When You Change the Way You Look at Things...

...The things you look at change. - Dr. Wayne Dyer


I love listening to Dr. Dyer. He has been sharing his wisdom and what he has learned for many years. I can't remember when or where I first heard him, but, I catch him on PBS a lot. Recently, I caught his program, "Excuses Begone!"(Wayne Dyer Excuses Begone Specials!) and earlier this year purchased a DVD called "Ambition to Meaning" which I believe is now called, "The Shift"(www.DyerMovie.com) . It's all good inspiring material, But, this one quote sticks with me, and when I find myself in a mood or situation that is "uncomfortable" or "not in alignment" I go back to this thought and try a new approach.


Case in point, when I moved here to Florida recently, I knew my friend had a dog. A beautiful Siberian Husky, named "Mystra". Mystra is strong and powerful and can't be left in the back yard because she'll jump the fence, so, she needs to be walked two or three times a day.

I have never really been good with pets, so I limited my "pets" to fish who can take care of themselves. I raised my kids which was 24 hours a day for many years, a wonderful experience, however, I didn't really want to have that kind of responsibility with a pet. But, my friend was given the animal and she has been a good friend and companion for him. He works a great deal and the one thing I knew would be helpful, and keep her from making mistakes in the house, was to walk her.

But, I didn't like it. I kept thinking to myself, "I would never have a dog. I don't like walking the dog. What an inconvenience. She is HIS responsibility." I felt myself building up resentment and resistence to this little task that needed to be done.

I would begrudgingly put on my shoes and get the leash and take her a block, up to the small park and tell her that was it. She didn't seem to mind, but, don't kid yourself, dogs are smart. She knew how I felt, and she had a few issues with me, too.

When my friend and I would go out for a while, Mystra would find something of mine...something she knew was mine and chew it a little, and leave it in a very particular place on the floor in the living room. She would get scolded, but, she knew what she was doing...if I left the bathroom open, she'd take my toothpaste. She even took my eye drops and chewed the bottle. The day after I got my composter, she grabbed the bag of compost starter and deposited it, always to the same exact place in the living room. It was her little protest toward me and my stuff...the things she associated with me. Jealous, maybe.

One day, after spending a few days working on my web site with my face in the computer in HTM(hel)L, I needed to get out and MOVE. Then it dawned on me, I needed a walk! I needed some exercise. What a wonderful opportunity for BOTH of US!

So, I got my MP3 player, put on my shoes, put Mystra on her leash, turned on some energetic music and we went for a walk. Breathing, walking a little faster than usual, walking farther than usual, really enjoying being outside for a while. Feeling the sun, getting a little tan. It was wonderful!
Mystra enjoyed it too.

I realized that somewhere in that moment, I had changed the way I looked at our daily walk. It was no longer a drudgery, it was something to look forward to. I don't always listen to music, now I listen to Dr. Dyer, or sometimes just sounds, like rushing water or other meditative type recordings. It's a very stop and go kind of exercise as Mystra has to stop and go... but, mostly she loves to sniff almost everything, makes me wonder what is it that she is sniffing for? But, I feel that I took command of the situation and instead of resenting it, I truly look forward to it.

So, I don't mind the daily walk any more and Mystra, for the most part, has stopped looking for my personal items to display, half-chewed in the living room. She knows, when she hears me putting my shoes on, reaching for my Mp3 player and my keys that "It's time!!! "

This is just a small example, and reminder to me...that
"When you change the way you look at things,
the things you look at change."

Love, Light, and Blessings

-Luz

(I have provided these links to Dr. Dyer's material so you may enjoy his inspiration, also)
Making Your Thoughts Work for You by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer; Byron Katie

Little Green Things...

I recently found myself in a lively discussion about green, recycling, global warming and carbon footprints. Of course, my position is pro-recycle and reduce carbon emissions, my opponent's opinion was that carbon emissions don't cause global warming and that since his local recycling program had been accused of not actually recycling the recyclables, that he didn't have time to be bothered with it. Furthermore, he stated that Al Gore's carbon footprint is huge, thereby rendering Al Gore and his position "full of crap".

Wow.

I participated in the first Earth Day back in the 1970's. We all walked to school, which was about 7 or 8 miles including a long trek up Tunnel Hill Road. The experience made an impression on me and over the years I have been an advocate of Earth Day, recycling, composting, tree hugging, etc. I explained to my friend that the green movement has been around for a long time and really has nothing to do with Al Gore and has more to do with taking care of the earth.

It just makes common sense that we should reduce our waste so we don't have to clean it up. And thinking that it doesn't have to be cleaned up, is (forgive me) ignorance to the highest degree. Case in point, a child's bedroom...or the dishes in the sink. These things don't just take care of themselves, someone has to clean them up and the same logic applies to pollution, trash and carbon emissions. Lord knows Mother Earth is doing her best to keep up with our mess, but, at what point to we acknowledge that Mom is exhausted and can't keep up ( any mom will tell you, that has been a problem for years).

I remember a few years ago, I was at a street fair along the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania where there was a Native American woman sitting imparting her wisdom. She showed many traditional items and explained how her ancestors' deep connection with the Earth and nature would not allow them to waste any part of an animal that had been killed. They used the meat for food, the skin for clothing, the bones, claws and even stomach were turned into useful or decorative reminders to honor the spirit of the animal who died so they could live.

How have we gotten so far away from this very spiritual connection to the earth and everything that sustains us? Don't we think it's better to TRY to recycle than not? If only for the simple logic of trying to keep our big ugly piles of trash that we call "landfills" smaller.

I'm not a scientist, I'm just a mom trying to understand the logic behind this disposable lifestyle we've been taught to accept and I'm not buying it. Even if Al Gore has some work to do on his carbon footprint, why should I let that stop me from trying to reduce my own? And why would an otherwise reasonably intelligent man like my friend, adopt an attitude that it's all BS and it's "not worth it"?

Well, I would like to add here that after a few glasses of wine, the conversation turned silly when I mentioned the pollution in China as evidenced during the Olympics, and he said it was from everyone smoking cigarettes! We all laughed and called it a draw.

Law of Attraction - Manifesting in 20 years or Less

I have always believed in the law of attraction. When I was younger, it wasn’t called that, but, somehow I knew that I could make things happen. I always had “beginners luck”, I’d try something for the first time and could do pretty well at it. I wanted a guitar and found that if I sold 88 packs of American Seeds, I could get one, so I did. I’d set goals and accomplish them, I wanted something, and would not stop until I had it.

I will tell you, I set small goals. They were good goals, but, small. I ran into some trouble as I got older. I was introduced to a network marketing opportunity (now called MLM or Multi-level-marketing). I saw the opportunity, networking seemed so obvious, I loved the products (many were biodegradable and environmentally friendly back in the 60’s and 70’s) but, I couldn’t seem to do anything more than sell a few products, I might have sponsored in one or two distributors, but, couldn’t seem to get things rolling.

I even enjoyed going with my sponsors to the pep rallies, probably referred to as leadership conferences or some such. I listened to wonderful motivational speakers and others who were doing it and I knew that I could do what they were doing, building a large network, helping people and making lots of money. But, when I got home, the reality of “I don’t have a lot of money” and “I don’t have a network” would set in, and eventually, I stopped trying. I know now that that these were just my limiting beliefs and thinking about “what is” that stopped me from going where I wanted to go.

Interestingly, just yesterday it dawned on me that in my adult life, it seems that it has taken me 20 years or more to “come into alignment” with many things that I have wanted.

For example, a little over a year ago, I was between jobs. I had a job lined up, Originally thought I would start working as soon as I finished my current job and settled into my new home. But, what actually happened, was that I ended up with a month off between jobs. I had a little money saved up, so, I enjoyed having the time off and decided that I should take a little “vacation”. Who knows why, perhaps because I was living in NE Pennsylvania at the time, I suddenly realized that Herkimer, NY was only a few hours away. Herkimer, for those of you who do not know, is the home of the Herkimer Diamond Mines, which I had heard about in the mid 1980’s. “Herkimer diamonds” are actually double-terminated quartz that form in pockets in the rocks in this particular area of New York. This is a somewhat rare occurrence, to have points on both ends of a piece of quartz.


I had heard stories from people who had gone, found rocks and cracked them open and found lovely little gems that fell out of their ancient homes and into the hands of these modern day miners. I mentioned to my partner at the time how I would love to go there with a sledgehammer and crack rocks open looking for these precious little gems. He raised his eyebrow, sort of laughed and really never gave it another thought.

So, here I was, 20 years later, with no partner to stop me, and an opportunity to possibly take a ride to New York State and see what this was all about. I researched it a little bit on the internet and thought I would take a few days and go up there, if the weather would co-operate. Around that time, a dear friend came to visit me for Memorial Day weekend, and between our yard sale-ing and natural gourmet food snacking I mentioned that I was thinking about going to Herkimer and that I had wanted to do it for 20 years. She said, “Let’s go!” I looked at her in amazement, “Really? Now?” “Sure! Let‘s Go!”, she replied. And that’s all it took. Later that day we were on our way to New York and first thing the next morning we were at the mine cracking rocks. We even brought a few rocks home with us, and just for the record, I did crack open one of those rocks and found two beautifully formed Herkimer Diamonds. It only took 20 years to manifest that!

And there are other examples. When I was in high school I wanted to be a teacher and a gymnastics coach. I was talked out of it by my guidance counselors and my step father, who told me that there was a surplus of teachers and that I should go into music rather than phys ed. I realize now, that they were just giving me the advice that they thought was good, but, 15 years later, I found myself coaching my own gymnastics team which is in itself an intense form of teaching. Very rewarding, but, training involves the mind, the body, the heart and soul of a young athlete and the coach’s job is to bring out the best in each of those areas in each gymnast, and sometimes to face the inevitable or obvious, that without all of those parts working together for that dream or desire, the athlete can and will only go so far. Not everyone will climb the mountain, and that’s okay. But, I continued to coach at several different gyms with a great deal of success for about 15 years. That only took 15 years to manifest - without a degree.

These days, I find myself in a wonderful relationship with a man that I fell in love with almost 30 years ago. He admits now, that he fell in love, but, was afraid of the commitment to anyone or anything, at the time, he “pushed” me away and we went our separate ways and lead our separate lives. Now, here we are 30 years later, happily together. I would like to add here, that I am not sorry about the 30 years, I have three wonderful children that could never imagine living my life without. I believe it’s all as it should be, and that only through our individual life experiences are we able to feel so free about this relationship and friendship. But, the realization keeps coming up that it has taken me a long time to manifest these happy events in my life.

To be fair, I’m sure that there are many things that I have manifested much more quickly. But, the one thing that I have been working on all my life, and have nearly come close to breaking through on is freedom and prosperity.

Ah, that wonderful word, freedom. Prosperity, in the financial sense, releases the worries that hold us down. Money gives us the freedom to give, and go and do things without limits. So, it is this area of limiting beliefs that I still require the most work on releasing resistance. I believe this applies to most people. Since I have been working on this one for about 50 years, I think it is time. “Let’s go!” “Really? Now?” “Sure! Let’s Go!”


Or more appropriately, Let Go!