Carly, I went through a similar divorce last year. At the time it was horrendous - so maniuplative and draining in every way. But as I look back it was an incredible time for growth for me and my children. I wish now I hadn't seen everything in such a self-defeating way because I can see now how it was my perspective that was making the worst of my situation. When you are settled and at peaec with your children, you will see that the path you are on right now was a path to that peace and you will appreciate it and be thankful it happened in your life. In fact, the sooner you see that, the sooner your peace will come. Embrace your pain and it becomes your teacher. Try to escape it and it always remains your antagonist. My heart goes out to you because I know exactly how you are feeling and wish so much I could give you what I learned in my divorce to help you through yours. Think the best of everything and be response-able and you will bring positive energy to your aid. All the best, Darcy

1.What are you trying to manifest now?

I'm trying to manifest balancing my home life and my marketing business so I feel creative and successful in both arenas. I also want to manifest my mate.

2. What tools or practices are you using to achieve this? (eg: Goal setting, affirmations, Law of Attraction, vision boards, meditation etc)

I'm using the Law of Attraction, daily Philosopher's Notes, and a Life Coach. I'm also keeping a journal. I have fundamentals in place for exercise and healthy eating habits.

3.Are you 100% confident you are doing everything you can to make it work, or do you still have some doubts?

I always feel there is more I could know and do towards achieving my desires. I feel I am doing everything I've learned that I feel fits me so far, but I am continuing to look for more tools to use to be even more successful and evolved.

4.I want to know what it is that you do to get the things you want or desire. What are your rituals or practices? What has helped and what hasn’t helped? What doubts do you have? Let me know.

When I want something, I start looking for ways to get it. I try to identify what seems to be holding me back. I look for ways to feel good about myself by doing things I might be procrastinating on. I share with other empowering people for their input I look for clues in my life from my intuition or the universe of things I can do to work towards my dream or goal. I pursue my own self-development and feel that is the surest way to experiencing the things I desire.

Affirmations, goal setting, vision boards and meditation have not worked for me. I believe in positive thinking but repeating affirmations seems like I'm trying to come in the back door and is tedious for me. Goal setting feels limiting to me, that I might set a goal and end up not being available for something bigger and better because I've locked myself into the process of pursuing my goal. Instead I've opted for goal discoveries, a process by which I look for clues in my life that indicate a goal the Flow of Life (universe, my higher self, etc) is giving me the opportunity to join. Vision boards are similar in the sense that I don't want to create my own vision that might be inferior to a greater vision I can be a part of as I develop more. Meditation is somewhat like affirmations for me. They are tedious and time consuming. However, I have ordered the free Holosync CD to try that method. I understand the importance of meditation but I guess I just haven't found a way to do it that feels right for me.

Ted, this comment is a great summary: "There is no absolute truth, only working probabilities. Everything, except my own existence, is up for question." In the end the only thing we really have is ourselves, so what do we make of ourselves with the working possibilities life is full of? I kept looking beyond myself for the answers when now I see I am my answer; the answer to why I exist and what I do with that existance is in me. Everything else in life is a medium for me to work in as I make my answer happen.

Thank you for sharing such a profound thought - Aderet

Good Morning Friends,

I've struggled with not trusting my feelings, afraid they would mislead me. Katie's "Work" gets to the root of the problem and helps us rethink a situation so we can trust our feelings. I think that's enormous. When we identify why we feel the way we do, fix the problem in our head that is causing those feelings, (so our feelings are based on reality and not the problem our head was making), then we can trust those feelings. I just love that and am anxious to put it in practice in my life. I feel like being able to trust my feelings will help me embrace myself and my world with greater appreciation and color.

What an exciting journey life is!

Aderet

John, you put words to the feelings I didn't have words for. If I had more time I could write a chapter on what that means to me. Thank you!

This note was so full of great thinking that I went to kenwilber.com (intense website!) and found this quote that stated exactly what I've been experiencing in my life and what I see in my children and this group:

"Contained within the human heart is an inextinguishable drive to make greater sense of our world while also cultivating the freedom, passion and capacities to transform it. This is why many of us are drawn to lead integral lives. And I’m sure you have noticed that while living integrally starts as something you know, it proceeds to something you do, and ends as something you embody. It is embodiment, this final step, that we all seek – the “on-board capacities” to grow anywhere we want to; to live completely, deeply in touch with our unique gifts and vision. Not merely as something we know, but also as something we are."

I intend for this to be not only a state in my life, but a definite stage I can look back to and say the transformations that took place in my life began here. I hope my children can do the same.

I would love to do this! Since we are an average of the top five people we hang out with, I would love to average people from finerminds into my life! Thank you for thinking of this Vishen. I hope you can get us the details soon so I can make arrangements as it will take some finagaling to pull off leaving then, but since it's my birthday I may ask for some birthday favors to help me get that time off :)

John, I could so relate to your "leaky" feeling. Sometimes I've questioned how I could feel I had come so far and learn so much only to feel back to square one in seemingly a moments time. But I learned that the line between genius and insanity is a fine line, and we can cross it at any time. In some way that was a comfort to me; if I found myself in a place I didn't want to be in my mind, I could just step back over the line. Those "leaky" times weren't a sign that I had been unsuccessful at my growth like I feared, but rather just a momentary repositioning as I stepped back over that fine line and found the place inside me that grows and doesn't die. I think desire is a key player in deciding which side of that line we live our lives on.

Thank you for the practical ideas Chris. If setting my intentions at night creates a space for my subconscious to fill, then definitely that's a good time for setting intentions, rather than in the morning when my feet often have to hit the floor running. I've been looking for ways to become more efficient in organizing my thoughts for me and my children. This is something I can use.

I also appreciate how you respond to comments on this blog. You relate to the comments so personably, as if they are little people on the page, and your ability to grasp intention and pick up on little details is worthy of being a top-notch detective. Thank you for putting yourself into this blog and bringing such good energy to it.

As a homeschooling Mom I've been sharing the Philosopher's Notes with my eight children. My purpose in teaching them is to inspire and motivate them to discover and develop their potential, and these notes have been marvelous tools for doing exactly that. The other night my 14 yr old son, Isaac, shared his thoughts with me for three hours on what is coming together in his head. I plan to write a short story on what he said, but I'd like to summarize it here.

Isaac referred to the way some birds fly in flocks that appear as one bird, turning and banking simultaneously with no one bird as the leader in the flock. He read somewhere how we have tried to clock how long it takes for decisions in the flock to be transmitted to the other birds. This was timed at something like 1/12,000th of a second. Then flocks were found who could transmit their messages so quickly that we couldn't clock them.

Isaac then shared what he learned about the human brain from “The Biology of Belief” by Dr. Bruce Lipton. He said brain cells are not three dimensional, but rather ten dimensional, and the connections between the cells are connecting ten dimensionally with one another. It was phenomenal how he described it. This accounts for the speed at which the mind can think and process information.

Isaac also explained fractal patterns such as the cells in our bodies being like mini-humans, capable of living in a petri dish all by themselves, with system components similar to our own, and each of us humans being like larger cells in a larger organism, such as earth. Then earth being a cell in a yet larger organism.

Isaac then put these pieces of information together and said he felt the birds in those flocks had connected as if they were each cells in a larger “bird brain” that they were then tuned to for being able to fly together as if they were one bird. He feels this is possible for us to do as humans as well. The problem, he said, is that most humans are so brain dead that they are not tuned to the possibilities available to them. Not using their minds and not tuning them to the spiritual connections available to them, they are out of the loop.

However, those who are developing their spiritual connections with themselves and the energy of this planet he feels will become tuned to what he called the “earth brain” - a connection between humans similar to the connection the birds in those flocks experience. He sees this to be necessary for our race to evolve to the next level. Those who are not capable of “tuning” into this connection will not be a part of this evolution.

I found these thoughts to be fascinating and wanted to share them with you. As I've been participating in this challenge I feel myself connecting with you, and wonder if forming these connections is not at least one of the reasons this challenge was given as a desire to Brian and Vishen. If this is the forming of an “earth brain” it may be one of the most important events taking place on earth. As we confront challenges that threaten the extinction of man, having an earth brain to work with to navigate the sharp turns ahead would be an answer we perhaps never imagined.