Do you face extreme difficulty in manifesting material wealth? Well, can it be that you have negative money beliefs lying at the back of your subconscious mind?

(Photo Credit: emdot)

Negative money beliefs are not mere fleeting thoughts. They run a hidden program much like a software, sabotaging your best intents. They are the small “voices” in your head that actually override what you like to believe but don’t.

What goes on in your subconscious wields much power, perhaps even more so than your conscious mind. If you don’t already know this, it has been estimated that the average man uses not more than 10 percent of his mental power. The remaining 90 percent of mental activities take place subconsciously.

A Simple Way To Check On Your Money Beliefs

If you think you do not have any negative money thoughts, then try this simple exercise. Think about your parents. What kind of money beliefs do they have? Very often, your own money beliefs are unconsciously ingrained since your childhood days because of the beliefs of your parents. It might well be that your parents often discussed their money problems. Within earshot, their repeated words made an imprint in your subconscious, even while you were playing with your toys in the living room back then. Please note that this exercise is not a blaming exercise. Rather, it is one to create awareness and understanding. Your parents did not know better and they were probably brought up in exactly the same way, as they’ve raised you.

Regular Mental Housekeeping

It is a Chinese custom to spring clean our homes before the Lunar New Year begins. The whole house is cleaned to usher in good luck. Out with the old and in with the new, so to speak. In addition to clearing old books and toys, I also took some time for a mental housekeeping exercise last weekend.

Approximately once a year, I go through a checklist of negative money beliefs. This time round, while working on the list, a thought struck. Perhaps some of my readers may be interested to do the same with my 101 list! Provided in the following paragraphs are more details on how I go about addressing mine.

The recent financial meltdown may also activate the program of lack that runs inside your head. While you already know that you “should” not worry, it is easier said than done. I prefer to decisively eliminate any negative beliefs with practical applications, such as with the use of the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).

101 Money Beliefs

To work on negative money beliefs, it is best that you identify the specific ones that possibly hold you back. When you connect with your emotional pain of not having enough, EFT works more effectively. EFT is a method that involves tapping the meridian points on your face and body.

To start you off, however, you may wish to refer to my list of 101 negative money beliefs that I have collated from books, articles and discussions with others:

NEGATIVE COMMON MONEY BELIEFS
Many of us have beliefs that come from what others say or what others will like us to believe.

1 Money doesn’t grow on trees.
2 Money is filthy and dirty.
3 Money is evil.
4 I am poor but clean (or good).
5 Money is in short supply.
6 Money goes out faster than it comes in.
7 The cost of living is so high that it is impossible to keep up.
8 It’s hard to hold onto money.
9 A penny saved is a penny earned.
10 It’s better to hoard money. You never know when the rainy day will come.
11 A Depression can come at any moment.
12 Only people who cheat have money.
13 Money only comes from hard work.
14 I can only earn more when I put in more hours at work.
15 Rich people are greedy and dishonest.
16 Money is not spiritual.
17 It is a sin to have a lot of money.
18 Spiritual people are not supposed to be rich.
19 It’s easier to spend than save money.
20 Poor people can never get out from under.
21 Rich people are seldom happy.
22 Credit card companies are loan sharks.
23 I need lots of money first to make more money.
24 It’s hard to have multiple sources of income coming in, other than from my job.
25 It is difficult to make money from my investments.
26 There is a limit to how much I can earn.
27 Good opportunities hardly come by.

IDENTITY / SELF ESTEEM BELIEFS
Many of our negative money beliefs stem from having a poor self esteem. You need to address money beliefs at root causes, otherwise you would have largely missed addressing them at the right areas. Working on self-love issues opens you to receiving abundance more freely into your life. The entire process of working on yourself may sound tedious but just remember this: Thoughts of unworthiness will not be able to attract the same vibrational frequency of money, essentially a spiritual asset and a form of energy exchange.

28 I do not deserve success.
29 I do not have unique talents or abilities.
30 Others just do not like me.
31 Everyone else comes first.
32 I am not worthy as a person.
33 I’ll probably just fail anyway.
34 I don’t deserve money.
35 I’m not good enough to make money.
36 I’m no better than my parents, so I shouldn’t make more then they did.
37 But we can’t afford that.
38 I cannot handle or manage money well.
39 I am such a loser.
40 If I’m successful, my friends will be jealous and stop liking me.
41 I will never get a good job.
42 I am always in debt.
43 My bank account will always be low.
44 I don’t want to have money and be stuck up.
45 I may just forget what’s truly important and not like the person I’ve become.
46 I resents others having money.
47 I will never be able to make much money.
48 I am just too stupid to make money.
49 I am just too slow to make money.
50 It is just too difficult to get ahead based on my lack of academic qualifications.
51 My parents were poor, and I will be poor.
52 It is best to remain poor so that my relatives will not borrow money from me.
53 Artists (or whatever your profession is) have to struggle hard to earn a living.
54 Oh, I can’t charge that much.
55 Oh, I can’t charge more than my competitor.
56 Making money is just too difficult.
57 No one has ever said that making money is easy.
58 I am just not good with money.
59 Never tell anyone what I have in the bank.
60 I can never pay off my credit card bill.
61 I don’t like receiving bills.
62 I don’t like writing checks to pay others, even if it is for a payment for their services.
63 I don’t deserve a pay rise.
64 It’s not right to ask for a pay raise.
65 I don’t like being in the limelight.
66 I like to buy gifts for others but I find it hard to spend on myself.
67 The higher I go, the harder I will fall.
68 I will never be a millionaire.
69 I will never gain financial freedom.
70 I am only worth minimum wage.
71 I find it hard to value my own potential.
72 It is best not to earn too much because I don’t want to pay more in alimony.
73 I cannot change my predetermined fate.
74 I just don’t like to think about money.
75 I don’t want to attract friends for the wrong reasons.

VALUE BELIEFS
These are beliefs that you hold about your life and your experience of it.

76 Without money, I am worth nothing.
77 I prefer to dream small so that I am not too pressurized.
78 I do not love myself for who I am.
79 I cannot be happy if I am rich.
80 I am unable to manifest abundance.
81 My life is one of suffering.
82 Only with money, can I live life fully.
83 I cannot do what I love because it does not pay well.
84 I do not like to take responsibility.
85 Life is meant to be a struggle, not a breeze.
86 Why should the Universe/God support me?
87 Everything I touch is a disaster.
88 I am never lucky.
89 Only dreamers think they can get rich but I am a realist.
90 Dreams rarely come true.
91 Miracles rarely or never happen to me.
92 I will never have enough.
93 I feel safe being poor.
94 It is dangerous to be rich.
95 I will always be poor.
96 The future has nothing good in store for me.
97 It’s okay to be able to survive each day.
98 Abundance is not my birthright.
99 The more money I have, the more problems I will have.
100 It is impossible to have it all: a loving family, a job I love, great friends, good health and lots of money.
101 There is no need for more since I can’t take it with me anyway.

Next, in order to know if there are any statement that holds true in your subconscious, you may wish to muscle test yourself. Or if you are familiar with dowsing, you can also use your pendulum to check against your subconscious mind. If any statement is found to be true, tap away the negative money belief, using the statements as follows….

“Even though I believe that money is the root of all evils, I deeply and completely love and accept myself. I forgive myself and all others who have contributed to the same situation.”

“Even though I __________, I deeply and completely love and accept myself. I forgive myself and all others who have contributed to the same situation.”

There are slight variations to how you can apply EFT to your meridian points. But they essentially achieve the same goal. Here is a video that shows the points that you can tap:

Resources:

If you need more information on EFT, check out the following:

1. The official website – Emofree provides a ton of information. Update!! Gary Craig, the founder of the technique, has just announced his retirement and may no longer be updating it!!

2. Prefer to be shown how to do EFT? If you are a Singaporean and would like to work on your money beliefs, I offer workshops. Do send me an email at abundancetapestry [at] gmail.com for more details. I also offer personal consultations if you prefer to work one-on-one.

3. EFT Downloads.

Money Blessings
May all my readers be open to receiving an endless flow of abundance – including financial prosperity – always!! May your material needs be met, your choices divinely guided and your wealth constantly increasing! May you be well, happy and complete!!

Your Comments Please

Do you have money beliefs that you suspect are holding you back? What, in your experience, have caused them to take root? What methods are you using to eliminate them?

Much happened during my trip to Hokkaido last December 2008. To begin with, landing at the airport in Japan invoked a strange melancholic feeling rightaway. I found myself tuning into the strangest sensation, a sense that I have been here before.

Something was clearly amiss with how only my two daughters and I took turns to be sick throughout the trip. We were like playing the Russian roulette. As soon as one of the three of us felt better, another would be struck with fever at precisely around the same time. All in all, I fell ill 2-3 times in the space of ten days.

Perceptively, I noted that even on the days when my daughters were well, they were not quite their usual selves. It was odd that they were not all that wild while on a holiday in a beautiful location, with their cousins to play with all day and the joy of a new experience – snow. They were happy enough but I would have expected them to be ecstatic, using previous holidays as a yardstick. It might be the flu and the cold temperature but my gut said otherwise.

Sure enough, when I decided to ask for guidance from my Higher Self, I was led into the insight that my daughters and I have been in the exact location of Furano where the ski slopes were situated not just once before but in a number of my past lives. We were not all in the same physical incarnations. But our lives were pretty tied together and miserable ones too! Perhaps, the right triggers were all in place for past life memories to surface, for the trip was supposed to culminate in a Christmas Eve celebration on the most magical night – the night of my birthday and the time when I was born (9pm).

I observed with amazement that after some past life clearing, my younger daughter, Min, experienced a turnaround in her behavior. She was stuck in fear initially while snow skiing in Furano and was clearly not enjoying herself at the sport. We have started on emotional healing using EFT way back during classes in Singapore, before flying off on our vacation, thinking that Min had just a fear of heights. While in Furano, after suspecting that it might be past life connections that were influencing her mood, we decided to clear her of any karmic links. Lo and behold after a night of energetic work…she sprang to life the very next day!! She became so alive and enthusiastic, that she was skiing non-stop. Min even outdid her sister!

Min snow skiing in Furano

Unfortunately things were not quite so simple from my end. Even after flying home, discomfort levels from my blocked ears intensified. By then, all of us have already recovered from our bouts of fever. In the first few days after coming home, the low hum would give way to a shrill drill piercing my eardrums, giving me bad headaches. It was also annoying to hear my heartbeat so closely, affecting my ability to sit down and concentrate.

Concerned that I could be going for deaf for some unknown reasons, I went to see a doctor. He allayed my fears. His diagnosis was that my ear problems started from a viral flu I caught just prior to flying off for my vacation. I had nasal congestion that blocked up my respiratory passages. Altitude changes when I took off on the plane and subsequently going up the ski slopes of Furano did not help.

Intensive Energy Clearing of Past Life Issues

After one week, I noted that the course of antibiotics and bed rest had done little in resolving my ear problems. Following up on my gnawing feeling, I was prompted to check if there were more emotional issues springing from past lives that needed clearing. As I tuned into my earache, I experienced a bitter aftertaste on my tongue. A flash of Hokkaido appeared in front of me. I was plagued with extreme sadness.

Here were some of the emotions that I dug up…

Hurt. Immobilized. Indignation. Insecure. Melancholy. Miserable. Rage. Regret. Exasperated. Despair. Loveless. Regret. Depressed. Grief. Traumatized. Victimized. Wary. Threatened. Defeated. Fear. Disappointed. Let Down. Distraught. Oppressed. Discouraged. Dejected. Unhappiness.

Over the last two days, I also sought help from a practitioner friend, who regressed me. In the end, we cleared hundreds of lifetimes that created discordant energies in my ears. They were caused by deaths through drowning in cold water, being actually deaf, trauma from extremely loud noises and a variety of situations. Almost all of them came from past lives in Japan, in particular Hokkaido.

From a score of 10, my discomfort level is now a 1 or a 2. I have also addressed any emotional issues with EFT, on possible blocks to hearing things that I subconsciously am averse to.

It appears that for now, I have done enough energetic clearing work from my ears. Well, I will just have to wait and see what crops up over the next few days, for whatever remaining issues that I need to know of.

Heavenly Hokkaido

Don’t get me wrong. Hokkaido is really a beautiful place. Its pristine powder snow is definitely heavenly! All of those in the same travel group reported having a wonderful time during the trip. If not for us (my two girls and I) being sick, my husband would have enjoyed the holiday more. He ended up having to take care of us in turn.

On the days when I was physically well, I did manage to have a great time!! Proof?? I came home 2kg heavier, on Japanese snacks, sashimi and Yakitori dinners.

A Review of My Hokkaido Trip

In a post last year, I wrote about past life connections to Egypt. I had not actually visited Egypt in this physical lifetime. In comparison, my Hokkaido trip was an experiential one, letting me know about my past life connections to Furano.

I honestly cannot say that my recent holiday was the best vacation I have ever had. I’ve most certainly experienced happier ones. However, the trip to Hokkaido in December 2008 was one that I managed to gather a few life lessons, in addition to having the opportunity to clear karmic connections to this island. I am also noting how funny it is that my body is physically manifesting symptoms, attracting my attention to remove any stuck blockages that exist at soul level.

I’ve not made up my mind where to go for my next vacation. In fact, I have been wondering what will happen if I set foot in Egypt. Well, do stay tuned for adventures of a different kind – not typically reported elsewhere on the web, papers or in most books!!

Happy New Year & Renewed Beginnings

While I began 2009 with having to work on myself, I’m thinking that there is no better way to start the New Year than on a renewed state. I am also hoping to get back into the swing of posting articles twice a week. If you’ve not subscribed to my blog feeds previously, here is the rss feed to keep yourself updated.

To all my readers, have an Awesome New Year!! May all your dreams, visions and hopes come true in year 2009!

(Photo by superfantastic on flickr)

Tears started to well at the corner of my eyes. Six needles were being inserted into various meridian points on my left knee. With each application, I felt a rush of blood or energy flow draining away from my knee all the way down to the bottom of my feet. My visit on Saturday morning to the Traditional Chinese Medicine Doctor or sinseh was not quite what I was expecting. It was my first acupuncture session. I have never injured myself before, despite being engaged in a number of extreme watersports in the past.

The ligaments to my knees had been “strained” or injured due to a series of snow skiing lessons I have been taking over the past couple of weeks. Just prior to the acupuncture session, Dr Zhou had also used tui na; a traditional form of Chinese massage that had me crying aloud in pain.

The heat of a lamp was directed over the needles as I laid on the bed immobilized. My legs felt numb. While waiting for half hour to pass, I started to examine my fears. The prick of a single needle was but an instant. Were my tears due to physical or emotional stress? I could sense a cloud of dense emotions pervading over me.

Snow Skiing Fears

In preparation for an upcoming trip to Hokkaido in Japan, I had been taking snow skiing classes. While I have mastered skiing on water years ago, I have never tried it on snow. I realized that conquering the slopes introduced a new set of fears for me. It had been a long time, a good 8 years since the birth of my elder girl, in venturing beyond the gym.

These were the fears that I identified: Fear of falling. Fear of heights. Fear that signing on for extra classes would mean taking more time away from my work. Fear of not being able to control my skis. Fear of crashing into anyone in my path down the slope. Fear conjured over the thought of not being able to avoid a tree on the ski slopes in Japan!!

I felt helpless each time when I fell down, as it meant that I needed assistance from the coach. There were a number of times when I was “suicidal”, screaming all the way downhill as I could not stop my skis. Then, there were others when I was stuck mid-slope, unable to move or maneuver my ski. I was quite a comical sight!!

Needless to say, I did not enjoy my lessons very much. The coach identified the problem to be one of inadequate practice. Due to an otherwise overbooked schedule, I could not go often enough for lessons.

Initially, I complained bitterly. I had every reason to believe that my upcoming trip to Japan would be one vacation I would not enjoy. Gradually, as I reflected over my poor attitude, it hit upon me that fears arising from my snow skiing trips were providing me a perfect opportunity for more self healing.

So I jumped right into it. Every night for two weeks, I used EFT to address any fear in falling or of heights for my younger daughter and I. My elder daughter had no problems going down the slope but my younger girl was facing a hard time too. While I observed improvements in confidence levels, the state of my body gradually worsen.

With a series of bad falls, I started to experience “bad” knees. Knees that refused to obey my commands. Knees that were painful as I climbed stairs, whether up or down. Knees that I could hardly bend.

Unlocking Further Secrets Of My Knees

After the acupuncture session and over the last two days, my knees felt weak. My left knee especially was even more painful than before. Dr Zhou had warned me that it would take a few days to recover. Not exactly good news since that meant that I had to stay indoors and unable to do what I had wanted done over the weekend.

With time on my hands while I took a rest, I began to wonder if there was more negative stuff to my knees that I had not uncovered. Could there be a root fear that I was not previously aware of?

Well, I was right!! To begin with, the results of my investigation showed that I was dealing with a myriad of fears. I discovered that my left knee was storing the following emotions:

Depressed. Disgusted. Doubt. Exhausted. Fear. Hurt. Immobilized. Indignation. Loneliness. Loveless. Morbid. Needy. Offended. Shame. Stagnant. Suppressed. Unprepared. Unreliable. Unworthy. Victimized. Wary. Wilful. Woeful. Abandoned. Apprehensive.

And the root of it all was – A Fear of Aging!

(Photo by Eddie 07 on Flickr)

I was fearful of growing old physically and becoming dependent on others. I began to recall how I have always thought of not wanting to end up like the many old folks I have seen, unable to walk, being physically immobile and needing assistance from their family members.

I also realized how my focus is on the lack, the not-wanting. My knee had behaved like I was already 60 or 70, in a similar position to one of the elderly folks I have come across.

I would not have thought that going for snow skiing classes would invoke anything related to aging, dying and death. Well, apparently, it did, at the deeper layers for me!

Wish Me Luck

I used a combination of EFT, soul and karmic cleansing, and chios healing (performed by my girlfriend) to remove the dense energies of dark emotions from my knees. As all energy work takes up to 21 days for effects to permanently settle, I will have to wait to see what happens when I come down the slopes of Rusutsu Resort in Hokkaido Japan in another few weeks time.

In the meantime, my pain had subsided although it is not completely gone. I also have another two more appointment sessions with Dr Zhou to complete.

Do wish me luck!!

Your Thoughts Please

Acupuncture. Ever tried acupuncture? Let me know how it was for you. Acupuncture as I know it, is not supposed to be painful. Hence, it was likely that I was dealing with more of a perceived pain than is actually the case!

Root Causes of Physical Problems. How far do you go in terms of self healing? Do you simply rely on Western medicine to cure your symptoms? Or do you agree with the idea that healing our physical body is not quite complete without a look into our negative emotions?

(Photo by Alicepopkorn on Flickr)

Comments to my post on Experiencing Guilt Down Memory Lane left me thinking. There was much to explore: Is it better not to dig up guilt? Why bother to go back to the past? Would it be dredging up a whole bunch of dirt? Wouldn’t it be better to bury it and concentrate on moving on? Let’s just say that I’ve done some soul searching and am highlighting some food for thought in today’s post:

1) Awareness or Guilt?

It was late in the evening yesterday. My husband was in the midst of reading Conversations with God Book III. I approached him as to what he thought about guilt as a negative emotion. Incidentally, he had just read page 5 of the book and proceeded to read it aloud to me. The book is written in a Q&A manner:

Q: That’s easier said than done. Sometimes I feel so guilty.

A:Guilt and fear are the only enemies of men.

Q: Guilt is important. It tells us when we’ve done wrong.

A:There is no such thing as “wrong”. There is only that which does not serve you; does not speak the truth about Who You are and Who You Choose to Be.
Guilt is the feeling that keeps you stuck in who you are not.

Q: But guilt is the feeling that at least lets us notice we’ve gone astray.

A: Awareness is what you are talking about, not guilt.
I tell you this: Guilt is the blight upon the land; the poison that kills the plant.
You will not grow through guilt, but only shrivel an die.
Awareness is what you seek. But awareness is not guilt, and love is not fear.
Fear and guilt, I say again, are your enemies. Love and awareness are your true friends. Yet do not confuse the one with the other, for one will kill you, while the other gives you life.

Q: Then, I shall not feel guilty about anything?

A: Never, ever. What good is there in it? It only allows you not to love yourself and that kills any chance that you could love one another.

Note: Aha!….Here is an important distinction made: Awareness and Guilt. In awareness, there is no judgement. In guilt, there is. We are not looking into our past to seek guilt but to seek for awareness. And should we experience guilt, we need to release it. Not releasing prevents us from loving completely.

2) When is a Good Time to Release Guilt?

Here is a real account of what happened to me. I had originally not intended to share it. I do not relish on being the prophet of all doom and gloom. But in the light of the comments on my previous post on Guilt, I feel that I need to close the loop to explain why I had warned that not dealing with overwhelming guilt may surface on your deathbed.

The Release of Guilt

It was last Wednesday evening. For some reason, as I was typing away my draft copy to the last post before publication, I felt a pain on the left side of my abdomen. I noted the pain and continued to type. But the pain refused to go away.

I was not happy to feel this pain. I had a ton of things to do and yet this pain was clearly slowing down my progress. After a while, I decided that I could not ignore it and tune into it.

Where does this pain come from, I thought. I recalled what I ate for the day and thought to myself: no – it is not from something I ate. Then, an intuitive thought arose: this pain is not “mine”.

It was a heavy topic that I was writing in my draft: guilt. I was not very sure whether I wanted to publish it. Who would want to read such a negative issue? Why don’t I just make my job simpler by writing more lighthearted posts?

Still, I plodded on. I might as well finish typing what I have started. The pain continued.

After completing the draft, I decided that enough was enough. I could not carry on at my PC anymore. The pain was just too unbearable and I switched off my laptop to turn in early. Lying on my bed in the dark, I closed my eyes; very much aware of my physical pain on my left side.

Just then, my husband walked into the room. He had just returned home. I opened my eyes and told him about the pain that I was having. He suggested that I used EFT. (EFT is basically a technique whereby you use your fingers to tap at certain energy meridian points on your body, for emotional release. If you need more information about EFT tapping, read my reviews here).

I could barely speak. I replied that I was too much in pain to tap. So, he offered to surrogate tap for me. (Put simply, surrogate tapping means getting someone else to tap for your pain. He visualizes you and taps himself for the release of your emotions).

I closed my eyes again.

In a flash, I saw an old woman. She was in her 80s, lying on her deathbed. She was in physical pain. I understood immediately. The pain belonged to her. Inner knowing arose. I had an idea of who she was.

Here was the irony. As much as she felt the physical pain, she wanted it. She knew that if she left the pain, she would die. She was not ready. She tried to cling on to her physical body. (She was attached to her pain body, much like what Eckhart Tolle talked about in his best selling book A New Earth.) She was not ready to leave yet.

I connected with her emotion. She was experiencing: Grief. Regret. Guilt.

The atmosphere was dense. It was a near-death scene.

Wait! I sensed someone in my mental picture. There was someone else in the room with her, watching her fight her last breath. The old woman did not want to leave this person. Her grief was overwhelming.

In the meantime, my husband was still tapping away, not knowing that these were the images that were flashed in my mind. With my eyes closed, I asked my husband not to stop. Continue with the EFT tapping, I requested.

As I immersed myself more deeply, tears started to flow. They soon gave way to a floodgate. I sobbed.

After a while, I opened my eyes and told my husband to stop. The physical pain was subsiding. The release of emotions left me exhausted.

In the morning, when I woke up, my pain was gone. It has not returned since.

Note: 1. When I first started having experiences like that, I would often question myself if my imagination was on overdrive. I thought it was my mind playing tricks on me. However, through my coach who also happens to be psychic, I have learned not to deny my experience. I am no actress either. My imagination could never have been so vivid as to render a flood of tears for more than 10 minutes.

2. Death is inevitable. The problem is that we do not know when this is going to happen. Neither do we want to focus on when. Instead, we choose to live life fully Every Single Day. So I would suggest that if guilt has plagued you significantly, allocate some time Now for emotional healing and not later.

3. The Past is the Past; Why Not Let It Be?

Throughout the weekend, I continued to ask for divine guidance if I should share my above story. Real as it has been to me, my concern was that readers would not like to read a story that was not uplifting. A chance review with my notes on Sedona Method made me sit up.

Hale Dwoskin, the developer of the Sedona Method, had deliberately not shared an important finding in the basic part of his program. Why? He admitted that it would be hard for many people to accept it. So here is what he shared in the advanced program: There are no problems in the present moment.

Okay…what is this mumbo jumbo about? It simply means that pain is just a memory. Sure there are sensations felt Now but the pain itself is a thing of the past. What has been happening is that you have in fact been seeking your problems. You think that you are having problems and that they are your immediate reality. You are not aware that they actually do not exist at this present moment, rather they have their roots in the past. To release your current problems therefore, you need to go back to your past.

Note: This concept is sure not easy to understand. I have got problems myself understanding fully the idea that problems do not exist in the Now. If I have not gone through my own personal experience with my physical pain and the old woman and all, I would have simply not paid any attention to what Hale Dwoskin shared in his research.

Raise Energy Consciousness in 3 Steps

The whole idea of discussing guilt is to investigate for areas that may be lowering your energy vibrations. You want to be net-positive in what you exude.

I have got to clarify that I am not suggesting a constant need to look at past memories to dig up guilt. Instead, I would suggest that you do so, only if there is a need to. In what instances? In the situation when guilt holds you back, prevents you from moving forward and in loving yourself more fully.

Guilt surfaces on its own. It lowers your energy consciousness. It lurks in the background. You can choose to ignore it but it will always be there, until you release it. Read the following encouragement:

Your spiritual growth does not happen when you are peaceful and content. It happens when you get angry, sad, greedy, jealous, critical, impatient. It happens when you lose your “spiritual mask”, and realize that you are not superman or woman, but just an ordinary human being learning how to love.
— Quote by Paul Ferrini

Here are 3 steps when guilt gets in the way of our energy consciousness:

1. Seek awareness. Be in tune with your emotions. Your emotions form a feedback system. Many of the energy healing practitioners propose this too; Esther and Jerry Hicks, Louis Hay and Hale Dwoksin, to name a few. Hence, be aware – and not punish yourself – because of guilt.

2. If you suspect that you are feeling guilt in a negative and major way, then just release it. You can use either EFT or the Sedona Method. It only takes 5 minutes for basic clearing but more if you want to work on it at deeper layers.

My old-woman-lying-on-the-deathbed experience tells me that I would not want to wait too long to clear any major instances of feeling guilt. In any case, it would be silly for me to procrastinate since it takes all but 5-20 minutes for emotional release.

3. It is not guilt that is driving your positive actions forward. It is awareness. Instead of channeling guilt to anger, redirect it to kindness and compassion to others who are also in agony. You champion for causes that involve personal transformation, turning tragedy into success. Let your actions spring from love. (Of course, if you want to be absolutely sure that it is love that you are acting out from and not guilt, you can always choose to do step 2 above). Some action examples:

– If you have been always been a class bully, how about volunteering to help victims of abuse?

– If you have caused grief to others in the past, how about taking some time to serve the public community in terms of counseling?

– If you have backstabbed others in the office in the past, how about making it a point to be nicer to all new recruits to your organization?

I decided finally to publish my story and to invite your comments. If you have got a similar experience to mine, do also share yours.

(Photo by Sylvar; Taken at the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e Tecnica (National Museum of Science and Technology) in Milan, Italy. )

“That was when I saw the Pendulum. The sphere, hanging from a long wire set into the ceiling of the choir, swayed back and forth with isochronal majesty. I knew — but anyone could have sensed it in the magic of that serene breathing — that the period was governed by the square root of the length of the wire and by pi, that number which however irrational to sublunar minds, through a higher rationality binds the circumference and diameter of all possible circles. The time it took the sphere to swing from end to end was determined by an arcane conspiracy between the most timeless of measures: the singularity of the point of suspension, the duality of the plane’s dimensions, the triadic beginning of pi, the secret quadratic nature of the root, and the unnumbered perfection of the circle itself.”

— Foucault’s Pendulum, Umberto Eco

Pendulum dowsing is a skill that I have been trying to home since last year. It is the practice of asking your subconscious mind/Higher Self/Spiritual Guide (depending on your intent) questions and getting the answers by noting the swing of a pendulum. It seems like witchcraft but it is not. It is rather a process of discovering answers to questions that do not normally come through your five senses or through logic, but as conscious feedback. Basic dowsing gives a yes/no response to questions asked. Because the steps are so simple and do not require you to be a psychic, anyone can learn it!

How Pendulum Dowsing Works

Everything is energy. Energy can be of high or low vibration, long or short in wavelength and can be measured. Pendulum is a tool to measure energy changes. It works like muscle testing or applied kinesiology. When you ask a question, an electrical impulse is sent to your brain. You then invoke a vibrational frequency from your subconscious mind. This energy impulse, causing the smallest twitch in muscular movements, is then sent through the length of your pendulum to give you a response. In essence, your pendulum is able to pick up and amplify the subtle vibrations that cause it to swing in an appropriate direction.

Used spiritually and for decision making, you are tapping into the energy fields to determine what is in the best interest of your Higher Self. What has happened so far is that when it comes to making decisions, you have been conditioned to use your logical mind so much that you have not been making use of your intuitive abilities, gut or sixth sense. Pendulum dowsing offers you the access to an inner wisdom. It is a way of getting in touch with your Higher Self through tapping into subtle energy fields, detected through small muscular movements. Some New Age believers also use pendulum dowsing as a communication tool with their Spiritual Guides.

Watch this great video about a further explanation of how pendulum dowsing works:

Pendulum Dowsing: Locate Lost Items

Just two days ago, I used pendulum dowsing to help my husband locate a set of disks that contain his password to the printer network in our home. He was feeling frustrated after searching through the study and then proceeding to the living room for a 30 minutes. He just could not remember which box he had left the password in and asked for my help.

Initially, I felt daunted at his request because it would mean having to search through carton after carton of boxes. You see a lot of our stuff lie unpacked in the typical big brown boxes, for transporting into our current home, since some 8 months ago. All the boxes look alike and in our haste while moving, we did not label the boxes with more specific details of their content.

I decided to whip out my pendulum. First, I determined that the disks containing the password were not in the study. Neither was it in the living room. So that left the bedroom. We found it within 5 minutes, contained in a box in one corner of our bedroom. It was not in the typical brown box but a smaller blue one.

But what a contrast! My husband had spent 30 minutes feeling vexed. With the aid of pendulum dowsing and within 5 minutes, we were successful!

Pendulum Dowsing: Homeopathic Remedies and Vaccinations

Some Naturopathic Doctors use dowsing to check for prescriptions of homeopathic remedies, Bach flower essences and other natural remedies. They determine if a particular remedy is appropriate, in what combinations and what proportions.

Just last month, we used pendulum dowsing to check if my 7 year old daughter should undergo MMR vaccination in school. We have read so much about the suspected effects of mercury that we decided to be cautious. If you do not already know this, mercury is used as a preservative to increase shelf life of the drug concoction; however, there have been several reports that it is the culprit for causing brain damage related problems such as autism.

Well, the pendulum dowsing indicated that it was in her best interest that she saw a private doctor instead. We opted out of the school program and consulted a doctor who could administer a mercury-less MMR vaccination on her instead.

How To Start Pendulum Dowsing
Before you begin, you need to find out what the movement of the pendulum means. You need to note the swings for a Yes, No or Neutral response. The swing may be circular either clockwise or anticlockwise; or sideways. My pendulum, for instance, swings in a clockwise direction for Yes answers and anti-clockwise for No responses.

Here are some basic steps:

1. Sit quietly and then ground yourself. If you find yourself feeling restless or not in a calm state of mind, then do not dowse.

2. Hold the pendulum firmly on its string or chain between your thumb and first finger, about 3 inches from the weight at the end.

3. Do not move your fingers or hands. Rather, keep your hand & arm relaxed. Any tension will prevent the pendulum swinging freely.

4. Ask the pendulum: Give me a Yes. Note the swing. Do the same for the No and Neutral responses.

5. Check by asking: My name is ________ and then note the swing. The swing should give you the correct Yes or No responses.

You are now ready to start to practice! You can ask any questions, addressing your Higher Self/Spiritual Guides/subconscious mind; just make sure that the questions are in the format that can produce a Yes/No answer.

In Summary

Since last year, I have been using pendulum dowsing for the following situations:

- Locate lost items;
- Get in touch with my Higher Self for decision making;
- Check on the intensity of my emotions while using EFT;
- Confirm on decisions for health purposes.
- Aura dowsing;
- Chakra balancing;
- Check on past life memories;
- Choose affirmations.

Pendulum dowsing has become an integral part of our lives. My husband uses it more often than I do. It is an excellent communication tool to “talk” to your Higher Self or Spiritual guides. Dowsing is like exercise. The more you do it, the better you become.

Where to Get Pendulums?

In reality, any weight tied to the end of a string can be used as a pendulum. I’ve seen my coach, who is highly skilled in dowsing, used her car keys when we were out and she had forgotten to bring her pendulum with her.

Still, if you intend to use dowsing as a skill, it may be a good idea to get a proper pendulum.

Which to get? It is really up to your preference. I have got both the brass and crystal ones. In my opinion, the important thing is to make sure that it is one that you feel particularly drawn to. In the end, it is not the tool but the skill that counts.

While trying to learn how to dowse, I encountered some obstacles and was continually frustrated with the low accuracy of my pendulum dowsing. Oh yes….it may not be as easy as it seems. If you are interested to know what not to do and how to improve your own skills, stay tuned. Happy dowsing in the meantime!

Is your life pretty much like a roller coaster? You may be in extreme joy one moment but in the next, your emotion comes crashing down like a tide. You practically have little control. What you feel is pretty much dictated by the experiences that life throws at you. If anything, anger is a negative emotion that you often find yourself with. Well, I can pretty much relate to the scenerio that I’ve just described; it depicted much of how my life was previously.

With introspection, one important lesson that I have come to know is that it is very possible to detach myself from anger. Before, I would be so identified with anger that I totally immerse myself in it. The more I connected with my inner feelings of hurt and frustration associated with the anger, the higher the intensity of my emotions.

Although I tend to stuff my anger inside, I would be stacking up in negative energy, ready to burst. It used to take me quite a while to calm down, after that. Then, I had no awareness that I could think of anger as a state; a state that I could dis-associate (a term popularly known in NLP language) from.

The Scoop With States

What, then, is a state? A state refers to the sum of your emotional experiences at any given point in time. A state can be positive, reflecting a sense of happiness, joy and peace or it can be negative, reflecting sadness, tiredness, anger or frustration. Common states are: a state of panic, a state of boredom, a state of bliss, in a mess; and of course, a state of anger.

States do not necessarily have specific labels all the time. Sometimes, when someone asks you how you feel, your answer may be I’m in a good mood or I feel out of sorts.

When you are experiencing negative emotions, it is easy to incorrectly assume that this state as your whole Being. You (or more rightly, your ego) feel threatened; it now becomes a fight for survival. When you become so consumed with your rage and frustrations, it is possible to lose all sense and the ability to think clearly. You do not realize that You and your Ego are separate, and that to feel better, it is possible to change state.

“The ego is not only the unobserved mind, the voice in the head which pretends to be you, but also the unobserved emotions that are the body’s reaction to what the voice in the head is saying.”
—- A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle

Anger Builds Upon Anger

Because negativity tends to breed more negativity, it is easy to go on a downward spiral when you get caught up in your emotions. At the office, you feel angry after a torrent of verbal abuse by your boss. Fearful of affecting your job security, you decide not to argue with him.

Unfortunately, after going home from work, your spouse reminds you about the mounting household bills. A fight soon ensues. For some peace and quiet, you decide to escape to your parents’ home, only to face more nagging. Your anger remains unresolved. As your frustrations intensify, you feel that it is not just those around; but that the whole world is against you! Negative energy builds into an internal volcano that threatens to erupt!

Why do You Need to Address Your Anger?

Anger can cause you to make unwise decisions, say hurtful remarks, destroy relationships and take drastic actions that you may regret later. It is an emotion that blocks your way to abundance. It is also listed as one of the Five Hindrances to Meditation, thwarting your way to peace and serenity.

“He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me. In him, who harbours such thoughts, hatred will not cease.”
— The Buddha

How to Create Anger Awareness

In NLP, we learn that it is very possible to change our internal state. The first step, obviously, comes with awareness. The more aware you are about your emotions, the more you can stop anger at its track should it arise.

Here’s a simple exercise. Simply close your eyes and get in touch with your emotions currently. What are you experiencing? How is your breathing fast or slow? How do you feel mentally stressed or relaxed? Do this exercise often so that you increase your sense of awareness.

States are often created by the way you perceive the world. In NLP, when you can change an aspect of your neurology and physiology such as rate of breathing, blood pressure, muscle tension, posture, you can alter your mental state. Once you are able to change your thoughts, you can also affect your neuro-physiological responses. It is a cybernetic loop.

How you perceive the world can be altered. The half-empty and half-full glass is a simple analogy of how you can perceive life differently. Going back to the anger example, you can choose not to bother with the honking of a car behind or choose to stop your car in rage, to confront its unreasonable driver.

Anger Warrants Investigation

I am not suggesting that from now on, you should simply ignore your anger feelings and perceive things positively. Ignoring a problem is never the solution. Anger unresolved is often a sign of an overload. It happens when you unconsciously accumulate an internal storehouse with anger. You collect all negative energy with the common theme of unmet expectations.

“There is a buildup of energy, but since the danger is only a mental fiction, the energy has no outlet. Part of it is fed back to the mind and generates even more anxious thought. The rest of the energy turns toxic and interferes with the harmonious functioning of the body.”
— A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle

On the other hand, I am suggesting that you look at anger as a signal for investigation. As the above quote by Eckhart Tolle suggests, it may not just be anger but the physical symptoms of your body that may be telling of your bottled feelings inside.

What is key to understanding is that the anger is not really You. Rather, it refers to a state that can be altered. It is often ego-generated. Here is a good perspective to adopt that has worked for me:

“Anger is only a natural reaction; one of the mind’s ways of reacting to things that it perceives to be wrong. While anger can sometimes lead people to do shocking things, it can also be an instinct to show people that something isn’t right.”
—Unknown

With the dis-association of Self from the anger, it is then possible to become calmer. Only in calmness, can clarity arise. Only then, can you objectively evaluate these questions: Why are you feeling this anger? What is it that is making you this angry? Did it arise because your expectations are not met? Is it possible that your expectations are too high? Are there more ways of perceiving the same issue? Could you have really made a mistake about the intentions of the other party?

In Summary and Conclusion: How to Calm Down Quickly

Preparation is key to dealing with unresolved anger. You need to first take time to meditate over your negative emotions. Get to know your emotions intimately before any instance of anger. Be in touch with your feelings. Note your ups, downs and in-betweens. Then, when a major trigger gets fired off, rather than Be in a state of over-reaction, look at anger as a signal for re-evaluating your limiting beliefs and expectations. Dis-associate yourself and understand that it is your ego at play.

You can then choose to use EFT or any NLP techniques, to address your negative emotions. As you gain in awareness and understanding, anger dissipates. Few things rail you as much, going forward. Peace and calm is the order of the day! Your thoughts become charged up with positive energy; there is also more love and abundance in your life!

“If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.”
—- Chinese Proverbs

Perhaps it is that you already know that it is important to think positively, in order to attract more positive outcomes. You know the advantages of focused thoughts and have also ventured into making some positive affirmations for your daily use. Yet, despite repeating them like a mantra for several times a day, you’ve not met with any success.

You’re just about to give up and proclaim that positive affirmations do not work. Some time ago, I thought so too. Until I came across the Palace of Possibilities concept by Gary Craig, (the founder of Emotional Freedom Technique – EFT).

In my post today, I would like to share with you a couple of key teachings from the Palace of Possibilties, with some examples of my own; so that you can be on your way to making positive affirmations properly and quickly.

What Are Positive Affirmations

Affirmations are positive thoughts or statements on a desired state or outcome. The desired state or outcome can cover any aspect of your life such as in abundance, success, relationships or health. One common example of an affirmation is “I consistently and easily make $X a month”. Using affirmations is powerful because consistent thoughts can become realities. Hence, the more often you reinforce the positive, the more it is likely to happen.

While you would prefer to believe that you are a positive person, in reality, it is more like the opposite. On a subconscious level, you may have several negative self sabotaging thoughts and beliefs. These thoughts are usually formed from the various experiences that you have had, the conditioning that you went through as a child, your sense of fair play, your successes and failures and the values that you have been taught and come to adopt. Consistent thoughts make up your belief system, when you give them power and more focus. They form the “writings on your wall” from which you frequently consult in your everyday life.

If the “writings on your wall” tend to be negative and limiting, they can hinder you from taking risks, achieving your dreams or simply being the best that you can be. Here are some common examples of “writings on the wall” that are not very useful:

- “Don’t rock the boat.”
- “Don’t risk getting yourself hurt.”
- “Know where you come from.”
- “You are not all that capable.”
- “Don’t draw too much attention to yourself. No one likes a showoff.”

Positive affirmations are statements that can help replace these “writings on your wall”. In the Palace of Possibilities series, Gary Craig proposed using affirmations to help reinforce positive beliefs after clearing negative emotions and thoughts. He believed that affirmations held the missing step to greater financial abundance, more enriching relationships and to pursuing all possibilities. He examined the reasons why positive affirmations failed to work in several cases.

Why Aren’t Your Positive Affirmations Working?

1. Presence of Tail Enders

Perhaps one of the main reasons why positive affirmations do not work is because of the presence of tail enders. Tail enders are beliefs and thoughts that appear at the end of the affirmation.

Let me give you an easy example to illustrate what a tail ender is. Say your positive daily affirmation is “I easily and consistently make $50,000 a month”. Your tail enders may go like this….

- “But if I make $50,000 a month, I will have friends and relatives come borrow money from me.”

- “But if I make $50,000 a month, I will be known as rich by my friends and rich people are not nice.”

- “But if I make $50,000 a month, I will have to work very hard in my job to earn that and I will have no life left.”

- “But if I make $50,000 a month, my friends will not like me.”

- “But if I make $50,000 a month, women (or men) will want to be with me more for how much I make and not for whom I am.”

The list of tail enders can go on and on. You can have tail enders for just about any affirmation that you use for health, relationships, love, etc. So if you have been diligently saying your positive affirmations but find that they are not working, you may want to ask yourself if you’ve got some tail enders that are sabotaging your initial intent. Tail enders can easily reduce the effectiveness of your affirmations. It takes a while to unearth all the limiting tail enders but once you uncover them, you open up the opportunity to erase them. And you can do this with EFT.

2. Your Affirmation Is A Should.

You may make an affirmation which you do not really want. Often enough, people make affirmations because their parents say so, all their friends are doing so or it sounds like a good affirmation to affirm.

You may even have a tail ender that says this “I easily and consistently make $50,000 a month but I do not really want it.” In this example, it may be that you have other dreams, rather than just a money goal.

It is important that you make affirmations according to what you really want, rather than make them based on your shoulds. Your wants are aligned desires that come from within your soul and not from someone else’s dream.

3. Your Affirmation Is Not Realistic Enough.

If your affirmation appears to be a lofty goal to you, you may inadvertently set up tail enders that says it is too difficult to attain. Let’s use the first example again for illustration. For instance, if you currently make $1000 a month, then making an affirmation on “I easily and consistently make $50,000 a month” may be too much of a stretch to you.

Of course, you can use EFT or any other technique to erase the tail enders. But you may find yourself having to deal with a long list of negative sabotaging thoughts. It may be far easier to set an interim but more realistic affirmation; such as “I easily and consistently make $5,000 a month” and work your way up. You will find that you will have less obstacles to clear subconsciously, as you move up the ladder.

4. Your Affirmation Is Not Exciting Enough.

If your affirmation is not exciting enough, you may lose motivation. Affirmations must have enough “pull” for you to focus your intent on. For instance, from currently making $1,000 monthly, would $5,000 a month be a good enough affirmation for you to work on? I would think so.

Your affirmation also works best if you say it with some emotion. When you can actually “feel” your affirmation, its impact increases dramatically.

One important tip is that it is best that you do not let others know too much about your dreams and affirmations. Announcing them to people who are not very supportive and who have little understanding about what you are doing, can invite criticisms. They may just douse your enthusiasm, causing you to give up on your affirmation. Hence, it is best to keep things to yourself, focus your thoughts and get some results, before sharing your findings with others.

5. Your Positive Affirmation Is Not Made In The Present Tense.

Your affirmation is less effective if you use words like “I will be _________” instead of “I am ________ “. Of course, you may feel that it is inappropriate to affirm something that has not happened yet. But saying things in the present tense will program your subconscious mind to believe that what you affirm is already a fact. Once your subconscious mind believes that it is true, you will find yourself taking actions to make your goal a reality.

6. Your Affirmation Focuses On The Negative Rather Than Accentuating The Positive.

Think back about all your affirmations. Are you formulating them in the positive or in the negative sense? Affirmations made from a negative perspective will only draw your subconscious mind to your old habitual and limiting thoughts. They will not be as effective in bringing about desired positive outcomes.

“Positive anything is better than negative nothing.”
Elbert Hubbard quotes (American editor, publisher and writer, 1856-1915)

7. Your Affirmation Is Not Supported By A Dream.

You may associate dreams as something that is so big but which are unattainable. You pooh pooh the idea of dreaming: why waste time imagining the impossible when dreams seldom come true?

Well, there is much value in daydreaming. And in case you believe so, daydreaming is not just for kids. When you daydream, you connect yourself with all possibilities. The act of daydreaming itself creates a nice feeling when you think “how nice if I would be if I can/am _________”. When you feel good, you start to exude a positive energy vibration. According to the Law of Attraction, you may well start to attract the opportunities that matches the same vibration.

“Dreams are like the paints of a great artist. Your dreams are your paints, the world is your canvas. Believing, is the brush that converts your dreams into a masterpiece of reality.”
— Unknown

Summary: Guidelines To Help Make Positive Daily Affirmations A Success

1. Make affirmations short and succinct, with no tail enders.

2. Base your affirmations on wants and not shoulds.

3. Make them realistic.

4. Make your affirmations exciting enough.

5. State affirmations in the present tense.

6. State affirmations in the positive.

7. Augment your affirmations with dreams.

In short, before you conclude that positive affirmations do not work, go through this checklist first and see if you have made them correctly.

“When combined with affirmations, goals and EFT, daydreams become a magnet which draws us ever forward into the excitement of our tomorrows.”— Gary Craig in Palace of Possibilities, Emotional Freedom Technique.

It is important to have fun while making affirmations. Adjust them from time to time to eliminate boredom. Cover your intent adequately with affirmations by focusing on different aspects of your goal and watch your desires unfold before you.

Further readings can be found here on positive daily affirmations.

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