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Move to a Different State

The following is an excerpt from my book, Worry No More! 4 Steps to Stop Worrying and Start Living

Step Two: Move to a Different State

The first step to stop worrying is about leaving one theater and going to a different theater to watch a happier movie, a movie that portrays the results you actually want in your life. It is about making a dramatic mental shift from negative thinking to positive thinking. The metaphor of changing theaters to watch a movie you like rather than sitting through a movie that upsets you is, of course, just a metaphor for how you can control your thoughts, just like you control your body.

Step Two is also about making a change, but, this time, it is not metaphorical. This step is about making a real, physical change. It is about moving to a different state. The first thing you need to do is find a moving company you trust. Consequentially, you may want to look into man and van hire in Birmingham should you live in the area. Not in that area? Why not consider talking to movers in pasadena maryland. They can provide some useful advice for their area on how to move home.

Relax. I am not saying you need to pack up all of your belongings, leave your family and friends, and find a new place to live hundreds of miles away. That might actually help some people stop worrying, but that is not what I am suggesting here. However, if you feel as though this could be a positive decision for you to make, then you might be interested in finding some Movers houston to help you achieve this.

Moving house is almost always a bittersweet experience though. Packing all of your belongings into boxes can also be incredibly time-consuming. Especially if your home office is filled with work documents and other equipment that you need to hold on to. With this in mind, if you are in the process of packing up your belongings in preparation for a move, these really useful storage boxes 64l might come in useful. When moving house, you need to know that your things are safe and secure, and packing them into airtight containers can make a big difference.

That being said, for our sake, the word “state” that I am referring to means “the condition of a person or thing; a particular condition of mind or feeling.” What I am talking about is changing your state of being, both mentally and physically.

One of the amazing things doctors and scientists have discovered and proven beyond any doubt is the connection between mind and body. What happens in the mind has a direct impact on what happens in the body. Equally true, what the body does has a direct impact on the mind.

You can easily test this in most public areas. Simply go to a shopping mall, park, or mass transportation station and watch people as they pass by you. It does not take any special training in the analysis of body language to quickly discern which people are happy and which people are sad or angry. It is obvious by the way they move their bodies, their posture, and their facial expressions. By observing a person’s physical state, you can guess with a high level of accuracy what that person’s mental state is.

Unless you are practiced in the art of concealing your emotions, and intentionally do so, it is very difficult to get your body to hide what you are feeling. If you are happy and excited about something, everyone around you can tell simply by looking at you. The same is true if you are angry, sad, or worried. I cannot count how many times in my life someone, often one of my kids, has asked me “what’s wrong?” within minutes of being in my presence. Needless to say, I am not a very good poker player!

Now here is the very interesting part that not many people know. While it is true that your emotions have a direct connection to and control over your body, it is also true that your body has a direct connection to and control over your mind. Your mental state controls your physical state, but you can change your mental state by intentionally changing your physical state.

When you are sad, angry, stressed, or worried, you can move to a different mental state by changing your physical state. That, my friend, is what this chapter is all about! What follows are several practical examples of how to use or change your physical state to move you to a different, less worrisome, mental state.

Your First Exercise: Stand Up, Stretch, Yawn

I love the fact that video call technology allows me to work with people all over the world. Talking on the phone is good, but being on a video call with someone is great! At the time I am writing this, I do not have any clients in my home town. All of my current clients are scattered across the globe and we have our meetings over the internet using video technology.

The beauty of this technology is that it makes it very hard for people to hide from me what they are really feeling. I can hear their words and watch their faces and, pretty quickly, pick up on what they are feeling at the time.

One of the first things I observe is your posture. Do you have your head down with your chin tucked in toward your chest? Are your shoulders rounded downward and curved inward, again, toward your chest? What about your hands? Are they up where I can see them or down in your lap, or clenched into fists with your arms crossed in front of you? By observing this physical state, I know your mental state. You are upset and/or worried about something.

Worry, stress, anger, and other negative emotions cause the body to contract. It is almost like you want to curl up in a ball when you feel negative emotions. Your hands clench, your head tucks down, your facial muscles tighten, your shoulders arch inward toward your chest, and your breathing becomes shallow. Someone might say you look “all bunched up!” You do not do it consciously. It is just the way our bodies are designed.

If this is what I observe within the first few minutes of our call, I will do something very similar to what I did with the man and the woman in the previous chapter. I am going to redirect you. I am going to help you move to another state!

Stand up straight. Tilt your head back and look up at the ceiling or sky. Hold it there for a few seconds and look from right to left a few times like you are searching for something overhead. Lift your shoulders and pull them back, sticking your chest out. Hold them there and take a few slow breaths, forcing the air deep down toward your belly and exhaling from your belly. Do this three or four times. Next, open your hands and wiggle your fingers. Stretch your arms out wide while still wiggling your fingers. With your arms still outstretched, rotate your arms a few times in little circles. Look upward again with your arms still out. Now open your mouth as wide as you can, faking a really big yawn without covering your mouth with your hands like your mother taught you.

Now, how do you feel? You should feel more relaxed and a bit more energetic because of the new blood flow. More importantly, you should be feeling less stressed, angry, or worried! Your emotions may not have completely changed, but I have never done this simple exercise and not felt at least some relief from my anxiety.

While I make no specific claims and have not conducted any of my own scientific research into this, many other people have. I am just here to share with you things that have worked for me and for many of my clients.

What happened in this first “state change” is that you consciously engaged in “expansive” body movements. These movements opened up the space around and within you. You expanded the space you were occupying and allowed blood to flow freely through your body. Basically, you engaged in exactly the type of body movements you would have unconsciously made had you been happy!

Even though you were not happy when you started the exercise, your negative mental state shifted toward the positive simply because your body was doing what it would have done in a positive mental state. You see, you can change your mental state, by changing your physical state.

With this simple exercise out of the way and a different energy flowing through you, we would then proceed with our coaching call and you will feel more open to sharing with me what is going on in your life, and you will now be able to do so more objectively.

I want to point out how important your physical posture is to your mood and internal energy so you will be aware of it in all of your social situations, not just as a remedy for worry. You may, unintentionally, put yourself into a mood that you do not want to be in!

I was having coffee with a friend, not long ago, in a coffee shop. Most of the regular tables were taken, so we sat on the two sofas in a corner that had a low coffee table in front of them. We set our coffee cups on the table and began chatting. We were very happy to see each other and wanted to get caught up on what we had been doing since we last saw each other. Because of the noise and the location of our coffee cups, we were both hunched forward on the sofas, leaning in toward each other so we could hear better and drink our coffee. I noticed, after about 15 minutes, that our conversation was taking on a negative energy that was unlike the two of us, and certainly not the energy we started with. It occurred to me how we were sitting. I had finished my coffee, so I set the cup on the table and sat all the way back into the sofa, stretching an arm out across the back of it to expand my chest and lift my shoulders. I immediately felt better. I motioned for her to sit back in her sofa, too, and she did. Within a minute or two, without changing anything other than the way we were seated, our conversation became more animated and centered back on the fun things in our lives!

So, if you are out with friends, at work, in a meeting, or just at home alone, be aware of your physical posture. A closed, slumped, contracted body posture will naturally produce negative energy and feelings, whereas, an open, expansive posture will produce positive energy and feelings.

Hold a Pencil in Between Your Teeth

Yes, parents have, for generations, told children not to chew on their pencils. “You’ll get lead poisoning!” mom would say. “They stopped making pencils out of lead many years ago, mom!” I’d say. “Don’t be sassy! And get that pencil out of your mouth!” “Yes, ma’am.”

That, of course, is a purely fictional, hypothetical conversation. I never would have spoken to my mother like that…

Did you know that simply holding a pencil between your teeth can make you happier? It can! In fact, this is been scientifically proven and is often documented in psychology and physiology textbooks and magazines as an example of how physiology can impact mood.

Try it. Take a pencil or pen, or similarly shaped object, and hold it gently between your teeth. Do not bite down on it or wrap your lips all the way around it. Hold it like this for 3 to 5 minutes and you will find your mood has changed. You should be happier.

The act of gently holding the pencil between your teeth activates the same muscle movements required for a natural smile. When you are very happy, your cheek muscles pull the corners of your mouth back and up, and your teeth part slightly.

As with the previous exercise, you can influence your mood by forcing your body to do what it would naturally do if you were relaxed and happy. You do not need a pencil, of course. You could accomplish the same thing by faking a smile, but that requires much more conscious effort. Without any mental effort to maintain the smile, you can easily put a pencil in between your teeth and just hold it there while you work, cook, wash dishes, or any other task. I often hold a pencil in my mouth as I drive on the way to a meeting, as extra insurance that I will be in a happy, relaxed mental state when I arrive.

For more information on this, simply do an internet search for “hold a pencil between your teeth.”

Snap a Rubber Band on Your Wrist

My friend, J.B. Glossinger, founder of MorningCoach.com, often talks about wearing rubber bands on his wrist. When he finds himself worrying or complaining, he pulls the rubber band and releases it so it snaps hard on his wrist, causing instant pain. The sudden shock of pain brings your conscious mind to the present source of the pain, literally snapping you back into reality, out of the dream-world you were stuck in while worrying about the future.

This is much like a slap on the face we used to see in older movies and television shows. If a character was hysterical to the point rational talk was no longer effective, another character would slap the person in the face. The hysterical person would stop and look as if he or she had been awoken from a bad dream, often saying “thank you” for being slapped.

Try it. It is a milder form of “shock” therapy!

Drink More Water

One very important thing I have learned about myself and about my boys, is the need to drink more water.

What I learned, almost by accident, was that I usually felt in a better mood after drinking a glass of water. I work from home and will often be at my computer or on the phone most of the day. I often get so wrapped up in what I am doing that I forget to eat lunch. By mid-afternoon, about the time my boys get home from school, I was often tired and cranky. I thought it was from working all day and not eating. Not eating may have had something to do with it, but it turned out to be more about not drinking!

I discovered that if I drank water while I was working, I was not nearly as tired and irritable by mid-afternoon, even if I skipped lunch. I also noticed that my boys were often moody immediately after coming home from school, but that quickly faded after drinking a glass of water.

Again, research has found that even mild dehydration causes fatigue and mood swings. We think less clearly when we are tired and moody. When we are worried about something is exactly the time we need all of our physical and mental resources, so staying hydrated is very important to helping you deal with stress and worry.

While there is some disagreement from researchers as to how much water a person should drink every day, all of them agree that the average person does not drink enough. I encourage you to keep a bottle of water with you and drink from it often! You will be amazed at how this one physical act, drinking more water, can dramatically change your emotional state.

I have met and interviewed, for my “Life Is A Marathon” show, a man named Bill Cortright. Bill is a fascinating man who has an amazing story of transforming his own health and is the author of The New Stress Response Diet & Lifestyle Program. The book is packed with amazing information and solid advice about how to manage stress through diet and exercise. He, too, talks about the importance of hydration as a tool for managing stress. I highly recommend his book!

Go Public

“Fear loves isolation and darkness.
Fear hates light and community!
Tell someone your fears, shine a public light on it and it will flee!”
Bruce Van Horn

That quote is from a blog post I wrote several years ago and it is one of my most popular posts on Twitter! It seems to strike a chord of truth in many people.

When left alone with my worrisome thoughts, they seem to thrive and grow to the point where they are in control of me, instead of me being in control of them. Every time I get worried about something, there is a small voice that comes from the source of worry. The voice says “Don’t tell anyone about this. We can handle it on our own. Besides, nobody understands you the way I do.” Have you ever heard that voice? I think you have!

I have learned to not listen to that voice. In fact, I have learned to do exactly the opposite of what that voice tells me to do. It is not the voice of truth. It is the voice of fear. Fear and truth cannot coexist.

If you are worried about something, tell somebody about it. First, though, give it a specific name! When you clearly identify what you are worried about, name it, and say it out loud, you will be amazed at how much power it loses over you. Next, seek out a good friend who will listen to you, comfort you, and love you enough to give you solid, truthful advice. You do not want to start a pity party with someone who is only going to fuel your anxiety. The simple act of talking to another human about your fears immediately robs it of power over you. Monsters look very large and scary in the dark, but, when you turn on the light, you realize it is just a teddy bear near the closet door. Talking about your worries and fears is like turning on the lights in your bedroom. It forces you to see the issue objectively enough to describe it to the other person. Often, just telling someone solves the problem and there is no longer any stress about it. Other times, another person can help shed a new light, a different perspective on the problem. It may not go away, but you may discover another way of handling it.

“It’s not the load that breaks you.
It’s the way you carry it.”
C.S. Lewis

The best way to carry a heavy load is to get other people to help you!

Move Your Body!

WARNING: Exercise has been known to cause health and happiness!

Seriously, exercise is an extremely powerful antidepressant. I often tell people that exercise, particularly running, saved my life! In my mid-40s, I was out of shape, overweight, and significantly depressed. I struggled to find anything to be happy about and seriously thought everyone would be better off without me.

I came to a place in my life where I had to make a decision. I either needed to make some serious changes, or I needed to just end it. I chose to try the changes! The first change I tried was to get in better shape so I could play with my young boys, then 8 and 2, without becoming out of breath after 10 minutes. I joined a gym and set a goal of trying to jog one mile on the treadmill without walking. It took me almost a month to do it, but I did it! Reaching that goal gave me the shot of motivation and hope I desperately needed and my life started to change from that point forward.

I am not a doctor and I recommend you talk with yours before starting any new exercise program, but many studies in medical schools around the world have shown that exercise can improve your mood and help ease mild to moderate forms of depression. Exercise produces endorphins, which are often called the body’s natural morphine. It can produce natural feelings of euphoria, or happiness! Endorphins help us feel less pain and better tolerate stress! If it were not for my high level of endorphins going into 2014, arguably the most stressful year of my life, I am not sure how I could have handled it all!

I am not saying that you have to become a marathon runner or even join a gym, but I am telling you that what has helped millions of other people will probably help you, too!

Just move your body! If all you can do is move from one room to another, do it. Simply changing locations, from one side of the couch to the other, can be enough of a physical state change to alter your mental state. If you are sitting on the bed waiting for the phone to ring, or if you are sitting inside your house worrying about something, get out of your house, get out of bed. Go for a simple walk, if you can.

The simple act of getting outside, breathing fresh air and feeling the sunshine on your skin has amazing effects on your mood. Prison guards know that one of the cruelest things they can do to prisoners is lock them up in solitary confinement in a windowless room and allowing no interaction with other people. Yet, we place ourselves in solitary confinement far too frequently. We usually do this because we listen to the voice of fear, as I mentioned above, that tells us we are safer in our cell. Set yourself free! Get out of your self-imposed prison cell and out into nature.

In May, 2014, I was recovering from cancer surgery and was in no condition to start running again, but I knew that I needed to get out of bed, out of my house, and start moving my body to protect my mental health. As soon as I could physically do it, I got out of my house and I would go for a short walk. At first, I had to use a walker. Do you know how embarrassing that was for this 51 year old man, who is known throughout his neighborhood as a strong, healthy marathon runner? Well, I did not let a little embarrassment stop me. I got out as often as I could and went as far as I could. Eventually, I did not need the walker anymore and I was able to walk a little farther each week. My body was getting stronger. Most importantly, I was intentionally moving my body because I knew how important it was to my mental health.

Observe the World Around You

As I have just stated, I very much believe in the therapeutic benefits of exercise, especially walking and running. I do some of my best thinking and problem solving while out for a walk or run. However, one of the things I like to do most while I am walking is to not think at all. I love what I call “observation walks!”

I go for a walk and I intentionally do not think about the future or the past. I go out to still my mind and simply observe whatever I encounter along the way. This is what I do: While walking, I move slowly and relax my mind. I notice cracks on the sidewalk or a blade of grass sticking up through a crack in the street. I notice the grass itself. I notice the trees. I notice the sound that a bird is making somewhere and I look to the trees to find that bird.

I am out of my house. I am moving my body, but I am trying to notice, in the moment, the simple details of what is around me. I am noticing the ground, the plants, and the animals. I am noticing the color of the sky and the clouds, the quality of the air and the breeze that is blowing and touching on my skin. I notice the smells that are coming in through my nose. And that is all I do. I do not think about anything. I simply observe and feel gratitude for being able see, feel, smell, and hear the world around me. If I find myself thinking about anything other than these things, I simply focus my attention back on my surroundings.

If I can only get out for a five-minute walk, it was five minutes I was not worried about something. I was just living in the moment, controlling my physical and mental state. Every time I do this, I come home feeling more relaxed and grounded than when I left. I always feel better and perceive that my problems, in this particular moment, are not as significant as I thought they were. This is one of my favorite state-change exercises!

So Get Moving!

The most important part of moving to a different state is actually doing the work! Thinking about doing it and deciding to do it does not get it done. Only the doing will work.

There are countless more examples of how physical state changes can reduce stress and worry in your life, but my goal with this chapter, and the book as a whole, is to share with you a few practical ideas that you can take and integrate into your life right away. The faster you can get moving, get busy taking the actions that can ease your pain, the better off you will be. You probably know of things that have worked for you in the past. Do them!

Having been a chronic worrier, I am fully aware of the powerful force that does not want you to do any of these things I have described. That force does not want you to take action to eliminate or reduce your worry because that force wants you to be worried. That force is worry. It is the voice I talked about, the voice that loves darkness and isolation. That voice will be very insistent that you do not need to try any of these remedies because they will take away its power over you. Be very aware of the voice and know that, at first, it will get louder as you take these steps. But I want you to know that you are stronger than this voice! You have a power inside you that is immeasurably more powerful than the power worry has over your life. The power within you is truth! The power is love! Listen to the voice of truth and tap into the amazing power of love within you and you will conquer fear, doubt, and worry.

Why Airplanes Exist

I was recently traveling on an airplane with my good friend, Maimah Karmo.

Shortly into the flight, we hit some turbulence and I could feel Maimah’s anxiety. I asked her if she was OK and she said she said she would be fine, but I could still feel her nervousness.

Suddenly, I felt an urge to ask her a question and then tell her a story. What follows is a shortened version of the story I told her:

“Maimah, do you know why airplanes exists? Not how they are made or how they fly, but actually WHY airplanes exist?”

Maimah looked at me with that playfully condescending look she gives me when she sees the expression on my face that lets her know a story is coming her way. “No, Bruce. Please tell me…” she said.

“Well… the very simple answer is this: airplanes exist because God loves airplanes!

God is everywhere and in everything, so God is the very air through which we are flying.

God loves how it feels to be the air that flows over, under, and around this airplane, keeping us in flight.

God loves how it feels when the wings slice through the air and bank through the clouds, and how the jets pull the air into the turbines and thrust it out of the engines.

God loves airplanes because God loves to take the shape and structure of the plane. It loves how it feels to be this magnificently complex machine that can fly so high above the earth.

God loves how it feels to be the powerful engines that can speed this plane into flight, and to feel the strength of its wings supporting the cabin and carrying all the fuel for the engines and generating all the electricity for lights and controls of the aircraft.

God loves to soar through the air and slice through the clouds and to come back down and land on a runway.

God loves to be the pilots who get to sit at the controls of this amazing machine and to feel what a human feels while being the pilot–the exhilaration of takeoff and landings, understanding all that is necessary to be in full control of an airplane.

God loves assembling people of all ages, sizes, shapes, colors, and backgrounds, loading them onto the plane and taking them to a specific destination for a myriad of reasons. Some are on this flight for happy reasons, some for sad reasons, some for pleasure, some for business, but all because God wanted us all on this flight for a reason.

God loves to create very complex plays and to put on all the costumes and to, simultaneously, play all the parts of everyone on this plane, including you and me.

And that, Maimah, is why airplanes exist. God loves airplanes!”

Maimah just sat for a few seconds to soak it all in. Then she said “I love you, Bruce. I love how you let God speak through you and how you light up with excitement when you tell stories like that. I feel much better. Thank you!”

I told a more detailed version of the story on my Life Is A Marathon podcast, if you’d like to hear it.

 

Increasing Life

In order to grow, you must have a desire for more life. In order for a society to grow and prosper, it must be filled with people who have a desire for more life. Increasing life for yourself is also the best way for you to give an increase of life to those around you.

This concept of “Increasing Life” is repeated throughout book The Science of Getting Rich, which was written by Wallace D. Wattles and originally published in 1910, and is now in the public domain.

I was so deeply moved by the teaching of this book, I wrote an introduction to it and republished it as Create the Life You Want with The Science of Getting Rich.

As a way of introducing this great book to you, here is the text of Chapter 5:

Chapter 5: Increasing Life

YOU must get rid of the last vestige of the old idea that there is a Deity whose will it is that you should be poor, or whose purposes may be served by keeping you in poverty.

The Intelligent Substance which is all, and in all, which lives in all and lives in you, is a consciously living substance. Being a consciously living substance, It must have the nature and inherent desire of every living intelligence for increase of life. Every living thing must continually seek for the enlargement of its life, because life, in the mere act of living, must increase itself.

A seed, dropped into the ground, springs into activity, and in the act of living produces a hundred more seeds; life, by living, multiplies itself. It is forever becoming more; it must do so, if it continues to be at all.

Intelligence is under this same necessity for continuous increase. Every thought we think makes it necessary for us to think another thought; consciousness is continually expanding. Every fact we learn leads us to the learning of another fact; knowledge is continually increasing. Every talent we cultivate brings to the mind the desire to cultivate another talent. We are subject to the urge of life, seeking expression, which ever drives us on to know more, to do more, and to be more.

In order to know more, do more, and be more we must have more; we must have things to use, for we learn, and do, and become, only by using things. We must get rich, so that we can live more.

The desire for riches is simply the capacity for larger life seeking fulfillment; every desire is the effort of an unexpressed possibility to come into action. It is Power seeking to manifest which causes desire. That which makes you want more money is the same as that which makes the plant grow; it is Life, seeking fuller expression.

The One Living Substance must be subject to this inherent law of all life; it is permeated with the desire to live more; that is why it is under the necessity of creating things.

The One Substance desires to live more in you; hence it wants you to have all the things you can use.

It is the desire of God that you should get rich. He wants you to get rich because he can express himself better through you if you have plenty of things to use in giving him expression. He can live more in you if you have unlimited command of the means of life.

The Universe desires you to have everything you want to have.

Nature is friendly to your plans.

Everything is naturally for you.

Make up your mind that this is true.

It is essential, however that your purpose should harmonize with the purpose that is in All.

You must want real life, not mere pleasure of sensual gratification. Life is the performance of function; and the individual really lives only when he performs every function, physical, mental, and spiritual, of which he is capable, without excess in any.

You do not want to get rich in order to live swinishly, for the gratification of animal desires; that is not life. But the performance of every physical function is a part of life, and no one lives completely who denies the impulses of the body a normal and healthful expression.

You do not want to get rich solely to enjoy mental pleasures, to get knowledge, to gratify ambition, to outshine others, to be famous. All these are a legitimate part of life, but the man who lives for the pleasures of the intellect alone will only have a partial life, and he will never be satisfied with his lot.

You do not want to get rich solely for the good of others, to lose yourself for the salvation of mankind, to experience the joys of philanthropy and sacrifice. The joys of the soul are only a part of life; and they are no better or nobler than any other part.

You want to get rich in order that you may eat, drink, and be merry when it is time to do these things; in order that you may surround yourself with beautiful things, see distant lands, feed your mind, and develop your intellect; in order that you may love mankind and do kind things, and be able to play a good part in helping the world to find truth.

But remember that extreme altruism is no better and no nobler than extreme selfishness; both are mistakes.

Get rid of the idea that God wants you to sacrifice yourself for others, and that you can secure his favor by doing so; God requires nothing of the kind.

What he wants is that you should make the most of yourself, for yourself, and for others; and you can help others more by making the most of yourself than in any other way.

You can make the most of yourself only by getting rich. So it is right and praiseworthy that you should give your first and best thought to the work of acquiring wealth.

Remember, however, that the desire of Substance is for all, and its movements must be for more life to all. It cannot be made to work for less life to any, because it is equally in all, seeking riches and life.

Intelligent Substance will make things for you, but it will not take things away from someone else and give them to you.

You must get rid of the thought of competition. You are to create, not to compete for what is already created.

You do not have to take anything away from any one.

You do not have to drive sharp bargains.

You do not have to cheat, or to take advantage. You do not need to let any man work for you for less than he earns.

You do not have to covet the property of others, or to look at it with wishful eyes. No man has anything of which you cannot have the like, and that without taking what he has away from him.

You are to become a creator, not a competitor. You are going to get what you want, but in such a way that when you get it every other man will have more than he has now.

I am aware that there are men who get a vast amount of money by proceeding in direct opposition to the statements in the paragraph above, and may add a word of explanation here. Men of the plutocratic type, who become very rich, do so sometimes purely by their extraordinary ability on the plane of competition; and sometimes they unconsciously relate themselves to Substance in its great purposes and movements for the general racial upbuilding through industrial evolution. Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, et al., have been the unconscious agents of the Supreme in the necessary work of systematizing and organizing productive industry; and, in the end, their work will contribute immensely toward increased life for all. Their day is nearly over; they have organized production, and will soon be succeeded by the agents of the multitude, who will organize the machinery of distribution.

The multi-millionaires are like the monster reptiles of the prehistoric eras. They play a necessary part in the evolutionary process; but the same Power which produced them will dispose of them. And it is well to bear in mind that they have never been really rich. A record of the private lives of most of this class will show that they have really been the most abject and wretched of the poor.

Riches secured on the competitive plane are never satisfactory and permanent; they are yours today, and another’s tomorrow. Remember, if you are to become rich in a scientific and certain way, you must rise entirely out of the competitive thought. You must never think for a moment that the supply is limited. Just as soon as you begin to think that all the money is being “cornered” and controlled by bankers and others, and that you must exert yourself to get laws passed to stop this process, and so on; in that moment you drop into the competitive mind, and your power to cause creation is gone for the time being; and what is worse, you will probably arrest the creative movements you have already instituted.

Know that there are countless millions of dollars’ worth of gold in the mountains of the earth, not yet brought to light; and know that if there were not, more would be created from Thinking Substance to supply your needs.

Know that the money you need will come, even if it is necessary for a thousand men to be led to the discovery of new gold mines tomorrow.

Never look at the visible supply; look always at the limitless riches in Formless Substance, and know that they are coming to you as fast as you can receive and use them. Nobody, by cornering the visible supply, can prevent you from getting what is yours.

So never allow yourself to think for an instant that all the best building spots will be taken before you get ready to build your house, unless you hurry. Never worry about the trusts and combines, and get anxious for fear they will soon come to own the whole earth. Never get afraid that you will lose what you want because some other person “beat you to it.” That cannot possibly happen; you are not seeking anything that is possessed by anybody else; you are causing what you want to be created from Formless Substance, and the supply is without limits. Stick to the formulated statement:

There is a Thinking Stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe.

A thought, in this Substance, produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.

Man can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon Formless Substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created.

If you would like a FREE copy of The Science of Getting Rich, click here!

Be a Lover of Truth!

Do you love Truth? Do you crave it like the tastiest, most nourishing food?

Think carefully before you answer.

From my own self-examination and from working with many people around the world, my experience is that most of us do not actually love the truth, nor do we really, really want to know the true truth. Oh, we may want to know some version of the truth, just as long as it does not conflict with what we already believe to be true, or what we want the truth to be.

Many people, I was among them, do not actually want to know the Truth. What we want is confirmation that what we already believe is true. We want this because it doesn’t require us to change any of our beliefs or behaviors. We want this because we will do just about anything to avoid cognitive dissonance–when what we think is out of sync with reality.

I want to explore two truths about Truth that will help you evaluate your own thoughts and/or the words of other people.

Truth #1: The Truth always brings peace.

The phrase “the truth hurts” is a lie. It’s that simple. The Truth, the true truth, is never painful; it always brings peace. It brings peace because it is in pure alignment with irrefutable evidence.

If learning the truth hurts, it is because we are attached to not wanting it to be true or because it requires us to admit that a previously held belief is false. Truth always brings peace.

For example, when I received the news that my body had cancer, I felt great pain in the form of disbelief and fear.

My doctor called to tell me the truth: “Bruce, you have cancer.” That news did not bring me peace, not because it wasn’t true, but because I didn’t want it to be true. I wanted to be perfectly healthy. I thought I was perfectly healthy. This news was in direct conflict with what I believed to be true about my body. I wanted my doctor to confirm what I already believed to be true. He called to tell me just the opposite. Cognitive dissonance hurts!

Fear set in and the stories of uncertainty whirled into motion. One of the stories I spun was this: “I can’t have cancer because my boys are 100% dependent on me for their survival.” At first glance, this sounds reasonable, loving, and true. If it was true, though, it should have brought me peace. This story did not bring me peace, so it must be a lie.

The reality is that my boys are not 100% dependent on me for their survival. If I was suddenly killed in a automobile accident, family and friends would immediately step in and care for my boys. They would go on living.

I cleared my head and rewrote the story. “My boys love me and want the best for me, but they will survive and thrive regardless of my presence in their lives.” When I told myself this story, I felt great peace. This story must be true!

Then, I faced the facts and stopped the thoughts of denial. “My body has cancer. I accept this fact.” This fact did not make me happy, but it brought peace into my mind and body. From that feeling of peace and clarity, I could focus on what to do about it, instead of spending useless energy wishing it wasn’t true.

Truth always brings peace. If it doesn’t bring peace, you are attached to a story that is not true.

Truth #2: Truth does not need people to believe it to remain alive.

This truth about Truth is connected to the first truth and is my favorite! Truth just is. It exists and will continue to exists whether or not I, or anyone else, believes it.

Have you ever noticed how, when you know something to be true, you can tell someone about it without any attachment to whether or not that person believes you? You don’t need to beg them or convince them to believe you. You are peaceful and confident because the truth is the truth regardless of who believes you.

Lies, however, are 100% dependent on people believing them or they die! Lies must beg, plead, and give detailed explanation in order to convince people to believe them.

Have you noticed when you are begging, pleading, or otherwise trying to convince somebody of some thing that it is probably a lie or a watered-down version of the truth?

Pay very close attention to this fact when people are talking to you. If they are pleading with you to believe them or see their point of view, there is probably a lie embedded in their point of view. If they are offering detailed explanation without you asking for it, it is probably a lie.

Truth is always true, regardless of opinion. It will give a simple explanation when asked, but it has no attachment to your belief in it.

I recently had to tell someone the truth about something that happened. It was the truth, so telling the truth should have brought me peace and should not have required me to explain it in any particular way to convince the person to believe it. I was not peaceful and I was crafting a story about how to tell this person the truth. What I discovered was this: while I was going to tell her the truth, I had a belief that she would get upset and be angry at me unless I told it to her in a certain way. I did not believe her ability to handle the truth without some sugar-coating on it. There was the lie and there was the source of my discomfort and attempt to spin it. I released that lie and resolved to simply tell the truth as it was. Peace immediately came over me!

Truth can be Universal and Relative.

Additionally, there are certain universal truths–things that are true for everyone–and there are relative truths–things that are true for some people, but not everyone.

For example, the law of gravity is true for everyone and everything that lives on earth. It matters not whether or not you believe it, gravity is true for everyone. This is a universal truth.

A few weeks ago, I had dinner with someone who told me she believes her life’s purpose is to be a veterinarian. Given her inner desires and dreams for her life, this is true for her. Believing this to be true brings her great peace and she feels no need to convince me to believe it. This truth is true for her, but it is relative to her as this truth does not bring me peace because I have no desire to be a veterinarian.

Be a lover of truth!

Using the above guidelines, I have been on a quest to eliminate any thought or belief from my life that does not bring me peace. Above all, I want peace in my life. I want to think, feel, and live from a confident posture of peace. I can only do this by thinking and believing truth. The moment I start to feel uneasy, I know I have attached to something that is not true, or is not true for me.

What I want for myself, I want for you and for everyone!

You can listen to me talk about this in more detail in this podcast episode: Be a Lover of Truth.

Resolve to Feel Good

Many people have made and are trying to keep their New Year’s Resolutions for 2017.

They are deciding who they want to be, what they want to look like, how much money they want to have, what health changes they want to make, what weight changes they want to make in their lives, and the list goes on and on.

If you take 100 people and ask them what their resolutions are, and there will be many similarities; such as things focused around health and weight, relationships, and money. But you, my friend, are different because, after reading this, your resolution is going to be completely different from what it was.

Here’s what I would like you to do going into this new year. Starting today and every day for the rest of your life, I want you to make a resolution. I don’t want you to make a New Year’s Resolution. I want you to make a Daily Life Resolution. This doesn’t mean pursuing long-term aims, like training in order to transform your body, should be discouraged. Simply be realistic about the time it is going to take and ensure you are mentally prepared for the challenges ahead.

I want you to resolve to feel good! Can you do that? Will you make up your mind right now? That’s what the word, “resolve,” means. The word, “resolution,” comes from the word, “resolve,” which simply means “to decide firmly on a course of action.” To decide so firmly that only the most significant of circumstances or events is going to sway you from this particular course of action.

Ultimately, what we want in any given moment is to feel good. What every human being on this planet at this split second wants is to feel good. So I want you to resolve to feel good.

Most people set resolutions, or goals, that are toxic. They are actually harmful to you! They’re harmful to your soul. They’re harmful to your psyche. They can be harmful to you physically. For example, we’ll set a goal and then we’ll get depressed because we either didn’t reach the goal or when we did reach the goal, it wasn’t what we thought it was going to be. That’s why goals are toxic.

Setting the wrong kind of goal is a toxic goal that leaves us feeling empty even when we reach it. For example, you might think that what you want is to be in an amazing, loving, supportive, encouraging relationship, but really you don’t. Your goal is focused on the wrong thing. You actually don’t want the relationship. The desired outcome is not really to have, be or do something. The real desire, at its core, is actually the feeling you think having it will produce. If I was to ask you, “Why do you want the relationship?” You might start to describe all the things you’d be able to do with the person, but what it really boils down to is that you want to feel something. You want to feel loved and appreciated and valued, and you want to feel an amazing connection with another person.

If you detach from the object you fixated on in your head, and focus instead on what it is that you want to feel, then that feeling can show up in many different ways. A different person could come into your life. Or, best of all, you could find yourself falling deeply in love with yourself in lots of different ways.

It’s important to understand that feelings are not dependent on the acquisition of things or the achievement of things outside of us. Feelings are generated by our thoughts in this present moment. So “feeling loved” is actually something you can do on your own by thinking thoughts that produce those kinds of feelings. Thinking about how valuable you are. Thinking about how valuable your contribution to the world is can fill you with an amazing sense of self-worth and self-esteem and self-value. It’s from this mindset that we can then go off and pursue the goals, knowing that at the core of every single goal is the desire to feel something.

Let’s set aside the physical outcome altogether and let’s make the feeling the goal. But be careful of wanting to feel things that require other people to be involved in it. So the desire to feel loved has to start with you loving yourself rather than placing a requirement on other people to express that. The problem most people have setting resolutions, or goals, is that they are based on things that are outside of themselves. Even if it’s a physical thing, that’s technically outside of you because, guess what, you are not your body! You are not! Your body is a physical thing, but YOU are spirit. YOU are soul. YOU are essence. YOU are energy. But YOU are NOT your body.

If the goals you have set are outside of your soul or outside of your body in any way, if they’re dependent on specific people behaving in specific ways, then that is a formula for disappointment.

Spend more time thinking thoughts, doing things and being with people that make you happy. How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. And if we want to have a happy, fulfilling, meaningful, loving life, the majority of our days and the majority of our minutes must be filled with those thoughts.

Remember: What you really, really want is NOT the THING. We don’t necessarily want to have, be or do things. What we really desire is to feel feelings. Ultimately what we desire, is to feel good. So decide firmly on this course of action. Resolve to feel good!

I talk about this in more detail on this episode of my Life Is A Marathon podcast.