How We Sabotage Our Magnificence

January 5, 2003

Samuel: Greetings, dears.

Hello, Samuel.

S: So, is it so far?

Yes.

S: Aye. Why?

Don’t know.

A magnificent year?

S: A happy one.

Yes.

S: [Coughs] Is the form still dealing with this? All right. I’ll see what I can do to work around it a bit.

A happy new year. Is it a happy new year? And many of you said yes immediately, latching right on to what I was thinking there. And I said why?

I had a situation. And many in here know that I do contract nursing for a company I’ve been with for eight years. And sometimes it’s feast or famine, but everything’s been okay. Well, I had a meeting with the administrators the day after New Year’s to be given some information that the position I have may not be there any more. And they still wanted this, that and the other. And okay, I just rolled with it; I’m kind of used to it; everything is all right.

S: You’ve come so far. Yes, indeed.

So the next morning, though, I got a phone call about ten o’clock in the morning that would I be willing to keep the position I was in, that the person that was going to come to work there had decided at the very last moment not to. And I got this absolute sense that the Universe had done some sort of manipulation, for want of a better word, but it was for the highest good of all, not just me, but the patients, the company, the nurse, that I stay in the position I was in. It was almost like getting that information that for the highest good of all, this is what we’re doing.

And it was really acknowledging again my partnership and the trust and faith I have with the Universe.

S: Yes, indeed.

So it was like it could have just gone the other way and it didn’t. It just started out magnificent.

S: It was not all that long ago that I would ask the group then, “Tell me a gift you have received from her gift.” And I’m asking a version of that right now to you. Tell me the elements of that gift. Stuart.

Trust.

S: Absolutely. What way?

Well, Kay has learned that these types of situations happen in the profession that she’s in, but the reason it doesn’t freak her out now is because she’s been through it.

S: Freak her out.

And she trusts that the Universe is going to take care of her. So it takes that trust.

S: Very nice. Very nice. Colleen.

I’m in a kind of similar situation.

S: Yes, indeed.

With contract work, and to add to Kay, it’s also . . . it’s trust and it’s flow, because, you know, there was a time not too long ago that when I didn’t get the census—figures dropped—I would be like, “Oh, my God!” I would not only, if I missed some work, I would double up and have to keep working, but now I don’t do that. It’s just that I know that when I call or they call, there’ll be something there that will meet my needs. And it’s not even the struggle, the mental struggle, that goes along with the worry with it as much as you just say, “Okay, I have a sense that this is going to be there.” And you let it go, and you don’t keep worrying about it. So it’s really the flow of it, too.

And to add to the partnership aspect, it’s not only something external to yourself. You give you credit for saying this is the highest and best part of myself that is operating here.

S: Lovely. Lovely. Good. Donna.

It’s also taking an action.

S: Good.

When you have something that comes into your life, then she actively put out to the Universe what she would like, but also a willingness to say for the highest good and was willing to let it go whichever way it went and accept it and work from that, instead of spending the energy panicking.

S: Good. Yes, yes, very good. Mary.

And she wasn’t attached to a specific outcome.

S: Good.

Like she was saying is that she wanted the highest good, and the highest good has to be this. It’s whatever the highest good is, and that makes it a lot easier.

S: And that, of course, is one of the hardest parts altogether. Paula.

And I’ve seen this in my own life, that acceptance and acknowledgment that we have the right to the very best, and that it will come to us.

S: Lovely. Frank, and then Suzie, and then Heidi.

Getting back to trust, it’s also a trust in self. You trust the Universe, knowing that things will work out, but also trusting that you will be able to cope with and deal with and make the best out of whatever comes. So it’s a self-confidence and self-trust also.

S: Good. Good.

It’s building up past successes and recognizing that there are successes, and that if we’re supposed to be examples and models—prototypes—for other people to learn from us by having gone through those experiences all those times, she can tell people her experiences from how it used to be to how it got better and how she handles it now. And they’ll see the progression and be able to see the successes too.

S: Lovely.

With change, the only thing you have control over is your reaction, and Kay chose to not react when they’re saying, “Well, you know, we’re going to get somebody else for your job, and you’re going to be out of a job.” And she just allowed [it] to flow and acted in a real appropriate way, and I’m sure that had a lot to do with the positive response she got.

S: With the positive response being able to flow her way.

Now, what you have just heard all together there is the master’s view of the everyday experiences of your life. One who is functioning in mastery puts all of those thoughts, all of those activities, into every experience that comes your way instead of—and what I want you to tell me now is the old ways of looking at a situation that she had come to her. Suzanne.

“Oh, no, this is happening again! Why does this always have to happen to me? It always happens like this. I’m just . . . oh, life is just so hard again and again and again, and will I ever get over this?”

S: Yes. Good. Good. Good.

“I just must not be good enough to be able to keep this and be able to do it.”

S: Good. Good. Good.

Well, this is a hypothetical . . . 

S: Of course! Of course. For everybody it’s hypothetical.

But this is what makes it a good new year for me as well. The old behavior would have been, “I’m doing everything I know how to do. It’s just not working right. I must be doing something wrong. I’ve done it. Ten times I’ve put out this mediation or twenty or whatever, and it’s just not happening, and maybe I should do this and this and this, instead of working in partnership and letting it go.”

S: Good.

And accepting the positiveness is what allows the positiveness to flow in.

S: Yes it is. Yes it is, and that is vital. Gwendolyn.

A lot of people get to trying to figure out things, that they just . . . it’s beyon. That’s where that lack of trust comes in, because you think you’re going to “what-if” something, and pretty soon you’ve got yourself in a turmoil because all you’re grasping are the negatives that are going to come out of this experience. And when you let go and see that there is a part of you that has an overview, that knows everything’s going to be fine, it’s time for you to get in that mode, rather than trying to figure things out when you can’t possible do that from where you are.

S: Thinking it to death. Yes, absolutely.

I was going to go down that line of separate thinking and being very self-absorbed from a point of fear.

S: Yes. Yes. Yes. What have I done? What could I have done differently? How did I deserve this? All of this is very self-centered thinking, you know. Obsessing about how awful you are is just as egotistically, conceitedly rude as obsessing about how wonderful you are is. They’re both inappropriate functions of ego. Frank.

Well, a way one could react in the old way would be when they call back saying, “Will you keep the job?” is saying, “Well I wasn’t good enough for you with someone else. I’m not going to come in and save your butt now.”

S: You’re right, that is a version of an old way of dealing with such things. Any more ideas to go with that? Yes.

Well, fear, as opposed to trust. There’s that whole, “What else is going to happen? How much worse is it going to be? Am I going to make this? Can I do this? Is anything going to come true for me? Is anyone going to be there for me? Maybe they won’t. Maybe I’m alone.” All those kinds of things.

S: Absolutely. Kay.

And just an aside on that, the old way and the new way of reacting to a situation like that. I put up some firewalls, for want of a better word, for if this should happen. I mean it’s like, I’ve had it happen enough that I didn’t get caught off guard, like, “Okay, well, I have this plan B.”

S: Good. Good.

And taking that as a possibility and always having plan B when you’re into contract work, if anyone’s done contract work. So it was like I have to have a little bit of padding, and that’s what I’ve learned also is a new way of reacting.

S: Very good.

Some sort of cushion.

S: Very good.

[. . . ]

S: Lovely. Mary Claire.

Another old response could be an all-or-nothing type of response that, “This is my job. I trained for this. There is no another job out there for me. This is mine.” And “Will I be out on the street? What’s going to happen to me.” And then also, too, the other flip side of the self-absorbed type of obsessing about how bad I am, there’s also the tendency, in some ways, for people of obsessing about how bad they are, the other people are, for firing them.

S: Good. Good.

How wrong they can be, and all that stuff.

S: Good. Yes. Yes. Yes.

You have in front of you a baby. A baby. A brand new year. This is a baby that is a clone of Source. Greatest potential you can possibly imagine, and you are in charge of its upbringing. You are the one that is going to help its genetic potential be expressed to its fullest by what you do. You have before you a year that will, indeed, be magnificent, because it has going for it more than has ever been going, but more, because you have going for you more than you have ever had going.

Kay gave an example of life in this world, and out of it we had a brief discussion about ways to look at life in this world. And what came to your mind were your personal reactions—hypothetical or not. What came to your mind when I said, “What is a negative way of looking at it?” And you immediately rifled through the great storeroom of knowledge that you hold within your own head and dug out the ones that are most familiar to you and said, “Well, somebody could do this. Somebody could do that.” When I said, “Tell me the gifts out of this,” you rifled through your knowledge of spiritual power, and you pulled out the ones you’re most familiar with.

You have before you a year that is so ripe, ready to pluck, to pluck the miracles, to pluck the what you need for what you need. You have before you a year with so much magic innately a part of it that you are going to have to work much harder than usual to make it bad. You realize that a year like this, the magnificence of it, is a promise and a threat. A threat because it’s going to provide the opportunity for you to constantly judge yourself next to it, if you’re still in the habit of doing that, if you still need to sabotage your joy and not experience the highest by needing to remind yourself that there is always better that could have been. You’re going to see your tricks, and I think that’s magnificent.

Tricks. All right, shortcuts—spiritual shortcuts. There is a healing circle after the toning, and in that healing circle, one by one, the group expresses something that they would like to see energy directed toward by that group. They also express gratitude about things that have worked easily and flowed well. And there are a few of those individuals who say something like “ditto.” Right? Somebody said something that really fits what they want, and two or three dittos—that’s the New Age version of Amen—flow through the group, because ditto is sort of a shorthand, a shortcut way of saying, “Me too. I want that as well. Same thing.” Right.

You have spiritual shortcuts, again with the toning group and the healing circle. What are the words that you say at the very end?

So be it.

S: All right, not those. The ones right before that. Frank.

We say that whenever during the coming week we will think of any of the people that are in this group or any of the things they have requested, the energies that we have sent forth tonight will be remanifested and sent out as strong or stronger than they have been tonight.

S: Lovely. Now that’s a nice shortcut, isn’t it? Because effectually what you are saying is that it’s not necessary to remember Gwendolyn’s exact words and Don’s exact words and Marion’s exact words and Joni’s exact words, that all you have to do is think Gwen, and all of their words, like a package, are sent forth again with that energy, with that connection, with that power. That’s a shortcut.

It’s a shortcut that works, because a very specific formula has been met, has been made. It is a formula that will serve you all through this year. This is a year in which the more of those access points, shortcuts that you can latch on to the better for you, because you will be finding yourself functioning at a higher frequency of consciousness as a result of that on your day-to-day being.

There is so much—I could probably pack a whole workshop into my time with you tonight, because there’s so much that I’d wish to share with you about this year, about things to do, about ways to make use of it. And indeed, throughout the first Sundays of this year, I am going to be regularly pushing in a technique to remind you to make use of this remarkable year in your world.

Tonight I want to direct a little attention, though, to the sabotages that you do that keep you from experiencing, certainly, magnificence on any level, especially the magnificent potential that this year has for you. And I want to start it first with an explanation of terms. All right.

A magnificent year, full of energy that will allow you to function at your highest potential. Magnificent, marvelous, good year. How the heck is it that something that has to do with the passage of something that doesn’t even exist get to be labeled as magnificent? Whatever could I be talking about?

The potential.

S: Absolutely the potential of it. Why? Why is the potential for this year so special?

Because the energy’s changed.

S: Absolutely the energy has changed. What energy?

[. . . ]

S: Because of the fusion of masculine and feminine energy, there has been a massive energy change. Absolutely that is so, and before that why?

The Grid; and also the veil is thinner, so we have greater access to what’s available.

S: And that also, all right. That’s going to be the next one over, so come back to that one in just a moment. Give me Grid. The Grid.

The Grid is the point where the energy from the earth meets the energy coming from the universe, and the pattern of that has been changed to allow for more energy to come through, and for the life-force on the planet to be able to use that energy.

S: Beautifully said. Perfectly said. Excellent. Write that down and put it into one of those little blocks, all right. That’s a good one said very well.

The Grid, the blueprint of the planet itself, the Grid, has altered in order that—I’m going to put a new word on to it—in order that spiritual energy—cosmic energy, Source energy—spiritual energy might better be able to function in this world. All right the blueprint itself has changed in order that a remarkable function of energy can better work in this world. That’s important. Now, Colleen.

Well, the veil is being lifted and thinning, so that allows you . . . you don’t have that separation, so you have easier access to what is.

S: The veil. The veil. [Tries to pull clothing up over his face.] Not good. Sorry. Always a risk, though [to pull Lea’s clothing up]. You’re right, you’re right, always a risk.

What veil? Frank.

Well, it’s a metaphor. When we have taken on form, we forget we are . . . we lose limitless knowledge, and that . . .

S: Hate that part.

. . . that lack of all knowledge is the veil. We could . . . I mean metaphorically there is a veil between us and full knowledge.

S: Yes.

And the thing that keeps us from full knowledge, we call the veil.

S: That works. Can anybody give another perspective or two about it? Donna.

I don’t know if this is exactly right, but what comes to mind is that it is like a volume knob: it slows down ability to receive. It’s like a filter that’s put on.

S: And that would well be a good symptom of the veil, if you will. And the word filter I like the best. So far I like that one the best. It’s a filter. A filter. Yes, Harvey.

The veil gives the illusion of separation from the Source.

S: Got it! Right there. The veil is an illusion. If you were looking through a veil—and if I could I would for you—if you were looking through a veil, everything that you saw would look slightly different, wouldn’t it? It would be affected by the nature of the veil itself. It becomes a filter, so to speak. It’s a filter that represents separation. You’re still seeing what’s out there, but not exactly right. That’s the lack of full knowledge that Frank made reference to.

Gwendolyn, you’ve got a racehorse, and it’s a skittish racehorse. You know that it’s the fastest thing there could be on the track, but you put another horse up along side of it and it just starts getting so tense it can hardly move. What’s a typical thing to do? I’ll give you a hint. I’m looking for this. [Holds hands up along side of eyes.]

Typically, you would put blinkers on them.

S: Good. Good. Why would you put blinkers on them?

Well, then he can’t see and worry about what he can’t see.

S: Got it! Perfect. Yes. That’s the veil. Blinkers for humans.

There’s probably blinders.

S: Is there a difference?

Well, blinkers can be different degrees of covering up what they see.

S: I like it better already.

I mean actually in some cases they even cut a little hole so that they’ll see a little action, which kind of inspires them to go a little bit more, but then you can have blinders that really cut off all but a little slit. I mean, it just varies with the individual that you’re trying to deal with.

S: Yes it does, doesn’t it? I have noticed that as well. Absolutely. There they are, so ready to run the race of life, and they get out on the track and find out that every little movement frightens them. Every little brush with the person next to them or the horse, as this case might be, the movement of the bushes on the side of the track, the movement of the jockey gently pushing them on, “Go. Go! GO!” Some manage it very well and as a result don’t need very much of a filter at all. Some are so afraid that they must have the most possible.

There’s other equipment that helps hide things from them. You see some horses running in what we call a shadow roll, and it goes over their nose. It’s a very poofy thing so that they can’t see shadows underneath them that they’re making themselves, but that could also stop them.

S: You know, we could come up with a really good story with this one. Aye, aye.

There are other sides to these metaphors.

S: Life and the right equipment or something like that. A shadow roll for those who are afraid of their own shadow, who focus on their own actions to the point of forgetting what they’re doing.

And try and jump them sometimes.

S: Jump over their own shadow.

Yes.

S: I love it. And, of course, you can relate, can’t you? Aye.

There’s a mask that exists, too, that often the blinkers are so that the animal stays focused and is not distracted by everything.

S: And, indeed, that’s the purpose, that’s exactly the purpose.

The little holes in the sides of the blinkers are so they don’t get too lazy, they don’t rest on their laurels out there if they’re out in front, and miss seeing the competition and the challenges coming along to help push them on their way. So that allows them to see that which can keep them going on their path.

S: Lovely. So in this year, a year in which your equipment has been changed, in which the blinkers have been exchanged for a much lighter set perhaps, maybe even taken off altogether, a year in which for those who have learned to run the race without getting caught up in all the details going on around you to the exclusion of your being able to function, for those that have learned to run the race, you are going to have a year that not only takes your world to another level, but does for you, too.

And yet, with the new Grid established and in place, with energy moving into this world at a rate that it has not before, activating those who have been sleeping for too long, with the fusion putting forth a new form of creation so that the ability to manifest what is needed in that race is accessible for you when you need it, before you need it, in a year in which you are more awake and more aware, not only of what you need but of what others need, more than ever before you have balancing it right out also before you a year that holds your greatest dangers. And they are all to do with the dangers which come from falling into old habits, handling things in old ways. Not doing the best you can, but procrastinating. Not doing the best you can, but sabotaging. Not doing the best you can, but blaming, seeking outside of yourself. The old patterns, the ones that may have served your fears for a very long time must be eliminated from your repertoire of tricks this year.

So let me talk about a few of them, briefly and quickly, because frankly I don’t really like talking about them. When I said, “What are the down sides, the other ways, that you can look at the gift of I got fired and rehired?” and you came up with a few things—here are things that people can do—you essentially came up with different versions of just a few basic things. They are the small but important repertoire of stupid human tricks that keep you from experiencing your best possible moment. If you were looking at those things that had been mentioned and you were going to try to distill it down—I’ll go ahead and tell you one, because it’s the easiest: fear is the big distillation. All right, that’s the big common denominator. Fear can take hold.

Fear shows itself up in many different ways, and the sabotage is not the fear; the sabotage is what you do to avoid it. Avoiding fear will change your path for the worst. Do you understand that? Avoiding fear? Wait a minute, Samuel, are you saying that we should just walk straight into what we fear? Sort of. Aye.

[. . . ] if the horse all of a sudden has all these kinds of blinkers on in the different versions, all of a sudden has them removed, and all of a sudden runs for cover as far as wanting to try to put something back on. Whether it’s a human all of sudden thinking, “Uh-oh.” You’re so aware now that you’re thinking, Here I have things coming at me, and I just might want to . . . avoidance would be seeing it and running and hiding from it to avoid it.

S: Choosing to let the fear rule rather than stopping and looking to see is this just an automatic response? Is there really anything there to fear? What is it exactly you think you’re not going to be enough for? What is it exactly you are facing that’s bigger than you?

You sabotage by giving in to your fear without looking at it. I’m not saying without a fight, I’m saying without even looking at it. “I can’t do that. That’s it. It’s over. No more. That’s how it is.” You sabotage by presuming the worst, because that’s what giving into fear is. You presume the worst of yourself and you hold yourself back from joy, but you presume the worst of others and you hold yourself back from life. Presume the worst of yourself, you hold yourself back from joy, not life. Presume the worst from others, you hold yourself back from life. Why is that?

We experience ourselves through relationships with others.

S: Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. Also, because you are so used to you, you hold yourself back, you’re used to it. You know that you’ll eventually weasel around to something else. You know that this might take a bit, but you’ll eventually get there. You won’t respect yourself in the morning, but it’s all right. You keep yourself from joy with that, but when you expect the worst with others, you not only keep yourself, but you keep them in a box that says “No potential, no help, nothing greater than my fear. No change, nothing better than my fear.” You are limited.

Jennifer said your relationships are how you see you in this world. That’s very true. When you presume the worst of what somebody said to you, instead of presuming the best, when you presume the worst—they’re going to do this, they’re going to kill themselves, it’s just going to be awful—you’re creating a box that has no life in it. Safe, but no life. Assuming the worst is a great sabotage.

What can you do to get out of that really bad habit? Well, the biggest answer there is, change the way you think. And if changing the way you think was as easy as just saying that, then I highly recommend you say it as often as you can, but it’s not that easy. Changing the way you think involves a desire to change the way you think, a willingness to change your environmental thought process, and that’s where you fall into trouble. Frank.

And it seems like before you can begin working to change how you think, you have to be aware of this pattern in yourself.

S: Right. True.

Because often our sabotages are so much a part of our life we don’t know they’re there, so we don’t even try to change them.

S: And your life, when you have something that makes you unhappy—hurt, difficult, tense, something that drains energy, sucks life out of you—you can pretty well think, I have a belief sitting underneath all of this that is keeping me from happiness. Those beliefs that keep me from happiness are beliefs that no longer fit. It’s time to try on a few new ones.

If you don’t know what it is that’s your personal sabotage and difficulty, look to see what area of your life you’re most miserable, you’re most unhappy, where things are continually not working well, because that’s going to be the place where you have an angry nest of dysfunctional behaviors and beliefs that weasel their way up into the cracks and corners of your life like a leak in your roof. Aye.

I want to share something . . .

S: Good.

. . . that I did to help me get out of a habit. And the nice thing is that I practiced it in one area and it carried over into other areas of my life, because when I was driving I would often get impatient. And someone would pull out in front of me, or something, and I would find myself getting really irritated.

S: Which, of course, nobody else in here can relate to at all.

Well, what I did is, every time that happened, I trained myself to just start thinking of anything I could that would allow me to not be irritated with this person; thinking of a lot of different scenarios—maybe they were just learning to drive that day or they had just found something else out, but it really reframed my way of dealing with other drivers. But the beauty of it is, once I mastered it in that area, it started trickling into other parts of my life.

S: Lovely. And that’s a very good example of the environmental thought processes that need to change. What’s going on around you causes a lot of automatic behaviors, and you need to begin changing those automatic behaviors, such as you know that you get very, very tense in the car, you know that you get angry at work, you know that this sort of situation frustrates you and gets you flustered, and you come up with a means of distracting yourself from the automatic negative function. Instead of, “That idiot! What are they doing?” you train yourself to—perhaps just as Kathy said—begin thinking to send them energy and help because they’ve just got a call that they have a fire somewhere and they’ve got to get to it, or they are not even aware that this is a problem for others and they need help, and you move it into an opportunity to send energy or to send love. Or you come up with a way to make that change.

Now, I want to go into not so much many different versions within your life of those environmental difficulties, I want to go into the biggest one, and that is those you hang out with. It is so easy to allow yourself into negative thought functions that you’re not even aware of because you are constantly surrounded by those who choose negative thought functions as a way of life. What am I talking about?

My mother. [Laughter]

S: And how many people in here think she was speaking for you? What am I talking about? What are the sorts of things I’m making reference to here?

You might hang with people or be around people who are always miserable, gossiping, and just generally complaining no matter what it’s about.

S: Complainers. Complainers. Yes. They complain about how hard it is to take the next breath.

Well, everything. I mean they can find something to complain about, because . . .

Often that which they cannot control.

S: Yes, complainers. Complaining about anything and everything. What else?

People who are very angry. Whenever something goes wrong, it provokes an anger in them and a willingness to blame somebody else for what’s going on.

S: Constant reactions of anger and blame. Constant reactions of dramas. A passionless existence creates an individual who establishes that fraudulent passion by the drama of “This is so big, so awful.” They gossip. They are sarcastic. They make jokes at the expense of, they enjoy jokes that are based on the expense of. They think that those who choose to see the positive are ignorant, because it’s intellectual to be negative. You laugh because you know that, you know that sort of attitude in your life. And that attitude will harm you faster than any physical disease ever could.

One of the sabotages that you put into life is you allow negative thought functions to direct you, negative thought functions that are a part of your own belief system, that no longer have a foot in current reality, but you don’t know it because you’re not testing your new reality to see what does work and what is possible. And one of the reasons you don’t try to get out of the box of your reality is that you surround yourself with those who amplify the false reality, the negative of this reality. Do not walk away—run! Because that will suck you dry.

But Samuel, what if I’m related to him? Then you begin to learn the very fine art of deflecting. I did not say reflecting. I said deflecting. And one of the best ways to deflect a negative function is to not give any power. Leave. And if it’s a situation in which you’re going to start a war by saying, “I hate it when you talk that way. I’m out of here. Goodbye,” try a very obvious subject change. Very obvious: “Did I tell you the most recent . . . ?”

Weather report.

S: Why not? Why not?

I have a good one, because I put this into practice, but I just recently changed my life with this, how I do this. It also has to do with giving it back to them, giving their power. Acknowledge it. “Okay, I see you feel that way,” and then a subject change. It kind of defuses.

S: And another real good one with the constant complainer in giving that power back is, “Wow, that’s incredible. What are you going to do about it?” Right. Right.

You must take action to change your world, and when you think about Guardianship energy, when you allow yourself to recognize and know that you’re here to help the planet, to make a difference, to make it better, then you know in your heart that’s going to mean making some changes.

You have before you a very wide and clear road, but before you can take a step onto that road, you’ve got to know you can walk. And what will stop you from that knowledge first is the constant sabotage of your negative thoughts and the negative thoughts of those around you. You must take action to change that. That is a very big one, so I’ve given it a lot of time.

But there’s another very big one that gets in the way, but it doesn’t take much time, because you are so familiar with this one that I don’t have to explain it much: once you know you can walk, you need to be strong enough to walk. And what I mean by that insofar as the sabotages that you bring into your life and being able to make use of this energy is, once you get rid of at least some of the negative thought patterns that surround you, from within and from without, you need to have successes. You need to know what you can do, and one of the best ways for you to gain strength in regard to what you can do is for you to drop off the things that distract you, that fulfill your belief that you cannot, that weaken you.

Now, let me explain those. Those things that distract you: I’ve had the opportunity to speak to many of you individually, and to many of you I’ve had the opportunity to say, “Learn to say no. Practice no.” You fill your life with things that do not mean much to you, because it is your way of buying the pleasure of someone who means much to you. It is possible in your life you have built a whole world of actions that mean nothing to you. Or mean everything to you when you are four, but not forty. Meant everything to you when you were in this function of life, not that one. Clear out those things that are not an expression of the best possible you, and because you will run into roadblocks with that, and the roadblock will be, “Oh no! I can’t do that,” ask yourself why not. Who am I proving what to by doing this? The next time you’re ready to take something on, take a look at your purpose. Why? What’s it going to give me, and is what it gives me something I want?

You need successes in not being distracted by those things that pop up on the side of the road looking like your mother when you were four, or your boyfriend when you were fourteen, or your husband when you were forty, that do not speak with your current voice and say things like cannot, should not, will not, not good enough, not smart enough, not big enough, not tall enough, not short enough.

You’re going to have to learn your voice this year. And that’s very likely to be one of the hardest things you learn. You have a lot of voices in your head, and not a one of them matters. It’s not the voices in your head, it’s the voice of your heart. And the magic that you wield in this coming year you wield out of the power of your heart.

That means you’re going to get over you. That means you’re going to get over those cannots, should nots, reactive qualities. It’s a baby in front of you, and that baby has your name: “Joni 2003,” “Lisa 2003.” It has your name; raise it up, show it what it can do, not what it can’t.

There are dangers in every path. You keep the blinkers on too long, you start thinking that’s all there is of the world. That’s a danger. So every now and again stretch just a bit, touch the outside of that box, if the world doesn’t fall in right away, stretch a little farther next time. Every day, push a little father with one thing.

Now, very quickly, I would like to bring a challenge to you. For those of you who are going to be a part of the Guardianship Program coming up—and I highly recommend it, because that brings about powerful changes in a very easy and safe environment—then you’re going to be getting this anyway. But one of the easiest ways for you to begin revamping your life, becoming aware of your sabotages, turning off some of the negative voices in your head and outside in the world, is to begin taking control of your thoughtlessness. And what I mean by thoughtlessness are those activities in which you don’t think when you do them. And one of the biggest and the easiest is your television habits.

Two suggestions in this regard: I do not recommend that you cut it out altogether. I do not recommend that because that’s too easy, that’s not the point. You are learning to succeed with something. Simply cutting it out is not it. Choose what you will watch. In the Guardianship Program, it’s more specific than that; it is, you record it ahead of time, because it forces you to choose ahead of time. Watch eight hours in a row if you recorded it ahead of time, it doesn’t matter, but you’ve made that effort. Yours may not be that specific, but choose. That means you are not sitting there creating the strobe effect in your room. You see, you know just what I’m talking about there.

The second thing with it is, cut out your usual sources of news and seek another one. I’m not saying don’t watch CNN, I’m saying try MSN instead. I’m not saying don’t read your newspaper, I’m saying read the Cincinnati paper instead. I’m saying get an alternative. Create a small change, a different perspective insofar as your news coverage is concerned.

Next month I’m going to be talking very specifically about the input of energy of messages that you receive both internally and externally. What to do with it. [Given glass of water.] Thank you, love.

This month, begin getting a new perspective. Begin seeking— [coughing] got a little too excited with you there, didn’t I?—begin seeking new versions of your everyday life, of your everyday experiences, of what you get, how you get it, when you get it, and it will begin changing you.

I’m looking at ways for you to open to your power.

I have a suggestion. Something that’s helped me is to check the reality of my belief system, because sometimes it needs to be updated, and the way you’re functioning is based on old knowledge of your friends, your family, your situations. And so to go back and look at it with new and awakened eyes, saying, “You know, I’m doing this out of habit, and I don’t even know if it’s necessary any more, or if they even want me to do it,” or whatever. It’s like, clean out your closet.

S: Because of the very thing that you said earlier, and that is, change happens. Put that into effect.

I’d like to encourage you at this coming month to change. Get rid of the old. [Continues coughing] It’s quite irritating when I feel it. Is it irritating for you to hear it?

[. . . ]

S: Precisely. Seems to only do it when it breathes, so it’s not particularly useful to stop it. On the other hand, it is the season, isn’t it?

The opportunities this year are beyond anything you and your earth, this one, can imagine. You are ready. Don’t let your life, the habits, the procrastinations, the sabotages, get in the way of what you’re here for. A few easy changes can make a huge difference, and through this year my hand is open to help, to remind, to shove, because this is what you’ve come here for. This one, this one holds the balance.

Glochanumora.