Category: Blog

Top 10 Manipulations

People who have suffered manipulation by another person often jump to the conclusion that labeling the manipulator as a Narcissist, Sociopath, Psychopath, or some other diagnosis along the Antisocial Personality Disorder spectrum is warranted. While manipulation is used by folks who are antisocial, we all use manipulation to get what we want, even with the best of intentions. It really comes down to motive, like, was the manipulation malicious in nature, or not?

We all learn from a very early age how to manipulate parents, caretakers and playmates to get what we want. It doesn’t make a child with keen skills of manipulation a narcissist; it just means that the child has learned, “When I do this, I can get that.” That is what I want, and this is the way I can get what I want. Manipulation is a learned behavior by experimentation.

Then sometimes we manipulate others to change their behavior or get what we want with the best of intentions. Though we don’t think of it as manipulation, any reward or punishment arrangement is clearly manipulative.

Our entire social structure is incredibly manipulative. We are all programmed to act, believe or think in a particular manner via manipulation by parents, teachers, and peers, local, state and federal governmental systems.

Top 10 Manipulations

1. Quid Pro Quo

Quid pro quo is a tool used by manipulators where an agreement is made whereby you agree to something (an action or allowance) in exchange for something in return. In an integrous agreement this kind of give and take is reasonable. The manipulator bargains for something now from you, with a promise to provide their part of the agreement in the future. Manipulators often promise, but rarely keep their word for their part of the bargain, but are quite satisfied that they got what they wanted.

2. Just Do It

Manipulators often exercise their desires without prior approval because they see a potential negotiation as problematic. Their mantra is, “It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission.” They are likely to either do something – or not do something – with little regard for others, insisting that “The past is the past,” and it’s, “My bad.” so just get over it and forgive me (or not).

3. Complimenting

Stroking your ego is a method employed by manipulators to get what they want by getting you to let down your guard. Most of us have a degree of low self esteem and we all want to feel good about ourselves and an unsolicited compliment can make us more amenable to manipulation while reeling from the praise (just enough to lower your guard) from the manipulator.

4. Conditional Performance

Conditional performance will find the manipulator rendering something promised, owed or otherwise due to you with conditions. They are using their expected and reasonable action as an opportunity to further manipulate you, with a covert indication that there may be a chance that the manipulator may withhold or not keep their part of the bargain.

5. Spotlight

A manipulator will put you on the spot by asking you for something in front of other people because you are more likely to agree in an effort to avoid any sense of conflict when other people are around.

6. Guilt

Guilt is an effective tool used in manipulation, whereby the manipulator suggests that you owe him/ her, have previously agreed to, or if you do not do what they want you to do might indicate you are noncompliant or lack morality.

7. Building Trust

Building trust to achieve a desired outcome is another manipulation tactic by setting you up for the manipulation well in advance. Through a premeditated succession of demonstrations creating affinity and trust, so that when they ask you for something, you are more likely to concede.

8. Fear

Fear of loss is used to manipulate you by making you believe that if you do not provide or do what they want, you will suffer some kind of loss. They suggest you will fall victim to some peril, punishment, or loss of personal freedom, whether the impending loss is factual or just a fanciful, unrealistic threat.

9. Compromise

Using exaggerated bargaining the manipulator will propose or ask for something over the top knowing that you will disagree to such a thing. Once you’ve adequately expressed your disapproval, the manipulator proposes a more palatable compromise, to which you are more likely to agree to, when the “compromise” is exactly what the manipulator wanted in the first place.

10. Not Asking

By not asking for something the manipulator uses the power of suggestion to get you to do or provide what they want. An extreme example would be the tearfully disturbed wife and mother says to her son, “My life is so awful, if only he were dead.” followed by a long, uncomfortable pause. The mother did not ask her son to kill her husband, but the son understands the underlying meaning and he replies, “I could kill him for you, but I wouldn’t want to run the risk of spending the rest of my life in prison.”

The hope is that early detection combined with a better understanding when you are potentially being manipulated, you can assert and protect yourself.

Even so, if you are a victim of manipulation, do not let it get to you. Try not to take it personally, because it doesn’t have anything to do with you. The manipulator is only doing what comes naturally to them. It has nothing to do with you. You were an innocent bystander selected only due to the fact you were in the right place at the right time (or the wrong place at the wrong time). If it had not been you, it could have been anyone. It had nothing to do with you, personally, even though you may feel the manipulation was targeted at you.

Forgive yourself, receive the learning hidden within the manipulation, and live a better life.

February 2017 Image Directory

Wrapping up the month of February, here’s a quick screen shot review of the month’s news. Let me know which ones you like the most. Thanks for your input, -David M Masters

Meet Your Inner Child Emotional Wounds Don’t Take It Personal Intentional Allowance
Up Your Enlightened Expansion Where’s the Integrity? Spiritual Warfare
Where is Your Power? You Can’t Do That

The Most Powerful Weapon is Love
Awakening to True Love Workshop at Your Location Sacred No Secret Yes Your Mind’s Whiteboard
Where Are You On the Bus? The Top 40 Reasons Love Does Not Exist What to Do When the Unexpected Happens

Want Vs. Need

 Remember When?

Meet Your Inner Child

Ever notice someone’s irrational outbursts? Does it trigger recollections similar to a child throwing a tantrum, only in the bigness of adulthood? It’s likely that the person who is acting out in such a manner needs to reconcile their adult life with their inner child.

While it may sound like faux-psych new age folderol, all of us started out as children, and as such that young child within takes up residency deep within our being. For the most part it remains hidden because it has no physical form, but its existence and struggle for survival is undeniable. Your inner child for the most part resides safely protected in your unconscious mind, while your adult mind dominates the conscious mind. When your adult and inner child are in conflict with each other, behavioral and emotional inconsistencies become apparent, often leading to difficulties in relationships and managing adult life in general.

When your inner child asserts itself over your cognitive abilities, you will notice a variety of behaviors that are inconsistent with what would be considered normal thought patterns. Some indications of inner child outbursts range from self-sabotage to criminal behavior. The playground of the unbridled inner child often includes over-reacting, hostility, violent aggression, destructive behavior and other narcissistic tendencies.

Not to worry, we’re all in the same boat. We – all of us – are harboring our inner child. This is not a psychological condition, it is a very real part of who we are and how we evolve as adults. Becoming aware of the existence of your inner child is the first step.

Now that you are becoming aware of your inner child, the next step would be to reconcile, and learn to live with him or her. It is likely that for far too long your inner child has been neglected, abandoned or rejected. You can instead begin to acknowledge, honor, love and accept your inner child, allowing two-way communication and reasoning back and forth.

Your inner child’s identity is the result of the programming that has taken place thoughout our young life. Many of these are considered positive qualities like uninhibited creativity and joy, though negative attributes also become apparent, based on childhood experiences that foster hurt feelings, anger, fear, and other traumas.

The majority of our fellow earth dwellers will not embrace this idea, and God bless them as they continue to suffer from their inner irreconcilable differences. Why? Because we’re programmed by society, to consider our childlike nature be suppressed as we grow into adults and find our place within the societal structure. We are trained to starve the innocence, relentless inquisitive nature, playfulness and ability to fantasize wildly, until there is nothing left but leaving your inner child locked away in a prison, quietly ignored, until he/she asserts their existence.

Now that you are aware of your inner child, take the time to communicate and honor your inner child. He or she ha been neglected for too long. Now is the time to reconcile.

Getting to know your inner child can be one of the most exhilarating experiences, and will help you to overcome the inconsistencies in your life. It’s time to love and accept your inner child as a part of who you are. Invite him or her to play a part in the conscious part of your life and see how life becomes more brilliant.

A severely wounded inner child may be problematic due to unhealed wounds, but with loving, nurturing care and conscious effort, these wounds can be healed allowing you to flourish and a whole being.

Congratulations on creating an incredible partnership with your inner child, get ready to enjoy all the sweet life that awaits, and have some fun.

Emotional Wounds

An emotional wound is a metaphor representing the result of traumatic events that have taken place at various times throughout your life. Just like a physical wound, if it is fresh, when you touch it, your pain centers will fire up and you will react to the pain. Left to themselves, emotional wounds may get infected with emotional poison, fester, spread.

 

Diagnosis

How can you tell if you’re infected with the disease? It’s easy. Has there ever been a time when someone said something to you and you over-reacted, experienced an emotional outburst, or acted irrationally? Have you ever thought about something that happened in your past that made you feel sad, hurt, depressed or angry? If you answered “Yes” to either or both of those questions: You have the emotional disease, and you are contagious.

The human psyches can only contain such pain so you must find a way to release the emotional pain. An effective way to relieve the pain of an infected emotional wound is to drain the emotional wound. Spewing the emotional poison to another person releases the pressure of the poison-filled emotional wound. Doing so, makes us feel a sense of relief because you’ve released the poison. But now that the poison has been transferred to someone else, it is infecting the recipient’s emotional wounds.

This unenlightened method of releasing emotional poison is to allow the emotional poison (negative energy and emotions) to build to such a degree as you have an emotional outburst, commonly irrationally striking out at someone nearby (often people who you trust the most). You feel better as the other person begins to feel worse. The other person has their own emotional wounds. The poison you’ve released to them infects the latent emotional poison within them, and it’s not too long (may be immediate) that they strike back at you, or strike out at someone else.

This is the dysfunctional state of the negative energetic cycle which we are surrounded by every day. It’s no wonder the world is in the condition it is at the moment.

A more enlightened approach is to understand this idea of emotional wounds and their emotional poison. Once you realize what is taking place, you can find more effective ways to treat your own emotional wounds, release the emotional poison and heal them. With a bit of understanding and intentional effort, your emotional wounds could be healed once and for all.

You will find folks on a path to expanded consciousness becoming aware of this idea of emotional wounds, and what sets them apart from the mainstream population is that they are intensely combing through the tangles of their lives, finding their wounds and taking personal responsibility for their healing.

At present, there is a worldwide epidemic of viral emotional poison triggering an unfathomable amount of emotional wounds that exist throughout the world.

You can be free of the emotional disease, no longer a carrier and immune.
Then, there is you. You are on this path of self-awareness and you are seeking to uncover, treat and heal your emotional wounds. If you remain on this path and do the healing work on yourself, you could be completely free of the emotional disease altogether, and you will no longer be a carrier of the disease and develop immunity to it.

And you’re not alone. There is a growing number of individuals who are actively engaged in this personal work, and a growing number of those among the therapeutic and spiritual communities who are also supporting an expanding effort to treat emotional wounds, disinfect and heal them for good.

This concerted effort to individually and collectively spread the emotional healing will take time, but it’s getting better every day and the healing effects of it are already being felt across our nation and around the world.

Don’t Take It Personal Intentional Allowance


Don’t Take It Personally

Okay, here I am on my journey, doing my thing and expecting other people to be doing their thing as I see it. Wait-a-minute… As I see it?

That’s the thing. You can’t interpret someone else’s doingness from your perspective. Truly not possible. You have no idea what’s going on in someone else’s life, just like no one has any idea about what’s going on inside your life inside your head, or have a clue of what it takes for you to accomplish any of the things that are noticeable by others.

Unrealistic Expectations

For me, it’s all about my unrealistic expectations, the impossible standard to which I hold myself accountable, which I am seriously reviewing at present. Because I hold myself to such (ridiculously) high standards, my expectation of others is to perform likewise without any consideration for what may be happening in anyone’s life or circumstance. This attitude permeates both my personal and professional life, as I maintain unreasonable expectations for those within my inner circle as well as clients and employees.

In the real world, when you have such a degree of expectation of any specific result, you are setting the stage for catastrophe, because rarely does anything happen or come into being, without some degree of chaos. This is a fact of life. Yes, things still happen, ideas materialize and projects come to fruition, but rarely without a hitch or challenge along the way.

When you have a specific expectation based on specific criteria and the verbal (or contractual) agreements of someone else you are setting the stage for failure. Even though everything might go according to plan, in many cases it will not. Now, you can militantly demand your expectation to be manifested – or else. You can unfriend, disenfranchise, excommunicate, or fire anyone who doesn’t comply one hundred percent, but you run the risk of being considered a narcissist with psychopathic tendencies.

Intentional Allowance

It’s a much more palatable process to embrace the idea of “intentional allowance.” That is to say, instead of having a specific detailed black and white expectation, think of reframing your expectation and transforming your expectation into an intention.
Instead of saying, “Okay, the four or you are selected for this project. I expect a delineated solution to the problem proposed presented in the conference room at 2:00 p.m.” period, offer up an intentional allowance alternative, such as, “I’d like you four to (it’s my intention that the four of you) examine this specific problem, and present me with your ideas for solution at 2:00 tomorrow in the conference room.” In the first scenario, you expect the outcome and if your expectations are not met, you can simply fire the participants (or any other unreasonable punishment for noncompliance). In the second scenario, you have stated your intention to arrive at solution and allowed them to do the best they can with what they have, and the result is what it is.

I totally get the ROI (return on investment) idea of running a militaristic operation being more cost effective when results are measured on simply results based on expenditure of time and/or financial outlay. On the other hand if you embrace the idea of intentional allowance, you allow someone to comfortably shine and express their ideas, options and input utilizing their unique inner strengths and abilities by offering them a safe space to exercise and deliver their creative best, in contrast to barking a do-this-or-else command (with its associated unrealistic expectation). Plus, when you’re empowering people to shine, the results can far exceed your expectations. It may take more time/investment but the return can be far greater if you intentionally allow things to come to life.

Don’t Take It Personally

I know, if someone doesn’t keep their word, you react as if they just poured battery acid all over your new car’s paint job, smashed out all the windows in your house and boiled your daughter’s bunny, “Aargh!” And all this angst over something that just simply is.

If someone does not do what they said they will do (in the manner you expected) it’s not the end of the world. Your stuff is about you, and someone else’s stuff is about them. Honor both sides of the human experience, as if we’re all doing the best we can with what we have, because we are.

Even though you are the most important person in the world (and indeed, you are, from your perspective) you must understand that to everyone else likewise, they are the most important person in the world (from their perspective). You can either demand they respect you more than they do themselves (sacrificing all) and beat them into submission or give them the opportunity to find the best results using all their resources in the way that works best for them.

All you really have to do is to relax your expectation by applying intentional allowance and turning your expected outcome into an intention and allow the people, situations, circumstances and challenges to emerge, unfold and naturally come to fruition in as peaceful atmosphere as possible.

So, it takes a bit of effort to try to teach the old-dog part of you a new trick. The effort of altering your ideas and concepts regarding your expectations and the need to penalize any misstep (applicable not only to others, but including yourself) and intentionally allowing a general result can take some practice and time.

Stop Self Deprecating

No more beating yourself up for holding yourself to our own unrealistic expectations. Allow for your own growth in the most natural way by letting yourself expand exponentially with better results.

I’m not saying to throw it all into the wind, rather turn your goals into intentions also. Stop self deprecating (or beating yourself up) for failure. Instead, review the data and look for a better way, readjust, re-position if necessary, and keep on keeping on.

Just like anything else, think about creating your new intentional allowance as an intention. Don’t expect you to adopt this new reframe instantly without faltering. Generally intend to “get there” by practicing over time and allow yourself to do the best you can with what you have.

Up Your Enlightened Expansion

You’re on the path… You’re beginning to see that things are not as they appear… You are on a path of enlightenment… and you’re looking around for clues…

This is where you’re potentially get thrown off-track.

Once you see that things are not the way you’ve been taught and programmed to think and believe, it is impossible to go backward. Oh, sure, you could (and it feels more safe to) return to the same old life routine that you’ve lived your whole life prior to this realization, but there will always be the notion that it’s all just rote motion.

If you’re brave enough, you continue to consider inviting other thought patterns and in your search for further enlightenment.

You could potentially be waylaid by looming information, a persuasive guru, or someone else’s journey.

And what you could miss is the most important piece: You. Your journey is not about anyone else’s journey. To fully experience your own enlightenment, you must find your own way. No two persons’ enlightenment will be the same. So, if you find yourself following someone else’s journey, you’re not doing it right.

Certainly, when you’re venturing into uncharted territory, allowing the flow of new information could be invaluable in your search for truth or expansion, but by all means, make your own way.

There are so many aspects of your expansion that could distract you from your expansion if you get stuck in a particular system or methodology. Any of these things (in themselves) is not it at all, only a particular rung on the ladder. Don’t get stuck there.

Sure, when you’ve gotten there (Law of Attraction, Quantum Mechanics, etc…), wherever you might be or have been, it is only a step. There is another step beyond, waiting for your arrival, and no one can tell you what that is. It awaits you uniquely.

You can spend as much time as necessary on a particular step, but know there is another one waiting. You are breaking free from the herd, while it is exciting to hand with like-minded folks, don’t allow yourself to become a member of another (smaller) herd.

I see my path as being a spiritual journey because that is a common vibration as far back as I can remember, though thought and form has continued to expand daily, some days more than others. As forwardly mobile as I am, I, too, can get in a rut but once I’ve acclimated, I am looking for my next step.

Some people get hung up on the term “spiritual.” Well, get over it. What it means, is that you start considering concepts that are so beyond anything you’ve been programmed to think, that it boggles the mind of modern man and when you realize that there is so much more going on, even when you think nothing else could be happening… You are only scratching the surface. It’s so far out there, we only refer to it using the term “spiritual” because there really is no other word for it.

Plus, what do you care?

You should be focused on your individual journey, and allow others to find their own way (we call that tolerance), realizing they’re going to end up somewhere else. And that’s true enlightened expansion.

I am tempted, sometimes, to use the phrase, “Believe me,” because I know a certain thing to be true. But, really? Any truth I speak is only true for me, in the moment the words escape my lips. If you (or anyone else) finds anything of value in the words I’ve uttered, great. If not, excellent.

How often does my truth change? I’ve recited a heartfelt monologue of truth, only to stop (sometimes before completing the sentence), squint my eyes, tilt my head, and interrupt myself with, “Wait a minute… That might not be true…”

It matters not. Don’t believe me, or anyone else. You have to figure this out and allow it to unfold uniquely for you… and if you dare, be bold enough not to believe yourself. That is to say, be open to the idea that what you believe – right now – may not be true. At least be willing to consider there is more… and more will appear…

Where’s the Integrity?

Wait-a-minute, if I have integrity and I give someone my word (like I will do something at some point in the future), well, that’s then and this is now. If I’ve told someone I was going to do something in the past, that was so then and it doesn’t matter now. So, if I make a promise to you, it doesn’t matter? What about someone else’s promise to me? Where’s the integrity in that?

Want the truth? Nothing really matters.

You just have to realize that life on planet earth is a lot of some-will-some-won’t-next. If you can wrap your head around this, you will be okay, but it’s hard, because we’re not programmed to allow what is to be.

I am a product of my programming and I have a huge Integrity component. I feel like, if I tell someone something, it must be true and it’s up to me to make it true no matter what the cost because I want to be remembered as an intengrous person, one who has always kept his word. For the longest time, I thought, if my tombstone had anything on it, it should read, “Here lies an honest man. If nothing else, he was good to his word.” Which sounds good on the surface, but if you look at it, there it is: Lies and Honest in the same reference, as if it was to be something good.

And what does it mean to be good to your word?

Is it really any good to suffer through pain, turmoil, tragedy, confusion and angst, just because you uttered certain words in the heat of the moment? How good is that? Wouldn’t it be more good to say, “Sorry, something came up. I just can’t make it.”?

I can hear all the Eckhart Tolle fans starting to murmur in the background about my finally starting to get a clue.

I mean, what kind of a prison have I committed myself to?

Actually, I do maintain a high level of integrity, although I must admit, I am less happy than the folks who are actively more apt to be less integrous and live in the now.

Take a look at someone you know who has no idea about what it means to keep their word – no concept of it – because they’re so blissfully living in the now. What do you see? Happiness. They truly have found a way to be content and joyful, by disregarding anything that isn’t and only seeing what is.

As I move away from selfishness and more toward allowing what is to be, I find myself less judgmental against someone whom I might have considered a liar in the past. Why? Because this is the unrealistic expectation I had of myself. This was my standard. I militantly adhered to the ridiculous concept that if I were to utter a certain sequence of words at any time, and if they were not manifest as I had uttered them, then I would be a liar and deserving of severe punishment (at least personal berating). So, it was not unreasonable for me to hold others to the same standard.

Say something. If it does not manifest as you said, you were a liar. (Oh, silly Masters.)

I have to credit business principles for introducing me to concepts, like, some-will-some-won’t-next. It is a reference commonly used to put salespeople at ease in their dealing with rejection. When you pitch your spiel, then there are only two possible outcomes, followed by your best course of action: Next; keep it moving.

That’s all well and good in business but to apply it to life was well beyond my ability to comprehend. What about integrity?

Really? What about it?

Where is the integrity in life?

“Life is the least integrous system ever conceived.”

If anything, life (as we know it) is the least integrous system ever conceived. It is full of chaos, dysfunction, unexpected twists and turns and for god’s sake, even such random acts as to be referred to as acts of god!

And through all this confusion, if you’re listening, you start to hear the gentle flow of isness in the background; that soothing vibration of allowing things to be as they are. It doesn’t mean you don’t get your feelings hurt, suffer pain or loss along the way. By all means, do. Cry, scream, rant, rave – whatever your fancy – then be done with it.

Next. Keep it moving…

In life,
some things will work out the way you wanted
Some won’t.
Next.

Thank god for the many nexts we are afforded in this life.

Amen.

Spiritual Warfare

Spiritual Warfare

Hand to Hand Combat with the Devil

Having come from a traditional Christian ministerial background, I have an enormous foundation in dealing with spiritual warfare and helping others in their victory when engaged in hand to hand combat with the devil.

Years in spiritual coaching has landed me in the unfamiliar territory of an ever-expanding spiritual landscape. Alternatively, enlightenment and expansion led me to even more unfamiliar territory in comparison to the days of the me=versus-the-devil days of yore.

And what I’ve found is that disarming the devil is far more effective than battling the forces of satan, although I find that it was much easier to help individuals overcome their challenges, if they could be attributed to the devil. I still encounter and help individuals in conflict with the dark side, and its quick work when you can focus on a target of your misery outside yourself.

The trouble comes when you’re living a life free of the devil.

What?

You may ask, how can you live life without the dark side?

It’s really as simple as removing all power from the devil that he has over you. You know where his power comes from? You’re probably, like, “Sure, from God.” Okay, let’s say God gave the devil free reign over this earth (the third dimension, as we know it), alright, I’ll give you that much. But his power over you does not come from God. It comes from you.

If you can suspend disbelief long enough to consider that the devil has no power, except that which you bestow upon him yourself, an amazing shift takes place; You have all the power within you and you have the ability to completely disarm the devil if you choose to. It all comes down to you and your choice to empower the devil, or not.

This is a serious re-frame, and if the potential exists to get from here to there, then it is possible to conceive you walking side by side, visiting while walking alongside satan down the boardwalk without hesitation or fear because he has no power over you at all.

From where you are, right now, this may seem like quite a leap, but you can reason how empowering it would be for you to remove any power that darkness may have over you. It takes all the battle out of spiritual warfare. What, then, are you left with?

You are left with light; and your energies are best focused on promoting the light, for there is no longer darkness to battle against. But there is a slippery slope; you must remain locked into the light, for if your attention is distracted by darkness, there you are, face-to-face with the devil.

That’s the trick. Are you going to fall for it next time it happens? If you do, you feel an irresistible urge to fight against what you hate, and you engage in the spiritual warfare to fight a battle that would not exist if you weren’t vulnerable to the threat.

Think about it, when you’re exhausted from fighting the fight and you turn to your pastor, preacher, priest, rabbi, guru or spiritual leader, what do they say? Stop. Stop fighting and focus on your Higher Power. Stop fighting and find the love that surpasses all understanding. Stop everything. And find that gentle loving vibrating tone inside. That angelic vibratory sound that represents you’re being held in an angel’s embrace.

In this place, in resonance with your heart, you are love. The love force that is in all living things, anything that is… and you remember, you are love.

And The Father says, “Welcome back.”

From this vantage point you can offer your energy to support the positive antithesis of that against which you previously struggled.

Mother Teresa had it right when she said,

“I will never attend an anti-war rally; if you have a peace rally, invite me.”

She understood this conservation of spiritual energy in spiritual warfare.

When you put your energy against that which you oppose, you actually add energy to what you don’t want. That’s the trick, and you fall for it every time.

The key to overcoming the devil in spiritual warfare is not to fight against what you don’t want, but to support that which is good.

If you dare…

Or you can engage in spiritual warfare against what you don’t want, and we will support and love you through the struggle because that’s what we do. We honor our warriors who choose to fight the fight.

God bless you.

Where is Your Power?

Do you have it, or have you given it away?

The idea of power can be a struggle for enlightened or spiritual individuals. Yet nothing positive comes to fruition without moving forward with a degree of power, such as a seed pushing through the earth, water making its way down a mountain, a baby being birthed, everything that is needs a certain degree of force to be.

And so it is with you, also.

You might be reluctant to embrace your personal power due to life circumstance, experience and learned behavior. Consider it might be time for you to get over it. You emerged into this life with power, society robbed you of it and it’s time you took it back.

Society is man’s attempt to herd and control the people of the earth with as little effort as possible. Keep us divided, in pockets of thought patterns, polarizing each other, and keeping us overwhelmed by a barrage of information to further polarize us (among other things) prevents us from connecting to our higher selves and evolving into our true human potential.

But if you could tap into your own individual personal power, you could see things as they really are (not like they want you to interpret the world) and have the most amazing experiences, enjoying all the good things this life has to offer, unaffected by the distractions (which, for the most part, are not real anyway).

While there is a part of you that fervently desire to expand, the pull of society to make you conform and settle for varying degrees of mediocrity is a formidable foe in your quest for regaining your immutable God-given right to enjoy everything in this life which is meant for you to live life to its fullest.

The struggle between your higher self who knows there is so much more to savor in this life, and your base self which has been programmed to merely be a part of the machine living within a neatly socially designed space, making you easier to manage, ensues. Your base self usually wins out because the social structure is so well conceived and strong. It takes a great deal of personal power to break through the confines of your social prison.

The keys to unlocking your personal power are hidden among the states of creativity and love. If you can ignore the constant flow of that which is not love and focus more on love, seeing the love all around you, in every thing, circumstance, situation and situation, your personal power grows. Then, you can actually start creatively exercising your own individual freedom of thought, making new connections between your brain and your higher self, empowering your true free will. This is the path to your enlightenment, separating you from the pack and leads you to allowing your evolution to continue.

Your journey and your part in the evolution of the human race depends on you focusing on you. You can not be responsible for other people. They are responsible for themselves. You cannot exercise power over anyone to evolve or maintain any level of enlightenment. This evolution is highly individualized and can not be structured or controlled en masse. We may find encouragement or experience new ideas for expansion and growth from others, but your evolution is individually unique and to achieve your highest evolutionary state, only you can do it in the manner which is best for you. Likewise, you allow others to find their own way, too, while being supportive of each person’s individual journey.

Even though, while you grow, you are part of a greater whole which desires to control you. Rather than fight against the machine, you are better off preserving your personal power by finding new ways to integrate with the machine which would not hinder your evolutionary process.

If you dare, do not let the world control you or your mind and embrace all that you are, all that you can be and enjoy all that this life has to offer.

 

You Can’t Do That

Whether it is that frightened little voice inside, your best friend, a family member or your neighbor, what do you feel like when someone (including your inner critic) says, “You can’t do that,” or similarly tries to dissuade you by initiating a “reality check,” listing all the reasons why you shouldn’t attempt to do something.

You rationalize that your inner critic, friends and family are only looking out for your best interests and even they say they are only trying to protect you from the embarrassment of failure. They insist they don’t want to see you get hurt, depressed, or lose anything and that it is only of the upmost concern for your wellbeing that they try to help you see the light and encourage you not to pursue your idea.

Because there is a measure of unworthiness, a sense of not being good enough, that resides within you, you thank your friend for saving you from a potential catastrophe.

Though they may be representing themselves as caring so much about you that they feel the compulsion to help you not pursue a ridiculous dream or engage in an activity that could cause you suffering.

The truth is, the people who are closest to you are selfish and don’t want to see you try something and succeed, because if you pursue a dream or follow a calling and succeed, what does that mean for them? They will no longer be able to justify their “safe” lives of mediocrity any longer, and to feel as though there is a greater purpose in life waiting for them outside their comfort zone is just too frightening to consider.

If you want to live a better life, possibly your best life and make the world a better place, then don’t let these naysayers drag you down or keep you from pursuing your dreams.

You need to assess your support system and determine who has your back and who does not. Most people want to see you live an acceptable lifestyle similar to theirs, but you may have friends who will support you in whatever pursuits you might engage in. Keep these people (hopefully you can find at least one) nearby and consider mustering up the courage to

Go For It

Without people, like you, going for it, regardless of what other people say, we would not have light bulbs, long distance watercraft, airplanes or space travel. Almost every major breakthrough in science, technology, business, or lifestyle was preceded by opposition and name-calling, so you’re in good company.

If you choose to do so, you can put yourself behind the wheel and become the captain of your own ship by not listening to others who might try to keep you from achieving your highest and best.

“But what if I fail?”

If you were to ask any innovator throughout history, they would tell you that there was no such thing as failure as most major breakthroughs are based on the information gained from failures. Very few individuals hit a home run with their first swing of the bat. Finding your passion and taking action to work toward having an impact on your life, the lives of others and possibly the world at large will take the willingness to step into the unknown in faith.

If you are met with a challenge, obstacle, interference – or if you fail – persevere, push through and become the hero of your own story.

You Can Do It

When you embrace your passion and deliberately blaze your own trail regardless of anything that may stand in your way (even yourself), the impossible, making your wildest dreams come true, becomes possible.

You got this, you can do it.