CUSTOMmade LIFEdesign

''The little ones still remember how to use the power of their imagination. They are still engaged in the utilization of their imagination - that is one of the reasons that keeps them so exhilarated.'' - Abraham-Hicks

Permission to PLAY

Life is mostly considered a battle, when in fact it is a game - a game which cannot be played without the knowledge of spiritual law. To play the game of life successfully we must train the imaging faculty. How and when we play, defines how we manage life and that which fills our energetic wells.

Play has been defined as any activity freely chosen, intrinsically motivated, and personally directed. It stands outside ordinary life and is non-serious, but at the same time absorbing the player intensely. It has no particular goal other than itself. Play is not a specific behaviour, but any activity undertaken with a playful frame of mind. Psychiatrist Stuart Brown writes that play is "the basis of all art, games, books, sports, motion pictures, fashion, fun, and wonder – in short, the basis of what we think of as civilization."

As the noted play theorist Brian Sutton-Smith remarked, "the opposite of play is not work, but depression". One undeniable feature of play is fun. Enjoyment is the main reason for playing. Thus promoting the sustainability of positive emotions, which in turn contribute significantly to a sense of well-being and health, and improve the quality of life for children and adults alike. Recent developments in biology, psychology and neuroscience lend credence to the importance of play in human evolution and development, as have the discoveries in the fields of science and technology broadened our views of play. The flourishing of cognitive neuroscience - which is the study of the relationships between brain activity, thinking and acting - has led to new insights into the role and the importance of play for mind and body has been well documented. People play because it is fun - but more than that, it is literally essential for maintaining our health and overall well-being intact.

One of the many ways in which play is healthy is that it results in positive emotions, and these may promote among other benefits long-term health. Even if it did not do this, play improves the quality of life – people feel good while playing. For example, play has a major contribution to make in keeping an ageing population healthy. Active play has the paradoxical effect of increasing attention span and improving the efficiency of thinking and problem-solving. According to Jeffrey Goldstein PhD, from Utrecht University "Two hours of active play per day may help reduce attention deficits and hyperactivity, among children".

In short - play is not just play, it holds far more merits in store for us than we care to admit. Play and playful thought can hold a very powerful way to connect to what our spirit needs in order to thrive. Play is expansive - it gives us the energetic space we need to feel alive and imagine the possibilities that are available to further inspire us. In fact, one might see play as a spiritual practice in its own right. According to Nika Quirk, MBA, PhD - play is indeed a spiritual practice. In her work, Quirk encourages people to “hold life lightly and meaningfully”. She stresses that we do not have to shut down our playful imaginative selves to find meaning in our world. In fact, having permission to hold the lighter side of life can open up a channel for our spirit to soar. Quirk describes play as a profound act which becomes the way to connect to, and fill, the often magical space from which we create. Recognising the deep meaning and healing that can be found as we connect to our playful, creative and inspirational selves can be a truly spiritual process. Play becomes a spiritual practice when we begin to recognise those moments where we need to connect to our expansive selves. It becomes a practice when we must consciously shift our awareness from what may be self-limiting to self-fulfilling. Knowing our relationship to play - as the lighter side of life - and what helps us to connect to this transformational place is a key element in our spiritual practice.

"Nothing is unless our thinking makes it so". - William Shakespeare

Rekindling the MAGIC

Many a time as we come to a point when we make a mental decision to create some change in our lives, the most common pattern we follow is to think and act upon it in terms of work instead of in terms of play. We would find ourselves saying sentences such as "...well, I have to work on my goals" or, "...I have to work on my visualisations". Unfortunately, these patterns of thought and the like of them are in fact the detrimental cause for a lot of misunderstandings and disappointments. As we believe we have done our share of work at hand and still find ourselves no closer to our goals as when we have started, we either relinquish the task of making our dreams reality altogether or worse, we sink even deeper in our misery. However, when we go back in time, and consider the state of ease, with which we as children had a strong trust that anything we want to do is possible and, not only that, quite simple to accomplish we may remember how we were not weighed down by a barrage of limitations and impossibilities.

Ask an adult if he or she can become a millionaire by next year and your answer will probably be – no! Ask a child the same question and you might hear - "...why would it take a whole year?'" When Jesus spoke of having the Eyes of a Child, he referred to this implicit trust in the source of all things. This attitude means we cannot rely on rational thought or external circumstances to bring about success. Instead, faith that the answer has been provided before the question was even asked must take precedence. To the rational mind, a leap of faith such as this is often far too great to take and yet it is the very thing we should pursue. In order to break free from the ordinary, one must be extraordinary, even if it may seem irrational. Just because you do not see the solution to your problem at this very moment - before your eyes - does not mean it cannot or will not present itself, in the next.

Joyful anticipation that each moment of your life can bring you the answer to your prayers is the state of being Jesus and other masters such as Buddha and Krishna existed within - and that was the very crux of the message they strove to deliver to us. They were not better than we are. They were trying, however, to get us to understand that they represented the pinnacle of human potential and encouraged us to realise this, within ourselves. After all, Jesus told us “Anything I can do, you can do also, and even greater things thereof.” To dare to see the world through the eyes of a child is to awaken to a completely new world. Only when we learn to accept the idea that by just holding a certain vision because it is pleasurable to hold that vision! - and not, because we are trying to make the vision work in order to get to some place that we are not now standing in, are we finally there, on the threshold of real change. From that point on we find ourselves working towards our goal in a sense of joyously moving forward.

"Gratitude is one of the surest ways to bring your desires into the present moment. As we think of it - our heart's desire - as an accomplished fact, we are grateful. When we replace any doubtful thoughts or begging prayers, with a heart full of gratitude; we will manifest our desires". - Marilyn Jenett

In PRAISE of GRATITUDE

Science tells us that an Attitude of Gratitude is a good health choice. Being more grateful more often makes us happier and more optimistic. Choosing the joy of appreciation is a most powerful tool in raising our vibration, in coming into alignment with our desires, in connecting with source energy for a fabulous dose of well-being and clarity. But gratitude also adds to the bottom line in very real ways. Not only do we experience a shift in our focal point, but more importantly the energetic signal we are emitting when we focus on gratitude is the key to expansive change!

To cultivate an Attitude of Gratitude is a good way to become more appreciative.

*Gratitude attracts what we want - The universal law of attraction says that we will attract into our life the things we think about, feel around us and focus on. When we are consciously aware of our blessings and are grateful for them, we are actually focusing more clearly on what we do want in our life and are therefore, attracting more of those things into our life.

*Gratitude improves relationships - We learn the importance of saying "thank you" as little children. We are taught that habit because it is good manners. This childhood lesson is extremely powerful. When we think about those people that we know who are most appreciative of us - and let us know it - their appreciation positively impacts our relationship with them. We should be grateful for people, their contributions, their talents and their actions - and most importantly - make sure we let them know how we feel.

*Gratitude reduces negativity - It is hard to be negative about any situation when we are thinking about things for which we are grateful. One of the fastest ways to improve our mood or outlook is to count our blessings.

*Gratitude improves problem-solving skills - Too often we look at problem-solving with a very jaded view, as in Something is wrong. We have barriers in our way. Then, we feel we have to put in the effort to fix it. Conversely, when we think about what we are grateful for we open our minds up to new possibilities and connections. We also enter a problem-solving situation with a perspective of improvement and opportunity rather than challenge or issue.

*Gratitude helps us Grow - "Every dark cloud has a silver lining". Behind every problem lies an opportunity. Being grateful for our situation - even if we do not like everything about it, allows us to be thankful for the opportunity to learn something new.

Practice Appreciation, and Count Your Blessings

You may have heard it before and even tried it at times. By being aware of the consequences of applying it consistently as a daily practice in your life, you will soon re-discover that as you practice directing the high-frequency energy of appreciation - and more so as appreciation becomes your dominant vibration - you will spend less and less time in the lower states of vibration, feeling bad, feeling sad, and settling for less than you desire. It is as simple as paying notice to how your vibration improves as you bring into your awareness things that you enjoy - little things …a playful multicoloured butterfly passing you by …a wonderfully fragrant flower just there in front of you …your favourite romantic song playing in the background …a deliciously alluring glass of wine. In time you will find there are endless little things to be grateful for around you, constantly. Set your radar for anything that summons up the high vibration of appreciation.

Most of All - Appreciate Yourself!

Whatever you believe about yourself is expressed to the ends of the universe. You are wonderful, brilliant, and worthy of all good things – just as you are, so relax, be playful, have fun, laugh, be good to you. Focus on all the wonderful things there are, to appreciate about you. In the entire universe, there has never been anyone exactly like you. Celebrate, appreciate, love, and feel good about you. As you apply the power of appreciation in your life today and every day, you will quickly and easily magnetise into your life everything, you could ever desire!

The law of attraction works according to your thoughts, feelings, beliefs and expectations. When you focus on gratitude, you are thinking, feeling, believing in and expecting: happiness, abundance, security, blessings, contentment and much much more. Generally, you are telling the universe that all is right in your world! The universe's answers to that will evidently be here is some more abundance, security, blessings, contentment, joy and anything else you desire. It is about time you allowed me to send it! However, if you forgo appreciation and give into blaming and complaining, the universe will soon translate it as I would like more things to complain about, please. Cultivate an Attitude of Gratitude and the universe will present you with a dazzling array of fascinating people and delightful circumstances.

"Walk in the rain, smell flowers, stop along the way, build sandcastles, go on field trips, find out how things work, tell stories, say the magic words, trust the universe". - Bruce Williamson

The PollyAnna Principle

In the best-selling 1913 novel by Eleanor H. Porter that is now considered a classic of children's literature, young Pollyanna has been taught by her father how to play ‘The Glad Game’, in which the goal is to "find something about everything, to be glad about'‘. Pollyanna's philosophy of life centres on what she calls 'The Glad Game', an optimistic and positive attitude she learned from her father. The Game consists of finding something to be glad about in every situation, no matter how bleak it may be. It originated in an incident one Christmas when Pollyanna, who was hoping for a doll in the missionary barrel, found only a pair of crutches inside. Making the game up on the spot, Pollyanna's father taught her to look at the good side of things - in this case, to be glad about the crutches because "we didn't need to use them!"

With this philosophy, and her own sunny personality and sincere, sympathetic soul, Pollyanna brings so much gladness to her aunt's dispirited New England town that she transforms it into a pleasant place to live. 'The Glad Game" shields her from her aunt's stern attitude: ..."when Aunt Polly puts her in a stuffy attic room without carpets or pictures, she exults at the beautiful view from the high window; ...when she tries to punish her niece for being late to dinner by sentencing her to a meal of bread and milk in the kitchen with the servant Nancy, Pollyanna thanks her rapturously because she likes bread and milk, and she likes Nancy".

The name Pollyanna quickly became shorthand for a kind of blind optimism. In the 1970s, psychological researchers proposed the Pollyanna Principle to explain how people search for and recognise the good — smells, words, memories — before the bad, no matter the circumstances. Porter was right to defend her heroine. In fact, Pollyanna's Glad Game is a perfectly sensible technique for finding happiness - a pursuit that has turned into a bona fide obsession in mainstream culture, academia, and policy circles over the last decade or so. Her Glad Game goes beyond simple positive thinking. Pollyanna is not always cheerful. she cries over disappointments large and small and initially refuses to play the game when she suffers a major tragedy. It is not that she is naturally the world's greatest optimist - rather, optimism is a tool she uses to make herself happy. Her gladness is Gladwellian: It's not a state of mind, but rather a skill that becomes stronger with practice. As the freckled little guru herself put it - “When you're hunting for the glad things, you sort of forget the other kind." As such, The Glad Game can be seen as another name for a Gratitude List as it helps us focus on what is right in our world, instead of what is wrong.

''Your work is to go forth into this physical environment looking for things that are a vibrational match to joy, connecting to Source Energy, and then following it with inspired action''. - The teachings of Abraham

JOY Abounds

Often times it seems we are all, to some extent, waiting to arrive at a future paradise. The paradise of a perfect relationship, a perfect job, a perfect car, a perfect house, or literally the - pearly gates beyond! Most of us also fear - to some extent - a future hell. The hell of not finding the love of our life, losing our dream job, going broke, getting sick, or worse. Both positions keep us stuck in a fantasy of the future, putting our good on the layaway plan or keeping us fearful about living fully. All the power and joy we will ever need are, right here. But we cannot experience it as long as we are stuck in the past, anticipating the future, or lost in fantasy.

Therefore, a key step in cultivating the conditions for emergence into alignment is moving from anticipating to participating in our good. We are literally swimming in a sea of well-being and abundance - and do not often know it. Your good is here and now. It will never come in the future. Your task at hand is to start participating in it. This begins by accepting that it is here, then looking for the evidence of it in your current conditions. This game of daily searching and re-discovering is much like a simple picture riddle where we look for all the hidden objects that are disguised or obscured or peeking out behind corners. The same is true here. Heaven is literally peeking out all over the place! We are being constantly reminded and invited to participate in it. It begins now.