Do you have enough energy to create the life you want? Energy is the critical, invisible force that creates your vitality and aliveness. Without it, you drag through life, tired, stressed, and drained. With it, you feel good, enjoy yourself, and have the fuel to create what you want in life. When it comes to energy, more is definitely better and you can create more energy with a few simple steps. Your Energy Account Think of your energy like a bank account. Your thoughts, activities, actions, and interactions all have the potential to increase or decrease the balance in your account. Withdrawing energy lowers the balance; depositing energy raises the balance. To keep your energy account high (which is what you want) minimize your withdrawals and maximize your deposits. It sounds so simple but how can you actually do this? How Do You Keep the Balance High? Here are two keys to increasing the balance in your energy account. 1) Drop the drains. We use energy all day long. That’s what energy is for. However, some things drain too much of our life energy. You might be drained by your job, certain family members, technology, time pressures, negative self-talk, negativity in others, or world problems. What drains you is unique to you. A job, a person, or a task you find draining might not be draining for someone else. Do less of what drains you. This may seem obvious yet it has been a breakthrough idea for some of my clients. Somehow they hadn’t thought of stopping or doing less of what drained them. When they did – surprise! – they had a lot more energy. 2) Do what lights you up. What lights you up is what energizes and enlivens you, what you love, what you’re passionate about. By their very nature, your “lights” are deposits to your energy account. The more you do what lights you up, the more energy you’ll have. Like energy drains, lights are specific to each individual. What lights you up could actually drain someone else and vice versa. People are lit up about many things: a walk on the beach, visiting an art museum, playing with a pet, listening to music, talking with friends. This list could go on forever. The key is to identity what lights YOU up and what drains YOU. Then do more of the former and less of the latter. An Example I’ve been working on a project the last month or so, a project that was taking more time than I thought it would or “should.” I began to pressure myself to get the darn thing done. I started working more and playing less. This drained much energy out of my account without replenishing it so the balance kept getting lower and I kept feeling worse. By the time I realized what was happening, my energy was very low. This “low balance alert” told me I needed to stop the energy drains and do more of what lights me up before I hit NSF (non-sufficient funds) in my energy account! For me that meant allowing myself to slow down, working less on the project, and taking at least two hours every day to do something that lit me up. The first day on my new plan, I worked only a couple of hours on my project. I then took a top-down drive in my convertible on a summery day, went to lunch at an elegant restaurant with a book I was interested in, and spent time visiting with friends. Throughout the day, I kept reminding myself it was okay to slow down and take it easy. By the evening I was on an energy high, feeling happy, calm, and more myself. Just one day of less drain and more lights made a huge difference! I’ll continue to make this a priority until my energy account is filled up. In Your Life If you’d like to increase the balance in your energy account, here are a few suggestions. 1) Assess your energy account. What’s your balance? If you’re overflowing with positive energy, congratulations! Keep doing what you’re doing as it’s working for you. If your balance is not as high as you’d like, try the steps below. If your energy is depleted or draining rapidly as mine was, make restoring your energy your number one priority. Use the steps below to boost your energy as quickly as possible. 2) Notice what drains you. Ask yourself “What is draining me?” and get curious about the answer. Give yourself permission to and be creative about how to decrease your energy drains. 3) Give yourself permission to and do more of what lights you up. If you don’t yet know what lights you up — or would like to know more — ask yourself on a regular basis, “What lights me up?” or “Does this light me up?” Create a list of what makes you feel alive, sparkly, passionate, energized, soothed, and nurtured. Spend some time every day doing something from that list. The more you do what lights you up and the less you do what drains you, the higher your energy balance. Paraphrasing Mark Twain, “What is a woman without energy? Nothing – nothing at all.” Raise your energy balance and make you and your life something – something wonderful. Enjoy!

For the Law of Attraction, as presented in the video, “The Secret,” to work optimally, one needs to exercise mental control over both the conscious and sub-conscious mind. While many would say they can’t be held accountable for what they dream, much evidence would suggest that not only does one have control over their dreams, but that it may be a key component in mastering your intent upon what may the most important level. The practice of realizing one is dreaming and exercising control over those dreams has been known as lucid dreaming since named thus around 1910 by Frederik Van Eeden, a Dutch psychiatrist who studied dreams after the initial discoveries made in the 19th century by Frenchman, Hervey Saint-Denys. However, the experience of these remarkable dreams has been recounted in literature as far back as the 5th century dreams of Gennadius, as told to St. Augustine. Often associated with the experience of the divine, all the major religions of the world have, at some point in their development, accepted lucid dreaming as a sign of piety or ability. Since the 8th century, the ability to exercising dram control has been an absolute requirement of Buddhist monks on their way to enlightenment. Though a cornerstone of early Christianity, it became somewhat suspect in the Dark Ages throughout medieval Europe. Whether the dreams are visitations of the gods or not, the ability to interact in a meaningful way with ones own sub-conscious mind with their conscious faculties intact is a powerful tool that allows you to really get a good idea as to the vast resources of memory and imagination that one is working with. By achieving dream control, one is able to confront negativity and turn it around into a hope for the future. Just as the waking mind can be trained, so can the world of dreams. Practically, many people accidentally find themselves able to awake from a bad dream they don’t like, or are capable of realizing they’re not in any danger from a nightmare, realizing it’s, “just a dream.” It is a much smaller proportion of people who realize they can creatively control how the dream is played out. Nonetheless, anyone is capable of lucid dreaming. Like learning to banish negative thought from your own intentions to avoid attracting more, it can be done with a great deal of practice. Of course, if one doesn’t actually remember their dreams, that’s the first start. The first step to remembering dreams is to stop taking medications to sleep or wake. A great many medications interfere with the normal action of your mind. Consult with a physician before going off any psychoactive medications, but these are often a barrier to exploring the world of your sub-conscious mind. The next step is to give yourself a command to remember your dreams when you’re drifting off to sleep every night. The act of giving yourself a command and making that the last thing you think about every day will very soon – often within a week or two (though sometime up to a month may pass in some individuals) – yield results. Concentrating upon your dreaming state is very much akin to the Power of Attraction. You are literally calling your dreams to you just as you might “call” a new car or better house into your life. This is very often accompanied by keeping a journal of what you dream. The exercise not only keeps a record of your progress, but also assists with recall so you can reliably get through he whole dream when you wake up since you’ve been training your self to do so. Once you’re having and remembering dreams, the next step is to learn to realize you’re dreaming while doing so. Carlos Castanada was very famously told to focus on his hands and use that single image as the trigger to alert his conscious mind that is was in the dreaming “world.” This simple technique is effective since one almost always has their hands and con recognize them. With a few months of practice, many people are able to make their dream selves look at their hands. When just starting out, when people realize they’ve looked at their own hands and that they’re dreaming, often they wake themselves up with all the excitement of having done it. If one is able to stay asleep and continue on with the dream, they will now have complete control over it, or as complete control as they are willing to accept. Upon this realization, dreams tend to become far more vivid, and often are filled with much more richness than is typical. Colours are brighter, sounds are sweeter and you can remember the smell and taste of everything in a hyper-realistic way. It is often easier to reach states of meditation or prayer when one is able to exercise control over the sub-conscious mind. All of this makes it far easier to control those negative thoughts and keep the mind focused upon constructive goals that you’ve identified as important. It may also help you refine those goals into things that really do make you happy. Becoming a lucid dreamer may be the most pleasant way of practising the sort of mind control that is the very heart of the Law of Attraction. YuShan@2007

For smokers who have been in that bad habit for so long, say a couple of years or so may have a hard time breaking the habit. Nicotine is a very powerful drug and anyone who gets addictive to it develops a certain kind of dependence to it. The decision to quit is the first step to have a life free from the awful spell cast on by nicotine. Follow these few tips to get you started: Do you know that when you smoke, more than half of what you take in is fresh air? Taking deep breaths help. More oxygen is being aided in to your bloodstream and will help you let go of your old cravings because it makes you feel good almost instantly. So whenever you get the urge of smoking, vanquish them by taking in deeper breaths. Think of all the good reasons why you should quit. You will be able to have a healthier way of living. You will be able to lower your chances of getting sick with emphysema, pulmonary diseases, stroke or worse, cancer! You will then be able to live longer and enjoy what matters more to life. Also, try to think about the bad things you dislike about smoking. It could be that you experience shortness of breath. Or that you feel lousy or dirty with the way your clothes or even your breath smell. Or the concerned looks you get from the people who care about you and your health and so on. Write it down on a piece of paper. Feel free to look at it whenever you can to aid you in overcoming that itch to light that cigarette whenever it arises. You could provide a healthier environment to your loved ones. Research shows that people who take in second degree smoke have a high risk of developing the same ailments a smoker can get. Also, if you’re an expecting mother, quitting could increase the possibility of having a healthy baby. Set a quit date and clear out everything that could be associated with smoking (e.g. lighters, ashtrays, etc.). Don’t allow other people to smoke in your home or in your office. Try to distract yourself with new things. Indulge yourself with outdoor activities with your loved ones. Plan something fun and productive each day. Get social support. Remember the saying “No man is an island?” You can get a better chance of quitting if you solicit help. Talk to your peers and family about your plans to quit. Get professional help from doctors or health care providers in your area. Enroll yourself in individual, telephone or group counseling. Motivate and reinforce yourself. Whenever you reach a certain mark, say, after a week or a month without a single puff, reward yourself. Recognize your efforts of trying to do something extraordinary. If ever you failed in some way like when you were tempted to smoke and you did, don’t feel discouraged and go right back on track. Only this time remind yourself of how bad or guilty you felt when you violated your own rules. Try even harder. Indeed, quitting is not an easy job. It could be conceptualized but may be very difficult to do with just a flick of a finger. But just like any concept, it can be done!

Are you about to venture into the world of wearing contacts? Many people in need of corrective lenses choose to wear contact lenses because of the comfort and an aversion to looking awful with glasses. Glasses slip down your nose, weight on your ears and nose, and have glare problems with light. You also have to have special lenses or an extra pair to keep the sun from blinding you when wearing glasses. A contact lens allows you to get rid of this paraphernalia and simply have corrected vision. Most individuals won’t even realize you are wearing a contact lens because they are virtually impossible to see in your eye. Contact lenses have changed since the 50’s. A hard contact lens was the first lens to be made. This type of contact lens was made of a glass material making it very rigid and very uncomfortable for your eye. Most individuals felt glasses were the only way to go because of the uncomfortable material and expense. After all it was very easy to scratch your eye with a hard contact lens when trying to get it out because of the rigidity of the material. Soon glass material was replaced with a polymer based product making contact lenses a little more comfortable; however the restricted oxygen flow to the cornea was causing eye sight problems like blindness in individuals who wore contacts for several years. We now have a silicon hydrogel contact. This is known as a soft contact lens. The material is like plastic and conforms to the eye easier than their counterparts. It is also thinner. This thinner material tends to tear easily, but gives more comfort to your eye. It is an almost weightless material so your eye will barely feel its presence. With the introduction of the silicon hydrogel contact lens we also have the introduction of more color contact lenses available. You may have seen some one with violet, jade, yellow or red eyes. The color contact lenses are available to create whatever effect you wish to, however there are downsides. The color contact lens tends to restrict oxygen flow when you have these type of opaque lenses because the material is a little heavier to create the affect. Your contact lens is created to fit your eye. An eye care specialist will measure your eye to get the correct lens ordered to fit your eye. This is why most individuals with higher prescriptions tend to wait a week or more for their contact lenses to arrive. You can also have corrective lenses for astigmatisms or bifocal contact lenses. The Toric lenses are weighted at the bottom to keep the contact on your eye and eliminate the blurriness created by the astigmatism. The bifocal contact lens is available for those who need an adjustment for near and farsightedness and don’t want glasses. Your eye care professional will make sure you have the right prescription for your contact lens.

In the 1980s, I started a daily practice that I still maintain today. I was attending an intense personal growth workshop at Deerwood, Minnesota. One night, as I lay on the top bunk in a rustic dorm room filled with a dozen women, someone mentioned her practice of gratitude. Aware of my natural tendency to focus on the half-empty cup, I decided to try it that night. I did it again the next night and the next. Now, more than 20 years later, I still continue with a gratitude practice each day. Why? It helps me shift my attention to the positive, improve my perspective, and appreciate what is working well in my life. This, in turn, increases my energy and my happiness. Not a bad outcome for an investment of five minutes or less a day! Could Gratitude Help You? It’s easy to drift into focusing on the negative, on problems, and on what isn’t working in your life. But what you focus on expands. So focusing on the negative and on problems gets you more of that, not the enjoyment and fulfillment in life you long for. If you could use a little improvement in your attitude (and who couldn’t!) gratitude could be very helpful. Robert Emmons, Professor of Psychology at University of California, Davis, says gratitude is “an attitude we can choose that makes life better for ourselves and for other people. I think about it as the best approach to life. . .When things go well gratitude enables us to savor things going well. When things go poorly gratitude enables us to get over those situations and realize they are temporary.” Psychologists, spiritual teachers, writers, and researchers say that gratitude can: ** Increase your energy and optimism ** Shift your focus to what has gone well or delighted you ** Help you not take things for granted ** Make you more resilient to life’s hassles and stress ** Encourage your satisfaction with life ** Increase your compassion ** Enrich your experience of life ** Increase your happiness and well being ** Improve your health Who doesn’t want some or all of this? A Gratitude Practice So how do you incorporate more gratitude into your life? I recommend a daily practice of some kind. For instance, you could: – Keep a gratitude journal. Each night write five things for which you are grateful. Or – Before you go to bed, give thanks for one thing for which you’ve never before been consciously grateful. Making the practice a part of your daily routine will regularly focus your attention on gratitude. Knowing you’ll be doing this each evening will raise your awareness and attention throughout the day. “Oh, I need to remember that tonight.” “What am I going to be grateful for this evening?” Grateful to Whom? Charles Fillmore, co-founder of Unity church, wrote “It has been found by experience that a person increases his blessings by being grateful for what he has. Gratitude even on the mental plane is a great magnet. When gratitude is expressed from the spiritual standpoint it is powerfully augmented.” If you believe in God, a Supreme Being, the Universe, or a Higher Power, send your gratitude in those directions. If you don’t believe or aren’t sure what you believe in, focus more on what you’re grateful for and don’t worry about to what or whom you are grateful. It will still work! Grateful for What? In my initial gratitude practice, each night as I brushed my teeth (I couldn’t miss the opportunity to double task!) I’d think of three things for which I was grateful. In the last 10 years or so, I write each night in my journal five things for which I’m grateful. I’d be lying if I said it was easy every night. When I’m feeling low, it’s tough to think of anything for which I truly feel grateful. Still I persist and eventually come up with five things. Many nights I have so much I feel grateful for that I can’t write fast enough. Brother David Steindl-Rast says “We go through life in a daze. A power failure makes us aware of what a gift electricity is, a sprained ankle lets us appreciate walking as a gift, a sleepless night, sleep. How much we are missing in life by noticing gifts only when we are suddenly deprived of them!” To get you thinking about what you’re grateful for, here are a few ideas taken from my own gratitude journal. Cozy shelter in the storm. My health. Skagit Valley raspberries. My husband. Fragrant lilacs. Driving with the convertible top down. Hummingbirds. Books. Work I love. Toddlers. Samish Island. Feeling peaceful. (Wow, just listing these makes me feel great! I could go on for pages — and I won’t.) What you are grateful for will differ from me. The gifts and the abundance in each of our lives are so vast that the possibilities are limitless. In Your Life To begin playing with the practice of gratitude, here are two suggestions. 1) Start with a big infusion of gratitude. Take 5 or 10 or even 30 minutes right now. Write as many things as you can think of for which you are grateful. Notice how writing this list changes your energy. 2) Choose a daily practice (see ‘A Gratitude Practice’ above) and play with it for two weeks. Notice how this practice affects you. See if this is a practice you’d like to continue or if you’d like to try another one. Practice gratitude and see how it changes your life. Enjoy!