We learn from an early age what is acceptable in our culture and what is not, regardless of what is acceptable for us individually. Although our egos like to believe that we have unique and ingenious thoughts, most of us think the same thought patterns each day, which are recycled in our society at large. The unconscious thought in the world accumulated from present and past generations is the collective unconscious, or Spiritus Mundi (Latin for world spirit), which encompasses the beliefs and ethics of a society.

Take a look at how you stay within the safe parameters of your society. What are some societal views that you uphold but that don’t really apply to you? Have you ever examined why you do these things or have you simply chosen to do them because that is what you’ve been taught or because that is what everyone else does? Have you grown complacent in your thinking and your actions?

Have you ever thought about tearing up all the grass in your yard and having a rock garden, wildflowers or a vegetable garden? Have you ever challenged the beliefs of your religion? Have you tried sleeping on a mat to see if you like it? Have you experimented with every possible sleeping pattern to figure out what works best for you?

Just as there is no single diet that is going to work well for every human being, there is no single best plant for every yard or single best sleeping arrangement. It is up to you to choose what works best for you. This will get you thinking outside the box and get others to expand their thinking as well – without fear of disapproval.

The benefit to breaking out of dogmatic thought is that new ideas get generated. Better ways of doing things are discovered. Creativity flourishes. People become more open-minded and liberated. A deeper level of constructive thinking occurs.

The more we live in a way that works best for us and is unique to us, the better our quality of life will be. When we fail to question the collective beliefs and ways of society, we become complacent because we rely on other people’s experiences rather than have our own experience. This is not entirely bad. We can trust the negative experience of heroin addicts rather than have our own bad experience with heroin.

But realize that having a herd mentality can harm you.

For instance, it can influence your longevity. If you believe that the average life span for the Western world is approximately 70 years of age, your reality would likely prove that. But when the average life span increases to 100 or beyond, you become open to that new possibility. When we see this demonstrated more often as the norm within society, we will believe it enough to see an increase in longevity. But why wait to see this improvement? It makes more sense to test the hypothesis yourself.

Engaging in conscious, independent thought also allows you to see alternatives within the areas of medicine, transportation, energy, education, business, government, economics, science and theology. Instead of believing what you have been told, experience it as true for you.  Critically think and move beyond current methods. Make adjustments to all your thoughts, ideas and concepts by testing what needs testing until you know it is intuitively right for you. Move into a deeper state of awareness in all you think, say and do to gain control of your thoughts and emotions. As this occurs, you’ll function at a significantly deeper level, gaining mastery of your life.

We’ve now become quite used to sweeping our fingers across our iPods and iPhones to turn pages and squeezing our fingers together to change the size of photographs on the small screens. But what about tapping into our brainwaves to create noticeable changes in the physical landscape around us?

Wired magazine details what a Canadian company has called the “largest thought-controlled computing installation,” a process by which people can use their brainwaves to control the lights at three major landmarks in Canada.

“When people put on the headsets and find themselves increasing the brightness of the lights by just thinking about it, you can almost see their brains explode,” says Trevor Coleman, chief operating officer for InteraXon, the company that has created this installation.

The exhibit will be set up for two weeks at Toronto’s CN Tower, Ottawa’s Parliament Buildings and Niagara Falls. Two chairs will be placed near each site, and visitors will be asked to put on a headset.

“The headsets have an external probe that touches the wearer’s forehead to measure the baseline brain activity. The chairs are rigged to offer tactile feedback as users enter the desired brain state.

The headset measures the brain’s electrical output and reacts to alpha waves, associated with relaxation, and beta waves, which indicate concentration.

As users relax or focus their thoughts, the computer sends a message to the site they are viewing. InteraXon’s software translates users’ thoughts to commands that will change the lighting display.

For instance, by concentrating, users can make the lights at the CN Tower spin faster or change the brightness of the lights at Niagara Falls.

Guests to Canada during this month’s Olympic Games may be blown away by this remarkable feat. Or, perhaps they will merely take it in stride, reflecting that these baby steps of harnessing our alpha and beta waves are just the beginning of our collective acknowledgment of the incredible power that intuition and intention play in our everyday lives. It will be the dawn of a new day when humankind takes for granted that we are all innately intuitive and finds ways to do more than spin or brighten lights at tourist sites.

Watch CNN’s accompanying video:

This is the fifth in a series of eight articles based on The Eight Principles of Inner Peace as channeled by the Light Collective through renowned intuitive Kathryn Harwig. These principles are simple, yet profound, and apply to all beings in the cosmos. The essence of all eight principles is inner peace, and personal empowerment — the powerful ability of humans to create the world of their choosing.

Last month I discussed Principle Four — You Create With Your Thoughts — the first of a two-step process of manifesting what you want. Principle Five — You Activate Your Thoughts With Your Emotions — is the second step.

Once you have stated clearly what you want, go to step two and activate those thoughts with your emotions. You can create, but unless you activate it, it’s very similar to making a car but not putting fuel in it. You have a car, but the car has no motion; it can’t work. Emotions are the fuel that activates your thoughts.

It’s important to keep your emotions based on love, because love is a natural emoter for the human species and is much more powerful than fear-based emotions. Imagine how you will feel when you have what you desire. Relax and picture in your mind what you desire. Experience it fully with your mental senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. Feel with your emotions how wonderful what you want will look, sound, feel, taste and smell. Feel gratitude for all you have. Positive, loving emotions are the fuel that will bring you what you desire.

To manifest, you must tell the universe what you want, and you must make sure you believe you can manifest and receive what you want. You may need to make affirmation statements, such as “I am powerful and can create with my love-based thoughts and emotions,” and state your desire each morning and evening so that your subconscious will believe it.

You don’t have to be concerned with how you will receive what you desire. Allow the universe with its intelligence and organizing power to do it for you. Remember, you are powerful. You create your world with your thoughts and emotions. The Divine has provided enough of everything you need, and the universe always supports you. Act and feel as though you have already received what you desire. Your love-based emotions of trust and faith will assist in creating what you desire.

Action may be required on your part. Be alert to opportunities and actions you may need to take. If the action is in line with what you desire, it will feel joyous.

Just as we create our world as individuals, we also create our world as soul collectives. We work with our soul collective to come up with a common plan that will enhance the growth of all in the collective. The current changes taking place on earth are the result of soul collective action that began in the late ’60s with a shift in consciousness. Some people began to realize that violence is not a means to solve problems. 2012 will be a changed time for our planet. It will not necessarily be negative. Much of the change will be emotional and spiritual, and not so much physical.

In the ’60s, I was in college and was part of the shift in consciousness that began then. As the years went by I became disillusioned with the growing materialism and greed. I am now excited to see that the shift that began during this time is continuing and we are moving towards a more equal, loving, peaceful society. The changes we are going through to get there are sometimes painful, but remembering and practicing The Eight Principles will help us through the transition.

This is the fourth in a series of eight articles based on The Eight Principles of Inner Peace as channeled by the Light Collective through renowned intuitive Kathryn Harwig. These principles are simple, yet profound, and they apply to all beings in the cosmos. The essence of all eight principles is inner peace, and personal empowerment — the powerful ability of humans to create the world of their choosing.

The Light Collective explains: “The next four principles are all related — of course, all of these principles are related. They dance lovely dances with each other, and the words waltz. The next four principles have to do with how you can live your lives and create joyous, free, and abundant lives.”

The fourth principle is how you create the life you have come to earth to create. You create with your thoughts, or intention. The Light Collective tells us, “The human species is a powerful species, not powerful with guns and killing, but powerful with intention and joy.”

As the Light Collective tells us above, our thoughts and our emotions are very powerful. We create our lives with them whether we are aware of this or not. If we want to live fulfilling lives we must learn to control them.

Creating/manifesting is what we are to become and meant to be. The secret to manifesting is to manifest who you are, and what you want will come to you.

To determine who you really are, do the following exercise:

Discovering Your Authentic Self

1. Write as many things as you want. They don’t have to be possible or practical. The more specific, the better. They need to be about you. They can be inconsistent. List a minimum of 100 items. (Less will work if you can’t think of 100).
2. Ask why you want these things. What type of person wants this? What is there about it that you want?
3. Turn your want list into 5 to 10 categories of whom you are. What type of person wants this? Most will fit into two categories.
4. List 5 or 6 key points of who you are.
5. Write statements about who you are based on the key points. I am a person who ______.
6. Make decisions based on this. Ask, “Does this decision enhance or detract from what I really want?”

All things in your life are created or manifested in a two-step process. Step 1: You create with your intention, or your thoughts. Step two will be discussed next month.

Once you have completed the above exercise, go to Step 1.

Step 1: State what you Desire

1. Ask “Does what I desire align with my authentic self, with what I really want?
2. Be specific — the universe takes things very literally.
3. Be positive — state what you want, not what you don’t want.
4. What you want must be believable to you.
5. Watch the stories you tell yourself — make sure they are love based.

Because our planet and our species is in the midst of major change, the Light Collective presented The Eight Principles at the November 2009 Edge Life Expo to prepare us for making the transition to a new way of life. They stated that many of us are the equivalent of warriors, and in the next two or three years we are going to change this world, and we are going to change — both for the better. This sounds very intriguing and exciting for us all!

For a long time I have respected the work of Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len, a psychologist Joe Vitale applauds in his book, Zero Limits. Dr. Hew Len was assigned to duty in a ward for the criminally insane. The ward, Dr. Hew Len reports, was a highly undesirable place to work or visit because the patients were often violent. The staff had high absenteeism and turnover.

Dr. Hew Len, however, had been trained in a Hawaiian healing method called ho’oponopo, which translates as “healing by restoring balance.” Ho’oponopo teaches that the world we see is a projection of our own consciousness, and if we intend to make changes in the outer world, we must first restore balance and clarity in our own mind and heart. So Dr. Hew Len regularly took each patient in mind, and spoke to their spirit: “I’m sorry for creating you by seeing you as ill. I love you.”

The results were amazing! After a few months, shackled patients were being freed, medications were lightened significantly, and patients who had been afforded no hope of being released, were going home. Eventually the ward was closed due to attrition!

The message of this experience runs deep and has life-changing potential for all of us: We can heal the world by changing our mind about the world.

Since I became aware of Dr. Hew Len’s work, I wanted to learn more about it and possibly meet him. Yet, he was living in California and I was in Hawaii, and both of us were busy with travels, so I did not have the opportunity.

Recently when I was in Japan presenting some seminars, my sponsor told me, “There is going to be a lecture in your hotel ballroom this evening. Would you like to attend?” When I asked her who was presenting the lecture, she told me, “Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len.” I was amazed! Here was a man I wanted to meet showing up in the hotel I was staying at in Tokyo on the one night I had free in my schedule! All I had to do to see him was ride down an elevator!

I attended the lecture, enjoyed it very much, learned from it, and had the pleasure to meet. Dr. Hew Len. As I walked out of the meeting room I commented to my sponsor, “How easy can it get?”

As we move more deeply into a season when new school and work ventures begin, we might do well to remember Dr. Hew Len’s healing experience. If you face a difficult situation or a challenging person, your first impulse might be to try to manipulate that person to change their behavior to accede to your hopes and desires. Or get them to try to go away. Or you might be tempted to just leave. Such a moment, however, would be an excellent opportunity to heal the situation by changing your mind about it.

The Ho’oponopo method is quite simple, and you can gain its benefits from even a simple understanding of it: The world you see is nothing more or less than the projection of your thoughts about it. No one outside you is doing anything to you, for you, or against you other than what you are doing to yourself. Shift your vision of that person or situation, and the person or situation will shift in accordance with your vision of them or it. Take the person or situation into mind and heart, and say, for example: “I accept responsibility for creating my experience of you by way of how I have thought about you. I now wish to change my experience by changing the version of you I am holding in my mind. I now choose to see you as loving, wise, healthy and kind. I recognize your higher, better and whole self. I see this situation as working out to everyone’s well-being and benefit.”

The words you use are less important than the intention you hold. When you accept one hundred percent responsibility for setting the situation up as it has been, you gain one hundred percent of the power to create an outcome that works for you and everyone involved. It’s as simple as that. As Dr. Hew Len said in his lecture, “I wish I could make it more complicated. But that’s just how simple it is.”

A Course in Miracles teaches the same principle in this way: I am responsible for what I see. I choose the feelings I experience, and I decide upon the goal I would achieve. And everything that seems to happen to me I ask for, and receive as I have asked. Now, that’s quite a premise to accept. But that’s the level of responsibility you and I must accept if we wish to attain mastery in our life and make the world a better place.

It’s time for all of us to question our assumptions about how hard it is supposed to be. We have been taught that the way to success is through struggle and sacrifice. But that just reinforces the belief that we win by moving external pieces about with toil and difficulty. How much simpler would it be to change your mind? When you do, the person you most want to meet might be as close as an elevator ride away.

Archangel Metatron describes alchemy as “Changing the frequency of thought, altering the harmonics of matter, and applying the elements of love to create a desired result.”

Alchemy is more than just a process of transmuting base metals into gold…alchemy is the way to transmute fear into love. This is a way of living life with awareness and intention, returning us to a conscious relationship with Creator. In this two-part series, let’s explore Metatron’s description of alchemy.

Changing the frequency of thought
Thoughts are electrical and emotions are magnetic. When a thought is coupled with an emotion, the combined energies become charged electro-magnetically, amplified and set in motion. If your reaction (emotion) to a thought is strong, the charge behind it increases. If your reaction is negative, it may result in an angry outburst (discharge of emotion) or you may react by becoming offended, allowing that emotional energy to build inside of you.

Your beliefs color your thoughts and experiences and affect your emotions. This determines how you react to situations. Let’s imagine that you’re wearing a new outfit and someone says it looks funny on you. How would you respond? In 3-D (the dimension of extremes) you’d instantly react. The thought hits your emotional body and wham, you’re insulted. Even if the person only meant that it looked like a “fun outfit,” you’ve already coupled the thought with an emotion, which generated a knee-jerk reaction. Now in a 4-D space, if somebody says “That outfit looks funny,” you’d simply pass over the word “funny,” attaching no judgment to it. You would respond rather than react or overreact. There is no victim or victimizer in 4-D consciousness. Feeling less than…or better than…are strictly third-dimensional attitudes and externalizations.

We are beginning to understand that the dimensions we operate in are subject to universal laws. The Law of Attraction is the law of cause and effect. This means that what you put out is what you get back. The universe is always reflecting or mirroring your vibration – and your vibration is all about the way you feel. What you believe, think and feel, and what the Law of Attraction brings to you are always a match because like attracts like.

If you don’t like what you’ve been attracting, then notice what thought or emotion you can change within you. A new perspective will help you shift your vibration. So reach for that higher feeling even if it is just a small increment above what you are currently experiencing.

Changing how you feel
Changing how you feel changes everything. If you choose to think higher thoughts and feel lighter emotions, you will raise your vibration significantly and you will not find yourself gravitating back into old repetitive behaviors and thoughts of “I’m not okay.” When you interrupt a long-standing pattern (break the circuit), the energy flows backward and forward along the timeline, changing the energy all the way back to the first time it happened. The energy is reset to the present time, allowing you the room to move freely again outside the emotional box.

The Shift and its massive waves of light are assisting us to clear out our baggage (old structures and rigid patterns) and release all thoughts and emotions that simply have no value. And it is occurring very rapidly.

So, learn to laugh at yourself. And if you hear someone say, “Gee, that looks funny on you,” laugh and step up your energy a little to a happier place where you might say, “Yeah, I feel fun when I wear it.”

When you change the frequency of thought – you begin to apply the tools of alchemy and transform fear into love. Next month we will explore the final two aspects of alchemy.

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.” – from Walden, by Henry David Thoreau

There are four words in Thoreau’s quote that I want to highlight: encouraging, unquestionable, elevate and conscious.

• Excuses Begone! is encouraging you to challenge patterns and feel inspired by a newfound awareness of the life hidden beneath your excuses. Invite yourself to move out of established thought patterns, and realize that there is nothing standing in your way of living at your highest levels.
• You have an unquestionable ability to eliminate excuses – they’ll get up and go when they’re revealed as the false beliefs that they are. There’s simply no question about this!
• You elevate your life by taking responsibility for who you are and what you’re choosing to become. You can transcend the ordinary, mundane and average with thoughts of greater joy and meaning; you can decide to elevate your life, rather than have it stagnate or deteriorate with excuses. Go beyond where you presently are.
• You can bring your desires to consciousness by disconnecting the power from your subconscious so that it can’t continue to run your life. Your subconscious (habitual) mind is accessible, so unearth the excuses buried deep within you. Become conscious! In my role as a counselor, teacher, and parent, I’ve heard many reasons that people use to explain an unhappy existence…and almost all of them inevitably fall into one huge category, which I call “excuses.”

For example, consider this excuse, “I can’t afford it.” It’s a rare day when I don’t hear some variation of this excuse, including: “I didn’t go to college because it was too expensive,” “I haven’t been able to travel because I never had the funds,” and “I couldn’t go into the business I wanted because I had to stay where I was and earn money to pay the bills.” I call this belief lame and a cop-out, yet there seems to be almost universal agreement for its existence.

You originated in a world of abundance, which you unquestionably have the ability to access.

Whenever you discourage yourself with thoughts that your financial situation is preventing anything from appearing, that’s an excuse. If you instead decide to bring abundance awareness into your consciousness, you’ll shift your thoughts from “I can’t afford it” to “Whatever I need in the form of assistance to guide me in the direction of my life is not only available, but is on its way.” You’ll then consciously watch for the necessary funding to show up, but you’ll also be reminding yourself to believe that you have the ability to use abundance to elevate your life.

Encourage yourself by realizing that you have the capacity to create a space within you that’s filled with peace and joy, an inner island of contentment that has nothing to do with money. Practice gratitude for the essentials of life, which are yours to enjoy virtually free of charge. These include air, water, fire, the sun and the moon; the very ground you walk on; the continuous beating of your heart; the inhaling and exhaling of your lungs; your food digesting; your eyes and ears; and so on. Be utterly grateful for all that you have naturally, which is beyond the scope of what’s “affordable.” As that endeavor strengthens, assess what you’d truly like to do, where you’d like to live, and what creature comforts you desire.

When I made the decision to attend college after spending four years in the military, for instance, I knew in my heart that money wasn’t going to be the thing that prevented me from reaching my goals. I understood the costs involved, and I didn’t act on my fear of shortage or what I couldn’t afford – I acted on my internal knowing that I, indeed, was going to attend the university. This knowing prompted me to investigate financial assistance from the government as a veteran, open a savings account designated for tuition and books, talk with the financial-aid people at the university, and make alternative plans to attend community college, if plan A were not to materialize. I had a certainty inside of me that the “I can’t afford it” reasoning is an excuse that many people who aren’t considered wealthy employ as a means for exonerating themselves when they need a rationalization for why they’re stuck where they are in life.

Oscar Wilde made this wry observation in 1891: “There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor. The poor can think of nothing else.” I’d add that such thinking includes lamenting the fact that they’ll never have money. I advise tossing out this meme, and instead rewiring thoughts to connect with what’s intended to manifest, regardless of your current financial status.

Whatever you feel is your dharma, and no matter how hard that calling seems to be pulling you, if you maintain the belief that you can’t manage to pull it off, I can assure you that you’re right. To paraphrase Henry Ford, whether you believe you can afford to do a thing or not, you’re right.

Excuses Begone! by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer. is published by Hay House is available at all bookstores or online at www.hayhouse.com.

This is a sincere invitation that may well be the most relevant you will ever receive. It involves forever walking out of the prison of your own mind, your thoughts and your emotions – your eternal jailors. This is the very familiar and yet, real, prison in which you have lived for all of your life, and it is all you have ever known. We invite you to simply leave it all behind.

This prison is a by-product of the story you continue to tell yourself and others about who you are and who you want others to think you are. You defend this story with all of your energy, and this has become your life’s purpose. But it has absolutely no usefulness except to keep you locked within. Leaving it forever is not easy. The main barriers to doing so are your belief that you can’t escape and your not knowing that it is possible.

In fact, this is why you have come to earth. Whether you choose to regain your freedom now or continue to live in this prison for many more lifetimes is up to you. For prisons, even if you have become used to them, are not pleasant and certainly not free. They are confining, hypnotically repetitive, and built to keep you locked up – to prevent you from discovering your true being, the greater universe. The prison of your mind is no different, except that you have co-created it by agreeing to remain locked up within. And as the co-creator, you have the capacity to simply unlock the door and leave, as many have done before you.

For if you are honest and fully observant, you will realize that the thoughts generated by your mind have little or nothing to do with anything of real import. They just pass by, one after the other, and are nothing you would want to spend time with or pay any attention to. For you are an integral part of the greater universe, which is your mother, and you have nothing else to do but play this out in whatever way you can.

What does it mean to be at one with the greater universe? Let’s pretend that your hand believes it is separate from your body, and that it needs to control the external universe and act in a way that ensures its own and your survival. Obviously, it would not work to have different parts of your body taking their own course. Yet, this is exactly what your ego-mind is already doing. And it is sending you signals that it knows will cause certain emotional reactions in you so that you never clearly see this entire process taking place. It creates mazes within mazes, an endless hall of mirrors that you remain lost in until you decide to stop, to realize that you have been tricking yourself all of your life. Until you see clearly, and this is both very sad and very humorous, that none of it was ever real. It was all, quite literally, a story you told yourself without end.

So what do you do now? With great compassion, you have the opportunity to recreate all of this. The greatest law is that it is all up to you, even though your mind tells you at every moment that you have little power or control over your life. That is why so many people say that whatever you believe to be true is true. But this is far more real, far more literal, than even they believe. For all your mind is doing to keep you in prison is to convince you that you can’t do anything about it and that there are no real options available to you.

What an opportunity! For the first time, you can live without your programming, your habits, your inertia and your emotions determining all of your actions, both consciously and unconsciously. You can be aware at every moment that you were never separate from all the others you have spent so much time trying to impress, to defend yourself against and to control.

Why wouldn’t you want to do that? The only possible reason is that you are so used to being a prisoner that you cannot appreciate the chance to escape.

This is an invitation about starting all over. What fun! Have you really created your life to be so important that it is worth your remaining in prison for? In truth, all you have created is your story. Your real life cannot begin until you are free of your thoughts. They spring endlessly from a mental computer run amok, a software pattern spitting out tape loops with little relevance to anything. And you are the programmer.

There is a wonderful parable in Kafka’s book, The Trial. A man seeks the Law, the Light, and spends all of his life bribing the doorkeeper to the door he knows he must pass through to be free. He bribes him with everything he has, waiting for permission to pass through – which is never given. Finally, with his last breath and after he has nothing left to give, he asks, “How come in all of these years, no one else has passed through this door?” And the doorkeeper replies, “Because this door was made only for you, and now I am going to close it.” The man does not discover until the very end that he is both the prisoner and his own jailor. And so are you.

This is the very challenging situation you now find yourself in, which we call “life on earth.” What you do – or choose not to do – is up to you, and no one else can decide this for you. For it is the gift that you have given to yourself. It is true that escaping from the prison of your mind runs counter to all of your conditioning, inertia, habits, programming and fears. And very possibly, this is what your have come here for.

An excerpt from The Body Knows…How to Stay Young: Healthy Aging Secrets from a Medical Intuitive

If you’re sick, chances are you’re addicted to certain foods, behaviors and thoughts. Anything that has power over you and that you have difficulty letting go of is an addiction. For example, dwelling on the past can be just as damaging as being hooked on coffee, alcohol or chocolate, because it holds you back in life.

In fact, noted physician and author Deepak Chopra claims that all illness is the result of addiction. I couldn’t agree more – this has been my observation for the past 25 years. In fact, when I used to work as an allergy-testing technician, I noted that as soon as people removed the substances they were addicted to, all their symptoms miraculously went away.

This is why Dr. Doris Rapp, a well-known expert in environmental medicine [www.drrapp.com], suggests that patients replace everything they currently consume with things they don’t normally eat for five days. She’s noticed over and over again that chronic complaints disappear and health improves when this happens.

In my work as a medical intuitive, almost everyone I see has an addiction of some sort. I can tell that something is hooked into them, be it physical or emotional, and it’s robbing their vital force and taking them down, cell by cell. I might see gray or black around them – a dark or negative force that’s stealing their precious stamina and vitality. Something has a hold on them, and I know that they’re addicted.

From this deep spiritual perspective, I believe that we should all be free: No particular substance, person, place or physical possession should have us in its clutches. I call this “the climb.” Now, many of us are content to go around and around the bottom of a mountain, but very few want to do the work to ascend it. Just as in real mountaineering, the trek I’m proposing will require concentration and discipline.

As we age, we’ll do a lot better if we’re prepared, focused, and free of excess baggage, including anything that’s a toxin, allergen or poison. The mountain that we are will be stronger and more supportive as we age if we’re willing to examine our issues and give up the items we’re addicted to.

The aging game is not to be taken lightly. To stave off the ravages of old age, we’ve got to get busy and become prepared – now!

CLIMBING OUT OF THE ADDICTION
We’re spiritual beings – our entire raison d’être is to operate from a conscious perspective. We’re here to make a difference on this planet, and as soon as we turn the corner of age 50, this becomes all the more apparent. So the emission of radiant, clear, positive energy from our physical bodies is very significant in relationship to our manifestation ability.

Your aura or electromagnetic field is what you use to draw people, things, and experiences into your life. As you desire to manifest or attract the best to you on a material and spiritual level, an emanation of glowing energy is essential, and it can only come from having a clear and detoxified physical body. Addictions cloud your aura, and even a simple doughnut or cup of coffee can muddy your field. Try it sometime by ingesting your favorite “poison” and waiting 20 minutes. You’ll quickly see that the result is a tired, worn-out body that’s temporarily removed or disengaged from life.

The ability to effectively manifest is in direct proportion to how clear your aura is. So if you want to make the climb out of addiction, take out a sheet of paper and a pen and follow these steps:

1. Make a list of all the things you’re hooked on. These can be foods (such as candy, bread or chocolate), beverages (such as soda, coffee or milk), or chemicals (including drugs and alcohol).
2. Next, make a list of everything that might be an addictive behavior, such as staying up late, working too hard, worrying too much, overspending, overeating, nagging at your partner, remaining in an unsatisfying job or relationship, being a pack rat, or the like.
3. Finally, make a list of any thoughts that have you in their vise grip. These are what you find yourself thinking about most often, including dwelling on the past, self-deprecating beliefs (such as I’m not good enough, I’m not worthy, I’m not intelligent, or There is never enough).

Of course no one wants to be mired in negativity. Thankfully, author Eve Brinton shares a simple and practical technique for switching out of negative thoughts in her book Instant Happiness with the Energy Exchange [available through www.evebrinton.com].

Brinton believes that changing habitual negative thoughts and reframing them into positive ones can be accomplished in less than a minute. To that end, think of something positive right now: Maybe it was when you flew over the Grand Canyon in a helicopter, or when you were in your grandmother’s garden, feeling peace and happiness wash over you. As soon as you find yourself dwelling in negativity, find that positive image and draw it into your consciousness. You’ll instantly notice the difference.

As the Dalai Lama teaches, why should you allow anyone to disturb the freedom of your thoughts? Your material possessions can be taken from you, but your thoughts remain your own. And because you create your thoughts, they can’t have any power over you. Thanks to Brinton’s Energy Exchange, you can master your mental activity and be free.

THE LAW OF ATTRACTION
As you climb your own mountain on the journey of personal self-mastery, your desire is to be as free as a bird so that you can be moved by the universe and go wherever your soul wants you to. I learned from my near-death experience that life is short and so precious, so use the law of attraction to draw good into your life.

As a medical intuitive, I see subtle energies: For example, coffee carries the emanation of anger and irritation; and the energy of excessive alcohol use is like a “zing,” taking away the body’s life force like a feather in the wind. The moment you consume a substance like coffee, you put its vibration into your field. Then, because like attracts like, you’ll probably pull angry and irritating experiences to you such as losing your car keys, getting involved in minor altercations, or blowing things out of proportion.

How can you tell if a food or beverage is really affecting you? That’s easy – take your pulse. An easy-to-find pulse point can be found on the carotid artery that supplies blood to your brain, which is located on either side of your neck just below your jaw. Find that point, become familiar with what your normal pulse rate feels like, and then start testing. Twenty minutes after you’ve had a cup of coffee (or consumed anything that you’re concerned about), test your pulse again: If it’s elevated or racing, this is an obvious sign that your body is rebelling against the poison or toxin you’ve ingested.

Pulse testing is one of the ways in which traditional allergists determine potential sensitivities, but you already know the answer intuitively. I’m always amazed when people tell me during a reading that they’re aware that coffee, cola, corn, sugar and other stimulants affect them – yet they can’t believe how calm and happy they feel when they give them up.

Coffee also clouds the aura, hardens the prostate gland, causes jitters and an irregular heartbeat, pulls fluids out of the body, blocks the lymphatic system, contributes to cellulite and a dozen other effects. So the easy and obvious answer is to switch to decaf for a few weeks. A good decaffeinated roast has the same taste and smell as real coffee, but it doesn’t have the kick. Decaf might not have any deleterious effects, but by consuming it, you’re still keeping the memory, taste, essence and vibration of coffee alive.

Remember that you’re climbing the mountain, so the next step is to eliminate the decaffeinated java and switch to herbal or green tea (make sure it has low amounts of caffeine). You’re not giving coffee up just to give it up – you’re releasing this addiction, and others, to lengthen your life. I know that there are studies that indicate coffee is beneficial. But in my opinion, these studies don’t show the drink’s effects on one’s aura, heart, or genitals…or, indeed, one’s life.

The same goes for sugar, which may taste ever so good to you. But what does it do to your energy, your nervous system, your precious pancreas and your cell walls? Sweetness should come from life, so this is where following your dreams and living your passion take priority. When you’re happy and fulfilled in your work and play, you really won’t be interested in sweets.

IT COMES WITH A GIFT
Keep in mind that your willingness to set aside addictions always comes with a gift. I believe that we’re all being watched over by angels and towering beings at all times who are shepherding us and guiding us.

As soon as we give up an addictive behavior, the next step will be revealed. Just watch the phone ring, a job opportunity arise, a pure white feather land in our lap, or a serendipitous benefit appears seemingly out of nowhere. One door closes on what’s no longer healthy, but another one opens to something better. This is confirmation that the universe knows that we are climbing the mountain and are willing to give up what no longer serves us in favor of what will benefit us (and humankind). Then the addiction is no longer viewed with seduction but with recognition of what it can – and will – do to our precious life force and cellular tissue. We make the decision to leave it behind and attract something priceless.

I’ve personally benefited from vibrant health for the past 25 years because I gave up coffee, wine, chocolate chip cookies (by the dozen), homemade bread and lots of cheese. I got my life back, and there has never been a moment where I thought the choice wasn’t worth it. The smell of coffee and the taste of chocolate simply aren’t appealing to me anymore. My addictions have turned into passions: I’m passionate about teaching, I’m passionate about communicating, and I’m passionate about health. It’s as if the angels have given me a mandate to empower you to get healthy, too, so that you’ll be able to complete your destiny as I have.

Sure, I have the occasional stray into “no-no land.” I’ll have a glass of wine or a sweet dessert on occasion, but it better be good. My husband and I might share a crème brûlée on our anniversary, for instance, or I may enjoy a small slice of my daughter’s wonderful pie at a family gathering. But I know that I’ll be feeling and seeing the effects of those choices very soon. I might wake up feeling a little tired or grouchy, my eyes might be puffy, and my clothes might be tight; or, on the rare occasions I have bread or pasta, my hands will become stiff. After three days of eating bread, my arthritis will return, so it’s really not worth it for me. I’m climbing the mountain, and these so-called temptations really don’t entice me anymore.

ADDICTIONS AND MEDICATIONS
What about people who are addicted to medication? After all, every prescription drug has side effects. Yet, you’d be surprised by the number of folks who are on medication and would rather have the side effects than change their habits or research alternatives. If they would just give up their habit, their symptoms would back off, but these people choose to stay addicted.

For example, at age 62, Gretchen had bladder problems and was hooked on sweets and alcohol. Sure, she had reason to be addicted to these items: She had a 28-year-old son who was running amok – he was stealing money from her, had quit his job, and was draining her dry and disrespecting her. She felt powerless to stand up for herself and reclaim her own life, so she soothed her wounds with red wine and pound cake. Bacteria had built up in her body, probably due to a lack of hydration, so she was put on diuretics and sulfa drugs to take care of it.

She’s now faced with bladder surgery, rounds of antibiotics and a compounded set of medical concerns that will probably set her on a careening course to premature aging. Will she change? I hope so, but many people like Gretchen are addicted to the drama of their emotional lives. This keeps them in the fury of the hurricane, which is familiar territory. Rather than make some simple lifestyle changes, it’s easier for such men and women to stay stuck and medicated.

Now I’m a firm believer in traditional Western medicine when it is needed. I know that drugs can save lives, because I grew up in a medical household: My mother was a dietitian, and both my father and grandfather were medical doctors. In our house, the physician was God. Today, things are different. I know that each of us can be God and the doctor, regardless of whether we have a medical degree, and we can form our own healing team.

Let’s remember this basic concept: The body knows how to get well. But optimal health takes a deeper level of commitment than some people are willing to make. Because you’re reading this, I know that you’re willing to point your compass toward aging optimally, beautifully and vibrantly.