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Today I’m continuing my blog about prosperity consciousness and ways to connect with it, and about how we set up our own realities and limitations. In this final part I’m once again talking to you about the subject of money.

Eric Butterworth is one of Unity’s great writers.  In his book Spiritual Economics he talks about financial abundance and prosperity. He tells us that the word prosperity …” comes from the Latin root which literally translates ‘according to hope” or “to go forward hopefully”. Thus its is not so much a condition in life as it is an attitude towards life. The truly prosperous person is one who is experiencing what Jesus of Nazareth referred to as the life more abundant. We need to turn the focus of attention away from lack, layoffs and limitations, and on to the omnipresence of universal substance.”

“We can see it in the everywhere presence of life all through nature, and we can feel it in the endless flow of creative ideas that issues forth from our minds in moments of inspiration. Just as there are experiences that are healthful to us, so are there experiences that are “wealthful.”

“Expose yourself constantly to wealthful ideas—think prosperity … substance … affluence. Your life will be influenced for good or ill by the kinds of thoughts that rule your mind and manifest themselves in your world. Lack and limitation of any kind are aberrations in an opulent universe. Any person who is experiencing lack is, in some way, living in opposition to the universal flow. Prosperity is a way of living and thinking—not just money or things. Considered in the broadest sense, prosperity is “spiritual well-being.”

Eric goes on to say: “We have been erroneously conditioned to believe that our lives are completely shaped by what happens around us and to us. But life is lived from within out. It is not what happens “out there,” but what we do or think about what happens. The starting point in realizing prosperity is to accept responsibility for your own thoughts, thus taking charge of your life. How you think and feel … will invariably determine what you experience. Make a commitment to get yourself and keep yourself in the positive stream of life. Keep your thoughts centered in the ideas of abundance, self-sufficiency and well-being. Work on the realization that you are surrounded by a divine presence which wishes for you only good because you are expressing its life.”

“Prosperity is not just having things. It is the consciousness that attracts these things. There is no such thing as a purely financial problem unrelated to the false attitudes and emotions that caused it, or to a healthy attitude or emotion that can cure it.”

So, in closing, let us remember that nothing and no one keeps our good from us except our own thinking, our vibrational frequency. Your good awaits you, so simply open your heart and mind to receive it. Embrace your unlimited good. Embrace the money that does grow on trees.  

If interested in getting  my free e-book, click here. Also, don’t forget to check out the AbundanceTogether Facebook page for your daily inspiration here.

Keep manifesting good things  Tony

Today I’m continuing my blog about prosperity consciousness and ways to connect with it, and about how we set up our own realities and limitations. I’m talking to you about the subject of money.

As you know, we are co-creators with Source, attracting abundance and creating reality through thoughts held in Mind. So, all we need to is think differently – right? We just need to change our beliefs – right? Easier said than done – right? If you are like me, you have been told over and over again:

  Money is filthy – as in the filthy rich
  We have less because others have more
  We’ll never be rich
  If we are materialistic, we can’t be spiritual
  Too much money is a bad thing
  Honest people live humble lives
  Money is the root of all evil
  We can have money only if we work hard for it
  We can’t be super rich and remain honest at the same time
  If we are not successful, we are not worthy
  Money doesn’t grow on trees

Any of that sound familiar? Yeah, you bet it does! Esra B. Ogut, author of Money Does Grow on Trees asks us “What is reality? Is it something outside of us, fixed, dictating the rules of the game, and we either get it right or wrong? Or is reality simply an exact reflection of our individually held beliefs. Imagine,” she says, “…just for a second, that you have your very own ATM machine, and that you can withdraw as much money as you need each and every time you visit it. What’s more, when you do, others won’t have less because of it. Who would you be BEING, in relationship to money, if that were the case? You would be prosperous – right? Because money DOES grow on trees!”

Let’s now do a little exercise from the book.
I’ll ask you 10 short questions  and all you have to do is silently answer them to yourself. You might want to close your eyes as you do so.

  Who was the main breadwinner in your family growing up?
  What was his or her relationship to money?
  How did your parents’ relationship to money make you feel as a child?
  What is your earliest memory around money?
  What were some of the things you kept hearing about money? Things you observed    about it. Experienced because of it?
  What is a pleasant memory you have about money?
  Conversely what is the most unpleasant memory you have about money?
  What were your ultimate conclusions about money? Do you see correlations       between your financial life now and the conclusions and myths around money you     formed as a child or young adult?
  If you were to come up with your own authentic, current, and updated definition of    prosperity, what would it be?
 What would your life look like with your new definition of prosperity? Think of   some of the details.

Now open your eyes and prepare to manifest prosperity. Here’s an affirmation from Dr. Catherine Ponder, founder of Unity Church Worldwide:  “Large sums of money, big happy financial surprises, and rich appropriate gifts now come to me, under grace, in perfect ways, for my personal use. And I use them wisely.”
How does that sound? How does it make you feel? Pretty good EH?

How about these? 
Every day in every way I am becoming more prosperous, affluent, wealthy. and rich.
Copious amounts of money flow to and through me and I use them for my good and the good of others.
I am increasing my share of the unlimited abundance of the Universe.
I serve the Source and money serves me.
Money is my useful and obedient servant.
Money is Good – it is divinity in action.
I gratefully and joyfully receive frequent and opulent financial gifts, prizes, returns, blessings, and opportunities, monetary surprises, winnings, gains, and awards.

Use affirmations like those daily. Ask for, expect, remain open, and gratefully receive your financial abundance.
Let’s consider the following  from Lessons in Truth by Emilie Cady:
“One of the unerring truths in the universe (by “universe” I mean the spiritual and natural worlds combined)” she says “…is that there is already provided a lavish abundance for every human want. In other words,” “the supply of every good awaits the demand.
Another truth is that the demand must be made before the supply can come forth to fill it. To recognise these two statements of Truth and to affirm them are the whole secret of understanding faith – faith based on principle. “

So then. Make your demand of the Universe through prayer and affirmations, calling forth the abundance that is already provided. Good is already here, already available, even when we can’t see it yet. Abraham Hicks tells us that this abundance, everything you have ever wanted, is “in vibrational escrow”.  Your belief and faith bring it into manifestation.

Everyone is an extension of Source Energy, and everyone has access to infinite intelligence, all you have to do is tune yourself to its vibrational frequency.

Stay tuned for next month’s blog about MONEY.

If interested in getting  my free e-book, click here. Also, don’t forget to check out the AbundanceTogether Facebook page for your daily inspiration here.

Keep manifesting good things  Tony

Today my blog is about prosperity consciousness and ways to connect with it, and about how we set up our own realities and limitations. I’ll talk to you about the subject of money.

Now the Metaphysical meaning of money is as follows: Money is a medium of exchange and a measurement of value. It is the materialisation of spiritual substance. 

Money is related to the first or root chakra, the red muladhara energy centre, located at the base of your spine. It has to do with your sense of security, home, and safety.

Julie Peters in Spirituality and Health Magazine tells us that Money is a little like sex: we think about it frequently but rarely talk about it in healthy, open ways.
Now I must admit that I used to think about sex quite a bit when I was younger, but not so much anymore. I guess it must be andropause – the male equivalent to menopause and related to a drop in testosterone. Don’t believe that it’s a real thing? Just google it.
But I digress.

Julie goes on to say: “Many of us have a scarcity mindset when it comes to money.  There’s never enough, and when we think about our bank accounts, we do not feel safe—even when, objectively, there is enough, and we are in no danger.” “Money anxiety has been passed down through the generations, and much of what we’re feeling and thinking about, when it comes to the spiritual meaning of money, isn’t even from our own lifetime.” Make sense? Yeah!

Want to hear some bad dad jokes about Money? Good! Here goes:
If money actually started growing on trees, what season would become everyone’s favourite?  Fall.
When does it start raining money?  When there’s a change in the weather.
Why is money also called dough? Well, because every person kneads it.
How much money did the skunk have?  It only had one scent.

Anyway – A few months ago I was looking through an issue of Spirituality and Health,  a magazine that I have subscribed to for some 10 years or so, and an ad for a neat book just jumped out at me. Has something like that ever happened to you? Interesting, eh? There were piles of ads in that magazine, but that particular one hit my eye, and my soul. So, I immediately signed into my Amazon Prime account [they are getting a free plug here] and ordered the book. 

It was by Esra B. Ogut. She’s Swedish, lives in Hawaii and is an author and transformational coach. It was called Money Does Grow on Trees. The Myths We Create and Live By. Today’s blog is partially based on her book.

When I was a kid, I recall my parents telling me that money does not grow on trees.  I’m pretty sure I told my two daughters the same thing as they were growing up. Maybe you did as well. I remember them thinking that all we needed to do was go to a bank or an ATM and we could take out as much cash as we wanted. Like a magic money machine!

They were so disappointed when they realised that it really did not work that way. I had to put currency in to the bank before I could get any out. And I could not take out anymore than I had put in, unless I was borrowing it of course.

Then there was that time when I received an excited call from my oldest daughter telling me that we had just won a million dollars. She told me that when she had checked the mail that day there was a letter announcing that we were big winners. Millionaires! I asked her if it was something from a company called  Publisher’s Clearing House. Some of you may remember it. Was it Ed McMahon who supposedly showed up at your house with a huge check? Anyway, she said yes.

Another major disappointment for her and her sister when I explained to them that it was a marketing ploy from a company trying to sell us magazines. Money does not come that easily I told them. It does not grow on trees!

So, when I read the title of Esra’s book  I seriously questioned the premise, that money does grow on trees, even though I have long thought of myself as a spiritual person living in abundance, being financially prosperous.

The overall point of the book is this: Our unconscious belief systems create our realities. By releasing our limiting beliefs, we can turn our lives around and find money on trees. Our reality is simply a reflection of our individually held beliefs being mirrored back at us.

Now, doesn’t that sound familiar? Thoughts become things. We become what we think about all day long. We attract what we focus on. We create our own reality. It’s the Law of Attraction isn’t it?

Stay tuned for next month’s blog about MONEY.

If interested in getting  my free e-book, click here. Also, don’t forget to check out the AbundanceTogether Facebook page for your daily inspiration here.

Keep manifesting good things  Tony

 

Today my blog is a continuation of the one from the past 2 months – about the Law of Attraction.

Dr. Wayne Dyer, one of the greatest promoters of the Law of Attraction, stated: “You’ll see it when you believe it.”
When we open our minds, we open our hearts and our lives to receiving. When we repeat these new positive patterns over and over [they may be thoughts, actions and/or beliefs], we literally change the neural pathways in our brains.
We give circumstances meaning by how we perceive or choose to react to those circumstances. We, therefore, understand that it’s all in how we look at things and that every choice, every decision that we make, and every thought that we focus on now, creates our future life. In other words, we construct our own world, and we manifest our own wealth, our own health, and our own relationships.

A few years ago my wife Bonnie and I were guests at a timeshare resort owned by a couple of our friends. It was a gorgeous place up in the Muskokas. Bonnie decided, then and there, that she wanted our own week up there at that resort. Well, it was way out of our price range, but Bonnie persisted in visualizing and not worrying about the cursed how’s. A year or so later there was a $99 sell off of unused time share weeks. We struck gold! The Law worked for us again.
So, what we think about ourselves and our world becomes the truth for us. Our lives become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Each one of us creates our experiences by our thoughts and our feelings. Put another way, our subconscious mind accepts whatever we choose to believe and then it becomes true for us. The Universe accepts us at our own value and then, like a mirror, it reflects our beliefs back to us, creating our lives.

The Law of Attraction can seem mysterious and daunting when someone first discovers it, but it’s really quite simple. It’s the application of its principles to achieve positive results that is not easy. To make the Law work for us, we cannot just send our desires out to the Universe and then sit back and wait.
We have to take action – consistent action. Just by taking baby steps, one at a time, no matter how small they are, we need to move in the direction of our dreams. We need to “Do what we can, with what we have, from where we are”. We need to act, with gratitude, as if we already have what we want, then allow it to happen, and be prepared and willing to receive.
Any action is better than none, even if we are not sure how it will help to achieve our dreams. A flight to the moon, for example, involves a series of redirections and corrections to the rocket’s flight path, and we too will make needed adjustments as we move towards our goals. We don’t just sit back and expect the Universe to do all of the work in bringing us the things, people, places, and events to fulfill our dreams. We need to make some changes, give the effort and do our share!

Remember the story of the person sitting on top of his house as the waters rise during a major flood? He calls on God to save him.
Along come 3 opportunities for safety – a guy in a rowboat, a couple in a motor launch, and a helicopter He refuses help each time, claiming that God will save him. And so he drowns.
When his spirit arrives at the Golden Gates he complains that God had forsaken him and had not saved him. St. Peter looks at him in disgust and says – Three times God sent help to you and you refused to accept it each time. What do you expect? You merely had to do your small share of the work.
So, how can we do the work and make the changes that we need to make to improve our lives?
Well, by identifying our limiting beliefs, we can locate the invisible obstacles that are holding us back from achieving what we want. There are various methods available to help us rewire our neural pathways, to reprogram our minds, and to eliminate or change our confining ideas, views, and notions. The intent is to weed them out and replace them with a positive mindset by implanting empowering beliefs, thoughts and habits.

The brain has the ability to change as a result of experience – it is called neuroplasticity, and since the brain cannot distinguish between actual or imagined experiences, we can, for example, like Olympic athletes, help create our successes by visualizing or picturing them.
This Visualization process is but one practical method we can use to make a change to our mindset and to help us manifest the life of our dreams.
Other methods include: mindfulness meditation, affirmations, prayer, gratitude journals, forgiveness lists, EFT, self-hypnosis, and the list goes on. We just need to pick and consistently apply that or those methods that most resonate with us.
Now, to make a lasting shift in how we view our world, in our belief system, we need to remember what the great Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said: “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.

In closing this 3 month blog on the Law of Attraction, I’ve probably left you with many more questions than answers. There’s a lot more to the Law than what I’ve touched on today.
As Mike Dooley says: “The bottom line is that if presently we are lacking abundance, health, or harmony, the problem lies in our own thinking and thoughts. If there is a problem with our thoughts, it’s because there’s a problem with our beliefs…”
So, to make the Law of Attraction work for us, let us continue to work on changing our core beliefs – particularly beliefs about ourselves.

If interested in getting my free e-book, click here. Also, don’t forget to check out the AbundanceTogether Facebook page for your daily inspiration here.

Keep manifesting good things 🙂 Tony

 

Today my blog is a continuation of the one from last month – about the Law of Attraction.

Over the years many famous and renowned persons have supposedly used the principles of the Law of Attraction to achieve their successes. Even though it hasn’t been widely known, historical figures like Socrates, Plato, Francis Bacon, Henry David Thoreau and the transcendentalists of the mid-19th century, were all students of the Law. We can add to the list: Abraham Lincoln, Alexander Graham Bell, Shakespeare, Isaac Newton, Thomas Edison, Victor Hugo, and even the Founding Fathers of the USA.
More recently, various celebrities have talked about and utilized the principles of the Law, and a number of them publicly shared their beliefs in the movie I mentioned earlier – “The Secret”. I also understand that Arnie the Terminator and Lady Gaga both promote certain aspects of the Law.
In today’s modern society Oprah is really the main personality to have popularized the ideas of the Law. As she said: “The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change her future by merely changing her attitude.”

Well, what’s this about Attitude?
According to the Law, a positive or optimistic attitude naturally results in positive thinking and, ultimately, manifests in positive outcomes. Alternatively, a pessimistic or negative perspective on life results in negative thinking and attracts negative outcomes.
To begin incorporating this Law into our everyday lives, we need to monitor our thought processes and the words that we use. Once we have learned to be more attentive to our thoughts, words, and actions we become more aware of any underlying negativity that could be affecting what we are manifesting in our lives. Not only that, but when we are aware of these negative patterns, it will become easier for us to cancel or dismiss them and replace them with a more positive and affirmative mindset.
So, we need to exchange negative thoughts and comments about the “things” that we do not want with positive ones about those that we do want. After a little while, it becomes second nature to think optimistically, to use positive words, and to send out good energy.

Consider this: Who attracts the best people? The person who is joyful, cheerful and grateful and who expresses positive vibes, or the one who is a doomsayer, complainer, and whiner, and who carries heavy and negative vibrational energy?
Now, one of the more interesting aspects of the Law deals with the fact that the Universe responds to vibrational intent by creating methods to fulfill our wants and desires. It manipulates events, circumstances, and situations to achieve the results that we have identified. So, we must remember to let the Universe work out the details and not get concerned about how it will manifest them.
We also need to be patient – it will all come, but in its own good time.
As some say, when a problem requires a solution: Let go and let the Divine. It is important therefore not to get tied up in the how’s, the when’s, and the why’s, but to focus on the outcomes. Let the Universe work in its own wondrous ways.

Let me give you an example: My youngest daughter had a long dry spell in her dating life when she was in her early 20’s. She picked a picture of a good looking guy out of a magazine, printed out the personal qualities that she wanted in the man of her dreams, posted it all on her refrigerator, and then looked at her vision board every day. Two years later, on her first day of work as a teacher she and her dream guy locked eyes across the tarmac. He was a teacher too. It was love at first sight. They moved in together, got married, have 2 great young boys, and are living happily ever after.
It was all worth waiting for. So, don’t rush the Universe.

Many people who have attempted to consciously apply the principles of the Law have been unable to achieve the results that they wanted. Some of the main reasons for that lack of success are our negative, self-defeating, limiting, disempowering and sabotaging habits and beliefs.
Doubts, lack consciousness, scarcity mindsets, and similar negative assumptions have been programmed into us starting from birth.
Maybe you have read about them in Don Miguel Ruiz’s “Five Agreements”
We were conditioned by usually well-meaning teachers, parents, religious leaders, politicians, and peers. Don Miguel called this the “domestication of humans”. These false teachings are part of our cultural story, so embedded in our psyche that it takes a major effort to root them out.
Disempowering and limiting beliefs often result in thoughts of failure, discouragement, inadequacy, and constant negative self-talk and self-criticism.
Can you relate to that?

These domesticated beliefs, preconceived notions, and negative thoughts restrict us in so many ways. We end up judging ourselves and what we deserve and don’t deserve, or what we can and cannot do.
We limit ourselves to living within certain acceptable or approved societal norms or value structures. We end up fault finding, judging, criticizing and blaming others and ourselves, and often feel shame, guilt, and regret related to our thoughts, our words, and our actions.
But how can we root out these negativities?
First, we identify what we don’t want in our lives: like the rusty old Edsel. Then, we decide what we really do want: like the hot red Ferrari.
We deliberately create our ideal situations, our desired outcomes. The weird bald guy or the hairy hunk? We then focus on this result that we want and release any disbelief, doubt, and negativity.
We begin to feel what it’s like to have what we want. We have faith and trust that the Universe will provide.

Stay tuned for next month’s blog about the LAW.

If interested in getting  my free e-book, click here. Also, don’t forget to check out the AbundanceTogether Facebook page for your daily inspiration here.

Keep manifesting good things 🙂 Tony

 

Today my blog is about using the Law of Mind Action, as Charles Fillmore, co-founder of Unity, called it. Or, as it is more commonly known – the Law of Attraction.

For those of you who are familiar with this subject it will be a bit of a refresher, while for those who are new to the concept, a very basic primer.
For those of you who don’t know too much about the subject of the LAW, as I will call it, please consider this neat quote from James Dewar “Minds are like parachutes – they work best when open.” Concepts such as: like attracts like, you create your own reality and your thoughts today shape your tomorrows might not be that new or unusual for many of you, but for some – it will be a real stretch. So please keep your mind open and consider the possibilities.

The book and the movie entitled “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne created quite a lot of hype and controversy when it first came out a number of years ago.
Have you seen it?
Read the book?
“The Secret” referred to the Law of Attraction, which is based on the concept that “like attracts like” and the premise that the whole Universe and everything in it operates based on that Law. This Law, like gravity, functions all of the time, whether we are aware of it or believe in it, or not. It can be consciously employed by anyone to attract or “manifest” into his or her life more of the objects, people, circumstances and situations that the person wants and less of what she or he doesn’t want.

So how does It Work?
The Law of Attraction incorporates the principle that there is an unlimited amount of everything for everyone in the Universe, that there is no lack of anything, and that our thoughts today shape our tomorrows. It proposes that what we focus on in life expands, that we create our own reality, and that our “thoughts become things”.
In the New Thought Movement this concept is expressed as “Thoughts held in mind produce after their own kind”. Or as Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “You become what you think about all day long.”
According to the Law, the future stems from our decisions, our choices and actions in the present, and our material world is merely a reflection of our inner world. By changing the inner we will see changes in the outer, the material, world. We are therefore ultimately responsible for everything that happens to us, since we have attracted, one way or another, all that comes our way.
There really is no such thing as blame, and victimhood technically does not exist. How can we blame someone or something else for what we ourselves have attracted, and how can we see ourselves as victims if we have created our own reality?
This concept of personal responsibility is definitely not an easy one to accept and causes, or has caused, numerous individuals to question the whole premise of the Law.
Have you questioned it?
I certainly have.

Many, if not most of us, have spent our whole earthly existence believing that things just happen to us; that others are responsible for either positive or negative outcomes in our lives; that the Universe conspires for or against us; that others have all the luck or that we are the fortunate ones; and that an outside source, a god of some sort, controls whatever appears in our lives.
We are quick to judge, criticize and condemn, and to give away our personal power by blaming others. At the same time, we refuse to accept the fact that we have a choice in how we react to whatever happens to us, or admit that we have ultimate control over all that occurs in our lives.
To truly understand the Law of Attraction we, therefore, have to rethink most of everything we have learned about how the Universe, and how our personal world, operates.

What’s the History of the Law of Attraction?
The Law supposedly originated as a concept in ancient Babylonian and Egyptian times, over 3000 yrs. ago, but somehow many of its central principles got lost over the years. Aspects of the Law, however, continued to be represented in various religious belief systems. Let’s take a look:
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” “And all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive. “ Those quotes come from Christianity – those words are attributed to Jesus the Christ.
“All that we are is a result of what we have thought.” “The mind is everything. What we think we become.” That’s in Buddhism from Gautama Buddha.
“A man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.” That’s in Hinduism from Lord Krishna.

Now the Law regained its popularity in “New Thought”, a spiritual movement that was born in the States in the 19th century. Wallace Wattles was a major proponent and teacher of this concept. His philosophy basically centers on the idea that an infinite intelligence is contained in everything that exists, and that thoughts, words, and actions, all of which are vibrational energy, manifest themselves into this world as “things”.
You may remember that Albert Einstein created the famous equation “E = MC²” in relation to his Special Theory of Relativity. That’s energy, equals mass, times the speed of light, squared. It basically means that everything is energy and, since energy cannot be created or destroyed, it merely takes different forms.
Since thoughts are vibrational energy, they manifest themselves into forms or “things”– objects, people, situations and circumstances.
As Dr. Einstein said: “Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not Philosophy. This is Physics”.

Stay tuned for next month’s blog about the LAW.

If interested in getting my free e-book, click here. Also, don’t forget to check out the AbundanceTogether Facebook page for your daily inspiration here.

Keep manifesting good things  Tony