Keep Dreaming Big

Yesterday my friend and I went "house hunting" in Rancho Santa Fe, one of the most expensive zip codes in the country. I've heard that Bill Gates and Janet Jackson have homes somewhere in Rancho Santa Fe. I've talked about my dream home here before. I still continue to dream about my little piece in heaven and I hope that this post inspires you to keep dreaming
big.

Pictured here are a couple of the homes nestled in the hillside. I can't even begin to explain how absolutely stunning and gorgeous the homes are. Unfortunately, many of them were blocked by gates or had tons of trees blocking them so we couldn't really get a good view.

I don't believe it's wrong to want to live a wealthy and prosperous life, as long as we know how to use the wealth wisely and for the greater good of all.

Do you have a dream home? If not, why not?

Check out another Rancho Santa Fe home at the Home Solutions Blog...

Motivational Thought

"Do not wait; the time will never be "just right." Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along."~
--Napoleon Hill

"Life Is Like A Box of Chocolates...

...You never know what you're gonna get."

That is a quote from one of my favorite movies, Forrest Gump. I can't tell you how many times I've seen the movie, but it brings tears to my eyes every time I watch it.

That's the beauty of life - isn't it? Not knowing what is going to happen from day to day, hour to hour, even minute to minute. One moment you're down in the dumps and the next moment your life does a 180 degree turn.

However, what I've learned that there is good in everything that happens in life. And sometimes life just sneaks up on you and you wake up realizing you are already living your dreams and that you are exactly where you're supposed to be right now!

The other day someone asked me what I did for a living and I told them, "I'm a writer and jewelry designer." Later I thought about it and realized - Oh my gosh, I am living my dream! Not even six months ago I was praying to be free from the confines of the corporate world and to be working for myself. Now I am doing things I love and living life as I had always intended. The funny thing is, it "just kinda happened". It's not how I pictured it happening, but nevertheless, it happened!

So, if you're caught in a situation that isn't how you think life should be....

1) focus on the positive
2) know that this is only temporary and that there's a lesson to be learned
3) know that what you are doing is going to help you in the future and
4) keep meditating on your dreams day and night!

Miami Heat's Patience Is Rewarded

If you're a basketball fan like me, you know that the Miami Heat won the NBA Championship. I'm thrilled for them because they certainly deserve it. It's the first time in franchise history that they've won a championship and it was due to the team's faith in God and in each other...and having a coach who is a great motivator!

Alonzo Mourning gave a great talk to the press after the game. He had to overcome the obstacle of being diagnosed with kidney disease a few years ago and faced the idea of not being able to play the game anymore. However, he said that he "kept this right" as he points to his head - meaning, he stayed positive through the whole ordeal. He realized that he was a sign of hope to others while learning about patience and perserverance. Alonzo was able to see the positive in his situation and I admire him for that.

Well, the Miami Heat's patience was surely rewarded. Alonzo and Gary Payton are veterans who get to wear a ring for the first time in their career....Ahhh, the sweetness of success ;)

Photo Credit: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

A Life Without a "To Do" List

I had a friend advise me to "slow down", so I've done just that - and have been living without a "To Do" list for the past couple weeks. That's pretty huge for me. I'm a person who lives by the "To Do" list. I must have one. Some people don't believe in these lists and I wonder how they get things done. If I didn't write things down, my mind would be bogged with trying to remember all the tasks I want or need to do.

What I've learned from not having the "list" is:

1) that I forgot what it meant to be spontaneous and to just do fun things at the spir of the moment
2) Most of the things that I think are priority are actually not. Making sure the dishes are washed everyday is not a priority. Spending time with loved ones is.
3) I'm still productive

Claire Tompkins over at ProductivityGoal has some great articles on prioritizing....

Karma and Tithing

I truly believe that "what goes around, comes around". I've found that in my personal life, whenever I give in the form of monetary gifts, I'm rewarded ten-fold. However, I do not give simply because I know I will get it back, but because I know that we are all given wealth and what you do with that wealth will determine how far you go in life.

But it doesn't even have to be money. You can give whatever you feel in your heart. Take for example, Sudesh Mahato, Home (interior) Minister of Jharkhand state of India, who is giving a village a new road and electricity as a gift to his bride-to-be, which I found out via Are You a Beauty and South Asia Biz. Something like that is unheard of here in the United States and I'm sure many of us can learn from this story.

Some religions "require" that you tithe 10% to the church, but I believe that you should give what whatever you feel comfortable with. I give money to non-profits like LIFE and ARTS. Some people believe that organizations often don't follow through with the money you give them. However, I think that it is your true intentions that are recorded, no matter
what happens with the money.

"The Tools of Creation" by Natasha Ashwe

Here's an article I came across today that I'd like to share:

The tools are ready and keen; our bodies, our senses, our minds, our thoughts.

They are the tools that generate our realities.

We find ourselves discovering them anew, during the course of our life journeys, as if they were suddenly introduced to us in those moments of clarity by chance, forgetting that they were actually created and fashioned at the brink of our emergence into human existence to serve us for the purpose of manifesting our reality in the existences we were to be passed into.

Hands are to touch and to feel and to hold. Therefore not only must you discover the reality you live and know the reality you have chosen, because as you touch, feel, and hold your existing reality with your hands, you must also touch, feel, and hold with your hands pieces of the reality you have chosen to bring into manifestation.

Draw your hands closer to your reality in the physical sense as well as the mental [where you fill your head with ultimately more accurate moving images of your hands touching, feeling, holding, and working with what you proclaim your reality to be.

I was reading something recently about how so many people focus on creating visions of what they want, unaware of how much more powerful actual mental ‘movies’ are; to put holography in simpler terms. I reflected on my own mistakes, and two nights ago when I was trying a mental projection of one of my goals i.e. acting it out in my head, I became stuck in so many places I had never thought out practically before with my one-dimensional picture images of the past.

So it’s not just about say, having dinner with the man of your dreams; picturing two of you at a table, forks posed mid-way to your mouths, smiling faces for the camera shot. No. the whole works, baby. Minute to minute. A short film in your head, not a photograph. I’ve realized how so much different taking still pictures are from recording moving ones with an ordinary camcorder phone. Movies are powerful].

Let your ears hear it, let your tongue taste it, let your nostrils smell it, let your heart feel it, as physically as you can possibly let these senses feel and with all of your soul inside your essence [thinking up the conversation and experience deduced by your unconsciousness -the sleeping giant; you eternal- that you’ll be having with the man of your dreams may even put you off him when you open your eyes!].

You become a magnet, pulling on the drawstrings linking you physically and mentally to what you have chosen; pulling the aspects of the reality you have acknowledged towards you, attracting seen and unseen elements, attracting seen and unseen souls into communion of it.

The tools are immensely powerful workers of your reality. It’s as simple as drawing forth beauty from make-up and beauty products [the right ones mind you!] with your hands, watching them become a part of you and a part of your reality.

Like drawing knowledge from books, enhancing your mind into a powerhouse of the knowledge you have received. Like receiving a warm hug, feeling the good vibrations seep into your being, eating the proper foods to build a proper body.

Identifying what you want and touching; receiving of its essence.

The world is like a supermarket. You must find the aisle you want to walk down, look for the things you believe you need, and then touch them and take them into your essence, physically and mentally building yourself and your reality.

Touch, taste, hear, smell, feel. Use your tools.

And if you want to begin to identify with the part of you that is forever-eternal you- which is the power connected directly to the Source, our Eternal, if you want to begin to be a part of forever; touch, taste, hear, smell, feel pieces of forever. Take in the timeless elements and sights; the break of dawn and sunset, the moon and stars at night, raindrops and thunderstorms, the powerful ever-present metals of gold, silver, copper, iron, the mystery of water and fire. Light and darkness.

Learn the laws that rule the universe around you; give to receive, ask to be answered, and always be aware of the ultimate balance that is revealed in the elements of this world and the substances inside you. There are things to be forfeited for others to be taken up; every breath is the intake of the new and the expulsion of the old. The focuses on the images must shift, things must disappear for others to appear, and others must appear for others to disappear.

Understand those rules of imaging and the utilization of space; withdraw what you must that the law may flow and the things you want may come forth into being, place out what is required that the things you do not desire may recede from the vision.

And never take it for granted that you must be an active part of your manifestation, not play, but be, since you are the whole process of your reality.

Others play roles and parts in what you are. You simply are.

Your part is to BE your manifestation. Know your part and do your part. But most importantly, use your tools. Happy Creation.

Natasha Ashwe is a poet and a writer. She was born in Kingston, Ontario. She is currently writing her first fantasy novel.

"Ten Ways to Add Abundance To Your Mind, Life & World"

I found out about this great article at Womenlinks.com called Ten Ways to Add Abundance To Your Mind, Life & World via Out of the Blog, Into the Light. Lately I've been thinking about #1:

Step up and become a world peacemaker. Volunteer to help keep peace in the world. Yes, even one hour this year will make a difference. Think about it -- if 2,000 people volunteered just one hour, that 2,000 hours that peace is closer in the world. It is like interest, it compounds. You can and do make a difference. Visit The 1,000 Years of Peace Project (http://www.pledgepeace.org/) and pledge just one hour in 2004 towards peace!

I reflect on the workings of Mother Teresa and now the humanitarian, Angelina Jolie. I, too, would also like to help bring peace to the world...

Pretend You're On Vacation

Living the good life is about knowing when you deserve a break. As much as I know this, I often don't follow my own advice and find myself working endlessly without stopping to take a much needed "vacation". Yesterday I decided to become a tourist in "America's Finest City"... pretending that I just stepped off a plane in an unknown territory. With digital camera in tote, I explored downtown San Diego - a part of town that changes day by day so it's pretty easy to pretend I'm somewhere new!

So, I'll give you a little glimpse of my little Heaven on Earth and take you on a short, virtual vacation...

The day started off with lunch at Ole Madrid, an ultra-chic and artsy restaurant on Fifth Avenue. My friend (who has three little girls and needed a vacation too!) and I had the place to ourselves....













Then we made our way in and out of all the little boutiques and shops - discovering hidden treasures and a huge accessory store that gave me heart palpitations - for those of you who know me, you know my love for jewelry ;)

We ended our mini-vacation with a snack at Cafe Lulu, our little hang-out back in the day....and snagged up some much needed shoes at Nordstrom's half-yearly sale.

Thought For the Day

"Making the absolute best of ourselves is not an easy task. It is a pleasurable pursuit...but it requires patience, persistence, and perseverance." --Sarah Ban Breathnach

Everyday I do something to better myself...like learn a new vocabulary word, exercise for fifteen minutes, or practice intuition.

What are you doing today to improve?

Free Report: Double Your Way To A Million

I read this report, How to Double Your Way to a Million by Stuart Goldsmith. It's a fun experiment that I started on May 21 and already I'm a quarter of the way there :) For me, it's been all about focus, intention, and meditation! Check out the free report by clicking here...

Sixth Sense

No, this isn't a post about the "dreaded" 6/6/06 day...which I think is a bunch of you-know-what...Instead, this is a post about our psychic intelligence....

When I was in eighth grade I did an experiment on ESP for our eighth grade Science project and presentation. I had to go out and get one of those presentation boards, write out a report, and the whole sha-bang. I'm not quite sure why I chose ESP as a science project - only that I believed that ESP, or "sixth sense", was something that people possessed. I don't remember the results that I found. I just remember having a deck of cards and asking my friends and family if they could "guess" what card I was holding in my hand.

Over at Steve Pavlina's Personal Development Blog, he talks about this "Psychic Intelligence" in more depth. It's very much related to our gut instinct, which is something I really try to tune into when I come across a problem that needs solving or just simply need to find my keys - which by the way, I seem to be losing quite often lately. Perhaps it's the Universe's way of giving me practice in intuition.

Anyhow, check out Steve's post...and while you're there, check out his $1 Million Dollar Experiment!

Loosely Related Post:
Enjoying the Journey by Steve Pavlina

When Melancholy Moods Take Over

This weekend I was feeling quite emotional about some personal relationships. I know that I shouldn't be sad about circumstances that appear in my life because my life certainly could be worse. Nonetheless, I am human and it is a human emotion.

So tears made their way down my cheeks as I tried to hang onto positive thoughts about the future. I didn't let it "all out" like I wanted to, but I've come to realize that not releasing these emotions tends to make me even more stressed. Today I was guided to Debbie Call's post about "When Not to Seek Inner Peace" - which reading it helped me in my own personal issues. I have to echo Debbie's thoughts:

"There's a part of me that feels quite ridiculous that I am explaining something that seems so patently obvious about emotional release. I'm doing so because there are still a lot of cultural messages out there about "managing" emotions i.e. as in avoiding them. Swallowing emotions makes them more potent, not less so."

How do you deal with your emotions? I welcome your thoughts and comments here...

Do Something to Breakthrough

by Mary Ann Copson

"It's like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." --E.L. Doctorow

Finally, I had to tell Amy that she could not go any further without getting out there and doing something. In our coaching sessions we had talked about her hopes and dreams, investigated the many possibilities, weighed the pros and cons, discovered her straights and weaknesses, and sought intuitive guidance from her powers that be.

It was time. She had to do something. She couldn’t learn any more. She couldn’t figure out anything else. The only course left was to begin walking the path.

My key energy management tip to her -- Only in actually walking the path would she be able to know more about who she was and where she was going.

Sometimes you just have to start and go for quick results– even if you don’t feel that you are ready or have everything you need to start. Waiting until "I'm ready" can frequently lead to nothing happening. Consider using a Breakthrough Technique that is designed to produce quick results and get you started right away.

This might seem a bit scary. But the big advantage in starting now is that only in actually taking the steps will you be able to explore all of the relevant issues that will come up as you are actually doing something. You can continue to research and refine your project as you go along.

Here are the steps to the Breakthrough Technique:

Choose a project that you will complete and present to the world – make this a stretch goal.

Side step elaborate planning and go for a result now.

Set 5 compelling, urgent and short term goals with regards to your project- skip over the planning and analysis phase.

Set a nonnegotiable date for completion – think in terms of days, weeks and months and not years

Every day take some action toward accomplishing the purpose.

Include "just in time" education and training as needed.

Focus on what you can do now with what you have.

Take the time to reflect and capture insights that are being gained along the way. This will allow you to discover the breakthrough expansion routes that are naturally clarified as steps are taken toward the goal. As you do this you will naturally expand your capacity to create the desired future.

Start today.

Action step:

Pick one change that you want to make. Take 15 minutes and design the first draft of your Breakthrough Technique. Take your first step.

Support:

Get a Breakthrough partner and support each other in achieving your nonnegotiable completion date. Make it a game. Perhaps a fun competition.

"One starts an action simply because one must do Something." -- T.S. Elliot

"Action is the way we get to experience ourselves. And so we act not to bring about an outcome but to bring about ourselves." -- Ellen Langer

The above Mood and Energy Management Tip was extracted from the powerful and illuminating Way of Change e-course

Mary Ann Copson is the creator of the Evenstar Mood and Energy Management System for Women. With Master's Degrees in Human Development and in Psychology and Counseling, Mary Ann is a Certified Licensed Nutritionist, a Certified Holistic Health Practitioner, a Brain Chemistry Profile Clinician, a Professional Life Coach and Human Development Consultant. For resources about reconnecting to your natural rhythms through better management of your physical, emotional, mental, psychological and spiritual energy visit http://evenstaronline.com.

Every Day Should Be a Birthday

Today I made a greeting card for a friend whose birthday was yesterday. As I made the card I reflected on the past few months and noticed that I have been late with acknowledging friends and family's birthdays and anniversaries. I attribute this to the fact that I believe that every day should be celebrated like a birthday or special day.

Every day you should wake up with a smile on your face and know that it's going to be a great day...

Every day you should treat yourself to something nice, whether it be a stroll through the park, giving yourself a manicure, or simply "vegging out" on the couch with a good book.

When every day is your birthday, there's more pep in your step and an overall feeling of goodwill...

Happy Birthday! Happy Anniversary! Happy Day!

Miracle Quote

"Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them. In this sense everything that comes from love is a miracle."
-Marie Lloyd

Inspirational Thoughts From Dr. Wayne Dyer

Hay House Publishing, the publishing company of Wayne Dyer's books, sent an email with excerpts from Everyday Wisdom For Success. A dozen little nuggets of inspiration to start off your Thursday:

Chasing success is like trying to squeeze a handful of water. The tighter you squeeze, the less water you get. When you chase it, your life becomes the chase, and you become a victim of always wanting more.

If you refuse to change your job (if you don’t like it), the only sensible thing you can do is practice loving it every day.

Enjoy everything that happens in your life, but never make your happiness or success dependent on an attachment to any person, place, or thing.

The more you see yourself as what you’d like to become, and act as if what you want is already there, the more you’ll activate those dormant forces that will collaborate to transform your dream into your reality.

Most people are searching for happiness outside of themselves. That’s a fundamental mistake. Happiness is something you are, and it comes from the way you think.

You are in a partnership with all other human beings, not a contest to be judged better than some and worse than others.

Life is never boring, but some people choose to be bored . . . boredom is a choice.

Treat yourself and others with kindness when you eat, exercise, play, work, love, and everything else.

Money—like health, love, happiness, and all forms of success that you want to create for yourself—is the result of living purposefully. It is not a goal unto itself.

The opposite of courage is not so much fear as it is conformity.

Try viewing everyone who comes into your life as a teacher.

Forgiveness is the most powerful thing you can do for yourself. If you can’t learn to forgive, you can forget about achieving true success in your life.

There are limits to material growth, but there are no limits to inner enlightenment.