Following this mindset, we feel proud and happy when we perceive ourselves as winning or having gotten the upper hand against another person or group of people; while the perception that we have lost, are losing, or that we are “less than” anyone causes emotional discomfort and even pain. In business transactions, many of us feel gratified if we believe we have received the better end of a bargain – even if that means taking unfair advantage of another person.

Because we have lost sight of our true power, many of us seek to manipulate people or situations as necessary to avoid losing at all costs. But the more we strive to win, the more we create discord between our vibratory offering and the source of all blessings and abundance.

Specifically, while we may create the perception that we are winners because we have gained a material advantage, in this way we also deepen the mental conditioning that our value is dependent on our ability to be more, do more or get more than other people.  This validates our egocentric feeling of separation from everything else, which causes mental tension and fear around the possibility of losing.

Because we expend most of our mental energy on our endeavors to “get ahead”, our vibratory offering serves to disconnect us from the part of Self that is the source of total WellBeing. As we continue from the feeling of separation and fear, we tend to rely mostly upon our basic human will to compete as our life’s radar – which makes our sense of well being dependent on whether we win or lose.

When our feelings are dependent on how things turn out, we create conflict and dis-ease in our bodies and in the world.  The more we do to gain control over people and circumstances, the more illness we create for ourselves through our attachment to outcomes, and for the world by the way we project ourselves into it.

Even if we accumulate massive wealth or achieve the highest esteem amongst our colleagues, we cannot be fulfilled until we have attained Joy that is not dependent on circumstance or accomplishment.

As we seek the emotions of proud/happy/worthy through circumstance, we are only receptive to whatever keeps us alternating between these emotions and their opposites.  But when we seek the Self that is pure Joy, we begin to evolve to a level of awareness that allows our lives to flow more easily, peacefully and Joyfully.

Only our true Self knows what in the world will lead us to the peace of mind that comes from experiencing the Joy within ourselves. Everything we do with our bodies and minds is only for the material exercise through which we can find this treasure, and feeling attached to any of it can only detract from the Joyful experience we were born to create.

By shifting our focus from competition to compassion throughout our daily lives – even in business and interpersonal dealings, we gradually begin to open up to the possibilities that transcend the reasonable mind.  As we expand our receptivity, we can finally experience the Joy of Being – just as we are.

While our perception of peoples’ behavior and circumstance may shake that Joy temporarily, every experience leads to a deeper understanding of Self and to an expanded awareness of the Joy that is our essence.

We are neither winners nor losers, but each of us is the pure energy that creates our experience in this time-space reality. To the extent that we create Joy, we are experiencing truth – and that equals success.

We have conditioned ourselves to believe that hard work and struggle is the way to create a meaningful life. In accordance with those beliefs, we sacrifice our health, happiness and peace of mind to meet the expectations for “success” created by our perception of self through the eyes of other people.

But our real power is our creativity, not physical or mental prowess. Our human abilities to calculate and act are only tools for physical movement toward that which we have already created through the energy of our thoughts.

Since most of us emanate energy that projects our beliefs in physical labor and/or mental cunningness as a way of life, we wind up working ourselves into dis-ease in our attempt to accomplish a fleeting sense of self worth. Fear and fatigue permeate our lives as we compete against one another to gain money, status, respect and love from sources outside of ourselves.

When we work ourselves into what feels like bondage, we either continue working in a depressed state of mind, or seek charity either from government or people we consider more fortunate. And eventually many of us give up entirely, resigning ourselves to a life of mental and physical illness because we can see no way out.

But faith is knowledge that the unlimited possibilities for progression toward our destiny lie largely in what we cannot see; and that each step will become apparent as soon as we are prepared.  When our thought energy is aligned with our desires, the next step to facilitate their manifestation becomes obvious and feels Joyful.

Those of us who lack faith mostly think of all the circumstantial difficulties between what we are and what we wish we could be, while condemning people who we perceive as greedy, selfish or unfair. Then we endeavor to work feverishly toward what we think we deserve and/or use mental manipulation to control people or situations.

Most of us who achieve substantial monetary gain in this manner deal with guilt and depravation in many other areas of our lives. To compensate, many of us become “do-gooders”, giving money to charities that help the so-called less fortunate.

Even the charities we tend to support extend our ignorance in the belief that certain people are powerless and impotent; which only adds to the energy that makes them so. The reality is that the more we give with misplaced energy, the more lack we create in the world.

The truth is that every single person on Earth is born into this material environment to be powerful creators, not by our own works but through focus upon our desires coupled with inspired action which can only follow knowledge that every desire is already fulfilled. Our ability to visualize our desires being manifest is the power that synchronizes everything in the material world toward the fulfillment of them.

If we are not feeling the Joyful energy that match the manifestation of our desires, our work accomplishes nothing but further identification with struggle as a way of being in the material world.

Until we are able to sacrifice the egocentric sense of self, we cannot fully experience the blessings and beauty that we have come forth to create. This means releasing the sense that we have to do anything at all and learning to enjoy being in the present moment without worry or despair.

Be true to you and let the inspired actions that follow your creativity describe your purpose.

If there is anyone you resent or have not forgiven, you are reading this because your soul wants to be revealed to you – and this message has been attracted by that wanting. The pain of your past has caused you to keep defending against it in body and mind, and while the following words resonate deeply with your soul, your ego will want to reject them out of fear that you will be harmed again.

This message is not intended to win your soul or change you in any way. You are perfect just as you are now.  Speaking of now, did you know that now is eternity, and your choice of focus is the creator of the events that will be? It has always been that way.

Biological imprints are pre-programmed into the subconscious mind from previous human experience, and even newborn babies are attracting the experiences that form their reality.  As long as we continue to allow the blueprint of the subconscious mind to shape our lives, our individual and shared reality continue to unfold according to that plan.

Every event, circumstance and person that you have ever experienced in your life was attracted to you by your own thought offering.  Whether those thoughts were offered in this life or a previous one, every physical manifestation is only an echo of the thought patterns that have come before.

Your true Self is Divine, innocent, pure, and all knowing. While this enduring Self bears witness to all experiences, the witness is NOT identified by any experience.

You don’t need to know why anything happened, but know that every uncomfortable or painful event is an invitation to evolve your awareness of truth, and replace old patterns with more favorable ones.  By harnessing the power of forgiveness, you can transform your emotions, your life, and the world.

The greater the challenge, the greater the reward, and dealing with abuse is an enormous challenge.

Our bodies and minds are extensions of the same conscious energy having experiences from different perspectives. Living in a material reality causes us to perceive one another as separate even though we are intricately connected through a single source energy.    This means that anyone who has acted to harm your physical and/or mental self is really another extension of You.

Anyone involved in your abuse was attracted to you just as you were attracted to them because your energetic frequencies were aligned. The vibrational patterns of every emotion resound into a future reality in time and space, and feelings of resent, malice, etc. can only project for that which we do not want to create.

Moreover, any feelings that we reject are repressed, and repressed feelings generate power until they overcome our will and burst out of us in the form of painful emotion. Holding on to your past causes it to project into your present, and imprisons you in the same or similar energetic patterns that have proven to be detrimental to your wellbeing.

The intent to Forgive is an important first step in removing yourself from this otherwise eternal dance of victim and perpetrator so that you may live in harmony and be a creator of peace.

This is a very personal and internal transition, and need not be made known to any other person. There is no need to have any contact with any person who committed an offense against you. Forgiveness releases feelings of dis-ease for the one who practices it, whether or not forgiveness is communicated to any other person.  By creating peace of mind for yourself, you are creating more peace in our shared reality for this and future generations (the greater part of You).

The way to forgiveness is through Love, which is cultivated by remembering who you are.  The understanding that you are intricately connected to everything else is instrumental in allowing Love to guide you into the recesses of your mind and body to dissolve that which prevents you from fully experiencing the present moment.

True forgiveness can only be accomplished through feeling, not thinking.  When you notice feelings of rage, anger, helplessness, depression, etc. associated with the past, breathe deeply into those feelings without interjecting thought. This allows the part of you that is pure Love to be present, and that presence dissolves the emotional charge of past events while healing old wounds.

This kind of deep healing is very effective yet not easily explained.  Any explanation of forgiveness must be a bit abstract because the experience is unique to each person and cannot be fully described through language.

It will become clearer the more you expose yourself to your Self.  Be present to the thoughts that cause you discomfort and remember that those thoughts are not the real You, but associations made by your subconscious mind.

If anyone’s words cause you discomfort, it means you are taking something personal, and this can only happen when you perceive yourself as your self-image (ego).  The discomfort you feel is an indication that your attention is being called to expose what has been hidden from your awareness, and to discover what’s true in you.

It’s not easy for the subconscious mind to allow Love for those who have caused you harm. Our vibrational offerings are habits that have been developed over lifetimes, and in most cases they are not quickly redirected to serve us.  But if you remain curious to the possibility, the benefits will begin to speak for themselves.

Free your soul from the prison of the past, allow your real Self to radiate through your awareness and live without limitation.

Humans tend to be impressed by struggle and scholarly endurance because we have been conditioned to believe that our purpose in life is to be a productive member of society.  Instead of learning from curiosity and wonder, we force ourselves to struggle through courses and subjects that are dry, boring, or not even remotely interesting in order to obtain a certificate that validates our intelligence and worth.

Understanding is not accomplished through struggle itself, but though our ability to overcome struggle.

Most of us believe that overcoming struggle is accomplished by enduring struggle to acquire knowledge.  But in reality, the more struggle we endure, the more struggle we create.  Our ability to learn is not meant to cause struggle, but to inspire a joyful journey of discovery, exploration and fulfillment of curiosity – all of which lead to understanding.

A degree is merely a symbol that we have attained the knowledge acceptable to society in a particular area of study. As long as we do not express understanding that contradicts the taught doctrines, that degree will remain valid, acceptable and society may even consider us an expert on the subject of our study.

Moreover, the one who earns a degree is easily tempted to believe their self to be more important or superior to other people.  This is because other peoples’ perception of us gives credence to the self image that we have been creating ever since we developed the mental concept of self as separate from everything else.  A degree provides a sense that we are revered by other people, and arrogance can easily become our dominant expression.

But when we learn from those who have gone before with the intent to understand – not for a degree or self importance – we can attain both worldly knowledge and our true Self.  No degree can validate that which a person understands, and when we have understanding, no validation is necessary.

Certain chemicals are released and neurons are fired by the brain in response to our thoughts. Whether a thought is offered in response to a present occurrence, a memory, an imagined scenario, or a future expectation, the brain releases chemicals which trigger emotions and send messages to every cell in the body.

Each thought is mechanically processed by the brain as an experience – without distinction between whether that experience is occurring in real time, remembered, or imagined. While the non-mechanical mind is aware that past memories and imagined scenarios are not occurring in the present moment, the physical brain and body perceive all thoughts as actual, real time experiences.

Moreover, the brain evaluates our thoughts in order to calculate its perception of time-space reality. The more thought experience we offer, the more the brain compensates by creating a perception that time must be moving faster.

As children, we had very few memories and fewer ideas of future outcomes. Thus, we had little choice but to live in the present moment most of the time. For this reason time seemed to barely move at all – it almost stood still.

With age, we accumulate and rehash more memories and we create more scenarios of past and future outcomes. Most of these thought experiences are involuntary, and are offered at the same time we are also engaged in a real time experience.

In fact, with age we are likely to develop a “racing mind” which continuously and rapidly entertains memories, scenarios and programmed thought patterns. This leads to mental and physical exhaustion, as well as the perception of time passing at breakneck speeds.

Using the very mechanics of our brains, we have the ability to both slow down our perception of time, and create a much more joyful life experience in the process. With attention to our thoughts, we can use our brain as a tool for living in the present moment – using past memories and predicting outcomes only when necessary.

By paying attention, we can evaluate each thought pattern and determine whether it is productive. Then we can offer thoughts which bring us back into the present moment.

Focusing on the journey through each moment will make life less predictable and extend our experience of time.

What is this emotion of pride? And why is it being promoted as a feeling that should be basked in and displayed for others to see?

Pride is not love because it is conditional – Pride is a perceived sense of worthiness based upon an inherited or achieved status, hence it would be subject to withdrawal if that status or achievement were different.  Love is unconditional and it is never changed, diminished, or lost for any reason.

We are here to fully and completely enjoy this diversity and contrast we call reality.  When we feel love for ourselves, for all others, and for everything that is – we can release pride as we bask in the delightful experience that is love.

Pride is not joy because it demands to be acknowledged by others as being something or having accomplished something of value.  When others do not see that value, a feeling of pride has a tendency to slip into anger, shame or depression.  Conversely, joy emanates from the soul and can only be shrouded, but never diminished by judgments of mind.

Moreover, when a person vibrates with a prideful feeling, they attract others who hold judgments of hate, shame, guilt, resentment or even pity for them.  When these judgments are perceived, the mind tells us to hold stronger to the feeling of pride, lest we allow ourselves to be shamed – and the cycle repeats itself with stronger feelings of resistance as we allow our minds to take us down this path.

The reason anyone would adopt a sense of pride in the first place is to command acceptance.  When that doesn’t work out, and we get the opposite of what we wanted, we push harder – we resist our true selves more – and life is quite a bit less joyful than it was meant to be.

Pride is not knowledge because it carries a vibration of fear.  Throughout life, we notice others who expect us to feel shameful for something that we are or something that we have done.  Our mind convinces us that a prideful feeling is essential to thwart these expectations.  Our mind tends to cling to the prideful feeling because it fears shame, which is its opposite.

Knowledge recognizes the self as being magnificent in its own right and that nothing can diminish the self except judgments of the mind.

That being said, pride is not a “bad” emotion, but an instructional one.  When we are aware of a prideful feeling, we can release it before the mind creates fear from it.  We can achieve this release by directing our thoughts to love/appreciation/joy that we created what we are, and that we have the opportunity to experience reality from this vantage point.

In this way, we can bring ourselves closer to knowing that we are perfection itself.  And that perfection, that purity – although it is the only thing really worthy of pride – does not know pride.