Talk to the Turtle

Lucky charm "woof" Dakota 1997-2012

2012-01-18T08:51:00.000-08:00

Christmas day 2011 started out on the happy note of waking up to the wafting smell of coffee brewing. It did not last that long however as I made my way downstairs to discover that Dakota our beloved dog of fourteen and half years was not sitting at the bottom of the stairs. He was always waiting for me when I woke up and he would greet me with his tail flapping and some form of singing dog talk. "Where is my lucky charm dog?" I asked Brian who was sitting on the rocking chair, fully dressed with coat and hat on. "I was just going to come and get you". Dakota was missing when he had gotten up earlier and after driving around for half an hour on the way back to the house he saw a white nose sitting in the woods.

"Dakota wandered off into the woods and he won't get up" Brian said with that calm resolve I so admire in him. "Where is he?" I demanded with the complete panic mode button switched on as I was throwing my coat and boots on over my pj's heading for the front door. Brian had already set up camp beside Dakota with a blanket, his best food biscuits and water by the time I made my way to him in the woods.

Sometimes in life you just do not need any words to explain a situation. This was one of those times. Our beloved pet; big teacher spirit dog sitting there in the woods showing us in the only way he could that time was near. I sat down beside him and told him I loved him, but how I was hoping he would reach the Guinness book of records for oldest living dog of say 45. I then burst into tears and told him that he could not leave for dog heaven yet, and that he had to come back into the house.

He did. Barely he could get up and struggled with his walking but his sheer will to please me, made his way back to his favourite blanket by the fireplace in the house.

The last six months Dakota aka "Fluffy", "Smoogy", "Mr. Big", "Moogleberry", overall ability to get around had been failing but his nose was cool and wet and his appetite never waned. He was always happy to see us.

That was Christmas day and Dakota left for dog heaven on January 3, 2012. We did get in a lot of wonderful conversations in that long week. New Years eve day was sunny and we lifted him into the car and took him for a drive to all his favourite spots.

That sniffer of his was on full throttle open and his head was propped up with his nose sitting on the car window ledge. We visited the lake, the park and then stopped to visit two of his dog friends that he liked from his neighbourhood walks that were out with their family. It was a good day and makes New Years Eve special forever.

In that week between Christmas and January 3rd 2012 he wandered off into the woods again for a second time and this time when we found him we told him that we understood.

Dakota died peacefully with us by his side at our home. He gave so much to us. We are touched to our core for the better.

I read a special blog posting on intent.com by Erik Fisher Ph.D on his family dog passing. A reader commented to his blog posting with the following:

"The way I look at it, theyr'e not really gone anyway. They live on in every single set of paws or pair of grinning chops I see everyday. doG is Love."

I will add to that by quoting from my memory on Morgan Freedman in that movie Shawshank Redemption.

"You have a choice". "Either get busy Dying or get busy Living".

"Fluffy" showed us how to live. He had no regrets. He made every single moment count. There will never be another nose like him. Love you Dakota.... your a good boy.

Adele sings three beautiful songs at NPR:

How to: Not Regret Dying

Have a beautiful day,

joy,

photo: new years eve 2011

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Fun sayings,positive affirmations and powerful quotes:

2011-12-30T08:58:00.000-08:00

Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go.

~Brooks Atkinson (1894-1984)

American theatre critic

New Year's Day is every man's birthday.

~Charles Lamb (1775-1834)

English essayist

You will never change what you tolerate.

~Joel Osteen (1963 b.d.)

Televangelist, Lakewood Church, Houston Texas

I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me.

~Anais Nin (1903-1977)

American/French writer

The object of a New year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. Unless a man starts on the strange assumption that he has never existed before, it is quite certain that he will never exist afterwards. Unless a man be born again, he shall by no means enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

~Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936)

English writer

This is one of my favourite positive affirmations statements:

The ancient Babylonians practiced a vital law that was the cause of their immense prosperity. They used the tithing law, which involves giving one-tenth of all money or riches that you receive. The tithing law says that you must give to receive, and the Babylonians knew that the practice of this law opens up the flow of abundance. If you are thinking, "I will give when i have enough money," then the tithing law says you will never have enough money, because you have to give first. Many of the wealthiest people on the planet tithed their way to wealth, and they have never stopped tithing!

Rhonda Byrne

Creator of "The Secret"

Here is an excerpt from Deepak Chopra M.D. Creating Affluence - Wealth Consciousness in the Field of All Possibilities

"N" stands for saying no to negativity. My friend Wayne Dyer, the famous author, taught me a simple technique for this. Whenever he has a negative thought he silently says to himself, "Next", and moves on.

Saying no to negativity also means not being around negative people. Negative people deplete your energy. Surround yourself with love and nourishment and do not allow the creation of negativity in your environment.

A lovely quote by Author, Louise L. Hay

"The body, like everything else in life, is a mirror of your inner thoughts and beliefs. Every cell responds to every single thought you think and every word you speak. My body loves me in spite of how I may treat it. My body communicates with me, and I now listen to its messages. I am willing to get the message. I pay attention and make the necessary corrections. I give my body what it needs on every level to bring it back to optimum health. I call upon an inner strength that is mine whenever I need it. And so it is.

Have a beautiful day,

photo: 'Happy New Year' PKM

joy,

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Charm Jewelry, Breathing, Years picks

2011-12-29T08:24:00.000-08:00

My curiosity most certainly has led me to some really amazing stories in the world of healing arts and happiness over the last twelve months. I have been pleasantly surprised to find that my very own charm jewelry enhances all inquires into health and happiness. Fashion world patrons as well enjoyed the beauty of my danglers as a anchor for focus and intention by adorning their handbags. I thought it would be helpful to review some of my favourite picks that I have personally benefited from the year 2011.

As I reflect on all the valuable information that has come my way this year, I see that truly it is the journey and not the destination. The main thing that all my reading and researching has shown me is to be happy no matter what my circumstance.

This is not so easy, because if I move too fast I will miss the moment, and if I procrastinate the moment will pass me by.

For example if I were to become very wealthy but I missed everything along the way to get there I am really no further ahead because the rhythm is lopsided. I run the real risk of manifesting all the areas of inquiry that I skirted by to over achieve and over compensate with money. I feel there are no short cuts and you read story after story of people coming to a place of greatness only to lose it all because they need to use all their money to repair the unexplored areas they left behind on the way up. Of course the flip side of this is to keep myself suppressed with debt and confusion which is even more debilitating.

If your birthdate was in the 1950's - 1960's you probably understand this the most because this generational group was told to just get the money at any cost. Sitting where we are all now in 2011 you can see by the plethora of self help authors that a lot of moments were missed and pretty much everyone is turning their pony around to retrieve the missing pieces. I remember in the 1980's the very fringe of this self interest was evident and people were into self discovery, but since then these generations have had families and children. With so much communication on the internet people now have full access to questioning who they are and where the missing pieces are from their life.

Happiness is no longer an exclusive club, it has become mainstream.

We all need to walk our own way and find the proper tools to assist healing the missing pieces of human behaviour that have caused our our unique story of confusion, suffering and the dullness of unhappiness.

The other ah ha that I discovered through all my research on inner beauty was that every one of these thought leaders success stories rely on one main component that runs through all their offerings equally. They all rely on the ritual of a daily practice. A daily routine just like you would think of exercising. The real gem of this entire piece that I am writing is this; Once you find your particular way of self inquiry that offers you relief, you need to find a daily practice that will keep the new healthful patterns in your brain on track. These practices I am speaking of are not in conflict with prayer and I realize that many of us pray as a daily practice. With that being said people forget to pray and not so bad to be reminded the power of prayer.

Here are some of my 2011 highlights:

Radha Conrad: I took a two month teleclass this year with Radha in the early winter. I also was priviledged to work with her on one to one basis. You can access her videos on The Braveheart Women network or her website LifeMasterySkills. The most exciting thing for me about Radha is that when I reviewed her work by listening to the tapes this fall I had forgotten that she recommended to breathe every day a minimum of five minutes. Her directions are: In through the nose and out through the mouth. Don't question your busy chatty mind, just keep moving your mind to your breathing. Radha explained that when you do this daily practice it strengthens the muscle in your mind and raises the energy in your body. I started or rather restarted breathing five minutes everyday since mid October and for me personally I have found my own personal practice that enhances the enjoyment of my daily life. I really like it a lot. To put it simply it makes me feel good.

Noah St. John: Author of The Secret Code of Success. Noah discovered that if you put "why" in front of your affirmations that it will set your brain up to retrieve positive solutions to your inquiry. His book explains how your subconscious does not respond to a statement. ie: I am happy. However if you ask yourself the question: "Why am I happy?" your mind will start moving and indexing the thoughts to support the question. In short it goes looking for the answer to "why you are happy". I find it to be really enjoyable. It was after my Noah e-course and my understanding of utilizing affirmations in conjunction with Feng Shui that I added "why" to all my existing affirmations with my charm collection. It was a natural fit because a big part of Feng Shui involves intention and particularly in non directional Feng Shui (western) we use affirmations as a major enhancer. I felt that adding "why" took my existing affirmation creations from deep meaning to great meaning.

Lauren E. Miller - EFT: stands for Emotional Freedom Technique; simply put it is basically acupuncture without the needles (emotional acupuncture). When something in life triggers an emotional response within us our energy system freezes, this is often times referred to as "deer in the headlights". The body actually experiences a "ZZZT" energy disconnect in the face of a distressing memory or event. Often times we will go into a state of emotional paralysis. EFT simply gets the energy moving again which enables us to reconnect to God, others and ourselves in spite of the anxiety and apin. This reconnect leads to quick reframing opportunities and therefore quick emotional healing takes place. It is a simple technique that uses tapping, on your forehead, cheeks, shoulders, and wrists. EFT is not connected to any new age philosophy, spiritual or religious practice, it is simply a mechanical technique similar to physical therapy that helps the body reconnect after an experience of disconnect (energy freeze) due to emotional blocks and pain. EFT was created by Gary Craig in the mid 1990's. What makes it particularly noteworthy is the high success rate for phobias and anxiety. EFT has been said to work where often nothing else will.

I personally was introduced to EFT in the 1990's by Lee Pulos Ph.D, but there are mainstream sites such as Nick Ortner's The Tapping Solution. I have sited this above with Lauren E. Miller website text because she is a life coach that uses EFT in her resource bag helping others with healing and happiness in their lives. Quite an beautiful fearless woman that is a cancer survivor and understands her calling to help others.

Byron Katie: Author of Loving What Is. I am just a newbie to Katie's work as of this Fall 2011. I have read her book and downloaded the free worksheets from her website. The most amazing thing I have learned by her work is how to separate what is Gods business, My business, and Other Peoples business. I feel I am a far more gracious person by adding this valuable information to my conscious and subconscious frame of mind. I have a working knowledge now if I am projecting something onto someone around me or not. It makes you aware of your own questions of pain and offers a very simple clear avenue of writing it down on a piece of paper. Her main emphasis for this is so that the mind does not keep throwing more stories at you to keep you confused. I personally had a domino like effect in my memory bank of past misunderstandings that never really settled with me a few days after reading her book. At lightning speed I was talking out loud to myself recalling past instances with what was my business and what was not. It really is that powerful and that easy. "Question your thinking - Change the world". www.thework.com

That is a short recap of a big year of learning and creativity. I have enjoyed sharing my journey with you and I hope that you will be curious to check some of these resources out. I realize through my nearly two years of blogging that everybody is now some sort of expert, and I am thinking what kind of expert can I focus on becoming in 2012. Maybe a flowing expert....yes a go with the flow expert, or maybe not. Maybe I will continue on being just a student of happiness.

Now some fun stuff:

I realize christmas is past but I saw this really cute new app from LoudCrow.com interactive for "A Charlie Brown Christmas". Maybe since it is a seasonal item it will go on sale. Worth checking out for your kids, really cute and fun.

This Catvertising is hysterical. I laughed and loved it....

Have a beautiful day,

joy,

Photo: 'the way there' PKM

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Christmas message 2011

2011-12-19T10:36:00.000-08:00

Some years move faster than others. In fact as time has shown me, every year creates a tempo of it's own and this year 2011 (year of the metal rabbit) is no exception to the rule. The year of the dragon is just around the corner (2012) and the Chinese say this is a very auspicious year for the west. About time, is my only murmur... I would like to acknowledge the excerpt from an email that I am going to post for my year end Christmas post. It was sent to me by a Christian friend. She was feeling really blue because her dearest friend of forever died quite unexpectedly. The following christmas story doesnt really hold a story of positive affirmations in the overt sense. It does show the experience of coincidence and the value in feeling hope,
promise and gratitude on a daily basis. As I find myself saying more and more these days-you are a miracle just to be here. No matter where your walk is, and I totally understand that we all need to walk our own way, may I suggest you leave yourself sometime for understanding why you are here - at all.

With respect to all religious denominations this following christmas story is written in the spirit of Christmas and the christian faith. However, being a respectful person of human understanding I have included a video at the bottom of this posting (if you want to scroll down to it and skip the text) that can be enjoyed by everyone.

Who ever you are, where ever you are, may your load be light and your day filled with laughter.

Happy Holidays and Seasons greetings!

Enjoy the read.

Beautiful story. . . things happen for a reason. Inspirational Christmas story.

The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn, arrived in early October excited about their opportunities. When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve. They worked hard repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc. and on December 18th were ahead of schedule and just about finished. On December 19th a terrible tempest, a driving rainstorm - hit the area and lasted for two days. On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church. His heart sank when he saw that the roof leaked, causing a large area of plaster, about 20 feet by 8 feet, to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit beginning about head high. The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor and, not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home.

On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity, so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church.

By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus. She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus forty five minutes later. She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc. to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area. Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was like a sheet. "Pastor," she asked, where did you get that tablecloth?" The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials 'EBG' were crocheted into it there. They were.

These were the initials of the woman and she had made this tablecloth thirty five years before, in Austria. The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten the tablecloth. The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria. When the Nazi's came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week. He was captured, sent to prison and she never saw her husband or her home again. The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home. That was the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a housecleaning job.

What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return.

One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood, continued to sit in one of the pews and stare. The pastor wondered why he wasn't leaving. The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall, because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war - and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike? He told the pastor how the Nazi's came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in a prison.

He never saw his wife or his home again all the thirty five years between. The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier. He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman's apartment, knocked on the door and he saw the greatest Christmas re-union he could ever imagine.

Prayer: Father, God, bless all my friends and family in whatever it is that You know they may be needing this Christmas day.

Origins: True or not, this is one fabulous story. A lonely couple, separated by that greatest of evils, war. Each unaware of the others fate, is brought together again on the holiest of holidays by a man of the cloth. The key to their reunion is an ordinary object that no one else valued, and the chain of events unfolds due to an amazingly serendipitous series of circumstances. If only a storm hadn't knocked a hole in the church wall, if only someone else had bought the tablecloth, if only the woman hadn't happened to be standing outside the church at just the right moment, if only her long-lost husband hadn't coincidentally been a member of that particular church, the couple might never have found each other again.

Of course to those who believe in miracles, all of this was no mere coincidence.

What do we know of this tale? It's called "The Gold and Ivory tablecloth"; it was written by the Rev. Howard C. Schade pastor of the First Reformed Church in Nyack, New York. It was published in the December 1954 issue of Reader's Digest; and it was anthologized in Alice Gray's Christmas Stories for the Heart in 1998.

O.K., grab your popcorn-sit back put your feet up, and enjoy a hour of sensory-immersive experience of the world's most beautiful environments.

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanuka, Happy holidays, Happy everything!

Created by Livinglandscapes HD

Have a beautiful day,

Photo: 'breathe' PKM

joy,

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Fun sayings,positive affirmations and powerful quotes:

2011-11-24T08:21:00.000-08:00

The especial genius of women I believe to be electrical in movement, intuitive in function, spiritual in tendency.

~Margaret Fuller (1810-1850)

American journalist

One thing life taught me-if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you.

~Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)

American stateswoman & humanitarian

One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don't come home at night.

~Margaret Mead (1901-1978)

American cultural anthropologist

This is one of my favourite positive affirmations statements:

Remember to remember means remember to be aware. Remember to be aware in this moment right now. Being aware is seeing everything around you, hearing everything around you, feeling everything around you, and being completely focused on what you are doing right now.

Most people bring what they do not want because they are not aware that they are listening to the thoughts in their heads about the past and the future. They are not even aware that they are being hypnotized by those thoughts, and are therefore living their life unconsciously.

When you remember to be aware, you are aware immediately. You just have to remember to remember.

Rhonda Byrne

Creator of "The Secret"

Here is an excerpt from Deepak Chopra M.D. Creating Affluence -Wealth Consciousness in the Field of All Possibilities

"M" stands for making money for others and helping others make money. Helping others make money and helping other people to fulfill their desires is a sure way to ensure you'll make money for yourself as well as more easily fulfill your own dreams.

"M" also stands for motivate. The best way to motivate other people to help you fulfill your goals is to help them fulfill their goals.

A lovely quote by Author, Louise L. Hay~

Loving and approving of yourself, creating a space of safety within you, trusting, deserving and accepting yourself could create an organized mind, attract more loving relationships, bring about a new job, and even allow your body weight to normalize.

Have a beautiful day,

Photo: 'morning' PKM

joy,

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

A space for Love and affirmation necklace

2011-11-20T08:46:00.000-08:00

As an alumna of the Western School of Feng Shui, I receive the latest news about what is happening with the school and other graduates. I was so excited to see what sisters, Laura Forbes Carlin and Alison Forbes have created with their website Inspired Everyday Living. They have written books and e-guides all based on the teachings of Feng Shui. However it is the videos they are creating that really caught my attention. I am including the video that they produced on a single woman looking for love and how they used their Feng Shui interpretation to shift the energy in her home. I was telling my girlfriend about their video and said the only thing I could have added to the success story was a Love affirmation necklace.

I truly hope that these two women continue on with their film platform of showing how you can use your home as a vehicle for transformation. Their story telling ability is a ten out of ten on film and the camera really does show the passion of their inner voice. I am a huge fan - what a special gift to educate on film something that comes across in such an uplifting and encouraging manner.

Laura Forbes Carlin:

Laura received a Master's degree in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica, and got her Bachelor of Science in Communications from Northwestern University. She also graduated from the Western School of Feng Shui.

Alison Forbes:

Alison has a Masters Degree in Education from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Arts from Tulane University. Alison is also a certified Graceful Lifestyles Interior Re-Designer, a Denise Linn Soul Coach, and a graduate from the Western School of Feng Shui.

Their way of living is based on the following beliefs as written on their website-Inspired Everyday Living:

-Our physical, emotional mental and spiritual well-being is connected to the health and well-being of our home.

-You can improve your love life, finances, career and other parts of your life, by changing your home.

-By bringing awareness and intention to everyday tasks there is potential for inspiration in each and every moment.

-Our homes are a reflection of our consciousness.

-Our homes are the foundation upon which we live our lives; therefore we can change our lives by changing our homes.

-We feel most at home and at peace when both our inner and outer worlds are aligned.

-The intention and energy that we bring to the process is as, or more, important than the result.

-More and more people are searching for deeper meanings and connections, in their careers, with their friends and family, and within their home. As a result, the traditional notions of a homemaker are being reshaped and redefined as people create and discover their own path to establishing the home and lifestyle of their dreams.

-Decorating with nontoxic, sustainable materials supports our health and the health of the planet. In many ways, our homes are extensions of our bodies and what we put in our homes is as important as what we put in our mouths.

-Home is as much a state-of-being as it is a place.

-Change begins at home!

Enjoy the video, meet the Forbes sisters at play.

The Forbes Sisters from Inspired Everyday Living on Vimeo.

Have a beautiful day,

Photo: 'reflection' PKM

Joy,

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Inspirational Jewelry and Intention

2011-11-16T08:06:00.000-08:00

I am right in the middle of my thirty-day observation of breathing for five minutes every morning. Like anything that you are new to, all of a sudden your entire world opens up to show you new ways of looking at your daily life. Focusing on intention and positive thinking has really brought a lot of joy to me, with beautiful inspirational jewelry as a reminder to maintain happiness is also a definite plus. Meditating is turning out to be a really pleasing experience and is such a nice compliment to positive thinking.

I happened upon an interview with Oprah and Kathy Freston who were talking about meditating and using a mantra. Oprah mentioned that she used the mantra "My heart is open", while Kathy Freston said she preferred "I am peace". I personally was just focusing on breathing, but I thought if my mind did stray that maybe it would not be such a bad idea to include that as a technique.

As I ponder all these questions, it seems every website or ad I see on the Internet now is for meditating. Within a very short time I find my way over to a website called intent.com. I was curious and drawn to this name because of my experience working with intentions, and discovered that Intent.com is a community where members can share their dreams and aspirations and receive support from others. It is such a cool idea. I was so happy to read all the entries of positive intentions that people were listing on the site - positive thinking in action.

Mallika Chopra is the creative force behind Intent.com. She has a B.A. from Brown and an M.B.A. from Kellogg University. She serves as President for Chopra Media and is a member of the board of Directors of Virgin Comics and Animation. Her prior experience includes launching MTV in India, Michael Jackson's Heal the World Foundation and Go Networks. Her Father is Deepak Chopra M.D.

On the website you can access the blog portion of Intent.com and read some really wonderful articles to read. Deepak Chopra has several short videos on health and aging and positive affirmations to enjoy.

I clicked on a posting that Mallika had penned about meditation for children. In her writing Mallika shares how she learned to meditate when she was nine years old: her Father had Gotham (her brother) and her repeat the following phrase:

"I am responsible for what I see. I choose the feelings I experience, and set the goals I will achieve. Everything that seems to happen to me, I ask for and receive as I have asked."

They would normally ask for things like tickets to a Celtics game, but then her Dad would guide them into asking for happiness, hope, peace, love, and connection.

Mallika has taught meditation at her daughter's class with the help of the other parents and has written about the benefits of children meditating. Isn't this a really beautiful idea, I ask you? If young people are shown and allowed to have their own private space in their mind with meditation - I know I certainly would have benefited in school growing up - what with the stress of just being a young person staying alive.

I have included this video, which is a special life moment.

Enjoy,

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

Have a beautiful day,

photo: 'go play outside'-PKM

joy,

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Fun sayings, positive affirmations and powerful quotes:

2011-10-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

Never, never, never, never, give up.

-Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

British Prime Minister

We all live in suspense, from day to day, from hour to

hour; in other words, we are the hero of our own story.

-Mary McCarthy (1912-1989)

American writer

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?"

-William Arthur Ward (1921-1994)

American writer

The best way to predict your future is to create it.

-Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

16th President of the United States

This is one of my favourite positive affirmations statements:

Your body is exactly like a movie projector, and the film running through the projector is all of your thoughts and feelings. Everything you see on the screen of your life is what has been projected from within you, and is what you have put into the film.

By choosing higher thoughts and feelings you can change what you see on the screen at any time. You have complete control of what goes into your film!

-Rhonda Byrne

Creator "The Secret"

Here is an excerpt from Deepak Chopra M.D. book, Creating Affluence~Wealth Consciousness in the Field of all Possibilities

"L" stands for Love and Luxury. LOVE yourself. Love your customers. Love your family. Love everybody. Love the world. There is no power stronger than love. Also, adopt luxury as a lifestyle. Luxury is our natural state. Adopting luxury as a lifestyle sets the preamble, the preconditions for the flow of wealth.

A lovely quote by Author, Louise L. Hay:

Love is contagious. When I share love, it comes back to me multiplied. Love opens every door.

Have a beautiful day,

Photo: 'here & now' PKM

joy,

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

The unique gift of Byron Katie

2011-10-29T08:50:00.000-07:00

Recently I had the pleasure of reading the thought provoking work of author Byron Katie. Byron Katie teaches us the unique gift of inner reflection. I have really enjoyed learning how to use her process "The Work", and was quite intrigued with her note that the questions are meditative.

I thought to myself what a coincidence that I have been doing my five minutes breathing meditation every day and now I am reading her amazing contribution to making peace with our own minds.

Byron Katie offers a three step process called "The Work" that shows you a way to understand what's hurting you. It really is as simple as that. I was captivated with Byron Katie's website for many reasons but the main thing that stands out is "The Work" is totally downloadable as FREE pdf files. There is more than enough help on the site with directions to actually start asking your questions and be on your own inner path to bliss, all with just a few clicks on your computer keypad.

Watch a video of Byron Katie at the University of Texas auditorium showing how to work with her question sheet, by clicking on "Begin The Work" on the home page of her website. Amazing to see so many young people in the audience working with her material, asking themselves questions to alleviate stress in their lives.

I am offering the following excerpt from her booklet: Loving what is. You can find it on her website as well.

www.thework.com

An excerpt from Loving What Is: Four questions that can change your life by Byron Katie, with Stephen Mitchell.

“No one can give you freedom but you. This little booklet will show you how.” —Byron Katie

This booklet is an excerpt from Loving What Is. Each year, thousands of these booklets are sent by request, at no charge, to non-profit organizations around the world, helping people discover the life-changing power of The Work.

If you would like to explore this process further, we suggest you ask for Loving What Is wherever books are sold. The book version will take you deeper into The Work, and includes numerous examples of Katie facilitating others on issues such as fear, health, relationships, money, the body, and more. Loving What Is is also available as an audiobook, which offers you the invaluable experience of hearing Katie do The Work in live workshop recordings. The book and the audiobook are available on our official website as well, TheWork.com, or they can be ordered by calling 800.98.KATIE or 1.805.640.1935.

Introduction:

The Work of Byron Katie is a way to identify and question the thoughts that cause all of the suffering in the world. It is a way to find peace with yourself and with the world. The old, the young, the sick, the well, the educated, the uneducated—anyone with an open mind can do this Work.

Byron Kathleen Reid became severely depressed while in her thirties. Over a ten-year period her depression deepened, and Katie (as she is called) spent almost two years rarely able to leave her bed, obsessing over suicide. Then one morning, from the depths of despair, she experienced a life-changing realization.

Katie saw that when she believed that something should be different than it is (“My husband should love me more,” “My children should appreciate me”) she suffered, and that when she didn’t believe these thoughts, she felt peace. She realized that what had been causing her depression was not the world around her, but what she believed about the world around her. In a flash of insight, Katie saw that our attempt to find happiness was backward—instead of hopelessly trying to change the world to match our thoughts about how it “should” be, we can question these thoughts and, by meeting reality as it is, experience unimaginable freedom and joy. Katie developed a simple yet powerful method of inquiry, called The Work, that made this transformation practical. As a result, a bed-ridden, suicidal woman became filled with love for everything life brings.

Katie‟s insight into the mind is consistent with leading-edge research in cognitive neuroscience, and The Work has been compared to the Socratic dialogue, Buddhist teachings, and twelve-step programs. But Katie developed her method without any knowledge of religion or psychology. The Work is based purely on one woman‟s direct experience of how suffering is created and ended. It is astonishingly simple, accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds, and requires nothing more than a pen and paper and an open mind. Katie saw right away that giving people her insights or answers was of little value—instead, she offers a process that can give people their own answers. The first people exposed to her Work reported that the experience was transformational, and she soon began receiving invitations to teach the process publicly.

Since 1986, Katie has introduced The Work to millions of people around the world. In addition to public events, she has introduced her Work into corporations, universities, schools, churches, prisons, and hospitals. Katie‟s joy and humor immediately put people at ease, and the deep insights and breakthroughs that participants quickly experience make the events captivating (tissues are always close at hand). Since 1998, Katie has directed the School for The Work, a nine-day curriculum offered several times a year. The School is an approved provider of continuing education units, and many psychologists,

counselors, and therapists report that The Work is becoming the most important part of their practice. Katie also hosts an annual New Year‟s Mental Cleanse—a four-day program of continuous inquiry that takes place in southern California at the end of December—and she sometimes offers weekend workshops. Audio and video recordings of Katie facilitating The Work on a wide range of topics (sex, money, the body, parenting) are available at her events and on her website, TheWork.com.

In March 2002, Harmony Books published Katie‟s first book, Loving What Is, written with her husband, the distinguished writer Stephen Mitchell. Loving What Is has been translated into twenty-eight languages. It was on bestseller lists across the country. I Need Your Love—Is That True?, written with Michael Katz, and A Thousand Names for Joy, written with Stephen Mitchell were also bestsellers. Question Your Thinking, Change the World was published in 2007, and Who Would You Be Without Your Story?, in 2008. Tiger-Tiger, Is It True?, published in 2009, Hans Wilhelm. Peace in the Present Moment (by Byron Katie and Eckhart Tolle) was published in 2010.

Welcome to The Work.

What Is Is:

The only time we suffer is when we believe a thought that argues with what is. When the mind is perfectly clear, what is is what we want. If you want reality to be different than it is, you might as well try to teach a cat to bark. You can try and try, and in the end the cat will look up at you and say, “Meow.” Wanting reality to be different than it is is hopeless.

And yet, if you pay attention, you‟ll notice that you think thoughts like this dozens of times a day. “People should be kinder.” “Children should be well- behaved.” “My husband (or wife) should agree with me.” “I should be thinner (or prettier or more successful).” These thoughts are ways of wanting reality to be different than it is. If you think that this sounds depressing, you‟re right. All the stress that we feel is caused by arguing with what is.

People new to The Work often say to me, “But it would be disempowering to stop my argument with reality. If I simply accept reality, I‟ll become passive. I may even lose the desire to act.” I answer them with a question: “Can you really know that that‟s true?” Which is more empowering?—“I wish I hadn‟t lost my job” or “I lost my job; what can I do now?”

The Work reveals that what you think shouldn‟t have happened should have happened. It should have happened because it did, and no thinking in the world can change it. This doesn‟t mean that you condone it or approve of it. It just means that you can see things without resistance and without the confusion of your inner struggle.

I am a lover of what is, not because I‟m a spiritual person, but because it hurts when I argue with reality. We can know that reality is good just as it is, because when we argue with it, we experience tension and frustration. We don‟t feel natural or balanced. When we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple, fluid, kind, and fearless.

Staying in Your Own Business:

I can find only three kinds of business in the universe: mine, yours, and God‟s. (For me, the word God means “reality.” Reality is God, because it rules. Anything that‟s out of my control, your control, and everyone else‟s control, I call that God‟s business.)

Much of our stress comes from mentally living out of our own business. When I think, “You need to get a job, I want you to be happy, you should be on time, you need to take better care of yourself,” I am in your business. When I‟m worried about earthquakes, floods, war, or when I will die, I am in God‟s business. If I am mentally in your business or in God‟s business, the effect is separation. I noticed this early in 1986. When I mentally went into my mother‟s business, for example, with a thought like “My mother should understand me,” I immediately experienced a feeling of loneliness. And I realized that every time in my life that I had felt hurt or lonely, I had been in someone else‟s business.

If you are living your life and I am mentally living your life, who is here living mine? We‟re both over there. Being mentally in your business keeps me from being present in my own. I am separate from myself, wondering why my life doesn‟t work.

To think that I know what‟s best for anyone else is to be out of my business. Even in the name of love, it is pure arrogance, and the result is tension, anxiety, and fear. Do I know what‟s right for me? That is my only business. Let me work with that before I try to solve your problems for you.

And if you practice it for a while, you may come to see that you don‟t have any business either and that your life runs perfectly well on its own.

If you understand the three kinds of business enough to stay in your own business, it could free your life in a way that you can‟t even imagine. The next time you‟re feeling stress or discomfort, ask yourself whose business you‟re in mentally, and you may burst out laughing! That question can bring you back to yourself. And you may come to see that you‟ve never really been present, that you‟ve been mentally living in other people‟s business all your life. Just to notice that you‟re in someone else‟s business can bring you back to your own wonderful self.

Meeting Your Thoughts with Understanding:

A thought is harmless unless we believe it. It is not our thoughts, but the attachment to our thoughts, that causes suffering. Attaching to a thought means believing that it‟s true, without inquiring. A belief is a thought that we‟ve been attaching to, often for years.

Most people think that they are what their thoughts tell them they are. One day I noticed that I wasn‟t breathing—I was being breathed. Then I also noticed, to my amazement, that I wasn‟t thinking—that I was actually being thought and that thinking isn‟t personal. Do you wake up in the morning and say to yourself, “I think I won‟t think today”? It‟s too late: You‟re already thinking! Thoughts just appear. They come out of nothing and go back to nothing, like clouds moving across the empty sky. They come to pass, not to stay. There is no harm in them until we attach to them as if they were true.

No one has ever been able to control his thinking, although people may tell the story of how they have. I don‟t let go of my thoughts—I meet them with understanding. Then they let go of me.

Thoughts are like the breeze or the leaves on the trees or the raindrops falling. They appear like that, and through inquiry we can make friends with them. Would you argue with a raindrop? Raindrops aren‟t personal, and neither are thoughts. Once a painful concept is met with understanding, the next time it appears you may find it interesting. What used to be the nightmare is now just interesting. The next time it appears, you may find it funny. The next time, you may not even notice it. This is the power of loving what is.

Putting the Mind on Paper:

The first step in The Work is to write down your judgments about any stressful situation in your life, past, present, or future—about a person you dislike or a situation with someone who angers or frightens or saddens you. (Use a blank sheet of paper; or you can go to www.thework.com to the section called “The Work,” where you‟ll find a Judge-Your-Neighbor Worksheet to download and print.)

For thousands of years, we have been taught not to judge—but let‟s face it, we still do it all the time. The truth is that we all have judgments running in our heads. Through The Work we finally have permission to let those judgments speak out, or even scream out, on paper. We may find that even the most unpleasant thoughts can be met with unconditional love.

I encourage you to write about someone whom you haven‟t yet totally forgiven. This is the most powerful place to begin. Even if you‟ve forgiven that person 99 percent, you aren‟t free until your forgiveness is complete. The 1 percent you haven‟t forgiven them is the very place where you‟re stuck in all your other relationships (including your relationship with yourself).

If you begin by pointing the finger of blame outward, then the focus isn‟t on you. You can just let loose and be uncensored. We‟re often quite sure about what other people need to do, how they should live, whom they should be with. We have 20/20 vision about others, but not about ourselves.

When you do The Work, you see who you are by seeing who you think other people are. Eventually you come to see that everything outside you is a reflection of your own thinking. You are the storyteller, the projector of all stories, and the world is the projected image of your thoughts.

Since the beginning of time, people have been trying to change the world so that they can be happy. This hasn‟t ever worked, because it approaches the problem backward. What The Work gives us is a way to change the projector— mind—rather than the projected. It‟s like when there‟s a piece of lint on a projector‟s lens. We think there‟s a flaw on the screen, and we try to change this person and that person, whomever the flaw appears to be on next. But it‟s futile to try to change the projected images. Once we realize where the lint is, we can clear the lens itself. This is the end of suffering, and the beginning of a little joy in paradise.

I hope you enjoyed the read.

Have a beautiful day,

photo: 'There' PKM

Joy,

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

The unique gift of Clarity

2011-10-27T08:17:00.000-07:00

I finally made some time to watch one of Oprah's Life Class episodes on my computer. Oprah's guest Cheryl Richardson was on the show to talk about the lessons in the book she co-authored with Louise Hay titled, You can create an exceptional life. It was a highly spirited show with lots of topics covered. Cheryl shared the very interesting idea of sending herself a unique gift of positive affirmations using an iphone app called "tell me later". She suggested ideas like, "You become what you believe" and "Only good lies before me". These affirmations, which she has programmed to herself,show up on her phone every hour of the day. It was actually fun watching the interaction between Oprah and Cheryl with the dance and challenge of the word ego threaded throughout the hour. It is well worth watching and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I did walk away with a true gem or nugget of wisdom when Cheryl answered a young woman's question about happiness. Cheryl suggested the woman try what she referred to as an adult exercise. It was framed around the word 'wanting'. Cheryl suggested that "Sitting with the 'wanting' or to sit with the 'want' more and allow life to bring it through to you."

What really intrigued me about that statement is that when I think of the entire episode, every person who spoke from the audience really wanted something. They were all very honorable desires and goals that the audience members were sharing but I could feel the angst in every single person. When Cheryl spoke of wanting she pointed out that the wanting in itself was getting in the way of your future unfolding. Wanting she pointed out was merely the unfinished connection of the desire meeting the physical world through you.

I reflected on my own wanting for the day, and decided that I was going to consciously sit with the want rather than reacting or chasing the emotion. I had a huge weight lifted off my shoulders when I made this conscious decision. By sitting with the want and not reacting to it and trusting that what I was wanting is a work in progress not actualized yet. How adult of me I mused to myself.

What is uncanny about all this is that I have started a thirty day observation of breathing every morning for five minutes before I start my day. On my first day I had some trouble as I kept wondering when five minutes was up, and that was really distracting. The second day I used my travel clock timer, and it was actually quite easy. My inspiration for this was from listening to a tape over the past weekend by psychologist Radha Sheila Conrad.

The tape was of a class that I took earlier this year. I have such respect and admiration for Radha and the knowledge that she shares. Radha mentions in her tape the importance of breathing every day because this is part of what she calls developing the muscle so you can ask yourself questions. I actually forgot about all this information but I remember vaguely telling myself last spring "I was going to breathe every a.m. for five minutes" last spring and then the idea fell by the wayside. The way that Radha explains breathe is: in through your nose and exhale through your mouth. If your mind wanders gently move your attention back to your in and out breath. It could not be simpler. Why is this so easy I asked myself?

In the same class tape Radha explains through the psychology of being a child and that our basic adult profile is pretty much imprinted by the time we are seven years old. Radha then explained how to get quiet and ask yourself a question.

When I asked myself a question about life and what I should be thinking about, the first thing that popped into my head was breathing.

On the braveheartwomen website you can access this information for free through her community that she has set up called Sisterhood of Clarity. She explains in a video exactly how to do this exercise and this is like less than five minutes of your time. I will not do it any justice by explaining it any further. I share my story to explain how I came up with the inspiration of breathing every morning-I owe it to the tele-class I took with Radha Conrad.

I told a friend of mine to check that site out this summer and when she emailed me back she said it was hard to navigate through the site and found it a little confusing. I guess it does take a few clicks to find it on the site and then to watch Radha but it is well worth the investment of your time and curiosity.

I looked through the archives of Braveheartwomen and found this interview of Radha just shortly after she had set up her community on the site. Radha has been a psychotherapist for forty years and lives in Maui, Hawaii. If you watch the attached video, you will be the recipient of some knowledge by a very educated, highly skilled healer and psychologist. In addition to the braveheart community site, she has her own website called Life Mastery Skills. On Radha's site you will find an extensive bio of the years of involvement working with the mental health community in Hawaii. Radha is a young seventy years old this year.

Enjoy the video.

Have a beautiful day,

Joy,

photo: 'clarity' PKM

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Fun sayings, positive affirmations and powerful quotes:

2011-09-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

And then, not expecting it, you become middle-aged and anonymous. No one notices you. You achieve a wonderful freedom. It is a positive thing. You can move about, unnoticed and invisible.

~Doris Lessing

English writer

When we can begin to take our failures non-seriously, it means we are ceasing to be afraid of them. It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves.

~Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923)

New Zealand writer

What seems like courage is really persistence-the ability to put part of yourself on hold - Patience.

~Barbara Gordon

20th-century American writer

This is one of my favourite positive affirmations statements:

Criticism can be very subtle in the way it creeps into our thoughts. Here are some examples of criticism to help you become aware of its subtlety, so you can eliminate it from your thoughts:

The weather is awful today.

The traffic is terrible.

The service is really bad.

Oh no, look at the line.

He/she is always late.

How long do we have to wait for our order?

That motorist is a lunatic.

It's so hot in here.

I've been on hold for so long!

These are subtle things, but the law of attraction is listening to them all. You have the ability to appreciate something in every single circumstance. There is always something to be grateful for.

-Rhonda Byrne

Creator, The Secret

Here is an excerpt from Deepak Chopra M.D., Creating Affluence-Wealth Consciousness in the Field of all Possibilities

"K" stands for the fact that organizing power is inherent in knowledge. Knowledge of any kind gets metabolized spontaneously and brings about a change in awareness from where it is possible to create new realities.

For example, becoming familiar with the knowledge in this book will spontaneously create the conditions for wealth and affluence.

A lovely quote by Author, Louise L. Hay~

"This I know and affirm for myself: I love and approve of myself. All is well in my world. I inhale the precious yet abundant breath of life and allow my body, mind and emotions to relax. There is no need for me to scare myself. I am in harmony with all life."

Have a beautiful day,

joy,

photo: 'lake up high' PKM

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Feng Shui, happiness and wealth

2011-09-29T08:21:00.000-07:00

In a recent interview Terah Kathryn Collins, founder of the Western School of Feng Shui, spoke of the importance of kindness to ourselves, and kindness to those all around us.

Terah mentioned what happens when we become aware of our relationship with our surroundings, and offers her insightful stories of Feng Shui as a way for us to regain balance in our lives. You can read her experiences of Feng Shui in her book, The Western Guide to Feng Shui. There is an array of informational tools to download to explore and play with the art of placement, which is another explanation of Feng Shui.

It can be that when we look at the big picture of life, or even within our home we can become overwhelmed with the enormity of it all. When working with Feng Shui for a home, at times it is necessary to scale the energy work down to baby steps. Rather than focusing on everything big, work within each room and the enhancements for the area that you are focusing on. A classic example is that you might want a huge water fountain in your back yard but at present you just don't have the funds to do it. Instead, find the wealth section in each room of your house and add some intention to each of these areas.

Using western form Feng Shui or non-directional as taught by Terah, you will know that the wealth sector is at the far back left corner of your house. In turn, on a smaller scale, this can be translated to the wealth corner being in every left hand back corner of every room in your house. Place something you treasure in that corner area of every room to work as an enhancement. This can be an affirmation card, a vase with flowers or even a piece of jewelry. It is important to work with the moment in front of you when you are put in these types of situations. This can keep the flow of energy moving and you will be the beneficiary of feeling happy because of your attention you have invested in your environment.

On the other hand you may be reading this and be in a different situation altogether. You may not have a house to live in at all. Your reality may be far away from wanting a water feature for your backyard and actually you may be wondering how you are going to pay your rent and tomorrow seems like a long way away.

This inspires me to share the book by Viktor Frankl M.D., Ph.D., Man's Search for

Meaning. (1905-1997, Vienna). He was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. According to a survey conducted by the Library of Congress, Man's Search for Meaning belongs to a list of "the ten most influential books in the United States." At the time of the author's death in 1997, the book had sold 10 million copies in twenty-four languages.

Dr. Frankl chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate based on his psychotherapeutic method of finding meaning in all forms of existence, even the most sordid ones, and thus a reason to continue living.

The biggest point that I took away from this book (and I have to confess I read the book back in the 1990's but I still remember to this day) is that we are not defined by our external condition in order to keep our inner happiness. He sums it up by saying that the inner hold a person has on his spiritual self relies on having a faith in the future.

In a summary written in the book, Dr. Frankl shares from his experience that a person's psychological reactions are not solely the result of the condition of his life, but also from the freedom of choice he always has. He concludes that the meaning of life is in every moment of living; life never ceases to have meaning.

Dr. Frankl was one of the key figures in existential therapy and a prominent source of inspiration for humanistic psychologists. I remember so clearly the day I picked that book up in the bookstore and thought to myself, "What a skinny book-what could be so important in such a small book?"

So my offering to you with this posting is to ask where your wealth sector is in your inner self? What kind thought to yourself can you place in your mind to enhance your wealth of happiness. Oprah used to comment that just being able to breathe in and out is a great place to start.

Have a beautiful day,

joy,

Photo: 'together' PKM

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Feng Shui flow and home

2011-09-28T08:49:00.000-07:00

Recently I spent a lovely afternoon with a friend at her home. Although we talk on the telephone and email all the time we tallied up the years and realized that for close to a decade that I had been over visiting her in the home that she had built. In between sipping tea and enjoying homemade cookies, the conversation shifted over to the topic of Feng Shui and the flow of energy in a home.

In 2001, I was actually invited to participate in the layout and design decisions of my girlfriends home, using my Feng Shui training. Needless to say I was thrilled to share my knowledge and it was a very amazing experience to see the entire house unfold through to completion. The house was originally an older home and it was taken down to the studs and rebuilt from the ground up.

The footprint of the house was essentially the same, but that was about it. We were able to create missing corners and living areas not originally there and all in all it was a blast to be involved with the design using Feng Shui principles as sounding board and rudder.

In our conversation my friend mentioned that there were decorating issues that she did not feel completely comfortable with and asked me if I could give her space some thought. It was pretty obvious to me there were some design issues going on but we were so busy blabbing and catching up on our girl talk that it wasn't until the next day that I was able to email her with the answers to her design and energy inquiry.

She did the changes the same day and phoned me chirping with glee at how the energy shifted when she moved the larger pieces of furniture into their new position. There were a couple of longer term solutions she was going to work on as well. To finish off she was also going with new placement of her artwork to enhance the flow of the energy in her home.

I thought it would helpful to share in my blog some ideas on how you can work with and decorate your space on your own using some Feng Shui principles. As a certified Interior ReDesigner with the Canadian ReDesigners Association and the American affiliate, IRIS, Interior ReDesign Industry Specialists, I have first hand experience in reworking an existing space with what you have collected-in a new way.

There are many resources on the Internet for ReDesigning your space if you do a little digging. I would like to offer you the following information for when you are feeling that your space needs a shift working with just the elements.

Decorating with five elements: FIRE, EARTH, METAL, WATER, WOOD.

The first thing to do is to find pictures of rooms in magazines or on the Internet, however that may be, and you personally gather and store images. Compile as many as you like. Some rooms will hit all the things you love, other images will make you like some of the space but not so much other parts.

Do not spend time second guessing yourself. This process should be easy and fun.

Using this list of the five elements, check off what the elements are in the image of the room you are attracted to. Using this information you will be empowered to create your own beautiful sanctuary that you call home. Ideally a room well proportioned in all the five elements energetically will be more balanced. Remember that a room can be all one color but the shapes of all five elements can be used to balance the energy as well.

Tip:

Review the images again from the magazines you gathered that you like a lot but do not completely sit well with you. Using the provided list below make a note of the elements that were used. What elements are missing? Go through the list and find what element is not in the space. Ask yourself what would the room look like if that element were included?

The FIRE element is found in:
:All lighting, including candles, natural sunlight, fireplaces
:Things made from animals, fur, leather, bone, feathers
:Pets and wildlife
:Shapes, triangles and stars
:The red spectrum of colors
:Humans
:Art with people or animals, color red, triangles, sunlight, fire

The EARTH element is found in:
:Ceramic objects
:Cement, sand,
:All rocks and stones, marble, granite
:Natural crystals, rocks, gemstones
:The yellow and earthen spectrum of colors
:Shapes, squares and long flat surfaces
:Art with Earth landscapes, fields,

The METAL element is found in:
:All metals, stainless steel, copper, brass, iron, silver and gold
:The white and light icicle pastel spectrum of colors
:Shapes, circle, oval and arch
:Art made from metal or stone

The WATER element is found in:
:Rivers, pools, fountains, and water features
:Mirrors, crystal, glass
:The black and and dark colors as well as blue
:Shapes, flowing, asymmetrical shapes

The WOOD element is found in:
:Wood furniture, trees, plants, flooring, decks
:Art with flowers, gardens, plants
:The green spectrum of colors
:Shapes, columnar shape, poles, and rectangle

When you start to take note of the elements you will notice that there are elemental combinations in the things around you. For example, your coffee table shape may be earth and the table itself is made up of wood. The glass top would be a water element. You may find that the simplest object may be a combination of several elements. In working with these elements you will be training yourself to see your environment in a new light.

By using this list of elements you can see what you are attracted to and what makes you feel good in an environment. Create the environment from the pictures you have chosen from your own items. Use the same elements that are in the images that you enjoy in your own space. You will now have the empowerment to add the elements for a balanced combination.

Have a beautiful day,

Joy,

photo: PKM 'changes'

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Fun sayings, positive affirmations and powerful quotes:

2011-08-31T08:06:00.000-07:00

Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of the pieces.

-Judith Viorst

American poet

Part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory.

-Norman Vincent Peale 1898-1993

American Author, The Power of Positive Thinking

You don't know a woman until you have had a letter from her.

-Ada Leverson 1862-1933

English writer

This is one of my favourite positive affirmations statements:

What is the most powerful thing you can add to the process of creating what you want? Ask for others as you ask for yourself. An easy way to do this is to ask for ALL, which of course includes you. Ask for a good life for all, peace for all, abundance for all, health for all, love for all, and happiness for all.

When you ask for others, it comes back to you, so the law has it ALL covered.

-Rhonda Byrne

Creator of "The Secret'

Here is an excerpt from Deepak Chopra M.D., Creating Affluence -Wealth Consciousness in the Field of All Possibilities

"J" stands for the fact that it is not necessary to judge. When we relinquish our need to constantly classify things as good or bad, right or wrong, then we experience more silence in our consciousness. Our internal dialogue begins to quieten when we shed the burden of judgement, and it is then easier to access the gap.

It is important therefore, to get away from definitions, labels, descriptions, interpretations, evaluations, analyses, and judgement, for all of these create the turbulence of our internal dialogue.

A lovely quote by Author, Louise L. Hay-

"Can you imagine how wonderful it would be if you could live your life without ever being criticized by anyone? Wouldn't it be wonderful to feel totally at ease, totally comfortable? You know what? You can give this to yourself."

Have a beautiful day,

photo: 'toward the light' PKM

joy,

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

The charm of a camp fire story

2011-08-30T08:22:00.000-07:00

Finally a sunny warm beautiful day.

The summer of 2011 has really turned out to be counting the nice days on the fingers of my hand. It certainly increases the gratitude quotient when an outdoor dinner party coincides with sun and t-shirt weather. It is even more of an event when friends get together and after a wonderful exchange of food and spirits the day then leads to the magic of a beautiful evening and campfire. The real charm of these memories is when everyone somehow gets to share a story that brings out something that everyone can relate to in feeling.

Such is my experience on this special gathering of friends and memories. It usually starts with the casual question; what high school did you go to? Where did you go to College?

Then someone gets up and throws another log onto the fire and everyone takes in that moment. Have you ever noticed the pause after someone puts some wood on the fire? It just seems like that pause is forever and the forever feels good. It's the unspoken feeling that it is all right to just "be".

I unconsciously slump into my lawn chair a little more and know that this is all to be expected of myself. These are such precious moments to be aware of and take note of and then my man does the campfire protocol thing and slips his hand into mine. Holding hands and campfires - love it...

" I grew up with horses," one of the quietest of women at the gathering pipes up out of the darkness.

On the other side of the fire another woman dinner guest chimes in- "I rescued a miniature pony once but it bit me so many times I had to find a foster home for it."

I sit up in my seat with genuine interest and ask.

"Where did you find a rescue home for a miniature pony? Was that hard to do?" The gal sharing her story said it was actually very hard to do because the pony was a biter and nobody wanted him. "Nobody wants a mean miniature pony." Finally she found a Llama rescue farm that just shelters Llamas in Montana and they took him in. The story has a happy ending though as the Llama farm owners discovered that the pony had a bite problem and his teeth were digging into his gum when he closed his mouth and he was in pain. A pony vet dentist filed and reshaped his teeth and now the miniature pony is the King of the Llama farm sanctuary.

He is the unquestioned King because every other animal on the farm is a rescue Llama.

With that story the gates open and everyone shares their stories, but I am going to highlight the original horse story that was offered by the quiet woman at the dinner party who spoke up first.

This story is of a fourteen year old girl who loved and owned a horse named Sir Francis Drake. He was a big Morgan breed and the girl loved him with all her heart and this story was how her Dad sold her horse.

The family lived on a farm and the acreage had an elbow turn at the end of the property that sat beside a local county road. It was on a slight hill and on one wet rainy night a car backfired at the edge of the curve on the roadside where Sir Francis Drake was standing inside the fenced property.

Sir Drake was deeply startled to the point that he must of thought it was a rifle shot because he ran straight for the fence and broke through it and ran down the road.

The unfortunate part was that all the cows on the property ran down the road after the horse Sir Francis Drake. The father rousted all of his children out of bed to come help collect the cows including the young girl who was narrating the story. It was pouring rain out and with just a sweatshirt on over her pyjamas and rubber boots - off she ran to find her horse.

The good news was that the horse stopped just down the way by the roadside and was chomping on some grass he had probably been eyeing for sometime and was led back to his stall. Not was the case with the cows though as they ran and never stopped until the family caught up to them. The first cow the father put a halter over and asked his daughter (now a grown woman telling her story) to take back to the farm was Bossie.

Bossie was not that easy to handle or that willing and she had to pull Bossie by the rope towards the farm in the dark and the pouring rain. The cow halfway back though realized that they were going home and went from being pulled onto a full on trot and now the fourteen year old was running behind the cow all the way down the road back to the farm hanging on to dear life - yelling- "Bossie slow down"!

The horse Sir Francis Drake was sold for breaking the fence and leading the cows astray. The girl cried and cried. Her father realizing that maybe he had acted too hastily took her to the horse auction to buy her another horse. He ended up buying two horses that day. They were a black stallion they called Prince and a pinto filly that she named Daisy.

Prince did not last long at the farm though because they did not realize that he was a wild stallion. Apparently wild horses when sold for auction can be drugged to calm them down so that they can be trotted around the ring to show and sell. When the drugs wear off the owner then has a wild horse on their hands. This is what happened with Prince the stallion and he only lasted a few months with the family.

When they got Daisy the pinto filly home to the stall it was realized that her whole body was infested with ticks that had burrowed in under the young horses hide. Every day, for two months or longer, when the teenager came home from school her Dad would soak a cloth in kerosene and rub Daisy's coat. Finally one by one the ticks backed their way out of the horse's body.

It is such a beautiful story of compassion and love and that this young horse did not die and they were able to save her.

When Daisy got to be a yearling her young owner had a talk with her and told her it was time to have a saddle and she actually handled that horse into a bridle and saddle all by herself.

Daisy the pinto became her best friend and lived on to twenty years of age. The girl, now a full-grown woman shared how it made her whole life to have had that relationship and companionship with her horse.

I took it as one of the more beautiful father daughter relationship stories I had heard in a long time.

Sometimes I wonder what it must be like for people in northern California who have a temperate climate and the ability to sit outside by the campfire and share stories all year round.

Have a beautiful day,

joy,

Photo: PKM

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Feng Shui home

2011-08-29T08:20:00.000-07:00

From time to time I receive from the t.v. division of braveheartwomen.com updates to my email box. I noticed from one of their earlier broadcasts a ten-minute segment on energy and the interaction of a Feng Shui home with your life energy.

I thought it was pretty interesting from the standpoint that although Feng Shui is a lot more mainstream than it was when I was first introduced to it - this ancient Chinese art still needs to be prefaced with the good it can do for you.

The main speaker being interviewed on this segment was Marie Diamond and I feel they did a stand up job of conveying the overall offering of Feng Shui in your life. Marie Diamond was included in Rhonda Byrne's book, The Secret. The book explains how to work with the premise of the law of attraction.

I am uploading the video for you to view and it moves pretty fast. However, I harken back to my readings of Dr. Sha who mentions diet and health in his health books but also includes Feng Shui for a home health life. Dr. Sha mentions Feng Shui as a complement to a healthy aligned lifestyle. I agree with him completely that Feng Shui without inclusion of proper diet and exercise of mind and body is like a puzzle with a missing piece.

This is most evident in the "prove it to me crowd", with nose up and gufaagh laugh when given Feng Shui ideas of enhancing their sanctuary with pleasing art and furniture placement. It is the attitude of arms folded and mindful resistance to placing two birds in your love sector of your house will bring you love without any involvement on the participant's part.

The good news is that even though you may be depressed while making those love enhancements, you will receive the beneficial energy you are expending on yourself. However, to rely on just Feng Shui you need to be reminded that according to the philosophers of ancient years,it only makes up 33% of your life results.

Including thoughts of thank you, thank you, and love, compassion, fighting your selfishness, and having so much fun as you journey through life practising your joy will exponentially increase your Feng Shui results.

Adding on diet and exercise will strengthen your mind as well and every day you will want to do better and better, and you will become stronger and make you available to open your door to be with the world.

My own life experience to date has shown good results when including the art of a mindful thought into my day.

Enjoy the video:

Have a beautiful day,

joy,

photo: 'fresh air' PKM

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Fun sayings, positive affirmations and powerful quotes:

2011-07-31T08:54:00.000-07:00

We are always the same age inside.

-Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)

American writer

I am learning what I choose is the real me.

-Anonymous

Logic will get you from A to B.

Imagination will take you everywhere.

-Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Theoretical physicist

This is one of my favorite positive affirmations statements:

You are receiving thousands of messages from the Universe every single day. Learn to become aware of this communication from the Universe, who is speaking to you and guiding you in every moment. There are no accidents and no coincidences. Every sign you notice, every word you hear spoken, every color, every scent, every sound, every event and situation is the Universe speaking to you, and you are the only one who knows their relevance to you, and what the communication is saying.

Use your eyes to see! Use your ears to listen! Use all of your senses, because you are receiving communication through them all!

-Rhonda Byrne

Creator of "The Secret"

Here is an excerpt from Deepak Chopra M.D. book: Creating Affluence - Wealth Consciousness in the Field of All Possibilities

"I" stands for the power of unbending intent or intention. It is to make an unchangeable decision from which it is impossible to go back. It is singlemindedness of purpose. It is a well-defined purpose not countermanded by any other conflicting desires or interests.

In order to acquire wealth - or for that matter anything in the physical universe - you must intend it, make a decision to go for it. The decision is unchangeable with fixity of purpose, not countermanded by anything. The universe handles the details, organizes and orchestrates opportunities. You have simply to be alert to these opportunities.

Marianne Williamson shares her insight with an excerpt from her book: A Woman's Worth

"We're unconsciously afraid of a reaction against us if we dare to shine fully, embrace joy, and permit ourselves to have too great a life. The injunction against winning is subtle but strong, so we ourselves make sure no one will be able to accuse us of having broken the great unspoken rule: Do not experience heaven on earth. The punishment can be severe, at least emotionally, for those of us who break the rule. From friends to family to people who don't even know us, the chorus of disapproval can ring loudly against women who dare to break through the ultimate glass ceiling.

What is the antidote to such a threat, whether it comes from others or is in our own minds? It is to realize that it is God's will that each of us, every woman, man, and child, be happy, whole, and successful. It is impossible to overestimate the psychic damage done by the delusions, pseudo religious and other, that God is somehow happier or we are somehow purer if we are suffering just a bit. The truth is not that God is happier or that we are better, but that the institutions that told us so are happier, because suffering keeps us in our place, where we are easier to control.

But how can there be a joyful planet without it being inhabited by joyful people? Our embrace of joy doesn't rob others of the possibility. Quite the opposite is true - it liberates them, if they choose to be liberated. If I see before me a person who lives a truly happy life, I can follow my ego or follow my heart. My ego will try to argue that the person must be guilty of something, but my heart will recognize that his or her success is my success, if I can allow myself to applaud instead of criticize and bless instead of condemn.

When I first began my career as a lecturer, doing my best to make a positive difference in my community, I often heard people say, "Isn't she nice!" But as my work became visible to a larger public, the same work done the same way and with, if anything, even greater dedication, drew cries of "Who does she think she is?" I have never received the criticism for failure that I have for success, and it is clear to me that people in our society at least unconsciously hold the conviction that someone else's success limits their own, makes them lesser, and puts a permanent lid on their own chances. The world believes in finite resources and in everybody's guilt. As long as we adhere to these pernicious beliefs, we will not only fail to let others shine, but we will never be able to allow ourselves to shine fully either."

Have a beautiful day,

Photo: 'dream job' PKM

joy,

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Feng Shui and Master Sha's healing

2011-07-30T08:12:00.000-07:00

I stopped in at Starbucks for a cup of brew the other day. With coffee in hand I found a nice seat and picked up a couple of the local publications to browse through. As I flipped through one magazine I noticed that Dr. & Master Zhi Gang Sha was in town offering three different events at The University of B. C. auditorium on soul study. The magazine that I picked up sat beside another local newspaper that had on the front page a picture of a salmon swimming in the water with a Vancouver skyline as the backdrop and the caption: "fukushima fallout". I had to think for a moment to remember the nuclear reactor breakdown in Japan caused by the devastating tsunami. I then looked back at the front page again at the artists drawing and realized, with discomfort, that the fish in the picture had three eyes not two. Those living on the west coast of the North American continent have heard differing opinions as to what the exact level of radiation has drifted over to the west coast of Canada and U.S.A. through the water and the air from the fukushima nuclear plant fallout.

I opted to read about Master Sha and remind myself of the power of the capability and healing with our own soul energy. I had the honor of meeting Master Sha many years ago in Vancouver, B.C. I met him as an acupuncture patient back in 1996. Master Sha as far as I know now resides permanently in California. I never read the book I got from him. It was only many years later when I finally did read his book that I realized that he considered Feng Shui - a harmonious home and lifestyle, an important contribution to a healthy life. Now how is that for a 'ah ha' moment....

Dr. and Master Zhi Gang Sha was trained as a doctor in western medicine and in traditional Chinese medicine. He received his M.D. in western medicine from Xian Medical College, Xian City, Shaanxi Province,China in 1983 and his Masters' degree in Hospital Administration from the University of the Philippines, in Manila, in 1988.

A highly skilled acupuncturist, Master Sha taught acupuncture to Western doctors in Beijing for the World Health Organization in 1985 and 1986.

As the founder of the Institute of Soul Healing and Enlightenment, he was named Qigong Master of the Year at the Fifth World congress on Qigong. Dr. Sha says, "Heal and transform the soul first: then healing and transformation of every aspect of life will follow. In 2006, Dr. Sha was granted the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Commission Award for his humanitarian efforts.

I have a few books from Dr. Sha and every time I pick one up and read the different pages, I see the incredible value of his education and wisdom. Mostly though I feel his joy of being fully realized and that he is able to fulfill his calling in life.

Here is an excerpt from his book: Soul Study; A Guide to Accessing Your Highest Powers:

Some people have very good Te, (virtue). Throughout their lives they have helped many people and contributed to the world. Their level of Te (virtue) is very high, but they can still be very sick. Why do they continue to suffer despite their great contributions to society? One of the important reasons is that they do not know how to talk with their souls and ask for soul healing.

To begin the process of communication with the soul world, you must first develop your vital energy and learn the correct techniques to open the door to your message centre. How long this process takes depends on your commitment to making it happen and on how much you practice. However, you cannot force development; let it happen naturally. The more you want this communication to happen, the longer it will take.

Developing Energy with Sitting-Style Dong Yi Gong

Sit comfortably to do Dong Yi Gong creative visualization exercises. Sit in the full-lotus or half-lotus position. This forms a closed circuit and the energy builds as it flows in and around you. A comfortable alternative is to sit cross-legged. If you are sitting in a chair, your feet should be flat on the ground, ankles and legs not crossed. Your back should not be touching the backrest.

Relax the whole body. Hold your hands tightly in the Special Zhi Neng Medicine Hand Posture. Place your hands against your lower abdomen. Touch the tip of your tongue to the upper palate to complete the energy circuit, and you are ready to begin the exercise.

Before you start you may want to read aloud the visualization descriptions. The discussions will give you a better idea of what the exercises are meant to do. Be creative and open-minded. Let your body flow with the experiences. Do not be surprised if you feel it responding as you do these exercises. If you start laughing, crying, shaking, or experiencing a hot, cold or tingly feeling, this simply means that your body energy is changing and developing. The following sitting-style exercises will help you to stimulate your potential brain cells and sensitize your body to receiving messages from the universe.

Special Zhi Neng Medicine Hand Position: Close the right hand over the left thumb and make fist. Close the fingers of the left hand over the right hand and rest the underside of both hands against the lower abdomen. This hand position is important for developing energy, for healing, and for communicating with the soul world.

Begin and enjoy.

THE RAGING SEA:

Visualize an ocean inside your lower abdomen.

The water is clear.

The sun is warm.

The view is gorgeous!

Breathe deeply. Feel the energy.

The tide laps gently, from left to right.

The breeze flows, swirling left to right.

Waves are lapping. The wind picks up. Dark clouds.

Waves chop - slapping. Whitecaps foam. Wind howwwlls!

Wha! Wha! Wooo! WhoooOSH! WHOOSHHH!!

RAIN!!! THUNDER! LIGHTNING!! WIND!!

WHIP! WHIP! SNAP!! CRACK! ZAP!!! ZAP!!!

TSUNAMI!! HURRICANE!!! TYPHOON!!!!

The whole ocean is churning, boiling, raging!!

Waves are smashing! Thunder roars!

Slowly the wind dies

the rain tapers

sky clears

quiet

calm

time

endless.

Discussion: Close your eyes and picture the sea in your lower abdomen. Do other images fly to your mind? For example, in addition to the ocean, do you see things like a ship, or dolphins at play? If the images are very clear, you are tapping into the intuitive portion of your brain, which is also used for communication with the soul world. You have gone beyond logical thinking, where the conscious mind is in control.

Relax and feel the energy of the ocean come to you. Feel the waves washing over you. Be a drop of ocean in a wave. Feel the power of the ocean and the warmth of the sun. The ocean nourishes you with its yin energy; the sun nourishes you with yang energy.

As the storm rises and the calm sea turns into a raging typhoon, yin decreases and yang increases. When the storm passes over and the ocean dies down, yang decreases and yin increases.

Visualizing the raging sea in your abdomen stimulates various organs, making their cells vibrate more vigorously. Cell vibration increases, radiating intense energy and generating stronger fields. This strengthens the organs and energy centres in your lower abdomen.

Repeat the exercise many times to reinforce the strong Yin/Yang contrast in this visualization.

My personal reaction to this particular workout is one of getting off an amusement ride at the fair, thinking it was going to be a lot more tamer than it actually turned out to be.

I always have a huge inhale and exhale everytime at the end of this creative yin/yang workout ride.

You may wonder how this exercise relates to my inspiration for this posting. This is how I see it. The planet has problems with pollution and devastating natural and man made disasters. That is a fact that I have no control over. What I do have control over is the development of my soul. It is something I can participate in. Sometimes I wonder if everyone tried on healing their inner self that healthier decisions would be the by product and we would be the recipients of a healthier planet.

Have a beautiful day,

Photo: 'sun' PKM

joy,

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Success thinking with a brand and Feng Shui

2011-07-25T08:07:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year I took advantage of the opportunity to listen to and participate in an alumni tele-conversation with the Western School of Feng Shui. Liv Kelgren was hosting the live talk and was focusing on the main question: "who is your ideal client?". It was actually very thought provoking, as her questions made you think when she asked the listening community, "Do you want to work with Interior Designers, maybe create your own specialty focus consulting, or perhaps even blending your existing business with your Feng Shui training." I left the teleconference call really filled up with enthusiasm and gratitude for all I had accumulated in knowledge over the last decade of my journey.

It never ceases to amaze me that if you take the initiative to explore one door opening, serendipity kicks in and provides new thoughts and ideas and avenues to continue on with your initial seed of curiosity.

Not long after this event I clicked onto a video on Braveheartwomentv.com and watched Ellie Drake M.D., interviewing Kim Castle who is a branding expert. It was a lively, well-informed ten minute interview which I have included for you to view.

Kim and her partner Vito Montone, run a hugely successful company called brandu.com and their main goal is to help develop one million successful entrepreneurs.

Now how is that for a mission statement! They have created a business profit system for entrepreneurs that is available at any level of entry. This means you could be just coming from your kitchen table with an idea and not knowing how to form your dream empire, or be a highly functioning company that wants to take their vision to the next level.

They accomplish this by offering a system that runs a series of business filters so that even though you are accomplishing your business goals, your intention and intuitive self runs in line with your company profile and goals. They offer several business profit products and a blog through their website brandu.com. One of their products is a digital course, that is a three-section course 1.Power-Path, 2.Brand-Power, 3.Market-power. Take your time as you cruise through their website as there is a plethora of information and may well take more than one visit to digest it all.

Enjoy the video!

As I was mentioning at the beginning of this blog that serendipity has a way of showing you new directions, once your desire kicks in. After watching the braveheartwomentv.com video I also discovered that Kim Castle and Vito Montone are offering a free three video learning program that is part of their elite membership profile, Interprise Business Incubator program. This is a twelve month process that in all relativity is a laymans MBA. They have some amazing endorsements and even though you need to fill in your email for a instant access, watching these video's are really life changing in how you view yourself in relationship to your dreams of being a entrepreneur.

Here is the link to the free 3 video presentation by Kim Castle and Vito Montone.Each video in the series is an hour long approx. and extremely success oriented.

The link is: Interprise Business Incubator.

Have a beautiful day,

Photo: 'explore the water' PKM

Joy,

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Fun sayings, positive affirmations and powerful quotes:

2011-06-30T08:03:00.000-07:00

The most popular labor-saving device is still money.

~Phyllis George

American sports broadcaster

Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting. And you don't do that by sitting around wondering about yourself.

~Katherine Hepburn (1907-2003)

American actress

For no actual process happens twice;

only we meet the same sort of occasion again.

~Suzanne K. Langer (1895-1985)

American educator & philosopher

Imagination is the highest kite one can fly.

~Lauren Bacall

American actress

This is one of my favorite positive affirmations statements:

To understand the power and the magic of gratitude, you have to experience it for yourself. So why not begin by deciding to find 100 things a day to be grateful for?

If you practice gratitude every day it won't take long before gratitude is your natural state of being, and when that happens you will have unlocked one of the greatest secrets to life.

Rhonda Byrne

Creator of "The Secret"

Here is an excerpt from Deepak Chopra M.D. book,

Creating Affluence - Wealth Consciousness in the Field

of all Possibilities

"H" stands for happiness and humanity and the fact that we are here to make all humans we come into contact with happy.

Life naturally evolves in the direction of happiness. We must constantly ask ourselves if what we are doing is going to make us, and those around us,happy. Because happiness is the ultimate goal. It is the goal of all other goals.

When we seek money, or a good relationship, or a great job, what we are really seeking is happiness. The mistake we make is not going for happiness first. If we did, everything else would follow.

Noah St. John Ph.D, author, shares his way through life in his book, The Secret Code of Success, Here is an excerpt:

The quality of your life depends on just two things: the quality of your communication with the world inside yourself, and the quality of your communication with the world outside yourself.

The point of Afformations does not lie in finding the answer, but in asking better questions. When you ask better questions, your mind will automatically focus on things you've probably never focused on before. Change the quality of communication with the world inside yourself. You will begin to ask yourself new, better, empowering questions, and stop asking yourself negative, disempowering questions.

This is the fastest, most effective way I've ever seen to immediately change the quality of your communication with both your inside and outside worlds.

Have a beautiful day,

Photo: PKM

Joy,

Rena

www.talktotheurtle.com

The unique gift of you

2011-06-29T08:20:00.000-07:00

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you,
don't go back to sleep - you must ask for
what you really want; don't go back to sleep.

~Rumi

In 2007 Oprah interviewed Eckhart Tolle who is the author of several self awakening books. The book that Oprah talked with Eckhart about was from her book club, A New Earth. Oprah mentioned that it was Meg Ryan who gave her this unique gift of a book for her to read.

I had read this book just a few months prior and I found that it had some very interesting elements. Oprah hosted a seven class program where she discussed the book in the way that Eckhart Tolle had wanted it to be heard. I just happened to be available and was able to take in the classes with Oprah and Eckhart.

The thing I found interesting about this book was Eckharts explanation about how to take the time to observe your emotions rather than being in a reactionary state to them. This was explained through different stories to inspire you. Take a moment within your day and look in on your situation and give yourself space to observe what you are going through. The book mentioned many things that many of us already know, but threaded throughout were some noteworthy ways to look at your life, on a day to day basis. Eckhart also recommended that the book was geared for people upwards of thirty years old. He commented that people in their twenties had not accumulated enough life history to be able to get as much out of the New Earth material to the same degree as an older person.

I flashed on that in my memory as I was watching the Jack Canfield and Jessica Ortner video on your soul's purpose and EFT, emotional freedom technique. Jessica Ortner is clearly a young woman in her twenties and she was interviewing Jack on how he used "tapping" or EFT to release emotional blocks from his life. She also mentioned that she was introduced to emotional freedom technique when she was seventeen years old. Jack Canfield talked about using EFT daily as a tool to remove emotional obstacles that would show up in ways that kept him from success that he was reaching for.

I have included the video for you to view below, it is lengthy at thirty two minutes but there are some nuggets to make it worth your time.

The thread that weaves between these two men is they reveal that it is actually their daily practice of self love that is the key. Whether it is through the mindfulness of Eckhart Tolle and creating inner space or Jack Canfields focus on your soul purpose and using EFT as a tool, both speak of a daily ritual as their theme. When you first listen to them speak you hear in your mind the word healing. This is true but when you listen further you see that they both talk of the healing being like a muscle that needs to be developed. It takes a commitment and practice for these modalities and approaches to the mind to work.

It has been my own experience that this is true. When I slack off from living up to my highest inner self, I start to hurt in a sort of vague unexplained way. I then take the time to ask myself some questions, like hmm... what is that emotion all about-and start to unweave the puzzle. The only way to explain it is to liken it to exercising a muscle, the more you do it, the better you feel because you are not at the steps of your own head. We all have to find our own way to work with these many tools that are being offered for the taking, but they all require your participation. The question is what collection of self awareness tools work for you.

As Noah St. John would say, "what "why" question do you have to release you to your next level?"

hope you enjoy the video.

Have a beautiful day,

Photo: 'mountain lake' PKM

Joy,

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Inspirational charms of Braveheart Women & Illuminata

2011-06-28T08:50:00.000-07:00

Braveheart Women's community tagline is "Inspiration in Action". Ellie Drake M.D.has successfully created her global vision through her website community and now with her website t.v. show Braveheartwomentv.com. Still new, always changing and developing Ellie's TV division creates ten minute spots of inspirational charms for the mind. It is a resource that I enjoy and I have selected to share the video for you to view on "being unstuck".

As I was preparing to view this video to collect my ideas and inspire my encouraging thoughts to motivate you, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a book on my shelf tucked in beside a binder. I "unstuck" it from the bookshelf and read the jacket cover. Marianne Williamson, Illuminata - A Return to Prayer. I opened the front jacket cover and read that this book was published in 1994.

I turned the next page to read the inscription from my Irish girlfriend of three decades; "For my dear friend Rena - merry xmas 2002" lots of love ~PB.

If you are looking for a powerful, magnetic, book - if you are wondering where you are right now on your path this book with no apologies spells it out in the first 78 pages Marianne Williamson's book Illuminata and then offers up prayers for every aspect of your life. I feel it is even more timely today than it was in 1994.

Here are excerpts from the book Illuminata, by Marianne Williamson:

"Every loving thought we think is a powerful key to the kingdom. Through prayer, meditation, and the silence of a profound holiness, we refocus our dispersed and irresponsible thought forms. We thus take up the challenge to redirect world history. We must relinquish our passive observation of the world outside; we can open the door to the world we really want. In understanding ourselves, we come to understand the world. In allowing ourselves to heal, we become the healers of the world. In praying for peace, we become bringers of peace. Thus we actualize the power within us to remedy the psychic wounds of humanity.

We are now at the crossroads of two huge, divergent points of view: One is materialistic and one is mystical. One is worldly and one is holy. One is based on fear of the world and one has fallen in love.

In July 1994, a huge comet bombarded Jupiter, releasing megatons of energy more powerful than anything we've ever seen on earth. Synchronistically, this parallels the spiritual release of heretofore suppressed forces of healing and power. According to ancient astrology, Jupiter represents the higher mind, philosophy, expansion and blessing. With this bombardment in space, Jupiter's power to bless us and heal us was released and increased a millionfold.

Suddenly, in the last few years, there has been a quickening. Books that used to be the purview of only dedicated spiritual seekers now hit the bestseller lists and stay there for weeks and months. As the philosopher Schopenhauer once wrote, "Every truth passes through three stages before it is recognized. In the first it is ridiculed. In the second, it is opposed. In the third, it is regarded as self-evident."

We have reached a critical mass of spiritual yearning, despite worldly appearances. There is a mass curiosity and openness to spiritual ideas, unprecedented in modern Western culture."

All God needs is a crack in the door.
The door is cracked.
Illumination follows.

Things we thought were primitive beliefs turn out to be more sophisticated than we are. Angels arrive in a burst of light: They are the bearers of breakthrough, the mystical helmet. Angels are the thoughts of God. They deliver the mind to profound understanding.

Angels are powerful thought forms that help to hold the world together. They are the thoughts of synthesis, connection and repair. To call on the angels is to move our attention in a higher, more creative direction, to invoke the structures of a more enlightened worldview. As our thoughts rise, the world rises. This is the resurrection of the human mind.

Hope you enjoyed this thought provoking read...

Have a beautiful day,

Photo: PKM

Joy,

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Fun sayings, positive affirmations and powerful quotes:

2011-05-31T08:53:00.000-07:00

Life is what happens to you when you’re making other plans.

~Betty Talmadge, b.1924

American meat broker

It is easy to be independent when you’ve got money. But to be independent when you haven’t got a thing-that’s the Lord’s test.

~Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972)

American gospel singer

I see no reason to keep silent about my enjoyment of the sound of my own voice as I work.

~Muriel Spark b. 1918

Scottish writer

Light tomorrow with today!

~Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1851)

English poet

This is one of my favorite positive affirmations statements:

The things that come most quickly into your life are the things that you BELIEVE in the most. You can only bring to you what you BELIEVE, so you must BELIEVE to receive what you want.

~Rhonda Byrne

Creator of “The Secret”

Here is an excerpt from Deepak Chopra M.D. book, Creating Affluence~Wealth Consciousness in the Field Of all Possibilities

“G” stands for Gratitude, Generosity, God, gap, and goal. Gratitude and generosity are natural attributes of an affluent consciousness. Since the only thing to go after is the best, the principle of the highest first, why not adopt God as the role model ? After all, no one is more affluent than God, for God is the field of all possibilities.

There is a precise mechanism through which all desires can be manifested.

These four steps are as follows:

Step one: You slip into the gap between thoughts. The gap is the window, the corridor, the transformational vortex through which the personal psyche communicates with the cosmic psyche.

Step two: You have a clear intention of a clear goal in the gap.

Step three: You relinquish your attachment to the outcome, because chasing the outcome or getting attached to it entails coming out of the gap.

Step four: You let the universe handle the details.

It is important to have a clear goal in your awareness, but it is also important to relinquish your attachment to the goal. And the goal is in the gap, and the gap is the potentiality to organize and orchestrate the details required to affect any outcome.

Perhaps you recall an instant when you were trying to remember a name, and you struggled, but with no success. Finally, you let go of your attachment to the outcome, and then a little while later the name flashed across the screen of your consciousness. This is the mechanics for the fulfillment of any desire.

When you were struggling to recall the name, the mind was very active and turbulent. But ultimately, out of fatigue and frustration, you let go and the mind became quiet and slowly quieter- perhaps so quiet that it was almost still – and you slipped into the gap where you released your desire, and soon it was handed to you. This is the true meaning of “Ask and you shall receive,” or “Knock and the door shall be opened to you.”

One of the easiest and most effortless ways of slipping into the gap is through the process of meditation. And there are many forms of meditation and prayer that can help us to manifest dreams from the level of gap.

Have a beautiful day,

Photo: ‘flowing thought’ PKM

Joy,

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Charms for Mothers - Mother Earth

2011-05-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

I was very blessed to have parents that had a second home down in Mesa Arizona in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Typically known as snowbirds to the community of Phoenix and Scottsdale- well for that matter the entire southwest-my parents' initial reason for purchasing their park model trailer was for health reasons, as my father was run over by a vehicle as a pedestrian in a crosswalk, by a drunk driver who ran a red light. My father was fortunate enough to survive but things of this magnitude shape a family forever and the dryness of the healing desert heat called to my parents.

I visited with them in the winters and really learned to appreciate the beauty and quiet of the desert of Arizona. The southwest culture and art is breathtaking and I was exposed to the different native teachings, through the artwork which is a vehicle of storytelling for the Navajo and Hopi tribes. You get to visit their heritage in the beauty of art work. Their charms for Mothers in creative terms is really an offering for Mother Earth-you know the planet we call home.

I clipped this piece out of a local news magazine years ago, it invited me to ponder life in a different way ……

The Hopi Elders Speak

We are the Ones We’ve Been Waiting For~

You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour. Now you must go back and tell the people that this is The Hour, and there are things to be considered.

Where are you living?

What are you doing?

What are your relationships?

Are you in the right relation?

Where is your water?

Know your garden.

It is time to speak your Truth.

Create your community.

Be good to each other, and do not look outside yourself for the leader.

This could be a good time!

There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold onto the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly. Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water. See who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally. Least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt. The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner in celebration.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

The Elders Oraibi

Arizona Hopi Nation

I have added Lilou’s video of her visit to Sedona, Arizona.

~enjoy!

Have a beautiful day,

Photo: PKM

Joy,

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Mothers Day gifts and Dawna Markova

2011-05-25T08:45:00.000-07:00

May is always a big month for me to work through. It is the marker of the 18^th day when my Mother passed over and went home to be with God in 2002. As time has passed I have been able to turn my grief and sadness of her leaving to a celebration of the time that I was her daughter. May also holds more family members birthdays, and of course Oprah had her huge send off party from her daytime show to stepping up to her new network. Love to you Oprah. I manage to celebrate every May in a special way that incorporates the joy of preparing Mothers Day gifts even though my Mom isn’t here in person. I will plant a flower, and listen to some beautiful music, light some candles and make some special food purchases as ways to honor Elsie’s spirit.

It was sadly a devastating blow, to hear that my Mom’s only sister “Rena” died unexpectedly after an elective hospital procedure, May 7^th, 2011. My Aunt was my “other” Mother and to have them leave within a few days of each other on the same calendar month is sadness of epic size. It is my inability to express my feelings that tells me the level of shock I am still swimming in. She was my safety net. Well let me rephrase and to be clear her healing love was a personal lighthouse for my sister and brother as well.

Writing this heads me into uncharted waters. Casting off from the shore never to return to the same day. As my Aunt would say (a diehard golfer) “don’t lose your steam dear – we still have the whole back nine left to play” Love you Auntie Rena.

I am posting an excerpt from Dawna Markova Ph.D book: I will not live an unlived life from the website, www.soulfulliving.com as a lovely piece of observing humanity. These two exceptional spirits that I knew as my Mom and Aunt would have enjoyed the read.

Enjoy~

"Living on Purpose: Landscapes of the Soul"

by Dawna Markova, Ph.d

"Is the life I’m living the life that wants to live in me?" ~Parker Palmer

If you took a blue spruce tree and planted it in the desert, it would obviously perish. How do we forget that we too are living systems, and each of us have unique environments, needs, and conditions within which we flourish or wither?

~~~~~

I am in a group listening to Dee Hock, a founder of the Visa Corporation in Wellington, New Zealand. He stands in the center of a circle of native Maori people and business leaders, saying, " It doesn’t matter so much who we have been to each other historically. The only questions that really matter are, ‘ Who are you becoming?’ and ‘What kind of a world are we leaving for all of our grandchildren?’ His words move like a fire across all of our hearts. Silence gathers in the room and hovers. I wonder, how do I even dare begin to think about those questions without feeling despair?

Two years later, I am walking along the ocean’s edge at dawn, in Santa Barbara, California. I am walking behind Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese teacher, poet, and monk. He wears a loose brown jacket and pants, with a brown knitted hat pulled down over his tea-cup ears. A thousand others walk behind him, a herd of strangers when we start, a flock that fans out slowly along the sandy cliffs, an undulating school of us, following this one small man who breathes in rhythm with the ocean, in and out, where the shoreline meets the sea.

Each of his feet, encased in wooden-soled clogs presses slowly into the wet sand of the beach, synchronized with both the waves and his breath, leaving momentary emblems of his presence. Then they are washed away.

Joggers bounce by in the opposite direction, staring. Seaweed tangles around my ankles. Black globs of oil wash ashore from the derricks on the horizon. Two thousand feet follow his, in no obvious order, all in rhyme with breath and tide.

I breathe to carry myself across the void which I so meticulously avoid, the tiny black holes in my mind where there is nothing. No place to go, nothing to do, to have, or to be.

Someone brings a small brass bell out of a pocket and strikes it gently. He stops. We all stop. I feel something pulsing in both feet. Blood. The river of my life standing in the ocean. My periphery widens, the emptiness opens. I settle down into myself.

And it is enough. The seaweed, the runners, the sea gulls floating by, the thousand people standing still on a beach in Santa Barbara, breathing with a small man dressed in brown, breathing with the waves, under the bluegray sky that holds the clouds, the mind that holds the thoughts, that holds us all, that holds me.

Hours later, while we sit listening to him in a drafty sports arena, he says, "I walk for you. Every day. When you are lost in chaos or despair, I will be walking in peace and harmony some place in the world. You can know that I am walking for you."

Meanwhile, the other monks and nuns placed small turquoise paper circles in our sandals that were lined up neatly outside. Each one said the same thing: "I walk for you."

I’m sure he is walking for me now, months later, as I sit rocking in this cabin, thinking about what kind of environment I need in order to return to the world of needs and demands without losing myself or my sense of purpose. What are the conditions that will help me to be as I was with those thousand people, a part of the community, and yet apart from the community? How do I stay true to myself? How do I stay aligned with the natural rhythms that nurture my body and soul? How do I help create a community of connection rather than fragmentation? How do I live in a way that brings out the best of who I am?

I float in the space between my questions. I know they can’t be answered. I need to ask them, again and again, to use them to find my way on this path. I rock in wonder at this sweet and peaceful moment when the aspen trees all around me now, blaze greengold in the late afternoon light. They are such a wonder, connected by invisible roots, yet separate as they emerge from the soil, reaching, thrusting themselves into this impossibly wide blue-violet sky that holds everything in its embrace.

I rock here thinking of the invisible roots that connect me even now when I am alone to a community larger than I can even imagine. The deeper I go into myself, the more interconnected I realize I really am. I rock in the peace of this moment for who I have been when life was only a long trail of tears, and for who I will be again when I forget what really matters. I rock for my son and the daughter of my heart. I rock for my grandmother, for my adopted granddaughter, for the mother in China who had to abandon her. I rock for Dee’s grandchildren. I rock for my father who beat me. And I rock for my husband who has such exquisitely clean hands. I rock in the wide serenity of this clear afternoon for all who are in offices under fluorescent lights, tangled in traffic, or trapped in the agony of conflict. I rock for those of us entombed in numbness and despair.

~~~~

Recently I read of an experiment where a scientist raised some baby fish in a small glass tank, which was inside a larger tank that held with adult fish. The little fish in the smaller tank could see the fish in the larger tank, but because of the glass barrier could not swim out. Once the small fish had grown up, the researcher removed the glass walls of the small tank so that they could swim out. But instead they stopped at the exact place that used to be their walls. The habit and memory of the edge of their world was more real to them than the freedom that was possible now that the glass had been removed.

Like these fish, we’ve been accustomed to swimming in a limited environment, convinced that this is the only way we can survive. We don’t have to accept the environments that have been given to us, however. We can give ourselves much more space to expand by asking ourselves what the conditions are that bring out the best in us.

Since we can only feel fulfilled when we are sharing our gifts in community, purpose insists that we be connected to both the interior and the exterior world. But, but, but…how can this be possible? How can we support both our inner and outer lives? For so many of us, living with an external orientation has become a deeply ingrained habit. Our culture insists we compartmentalize our inner life, wall it off behind the technical skills necessary to manage "out there."

But, as Annie Dillard writes, "If you go far enough inward, you find ‘the unified field,’ our complex and inexplicable caring for each other and for our life together." On the beach in Santa Barbara, I found this to be more than some abstract idea. Turning inward, I found myself in a place that was beyond ego, beyond even the notion of "I." I found myself caring and connected to what Parker Palmer calls "the community we share beneath the broken surface of our lives."

What are the living conditions that empower us instead of imprison us? What are the "no matter whats" in our environment that we need to grow an authentic and generous life? What I share here now is as illustration, since it is only true for me. Because we are each unique living systems, each of us has a unique environment in which we flourish. But it is my hope that reading my "no matter whats" will help you tap into your own:

No matter what, I need to be living and working in a spacious natural environment that encourages me to expand. Since my habit is to contract in uncertainty, and since uncertainty is the soup of modern life, I can most easily remind myself to expand when I am surrounded by a wide horizon.

No matter what, I need to be moving at a rhythm that allows my body, soul, and heart to be in alignment.

No matter what, I need to work both as a part of and apart from the larger community. I need to work with my family. Work has meant dividing me from them for so many years. Now I need work to unify us, to join us in the task of bringing shining and useful things to the larger community.

No matter what, I need a balance of language, images, and lavish silence, so I can be guided by the inner voice of my intuitive mind, and balance insight and outreach. I need the space to think thoughts all the way through until they open into wonder.

No matter what, I need a human atmosphere that constantly challenges me to be sane, thoughtful, wholesome, and present in the moment. If I am not present, there can be no meaning. If I am, everything I do has meaning.

No matter what, I need to be living and working in an environment that stimulates, pleases, and enlivens my physical being.

No matter what, I need to work in a climate that is interdependent, where the norm encourages us to use each other’s strengths so no one of us has to carry more than our part.

And lastly, no matter what, I need to work in a creative atmosphere that encourages us to let die what is finished and foster new life that is trying to emerge.

Now it’s your turn, dear reader. What are the influences, activities, and people that cause you to shine? What is a metaphor you would use to describe the environment that fosters your wisdom, and helps you to bring the best that is in you out to the rest of us who are waiting? What are the circumstances? Are you at your best inside of an organization or outside or with one foot in and one foot out? Do you light up working alone, in a team or both? Leading, following, or both?

May we all find the soil in which the seeds of our dreams can germinate into lives that are lives that are free of the limitations of our previous history, lives that are full and warm and rich with amazement.

Dawna Markova, Ph.d, is internationally known for her groundbreaking work in helping people learn with passion and live on purpose. She is the CEO of Professional Thinking Partners, Inc, cofounder of the Worldwide Women’s Web, and former research affiliate of the Organizational Learning Center at MIT. Her books include I will not Die an Unlived Life. The Open Mind, and No Enemies Within: An Unused Intelligence, co-authored with her husband and business partner Andy Bryner. And How Your Child is Smart and Learning Unlimited, co-authored with Anne R. Powell.

Have a beautiful day,

Photo: PKM

Joy,

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Fun sayings, positive affirmations and powerful quotes:

2011-04-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

I was a fantastic student until I was ten, and then my mind began to wander.

~Grace Paley

American writer

If truth is beauty, how come no one has their hair done in a library?

~Lily Tomlin

American actress & comedienne

A private railroad car is not an acquired taste. One takes to it immediately.

~Eleanor R. (Mrs. August) Belmont (1879-1979)

English actress and philanthropist

This is one of my favorite positive affirmations statements:

If there was a particular house you wanted, or a particular relationship or job you wanted, and you didn't get it, the Universe is telling you that it was not good enough and did not match your dream. It is also telling you that it has something BETTER and more worthy of you. Something better is coming . . . you're allowed to be excited

~Rhonda Byrne

Creator of “The Secret”

Here is an excerpt from Deepak Chopra M.D. book, Creating Affluence~Wealth Consciousness in the Field of all possibilities:

~”F” stands for the fact that in every failure is the seed of success. In the manifestation of the material from the non-material, of the visible from the invisible, a fundamental mechanics is involved. This is the principle of feedback. Our failures are stepping-stones in the mechanics of creation, bringing us ever closer to our goals. In reality, there is no such thing as failure. What we call failure is just a mechanism through which we can learn to do things right.

Here is an excerpt from Neale Donald Walsch book, Conversations with God:

Written as a dialogue in which Walsh asks questions and God answers….

"Does that mean I cannot ask for anything I want? Are You saying that praying for something actually pushes it away from us?"

" This is a question which has been asked through the Ages-and has been answered whenever it has been asked. Yet you have not heard the answer, or will not believe it. The question is answered again, in today’s terms, and today’s language, thusly: You will not have that for which you ask, nor can you have anything you want. This is because your very request is a statement of lack, and your saying you want a thing only works to produce that precise experience –wanting-in reality."

"The correct prayer is therefore never a prayer of supplication, but a prayer of gratitude. When you thank God in advance for that which you choose to experience in your reality, you, in effect, acknowledge that it is there. . . in effect. Thankfulness is thus the most powerful statement to God; an affirmation that even before you ask, I have answered. Therefore never supplicate. Appreciate."

Have a beautiful day,

Photo: ‘happy Easter’ PKM

Joy,

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

The unique gift of Dawna Markova

2011-04-21T08:30:00.000-07:00

I am a great admirer of writers that evoke an interest that will not let us leave their pages of written thoughts. That is what the unique gift of Dawna Markova’s voice does for me.

Dawna Markova Ph.D is a psychotherapist internationally known for her groundbreaking work in helping people learn with passion and live on purpose.

You can visit her through the website: dawnamarkova.com

I can vaguely remember how I first acquired her book; I will not die an unlived life. It travelled in the trunk of my car for about a year, and then on a spring clean out made its way to my bookshelf. I originally picked it up off an offering table in the building I was working in and it was garbage bound, as it had been there for days. I remember picking it up and thinking what a cool title it had, but caught myself thinking: If it's so good what is it doing on the go to garbage table. I quickly glanced in the front jacket and saw the second hand price of $2.99, and for whatever reason tucked it under my arm since no one else wanted it, and claimed it as mine.

I count it as one of my best and favorite treasure reads. Dawna’s writing is like poetry, which is what you are treated to on the first page of Chapter 1.

~Living Wide Open:

Landscapes of the Mind~

I will not die an unlived life.

I will not live in fear

of falling or catching fire.

I choose to inhabit my days,

to allow my living to open me,

to make me less afraid,

more accessible,

to loosen my heart

until it becomes a wing,

a torch, a promise.

I choose to risk my significance,

to live so that which came to me as seed

goes to the next as blossom,

and that which came to me as blossom,

goes on as fruit.

This is an excerpt from Chapter 9, The Spot of Grace:

What’s unfinished for you to give? In the thousands of moments that string together to make up our lives, there are some where time seems to change its shape and a certain light falls across our ordinary path. We stop searching for purpose, we become it. Looking back, we might describe these moments as times when we were at our best, when the gifts we were born with and the talents we have developed were braided with what we love and the needs of the world.

“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”

~JESUS, GOSPEL OF SAINT THOMAS

This is an excerpt from Chapter 14: What Have I Been Given with Which to Give?

What are your inner gifts and talents? Most of us are reasonably articulate about our deficits and weaknesses-how many we got wrong on our spelling tests, how many things we have failed to accomplish during any given day. We become fluent at explaining our incompetencies, but look straight at our gifts and talents and then mutter, “Oh, that old thing?” This leaves us awkward and confused about how to bring our assets and resources to the rest of the community. Too many of us believe we don’t matter, and that what we do doesn’t really make a difference.

“While you have a thing it can be taken from you… but when you give it, no robber can take it from you. It will be yours always.”

~JAMES JOYCE

Have a beautiful day,

Photo: 'lift your eyes up' PKM

Joy,

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Inspirational charms, N.L.P. and Oprah

2011-04-20T08:41:00.000-07:00

Oprah mentioned most recently on her show that it is important to start the conversation in our communities to engage the thought of being “your” authentic self. The guests that Oprah mainly highlights are making broad strokes in the humanitarian arena. This can be a little intimidating, when you then ask what you yourself can do to contribute to a world of peace.
I feel it can be something as small and useful as a Neuro Linguistic Programming technique of anchoring the positive message of inspirational charms into your daily thought patterns.

This is how anchoring works; you repeat the inspirational message several times out loud while touching your charm. Thereafter, when you touch or glance at it, you receive the positive benefit without having to repeat the inspirational charms message.

N.L.P. was created to allow new ways of understanding how verbal and non verbal communication affect the human brain.

I have noticed that some very successful business leaders, authors and healers have been trained in N.L.P. (neuro linguistic programming). Michael Losier who penned the book The Law of Attraction is an amazing author as well as a N.L.P. practitioner.

The many books he has authored are available in dozens of different languages, and he is a highly celebrated writer. Oprah spoke with him on her XM radio in 2007 and I have attached the link for your convenience to listen to it.

Michael Losier is such a wonderful inspiration and when you visit his site there is a section highlighted: Michael’s popular articles: I chose the following for you to
Enjoy.

~“How Often Each Day Should I Read or Say My Desire Statement”~

The purpose of the Desire Statement is to support you in giving attention, energy and focus to your newly birthed desire. It teaches you how to add language to your desires so that they feel good. The key to the Desire Statement is it needs to be TRUE for you. You'll notice that one of the recommended sentences is "I love how it feels knowing...." Using this sentence allows you to state your desire in a way that makes it true for you. When it is true for you, you send out a positive vibration. It’s not a matter of how often you read or say your Desire Statement each day. Your goal is to give your desire positive attention, knowing that as you do that you are sending out a positive vibration.

Once you create a Desire Statement, you have completed step 1 and 2 of the three-step Law of Attraction formula. Now your work is to Allow. Spend most of your time and energy there. Keep finding proof that you are manifesting something that is in alignment to your desire. When you celebrate and acknowledge something you have manifested, this proof helps remove the doubt and negative vibrations that prevent you from receiving your desire. 

In short, it’s not about how often you do each step of the Law of Attraction formula. The key point is to send out or offer a positive vibration with respect to your desire. Identify what you want, give positive attention, energy and focus to it, and remove the doubt and negative vibration you may be sending by celebrating proof as you find it.

Michael Losier, a Law of Attraction Trainer and author, supports people in understanding and practicing the Art of Deliberate Attraction, so they can have more of what they want and less of what they don't. Michael has been applying the principles of Law of Attraction for many years and enjoys a wonderful and rewarding life in the city of Victoria, BC, Canada. He facilitates a number of in-person Law of Attraction seminars as well as Teleseminars to a worldwide audience. 

For more articles by Michael Losier, Teleclass information or to purchase the book, Law of Attraction, The Science of Attracting More of What You Want and Less of What You Don't, visit www.LawOfAttractionBook.com .  ©Michael Losier 2005 - 2010.

Have a beautiful day,

Photo: PKM

Joy,

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com