by Linda-Ann Stewart

Curiosity about dreams seems to be widespread. Dreams fascinate us, seeming to come from a mysterious place deep within us, out of the reach of our everyday selves. A friend of mine once watched two dream experts interviewed on the MacNeil/Lehrer Report. A national television program found dreams interesting enough to spend some time exploring their importance.

The two men interviewed were a neuroscientist and a Freudian psychoanalyst. Though from different disciplines, they both agreed that dreams help us to deal with our everyday lives. Dreams help us to process information in our subconscious, to help us solve problems.

Dreams reveal information to us, whether we understand their message or not.  When we pay attention to them, they become a powerful force for transformation. These riches of the night can bring to light attitudes we’ve outgrown, difficulties we’ve ignored, and conflicts that have been affecting us. They can help us get in touch with our inner wisdom, and give us the direction we need to move forward.

Many years ago, I was trying to decide whether to move my hypnotherapy office from one place to another. I had a dream about the space I was considering. Though I hadn’t viewed the office yet, this dream was very accurate about what was in the room, and very specifically indicated that the room would be too loud.

In the dream, people were entering the room to get office supplies, and file reports. I ignored the dream, and moved anyway. I discovered all the dream elements were right on. Though people didn’t enter my room for supplies, there was a closet just across the narrow hall from my door where the supplies were kept.

Traffic to that cupboard, opening and closing the doors, dropping things, office staff calling out to the reception area was very distracting when I had a client. I stayed in that office for two years. Now I pay closer attention to my dreams since I had such a graphic example of how much they know.

Our dreams know all about us. We’re the ones who have scripted them and who are acting in them. Dreams reveal us to ourselves. They show us how we feel about life. Do we feel we’re at war with the world? Or that we’re prisoners? Or that we’re unprepared?

I have a recurring dream that I’m rehearsing for a play. It’s opening night and none of us in the cast knows our lines. This generally shows that I feel unprepared about something happening in my life.

Our images while sleeping reflect our feelings about ourselves and life. An acquaintance once told me that she knew it was time to break up with her boyfriend when she had recurring dreams of murdering him. Dreams show us how we truly think and feel, whether we want to consciously accept it or not.

The state of our health can be spotlighted. When I get too tired, I have dreams about my car having flat tires. Yes, I know it’s punny. I spent years trying to figure out that symbol.

If I don’t take care of myself, one dream about a single flat tire will become a recurrent dream with two, then three flat tires. Eventually, if the car has four flat tires, I get sick. My dreams have told me what’s going on and what to do about it. Get some rest.

For me, the first part of the night contain dreams of the previous day. My mind is integrating what has happened. In the latter part of the night, my dreams then begin to work on current issues in my life.

Many years ago, I needed to let go of a feeling of powerlessness. My dreams had a recurring symbol of power plants. In them, I learned to reconnect with my power. In one, a character told me that I was going to get it this time. And I did.

We can utilize our dreams by paying attention to them. I kept a diary for twenty years, writing my daily events and my dreams. When you want some help on a subject, form a question and put it in your diary. Use an affirmation, like “Tonight, I will have a dream that will explain …. I will remember my dream in the morning.” Repeat this to yourself as you drift off to sleep.

In the morning, wake slowly, and don’t open your eyes or move. Think back to what the last thing you were thinking about. Bring your loved ones to mind. Many times this will spark a remembrance of a dream. Write your images down in your diary. Even if all you wake up with is a feeling, write it down. Don’t give up. Sometimes, it takes a few days, or even weeks, to train yourself to remember your dreams.

To be able to figure out the message contained in your dream, realize that all your dream symbols are unique to you. You’re the best dream dictionary there is for you because you wrote the book on you.

First, write one sentence to describe your dream. Then, write down all the metaphors, symbols, any slang or puns, the characters and settings. Describe each element as if you were from another planet. Don’t say “Jimmy Stewart” is a movie star, but a man who played characters with integrity.

In one dream, I had a valuable stone that was very rough. I described it as “needing polishing.” When I heard myself say that, I realized that the direction I was going in my life was going to be of value to me, but that it needed more work, “to be polished” and finished.

Dreams are such a treasure trove of riches for us. Put on your miner’s cap, and begin to uncover the messages to yourself buried deep in your own mind.

Copyright 1999, 2010 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

A nationally known speaker, life coach, hypnotherapist, and writer, Linda-Ann Stewart helps people rediscover their power and sense of self-worth. Visit Secrets To The Law Of Attraction to download your copy of this free ebook.

self improvement, self help, personal growth, personal development, inspiration

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Question: Why do I have to focus on what I want? Doesn’t my subconscious mind already know?

Answer: Your subconscious mind can only absorb what your conscious mind sends its way. So if you want more prosperity, but you constantly focus on not having enough money, that’s what the subconscious mind accepts and manifests more of – lack. Your subconscious only knows what it’s been told. So if you want to be an artist, but believe you have little talent, and constantly bemoan that idea, your subconscious will make sure that you don’t fulfill your potential.

I’ve known so many people who say they want one thing, but they focus on the opposite (me included). Or they want something, but they don’t want to have to change anything to manifest it. A smoker may want to quit smoking without
giving up cigarettes. That would be the same as wanting more prosperity without letting go of old attitudes about struggle and lack. Whatever you focus on is what your subconscious mind thinks you want. And it will deliver it to the level that you truly accept.

Copyright 2001, 2010 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

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The Wisdom Of Florence Scovel Shinn
by Florence Scovel Shinn

Many years ago, when I was in the middle of a personal crisis, it was hard for me to read and comprehend classic spiritual and personal development books that had been my anchor. I decided to go back to the basics, to get me grounded again. These were the first books that I read then, and they were exactly what I needed. They helped me get my mindset straightened out and gave me direction.

This is actually a compilation of her four books, “The Game of Life, and How To Play It,” “The Power of the Spoken Word,” “Your Word Is Your Wand,” and “The Secret Door To Success.” I have the four separate books, and would have loved to have them in a single volume. The author was well known for her teachings about affirmations.

“The Game of Life..” is a primer on Universal Laws. It covers such topics as affirmations, prosperity, karma, nonresistance, forgiveness, intuition, the divine design, and more. “The Secret Door To Success” is a sequel to “The Game of Life…” The title, “The Power of the Spoken Word,” speaks for itself. “Your Word Is Your Wand” is filled with affirmations on various topics.

All of these books, which are compiled into “The Wisdom of Florence Scovel Shinn,” utilize affirmations as the way to transform. In this volume, you’ll find hundreds of affirmations for any number of problems. These affirmations have been quoted and reprinted in other spiritual and self-improvement books, mainly because they are simple and they work.

In the midst of my crisis, these four books helped me find my spiritual path and center again. I would have been lost without them and can’t imagine where I would be now if I hadn’t had them to hold onto.

Today, years later, I continue to refer to them, and recommend them to my friends and clients. And I still use some of her affirmations. This is a classic in spiritual  literature, and every spiritual seeker should have it in their library.

Copyright 2001, 2010 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

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Question: If I affirm that I receive a specific amount of money by a certain date, will I be successful?

Answer: I’ve known many people who have successfully affirmed that they’d receive a certain amount of money by a certain date. The way it happens is by your belief that it will happen. If there’s any doubt or uncertainty, then that will dilute or defuse the results.

Instead, I would recommend that that you affirm that you’re guided to the right channel through which that amount will manifest, and/or be inspired to discover a way to manifest it, and/or that all that the way is provided for it to manifest.

Your belief is the energy that powers your ability to manifest. When you have the certain belief, then it’s very likely that you’ll manifest what you want.

Copyright 2010 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

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Six years ago, I joined the Arizona Chapter of the National Speaker’s Association as a Candidate Member. Over the years, I’ve attended their meetings, gained a lot of information and met some great people. Because of some personal issues, I wasn’t ready to make the leap into professional status.

Last month, I was finally ready (or close enough). I submitted my application and documentation to meet their criteria, and was accepted. I am now a newly minted, honest-to-goodness, authentic professional speaker. This week, on Tuesday, I was also the featured professional speaker on the Arizona Chapter’s website.

This happens at a time when my Tobacco-Cessation classes are ending due to state budget cuts. When one door closes, another one opens. Sometimes you have to search for the open door (or, at times, open window), but there is one. Although I’m sad about my classes ending, I’m looking forward to the possibilities that lie ahead.

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by Coco Fossland

Through the ups and downs of life, it can seem at times, as though the quality of our lives is dependent on the people, situations, and conditions of the world around us. Yet, to become the powerful creator of our lives, we must be willing to see beyond this short-sighted view of ourselves and our lives.

Whether we are aware of it or not, the choice each of us is constantly making is the choice of picking between heaven or hell. The truth is, every moment, each of us decides. There is no outside force that decides. We choose it every moment.

The comedy is that even though we have the choice — usually people pick the experience of hell over heaven.

To see whether you are currently living in heaven or hell, look around your life. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being hell and 10 being heaven, where would you rank your life?

This week, observe your thoughts and words.

How often and about what do you complain?

How often and about what are you disappointed?

At what frequency do you wish things could be different than they are?

How often are others letting you down and not meeting your expectations?

How often are you letting yourself down?

Focusing on complaints, disappointments, should be’s, and unmet expectations creates the illusion of hell.

To have a life a bliss, you must be willing to challenge the assumption that the root of our dissatisfaction is really about the complaints and unmet expectations that dribble out uncontrollably out of your mouth.

Step One: Clean up your thoughts and language.

Catch yourself before that same old complaint indomitably burps out of your mouth. Choose your language carefully.

Before you tell yourself, “I have to wash the dishes,” notice that you really don’t have to. Even if you’re at gunpoint — which I entirely doubt you are — it’s still a choice — to do the dishes or not.

Adjust your language to be both more accurate and empowering. An example would be, “I choose to wash the dishes now rather than later, because I know how great it feels to walk into a clean kitchen.”

Step Two: See the real issue beneath the illusion.

The subject of your complaints and unmet expectations are a facade of the deeper issue that is really the culprit for your life feeling more like struggle and pain than joy and bliss.

The culprit lies inside choosing self-worth over self-hate.

Step Three: Expose underlying beliefs and assumptions.

How you make the choice between heaven or hell — or self-worth and self-hate depends on your assumptions and beliefs of whether you feel worthy, good enough or deserving of happiness.

To take yourself from hell to heaven, you must consistently choose to find inner value and inner worth. To do this, you must be willing to become deeply aware of your Self. You must see what overshadows your feelings of worth, so you can send love, kindness and compassion to those places. Otherwise, your experience of life will always be painful.

Step Four: Accept that you already live in and deserve heaven.

Much of our socializing has taught us to believe that “life is hard,” and “you have to suffer,” and “you must endure this life” to get the bliss of heaven in your next life.

Challenge these beliefs.

Rather than living this life trying to earn your way to heaven in the next, begin today and every day grounded in the assumption that not only are you are already worthy and deserving of heaven — but you are already there. All you have to do is claim it.

Step Five: Illuminate your worthiness.

if you want to “go to heaven,” it is your journey to illuminate your worthiness of bliss today. The amount of pain and struggle you feel in your life is inversely related to your feelings of worthiness. The more self-love and self-worth you have, the less the pain and struggle you will experience.

Every moment, you are the one who decides heaven or hell. When you decide that you are not worthy of heaven, by default you will experience hell, and thus so will be color of your life.

Step Six: Make self-love your #1 responsibility.

Self-love occurs when you recognize your value and worth. It becomes who you are, when you set your life in alignment with your inner wisdom

Copyright 2005 Coco Fossland
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The author of the forthcoming book, The Power of Trust: Trust Yourself, Transform Your World, Coco Fossland is a nationally recognized expert in personal transformation, self-empowerment and self-healing. Blending a decade of technology and strategy consulting with her expertise in self-trust transformation, Coco’s business is focused on supporting people passionate about creating businesses that make a difference in the world. She helps her clients fuse their higher path with their businesses, creating institutions and organizations that profoundly impact the world one person at a time. Please visit CocoFossland.com for more info.

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In any challenging situation, you can either fight against it or accept it. When you resist it, you waste valuable energy. However, by accepting it and using that energy, you have a much better chance of a beneficial outcome. The challenge will always have something to teach you, and that lesson can deepen and broaden your strength and inner resources.

Copyright 2010 Linda Ann Stewart
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self improvement, self help, personal growth, personal development

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by Linda-Ann Stewart

I wrote an article this month, “There’s Always A Silver Lining,” in which I explored four possibilities that the challenges in your life are trying to teach you. Shortly after writing it, I came up with a fifth one.

Expanding Too Fast
This is especially true of business, and of the recent housing crisis. Businesses can expand faster than they can handle, and eventually run out of road. A recession comes along, or some other bump, and they have to retreat. What they’re doing is taking a few steps back, eliminate what’s not working well, and solidifying their position. When they begin to move forward again, they’re healthier and stronger.

The same can be said of people who got into mortgages they couldn’t support. Some people will be able to get the banks to work out a loan modification that they can afford. And for others, the best thing may simply be to let go of the house and move into something that is more reasonable and less stressful. It’s hard to make that choice, and let go of a home you love. But if it’s draining your financial, physical, mental and emotional resources, then it’s not for your greatest good.

Expansion and reduction is a natural cycle. When you have to prune your bushes, more grows next season. The same can be said for letting go of expanding too quickly. Pruning what is too heavy or too costly can make your life picture healthier. And when it’s time to expand again, you’ll be ready and be able to come from a position of strength.

Copyright 2010 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

A nationally known speaker, life coach, hypnotherapist, and writer, Linda-Ann Stewart helps people rediscover their power and sense of self-worth. Visit Secrets To The Law Of Attraction to download your copy of this free ebook.

self improvement, self help, personal growth, personal development, motivation, inspiration

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by Linda-Ann Stewart

Every negative experience that you have has a gift for you. It might not feel like it when you get laid off, your significant other dumps you, or you lose your house. But since you create your own reality, you created the situation for a reason. Its purpose is to help you to expand into a greater potential of who you are.

Seek out what the gift might be. There is always a lesson to learn from every challenge you have, otherwise it wouldn’t be a challenge. Here are some possibilities that the experience might be trying to teach you.

Develop A Quality
You may need to learn another positive quality, such as patience, persistence, compassion, empathy, or some other character attribute. In these cases, you’re being called on to develop and exercise that quality.

If you don’t fight against developing it (as some people do), then you could receive a great gift that propels you forward in accessing your highest potential.

Accept Yourself More Fully
You could be hitting a wall that is actually your shadow side, a part of yourself that you negate, abandon and ignore. This could be anything from avoiding owning your authority in your life, suppressed anger, empowerment, or something else. These aspects show up in other people that reflect your shadow back to you. You may have problems with authority, people around you have anger issues, or someone who takes advantage of you.

Once you acknowledge and accept these parts of yourself, the energy in your environment (the wall) generally dissipates. And you’re no longer wasting energy resisting these characteristics, which gives you greater ability to create what you want.

Wake Up
The reason for the situation may simply be to wake you up. It’s like a cosmic brick, that metaphorically hits you over the head, and gets bigger (and the situation gets worse) the more you ignore it. This is true if you’re in an abusive relationship or situation, or have a sudden health challenge.

In an abusive relationship, you may need to recognize your worth and leave. If you have a pattern of this, you need to figure out what’s going on that causes you to keep attracting it. Once you know what it is, you can heal it so you can have more satisfying relationships. No matter whether it’s a relationship, health, or something else, it’s trying to get your attention so you will make positive changes in your life and lifestyle.

Check Your Focus
Are you focusing on what you don’t want, rather than what you do want? You could be thinking more about what you’re lacking, therefore that’s what shows up in your life. It’s the Law of Attraction in action. What you focus on, with energy and emotion, will appear in your life.

No matter what the challenge, its purpose is to propel you into a greater good. When you look for the positive in it, this helps you progress and achieve a new level of life. It also sets the subconscious to develop, create or find the benefit in the situation. Even if it feels like the end of the world, look for the gift. You may be surprised at what you find.

Affirmation

I let go of my resistance to this experience, and open myself up to seek the gift it has for me. Since I create my own reality, I’ve created this situation to teach me something. I cooperate with it, allow myself to become aware of what it might be, and make the changes I need to. I may not know how or what, but something wonderful is coming out of this situation for me.

Copyright 2010 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

A nationally known speaker, life coach, hypnotherapist, and writer, Linda-Ann Stewart helps people rediscover their power and sense of self-worth. Visit Secrets To The Law Of Attraction to download your copy of this free ebook.

self improvement, self help, personal growth, personal development, motivation, inspiration

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