Create Good Things

With each New Year comes the opportunity for all of us to embrace a brand new beginning. Whether 2011 was good for you or not, you can now choose to draw a line under it, assign it to the mental compartment marked ‘The Past’ and leave it alone. With that decision made, you can then focus the whole of your attention on making this year even better than the last, and here are a few ways in which you can start doing just that…

Be Mindful of Mortality
First, be mindful of the fact that life itself is a terminal condition, and that none of us will ever get out alive. Whilst many people try to avoid thinking about their mortality as much as possible, staring the fact of eventual death square in the face and accepting it can be a very good way of getting some perspective in life. So start by reminding yourself that all of us have a limited lifespan, and that none of us really know how many more days, months or years we have left.

Set New Priorities
Having reminded yourself of your own mortality, set new priorities for your life based on how you think you would like to spend whatever time you have left. Perhaps you would like to give more of your time, attention and efforts to other people, or to a specific good cause that is important to you. Maybe you think it would be appropriate for you to overcome an addiction to time-wasting activities and invest that time in more fruitful endeavours instead. It could be that you would like to finally write that book you keep thinking about, or learn to speak a foreign language or play a musical instrument. Whatever the case, decide to make the pursuit of your chosen objectives a new priority in your life.

Renew Your Commitment
Our third piece of advice is for you to renew your commitment to your own path of spiritual and personal development. Whether you follow a designated spiritual path or you learn from a variety of traditions, consider doing so with a fresh sense of commitment and enthusiasm. Personal development practices such as meditation, mindfulness, generosity and so on can all become good habits that give your life structure and meaning, so be sure to make the most of them.

We hope that these ideas help you to make a new beginning in 2012, and for our part we intend to provide you with a brand new selection of articles and tutorials which will encourage you along the way. Happy New Year!

As people all over the world prepare to celebrate various winter festivals, now is as good a time as any to rediscover the magic of giving. Most traditions which celebrate winter festivals include the giving of gifts to friends and family members, but to really unleash the magic of giving it is a very good idea to make a point of giving to someone who isn’t a part of your ‘inner circle’. You could do this by giving money to a homeless person, by giving some of your time to a charitable project or simply by visiting individuals in need and offering them your friendship and support.

This kind of giving does not come with strings of any sort – you aren’t giving your time, money or support with a view to getting anything in return. Instead, you give as an expression of your humanity, and as a way of reminding yourself that ‘we are all in this thing together’. In essence, you are doing something which takes you out of the usual ‘individual against the world’ mindset and adopting a ‘part of the same team’ mindset which brings its own rewards.

When you remind yourself that nobody exists in complete isolation and that you are in fact part of a global society, you will rediscover a sense of connectedness which is much more lasting than any tangible gift that might be found under a Christmas tree. Giving to strangers at this time of the year (or indeed at any time of the year) helps to put your individual life in proper context and takes you out of the skewed perspective that there is any such thing as a stranger.

To paraphrase Will Rogers, ‘A stranger is just a friend that you haven’t met yet’, and perhaps the best gift you can give to yourself this year is to go out and finally meet a few of the friends that you don’t yet know. Not only will this enrich your life and help to give you a much broader perspective on things, it will also enrich the lives of the people you give to. Even if they don’t fully appreciate your gift of money, time or support straight away, they will certainly begin to appreciate that they are not alone.

We wish you all a peaceful and happy time over the festive period, and we look forward to giving you plenty more things to think about in the coming year.

Namaste.

As regular readers will recall from our discussion of Power Mantras some time ago, a mantra is a word or phrase which is repeated as a spiritual practice in its own right, and the aim of using mantras is to focus your mind and at the same time develop a change in your awareness and personal energy field. We have previously provided instructions on how to create and use your own power mantras but many people like to use traditional mantras which have been used for thousands of years. So, for those of you who currently feel drawn to traditional mantras more than to modern ones, here is our hand-picked selection to get you started:

Om
This mantra (pronounced and sometimes spelled as Aum) is said to be the sound of the creative force which underlies the universe itself, and chanting it regularly can therefore help you to attune yourself to the natural order of things. Because it is a universal mantra, Om is popular among Law of Attraction workers and spiritual practitioners of many different traditions.
 
Om Mani Padme Hum
This mantra, which is from the Buddhist tradition, is associated with compassion and is often recommended by the Dalai Lama. If you want to develop more compassion for others as well as yourself then this mantra would be a perfect choice.

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha
Another Buddhist mantra, this one is associated with Tara, a female Buddha. Chanting this mantra is said to have a number of benefits, including greater peace of mind and improvements in health.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna,
Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare,
Hare Rama, Hare Rama,
Rama Rama, Hare Hare

This famous mantra is chanted by devotees of the Hindu avatar Krishna as a way of expanding and enlightening consciousness.

Om Shrim Klim Maha Lakshmiyei Swaha
This mantra is devoted to Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of prosperity. As you might expect, it is most commonly used to attract financial abundance and prosperity, but the mantra itself can be used to help you prosper in other ways as well as financial.

There are literally thousands of other traditional mantras that can be used by those working with the Law of Attraction, but the five presented here cover most of the issues that the modern practitioner tends to be concerned with. Choose the one that resonates with you the most and try chanting it 108 times a day for 108 days (the number 108 is said to be very effective when working with traditional mantras). And of course, when you see that the mantra is helping you in your life you may continue using it for as long as you wish beyond that point. Some people chant a favourite mantra for a lifetime, and you may well decide to do the same!

It has been said by many Law of Attraction teachers that being emotionally detached from your goal can actually help you to manifest it more easily (normally because detachment removes the energy of ‘neediness’). Unfortunately, few teachers discuss how to achieve such a level of detachment, so today we will present you with one of the most effective techniques that we know of, and that technique is mindfulness.

Those of you who have studied certain types of meditation may already be familiar with mindfulness, but for the benefit of those of you who haven’t, we can define mindfulness as a state in which your mind is completely focused on the experience of the present moment. You aren’t dreaming about the future or remembering the past, you are simply focused on whatever is happening at the time.

If you practice mindfulness when you are mowing the lawn then you will be focused on the mowing of the lawn – on the smell of the freshly cut grass, on the sound that the lawnmower makes as you work and on the feeling you get in your arms and chest as you steer the machine. Similarly, if you practice mindfulness when you are sitting in traffic then you will notice the feeling of the steering wheel in your hands, the sound of the vehicles around you and the expressions on the faces of the people in those vehicles.

When you practice mindfulness, all stress and anxiety about the past or future naturally disappears because you won’t be thinking about past or future. In fact you won’t really be thinking much at all in an analytical sense – you will simply be observing things exactly as they are at the present moment.

Practicing mindfulness for a moment isn’t difficult, so try it right now. Stop reading this text when you reach the end of this paragraph and focus on how you are in relation to your immediate environment. Notice the sounds that you hear, even if it is only the sound of your own breathing. Notice the feelings in your physical body. Notice what the air smells like and the temperature of the room. Notice the texture of the things that your eyes fall upon. Don’t think about anything or analyse anything, simply notice how things are and accept them exactly as they are without judging. Spend as long as you like doing this and when you are ready to do so, come back for the rest of this article.

Most people who try this mindfulness exercise for the first time are amazed at how rich the present moment is in terms of sensory detail which we don’t usually notice. Most people are also impressed with the way they are able to quieten the chattering of their minds and let go of thoughts about the past and the future.

That was just a brief taster of mindfulness, but if you work on developing a habit of mindfulness then you will find that you can develop a wonderful state of aware detachment that enriches every aspect of your life, including your work with the Law of Attraction. This is obviously something that takes time to develop to a high level, but the great thing is that the process of developing mindfulness is itself incredibly beneficial, and even a moment of mindfulness every few hours will inspire you to want to practice it more and more.

Enjoy the week ahead and be mindful!