Dear friends and clients,
This week let's look at Strategy 19 and 20 from my upcoming book "Wake up, Jump into Your Life." 

Wake up, Jump into Your Life - A Journey into Self Observation

By Steve Lentini
 

 Twenty Strategies for a Life of Joy, Satisfaction and Success

So let's take a look at Strategy Nineteen and Twenty this week.

Strategy 19 - Abundance and Understanding lack mentality.

Abundance is one of the Laws of the Universe.

How is it then that we can experience lack in our lives? Lack is a mentality, a mental choice.  Humans are programmed at an early age by their surroundings. Have you ever heard things like, "Money doesn't grow on trees," "Waste not, want not," "Rich people cannot get into heaven" or "Rich people are never satisfied?"  Each of these messages and many more, are filed in our subconscious and then try to convince us that abundance is not the Law.

Lack becomes prevalent because we believe that we do not deserve more. That somehow, to be abundant, richly blessed is not spiritual. That poor is related to happiness. This is just simply not so. Each and every creature is abundantly provided for in the Universe. Humans have the choice to allow the abundance in or not.

Many of us live in the mental state of lack, until we learn another way. I used to live in the state of lack. I did not believe that I deserved an abundant life. The problem was that I did not realize that I had consciously lowered my deserving index. I wanted abundance. I wanted what I saw others had… the material things anyway. I became bitter and resentful inside when they did not materialize. It was s struggle for me, in my mind, to get those things that I desired, in fact coveted.

The conflict was with my spiritual self. I believed that rich meant poor of heart. What I did not realize was that I was poor of heart and until I learned what rich of heart really was, I was going to live in lack. I was judgmental, bitter and resentful in so many ways deep inside and until it came to the surface, until I could admit these things to myself and others, I would be stuck in lack. When I finally did admit to myself and others that I was bitter, resentful, unforgiving, judgmental, etc, it was only then that I was able to release those feelings. By releasing those feelings, gradually I have attracted an abundant life. I was the block. I began forgiving myself and I began asking others to forgive me. By asking for forgiveness, I was admitting my own imperfection. It was freeing to hear myself say, "I am sorry, I was wrong, please forgive me." I realized and still realize each time I say those words that I am not perfect and it's ok.

Progress, I remind myself now, not perfection. Release yourself into the abundance that awaits you. A rich life has nothing to do with material things; it has to do with being free to express oneself, especially the dark and imperfect side. Being ok with your imperfect self and being able to ask for and to give forgiveness to others, unlocks the Universal doors to the abundant storeroom. We have the keys with us when we come here. Like the key chain with many keys, there are always a few that we do not remember what lock they go to. It is the same for the keys we come here with. It is when we remember which one has the key to the Universal storeroom, that we finally understand how to prosper and how to use the new abundance. It is the one marked "truth and forgiveness."

Be truthful with yourself and others and forgive and ask for forgiveness. There are many more keys to an abundant life which will follow in my book.

Strategy 20 - The Picturing Power of the Mind

One of the fastest ways to wake oneself up in one's lifetime is to understand and use correctly the power of the mind. We are always picturing something in our mind. The trouble is we seldom use this power consciously. We often find our mind wandering and picturing things that are useless or troubling. I think of how many times I have pictured myself over the years in the arms of a woman I would fantasize about (even when I was married). Or of how often I would picture a negative outcome for a situation I was facing. As I think back, I realize just how many of those things that I pictured eventually came true. I was in the picture that I had seen only in my mind, months or sometimes just days afterwards.

When I realized that I had the power to create negative events in my life, I then began to consciously use the same picturing power to create positive outcomes for myself. I started by testing this power by picturing things that I was sure were impossible. I pictured a client paying me upfront for $25,000 worth of work. I pictured a credit line at a bank (my credit at the time was not very good, due to a divorce). I also pictured a second location for my training business. (This seemed impossible as I did not have enough capital for the first location and was struggling). Soon after picturing the $25,000 client (three months) who would pay upfront, it happened. Six months after that the credit line came after a client agreed to co-sign a note with me at the bank. One year after that, I had the second location and a partner. (I started picturing the partner just after getting the credit line).

Now, I continually use the picturing power of the mind. I find a spot to get quiet in the morning or before I go to bed and I look at a book filled with the images I want to manifest in my life. I also spend time "seeing" the images of what I want next in my life, playing like a movie in my mind. I also feel what it would feel like to be already there. I savor the feelings.

Getting quiet is powerful as well. Physicists now say that creation is "in the space between" things. In the spaces things are created. Get quiet and think of nothing. Get in touch with that space "in between" your thoughts. Deepak Chopra says to ask your mind "what should I think of next" and you will notice your mind get quiet while it decides. He adds further, "to each time you get quiet to extend the length of those quiet moments until you can get to fifteen minutes, and then 1/2 hour and then hour, and keep doing it until you can get to 8 hours and then even a day." Get the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know?" It speaks about creating in the spaces. Using and learning to understand the picturing power of the mind and the power of getting quiet. To go "into the gap" as Deepak says, is powerful. It will add a dimension of Joy and Fun in your life. Do it for one year and see if it makes a difference for you.  

This completes the "Wake up, Jump into your Life; Twenty Strategies for a Life of Joy and Satisfaction," part of my newsletters. Thank you for indulging me, I am grateful. I am going to use these as the basis for my book of the same title. I will add and expound on all of the strategies and complete the book by the end of 2006. Be Well!

Sincerely, 
Steve