Brilliance Makes Magic A Reality

It seems like we are at a place where we are seeing the Universe respond to our visions in magical ways. For years, and months, and weeks and days we have been learning to go with the creative flow. We’ve had to face our dragons and put them to rest. We’ve had to look beyond appearances and learn to trust that all is well. We’ve learned to celebrate the tiniest steps on our road to growing our dreams.

In the process we’ve truly accepted that “all is well” in every moment and that every step was necessary to move ahead on our journey. We’ve learned to stay focused on what we want rather than what we don’t. Most important, we have learned to risk and step out even though things were uncertain, trusting our feelings and natural Brilliance.

We made a commitment to our work, to our dream, to do whatever it takes. There’s been no turning back. We’ve sent this message to the Universe and now the Universe is responding. In just the last week we have received several breakthrough opportunities that invite us to expand into new arenas, both for our business and personally. When magic becomes reality it takes your breath away.

Land appeared beneath their feet where there had been none,

Because they dared to step.

Cups that had long been empty began to overflow,

As they were finally raised in toast.

And friends were drawn, as if from the ether,

When the party shoes went on.

Oh, the MAGIC!

(The Universe via Michael Dooley)

Natural Brilliance Stops Stress

Can you imagine what your life would be like without the constant strain and pressure of stress? No matter how many techniques to diminish stress you try, they only give you temporary relief. None of the current approaches deals with the origins of reactive stress and, therefore, none offer a long-term solution.

In discovering our 12 Keys to Brilliance, we gained a unique understanding of stress, its origins, and its nature. As we write this, all of the programs we have reviewed that deal with stress relief lack the ability to change our relationship with stress forever.

Solutions to stress have to come from the inside out. Each of us has a core of natural Brilliance. When we understand our Brilliance and learn that this Brilliance is always available to use in every moment, we gain the power to stop stress once and for all.

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A Message from George Carlin

Here’s part of wonderful message from George Carlin released in the year before he passed on. His ability to see into the heart of what matters in life came from his natural Brilliance.

“The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to life not life to years. We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We’ve done larger things, but not better things.

We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn’t cost a cent.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER :

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”

- George Carlin

The Real Solution to Stress and Lack of Sleep

Sleeping well? Or, is the stress in your life waking you up, continuing to plague those wee hours of the morning? Imagine life 100 years ago. Yes, there were difficult times and life was not as easy as it is today with the conveniences of indoor plumbing and super-kitchens. But, life was not as hectic or rushed for most people.  Quite simply, there just weren’t as many things to think about.

Today we can watch the late news and the 24-hour news channels, or a late-night tear ‘em up movie. Some of us get connected to family and friends with late-night phone calls and can’t get to sleep because our minds are processing the conversations again. It’s hard to assess the real risk these news or life events we focus on 24/7 pose in our lives. But the side effects from lack of sleep are well-documented.

So, what is the real solution?

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Natural Brilliance Brings Fun

As we have grown in our understanding of Brilliance over the past 20 years we have noticed that our lives have gotten to be a lot more fun. We had a small group of about a dozen people making this journey together. We shared our experiences, our trials and errors, as we moved from the old patterns of living into the path to natural Brilliance.

At first it was a lot easier to see what wasn’t working. Lynne says that in those early years she was aware of catching her angry parent patterns, her fears about not having enough income, and her problems with the administration at work. She says she had so many areas to work on that she could only focus on one area at a time. She was really tired of seeing her old habits playing out. A big turning point came when she realized that she was making progress. Before, she hadn’t even been aware that the way she was being was not working and not getting the results she wanted. Then she decided she could celebrate every time she caught herself saying or doing something she no longer wanted to focus on.

After awhile, we, through practice, became better at shifting our attention. We could catch the thoughts that were taking us to negative outcomes much more quickly and let them go. Then we got better and better at catching our Brilliance as it presented new ideas and ways of acting and reacting to us.

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Stress Relief for a Good Night’s Sleep

In today’s world, there are a million things that could keep you from sleeping soundly. Perhaps you’ve been hearing about the latest pesticide that causes cancer. Maybe you have heard that the lettuce from Argentina or some other country is contaminated.  Or, you could be thinking about someone in your family and what can be done to change or set things right again.

All of these thoughts can go whirling around your head, time and again, night after night, with new reports replacing the old ones. Bedtime musing may be helpful once in a while, but when it persists and you don’t get a good amount of that deep sleep, life generally becomes more difficult.  You may wonder how you can go back to sleeping well.

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Live Stress Free in the Power of Now

Have you noticed how caught up we are about our future plans? High school students are anxious about what they’ll do when they graduate and college students often are consumed worrying about what their next steps will be after college. The prevalent pattern for all of us regardless of age is to be focused on preparing for the future, tomorrow, next year, retirement and on and on. We are as much preoccupied with the future as we are with the past.

There is a whole lot of programming out there about future planning. We learn to set our goals and to plan the steps. We learn to visualize and see the end result. What is often forgotten in this process is that we can’t see the bigger picture at all times. In fact the human mind/brain system can only discern a small portion of all that is available. It’s that 80/20 rule where we are conscious of only 20% of what is.

No matter how much planning we’ve done we can’t get too attached to our plans because there may be steps we couldn’t see that will take us far beyond the outcome we had envisioned.

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Belief Determines Perception

The following story was sent via email to Vivian by a friend. It shares a true story where people are going about their business and what happens to them when they get into their regular and rushed schedules. We enjoyed the story because it made us think about our own lives and reminds us how valuable it is to view every moment from our natural Brilliance. We hope  you enjoy it too.

A wise person has said, "Perception is not a fact. Belief determines perception.”

PERCEPTION

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately 2 thousand people went through the station. Most of them were on their way to work.

After 3 minutes

A middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later
The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes
A 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children.  Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.  The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats  averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities. These questions were raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:  If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made....How many other things are we missing?

Here is a link to a Post article giving much more detail about this event:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html