SimplyNumbers

Reviewing Changes with Insight from your Life Path

You can look to your Life Path to help guide you in your questions around change, personal fulfillment, fear, curiosity and accomplishment.

Your Life Path is a good place to look when you are feeling a little stuck or confused when evaluating personal changes. I've provided a list of some great questions to consider, especially when you're looking to create or bring about major change in your life.

Life Path questions:

• Who has encouraged my progression along my Life Path?
• Where have I limited my own progress on my Life Path?
• Where do I need the most support on my Life Path?
• How has my Life Path helped me to make past changes?
• How have you inspired others through your living of your Life Path?

When pondering the above questions, it may help you to better focus on those areas of your personality that have matured, and those that can still mature and grow. After all, you know your own strengths and weaknesses.

Another good step to take is to find time to sit down and record thoughts about your Life Path. How do you feel about it's importance in your life? Spend as much time as you can and write down everything that comes into your mind. After you have answered the questions, you'll need to set them aside and come back to them later. You'll want to have enough time and space to compassionately review your responses. The review process isn't about criticizing yourself in any way. It's simply about being a compassionate observer of your past and present. You may wish to record your answers in a journal, and periodically review past answers to these questions. You may be amazed at how your answers change, or develop, over time. You may also see how certain strengths shine through for you in times when you want to tackle a major challenge.

When answering the questions above, you should try to simply write about whatever comes to mind, without thinking about or analyzing your responses. You may want to consider writing about personal traits, abilities and attitudes that have helped you to live up to your Life Path. You may also want to write about those traits that may have hindered or obstructed your pursuit of your Life Path. After you have reviewed your answers you may feel exhilarated, as you come to realize that you have accomplished far more than you ordinarily think about. You have found ways to believe in yourself and to be accountable. Perhaps, you can share your experiences and learning with others, as acting as a mentor can help to encourage others to pursue their own Life Path.

How to Go for Something With All Your Heart

[From Oprah.com -- By James B. Meigs]

"Today everything is "extreme," adrenaline is the sought-after high, and risk—especially the risk of serious injury—is celebrated as an end in itself. Yet if you talk to rock climbers, surfers, explorers, and the like, they don't mention adrenaline rushes. And aside from a bit of black humor, they usually don't say much about the risks they face.

What they do talk about—to the extent that one can find words for these things—is the much deeper, almost spiritual role that these pursuits have in their lives."

Read more: http://www.oprah.com/spirit/How-to-Live-Adventurously-Live-More-Fully#ixzz1UlqHvVJf

ScienceDaily: How Superstition Improves Performance

New research conducted by Lysann Damisch, Barbara Stoberock and Thomas Mussweiler shows that having some kind of lucky token can actually improve your performance. It's thought that the object helps by increasing your self-confidence.

TV Question: How do I escape my troubles?

I was watching the season finale of “Private Practice” and I was struck by a question that Addison asked her doctor on the show. She asked, “When is my life going to change?” Her doctor says, “When you make it happen.” I believe that this answer really doesn't fully answer the question. And, I think it only focuses on the desirable parts of our lives. On the show quite a lot is happening in Addison's life. She has recently ended a relationship, wants a baby, her best friend is moving away and the office is under investigation. For me, the question sounds like "When is my life going to get better?" or "How can I escape and get to the good stuff?"

There are later scenes where she introduces herself to a new man and attempts to leave for a trip to Fiji with him, at least partly to escape all of the trouble and trauma happening at the office. Then while at the airport she realizes that what she is doing might be a mistake, and she turns back to confront her problems.

Recently, I’ve been rereading “When Things Fall Apart” by Pema Chodron. I think it addresses some of the issues that this show tries to address. I first read the book in December of 2001. The practices in the book helped me to look at pain, change and trauma in new ways. At the time, I understood the importance of having a personal practice that incorporated regular meditation, but this book really helped to solidify why it’s so vital. The book encourages you to look within yourself at your own mindfulness. In the book, Pema writes that “the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.”

Pema really encourages us to find a way to accept our fear, rather than hiding from it.  She elaborates by saying, “When things are shaky and nothing is working, we might realize that we are on the verge of something. We might realize that this is a very vulnerable and tender place, and that tenderness can go either way. We can shut down and feel resentful or we can touch in on that throbbing quality. There is definitely something tender and throbbing about groundlessness.”

Ultimately, It’s a book about accepting life as it is, and not trying to escape or discover the perfect solution. By letting go of the need for control, we can free ourselves to face our difficulties and fears. In other words, it’s about living life in the moment and finding the space to address your doubts and embracing life at the same time. Pema writes, “Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the trust is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. They they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for misery, for joy.”

Like Addison, you can find ways to lean into your life. Rather than trying to fly off with a new friend, which was extremely enticing for Addison, she understood that she needed to face her life. We see the recognition on her face as people, some of whom she knows, zoom by her to new potential. Her accepting the problems, especially those at the office, requires some big changes, but she accepts that. Of course, her work and yours is not magic.

Living your life mindfully and with compassion requires real dedication and honesty on your part. Once you recognize that you don't have to escape, the payoff comes in not feeling exhausted from continuously trying to flee from your doubt and worry, but instead honoring them.

Quote ~ Abraham Lincoln

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other. ~ Abraham Lincoln

Waiting For Opportunity

What is opportunity, and when does it knock? It never knocks. You can wait a whole lifetime, listening, hoping, and you will hear no knocking. None at all. You are opportunity, and you must knock on the door leading to your destiny. You prepare yourself to recognize opportunity, to pursue and seize opportunity as you develop the strength of your personality, and build a self-image with which you are able to live / with your self-respect alive and growing. ~ Maxwell Maltz


The above quote speaks about having both the ability to act, and the ability to step out of your comfort zone. You might not necessarily step all the way out of your fear, but you’ll be able to take advantage of your opportunity as you push open your own doorways. We all have moments when we realize that if we don’t take action, nobody else will.

What are you acting on right now? It doesn’t have to be world changing, only something that helps you to take a step toward being the you, that you want to be. It might seem like a small thing right now, but you might look back and smile at the courage and tenacity that helped you to stand firm, and make a decision that helped your life to unfold along a new path.

We’re almost at the halfway point for the year. 2011 is a year that requires us to be practical, but also calls for us to listen to our hearts. Are you listening? Are you living your life in a meaningful and purposeful way? Numerologically, 2011 can provide time for you to more deeply evaluate where you are in all areas of your life. Are you opening the doors to progress that present themselves to you? Are you seeking out new challenges?

Although, it may be important to take a rational and balanced view of your aspirations, it’s also important to look within and ask yourself about how you are meeting the needs of your heart. Again, are you listening to your heart? You heart is simply calling for changes that can help you to push past obstacles, and into new opportunities. Are you ready?


Good questions to ask at this time:

• How might my heart be offering important wisdom and guidance?
• What have I been waiting to start in my life?
• What has my heart been calling for?
• What have I been afraid or unable to step into?

Quote ~ Gail Devers

Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe. ~ Gail Devers

Is there anything you would you regret not having tried?

As you probably already know, your Life Path represents those things that you're passionate about within your life. Your Life Path represents your inner drive and passion. It’s the “What do I want to do with my life” impulse that is buried deeply within your heart and soul. It’s a question that must be answered, but you can only fully answer it by following your heart.

You can really think of your Life Path as an essential blueprint or treasure map for where you can have passionate life experiences. Your Life Path can be a powerful ally, that has the potential to guide you toward learning and working with the skills, qualities and talents that will be beneficial for you and can come easily and naturally to you.

Generally, you will feel naturally drawn to experiences and situations in which you can develop and express your particular talents and abilities. As you will feel drawn to these activities, it's best to find ways to encourage yourself to move toward these dreams and aspirations. All of us have our own dreams, but unfortunately there are times when we let life get in the way, and we're pulled in other directions.

Over time, we can let our dreams fade and they become memories of dreams that we used to believe in. Then we build up stress and regret about not pursuing these dreams. Instead of living with the regret, why not embrace your dreams and try to find a way to pursue them? You might not become an expert in your field, but you can still satisfy your inner calling by pursuing the activities that you're drawn to. Following a dream may not have an immediate and observable benefit, but may help you to open new doors and possibilities.

Have you seen the 2007 movie the "Bucket List" starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman? The movie is about two men who are dieing and have a list of things they want to accomplish before they pass away. The two men make a pact to do all the things they have ever wanted to do before they die. As you watch the two men go through challenges and adventures, something is stirred in your soul. You as the viewer are somehow inspired to fulfill the challenges on your own list.

Now, if you were to create your own bucket list, what would be on it? What activities would you have regrets about, if you never pursued them during your lifetime? What things would you have liked try?

Find some personal space and time to explore and identify your dreams that you may have put on hold. You can make a list of desired activities and dreams, and order them by importance. By following your dreams, you're actually working toward living out your passion. And, you'll have the added benefit of not having regrets.

Jean Houston on Spirituality and waking up

"Many of the spiritual teachers of the world have likened our lives to 'a sleep and a forgetting.' The mystic path is predicated on awakening, on going off robot and abandoning lackluster passivity to engage co-creation with vigor, attention, focus, and radiance, characteristics we might note we often find in our animal friends." ~ Jean Houston, Spirituality and the Meaning of Mysticism for Our Time

These words from Jean Houston are extremely potent. They are more than mere words, but really a call to open up to your full potential. She, along with many others like Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson and Wayne Dyer, sees so much potential for the world collectively. 

Her words encourage and urge us to look within and bring out out very best. She would urge that now is the time to help facilitate change and foster growth and healing for ourselves, our communities and the world at large. And, what other time do we really have than Now?

What is it that you are waiting to do? How are you trying to be of service? What is holding you back? Do you believe that there is no true calling for your abilities? I would call upon you to reflect on any "inner calling" as a true spiritual calling that really needs to be answered. Placing your vision or dream on hold not only denies possibilities to you, but it prevents an unfolding that may benefit the world in ways that you cannot see or guess.

"So how can we birth this miracle within ourselves? How can we foster our natural birthright of spiritual presence?" ~ Jean Houston

How can you take the next step? How can you take a moment to "step aside" and allow for your life to unfold in new and meaningful ways? It might be that you begin to seek out others who are actively following and living in a way that is a real expression of your inner calling. It might be that you begin to make the time to really begin to act on your inner calling in some small, but still important, ways.

This process is really about understanding the importance of finding meaning within your life. When you deny yourself to even listen to your inner needs, that is when life becomes dull and colorless. Whether you understand the words of Jean Houston, or not, I would urge you to wonder "what if"? What if you live and act as if your desire has value and is meaningful?

Think peace

Yoko Ono on John Lennon and their message of peace. She encourages you to send in a YouTube video to help keep the memory of John alive!