The Age of Aquarius and the Evolution of Mind

As children of the 60’s we have been revisiting this fabulous song, “Aquarius”, and it’s applications for today.

Check out these lyrics:

Age of Aquarius

When the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars,

Then peace will guide the planets and love will steer the stars.

This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, Age of Aquarius,

Aquarius, Aquarius.

Harmony and understanding, sympathy and trust abounding.

No more falsehoods or derisions, golden living dreams of visions.

Mystic crystal revelations and the mind’s true liberation.

Aquarius, Aquarius.

These words portray a new world of peace and love. There is a connection between this song and what is happening today.

Here’s what Allison Rae, Master Astrologist says:

“Astrologically, 2010 is the most volatile year of the 2012 transition, and the energies reach a climax in the first three weeks of August.  The celestial energies have been ramping up steadily since the March Equinox and reach a crescendo during the first three weeks of August.

Outer planets Pluto, Saturn, Uranus and Jupiter are joined by Mars and Venus in hot configurations over the next several weeks. The planets aren’t just making hard aspects to each other. Saturn, Mars and Venus align with the orbital center of the cluster of galaxies that includes our Milky Way. The energy of the cosmos fuels the ongoing outer-planet t-square, the Grand Cross….

All heaven is breaking loose, and the effects will be felt for a long time to come.”

Everyone we know is reporting extra sensitivity, big endings in many life areas, and a sense of new beginnings. There is a great clearing-out going on. On a global scale this pattern of dramatic change is also occurring.

Since the 60’s we’ve had a yearning for this promised time of peace and love. However, we didn’t expect to see the chaos that absorbs media attention today. Looking farther we find many signs of hope and love. People of all ages are finding ways to make a difference in their communities and the world.

All year, the equinox, the solstice, eclipses of sun and moon and planetary alignments are bringing ever expanding energies to earth and all of us. People with open hearts are coming together in unprecedented numbers to shine light into the world and the hearts of all.

It is their Brilliance that lights people up. This Brilliance also allows us to remain steady in our love and peace in the midst of chaos. What appears to be chaos is the breaking up and letting go of old habits of mind. Moving into Brilliance rather than being immersed in old habits and patterns of thinking is the evolution of mind that is creating a new world.

Welcome to the Age of Aquarius.

Zachary Bonner: Brilliance In a 12-Year Old

Zachary is on his third fund-raising trek, this time walking from his home near Tampa, FL to the Pacific Ocean, for a total of 2,478 miles. His purpose is to raise money for homeless kids. He founded the Little Red Wagon Foundation when he was six years old; his project at that time was getting water to people after Hurricane Charley hit Florida in 2004.

Zachary Bonner

The Little Red Wagon Foundation has provided school supplies, food, clothing and toys to homeless children. His efforts have raised over $50,000 in years past and he has received pledges of about $120,000 from sponsors this year, including $50,000 from Elton John, when Zachary reaches Los Angeles.

Zachary said “I feel we should meet their basic needs but take it a step further and meet their kid needs. I feel it’s important for everyone to have the opportunity to just be a kid.” Ironically this wisdom comes from the mouth of a 12-year old little boy who studies at home so that he can finish his school requirements quickly to give more time to his charity work.

What is it that gives Zachary his motivation, his wisdom and the heart to do this work? It has to be something deep inside that inspires him to greatness. We believe that Zachary’s work comes from his innate Brilliance, that conscious and creative energy than enlivens all of us. His special expression of Brilliance is remarkable and reminds and inspires us to live full out from our unique Brilliance.

How do we touch base with our Brilliance? Laurie Bonner, Zachary’s Mother, gives us a clue. In a conversation, she shared: “I have parents that ask me all the time: How do you get them involved?” She continued: “I don’t think you can. Unless the kid loves that thing they are doing, there is no way. I used to think it would end; but now I think maybe this is what he’s supposed to do.”

If we follow our hearts, and find what we love doing, we can be sure that we are acting from our Brilliance and contributing to make a better world. This is what most of us are looking for, our purpose, what brings meaning to our lives. Along the way, Brilliance inspires others to do the same. As the old song lyric says, What the world needs now, is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of. Let your Brilliance lead you to what you love, and watch what happens.

Quotes from Star Tribune, “Big Heart, Little Boy” 8-1-10

Zach’s website: http://littleredwagonfoundation.com/ and

Utube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHx2IJ-xGVw&feature=player_embedded

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.

Apology to Shirley Sharrod

All for One and One for All

Imagine finding yourself in the situation Shirley Sharrod has experienced in the last few days. A highly edited video portrayal left her reputation in tatters. Then insufficient investigation and blatant assumptions resulted in her losing her job. In the mix it appears that distorted mindsets put this in motion to meet personal agendas.

• It seems that the blogger who cooked the video was deliberately intending to undermine the NAACP and the current administration and claim some fame at the expense of Ms. Sherrod.
• Fox News then grabbed the video and used it to attack both her and the administration.
• It seems that her employer also jumped to conclusions in a context of fear over past racial discrimination in his department and fired Ms. Sherrod.

This story appears to be the norm rather than the exception. We are living in a world of distorted beliefs and thoughts that are contributing to fear, conflict, and destruction on a personal and global level.

Here are some other examples:

• There was the BP employee who reported problems with the Gulf oil well which were ignored by his supervisor resulting in a disaster of untold proportions.
• For the past month there has been a supreme effort in Congress to block the passage of an extension of unemployment benefits for millions who have been out of work for months, even years, as a result of our economic crisis. These workers were portrayed by some members of Congress as lazy and unwilling to get a job.
• Then the latest discussions on the news of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan indicate that we will need to be there for many more years.

Are we living in an insane world? Perhaps we are, and it’s our thinking that is creating the chaos around us.

• Our conditioned beliefs, our thoughts, that it is our right to put our agendas above the good of the whole lead to permission to deliberately distort the truth and cause harm to others.
• Our beliefs that safety is less important than bottom line profits opens the door to negligence and resulting catastrophe.
• Our greedy thoughts that we can have everything our way regardless of the needs of others, leads to extreme imbalance in personal, national and international relationships.

When is this going to stop? If you have ever felt alone, victimized, cheated, wounded, or hopeless, you have experienced the insanity resulting from dysfunctional habits of thinking. Each of us has the power to stop this insanity.

• When we clear our distorted habits of thinking and focus on thoughts that bring us peace, joy, and harmony we will create the new world.
• When we take the time to tune into other perspectives, to see the value and strengths in everyone, we will increase the quality of our lives.

So, Shirley, we apologize. We admire your dignity and honesty. And, we will work to build a consciousness of Brilliance in our communities so that all can benefit and live together harmoniously.

Back to Brilliance ©2010

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.

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?