I am a big fan of Guy Finley who is the author of ‘Let Go and Live in the Now’. It’s about awakening the peace, power and happiness within your heart. So here is some fantastic advice from this book…

Do you have a broken heart?

If you answer ‘YES’ to any of the following questions then maybe it’s time for you to let go and heal your heart so you can discover true happiness.

* Do you have any regrets?

* Do you daydream a lot about better days to come?

* Is it hard for you to be happy with yourself when you must be alone for a period of time that is not of your choosing?

* And what about anger or resentment… Are there people in your life—either living or passed on—who bring up unpleasant feelings in you when you think of them?

* Do you have any fear of being hurt by others?

* And would you say that you tend to be cynical and judgmental when it comes to considering the lofty aspirations of others—especially when they speak of looking for a love that won’t betray their trust?

* Are you someone who isn’t happy unless you’re busy all the time?

* Do you ever catch yourself pushing away a certain indefinable sense of disappointment that you feel about people around you, especially those with whom you are the closest?

We all have parts of us that are always telling us what we need to do—or what we have to get—in order to feel good about ourselves. But now comes the strange part… The day we win what we want, when we get the new relationship, the better job, or plan the trip of our dreams, we feel great. But the next day or a little further down the road something unforeseen comes and the next thing we know what we thought was the source of our contentment becomes the cause of our suffering!

So what’s wrong with wanting a nice relationship, or working to get nice things to call our own?

Not a thing… all in all, these simple desires are not a problem in themselves.

Our heart breaks as it does not so much because of what we want but because there are certain unconscious parts of our present nature that would have us believe that these things we want—or that we come to possess—have, in themselves, some power to fulfill us or to make us feel content.

It is this unquestioned belief that lies at the root of our heartache because we find ourselves continually forming attachments to people and possessions

It isn’t a question of ‘if’ things will change but a constant ‘when’.

No part of life is static. All things are in a constant flux and only seem to hold still because there are parts of us that need to see them that way in order to feel secure. And so it goes.

So how do we heal our heart?

We heal our heart by no longer injuring it. The truth is that once we stop hurting ourselves, we realize we don’t need ninety-nine percent of the things that we think we do to make us feel better about our life.

The more we believe, as we are inclined to do, that there exists something outside of us with the power to make us happy and whole, the more attached we become to these imposter ideas and those deceptive desires that weave into our hearts. These sensation-packed, but illusionary desires are the roots of this world that sneak into us. And the more we identify with these pleasing sensations and images, the more a painful dependency is born in us. Now it feels to us that without this person or object of our desire we will have to spend our lives without what we only have imagined has made us feel whole.

Our attachments are never to a certain thing or person but only to how the image of this person or object that we hold so closely in our minds allows us to experience ourselves. An attachment is not to a particular thing itself, but to the love we have of certain familiar sensations that our embracing of this image mechanically stimulates us to feel.

So letting go of these illusions is the only way to heal and be happy.

Our intentions determine what we attract and therefore the kind of life we have… happiness, freedom, wealth, love, peace, abundance and health are largely determined by our thoughts and motives… So what are yours?

Do you ‘do’ and ‘say’ things in order to avoid your fears? … Are any of your intentions for the following reasons? …Approval, Attention, To Be Liked & Accepted, To Please, To Avoid Judgment, To Prove Yourself, To Look Good and/or Right, To Avoid Feeling Unpleasant Emotions, To Avoid Upsetting Others, To Fit In etc…

Unless we are aware of our fears and our intentions we can’t make conscious choices and will therefore have very little control over the direction of our life.

Our intentions, motivations, agendas or reasons for doing and saying what we do are usually subconscious, that is, automatic… Therefore, we usually aren’t aware of ‘why’ we do and say what we do… very few of us actually question our motives… But if we do question them, the challenge is to then be totally honest with ourselves and uncover the ‘real’ reasons behind our behaviour.

So why does it matter what our intentions are?

… Because our intentions determine the kind of life we end up living!

Everything we experience in our lives we create from our intentions… Our intentions are therefore extremely powerful and can determine what we attract and manifest.

More often than not, it is our ‘EGO’ that determines our intentions... It’s important to remember that there is nothing wrong with having an ‘EGO’… In fact, it is an essential part of our survival. Our ego is an automatic function that helps us survive… our ego likes security, stability, safety, comfort, protection, praise, re-assurance, pleasure, instant gratification, knowing, feeling good, being right and so on… which aren’t all bad things, however, the EGO only likes these kinds of states and therefore makes it difficult for us to explore and discover our ‘greatness’ and live to our full potential.

So we need our EGO… it’s what helps us in this physical world… it’s what drives us to make money, care about how we look, conform to social rules and so on….

However, our EGO becomes a problem when we allow it to be our MASTER, rather than ‘us’ being the master of it!

When we allow our ego to drive us, our intentions come from a selfish place that we are totally unaware of, so we do things for self gain without even knowing it. It may be as simple as doing something to feel better about ourselves, or it may be complex manipulative games we play to get what we want.

To be truly altruistic goes against the EGO’s will.

Altruistic Intentions want the best for others whilst staying true to ourselves…

…And require ‘real’ love, compassion, understanding, thoughtfulness, kindness, consideration, honesty, integrity, courage and respect.

Selfish Intentions want the best for ourselves and use others to achieve this whilst not remaining true to ourselves…

… These involve all sorts of manipulative and controlling games to meet our own needs. Even though we may think our actions are noble, they are often motivated by fear…. fear of conflict, upsetting someone, not being loved or liked, not being good enough and so on… For example, to save or rescue someone from a painful emotional experience may seem noble and good, but if our intention for doing this is to avoid witnessing ‘pain’ because it’s uncomfortable of us, then our intention is selfish rather than altruistic.

So by questioning our own intentions, we become more aware of our ‘EGO’ driven motives… with this awareness we can begin to become the MASTER of our ‘Ego’ thereby determining our INTENTIONS and creating a life where we attract the ‘good stuff’… like health, happiness and abundance.

‘My Special Voice’ books for children were very popular with the Special Education Teachers who attended the Queensland Education Resource Expo last week-end. The feedback was really positive highlighting how relevant these books are for ‘special needs’ students in primary school.

The messages in ‘My Special Voice’ books are for everyone, independent of their age… However, the presentation of the books and the language used is suitable for primary school students, but in particular those students who have special needs. These students tend to experience more problems with self-esteem and bullying, so the messages in these books are ideal for them.

What to believe and what not to believe is becoming increasingly difficult… There is so much readily available information on so many different topics now a days, it’s difficult to know who and what to believe, particularly in the area of health.

Why Health?

Firstly, health applies to everyone… nobody is excluded. And without our health, it’s difficult to enjoy life, so it’s usually a BIG priority for most of us. As a result, there’s a massive motivated market out there, hungry for information and answers to various health issues. This means there is a lot of MONEY to be made… SO BE SKEPTICAL and don’t believe everything you read or hear.

Because many of us don’t have any formal education about health and are eager to be healthy, we are gullible, so there are many ‘sharks’ out there ready to spin us a story and take advantage of our naivety. And what makes it even easier for them to sell their story is that most of us are motivated by ‘FEAR’ and our desire for miracles and/or straight forward simple answers and solutions. So all that these clever marketing people need to do to make a buck is to play into our ‘fears’ and make the solution either magical or simple.

To make matters worse, they will claim that there is research to prove what they are saying, knowing that their target audience doesn’t have the time to source and read their claims and even if they did, they probably wouldn’t understand the terminology anyhow. Honestly, who has time to check all the references at the back of a book? But how many of you are actually impressed by a book when you see numerous pages of references?

So who are ‘they’?

And how many of you listen to someone who says, “They say you should ………..” Who on earth are ‘they’? And who bothers to investigate who ‘they’ are? ‘They’ could simply be someone who is out to make a bunch of money. And even if ‘they’ claim to have a university degree and experience… how do you know if ‘they’ really do? Do you ever check someone’s qualifications? And does a ‘degree’ mean that someone will value honesty over money and fame?

Weight Loss is probably the best example to illustrate my point since there are so many people who are ‘desperate’ to lose weight. So if ‘they’ know you are desperate, all ‘they’ have to do is come up with a quick simple solution or even better, a magical one, and ‘they’ will then have the answer to your desperation…  Taking advantage of your emotions and giving you the answers to what you want to hear is a very clever marketing strategy and it works.

On the other hand, if I were to tell you the truth, which probably won’t satisfy your ‘desperation’, it’s unlikely that you will pay for my advice. Trying to sell you a sensible realistic sustainable long term weight loss plan when you are ‘desperate’ to lose weight probably won’t work.

So Be Aware of deceptive marketing strategies that play into your emotions and also watch out for the following words: Natural, Organic, Green, Chemical Free, Additive Free, Nothing Artificial, Sugar Free and so on… this doesn’t mean it’s healthy or good for you, but marketers know that most of us now have positive associations with these words, so they will use them where ever possible to promote their product.

Sensational Stuff Sells

Just take diets for example – The blood type diet, the liver cleanse diet, the grapefruit diet and the list goes on…

What sounds more impressive, ‘The Liver Cleansing Diet’ or ‘Give your Liver a Rest’? Cleanse your liver sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Wow, what a wonderful concept. So what does cleanse mean? And can you really cleanse your liver? I’m sorry, but you can’t actually clean out / cleanse your liver, but you can give it a break and reduce it’s work load by avoiding alcohol, caffeine and various other drugs, fatty food, highly processed food and so on. But the later doesn’t sound as exciting, does it?

I am constantly amazed by the deception used and the extreme advice that’s given about ‘health’. And even more amazed by how many people seem to buy into it and follow it.

So why aren’t we told the plain simple truth?

… Because the TRUTH is often TOO BORING and therefore DOESN’T SELL!

It doesn’t satisfy our desire for instant cures, miracles, simple answers and so on… the truth is often just too sensible to be interesting, and often too complicated to understand and/or learn about, and so it doesn’t SELL. And because it doesn’t sell, we no longer hear about it in the market place.

So the media and marketers are really just giving us and telling us what we want to hear!

We are the ones who determine what comes to the market! Just have a look around you and see what is selling the most… Supplements are a great example of this. You no longer have to even bother cooking well balanced meals anymore, because all you have to do is pop a magical pill, take a powder or some other special manufactured formulae and all is well.

And have you noticed that since certain diseases and/or disorders are being diagnosed more readily, ‘every man and his dog’ is coming up with a reason and a solution for them. What a great opportunity to cash in on everyone’s desire to know the cause and the solution for these diseases. We love simple answers and blaming ONE thing… So all I need to do is find ONE reason and a simple solution for a commonly diagnosed disorder and ‘wella’… I have a book and I can make heaps of money.

Let’s take Autism for example… Dr Andrew Wakefield (a gastroenterologist) decided to blame certain immunizations for autism and proceeded to conduct experiments in order to prove it… he turned out to be a fraud, lost his license to practice medicine and was charged of professional misconduct. But people listened to him and he quickly became famous and wealthy! Why!  …because he came up with a simplistic explanation for autism and the ‘culprit’ he chose was something that people were happy to ‘blame’.

So what is the truth?

Why are we seeing an increase in so many different diseases and disorders?

The answer is probably NOT what most of you will want to hear… because the answer is complex and complicated and there is NO simple answer or solution.

However, here are a few important considerations when answering this question –

1. We are now living much longer… age in itself is a risk.

2. We now have the technology to test for various diseases and are therefore now aware of them.

3. We now have names for various disorders and a list of criteria to determine if someone has a particular disorder.

4. Many of us are now living in much more densely populated and urbanized cities and suburbs.

5. Most of us are now exposed to and live a lifestyle dictated by electronics and technology.

6. Stress is on the increase.

7. Fast Food / Processed Food Consumption is on the increase.

8. And there have been significant ‘Social Changes’ over the past 20 years.

So the take home message is to BE AWARE of Marketing Strategies and to BE SKEPTICAL.

1. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

2. If it’s extreme advice and only presents one side of the story, ignore it.

3. If there’s a lot of money and fame to be had, be cautious.

4. If research is quoted that is not published in a reputable journal, then question it.