Maria Duval - Turn the Page

Turn the Page
Each day you wake up to a new beginning. Each day you turn the page of your life story and can begin to write whatever you want. Stories change and what makes any book interesting is reading how the hero makes a transition, has an epiphany, or saves the day. What's the story of your life? Would you want to read about you? What would you want to read? What would you like to write if you could be the screenwriter of your life story? What kind of hero would you be? This year marks a new chapter in your life. With the New Year comes the opportunity to re-create yourself and the best way to do that is to find yourself. As you look within and get more connected with who you are, you will naturally begin to discover why you were born. The more you connect with your purpose, the clearer it will be to fulfill your life purpose. As you begin fulfilling your life purpose you begin to feel more fulfilled, happy and peaceful. As you dial in on that inner connection through Shaktipat meditation the cloud of unknowing is lifted, like the fog evaporating on a sunny day. As you let more light in, everything becomes clear. Innately you already know; you have only to seek to find. Come with me to a place where the sun always shines and God's love is felt so deep you lose your mind. All the things your mind thinks won't matter after you're dead. What matters is love, and I am inviting you to make this next chapter of your life about love. About receiving love and sharing it. Not just personal love for people you love, that's a given. I am inviting you to really love yourself. I am inviting you to stretch your capacity to love others. I invite you to forgive everyone, to drop all judgments of yourself and others. To surrender any and all negativity, and surrender to the presence of God that prodded you to read this. As hard at it might be for your mind to believe, you are in the midst of an awakening. Something is changing in you. Like a spout that has popped up through the soil after years of germinating, your spirit is free and seeks the light. Leave your "you" behind and come with me to a place where the Angels dance with you. Where everyone you see is your brother or sister and the Divine is right here beside us guiding us each step of the way. Are you living with the spirit of a child? Does life fascinate you? Does God inspire you? Do you love for no reason at all? There is so much love being offered to you. There is so much joy awaiting you. Come play in the garden with me. Don't let your mind resist it. Turn the page, a new chapter of your life is being written. From the heart, Steven S. Sadleir "It just gets better."

Steven S. Sadleir is the Director of the Self Awareness Institute and is recognized as a Shaktipat Master in two lineages. He has developed powerful distance learning programs for people of all cultures and faiths, trained thousands of people from all over the world, and welcomes all of you who are ready for full Self-Realization. Visit http://www.SelfAwareness.com for FREE guided meditation mp3s and ebook!

Meditations: For Acts of Theft
The act of stealing, that is, taking somebody else's possessions and calling them your own whether by force, by deception or simply by borrowing the item and not giving it back will always have a negative impact on your own psyche and karma whether you realize it or not. More so the act of theft will in the long run cause you more suffering whether it is through guilt or by being caught. Whilst the simple act of taking a small object that is insignificant or is too small to be missed may not seem to be a big think, this small act starts the cultivation in your mind that stealing is ok. As time goes by, that one small act will then get bigger and bigger until you actions of theft get so big that you land in hot water with the law or it costs you your life. The demand from marketing and advertising houses for us to have the biggest and the best of everything is fuelling the fire for some people to do these acts. Each and every one of us must train our minds that these acts of thefts are not to occur and more so to train our minds that we do not need material wealth to fulfill our inner most desires. The real challenge we face is that many large corporation bosses and business people do not set the right examples on the way we should behave when it comes to material wealth. Just look at the HIH and Enron executives now serving jail time for acting inappropriately and quite bluntly stealing from their investors to make a few more dollars. In the end, their greed and desire for material wealth out stripped their obligation to do the right thing for their fellow man. If we act honestly and truthfully in our day-to-day lives then we really do have a chance at influencing our friends, family and colleagues to be better people and not be succumbed to the desires and trappings of material wealth. If you find that you are guilty of stealing even the smallest of objects try this meditation. The Meditation �" During the first stage of your meditation reflect on the fact that material wealth is no source of genuine happiness. Focus on the fact that theft causes harm to others as well as our own minds and karma. Reflect on the fact that material wealth will be of no use to us when we pass from this world and that it will be the things we have done that are most important. In the second stage of your meditation, reflect on a moment in time when you have taken the opportunity to steal an object of value. In your mind reflect on your motivations, were they greed, were they jealousy that they had what you wanted or were it simply desire. Now in the third stage of your meditation, think of a time when someone has stolen a valuable item of your own. In this reflection, feel the pain and suffering it has caused you. Now that you know that pain and can feel that pain sense how the other person has felt when you stole from then. In the final stage of this meditation, it is now time for you to resolve that you will avoid the urge to take from other. Teach yourself in this meditation that should you feel the desire to steal again that your mind reminds you of the suffering you felt when somebody stole from you. To help in resolving your pain from the theft you have done in the past, in your mind practice generosity of giving to others who are not as fortunate as you. Continue to practice this meditation for 20 minutes a day until you have resolved to end the act of theft of material goods from others.

Meditation Music is a great tool to help in your mediation session. Our Baroque Meditation music will help in meditating through the issues outlined in this article.

Meditation: Old Wisdom Today
These days people seek knowledge, not wisdom. Knowledge is of the past, wisdom is of the future - Vernon Cooper Two hundred years ago, collecting information was the name of the game. The world was ruled by those who mastered the skills of information gathering. Knowledge was power. In today's world, the TV world, the world of live broadcasts, of information at your fingertips, a fast track world loaded with information, the advantage changed sides. Today, the world belongs to those who master the regulation of the flow of information. Today, it's not how much you know but how effective you are at finding what you need in the overwhelming rush of new facts coming straight at you from all around. When I started my teaching journey, believing that all the people around the world were gifted, I faced a dilemma. As a person who brought information collection to a level of art, I was actually giving my students the greatest disadvantage of the 21st century. I was guiding them to where "they couldn't see the forest for the trees." After I realised this, I spent years looking for the balance between collecting and regulating. Everything around us encourages collecting. At school, we learn how to gather and process information for our assignments, but not how to handle the enormous stream of information we absorb anyway. Imagine that your brain is an office, where every piece of information is like the people seeking your service or incoming messages requiring your processing and filing. Most of the processing happens while you're a sleep. The more information you receive, the more time it takes you to process it. Have you noticed that when you're stressed you feel tired? Have you noticed that kids sleep much more than adults do? That's because the load of information they need to process is greater - almost everything is new. Because the world moved into "fast forward," we receive information that is much greater than twenty years ago. To realise this, think about kids. Their knowledge nowadays is diverse and they know much more than what their parents knew at the same age. Gifted children, for example, have very superior collection channels. They can collect a lot of information at any given time. Unfortunately, not long after, the child will have loads of information without the time to process and the "clerk" in the "office" will scream, "That's it. Too much input. I can't handle this any more," and the child will feel overload and pressure. A simple thing like walking in the street stimulates a lot of incoming mail. The colours, the faces, the conversation of the couple you've just seen, the traffic jam and the smell and taste of the apples you bought in the supermarket. All this input is processed and stored for later use. When you are absorbing all this, seemingly without an effort, you brain is working overtime to process and you might feel stressed without being able to pinpoint the reason. A lot has been said about the ways to regulate this overload. Stress management actually tackles this from different angles. One way to handle stress is to try to divert our attention from the thing we consider the problem, where in fact we don't have any idea which information is sorted while we are asleep. The clerk processes the information as he sees fit without us having the conscious ability to control it. An example of diverting the attention for the supposedly a stress source, is the attempt to divert kids' attention from academic stimulants and encourage them to move into sports, art or music. This attempt only oils their superior machine and, instead of filtering out information, they open new channels of input as if the clerk now opened new doors to his office. Another method to overcome stress is to avoid dealing with some of the issues. Some people prefer the ostrich approach but are not aware of the fact that the office is open to the public as long as they're awake. Every minute you are not asleep, your office is receiving input. Sleep is just the way your clerk is working quietly with no disturbance. Has it happened to you that you wanted to stay at work after hours, when no one was around, so you can do the job without disturbance. Meditation is one of the best ways to regulate the incoming flow of information. In our model, meditation is like hanging a sign on the door, which says, "Away from the office. Back in 20 minutes." During this time, we allow our clerk to file the information without letting any new information to come in. Mediation research shows that it's being neither asleep nor awake. It's a state between the two, in which the brain is very calm, yet very sharp. My first encounter with meditation was when my inspiring sister, 16 years old at the time, went to study Transcendental Mediation. I remember her taking time off, closing her eyes and sitting still for a while. She looked a bit ridiculous, but she was brilliant at every thing she did. My first meditation experience happened when Gal and I went to study all kinds of meditation - affirmation, light, sound, eating, dancing, walking, mantra and visualisation. It was fun! I remember coming back home dead tired from meditation class, remembering that our instructor said, "Your body knows exactly what it needs. Listen to it. You probably need to sleep." Some time afterwards, I was working in Texas with a group of 2-year-old toddlers that used to wreak havoc during sleep time, so the centre had to reorganise the place and bring 10 adults to put them to sleep. The grownups sat there tapping the kids' backs and patting their heads for an hour and a half, until the last one fell asleep. In our staff meeting, I suggested to introduce visualisation. Familiar? "Close your eyes and imagine you are on a soft cloud, like cotton." We decided to try it for a month and reassess. On the first day, the last staff member left after 45 minutes. On the third day, they left after 10 minutes. The kids were still fully awake, relaxed, but with their eyes closed. At that time, we introduced soft meditation music in the background for an hour and a half. After a successful week, we felt we were ready to hand control over to the kids (remember, they were only two years old). We put the music on, "floated" for 3 minutes on our soft cotton cloud and then we asked them to take a deep breath and count one, two, three, one two, three. This way, within two weeks, we had 15 meditating toddlers, relaxed and saving the expensive resources of 10 extra staff members. You can imagine how happy the centre management, the parents and the teachers were. When we moved to Melbourne, Gal and I registered for a Transcendental Mediation course. Our instructor suggested we bring the kids along. It sounded funny, because they were only 4 and 10 years old. I remember her asking us what kind of improvements we would like to see in the kids. We looked at each other, not knowing what to answer. They were perfect kids - friendly, flexible, curious, smart, loving and understanding. We went there every evening for a week, watched some videos and learned to mediate. After 4 days, Gal got really sick, so Marg, our instructor, gave him 3 tea bags and told him to drink them during the day. She told him his body was adjusting. Like magic, he got up the day after, healthy and alert. About a month later, our perfect little son started drumming on everything. We had to look all around town to find someone who was willing to teach percussions to a 4-year-old. Ivan, bless his soul, taught him only because he himself started learning at the age of 4. After 4 weeks, Tsoof was so advanced that we had to send Gal with him, so he could help him at home with his practice. Within a year, he had 4 different drum teachers teaching him different styles and he started playing with adults, because there wasn't any children group at his level. We believe the mediation was the main reason for this. So now in our house, every health issue is solved in this order: 1. Drink plenty of water 2. Take vitamin C 3. Meditate 4. Sleep And you know what? This works for most things. In Transcendental Mediation, people meditate with a mantra. Children until the age of 10 can mediate for 5 minutes with their eyes open any time they wish. From the age of 10, they start meditating for the number of minutes equal to their age, until they turn 20. They just hang up the sign "I'm on break. Back in 10 minutes," twice a day. Every mediation session is considered equivalent to two hours of sleep and there you have it - people full of energy and focused who efficiently use another 4 hours of collecting information. Six years after our kids started meditating, we can tell by their behaviour whether they hanged the "on break" sign this week or not. Meditation doesn't prevent the information from entering. It only regulates the incoming flow to allow more information to come in. In a world full of information, a world of many words, many people, loads of feelings, lots of noise and visions, the name of the game is quiet. Many people are afraid they don't do it well because they still think of things while meditating. Remember, the goal in mediation is not to clear the brain from thought but to prevent new input from entering your office. Thinking during mediation is natural. In time, you feel much more relaxed, focused, energetic and happy. If two hundred years ago all we wanted was more knowledge, then today our best asset is a sign, which says on one side "on break" to allow cleaning the head and on its other side, for when we've restored our energy, "open to public!"

© Ronit Baras, Be Happy in LIFE - life coaching. Ronit Baras is a life coach, educator, author, journalist, justice of peace and public speaker living in Brisbane, Australia, specializing in relationships and families and an expert on motivation for kids.

Discover Your Genius Within
The functions of the right and left brain are only a small portion of the potential that comprises THE MIND. The mind and the brain are two very different things. You can think of the brain as the hard drive of the computer and the mind as the software. Your mind is the intelligence that is in every cell, every system and every organ of your body. It is that intangible, incredible, and awe-inspiring part of you that thinks, remembers, sorts information, makes judgments, forms habits, discerns, distinguishes, communicates and otherwise makes you who you are. It is the genius within. Your mind takes in all information through the five senses (sight, touch, hearing, smell and taste). You can liken the five senses to the keyboard on the computer. You receive input through your senses, your “data entry” system. Your brain then stores, categorizes and utilizes this information. A genius knows how to access that information and then apply it in discovering the solutions to any problems that may arise. It is therefore essential that you discover your own individual style for gathering and communicating information. Some of us process sensory input more effectively through visual means, others through auditory stimuli, and others through a kinesthetic (a touch or feel) approach. Here’s a very simple way to begin to contemplate which way your genius accesses information. Imagine for a moment that you are buying a new item of clothing for an important meeting. Would you be most influenced to buy primarily for a) the color and style of the outfit; b) the benefits the salesperson tells you about the clothing; c) the texture and feel of the fabric. If you chose “A”, your brain receives information primarily through visual means. If you chose “B”, you perceive information primarily through auditory means. If “C”, you most likely access information through kinesthetic means. Everyone learns and communicates in all three of these modes. However, most people have developed a natural preference, and tend to use one method more frequently. As an awakening genius, it’s your goal to become aware of your preference and then strive to strike a balance between all three modes: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Are you willing to stretch your abilities by consciously choosing to use your other senses more? Can you imagine the benefits of opening your mind to receive ALL the input from the world around you? Doing so will give you an awareness of an exciting world that’s been there all along, but which you may have been missing. It is natural for you to use what is comfortable, but the awakened genius is willing to grow. Like the turtle, you won't go far without coming out of your shell. You will be pleasantly surprised as you practice using and developing your other senses. You will notice how your memory improves and how easy it becomes for you to make choices. You will discover a whole new world of communication. Once you learn to create a balance in perception, you will be well on your way to thinking holographically �" and using the full power of your genius!

Dr. Patrick Porter is an entrepreneur, award-winning author, and motivational speaker. His electrifying keynote speeches and seminars deliver the real life, nuts ‘n bolts concepts he used to take his business venture to astounding heights. http://www.patrickkporter.com