Thanks, Jerry

Posted by: John

I just received the email from Esther Hicks announcing Jerry Hicks’ transition to Non-physical. While we all know that our transition is inevitable, it’s a bit of a shock to learn of the transition of someone like Jerry. No doubt, he will continue to influence our lives from his new vantage point.

My own journey with Abraham and Jerry and Esther started with some CDs lent to me by my Reiki Master/Teacher. I later subscribed to the CD program and listened to them for hours, absorbing the energy of Abraham. I must say I’m still a student and still learning even though it’s been a while since I listened to a CD or downloaded recording. As I said in my comment on Jerry’s memorial page, Abraham’s teachings have influenced my life in ways of which I’m not yet conscious and many of which I am aware.

It will be very interesting to see where Abraham’s journey leads now that Jerry has a new perspective from which to operate. Thanks, Jerry, for all your work on this plane and for all you will be doing from the next.

Closing Your Gap

Another Kind of Gap – The Anxiety Gap

Posted by: John

I’m currently reading Eckhart Tolle’s “Practicing The Power of Now” which has introduced me to what he calls “The Anxiety Gap”. Tolle defines the anxiety gap as the result of our Inner Being being in the Now while our minds are focused on the future:

You can always cope with the present moment, but you cannot cope with something that is only a mind projection — you cannot cope with the future.

This is one of those insights that caused me to go “Wow!” when I read it. I’ve often experienced the uncertainty of what the future holds. Until I read that line, I didn’t really know why. I’ve been through some difficult times, as have we all, and can attest to our ability to cope with what’s going on in the present moment. It never seems as difficult at the time as it does in hindsight! I’d always chalked that up to being so busy dealing with the situation that I didn’t have time to think about it and get overwhelmed. There may be some of that in the equation, but basically it’s because our minds can get hold of it once it’s manifested.

By the same token, we often dread the future and come to discover that whatever happens isn’t as bad as we anticipated it to be. In any case, we’re able to cope with it once it becomes our current reality because we can quantify it. Our minds cannot handle that which they can’t quantify.

In other words, unless we are absolutely sure what is going to happen in the future (which is rarely, if ever, the case) our minds cannot get enough of a grip on it to be secure about it. Any variable causes the mind to start exploring all possible outcomes based on the known possibilities of that variable. More variables simply increase the number of possibilities geometrically. And then there are always those possibilities that we couldn’t know ahead of time that cause our carefully considered strategies to break down in the face of a result we didn’t expect.

Despite being a bit late to the Eckhart Tolle party, so to speak, I’m finding Practicing The Power Of Now fascinating. In the short time I’ve been doing the exercises I’ve found that I can change my mood completely by simply returning to the Now and focusing on the present moment.

I’m sure this is what Abraham means by “getting in the Vortex”, or at least releasing the resistance to the present moment. I have to admit that lately I’ve been feeling a bit of frustration when hearing Abraham say “just get in the Vortex”. Perhaps that’s why I’ve attracted Tolle’s work into my “reality” at this time. I’m ready to hear his message now where I was not previously. Once again, the Universe has provided exactly the right resource at exactly the right time!

Closing Your Gap

Abraham

Experience Your Good Now – Louise Hay

Posted by: John

Louise Hay has just published her latest book entitled “Experience Your Good Now”, a book dedicated to affirmations. In this book, Louise explains what affirmations are, how to construct affirmations properly for the best results, and provides affirmations for specific situations.

I first learned of Louise Hay’s work some 15 years ago when I purchased a copy of “Heal Your Body”. I found Louise’s story fascinating as I’ve always believed our minds are much more powerful than our bodies. Louise learned to heal herself with positive thought and has since gone on to publish many books on the subject. Louise founded Hay House with the express purpose of publishing books, tapes, and other media that helped uplift people’s lives. Her list of authors is impressive, to say the least, and speaks to the power of her vision.

Much of Louise’s work is based on affirmations. This latest book goes into great detail about affirmations, explaining why they work and how to use them effectively. She clears up many misconceptions about affirmations, among them the belief that only specific thoughts are affirmations. The truth is that all our thoughts are affirmations, so it pays to be aware of our thoughts and keep them as positive as possible.

“Experience Your Good Now” provides affirmations for specific situations, namely Health, Fearful Emotions, Critical Thinking, Addictions, Forgiveness, Work, Money and Prosperity, Friends, Love and Intimacy, and finally, Aging. Written in Louise’s typical approachable style, this book is a worthy addition to her already impressive catalog of work.

ClosingYourGap.com

An Important Reminder

Posted by: John

I do a fair amount of selling on eBay. As with any business there are customers involved. For the most part, people are reasonable and things go smoothly. On occasion, however, something happens and it becomes necessary to go into customer service mode.

I sold an item about a month ago. The customer paid promptly, I shipped the item within the 2 business days I promise in my selling policies, and all seemed happy.

Then, last week, I got a message through eBay from the customer saying that a piece had broken off the item and asking if it was too late to return it. My policy clearly states that returns must be within 7 days, but I will make exceptions when it’s appropriate to do so.

So, I responded and said that if the item was returned along with the broken piece, I’d be happy to issue a refund. The customer sent the item back along with the piece that had broken off. I issued a refund for the amount paid for the item less the original shipping, which is also stated in my return/refund policy.

This didn’t satisfy the customer who demanded the return of the original amount paid for shipping as well. My first reaction was annoyance. It’s easy under these conditions to point to policies and blame the customer for my negative reaction and that, of course, was what I was doing. After all, it could be argued that I’m “right” and they’re “wrong” and all that.

From a purely practical standpoint, the amount we’re talking about isn’t worth getting upset over. It would cost way more in my time and good will than the dollar amount if I were to choose to be “right”. Just as a business decision, it makes sense to issue the refund and be done with it.

There’s more to it than that, however. As I drove to work, I realized that this is a situation that calls for the application of love rather than resentment or anger.

I recently mentioned Larry Crane’s book “Love Yourself And Let The Other Person Have It Your Way”. This wonderful little book is still free in the Kindle edition as of this writing.

Anyway, this is exactly the kind of situation Larry is talking about in his book. I know that Abraham would agree, as well. I could maintain my “rightness” and feel all the negative emotion that would go along with defending that position, or I can simply send this person their refund along with love and feel good.

Someone once said “You can be right or you can be happy, it’s your choice”. They were referring to marital relationships, but when you get down to it, it applies to all relationships whether personal or business.

I appreciate this customer’s reminder of this truth.

John

Larry Crane “Love Yourself” Free on Kindle

Posted by: John

I listened this morning to an audio interview with Larry Crane, co-author of “The Release Technique” in which he mentioned his book “Love Yourself And Let Others Have It Your Way”. I own an Amazon Kindle so I went out to the Kindle store to purchase the book. Much to my surprise, the current price is zero, as in free!

I don’t know how long the Kindle version of “Love Yourself” will be available gratis, so I would recommend checking it out now. You can order it through your Kindle, or from the Amazon website at this URL:

http://budurl.com/loveyourself

John

Choosing Prosperity Experiment Kicks Off Fourth Year

Posted by: John

The 4th annual Choosing Prosperity experiment is now under way. Subtitled “play your way to prosperity”, this event seeks to raise the prosperity consciousness of its participants. The Choosing Prosperity experiment experiment is a month-long event run by Elyse Hope Killoran, one of the foremost teachers of Law of Attraction.

I’ve decided to participate again this year and have promised myself to stick with it through the entire 30 days, unlike last year. Based on the Prosperity Game described by Abraham-Hicks, the Choosing Prosperity experiment goes beyond the Prosperity Game by having specific energy raising activities each day in addition to the daily play of the Prosperity Game.

For example, Day 2 posed three questions to ponder and answer, either on the blog or privately. Here are my responses:

“What is becoming possible for all of us as we share a focused intention to create prosperity through joy and play?”

As our vibrations raise, all things become possible. Prosperity is about alignment and appreciation, so the more we align ourselves while appreciating that which we are, the more possible prosperity becomes.

“How do you intend to allow this ‘experiment’ to positively impact your life?”

I intend to further my ability to allow by practicing allowing. Simply becoming better at allowing will positively impact my life as that’s all that’s keeping my prosperity from manifesting.

“How do you imagine the wave of energy that we are creating here might uplift the world?”

Positive energy is always uplifting to those who come in contact with it. We are creating a reservoir of positive energy that those seeking may find when they tune themselves to it.

If you’re interested in participating in the event, visit the experiment web site here:

http://choosingprosperity.com/experiment.htm

John

Abraham – Phrases To Say During The Day

Posted by: John

This beautiful video is worth taking 5 minutes to watch:

Make it part of your daily routine and watch your gap begin to close!

John

Abraham Explains The Secret Behind “The Secret”

Posted by: John

Unfortunately, I missed the original version of “The Secret” which featured Jerry and Esther and Abraham. I have the second version which I enjoyed, but found somewhat lacking in true insight. I’ve expressed my opinion of the pros and cons of “The Secret” before, so won’t belabor that here.

I was very interested to hear Abraham’s recounting of the story of their participation in “The Secret” on one of the weekly CDs some time ago. Consequently, I was happy to find this video on YouTube and I thought I would share it with you in case you haven’t seen or heard the story.

I’ll be interested to read your comments.

John

We Don’t Attract What We Want,…

Posted by: John

“We don’t attract what we want, we attract what we are” – Unknown

This quote showed up on Twitter, posted by @loa_lover, a student of the Law of Attraction. It struck me as a very profoundly different way of saying what Abraham continually teaches us: if you don’t like what you’re attracting, change your vibration and attract something else!

A friend of mine who has multiple physical issues firmly believes that she couldn’t have attracted her conditions. She believes that her conditions are the result of outside forces and that she’s a helpless victim. According to her, if the Law of Attraction really worked, she’d be well because she wants to be well.

She’s not alone in her confusion about Law of Attraction. Many believe that if they want something badly enough, they can will it into existence, usually through action.

While persistence can result in the achievement of what one wants, it’s not the action that causes the result to manifest. It’s the change in vibration that takes place when one visualizes a goal and holds that vision clearly in front of them, trusting the Universe to provide the means to attain it.

The change in vibration causes the attraction of circumstances and events that are in harmony with the new vibration. Since we are vibration, any change in our vibration means a change in what we are. Because we attract according to our vibration, the key to attracting what we want is to match our vibration to what we want.

This means holding the vision and being the vision, or more precisely, matching our vibration to the vision.

Closing Your Gap

Appreciation Is The Way To Joy

Posted by: John

I woke up the other day appreciating everything. It’s hard to describe how good that felt.

It’s interesting to note that I have some challenges going on in my life at the moment that I have allowed to become worries on occasion. I know that worry is incompatible with the way Source sees things and I’m reminded of that every time I find myself feeling bad or focusing on what’s not going the way I’d prefer.

I’ve learned that it’s not possible, at least for me at my current stage of being, to completely eliminate all negative thoughts and emotions. What is possible is to gently replace those thoughts with better feeling thoughts and that results in the negative emotions easing and eventually becoming more positive.

I’m getting better at it and I’ve observed that when I’m able to find better feeling thoughts, I can turn things around pretty quickly. As I find those better feeling thoughts, it becomes easier to find even better feeling thoughts and the more of them I can find, the sooner I find myself feeling good again.

In almost every case, the key is to find a way to appreciate wherever I am at that moment. Appreciation is near the top of the emotional scale, so pure appreciation is difficult, if not impossible to reach from despair, anger, frustration or any of those negative emotions. From those emotions, I try to find “relative appreciation”. In other words, find a way to appreciate, however, slightly, the condition I’m observing.

Relative appreciation might be something like “Well, it could be worse” if I’m in despair or frustration. At a higher level it might be “I’m learning from this experience, even though it’s not pleasant right now.” At a still higher level it might be something like “This negative experience does have some positives to it and that gives me hope that I can find more.”

Appreciation takes on different forms depending where you are on the emotional scale at any given time. Practice finding some measure of appreciation no matter where you are and you’ll find yourself having joyful days more often.

John Sawyer

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