Starving for Intimacy

Some are seeking love in a bottle. Others look for it on the streets and many are trying to find it in their food.

Most of our food is grown on acres of land, sprayed by airplanes, cut by machines, moved by trucks or boats to plants automated to grind, package and ship. It is sent to stores where in bright colored wrappers; we are sold by seduction the richness of this product. We take it home open the can, package or jar one at a time to "feed" ourselves and maybe our family. The goal is often speed as we have or have had other obligations in the day. TV may be our entertainment as we consume this meal intended to nurture us.

This food is also sold to a distribution plant where it is sent to food chains across the country to feed a growing segment of the population. They take the food, mix it to their formula in large vats, package it in measured amounts, ship it by trucks to their outlets to be prepared quickly by workers for their breakfast lunch and dinner crowds. In these restaurants or at drive thru windows food is dispersed in plastics or paper with speed as the goal so each of us can meet deadlines, time limits and multiple obligations. Some of us eat in our cars as we drive to other destinations or eat at our desk. What would happen if each day we had a pause in the day's occupation as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said in his poem The Children's Hour

Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day's occupations,
That is known as the Children's Hour.

Every day we hear on TV or read in newspapers and magazines of this new disease - obesity impacting all ages, cultures and communities. Is it any wonder for we are starving for intimacy and are trying to feed that need.

There is a growing market these days for organic and slow cooking and is it any wonder. We are coming to the realization of how to meet our needs as we feed ourselves each day.. Organic farmers know their soil is the foundation for their crop production. They have prepared it to meet the needs of each seed they plant. They walk their fields observing the soils' needs and the challenges and the requirements of each crop The food may be picked by family or they will run the machines. Their cows or chickens may have names and they raise their family in this true home-based business. This food is usually sold at a farmers market or sent to the co-op or health food stores who buy from regional suppliers. The food bought this way is taken home and prepared as a meal served at the table feeding one or a large number as they gather to share and laugh together.

There is a growing trend with chefs to buy from these farmers and they often ask for specialty foods for their demanding customers. These customers are people who dine out in a relaxed atmosphere and get fed food prepared by inspired hands.

We can find a similar commitment to feed their customers in the Mom and Pop restaurants. They may specialize in grits and eggs or chili and stews and they prepare it from their recipes and often times with food from local sources.

There is a saying "A bitter cook bakes a bitter bread". Is it then not true there is a missing link in our food chain; that of caring. Caring for the food that feeds us. Caring for the food as it is prepared. Is love not the missing ingredient in much of our food supply today. Is that not why many of us are staring for intimacy. Would not love in growing, love in preparing and joy in eating change the way we look and feel. Food, in order to feed our body and our souls must be grown, prepared and eaten with an intention of caring, of love.

Sophia Loren said the most vital ingredient in any recipe is love. Would it not be wise to add love to every dish we make, serve and eat. Save some of those candy hearts and serve them with each meal as a reminder of the love in your food and the joy in your life. I think it might be the best diet you will find for the next year.

By Susan Bacon Trumpfheller

Improve Your Small Talk - Gain Big Dividends!

Do you hate to make small talk? If so, you have lots of company.

You may find small talk irritating, predictable, mind-numbingly boring.

Yet, learning to play the small talk game can have lots of good benefits. You will have a much better chance of succeeding in making new friends, and advancing in your career if you can master the major art of making small talk.

Small talk is the name commonly given to the fairly predictable superficial chatter that makes up a large portion of our social encounters. Neighbors chatting over the fence, strangers speaking to each other in a grocery line, or workers talking at an office party will often engage in the exchange of fairly ritual, routine observations, comments and questions. Often there is no intent by either party to take the conversation to a deeper level.

Most of the comments and questions tend to be of a fairly trivial sort. For example, a person might say, "I wonder when this heat wave will ever end," or "That's a nice dress, where did you get it?" Other typical small talk dialogue might include basic questions like, "What do you do?" Or "How long have you lived in this neighborhood"?

Small talk often has a bad name. Many people dislike small talk, precisely because it is so mundane and trivial and predictable. It rarely touches on anything important. It does not lead you deeply into the soul of another. It is conservative and safe. You do not discuss really serious issues like world hunger, or the meaning of life, or the results of a recent scientific breakthrough.

People who are very intellectual or very shy, and those who are socially rebellious, are often unable or unwilling to engage in this sort of chatter, which they consider meaningless and trite. They long instead to have only intense, meaningful, and soulful exchanges about important matters.

If this is true of you, if you have had nothing but contempt for the very existence of small talk, if you look down with disdain on all who engage in it, it is time to consider revising your opinion. Small talk, however despicable, however cliché, has an important role to play in initiating, developing, and deepening social connections with other human beings.

Think of small talk as the oil that lubricates the wheels of social interaction. If you see a person regularly, you can use small talk as a way to gradually learn more about each other. Small talk gives people a low-key, non-threatening way to exchange very basic bits of information with each other. Through these very tiny, safe, and cliché exchanges that each person offers the other, you can find out what interests you have in common, and whether or not you like the character of the other person.

A complete inability or refusal to engage in small talk can severely limit the overall number of social relationships you develop. Refusing to engage in some form of small talk will send out the signal that you are not a friendly person, or that you think you are too good to talk with others.

On the other hand, the more often you engage in small talk encounters with others, the more likely it is that you will find people who want to move on to discuss some of the topics that are of more importance to you.

Instead of refusing to play the small talk "game", why not really make a game out of it? Decide to practice small talk strictly for fun and give yourself points for starting it and keeping it going. Think of small talk as a skill you can develop, and practice working to become better at it. Do it everywhere, and do it often.

Becoming good at small talk will eventually pay off and give you even more opportunities to talk about those things that really matter to you. You can actually learn to enjoy the light hearted, low key, small talk process, and you may end up liking many of the other people you meet along the way!

This article is taken from the downloadable book by Royane Real titled "How You Can Have All the Friends You Want - Your Complete Guide to Finding Friends, Making Friends, and Keeping Friends"

Imagination

Imagination is the unreal, real state of mind, where all things are experienced as real. Imagination is powerful and is an intermediary step between thought and word. Thoughts are experienced in the imagination before they are manifested into physical reality.

As important as this step is in the process of creating, it is the least explored on a conscious level. It is the easiest step to move into from our conscious state and can be accessed at will. Just close your eyes and start imagining. From our earliest awareness, our parents both encourage and discourage us from being in this creative condition, because they know how powerful it is. Powerful imaginations can be intoxicating.

We are often told that we are imagining things. This statement is so close to the absolute truth. What we create, all the circumstances of our life, is being imagined. There is nothing else that we could be doing.

All that we seek to be, or have, will first be developed in our imagination. Mankind does not yet fully understand the value of the imagination. Yet those that have an awareness of it's function, us it successfully. There have never been truer statements than, "you're only limited by your imagination," "imagine it," let your imagination run wild. It truly is the creative state.

Sometimes distinctions between what are real and what is imagination is blurred, because imagination is so close to our conscious reality. All things in imagination are experienced in the state as real. The imagination can also be manipulated from the conscious state. It is more like a waking dream, that that is fully interactive.

Imagination is a safe zone, a holodeck, which we enter for all kinds of reasons, it's practical and recreational. It is a tool that works on demand and has unlimited resources. It's a perfect testing ground were problems can be worked out and we can create anything that we can imagine. We build models in our imagination in preparation for creation into the physical realm. All of our thoughts can be explored and examined. Working through imagination is the best way to experience having or doing a thing before it is made manifest.

The fastest way to get what you desire is to know that you already have it. Imagination facilitates, that knowingness, because you actually experience it in this dream like state, and adjustments can be made to customize the results.

Try this. Picture a brand new car in your mind. What ever colour it is now, change the colour. Change the car from 4 doors to 2. Imagine it with different wheels, four shiny chrome wheels. Notice how easily it is to change the image. Now imagine sitting in the driver's seat. Notice the dash and all the instrumentation, and then become aware of your friends in the car and who they are.

These are powerful images, and they are experienced as reality at the time. The more you dwell on them, the more likely you will manifest your vision into actuality.

You can experience your imagination, without restriction from old belief systems, guilt, morality, punishment, condemnation, justification or anything else. It's your safe haven, where no one can enter. It is truly the only place that you can be alone with your thoughts. Imagine that! You are free from physical bonds or limitations. You can fly for as long and as high as you want. You can crash, burn, barn storm, or land safely, without fear.

The imagination is real and very compelling, it can be addicting, but always it is a safe place to be. We often choose only to experience very private matters in our imagination and choose not to make them fully manifest. Moving into the realm of the imagination is not to be feared, but anticipated with awe and wild abandonment. Fear not the power you possess. Develop your imagination, exercise it, and use it effectively to manifest the physical things that you desire in your life. Imagine the life that your really want and begin to live it.

In your spare moments each day, take some time to visit your imagination and envision what you desire that day and the next. Repeat those visions and they will become your new reality.

By Roy E. Klienwachter

Set Yourself Up for Success!

Set Yourself Up For Success!
~ By Fran Briggs

Here's a great way to program and set yourself up for success in advance. It is one of many of what I call, New Empowering Habit Plans (TM). A New Empowering Habit Plan is a formula for achieving success in any given area of your life. It requires a minimum of 21 consecutive days of implementation. Why 21 days? Because research by behavioral scientists and "Mothers of five" has proved that it takes at least 21 days to establish a habit.

This NEHP starts with taking the first 15-30 minutes before you get out of bed to plan and visualize your successful day on paper. Remember we agreed that it takes at least 21 consecutive days to establish a habit? Commit to do this NEHP for at least 21 consecutive days.

What if you were to develop a fun and exciting New Empowering Habit Plan taking just a few minutes every day to plan and visualize your successful day on paper? In doing so, you would be able to project any obstacles or consequences. More importantly, you could construct and program your success. With this invaluable information, you could literally set yourself up for success by planning and seeing the future in advance.

"Exactly How do I do this?"
One of the exciting things about this NEHP is that it is not an "exact science." In fact, it's not a science at all. Consider it uniquely yours. It can be as simple as keeping a pen, pencil, notebook or note pad by your bed. As soon as you wake up, grab your writng/drawing utensil. Then, you might want to close your eyes as you meditate, pray or regain your faculties (if your not a morning person). I suggest you take a couple minutes and literally run your entire day in your mind. Visualize; really see yourself, succeeding ... all day long.

Win, Write Or Draw!
Now, open your eyes and begin doing your day on paper. The real magic of this NEHP lies in the power you manifest when you put pen/pencil to paper. This has been long proven to amend our thinking. Why not make a point to amend for great thinking? I'm not going to get into that right side brain/left side brain stuff. I'll keep it simple and say ... you will win, when you write, draw or combine the two, to construct and program your successful day.

Be very clear and put your appointments to succeed in chronological order. Cultivate an unshakable expectation to succeed. Put magic into the mundane! For example, in your 9:00 a.m. slot where you would normally anticipate contact with an obnoxious supervisor, draw them with a smile as she tells you your being promoted. Zoom in on the smiles, pleasant demeanors and positive energy you both exchange. Or, maybe you feel more comfortable writing a mini-goal or powerful positive affirmation at least ten times. Really believe it. In your 7:20 p.m. slot, you may write down: "I go 4 for 4 and play a flawless left field tonight." Once you are crystal-clear on how you are going to set yourself up for success, you reaffirm your ability to make it happen.

WARNING: You May Get More Than You Project!
It's said that long before Jim Carrey made it BIG, and before he even appeared on "In Living Color," he walked up to the Hollywood Hills one day. There, he wrote a check to himself, and put it in his wallet. The amount on the check was for ten million dollars. In the memo he wrote in, "For services rendered." Today as most of you already know, Jim Carrey makes a minimum of twenty-million dollars per film.

In February, 2003, I wrote down on paper that I would sell my house in three weeks for $280,000. The new owners would be first-time homeowners-not investors. My house sold in 11 days and for 19 thousand dollars more than the asking price. The new owners are a happy family of three and are very happy in their first home.

I have two great friends who (seemingly) have the ability to win jackpots at will using this NEHP. But this particular New Empowering Habit Plan is not just "all about the money." It has much more power than that. I've manifested, fulfilling, loving and meaningful relationships; world-wide publications; vacations; empowering strongholds; businesses, 4 for 4 flawless defense softball games and just plain fun! I sincerely believe you can too!

To Your Success!

By Fran Briggs

Color Your Life

Have you ever arrived at place in your career and wondered how you got there? Have you found yourself stuck, not liking your job, yet not seeing how you can change after investing 15 years at it. Let's take a different perspective and see if you can solve your dilemma through this colorful full spectrum exploration of job and career.

Think back to when you began working. You looked at options and explored different ways to make money soon, you may have transitioned into a new career as a way to create a lifestyle change or to remodel your work life. This move expresses power and taking charge. It is strength and energy, and the color is red, the base chakra. It doesn't matter if you found yourself a corporate job or built your own business. You are inspired and motivated.

Your career move brings networking meetings, web sites and all the social issues. You contact buddies or former business associates to promote your business. If in a corporation you meet your co-workers and the leaders. It is stimulating, social and the color is orange, the second chakra.

At this point your career is a craft based on a set of skills or a model. You work based on memorized processes or protocol. You work from your left brain.. This is the third chakra, and the color is yellow. Your experiences are formalized, routine. Some people stay here, feeling the strong hold of golden handcuffs.

Others naturally transition to the next level, the heart center. You link to an evolving growth cycle both for yourself and your work. Perhaps, like so many people these days, you began your career at a very young age, tinkering in your garage, participating in Junior Achievement, or selling lemonade. You work with a passion, a mission. Your training comes from this place and you learn the techniques and lingo of your career path.

Do you move back to the heart after your training? You never leave this heart center, for that is who you are. The color is green for balance and you give it your all, from your place of authenticity. This is the fourth chakra.

Your next transition may be the most difficult, for this is where you express who you are and what you do. And where routine trips up many. At this level you integrate your job into a career and into your body, losing the memorized skills. You are "in flow" as you meet new people, change companies and encounter new opportunities. Life becomes an art form. This is the fifth chakra, blue, and it is the throat or communication center. As you speak from this place, you begin to experience the law of attraction. This is where you clarify or redefine intentions based on who and what you want to attract and how you want your career or business to expand.

Your next shift is integrating your intentions into your inner knowing, the intuitive self, so real flow can begin. You assume leadership roles. You work with the intuitive voice, let go of ego, the need to be right and bring in fresh ideas through synchronicity. This is the sixth chakra, indigo, also called the third eye. It is the center from which shamans and healers work.

This could be your last step, for this brings you to the spiritual level -- a vital step in the big picture. It is where, through your work, you connect to the Divine in all things and you become aware of your impact on others' environments. You connect with yourself in a different way. You experience integration of your life on all levels. Here is where balance really begins. It is the place where you experience the "Big AH HA". This is when things become mystical. It is the crown, or seventh chakra, and the color is violet. For you this may be the "be all and end all".

I believe, however, that there is a next and final step. It is here where you can get off track again. It is also here where you are free to express who you are to the world. You reach a place of trust and knowing, and your career and life become an art form you have finely crafted. It resonates in your body, in your mind, and you move freely in this knowledge. It is where you walk your talk, and paint, write, design a house or build a boat. It is a place of freedom, and it is not age or retirement related.

It is here where you bring the strength and power of your base chakra, red, and blend it with your crown chakra of violet so that your spirit speaks from deep within your being. This blended color is magenta, the auric color, which becomes your magical, mystical attractor. It is where you express your uniqueness and become grounded to your being in your heart. You may wonder why there are so many in business with a "poor me" attitude. From my vantage point, this comes when people are working from the lower chakras and are experiencing fear, lack and competition. No matter if you are an entrepreneur or an employee, you have the power to move beyond the "poor me" place. To vitalize, color and reshape your world, step aside for a moment, walk around and reflect on where you stand in the world of business. Better yet visualize where you stand in the world.

Look back on these eight levels and examine where you stand today. Where have you been in the past and to where are you moving your career and your life today? Take your time, for these are growth steps. These concepts may be a bit edgy, unique, and certainly out of the box. May you find your place on the edge too.

By Susan "Sue" Bacon Trumpfheller

Peace Alliance vs. Fighting a Battle

We read in the press about the "War on Drugs" and the "Battle of the Bulge". Television tells us to fight the flu, legal battles or the war in Haiti. Our doctors tell us we are fighting cancer or in a battle with obesity.

These messages leave us in a continuous struggle to survive. Bacteria are smart as they mutate two generations ahead of the latest antibiotic. Bugs and weeds adapt to the latest herbicide or pesticide, and now we have several generations of these toxins changing our landscape and our animals. Governments create laws to prevent fraud and deception, and the courthouses are overbooked.

Who is winning these wars? Is there an end to the battles? In our constant struggle to survive, we are not making headway. I wonder why. I wonder and I ponder, what would happen if we stopped fighting the bacteria. What if we allowed it a place to survive -- a place where it was safe and no longer had to mutate? What if we no longer had a war on drugs or the battle of the bulge? Can we imagine such a world? We know it works, for some have chosen to assign areas of their garden for ants and gophers while the remainder was designated for crops to flourish. In this scenario bees move to different hives and weeds become indicators of nutritional deficiencies. Bark beetles show up to reduce weak, dying trees back to the forest floor to provide food for the next generation of trees.

With these systems working around the world, how can we develop systems to follow similar paths? Why is there the battle of the bulge? Why do we need the war on drugs? Are these "wars" really an indicator of something missing in the diet, the home or other areas of our lives? What do we need to flourish and live drug free? We are fighting the results of something missing rather than identifying what is missing! The first step in changing our paradigm is to know it is possible to stop fighting. We need to believe from deep within our being that the battle is over. It is in that shift that we come to know or discover our place of peace. In this place, we no longer have an outside enemy like the weeds, pests or "fat". We find the missing pieces, the messages they bring. Our soil many need lime, our trees may need water, and our bodies and lives may need love.

It is a concept I call the Peace Alliance. In the spirit of peace exploration, I have worked on myself and with some of my clients and projects. The support has been unusual on many levels, and we are making progress. Stay tuned for more on this topic. © 2004 Sue Trumpfheller

By Susan "Sue" Bacon Trumpfheller

Is Mans Next Step Like A Can of Potted Meat?

Is it the dawning of the Age of Aquarius? For years, predictions have indicated that humanity is readying itself for a golden age, a so called new age that is right around the corner just waiting to roll in. According to these forecasts, the air we breath will be clean and our environment pure. Hunger, starvation and disease will be eliminated. Most importantly, we will finally experience the peace and harmony we all desire and we will live in the spirit of brotherly love.

I too long for these events to take place, however, the reality that currently exists on our planet is very different and the choices we are making are sending us down a road that does not lead to salvation.

When I think about where we are going and how we are getting there, it can be likened to a can of potted meat. For those of you that are unfamiliar with potted meat, it is a canned meat product that is found next to the Spam and Vienna sausages at the supermarket. Its primary ingredients include cooked beef fatty tissue, beef hearts, beef tripe, cooked pork fatty tissue and mechanically separated chicken. These tasty morsels are ground up into a paste-like consistency, mixed with lots of salt and chemicals, canned and sold for human consumption.

I'm sure by now your mouth is watering and you just can't wait to sink your teeth into a forkful of this tempting delicacy. And while I make this comment in jest, the reality is that three major food manufacturers fight for shelf space at the supermarket each hoping to capture the potted meat market. The saddest or should I say scariest part of the saga is the fact that people buy it! It isn't as if only one or two people get the urge to munch down on some good ol' potted meat, there are thousands if not millions of people around the country why buy it, creating enough value, based on sales, to keep it on the shelf.

By now I know you're wondering what potted meat has to do with our next step, but it has everything to do with it. Take a moment and look around. Every day, our air grows increasingly worse. Obesity in children is running rampant. The amount and quality of real, wholesome foods on the shelves at supermarkets are being overrun by prepackaged preprocessed chemically laden ones. We fear for our safety, distrust our neighbors and hide in our hearts and in our homes. And like the potted meat, even though we don't really like it and know it isn't good for us, we buy it anyway.

Let's face it folks, we live in a chaotic world and in our haste we look for the easy answer. We let big business and big brother decide what we want, what we need and how much we can put up with. We've allowed the air we breathe, the foods we eat and the things we do to poison us and like pigs going to slaughter we do nothing about it, except perhaps complain.

Instead of working to bring in this new and golden age, many of us are sitting around waiting for it to show up. There are some who believe that if we pray hard enough, hope deeply enough or say enough affirmations that things will somehow magically change without any effort on our part.

There are others who believe that it can only be achieved after a major calamity falls upon the earth recreating balance in the imbalanced world in which we live. That it is only through the workings of karma that a profound shift can ever be achieved.

So how can we create this better world? The first step is it needs to become our number one priority. We must decide it is of utmost importance to us and let money, greed and personal gain take a back seat. It necessitates a change in consciousness from "what do I want" to "what do WE need". Until there is a dramatic transformation in the hearts and minds of man, the goal of a new world, while a nice thought is unachievable.

Unfortunately, many of us have chosen to stand on the sidelines and wait for the tide of personal and planetary changes to occur around us. However, it is not until we stand as a unified whole and demand that change take place that anything will happen at all.

Is it going to be hard? Damn right it's going to be hard. Tom Hanks in the movie A League of Their Own stated: "If it was easy, everyone would do it. The hard?is what makes it great". Remember change doesn't happen by hope or by prayer alone, it requires action. So take a stand, make a decision, let your voice be heard, your greatness shine. Don't let karma rear its ugly head. Just say no to potted meat and choose to bring in the future you desire.


By Dr. Rita Louise, PhD