Cinderella, The Power Of Dreaming Big

Is the recession making you feel like Cinderella before her fairy godmother showed up? Fairy tales often carry important messages. When most people were illiterate, this is how wisdom was passed along, by putting it in interesting and memorable tales. And if you thought Cinderella was just a lucky girl who happened to walk into wealth and happiness by magic, let me show you what she really did. (Photo credit)

The audacity of dreaming big

So there was this poor girl, wearing rags and sleeping on cinders. One evening, there was a big ball that all the girls were invited. She wanted to go, but she had no proper clothing for such an occasion.

Suddenly, her fairly godmother appears.

Now if you were in her situation, and see some magical figure, be it your fairy godmother or a genie, would you dare to say, “I want to go to the ball.”?

I’ve been poor myself, and I know what it’s like. The really sad thing about poverty is not the hunger nor the coldness. Poverty decays the spirit. You start thinking poor.

I remember walking on a cold night to the store (I didn’t have a car) to get some groceries. I guess it was about this time of the year because I remember the pretty holiday lights at the houses as I walked — each house had different decorations and they all looked cheerful. I was in difficult marriage and even though I had a good full-time job, all the money was getting sucked and I was sinking in debt. To me, all those pretty houses seemed to have happy, well-off people.

If a fairy godmother showed up at that time, I think I would have asked for some money. Or a nice warm sweater and new underwear. (I wasn’t wearing shirts with holes — with my full-time job, that wasn’t an option. But underneath, I was wearing socks with holes.) This is how poverty makes us think. I was in such a miserable situation that the only thing I could think of was to get a little relief.

Whereas Cinderella dared to say, “I want to go to the ball.”

She didn’t say that because she figured she could snap up the prince’s attention, marry him, therefore securing lifelong prosperity. That is how it turned out, but at the time when she met her fairy godmother, all she asked was to be able to go to the ball. That special evening of glamour. Notice the innocence and audacity of her request.

What is your big dream?

If your fairy godmother shows up, what are you going to ask for? Do you have the same kind of innocence and audacity Cinderella had, to dare to dream something that is unlikely, even if that dream doesn’t seem to improve your situation in a direct “realistic” way? Or is your thinking limited to the level of your daily life, like asking for a (better) job or some stuffs on the storefront that you cannot afford?

Please note asking for a large amount of money is NOT a big dream. We ask for money when we are too lazy to visualize what we really want, thinking money can buy happiness. It’s actually a very poor dream.

Morale of the story

Cinderella didn’t just get lucky. She had a big dream, and she dared to say it. When you have the vision that inspires you, and when you acknowledge such a big dream, something magical happens. Some people call it the Law of Attraction, some call it the creative power we have within. You don’t need a fairy godmother — you have the creative power within you. It may take a bit longer than the magic wand, but it works, and even better, you can use your innate creative power over and over again in your life.

Since I “got it”, I’ve been encouraging myself to say something like, “I want to go to the ball.” It’s actually quite challenging to match her audacity. Often, my dream look shabby compared to hers, and I have to encourage myself further to dream bigger. And my life has been getting better and better. I even have a thriving business that is growing further.

This is the time of the year when we think of the new beginning in the new year. What is your big dream? Is you spirit high enough to dream big?

Online Gratitude Journal June 2009 Edition #30

I just had a mini revelation. Perhaps I’ll develop this into full article in the future, but here is the heads-up: (Photo by Mr. Greenjeans)

Occasionally I receive emails from people who want “free” readings, and I’ve wondered why. Is psychic reading typically offered free and I’m violating the rule? Hmm, no, there are plenty of psychics who ask for far more than I do. Is it because they don’t think I’m worth their money? But if so, why do they ask me for reading ever?

Is it because they don’t have money? This may seem right, but then, it hit me: It’s because they don’t pay the due that they are poor. They don’t pay what is due, so what is rightfully theirs don’t come their way in their life. They believe they don’t have the money so that is how they are. Look at the energetic exchange (or the lack thereof, in this case), and it’s quite plain and simple.

I’m not advocating to spend lots of money. When I receive bills that I don’t agree, I go after the merchant and straighten things up. I do advocate paying properly. Sometimes I pay more than the bill my, say web designer, charges me. With gratitude. Because I think the work was worth it.

If you want to be treated well for who you are, treat others well. (Plus there are plenty of articles in this blog’s archive about how to start a business and make money )

June in Review

As promised in last month’s Gratitude Journal, I wrote about love and sex — and was discouraged with the low level of comments. Okay . . . if my readers don’t like this topic, maybe I’ll write about something else. But are you sure? I was ready to write more juicy stuffs . . .

I started writing about various starseeds groups. This is going to be a long series. I don’t think there are sufficient information about this, so I take it to my responsibility to write about it.

Fun

In 12 Steps To Raw Foods, Victoria Boutenko, the leading raw foods advocate, writes about a few other healthy habits beside eating raw. One of them is sleeping naked. She cites several studies and maintains sleeping naked promotes surface circulation. (I guess, then, being naked anytime is good, but we need to balance healthy habits with social life requirements. Plus it can be too cold outside the bed.)

Well, the weather is warm, this is the best time to try this. I do think I sleep better this way. Plus it feels good. (My sheets are 100% organic cotton.)

Victoria Boutenko also recommends jumping into cold water, sleeping on hard surface, keeping windows open for fresh air, etc. I started taking cold shower occasionally and try to keep the windows open. Not sure if I can keep doing this in winter, but for now, it works.

Challenges

Blog marketing, I guess. I simply don’t have time to go around promoting my blog. I love writing, and many articles here will be included in the book I hope to publish about Ascension and Akashic Records, so with or without large audience, this blog is very meaningful to me. At the same time, I wish I had more readers. Writing gets lonely sometimes, and there is nothing like reading comments at such time.

Lucky Synchronicities

For this, I’d like to record the great synchronicities I experience in my life. It confirms the benevolent mystery of life

Saturday evening, June 13th. I went out walking to my local supermarket. It’s 15 minutes walk and I find it to be a good way to exercise. There is sidewalk all along lined with lots of trees and flowers.  When I was leaving home, the sky was mildly overcast but it didn’t seem like it would rain any time soon.

I bought some mangos and grapefruits and came out of the store to find rain pouring down. Haven’t I learned the lesson of living in Oregon yet? It can rain any time. The sky changes in 10 minutes.

So . . . I was standing outside the store. Do I want to walk back in rain and just pretend I went swimming? Shall I wait until it clears up?

It was dark with the severe rain, but I noticed the car in the parking lot. Hey, that gray Scion is just like my friend’s. Is she here shopping, too?

I stood there looking around for several minutes. She did come out from the store, looking surprised to see the rain and me.

I got the ride home. I’m lucky. My spirit guides work hard for me. Thank you.

Where in the blogosphere Akemi has been

I’ve always been interested in eating healthy and mindfully.  Here are two videos that inspire you.

First one — by the end of this short video, foods start to look different to you, I hope.

And here is a movie trailer about the miracle of eating raw. It reversed diabetes in 30 days. (HT: Evita)

A year ago at Yes to Me

I started this Gratitude Journal series a year ago. Over the course of the year, I’ve changed the format and posting frequency, but all in all, I think this is a great way to share a bit of my personal side. Namaste.

I personally like “Embrace The Big Questions Worth Spending Your Life For”. It’s about how “quick and easy” answers deprive the joy of living.

Word of month

“Cultivate a sense of gratitude for your food. Each time we remember to eat with awareness, we return to that place of inner peace.”

By earthmother. I learn a lot from her blog about eating raw, which I think has a lot to do with spiritual development. Thank you!

Thank you for your readership and comments, as always ^_^ I hope you are enjoying the warm weather.

Creating The New World, Part 4 Abundance

Many people say they want to change the world. But how? What is your vision of the New World? In this fourth installment of the Creating The New World series, we tackle with the sensitive discussion of Abundance in spiritual context.

Alignment with Divine Abundance

In my Akashic Record Reading practice, I see quite many people who are well aligned with Divine Love, Light, and Truth, but are widely misaligned with Divine Abundance and Power. They know they are spiritual beings that transcend physical bodies (alignment with Divine Light) and they live in Love and Truth, but they have hard time exercising their power and creating abundant life. They limit themselves in receiving boundless abundance.

On the other hand, there are some clients who are well aligned with Divine Abundance but poorly aligned with other energy flows. They have money but they are unhappy.

And the truth is we don’t need to be one or the other way. It is entirely possible to align with all five energy flows, to live fully in this physical world while nurturing our spirituality.

The key is to free ourselves from the false beliefs in scarcity and limitation.

Beliefs in scarcity and limitation

Do you see the world to be abundant? Do you see boundless abundance you can enjoy?

Until you acknowledge abundance wholeheartedly, there is no way to receive it. It’s like asking for a candy when you don’t think there is one. Most likely, you wouldn’t even bother with the asking.

So the first step in creating the New World based on Abundance is to see through the lies of scarcity. Yeah, it’s just a system of lies. Just because many people have believed in them don’t make them true.

Here are some of such lies based on the belief on scarcity and limitation:

False belief #1 “There are only limited amount of wealth / success, so I need to compete for it.”
This is by far the most destructive false belief there is. It has lead to general sense of distrust and hate in other human beings, occasionally resulting in wars and crimes.

This belief can also manifest in reverse, “There are only limited amount of wealth / success, and I hate to compete, so I volunteer to lose.” It’s just the flip side of the same scarcity belief.

But is it true? Is there really limitation of wealth / success and are we destined to be either a selfish (and often play-dirty) dog or a poor self-sacrificing saint?

When your perspective is superficial, yes, you’d see limitations including limitations of the physical resources such as oil or land. However we don’t need oil for oil’s sake, what we really need is energy source to heat our houses and move our vehicles. Energy sources in the universe is huge it’s practically unlimited. We just need to figure out how to use them, which will create new businesses.

Similarly, when you look at your company’s profit & loss statement, you may think there is only a certain amount of money that can be shared among employees. Within that context, yes, there is limitation. However, your company’s profit can increase. Ignoring this fact and believing there is always scarcity and limitation is a short-circuited way of thinking.

I also think a lot of scarcity is man-made, spurred by the fear of scarcity itself. For example, there are starving people in Africa. Well, actually, we don’t need to look that far … right next to the US, people in Mexico typically have far less than Americans. And there are homeless people in the US. Why is this so? Is this because there is innate scarcity in the world?

I doubt it. I also see tons of foods going to trash right from the storefront in the US (because the produce is getting old, etc). If we can figure out how to share foods worldwide, most, if not all, the problems would disappear. And with today’s technology, figuring out a good way of distribution wouldn’t be difficult. The only thing that is blocking us is the fear of scarcity.

Creative solutions, sharing, and cooperation will make everyone well off.

False belief #2 “Life is short, so I better specialize in one niche I can be good at if I am to succeed.”

The physical time we have in one lifetime is somewhat limited. Our resources to learn and develop new skills, however, are not. A piece of knowledge or skill can be utilized in multiple ways, contributing to multiple areas of specialization. By cross training, we get better at all the related areas.

For instance, as a former professional foreign language teacher, I can say people who learns foreign language quickly and well are those who has mastered their first language well. Say you are an American who want to learn Japanese. English and Japanese are two completely different languages. Yet, when you come to the first Japanese class, you already have huge amount of knowledge and skills you can utilize in your attempt to learn Japanese.

You already know a word represents a concept. And you know many concepts such as “red” or “to swim”. You also know there are certain systematic rules to construct a meaningful sentence. Whether you know grammatical terms or not is irrelevant. The point is you know there are rules and you know you need to learn these rules, not just individual words. And you know much much more.

Someone who has learned to express their thoughts and emotions appropriately in their first language is highly likely to master a second language. And they are motivated to learn foreign languages — they like expressing themselves in words, which made them good at their first language to begin with. So there is no point in limiting them to one language. Their internal resources multi-function. Resources are abundant.

Similarly, many musicians juggle multiple instruments. Visual artists do this, too, and I think combination skill sports like ironman race is a very healthy development. A good salesperson can sell pretty much anything after a brief learning period, and they are likely to make good motivational speakers as well.

Further, you can jump beyond the naturally related fields. Tim Ferriss pointed out the benefits of this approach. (HT: Hunter Nuttall) “The jack of all trades maximizes his number of peak experiences in life and learns to enjoy the pursuit of excellence.”

We are born with natural curiosity that leads to multiple interests. Willingness to dive into new areas of interests is based on abundance thinking, and in tern reinforces abundance and confidence. And you can be wonderful in many areas.

False belief #3 “There are only certain amount of love, so I better hurry up and grab a desirable person as my lover.”

This is something I’ve been thinking hard recently. Again, the number of desirable single individuals are limited, but that is just the superficial aspect. There is no scarcity of love. I suspect this false belief has been promoted by social authorities because if we connected with many people with love across the board, that could be a serious threat to those few people in power who want to control us with fear. So they have been brain washing us, teaching us to stay in our tiny homes of security.

I will write more on this issue of scarcity and limitation of love. It’s a huge issue by itself and covering it properly is outside the scope of this article.

The above three beliefs are just the biggies. There are many other false beliefs that are based on scarcity and limitation. Scarcity thoughts puts you on deferred life plan, making you believe you don’t have enough — yet. Scarcity thoughts keeps your house cluttered by preventing you from getting rid of old and unnecessary stuffs.

What other false beliefs do you buy into?

The Female Principle

When we were hunter / gatherers, we operated on the female principles. Mother Nature provided our sustenance, and we cooperated in our work and shared what we received. As the society grew to more labor intensive agrarian (then industrial) system, male principle of separatism and competition became dominant.

The New World will once again embrace the female principle, but in a new way. In other words, we need to integrate the male and female principles and come up with the new principle that is very different from the current male principle.

Does this mean we will recreate the original utopia? No. It will be an updated version of utopia. This time, we will retain our individuality. In fact, we will be very conscious of our sense of self. At the same time, we will be clearly conscious of our connection to the Whole and our interconnectedness. This is what I mean it will be the integration of male and female energies.

Likewise, we may still compete in the New World. But the competition will be fun, like a good sport, not about rat race or exploitation. It will be about enhancing one another, and we will create wonderful results that we can all benefit from.

As individual, we each have both male and female energies regardless of the physical gender we have. As Ascension progresses, I see in many of my clients’ Akashic Records that their energies are starting to balance between the male and female energies. On the individual level, we are getting prepared for the new way of living.

How to bring in the New World

I’ve thought about how far I want to go in the action plan for bringing in the New World based on Abundance. The list can be quite detailed and elaborate, but I already wrote several posts in the Spiritual Money category and I don’t like repeating myself. So if you are interested in bringing in more abundance in your personal life, please check those articles. You may also enjoy posts in the Law of Attraction category.

Here is a skinny of the more “big picture” approach to the New World:

1. Work on your own abundance awareness before going out to help the needy. Check if you are buying into the false beliefs of scarcity and limitation and let them go. If you go out to help the “needy” before doing this, you may actually be reinforcing the social illusion, effectively keeping the poor where they are.

2. Spend time in nature. Many people find this is an effective way to cultivate the abundance awareness. Nature is always so abundant.

3. For your personal abundance, think of flow rather than specific amount of money. Wishing for, say a billion dollars, is usually a sign of scarcity thoughts.

4. Think of the New World of love and peace, where there are no borders. Borders and other various rules are enforced to keep the illusion of scarcity. Think in terms of Love, Light, and Truth rather than in terms of existing, conventional rules and regulations. How can you cooperate and share so we can all live in abundance?

What do you think of my vision of the New World? Please share your thoughts in the comment. Thank you. (Photo by carf)

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