On Monday, Fred makes his way to his office car-park at the end of the day and a colleague offered him a smoke in the lobby. Well I can’t remember the last time I did this, Fred thinks to himself, and it IS Monday!

On Tuesday, Fred goes on a business trip, it’s evening time when he finally gets to his destination. Fred orders a large steak and a strong beer. What a day, he muses, once in a while is OK!

On Wednesday, Fred has a tough day. Faced with the choice of hitting the gym or hitting the bottle, Fred heads for the bar with his work mates. Well everyone is going to the bar and missing the gym this once is not going to make a lot of difference!

On Thursday, Fred loses his cool with his boss about his sales bonus. I am an easy-going guy really, he exclaims, but I just have this thing about my bonuses!

On Friday, Fred collapses on the pavement on his way home from work. As his head hits the concrete, he thinks to himself, so unfair, I hardly smoke, rarely drink, I mostly eat sensibly and I am a really nice guy…

Recently Master Elijah reminded us to connect to our higher self, especially during times when guidance is needed. (Click HERE to see post) This reminded me of something I learnt from Esther Hicks’ series when she was channelling messages from Abraham (Law of Attraction). Abraham pointed out that while we are in human form, we have largely forgotten about who we really are, which therefore means that the mass consciousness created by humans may not be the best counsel! However, since we have also lost connection with our higher self, our tendency is to go along with the external influences. Abraham also goes on to mention that as we enter the transition phase after death, we are faced with an unfamiliar territory and naturally, we would become distrustful of our environment.

More ideally, Abraham helpfully pointed out, is that we should be listening to our own voice from the higher self during our incarnation on Earth, and upon death, surrender to the infinite wisdom, care and kindness of the pure soul energy that surrounds us.

It almost feels like a cosmic joke that humans are fundamentally social animals and would instinctually seek approval and go along with the majority. If you are reading this, however, then chances are you probably don’t go along with the majority in many respects, but I bet it’s still tough at times to be swimming against the current! I guess if we use our higher self as our anchor when we get tired, then at least we wouldn’t be so easily swept away!

Most of us have heard of “living in the Now”, be present to this moment and recognize that, right now, we have the power and choice to be whom and what we want to be. Quite often, we naturally let our past drive our actions, we call that “habit”, and we allow the future to influence our emotions and we call that “worry”. I simplify and generalize of course, but you get the idea…

So at one end of the scale we have the enlightened, where to him not only is there no past or future, but there is nothing else other than what he is present to; on the other end, we have those whose life is entirely on autopilot, obliviously being driven by the mindsets endowed to them since not long after birth.

Somewhere in the huge array of the in-between are us, who seek to become aware of what we do, how we think, what our values are, how we form our habits; we work to rid those that do not serve us, we spend energy on practising what is outside of our comfort zone, we consciously remind ourselves that we are not the same today as we were yesterday. For certain items, the awareness, realisation and subsequent release come quickly and relatively easily, for other things, we get tripped up again and again, despite time and conscious efforts.

The point is, there are therefore as many “Now time frames” as there are aspects to which we afford our attention! How much of the past and future do you drag in when it comes to money matters, how much do you live in the Now when it comes to health concerns? You might be able to concentrate completely on the tennis game and not think about how you were beaten last time, but it may take you a long time to get over a nasty email someone sent you, etc…!

It seems right to be more mindful of the “Now time frames” of our life, except that if we were truly in the Now, they don’t matter anyway!

Copyright Aleph Centre of Accelerated Spiritual Transformation LLP © 2012

I decided to use a classic creativity technique to generate an idea for my blog post this evening: pick up a book, decide on a random page, a random line number and a random word on that line, then use that word to generate ideas for the issue.

I picked up a library book, turned to Page 27, counted to line 8, looked at the 5th word in, and it was “of”! Not much use I thought, but then Maitreya reminded us in his recent posting that “non-attachment to any mental concept is the key to you being joy”, so why not have a go at challenging my hitherto mindset that “of” is no use for generating ideas!

More often than we care to notice or admit, we condemn opportunities to oblivion instead of giving potentiality a chance to take root and cultivate. We do so out of habitual mindsets or references from past experiences, meaning we don’t pause and ponder long enough to remember that “today I am a different person to the one yesterday, and right now I have the power to choose left or right!”

So next time you have one of those “here we go again” moments, go pick up a book, turn to page 27, go down to line 8…

There are more glamorous locations than Melbourne Airport hotel, but if you are really needing it, it’s actually a pretty decent place! I had agreed to meet with my colleagues in the lobby at 9am but I was still dashing around, making sure the easily overlooked items such as the toothbrush and slippers were all accounted for, so I wasn’t so inclined to pick the phone when it started ringing. Luckily my curiosity got the better of me, since it was my colleague suggesting we were to meet at 9.15am instead.

Snuggling the toothbrush into the last remaining space in the bag with a sigh of relief, I caught sight of a silver coin on the floor. It’s only a 10 cents coin but the point is, I don’t think I would have spotted that little fortune if I hadn’t slowed down.

It’s a fact that our attention capacity is a limited resource, it’s a zero sum game. From simple logic to sophisticated business models, the intelligent conclusion is surely that we should spend it on what would potentially give us the greatest return.

The only problem is, it’s often counter-intuitive. Intuitively, actions produce results; intuitively, actions are more rewarded; intuitively, thoughts are clouds, actions are rain.

But motions are often confused with actions and running on the ground generates much less intelligence than hovering in the air.

Earlier in the series I wrote a short piece called “Mantra for the Thinkers”, where I was advocating actions; contradiction? Well, let’s do some thinking on that…

Copyright Aleph Centre of Accelerated Spiritual Transformation LLP © 2012

The Event Horizon is the boundary that surrounds the Black Holes in space, beyond which everything is sucked inside and never escapes; it is therefore also commonly used to denote “the point of no return”. On one side of the line, there are infinite possibilities, once crossed over, there is only the inevitable. I can imagine that at the final molecular step that separates the two pending realities, the tension must be, ehhh.., astronomical!

We cross over the Event Horizon many times a day, with our chosen thoughts impacting the interconnected consciousness and with our chosen actions stemming from habitual motivation. At Ann’s recent Shamballa Master Class, Gautama Buddha reminded us once again to be mindful of the quality and nature of our thoughts; once it is formed, the impact is inevitable; once an action is manifested, consequences can be expected. Before arriving at the point of no return, there would have been infinite opportunities for alternatives. In the absence of conscious intervention, however, the trajectory is fated. Moreover, in the absence of recognizing the existence of the Event Horizon, we are denying ourselves from benefitting from the infinite possibilities prior to the inevitable; in other words, growth opportunities.

From sabotaging thought patterns to unhelpful physical habits, what if we work on identifying their respective Event Horizon, and be determined to steer a different course before it crosses over? The tension may be astronomical at times, but the outcome will be heavenly!

Copyright Aleph Centre of Accelerated Spiritual Transformation LLP © 2012

Certainty carries power and is revered; it implies confidence, leadership and sense of reassurance. I find this somewhat irrational: Certainty implies a honed down focus, and simply pondering on the vastness of the Universe, to claim certainty over anything is surely being arrogantly judgmental and dismissive of potential truths?

Doubt, on the other hand, ordinarily connotes weakness, reticence and naïveté. What a pity! When we look at it at the higher vibrational chord, Doubt is the energetic foundation for open-mindedness, the exploratory mind-set and breakthrough thinking.

Next time you feel doubtful of something, you may choose to see it as an opportunity to be making a contribution on alternative perspectives, or at least the possibility of such.

As the saying goes, “the trouble with this world is that while the Ignorant are cocksure, the Enlightened are somewhat doubtful!”  Undoubtedly true, or truly doubtful?

Copyright Aleph Centre of Accelerated Spiritual Transformation LLP © 2012

At a bakery stall, I saw a mother buying a nice tub of fruity creamy yoghurt for her daughter, who was probably about three and a half. The daughter asked to hold on to the tub herself as they left the stall; the tub was almost as wide as her face, and was certainly too much for one of her little hands only. So off she went, happily cupping her snack with both hands, then I heard the mother say to her, “Don’t drop it please!”

In the gentlest and most caring way possible, that little girl’s education on fear mentality began…

As many of you would know already, the brain does not process negative connotations; it would only process the “Drop” in the “Don’t drop it please”, or the “fall into” in the “careful you don’t fall into the hole”. It is viscerally more invigorating to be hearing “hold it for me please” or “stay on the path”.

There are a few practical implications I can think of: race cars drivers are trained to focus on where they want to go rather than what they want to avoid, beginners often pay too much attention on the chicane and end up hurling into it; Mother Teresa said, “I will never attend an anti-war rally; if you have a peace rally, invite me.”; corporate are fond of saying they have a “no blame culture” and wondered why it never seems to work, consider having a “supportive culture” or a “learning culture” instead!

We always get what we articulate in our psyche, this is Law. When we think we are not getting what we want, we can examine whether we have been articulating in simple, positive notions, or negating the Universe’s efforts by introducing fear-based connotations.

Please don’t just ignore this!

Copyright Aleph Centre of Accelerated Spiritual Transformation LLP © 2012

Last week my friend played tennis and golf against Roger Federer and Tiger Woods, he beat them both. My friend isn’t particularly famous, because Federer isn’t much of a golfer and Woods isn’t as much a swinger when it comes to the tennis backhand!

When we are saluting those who are at the top of their game, in whichever field, perhaps what we are really admiring is how they have chosen to simply honour their respective gifts…

When I do my leadership coaching work, quite often the participants would take part in a series of personality assessment tools, which are designed to help them understand their thinking patterns, sentiments, natural inclinations and so on. I am intrigued (sometimes amused!), to see how often the participants would lament how much better life would be, had they landed on the other side of the scale! If they had landed in the middle somewhere, they would ask where they ought to be instead!

It is almost by default that we would choose to think “what’s wrong” and “only if I were…”, rather than “now I know where I am and therefore how I can…”. The collective consciousness has infiltrated our psyche so strongly that we are too often prepared to write off our innate geniuses so that we can fit into the mainstream mediocrity.

The grass on the other side is always greener, but think what the other side is saying about yours!

As within, so without.  A while back, I was wanting to change the setting on the web hosting services and I was hacking away at it for days. My service provider had an online chat helpline, and a breakthrough came when one of them (a few gave up on me after a while) asked me to clear the cache and try again; lo and behold, it finally worked! For those who don’t know what cache is, it’s basically a storage mechanism in the computer for memorizing old data or input for easier subsequent recall. So whilst the change I had made was, in fact, perfectly created all along, but because I hadn’t asked the computer to clear out the old data, it was getting in the way of the new.

Using mantras or meditation for clearing our head is indeed so that we enjoy a short but blissful period of problem free mind space, but it is also so that we give the new intents and learning a chance to take root.

Here’s another analogy: it is good to keep putting more hot air into the hot air balloon, but cutting away the 3-ton anvil dangling from the basket is an even better way to gain more altitude!

Keep soaring.

Copyright Aleph Centre of Accelerated Spiritual Transformation LLP © 2012