The Time to Be Happy is Now By Laura Ceville

I once came across a sundial that said: "The Time to Be Happy is Now. The Place to Be Happy is Here." Simple, yet this saying is at the heart of so much unrest for so many. I struggle with this one myself! Most people say, if only I had "X," things would be better. If only I had "X" amount of money I would start saving. If only I had "X" opportunity I would really be successful. If only I had the--fill in the blank--health, wealth, skills etc. life would be so much different! What is your X Factor?

Unfortunately we build our whole lives around our X Factor. We "if only" ourselves to the grave. When our lives are spent we finally look back and say, "Tomorrow never came." We then realize, when it is too late, that our time to shine was at our very fingertips. It was always ours for the taking. As Henry David Thoreau said, "Heaven is under our feet, as well as over our heads." And not just some days--everyday!

A few years ago I had the opportunity to escort Mr. Billy Ray Cyrus and his band mates around for a day in preparation for a free show he was putting on for the troops (Go Air Force!). At the time I had a fire-engine red electric guitar and was learning how to play. As we were heading over to the venue for the event one of Billy Ray's band mates (a guitarist) said, let me give you a tip: "Most people hear me play and say, 'If I could play like that I'd play all of the time.'" He went on to say that this thinking is flawed. "They don't realize," he said, "You have to play all of the time to sound like that!" So very true I thought! But knowing something is so and acting on that knowledge are two very different things.

You must act now to make a change! Today is the day. Do not fool yourself into believing that your success will come when you finally reach some imaginary plane of existence you have conjured because you fear the repercussions of immediate change. Here's a secret that was whispered into my ear a few years back: God doesn't put a dream in you that you can't make a reality, i.e. everything you need is already in you!

As Napoleon Hill said, "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, he can achieve." It is the truth. Forget your X Factor. Toss your hesitations to the wind. Act now to make the change you wish to see a reality. If you don't know how to get to where you want to be find someone who has already achieved what you want and earnestly ask them for their advice, their encouragement, and their support. More importantly shut your mouth and listen (two ears, one mouth for a reason, remember?). In short, put your ego aside and humble yourself.

So what are you putting off? What "if only's" do you have rattling around in your head? Decide today to be the winner you were born to be! When you start acting like a winner, you will become a winner, and other winners will find you! They will seek you out to hear you speak your truth. As Jim Rohn once said, "You can choose to be all or you can choose to be less. Why not stretch up to the full measure of the challenge and see what all you can do?"

Today is your day!

Laura Ceville is a proud Air Force veteran, an aspiring children's author and illustrator, Success Philosopher, real estate investor, successful business owner, and word lover (yes, she loves words!!). She is currently the owner of The Ceville Agency (http://www.CevilleAgency.com), a mortgage and retirement protection company based out of Beavercreek, Ohio.



Some of her life goals include having a 30-car garage with a Dodge Viper GTS Coupe, Audi R8, and Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 for starters (cars are like pieces of art to Laura!), a children's book on the market that she has both written and illustrated, and estates in both Colorado and Texas. Laura enjoys hiring new agents into her business, inspiring the uninspired, hiking and exploring the outdoors with her husband, writing, drawing, and loving on her two mischievous dogs--Jack and Deuce.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Laura_Ceville

The Beginning of Love

The Beginning of Love

Joel Block, Ph.D.

The beginning of love is wonderful. It is the subject of songs and the theme of movies; it has created an industry in fiction writing, the romance novel. But the test of love comes over time, the time beyond the courtship and honeymoon phase. It is in the long-term relationship that our capacity to maintain the vitality and energy of love is challenged.

The Challenge
The challenge goes beyond simply getting along. There are lots of couples who get along but whose relationship lacks spark. Some of these couples have excluded anything controversial from their relationship in an effort to keep the peace. It is a peace that comes with a price.
Not being truly open because it may “stir things up” is precisely the wrong thing to do. The spark comes from being emotionally open in a relationship and allowing the other person to do the same.

Joel D. Block, Ph.D., is an award-winning psychologist practicing couple and sex therapy on Long Island, New York. A Diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology, Dr. Block is a senior psychologist on the staff of the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Medical Center and an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Einstein College of Medicine. For 20 years, he was the supervisor of the Sexuality Center at Long Island-Jewish Medical Center. Dr. Block is the author of over 20 books on Love and Sex.

Being Open
Being open requires that we make our feelings known when we talk about things that are important to us and that we stay emotionally connected to our love partner when he or she thinks, feels, and believes differently; we don’t waste our energy trying to change or fix each other.
Yes, creating and maintaining a vibrant love through the process of revealing yourself, warts and all, can be a frightening prospect.

Ditch the Caution
To do otherwise, to play it safe and avoid the risk of being open, or to discourage your partner’s openness because it doesn’t conform to your views is the biggest risk of all. It will, with certainty, drain the relationship and leave it empty. The excitement of the early days will become a distant memory to be mourned. This is so because the liveliness of love relationships, the very core energy of love, is fed by the openness that comes from the heart. Real love involves opening your soul to the person you love.

The Need for Approval
It’s ironic that people who are sharing their lives are often less open with each other than they are with other people who are not as important to their lives. And therein lies the rub. It is because a person is important in our life that we become guarded. Their view of us matters more; they are central to our lives, and we want their validation. We want to avoid their disapproval.
We want them to see things our way, especially those things that are dear to us. If one is excited by a movie, he or she wants the other to be excited as well. If one has a difficult experience and is upset, and the other is not, that may cause a problem; one or both feel the other is reacting improperly. If one feels like sex and the other doesn’t there is resentment.
The demand is, “feel like me, think like me and behave like me.” But we are each different and may feel differently, think differently and behave differently at times. Demanding otherwise doesn’t work!

Which are You?
When I go into a restaurant and glance at the couples, there’s a palpable difference in energy levels. Some couples are animated; others are staring past each other. Often the energized couples are dating and the stale couples are married. The married couples have already talked about the kids and gossiped…there’s not much left they’re willing to get into.
They’re playing it safe—and that is the problem. In order to avoid their partner’s disapproval they’ve eliminated the energy and passion from the relationship. Playing it safe, their solution, has become the problem!

Reach Out
Does your relationship have that dating energy of the early days, or has it been whittled down to topics that are safe? Not sure? Ask your partner!

Create The Life You Want

Hopefully, after reading my last post Two Easy Step to End the Sadness, you can see how we sabotage ourselves at any given moment because of our negative self talk.  You also know that loving yourself first and unconditionally will help you in leaps and bounds to overcoming depression.

Today, I want to give you an exercise you can easily do that will help you create your life by design instead of by default.  There is no better way to understand and explain something other then experiencing yourself.

Close your eyes, take a deep breath in, fill your lungs up with air, all the way to the bottom, like a balloon.

Now let it out…slowly…keep your thoughts with the air you are breathing in and out.

Be Aware.

Do this 3 times.

When you feel your shoulders droop and your feeling a bit more relaxed I want you to take a deep breath and in, and in your mind Yell STOP! At the top of your lungs.

Visualize the letters S-T-O-P in front of you, on a movie theater screen. Imagine the words in any shape, color or form you wish.

Continue to stare at the word and notice that it starts to fade. It begins to disintegrate and fall apart; completely disappearing from your view. All that is left behind is a big, white, blank screen in front of you.

This is your blank canvas of life. This is where you can create. This is where you will paint all of the experiences that you could possible imagine that you would like to experience in life.

See the picture, you are the star! Use vivid colors and don’t forget to feel the emotions you experience from seeing your film. This is the most important thing to remember because your emotions rule your world. Keep them positive, peaceful and loving.

If you are feeling depressed and just want to feel better, then go ahead and create that movie. See and feel yourself laughing and enjoying life. See yourself having constant feelings of bliss and being free and most of all, feel the peace and love you would experience.

The more often you put this exercise into practice, the bigger your rewards will be.

What we think about expands. So start thinking about happiness and well-being instead of sadness and sickness.

Be Well

Buffy

What Is Your Success Distance?

Article written by David Cameron Gikandi

http://www.ahappypocketfullofmoney.com/affiliates/idevaffiliate.php?id=1083

The ease and speed at which you get from point A to B depends on the distance between point A and B. So, what is the distance between you and success in whatever field you choose? What is the distance between you and success in your marketing, financial, relationship, happiness or health matters? It does not matter what you are looking to succeed at - the principle here is the same.

Success Distance is measured by three components: Body, Mind, and Soul or in other words physical distance, intellectual knowledge and emotional bearing. Let us examine each one.

Body, or physical distance, is simply the physical distance in miles between you and your marketplace, your target health point, or your relationship partner. Physical distance is the easiest distance component to understand, so we shall not spend too much time on it. It is all about location. Like they say in real estate, it is all about location, location, and location. Where are you physically in relation to your marketplace, target health point, or your relationship partner? Are you easy or hard to get in touch with? Do you network with people in similar situations so you can help each other out? Do you live near your most attractive marketplaces, target health point, or your relationship partner? If you do business online, can people find you easily through links from other web sites, search engines, articles and so on? Is it easy to order from you, help you, and be with you? Always keep improving and shortening your physical distance.



Mind or intellectual knowledge is next. It is even more powerful than physical distance. The only thing more powerful than it is Soul or emotional distance. To put it simply, you are paid for the knowledge that you posses and express. A doctor is paid for medical knowledge, but only when she uses it to heal, when she expresses it. So is a plumber, and so on. So it is very obvious that to get more success in any area of life, you must improve your knowledge of that area of life. In that way, you are shortening the distance between you and that area, by coming to know it for what it really is instead of what you think it is. It is the errors in your thinking that cause 'failure'. Failure is merely a gentle prodding telling you that you need to fix an error in thought. So read. Ask. In fact, learn to ask your Higher Self questions. Ask and you shall always receive. Just formulate your question and consciously ask your Higher Self this question. There is no particular way of doing it - your Self is always listening and knows when your attention is directed to it. It is only you who have been ignoring it because of too much worry and mental noise. Ask. Then drop your worries and be observant! In the very next moment, or day, or person, or movie, or magazine, or book you see on the bookshelf, your answer will have been brought to you. Trust me, ask your Higher Self a question and within minutes or hours or perhaps a day or so, if you are aware and observant, you will be led to exactly the right place to find your answer. The answer may not be the one you expect, but it will be the one that will lead you to success, even if at first you may not see how.



Finally, but most importantly, is your Soul, or emotional distance. Simply put, you are an energy system. You are not a chunk of flesh, you are energy. If you were to magnify yourself, you would find that you are made of cells, which are in turn made up of molecules of various substances. These are in turn made up of atoms. And atoms are composed of electrons, protons, and neutrons. And these are energy packets. An electron is an energy packet. Yes, you are one big ball of energy. And so is everything else. And here is what you are here to do: to experience energy in motion, to experience e-motion, emotions. At every moment, even if you are not aware of it, you are feeling a certain emotion. And whatever emotion that is, it resonates and attracts similar energy systems around you. So when you are happy, you attract happy conditions. Your inner state creates your outside experience. Therefore, the most important thing is this: how do you FEEL Now? Always, all ways, it matters most how you feel now, because that is what creates your experiences. To succeed, you must bridge the emotional distance between you and the thing you wish to succeed in. to succeed in finances, you must heal all feelings of negativity towards money, low self-esteem, poor self worth, victim mentality, certain fears, and so on. These feelings push you away from money, no matter how hard you work. Effort begets the results of effort, nothing more or less. And the result of effort, if you haven't noticed, is much strain. Look, if hard work was all you needed to succeed, half this planet would be rich. How obvious is that! People work like dogs nowadays! Anyway, let us move on. To succeed in your relationships, you must be love itself, yourself. Unconditional love. All other feelings of fear and so on increase the distance between you and your success. And to succeed in health, again you shorten the distance by increasing your self-love, self-esteem, and dropping worry and fear. By the way, when I say 'drop fear' I do not mean that you resist it. No. in fact, what you resist persists and grows stronger. I mean that you face it, embrace it, look at it directly, find its original cause in your life, forgive all of it, and you will see that it was just a cloud of smoke, it was nothing really.



Well, there you go. You are now armed with some very easy to follow, logical processes that will get you where you wish to be. Well, it is a start, but you must follow through yourself - no one can do it for you. People can only guide and help you but you must choose and act yourself. Don't let your old fears imprison you for ever. The pain of life-long mediocrity is greater than the pain of changing. Just do it! If you wish to learn more about the above processes and wealth consciousness, please see www.imagesofone.com.