Do you feel stuck, trapped, weighed down, uninspired?

If so, chances are you are ready to move on to the next stage of your life.

What you’ll find here is a common sense approach to moving towards the next phase of your life. Like so many things in life, these are things we all know, but seem to forget, or lose track of in the busy-ness of life.

This is my working framework for embracing change in my life. This approach is simple by design. You can apply it in a day, a month, or a year. The same approach can be applied to any dimension of your life.

Here is one way to think about the different dimensions of your life:

• the body
• physical space
• the mind
• social environment
• spiritual dimension

The hard thing for some of us to accept is that there is no one silver bullet to kill all of life’s problems. Although many in the self help industry get rich off of this mind set, it is up to each of us to recognize the cycles of life, and to not only accept, but embrace them!

To meet this ever evolving need, this approach is iterative. The good news is that it gets easier each time you do it.

I’ll introduce the approach here, and continue to explore these themes in the coming days with some concrete scenarios and examples.

5 Stepping Stones to the Next Phase

1. Choose - only you can change you… the first and most important step is the decision to embrace change and to grow your life.
2. Make room for the new - clean house, let go, give away, embrace emptiness, detox your system.
3. Be & Allow - pray, be with it, meditate, walk.
4. Accept & Receive - be in the flow of life, pay attention, watch as doors open and opportunities present themselves.
5. Express gratitude - say thank you… morning, noon and night!

Here’s a visual representation of these steps:

This is my current integration of everything I am learning. It is not a one size fits all kind of model. But if it helps or works for you - wonderful!

If this framework resonates with you, check back over the coming weeks. I will be exploring these five stepping stones in more depth across the different dimensions.

To find more articles like this, or share your favorites… please visit the main high Vibe it website!

A resounding theme I am very attuned to in so much of what I am learning right now is around the idea of Choice.

Choice = Freedom = Power

I really appreciated this post I came across today titled ‘Negativitis’ cripples the human spirit… which arrives at the same idea I am running into everywhere right now - the Power of Choice.

Life is absolutely dynamic.

I remember now the teachings of Heraclitus, which I was drawn to some twenty years ago…

“We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not.”

Of course, this is just one translation - but the idea that stuck with me from his teachings was about the dynamic nature of all of life, and that we are all one and utterly unique all at once.

The theme of the river is also resonating highly with me right now. The power of the river is in its flow. During the harshest cold of winter, the waters of a mighty river seem last to freeze, if they freeze at all.

The motion is life. Just as we are in motion, until our bodies stop working - we are alive when we are in motion and in the flow of life. The more we are in the flow, the more we are alive.

To hold on to yesterday is to try to stay still in the flow, or to hold back the flow of life.

There are many ways of expressing this same idea - in the flow. To some, it is being in “The Zone”, to others, it is being in “The Now”. But no matter how you look at it, the core experience is to:

• let go of the old story, and the drama associated with it
• feel connected to the physical world around you here and now
• not occupy your mind with the creation of future scenarios

How you get there is up to you:

• Prayer
• Exercise
• Yoga
• Meditation
• Music - listening, making, dancing
• Add your own way here :)

Regardless of how you find your way to the Present moment, there is an almost immediate reduction in stress and fatigue. A playful spirit arrives. The Universe opens up. Where you may have felt constrained, you now feel free.

And it all starts with you. It is your choice.  Just as your drama is your creation, your response to your situation… you can likewise simply accept your reality, and choose to let go of your mental constructs… think of the stories you have told yourself over and over… and let them go.

Visualizing this process is a powerful way to move in this direction. Envision yourself standing in the river holding all of your stories close to you… they are a cluttered mess of branches and leaves, things floating by you in the river that you have clung to, and now - the water swirls around you and your mess… and you are stuck there in your place as life passes you by. Eventually, you identify with your place in the river, rather than as being part of the river.

When you are ready - you choose to let go. Envision yourself taking apart your clutter bit by bit, with loving kindness… you take this branch and that leaf and hold them out into the river and release them. Watch yourself in your mind as you let go.

You become lighter. You free yourself from the mental clutter of your life.

And next thing you know, you will begin to sense a lot of good things coming your way.

You may be tempted to grab hold of the first best thing you see and cling to it - but as the good comes into your life, let it go too.

Give back everything you get, and you are sure to be getting more.

Your free will is your greatest gift, and the source of all your power. Give it away, and you will feel powerless. Embrace your power, you will feel free.

I live in the Chicago area… and today is a day we all have to deal with water in its many various forms - especially the forms of ice, snow, and rain!

But it has brought to my mind some very interesting themes I keep stumbling across.

First, I have lived my whole life feeling physically oriented around water one way or another. In my youngest years, I remember feeling very drawn to and safe with a place we simply called “the reservoir”. It was a set of three connected small man made lakes in my home town - but to the eyes of a small child, they seemed wild and vast.

Soon after that, I became oriented to the closest of the great lakes - Lake Erie. I spent most of my early life near this lake, and visited it frequently.

My family has also always been oriented towards this lake… so much so that my mother, who passed away recently, has requested that we return her remains to that lake.

I also have this vivid memory of going on an all night fishing trip with my father to one of the piers near Huron, Ohio - and watching with absolute amazement and a good deal of fear as the lake began to churn with an approaching storm, and swept up over the pier, forcing us to leave before morning.

I have many powerful memories associated with that lake.

Back in 2000, I moved from that area to an area that to me seemed like a whole new world - the Chicago area. But I was instantly oriented towards another of the great lakes… this time, Lake Michigan.

I drew power and strength from this lake through some very hard times in my life.

More recently, I have moved a little farther away from the lake, but find myself almost equally drawn to the Fox River. I love this river with all of its various moods and twists and turns. Watching it flow through the seasons this past year has been a joyous journey for me. It is always ready to match me in the moment - bring back to my mind the ineffable qualities I cherish in life - resiliency, flow, and the power of nature.

Zooming into the moment, I was wonderfully amused when listening yesterday to a speaker who was delivering a message about how to better tune into one’s own awareness… about how to develop one’s deeper and broader senses, and one of the very first things this person recommended was to drink more water!

And in a fast moving discussion last night with a fascinating group of people, a friend brought up the whole concept of The Hidden Messages in Water, based on the work of Masaru Emoto.

So today, I am drinking more water, having fun with this last little blast of winter, and simply feeling much appreciation for the role water has always played in my life.

Have you ever simply asked for what you really want in life? I mean, a real genuine heartfelt honest asking?

When I first met a group of people who were really into The Law of Attraction, this was the first thing that really struck me… these people really seem to know what they want! I felt like I was in the right place at the right time - I mean, things were really clicking for me, but I felt a little fuzzy on the topic of deliberate intention.

The Abraham-Hicks teachings offer up specific practices to assist with this challenge. And one of the ideas that I appreciated the most on this learning journey was the notion that you do not have to know what you want in order to benefit from these principles, and that it is good enough to simply want to find out!

In fact, even if you think you know, life is an ongoing dynamic process where you are always learning, and your desires will always be in the process of evolving and changing.

There are days when I feel like a toddler in regards to the material I am encountering.

Today was one of those days.

To begin with, it got off to a rough start. First thing this morning, I was terribly thrown off balance by a recurring pattern of disruptive energy in my life.

What absolutely blew me away was this - on my train ride home this evening, I was listening to material that I download last night, and that material specifically and concretely addressed the issue that I hit head on this morning!

Let me restate that a different way.

Last night, I was drawn to some interesting and new material. I mean - really drawn to it… like I wasn’t sure what the heck I was doing, and when I found it, I said “oh - that was it!” - I downloaded it, and went to bed :)

This morning - I hit a wall. A familiar yet terribly unpleasant pattern of energy in my life. It kind of stuck with me and had the wheels turning much of the day - with no real progress or answers bubbling up… and then, on the train ride home, I remembered the material I downloaded last night, and listened to it for a while.

Wouldn’t you know… the exact, specific pesky pattern I am struggling with was addressed head on in this material. It was like a bell going off… and the answer was delivered right to me so directly and with such clarity that it was unmistakable.

Well, I am not saying too much more at this time. I am in the process of reaching out to the author of this material, and can’t yet imagine the possibilities of what is unfolding in my life. It is my intention to remain open to these possibilities.

What will be better is when I am actively and deliberately creating the life I want. For now, I am toddling along, and having a lot of fun along the way!

First things first.

If a garden is what I want, I am first preparing the earth in which it will grow. In fact, that is precisely what my next step is all about - my connection to the earth… my ability to be grounded and to know, versus getting swept away by feelings and emotions.

It is an all important step for me right here and right now. I know this now… in my gut.

I may have gotten to this point sooner had I known what to ask for. My skill in this area is not yet refined. But days like today sharpen my vision, to be sure.

The event at the start of my day was unpleasant - but was what I needed precisely because of how it made me feel… it pointed me in the direction I needed to go — and made me that much more receptive to a lesson I myself sought out the night before!

I am left tonight with nothing but gratitude, and a welcome anticipation for what tomorrow will bring.

My prayers tonight are likewise full of gratitude… and I am asking for nothing but for what I have learned today to sink in a little deeper and for these seeds to take root.

How much of “the way of the world” do we truly understand consciously? Is it possible we understand it more unconsciously than we do consciously?

Or in other words, do we have an awareness of how the world works that is deeper and broader than our conscious awareness?

It seems to me that some people are very comfortable answering Yes to this question. I definitely fall into this category.

Then there are those that seem to carry a deep seated disdain for this type of thinking. To me, it seems that these folks fear or resent or simply invalidate the idea that inner-thinking and inner-experience can reveal any sort of truth about the world outside.

But I would ask… no matter how much we learn through science, no matter how much we measure all the amazing objects “out there”… how much do we really know about them?

If anything, we have a tendency to replace the open and mysterious with poorly understood concepts. In the end, these concepts simply become props on the stage upon which we play out our lives’ greatest acts.

A great example of this is our very understanding of this thing we call The Universe.

Much like the term God, this term… “The Universe” will mean very different things to different people. I got a chuckle out of this patronizing and snide post that belittles a person for feeling gratitude toward The Universe. After all, how could another person’s belief system possibly measure up to our own?

Ours is right. Ours is true. Ours makes sense.

Even if we simply try to comprehend a more or less scientific understanding of The Universe - what the heck is it? I am college educated. I understand the basics. But the more we know, the more we learn about what we do not know.

I mean, I “get it” — to a degree.

But still… c’mon. Just how big is it? What’s outside of it? Nothing, you say? Am I able to truly comprehend nothingness? Seriously… how can my brain truly comprehend the age, size, or complexity of something like “The Universe”??? And yet, there it is - a word used in everyday language that we all just assume means something more or less specific.

I will never forget sitting in front of the TV as a kid watching in absolute amazement as Carl Sagan talked to me about the science of the Universe. I love this quote:

“It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”

~ Carl Sagan

I agree entirely, and can only guess that we would go about our grasping by different means :)

I also appreciate the work of Stephen W. Hawking, who said:

“Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?”

Indeed… what is it that breathes fire into the equations?

Any answer offered up rides on waves of language from you to me. Verbal Conscious Language is inherently limited.

And so we come back to the root of the question… how do we know?

Knowing bubbles up from within. Only when a deep inner knowing matches the language and words coming to us through Verbal-Conscious-Language do we recognize it. There must be a mutual context, a shared world view… you and I must co-exist in the same ecosystem of thought for us to even see one another as valid Providers and Consumers of Language and Thought.

What’s more - this deep inner knowing is larger and broader than the outer knowing. Our lives are full of opportunities to see this knowing play out in a variety of contrasting ways. For any shallow prop on the stage, we can knock it down and replace it with the real thing. A thing of depth and dimension.

This play of life is what life is about. It is about creativity, exploration, and Joy. And when our deep inner-knowing aligns with our outer awareness, things feel lighter and easier. Things happen. There is more Joy. There is inherently less conflict.

In this state of being, there is resonance.

Resonance is defined as: “the state of a system in which an abnormally large vibration is produced in response to an external stimulus, occurring when the frequency of the stimulus is the same, or nearly the same, as the natural vibration frequency of the system”.

The Universe is a word that points to an idea… and for me, this idea is a place which is a system. It is a system of energetic information. I am part of that system. I am of the system. Does the system care about me? Yes - very much so. And No - not at all. This is the problem with language. Just because I can ask a question does not mean it is a valid question. Just because I answer it one way does not mean I cannot answer it another.

When Abraham-Hicks states “there is great love for you here”, we will each hear what we are drawn to hearing. Our understanding will depend on our alignment with the words and thoughts.

I’ll leave you with a big Thank You for reading these thoughts, and with this quote from Alan Watts:

“You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean. The ocean waves, and the universe peoples. And as I wave and say to you ‘Yoo-hoo!’ the world is waving with me at you and saying ‘Hi! I’m here!’ “