Wikileak: A Wake Up Call

Wikileak’s release of classified documents on the Afghanistan war has ignited new conversation about the potential for any chance of a successful outcome. Is it possible to assist the Afghanis to create a democracy? Do they want a democracy? Is it possible to subdue Al-Qaeda? Is it worth the financial costs, loss of life, and corrupted values?

Wake-Up Call

Or, is this another in a succession of Wake-up calls? We have been lulled into accepting the unacceptable. We are so caught up in maintaining our daily lives and the status quo that we aren’t responding to the signals around us. We are conditioned to tolerate excessive violence in video games, TV shows and movies. In war, civilian casualties are seldom recognized and become collateral damage. Using drone warfare and other long distance weaponry may save our soldiers but doesn’t save our souls as it disconnects us from the damage done to innocents. Daily the media are showing us current events that are meant to wake us up.

We are able to sleep at night as 12.4 million children go to bed hungry in the United States. There is enough food available on this planet to easily feed everyone but it is kept from those who need it until the price is right or it rots in warehouses. We are asleep: to the potential for alternative clean energy while we live with pollution, to the impact of outsourcing jobs to other countries, leaving many of us without work or income, and to a news media that promotes propaganda as fact. We could go on and on. What keeps us from seeing what is right in front of us and taking action to stop it?

We are lulled into inaction for many reasons, all of which relate to our habits of thinking. Are there any good reasons why we should tolerate hunger, warfare, pollution, child labor, a failing economy, and living in a Corporatocracy? Are you thinking: It’s always been that way; I can’t do anything to change it; There have always been poor people; or, That’s just the way it is? We cannot afford to indulge those thoughts if we wish to live in a better world. Are we letting the fear mongers rule – from Birther theories to Billion dollar military budgets?

A wake up call is any opportunity to rise above our conditioning and to see that all problems have solutions for the good of the whole. A wake up call is a call for action.  This action has to come from our highest values and visions to serve the higher good.

Learning to access Natural Brilliance is the first step to acting for the higher good. Our Brilliance Formula is the blueprint for living and creating our lives and our world from the highest. To resolve the problems in front of us we must learn to act from our Brilliance. When we wake up, we can create a New World.

Letting Go of Judgments

Have you noticed that communities come in many forms? A community could be as simple as going to a baseball game and rooting for the Twins instead of the Red Sox.  We feel an immediate sense of shared purpose and get caught up in the emotional ups (or downs) of our team.

A community might involve coaching Little League or soccer, or supporting the kids at a game, with your presence or by selling raffle tickets or baking cakes for a fund raiser. We actually get to know the people in this small community and feel a personal sense of belonging over the season.

What about our family community? Do you have one of “those” families where everyone is spreading the latest gossip; or do you have one of those “other” families that work to support everyone through their latest hardships or greatest accomplishments? Either type of family community allows us to really get to know each other, like it or not.

Most community members have a habit of making judgments about others, those we know well and those we don’t really know at all. It may be that we have a set of categories that people fall into. Or we see certain characteristics in others that are different from us and so we create stories about them.  Some may be “big” talkers so we identify them as pushy. Others may dress down and we assume they lack manners and social savvy.

Whenever we find ourselves having such thoughts we need to remember that our judgments speak more about us than about others. It is our perception of the world, of how things should be, that separate us from others. When we do this we miss out on all of the gifts those “others” are bringing to us. When we cannot accept others, it is a reflection of something in ourselves, something that we are not accepting, something we fear or perhaps doubt about our adequacy.

In reality, judgments are simply opportunities for us to grow. When we are making judgments there is a “distress” within that we often project onto those we judged. We can use these feelings to recognize that we have slipped into a judgmental habit. This recognition can give us pause to let go of our limiting beliefs and ideas that separate us from those around us. The easiest way to stop judging others is to stop judging ourselves. We can do this when we learn to see the natural Brilliance in ourselves, and in others.

In today’s world, it will take all of us to make it a better place, to right the wrongs, and to bring more love and healing to its problems and injustice. The more we’re able to drop our judgments, the closer we are to building a community that can thrive and bring out the best in all. In these communities we will begin to see others through new eyes and appreciate them, and ourselves, in the process.  Letting go of negative judgments allows us to build positive and sustaining communities.

The Problem with “Problems”

We are conditioned to find answers and solve problems in all of our life experiences. If we are good at solving problems, it is likely we will attract more of them so we can affirm being successful in finding their solutions. We have adopted, as part of our identity, this success in solving problems. Eckhart Tolle spoke about problems (in Practicing the Power of Now) when he said the following:

“All problems are illusions of the mind. The mind unconsciously loves problems because they give you an identity of sorts. This is normal and it is insane. Focus your attention on the Now and tell me what problem you have at this moment. I am not getting any answer because it is impossible to have a problem when your attention is fully in the Now. A situation needs to be either dealt with or accepted. Why make it into a problem?” (Eckhart Tolle. Practicing the Power of Now. p.41)

Knowing the potential and the power of living in the present moment, we have a choice: We can express brilliance in the world or continue solving problems. Taking time to experience the simple joys of the present moment makes us aware that we are capable of experiencing authentic joy, trust, and happiness, not simply solving, or making, more problems.

Present Moment

We’ve usually activated our old patterns from the past because we didn’t know we had a choice. We didn’t know thoughts are just thoughts. We didn’t know we could choose which thoughts to pay attention to. We didn’t understand that our feelings follow our thoughts and that they can be a guide to shift us away from thoughts that make us unhappy to thoughts that make us happy.

Humans are creative beings. Regardless of whether we are focused in our thought systems or our natural brilliance, we are creating every minute of every day. When we get lost in our thoughts, we are still creating—we are creating what we have our attention on. Isn’t it interesting that if we focus on how careless, irresponsible, and messy a family member is, that individual’s messy, careless, and irresponsible behavior appears to get bigger? That person may go into someone else’s house and be neat and clean and responsible. However, when he is around us, he lives up to our expectation and the viewpoint from which we see him.

We can create our lives consciously or unconsciously. When we are unconscious, our habits of thinking continue to reappear as we have experienced the world. We keep bringing the past into the present. When we consciously envision who we want to be and what we want to do (our future), we create a new experience of life. Unconsciousness brings frustration, and consciousness brings freedom.

When living from our Brilliance we are proactive, seeing the best in all and understanding that we all are doing the best we can. We are seeing ourselves and others in the moment and not reacting out of our past beliefs. Living in the present allows us to experience the quiet calm that exists in the eye of a hurricane. No matter what is going on around us, we can center in the moment, in our brilliance, to weather the storm.

When we understand that we can live and express our natural brilliance, we are free, free from the past, free from the problems of the past, and free to create a life that comes from our innate wisdom. In this moment, in any moment, we can choose to let the past be the past.

©2007, Back to Brilliance, Excerpt from Activate Your Brilliance

How Brilliance Stops Stress

When we experience the feelings of stress, we can slow down and shift to the wealth of Brilliance that our mind can access. Brilliant thoughts attract more of the same and our view of the world changes in a minute. In the case of a lost sale that occurs, our first thought is likely to be the same:

• “I was counting on that sale and it just fell through; I can’t believe it!”
• In our brilliant mind, our next thought might be “I think I’ll call and get the details of why this happened.”
• A few minutes later after that call you might think, “There is a real problem in production and layoffs ahead.”

A nano-second later other inspired thoughts might occur:

• “Who is their competition – I’ll get on the phone with them”, or “My brother-in-law specializes in business consultation and I’ll let him know that he might be able to help them.” 
• Not long after that, you are relaxed and refocused: “My next sale is coming soon. I have five good prospects I can move ahead with.”

Each thought we have attracts more of the same; it’s like you are putting your order out to the Universe and it sends back more of what you have put attention on. If you shift your thinking and start focusing on what it is that you truly want, then you will begin to experience more of that in your life. We know it sounds simplistic, but when you work with this, you will find the truth hidden within it.  By letting go of those thought attacks we gain the time and energy to move in the direction we really want to go.

Our thoughts are the foundation for how we experience our lives. Once we know how thoughts create our lives, it is easier to understand how thoughts create our stress. If given full control, our computer mind will keep repeating the past and projecting into the future. This pattern does not assist us to manage today’s demands and pressures with confidence and ease.

It is essential that we learn to access our core of Brilliance, through our transmitter mind, so that we can find new answers, build supportive and loving relationships, and let go of the past beliefs and patterns that limit or suppress our real and authentic capacities. Isn’t it true that we all want happiness, satisfaction, and a sense of being fully alive in a world where all are held in respect? It is equally as true that our thoughts will either create stressful lives or create stress-free lives in which we are able to contribute our best to the tasks, desires and dreams we hold dear.

Excerpt from Stop Stress Guide, Back to Brilliance © 2009

Light Up Your World with Natural Brilliance

Most of today’s Gurus are not teaching how critically important it is to recognize the connection between our feelings and our thoughts. Back to Brilliance is one of the few businesses detailing how important this connection is in mastering our lives. Our Brilliance Formula leads the way.

Light Up Your World

We’ve been trained to see ourselves as ‘small’, ‘helpless’, ‘insignificant’ or ‘incapable’.  When we see someone stepping out with courage, excelling, making a tremendous impact for good on the world, we see them as out of the ordinary, beyond most people’s capabilities.

In truth, none of us are small, weak, insignificant, or unable to make an impact.  In fact, each of us has a core of Brilliance that is the light that illuminates our own lives and the lives of others.  We are not dim bulbs; we are filled with Brilliance.

We can learn to connect with Brilliance and let it guide our lives because Brilliance is the heart of our true selves. The Formula for activating it is easily implemented once you understand how it works.

The Brilliance Formula allows anyone to avoid reacting to the stressors that are so prevalent in today’s world. This formula shows how Brilliance fuels our efforts to create the best and highest in our lives.

All of our programs at Back to Brilliance teach the Brilliance Formula. Are you ready to light up your world?

Universal Brilliance is Unstoppable

Stairway to Understanding

One of the benefits to living from your natural Brilliance involves the concept of megatrends. When a truth about some aspect of life has moved from being understood and accepted by a few to gaining the acknowledgement of a larger percent of the population, it reaches critical mass. When critical mass occurs, between 30-40 percent of the population, we know that the concept will not go away but will grow until it is integrated into the world view. You might say this is an idea whose time has come.

Here’s what we said in our book, Activate Your Brilliance:

“One of the ideas we’ve been having involves the concept of megatrends. All of us who are living out of our brilliance are vanguard people, pushing the envelope. We’re pushing it because our brilliance sees that there is truly a greater world coming in.  As more individuals learn to live from the inside out, from their natural state of mind, from their heart centers, something much greater than each of us is growing. We are creating a megatrend that will soon be unstoppable. We are creating a world that is informed by love and wisdom.”

We know that the more that people are able to live their lives out of their Brilliance and create out of that universal whole, the more the world will reflect that Brilliance. We believe that the people of the earth have reached a critical mass for Brilliance. Every day our world is informed more and more by love and wisdom. Evidence is everywhere.

Natural Brilliance: Doorway to the Answers You Seek

All of us who have looked closely into our lives have wondered if there is more to life than we see around us, more answers than questions.  Once we get a thought caught in our minds, it cycles and recycles. Our recurring thoughts often create doubt, worry, and concern.  We never really get the answer and stop the cycling until we realize we have two kinds of thinking, one for the known’s in life and the other for the unknown’s that come our way.

One kind of thinking originates in our computer mind. This is where all of our thoughts, experiences, and training are stored.  It’s like a real computer file. Everything we experience today will go into that file to be stored, available for use in the future.

The other kind of thinking comes from the transmitter mind, or Brilliance mind.  This mind has access to the whole universe, to what we call Universal Brilliance. Once we have that connection, we can quiet down, listen, and ask for what we need.  At that point we discover a bigger viewpoint.

It’s similar to an aerial view over congested traffic. When you’re in slowing or stopped traffic you can’t imagine what is going on. You might tune in to the radio and hear about what is happening from a helicopter above that can see the whole picture.  This is the kind of connection we need to make sense out of our lives.Every day we are working, relating to family, friends and co-workers, and always trying to figure out who we are and what is important.  We usually know what we love to do to relax but aren’t always aware of how we can contribute or what our special gift is in this life.  Making that Brilliance Connection helps us get a bigger picture.

We understand Brilliance to be the conscious, intelligent, creative energy that is within us and within all life. Brilliance has the answers to our questions that our past history from the computer mind cannot discern.  What we learned in the pat or from the school of hard knocks is not always sufficient to answer the questions about our purpose and direction. With new challenges and conditions, the files from our past are seldom enough.

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The Time for Brilliance is NOW

Have you ever watched the news and found your muscles tightening, your stomach clenching, or a tear in your eye?  Was your response generated by the number of soldiers and civilians lost in a war that day? Was it the gruesome reports of genocide in a foreign country? Or was it the steady flow of politicians, CEO’s, public servants or ‘regular folk’ who were once again accused of a wide variety of offenses, breaches of trust, or an even more heinous crime?

Our first response is to turn off the TV or blame someone or something for the horrible news. Perhaps you have thrown up your hands, like us, and said “How could they be so stupid?” or “How could someone do such a thing?” If we take the time to go to the next level of understanding and responsibility, we may find that we, too, are implicated; we, too, are a part of creating the world we see on our TV screens.

For every person slaughtered in a foreign genocide, we can identify a thought we have held – a thought that diminished another in order to raise our own esteemed status a little higher.  For every report of shaken baby syndrome and the subsequent shattered lives, we can locate that short but strong impulse to shake someone, to wake them up, to shut them up, that we have felt inside of us.

As the health care debate in congress continues, so does the tenor and tone of the accusations and discord. It looks like everyone is out there looking for the dirt on everyone else. All are hoping to gain some fame by broadcasting the inflammatory findings that will turn the tide, or at least make a big splash.

What is going on?  What do we need to understand at a new level? How can we create a world that is not distinguished by the most brutal events, but rather the most brilliant?

What IS going on? Our consciousness, the level and focus of our thoughts, beliefs, and feelings, is creating what we see around us. We tend to separate ourselves from these ‘bad’ events and we believe that we could not or never would engage in such occurrences.  Yet when we examine our thoughts in detail, we find that we engage in destructive habits of thinking every day.

We are part of the whole; we are connected to everything around us. We must change ourselves, our consciousness, before we can change the world.

There is more than we can see as this is a time of great change. There is a dynamic healing occurring as we come to understand that our thoughts contribute to the outer reality of life on earth. With our uplifted and expanded awareness of how it all works, we are creating this cleansing and healing. Much of the negativity that we perceive at this time is connected to this releasing of old habits of thoughts and patterns of being in the collective consciousness.

What do we need to understand at a new level? In all cases, we need to understand that everyone is doing the best they can with what they have. This understanding includes ourselves. We are all working with worn-out thought systems that need a fresh infusion of universal Brilliance. This natural Brilliance is what we breathe everyday, what we see as nature rejuvenating the earth in each season, and what is at the center of each atom that forms us.

How can we create a world of Brilliance? We need to be aware that as the dark clouds of old thinking dissipate, we have the opportunity to create a truly brilliant world. We are creating a world that reflects the best in each of us individually and collectively. This new understanding moves us into harmony with ourselves, and then with all of life.  The Time for Brilliance is NOW!

Anti-Stress TIPS for a Stressed-Out World

Most of us start a new year with renewed goals and hope for the future. Have you noticed that there seems to be a greater number of unexpected events in the last few years.  Often these are of a greater magnitude and have the ability to shock us. The things that look the most disturbing often are a catalyst for learning, finding new directions and expanding what we know of ourselves and our world.  The end result brings unexpected gifts and makes “a silk purse out of a sow’s ear” (not to denigrate the swine of the world).

So, here we are in the new year, 2010.  We have seen natural disaster in Haiti beyond the scope of anything we have known. Our economy, including jobs, home, and health care, is up for grabs.  Time itself seems to disappear and we cannot accomplish what we used to be able to do. All this flies in the face of needing to meet high demands and feeling that we never can get it all done.  Time is so fluid right now that we can’t predict what we will accomplish.

On the National front, we are seeing the best and worst of behavior in our leaders and celebrities.  Not a day goes by without shocking behavior, pronouncements and revelations, challenging our core values, our sense of fairness, and the social rules that our culture has depended upon to make society work.

Is it any wonder that 97% of Americans are experiencing stress, according to a recent poll? All of the public unraveling and suffering on top of our personal life challenges adds to the level of stress we are experiencing. So what can we do? How do we deal with this level of stress? How do we survive and thrive?

In the Brilliance business, not a day goes by that we don’t experience extreme gratitude for the Brilliance Formula, for the answers it provides, and for the opportunities we have to live from our hearts, even in the worst circumstances.  We have found the essential keys to understand and eliminate stress. We have the anti-stress elixir!

First we must understand that we are born with natural Brilliance and innate wisdom that constantly offer the insights and understanding to resolve any difficulty we may experience. Knowing this is the first step to close the door on stress.  We have a formula that brings together all the skills and tools needed to activate our Brilliance and move us through these unprecedented times.

Second, to manage or eliminate stress, you need to know that stress comes from your thinking and we can bypass these stressful thoughts by activating our Brilliance. We all have a collection of beliefs, thought patterns and habits of thinking that we’ve been conditioned to use when we face problems.  When we activate our Brilliance we can shift out of the old patterns and into new answers and solutions. Because we have this innate core of Brilliance, we always have the right solutions for any situation we face.

We have written two books that detail the Anti-Stress Formula. Activate Your Brilliance contains a thorough explanation of Brilliance, how thought works, and the essential components needed to lock out stress and create brilliant lives. Let’s face it, the Brilliance Formula is not being taught in the public sector. Most of us don’t even know we have Brilliance and can access it.  This is a new concept and as such requires a thorough exploration. It means letting go of old beliefs and moving into your authentic power and the possibilities you so much desire but have given up on. It takes study and practice, but there is nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Our e-book, Stop Stress Now, focuses on anti-stress techniques.  It provides a collection of strategies for conquering stress in everyday situations. Both of these books are available on our website.

The Brilliance Formula—the anti-stress solution—goes beyond any current stress remedy.  It gives us a new framework for solving our problems, resolving our differences, and creating our dreams. What are you waiting for?

A New Life is Waiting

When Lynne was writing her doctoral dissertation, she interviewed a social worker who told her this story.  The social worker was doing a special weekly project at a local juvenile corrections facility. She was sharing the foundational principles we have incorporated into our Brilliance Formula with a group of their residents.

One of the boys was from a really rough public housing area on the south side of Chicago. He was telling his story in a matter-of-fact way. He talked about being 10 years old and coming home one day to discover his Mom and all of his brothers and sisters gone. The apartment was empty.  He’d never seen them since that day. He explained his understanding of what had happened when he said, “But, you know, I was a bad kid, and I was always out running with my friends. I didn’t go to school.”  He wasn’t sad or blaming anyone; this was just the way he saw it.

Another boy in the group, looked at him and said, “Robbie, your Momma didn’t leave you ‘cause you was no bad kid. Your Momma left you ‘cause she just didn’t know how to be no good Momma.” The social worker commented that it took her breath away.  Robbie, who was generally a big talker, was just stunned and couldn’t think of anything to say. It had never occurred to him that he was left behind because his Mother didn’t know better. Instead he had been seeing himself as a bad kid and had been living that out. He had not been to school since he was ten.

He started going to classes at the corrections facility and now he runs a service station. He has a wife and a little boy, and he hasn’t been in trouble since that group with the social worker several years ago.  His new life started the moment his friend told him that his family’s leaving him was not his fault.

What old thoughts and messages are you living from?  Who are you seeing yourself being in life? You may not be seeing a bad kid, but if you didn’t do well in school, you may see yourself as someone who always has trouble learning. If you come from a family with limited income, you may see yourself as always having limited financial resources.  If you are an oversized individual, you may be seeing yourself as fat and ugly and not measuring up to society’s dictates about how a body should look.  These patterns of thinking make us feel less-than, unworthy, broken, and heart-sick. We could go on and on with the mistaken beliefs that we are constructing our lives from.

It’s time to create our lives from who we really are. That means getting in touch with that innate wisdom that links us to all life. In our Back to Brilliance programs, we call this natural Brilliance.  It is the foundation of the human package that each of us has.  Our Brilliance gives us an instant connection to the infinite wisdom of the Universe. In any moment, we can choose to access our best and highest thoughts.  When you are upset, sad, or disappointed, your feelings are telling you that you are activating your old social records and programming. When you become aware of this you have already tapped your Brilliance and can see your situation from the truth of who you are. Choosing to focus on your Brilliant thoughts puts you back on course for the life you were meant to live.

What will your life look like when you aren’t focusing on these limited beliefs? What are your biggest dreams? What ideas light you up? It’s your choice. You can stick with your “old stuff” that is making you miserable, or you can open your life to your Brilliant possibilities. Take the challenge to make a new reality.