HOW TO: Breathe In More Energy

Exhausted, but not sure what to do? Try this easy and helpful exercise to calm your central nervous system, designed by Jesse Lynn Hanley, author of Tired of Being Tired

• Sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor, your hands resting comfortably on your thighs; or sit on the floor in a comfortable cross-legged position. You can lean against a wall for support.

• Close your eyes

• Breathe easily in through your nose and out through your nose. Your breath will deepen naturally as your mind clears.

• Allow yourself to “watch” your breath flow in and our of your nostrils.

• If discordant thoughts creep into your consciousness, gently let those thoughts go and refocus on your breath.

HOW TO: Find Your Frequency and Find Love

Patty Harpenau’s teaching novel The Life Codes shares the secrets she uncovered in her ground-breaking spiritual journey in Jerusalem.  Each chapter contains one code, and ends with a question.  To conclude her first chapter on The Law of Unity, Harpenau writes:

Which Frequency Are You Tuned In To?

The first code is the code of unity and the code question that Abraham asks relates to the radio: “If everything is already there, if everything is a frequency, then where are you? At which frequency do you live? Which frequency to you like tuning in to the most? Who are you? What makes you happy? Does abundance make you happy? Or do you prefer to live at the frequency of freedom? What inspires you the most and what is your innermost desire? In this universe, all frequencies are present.  There are the lower frequencies of anger, grudges, manipulation, jealousy, and gossip.  There are the higher frequencies of harmony, love, quietude, peace, happiness, and healing.  If everything is already there, but you look at a world in which you do not see what you would like to see, then ask yourself which frequency you are tuned in to.  What if you are in search of love? Love need no longer be produced.  There is sufficient love for everyone.  It is a law of life that everything begins with yourself.  How loving are you toward yourself? Are you afraid of love? Are you able to share your love? Are you able to receive love easily? Are you attuned to love on an inner level?

Everything begins with yourself.  Everything begins with awareness in your own life.  Love encounters love when you yourself are love.

The word love can be replaced by any other word.

To learn more about the book, check out our release announcement:  New Release: International Bestseller, THE LIFE CODES

HOW TO: Forgive

We all harbor resentments toward those who have wronged us. Whether we’ve been betrayed by a loved one or rebuffed by a stranger, most of us know how difficult it can be to forgive. But our inability to let go of these transgressions prevents us from embracing true peace and happiness, making our lives seem far less than the wondrous adventures they can be.

In The Tao of Forgiveness: The Healing Power of Forgiving Others and Yourself , William Martin, bestselling author of The Parent’s Tao Te Ching, helps us find this grace-filled life. Encouraging us to meditate and determine how our individual conditioning has prevented us from letting go, Martin helps us confront and overcome the anger that keeps us from moving forward. With parables, questions for reflection, and transformative exercises, Martin’s enlightening study will help readers view past grievances with new eyes.

The Tao of Forgiveness draws on both classical Taoist literature and humorous personal anecdotes from the author’s own experiences. Written from an accepting and nonjudgmental perspective, this accessible work brings the power of the Tao to the essential practice of forgiving others and ourselves, creating a unique path from guilt, blame, and shame to peace of mind and freedom.

HOW TO: Discover Your Determination

We all struggle to focus and accomplish meaningful work on Monday morning. In his book Pocket Peace, Allan Lokos states, “It is determination that provides the energy for change.” To help us find our determination and focus on our goals, Lokos suggests some pocket practices.

• Remind yourself that you are mentally strong – you can do it.

• Don’t hold grudges – find a way to forgive.

• For five minutes, focus on a specific object, bringing the mind back to the object every time it wanders.

HOW TO: Be More Grateful

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, and confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow” – Melody Beattie

Dennis Merritt Jones provides a guidebook to living in the moment in The Art of Being. In the section entitled “The Power of Gratitude”,  he suggests these practices:

• Begin a mindfulness journal, writing down everything in your life that you consider a blessing.
• Write in your journal for 30 days, rereading the entire journal for another thirty days, and adding to it when led to so.
• In 60 days, check the altitude of your attitude of gratitude. In spite of all the challenges, you will see that life is essentially good. Be grateful for the gift of life, and remind yourself often that God is the source of it all.

HOW TO: Break Up With Your Addiction Today

In The Soft Addiction Solution, Judith Wright outlines a plan to help us eliminate the seemingly harmless habits that keep us from achieving our dreams.  One of her creative solutions is to write a break-up letter addressed to your addiction.  Here is her advice:

• Tell your soft addiction why you’re breaking up with it, as if the addiction were a former boyfriend or girlfriend.
• Compliment and acknowledge the addiction for its positive intent, how it was trying – but also failing – to satisfy a deeper need.
• Describe the negative effects the addiction has had on your life.
• Use humor and compassion to explain why you’re breaking up.
• After writing your letter, burn it to release the addiction.

HOW TO: Use Sounds to Create Positive Energy

In Feng Shui for Success, Kurt Teske shares simple ideas to help you bring more positive energy to your home and work place. He has these tips for using sounds and scents to do so.

When a room’s energy is too low,

• Many bird songs, cicadas, or other animal sounds are a great nudge up. So are mixes of forest and lake sounds, although there are versions that are calming as well. If close to the sea, try whale songs.

• In an office, the energy can be brought up nicely and unobtrusively with an “office mix” evoking distant printers, copiers, and low conversation.A light street-sound mix can work in both home and office, but a beach mix, delightful at home, can distract in the office.

• When the room needs a jolt, a busy street or jungle sound mix can really push it. Although, the volume should be quite low.

When a room’s energy is too high,

• Sound loops of a gentle rainfall, waves lapping the shore, an easy breeze through leaves and trees, and a burbling stream (similar to an indoor fountain) are wonderfully calming. So are certain animal sounds, like loon calls or the above-mentioned cricket, among other sleepy-time associations.

• The tick-tock of an old fashioned pendulum clock sooths many people, but loud chimes can announce the passing hours too strenuously.

• White noise, which covers the whole spectrum of tones, has been found to calm medical patients.

Author Spotlight: Daniel Butler

Daniel Butler, author of How to Plant A Tree, answers our questions about his passion for trees.

How did you become interested in trees?
I am convinced trees are rooted in man’s deepest psyche. Perhaps, it is some deeply-buried ancestral memory of being rocked to sleep in the branches of an acacia, out of the reach of lions and leopards; maybe it’s countless millennia of relying on them for food, warmth and shelter, but almost all of us empathize with trees on some level. Certainly many of my earliest memories involve trees – be it the fantastic tree walkway my father constructed through the tops of a local shelter belt, clambering up veteran oaks in the warmth of summer or lovingly planting apple- and cherry saplings in the back yard. As I have grown older, had children and seen them grow, I appreciate the importance of forward planning more – the need to plant now to give future generations the same pleasure and benefits that I am enjoying now, courtesy of the foresight of my forebears

How did you acquire your tremendous knowledge of trees?
It was a vegetative process, really. I learned the very basics in school science lessons, but most was just acquired as I went along. I love wandering through woodland, listening to bird song in spring and gathering mushrooms in autumn. Yes, I was very lucky to have worked with the Tree Council, which does a fantastic job promoting the value of woodland – but once again, I would say there is something very primeval about trees. Sap runs in our blood, so you don’t so much learn about them as open yourself to absorb what they have to give.

How to Plant a Tree comes out April 15. Pre-order it here:

HOW TO: Reframe Difficult Situations

In The Joy of Appreciative Living, Jacqueline Kelm suggests a 28 day plan to greater happiness. When confronted with difficult situations, Kelm suggests asking an appreciative question – any question that takes you to a place that is better than the one you were in. It’s a question that helps you frame the situation in a better way. Next time you are frustrated, try asking yourself a few of her questions:

• What do I like about this situation?

• What do I stand to gain from this?

• In what ways will my life be better after having worked through this?

• When was a time in the past when I dealt successfully with a similar situation, and what can I apply from that?

• What am I curious about in all of this?

• How does this situation make me appreciate other people in my life even more?

HOW TO: Find Great Free Stuff

We consulted Anneli Rufus and Kristan Lawson, authors of The Scavengers’ Manifesto, for advice on how to start scavenging.

• Open your mind: Think of scavenging not as a yucky desperate last-ditch measure but as fun, creative, green, economical and even admirable.

• Open your eyes: Becoming keenly observant and even vigilant is the scavenger’s number-one skill.

• Try thrift shops first: They look and work just like regular stores, selling the same stuff – at a fraction of the usual price.

• Investigate yard sales: Go to yard-sale locations late in the day, when often as not the sale-givers leave out boxes or piles of unsold stuff that they’re giving away for free because they just want to get rid of it. You’ll be surprised at how intriguing things become when they cost absolutely nothing.

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