Energy of Heart

We attract into our lives abundance or scarcity. Scarcity-minded is fear. It is immobilizing. It is believing that laws, regulations, restrictions, etc. should be enacted to control people because of fear of bad choices others make. Scarcity-minded leads to captivity, whether real or in the mind.  Scarcity-minded relinquishes your choice and accountability to those who promise to reduce or eliminate your fear through increased security and protection. If you are scarcity-minded you are allowing others (including the media or social media posts) to easily influence you and to manipulate you through your fears. So, here's a warning: Those who lust after power, control, or authority over others use the fears of the scarcity-minded to maintain power, control, or authority.  If you are swayed/convinced some regulation, restriction, and/or legislation is needed because of a fear (fear of a disease, difference in lifestyle or belief, violence, etc.) that a politician or the media pus...

 How much do you give? This could be giving of yourself, time, resources, and/or money. Why do you give? Is it because you "have to" or because you "want to"? There are people who do not give. Not money. Not of themselves. Nothing. Often these people just take. They want others to give to them, and this includes handouts from the government. Most of the time they feel entitled and deserving of what they receive, and often they demand more. And there are people who give, but do it grudgingly or because it's required of them. They are not giving because they feel free to do so, because they desire to give. If you do not give freely, you do not have abundance. Often this lack of giving stems from fear. Fear that you don't have enough. Fear that others have more. Fear of perceived and real inequalities or unfairness.  One of the joys I've had has come from the increasing donations I have given and continue to give to my church. They do a remarkable and amazi...

Society has constructed or defined certain feelings and emotions through the abstract construct of labeling the feeling.  In a general sense, there are really only two sides an emotion can be on. And neither side is inherently good or bad. Each emotion just "is" but it's how we think and react that determine whether a feeling becomes good or bad. Tony Robbins says emotions are either categorized as pleasure or pain. Others characterize our many different feelings as being different flavors or colors of either love or fear. That said, we like to label things. This includes all the different emotions we can experience, even though the reality is emotions are personal and very subjective. One person's "happy" may be a little different than someone else's. But there is a general consensus or understanding of the emotions someone is experiencing when they are feeling a certain way. In my mind emotions have labels. Happy, Sad, Grateful, Sorry, Excited, and on ...

 I'm guessing everyone would rather have abundance instead of scarcity. So why is it most people experience scarcity? It's because that is the belief most people have. It is their mindset, their paradigm.  Here's something to think about that can help you identify whether you are more abundance or scarcity focused: Why do you like to buy something on sale? Do you buy things on sale because you don't have enough money to pay full price? Are you trying to save money, to keep more of it? If you have a fear of losing money if you don't buy things on sale then you are likely more scarcity-minded.  I'm not saying pay full price. Consider this:  What if you like buying things on sale because it means more money you have to help other people, to donate to a charity, or to make your family's life better through additional opportunities you can buy? Again, I'm not advocating paying full price for everything. But I really enjoy the bargain, a great deal on somethin...

 Don't be so caught up in how you think something should be done that you ignore or overlook other possibilities that might be better, which may even get you to your end result faster. To "trust in God" isn't blind trust. It isn't inaction. It's taking action, but being flexible (including accepting) to change. People who truly trust in God to lead them in their lives aren't sitting idly waiting for some divine manifestation to guide them. They take action. They live. But they are asking, open, and willing to take and accept changes to their plans and what they are doing. A boat or aircraft captain/pilot will make a plan for their course of travel. But if they run into unexpected difficulties the prudent captain or pilot won't be sticking unchangingly to their plan. They're going to adapt. They're going to be flexible.  Here's the fact in commercial travel (even in personal travel), even if there isn't any unplanned weather or difficult...

 Repetition is a key to change, but we need to right repetition to get the right results. If we want to become proficient on an instrument we need to practice. However, the way we practice, or the repetition of exercises and pieces of music, determines how we will perform.  If practice is poor, the performance will also be poor. Practice does not make perfect.  Many years ago, I had some piano and guitar lessons, but my practice habits were poor (non-existent) so I had no proficiency and didn't last long with the lessons. My musical ability is basically being able to identify what a guitar and piano (and many other instruments) are. My siblings learned to play string instruments. My wife is a violinist. My children are gifted in music and learning to play the violin through the Suzuki method. Although my musical talent is very limited...I can also sing hymns in church...I have learned something from the observation of lessons and practice. It's also something I believe Dr...

Last year I had this epiphany as I drove home from work to pick up a daughter and take her to school. There is more to the title "Think and Grow Rich" than what seems to be be. The obvious attributed meaning is that simply by thinking about becoming rich one can become rich. This is where people fail and say that it doesn't work. This is wishful thinking, and wishful thinking doesn't work. The epiphany came with the word "grow." If we simply think about growing a garden, it won't grow. We're just wishful thinking about the garden. We can desire the garden to grow all we want. We can imagine it, visualize it. We can recite affirmations about how great and beautiful and productive the garden will be. We can make demands on the universe or our subconscious. But the garden won't grow until something else happens. The growing doesn't start until we have made the effort. We need to do, to act. The thinking part is vital. It's needed to imagine,...

 The biggest challenge I face, and this is common for most people, is wanting to have things change NOW.  It's difficult to make lasting changes because they require consistent, persistent, continuous efforts. And patience. Much like it can take a long time for water to establish a fixed course through a landscape, it takes time for desired patterns to become established in our mind and life. The longer we persist, the deeper those patterns are etched into the landscape of our minds, with the results being manifested through our actions. Bad habits and especially addictions are like canyons eroded into our minds, with the resulting actions as predictable as the water flowing through the high walls of the canyon. These changes require us to consciously and with continual effort redirect the flow. That redirection requires continual efforts to erect barriers to keep the flow from returning to its previous course. Over time and through diligent efforts, those canyons can be fille...