Every moment we are making choices, forming the outcome of the following moment—choice to choice, moment to moment.

We create our future reality from the choices we make right now. And, at any moment we can improve our future, by making choices for the greatest good now.

As adults, we are each in-charge of ourselves, and our choices are ever our own. Even if we delegate, rather than state our choice—the delegation becomes our choice.

Therefore, we are ever responsible for the outcome of our choices, and we are responsible for our actions. No other person or circumstance or thing makes choices for us that we have not agreed to. Because we are responsible and in control of our moments, we have the power to create a hell or heaven for ourselves while still on earth.

The choice for 'hell' when we do not follow our conscience. The choice for 'hell' when we harm ourselves, or someone else, by our actions. The choice for 'hell' when we do not live in alignment with the greater good of the moment.

The choice for 'heaven' when we follow the prodding of our conscience—which we know we are doing, when the thought of what we want to do or go ahead and do, leaves our body feeling relaxed and easeful. The choice for 'heaven' when we live a harmless
life—free of abuse to our own body and others. The choice for 'heaven' when we consider choices for the greater or lesser good, and go with what would cause the greater good.

The outcome of choices for the greater good allows us to experience our 'heavenly state' because our mind, being at peace, and our body, remaining relaxed, get to enjoy their natural state of harmony and balance. And when we are peaceful and relaxed with our decisions and their subsequent actions, we say that we feel heavenly.

Being rich or being poor, any circumstance we may find ourselves born into, is but a starting point for the future moments we can create for ourselves from this moment forward, by being good ourselves and acting for the greatest good in each ever-new situation in living.

2. Contemplation

When we think about something, we are contemplating. Contemplating what to do next, what would be best, what course to follow.

Contemplation is a most useful skill to develop—as we usually make the wisest choices from forethought.

Before I go to sleep each night, I spend some time reviewing what happened that day, and how I wish to proceed on the issues for the next day. Contemplation is a way to mentally houseclean the day's activities—and prepares the space in thought, for tomorrow's unseen situations.

We can also contemplate on qualities we wish to develop in ourselves. By assessing the pros and cons about a quality, we can determine if it will uplift our lives through making us a better person. Because, as we grow in consciousness, we become more conscious of the greater plan for our life in the world. We attain a more universal overview of life.

Contemplation serves as a clearing house in our mind. We bring out a situation for review, process it, and then pass it on into usefulness or discard it as unusable for us. Or maybe send it back into our memory storage to be brought forward at another time.

Contemplation also buys us time to think over and digest new ideas that may come from outside sources—other people or the media.

Contemplation gives us the time to allow a good solution to come to mind. If we are in a hurry or pressured to make a decision quickly, we might not instantly come up with the most useful answer. But if we instead say—I'll think that over and let you know later—tomorrow or next week or whatever future date we choose, then our mind will have time to digest, mull over the situation, and come up with the most workable solution.

As we contemplate we can take notes on ideas that come to mind. Writing down my ideas while contemplating helps me evaluate the best course to follow. I look over my notes and decide the pros and cons of each idea before making an important decision.

As we progress in upgrading our consciousness through sticking to the virtues and truths we have decided to follow, we will more quickly be able to make the best decision when called upon to decide spontaneously.

3. The Eyes Have It

We communicate effectively through eye to eye contact. When we look at another while feeling love or care for them, the object of our affection receives that caring glance in their own body as an increase in their circulation—their body feels warmer.

Our eyes say it all. When a person enters a room we look to their eyes—determining their mood and state of health. Our eyes both receive impressions from the world, and give out our own state of being to others.

My cats, Blueberry and Calico, look me very intently in the eye, when they want my attention—in particular, when they want to be fed. Their little bodies poised quite still, intently locking onto my eyeballs. It reminds me of how the radar in an airplane locks onto its target and holds fast, once visual contact is made.

Eye to eye contact transmits our unspoken messages so effectively. When my 5 children were young—and even now as young adults—I communicate my unspoken reactions to their behavior by the looks I give them as they tell me what they have been up to—or what they plan to do. No words are exchanged—only those looks. And now that they are adults I can see when they are feeling concern about their own children's activities, by observing that interaction.

The way we hold our body—our body language—effectively communicates what is happening with us, perhaps more than words themselves. So the combination of observing how a person is holding themselves, along with observing their eyes, gives us a fairly complete picture of what is happening with them. And, likewise, how we hold ourselves and look at another communicates in the same way to them.

Because our unspoken communication is so instantaneous and open, we would do well to pay attention to this kind of input over the spoken word.

It is so energy efficient to use our eyes to communicate our loving and caring feelings for another—words need to be thought up and then spoken, and probably all of us put our foot in our mouth at one time or another. But this can not happen through the non-verbal communication of eye to eye contact.

4. Improving our Lives for More Happiness

As we improve the quality of our character, we become more aware of our state of happiness—the state of happiness hidden from us till we consistently act for the best of each situation.

We may think that happiness is an acquisition, and therefore buy more and more things. Soon we observe that depending on the momentary high experienced in an acquisition is truly temporary, and that in order to stay happy all time, we would have to acquire a never-ending stream of objects. We also might think that another person gives us
happiness by paying attention to us. Again, this would mean a person would have to be focusing on us all the time, in order for us to feel happiness all the time.

Neither by trying to acquire a stream of possessions, or by constantly expecting or trying to coerce a person to focus all their attention on us, do we experience a baseline of happiness.

[Note: The 'Celestine Prophecy' series of books by James Redfield give in depth analogies of our struggles in coercing happiness from things and other people—and how we can overcome that dependence.]

We all want happiness—so where is happiness?

Happiness is the outcome of harmony. And, harmony is the outcome of living moment to moment in alignment with the highest good of the moment. When we live peacefully and usefully, we are living harmoniously—we feel happy.

So, happiness is with us all the time as a state of our own being—brought to the forefront in our lives when we are living harmoniously in the world. In this realization we can see that each of us has happiness ever available, from within ourselves,
experienced when our attitudes, decisions and actions are in harmony with peacefulness
and goodness.

5. Is the Path of Awakening Always Uphill?

Is the path of awakening in Spirit always uphill?

Usually, when we want to achieve a goal, we need to put out extra effort.

But just the opposite is true in the awakening of spiritual consciousness.

Awakening in Spirit is a process of relaxing back into the nurturing of our long-forgotten roots of changelessness. We awaken in spirit when we let go—when we let go of the false notion that people and objects outside of ourselves provide our happiness. We awaken in spirit by spending our time being good and doing good—as goodness aligns us with the pervading harmony of our roots.

If any energy is required, it is in the effort of making the decision in each moment to act on what is for the best. That might take more effort than acting reactively—acting without consideration for the consequences of our actions.

Awakening in spiritual consciousness is truly like awakening from a bad dream, from a nightmarish outlook that we are dependent on others or things for our happiness. We can always enjoy the things of this world. But having more and more things can become a burden—their care takes up our time, and we may worry that if an object breaks, is lost, or stolen—or that if a certain person leaves our lives, we may not be happy any longer.

6. Joy in Living Is the Goal

Yes, when we align ourselves with even one esoteric quality we fill our lives with joy. This is so, because the esoteric qualities pull us out of the world of opposing positive and negative energies, into our unchanging state of being, where we are aware of ourselves as constantly in control and able to navigate effectively in the changing world.

This is not to say that we won't go through challenging situations anymore. The situations will be there—that we may continue to make choices for the lesser or higher good—but we will be able to see what is for the higher good almost automatically and will have the guts—the strength of will and energy to act on the higher good consistently.

And as we consistently make choices for the higher good we raise our own
consciousness and serve as an example to others—an example that we do have choices in life and can choose for the good, which we show by being and doing good. What we ourselves realize by our choices for the higher good, and others see in us, is that we are calmer and concurrently joyful in our lives—we enjoy our state of happiness.

The esoteric qualities are those attributes that lift us from the quagmire of 'muddy living.' Muddy living being when our lives are not congruent—we are not accurately describing what we are doing, and the reverse—we are not following through on what we say we will do.

Taking just one uplifting quality such as kindness as our 'staff of life' we begin to be consistent in thought, word, and deed.

Here is how my own life came to be aligned in joy…

My upbringing was in the Catholic faith. I can still see the dark blue paper cover of my New Baltimore Catholic Catechism and the writing on page one, lesson one: "Our duty in life is to know, love, and serve God in this world." This message made such an indelible imprint on me at 7 years old that it has focused my entire life. For years, growing up, I asked myself what each part of that duty meant. And here is what I came up with.

To know God. To discover a personal relationship with what I call my Inner Resource—my Higher All-knowing Power within. This I discovered and have nurtured in the depths of the prayer process—supplication, meditation, appreciation, application.

To love God. The way I love God is by realizing that my Inner Resource is also the Inner Resource of everyone and everything. So, to me, it follows that by loving and caring about others and all creation in thought and action that I would be fulfilling the dictum to love God.

To serve God in this world. That means right now. To serve the best interests of all in each situation in my life. To love and be kind and caring as I go along daily—not in some future time when I'm not so busy.

All along for me, in the process of discovering and living in joy, it was, and still is, keeping conscious of the esoteric qualities that lift me out of that quagmire of muddy thinking and indecision.

For my New Years resolution this year I choose to emulate the quality of kindness in my thinking, speaking, and acting. If we all align with an uplifting quality in this last year of the century, last year of the millenium, we will be doing our part to bring joy forward in our lives, and by critical mass—uplift the consciousness of our world.
 
 

7. Our Unseen Consciousness

As babies, we see the world around us at face value—what is visible to our sight, on the surface, is what is. We see shapes, colors, dimensions.

But this consciousness, carried into adulthood, is a habit that keeps us from growing up in our understandings about ourselves, others, the world we live in, our unseen roots.

Our growth in consciousness of what is unseen by our eyes and bodily senses is a natural evolutionary process—a process we grow in through our experiences in living. Through our emotions and thought processes, we see that some parts of life are very real and used by us, even though we can't see them with our eyes. And we learn by our reflections on this, that all in this world that we see and perceive with our senses has a hidden underlying structure.

We view a house, with its roof and walls and floors. But if we knocked a hole in the wall we would see much more than we see by just looking at the flat surface. Studs, insulation, plumbing lines, electric, phone and cable lines, etc. What is visible and useful on the outside of the wall is supported behind the scenes by more than our eye leads us to believe.

The same is true with our own bodies. We see a person's physical form and say, Oh, yes, that is my friend, Susan. So we recognize Susan by her outer form without being aware of the underlying systems supporting her life. We look at ourselves in the mirror and say—oh, I am so fat, or—I am so skinny, or—I look good today. We even judge ourselves by what we see of ourselves with our eyes!

But we are really not limited to this point of view—to this perception.

A way to discover the unseen consciousness behind the outer covering of ourselves and everything, is by going within our mind in the stillness of self-analysis, reflection, and meditation. As we use our mind to dissect our inner workings, and experience the bliss brought on through our time in meditation, we see the inside view of the universe that is working to support the outside objects visible to our sight.

As we come to know and understand, first hand, through meditation, especially, just what is behind the outer forms, we can then make use of the unseen aspects of ourselves. We can begin to consciously use more than the animalistic, instinctual aspects of ourselves that motivate us to preserve our bodies and reproduce.

Through meditation we perceive that what is supporting us is an energy that is so vibrant, that when we consciously perceive its presence our physical body heats up, perhaps perspires, and our mind is filled with joy.

From this inner experience of the energy supporting our mind and bodily systems we take back contentment and competence into daily living.

Contentment and competence because our mind realizes that outer problems ever have a solution. A solution available to us when we dive into the inner place of peace and joy, immerse ourselves fully—pulling harmony back out. Harmony that equalizes the outer dilemmas—smooths the emotions—separates the emotions from the issues at hand to allow the viewing of a useful plan of resolve.

This process of diving within to our depths of joy and harmony—then bringing harmony out into daily living is a built in plan for us as humans to discover and use so that our experience of living will be the best it can be—full of joy and harmony.

As humans, we are meant to use the gifts of harmony and joy from our inner support system to harmonize our daily living in the world. And as we use the inner aspects of ourselves in our daily life, we inspire others to dive into the depth of their own pool of consciousness within—they want to be happy and live harmonious lives, too.

As each of us grows in consciousness of our unseen roots—bringing the inner harmony into the outer focus, we will all become aware and able to use harmony for the good of all people on our planet, and everything in our universe.

8. Personal Boundaries

We each need a personal boundary that allows us the freedom to function as a unique being. while on a personal journey, using the resources of the physical world to better get to know the Resource within each of us—that same Resource within all of us.

Foremost, we are an individual, who with different people play different roles: perhaps as a spouse to our spouse; a child to our parents—a parent to our children; a friend to our friends; a co-worker to our co-workers.

In a marriage or in another form of a one-to-one love relationship, we still retain our individuality. Each shares their love with the other, without becoming the property or possession of the other.

A question I have been asked is: Shouldn't I expect my mate to fulfill all my needs?

Yes and no. If the agreement between the couple has been made that each will give to the other 100% of their intimate and tender affections, then we can expect that from our mate, and we also must fulfill that agreement for them. But giving another person 100% of our tender love does not mean selling our soul to them. It means that in attitude and action our tender one-one love that we have to share, is only shared with our mate.

One in not justified in crossing into the other's personal time. The other's personal time being the time each of us needs to nurture our individual self—whether that be a leisure activity, or alone time in thought and contemplation. We also must each spend a portion of the day caring for each aspect of our own mind-body—and that includes eating, hygiene, exercising, and sleep.

In general, we are justified in giving to another in any relationship in our life, what we can freely share that does not impinge on us taking care to preserve and nurture our own body-mind. And, what does not take away from the time we need to spend to get to know our inner Resource—the Source of all the love we already feel in ourselves—ever expanding by time spent lovingly reflecting on our Source, and then acting on this love in our daily actions.

Let us be careful to respect one another's boundaries—the boundaries we must each have, so that we can give time and energy to our individual needs—body, mind, soul.
 
 

9. Recoup, Regroup

Recoup and regroup: Recuperating from a difficult experience by taking on a positive attitude toward the future—a positive attitude producing positive thoughts, and their subsequent productive actions.

When we go through an especially tough time we can again pull ourselves back into light—lightheartedness—by our decision to be good and do good in our daily lives. Like attracts like, and actions from an enlightened point of view for the best of prevailing circumstances produce the most harmony, and therefore the most happiness, in our lives.

We all suffer losses in living. But, it is up to us by our willpower, to make lemonade from lemons.

These aids help me recoup and regroup:

     1. Prayerful surrender to the best resolve in each situation presenting;
     2. Meditation, to help me recover my emotional-mental-bodily balance;
     3. Assuming a positive attitude, and actions of productivity, rather than languishing in self-pity;
     4. Keeping myself well-nourished and exercising regularly;
     5. Reading something uplifting;
     6. Talking with friends who have a positive attitude toward life;
     7. Doing something kind for another person.

The recovery process from a long-standing bad habit—a detrimental habit—may need making a daily decision for positive change. The original 12-step program for alcoholism has been adapted for many addictions and detrimental habits—in my area, information on available programs is found in the front of our local phone book and in the county libraries. There is strength in numbers, so the self-help groups have that
advantage over trying to recover by one's self.

The journey of recouping from anything, and regrouping for a more positive and productive future is also a spiritual journey—in that we are growing in consciousness by holding positive attitudes and thoughts, and being good in our lives. Getting to know the positive side of our mind—coming to know that individually, and personally, we
make the choices for positive growth—leads to expansion of our capacity to live harmoniously in the world. And, living in spiritual consciousness is really living with an expanded consciousness of how we can find and use harmony in our lives.
 
 

10. Setting the Stage; Recording the Action

We play in life as upon a stage, and all the while our observing Self—our soul—is an audience, watching and recording all we do.

Upon the stage of life we gain the valuable experiences that develop our consciousness, from just self-centeredness, to awareness that as we interrelate with the other players in our various scenes, we see how interwoven our lives really are. And as we extend ourselves by caring deeds for our family and others, we notice our lives becoming richer—more fulfilled.

As we come to enjoy our interrelatedness in life's scenes and plays, we begin to notice that our happiness is springing up right from within us. As if what used to make us happy in the material world had transformed its qualities into a constant pleasure and enjoyment coming right from within our very inner core.

Perhaps this is our Self—our soul—beginning to fully function in our lives. Afterall, if we find pleasure from material things, it follows that coming to know the Source—the inner Resource—of material things, will put us in alignment with the experience of harmony, contentment, happiness—ongoingly—in our daily lives.

It is in coming to know our own soul—which is without physical or mental boundaries, and therefore present everywhere in every dimension and in every material thing, also, that we consciously can enjoy all our soul has to offer.

Our soul is the part of our consciousness always steeped in joy. Our soul is ever with us—in us—while at the same time unlimited and boundless in place, space, time, and consciousness. And it is through our efforts to interrelate in the world ever more consciously—that is, with ever more care—that we come to also know our own infinite soul and its boundless qualities more fully.

Developing a growing companionship with our soul, we grow in consciousness of our harmonious roots—which we often call love. Energy vibrantly present—now, before, and in our future experiences. Coming to know our soul and communing with our soul through being caring and loving in the world, puts us at one with our inner flow of happiness. No longer needing to depend on material objects to give us their fleeting pleasures, in-order for us to be happy.

11. Staying True to What Is Truthful

Staying true to what is truthful. It seems that when we decide to live up to a truth that we hold dear, that we are tested again and again to see if we are sincere. It is in the struggle to hold fast to what we believe is best for us, that gives us strength in other areas of our life—strength for making the tougher decisions seem easier.

By holding our personal truths in view, we are keeping an ideal in front of us to strive for, to grow into and beyond; thereby upgrading our consciousness.

There is the ultimate Truth that we will ever have in front of us—perhaps throughout infinity—wouldn't eternity be boring if we had nothing to hold onto as the ideal—the carrot to strive for? Just kidding. And there are qualities that we hold sacred, that we strive to live by—the esoteric qualities that carry us into a greater expanse of
consciousness as we hold fast to them—as we try to live up to their lofty goal in our eyes.

Some of the esoteric qualities that upgrade us as humans beings:

• kindness—showing care;
• speaking the truth;
• holding pure thoughts and positive attitudes;
• being helpful instead of hurtful by words and actions.

And, if we fall down or fall away from the set of truths that we have laid out for ourselves, then, in that moment of realization we can just begin again, and then again. Eventually we will be mostly successful in our quest to live in alignment with the time-tested truths that humanity as a whole cherishes.

It is worth it to continue to strive to live our truths. Living in accordance with our truths allows our mind to stay peaceful. And when our mind is peaceful our bodily stress is reduced—the body and mind interwoven as they are, each affecting the other. Holding onto our positive ideals keeps our mind on a positive tract. And as we hold a
positive attitude, our thoughts will be positive and the actions following positive also—as like comes from like.

And, as we go along in our struggle to live our truths, we are benefiting ourselves right in the ever-present moment, because we are preserving our peace of mind.

12. Taking a Stand

Taking a stand. Standing up for what we believe in—even if we are alone in our opinion. Standing up when others are sitting down. Taking action in accordance with our conscience—thereby improving our general consciousness.

Taking a stand improves the quality of the person we are now—sliding us forward into our fuller potential. It is courageous to take a stand if we must swim against the tide, but we are then using our energy most congruently—our attitudes producing thoughts that we go ahead and act upon.

Taking a stand moves the whole planet forward in evolution—in consciousness. When even one of us steps out and then acts upon what is for the higher good, the precedent is set for others to follow along, on and on and on. Let us reflect for a moment on people who have taken a stand and improved our world, such as Martin Luther King and
Mahatma Ghandi.

13. When Anger Has the Upper Hand

Anger is an emotion.

Feeling anger is beneficial when it motivates us to make necessary changes.

But, when anger has the upper hand on our peace of mind, it blocks our ability to think constructively, to reach a resolution. And, anger gone wild is an emotion of frustration for not getting our way.

I use this technique when I feel overwhelmed by anger:

I stand with my hands at my side, slightly away from my body, and then send the energy of anger down my arms and hands into the ground.

This takes the edge off the unproductive part of my anger. Unproductive, because the effect of anger out of control in the body, raises blood pressure, and causes unhealthy hormones to be injected into the bloodstream.

After the out-of-control angry energy has been grounded, these steps can solve the problem that caused us to feel anger in the first place:

     1. Write down the issues at hand;
     2. Write out possible solutions;
     3. Make a pro and con list of these solutions;
     4. Contemplate on the pro and con list and choose to act on that which is harmless to everyone and everything involved;
     5. Act to carry out the best productive plan.

Anger is useful to alert us that a change needs to be made. But, then it is up to us to make the necessary changes.

We feel anger in response to a situation not under our control. By taking productive steps to resolve the issues at hand, we regain our peace of mind and solve the problem.

As humans we are working daily with the aspects of mind-body-emotion. It is a juggling act to maintain harmony amongst these 3 aspects. But it is also a challenge that makes full use of our capacity to solve intricate problems from various choices—an advantage that sets us apart from the animal kingdom.

14. World, Here I Am— How We Present Ourselves to the World

World, here I am. By our words and actions—not just by our appearance—we present ourselves to the world.

We have the choice as to whether to make a positive—thereby useful, or negative—thereby harmful presentation. But, our personal happiness depends on us making a positive presentation of ourselves.

Happiness is a quality of our soul—a quality that is ever present in us. It is up to us to find and enjoy happiness by our efforts in meditation; holding an appreciative attitude—a positive attitude; caring actions; and actions for the highest welfare of all in each situation.

And in the world, positive attitudes and actions for the highest good, performed with care, put our state of happiness into use—into usefulness.

Another benefit as we practice happy living, is that by holding positive attitudes our physical body remains relaxed. Relaxed, yet energized, as the body and mind are ever entwined.

In summary—happiness is everyone's wish. And happiness is found within ourselves, in the depths of meditation; nurtured in daily living by holding onto positive attitudes, and enjoyed as we act with care and for the highest welfare of all in each situation.

15. Zooming Along on the Fast-Tract

Keeping pace in our fast-tract society, requires us to prioritize our activities.

I have found that prioritizing daily tasks, as well as long range goals, makes the most efficient use of my energy. In my daily list I include relaxation time as well as planned activities. If we fill up our list with just goal-oriented activities we deprive our mind of the time it needs to download, and assimilate the lessons and outcomes of the day—thereby best planning the course of action for the next day.

Time spent in reflection and meditation each day gives us contact with our all-knowing Resource within—that infinite part of ourselves that can direct our outer actions, by letting us know the course to follow for the best outcome of our situations.

Our internal Resource is a deeper aspect of us than our regular thinking mind. The information coming to us from our infinite soul—our infinite Resource—comes most easily to our waking consciousness—our thoughts—when we still our body and think lovingly, as in meditation.