Lucid Dreaming is a powerful skill for making changes in yourself and your life. Also known as conscious dreaming, a lucid dream is one in which you are aware you are dreaming. Your body is asleep but your mind is awake and aware. When you are in the lucid dream state, you can actively participate in and manipulate the dream.

The benefits of lucid dreaming are many. As you develop the ability to lucid dream the quality of your sleep will be better. It will be deeper and more restful, and as a result, you will require less sleep overall. One reason is that material that has gone unprocessed from your day or from the past gets worked out in the dreamtime. In the lucid dream state you will gain access to your subconscious mind and be able to work with the material presented to you in a conscious way. You can resolve personal issues and generate solutions to life situations rapidly and with deep effects because you are already working at the level of the subconscious mind where real change occurs.

In addition, you will find that lucid dreaming enhances your intuitive and psychic abilities. The conscious mind uses language as its main means for communicating. The subconscious mind uses the language of symbolic imagery. By practicing being aware in the dream state you develop the ability to be able to read these symbolic messages. Over time, the experience of flashes of insight increases in the waking state along with a greater understanding of these insights because the practice has created a clearer line of communication between your conscious and subconscious mind. As a result, you will function more optimally with intuitive flashes and insights becoming much more a part of your daily life.

To begin lucid dreaming, the first thing is to start remembering your dreams. This is done by keeping a dream journal. Buy a notebook and a pen to keep a record of your dreams and place it by your bed at night. Before you go to sleep, take a minute, and repeat a clear and strong statement of intention to yourself several times, “I will remember at least two dreams by the time I wake up.” This statement of intention is the first communication with your subconscious mind to set up the agreement that you are ready to begin remembering your dreams. As you drift off to sleep, trust that when you awaken you will remember your dreams in the morning.

When you wake up, stay in bed for a few minutes in the dreamy drowsy state known as the hypnogogic state, and with your eyes still closed, try and recall anything you can from the night before. Anything. Whatever it is, even if it is a vague recollection, write it down. If you don’t remember anything that’s fine. Simply, continue the process and you will find that each morning you will remember more. If you remember something during the course of the day make a notation and include it in your dream journal when you get home. When you record your dreams, refrain from analyzing them as you write them down. Just write down whatever comes to you and as much as you can remember. By the end of a few weeks you will be recalling a great deal of dream material.

The second step is done during waking hours. Go through your dream journal and find some event or imagery that repeats itself. Make sure it’s also something that happens to you in your waking life. Pick one of the repeated elements of your dream and whenever you experience that same thing in your waking life, stop and ask yourself, “Am I dreaming?”

For example, if you see your hands in your dreams then throughout the course of your day look at your hands and ask yourself the question, “Am I dreaming?” As another example, if you find that you walk through doorways in your dreams then whenever you walk through a doorway in your waking life touch the door jamb and ask, “Am I dreaming?” This sets up an anchor for remembering. At some point, you will have a dream and, as you see your hands or walk through a doorway or whatever it is you choose to remember, you will reflexively ask the question, “Am I dreaming?” This time the answer will be ‘yes’, and, chances are, that you will find yourself suddenly awake inside the dream!

When you are awake inside the dream you can begin to watch the dream unfold. As you remain in the lucid state you can begin to change and manipulate the dream in different ways. In the beginning, you will be awake and watching the dream like a movie, but over time you will find that you possess greater and greater ability to control the dream and the way it unfolds. Eventually, you will be able to choose what you want to dream and can even begin dreaming about events of the day or of your past where you can change the outcome in ways that serve your highest fulfillment. Changing these events from your day or your past to outcomes that you desire will have a positive effect on your psyche, sense of well-being and self-mastery. You will be reprogramming your subconscious mind to accept the best possible solution or response to an issue or situation and it will make the appropriate changes in your subconscious. You will find that it has a dramatic effect on your waking life, as well. As you become very good at lucid dreaming you can even take future events into the dreamtime and work with them so the outcomes manifest in the way you desire!

Have fun, practice well, and we’ll see you in the dreamtime!

Meditation is the single greatest practice you can take up for changing your life. There is a long list of benefits to be enjoyed from the regular engagement of meditation. In fact, here 100 of the wonderful benefits of meditation for mind, body and spirit.

Physiological benefits:
1- It lowers oxygen consumption.
2- It decreases respiratory rate.
3- It increases blood flow and slows the heart rate.
4- Increases exercise tolerance.
5- Leads to a deeper level of physical relaxation.
6- Good for people with high blood pressure.
7- Reduces anxiety attacks by lowering the levels of blood lactate.
8- Decreases muscle tension
9- Helps in chronic diseases like allergies, arthritis etc.
10- Reduces Pre-menstrual Syndrome symptoms.
11- Helps in post-operative healing.
12- Enhances the immune system.
13- Reduces activity of viruses and emotional distress
14- Enhances energy, strength and vigour.
15- Helps with weight loss
16- Reduction of free radicals, less tissue damage
17- Higher skin resistance
18- Drop in cholesterol levels, lowers risk of cardiovascular disease.
19- Improved flow of air to the lungs resulting in easier breathing.
20- Decreases the aging process.
21- Higher levels of DHEAS (Dehydroepiandrosterone)
22- prevented, slowed or controlled pain of chronic diseases
23- Makes you sweat less
24- Cure headaches & migraines
25- Greater Orderliness of Brain Functioning
26- Reduced Need for Medical Care
27- Less energy wasted
28- More inclined to sports, activities
29- Significant relief from asthma
30- improved performance in athletic events
31- Normalizes to your ideal weight
32- harmonizes our endocrine system
33- relaxes our nervous system
34- produce lasting beneficial changes in brain electrical activity
35- Cure infertility (the stresses of infertility can interfere with the release of hormones that regulate ovulation).

Psychological benefits:
36- Builds self-confidence.
37- Increases serotonin level, influences mood and behaviour.
38- Resolve phobias & fears
39- Helps control own thoughts
40- Helps with focus & concentration
41- Increase creativity
42- Increased brain wave coherence.
43- Improved learning ability and memory.
44- Increased feelings of vitality and rejuvenation.
45- Increased emotional stability.
46- improved relationships
47- Mind ages at slower rate
48- Easier to remove bad habits
49- Develops intuition
50- Increased Productivity
51- Improved relations at home & at work
52- Able to see the larger picture in a given situation
53- Helps ignore petty issues
54- Increased ability to solve complex problems
55- Purifies your character
56- Develop will power
57- greater communication between the two brain hemispheres
58- react more quickly and more effectively to a stressful event.
59- increases one’s perceptual ability and motor performance
60- higher intelligence growth rate
61- Increased job satisfaction
62- increase in the capacity for intimate contact with loved ones
63- decrease in potential mental illness
64- Better, more sociable behaviour
65- Less aggressiveness
66- Helps in quitting smoking, alcohol addiction
67- Reduces need and dependency on drugs, pills & pharmaceuticals
68- Need less sleep to recover from sleep deprivation
69- Require less time to fall asleep, helps cure insomnia
70- Increases sense of responsibility
71- Reduces road rage
72- Decrease in restless thinking
73- Decreased tendency to worry
74- Increases listening skills and empathy
75- Helps make more accurate judgements
76- Greater tolerance
77- Gives composure to act in considered & constructive ways
78- Grows a stable, more balanced personality
79- Develops emotional maturity

Spiritual benefits:
80- Helps keep things in perspective
81- Provides peace of mind, happiness
82- Helps you discover your purpose
83- Increased self-actualization.
84- Increased compassion
85- Growing wisdom
86- Deeper understanding of yourself and others
87- Brings body, mind, spirit in harmony
88- Deeper Level of spiritual relaxation
89- Increased acceptance of oneself
90- helps learn forgiveness
91- Changes attitude toward life
92- Creates a deeper relationship with your God
93- Attain enlightenment
94- greater inner-directedness
95- Helps living in the present moment
96- Creates a widening, deepening capacity for love
97- Discovery of the power and consciousness beyond the ego
98- Experience an inner sense of “Assurance or Knowingness”
99- Experience a sense of “Oneness”
100- Increases the synchronicity in your life

With thanks to Frederic Premji

When it comes to manifesting, intention is everything. Truly powerful intention is composed of three main qualities: focus, attitude, and energy. The difference between people who successfully manifest their desires and those who don’t has to do with their intention and these three qualities. When you have a clear intention that is focused with a positive attitude and is charged with a high amount of energy then your intentions will manifest in a way that is in alignment with your stated desire.

The following is a very powerful process for manifesting your desire.

Here are the steps for creating a clear and powerful intention

Step 1: Focus: Remember, ‘Reality’ is what you attend to. Your energy flows where your attention goes. A clear intention starts with your attention being focused on exactly what you want. Focused like a laser. Begin by using your imagination to create a brightly colored and clear picture or movie in your head of your desire. Make it as real as possible. See it, hear it, feel it. Keep the vision of your intention in your mind as much as possible. Refer back to it throughout the course of your day.

To support you in remembering, find pictures that represent your desire and match them as closely as possible with the picture or movie in your head. Place these images around you in as many locations as possible so you will see them and be frequently reminded to stay focused on manifesting your intended outcome. You can place them around your house, your office, your car, etc.

Along with your clear picture, create and write out a Statement Of Intent. Make sure that it is short, powerfully stated, positive and in the present tense, as if it is already happening. It is best to start the sentence with “I AM.” Write it out on index cards, Post It Notes , etc. and place it in the same locations as your pictures. Make this Statement Of Intent your mantra. Memorize it and repeat it to yourself throughout the day as you visualize your focused intention. As you repeat it to yourself or out loud make sure to see the images in your mind’s eye, as well.

Make sure as you gather your images and create your Statement Of Intent that you have thought through what you want in every possible way. Be certain that there is no part of you that does not want what you are intending. If any part of you is unprepared for the changes that you will it will act as an impediment to manifesting your desire the way you want.

Once all parts of you are in alignment with your intention for manifestation you are ready to move on to the next step.

Step 2: Attitude: Your attitude is your overall conviction about your intended manifestation. It is the combination of the feelings you have about your ability to manifest your desire, as well as, the feelings you have about what you wish to manifest. It is more than just moment to moment fluctuating emotion but a continuous background feeling of positive certainty in your ability to achieve. While your focus is the image and statement of what you want, your attitude is the power behind it. If you have chosen images and created a statement that truly resonates with you at a deep level you will be able to feel it and you will already have gone a long way toward setting the the right attitude. In turn, the more positive and empowering you can make your attitude the greater the effect it will have in charging your intention and inspiring your action taken to achieve your desired manifestation.

Think about what emotions and feelings you would like to load into your attitude.  Confidence, acceptance, excitement, joy, and gratitude are all examples of very highly charged, positive emotions and feelings that will help to create a powerful attitude. Whatever you choose, if you don’t already have them as part of your attitude, you can always go and get them in the memory bank of your experience and by using your imagination.

Write down the emotions and feelings that are already part of your attitude. Now write down the additional emotions and feelings that you would like to include in your attitude. Choose one emotion or feeling from the list to work on. Now remember a time when you felt that emotion or feeling very strongly. Continue holding that emotion or feeling until you can feel it load up fully into your body and mind. See if you can turn it up so you can feel it even more deeply. Now think about your intention for manifestation. Repeat this several times until you can feel the emotion becoming a part of your attitude. If you use this simple technique you can create any attitude you like. It only takes the repetition of practice. Do it till you get it.

Once you have designed and created the attitude you desire  to power your focused intention for manifesting you’re ready to move on to the next step.

Step 3: Energy: Every creation takes energy not only to come into existence but to stay in existence. Once you have a clear intention that is focused and empowered by a highly charged and positive attitude you will need to continue giving energy to your desired manifestation until it becomes a reality. This is done a in a very simple and straight forward manner. Each time you think of your intention, see your pictures that you have placed around or repeat your Statement Of Intention take a moment to allow your attitude load up and fill your whole body, as well. Take that emotional energy of the attitude and flood the images with more and more feeling. See the feeling pouring into the images making them brighter and sharper in clarity. See them becoming more real. Feel the reality of your manifestation as if it existed right now and feel how you would feel about it. This is the power of using your mind and body together to charge your intention with as much energy as possible. The bonus is that it will act like a feedback loop that will strengthen your intention, your attitude and give you more energy all at once. Challenge yourself by practicing repeatedly and see just how much fun you can have with this three step method for manifesting your intentions.

You will find that when you have done the previous steps you will begin to change. Your mental and emotional states will come into alignment toward your stated intention, as will your actions. You will even begin to find that the Universe will start supporting your desire by surrounding you with coincidences and synchronicities. Take advantage of those coincidences and synchronicities by recognizing them as signs that you are on the right track. Make the most of them. They are actually symbols by which the universe is giving you feedback on how to continue refining the process of your manifesting. They are also opportunities being provided to you for furthering your desires in ways you might not imagine. Take advantage of them and enjoy the journey into manifesting your intention with mastery!

A friend of mine called me the other day asking for help. She was very upset and told me her pet cat hadn’t been seen in five days. She was concerned he might be lost or worse. He was an outdoor cat who, for the most part, came and went as he pleased, but  never stayed away for more than a day or so.

During the conversation she told me that she had always felt as if she had the ability to psychically communicate with animals and that her cat ‘talked’ to her on a regular basis, letting her know what he needed. If he were away she would receive images of him out and about. So, knowing he was safe, she would simply leave food by the patio door for him for when he returned. Having had my own share of psychic experiences during my life, I took her at her word.

I asked her to tell me exactly how she went about psychically communicating with her cat. She told me how she would relax, close her eyes, imagine connecting with her friend and then she would receive a flood of images from him.

She said, “He’s never been away this long and when I try to receive images from him I don’t get anything. I’m just so worried. I’m afraid something bad has happened to him. I don’t know what to do. I love him. If he’s moved on I want him to be happy. I just want to know if he’s safe or needs my help.”

“Have you asked him,” I said. “Why don’t you go to your bedroom and lie down. Close your eyes, relax and send him pictures wishing him well and ask if he needs your help. And don’t worry. Just trust whatever comes to you. Relax and send him a blessing”

She said she would try what I had said, thanked me and hung up the phone.

As I hung up the phone on my end I tried to intuitively sense where her cat was and how he was doing. I then sent her and her cat both a blessing.

The truth is there is no such thing as a separate object, event, or experience, because no part of the universe can exist apart from all others. When we are in a space of fear and worry, we fall prey to the illusion that we are separate. The more we fear, the more tense we are and the more alone and isolated we feel. From that space of believing we are separate we cannot experience the truth that we are all connected in ways we can scarcely imagine. Until we choose to change that belief and remove our self-imposed conditions of separateness we will only continue to see as we believe. As a result, we cannot connect with the more and greater part of ourself that would inform us otherwise until we finally relax and let go into the acceptance of the truth.

Two days later, she called again. I could hear the smile on her face. She said that on the evening after we spoke she had gone to bed and sent a query to her cat with a blessing. She told me how she had relaxed and sent a message that was without worry and filled with unconditional love for him. She simply wanted to know if he was alright. Nothing came to her that night and she fell asleep.

The next morning she awoke and while still in that drowsy, dreamy hypnogogic state between being awake and falling asleep the image of her cat popped in her mind along with a flood of images: keys, cages, a clinical setting with hard concrete floors. “At first I thought it was the vets, then it popped into my head, the animal control center,” she exclaimed. “I drove down there and that’s where he was, exactly like I saw it in my mind’s eye. Thank you so much for your help.”

I told her I was happy for her and that she and her friend were together again.

Believing is seeing. Our beliefs act as lenses or filters shaping all of our experiences in life. They are self-fulfilling prophecies to support the worldview of our ego. The universe merely seems to oblige, allowing us to have our experience of our belief, ‘our reality’, until we have learned and outgrown the game, and, hopefully, are ready to move on to another more empowering belief and worldview.

Perhaps that view might be that all creatures, great and small, are manifestations of the Creator. As manifestations of the Creator we are all connected by that which is Divine within each and everyone of us. Perhaps the greatest psychic network of all that allows us to reach out and truly connect with any other being is that energy which is the ultimate expression of the Creator, unconditional Love. Perhaps one way we do that is through the infusion of something with Divine Will, the giving and receiving of Blessings.

I was playing video games with my nephew on his birthday. We were soldiers of fortune in the future. Before starting the game, we both had time to design our own characters just the way we like. We each chose a name and then selected certain strengths and weaknesses based on personal preferences and prescribed limitations. We were then given a briefing on our mission ahead and then inserted into the game world. Our mission was to save the galaxy from the constant encroachment of some menacing alien horde. He had his character. I had mine. We were partners on the same team. We could operate together as a small unit helping one another or move in our own directions exploring different areas separately.

It was really quite amazing. But I was losing badly. Badly. Time after time, my man would get snuffed in some horrendous way, only to be brought back to life in the exact place where he left off and pick up the game again. My character usually bit the dust in the process of trying to overcome the latest hurdle or while learning some new skill. Eventually, at some point in the game, I ran out of men, and with no more lives left, I sat there sullenly watching my nephew save the galaxy on his own. It was frustrating and quite humbling to be so soundly outplayed by an 11-year-old boy. I began to notice how anxious I was becoming and a rising feeling of failure.

Finally, my nephew, sensing my distress, leaned over and grabbed my controller. Benevolently, he punched a series of buttons and said, “There.” As if by magic, my man suddenly reappeared, fresh and ready to play. “What’d you do?” My nephew, already off and running his character into the next alien gauntlet, said, “It’s a special code. Now you have infinite lives. Let’s play.”

I breathed a huge sigh of relief and took off after him, lasers blazing.

I don’t know why, but as we continued the game I kept hearing the last thing my nephew had said, “Now you have infinite lives. Let’s play!”

I noticed how all my anxiety and frustration had simply vanished.

And for some reason, I remembered the words of the French Christian mystic Tielhard de Chardin, “You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience.”

I laughed so hard I got killed again.

I realized that I had become so attached to my video game character immersed in a virtual world that I was getting upset as if it were ultimately real. I was forgetting all about the ‘me’ safely watching from outside the game with a controller resting in his hands.

As we kept playing, I noticed that with the knowledge that I had infinite lives, I played the game differently. I relaxed. I enjoyed myself more. I opened up and took more chances, more risks with less anxiety and frustration. I wasn’t as afraid of making mistakes or failing. In fact, in the grand scheme of the game I couldn’t fail, I could only learn and get better. I played to the fullest. If I got taken out, I didn’t sweat it. I simply got back in the game even more determined than before to overcome the next challenge. I and my character were seizing the day!

If we are spiritual beings having a human experience then life takes on an entirely different meaning. We live life from a different perspective. If we are infinite souls in beautiful human guise experiencing a wonderful teaching game called Life then our approach to everything becomes transformed. Our true reference point becomes one of spirit, and because you are a soul each new experience is seen as an opportunity for spiritual growth and learning.

The most revered mystics of the East and West for millennia have all been telling us same thing. Based on their enlightened meditations and dedicated explorations, all have come back with the same news: God is All, we are spirit, and the universe is an illusion, or Maya, a virtual reality created so that we may learn and grow and play. Even science, in the last several decades, especially with the discoveries of Relativity and Quantum Physics, has been begun to lean toward some similar conclusions.

As my nephew and I finished playing the game he turned to me and said, “Thanks for the gift. That was great!” I looked deeply at him and realized that he was just like me. He was a soul having a human experience. In fact, we were two souls sharing a human experience. Tonight he had been my friend, my partner and my teacher in more ways than one. He had helped me remember, and he had returned my gift with another even more wonderful offering in kind, a simple reminder: You have infinite lives. Let’s play! Namaste.

I went to the movies the other night with a friend. It was a film I’d been anxiously awaiting to see for some time. After settling in my seat, the lights went down, and the movie began. It wasn’t until a while later – when my friend laughed and nudged me for some popcorn – that I realized I’d forgotten all about her and the theater I was sitting in. It was as if I’d been drawn into a kind of trance and suddenly I snapped out of it. I was so engrossed in the story I was watching on screen that I forgot all about what was happening around me.

I started watching the movie again. This time I decided to try an experiment and look from a different perspective. I resolved to take a step back and remain consciously aware that I was sitting in a theatre watching a movie, and not allow myself to get sucked into the movie trance like I had before. What I realized as I sat there, was that I watching of a series of still pictures of actors in costumes pretending to be characters written by a person who made up a story that was being directed by another person. I was entranced by an illusion! However, it all happened so fast and was so compelling that I kept getting drawn back into the movie again and again, forgetting it wasn’t real.

I started thinking about how much being at the movies is like life. We are all creative artists, making movies in our heads every second that tell us the story of our lives. We are actor, writer, director and producer all rolled up into one person. So much of the time, though, the movie we make is so engrossing that we forget it isn’t reality. It’s just our perception. It’s a story we’re making up.

What happens is this. Your body has five senses that are constantly telling you about the world: sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. Your brain ‘makes sense’ of all this information by putting it together in the form of a little movie and, voila, you experience your reality.

In life, the real magic happens when you remember that you are always creating a story in your head based upon your perceptions, and it’s just that and nothing more. It’s a little movie telling you a story about your experience of yourself and the world. The story isn’t ‘true’, rather it’s just your perception at the moment. The beautiful thing is that if you don’t like the story you’re making you can realize it, change it, and start experiencing another movie.

The challenge is in remembering. Just like my experience in the movie theatre, we tend to get so caught up in our stories, so entranced in our daily dramas, that we forget we’re the one’s writing the script that we’re playing out!

As I sat in the theatre I suddenly recalled my father. I remembered when I was a little boy I wanted to go see the movie ‘Jaws’. My father didn’t want to take me because he knew it would probably scare me too much. I kept at him and finally we went. We sat together in the theatre and it wasn’t long before I was so scared I was ready to cry. Rather than us leaving, my dad simply turned to me and said, “Remember, it’s just a movie.” I tried it and it worked! I found that I could watch the movie without any trouble.

Whenever I started to get scared I would say to myself, “Remember, it’s just a movie.” After that, I was fine. In fact I really enjoyed myself.

Sometimes our habitual way of seeing things gets us caught up in a movie drama that doesn’t serve us or our highest fulfillment. Remember, you always have a choice. No matter what, you truly are the one who has control over how you see things. You are free to choose any way of looking at yourself and the world around you. The next time you’re having a ‘bad’ day, stop for a moment, take a step back, and remember, it’s just the movie you’re making about your day. What kind of movie is it? What’s the story? What’s the theme? Is it the kind you really want to be experiencing? The simple truth is that as long as you choose to stay stuck watching a habitual ‘bad’ movie that’s the reality you’ll be experiencing.

Once you realize that you have freedom to choose, you can make any movie you like.
In what ways can you ‘re-direct’ your movie so your perception changes? Remember you were born to play the role of your life. Do you want to play the victim, the villain, the hero? You can decide to make the film into something positive, powerful or even profound. Change the message. Maybe it’s a drama about how to find strength in adversity. Maybe it’s a thriller where anything can happen and you are anxiously awaiting the next amazing thing right around the corner. Maybe it’s a comedy where everything seems to be going wrong but it all works out at the end of the day.

I had gone to the movies that night to escape and get away from a really ‘bad’ day. Yet, my experience sitting in the theatre brought me back home to my life in a very personal and intimate way. It made me realize the lousy movie I’d been making all day. In fact I had walked in the theatre with it playing! However, when I left, I was playing a completely different movie.

Remember you have the power to change your perceptions and the way you see things at any time. Remember, it’s just a movie. You never know what the next scene may bring. The truth is that life is meant to be lived. The movie you choose to watch it as is up to you. So what do you choose?

Full Spectrum Coaching has been proven to provide many benefits, both tangible and intangible.

For the individual, coaching is an investment in oneself, and the return on investment can be quite substantial. Benefits you can expect include improved overall performance and increased success in your daily life, both personally and professionally.

Through coaching you will discover that you can transform and enhance your life by removing blocks and limitations while adding the necessary beliefs, skills and behaviors so that you are happier, healthier, wiser, and even wealthier.

Coaching can help you become the person you’ve always wanted to be. It can help you do the things you’ve always want to do. It can help you to have the things you’ve always wanted to have. In essence, coaching can help you get the life you want and accomplish your dreams.

In the interactive weekly process of coaching you will discover the four things you need to gain mastery over: purpose, passion, power, and place.

To achieve your goals and dreams you must discover your purpose and make sure your are in alignment with it on every level. Once you’ve discovered your purpose, clarifying the beliefs and values that bolster your sense of identity, you must connect it to your passion, the positive emotional drive that will continue to propel you throughout your journey.  Next, you connect with your personal power, the skills and capabilities that allow you to take the actions needed to accomplish your tasks and goals, all while staying on track with your mission and purpose throughout the process of achieving your dream. The final piece is discovering your place, whereby, assessing and realizing how you utilize and organize your time and current living environment you will know precisely not only where you are but where you want to be.

At any given time during the process a coach may wear one of several hats. He may be a coach, a teacher providing information, a trainer for skills development, a mentor for guidance, a sponsor for support, even an awakener to help you fully realize and stabilize your next level of growth and development.

The coaching process is co-creative and engaging. The experience of being in a shared safe space of trust, commitment, honesty and vision is remarkable and unique to coaching. It is fun, exciting, dynamic, and challenging in the best possible way, and provides a roadmap and assistance for taking you from where you are to who you want to be so you can live the life you desire.

Ultimately, Full Spectrum Coaching is about awakening your full potential as a human being. It’s about being fully expressed through the entire spectrum of your mind body and spirit. It’s about transforming your life through understanding yourself so you can get from where you are to who you want to be. And it’s about doing it in a simple, straightforward, and practical way so you can get the life you want and accomplish your dreams.

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I’ve found that working with your beliefs is one of the most powerfully rewarding things I’ve done in my personal and spiritual growth work. Read the information on beliefs and then try the the thought excercises and enjoy bending ‘reality’ consciously.

What I’ve come to understand in my work, my beliefs about beliefs.

1) Beliefs exist as part of the core of what makes your ego structure, both conscious and unconscious.

2) Beliefs filter or frame your perceptions such that all perception becomes “interpretation” through your beliefs, values, roles, etc. Your beliefs determine your experience of the world, your thoughts, feelings and actions and reactions. You don’t see the world as it is, you see the world as you are.

3) Seeing is believing, but more importantly, believing IS seeing. For example, this is why those who’re heavily invested in believing there’s no such thing as “paranormal events” don’t “see” them. They’re belief system and ego structure serves to organize their experience of the world, and thus deletes, distorts and generalizes experience so that it conforms to their beliefs. It’s not what’s in front of your eyes that determines what you see, it’s what’s behind your eyes that determines what you see.

4) Change your beliefs and you change your experience of the world.

5) Most beliefs – if you “go all the way down” – are less “facts” than mere “feelings of certainty”.

6) Beliefs are just that and nothing more, beliefs, no matter what beliefs they are. They are not “True” as existing out there, but mental constructs generated and maintained by us.

7) Most of our core beliefs – especially about our “self” – were “imprinted” before age 12, well before the brain has finished developing or the frontal lobes come fully “online”. This is one reason why children have such a hard time managing emotions. Many of our earliest core beliefs are given to us, are conflicting, yet simply taken “as gospel” from authority figures (parents, family, peers, teachers, clergy, etc.). Other core beliefs are formed literally “by the mind of a child”, and thus are not a very accurate map of “reality”. Many of those early beliefs that remain unexamined unconsciously drive us with that level of consciousness

Most of us become “slaves” to our beliefs rather than masters of them by remaining unconscious of our core beliefs and how they manifest in our experience as thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Our beliefs make us work for them rather than us consciously choosing and installing those beliefs?.

9) Much of what is perceived is actually projection of one’s ego.?10) Ultimately, you are responsible for your beliefs, and your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. No one can “make” you think or feel any way. You are the final word in your response to another (consciously or unconsciously).

Here’s an exercise I share with participants in my workshops. I find it very helpful for getting leverage on beliefs and managing one’s thoughts and feelings. To experience the benefit you have to do it not just read it.  Have fun!

I AM vs. I FEEL:

1) Choose a “favorite negative emotion”, (an emotion you regularly feel when upset, like: rage, depression, anxiety, frustration, etc.) We all have several, but pick one you’d really like to work with. For example, one of mine was self-righteous indignation. Now, really feel that emotion. If you have trouble conjuring that emotion just think of a time when you reallly felt that emotion.

2) Next, write down on a piece of paper the sentence, “I AM _______.” (write the emotion in the blank, don’t type it on a computer, as writing it down works better for our purposes).

3) Now, read the sentence to yourself, and observe how you feel inside. Observe how the feeling feels.

4) Next, below the first sentence write the sentence, “I FEEL _______.”

5) Read it to yourself, and notice how you feel. Compare your feeling from the first sentence with your feeling from the second sentence.

6) Lastly, write, “I’m having an experience of the feeling _______.” Read that and observe your feeling. Compare the three feeling experiences.?? Most people experience an empowering distancing or dissociation from the negative emotion with reading the second and third sentence. ?A majority of our thoughts are internally verbal. Words direct our mind as to what to experience.?The verb “AM” is a statement of our “being”, or who we “are”. “Being” from the “to be” verb form is fixed and absolute, unchangeable. Saying I AM _______” verbally programs or hypnotises you in such a way that “you” become fused with the emotion, and because your “are” that emotion there isn’t much one can do about it. By simply changing the verb from “AM” to “FEEL” we distance ourselves mentally, and as a result, feel differently because all we are is no longer just the emotion. Now the emotion is only a portion of our ongoing, everchanging experience.

This exercise is also a great little technique for shifting, altering, and managing one’ emotions.

REALITY IS WHAT YOU ATTEND TO

1) Sit somewhere – outdoors or indoors – with a friend. Mentally choose a prevalent color in the surrounding environment (for example, if you’re outdoors maybe select green. If you’re indoors, choose maybe brown).

2) Next, mentally select another color in the environment. I recommend choosing a color that is less prevalent to enhance the effect.

3) Say to your friend, “Look around you and remember everything that is _______ (the first color). Look closely, and make sure you remember everything that is _______. (the first color) Now, close your eyes. Now, without opening your eyes…tell me everything that is_______ (the 2nd color).”?Typically, people are shocked at their difficulty in remembering anything that is the second color. What we attend to is what becomes our “reality”. It’s how we’re wired. As Alan watts said, “Ignorance is ‘Ignore-ance’. ” Think about exactly what your beliefs cause you to attend to and to ignore to create your experience of “reality”. Think about what changing your beliefs would cause you to attend to and ignore, and how your experience of “reality” would change.

THE BOUNDARYMAKER

1) On a piece of paper, draw a 3 inch diameter circle. Write the word “inside” on the inside of the circle and the word “outside” on the outside of the circle.

2) Next, below the first drawing, write the words “inside” and “outside” in the same relative positions as the first drawing but without drawing the circle.

3) Now, ask yourself, “What is the difference between these two drawings? Does the second drawing have any “meaning” (make sense) without the circle? What then is the circle? A boundary that gives meaning? Who made the boundary? Who is the boundarymaker?” You. Do you make meaning in all your experience all the time by drawing boundaries, making distinctions, choosing beliefs, values, etc. by deciding “this is this or this is not this”? Are you not then ultimately responsible for all your thoughts, feeling, and behaviors? Do you choose to be conscious or unconscious of this process?

Choose a day to walk around and observe yourself drawing boundaries, making distinctions, and consequently making meaning. Observe how you then react almost instantaneously to your own meaning making, and mistakenly attribute your feelings to being almost entirely influenced by your external environment.

SHAPING REALITY WITH BELIEFS

1) Select one belief that you don’t currently hold but would like to. For example: “I believe everyone is always doing the best they can with the resources they have available to them at any given moment.”

2) Walk around all day holding that belief in mind. If your watch has a timer set it to go off every 30 minutes or hour to remind you of the belief, then take one minute to “load up” that belief.

3) Finally, observe how your expereince of “reality” changes accordingly, how the universe seems to mold itself to your belief.

As quantum physicist David Bohm said, “Thought doesn’t know it is doing something and then struggles against what it is doing.”

CONVEX? VS. CONCAVE?

Part I

1) On a piece of paper draw a 3 inch long curved line like this ” ) “.

2) Q: Is the curve convex or concave? What’s your answer?

3) Now, show another person the curve and ask them, “Is this curve convex or concave?” After they answer you, ask them, “Why is it ______?” (convex or concave)

4) Ask several more people the same thing and note their different answers and reasons and compare them to your answer and reasons.

5) Fun bonus points: challenge their answer. Say, “No it isn’t. It’s (the opposite of their answer)!” Sit back and watch the “fireworks”. Watch how emotional some people get.

Part II

1) Draw three more curves ” ) ” below the first. Take your time thinking about the following:

2) To the left of the first curve ” ) ” draw a stick figure man the same height as the curve. Q: Is the curve convex or concave?

3) To the right of the second curve draw another stick figure man. Q: Is the curve convex or concave?

4) With the third curve draw a stick figure man on both sides. Q: Is the curve convex or concave?

5) Now, try and “see” the last curve ” ) ” with the two stick figures from the following 3 points of view or perspectives:

a) Mr. Concave, and “prove” his “truth”, why he’s right, “It’s concave!”

b) Mr Convex, and “prove” his “truth”, why he’s right, “It’s convex!”

c) Now, rise up above the page and look down to see the whole thing from an all-inclusive higher perspective and understanding that both views are right from their limited perspective, wrong from the other’s perspective, AND simultaneously right/wrong or both/neither from the highest perspective of all. They just ARE, and how you wish to view things at any time is entirely up to you and totally dependent on your perspective.

6) Share this with other people and observe their reactions. Watch those who struggle with it and those who “get it”.

7) Now, imagine that this is what people do all the time every day in life with each other. They pair off and polarize, mistakenly believing their limited perspective is actually the big picture: good vs. bad, right vs. wrong, conservative vs. liberal, democrat vs republican, pro-life vs pro-choice (or pro-death vs. anti-choice?), us vs. them, me vs. you, etc. Imagine how things would be different in the world if people really got this, meaning, they lived this understanding.

Consider this is what you do in your every thought. Imagine yourself living this understanding. How would things be different?

9) Consider this is what Albert Einstein was hinting at when he said, “No problem can be solved at the same level of consciousness that created it.

Lastly, this is also how ALL paradoxes (seemingly insoluble difficulties) are resolved at another level. Consider how this relates to the most recent discoveries of hyperdimensional physics where so many of the remaining “problems” of physics are resolved by simply allowing for additional dimensions (higher perspectives).

QUANTUM LOGIC vs. ARISTOTELIAN LOGIC?

A large part of our Western cultural heritage and English language derives from the works of Aristotle. Virtually every aspect and level of our society is influenced in some way by Aristotle’s ideas and philosophy. However, Aristotelian thinking, or two valent “yes/no logic”, actually “hypnotizes” us into a particularly limiting worldview. It is literally pre-modern thinking, and counter to our experience of what we know to be “true” today, especially, after the discoveries of Relativity and Quantum Theory. It causes us to mentally carve experience into categories of duality: subject/object, either/or, right/wrong, good/bad, yes/no etc. Moreover, Aristotelian thinking often compels us to rush to “premature certainty” about many “things” and experiences, when actual 100% certainty of anything – as Relativity and Quantum Indeterminacy demonstrate -  exists as an impossibility not found in the everyday experience.

As an example, Aristotelian yes/no thinking shows up in English in the “To Be” verb form and it’s various permutations: am, is, are, etc. These verbs inaccurately denote unchanging absolutes in a quantum-based “relative reality”.

Consider for a moment how many negative cultural manifestations have resulted from this kind of thinking, how much ignorance, injustice, racism, sexism, homophobia, blind nationalism and religiosity, war etc. (“my race, gender, sexuality IS the right one; my country IS right, my religion IS the one, etc.) From a postmodern view, this sort of yes/no thinking makes no allowance for other possibilities as simultaneously “true” or “right”.

John Von Neumann, father of both the computer and game theory, created a three-valued or multi-valent “Quantum Logic” which adds the third choice of “maybe” to the previous yes/no polar distinctions. We normally jump from perception to conception (what is “it” and how do I feel about “it”) so quickly that we rarely become consciously aware of the process at all. Think about what it might mean adding “maybe” to the cognitive mix and holding that value somewhere between perception and conception. Using “maybe” as a third choice in your thinking adds tremendous flexibility, power, and freedom to one’s overall cognitive ability.

This may seem ridiculously obvious on it’s face, but consider how often do you choose “maybe” in your thinking or feeling about anything (about yourself, your friends, family, coworkers, others’ ideas, feelings, actions etc.)? How often do you suspend judgment on anything? How often do you allow your mind to rest in the quantum indeterminate state of “maybe”? Simple self-observation will reveal that the mind has become quite trained and hypnotised to avoid “uncertainty” at all costs, and will even go so far as to manufacture a “reason” (rationalization) in order to maintain the illusion of security (ie: certainty). While this ability may seem simple at first glance, it requires consistent practice to retrain one’s “programing” and habituate to this new way of thinking. The results, however, speak for themselves as quite profound and liberating.

Here’s a great technique to experiment with:

THE QUANTUM QUARTER TECHNIQUE:

A quarter – possessing two faces or sides, heads and tails – functions well as a model for Aristotelian two-value logic (yes/no thinking). For example, when flipping a quarter for bets or decision making we say, “Heads I win (yes), tails you lose (no).” Interestingly, it can also serve as a powerful reminder of 3-value Quantum Logic if one considers the quarter as existing metaphorically in the indeterminate state of “maybe” when flipped in the air.

1) Find a quarter and carry it with you throughout the day.

2) Periodically, take the quarter from your pocket and flip it in the air to remind yourself of the third indeterminate state of “maybe”.

3) When making a decision, reflecting upon a thought or feeling etc., flip the quarter in the air and consider your thought, feeling etc. relative to the third indeterminate state of “maybe”.

4) Observe how this simple action gives you greater leverage on your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, and “frees you up” to choose a more desirable response (thought, feeling, belief) toward the situation.

5) With practice, decisions begin to manifest more clearly and consistently as consciously held choices integrated with one’s highest values, rather than compulsions driven or colored by unconscious conflicting motivations (thoughts, feelings, beliefs).

This technique is a great way to unstick our habitual ways of thinking and open us up to the realm of creative possibility in any given situation. Enjoy!

Embracing change is a wonderful way to approach the world, but sometimes it can be hard for people, particularly if the change is unwanted. Most frustration, unhappiness or fear that results from experiencing change is really due to an overly strong attachment to one or more beliefs. Usually, the belief is an expectation about the way things ‘should be’.

As we think, we generate beliefs. A belief is basically a thought we take to be true, identify with, and become emotionally attached to. We acquire and create these beliefs over the course of our lives. Eventually, we generate a whole structure of beliefs predicated upon one another and networked together which we call a belief system. Many of the beliefs we possess are so deeply carried, buried beneath other beliefs, that we are not even fully aware of them. They exist outside our conscious awareness and are embedded within our subconscious mind.

We tend to project our beliefs upon the world. One form is expectations. An expectation is simply a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future. When our expectations are different from our experience and we don’t like the experience our expectation is defeated and we experience a negative emotion.

For example, road rage drivers tend to get upset when caught in rush hour traffic because of how slowly the traffic moves. There is a belief these drivers hold that they should be moving faster than they are. At another level, there is a belief or beliefs such as, ‘I should be able to drive faster than the other drivers,’ or , ‘This traffic is preventing me from going as fast as I want.’ At an even deeper level there is a belief that says, ‘I am special, different from everyone else, and I should get my way’. This belief is one of ‘entitlement’ and is typically associated with the sort of childish immaturity that becomes obvious upon examination. Road rage is just another way of saying your inner child is having a temper tantrum.

The truth is that everyone else is in the exact same situation in rush hour and getting upset will not make the traffic move any faster. Anger doesn’t make cars go. So why trouble yourself over something that isn’t fun in the first place only to make things more miserable in the process? At a certain level, getting upset in heavy traffic serves no real purpose other than to reinforce a certain feeling of specialness. The expectation and attachment to the belief of entitlement has been threatened and the experience of a change in the status quo of getting your way creates the negative emotion of anger.

When unwanted change occurs, getting upset is simply a choice, a strategy for dealing with a challenging situation. One of many possibilities. There are always other choices that are more empowering.

In fact, change can be wonderful and embracing change is a excellent choice or strategy. Change represents the unknown. Yet, most of us have been conditioned at a very deep level to fear the unknown. As the remarkable spiritual teacher Krishnamurti said, “Why should one be afraid of the unknown, when you know nothing about it?” It is unknown. In order to be afraid or upset we must be upset by ‘something’ and if it is unknown then there is literally nothing to be upset by. What we tend to do is project our fears upon the unknown and become upset by our own projections. We take our thoughts and beliefs and project them into some outcome or situation and then react to them. What we do is end up fearing our own projections. We ‘afraid’ ourselves!

But if change represents the unknown then it is heartening to realize that the unknown represents infinite potential. And that in that infinite potential there is just as much positive possibility, as well.

There is a wonderful Taoist teaching tale that illustrates managing change exceptionally well.

There once was a sagely farmer who had a beautiful plow horse. One day the horse broke loose and ran away into the hills. All the villagers said, “How unfortunate!” And the wise farmer said, “We’ll see.” A few days later the horse returned and brought with him a second horse, and all the villagers said, “How fortunate you are!” And the farmer said, “We’ll see.” Soon after the farmer’s son, while trying to tame the second horse for plowing was thrown and broke his leg. All the villagers said, “That’s so unfortunate!” And the farmer said, “We’ll see.” Within the week, the king’s men came to take the son off to war but they couldn’t because he was lame, and all the villagers said, “My how fortunate!” And the farmer said once more, “We’ll see…”

Clearly the wise farmer understands the nature of embracing change. When things change we never really know how things will turn out or what positive gifts may lie in the seeming negative experiences we have in life. Likely the farmer wasn’t happy about losing a horse or having a son break a leg, but he also knew there was nothing he could do about that which had already happened. When change occurs and one can simply accept what IS then a kind calm settled feeling comes over one. It doesn’t mean you like a ‘bad’ situation, rather, it means you realize that a ‘bad’ situation isn’t worth having negative feelings and its time to do something about it…or not. Freedom! Besides, who knows what the next moment brings.

Exercise: Reality is about what you focus your attention on, what you ‘attend’ to in any given moment. So, next time you experience some unwanted change, no matter how small or large, take a second and see if you can ask yourself one or more of the following questions:

• What’s funny about this situation?
• What’s potentially positive about this situation?
• What can I learn from this situation?
• How will I feel about this situation 1 year from now?
• What belief do I have to have to feel this upsetment?
• How old do I feel right now?

Chances are you might just find that your answers to any of the questions above reframe your perspective until you experience a much more empowering orientation to Reality and are then able to embrace change in a way you desire.