New Paradigm Personal Development

There is actually an awareness, a beingness that is behind the activity of the mind. That beingness is ever present, and to remember our ever present connectedness to this awareness brings a tremendous amount of peace.

The awareness that I talk about is what you experience your emotions in, what you experience your thoughts in, and what you experience all your experience in, it is beingness itself.

To remember that behind all of the things that we define ourself as, that we think “make us up.” Behind all of the things that we experience and label as ME, like thoughts of being someone specific, or even emotions of happiness or sadness, BEHIND and THROUGHOUT all of these things rests a fundamental awareness that is ever present. To remember this, to remember that there is actually an awareness that holds our thoughts, feelings, and everything that we experience, is when a deep understanding and truth is revealed, this can not be described easily, or completely, it is best if it is experienced.

Its funny to ask someone to experience this state, because that seems to imply that they are not already experiencing it now, yet they are.

When the activity of our mind, or the feelings of our body, or our sense perceptions start to become identified as who you are, a duality is created, with duality happiness and suffering result.

The beautiful, amazing, awe inspiring thing about reality is that for duality to exist, it must exist in pure singularity, and in pure singularity there is such a deep awe inspiring joy and peace I cry in gratitude in realization that it is the most fundamental.

If this is all to abstract let me explain through analogy:
Think of our thoughts, our emotions, our sense perceptions as the crayons in a coloring box, for us to begin to draw with the colors we must have a blank peace of paper. As we color on the paper it is as if we are experiencing life, we are having this emotion, or that thought, or these sense perceptions. As life goes by and our colors have filled up the whole paper we begin to forget what even makes all this coloring possible in the first place, it is the paper underneath. Underneath the colors there is a paper that holds all that is completely open and always present no matter what colors are there. This paper is like our awareness, our true beingeness, in which everything that we experience happens in through, and around.

To connect with our deep sense of awareness brings joy. It brings us so much peace and joy because it is whole, it is complete. It is fulfilling. It is what we most deeply want and strive for. It is fulfilling beyond words. It feels like home… You know how sometimes when you have been gone awhile and you get back home you feel this warm fuzzy feeling, you feel safe, connected, back again, its kinda like that, only more profoundly life altering.

Whats so amazing is that this state is always with us, we don’t even have to go looking for it. Its always with us. Our deepest home is ever present, behind all our experiences, to remember the paper under the colors, and to experience this deep awareness under it all, we are happy. We are home.

Enjoy.

DaveWilsonPhotography

I have a strong sense of what is right, but I don’t believe that what is right for me is right for everyone. My moral system is unique to my goals, beliefs, and life path. I don’t find the idea of a objective moral system very empowering or useful. I suggest that everyone find their own moral system and guide their lives to that. What is needed is not a blind following of any moral system, but what is needed is the creation of ones own moral system, based on ones own investigation.

It is far more effective for people to come up with their own guiding beliefs, not only will you believe them more but you will understand them and they will be a helpful addition to your life. If you take the time to investigate your beliefs and moral systems you will come to realize some very deep truths, probably even some truths that one could argue are absolute. But try as you may to communicate absolute truths you never can, for as the Tao so wonderfully says “The absolute that can be written is no the absolute.” One one experiences absolute truth it can not be explained to another, another must experience them himself. Absolute truths can not be transferred from one person to another in their completeness, gain one must feel them for himself. Someone can only point the way to that experience.

Hamed Saber

I just watched a fascinating youtube video about the relationship between work performance and monetary reward. Basically the video shows (with some very entertaining images) how increased monetary reward does NOT actually generate better performance from people in their jobs. Money doesn’t actually motivate us at all to create better things. The video goes on to explain that if we want to motivate others to create amazing things money is doesn’t help motivate. What does help motivate others is basically helping help themselves to gain a sense of meaning in their work. Meaning.

Shortly after watching the above video I watched this video by Gary V. on the shopify blog in which he said something that really struck me: “I made it…” And in the context of the interview, that means that he has made a lot of money now and is financially set, it probably also means that he is also fairly famous (heck I have read his book).

Now, take a look at that video by Gary V again. Do you really feel like he has made it? Even given his celebrity status and his million dollar business, do you really feel like he has made it? No, and neither do I. Why is this? This is the question that really struck me when I watched his interview, I didn’t really feel like he had made it at all when he said “I made it.” But at the same time I knew that in one sense of the term he had actually made it, he was famous and rich, but in another sense of the term, in a deeper, more accurate sense of the term I don’t feel like he has made it at all.

To me when I think of what it would feel like to “make it” I feel peace, I feel happiness, I feel creative, I feel inspired, and most importantly, I feel a sense of meaning in my life.

Giving and helping others feels great and gives meaning to our lives! It feels great to genuinely help and give, this is why the open source movement is so big (which is touched on in that first video).

So when I hear someone say they have made it, I don’t really care how much money or fame they have, because as we all know those things can’t make you feel everything that what we think with being on top creates, like happiness and peace. In other words gaining riches and gaining fame do not really mean that you have actually achieved the real objective of “making it.”

To “make it” means that you are happy, that you are at peace in your life, and more than anything you feel like your life is meaningful and that you are making a positive contribution to the world.

We really need to change the notion that making it means making a lot of money and becoming famous. Sure you might become rich and famous when you start to emit peace and happiness and meaning from every pore of your body, but __Fame and fortune can not make you happy, peaceful or give meaning to your life.__

Lets now define “making it” as when you have more peace, meaning, and happiness in your life, not when you have more money, fame, and things in your life.

So when someone says that they have made it, I wonder yea, have you really?

doug88888

The key to life is being yourself. So much of our days are spent trying to be what others say we should be. So much of our days are spent trying to follow frameworks or guidelines of what others tell us to do and believe.

Yet the key to success is actually in NOT doing what others have told us what to do. The key to success is in doing what you know is best to do for yourself. The key to success is following your own guidance. The key to success is in listening to your heart and following it. The key to success is in truly being yourself.

Others are constantly trying to tell you what how to do things. But the key to remember is that _they don’t know_ what is best for you. They don’t know your specific unique situation, at best they can give you broad general strokes from experiences of their own lives.

There is no guru outside of yourself. This is the one point that I would like to come away with in this article. There is no guru outside of yourself. The best teacher is yourself.

We are constantly being told that the answer lies outside of ourselves. We are constantly giving our power away to doctors or teachers or anyone as if they could really truly help us. And I’m sure that they can in some points, when our heart guides to the advice of others it is good to take it, but we must remember the advice of others is only as good as it sounds true in your heart.

You are your own guru. You have all the answers within yourself. This is the truth. I’m not saying that you don’t need anything outside of yourself, as long as you are living you will be taking in information from outside of yourself. What I am asking you to do is look inside to your own innate beauty and abundance of knowledge.

Honestly who best to know what you need than yourself? Who best to know your answers than you? Honestly if you really thought about it, I bet that you could answers 99% of the questions you have yourself if you just allowed yourself the time for them to come to you.

So if you really want to do something focus on doing it as you would do it. Think about what you want to accomplish and then just go about it, don’t worry about how others say to accomplish it, just go about it, go for it, just GO FOR IT.

In fact from my experience I think there is a direct correlation between those who follow their heart/instinct/gut/etc and success. In fact I’m just going to go ahead and say it; _there is a direct correlation between those who follow their heart and success._

There is. The more real you are, the more attractive you are, the more everything you are. Realness is what creates success. In fact I don’t know anyone who has any real success who didn’t get there by not being real to themselves.

So if the key to life is being yourself, being real to yourself, then how do we do it? How do we throw away all our preconditioning and become in alignment with our true nature?

Well let me tell you… NOT. Let me not tell you that. You know why? Because that would be just us falling into the same old routine again, of me (or it could be anyone) telling you what to do.

All you have to do is ask yourself the question that makes the most sense to you. Maybe it sounds like; what do I do more of to be in alignment with my truth, or maybe it sounds something like; how can I be more real with myself? Or maybe it sounds something like, how can I begin to understand what is really true for myself?

The key here is to listen to yourself. The key is to always listen to yourself. Become aware of your own inner nature, and follow your own framework, this will give you the best results in the end.

Enjoy.

They joy of giving.

It really feels good to give. It really does, for some reason our society has really hidden the fact, the absolute fact, that the more you give the more you get. Our society doesn’t really value generosity, our society quietly pushes values of greed.

Everything begits more of itself. So greed begits more greed. For a second now lets think about what greed is, and what it feels like.

Greed feels very contracting to me. There is a fear based element to greed for sure, fear that you must contract in order to save, this feeling of greed doesn’t feel very good at all, its a scary place, not pleasant at all.

Now lets feel into generosity. True generosity feels good, it feels abundant and expanding. It feels like there is plenty and that I can easily give, there is so much to go around It feels good to be giving. To be giving there is no trace of fear. I am giving and it feels good, I have nothing to worry about.

The feeling of generosity feels amazing. I love the way that generosity feels, (true generosity that is). Greed feels bad. Really it is that simple, take the time to feel it out yourself, greed doesn’t feel good and generosity does feel good.

Not only does generosity feel good but by practicing generosity you receive so much. When you give more and more flows to you, because that is the energy of generosity, flow and abundance. But when you take and are in the energy vibration of greed, more and more of that flows to you, contraction and lack.

So if you want a lot of abundance in your life be generous, and equally as true, if you want a lot of lack in your life be greedy.

But like I said earlier, its not that easy to be generous in a society that teaches you from a little age that to get what you want you must take.

It is actually a very short sighted way to see reality. You might actually get what you want through greed, but you won’t actually get what you want in the long term. You might physically get what you want in that moment, but by taking without giving, you create the energy vibration around you of taking, the vibration of lack. Other than not feeling good at all, being greedy doesn’t actually give you want you are really after, which is abundance which is things flowing to you without much effort, and being in a place where there there is no lack.

You can’t live in a place of abundance while still living in a place of lack. Greed necessitates lack, there is no greed without the feeling that there is not enough, that there must be withholding. Giving necessitates abundance, there is no giving without the feeling that there is enough.

So if you really want to create abundance around you, give. Give and don’t give because you are feeling lack and feel like you must give to create abundance in your life, that is just greed masquerading as generosity, but even so it is a good place to start .

Be generous give and you will surly get, give without feelings of want in return, and watch your life fill with abundance. As that is truly the energy state you want to create around you, one of abundance, one in which you can give and not worry, one in which giving is second nature, this is the only way abundance was ever created and is the only way abundance will ever be created, through giving.

So when that urge to be greedy comes up, remember generosity serves you so much more than greed. Honor your urge to hold, bring awareness to your fears and just remember that you don’t have to be afraid, you are creating the energy vibration of abundance through your generosity, and you can’t help but attract more, much more, abundance into your life.

Are you doing what you love? Do you feel so motivated that you can’t wait to get up in the morning and get to it?

Or do you feel bored and uninspired?

When we are uninspired we begin to unconsciously let others tell us what to do. We start to create by default, or we create based on what other people tell us to create.

If you don’t have a clear idea what it is you want then it can only be a short time until someone else starts to tell you what you should want and what you should do. Usually this comes in the form of advertisements via the media, and sometimes it comes from friends or family who while meaning well, are just filling your head with their own desires, not yours.

Without clear goals you can’t blame anyone else but yourself for leading an uninspired life.

Get clear on what you want! Think about this, on an average day how much time do you spend doing what you have decided to based on your goals verses on much time you spend doing something out of boredom, a feeling of fear based on what others tell you you must do?

Working for others we forget what really inspires us. Our lack of clarity manifests itself when we start to create based on the clarity of others, we create what others want us to create because we are not clear enough on what we want to create ourselves.

We must be absolutely clear what our goals are if we are to lead an inspired life.

We have to really work on that which we want and that which we want only.

We have to give our goals 100% of our focus and continually say NO to the desires of others, this is the only way that we can begin to lead an inspired life, one in which we are absolutely loving and deeply inspired each and every moment to live in! A life in which every moment is sacred and fulfilled. Your life inspired is SO much better than your life uninspired.

Basically it all comes down to this. Are you going to get clear on what inspires you? Or are you just going to do what others tell you you should be inspired to do?

Are you going to lead an inspired life in which you are loving each and every moment, or are you going to lead a life in which you work for others feeling uninspired, stressed, and bored?

So get clear on what inspires you. Get clear on what it is that you truly want to be doing with your time. And just start doing it. Start slow if you must, but you MUST start NOW.

-Wayne

The key to your happiness can not be found in the future. The future does not exist. There is nothing out there, out side of this moment, that can bring you happiness. Nothing.

At first this thought might sound a bit strange. Most people are constantly tricking themselves out of happiness now, they are constantly telling themselves that they will be happy when you get your new car, or your new house, or your new computer, or even when you reach a certain wait, or have a depth of knowledge or anything. Basically most people are telling themselves that they can’t be happy now, they can only be happy in the future when some goal reached or physical object attained.

Most people predicate goal achievement with happiness, and therefor give up their ability to be happy now.

Happiness is our natural state. The present moment requires nothing of us, we are complete, always. It is our constant turning away from the present moment, which creates our unhappiness.

By constantly telling yourself that you can’t be happy until some future event you are engraining the pattern of unfulilment into yourself. This is very easy to do because we live in a society where most everyone is unfulfilled most of the time.

We are all so unfufilled most of the time because we have strong habits of constantly telling ourself that we can’t be happy, that we can’t be fulfilled, until some event in the future.

The problem with this thinking is that once this future event comes, it doesn’t last! It doesn’t last because we have created such a strong habit of being unfufilled, of looking to the future for happiness. So the moment that we get what thought would make us happy is the moment that we start looking for something else in the future to make us happy again.

Our habit of looking to the future for happiness is really incedious, it is hard to notice because it is so prevelent, yet at the same time this habit, this nerosis, creates the most suffering for people on this planet.

Inherently somewhere deep within us though, we know, that we can be happy, right now in this moment. No matter what I have, or where I am, or what is going on with me I can be happy right now. This resonates with people deeply, and this is probably why so many get rich quick, or instant health and instant etc products are on the market today, and why they sell very very well. Because when we hear that we can instantly be rich, or free of disease, or free of hunger, something rings true for us, it feels good to believe that.

It feels good to believe that because its true! It is true! YOU CAN BE HAPPY RIGHT NOW. In fact it can be far more instant than any get rich quick product. All it takes is the conscious awareness of your actions and thoughts.

Realize that everytime you tell yourself that you are going to be happy sometime in the future you are doing yourself a huge injustice by strengthening the belief that your happiness is dependent on something outside of yourself.

Your happiness is not dependent on anything outside of yourself. Your happiness can only exist now in this present moment! In fact everything can only, and does only, exist in this present moment.

So the key is to start being happy now. Start to look for things that you can be happy about in your life RIGHT NOW, at this very moment what are you happy about? Focus on that and continue to focus on that, constantly focus on what you are happy about now. Constantly continue to keep your awareness on this present moment and what you are happy about RIGHT NOW.

When you start to think that something or someone or some event is going to make you happy in the future, forget, and return to this moment, and what makes you happy right now.

QUESTIONS:

Some people might ask me, “What about goals, and agendas, and things like that? Are you saying that I should not set goals for myself?”

No. I am not saying never set a goal and never think about the future. I am saying don’t believe that anything you ever achieve in the future will ever make you happy, because it won’t. The only thing that can you bring you lasting happiness is a strong steady focus on the present moment and all that you are happy for right now. Happiness starts now, happiness starts in the only place anything can start, and that is now. To predicate your happiness on any future event is bound to make you unhappy, by doing this you are essentially telling yourself that you can not be happy now, you are denying yourself your true nature for something that does not exist yet.

“But what will motivate me to act? If I am always finding happiness in the present moment, or if I stop thinking that the future will bring me happiness, what will motivate me?”

Motivation is a beautiful thing. Motivation is creation. When we as a society stop motivating ourself with external objects we will start to tap into the prime motivation, our TRUE motivation. Our true motivation is usually characterized as “your bliss” or in the saying “follow your heart”. This is your true motivation, it is a guidance from within. True motivation is inspired action, it arises from a place beyond that of seeking material reward. True motivation simply arises. When one follows ones true motivation it is not because one feels motivated from any material reward, but because one feels and knows that it is the best thing for him to do. His heart mind and soul align for him to complete his true motivation.

As long as we are living we are creating, as long as we are living we will have motivation to do something. We can never not do anything, when we are happy in the present moment, we will be following our true motivation, not out of fear, not out of expectation for some reward, but because it is what feels right to do.

The key to doing what you are truly motivated to do, is to first stop doing those things that you are not truly motivated to do. The key to doing what you love is to stop doing what you don’t love. Start focusing on your current happiness, on those things that make you happy now.

More will be written on motivation in the future. But remember, when you start thinking that anything will bring you happiness in the future, it won’t. Remember that to be happy, you must start being happy now, build within yourself your own happiness now.

Much love,
-Wayne

I often think, what is the best use of my time here on this planet. What can I contribute that will bring the most happiness to my life and the life of others?

I have come to realize that what really helps people the most is not by changing what I do, but how I do it.

What really matters is the energy behind a gift, as we all know it really is the thought that matters. The energy behind your work, your gift to the world, has a ripple effect to all who come in contact with it. If you have a good feeling while you are doing what you are doing other people who come into contact will also feel this later.

Your attitude is apparent in all the small things, what we call dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s. This is really what matters. When you do something with a feeling of happiness everything about what you are doing takes on a good feel to it.

Your attitude really is the most important thing in your life.

When you do things out of ease, a feeling of ease emanates from what you have done, for the benefit of all.

So if you want to start helping others and yourself just start where you are. Start where you are with what you are doing now, you don’t have to change what you do, that naturally changes anyway, just start changing how you do it.

How you do what you do is far more important than what you do. The attitude you have while you do something is your energy state when you are doing what you are doing, and this is what leaves a lasting mark on your work. This energy leaves a lasting mark in the small little things that change while you are working from a state of peace or happiness or bliss than in an opposite state. When you are happy you are probably going to cross more T’s and dot more I’s, everything you do is going to have that feeling that you went the extra mile for it, and others will feel it.

By enjoying yourself and what you do, others will enjoy your fruits also.

So when you are thinking about what the best thing that you can do for someone or for others, simply just start doing what you are already doing but change the way you are doing it. Learn to enjoy those things that you are already doing and watch your world change for the better.

The next step of course is learning how to enjoy what you are already doing. I’ll talk about that in my next post. Until then, enjoy your day and whatever you are doing.

-W

cc licensed flickr photo shared by Darwin Bell

I just read an email on effective vs ineffective gratitude, and it really resonated with me.

Basically ineffective gratitude is gratitude for external things that can, and often do, change.

Ineffective gratitude may be things like:

• My job
• My relationships
• My health
• My house
• My finances

These things all change, and what makes them “ineffective” is that when you are grateful for them you can’t help but come from a place of lack. When you are grateful for these transient things you can help but tell the universe that you are not grateful when you don’t have those things.

If you want to take your gratitude practice to the next level and really start experiencing some amazing shifts in your life, then start being grateful for those things that are not transient, start being grateful for those things that are more permanent.

Some examples of effective gratitude include:

• The miracle of life
• The earth
• The universe
• The sun
• Consciousness
• All that is

Gratitude for these everlasting things is like a  leap in perception. When you start becoming grateful for all that is you start to become gratitude itself, you embody gratitude because it cannot leave you. You effectively have the mindset of gratitude all the time.

Notice how ineffective gratitude centers around things that are yours while effective gratitude centers around things that are you and also so much more than you. Ineffective gratitude is much more like a transient feeling or emotion, it will come and go and there is nothing wrong with that. But effective gratitude is like a mindset, it stays with you for much longer it becomes who you are.

When we have a mindset for gratitude our whole reality starts to change around us, we find ourselves much more at peace with the world, much more happy no matter what happens to us. With a mindset of gratitude we start to become happy all the time we can’t really help it, what we are grateful for can’t be taken away from us, its everlasting, and so is our happiness.

Maybe you find everlasting happiness in everlasting gratitude.

-W

I have been reading the Ringing Ceders series of books and have found them most life changing. One aspect of the books that I keep coming back to again and again is how spiritually un-evolved our global culture is. She makes constant indirect references to our destructive, inefficient, primitive society, and she makes a lot of sense.

Anastasia makes such a strong argument against what she calls our “technocratic” world that its hard not to feel a sense of disgust for the current state of world civilization, and it is this feeling of disgust that I would like to talk about now.

I do not tolerate the saying “ignorance is bliss,” a life of ignorance is a life unexamined, and the unexamined life is not worth living! So if we are to examine our life and our current situation, and by necessity the current world situation, we are bound to feel a sense of disgust, especially after reading books like the Anastasia which explain other more joyful ways of living. So then what is one to do now?

What we do now is what we will always do first to achieve change, be grateful. The key to change is gratitude for what is now, already. If we don’t find ways to feel grateful for what we already have then we will just continue the disgust, disgust of what is disgusting only begets more disgust. But gratitude for disgust begins to beget something more more beautiful than what one is grateful for. Gratitude is truly the most amazing tool we have at our disposal it literally has the power to turn poison into medicine.

And what is gratitude? Gratitude is thankfully loving what is.

Gratitude works to get you to where you want to go by grounding you down in the present moment. To get to any point you need to know two things; where you are now and where you are going. Gratitude makes you aware of where you are now and it helps you develop the positive feelings needed to get where you want to go. Because you can’t get to where you are going on an empty tank, you need feelings of positivity to bring more positivity into your life.

So if we are to live this life we are bound to want something better, and to get something better we must first be grateful for what we have. Gratitude sets our current point and give us positive emotions that fuel our forward progress.

So don’t be distressed if you find yourself living in such a “technocratic” world. Realize that if you really, really, want to change it, you must change your feelings towards it, and it will change. Love it. Accept. And watch your world change.

Blessings to all.