Again, the situation repeated itself so I received many irrelevant submissions this month. To name a few, people submitted articles about how to select a dress for prom, how to fix your computer, what it is like to marry a man from Europe and so on

Anyway, although a lot of good articles that were on the topic had been posted, I have decided to choose only 12 articles that I liked the most and list only those in the blog carnival. And here they are, again, in the order that they were submitted:

Copyright LivingNewAge.com, 2009. | Permalink | Comments
Add to del.icio.us | Digg! | Stumble! | Reddit! | Facebook

Post tags: abundance, blog carnival, feng shui, law of attraction, meditation, partnerships, personal development, positive thinking, wealth

Updated RSS Feeds

RSS feeds are a great way of having new articles delivered to you immediately after they are published using your favorite RSS reader.

Up until now, the RSS feeds contained only shortened version of each article, with a link to an original text to the LivingNewAge.com website. As a result, you were notified about a new article and based on first few sentences you could decide to read the article or not, but if you decided to read the full article, you had to go to the website.

Newly, the feed contains the full article text. This allows you to read each published article without having to leave your favorite RSS reader. I realize that the preference for you as a feed subscriber would be not to be forced to visit the website, if you choose not to.  

If RSS feeds sound sound interesting to you and you haven’t subscribed yet, feel free to subscribe.

Email Subscription

You may have noticed that there is a new text box in the top left corner of the blog, which allows you to subscribe to the blog updates via email. If this option suits you better to subscribe to a new content of the site, it is now available to you. If you subscribe, you will get an email every time a new article is published.

Best Of LivingNewAge.com

The sidebar on the left now contains a “Best Of LivingNewAge.com” section, which lists the best articles published on the site. 

Recommended Products

The blog sidebar newly contains a section called “Recommended Products”. The section contains only two links at the moment:

• Recommended Products which is a link to Amazon aStore of this website. All the products listed in the store are products that I am confident to recommend to you as a great resource to complement what this site is about. Every book listed is either a book that I read and liked or a book that was recommended by my friends. Many of the products listed have been mentioned in my articles. The number of products is quite low at the moment, I am planning to add some more over time. If you know about something that would be relevant and that would be interesting to read (or see if it is a DVD), please let me know and I will add the product, if it will be interesting, have good reviews and be relevant for the content of this website. 
• Hay House Bestsellers, which contains the best sellers of Hay House store. Hay House specializes in inspirational and self help publishing and these products are the best that the store offers. 

I aim to make sure that the site serves you - the readers of the site in a best way possible. If you have an idea about how to improve the site, please let me know. I am always keen to listen to your feedback!

Copyright LivingNewAge.com, 2009. | Permalink | Comments
Add to del.icio.us | Digg! | Stumble! | Reddit! | Facebook

Post tags: about

The Power of Money

When I was in my early twenties I met some interesting friends who had psychic abilities. I was very ambitious and quite eager to have loads of money when I start my professional life. So back then I asked one of my friends during a tarot session: “Will I be rich?”. Her answer surprised me. She said that I would first have to sort out my attitude towards money. So I asked: “What do you mean? My attitude towards money is good. I would like to have loads of money. I don’t think there is anything wrong about having a lot of money!”. Back then I already knew about the basic principals and I knew that if I wanted to have something, my attitude towards it had to be positive to attract it into my life. I saw people around me thinking that money is evil, and I knew that similar attitude would not get me anywhere.

In fact the “Money is evil” misconception is probably one of the most common attitudes that blocks money from many people. Usually, they have money connected with everything bad that is happening around the world - most wars are happening because of money, children in poor countries are dying because lack of money, and so on. They would probably have a lot of stories ready about people that became rich and how money ruined their lives by losing friends or partners as a result of it, how envy in the family broke the family apart and many other stories of that kind.

In my opinion, it is not the money which is to be blamed for all of this - it is a wrong use of money by some of the people that have them. It is the people to be blamed for all of this, not the money itself. There are plenty of examples of a good use of money - look at charities for example and how much good they can do. All thanks to money they get from generous people. They have the power thanks to the money to change the world to the better. See how money helped during times of tragic world events, such as tsunami, earthquakes, and so on. Money is a power to make a difference.

Lets look at why money were created. They were created because people specialize and do different things. Everybody does different things for living, for example, a tailor makes dresses and a farmer grows vegetables. But when the tailor would like some vegetables to make his lunch, it would make no sense for him to give the farmer a dress, because the farmer may not need a dress and the dress’s value is would be different anyway. They both put energy into what they are doing, money is a means of expressing the energy and it can be exchanged for other things, which we may need more. Money comes to our lives to manifest something, it can be used to express an effort. So, in fact, money is a form of an energy.

Money and the Rich

Another reason why I couldn’t figure out why I was “accused” of having something wrong with my attitude towards money was that I also didn’t judge rich people because of what they do and how they use money. Some people dislike rich people and keep judging them. This is what they usually think:

• Rich people have bad relationships
• Rich people are greedy
• Rich people buy things they don’t need
• Rich people waste money by buying luxury goods
• Rich people are selfish
• Rich people have no family life
• Rich people cannot find time for their partners and family
• Rich people like to boast and show off
• Rich people worry all the time that they would lose what they have
• Rich people don’t care about an environment, why would someone need to fly a helicopter anyway?

And the list above could go on. The law of attraction works very well in this case. If you think about people in negative way because they are rich, you are saying “I don’t want to be rich”. Again, try to move your thinking towards being more positive. Do you realize how much power the rich people have to make a difference? Did you know that it is the rich people who give the most money to charities all around the world? If they want to live in luxury and spend huge amounts of money, why wouldn’t you let them do it? The fact that they spend money only means that they transfer some of their money to someone else. What if they are not greedy and selfish, what if they only developed a very good habit of saving money, that gives them huge freedom and safety?

One of my friends used to live next door to a rich family. He used to complain all the time, saying: “Look at the pool in their garden. What a waste of money! And look how big fence they had to build! They just don’t want anyone to see into their garden, because they are are afraid that people would find out that they are rich and they would get robbed!”. His stories about his neighbors always showed how jealous he was of what they have and how many issues he has with the rich people. He didn’t appreciate that there was nothing wrong with living in luxury and that people may just want some privacy when they have a pool in their garden - building a fence may not necessarily mean that they would be afraid of losing what they have. If you know anyone like this, try to turn the conversation into something more positive if they start talking like this, don’t let the negative thinking affects you. If you want, point them to this article ;-).

The law of attraction says that you can have anything you want. So if you want to be rich and at the same time have time for your family, why would you think that it would not be possible? If you say something is not possible, you are “done”, because it will not be possible for you. You make the decision.

Money and You

I think I now know why I didn’t have a good attitude towards money. I knew all the theory which I mentioned above and I was trying to apply it - always thinking positive about the money, always not judging rich people. But all this time I was excluding myself from all of this. I never asked myself how do I feel about being rich. What would I do, if I had million dollars? I found that I don’t know the answer to that question. And actually, when you imagine that you had million dollars (especially if you meditate), some other questions may come into your mind:

• Is the million dollars going to be enough?
• Should I give some money to other relatives? Will I be a bad person if I don’t?
• How would I distribute the money to diversify risk, in case a bank goes bust?
• Should I invest some of the money? How much? Where?
• Should I set up a company?
• How would my relationship with current friends change?
• How much of the money would I donate to charity?
• What would I do if someone wanted to borrow some money?

If questions start popping into your mind when you imagine that you are rich, you should understand them and see how they can affect you and you should address them, one by one. They could show that you are not ready just yet for having lots of money, because they may be revealing some blocks and obstacles when it comes to attracting money. For example, the question “How would I distribute the money to diversify risk, in case a bank goes bust?” may show that you fear losing the money, which you should deal with first - you must get rid of any negative thoughts because otherwise, you may attract it. At the same time, you may want to find an answer to the question and decide what is the most safe bank to trust with the money, how you you would invest parts of the money and so on. Finding answers to the questions shifts your thinking to be like you already had the money, attracting it even more. And once you find answers to them, you will be relieved and feel even more ready. 

There is also a theory that people should not concentrate on getting money. Instead, they should concentrate on what they want to achieve in their life (what is their “Opus“) and if they need the money to get there, it will come. Even Napoleon Hill in his The Law Of Success In Sixteen Lessons stresses the importance of having something what he calls a “definite chief aim”. If you try to imagine what you would do if you had a million dollars, it may be a good way of turning your thinking from the money to what you want to achieve - the money will just come to get you there. 

As always, I am keen to hear what is your experience. What are the questions that pop into your mind when you imagine having million dollars? Do you have any worries?

Copyright LivingNewAge.com, 2009. | Permalink | Comments
Add to del.icio.us | Digg! | Stumble! | Reddit! | Facebook

Post tags: abundance, law of attraction, personal development, positive thinking, self help, self improvement, success, wealth

People are designed to want to live a better life - always. If you have a salary at a certain level, you learn to live with that salary by developing certain habits of spending money. At the end of each month, you may end up spending all the money you’ve got for the month and think that it would be great to have a higher salary. You make plans in your head what you would buy if you had a higher salary, you can find many ways that your money can be spent to improve your life. This is quite natural, everybody wants to have more than they currently have. So in fact, most people end up spending all the money that they got for the month, having exactly the same bank account balance they had before they got their last salary.

So what happens when you actually get a salary rise? Usually, nothing changes. You immediately start spending the additional money you got. You buy the car that you wanted, you get a bigger house, perhaps you start buying a better quality food. Your monthly expenditures increase and at the end of the month, you are exactly where you were before - thinking how great it would be if you had a higher salary and how you would like to improve the quality of your life. You are still driven by a natural desire to have more than you currently have. And again, you end up spending all the money that are available to you for the month.

The above situation may repeat itself no matter how high is actually your income. Many people feel that their income is just not high enough to be able to do and buy what they want - no matter how high their income is.

Sometimes, the desire to have more drives people to debt. They start getting things that they cannot afford. They get used to a certain standard of life and they want more. They get used to being in debt and as long as they can repay the interest, they think they are fine. Getting into such situation should be avoided as much as possible. When people get into debt, they develop a certain habit of being in debt and because of the way people think (the law of attraction) they start attracting even more debts. The more debt you have the more difficult it is to get out of the debt. The debt can start affecting other areas of life as well, for example, cause relationship crisis. Sometimes, the consequences can be quite tragic.

Financial Independence

Financial independence means being able to do what you want to do, without having to increase or create a debt. All rich people are financially independent. They managed to save money to achieve financial freedom. They don’t have to ask anyone for money, if they need it.

If something unexpected happens, financially independent people have money available to sort out the problem immediately. Because they have the money always in hand, they don’t stress about the situation that they have to solve and it is not such a problem for them. For example, if they have to pay for an unexpected repair on a car or house, they can pay it without having to worry too much about it. They don’t stress about it, therefore, the law of attraction works in their favor and they don’t end up attracting debt or financial instability.

Financial independence also means being able to respond to a sudden opportunities that require initial investment of money. Most opportunities in life require some initial investment.

I can hear you thinking - “What if such opportunities are not meant for me? Not all opportunities require a huge initial investment!”. Of course, there are exceptions, for example, if you want to start blogging for a living, you can do that with zero investment if you use a hosted service or a minimum investment if you buy your own domain and web space from a service provider such as WebHostingPad. However such type of business requires a significant investment of your time and the initial returns are very low, it takes long time to be popular enough to get traffic that would earn enough for the living. I am talking about opportunities which could give you immediate returns. Financial independence would allow you to react on any opportunity, as it occurs. Right now, if you are not financially independent, there may be opportunities that you don’t even see consciously, but once you achieve financial freedom, you will have much more to choose from.

I also find that being financially independent can result in a huge self confidence boost. It may help you to be more confident in your current job, even to be ready to take on more responsibility. The more in debt you are the more dependent you are on your current job, which can result in a fear of loosing that job. Such fear would lead to a lower confidence and being overly cautious as you do things in your job and as you make decisions. All of that could be blocking you from your career progression and eventually from having more money.

If you are not financially independent, it may became more difficult for you to leave your current job, because of your dependence on it. For example you may come across a very good job offer, but the job would be for a startup company. Obviously, working for a start up is a significant risk, no matter how good an idea the startup has. On one hand, you may think that the company has got a really good idea, and that the company may be very successful in the future. Usually, successful startups offer good career progression for its employees and if they offer shares as part of its incentive program, you could end up making loads of money, in addition to your regular salary. On the other hand you may be cautious, asking yourself “What if it doesn’t work out? What if their business plan is wrong? What if they go bankrupt? What if they don’t secure enough orders to be able to pay my salary?”. Obviously, questions like that may be on your mind, because in the end you want your job to be secure as well - it is quite natural. The thing that will affect your final decision significantly is the level of your financial independence. If you had some emergency money available, you would be more willing to take the risk, because if it wouldn’t work out in the end, you would still have money to keep you going for long enough to find another job. So, being more financially independent will allow you to notice and follow an opportunity that may be associated with higher risk, but which may bring you higher yields later.

The same can be said if you want to start your own business if you have a great idea, it is not just the idea that counts, you will need some initial money as well. Of course that you may need a loan from a bank as well, but it will be much easier for you to get a better deal from your bank if you already have saved some money. Also, the initial money can help you finance some of the activities and can serve as a financial backup if times are tougher. Again, the more financially independent you are, the more risk you will be able to take, the more confident you will be and the less you will have to worry about anything going wrong, which will make the  law of attraction work in your favor.

If you meditate, try to “feel” what it would be like if you were financially independent. I am sure that you will have a great feeling. You may experience a feeling of relief, a feeling that a huge burden went away. If you feel that, you should start working towards being financially independent, because good feeling is a good sign that your body and mind are aligned with the financial freedom that you were meditating about.

How To Achieve Financial Freedom

The law of attraction says that you have to think and feel rich if you want to be rich. That is why taking steps towards financial independence will help you on your way to have more money - you will think and feel right so that you will attract more money. So how do you achieve that?

The key is to create good habits, mainly a habit of saving money. Everybody should put a certain part of their income aside and save them, which will over time manifest as the desired financial independence.

You may ask: “How can I save any money if I already spend all I earn?”. Well, you can always save money, if you choose to do so. It doesn’t matter how small the amount you decide to save initially is. Even if you decide to save only 5 dollars per month, it is still worth starting doing it. Saving money is a habit - you need to start doing it and you will get used to doing it. It is a habit well worth building. And because the law of attraction works all the time, you will still have money for what you need, even though you start putting some of the money you earn aside with a goal of achieving financial independence.

Let’s say you start saving 50 dollars every month and let’s assume an annual savings interest rate of 3 %. After 5 years, you will have 3,232 dollars. You may argue that it is a long time and that 3,232 dollars is not a lot of money. But actually, if you keep on going without building a habit of saving, you will have nothing at all in 5 years time. I think having 3,232 dollars compared to nothing is much better. In addition, during those 5 years, you will have built up a habit of saving, shifted your thinking from debts towards financial freedom, which on its own can start attracting more and more money into your life.

Should you start saving even though you haven’t repaid all your debts yet? Absolutely yes! I think it is important to start saving, even though you still have to repay debts. Of course the amounts that you will save are probably going to be smaller than if you saved and had no debts, but it still helps your mind to switch from “All I do is repay debts” to “I am becoming financially independent” - and the shift is very important. Make sure that you start repaying your debts, if you haven’t started yet, but save some money as well. Both not having debts and having some money available in case they are needed is very important.

I am going to end this article with a book recommendation. Napoleon Hill wrote a book called The Law Of Success In Sixteen Lessons.  The book motivated me to write this article. He wrote a whole chapter about habits and about the habit of saving money in particular. The chapter has plenty of real life examples about why the habit is very important. Napoleon Hill suggested that everybody should build up a habit of saving and save about 20 % of their income.

Copyright LivingNewAge.com, 2009. | Permalink | Comments
Add to del.icio.us | Digg! | Stumble! | Reddit! | Facebook

Post tags: abundance, financial independence, law of attraction, motivation, personal development, positive thinking, saving money, self confidence, self help, self improvement, success, wealth

It was quite an interesting experience. I got some very interesting articles sent directly to me, rather than having to find them on the internet myself. However, some articles that were submitted were not on the topic of this site. Although some of them were quite interesting, I cannot mention them here because I would like the topic to be adhered to. This carnival lists articles that show how new age tools can be used in real life. By the new age tools I mean tools like law of attraction, tarot, meditation, visualization, positive thinking, astrology, and any other. The key is that the article should be showing how these tools help in everyday life.

Please make sure that your article is not off topic if you submit an article that you would like to be mentioned in the next edition. It would save me significant amount of time. Anybody can submit their article using the carnival submission form.

The articles below are listed in order in which they have been submitted. All of the articles below are good and are in line with this blog’s purpose. I didn’t  want to order them by popularity, because I am sure that your order would be different anyway.

Palehorse Redivivus presents Dynamite Your Limitations! posted at Beyond Within. The article describes a method for blowing through blocks, demolishing limitations and clearing out internal debris. Palehorse claims that the technique that he describes quickly and directly removes structures in your subconscious and energy that isn’t serving your best interest, including but not limited to fears, anxiety, bad habits, bad coping mechanisms, habitual negativity and faulty belief structures. I am not sure if I would use the same tools that Palehorse uses in his visualization but the article is full of useful information and the process can be easily adapted to whatever you find acceptable.

Metaphysical Junkie presents Looking for Truth posted at Metaphysical Junkie, saying, “It’s about exploring new age beliefs for people who are new or skeptical to new age ideas.”. There are many new age beliefs and practices around and many of us are in search of a universal truth and whether these beliefs and practices fit into what we believe in. The article points out some things to think about when you try to decide whether a particular theory is right for you or not and shows some things to consider when processing a new idea or belief. The article is great and very inspirational, it inspired me a lot when I wrote the Does Law of Attraction Always Work? article (it made me more relaxed about the problem).

Robin Birch presents Making The Most Of Life posted at Let’s Live Forever!. Robin starts her article by asking a question: What would you be doing today if you believed you were never going to die? She talks about one of the most common fears among people, the fear of death, and how important it is to get rid of such fear and make the most of the present moment. Make sure you look around her blog, the blog has some other articles, that are very interesting as well.

Ross “Tolemac” Cotton presents Law of Attraction Methods and Techniques: Part 1 posted at Tolemac’s Metaphysical Blog. His article is first in series of articles that will address different techniques which will make application of the law of attraction easier in life. He starts by describing importance of writing down of what you would like to achieve and he also suggests what exactly to write down and how. He also stresses that you can achieve anything, if you believe in it, and if you allow yourself to have it. His article is definitely worth reading because it contains a lot of useful information. See for yourself.

I am not sure if you heard about chakras yet, but chakras are energy centers that each person has, there is seven of them and each one of them affects a certain area of life. The root chakra, which is located at the base of the spine is the chakra responsible for stability, security, survival, safety, protection, being grounded and for having our higher desires manifest in the physical world where we live in. ITAKEOFFTHEMASK presents Balancing the Root Chakra for Health and Stability posted at itakeoffthemask.com, which describes how you can detect if the chakra is not harmonized and how you can put the chakra back to balance.

Jim Hudson posted three articles at Accelerate Me! Personal Development Blog - How to Meditate your way to Happiness and Success, How to Unlock Your Intuition and Enhance the Effectiveness of your Vision Board. The first article is a very well written comprehensive guideline on how to meditate, and the second one builds on top of it and suggests how you can access your intuition in your meditation to ask what you would like to know. The third article gives quite useful information about how to use the vision board and how to enhance the effectiveness of your vision board “ten-fold”.

Lana Kravtsova presents Attract Abundance Into Your Life posted at Dream Followers. The article lists couple of things to keep in mind if you want to attract prosperity and abundance into your life.

Amit presents Going It Alone posted at Amit, saying, “Great reasons why you should try new things alone and not wait for others.”. The article shows Amit’s views on doing stuff alone and how important it is to do it and not rely on others when it is not really necessary. It is a very motivational article, in which Amit describes how he tackled the dependency on others. I would recommend the article to anyone who would like to do something but feels like never getting to it because he / she cannot find a mate to share the activity with.

Burak Bilgin presents 3 Achievement Strategies posted at Distiller’s Corner, saying, “three strategies that will empower you to achieve your goals, and realize your vision.” The strategies described by Burak are the 80/20 rule, optimal thinking and the big picture.

That concludes this edition. Hope you liked the carnival and the articles listed above. The next edition of the carnival will go out on 5th May 2009. Submit your blog article to the next edition of LivingNewAge Carnival using the carnival submission form. The submission deadline is 1st May 2009 make sure your posts are submitted before this date to make it into the next edition. If you don’t want to miss anything posted on this site, make sure you subscribe to this blog using RSS Feeds.

Copyright LivingNewAge.com, 2009. | Permalink | Comments
Add to del.icio.us | Digg! | Stumble! | Reddit! | Facebook

Post tags: abundance, blog carnival, chakras, law of attraction, looking for truth, meditation, motivation, personal development, positive thinking, self help, self improvement, success, vision board, visualization, wealth

There are several theories that could explain the above questions. Steve Pavlina is a professional speaker and writer who presents one of the theories to address these concerns in his article about the law of attraction. 

He describes a concept of a subjective reality:

Subjective reality is a belief system in which (1) there is only one consciousness, (2) you are that singular consciousness, and (3) everything and everyone in your reality is a projection of your thoughts.  

The above quotation is a summary of the theory in one sentence. It is worth reading the whole article to understand what the wants to say. I must say that I don’t agree with many things in his theory. Below are some quotations that I find difficult to believe, so it may look that I completely deny his theory, which would be a misunderstanding of what I want to say. I want to be open to his theory, because this is one of those things that are impossible to prove. No one will probably ever be able to prove whether it is true, in the same way that no one will ever be able to prove what happens after people die. I am just commenting on how I feel about some aspects of the theory. I don’t doubt that your feelings may be different.  

In subjective reality there’s only one consciousness, and it’s yours.  Consequently, there’s only one source of intentions in your universe — YOU.  While you may observe lots of walking, talking bodies in your reality, they all exist inside your consciousness.  You know this is how your dreams work, but you haven’t yet realized your waking reality is just another type of dream.  It only seems solid because you believe (intend) it is. 

He seems to be saying that we are only dreaming our life. That nothing is real. At the moment I don’t find this to be in line with my beliefs. I think there is a clear difference between life and dream, although a dream may feel to be very “real”. But eventually you will wake up from the dream to your reality.

The idea that other people have intentions is an illusion because other people are just projections.  Of course, if you strongly believe other people have intentions, then that’s the dream you’ll create for yourself.  But ultimately it’s still an illusion.

I don’ believe that other people are just projections. This concept is the most difficult one for me to accept from his theory of subjective reality. I believe my wife, my children, parents, relatives, friends and all other people are real. Thanks to them I can experience love. They help me become a better person, because I learn from my mistakes that I do when I am with them. I don’t think there is a coincidence in what people you meet in your life though. I think that like attracts like and that you will most likely attract people into your life that will reflect the way you think. But I feel that there is a different reason why this happens, not that you actually make up the person in your dream of life and project the person to be in front of you. 

Another common explanation of the questions is that the intentions were made during your past life or during life between life. The life in our physical body is limited, but we live on over and over again, learning from our lessons and experiences. The soul goes through a certain development process, which cannot be achieve by living only one life in a physical body. Before you were born, you chose what you want to experience in your life, so that the soul gets the experience it needs for its development.  

Again, the fact whether we live multiple lives cannot be proved and will always be impossible to prove. I must admit though that the theory with the past lives is much more aligned with my beliefs than the concept of a subjective reality. I don’t want to say that only one of the theories is right and that the other is wrong, maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle. I believe in the law of attraction because my own experience is that it works - always. I want to be open to an experience that would help me find which of the above theories is true, but maybe there is another theory that I haven’t captured - let me know if you think I haven’t listed something that would be interesting to consider.

So what about the conflicting intentions? What if two people want to be promoted to the same position and what if there is only one position open for the promotion? Which one will get it? I don’t think it is possible to simplify the problem to say that who wants it more gets it.  It depends on personal circumstances of both persons who would want the promotion, assuming that both actually want it. If you are one of the people who want the promotion, you should be asking the following questions:

• What is it that you actually want? Is it the promotion or the work that you would be doing? Or is it the money that you would get if you were promoted? Or is it that you want to be recognized?
• Does the other person really want a promotion or is it only you thinking that he/she wants it and therefore reducing your chances for the promotion?
• Is there really one open position or do you block possible success by thinking that there is only one position open?
• What are your qualities that you have that would make you suitable for the position?
• What qualities are expected that the person who will get the position would have? How do you fit into it? 
• Do you feel deep inside that you are ready for the position? 
• Are you afraid of anything if you took the position? Do you have any fears?
• Do you fear that you would not be accepted in the position by your peers?
• How confident are you that you would do well in the position?
• Is there anything you have connected with the role that you think is negative? Are you afraid that you would be doing it?
• If you visualize yourself in the position, how do you feel?

No two people would answer all of the above questions the same. Depending on the answers, only one person may get the promotion, but it doesn’t mean you would not be successful if you wanted it as well and didn’t get it in the end. Keep working in line with the law of attraction and let the above questions motivate you to become more aligned with what you want to achieve. It may be that you will get the position a bit later, when you are more ready and aligned with the position. Or that you will get an even better position that is more in line with what you answered to the first question. You may get an even better offer from a different company. Or the other person may relocate to a different country. The possibilities are endless but truth is that when you are ready for the position and you are completely aligned with it and have no fears that would be blocking you, you will get what you really want. Just watch the opportunities that come to you and act.

Copyright LivingNewAge.com, 2009. | Permalink | Comments
Add to del.icio.us | Digg! | Stumble! | Reddit! | Facebook

Post tags: abundance, law of attraction, motivation, personal development, positive thinking, self help, self improvement, success, the secret, wealth

Although many of the people that were in The Secret are in The Opus movie as well and although the movie is made in a similar style, it is quite different. Neither of the movies is better than the other, each one is great in its own way. I think that The Opus is going to be more acceptable by people who don’t believe in new age so much, because it is more direct, down to earth and not that mysterious, while still showing you how to turn your intentions into accomplishments.

The movie shows significance of emotions accompanying any intention you have. It stresses that if what you want to achieve comes from your heart, you have a better chance achieving it. You have a much better chance in succeeding in what YOU really want to do, rather than what others want you to do or what others expect you to do. When love powers your thoughts and intentions, you are much more likely to succeed.

Some people may have misunderstood The Secret by thinking that only by shifting your thinking towards positive thinking will attract more of the positive and that you will live in abundance by doing just that. The Opus signifies the importance of action. The message is quite strait-forward - keep on visualizing and think positively, but also act. Sitting on the couch will not get you anywhere. Don’t be afraid to get started on what you want. Don’t wait for the situation for your start to be perfect. Just get started. Don’t be afraid of failure, you learn by failing, every failure makes you stronger. The top achievers are not perfectionists, they are just very good at improvising. Just do the first step that is necessary to achieve what you want to achieve.  

The movie motivates you to create an incredible “Opus”. You will find what it is by watching it.

Here is the movie trailer:

I also found first few minutes of the movie on youtube:

You can get the movie from The Opus Movie Distribution. The Movie can also be viewed online through the site for a lower price.

Copyright LivingNewAge.com, 2009. | Permalink | Comments
Add to del.icio.us | Digg! | Stumble! | Reddit! | Facebook

Post tags: abundance, law of attraction, life purpose, motivation, movie, personal development, positive thinking, self help, self improvement, success, the secret

I have got a few friends who have psychic abilities and one of them advised me to use the method of visualization when I feel stressed by something in near future. When I first tried it I studied at university and I was just about to pass a very difficult exam which I was very afraid of. One week before the exam I practiced the visualization every evening. It is very simple, everyone can do it and it does not need any psychic abilities. You can practice it any time during the day. All you need to do is to find a peaceful place.

These are the steps that I do:

1. I close my eyes and calm myself down while concentrating on breathing.
2. I start to think about the situation and summarize how I want it to happen. I always thank that I will go through the situation smoothly and that the outcome will be how I wish it to be. In case of my exam I thanked that I would successfully pass it and that the examiners would be nice to me. 
3. I begin to imagine the situation in detail step by step and try to feel all my emotions because they make the visualization strong and make it work. It is very important to visualize how you want it to happen. In case of my exam, I started to visualize entering the school and waiting for my name to be called. All the time I was aware of all my feelings. I visualized myself entering the examination room and drawing a question. I thanked for drawing a question which is the best for me to help me pass the exam without limiting my success on a particular question. I also visualized that the examiners would be pleasant and that the whole process of my exam would be calm and not stressful for me.
4. At the end I visualize my big happiness, relief and other positive feelings and I always try to really enjoy it. It is important to really feel all these good emotions. In case of my exam I imagined my happiness when I was told I passed the exam. To make all the positive feelings stronger I visualized how I phoned my parents, I imagined the party with friends as a celebration, and so on. 
5. I thank for the good result again.

That’s it! It is very simple and it does not take much time. 

So how did the exam go? I passed it with the best grade. The examiners were very nice to me, I did not get any tricky questions from them. Although I must say I was really surprised with the question I drew. I thought to myself - Is it really the best question for me??! I immediately returned to a positive attitude that it must have been the best question for me otherwise I would have not drawn it. The result of the exam confirmed it.  

To sum up: it is very important to be really in that situation. The key to that are the emotions (happiness, relief, and so on). If you can feel them you know you do it right. Fully enjoy the happiness and satisfaction at the end of your visualization. And what about the negative feelings you may have during the visualization such as stress and fear? I think it is important to be aware of all your feelings. If you notice a stress or other negative emotion, you can gradually reduce them by practicing the visualization for a few days. During the visualization you can concentrate on unpleasant feelings to make them disappear or shrink. That’s what I always try to do. After all, the visualization is yours, you are the one who directs it so you can visualize whatever you want. 

I would like to add a short story which is related to this exam to show how the visualization works exactly the way you direct it. Radim, who was my boyfriend at that time and had the exam on the same day, decided that he would practice this method as well. He did not want to spend 15 min every evening visualizing the whole exam process, he visualized just the result of the exam. For one week every evening he spent 5 minutes to visualize his big happiness when he was told he passed it. He also had a clear idea which question he wanted to draw. He actually drew the question he really wanted but the examiner gave him hard time so when Radim came out of the examination room, he was really down. He thought he did not pass it and the hour he had to wait for the result of the exam was very difficult for him. When he heard that he passed it even though with a bad grade, he was the happiest person in the world. The exam went exactly how he visualized it :-).

I used this method many times for different situations such as job interviews, stressful meeting with a boss at work, and so on. It always worked. I think it is a great tool to make your life easier. 

The last thing I would like to mention is gratitude. At the beginning and end of every visualization I thank that I will get what I want. I think it is a good thing to be grateful and appreciate what you get. It encourages the thinking and acceptance that you are already getting it. 

Before completing this article I saw the film The Secret which explains how the law of attraction works and I realized that this method of visualization is based on the law of attraction. I always used the visualization to help me through difficult situations but after seeing this film I know it can be practiced to achieve even bigger things. I am very excited and keen to try it.

I hope this article was helpful and I wish you good luck!

Copyright LivingNewAge.com, 2009. | Permalink | Comments
Add to del.icio.us | Digg! | Stumble! | Reddit! | Facebook

Post tags: law of attraction, motivation, personal development, positive thinking, self help, self improvement, stress reduction, success, visualization

You can also watch the original movie trailer. You can get the movie DVD from Amazon, if you are interested. There is also a book with the same name that was published year after the film was first aired.

Copyright LivingNewAge.com, 2009. | Permalink | Comments
Add to del.icio.us | Digg! | Stumble! | Reddit! | Facebook

Post tags: abundance, law of attraction, motivation, movie, personal development, positive thinking, self help, self improvement, success, the secret, wealth

During my studies at university in Prague I met a lot of wise spiritual people when I attended some astrology and spiritual courses. I learned from them to think positively and think more about what I want than what I don’t want. I learned techniques, such as mental projection (visualization) to positively affect my future, such as upcoming exams and job interviews. I used the techniques very successfully, they just worked great for me. Again, I never knew why they worked, but they worked and I kept using them more and more in my everyday life.

I recently saw a film called The Secret.  That is when I found why all the techniques I have been using to positively affect my future, including the advice from my grandma, work. They all have one thing in common, one law that explains why they work -  the law of attraction. The film uses a documentary format and very well explains the law of attraction. It also shows some examples of people who have used the law of attraction successfully with even bigger targets than I did. It was recorded in 2006, and developed into a book of the same title in 2007.

Since I really liked the film and because I came across many articles about the law of attraction recently, I thought I would describe and share with you what the law of attraction is and how it works, because learning about it answered many of my questions.

The law of attraction says that you attract into your life whatever you think about. It means that what you think about can manifest in your life, that your thoughts in fact dictate your reality. It signifies the importance of positive thinking and teaches us that negative thinking can attract situations into your life that are negative and not desired. You can make the law of attraction work both in your favor and against you depending on what you think about and how you think about it. If you really want something, you can get it, whatever it is. There are no limits, only limits that you create in your mind, which will eventually manifest in your reality. If you truly believe that what you want is what you can get, you will get it, no matter what is it that you want - health, money, happiness, loving relationships - you name it.  

The key is that whatever you do, think about what you want and not what you don’t want. The law of attraction means that you can get something you don’t want if you think about it a lot. The more you think about something, the more you attract it to your life, the more likely it is that it will manifest in your reality. I noticed that many people talk the most about things that are in fact their own issues. It is their thinking which creates their reality, it always works, just look around and you will see. Have you ever heard about placebo effect? 

As I said before, I was always taught not to think in a negative way. If you meditate, if you make a wish, you should always do it in a positive way. For example, if you have financial difficulties, if you are in debt, your thoughts should not be oriented towards getting rid of the debt, you should not think about the debt at all. Otherwise, you are attracting it again and again into your life. It doesn’t mean though that you should pretend that there is no debt. Denial will not get you out of the unwanted situation, it will only make it stronger. You have to be honest with yourself, otherwise you would feed the unwanted situation because you would not truly believe it.

Instead of thinking about your debt, try to shift towards positive thinking. It is not very easy, but it is important to do, because once you start thinking positively, you will create positive vibrations and the universe will start giving you the positive. Start by being grateful for things that you already have and that identify you with the situation that you want. For example, celebrate each cheque you get, learn to appreciate it, no matter what the value of the cheque is. Just learn to be happy that you received the money. Not long time ago I used to have the wrong attitude when I received my paycheck. I used to complain about my salary, that the salary was not fair for what I did at work and I even complained how much tax and national insurance was deducted from my salary. When I stopped complaining things started to improve gradually, for example, I got an unexpected bonus and even pay rise a bit later. So this worked for me very well and I would recommend this shift in thinking to everyone. Next time you get your paycheck, see what your emotions are like. What is the first thing you think of when you get your paycheck? If your thinking at that moment is negative, you are creating negative situations. But if it is positive, you will be creating more of the positive. 

Once you start appreciating things you have, you will notice that you will start getting more of it. You can then start concentrating on what you want, because you will have bigger confidence that the law of attraction works in your favor. You can now place an order with the Universe, tell it what you really want so that it can help you get it. Visualize what you want in your life, imagine in your mind what you would do if you had it. This is not easy at all, you may find that you don’t know yet what you would do. For example, when I wanted to attract more money into my life, I realized that I don’t know how I would use the money. By thinking about all the good things I would do with it, I felt that there was an even bigger reason for wanting it. If you put out intentions that are backed by a specific purpose, they are even stronger and you will attract it more. 

Don’t think about how you will get where you want to be, just think about where you want to be and leave the rest on the Universe. Thinking about the how could start limiting you only to a specific way of approaching the target. It would only be another of those things you should not do - creating limits, boundaries, obstacles. Trust the Universe, know that you will get where you want to be and that the Universe will find you a way. You may find that the way to get there suddenly emerges and that it is something that you could have never thought of. You may find something new, get a great idea, meet someone new that could help you get there.

Start identifying yourself with what you want. How would you behave if you already had what you want? Try bringing that into your life as much as possible. Would you keep eating a lot of fat, junk food if you were slim? No, because that is not what slim people do, they exercise and eat well, that is why they are slim. In relationships, always treat others how you want to be treated, because that is how you identify yourself with what you want and that is how others will be treating you as a result.

As always, I am very keen to hear your comments. If you have any interesting story or experience with the law of attraction, please feel free to add your comments. 

Copyright LivingNewAge.com, 2009. | Permalink | Comments
Add to del.icio.us | Digg! | Stumble! | Reddit! | Facebook

Post tags: abundance, law of attraction, motivation, personal development, positive thinking, self help, self improvement, success, the secret, wealth