I want you to do something for yourself and for all those around you that you care about. I want you to be a little selfish. I know that this is a pretty hard thing for many to do, especially if you are a very giving person, perhaps a parent, or both. But I want you to do this for others as much as you might think that it is all for you.

It is often thought that being self-involved can be a very bad thing, but if you are willing to really look into what this means, you will see that being self-centered can be a very positive thing as well. The problem really lies in simple definitions of what self-focused really means.

The problem begins with definitions that are based on this or that ideas. Beliefs and directives that are based on age old definitions of what is the right thing to do. The problem is that there is nothing that is black and white and people get stuck thinking that even to contemplate the idea of self-interest is bad, and end of story. No more thought is given on the matter because even to contemplate self’ish thought is bad.

What I mean by being a little, or perhaps a lot for some, selfish is to really start to concern yourself with yourself. You need to start paying more attention to what you are focusing your attention on and far less on what others are doing. It is very natural to believe that in order to help others, you must concern yourself with them and physically act on their behalf. But the truth of the matter is that ‘acting on’ others behalf is most often an intrusion. Unless someone directly asks you to do something for them, it is most often the case that the person does not need your help or is better off without your help.

But if you concentrate on yourself and on feeling good about you and your life, you give others the hope and energy that they need. You do this by showing them that it is possible to be happy. You show them that someone can change their own reality for themselves and by themselves. You show those around you in a new way; you show them by example, and this example is so very crucial for so many.

By helping others when they don’t need your help, you deprive them of the opportunity to find a way out for themselves. We are all here to learn and learning things for ourselves allows each one of us to grow and become more confident. The best way to help others is to show them that all is possible and finally just to have good thoughts for them. When you do this, others will be incredibly uplifted by your gift. There is no better way for you to help others more than to show them that what they want to accomplish in their own lives is possible.

You can only do this by being a bit selfish. What I mean is that you need to take the time to look at your own life, your own desires, and your own thoughts. Then you must make the time to control these thoughts and actions so that you yourself are happy first. You must make the time to guide your own boat in the sea of life and find your best place there. Only when you are happy and love yourself can you love and hope happiness for others, otherwise it will be pretending at best and you can’t keep that up for long.

Now I don’t mean that you should not feed your children or care for those under your care. But next time, before you rush of to give your well-meaning advise or a helping hand, ask yourself; Did they ask for my help? If the answer is no then send that person love from your heart and see them succeeding in your mind but don’t interfere in their life. If they see you happy and successful in your own life, and feel the love that you send them then they just might ask for your help anyway. But remember that the best you can do for others is to show them through example that what they wish to accomplish is possible.

Help others by example and you will also be helping yourself. Send others positive loving thoughts and you will uplift them and help them without the weight of intrusive action.

There are times when try as we might, we cannot stop thinking about something that makes us feel awful. Thoughts like these can be incredibly detrimental to our mental state. Since our mind controls our body and our personal reality, it is very important that we learn to manage these negative thoughts.

Thoughts like these are often like a chronic pain. We know what is wrong, we know what it’s about but try as we might we can’t stop ourselves from reliving them. A chronic pain is like this, the injury is known and we are trying to fix the physical problem but the pain, even though it has done its job of warning us, won’t stop. We must therefore use other methods to stop these thoughts that are no longer in any way helpful.

A very good way to do this is to manipulate that mental image (thought). Our minds can be said to work very much like a tv or movie screen, or perhaps it would be better to say that our tv’s and movie screens are designed to work just like our minds. If we change some of the ways we experience this troublesome thought in our heads, we can completely change our reaction to it.

For example lets imagine that you keep having a recurring thought of you having a bad accident and try as you might you can’t seem to be able to stop yourself from thinking this thought. Instead of trying to get yourself to forget, as it were, you could instead change the way that you experience this thought in your mind instead.

When you experience this thought you most likely see yourself, in your mind’s eye, experiencing this event over and over again. Instead just letting this thought happen, you do have the ability to catch yourself in the act of having this thought. All you have to do is to be mentally vigilant and pay attention to your emotions so that when you feel awful, you will know that you are most likely experiencing this negative recurring thought in your mind.

When you are able to catch yourself as you are experiencing this dream, begin to change the way you represent this thought to yourself. You most likely will find that in your thought you are right there in the middle of it all reliving something. That therefore is the first thing that you must change; instead of being right in the thought situation experiencing everything as it happens, imaginatively remove yourself from the situation. This changes your perspective so that you are no longer an actor in your thought but a bystander watching the thought from far away.

Secondly distance yourself from the thought. Instead of being a bystander watching something that is right in front of you, imagine that this screen that you are watching this thought in moves ten feet away from you. You should be able to feel a big difference in your emotional state. You have gone from being immersed in a situation, in your mind’s eye, to being a spectator watching this situation, and then to having this mental screen that you are watching the situation on move ten feet away from you.

If this is not enough to lower the amount of pain that you feel from this thought then try to make this mental image black and white. Also lower any sound in the thought, you can even turn off all sound if you like. Turn off any feeling that you are experiencing during this thought, you have the power to imaginatively do this now. And finally you can make this thought image move away from you even farther than ten feet. It can move away from you farther and farther so that it gets smaller and smaller until it disappears from your view. How do you feel now?

If you do the exercise correctly, you will find that this thought is no longer so painful or troubling. The trick here is to do the above every time that you catch yourself having the thought. You might say, “I just had it, can’t go back to it now”. But this is what you will be really doing every time since catching yourself in the act is really stopping the thought. This is ok though, just look back at what you were just  thinking and use all the techniques above to remove and diffuse the bad thought. Just try and do it right after having this thought.

You will have to do this every time that you have this thought. There are times when you will have to do this many times a day, maybe even an hour, but keep at it. In a lot shorter time than you might imagine, you will reprogram yourself out of this thought pattern and you will naturally find yourself thinking of other things. When you find yourself thinking of other things, go with this flow. Let your mind follow a different path and you will be free from this negativity in no time.

Note: The information in the article below is the result of a decade of personal research. I hope you read it and interpret it with your own personal objectivity, and I hope that it motivates you to do your own research on the subject. Since all of the work is really based on hearsay evidence, there is no way to prove any of it to a scientists satisfaction. But all myth is like this and yet, if one knows of the powers of the mind of man, one realizes that in all cases myth is far more powerful than objective truth.

There are many conceptions and misconceptions about 2012 and what it means. Many believe that the Earth will end or at least that there are is an incredible cataclysm coming that will wipe out all or most of the human race.

As we have explored in the previous article [Top four things people think will happen on 2012], the amount of craziness and wild theory surrounding 2012 is amazing. In this article though we will try to put into words what ‘those in the know’ actually believe to be happening and what will happen. Those in the know is short for; old schools of thought that have existed for thousands of years, maintaining ancient knowledge and wisdom. It is also my term for those that have and can figure it out and are crazy enough to believe it.

In order to truly understand what the ending of the Mayan long count really means, it is better that we talk about The Precession of the Equinoxes. The precession part is talking about the change in the direction of the axis of the Earth. And the Equinoxes are the great belt of constellations that one can see from the earth, or if you prefer, the Astrological signs: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, etc.

I will not go into any deep and technical explanation of how this is all believed to work astronomically. You can do further research yourself if you want to by just Googling some of the key words from this article and following the line of reasoning set here. I will try to explain as best I can what is believed to be happening so that you can understand what is involved. A small note; I doubt that you will find very much or anything at all on some of these theories. While the science data is easy to find, along with great videos, the metaphysical theories are relatively unknown, which is the reason I suppose for some of the great mess and fears surrounding 2012.

What you will find that is very similar, is the belief that the Earth will be going through the ‘Galactic Plane’ on this date. In the last article I explained why this is now known to be erronous. I beleive that this is a distortion of this ancient myth that I am talking about here, and that is the best way that people have been able to make sense of all of this. But what I propose here is brand new and can expalin many ancient mysteries as well as propose some wonderful future possibilities for us all.

As many know, the Earth has a slight tilt to it, about 23⁰ . This tilt though does not always face in the same direction, relative to the other bodies in the galaxy. The Earth tilts sort of like a spinning top, moving 10⁰ every 72 years. Since there are 360 degrees in a circle, and it takes 72 years for the earth tilt to move 1 degree then a full circle of the tilt of the earth takes 25,920 years which most round out to 26,000 years.

Each full circle is called a ‘Great Year’ or a ‘Platonic Year’. One of the major characteristics of this Great year is that as the earth makes it slow tilt turn, the sun will be seen to rise (from the perspective of a person looking into space from the surface of the earth) in a different point in space. The ancients created a large band of sorts which they sectioned off into twelve equal sections. Each one of these sections represents an astrological sign,  each one of these signs represents an age of the Zodiac which is supposed to last 2,160 years. Many believe that we will be entering the age of Aquarius very soon (some believe that it will happen at exactly December 21, 2012) for example.

The importance of all this is relative. Different people measured things using different terms that can make things confusing. For example; in the west people used the Zodiac, but the Maya used the Baktun. The important point here is that Ancient people, especially the Maya, were far better at astronomical measurement than many would like to believe. And that these people made very accurate estimations of the Platonic year, which is very important if we are to understand what some believe will happen on 2012.

Before we continue, we will need to look into another very important celestial body. A very ancient term for this body is ‘The Black Sun’. Again this is a term that is used in Western Schools but it is a good term and the one that I will use here. The Black Sun is a name given to the very powerful gravitational body at the center of our galaxy. Many scientists believe that at the very center of our galaxy, there is a massive Black Hole, and that it is this Black Hole that is responsible for keeping our entire galaxy within our current rotational plane. It is also interesting to note that if you were able to physically see this central mass, it might look very much like a black sun.

Now this black sun is very important because it is believed, according to the theory that is presented here, that the rotating earth axis spends half of the Platonic year (13,000 solar years) pointing towards the Black Sun and the other half (13,000 solar years) pointing away from the Black Sun. The importance of this is that there is an incredible difference in the energies present on the earth depending on which way the earth is pointing.

While the Earth is pointing towards the Black Sun, there is a positive influence. The energy present on the earth is said to be positive as we all move towards the center of the galaxy and the near infinite power there. This is the time when great civilizations become present on the Earth and men become enlightened (by the Black Sun) and realize their true power. It was during this last cycle that Atlantis came about. It was from this time that all those amazing stories and myths come from; these being actual fact.

While the Earth is pointing away from The Black Sun, we are said to be in a dark cycle. The energy is negative and there is chaos and destruction on the Earth. People become selfish and violent as they lose their connection to the great powers. Most importantly people forget; they forget their connection to all that is and knowledge becomes scarce. War and strife are common and become more and more pronounced as we face further and further away from the Back Sun.

We are currently near the end of this negative cycle. That is why there is and there has been so much strife within our recorded history. War, killing, and disasters are the norm, and while there are certain people and mystery schools trying to keep alive the old ways, we are all general savage and primitive.

But the end of the great long count is upon us. And while the dates of the Mayan long count don’t seem to add the same as a platonic year, this long count none the less is the best calculator that we currently have on Earth of the great cycle change. It is believed by some then that December 21, 2012 is the beginning of the new cycle. Here we begin the slow and methodical movement towards the Black Sun. As we do so, we will again begin to remember lost knowledge as we progress towards an enlightened age.

What does the 13,000 year half cycle change really mean? Please read my next article: What does the Black Sun 2012 enigma mean?

Many people set goals for themselves, which is a good thing. Unfortunately following through on those goals becomes a very difficult thing for most and most goals are never achieved.  In this article, we will explore some techniques that you can use to help you meet the goals that you set for yourself.

Let us begin though by becoming very clear on what you want your goals to be. To do this, you will have to spend some time alone and explore your inner visions. See a picture of your ideal future self and work backwards to find out what you will have to do to get there.

It’s also possible that you already have a list in your head of all of the things that you would like to accomplish in the next little while. This will not be enough though; you have to put all these goals on paper. You have to create for yourself a sort of mission statement that will give you the guidance that you require to get yourself going in the right direction.

Putting your goals on paper makes them real and takes them out of the chaotic mess that your mind can become sometimes. Creating a mission statement for yourself, with as much detail as possible, allows you to have the focus that will allow your mind to begin to work on solutions to possible obstacles and to prepare itself to work hard for your benefit. Get detailed; plan your short term and long term objectives, but more importantly create an inspirational paragraph that will represent what you plan to accomplish. Remember to write all this down on papper.

It is also very important that your goal is a dream that you have, not a deadline that you have to meet. If you think of a goal as a deadline, then the pressures that you put on yourself will never allow you to meet those goals. Deadlines seem logical since this is how things seem to work mechanically but people are far more complex than a mechanical instrument. You have to take into account the fact that you are a person with feelings; when you don’t consider your psychological make-up, you are not taking advantage of your full potential.

When you try to achieve a dream, as opposed to meet a deadline, you are following an inner vision. You look forward into the future and you are inspired to use all of your abilities to complete this goal because you have a deep desire to fulfill a wonderful dream. Learn to see your future goals as wonderful dreams and you will naturally create a forward momentum that will give you the strength and impetus to achieve them.

Then just follow your natural impetus. You will see that when you are trying to accomplish a desired dream, you are naturally excited to get started. So use that energy to get started and focus on this good feeling. When you run out of energy, just take a break and then later or the next day go over your written list again until you get excited and once again go for it. Focus on those good feelings and ignore the lazy ones; just take it as a sign that you need a break for now and that you will re-read your goals later and begin excited again. Then re-read, fine tune, get excited, and get going on your wonderful dream again.

And if you need some final bit of inspiration, then there is nothing more inspirational than your death. If you were to die tomorrow, then what would you have accomplished today? A great way to put this together is to think about what your tombstone, or better yet your obituary, would say. Think about what people would say at your wake. As gruesome as this might seem at first, please try to think about what others would be saying about you after your death.

Would they talk about all of the things that you did or would they be talking about what a quiet and dull life you led? Would they talk about the fact that you died at such a young age because of your eating habits or would they talk about the fact that you were in amazing shape and looked great even at your advance age?

Become the person that you always wanted to be before it’s too late. Use the techniques and suggestions in this article to achieve all of the dreams that you have. Learn to use your mortality as a great friend to get you motivated to act your best.

We had discussed in a previous article (External Mental Influences), that there are many energies out there that we pick up on. That in one way or another, we are aware of all of the thoughts that surround us now. This is a very powerful statement if you believe in the law of attraction and in the power of human thought. I want to take this idea further so that you begin to really understand some of the implications that I am presenting here.

The best metaphor I think for this awareness is to say that in essence you are a radio. You have a frequency tuner that allows you to clearly pick up the thoughts and intentions of others, or to tune out those thoughts if you like. You are also constantly sending out thoughts and intentions yourself, thoughts and intentions that constantly affect others.

It is possible therefore to learn how to manage your personal radio. You can learn to tune in to only those things that you want to and to send out only those things that you want as well. The reason why this is a good idea then becomes obvious:

•    If you can pick up on the broadcast of other people then other people play a large role in how you feel throughout your day. And if you believe that indeed thoughts can change the reality around you then it is most important that you become aware of thoughts that are not yours and then learn to tune them out, or the reality that you create will not really be your own, but the one that others impose on you.
•    If others can pick up on your thoughts and emotions and are influenced by them, then it is critical that you control the thoughts that you send out. There are two major reasons for this;
1.    The first is that you are, in many ways, what you project. If you are constantly projecting your thoughts of personal inferiority and low self esteem then others will pick up on these and will see you, and treat you, as you see yourself. Others, to a great extent then, judge you by ‘your thoughts’ of you.
2.    The second is that you actually have a greater responsibility than you have perhaps until now realized. If you contemplate the idea that your thoughts have as much effect on others, perhaps more, as do your actions; it is most important that you learn to control your thoughts because they have the ability to help or hinder others.
If you think bad and demeaning thoughts about someone, then that person will pick up on these thoughts either consciously or unconsciously. If you are expecting help, support or just fairness from that person, then you are not going about it in the right way. That person will react to your thoughts whether that person realizes it or not, and more often than not you will reap what you sow.

Even if you are not willing to concede the possibility of mental telepathy, you are still not safe from this inescapable power of thought. Scientists already know of the great correlation between personal thought and body action. A thought can literally and instantly change body chemistry, physiognomy and general physiology. Here is a little test for you:
Imagine that you are slicing a juicy bright yellow lemon with a knife, and then you take half of this lemon and you take a nice big bite into it. The sour juices squirt into your mouth and begin to drip down your chin.
Did you salivate as you read that? If you did then you created a thought that was powerful enough to change your physiology and affect your autonomic functions. Autonomic functions by the way are body functions that we are not supposed to be able to control consciously. Now this was possible with a simple line, imagine what else is humanly possible.

In this same way a thought can flush the skin, change posture, and create micro expressions.* And while these physiological changes might go unnoticed by a person consciously, they are aware of them unconsciously.

Other peoples thoughts have power. They affect every one of us and if we let them, they will control our fate.
I love the old Stan Lee line, “with great power comes great responsibility.” I think it is very applicably here. Don’t you?

*Micro expressions are expressions that we all make that are usually so quick that they are not consciously detected by others. These expressions mirror our inner emotions and thoughts, and while normal facial expressions can be controlled (by a good poker player for example), these expressions are supposed to be beyond conscious control.
There are those that can train themselves to read these expressions and it is theorized that we are all aware of these expressions in others on a subconscious level, and that we are affected by these ( I have a gut feeling this guy doesn’t like me).

The end of the great long count is upon us and we are all wondering what will happen on December 21, 2012. Perhaps nothing will happen and many will be reminded of Y2K.  But there does seem to be something special about this coming date and it has many curios and some downright scared.

Perhaps it’s the fact that there seem to be so many crazy things happening right now. People look around and see the wars, climatic changes, and the natural disasters and they are reminded of the prophesized end times. Others see psychological changes in people; noticing how man has become so detached from the mother Earth. Noticing also that religious and cultural conflicts which seem to be on the rise.

Whatever the case, 2012 has become a great focal point for many. This focal point is the subject of many speculations and predictions and most of these speak of dire and terrible consequences. For some there are religious overtones while others just see it as an inevitable cycle of destruction that we cannot escape.

In this article we will explore some of these predictions. I will refute at least one of these and that is because it is easily refuted if you know anything about Astronomy. The other reason is that this prediction is a type of misinterpretation of an actual mythological event that is in my opinion far more interesting and far more credible. If you are interested in reading about this, please read; What will really happen on 2012.

Anyway let us get to some of these predictions. In no particular order:

•    Coronal Mass Ejection/Solar Flares_ Many believe that we will be experiencing either one massive or perhaps many massive Coronal ejections from the Sun. These are mass ejections of matter and electromagnetic radiation by the Sun. If they are large enough they could wipe out all or most of the life on earth.
The general belief is that these are cyclic events that happen in the history of the solar system. The Maya were able to predict these large solar events and 2012 marks the beginning of these great flares from the sun.

•    Nibiru/Comet_ There is also the belief among many that 2012 marks the return of either a huge rouge planet or comet. This massive stellar object is the great destroyer of the world, its appearance points to a massive Earth apocalypse that will leave our planet a barren wasteland. This is also considered to be a cyclic event that the Maya were able to calculate, and December 21, 2012 marks its appearance in our solar system. This massive stellar body will pass within such a close proximity to the Earth, following its own 5,126 year cycle, that it will cause incredible destruction due to gravitational upheaval.

•    We all live in a computer program…_ This is perhaps one of the more interesting theories about what will happen on 2012. The theory is basically that we all actually exist inside a computer program and that this program will be shutting down on December 21, 2012 at exactly 11:11 am.
Peter Gurston has a very interesting take on this theory. He believes that he has received information from extraterrestrial sources which have told him how he can save the world. He believes that he has to leap off of Bell Rock in Sedona Arizona. On December 21, 2012 at exactly 11:11 am (which is the exact time of the Winter’s Solstice) a portal will open up. If he is able to jump through this portal, he will literally save the world.

•    We are going through the Galactic Plane_ This theory states that on 2012 we will actually be going through the center of the Galaxy. How this works is that we are supposed to be following a 26,000 thousand year cycle that puts us through the Galactic Plane every 13,000 years. In order to understand this you must realize that our Galaxy is not believed to be a giant sphere but more like a flat pancake.
The solar system (where we reside) is located near the edge of this great pancake; the Milky Way Galaxy. Moreover the Solar system is not stationary but it is spinning slowly around the center of the Milky Way and as it does so it wobbles above and below the pancake. For example for 13,000 years it is above the pancake and for 13,000 years it is below the pancake. On December 21, 2012 we will be going right into the pancake, which is called the Galactic Plane, hopefully to come out the other side to start another 13,000 year cycle.
This is bad because going through the pancake is deadly. The gravitational forces here are supposed to be so huge that the Earth will be devastated and most life on Earth will perish. It is also believed by some that during this time the sun will disappear for 3 to 5 days, this of course would be fatal for most life on Earth.

Now this last theory is actually the most easily disproved because Astronomers have been able to predict the Solar System’s movement with great accuracy. Astronomers now know that this wobble through the pancake is not a 26,000 thousand year cycle but that it actually takes 33 million years. Astronomers calculate that we won’t go through this Galactic Plane for another 30 million years, so 2012 is a bit too close to fit this theory!

There is another theory though that also uses a 26,000 year cycle. One that I have not seen listed anywhere on the internet, one which I followed for many years. This one has to do with the Platonic year, with cycles of light and darkness and is a possible explanation for what might actually happen on December 21, 2012 at 11:11 am. Stay tuned as I will be publishing this article shortly.

Do you have a family member that just doesn’t agree with your choice in life style? There is always someone, especially a parent that is upset by a choice that you have made and by the kind of life that you are leading.

I hope that I don’t need to tell you that there is no one that should be able to tell you how to live your life. If you are an adult, then you have all the right in the world to do as you like with your life. Even if you are living in a parent’s or a relative’s home, you still have the right to a free life as an adult. As long as you are responsible for your actions and you are considerate of others then be who you want to be.

Yet I am quite certain that most of us will encounter resistance from a family member. I suppose that they feel that they know best and that they are trying to save you from ruining your life. It is therefore a good idea to take into consideration the fact that they have your better interest in mind. What I mean to say by this is that you should not hate them or become antagonistic; family after all is a terrible thing to lose.

But you can turn that opponent into an ally. If you are willing to follow some simple advice, you can turn what can be a very difficult situation, into an opportunity to create friendship, respect and mutual growth. To do this, all that you need to do is to open your heart and give through kind intentions.

The first chance that you get, you have to make some small gesture to help your hostile family member. You don’t need to do anything big; you could mow a lawn or run an errand for them. Open your heart and ask yourself how you can help. I am sure that you will come up with a number of acts of kindness that you perform that would be of great help.

After you do this kind act, don’t sit around waiting for any sort of reward. Do things because you thought that they were things that needed to be done and you wanted to help out. Also don’t go around showing off and letting others know that you did this magnanimous act. If you can give freely without needing anything in return, your actions will begin to soften your opponent’s heart.

It’s difficult to dislike someone who has helped you out. You might not be able to change your family member’s feelings or beliefs on certain matters but a kind act, done unselfishly, can begin to melt even the coldest heart. You might want to act in this unselfish manner on a regular basis since the more that you are willing to give, the more that you will get in return.

Faced with this new set of circumstances, your old opponent will be forced to re-evaluate his/her thinking. If this person truly cares for you, then he/she will be willing to rethink his/her ideas about you. At worst you will have gained a bit of admiration from your old rival. When we can only agree to disagree, there is the possibility of mutual respect.

Do remember to act with sincerity. Being fake and performing phony gestures is no way to treat others, especially when they are your family. Give honestly and act honestly and you will find that barriers that seemed impenetrable will turn into opportunities for new personal growth.

The prerequisite to any healthy lifestyle is a good night’s sleep. With our hectic everyday routine this can sometimes be a difficult thing. Nerves that are held in a constant state of tension, due to our stress, make it very difficult to relax when we finally get to bed.

There are things that you can do to help you get to sleep on time and to be able to sleep on a regular basis:

•    First on the list is exercise. If you have an office job or any kind of a job where you are stationary for large periods of time, then you definitely need to exercise on a regular basis. Work out your cardiovascular system as often as you can. This doesn’t have to be anything stressful, just as long as you are raising your heart rate a bit and you are maintaining that rate for a good fifteen minutes.

Walks are a wonderful way to exercise, and if you can’t get out for a walk then a nice casual ride on a stationary bicycle is a great alternative. Exercise does more than just get you tired so that you can sleep better. Exercise is the best way to beat stress and make you feel good. A good work out gets your body to release “endorphins” which are the feel good chemical in your brain.

•    Avoid the coffee. It seems that it’s next to impossible to go to work for eight hours now a days without ingesting at least one cup of coffee. The reasons are understandable and there are times when you just need to get your dose of caffeine in. Do try to avoid taking too much though; see if you can go from 3 cups to 1 cup. But if you must have your java, then have a cup early in the day and try to avoid coffee in the afternoon. This will help your body to get rid of most of that caffeine in your system before bedtime.

At all costs try and stay away from those power drinks that are so popular right now. These drinks will usually contain more than just caffeine; they can contain Ginseng, Gingko, Taurine, or all of the above.  Your body has a much harder time getting rid of all of these chemicals and as result you will find that sleeping will get harder and harder.

•    Try to keep some kind of schedule. The biggest thing to avoid is the mid afternoon nap. I personally know a large number of people that say that they have a hard time going to sleep, but you wouldn’t know it when their nap time rolls around. Try to wake up and go to sleep at a certain time and avoid any deviation from this schedule. If you know that you get really tired at a certain time of the day then make sure that you make plans to be out and about during those times so that you don’t fall prey to the “cat nap” gods.

A great way to get you in the mood for sleep is to create a routine. Every night before you go to bed, you might for example want to do few light stretches, fluff your pillow in one particular way, turn off the light, and go to sleep. The idea here is that your body begins to equate this routine with sleep. Eventually a simple routine like this will be all that you will need to get yourself in the perfect state of being for a wonderful night’s sleep.

The law of attraction movement seems to be growing, not dissipating. This is perhaps an indication of the times and of a new frontier in human consciousness. Most people are starting to take responsibility for their consciousness and for the thoughts that fill their heads.

The Law of attraction very basically states that all things that are alike tend to attract each other. This law can be seen at work in all things in life; whether it is subatomic particles, people or even stars. This law, as it concerns us human beings, is most evident in our conscious thought patterns. Like thoughts tend to attract each other. If we think of golf balls then we tend to think more and more of them as our consciousness tends to bring more and more like thoughts. Along with the ever increasing thoughts of golf, clubs, putting and different colored golf balls, our being does an amazing thing; it starts to focus our awareness and attention so that we start to reject some external data and become more aware of other external data.

Before long you not only think more and more about golf balls, you also start to actually see more and more golf balls in your objective reality. You see them in fields, left by some errant drive perhaps, you see them more in tv and you run into people that seem to have some story that relates to those little pesky balls. Now this is mostly the cause of a very interesting human phenomenon where personal consciousness can actually be manipulated to see what it wants to see. It’s not that there are more golf balls, it’s just that your consciousness is adjusting itself to filter out data that it doesn’t care about and to focus more on those things that are more relevant; you see what you focus on.

Now this is more than reason enough to begin to use the Law of Attraction. Essentially if you can manage to manage your thoughts and attention, you can begin to see what you want to see and to reject those things that you don’t. Definitely a great way to stay in a positive and happy mood for as long as you like, whenever you like. Actually NLP, for example, takes this for granted and its creators (John Grinder and Richard Bandler) generated a number of different techniques that can help you to pick and choose the thoughts that you want, and the intensity of those thoughts.

This actually has been studied by scientist and it’s a well-documented phenomenon. Those that truly believe in the Law of Attraction proper though, also believe that this is just the beginning of what is possible. With discipline, maintaining ones mental focus on the desired, one can go beyond just seeing what one wants to see. A person can actually begin to attract circumstances and things. True proponents of this great law take it for granted that thoughts are things and that thoughts are the creators of matter and not the other way around.

Using the golf ball example, a student of the great law would expect to actually increase the amount of golf balls that are present in their lives. This law would then explain why you would start running into others with golf ball or related stories. These contacts and synchronous events would put the golf ball mentalist in tune with circumstances where golf balls and the related would actually start increasing in his or her life. The belief is essentially that if this practitioner of the Law of Attraction were to successfully refocus his/her mind correctly, he/she would eventually find himself inundated with golf balls. He/she would eventually have to move out of his home and start a putting range or a golf ball museum 🙂

While the last line is somewhat in jest, the Law of Attraction and the power of the human mind is in no way a joke to the author. Look up ‘accidental collector’ in Google and you will see that an accidental collector is not such a farfetched thing at all!

It then is plane and obvious to any that understand the power of the human mind that thoughts are indeed a very powerful thing. And it is therefore of great importance that we all become more conscious of the thoughts that we are having and what we are focusing on.

BUT even though there are an incredible number of books out there on the Law of Attraction, and the power of the human mind; very, very few of those books speaks of the importance of EXTERNAL MENTAL INFLUNCES.

Whether you are interested in acquiring or maintaining a life free of negative energy or you are interested in using the Law of Attraction to increase your Wealth or Health, it behooves you to understand the power of external mental influences and how to manage them.

Some might argue that you don’t have to believe in telepathy and external mental influences to practice the Law of Attraction but that is sort of like saying that you can believe in fish but you don’t have to believe in water. If you believe that thoughts are things, that thoughts have electromagnetic properties that attract thoughts of similar properties, and that thoughts of enough intensity can become ‘real’ things in 3dimensinal reality, then it is a given that these thoughts can affect human consciousness.

Perhaps in the future I will write an article on how you can prove, to yourself at least, the reality of telepathy and external mental influences. For now I want you to just realize that many of those courses, books, and seminars on the Law of Attraction that you have participated in, are half finished. What you need to know, something that is perhaps far more important than manifesting itself, is how to manage the often times chaotic external mental world.

Many readers find themselves plagued by negative energy of all sorts. They wonder why their minds are filled with so many negative thoughts. What they don’t realize is that many of these thoughts and energy are not internal but are in fact thoughts, emotions and ideas that are picked up from the people and places all around us.

This is the first of hopefully many articles that I will be writing on external metal influence. I first hope to make the reader aware of this mental environment and them to give him/her techniques that will allow those interested to control and manipulate this mental energy.