For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Steve Jobs

I was in junior high school the first time I heard the phrase, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” I noticed that for some people this saying became a bit of a platitude, like “Have a nice day,” and it lost its deeper meaning. For me, however, it was a clarion wake-up call! Each day is the only day that I can live my life. If I keep waiting for something to happen or change, I could be waiting a long time. This belief has been a cornerstone of my journey in this lifetime, and it has kept me awake to my choices in ways nothing else ever has.

“Someday” is today! Today your ship comes in and your life begins. Today you are living in the Light of Truth, the Love of God, and the Infinite Abundant Reality. Don’t postpone your well-being until sometime in the future. It is NOW. Practice believing it, accepting it, and trusting it! Claim your good today—now!

Spiritual Contemplation: “When I . . . then I . . .” keeps you in the future, not the present. Where are you living this out in your life?

Affirmation: My life starts TODAY! I choose my life TODAY! I live a spiritually grounded life TODAY!

People only see what they are prepared to see. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Has a friend ever asked you to go into another room and get something like a book for them? You walk in there with the best intentions, but you don’t see it anywhere. You look on the coffee table, the shelves, and search from ceiling to floor only to return to your friend and say you couldn’t find it. Your friend sighs loudly, walks into the other room, points to the table and says, “It’s right here.” You swear you didn’t see it, but your friend easily found it because she knew exactly what she was looking for and believed it was there. It was there the whole time, of course, but you didn’t see it simply because you didn’t believe it was there.

Is your abundance here? You bet it is! It’s just a matter of believing it to see it. Your belief controls what you see. You are an ambassador of abundance ushering into form all that you believe is possible. You can choose to think in ways that help you spot and create abundant success instead of missing what’s right in front of you. You will find ways to take the necessary action to support that which you see as possible. The strugglers in the world believe life happens to them rather than realizing that they are the creators of their experience.

Spiritual Contemplation: Where do you believe life is happening to you and you don’t see other options? If you were to see other possibilities what would you like to see?

Affirmation: I am seeing as God sees!

The universe is abundance, unlimited in every respect; if it were not unlimited it would have depleted itself long, long ago. Life would have exhausted itself, law would have ceased to function, love would have lost its power to harmonize and to heal, and thought and consciousness would have retreated to instinctive reaction. Ernest Holmes

One of my favorites places to camp is in La Push on the wild Washington State coast. The waves are enormous and bring huge logs from Japan or Alaska and wash them up on the beach as if they were mere twigs. When I hike out onto the rocky headlands, I can see the water stretch to the horizon where the blurring of sea and sky invites the idea of infinity. This is how I often imagine the Divine Reality—as a vast, infinite ocean upon which the waves of life play over the surface.

We live in this Ocean of Abundance, this Infinite Reality, which is the source of all Life and all Creation. What we see is but the tip of the iceberg. The rest lies below the surface of the world of appearances. Do not be fooled by the storms and waves of life. That which lies beneath is so much more—vast, rich, and deep. Know that you are forever lifted and supported by this Abundant Ocean. This is something you can count on!

Spiritual Contemplation: What does imagining the Divine Reality as a vast, infinite ocean teach you about the reality of life and its limitless abundance?

Affirmation: I live immersed in an infinite ocean of Life, Abundance, Love, and Joy!

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Error is acceptable as long as we are young; but one must not drag it along into old age. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

If you were to look at your life from a detached observer’s perspective, would you find that what you’ve thought was acceptable isn’t really acceptable at all? Have you been putting up with something that depletes rather than enhances? Sometimes a situation is like a leaky faucet whose slow drip gains momentum without your noticing it until a friend asks why you can’t turn it off. Or like those gasoline prices that sneak up, up, up until they hit an unacceptable plateau.

Is your abundant flow where you would like it? Is your relationship juicy and passionate, filled with mutual support and intimacy, or could it use a bit more attention? Have you given up caring and turned off your desire for a richer experience, and just accepted that this is the way it is? No, that’s not the way it is—it’s the way you are. You may want things to be different on the outside, but not until you’re different on the inside will the outside change. Your internal dialogue that’s looping in your subjective keeps you willing to accept mediocrity. Bring awareness to what‘s no longer acceptable and enhance your inner dialogue by knowing you are worthy and anointed. The time is now. But caution—do this only if you want to enjoy your life more.

Spiritual practice: Take some quiet time to observe your life from a detached observer’s perspective and notice where your life is working well. Now, notice where you accepted things that aren’t working as well as your heart would desire because you believed that was just the way they were going to show up in your life. Cancel that level of acceptance and upgrade your creation story.

Affirmation: I am loving all areas of my life!

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For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Newton’s Law of Motion

An elementary school playground game called handball teaches kids that the ball returns at the same speed with which it hit the wall. Whether it’s hit hard or soft or sliced close to the ground, the ball will return at same force with which it’s hit. The game of handball demonstrates the law in physics that says to every action there is an equal reaction.

This same law is valid for human interactions as well, for when you project anger to those around you, you’ll be met with anger in return. If you show generosity to the world, you’ll find the world is a very giving place. If what is emanating from your countenance is love, your life will be filled with caring, loving individuals. If you create drama in your life, then your life will give you stories to tell. There is no judgment here—just the inevitable outcome of your consciousness. Change the energy you send out to the cosmic wall, and that change will come back. Play with this dependable return, and practice until you have mastered this game in life.

Spiritual Contemplation: What’s coming into your life that you no longer want? Practice some new energetic send-outs and make the adjustment to your game in order to get the return you are looking for.

Affirmation: I am grateful for the dependability of life that returns what I send out!

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Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don’t complicate your mind. . . . Wake Up and Live! Bob Marley

They’ve been working on the major highway in my part of town for almost five years now. Although it’s been an amazing engineering feat to watch, there also have been lots of lane closures, rerouting, and detours. One day the exit I usually take was in such a different place, I missed it completely—even though I’ve been using this road for years. I’ve taken wrong turns, wrong exits, and gotten trapped in one of those “you can’t get there from here” loops. I try to follow the signs, but they just aren’t always as clear as I’d like. Yet, if I’m paying attention, they are always there.

Isn’t that just like our lives? It’d be good if life came with flashing neon arrows that said, “Go this way” or “Stop!” because sometimes the signs seem very small and obscure, and far apart. But they are there if we’re paying attention. Sometimes the road tests our faith, and staying the course, especially when we haven’t had a sign in a while, can be an act of sheer courage. That’s when we need to trust our intuition, follow our direction, and rely on the Guidance of Spirit. We’ll know what we need to know, when we need to know it, as we progress down the road of abundance, freedom, and prosperity.

Spiritual Contemplation: Are you still looking for or waiting for a sign? Could there have been one that you didn’t pay attention to?

Affirmation: I pay attention to the signs that Spirit puts along my road. I walk my journey with faith and confidence.

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Life is a train of moods like a string of beads, and, as we pass through them, they prove to be many-colored lenses which paint the world their own hue, and each shows only what lies in its own focus. Ralph Waldo Emerson

One of my favorite teaching analogies to illustrate how we co-create our life with the Universe is to imagine that we are like a slide projector. When we plug our projector into an inexhaustible source, the light is pure and without form. It’s the slide that determines what colors and shapes will be shown on the screen of life. We can put in any kind of slide we want—any color, almost any topic, even a black one. The light will project our slide no matter what we choose.

What if you were to put in a slide of Abundance, or a slide of beauty that’s tinged with joy and steeped in love? You decide the color and texture of your slides, so pay attention to which ones you choose. Notice how the world looks now.

Spiritual Contemplation: What’s in your slide projector? Are you looking through the lens of fear, the filters of your past, or the picture of the way things “should” be, but aren’t? Are you taking charge of your slide projector?

Affirmation: I choose to view life through the lens of Joy and Abundance. I choose to project onto the screen of my life only those things in alignment with Spiritual Truth!

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All those nasty old ideas that we took on from our families became habitual ways of thinking because we heard the same things said as negative affirmations so many times that the ideas became etched into our consciousness. These old habits of thinking were created by negative mantras: “You’re stupid,” “You can’t trust anyone,” “Life is hard.”

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives. Wilfred Arlan Peterson

Affirmations, on the other hand, are powerful, positive mantras that can build new grooves in our consciousness and create new habits of thinking. Every time your thoughts get caught in the groove of “not enough,” say your favorite mantra (positive affirmation) instead. “There’s always enough in God!” or “Somehow, I always have enough, no matter what.” But don’t say them just once or twice—say them repeatedly so that a new groove is worn in your brain, a new pathway of thought.

When you change your thinking, you change your life. Change your consciousness, the habits of thought, and the Universe instantly begins to support that new way. A new consciousness is the most powerful creative force in the world.

Spiritual Contemplation: What are your most cherished, habitual limiting grooves of thought? Create new affirmations instead, just five to seven words that you can memorize and repeat constantly for days on end.

Affirmation: I am one with God! I am completely Abundant!

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Every artist dips his brush in his own soul and paints his own nature into his pictures. Henry Ward Beecher

The creative process and the spiritual path have much in common. Just as the best novelists create their characters from themselves and their plots from personal experiences, Life is constantly preparing you to walk your spiritual path. All that you experience today has its place of value in your tomorrows. Trusting what is before you is perfect preparation for life’s coming attractions. Look back and see how far you’ve come! See how your past has forged you into who you are today. Relax into your Divine Guidance, knowing that tomorrow will be even better!

Spiritual Contemplation: What from your past has provided the most mileage on your spiritual journey? How are you creatively using your past to grow a better future?

Affirmation: I create a joyous future from the things I learn and experience today. I see my past as part of the process of growing. I release all judgment about where I’ve come from or what I’ve gone through.

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He found himself wondering at times, especially at the autumn equinox, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen came into his dreams. J. R. R. Tolkien

The autumn equinox is when day and night are of about equal duration, which occurs again in the spring. The word equinox comes from two Latin words meaning equal and night. It’s a time of balance before the night takes over and brings the coming winter. Although many may want to avoid the dark, if we desire to be in the light, we must first face our inner darkness. Spirit is Omnipresent—as fully present on the dark half of the wheel as it is on the light. It’s our cultural connotations that have put an out-of-balance onus on the concept of darkness.

In the New Thought movement, many people would prefer to always skip around in the light of the endless summer, but autumn is the regenerative grounding that makes way for the birth of the eventual new light. Without rest, we would burn out. Without descent there is no ascent. The procession of equinoxes is a common story that has been symbolized throughout time to remind us of the role of darkness and light in creating movement through polarity. The Egyptians had Horus, the god of the sun, battling Seth, the god of darkness. Our ancestors knew the valuable part darkness played in one’s evolution and did not superstitiously fear it or ignore it but embraced it. In the spiritual work of transformation, all things must die before they can be reborn.

Spiritual Contemplation: This Autumn Equinox prepare yourself for some hibernation and slumbering. Honor your regenerative time; be willing to go within for a while without guilt or fear.

Affirmation: I welcome the quiet cycle of my life!

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