Common knowledge is often simply hand-me-down opinions that have been accepted as “just the way life is”. There is not a way life is that is universally true. What determines how you see life is the filter that you see the facts around you through, known as perception.

Perception is the lens we interpret through and if your brain has been unwittingly wired, particularly at a young age, to see life as threatening, this viewpoint will color the way that you see the world.

I’ve come to call these filters that keep us from connecting with our Authentic Self, sense of power, wisdom and peace of mind as “cataracts of the soul”. We all have many gifts and talents that are unique and would make a positive difference in the world.

Yet, once we develop perceptions about the world around us, our brain and nervous system keep us focused on the people, places and circumstances to keep our established perceptual systems in place. This is often the reason why change is challenging and why we stay stuck. It is difficult to have happiness, health, wealth and great relationships when your filter says, age brings disease, money is hard to get and people cannot be trusted.

The answer is to re-educate yourself while at the same time learning systems and processes that allow you to release the old perceptual memory from your nervous system/body. You can then learn how to more easily rewire and retrain your brain.

A practical example of how this plays out in your life can be seen from an article I read today about an “Aha” moment that Jada Pinkett Smith had. In the article you will note that she says that she micromanaged everything because:

“I grew up in a neighborhood in Baltimore that was like a war zone, so I never learned to trust that there were people who could help me. I was also stuck in the idea that taking care of others was the way to create good relationships. As a result, I tried to micromanage my world”.

Notice her response is based in fear. The nervous system does not judge, so whatever you feel from an emotional and intellectual level will dictate the quality of experience you have. If your perception about a given set of circumstances feels threatening to you, you will automatically, like a robot, revert to your old habitual perceptual pattern.

I totally relate to what she says here as I too once had this challenge. I’ve come a very long way, yet it is an evolving process. What has helped me the most is to realize that my brain is creating these “cataracts of the soul” and with awareness, they can be eliminated. Yes, your True Self is powerful and amazing, yet the fact is, you will not express if your nervous system is wired to cover over and hold back the expression of this Essence, the Real You.

It takes awareness because 90% of what runs our life is unconscious. This is why I re-educate my clients on the new science of the brain and nervous system, as it helps the fear center in the brain to quiet down enough to open the door to new understanding. It is also very important to understand how to release these “blind spots” at a cellular level where they are held.  They keep us from shining our light, and dull our life.  They also keep us focused on fear and what is wrong with the world and cause us to miss opportunities to grow our businesses, relationships and maintain our good health.

Since I’ve learned how to do this, it has become much easier to flow with life and to expand the vision for my life. I am no longer looking through the cloudy lens of fear and childhood experiences that color my world darkly. This is why I called my coaching system, “Breakthrough to the Real You” as it shows people how to eliminate these self-limiting perceptions simply and also retrain our brains to support us to actually live our purpose and desired outcomes.

We can release the stories that keep us playing on a constricted stage of life and learn to choose our destiny instead of staying stuck and missing out on what could have been if we only could see life clear enough to avoid falling into the ditches of “common knowledge”. What are your thoughts?

There’s truth to the saying “your attitude determines your altitude”. So, why is change so challenging? There can be several reasons, yet at the root of it is social conditioning. This conditioning is not really intentional; it is actually habitual and passed down through generational thinking. We often think that the way we see life is just “the way it is”.

Actually, reality is “mind-made”; it is a way of seeing or perception. Perception rules as it wires your brain to see what you have decided to believe as true – whether it is or not.

Once you believe something, your brain will seek to prove you right. It becomes a “self-fulfilling” prophecy as your nervous system will screen in the things it has been wired to look for and screen out the things you decided don’t work or may be harmful to you.

Of course these things could certainly just be relative and based on assumptions that are not even factual. It does not matter; this is why what you mind matters. What you keep your attention on can ultimately manifest in your life, so it can manifest, or turn into matter (a science term for physical form).

The trick is to stop focusing on what you fear or don’t want. If you associate change with “don’t want” or “bad”, then your emotional reaction will gear up for battle in the classic “fight, flight or freeze” response.

This does not have to be. I know, as I used to respond to change with much fear. It often took summing up all of my courage to push through to where I wanted to go. While you may require courage for some advances in your life, life does not have to be lived as one big struggle. I have come to embrace change, as it is one thing in life that is guaranteed.

When we resist the inevitable, we self-inflict suffering. While it is fine to have likes and dislikes, the key is to see them as merely preference and not become so attached to the outcome. Expect the best and let go. Of course, this in and of itself will require you to recondition the belief that somehow disappointment is “fatal”. I could write another whole separate post on our fear of “disappointment”.

Here are three uncommon factors that are associated with fear of change and what you can do to begin to rethink them and retrain your brain for a more empowering outcome:

1. Feelings – Let me ask you this; when you stop having any feelings at all, where will you be? (Clue: “6 feet _____”). Feeling is actually a type of emotional guidance system to let you know if what you are thinking is based in love or fear. You can consciously manage them and even change our outcomes in life by paying attention. Repressing undesired feelings instead of learning how to release them is actually hazardous to your health – really.

The first step? Learn from science what feelings are and how they become formed in the first place so that you can diffuse all the mystery about them right out the gate.

2. Clarity – Most people can tell you what they DON’T want but have little idea about what they DO want. Your nervous system functions as a missile-seeking machine and it does not judge “good or bad”. It’s goal is to take you wherever you focus your attention. Now get this: the stronger the emotional charge, the faster you are likely to manifest the outcome or results. Hence, once again, you are better off learning how to read and direct your feelings consciously instead of trying to keep them stuffed in the unconscious closet of your body.

One way to clarify what you want is to take the opposite of what you have feared. So, if you “fear poverty”, get clear about desiring abundance. How does abundance feel? (Abundance is a quality of love, by the way)

3. Stress – Realize that stress is “mind-made”; it is not “out there”. It is an inside job. Stress is all about perception. It is a story about a given set of “facts” and it is unique to you in general. So, many people are focusing on the fear of losing their jobs, etc and so they feel this fear in their bodies and it shows up as “stress”. Stress comes from feeling disempowered or expecting the worse. It is a form of faith for what you don’t want. Can you see how this ties into points one and two above? What can you do?

There are several approaches but the most long-term, lifestyle changing one to do is to learn mindfulness meditation. This form of meditation has been called “hygiene for the brain” for a good reason. It has really elevated the quality of my own life.

So, empowerment comes in a lasting way by thinking outside of the box and pulling away from the old paradigms about “survival of the fittest”. You can be successful and happy in life without seeing the universe as fearful and constrictive.

In fact, the more loving and collaborative you become, you will find that life starts to open up and you can become even more successful than you ever thought possible. This all begins within. Making change your friend begins when you set intention to breakthrough to the real you and live from an empowered sense of Authentic Self. What do you think?

As long as you are “looking for love in all the wrong places” you will not find it. You must first begin within and then you will see it “with out” – out there in the world. Now ego gets a bad rap and a lot of people who are seeking spiritual principles are inclined to think that they need to get rid of it.

Another challenge I see in people seeking spiritual awareness is that they tend to judge almost everything in sight! Well, one spiritual truth that has made all the difference in my world is learning to stop judging people, including myself – actually, especially myself.

As I’ve come to embrace the “shadow” parts of my ego, forgive myself and “upgrade” the beliefs around these parts of my self, I’ve become more compassionate and loving towards others. Judgment is a tool to show us where we need to develop compassion in ourselves, for others and ourselves.

It is not about condoning behavior; it is about transmuting it. It is about changing the energy around the beliefs about the behavior as a reflection of who you THINK you are. You see, what you do is NOT the same as WHO you are.

We get the two confused because we have been conditioned to believe as children that our self-worth comes from our performance. This is a characteristic of the “wounded” fear-driven ego. The ego is needed to be human however.

The key to power is in recognizing that the Authentic You is not the ego. The challenge is to stay aware and present in the moment enough to realize that you are playing a role; ego is not really the real YOU as the Being. In fact, there is an area in our brains, the area of “autobiographical memory” that allows you to function as a social person (actually persona or “mask”) in the world.

If you had no ego you would not say, “my name is so and so”. You would not be able to distinguish your body/self from another. It would be like experiencing a left-hemisphere stroke of your brain. So forgot about getting rid of your ego, it is just another misunderstanding made on the evolutionary journey to your personal power.

Instead, learn how to heal the misperceptions you hold, that you have wired into the brain. This is the “shadow”. The stories we have created about who we think we are that we have a lot of negative emotion around in our cellular memory and we keep avoiding dealing with it. If we would learn how to access these parts of ourselves and deal with them, which can be done without a lot of emotional shock if you know how to work with energy, you can empower yourself in quantum leaps!

You see, you also need a healthy ego to express in a healthy way in the world. You need to be able to speak up and push back when some of those dysfunctional egos come at you to try to manipulate your money out of your pockets or to have forceful control over your choices. If you don’t heal your ego shadows, you will have a tendency to be a “pleaser” who cannot not speak up for your own truth and is more concerned about being liked than being honest about your own soul’s needs.

So the root of self-esteem is connected with healing the ego’s misperceptions, the stories of the “Mental Me” so that the True, Authentic Self of you can “glow on” and let your Light shine.  I call this the “Magnificent Me”.  When you learn how to transmute these shadows of the ego, it will turn into the gold of love energy, (see what an alchemist you are?), the love energy that is the substrate of all things.

It’s just that your consciousness, which has been clouded over by fear is distorting the love light that is already the Truth of who you really are. Self-esteem has to come from the inside out or it is just another “fiction of your imagination”. What do you think?

We have learned more about the brain, mind and nervous system in the past decade than in all the recorded centuries combined.

Why now? There can be several reasons and the ones I feel are surely relevant would be the following:

1. New technology
2. Open-minded scientists who are willing to explore the unknown instead of only staying within their “controllable” comfort zone.

It is a travesty how some researchers fight off new information that conflicts with what they want to perpetrate or believe. Knowing the tricks that the mind can play though, I think that sometimes this is done innocently. Our fear-based mindsets tend to want to hold onto predictability so unless there is a deeper awareness of the willingness to embrace change, it is common for people to close their minds to information that conflicts with their existing paradigm of the world.

Today I saw on the Oprah Show a conversation regarding weight and self-love. Overall, the message is one that I talk about often, which is that self-love and acceptance needs to be the starting point to personal growth and empowerment. There is a myth perpetuated within the psyche of most people that beating ourselves up is perfectly acceptable as a way to change behavior.

Talk about ignorance, this is just want you need to avoid! What you resist persists and creating feelings of shame is the last thing you want to do if you want to feel “good enough”. Just think about this – you are trying to feel good enough by beating yourself up. This is backwards.

Think of the flower garden since it is springtime. When your perennials come through the soil they look scrawny and dull. Or, if you plant a seedling, it starts out puny looking. Do you step on it? Do you spit on it can call it stupid, ugly or too skinny/big?

Or do you nurture it with loving energy, water and nutrients. Sunshine makes it grow, not covering it up and hiding it. We don’t say “shame on you, you ugly plant”. Well, I have news for you; you are a part of Nature also. You need to be nurtured to grow, to shine and be your best also.

I’m not saying that you are to pretend (you may have to at first – act enthusiastic and you will become so – you can reverse these beliefs), nor am I saying to condone and stay stuck where you are. I’m advocating looking at your life through eyes of compassion and say that you are doing your best at this point and that you are EVOLVING, expanding and growing.

If you keep your attention on the outcome, the potential that can unfold, and just be grateful as much as possible where you are, you mind can shift as you keep your attention on this positive outcome. Your mind is like a missile seeking machine. It goes just where you focus attention. It’s goal is to get what you focus on and the more emotion you have attached, the more powerful the mind moves to wire the brain and bring it to pass by causing the actions that you take.

You want a beautiful life garden? Stop “hating” yourself and learn to love yourself. This is what I’m teaching others as I use to believe something was wrong with me and that I was unlovable to the core. Now, finally, I “know that I know” I’m good enough. It has absolutely nothing to do with race, beauty, social or financial status. No, doggone it; I’m good enough because I breathe! As they say ‘God don’t make no junk”.

This kind of confidence and self-esteem can only be found by opening your mind, understanding how you were programmed in the first place and how to release these energetic stories, and getting in touch with your Authentic Self, and listening to your Guidance. It’s about letting go of the story about “who you think you are” and realizing who you really are. Removing the “cataracts of the soul” will allow you to see a whole new world, from the inside out!

The bottom line – stress is hazardous to your health. Many people do not realize that the chronic feelings of “overwhelm” that they feel – you know, not enough hours in the day, long “to-do” lists and not enough rest and sleep – is really what stress is.

It is the feeling that you cannot control what is happening to you and it is also the fear that you are under threat of some kind, be it job loss and even feelings of insecurity. Yes, it has also been shown that low self-esteem can trigger this stress response in your body. So, is stress something that “you cannot help”?

Do you believe that if your environment where different that then and only then, you can overcome overwhelm? If you believe this, you are like most people. I used to buy into this one back in the 1990’s. It was then that I first experientially realized that stress starts within, it is an inside issue.

It is not the “facts” that cause stress. It is not the things that are happening around you as much as it is the “fiction”, the story about the meaning of the facts. It is about where you are putting your focus and whether or not you are taking care of your mind and body – from the inside out.

See, I thought then like most people, that if I could only change my circumstances that I would have more time and would be able to rest more and have more fun. So, in a nutshell, I was able to create a situation where I went from single-handedly running a large medical practice, managing employees and doing surgery, to arranging a situation where I only worked 8 hours a week with no other responsibility than to see patients in the office.

That’s right, I did not even do surgery or have the responsibility of practice management. This should have instantly alleviated my stress, right? Wrong, I still felt stress and I think I had ADHD in those days to add insult to injury. Through a series of events, I came to realize that the inner turmoil was from a combination of how I thought about myself along with my inner perception about the world and those around me.

Once I learned how to change this, and I will say that one powerful tool is mindfulness meditation, I “magically” found more time and felt more inner peace of mind than I had felt in decades. It is not the facts, what is going on around you; it is your interpretation, your story that creates stress.

Once I had a grip on my mind and feelings and was able to eliminate the misperceptions, I eventually went back into my private practice, purchased my mentors practice and had everything twice the size as before I left. The amazing thing was, I was happy, not stressed and had more time to take care of myself than ever before.

The facts were not only the same as before, there was even more to handle! What changed was my “fiction”, my story and how I saw the facts and what I thought about myself. When your perception changes, you see things that you did not see before and you take new actions. You also impact the actual physiology of your body.

Staying healthy begins with mindset and understanding how to eliminate the noise in your mind, the stuff that “you don’t know that you don’t know”. Stress can be mastered when you learn this new science of the brain and how to combine it with wisdom principles to be applied in a practical way in your everyday life. Staying healthy and empowering yourself begins from the inside out!

Between the expense healthcare and medication, the threat to your financial stability and the questionable “scientific” data that supports that taking a million, kazillion (I know this is not a valid term) drugs is acceptable, I’d say one had better do everything possible to maintain their health as naturally and as cost effectively as possible.

Did you know that there is a definite mind-body connection and that stress is related to the reason for 75-90% of all primary care visits to physicians? Actually, I could have told you this without any fancy statistics.

It just plain makes intuitive sense. When you are angry and upset, notice how your body feels. Notice how much more difficult it is to concentrate. Then notice how you feel when you are joyful and happy.

In fact, have your blood pressure checked as you blow a fuse. Have it checked when you are in a relaxed state. It is likely that it will be high with anger and normal to low when relaxed. A relaxed state is a healthy state. I want to pick on worry in this blog post today though, because it is so epidemic.

I had the clerk in my neighborhood grocery store yesterday, tell me in definite “I will not change my mind terms” that there were “no jobs” available for her son to obtain in all of the United States, and that he would have to leave the country to find a job in his field.

Unless he made horse and buggies or telegraph/typewriters, – you know, something we don’t even use anymore – I doubt that her statement is true.

Yet, she obviously looked worry and upset as I discerned her energy and noticed the contorted expression on her face. I’m going to give you 7 reasons why you don’t want to go there. Worry is essentially faith for what you DON’T want. Simple as that.

It hasn’t happened, the person is just imagining it to be happening or is expecting (faith) that it will happen. Why not expect the best? Or at least remain neutral. In a nutshell, people generally worry because we are conditioned to do so.

As a world, we have so trained our brain to live in fear and expecting the next disaster that our nervous system is always on alert to “fight, flight or freeze”. This is what the stress response is.

Yet, we are capable of undoing this “hypnosis” on ourselves and rewiring and retraining our brains to come from a more uplifting space. Our brain is meant to serve us and does not judge the data you, your consciousness and intellect, feeds it. You must filter the facts that you see and come up with your own interpretation that forms your perception.

So, here are 7 reasons why you want to give up worrying and convert to becoming more of an optimist instead of a worrywart. Worry is dangerous to your health. Worry triggers the stress response, and here are seven (there are many others) side effects of stress:

1. Weakened immune system
2. Cancer
3. Heart Disease
4. Hypertension
5. Loss of concentration
6. Alzheimer’s Disease/Other brain cell damage
7. Weight gain

I didn’t even mention anxiety and when this gets severe enough, even issues like depression can arise. I think you get the point here.

There are simple ways to learn how to operate your amazing supercomputer, the brain and mind, while also at the same time getting back in touch with who you really are at your core, your Authentic Self. This is the path to staying healthy and true empowerment. Empowering your health begins from inside out. Any comments?

If my inner happiness were based on controlling the events that occur around me, I’d be in trouble right now. Yet, even in the midst of the outer instability in the world as reported by the media, I feel more grounded and less fearful than at anytime before in my life – why? For one thing, I’m learning the real power of mindset.

I no longer feel or believe that I am a hapless victim, waiting for the “other shoe to drop” or that this state I am in is “too good to be true”. No, it is true for me. It is my reality. I am getting freer and freer by the day it seems of the fear that is all too often perpetrated through the airwaves and that others seem to aimlessly focus on.

This kind of fear is simply “Fictitious Evidence Affecting Reality”; it is psychological in nature. After all, it really is not life-threatening – it only seems this way if you let your fearful imagination run away with you. Change can be a good thing when you learn how to use it to your advantage to grow.

Yes, pay attention, mindset matters. Your outer experience, how you see life and ultimately, where you find yourself depends on where you place your attention.

Once you decide that life is a certain way, whatever that is, your nervous system will look for the people, places and circumstances to make you right. It works like magic. When I used to focus on what was “wrong” with others, and myself I lived in a world of conflict, chaos and outer drama.

As I have evolved, I have come to understand that how and what I think and feel determines the way that I see life and ultimately the quality of life that I lead. This is good news. There is no shame in changing your mind. It is not a matter of “wrong or right”. The question is, are you living a life of love, joy and peace?

If not, then instead of looking for someone to blame, learn how your perception works via your brain and mind to affect your “reality”. Learn how to overcome fear and instead, live a life that is happy, abundant and on purpose. I’m doing it and so can you. All it takes is a willingness to open your mind, and reach inside and pull out some courage so that your confidence comes from your core, from the inside out!

Here are a few words on mindset that I would like to share while on vacation in Cabo San Lucas for spring break. Any insights to share?

There is too often a disconnect between how we really feel and what we do, or what we say. We talk about “pursuit of happiness” yet, when we or others attempt to come from an inner place of authenticity, if it does not fit inside of a narrow little box, there is not uncommonly, shame, guilt or blame heaped upon the one who finds a little courage to venture outside the “accepted” behavior for the group they currently associate with.

Well, I think it’s time to talk about how these dynamic impacts in a negative way everything from your health and aging, to whether or not you die with your joy and happiness locked deep inside of you. Over the many years I spent practicing medicine, I found that the people who were happiest, healthier and had the happier relationships tended to be open-minded, less concerned about what others thought of them and more likely to have a sense of humor or playfulness.

When we think that acting like an “adult” means that we have to be “serious”, or that to be successful we have to “work hard” or that health comes from focusing on avoiding being sick – we disempower ourselves in all of these areas. These are just common myths, common beliefs.

Just because a lot of people see life this way, does not mean that it is the best way, and certainly not the only way. As you may recall, the majority at one time also thought that the world was flat. What I have found is that, while there are principles or “secrets of the universe” that when followed work no matter what culture, century or educational level you apply them to, most of the stuff we believe is just a bunch of hand-me-down beliefs that may no longer apply to the current times or be in your best interest.

For example, happiness is not something that can really be obtained outside of you for any significant time. Haven’t you noticed how transient our feelings can be when tied to some person, place or thing? Or how about working hard – why can’t we be successful without all of the “sacrifice” and struggle? Of course we can, but if you only see life this way – this is the way that your nervous system will cause you to focus to “make you right”.

In fact, if your success comes easy, if you have this belief of hard work and struggle, you may sabotage yourself just because you feel guilty about life being so abundant for you. Hopefully, you get the point – much of the way we look at life is making our experience hard and full of struggle not because it has to be this way, as much as it is because this is the way we expect it to be.

You do have the right to change your mind. In fact, that is the only way you can let new, more empowering information in.

Here are 3 simple ways that you can switch your paradigm to one that is more likely to give you results tending toward more health and happiness and I use them all and they are working for me. Let me make it clear that I use to also believe, very much so, that life was hard and that success took much struggle and preventative health meant, “avoiding disease”.

For Mind Health:

1. Make it your business to escape the trap of all work and no play -
examples:

Get uncomfortable and play at the beach, get messy and wet in the sand, join a group that sets an intention to go on “play dates”, watch funny movies, this could be a long list. Let your imagination and “inner kid” come back to life. This is the best way to “anti-age” yourself. The point is, stress is a killer, accounting for as much as 90% of all visits to primary care doctors. When you play and relax, you counteract the cascade of the stress response which damages your brain cells, – literally.

For Body Health:

2. Of course, exercise and plenty or rest, but also some less often realized ideas include focusing on health and instead of fearing that you will be the next cancer victim. Worry actually weakens your immune system. Well, guess what? A weakened immune system makes you more susceptible to cancer and other diseases. Hence, the fear that you have is making you more likely to experience the very thing you want to avoid.

Your brain and mind cannot tell the difference between something vividly imagined and something really happening. You may just be scaring yourself to death with all of your fear of having a disease.

For Spirit:

3. Spirit is not the same as “religious” though some people do use the term interchangeably. Happiness is generally a response to something we want. The key to peace of mind and joy though is to either desire without “needing” and wanting to control or hold on. It has been so empowering for me to realize that I cannot micromanage the Universe and it is futile to try. It is also better for my health and mind. It just makes for much resistance and unhappiness and blocks the joy that can only come from within. Joy/happiness that is lasting is coming from our core, our spirit and looking for it outside ourselves is looking for it in “all the wrong places”. The belief that you can “be happy when _________ is one of the most common self-sabotaging myths going. Let it go.

These are three real and lasting yet uncommon ways to empower up from the inside out. Notice that they all overlap in many ways, as our mind, emotions, body and spirit are one – all interconnected and until we start to bring these pieces of ourselves into a whole unit, we are not very likely to find the joy, abundance and peace of mind that a truly empowered life can bring. Do you have any other ideas to add?

I used to be caught in the trap of comparing myself to others. I had “delusions of inferiority” instead of grandeur. I’ve noticed that the story lines are not that varied. Most people spend their lives living much less content and abundant than they need to.

The problem is, we give all of our attention to the external world, to the neglect of our inner Spirit. This is why we don’t feel empowered. We are more than “only human”. Human is fine, and I think we should be grateful to be alive and appreciate the journey.

Yet, if you are not aware of the power of the invisible world, including “thoughts, feelings and emotions”, you will hit all sorts of land mines on the road of life. We tend to only look at the physical. What we do not realize often, is that the physical is that last thing to manifest, meaning, your physical world is formed from the invisible.

Your body believes every thing your mind believes, as they are not separate. If you believe that “life is under pressure”, don’t be surprised if you develop high blood pressure. If you think that people around you are a pain in the neck, don’t be surprised if you have tight neck and shoulders. You may even demonstrate a rigid personality, which could be the source of your aliments!

When we believe that we are at the mercy of people places and circumstances, we unconsciously keep our attention on what we don’t want, who we don’t like and “if only” something outside of ourselves would change – then we could be happy.

Well, don’t hold your breath, because you will not be long on the planet.

We cannot micromanage the outer world. When we come from a place of core confidence, we don’t even try. The sooner this is understood, the sooner peace of mind can be a reality. It’s like trying to move the windows around in a house that is already built. It would be a whole lot easier to work at the level of the blueprint before the house is built.

This is what would happen if you start with your mind and feelings and connecting with your spirit. If you deal with the blind spots that are blocking you from creating an abundant, whole life, you can better see how to get onto the road to happiness instead of taking all of the detours you keep stumbling into.

Instead of running to the store to buy more shoes, purses or articles of clothing, you’d be better of learning how to operate the greatest creative genius on our planet – your own brain and mind. Too often we spend more time taking care of our cars and things than we do taking care of our spirit, our very life force.

We are much more than meets the eye. We have many more gifts and talents than we are aware of. If you keep your mind full of fear and worry, you may miss out on your life. There are lots of things out in the world and media to keep us distracted and feeling inadequate. Truth be told, you are powerful beyond measure.

Look, you’ve perfectly created whatever you have already created in your life – it’s just been often unintentional. Also, please realize, that perception is a funny thing. We have been taught to resist and judge almost everything which is why we can be so hard on ourselves and get stuck in drama.

Again, there’s more than meets the eye and we don’t know what we don’t know, so it is time to learn. When you understand how to shift and work with the blueprint, and how to release the garbage bag of thoughts that we unconsciously carry on the journey of life, we can get to where we want to go, and experience life at a whole new level of peace of mind, confidence and empowerment.

And why can’t we see that even if we temporarily feel better by getting what we want outside of ourselves that it is a shaky proposition at best? Well, it’s wired into our brains and body. Since memory is held in the body at a cellular level, it is not going anywhere until we learn how to change it.

Here’s a key: memory is a story that you create. Yes, facts happen, events happen, but it is the MEANING that you assign makes all of the difference. And you will assign your meaning primarily based upon your own self-image.

If you feel powerless and insecure you will view how someone reacted to you differently than someone who loves themselves and “knows that they know” that what they do is NOT who they are – two very different things.

When I have my identity wrapped up in my activity, roles and appearance, I will be very vulnerable to change. When I realize that my essence is separate and apart from what others think about me, I can make a conscious decision to respond with confidence and power rather than being knocked over by the opinion of someone who at the end of the day will not expand my life in any way.

We can’t have peace of mind until we change the thoughts about life that keep us chasing this elusive state of being. I grew up on many beliefs that were held as “common sense”. They may be common but they make no sense if you want to live an empowered, abundant and happy life. What are some of these beliefs?

1. “No pain, no gain” – Who says? Since I stopped expecting pain, I’m gaining more inner peace, joy and abundance than I’ve ever experienced before.

2. “I have to work hard to be successful” – No, you may have to be persistent, disciplined and do a good job, but you do not have to wear yourself out to get things done – this is purely a mindset issue.

3. “I should face reality” – Whose reality? True, you need to live up to your obligations but to keep your focus on what is going on in your world that you do not like will only keep it in place. Use your imagination to take you to where you want to go to get unstuck.

4. “What I do is who I am” – Oh really? Than this explains why so many people feel lost and go through an identity crisis when they lose their jobs. Your work is what the real “YOU” is experiencing, it does not change the essence of who you are.

5. “I will be happy when tomorrow (event/person/possession) comes” – only tomorrow never arrives as when it does it is called “today”. And chances are, the “happiness” is short-lived and fragile. In the meantime, we are forever chasing happiness in the next thing that is on its way – supposedly.

Hopefully you understand that I’m not saying that we cannot desire “things” or that having titles or roles are a “bad” thing. No, I’m just saying that inner peace is the starting point if you want to build a life that is strong and can weather the storms of life.

Life will have storms; it is a matter of “when” not “if”. I’m not talking airy-fairy or woo-woo here. I’m talking practical matters of just learning how to manage your own brain and mind. Learning how to make friends with change and emotions, which are two things you are guaranteed to experience as long as you have life in your body.

So instead of making your journey one of fear and suffering, why not examine what you believe and update the ones that no longer serve you? Remember, YOU are not your thoughts and beliefs, but your thoughts and beliefs will determine your peace of mind and experience on the stage of life! What do you believe about beliefs?