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Openness Pillar to a Prosperous Life Openness is about letting a stream of prosperity and abundance flow through us. Never needing too much or holding on too tightly (hoarding). It is about giving and receiving. So, does giving lead one to receive more? It may not show up immediately, however, giving to others freely will make you feel better and appreciate what you do have even more. Plus, if no one gave anything, no one would receive anything either. Giving and receiving is a cycle in which we all play a role. There needs to be a cycle of both giving and receiving for our economy to work well. If we all hoard our money, the world economy would collapse. The world economy succeeds because money flows. This does not mean that we should spend all that we have. Saving for retirement or a rainy day is needed, yet when we hoard money, it is a sign that we do not believe in our own prosperity and abundance. In other words, we do not believe that we have enough. As mentioned before, prosperity is like a light switch. We know that electricity is always there. It is up to us to want to turn the electricity on. Whether we turn it on all the way or only part of the way will determine how prosperous and abundant we are and feel. This does not mean that one can turn on the light switch and expect to receive prosperity and abundance without giving anything in return. There is always a bill that comes due from the electric company. The same is true for prosperity. Those that give will have the paycheck to cover the bill. Ways to Increase the Prosperity and Abundance in Your Life Let Go of Resistance
The goal is to let go of blame, resentment, and disbelief. There is an exercise that I have done with teens in which two teens stand a foot apart, facing each other such that they can only touch each other's hands. The goal is to get the other person off balance. In the end, the only way to win is to drop the resistance (e.g., let your arms go limp and do not apply force). By letting go, the other person who is using force loses their balance. The same is true in life. In most arguments each party is trying to win rather than trying to understand each other. If I am trying to convince someone that I am right, I am not listening to their point of view. Thus an argument can become two immovable forces trying to convince the other that they are right. We can be focused on winning the battle but lose the war. In other words, the more time we spend arguing with others (or blaming, resenting, etc.), the less time we spend bringing prosperity into our lives. Gratitude Spend five minutes and take an inventory of what went well this week and what did not. In the list, how many items are about what went well? If you listed more of things not going well, then there is an issue. Some look at life as a glass half-empty rather than half-full. When you look at the glass as half-empty, you stop the flow of good things coming into your life because you believe more in the emptiness of life. Have you ever started a day and knew it was going to be a really bad day? How did the day turn out? Nine out of ten times, the day was probably a bad day. We can attract things and people into our life by our thoughts. It is about how we choose to see life. Our belief about how the day will go sets our expectations and eventually influences our interpretation of the events of the day. Recently, I was finalizing our mortgage for our new house. At the beginning of the day, I saw that interest rates had gone up over the past four weeks. I started to beat myself up because I did not take the opportunity to lock in a lower interest rate a few weeks earlier by using a 60-day lock for a fee of $1,100. Instead I had decided to wait and take a 30-day lock from my current mortgage company, not thinking that rates would go up so much in the mean time. At first I began to feel very negatively about the day ahead, but then I decided to make the best of things. I ran the numbers on the 30-day lock and began to realize that the rate that I was going to get was still a good rate. Thus, I decided to lock in the rate that day before rates went up even further. As I was leaving a message for my loan officer, she was calling me simultaneously. She said that they had just reviewed my application and I qualified for their "home run" package. This meant that I would get $1,000 off my closing costs and be allowed to lock in the current rates and have an option to relock if rates declined before the time I closed in 30-days. Wow! I suddenly found myself getting a great deal on my mortgage, once I decided to stop beating myself up for not locking in the earlier interest rate. As it turned out, interest rates went back down and I was able to re-lock in lower rates, saving me over $3,000 in points at closing for the rate that I wanted. Would the mortgage company have done the same thing if I had not changed my attitude? Maybe or maybe not. Do not underestimate your power to create situations in your life that prove your beliefs. In any case, it is more about how we choose to live life. Instead of beating ourselves up for our mistakes, we should focus on learning from our mistakes and seeing life as an overflowing glass. In other words, do you want to live a miserable life or a happy life? When we live a life of gratitude, we can not help but to connect to the universal good that was meant for us. So take another 5 minutes and come up with a list of things that you are grateful for. Openness We spend most of the day running around trying to check things off our "to do" list. Our minds are constantly on the go, ruminating over the same thoughts and worries day after day. We wonder how we will pay the bills, get a promotion at work, or win the lottery. Being open and connected means slowing down and letting life come to you, instead of you pursuing life. It is about slowing down and connecting to life's energy around us. When we slow down and meditate, for instance, our thoughts slow down as well, while opening our minds to inspiration. Wayne Dyer talks about new thoughts coming to us in the gaps between our old thoughts; old thoughts slow down through meditation. And, if we do not slow our old thoughts down, there is no room for new thoughts. There is a simple meditation that you can try that is about connecting with the earth's energy. Start by standing with feet shoulder width apart (preferably with shoes off and outside on the grass). Close your eyes and pay attention to where your feet touch the ground. Now, start to breath deeply. With each deep breath in, imagine the energy of the earth coming up through your feet. With each exhale, imagine your stress, tension, and worries being pushed down into the earth. Over the next few minutes, slowly take this energy up through the legs and then up your spine. Imagine this energy filling your chest cavity and flowing down your arms. If a thought does pop into your mind, simply repeat the phrase "needlessly attending feet to ground." Once you feel reinvigorated, you can open your eyes. When people do this exercise, they feel more peaceful and centered, like they have a new energy. Yet, where does this energy come from? One possibility is that the energy you are imagining coming up from the ground actually exists as a peaceful, purifying force. Another possibility is that you are slowing down the negative energy (sadness, blame, anger), so that positive energy has room to expand. It does not really matter because the result is the same - peace and ease. Energy is amplified by people and groups. Riots and looting occur through group negative energy. What energy do you want to connect to and amplify? Peaceful, loving energy or negative, self-defeating, "poor me" energy? Understand that you have this choice every day. If you connect to a peaceful energy, you will start to see your stress and worries melt away. You may also see miracles occurring in your life once you let this energy flow through you. |
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