Anybody Have a Suggestion?

I am now certified as a Lifestyle Engineer, approved to offer the Virtual Gastric Band Program.  As I've
mentioned, I had this procedure (no surgery!) and continue to shrink!  Because I am so impressed and thrilled, I wanted to be able to offer this amazing program to others.  But, more on that later.  What I learned during the training last week provided subject material for several blogs!  One at a time...

Lifeskills was a personal growth training I took years ago that put me on a completely different path, one with an understanding that what I believe creates my life.  Since then, I've participated in various workshops, trainings, not to mention the mountains of books I've read, that all seem to bring me full circle to - what I believe creates my life.

The message comes in many packages, using different language, but it all comes down to the same thing.  I call it beliefs, ones I accepted to be true based on what I was told, what I read, what I felt, from the day I was born (maybe even before). Lifestyle Engineering uses hypnosis-based language, like suggestions.  Indoctrination is a term used by another personal growth training. These indoctrinated beliefs or suggestions are what the sub-conscious uses to run your programs.  It doesn't always make sense - it's the conscious mind that analyses.  Problem is, the conscious mind can't remember all the beliefs/suggestions we decided were truth.  That's the sub-conscious mind's job.

In Lifeskills, we used experiential exercises to help you remember and look at those beliefs you forgot.  Then, tools were offered to "discreate" those beliefs.  To fill the void, a new, workable belief was provided to create what you preferred.  The question was asked, once, did we really "discreate" it?  Yes and no.  Your conscious mind eventually either forgot it, or, it became so unimportant you just never thought about it again.

During the training last week, I was to give a hypnosis I did not want to do.  I didn't think I could do it and I was afraid,holding back tears.  We had a break just before so I was walking around in circles asking myself "What is wrong with you?"  A memory surfaced. In Lifeskills, I identified that I had a core belief that I was a dangerous person, and that if I did it wrong I could really hurt somebody.  Oh, Yeah!  I hadn't thought about that in years!  My response to the memory:  "I remember.  I also remember that - YOU DON'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE!"  Pop.  It was gone.  I returned to class confident.

Moral of the story, it doesn't matter if a belief was entirely dis-created.  The good news is that we can convince the sub-conscious to take on a new belief/suggestion, one better to help us create the life we prefer.  There are many ways, many modalities - one is perfect for you.

The experiences and knowledge I've acquired over these past years are a perfect fit for my new services as a Lifestyles Engineer.  The power of suggestion can change your thinking, change your life.  I know, you've heard this before.  Probably cause it's true!

For more information about Lifestyle Engineering and the Virtual Gastric Band Procedure, contact me at the Higher Self Bookstore, (231) 941-5805

Flow with the Flux

My friend, Brenda, often said something like, "He's giving me the flux!" She was obviously frustrated at these times and I just assumed she was saying, "He's making me crazy!"

The other day the word flux showed up in my head while talking about how fast the world seems to be changing and the increasing challenges that are appearing in so many people's lives. I figured it was time to read the actual definition of flux. 1) flow 2) rate of flow 3) a continuous movement or change.

I pick Door Number 3! Yup, continuous change can sure provide the opportunity for a person to think they are going insane. We are in flux like we have never been in flux before (well, I've read that we have been here before but "we" in our bodies of today have not.)

It would be nice if we could put on the brakes and take a breather, but that is not going to happen and we'd only want to take another break, and another. We must learn to be in flow with the flux!

You can be in a state of flux, call it bad, and make yourself crazy. Or you can learn to be in flow with the flux and enjoy the ride. You can't stop the universe, or the new energies that are affecting us on all levels. You can't change congress in a day, or bring peace to the world in an hour. You can flow with the changes and bring peace to yourself now.

I know, all the teachers are telling you to accept change, embrace change, practice change - and they are absolutely right. But how? Breathe, deeply. Know that you are at choice - you can let go instead of fight the flux. My therapist (Chinese medicine) told me my hip problem was because I was being pulled in too many directions. Allowing would be more accurate. What else was I to do but twist and turn to keep all the balls in the air - flux adding more balls all the time?

Well, I identified which balls must be managed in this moment and let the others drop. Let me tell you there were some people who were not happy with this decision. Later, when I was more balanced and the stabbing in my hip went away, I went to pick up the balls I had dropped and, lo and behold, they were gone! Of course, new balls are always coming my way via flux - some I grab onto, some I let go by.

As my hip healed, I rested. Breathe and rest. Some mornings I'd wake up in a sour mood, with no reason for it (ever happen to you?). I'd spend the entire morning psycho-analysing myself! What's up with me? Is there a buried issue coming up? Did a dark entity enter my house?

When I got to the Higher Self Bookstore, a psychic might say "did you feel that energy shift?", or an astrologer would tell me we just entered mercury retrograde or this planet just entered that other planet's orbit - did I feel it? So, I had spent my precious morning looking for what was wrong with me when all that happened was a shift in energy. I don't do that anymore.

Breathe, rest, and choose what you want to pay attention to. Flux in itself is not good or bad. Avoid judging the flux! In her frustration, Brenda made flux a bad thing. Flux is flux, flux is flow, it is what it is. You can't fight it, so flow with it. Here's a little something that came to me this morning that helps in discerning good and bad:

There was a little girl, who had a little curl - right in the middle of her forehead
When she was good, she was doing what she should -
And when she was bad she was awesome!

Danger! Danger! Danger!

I have often commented that I wanted to write a book on the dangers of personal growth. Really, there should be warnings before inquiring about oneself and the possibilities of being more. One of the chapters would be about how the people in your life will change -NOT.

When you wake up, even the least little bit, you will notice how the people around you are not the people they used to be. Especially the people close to you. Somehow they are different and you don’t recognize them as you used to. Of course, they didn’t change – you did.

When you were sleeping, you daydreamed how people were – usually the way you wanted them to be. Or expected them to be. Unconsciously, you decided what to see and what to be blind to.

I took a trip not too long ago with some people I used to travel with to Las Vegas. I’d been there with them before and had a good time. Once I got there it was like I didn’t know these people at all! These were acquaintances from my sleepwalking days.

I found myself switching back and forth between judging and being in fascination as fast as I could blink my eyes! I kept asking myself questions, like “Were they always like this?” “Did they always talk like this?” “Was I like this, am I still like this?”

Answering myself, I said, yes, they are the same as they always were. One man in particular, my host, spurred my own soul searching the most. In our past, I had been quite impressed with his self-confidence, how he carried himself, how he seemed to make others take notice of him, that he was free with his money. My dream man!

The man in my wakened state was not so confident after all. In fact, it appeared to me that he tried to raise his self-esteem, make himself more important, by making himself big, and others small. I know he did not know, was not aware, that he was doing this. And I knew he did not want to know – not at this time or in this place.

He hadn’t changed. I had. My choice to become aware, to wake up to who I am and who I want to be has taken me down a path, a path I chose consciously. I encouraged others to come with me. I had encouraged him to come with me when I first started out. I thought he had tagged along, for a little ways, at least.

Not everyone you know and love will choose to walk the path with you. It’s okay, they are already on a path of their own choosing, and they just may not know it. Some will try to keep you from going down a path you chose, may even reach out to pull you back, because they know their life will change if you go. But you can never go back. Once you wake up, even a little, that part of you can never be put back to sleep again.

A personal growth trainer I worked with would get down sometimes after giving a three-hour free introductory course. She would be discouraged that people hadn’t signed up to continue the training, and she would feel sad that they apparently chose to not make a change, to not wake up. I would reminder her that each and every one of them had indeed made a change, had awakened – it was impossible not to, unless they had literally snored through the entire three-hour training. They knew too much now to ever be the same again.

Even your reading this now is an inquiry of your own to know more, to experience more, to be opened and awakened to new possibilities. And you will never be quite the same as you were.

The dangers of personal growth: You will change. Others may leave you, you may leave others. You will love and bless them, as I love and bless those from the Vegas trip.

The dangers of not seeking personal growth: You will change. Others may leave you, you may leave others. You will stay asleep and life will happen to you.

The good news is, when you seek to grow you will change purposefully. You will take your power back from wherever or whomever you gave it to. Be grateful that it was taken care of while you slept.

People may leave, but there are people just waiting to welcome you into your wakefulness.

I meet others on the path I chose and I keep their company. It is important for me to have their support, faith, and encouragement. There are hands out there reaching even now to pull me back, put me in the cubbyhole they think I should be in. I hold on tight to the hands that won’t let me go that gently push me forward.

There are dangers in personal growth. You will never be the same and you can never to back. Ah, but the rewards are eternal!