We Rise by Lifting Others - a Misunderstood Concept

"We rise by lifting others." ~ Robert Ingersoll

This is a very simple concept but at the same time one of the most misunderstood concepts in today's world.

First, let's take a look at what "lifting others" actually means or more importantly what it does not mean.  It has become all to common in the modern world to think that you can lift someone else up out of a negative situation by providing them with a comparison to someone else who is in a worse situation.

How many times have you heard or maybe even said yourself, "Oh that's terrible, but don't feel bad because look over here at this other person who is in a worse situation than you are."?  This approach does nothing to lift that person up or address the situation they are in.  What is happening here is that the person who is in the negative situation is basically being told that they should add the feeling of guilt to their equation for feeling bad about their situation because someone else has it worse.

The real insanity of this belief that comparing yourself to someone worse off then you are is when you go out of your way to make someone else feel worse than you do so that you can see that comparison and somehow feel better about yourself.  This can take the form of someone who is having a bad day so they take it out on some teenage minimum wage part time cashier at the grocery story who likely has enough problems in their life as it is and then leave the store feeling superior about themselves with the knowledge that they just made some poor kid cry.  Or it might be the person who goes online to seek out conflict with a complete stranger believing that if they can insult someone enough that they will feel better about themselves.

Aside from the clear cruelty is this approach it has the complete opposite effect of what this concept is all about. By lifting others up you are helping to raise their vibrational frequency and in turn that very act will raise your own vibrational frequency.  If you go out of your way to break someone else down, the effect will only backfire on you and lower your vibrational frequency as well.

So let's take a look at a few ways that one might help lift someone else up:

• Be encouraging. Encouragement is an expression and assurance of one's hope and future in words, presence, and sincerity.
• Be understanding. Wisdom and understanding go hand in hand. Understanding starts by being an active listener (not planning a reply as one is speaking), asking intelligent questions to gain further insights, and being accepting of what the person is sharing.  Then answer without condemning. Or don't answer at all and decide to just be a listening ear.
• Share knowledge. Found an article or book that's useful?  Share it with your friends.  Sharing has been made easier thanks to the accessibility of sharing tools on the web, along with help from social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.  Sharing knowledge helps us learn, discover, and understand things that are interesting.  They have immediate application for better results in our work and life, edifies our soul, and improves our daily conversations.
• Stay humble. Humility and maturity are synonymous. A dignified person accomplishes much, but brags little.  They are secure in their standing without the need to make noise, often treating everyone with tremendous respect, regardless of position.
• Be positive! Positive thinking goes beyond having the drive and motivation for personal success.  Positive thinking is explicit, definite, and outspoken.  It's contagious.  Build others up with your positiveness, allowing them to be open for better things to come.
• Love. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails … And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13, NIV). Building up a person with any of the other ways mentioned is only made effective when done so together with love. Care for others how you would want to be cared for. Build up one another how you would like to be inspired. As a result, you will move up to a whole new level of breakthroughs in life.

Finally, I want to talk a little about the subject of giving financial help.

If you are someone who has been blessed with a financial abundance and you feel moved or motivated to give to help others less fortunate then please...Please...PLEASE do so directly do not give your money to some big box "charity" organization.   These so-called "charity" organizations are nothing but businesses and they do not help anyone who is truly in need.

Do you really believe that any of those big cancer research charities who take in billions of dollars a year in donations have the slightest interest in actually finding a cure for cancer that would eliminate the perceived need for their very existence?  There are countless numbers of natural and freely available cures for cancer available right now.  But these organizations never talk about them, they only talk about their next fundraiser and where you can send your check.

And I had to learn the hard way that the organizations that claim to help the poor do nothing of the sort.  I spent over 20 years of my life giving to organizations like the Salvation Army and then fell on hard times myself.   When I reached out to these organizations seeking only for help in preventing my electric from being turned off in the dead of a hard winter, I was told that since I had no income at the time I was not eligible for assistance.

So please if you truly want to help someone less fortunate than yourself then go out and find someone who needs that help and give it to them directly.  Believe me when I say they are not hard to find.  We live in a world where big corporations employ the majority of the population by paying them a less then poverty wage while at the same time taking billions of dollars of tax payer money to add to the insane amounts of money they are already squeezing from their own employees.  Then those very same employees are criticized by the masses when they have to sign up for food stamps so they can feed their children to keep them alive.


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Feeling Awakened While Also in Despair

Yesterday, an article from our friends over at Expanded Consciousness caught my attention.  It was called What is Consciousness? Why do I feel 'Awakened' while Also in Despair? 

Now, the timing for this could not have been more perfect as I was having a really tough time yesterday.  So I decided to do a little more research on the subject and do a lot of meditating on it as well.  What I found was both liberating and encouraging.

Since one of the things I found out is that this is both common and one could say normal for many who have chosen a path to a higher consciousness or enlightenment, I wanted to share what I learned that it might help others who might be feeling what I was feeling.

First let me try to explain what I was feeling yesterday and why I was having such a hard time. 

Lately I have been making what I can only describe as an immeasurable amount of progress in my own spiritual awakening.  It is as though everything that I have been studying over the past 20 or so years are finally clicking and coming together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle forming a wondrous and awe inspiring picture of beauty, love and joy.  And more than just understanding the concepts and believing them to be true, I actually feel them in a way that I had not felt in the past. And at times I can literally feel my vibration shifting to a higher frequency.

And then comes along a day like yesterday where I felt like I had been dropped in a pit of despair.  Every little thing just rubs me the wrong way. And it causes a snowball effect and negative situations from my past resurface and worry about the future begins to roll in like never before.  And when I look at it and recognize it I feel even worse because I think that I am back sliding in my spiritual development. I feel all the negative energy and think that I must be failing in some way and losing all of the progress that I have been making.

Well I suppose that if I had remained in that belief that I was failing and losing all of the progress I had made, it would have likely kicked me down the spiritual ladder a bit.  Fortunately I learned and realized that this type of occurrence is what you might call a side effect along the path to enlightenment.

We have to remember that everything and everybody is energy with it's own vibration and it's own frequency. Now when you shift your vibration to a higher frequency, especially when you begin to make those shifts more quickly, you are for a time going to be surrounded by the things and people with the lower frequency that you previously had.  This is going to cause friction that can be very confusing.

Now for me I was able to identify the two main factors that began the snowball effect that I experienced yesterday. 

The first was when I had to go to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things we needed around the house.  For me this was to be a routine run to the store visit.  But given that we are in the height of the holiday shopping season it was anything but routine.  The traffic to and from was crazy.  Finding a parking space was more than a little troubling and getting out of that parking space was even worse.  And of coarse the store itself was packed full of all kinds of people with different vibrations and frequencies all confined to a relatively small area.  To say that it was uncomfortable would be the understatement of the century.

The second factor did not begin yesterday.  It has in fact been something that has been building in my mind for a while and it the hardest for me to face and accept.  And I would imagine that this is likely the hardest thing for anyone to deal with.

As we continue down our paths to a higher understanding of the universe and our vibrations shift into higher frequencies sooner or later we come to realize that where we are in our journey may be in conflict with where those we most care about are in their journey.  Whether it is a close friend or a family member whose path may have been so close to yours for a long time that is seemed like they were on the same path as you, we must remember that each person travels their own path.

Now there are literally hundreds if not thousands of different ways this can manifest in different peoples lives and situations.  For many it is in the form of ridicule from friends and family that do not understand the path you have taken or may not even have the desire to perceive your goals. They are perfectly content with the reality that they perceive and do not understand why your are not.  They may even think you are just plain crazy.

For me it is coming to terms with the fact that my daughter is grown up now and she is no longer holding onto daddy's hand with every step she takes in life like she did when she was a little girl.  And as much as I would like to imprint my 44 years of experience onto her in the hopes that it will guide her away from the obstacles and pitfalls in life that I had to go through, the fact is that she wants to experience those obstacles and pitfalls for herself.  And I have to accept that our paths are not ever going to be the side by side journey it once was.  Now does that mean she is no longer going to be in my life?  Of coarse not, but it does come with a feeling of distance and some separation that does hurt.

I could go on and on with never ending examples of why we go through periods of despair but the point in that our despair is a genuine aspect of our quest for higher consciousness and not an emotional illness.  It is a compassionate despair born from the feeling of separateness when our path begins to differ from those around us.  Once we realize that it is much easier to get through it and continue up the ladder.

And as a result you will find yourself becoming clearer and more loving in your daily life.  You will begin to develop a more cheerful and accepting attitude for the world and for others.  It will also give you greater insight into your own mind and heart.  You will find greater patience with yourself.  And ultimately, instead of separateness you will begin to feel a greater oneness with everything and everyone.


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14 Ways to Raise Your Vibration

Would you like to have a stronger connection to spirit, more positive thoughts, better emotional states and improved physical health? If so, then you need to raise your vibration.

Your ‘vibration’ is a fancy way of describing your overall state of being. Everything in the universe is made up of energy vibrating at different frequencies. Even things that look solid are made up of vibrational energy fields at the quantum level. This includes you.

When it comes to vibrations, there are higher frequencies and lower frequencies. This is true for vibrations of being too. Lower vibrations of being are associated with disempowering thoughts, negative emotions, poor health and little or no spiritual awareness.  Higher vibrations of being, on the other hand, are associated with empowering thoughts, positive emotions, good health and strong spiritual awareness.

What’s more, is that like attracts like. The lower your vibration of being is, the more likely you are to attract circumstances to you that mirror this. Frustrating situations…  difficult people… that sort of thing.

So what you want to do then, is raise your vibration. You’ll then start to attract more positive experiences, enjoy better health, experience more positive emotional states, think nicer thoughts and obtain a stronger sense of spiritual connection.

So, how do you raise your vibration? It all sounds well and good in theory, but how do we do it in practice? There are a multitude of ways and if you’re on the path of awakening and transformation, you’ll inevitably find the most effective methods for you. In the meantime, I’ve created a list of some of the things that work for me. Try them out for yourself, adapt them to suit your own needs and repeat over time.

1) Find an exercise you enjoy and slot it into your everyday routine so it’s easy for you to do.

Exercise keeps you fit and toned and the movement gets chi circulating around your body. It also helps you to ground and gives you an opportunity to clear mind chatter. You don’t have to visit the gym five nights a week or train like an Olympic athlete, just find a physical activity you enjoy and build it into your routine in doable, repeatable ways.

2) Meditate.

Meditation helps you become more conscious of your thoughts, which in turn helps you to break bad habits. It also creates space for inspiration and spiritual awareness to come through. Again, you don’t have to meditate like a yogi or a Zen monk, simply set aside five minutes (the length of a TV ad break) each day.  If you are new to meditation then check out my article on Two Simple Meditation Techniques That Anyone Can Do.

3) Be aware of what you watch, listen to and read.

Every form of media has a vibration. Does what you watch, listen to and read dramatise or glamorise a lower vibrational way of life? How does it make you feel whilst you’re engaging with it? What kind of an impression does it give of human beings and the world we live in? Include more higher vibrational forms of media in your life with inspirational, educational or transformational messages. Remember that everything is energy, so be mindful of the frequencies you’re submerging yourself in.

4) Drink lots of water.

Water is a form of energetic life force. Drinking plenty of it throughout the day (filtered, preferably) will help your body flush out toxins and keep your energy levels and vibration nice and high.  Adding a lemon wedge to your water is also a good idea,  see 18 of the Best Benefits of Drinking Lemon Water.

5) Spend some time in nature every day.

It’s easy to get caught up in today’s world of information and forget the natural world. Whether it’s a bush walk, a stroll along the beach or a quick half hour walk through the local park on your way home, getting out into nature each day will help you clear your mind, ground, become more present and remember you are part of a beautiful, living, interconnected planet.

6) Eat fresh, healthy, wholesome food.

Along with containing nutrients, food has an energetic vibration to it. Choosing healthy, fresh, whole foods over processed, frozen, stored or chemically altered will help you raise your vibration. If you can’t afford organic, at least buy free range. Swap junk food snacks for healthier alternatives. Always read the labels and know what you’re putting into your body.

7) Get some form of energy healing and re-balancing every couple of months.

Reiki and shiatsu are both great modalities for healing, rebalancing and promoting vibrational change in your life. Find a good practitioner and commit to going every couple of months. You’ll always feel better afterwards and be glad you did.

8) Take at least one step towards your goal or goals every day.

Even if you just get some ideas down or do some planning. Working towards your goal each day will help you feel happier, more fulfilled and content.

9) Create a higher vibrational home or sanctuary-like space for yourself.

It’s important to have a space where you can be peaceful and creative. If you live with others and can’t change the whole house, just focus on making one room your higher vibrational hangout. Buy some salt lamps, candles, plants or crystals and decorate your space so it feels peaceful, inspirational and supportive. You might even like to create an altar area that serves as a focal point for your spiritual awakening. Put some meaningful objects on it and light a candle now and then, setting an intention for what you want to create next upon your path.

10) Set goals and consciously plan your week ahead.

Take half an hour each week to consciously plan your week ahead. Set an overall intention and specific goals for each area of your life. Visualize yourself achieving your most important goals and play the images through your mind like a film. Then, break each goal down into doable steps and put the steps in your diary. Make sure you’re making the most of your life and doing the things that matter to you.

11) Heal and let go of the past.

Most people go their whole lives without ever clearing out the cobwebs and as a consequence prevent themselves from living a happy and fulfilled life.  I have some good information on recognizing and dealing with your past in my article entitled Law of Attraction Wake Up Call, Why it May Not Be Working For You.

12) Practice forgiveness and compassion.
 
You don’t ever have to allow people back into your life that you don’t want in it, but by remembering that everyone is only acting from their current vibration, you can find a way to let go of resentments or anger you might be carrying towards others.  The act of forgiveness is about healing yourself, it's not about saying that what someone else did to you was ok.

13) Don’t blame your circumstances for your vibrational shortcomings.

Sure, a home and job that supports and encourages a higher vibrational way of life is always preferable, but for a lot of people this just isn’t possible at the current moment. You must therefore take full responsibility for your awakening and transformation in the face of lower vibrational energies and triggers, and put strategies in place that support you.

14) Recognize each step as a success.

I know when we set a goal we want to see the finish line in achieving that goal right NOW!  But if the goal itself is the only thing we see as being a success then we run the risk of never reaching it.  Every day look at and focus on the step you took that day and see it for the success it is, a step that brought you closer to your goal then you were yesterday.  Be excited about that step, be excited about that success.  The more excited you are the larger the next days step will be.


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How Our Thoughts Create Our Reality

Dr. Joe Dispenza claims that every time we learn something new, hundreds of thousands of our neurons change, which affects the state of our physical body.
 
Dr. Dispenza is known worldwide for his original theory of the connection between mind and matter. The scientist gained his greatest fame after the release of his acclaimed documentary We know what makes a signal in 2004. His research helped disclose the extraordinary possibilities of consciousness and its ability to create synaptic connection with a strong concentration.

Just imagine: with each new sensation, vision or emotional experience a new connection between two of more than 100,000 million brain cells is inevitably formed.

But to really make changes, one needs to concentrate on the reinforcement of the conditioned reflex. If, within a short period of time such an experience takes place again, the connection will be strengthened. If the experiment is not repeated for a long time, the relationship will become weaker or disappear altogether.

Science regards the brain as something static and fixed, but in fact it has a strong ability to change. Recent studies in neuroscience have shown that the effect of each body experiences in our thinking organ (fatigue, fear, joy, cold) acts to change our brain.

“What if just by thinking we make our inner alchemy out of the normal state so often that the self-regulation system of the body eventually considers this abnormal state to be the normal one?” – Asks Dr. Dispenza in his book Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind published in 2007.

Dispenza insists that the brain is not able to distinguish between a physical sensation and an emotional experience. Thus, when our minds are always focused on the negative thoughts, our “gray matter” can easily be deceived and bring the body into a painful state.

Dispenza proves his point with the help of the experiment, during which the volunteer pressed a springy device with his ring finger for an hour a day, during four weeks. After the experiment the finger became 30 percent stronger. At the same time, another group of volunteers had to imagine doing the same, but in fact they never saw or touched the device. Four weeks later their fingers were also strengthened by 22 percent!

For years, scientists have been studying the ways in which consciousness controls matter: from the placebo effect (when a person begins to feel better after allegedly taking drugs) to the practice of Tummo (the practice of Tibetan Buddhism, as a result of which the practitioners are sweating, meditating at a temperature below zero). Such an influence of the practice on physical condition is just a by-product, which appears as a result of chemical reactions between neurons.

The research of Dr. Dispenza was interrupted by the onset of the crisis in his life. When riding a bike the doctor was struck by a car. To gain the ability to walk again, he had to go through a procedure that might be causing him chronic pain for life.

Dispenza decided to challenge science and get himself out of this situation through the power of his thoughts, and it worked. Nine months later Dispenza was able to walk again. Inspired by this success, he decided to dedicate his life to exploring the mind-body connection. 

Determined to explore the ability of the power of mind to treat the body, Dr. Dispenza interviewed countless number of people who had experienced what he calls a “spontaneous remission.” These were people with serious illnesses who had chosen to ignore the traditional treatment, but never fully recovered. Dispenza came to the conclusion that all these people had the understanding that their thoughts determine their health condition. When they focused on changing their thoughts, their diseases disappeared in an incredible way. 

Regardless of the fact that Dispenza managed to demonstrate the ability of thoughts to transform the physical condition, yet many are skeptical about his ideas. His theory of “faith in one’s own reality” seems to be related to pseudoscience and does not sound very scientific.

Perhaps science is not yet ready to recognize that the physical condition can be changed with the help of the power of consciousness, but Dr. Dispenza, however, argues that this is really happening.

“I don’t expect that science will allow us to go further because if we do, then it will turn into a form of religion. We should remain “outsiders” and do something supernormal. When we have complete confidence in our abilities, we will create a new science”, says Dispenza.


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Expanding the Envelope: A Method for Beating Anger

If someone were to ask me, "What is the largest problem that you have every had to deal with in you life?", I would have to say Anger, no question about it.  And sadly enough, I have no doubt that everyone that has ever been in my life would agree rather quickly that anger is the biggest problem that I have every had to deal with as well.

Here’s what I’ve been learning about anger: it’s purely because of selfishness.

Almost every time we get angry, it’s because something isn’t going our way.

I’ve been practicing a method for beating this selfish anger, it's called Expanding the Envelope of Compassion.

Before we talk about the method, let’s look at why anger is so selfish. Here’s what happens:

1. We want something a certain way.
2. Other people (or occasionally, the Universe!) don’t give us that something in that certain way.
3. We get mad.

This is like a little kid who doesn’t get his way. Exactly like that little kid, except we’re grown-ups and are supposed to know better. I’m no different — I get angry just like everyone else. We act like little kids because the part of our brain that’s getting mad is really no different than a scared, selfish child.

Let’s say we’re working and someone interrupts us: bam, so pissed off! Life is suddenly a boiling rage. OK, maybe we’re just annoyed. Why are we so annoyed/Hulk-enraged? Simply because we wanted to continue to work uninterrupted, but some buttwad has ruined that perfect fantasy.

Or let’s say you want something from your spouse (love, attention, sex, support) and they don’t give it to you. Grrrr! How could they! We want something and we expect them to give it to us, and we think, “Why don’t they? It would be so easy!” No different from a kid who wants that Rocky Road ice cream and throws himself on the floor kicking and screaming when he doesn’t get it.

Here’s the thing, though: the other person doesn’t have the same fantasy as us. The person who interrupts us isn’t as concerned about us working without interruption. While that fantasy is our universe, it’s not theirs. Their universe is about getting something else done, and they need to interrupt us to get that done (or maybe they want to tell us a joke, which is probably very clever I’m sure).

Our spouse’s universe isn’t to give us sex or support. Maybe that’s part of the universe, but the spouse has other things going on, other needs.

Our universe isn’t everyone else’s universe.

Expanding the Envelope

OK, we get it. Anger is selfishness, wanting something and then throwing a tantrum when we don’t get it, and our universe isn’t everyone else’s universe. Now what?

A method that works for me is what I think of as Expanding the Envelope. Widen the envelope of your perspective, from what you think is important to what the other person sees as important.

If you want something, that’s one small bit of awareness … but widen that awareness to include what the other person (or people) want, what they’re going through, what their problems are.

Even if the other person is being a complete jerk, if you can see it from their perspective, you might realize they’re having a hard day, or maybe even a hard life. That doesn’t excuse whatever they’re doing, but you can have some more empathy and compassion for them. If you can have an envelope of compassion for yourself and others, it helps with anger, frustration, and disappointment.

What helps to do this is to become the watcher of your anger, rather than the participant. When we get an angry impulse, we tend to act on it — lash out, show irritation, give a frustrated response like “Seriously?!”

Note: If you use a phrase like, “Seriously?!” or “WTF?!” or “Really?!” then that’s a sign you need to change your outlook. It’s a sign that you think people should behave the way you want them to behave, and when they don’t, you’re frustrated/irritated/angry.

Instead of acting on that impulse, just watch it. Become the observer. When you do that, you put some space between yourself and your angry impulses, and in that little space, you have room to decide. How will you respond? What’s going on here? Why are you so angry about something so unimportant? What fantasy/ideal are you holding onto that you didn’t get that’s making you angry?

And as you consider your response, you can then Expand the Envelope. Take some deep breaths, calm down, consider your actions. Consider the other person’s point of view, why they might be behaving this way. Don’t think, “They shouldn’t act that way” but instead think “Why would someone act that way?”

Now, Expanding the Envelope a hard thing to do on a regular basis. As you widen your envelope of awareness, do it like reducing the sugar in your coffee. Gradually.

A very powerful revelation about anger is that no other person in the world has the slightest bit of power to actually "Make Us Angry".

Whenever we get angry, most of the time we tell ourselves that we are angry because some other person made us angry, or they just pushed my buttons.  But the truth is that the only thing anyone else can actually do is provide us with the opportunity to get angry, whether it is their intention to make us angry or not.  There is no magic button to throw us into a fit of uncontrollable rage.

Bottom line is that anger is a choice that each of us make.  No matter what the situation, it is our choice whether to respond by getting angry or not.  And if we have chosen to get angry it is only a matter or choice to stop being angry.


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11 Ways To Expand Your Mind

"A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to it's old dimensions." ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

As I have gotten older and looked back on my life I am truly disgusted with the mind numbing brain destroying aspects of the society that I was raised in. I have come to realize that I never really had anyone in my life that encouraged me to think and to grow.  What's worse is when I look around at the world we live in I see that this is the norm rather than the exception.

The entire public school system is designed to train rather than to teach.  And there is a very important difference there.  Teaching someone is empowering them and training them is imprisoning them.  When you teach someone you are removing limitations and breaking down borders.  When you are being trained you are being given limitations and shown boundaries.

Schools train our children to submit to authority, follow a schedule and meet other peoples expectations of you.  They even train you to believe that if your body has to go to the bathroom at a time not pre-scheduled then you deserve punishment.

Independent thought, questioning of anything or the seeking out information that is not "approved" is not only not taught but is often punished.

Why is this you might ask?  Because they are training our children to be workers who will grow up to submit to authority, follow a schedule set by someone else and strive to meet other peoples expectations and most importantly pay taxes!

Our society does not want people who think or question.  When you begin to think and question you quickly realize that you are a slave.  And that kind of realization is highly frowned upon by the society that needs you to remain in your place.  The place that they assigned you.

Now when children finish school they have already been trained to spend the majority of their daily lives in servitude just to be able to survive.  But society needs to keep you from spending what little free time you do have in anything that might lead you to deviate from your training.

So we have hundreds of television channels to entertain ourselves with in our off time.  Most of the programming on these channels are just that..."programming".  They train us what to strive for and what will make us "happy" with rich celebrities and politicians setting the standards for which we live by.  The effect? Create the desire and need to get more money to live up to those standards.  And how have we been trained to get more money?  Work harder....work more...for someone else.

Now I'm not saying that all TV is bad.  But I did trade in my $120 a month cable bill for a $7.95 monthly subscription to Netflix and now I spend far less time in front of the TV and when I do I watch what I am interested in and what helps to expand my mind.

What is another common way adults spend their off time?  Getting drunk.  It's a proven fact that alcohol KILLS brain cells.  Do you think this is not encouraged by society?  What better way to keep people from thinking outside the box?

Anything that might prove to be beneficial to your life experience such as traveling to explore the world around you has become such an expensive luxury that many of the low paid slaves never get to experience it at all.  The really lucky ones have to save and sacrifice all year long for the privilege of spending maybe 3-5 days a year for a vacation to do so.

By continuing to do as we have always done, the quality of our lives will always remain the same.  Only when we step out of our comfort zones, and push ourselves to improve, will we gain useful new experiences, knowledge and ideas.

11 Powerful Ways to Expand Your Mind
I should note that expanding your mind does not mean that your skull is going to become larger or that your brain is going to grow.  What happens is our brain becomes denser with neuronal connections, which facilitates both more memory, and speed of retrieval.

11. Reading: By reading we are able to input countless years of experience, creativity, knowledge, and wisdom into our minds in a matter of hours.  One should be careful not to pollute their minds by reading information that further puts limitation and boundaries on your mind.  This is why I find it important to read books written by people who have accomplished something I want, or that I admire in some way.

10. Writing: Writing expands our vocabulary, which has been shown to be directly correlated with success.  Any career that involves people is based on solid communication with a firm grasp of vocabulary and knack for self-expression.

This is an area which I know I need to work on which is why I have chosen to begin blogging.  I am reminded of an old saying I once heard in my youth.

"We teach best that which we most need to learn."

9. Puzzles: Puzzles strengthen neuronal connections in such a way that they improve hand-eye coordination in people of all ages.  Puzzles come in so many varieties that you can practice mathematics, vocabulary, memory and other bouts of critical thinking while enjoying these challenging games.

8. Mathematics: Mathematics teaches us how to think critically, and gives us access to an analytical train of thought.  By thinking this way, we are more prone to having more common sense and possessing the skill of logic.

7. Painting: Painting is another great form of self-expression.  No art is really ever finished, because there is always more to be done, but certainly can be left at great.

6. Cooking: Cooking, especially the kind where you don't use recipes, engages all of your senses.  From the smell of your ingredients, to the feel of the texture, and the sound of the sizzling, we must put everything together to achieve an amazing result with this art form.

5. Music: Music increases our sensitivity, as well as fosters a sense of emotional intelligence.  If you have ever listened to opera in a language that you don't understand, you will be pleasantly surprised that you will not only know what's going on, but be able to feel the emotions of the performance.

Of coarse opera is not the only kind of music that is beneficial.  Pretty much any music that makes you feel good and gets your blood pumping is good for you.

I personally don't feel that music that feeds emotions like hate and anger are good for you but that's my opinion. I strive to replace my bad emotions with good emotions.  I have found that positive emotional states allow my mind to grow and expand while negative emotional states push me further into the box that I don't want to be in.

4. Poetry: Poetry can foster creativity as you paint a vivid image with your words.  It's also a great way to exercise your memory, by recollecting interesting words, as well as memorizing poems to always have with you.

3. Meditate: Meditation is an excellent way of expanding your mind from the subconscious level.  It has it's ways of digging through your mind, and bringing forth important, and often times emotionally charged memories into your conscious mind.

I definitely plan to have more articles on this blog dedicated to mediation in the future.

2. Learn a language: Learning a new language can be challenging, engaging and fun.  Not only will you have to push the mental capacity to put together your newly learned words and phrases, but you will also have the opportunity to think in a different language.

And the Number One Way to Expand Your Mind is....

1. QUESTION EVERYTHING! It's certainly much easier to accept information that is giving to us, instead of questioning it and being susceptible to having to think.  Have you ever wondered why a flower is a certain color, why someone said they like us, where someone got a percentage from (93% of all percentages are made up), or why a certain Presidential candidate is really worthy of our vote?

As is usually the case, asking ourselves questions, leads to more questions, and then some more.  Sometimes we do get reasonable answers, but it's important to note that the mere act of asking the questions expands our minds and allows us to try on an infinite number of paradigms.

A new question, brings a new outlook, which potentially changes everything we know about our world and the universe that we exist in.

From the moment of birth we are trained to submit to authority and accept what we are told as the absolute truth from our parents, from school, from religion, from government and from work.

I say...QUESTION EVERYTHING!  You might just be surprised with the results.

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How To Train Your Brain To See What Others Don't

Charles Darwin had one of the greatest "aha!" moments in all of history when writing his magnum opus On The Origin of Species. After reading a book written 40 years earlier on population growth and resource competition, Darwin immediately saw the connection to the variation among species that he had observed in the Galapagos -- and voila, the theory of natural selection was born.

"Darwin reads this book and says, 'Wow, that's it!' That exemplifies the 'aha!' of getting the new piece of information, and seeing the implication and seeing how it fits," cognitive psychologist Gary Klein, author of Seeing What Others Don't: The Remarkable Ways We Gain Insights, tells The Huffington Post. "That was an unexpected shift in his understanding."

These epiphanies and flashes of sudden clarity tend to come at the most unexpected moments. So do we have any control over these insights, and is there a way to train the brain to become more attuned to them? Insights may be unexpected, but we can actually teach ourselves to see connections that others may never notice.

"An insight is an unexpected shift in the way we understand things," says Klein. "It comes without warning. It's not something that we think is going to happen and that's why it's unexpected. It feels like a gift and in fact it is."

Here are five things you should know about insight -- and ways to bring more "aha!" moments into your life.

1.) Be curious.

Being curious is the best way to become more insightful, says Klein, and a lack of insight often comes from being in a passive and disinterested state of mind.

"Curiosity is another engine of insight," says Klein. "People who get insights see something that's a little bit off, and instead of ignoring it, they're curious about it. Curiosity keeps our mind engaged to work out the implications."

2.) Let your mind wander.

A 2012 psychological study found that daydreaming -- passive though it may seem -- actually involves a very active brain state, which is why the wandering mind can sometimes stumble upon brilliant insights and sudden connections. The researchers credit this phenomenon to the fact that daydreaming correlates with our ability to recall information in the face of distractions. Recent neuroscience research has also found that daydreaming involves the same brain processes involved in imagination and creativity.

"I worry about people who spend all their empty time when they're not in conversations listening to music or podcasts or things like that, and not leaving any space to just daydream," says Klein.

3.) Pay attention to coincidences.

"Be more alert to anomalies," Klein says, "rather than quickly explaining them away and staying in your comfort zone."

We tend to ignore coincidences or not think much of them, because they're often meaningless, says Klein. But looking for coincidences is a powerful way to make surprising connections.

"There's a belief that correlation doesn't imply causality, which is true. People see all sorts of correlations in coincides that turn out to be spurious, so they get a bad reputation," Klein says. "But in my work I find that a lot of insights are fed by people spotting coincidences and making assumptions, and instead of just saying 'It must be true,' doing the follow-up work to find out if it's true."

4.) Look closely at contradictions.

Insights can occur when we encounter ideas that don't make sense to us.

Questioning contradictions is another path to epiphanies. Whereas curiosity makes us wonder, contradiction causes us to doubt -- and it can be another powerful way to gain insights.

"Our tendency when we hit a contradiction that involves things we believe we understand well is to say, 'Well, that must an anomaly.' We have a marvelous set of techniques for explaining away inconvenient facts," says Klein. "The contradiction only leads to an insight when people take it seriously enough to explore it a bit."

5.) Act on your insights.

Daydreaming isn’t the only state of mind that can lead to insights.

"I've found a number of examples where people were under tremendous pressure and came up with marvelous insights," says Klein. "We should embrace urgency."

This urgency forces people to look at things they'd otherwise ignore (what Klein refers to as "creative desperation"), and when they gain an insight, encourages them to act on it right away. This is frequently how chess grand masters try an unusual move that ends up being successful and winning the game for them.

"The problem with too many organizations is that they don't feel any pressure to act on the insights they've had," says Klein. "They act like they have all the time in the world and then they end up going out of business."

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