Inner Peace Practice: Surrender

Surrender by Arjuna Ardagh Reprinted with Permission. Copyright 2009. LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY ***

At any time of the day But especially when things are not going well, Release control. And hand it all over to the divine. Just take your hands off the steering wheel. When you made a reservation at a restaurant but find there is no table for you, You want to argue. Instead, surrender. Find another restaurant. Surrender not with resignation, But with trust: The trust that the divine takes perfect care of you.

When my two sons were still quite small, I used to take them to the amusement park. There was a ride for very young children: a small train on a winding track, with a separate vehicle for each child. One vehicle was a duck, one was a small car, one was a steam engine, and one was a small airplane. Each vehicle was attached to the next, and each one had a steering wheel. The whole procession went extremely slowly. Despite the fact that they were following a track, each child would vigorously steer to the left or the right, like a race car driver. Occasionally, the train would actually go in the direction they were steering. Other times, they would be steering with great energy to the left as the whole procession was going to the right. Naturally, sometimes they would get upset and confused, but of course the whole thing was on a track-it didn't matter which way my young sons steered, or indeed if they steered at all. The train would go where it was destined to go, and that was that. We put a great deal of our energy into trying to control the outcome of our life, steering this way or that with great energy. Sometimes, we have the insight that it makes very little difference. Our train, too, is on tracks; it is going where it is going. This insight is simply called surrender. At first we surrender cautiously, just a little bit at a time. Lo and behold, things go much better than we could ever have planned them. So we surrender some more, and with bigger things. And they go even better. Something or someone is taking care of things, driving the train, with intelligence, grace, and humor. We do not know their e-mail address or cell number to thank them. But we can let go, trust, and enjoy the ride. By Arjuna Ardagh. Reprinted with Permission. Copyright 2009. If you'd like to learn more about Arjuna Ardagh, visit: HERE.

Arjuna is my guest for Conversations with the Masters in April 2010.

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Inner Peace: 10½ Keys to Living Fully Fulfilled – KEY #1 – “Know Thy Self”

How well do you really know yourself? Society, the media and our professional worlds have influenced and colored who we are, just as expectations from spouses, family and friends. Most of us have grown up in a society that snubs selfishness, and praises "pleasing" others. It's often hard to determine which values are yours, and which are Uncle Bob's, the five o'clock news, or your bosses. Our life truly begins when we ask ourselves, "Who am I?" and "What's most important to me?" It's not unusual to spend a large part of our lives, not knowing the person closest to us - "me". Get to know YOURSELF, as you would get to know a new lover. There are a myriad of ways to get in touch with YOU. Spend some time with the following questions: What is most important to me in life? What gives me the most JOY? What are my dreams and desires? These questions will point you to your VALUES. Values are those qualities, interests or aspects of life, which have continuously drawn or attracted you since childhood. You may also ask questions like What do I despise most? What are my fears? The antithesis of these answers will give you another path to identify your values. Notice how your body feels, reacts and responds in various situations. Is it joyful and expansive? Or resistant and shutdown? All of these elements are clues to discovering your personal recipe for fulfillment and uncovering YOUR personal values. Enjoy the process! Filed under Fulfilling Lives, Inner Peace 101, Inner Peace Practices, Inner Peace Strategies | Comment (0)

Inner Peace Moment: One Wagging Tail, One Happy Dog

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REVEALED: 3 Secrets of TWO Six-Figure Coaches – Beyond Six Figures with Inner Peace

If you're a coach, you won't want to miss this special tele-seminar. If not, I'm wishing you a fabulous and flowing week. On Monday, October 19th at 6pm PT (9pm ET), Eva Gregory and I are hosting a no-cost teleseminar. "How to Catapult Your Income Beyond Six Figures Without Struggle, Strife Or Suffering." If you're in a rush, you can register here: http://www.beyondsixfiguresforcoaches.com/retreatpreview.htm During this 90 minute call you'll learn: >>> How two ordinary coaches built their businesses into six-figure practices, including timelines, "behind-the-scenes" mistakes and happy accidents. (You don't have to make the same costly mistakes, and can simply benefit from "what works" and "what doesn't.") >>> Three time-tested secrets for going beyond six figures that you may not fully be integrating in your business. (Worse, you may actually be missing these secrets all-together.) >>> What you can do to create TEN times the results with just ONE of you. (We promise it doesn't mean working ten times as hard. In fact, when you understand this secret, you'll actually be working fewer hours!) >>> Time-tested "guiding principles" to keep you focused, productive and inspired, while minimizing overwhelm as you break the six-figure barrier with ease. (These are the very principles we rely upon every day. They'll work for you too!) Why are we hosting this call? First, we see WAY too many coaches struggling to thrive in this economy. We want to help turn this around! Secondly, this one-time call is a sneak PREVIEW for our upcoming Beyond Six Figures Retreat. It's being held November 6-8th in Carlsbad, CA. This is where Eva and I are sharing our Six Figure Blueprint™. If you're ready to catapult your income beyond six figures WITHOUT struggle, strife or suffering, be sure to register for the tele-seminar we're hosting Monday, October 19th at 6pm PT (9pm ET). http://www.beyondsixfiguresforcoaches.com/retreatpreview.htm Bring your notepad. We will give you everything we can in our 90 minutes together. Expect to leave with tangible, practical ideas to implement right away! Here's to going beyond six figures, Mary Allen (and Eva Gregory) PS: If you'd like to learn more about the Beyond Six Figures Retreat in advance, go to: http://www.beyondsixfiguresforcoaches.com/retreat.htm PPS: Register for this special tele-seminar at http://www.beyondsixfiguresforcoaches.com/retreatpreview.htm Filed under SPECIAL OFFERS | Comment (0)

Inner Peace Quote: David Hawkins

"The downside of spiritual education is the buildup of the vanity of 'I know' and the devaluation of people who are 'not spiritual'. Therefore it is important as a foundation to spiritual training and education to learn how consciousness manifests as the ego and its mechanisms."

-- David R. Hawkins

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Inner Peace: The One Minute Meditation

The One Minute Meditation: It’s Much More Powerful than Just a Pause in Your Day By Stacey Mayo, The Dream Queen In less time than it takes you to read this article, you can learn to access a sense of inner peace– a place of stillness that is free of mind chatter, stress and anxiety. From this place of stillness, intuition can be heard more clearly and brilliant ideas are born. Creativity gets unleashed when there are no interfering thoughts. Connections to higher guidance are remembered and strengthened when we are not busy trying to figure things out. The vast majority of people are almost always in the past or the future in their minds – ruminating about what did or didn’t happen or what might or might not occur in the future. That is not where peace lies. It is great to set goals, but if you can take a just a minute here and there to bring yourself back to the present and into your body, you will be more peaceful in the now while moving towards your dreams. I am not suggesting that you recline on the couch eating bon bons or that you sit on a mountain top all day contemplating the meaning of life. It doesn’t have to take long to quiet the mind. I have proven that it can be done in just one minute. And if you are like other human beings, you probably waste more than a minute in every hour of the day.  Many people have asked me how the One Minute Meditation™ came about. As with most things, it got developed because of my own need to find ways to quiet my overactive mind which tended to over-react in stressful situations or worry about things beyond my control Over the years I’ve learned many different techniques and meditative practices to help me deal with stress and quiet my busy mind. All of these techniques were and are helpful. What was missing was what to do in between those longer meditative sessions or classes when life came up and threw challenges my way, such as my computer crashing, a web designer shutting down my website, the phone company representative putting me on eternal hold with that lovely Muzak, or the mortgage company not crediting one of my payments. Those moments brought me out of the quiet place. . I found myself reacting to things in a way that was not helpful or pleasant to me or others. Can you relate? Additionally, I found that sometimes I would take the time to do practice these longer meditative techniques and other times in my life I would not. The combination of these two reasons factors prompted me to create The One Minute Meditation I tried it with myself and with clients and started seeing great results. I then decided to bring it out in a bigger way, and created the 30 day Stillness Experiment. Those who did the OMM just 3 to 5 times a day to do this saw results that were beyond my expectations. The One Minute Meditation (OMM) is more than just stopping and pausing or stopping and breathing. The first part of the OMM actually gets you out of your head and into your body. When you do it slowly, it actually instills a sense of peace and calm in your body. When done over time, this calmer way of dealing with life’s stressors becomes more and more natural. Now, I am calmer when challenging moments occur even without doing the OMM. It is as if my brain as been re-trained. When done rapidly, it is thought that the OMM may activate some processes in the brain to clear old patterns. Practice it a couple of times to find the right pace for you. Some people use the OMM by itself, others use it in conjunction with a longer 6 minute meditation that I provide or as an adjunct for your own meditation practices. People who have do longer meditations have told me doing the OMM first helps them drop into that stillness quicker. You can try it for yourself. Join the 30 day Stillness Experiment to get audio directions for both the OMM and a longer 6 minute meditation along with support and suggestions for putting it into your life in a way that works. Because as good as the OMM is, it’s nothing if we don’t remember to do it For now, The Stillness Experiment is still free. You can check it out and participate here: http://TheOneMinuteMeditation.com Stacey Mayo, The Dream Queen is a highly successful business coach and career coach, founder of The Center for Balanced Living, creator of the Peaceful Entrepreneur and author of the award winning book, “I Can’t Believe I Get Paid To Do This!” Filed under Inner Peace Practices | Comment (0)