Journey of the Wild Divine

I want to share with you a really cool computer game! Yes, a computer game.  As I may have mentioned, I am over in England visiting my partner, Marc. He has this fantastic biofeedback game called the Journey to The Wild Divine. Biofeedback, you ask?  It's just a  technical name for these gizmos that plug into your computer and on the end it has 3 sensors that you put on your finger tips.  They measure your heart beat and blood pressure, etc.

If you are familiar with Deepak Chopra, he is a major endorser of this game to help you learn how much power you have to create your reality - through being stressed or changing your breathing and changing your life.  One magazine quotes and says "In this game you get to be the Dali Lama"...curious?  It is pretty powerful!

The game takes place in this beautiful magical setting of the Sun Realm with lots of stones, trees, castle/fairy/eastern type buildings, archways, fountains, fabrics....actually it is so beautiful that I am finding it hard to describe.

Throughout your exploration you are given various tasks that include learning breathing techniques to reduce stress but you learn to do this by juggling these little balls in the air in the courtyard.  You practice being aware of your heart rate and raising it by thinking joyful thoughts (!no wonder I love this!).  You  lower the elevator (or as Marc says...the lift), by relaxing and lowering your heart rate.  It's a very fun way to learn meditation techniques vs. just sitting and doing "nothing" method, which as a busy entrepreneur & mom I find  more stressing than relaxing on most days.

It's fascinating to learn what your natural rates are and how they vary during the day.  Sometimes I can just summon the "joy" energy and the balls juggle effortlessly.  During some of the games you have to vary your heart rate - raise it and then lower it and do this over and over again to successfully accomplish the task.  There is an archery game where you use your breath to raise or lower the bow in order to aim it properly at the target.  I seem to be playing this late at night when I'm relaxed so lowering the bow is fairly easy with some focus.  Raising the bow has been challenging. What's funny is that Marc will come back into the room to check on me and as soon as he is close...my energy shoots up!  Guess that's the impact of love...

And like any other game, the more you learn the techniques and the better you get at it, the more the game unfolds new levels, new places and new tasks.

I'm finding I am at lost for words to describe how beautiful and relaxing the music and the graphics are in this....probably because I'm thinking about signing off for now and going to ride the magic carpet and figure out what I am suppose to do at the frog fountain! :)

This is a really great gift for someone you love who you wish would learn how to relax (maybe that's YOU!), or even the whole family.  Marc's boys have really enjoyed it as well. The youngest one just smiles and with no effort or much time, just has the balls juggling, the lift going up and down and the balloons soaring smoothly....for the rest of us....we're practicing our breathing......

Then again, we'll be doing that the rest of our lives...might as well have fun while we are at it!

Relax and enjoy.....!
Laura

Great Cosmic Happyass Cards

Thank you to Nina East for turning me on to this joyful website, ezine and greeting cards.  These cards are from the Great Cosmic Happyass Card Co. 

The creator Diane English seems to have taken her passion and strengths to a new level - combining creativity, humor and spirituality.  What a great example of using your strengths to positively impact the world - with lots of laughter!!!

I think I'll order a bunch of these and send them to myself whenever I think I'm taking my whole "path to enlightment" just a bit too seriously!! :)

PS:  Sign up for her ezine too!

Enjoy!!
Laura

Love and Be Loved in Return

I think Marianne Williamson says it so well in her book, The Gift of Change,..."Anyone who looks at the state of the world today is aware that something radically new is called for--in who we are as a species and in our relationship to each other and our relationship to the earth itself. Yet the psychological fundamentals that hold this dysfunctional world in place are like sacred cows: we are afraid to touch them, for fear something bad will happen to us if we do. In fact, something bad will happen to us if we do not.  It is time to change. It is time to do what we know in our hearts we were born to do.......when we're willing to remember that we were born with one purpose:  to love and be loved." 

I think the world is yearning for love. It's been starved long enough and it's waking us up to say - No More. Pay attention. Love yourselves. Love each other. Love this planet that you live on. Love this wonderful creative universe.

I was inspired to watch Moulin Rouge the other night. Again. About 2 years ago I must have watched this movie 20 times. I was obsessed with it's beauty, creative way of weaving in lines from favorite songs....It's funny, crazy, beautiful....and It's all about love. In the movie there is a powerful line...a theme that runs throughout the movie...."The greatest gift of all is to love and be loved in return."

It sounds so simple. To love.  To be loved. And yet we create so much suffering in our lives as we habitally don't love ourselves. This causes internal conflict and we take it out on ourselves, mentally, emotionally, and physically. Eating too much food and food that isn't good for our bodies, much less our energy. Not exercising when we know our bodies are craving to move.  Letting thoughts go wild inside of our heads - unchecked.  And then we go out...and take it out on those ones we love the most. Our spouses, partners, sons and daughters, co-workers.

And when they want to just show us love. We push it away. C'mon, you know what I'm talking about. Somebody starts a conversation about "what really matters" and you close it down. A favorite love in your life reaches out to touch you and you pretend that you didn't notice. Instead of pushing it away, instead of starving ourselves of love from others and ourselves - what if we were open to receive?

Just for today. 

What if you loved yourself?  Just for the day.  What if you chose to be compassionate with yourself? Give yourself a break.  What if you chose another thought that made you feel good instead of less than?

Won't you love yourself and others enough to practice....just for one day?

This was in Dr. Christine  Northrup's eletter this month. She sums it well.....

"Here’s the last word on being a fabulous Valentine: I want you to become as irresistible and beautiful and sexy and rich and happy as you can possibly get. The more you tap into this energy of self-love, the better the world becomes for you and for everyone. So don’t spend another minute pining for what you don’t have, because you really, truly lack for nothing. It’s all inside you ready to be trotted out, dressed up, and LOVED!!! "

With much love,

Laura

Joyful Entrepreneur

Interesting observation tonight....

I was perusing images at istockphoto, one of my favorites sites for great photos to spice up my blog and other applications, when I decided to look for images using the keywords "joyful" and "entrepreneur". 

I ended up with a lightbox of 15 photos of men and women in suits joyfully throwing money around, holding money, and well, fondling money.

No photos of them in creative flow, talking animately with customers they love, sitting in front of their laptop with that inspired thought....nope, just pictures of dollars....lots of them!

Tells me a lot about the world's one dimensional interpretation of "Joyful Entrepreneur" - guess I have my marketing cut out for me!

What's your interpretation of Joyful Entrepreneur?

PS:  I was going to include one of the joyful dollar-snuggling photos for emphasis but I didn't want to download it and give istock the impression that it was popular and add more to their portfolio!

Joyfully Entrepreneuring,

Laura

Success - it's not work

When you are making a success of something, it's not work. It's a way of life. You enjoy yourself because you are making your contribution to the world." - Andrew Granatelli

Ten Rules for Being Human

This exerpt is in the book I am currently reading, Quiet Mind, Fearless Heart, by Brian Luke Seaward. The subtitle is - The Taoist Path through Stress and Spirituality.  The message of the book is about dealing with stress in our modern day world with spiritual life principles. 

It's an interesting blend of Taoist principles intertwined with Joseph Campbell's work around the "Hero's Journey". The book is full of simple reminders, perspectives and meditations to use to center yourself in the daily chaos. 

How appropriate for the beginning of February when we typically start losing our steam for our intentions to get off to a "running start" on our new year goals.  We get frustrated by the pull of our past habits and our desire for future successes. We are either in the future or in the past and not in the present which is really the only place where we can create change and so...anxiety sets in.

Not that I know much about this! Actually it's an all too familiar tune which is why I search out messages like the one below to reinforce my awareness on being present.

This one is on my bulletin board for my daily reminder.

Ten Rules for Being Human

1.  You will receive a body.  You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.

2.  You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called life.  Each day of this school, you willhave the opportunity to learn lessons.  You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.

3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error and experimentation. The failed experiments are as much a part of the process as are the experiments that ultimately work.

4. A lesson is repeated until it's learned. A lesson will present itself to you in various forms until you have learned. When you have mastered the lesson, then you can go on to the next lesson.

5. Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

6. "There" is no better place then "Here." When your "There" has become "Here," you will simply obtain another "There" that will again look better than "Here."

7. Others are simply a mirror of yourself. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.

8. What you make of your life is up to you.  You have all the tools and the resources you need.  What you do with them is up to you.  The choice is yours.

9. Your answers lie inside of you. The answers to all of life's questions lie insdie of you. All you need do is look, listen, and trust.

10. You will forget all of this.

             ~Cherie Carter-Scott

Happy Ground Hog Day!

Laura

The Art of Possibility

"In the measurement world you set a goal and strive for it.
In the Universe of possibility you set a context and let life unfold."

-Ben and Roz Zander, The Art of Possibility

 

Today we concluded a 3 week teleclass called Creating Your Attraction Success Plan. The program creates a shift in perspective about the possibilities in your life in 3 short weeks. The above quote seem to spell out the magic of the new way of looking at what will flow from the year.

PS:  I highly recommend "The Art of Possibility" for a wonderful shift in perspective created by Benjamin Zander a conductor and college music professor. What amazing stories!

~With much possibility for the upcoming year,

Laura