Worry is a pervasive and and needless habit that many of us struggle with. It blocks us from staying positive and therefore keeping a pure vision of what we want. Worry and the accompanying emotion of fear it brings with it interrupts our dreams, keeping us focused on what we do not want, rather than what we do want. Holding onto fear and worry and thinking we can reach the finish line, or our goal vision, is self-defeating. It’s like running a race, and stopping every few feet, running backwards, spinning around, and at last moving forward a few feet again, only to do the same thing all over again. The finish line stays far out of reach. Fear keeps us stuck. What are we to do with it?

Like everything else in our lives, we must take responsibility for it. There was a time in my life when I realized, in reviewing my life, that I was addicted to worry, and I was addicted to problems. I handled them like a champ, but I always got more to deal with! At one time I thought it was a testament to my strength and I felt a certain pride that I had survived what I did, but I began to feel there really was nothing positive to be said for my strength in enduring this onslaught. As I was starting to envision a future that included peace, freedom and happiness, entertaining worrisome thoughts all the time seemed counterproductive. In truth, I had grown weary of the constant legal issues, life issues, and health issues. So, I finally realized I had to take responsibility for all of that, and in taking responsibility, not only did I realize I brought forth those issues, but that I was addicted to the feelings and thoughts that I entertained because of them.

Addicted sounds like a harsh word, but I think it is accurate. When some problem came up, it’s what I thought of nearly 24/7. If I had waking moments without other critical things to take my mind off it, I was mulling the issue over and over, anticipating different outcomes, pondering solutions, and analyzing every bit of it. I was getting quite good at anticipating possible outcomes, and as a result had handled legal situations quite well in the past. But when you are looking to change your reality into a positive and peaceful one, you don’t need detective or legal skills just to handle life!

At first, I continued to resist the idea that worry was really needless, and still tried to find a good rationale for it. I had spent a good deal of my life doing this. Since I had invested so much time in this activity, I suppose I wanted to believe it was a productive thing to do. So I thought about people I knew who didn’t seem to spend time worrying, curious how it impacted their lives. I realized that they seemed blessed with better fortune or experienced far less disruptions. Now, you might reason that is why they don’t worry, but of course, it’s the other way around!

As I was resistant, I didn’t want to not think about the problem–like any other addict, I wanted to continue with my habit! I thought I could continue to ponder whatever dilemma was going on at the time, and simply choose to not feel fear as a result of the thoughts, as I felt it was the fear that was destructive in creating my newly-formed goals. Then, I realized that thinking the problem situation over and over itself was the problem, as it kept me from being focused on positive things as well as my goal reality. I could try real hard not to feel fear when thinking about the circumstances, but that was challenging anyway. Imagine huge debt, loss of income, lengthy divorce proceedings regarding divorce and child custody, health crises, and bankruptcy court. I had all of these and more.

Few, if any, of us were raised in an environment where we were encouraged to spend time focusing on our goal visions and dreams, particularly in the midst of some crisis, so we can’t blame ourselves for doing absolutely what we were taught to do! Now, I am not suggesting you ignore problems that need to be dealt with, but you don’t need to obsess over them. You arrive at a solution and steps to reach the solution, and be done with it. You take one day at a time, stay positive, and keep your vision in mind!

Focusing on worry and present circumstances can also help to create another problem situation on its heels. I realized I had to be willing to let go of the analysis, the thinking, and the addiction to these problems. Although life had already turned around and many of the issues I mentioned above were in the past, suddenly new ones came up. It was then that I realized I was creating them over and over again. It was clear I was addicted to them. I was also addicted to thinking about them. This seemed to be one of the final pieces that I needed to lay in place to progress in my life.

The realization of all of this was a large part of the solution. Remember, awareness is the key to growth. When we see truth about ourselves, we accept it openly. We acknowledge, take responsibility, and then forgive ourselves for the past. And we release it. Just let it go. Choose to release worrisome thoughts, and choose to think about your positive vision. Just say no to negativity! Say no to fear and worry. When the thoughts come up, affirm the following to yourself: "I willingly release these worrisome thoughts. I do not need to think about this situation. I choose to think happy thoughts." A good deal of mental discipline and re-training will be necessary, as you have been accustomed to this obsessive thinking. It is just like the alcoholic reaching for the drink. In your mind, you need only reach for that thought that is hovering close by! Distracting the mind will help. If you can’t keep your mind busy on something else, try singing, or humming. Play Don’t Worry Be Happy, and sing along, or some other song that distracts your mind and keeps you positive. Remember Hakuna Matata from the Lion King? You can sign up for free to listen to these and other songs. This is an exercise in mental re-training, and it’s no small feat, but it can be done. After some time spent on this exercise, and you won’t have to work at it so hard. Do this until negative or worry thinking is no longer a habit.

Remain vigilant of your thoughts! What do you think about in your free moments? If you find that you choose to think about stressful situations in far greater proportion than is needed to resolve the problem, you need to take some steps to re-train your mind before you are able to move forward with creating your vision. Remember, as within, so without. Keep in your mind peaceful, happy, positive and loving thoughts. Look forward with expectation to fulfilling your dreams!

 

 

 

 

 

The other day I found myself in a conversation with a lovely lady from a local coffee shop. I had gone in there to wait out some car repairs. She looked in awesome condition, physically. She was very muscular, and even exhibited vascularity, as if she were a bodybuilder. Few women, or even men, can reach physical condition like this, even when they work out regularly. As I had been a bodybuilder some years ago, I wondered what program she followed to get in such excellent condition. So I asked her.

She replied that she didn’t exercise at all. She mentioned she had been shoveling snow the day before, which was more exercise than she routinely gets.

When I marveled at her ability to stay fit without any effort, she replied that her sons were the same way, in that they had exuberant energy and were enrolled in many sports, as they had much to spare. She also said that when she gets ill, her skin breaks out, as if the disease is being pushed out from the inside, and then it just goes away. She does not have to deal with health issues.

I wondered at her ability to create such great health for herself. Clearly, she did not intend for physical challenges to be on her burden list for this lifetime! She apparently had a great many other issues, which she shared with me. I think few people would want her life, though many people would probably gladly exchange some of their fortune for her great health and physical strength. We often think that if only that issue were resolved, we could accomplish so much. We think that this one thing stands in our way, for example, health problems.

It doesn’t stand in our way at all. It is "the way" to where we are supposed to go, absolutely and without question. There is no other way we could have accomplished what we set out to do, or we would not have chosen it. While at the same time the body’s ails may represent karmic issues, it is processing through those issues that we will heal and become who were meant to be.

Our path is custom made for us. We choose our situation, our surroundings, our issues for a purpose only we can know. There are many and varied reasons for having a health problem. A simple explanation, as if things are ever simple, could mean that you are not meant to do something you would try to continue doing if you were healthy; for example, working hard or working for someone else. In that way you are being forced to find a path, or a job, or a means of making income, where you do not have to work in that fashion. You might have to work around a schedule, to give your body rest, or that works around your body’s rhythms. This is forcing you to carve out your own path. Would you have done it for any other reason? And while you are working to that point, I guarantee you will have to resolve the bucket of issues and misbelief systems you brought into this lifetime with you.

Sometimes we feel our path is difficult. Sometimes we might even feel that the obstacles are impossible. You should know that they are not. There is one guarantee you have in this life, and that is, you provided for yourself the ability to reach the goal you had intended yourself to reach. Know that. Often the biggest challenge is realizing what the goal looks like, or what our right and true path is. Once we have succeeded in doing that, we are well on our way to success.

All my experiences are created from my beliefs

Imagine that you had not been here lifetimes before. Imagine that you are starting off in this world anew. You can reject or accept experiences, at will. Which will you choose?

Unfortunately, that is not the case. If you are reading this article, you are an old soul, perhaps on the precipice of a beautiful new reality. You just seem to be stuck!

Because you have been here before, because you did not reject the negative experiences, and came to view them as "what is," or part of earthly reality, you have embedded those beliefs, lifetime after lifetime. You have a long-term investment at stake, and only you can remove it. They are NOT illusions. Remember, you are a powerful Creator! This world is NOT an illusion. You have made it what it is. For good, for bad!

During this lifetime, we are being forced into conditions which expose our belief systems, for us to release. This has been the case because we are ready to move on. It is like being put through the ringer, or the spin cycle. As we spin around, by laws of physics, all that is not part of our true nature is being shaken off and away. Unfortunately, it is not as easy as that–in this 3-dimensional reality, the set-up is experience to reveal them, acceptance to acknowledge them, and surrender and force of thought to shake them off.

In order to get a view of your belief systems, simply review the life you have chosen. While circumstances may have gotten better (or perhaps even worse), review the themes and patterns and what belief they inspire.

For example:

1. People are unsupportive and uncaring.

2. People are against me. They want to hurt me.

3. If I have money, people will try to take it away.

4. People don’t want me to be successful.

A review of history complete with victimization, abuse and persecution may reveal thoughts such as these. These are extreme, but your lifetime may well exemplify such thoughts as these, as mine did. The net result was that at best I could achieve some level of success, but felt I had to hide it, for fear that it would be taken away. Here’s a few more.

5. Work is hard. It compromises my health.

6. I can’t earn money doing what I love,

In spite of the fact that we recognize others make a living or better doing exactly what they love!

If we review some of the above thoughts in the context of our life experiences, we need to accept that it is a "belief system," and nothing more. Because you feel that it is reality, you will re-create it in some shape or form, over and over. You will not move too far from that reality, although you can certainly better your experience. Affirmations, positive thinking, and other superficial methods can help us to do that, but they don’t change the underlying belief, when it remains unconscious.

But, we are not here to better our experience. We are here to heal it altogether. Perhaps there is a completely new experience waiting for us, that we are completely unaccustomed to. Universal forces and energies are ripe for this NOW.

What you must do is accept it is only a belief in your Mind. Take a thought or belief system and treat it as you would another thought, or opinion, or perspective. Do not judge it’s importance or validity. Deny any conviction in these beliefs. Recognize they are not "what is." They are what you make them to be. It is therefore, not an unshakeable belief, but it becomes moveable. Move it out of your way!

For further example, let’s take some other beliefs regarding health:

7. I am unhealthy. I have always had physical problems.

8. I have a bad back.

9. Life is draining. I am tired all the time.

It doesn’t matter what primary experience caused this thinking to become pervasive. You had an experience of ill health, or pain, and believed in it as truth. It became daily thinking, although perhaps unconscious daily thinking. And now it is a daily reality. The power of your mind is incredible. It is capable of running all your programs, and thus creating a reality from them, all day long, day after day, without you being aware at all that you are creating. It is what you do most naturally, and unconsciously.

Now, to take energy away from the above statements, or your own, try prefacing the statement with a few words: "I think that I believe that …. "

For example:

"I think that I believe that work is hard."

"I think that I believe that life is difficult."

"I think that I believe I am unhealthy."

"I think that I believe that I lack opportunity."

Do you see how much power you removed from the above statements? You shift the energy from conviction  to acknowledging that you merely entertain a thought about a belief. You can then choose to not entertain that thought about such a belief! Be willing to add these words to your own statements. Whether or not right now you can believe that those thoughts can (or should) change, preface each one with "I think that I believe that … " 

So, today you must begin to pay attention to how often you affirm your programs and beliefs, and begin to change them with conscious effort. The Universe is always listening and responding, whether or not you realize what you are asking for!

Are you hoping you can change your life the easy way? If someone offered you a quick fix, perhaps some power mantra, magical chant, a charm you could wear, a release point you could press that would remove all bad luck or inner subconscious issues, or perhaps some yoga position you could assume once a day, would you try it?

We hope for a magic formula, because the longer we remain in a life that doesn’t work for us, the more desperately we seek a quick fix. Unfortunately, there really is no easy fix, but there will always be someone willing to offer one in exchange for money.

In truth, our challenges would go immediately with our surrender. While we cling to our problems with tight fists, we hope that some quick fix will chase them away. We avoid the path of change and growth until the pain becomes too great. Pain precedes change, and eventually drives growth.

Our lives are designed in such a way as to facilitate our spiritual healing, at the expense of our mental, physical, and emotional peace and well-being. This design includes challenges and pain–learning to let go, learning to reach out, learning to love, learning to forgive–and through it all, becoming greater, and so much more than we had been before. Our only real purpose is growth.

Our soul’s growth is primary. We don’t want to hear this. Modern-day societal expectations don’t mesh with a concept that implies we must endure some pain and spend time and attention on ourselves doing spiritual work.

Spiritual healing presents an unchangeable course. It has not responded to our demands of an instant fix. A loving and unprejudiced creative energy moves us toward wholeness, via our own growth, whether we like it or not. Because we are spiritual beings having a human experience, and not simply bodies having a life, we must tend to the needs of spirit.

If we knew how to manage life from the outset, change and growth would be so much easier. In a society more sensitive to our spiritual needs, perhaps mandatory early reading would include a guidebook for living an abundant and healthy life. We now know that the map for success lies within our own thinking and belief systems, which develops at an early age.

“What the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.”

The contents in our mind determine our health, our life circumstances, how well we function, and our emotional well-being. But, when you consider that major medical insurers would not cover mental health therapy until late in the last century, you can see how slow progress has been in appreciating this important concept.

The idea that thoughts, belief systems and feelings affected our life, was neglected. Those seeking therapy or emotional healing were labeled weak, needy, or thought to require too much attention. Now we know that attending to mental health needs is more than a privilege. Forgotten memories are not forgotten problems; we know that traumatic events, especially those repressed, and even those that occur at too young an age to remain in conscious memory, have great impact on the quality of our lives. They impact our relationships, our productivity, our health, and our level of happiness. We now know, as of the 21st century, the importance of what occurs on the mental plane. We still have much to learn.

The spiritually-aware have a greater advantage. The spiritual seeker accounts for what happens at the soul level, as well as on an energy level. This expands and facilitates our ability to heal. We have many tools available to us in our healing work, as opposed to standard counseling. 

In alternative/spiritual healing, we might discover some pre-birth or other lifetime issue to be a block. Does standard therapy help this? There are methods that can help us when we hit a stick-point in our work. When we have committed to the spiritual path and surrendered to our growth, we will always be led to the next step in our progression. We must let go of the blocks, the people, the beliefs, or lifestyle, that keep us rooted in unhappiness. When some thought pattern remains, we can consider that a healer working on the right level can help us progress.

A painful condition or life experience has led to miraculous healing for many. Extreme emotional pain–either caused by life circumstances or threat of a painful or fatal physical illness–was the common thread. Does a shift require extreme pain? I don’t think so, but for most people, pain does seem to be the impetus to growth. Some of us need harder knocks to break through our excuses, rationalizations, and the hugely defensive ego. Perhaps some of us ignored the pain till it became so great that it erupted in a huge tidal wave.

If you would like to learn some healing method or try some system or process that someone has developed from his/her own healing journey, remember that each person’s journey is individualized. Do not rely upon it as the answer for you, or consider yourself a failure if that method does not succeed for you. Take what you learn and modify it to your own needs. Develop the inner guidance you need to follow through on your path.

Life presents no challenge for which you do not also have the inner knowledge to overcome. And each and every challenge is a gift that ultimately leads to freedom and joy.

Law of attraction has great power in attracting that which we want, but unfortunately, it also draws conditions that we do not want. Our ability to create the life that we want hinges on the thoughts, beliefs, and programs we harbor, consciously or subconsciously. The deeper, subconscious thought patterns that are the product of our earliest learning tend to be the thoughts that most draw our life experiences to us. These programs present an obstruction to our goals. We can’t hope to use law of attraction in a productive and positive way with the same faulty thought systems. 

In much the same way that a computer program produces a predictable result when it runs, you will find that your subconscious programs do so as well. If you review your history, you might notice that themes, whether positive or negative, had a tendency to repeat. Although the circumstances changed over time, you had a sense of familiarity, or déjà vu, each time. These patterns may have revolved around health conditions or physical ailments, in career or work-related issues, in finances, or in relationships. You might see addictions repeat, although the substance, food, or type may change.

Have you chosen romantic partners that were similar to previous partners, even if they did not at first appear that way? If abuse, jealousy, lack of support, infidelity, emotional absence or other behaviors repeat, there is a pattern. If you find health issues throughout your life that produced a similar emotional or life difficulty, or re-occuring financial problems, that is a pattern. If feelings of depression, hopelessness, or anxiety re-occur, that is a pattern. A destructive belief system underlies each of these patterns, whether they are circumstances, people that you attract, or feelings.

Once you have pinpointed patterns, you can get a sense of  the programs that run your life. These thoughts fuel law of attraction to invite negative people and situations into your life, and they drive your conscious thinking patterns, causing you to make choices to include them. Healing will eliminate these belief systems, and then the conditions. 

Growth requires acute awareness of our intentions, motivations, and actions. To achieve success, you must look inside yourself with awareness and responsibility. When you face the inner demons, they become real. However, the problems they cause diminish, simply by acceptance and recognition. Since you created them, only you can let them go. As with so much of our lives, it comes down to choice.

Imagine the peace and serenity you will feel when you no longer hold onto anxieties and fears that block you in life. Know that the path to freedom and joy waits beyond each and every perceived roadblock.

Success comes to those willing to commit with unwavering persistence. Committing to change first requires an open and willing attitude. You’ll find yourself tested with challenges that require you to develop tremendous inner courage. Ultimately you hope to see outer success as a result of the inner work you have done, but it usually takes some time. This will require you to develop the patience of a champion.

Unfortunately, while people may decide they want change, they rarely want to do the work for the time required to see tangible results. Understandably, they often get impatient to see change on any level, whether in regard to physical healing, mental healing, or life healing. While it has taken an entire lifetime to create what we see in the form of our financial condition, relationships, health, and general happiness overall, we may irrationally want instantaneous results. We tend to lose focus and move onto something else that offers a quicker return. There really is no easier or quicker way than inner healing work. That is ultimately the only way.

If you are going through a divorce that is causing financial and emotional difficulties, you need to look at it from the perspective that a bad situation is moving out. It is a situation undergoing the process of change. You may have traded what appears like one bad situation for another, but in reality, you are working towards an improvement. You have to view any negative circumstances in that way, when you are actively working on improvement.

Many people often neglect to realistically assess their starting place when working towards goals of self-improvement. If you have heard about the "illusion" of time, forget it now. If you have heard that it only takes the universe "one second," forget that one, too. It’s a whole lot more fun to contemplate change when we think it might take a second, but it’s unrealistic, given our starting point, to transform negative conditions in a second, in a week, month, or possibly even a year or more! Understand the necessity of cultivating the art of patience.

Do not allow your current situation to weigh upon you. It will pass. You may look at this and say, "How can I feel positive with this going on around me?" or "How can I feel healthy when I am sick?" Optimism becomes part of the healing process. Not only must you believe that the situation will pass, you must believe that it will ultimately produce the best possible results. The current situation is a part of yesterday. At some point, it will merely be history. Then, you can forget it entirely. For today, plod through with courage, and do not focus on negativity, as bleak as circumstances may seem. Focusing on the negative will encourage negative conditions to remain. Use the momentum of change to swing to the positive as you focus on positive change at all times.

People seem more willing to put time and energy into areas that do not hold as great a promise to transform their lives. Perhaps the pain of looking within serves as the impetus for seeking outer distractions and material possessions. But at the end of the day, no amount of money or stuff can substitute for inner peace and happiness. While you may at times feel overwhelmed by the inner work required to change your thoughts or habits, know that the longer you put off the necessary inner work, the more ingrained and habitual the patterns become. The best you can hope to achieve, lacking real change, is tolerant complacency to your own dissatisfaction. Eventually you will find that change is an inside job.

You will not find any better system to change your life. There is nothing more worthwhile than committing to your own growth. You can effect powerful change in your life right now with your growing awareness. It’s reasonable to want change to motivate you to keep moving forward, and this will happen. With the internal changes, your perspective will change. You will change. And then life will transform.

If we harbor negative thoughts, either consciously or subconsciously, we cannot use law of attraction to manifest desirable conditions in our lives. Negative beliefs also affect our abilities to make clear and productive choices, to set positive goals and certainly to achieve these goals. They affect our beliefs in our own abilities and skills, the way we view the world, and what we believe life holds for us. We can cross our fingers and make a wish, but our intentions will remain outside the realm of possibility as long as our beliefs limit us.

For the sake of simplicity, let’s say birth is the beginning. At that time, you began to learn and form core concepts for how you would view and deal with the world, by gathering information from experiences, environment and conversations. As the needs of an infant are, at first, the very center of its existence, whether or not those needs are answered in a balanced way begins to teach optimistic, or pessimistic, expectation. Whether or not desire and effort are rewarded with "manifestation," or futility determines their expectancy of future gratification. Were your needs met in a healthy and balanced way? 

As you grow and develop, life experiences serve to further instill that early learning. Do you have expectations of success? Or do you find that you give up on your goals or resolutions before succeeding, certain that you will fail? Can you find a theme, or pattern, running through your life that might suggest some deep, and very early learning of futility, hopelessness, or powerlessness? Perhaps over time, your parents or other authority figures told you that you wanted too much, were too demanding, or dreamed too much, perhaps to compensate for their own inability to provide what you needed or wanted.

You later relegated the learned early knowledge to the subconscious to free the conscious mind for new skills and ideas. What you learned at six months, at one year, three years and so on, was no longer recognized as acquired knowledge. Those thoughts became automated. You don’t need to stop and think, you just know. This habitual thinking serves as our default thinking on a conscious level. Subconsciously, negative programs developed that direct thoughts, perspectives, choices, actions, and interactions with others. Essentially, this forms our rule book for life on this planet, totally unique to each of us. While life is a continuum of learning, you can instill positive and effective programs that can counter any negative beliefs you learned .

All of your experiences, starting at birth, set an undercurrent in your mind, regardless of what you believed you consciously desired as an adult. Your subconscious mind had installed core programs that either provided unlimited access to the world, or a small box that you kept banging your head on when you jumped too high. Too many of us feel the lid of a very small box! When, later in life, we chose our attitudes, beliefs and thought processes, we often chose those with which we felt most comfortable. Unfortunately, in this case, comfort due to old familiarity led to the same small box. Choice remains a powerful tool that requires wise and careful use. You chose the thoughts on which you focused. Choice allows you to change that, now!

While we may combat negativity by re-learning, people rarely put in the conscious effort to change themselves so completely. They have created a strong identity and spent a lifetime validating those beliefs through experience. We like validation and we’ll take it any way we can get it. This applies to negative, as well as positive experience. You probably know of people who relive their negative experiences by sharing them with anyone who will listen. Why would people choose to re-experience an event that caused them pain the first time? They provide validation to themselves, and seek validation from others. With each person they tell the story, they say "see I was right." If the person confirms that idea, all the better! We all do this. And there’s a time and place for it–in the wake of some events, we need confirmation and support. We need to feel that people care, sympathize, and understand our perspective. But if we would work toward a new perspective based on new judgments and beliefs, we would then see life circumstances differently, and begin to experience a new reality. You must consider the possibility that you have been wrong–about men or women, about bosses or employees, about money, the government, the system, love, others and/or yourself.

Through the process of self-healing, buried subconscious programs will rise to the conscious level. These beliefs and thoughts will often be uncomfortable. Strive for honesty with yourself. Everyone has their own "junk," whether irrational or ugly. Simply allowing that junk into your conscious mind begins the healing process. With your full acceptance, forgiveness, and non-judgment, these thoughts release. Each time you recognize some underlying issue that corresponds with your experience and acknowledge responsibility in creating it, you further the ongoing process of revelation and healing.

You can see how the two levels of creation, both active choice/action and passive law of attraction, interplay in creating every life situation. The process of healing reshapes yor thinking, and then your life. Begin to ignore your default thought patterns, until positive thinking and productive choice-making becomes habitual. As you attract new and more positive experiences through law of attraction, opportunities for success will present themselves. You will learn to seize the options that are most productive. You will form new relationships that support your goals. When all your actions are congruent with the goals and visions you have set in place, you will be unstoppable!

If you let go of those core and limiting programs you learned from day one, and the experiences that validated those beliefs, you will experience transformation. It is NEVER too late to let go of negativity and false beliefs, and that is all that stands in the way of the life you want.

Metaphysical studies, very much like religion, is often the basis for profit-based businesses these days. In other words, profit is the motive, rather than the spiritual growth of the patrons. Since spiritual growth has turned into a business, we can’t always rely on the integrity of those providing a service or presenting information. When profit becomes motive, truth is expendable. Truth is a prerequisite for growth. So we must question the information, the service, or the healing method, by developing and relying upon, discernment.

True spiritual healing, by necessity, involves an awakening. We cannot remain unconscious until we become enlightened. The journey involves a conscious and willing agreement to seek awareness. When we look into the world with rose-colored glasses, it may boost our comfort, but we are hiding from truth. This is not consciousness. If we believe fiction because it feels better, that is not awareness. If we remain in illusion, we cannot wake up.

Science has proven the existence of some metaphysical concepts, thus bypassing the leap-of-faith requirement that standard religious teachings demand. However this does not prove a particular application of a concept, or law. When putting into practice some "proven" teaching, many students, when faced with failure, do not re-evaluate the validity of the teaching; instead, they believe that they didn’t have enough faith, didn’t know properly how to use the concept, or didn’t want the manifestation on a deep level.

If you have thought of checking with a psychic or reader for some advice, know in advance that they have adopted a standard disclaimer to cover a wide range of error: "free will." Although they may claim to 99% accuracy, free will is the reason they will tell you your reading did not play out as they had told you.

If you have gone to a healer and didn’t experience success, they won’t tell you that you are in the majority. They will point out the few testimonials of those who experienced success, whether or not those testimonials were authentic. They might suggest you didn’t really want the healing on some level. Free will prevails!

A student can spend a lifetime savings on courses, tools, teachers and healing modalities. Perhaps the next teacher who assures us they have "cracked the code" may know something no one else in history has learned. For good reason, we might need to believe that the DNA healer or the energy healer can resolve our health issues. With every product, modality, process, or method that claims success, we need to evaluate the credibility by reviewing our success. We need to remain biased towards our own perceptions. When we doubt ourselves and our judgment, we make ourselves vulnerable to mistruth, and thus, disempowerment. Placing faith outside ourselves removes our power and sets up a cycle of seeking and never actually finding. Today, seeking can be expensive!

This is not an insult to the intelligence of the faithful. Whether we desire to connect with spirit, improve our lives, or achieve wellness, we have a legitimate need. Whenever a need surfaces, business will exploit that need for profit, if we allow them. We can see that modern medicine exploits our natural desire for health. Some patients may continue in the medical system for years, visiting one doctor after another in search of a better answer or better care. One doctor may pass them to another, keeping them in the system. As doctors authorize more tests, more specialists and more treatment, it results in increased profits for the system and increased costs for the patient–who may not even find relief. Many people now educate themselves to make more informed decisions, rather than relying completely on their doctors.

In the same way, the spiritual and personal development field draws in those seeking to improve their health, their lives, or understand the spiritual realm. Unethical people will profit on those needs. Sometimes the healing they provide benefits only their own bank account! We should carefully consider their claims and evaluate fairly to determine which are worthwhile.

Trust yourself. True faith does not require ignorance and complete naivete. Be discriminating in whom you trust and what you believe. Spirituality does not require all-or-nothing blind faith. Although you believe in the existence of "god" as the energy in the universe, you do not need to believe some tool, person, or modality that claims to have captured that essence to heal you. You may believe in law of attraction, and indisputably, it does exist, but you can understand that the way it is presented in some popular teachings is not quite right. You may believe that there are angels or guides in the higher realms that assist us, but you do not need to believe that someone has channeled them or receives special information from them, whether or not they are profiting on the information–although, they usually are! You do not need believe that a book or teaching was channeled information, just because it was claimed. Complete belief is not a requirement for spiritual awakening, but self-trust is. A roadblock on the path to spiritual maturity is trust in self, before all others. In order to progress, you will need to graduate that course.

Be wise! It is not "negative" to use your intelligence and discernment. Wisdom, intellect, discrimination and discernment are our gifts, and our responsibility. It is our task here on earth to balance both our spiritual and human side–not to abandon one aspect of ourselves to embrace another.