New Paradigm Personal Development

Last night I was talking about my nearsightedness with a fellow myopic friend and I realized that my eyesight, “bad” as it might be, has really been a blessing to my life. Just because I can’t read a street sign from a distance doesn’t mean that I don’t know to turn there, I know because my intuition tells me its the correct street, or just because I can’t see what the map says at a distance doesn’t mean I can’t tell you what it says because my memory reminds me. I attribute my eyesight my very strong intuition, its like a muscle that I constantly work out because of my eyesight, as such its incredibly clear, I really appreciate my eyesight just as it is.

Have you ever thought why is it “bad” or “wrong” to not be able to see so far? Yes, if you are a truck driver, or a pilot, or something like this you probably need to be able to see things far away well. Is believing that if we don’t have “perfect” eyesight an empowering belief? Doesn’t it sound better to believe that our eyesight, whatever it is like now, is a gift, something in which we can learn from in our own unique way?

After talking with some people about this many have shared with me their stories of how having less than “perfect” eyesight has helped them develop skills and abilities they probably wouldn’t have if they had “better” eyesight. Us with less than clear vision have been given a gift to see things differently than what is considered the “right way” to see (and this segment of the population is nearly half in industrialized nations).

I think its time (it has been for me at least) to look at what my eyesight is really trying to teach me, what it is trying to show me. As I already explained my my eyesight has helped me get in touch with my psychic abilities in such a way probably not possible otherwise. Maybe its time that more people start to become aware of their abilities.

We have to be careful at what we define as “the way it should be.” I feel like 20/20 eyesight is really taken to be “the way it should be” but why? What lessons and crucial learning are we missing out on by just putting on a pair of glasses? What is our body really trying to show us?

I believe that the key to having perfect eyesight is opening up to the idea that your eyesight is fine just the way it is, it doesn’t need to be “fixed.” The perfect eyesight is the eyesight you have right now. If though at some point you desire to have a more clear vision of objects far or close away the universe will start to put certain events, people, books in your path, you just have to ask.

And yes, I do whole heatedly believe that you can go from a blurry vision to an excellent vision without surgery or glasses, I personally know people who increased their vision clarity and am also in the process of learning (google “bates method” for more info).

In our age we want the quick fix to “problems.” But what we really need now is to realize that these “problems” are actually gifts. Instead of putting on glasses or taking a pill or getting surgery we have the magnificent amazing opportunity to look deeply into ourselves and gain precious insight into our mind and body. There is nothing that needs to be fixed in your body, mind, or soul just areas in which to investigate and explore. To believe that something is even wrong in the first place we have to compare ourselves, as if others knew what was best for us.

We get pressured into believing that everyone should see the same distance, that everyone should have the same in their eyesight. We are pressured into believing that if we can’t see as far as our friend there is something wrong, so not wanting to be the one what has something wrong we look for the quick fix, glasses usually in the case of eyesight. But the body is persistent it will keep reminding you of this area of your life to investigate, but sadly people think “oh, my eyesight is getting worse, I better get some stronger glasses” and they keep getting stronger and stronger glasses, but really the body is just trying to show you something. Any “problem” your body might have is really just your bodies way of saying “hey this something that if you really looked into you could probably learn a lot from.” You could probably really make your life much much better if you would just look, look, its right there its so clear, its literarily everywhere you look.

So treat your eyesight however it is as a gift, treat your whole body and whatever it is showing you right now as a magnificent gift, a gift that is constantly talking to you, gently nudging you to greater awareness and new profound joy and happiness.

Blessings.

Its time that we started asking the questions that really mattered most. Its that time of year to reflect on our lives and really look deeply to see if our actions, words, and most importantly thoughts are getting is what we want.

I remember a definition I once heard for describing insanity; “Someone who does the same thing over and over again and expects different results each time.” Funny if you take that definition to be true then it would seem like a lot of people out in the world are insane.

Most people know what they want, its not really hard to come up with a couple things you would like. Everyone has desires, its what makes us human, honor and celebrate your desires, but for gosh sake take a look at your life now. Are you getting what you want? Are you achieving your goals? Are you living your dreams, and if not why not? What do you have to do different to start living your dreams, now?

Remember to look deeply at your desires at your dreams and goals. What do you really want, really? On the surface it might be something material like a new car but what is a new car without somewhere to go or people to see? And whats somewhere to go but a beautiful feeling, whats a new car without that the feeling you get by getting in the first time, without the feeling it would be like its not worth it, in fact you could probably say we aren’t really buying a new car after all, we are buying the feeling of whats its like to have a new car.

Behind all our materialistic desires there is an emotion, a feeling, that we desire, this is really the true desire. We desire the feeling, the feeling of driving a new car, the feeling we get when others see our new car the  experience of driving it. And all of these feelings have one deeper feeling they want to evoke more of, happiness.  We most deeply desire happiness, it is at the root of all desire. All our desires are rooted in the desire for happiness even the “bad” desires that are born out of fear are just a roundabout way of wanting a life of happiness.

So I ask you to take a look at your life, and ask yourself “Am I leading a happy life?” And if you aren’t what can you do, right now, or at the very least for gods sake, what can I do today to make my life more happy? What things can you change, because you must change something to live a more happy life. You must do something different to become more fulfilled and happy in your life.

And I ask you to really examine your material desires, to really contemplate on their value. Will your materialist desires really -really- -truly- bring happiness to your life? Of course when you fulfill a materialist desire it will bring some level of happiness to your life (as all of us who receive gifts for christmas know) but take a second or two to think how long that happiness will last. How much last happiness you will really gain from your material possessions?

This is why I am such a big proponent of personal development. In personal development you learn to make yourself more happy from the inside out. The beauty about self work is that it increases your ability to be happy more of the time without needing anything outside yourself. Unlike material goods that slowly loose their ability to make you happy (and often cause you just as much sadness as happiness) when you make a lasting change to yourself its rather permanent. When you work on yourself you begin to increase your overall level of happiness and your ability to be happy has increased no matter what the situation.

As we have heard a hundred times by now “money doesn’t buy happiness” and this has even been  affirmed many times in many scientific journals. The last one I read pointed out that people tend to have a base level of happiness that they more or less hover around, even if amazing things happen to them. For example when people win the lottery for a period of time their level of happiness goes up, but it eventually goes right back where it was before they won the lottery, the same thing tends to happen to people who are in major accidents and loose the ability to walk or something similar, for a time they are much less happy than they were, then they eventually go back to the level of happiness they were at before the accident.

So if you really think about it the best thing you could ever do for yourself the best new years present ever is the gift of true happiness the gift of yourself to yourself. Learn to become more happy inside without the need of anything external, take a clear close look at your life and start doing those things that really do make you happy and enjoy. Learn to become more sensitive and aware of yourself and your internal nature. The best gift you could ever receive is the gift that you can only receive from yourself.

I continue to write in this blog in order to inspire others to examine their lives and take action in doing those things that will have a real meaningful impact for themselves. I write to inspire personal growth. May we all grow together and live a happy and inspired 2010!

Blessings.

Pick up most marketing books today and they are still teaching fear based tactics. The idea still widely practiced is that a  successful marketer will make the consumer believe that he needs the product, that his or her life would not be complete without the product, this tactic plays off of peoples fear and insecurities. Fear based marketing increase peoples insecurities and fear by tricking them into believing that they are not enough, that they should look outside of themselves for the answer. If you buy something with the false belief that it will somehow make you more whole or complete you are bound to be disappointed because there is nothing outside of yourself that can give you yourself, that can show you your own unique magnificent brilliance but you!

Marketers are trying to trick you into believing you aren’t enough; you need this or that. You need this consultancy, or that seminar, or this knowledge, or this workshop. It has been engrained in us at an early age to believe the we are not enough to distrust our feelings and ignore our passions.

Marketing must move to a more uplifting and ultimately more sustaining model, on that embraces facts and positive messages. A positive based marketing approach doesn’t try and trick the consumer into believing that if he doesn’t buy this product his life will be worse off or how I absolutely need this product in order to be happy or whole. A positive based marketing approach actually cares about the consumer and wants the best for them if or if not they buy the product. Positive based marketing informs the the consumer in very clear ways what he will get, nothing more. Positive based marketing goes out and finds the tribe of people who are interested in what is being offered, or builds the community, contributes to the community and naturally engages those who are interested in buying the product.

Now that business is moving online we don’t have to blindly place billboards up or TV commercials not knowing who might watch, marketing finally can go to where the people are that actually care.

By continuing fear based marketing the marketer and the consumer fuel and sustain within themselves the false belief that we are inherently not enough, that we must look outside of ourself for our salvation, that there is some sort of lack and that we must fill it, this is false! We are enough, our salvation is inside and inherent, we lack nothing.

The truth of the matter is that there is no lack, we live in an infinitely abundant universe! You are whole as you are right now. You need not go anywhere, invest in anything, or do anything to become whole to become who you are, because you already are you who you are. At the same time enjoy your life, buy tickets around the world and things you want its fun, but realize that these things can’t make you happy, these things can fill your life with meaning. You are the meaning of your life. You are amazing, you are enough!

The vibrations, and by vibrations I mean the thoughts, feelings and actions you send out into the universe, hugely determine the world you live in especially your thoughts and emotions, because what you give you receive. This is really a key fundamental truth of the universe. Many people call this the Law Of Attraction. So if your vibrations are high and positive your life will be filled with positive high vibration things, people and places. The external is a mirror of the internal, it really is.

This is why its so important that we do what we are passionate about and what makes us really feel good (as explained in my last podcast).

This is also why its so important to connect with people if you really want to help someone, because its all about the vibrations you have when you are with them that determine the quality of the interaction. If you really want to make someone feel better you simply allow them to access that part of themselves that already feels great, you don’t have to do anything but keep feeling great yourself. If you feel like yo have to fix them or something then what kind of vibration are you sending out to the universe? You are attracting situations in which things don’t work, or in which things or people are broken and need fixing, that need your help. So keep doing what you are doing if you want to continue attracting that.

If you want to attract something different in your life you have to shift your internal state. This is why its so nice to be around people who feel good, because they are not trying to make you feel good, they are just accepting you as you are and feeling good as they are, because thats what they are attracting into the world. If you want to create more peace in the world you have to be more peaceful. You can’t go to anti-war protests and expect their to be more piece in the world, you can’t get angry and expect there to be more love in the world. You have to have love and there will be more love in the world. When you are loving you will be attracting more love in the world.

You have to be the change you want to see in the world. If you want to be happy you have to start doing those things that make you happy now. If you want to be peaceful you have to start doing those things that make you peaceful now. And its not really a matter of doing things that make you peaceful or happy its about simply just shifting your attention, your thoughts, on those things that make you peaceful and happy and then your actions will follow.

In this podcast I discuss the reasons why its important to follow your passion and how to start doing it by calming the fears of the mind.

Timothy Ferris’ simple yet in some ways groundbreaking book the four hour work week made the idea of a cheap to set up internet business an extremely viable path for many, his book and blog have some very clever ideas on time management and business. What I like about Tim is that he really practices what he preaches, his blog now a days is mostly him just having fun and making cool business deals on the side: The Four Hour Work Week

Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Crush It: Why now is the time to cash in on your passions is an amazing book on the necessity of building your personal brand now because business is shifting to a predominantly online world. Gary’s rise to fame is his WineLibaryTV where he just does what he loves; talks about wine, and makes a business out of it.

I was pleasantly surprised by Jonathan Mead’s the Zero Hour Work Week ebook, its my style; direct and full of helpful ideas and resources; its a very how-to e book that doesn’t get bogged down in the specifics. Its free and totally worth checking out. Its key concepts are: Doing what you love, finding and speaking to your tribe, providing value, motivation, and has some great case studies, very well done. His blog the Illuminated Mind is a great place to find new age business material and yet another example of someone doing what they love and crushing it.

So what do these three blogs have in common? They all make a case of living your passion and using the leverage of the internet to build a profitable business.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by Andreas-photography

I have a tendency to speak at people instead of speak with people. I have come to realize that a lot of my blog posts have been about how to stay positive or the benefits of a raw food diet but I haven’t really been speaking with my audience, I haven’t been telling stories and engaging. I aim to start adding my personal touch to posts more often, its this personal touch that makes each one of us shine.

By speaking with people instead of at them they are much more inclined to listen to you and trust you. Who wants to just listen to someone telling them what to do all the time? I can tell you this, my habit of constantly trying to speak at people instead of really connect with them has really hurt my relationships. I often feel that I know whats best for someone or how they can overcome all their problems, but really (even if I actually do) by speaking at them by telling them how to do things differently they will never really listen to me.

When I speak at people and try and tell them what to do, usually my nicest friends will nod and say “Yes Wayne that’s some good advice, I’ll probably do it.” and switch subjects and most of the time never actually take my advice, this is a loose loose situation, I lost by not effectively communicating and they lost by not really hearing me and taking my advice and to add to this we both lost our time.

Recently a really great friend of mine finally let me know she had had it with me constantly talking at her (by the way the best friends are the ones who let you know when your messing up). Now I realize that every time I was with her I seemed to be telling her what was probably the best thing for her to do, or think, or eat, or whatever. When she told me this it took about a day for me to understand that if you want people to understand you, trust you and take what you have to say seriously you have to speak with them not at them.

True Connection

The key to speaking with people and not at people is developing connection and empathy within yourself. To really be heard by people we must shift from the attitude of “I have all the answers and you must just listen to me” to “I’m here to connect with you as a fellow human being.” When you connect with someone you listen to them, I mean really hear them and see your shared humanity, see how you aren’t that different from your friends, see how you could easily put yourself in their shoes because you could have easily had been born with their parents and chosen their way of life. You aren’t trying to fix them, you aren’t trying to do anything to them at all you are simply just connecting with them.

When you connect with people you might or might not say anything at all to them, you might not decide to do anything else than listen, and this is OK. Because when you are really connected to someone you will know what is the best thing to say at the best time, but you can’t know the best thing to say if you are only concerned with telling others what to do, basically just yelling. Its much like those people who yell at the top of their lungs in public spaces telling others what god to believe in or whatever, does anyone really listen to him, no not really they might hear him but they don’t listen to him. But what if that guy was to come up to you and start a conversation and really listen to you and develop a connection with you, would you be more inclined to listen to him now?

Tell your story

This is great and all, but how do we connect on the internet or in books or on podcasts where we are not speaking one on one? Tell your story. People connect when they hear stories because it reminds us of our shared humanity, as we all have stories.

When we stop trying to make our points heard is when they really become heard because we allow for it to happen, we are no longer forcing it to happen. So tell your story, be yourself and remember the most important thing is not getting your message across its connection.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by rachel_thecat

As you transition to a more pure raw food diet you begin to let go of accumulated toxic chemicals your body has taken in from a cooked diet. As you detox your body you naturally also start to let go of toxic emotions that have accumulated in the body.

Raw foodists know very well that the experience of emotions are very different on a raw diet than compared to a cooked diet. After most of the toxic emotions have been purified from the body you then start to experience emotions in a whole new way.

When I was eating cooked food emotions seemed to last longer in the body and were less intense, like a slow moving small wave. On a pure raw food diet I feel emotion much more strongly and emotion tends to pass much more quickly than it did while I was eating cooked food. For some people this new stronger, more powerful emotion is hard to cope with, and some actually start eating cooked food in order not to feel these strong emotions. I personally love the increased feeling of emotion because it helps me stay true to my heart. As a raw foodist you can’t do what doesn’t emotionally feel good for a long time because you can’t really hide or mask the emotion under heavy cooked food.

I’m so grateful to have such a strong connection to my emotions, they serve me well they keep me going in the direction that I want to go. To be strongly connected to our emotions is such a great gift as our emotions are our guidance system in life. Our emotions let us know if what we are thinking and what we are doing is really the best thing for us.

Let me give you an example of how increased sensitivity to emotions really can really help take your life to the next level. I, not to long ago, was working an office job doing work that I was skilled in but not something that I was really passionate about, and honestly probably could have stayed there for a lot longer if I my hearts emotions weren’t so strong pulling me to really follow what really made me happy. See I just couldn’t stay there any longer because my emotion was so strong, and only 3 weeks later I can honestly say that my life is many many times better that I made that decision. To be connected strongly to your emotions is such a great gift, by following your emotions you really start to follow a life of bliss, a life of real inspired happiness. The beauty of being a raw foodist is that it becomes so easy to follow your emotions because they become so much more apparent.

A life lived in emotion, following emotion is a great life lived, its a rich vibrant life. A life lived without emotion, in fear of emotion, or with little emotion can be a dull montaneous life in which real happiness and fun has a hard time appearing. It does take courage to start living in emotion, but let me tell you its really worth it, and why not? Why not have a life filled with exciting contrast, vibrancy and newness? Living a life with emotions turned on is like watching a movie in high definition. So I say yes to a life of abundant vibrant emotion.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by Nganguyen

I have been on a raw food only diet since the summer of 2007 and have never felt better, in fact I never even knew that these levels of clarity, energy, emotional freedom, and strength were even possible until I switched to a all raw diet.

What is a raw food diet?

A raw food diet is one that consists of all raw foods, any food that is cooked over 104 degrees Fahrenheit is not considered raw. By definition a raw diet does not necessary exclude meat and dairy products many raw foodists eat raw goats cheese or raw milk on occasion, and there is a whole movement (called the primal diet) which considers raw meat to be a healing food. I personally do not agree with eating any animal product raw or not and follow a strictly raw vegan diet (the most popular raw diet is raw vegan).

Why a raw food diet?

Raw foodists tend to give varying answers as to why they eat a raw food diet; some quote scientific literature that states when you cook food you loose most of the vital nutrients contained in the food. Generally the scientific raw food argument is that vital enzymes are damaged in cooking food that makes cooked food nearly nutrient-less compared to its raw counterparts and therefor harder to digest and assimilate in the body.

In general raw foodists claim a very significant increase in overall health and well being in all areas of their life: increased mental clarity and increased emotional well being, increased stamina, increased eyesight, increased overall physical health, hightened senses, emotional freedom, weight loss, and a leading cause for the cure of many diseases including cancer have all been attributed to a raw food diet by a significant number of people.

After over two years of eating a purely raw vegan diet I absolutely affirm that this diet has given me physical health, mental clarity, emotional happiness, and a feeling of deep connection that I ever knew was possible. I attribute much of my success in all areas of my life to my diet. I absolutely feel so divinely great every single day that what the general public describes as sickness and dis-ease feel like distant memories to me. Eating a raw food diet is definitely one of the most amazing things to ever happen in my life.

What specifically does a raw vegan eat?

I really like how David Wolfe in his book The Sun Food Diet Success System segments raw food into three categories: fruits, greens and fats. The most obvious raw food is the fruit. Fruits include all the normal things we think of as fruits like bananas and apples and even some things we don’t usually think as fruits like avocados and tomatoes. In fact there are so many different varieties of fruit in the world that you could have a new variety of fruit every day for the rest of your life and not try the same fruit twice! Greens consist of all those green leafy vegetables you see at the farmers market including: spinach, lettuce, kale, collard greens and etc. Fats consist mostly of nuts and seeds including cold pressed virgin oils. Obviously listing all the possible fruits, greens, and fats you can eat is beyond the scope of this article but generally just have at the produce section of your local supermarket or health food store most of the items there are probably raw.

What doesn’t a raw vegan eat?

Generally a raw vegan will doesn’t eat anything processed, at least not in the conventional way. No rice cakes or peanut butter, no ice cream, no pizza, no sugar, no bread, no eggs, no milk, etc. A raw vegan diet is actually pretty easy to understand if the food doesn’t contain whole raw foods then it will not be eaten. A general rule of thumb is if the food you are eating can’t be found in the produce isle or isn’t a combination of things made from the produce isle then it probably isn’t raw.

The key to success in a raw food diet.

My general advice to anyone who wants to experience the magnificent results of a raw food diet is to simply start where they are by adding more and more raw food into their diet until they are eventually eating 100% raw food. As for what types of raw food to eat, how much and how often I usually recommend David Wolfe’s book as great place to look to find these answers. But generally I recommend you follow you listen to your heart and body. Douglas Grahm a very influential raw foodist loves to say that the key to success in the raw food diet is simply more bites. Since raw food generally isn’t as calorie dense as cooked food one simply needs to learn to eat more to receive the same amount of energy they are used to on a cooked diet.

A raw food diet does not consist of a simple apple for lunch and medium salad for dinner, this is the cooked perception of raw food. A raw food lunch might be a salad 3 diced apples 2 pieces of celery, a bag of washed spinach, some minced parsley, some raw almonds with a generous amount of spirulina sprinkled on top with a raw fruit dressing. Or it might be something more simple like 5 persimmons spread out over 2 hours (which is what I had today for lunch). In general the key to success in raw food is to get over the idea of small portions of fruit and vegetables and to eat really as much as you feel good eating (which means a lot).

A raw foodist though most be aware of how many nuts and seeds they are eating as its easy to eat to much of this food. Raw nuts and seeds hold many nutritional benefits but are hard to digest and are easy to overeat.

This post has been very general and should act as an introduction to raw food, I plan on posting much more on this amazing diet including topics such as; superfoods, the raw food diet and relationships, how to be a raw in a cooked world, and other general raw food techniques as they come up. Be sure to check out the raw food category for more posts on raw food.

May your diet uplift you and bring you happiness.

“Winter Velvet” by ebergcanada.

Wu Wei which is usually translated as action through inaction is one of my favorite Taoist terms. Understanding this simple, yet profound, idea has helped me focus on those areas of my life that are most important and yield the most results. Let me explain how by not doing those things that are unimportant and don’t lead to the accomplishment of your goals you are actually doing more than if you did them.

When you take the time not do unimportant things you actually accomplish more than if you took action on those unimportant things. By not doing that which is not in line with your goals you are actually creating much more time and space to do that which is in line with your goals; there is plenty of action in inaction. By consciously choosing not to do those things that are not in line with your goals you are creating the life you want to live, you are practicing Wu Wei – action through inaction, you are becoming extremely efficient. Many people think that to be more efficient you have to accomplish more in less time, but my view of efficiency is accomplishing less in less time, or in other words accomplishing those items which are vitally important to your goals and nothing else.

By choosing not to take action on those things that are not in alignment with your goals you are actually doing more than if you did them and also that by having more time in your life.

Another important reason to do less is that it gives you time to meditate on that which is really important to you. Its very important that we realize what our goals are so we can build a solid foundation for our life.

In our modern world of to-do lists, agendas, calendars, etc, its vitally important that we set apart time everyday for inaction, by doing nothing we learn that which is most important and do just that. Accomplish those things that are only important to your goals and watch your real productivity increase.