goodbye to habits that no longer serve. As the year wound to a close I had to say goodbye to an old friend too. My labrador retriever – Blackjack was assisted to cross over last Thursday. Blackjack was what you’d call a “good old dog”. He was a loyal companion and friend, a good watch dog, a guardian and playmate for my son and a true and kind member of our family. At 17 1/2 he lived a long and mostly healthy life. He ran, jumped, played and kibbitzed right on up to 15.

Then he started to slow down a bit, he got a little grey around the edges, he lost his vision. Many people told me after he lost his ability to see that he should be put down but I refused to do that. He was still generally healthy, found his way around the house and the yard well enough and was an integral part of our family life. My boy James was insistent that he should live to die a natural death and so this was a most difficult rite of passage for him. In the last year I knew that time was short. Last Christmas Eve I didn’t think he’d make it through the night and I stayed up late opening sacred space and showing him where the rainbow bridge was. He surprised us all by staying for another whole year! Finally the end drew much nearer. He made it through this Christmas and then went rapidly down hill.

When he couldn’t get up anymore, stopped eating and drinking and had to be picked up to go outside we knew it was time. I opened sacred space before we left the house, called in all of the spirit guides, spirit animals and energies of light to make the way clear and obvious for his spirit, opened his chakras and showed him the rainbow bridge to the other side. It was a tough decision to make but the right thing to do. The vet (Dr. Stephen Frye, Clark Veterinary Hospital in Nashua) was incredibly compassionate, gentle and kind. He helped us to say goodbye in a way that was filled with dignity, grace and the ultimate kindness. Blackjack has already come to work with me in my medicine work, to dance in my dreams and will always be a guardian spirit and friend for my son and our family. While saying goodbye is never easy to do I’m incredibly grateful to Dr. Frye, to my husband Ross and to the lovely Marie Glover at Animal Heaven (in Hollis NH) who made this experience the best that it could be. Goodbye Blackjack and hello once more. May you journey joyfully to your home star and illuminate the path for those of us to follow. Your faithful friendship was a magical gift. With all our Love – Amethyst, Ross and James

December 28, 2008 – When I was contemplating what to write for One Consciousness today I was brought back in time to this time last year and found that I had this lovely article written about a loyal and true friend and companion and felt it was fitting to share in his honor with the readers here.  The whole subject of loyalty has been “up” lately in my life. Most importantly I’ve been getting the guidance to remain loyal to myself – sometimes this can be quite a challenging thing for us to do – our loyalties are torn – we are spread thin – there are so many priorities.  I invite you to use the final days of 2008 to take some time in sacred space and to come back to the center of who you are.  As you do this you may find that some of the activities or people that you’ve been giving your loyalty to aren’t serving you and the greater good any more.  You may find that as you clear your mind, body, heart and Spirit that you are being called to a higher level of loyalty and you may need to apply all the teachings and practices that have brought you thus far to make the changes that are necessary for your growth and evolution right now.

Ayni Despacho Photo from Four Winds Sanctuary Project Site

We just held a despacho ceremony (a ceremony from the Peruvian tradition of shamanism) at our home last night in honor of the new moon followed by fire ceremony.  This despacho was very interesting – we were guided to place many, many prayers in to this gift bundle for Pachamama (Mother Earth)  around what needed to die for us as this year comes to a close.  After all of our group had placed in their prayers I received guidance to lay down over this arrangement of kintus (prayer bundles made with leaves and flowers) a layer of incense & purifying herbs, followed by a layer of “clouds” (made from pieces of cotton balls stretched out) onto which we then placed our prayers and planted the seeds for our becoming.  It was most interesting because it was like two despachos in one – one layered on top of the other with purification between the two.  Take this sacred time to lay down and put to rest what needs to go in your life – purify and cleanse and prepare the canvas/blank page/soil for your seeds, your intentions, your dreams for yourself, your family, your community and your world.  Be loyal to the higher calling.  Let it be.

Amethyst Wyldfyre is a multidimensional shaman, healer, artist, author, blogger, performer, speaker and psychic who lives and works in the Merrimack Valley of NH.  She can be reached through her website or blog for more information.  She can also be followed on Twitter at @AWyldfyre.

Herb - Our 1st (tiny) Living Tree

This year I’ve become so much more conscious about how much my choices effect the world that I live in.  I’ve also become more conscious about my actions being in alignment with what I say/think/feel that my values are.  So as we got closer and closer to Christmas I really began to feel challenged around the idea of getting a tree.  I’ve always had a tree – it’s part of the tradition that I grew up with.  But how could I in good conscience support the practice of cutting down a tree just so I could have something to decorate, look at for a few weeks and then throw out.  I just couldn’t do it.  So I avoided up until last week the whole thought of a tree at all.  I’ve had numerous twitter conversations with eco-friendly and consciously aware people about the whole tree thing and even too about the idea of sending out cards and how that affects our environment – I’m still wondering what the carbon footprint of a Christmas card is and how many are sent each year….

Anyway I was on my way back from a visit to my fave crystal shop in Milford, NH (The Quartz Source – a magical place indeed if you are ever in the neighborhood) and stopped for some Hunza Raisins at Earthward a local Health Food grocery.  They are located next to a greenhouse and there right outside the door of the green house – in answer to my prayers of how to have a tree without killing one – there sat Herb.  Herb is my tree this year.  He told me his name, he showed me where he wants to be planted and he was delighted to come home with me.  He’s lovely and small and sweet and a bit prickly to decorate.  He’s found a temporary home (no more than 7 days inside they said) right beside the fireplace.

Son James came in and said “That’s LAME Mom” but he’ll get used to the idea and I hope will make it a tradition that he brings forward to his family someday when he’s older and everything that I do/say/believe isn’t so LAME to him anymore (13 is an interesting time!).  We decorated Herb last night – after dinner and before going out to remove the almost 2 feet of snow we received to welcome in the first day of Winter.
Here’s what Herb looks like fully dressed for the season!

Herb - Dressed for the Holidays

Hope you enjoy your holidays and give some serious thought to all the “traditional” things that you do – it’s important to shine the light of your awareness on not only what you do but why.  Sometimes a family tradition can be set aside because it just doesn’t make sense any more.  You can honor what came before you – learn from it and move on to create something new.  You don’t have to be stuck doing the same things over and over again just because “that’s the way we’ve always done it”.  Change can be a wonderful, good and true experience.  Learning to not only navigate change with acceptance and grace but to become a change initiator when the time is right is a lesson that we can all benefit from.  May you find peace in your heart and joy in your spirit not only during this “Season of Peace” but through each and every day that you receive the breath of life on your Earthwalk.  With great love and much light – Happy Holidays to all who celebrate in every tradition and every religion – the returning of the Light.

Amethyst Wyldfyre is a multidimensional healer, artist, author, speaker,  performer, soul path and psychic development coach who talks to trees, stones, clouds, animals and snowflakes in addition to members of the human family!  She can be reached through her website or through her blog.