Bed Breakfast Podcasts

What Are You Waiting for? Welcome back! This week we'll investigate the important connection between visualizing your success and actually creating your success. Much focus has been placed upon the notion that YOU have the powerful ability to actively participate in manifesting that which you desire. In other words, a great deal is being uncovered about how to strengthen and eventually master your ultimate creative capacity. It's important that you first understand that, before you can move toward exploring and exercising your creative talents, you must first arrive at the absolute understanding that you HAVE that capacity in the first place. That's to say that recognizing your capacity for success precedes your ability to succeed. Ask yourself if you believe that other people have such skill, luck or privilege but you don't and never will. If that's the case, then youre consciously giving up the right to own your creative capacity and then utilize your creative ability with wonderful results. Let me say this: if you maintain a belief system that set limits on what can or cannot be for your life, then you may very well avoid taking action at all. It seems to me that THAT pretty well describes failure; failure to do, failure to live amidst whats possible and total failure to enjoy your sumptuous and just desserts. This leads me to my question "What are you waiting for?" I mean haven't you postponed and procrastinated long enough? Havent you patiently longed for what could happen one day, some day when your dreams awake to brilliant reality? If you discover yourself at the beginning of this creative process there are two things worth pointing out. First of all, you're not alone. Secondly, the process of learning to leverage your creative abilities is neither lofty nor complicated. In fact, it's really quite simple. To illustrate that simplicity, I'm going to share a very easy formula for success with you. You may want to make a note of my formula and post it where you'll see it often. Here it is: INTENTION + ACTION + REPETITION = SUCCESS! Let's bring that formula to life with the following example: Imagine yourself lying in bed as you do each morning. Recall how you gradually come to an alert state. One of the first conscious thoughts you may have is "I'm awake" which is typically followed by a series of thoughts about what it is that you need to get done on any given day. Within your internal field of vision, with eyes either open or shut, you may begin to imagine each subsequent task on your to-do list. Perhaps you see yourself brushing your teeth or getting dressed for the day. Then maybe you envision yourself at work attending to phone calls or running errands. In a way, this kind of common exercise can be called daydreaming or even creative visualization. Its something like self-generated time travel during which you experience yourself making specific accomplishments at some point in the future. You do this day after day. In fact, this kind of mental imagery occurs so frequently that it becomes habitual and unconscious. Another way of saying that is that when you go through this type of creative exercise, the tasks at hand are generally so mundane that you're not always aware of this creative phenomenon and how it works. When the goal is simple or common, your mind has no reason to disbelieve that you'll accomplish your intended result. In that frame of mind, youre engaged in POSSIBILITY thinking. These are the things you do day after day without a second thought. But guess what the creative skill required to achieve a results like making yourself breakfast are the same creative skills required to make your life what you really want it to be. Its true! You begin by visualizing yourself taking specific actions and then you proceed to take those actions in real life until they eventually arrive at a specific destination. Heres the point where I want you to pay close attention: When you begin by seeing yourself accomplishing a goal and then proceed to act upon that intention without your minds interference, you are living FROM your desired outcome. The keyword in that sentence is from. When you're living from the outcome, you've actually placed yourself in that final destination through the power of your creativity. And creativity my friend is not a privilege but a right that only you can exercise. Having said that, it's important that you be aware that creativity can be used both positively and negatively. Indeed, worry is a perfect example of living FROM a negative or undesirable outcome. Worrying is just another way to place yourself in a final destination. Therefore, it's up to you to determine if you'll use your creative ability for your benefit or your detriment. So... if you've decided once and for all to use your creative ability for your own good then it's imperative that you stop hoping, praying and wishing for your life to change. Its customary for people just like you to engage in those behaviors as a way of overcoming your disbelief. You see, in your mind, you can accomplish what youve always accomplished without undermining thoughts getting in the way. And if you keep doing what youve always done, youll keep getting the results youve always gotten. It happens every day. It happens when your thoughts hit the invisible ceiling of what can be. When your thoughts hit the place of CANT or impossibility, you seek to overcome the hurdle by hoping, praying and wishing. Those are examples of what it means to dream OF your potential instead of living FROM your potential. Dreaming OF is a mental process and living FROM is a measurable action. That distinction is critical to creating success. To live FROM your potential means that the actions you take and the persona you express today agree with your hopes for tomorrow. More specifically, it's not about presently achieving the means with which to empower a better life for your self. It's about recognizing that there is seldom a reason or a lack of means that would actually prevent you from expressing your absolute best self this very minute. So, if you're tired of waiting, then stop waiting. Right now, you can choose to move beyond the means that you thought were necessary for your highest expression. Let go of creating conditions. Let go of mastering your circumstances and step into and live FROM who you've always known you could be, and would be, if given the chance. THIS is your chance so take it! This anonymous quote says it perfectly:Don't be afraid to take one large step because you can't cross a chasm in two small leaps. Heres my 7-day challenge for you: Using my simple formula for success, take a few minutes and fill in the blanks with your own specifics. Whats your INTENTION? What ACTION will you take to realizing your intention? How often will you repeat that action and for how long? Remember that REPETITION is a matter of both frequency and duration. Finally, what are your SUCCESSES and how will you celebrate them? Id love to hear about your wins large and small so feel free to email me at feedback@peaceofprosperity.com Please join me next time for whats bound to be a thoroughly provocative episode when I ask Are you a terrorist? Until then, I leave you with abundant peace.

Is It Time To Get A Grip? Welcome back! This week well take a closer look at whether or not its time to get a grip on your life. If you feel increasingly out-of-control, if you've got the tiger by the tail and there's no hope of things turning around, then you might very well wish that you did have a better grip; hoping that your life in some way resembled the images you see around you everyday like the perfectly calm and organized moms and dads on TV whose houses are tidy, whose bills are paid and whose children play in their manicured backyard while Mom prepares a nutritious dinner indoors. Perhaps getting a grip on your life means that you first have to get real. It might mean admitting to yourself that those highly-manipulated images of perfection to which you compare yourself are, in reality, a copious blend of jive, sham, and shuck in other words, being in that kind of control of your life is a load of B.S. . Getting a grip may very well depend upon repeatedly acknowledging that you are, in fact, human and that any striving on your part to achieve and/or maintain some ideal lifestyle is actually quite UNdesirable. Why, you may be asking, is that undesirable? Because at best, being in control maintains a belief in a way of being thats not grounded in reality. In the worst-case, pursuing perfection of that kind is not even attainable. And, if you remain focused on maintaining such control, the majority of your time and energy fixes you to that commitment to having it seemingly all together. And the point of being on this planet is NOT to have it all together, but to be fulfilled, joyful and enlightened in a way that allows you contribute your best self for the benefit of the world. You see, to be alive is to be in motion. Living is a verb. Its fluctuation, action, and reaction. Its not standing still, maintaining balance or getting things in order and then keeping them that way. The funny thing is, I know you know it's true, but I also know that youre probably still trying to achieve what is essentially unachievable. For example, have you ever cleaned your kitchen spic and span and then told your family that they were no longer allowed in your fresh, clean kitchen? Did you ever just want to have a situation stay exactly as it was like savoring the most rich and tender part of a cookie that you save for last or relishing a few moments of deep connection to another that you wish would go on forever? The reality is that, as quickly as these moments come, they also go. That's what it means to go with the flow because the mounting evidence suggests that the more tightly you grasp to the minutiae of life, the more suffering youll endure. Eventually, clutching of that sort will strangle the life right out of the wonderful possibility that exists for all of us, even you. The truth is that youre not living as a separate entity. By virtue of your being human, youre inextricably connected to an uncontainable and therefore, uncontrollable web of life. When an unforeseen event is introduced to that web, chaos may ensue. One strand pulls and stretches those surrounding it. The interconnectedness simply cannot be avoided. So... the very best you can ever hope to achieve is to hone your skills at coping with and accommodating the never-ending introduction of change. Control isnt possible but responsibility is. And if what you want is to be responsible for the success of your life, then what youre obligated to do is exercise your ABILITY to RESPOND to life. Thats true RESPONSIBILITY. What a simple yet powerful awareness! Now that you have that understanding, Id like you to picture for a moment the beauty of your two hands. Look at them and admire them even with scars or wrinkles or other evidence of what life has wrought. Thank your hands. Honor them for serving you so consistently and well. Recognize them as the powerful tools of creation that they are. Understand that your hands have both great skill and great responsibility for they turn ideas into realities and reach out for that which sustains you and brings you joy. Your hands however, if tightly gripped about the stuff of your current reality, the stuff that is, cannot perform their most vital function. If your hands are indeed grasping the illusion of control, they are precluded from opening, receiving and accepting that which exists beyond your control. Yes my friend, to keep your hands open means letting go and assuming an available, receptive, trusting position. It means saying to your self, perhaps I dont have to fix this situation. Perhaps all I need to do is observe and see what happens on its own. And just maybe, if you were to do that, were to let go completely, you might create the space necessary for something bigger and better to enter. The juiciest part of this is that you wont know if you dont try. Beloved poet Pablo Neruda wrote the following piece that Id like to share with you because it so beautifully conveys how letting go of control and releasing your grip on life ushers in a void of endless possibility. He wrote: And it was at that age...Poetry arrived in search of me. I don't know, I don't know where it came from, from winter or a river. I don't know how or when, no, they were not voices, they were not words, nor silence, but from a street I was summoned, from the branches of night, abruptly from the others, among violent fires or returning alone, there I was without a face and it touched me. I did not know what to say, my mouth had no way with names my eyes were blind, and something started in my soul, fever or forgotten wings, and I made my own way, deciphering that fire and I wrote the first faint line, faint, without substance, pure nonsense, pure wisdom of someone who knows nothing, and suddenly I saw the heavens unfastened and open, planets, palpitating plantations, shadow perforated, riddled with arrows, fire and flowers, the winding night, the universe. And I, infinitesimal being, drunk with the great starry void, likeness, image of mystery, I felt myself a pure part of the abyss, I wheeled with the stars, my heart broke loose on the wind. Heres my 7-day challenge for you: Rather than of getting a grip on your life, I suggest that you get perspective instead. One of the ways that has proven so useful to putting my own life in perspective is to put it on paper. Journaling or other forms of self-expression serve to free your energy by discharging it out of your system and giving it a new form. That new form will then exist outside of you, providing the distance thats essential to objectivity and ultimately, receptivity. Writing releases and opens; allowing mental, emotional and spiritual energies to flow, letting ideas flow, and prosperity flow. As you invite the details of life to flow outward you are also welcoming the potential of life to flow inward. Therefore, giving up control includes being ready and willing to receive inspiration at any time and in any place. To give you an example, the idea for this essay came to me around 3 a.m. one morning. So instead of resisting it or telling myself I could remember the idea the next day, I got up and grabbed the notebook off my headboard and began to make notes. As I did, seeds for another 10 or 11 essays came through clearly at the same time. It's really just a matter of being absolutely open for the only perfect time and place to receive divine direction is right now. Please join me next time when I ask "What are you waiting for?" Until then, I leave you with abundant peace.

Parlez-Vous Prosperity? Welcome back! As I prepare this week's episode, I'm aware that at the outset of an election year, popular media has unleashed its great storm ofpolitical coverage including waves of endless, divisive language. The point of using divisive methodologies is to create dissension or discord. In other words, you don't have to look far to see how language, when used destructively, will necessarily divide groups of people by perpetuating the either/or paradigm which youve heard me mention time and again. In this case, that paradigm can be thought of as red states versus blue states, Republicans versus Democrats and so forth. The real point of using divisive language is to separate us from them in a way that polarizes people into specific parties and predictable voting lines. I bring this up because it specifically relates to this episodes question Parlez-Vous Prosperity?" In order to answer that, I want to relate a very important, and perhaps transformational, idea to you as it relates to my own conception of what constitutes prosperity or success whether it be political or personal in nature. Some years ago, I had the great fortune of attending a signing of a just-released book entitled The Soul of Money by Lynn Twist. With her book, Twist succeeded in fundamentally altering my relationship with money by demonstrating to me that money is ultimately representational. What that means is that money represents value; the value of earth's resources, our collective human resources and so on. I know you understand this because if you're in pursuit of money, chances are that what you actually want is the powerful effect that money exerts in our culture. Ever heard the term money is power? Of course you have! So you see, when it comes right down to it, money represents energy. And that's clearly evidenced in your experience I'm sure because people with great energy tend to attract their own prosperity whether that takes the form of valuable friends and business connections or it shows up as having great personal or financial influence in one's life. Before I go any further, I want to take you back to an earlier remark about the fact that language can be and is used destructively all around us. However, when you're committed to the and/both awareness, youre conscious of the fact that language can also be used CONSTRUCTIVELY! And when you use words in a constructive way, youll most decidedly begin to speak the language of true prosperity. For many of you listening, speaking prosperity may not come naturally. It may in fact not be your native tongue but something of a second language that you must practice consistently in order to gain any real fluency. Let me give you an example of what I mean. In the past I've mentioned that I consider my true passion to be healing the epidemic of scarcity consciousness. The instrument of that healing for me comes in the form of words. As I set out to share the peace of prosperity with a worldwide audience, I did so with a very clear intent. The intent was to create healing and inspirational content for everyone, regardless of upbringing or circumstances. To accomplish that, I intentionally use those words that are innately inclusive rather than exclusive. Its language that welcomes and provides sustenance for all through the use of compassionate and constructive communication thereby breaking the pervasive pattern we see throughout popular media. Compassionate communication is that which recognizes the humanity in each and every one of us. Constructive communication is that which builds connections and community in a way that fosters real progress. And if you go back and review all of my episodes, you'll see this strong theme of inclusivity in all that I publish. It's my practice. It's how I'm learning to speak prosperous and life-giving language to myself which then allows me to teach that to you and to everyone who's ready to dramatically alter the status quo. So... will you accept my invitation to speak success? Will you honor the fact that words have meaning, that they represent intent and that words, just like money, have an ENERGY all their own? It's true! The spoken word holds great power. Have you ever had someone do something unkind to you only to turn around and offer an insincere apology like " I'm sorry..."? Don't you always know whether or not someone is being really genuine? Isn't part of growing up learning to distinguish what is authentic from what is not? Here's the big take away: the words you use contain considerable power; the power to create success and the power to prevent success. And this power has particular impact when it comes to the words you speak inwardly, even silently. Therefore, criticizing or condemning yourself in any way will necessarily impact your own ability to affect positive change. Indeed, your subconscious mind never stops listening to what you have to say to yourself. And its that mind that ultimately directs your conscious thought and actions. That being said, it's imperative that you actively choose to speak the language of prosperity in a way thats absorbed at the cellular level. Yes, when you speak to your SELF, you're speaking to your CELLS! And what you say is what you then embody. It's just like the expression You are what you eat, Now that you understand that, you're brought to a thrilling new opportunity to express your highest self by practicing the language of prosperity, of compassion, of UNITY! There's a wonderful quote that sums this up perfectly: "People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel." Unknown Here's my 7- day challenge for you: Examine all that you say inwardly and outwardly. As you become aware of your own use of polarizing language and its impact, take a moment to understand the energy behind the words. When you recognize your use of such language, begin to create your own personal lexicon, your own vocabulary of unity. And as you incorporate and master this new and prosperous language, notice how the compelling affect of this new way of speaking both creates and maintains a dynamic connection between yourself and success. Please join me next time when I ask "Is it time to get a grip?" Until then, I leave you with abundant peace.

Whats Your Resolution? Welcome back! It's that time again when you might consider making some important changes in the year ahead. So what's your resolution? A resolution is the act of determining a course of action either privately or as a public expression of intent. Are you ready to do or be something "different"? Will you strive for self-improvement... to be more fit or more focused, or perhaps more consistent and more organized? Are you one of those people that makes secret resolutions because you're afraid that if you tell somebody what you want to achieve and then don't do it, that youll only add embarrassment to the shame you might already feel? One thing's for sure, whatever you do, you're going to do it with real purpose and commitment this time. Right? But guess what? Yours truly, the ever-reliable source of optimism, is here to share the harsh reality about resolutions. The truth is that 72% of resolutions fail. It's incredible I know but, if you've ever resolved to make changes in your life, then you've probably also fallen short of your goals. So, in my ongoing effort to shift away from either/or thinking, Id like you to consider the possibility that you make NO resolutions whatsoever this year. That's not to say that personal development isn't valuable. It is to say that growth and progress are not exclusive to your level of self-control and determination. I agree that discipline has its proper place. Within this context, I'm suggesting to you that discipline might come in the form of exercising your right to actively avoid resolution making of any kind. Consider this: Is what you really want for your future based on some form of self criticism? Is moving your goal from ideation to realization just a means to an end? Is it a byproduct of permission-based living? Or could it be a matter of your creating those conditions upon which you allow yourself approval and kindness? It's a lot to think about I know. But it's important that you consider the source of that which you find undesirable in yourself or otherwise deem worthy of change. Because when you fully grasp the big WHY behind your resolutions, only then can you invite something new with the requisite self-knowledge and self-acceptance that allows change to occur with any permanency. So... I hope you'll join me this year in making NO resolutions. I hope you'll share my path as I explore the alternatives to inviting positive and lasting change. A friend of mine recently shared with me that she felt as though her life has no more surprises in store. She said it with a sense of sadness and loss. And my response to her was this: Life is absolutely full of surprises but, if you become hyper-focused on pre-determined outcomes, you'll certainly miss the unexpected opportunities that arise. When opportunity does knock, you might answer the door to discover something that doesnt at all resemble the image in your mind. How many possibilities have been rejected or altogether thrown away because they dont match the picture of how its SUPPOSED TO look? So the question then for everyone in my audience is "Are you ready to let go of that perfect picture of what you think life SHOULD be?" Letting go means remaining open and present to the sometimes subtle surprises that make life so exciting! Letting go is much easier when you recognize the critically important difference between surrender and capitulation. Surrendering can be thought of as giving up whereas capitulating can be likened to giving IN. To give up is to stop trying and acknowledge defeat; an ending of sorts. So it's no wonder that no one wants to surrender because no one wants to believe that their dreams are impossible or that theyre a failure. On the other hand, when you capitulate, you give in to the natural ebb and flow that IS life! You finally stop resisting and wasting your precious energy on struggle. To give into the ever-present current of life is not an ending but a significant BEGINNING. From that point of beginning, you're consciously positioning yourself as agent of change; a conduit through which the unexpected may now take place. Remember, it's not about making good things happen but letting good things happen. Letting the good stuff in requires that you give into the power of NOW. Being in the now and achieving that level of presence is to stop dreaming about what could be or trying to figure out what you're supposed to do next. Actually, the true task at hand is to honor curiosity. Curiosity is defined as being careful and diligent. In other words, it means that you stop for a few minutes and care about what's going on, really going on, in this present moment. It begins with recognizing yourself first then others, and ultimately recognizing the succulent possibilities that become visible to those who are patient enough to look closely. In the end, it's not really a matter of changing your life but of allowing your life to change YOU! So will you have the discipline to wait and see; to serenely await guidance and goodness to enter in its own form and upon its own schedule? Your answer will most certainly be YES if you first take a moment to imagine the joy that accompanies deep satisfaction of your curiosity. Joseph Campbell, the acclaimed professor and author once wrote We must be willing to get rid of the life weve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. Here's my 7-day challenge for you: Each day for the next week make a list of those areas of your life in which you experience struggle. Instead of engaging the struggle, use your critical thinking and feeling capacity to gain an intimate understanding of what's behind the struggle. What might you be resisting and, if you are indeed resisting, what is that resistance perpetuating? Understanding conflicts allows you to move beyond them and come back to the gift of the present. Look upon every aspect of your life with genuine wonder an intense curiosity. See everything with the unassuming eyes of a child. Take in all the nourishment and knowledge available to you in any passing instant to be enriched, supported, protected and guided to the life that is waiting just for you! Please join me next time when I ask "Parlez-vous Prosperity?" Until then, I leave you with abundant peace.