When things in your lives seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous “yes.”
The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.
“Now,” said the professor as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things–your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions–and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.
The sand is everything else–the small stuff. “If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.
“Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first–the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled.
“I’m glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.”
The Infinite Human is a concept that dates back millennia. Somehow, we have become experts at ‘limitation’, and applying it wherever possible. This episode is the first of a multi-part series of which is dedicated to YOU, the listener. Tune in to understand how important our definitions, believe systems, and emotional state becomes in relation to achieving goals, reaching ‘success’, and ultimately experiencing true happiness. Realize the power of NOW, the power of LOVE, and the power of SELF. Remember that the essential nature of the universe, is that it is non-material. After understanding this, it is easier to see how we can choose to have the things we want, or just the reasons why we can’t.
Robert Bruce Shows You Simple Tips On How To Protect Your Sacred Space From Negative Energy
There was a time when I was so sensitive and insecure about my energetic and psychic safety that I was constantly monitoring what was happening around me. I was tense all the time, and my family and friends could feel it.
I felt like I was surrounded by bullies in a schoolyard, always looking out for an oncoming attack. I was getting pretty paranoid at one point. Mind you, I had good reason for this at one time, which you will understand if you read my bestselling book ‘The Practical Psychic Self-Defense Handbook.’
It makes me cringe just to think about it. The learning curve was steep and painful. After all, I was a successful and strong guy in every other way. And yet, I felt completely at the mercy of whatever negative energy was in my room at the time.
What I had not yet learned at that time was that by not focusing on the positives, and by not putting effective energetic safeguards and firewalls in place, I was actually making problems worse by focusing on them.
“Your energy flows where your attention goes”
Why Focusing On Negativity Doesn’t Work
After much confusion and head-scratching, I started to make headway. I realized that if energy sensitives pay too much attention to negative phenomena, they will start attracting it into their lives and actually feed it!
This has the opposite effect of what is needed to fix the problem.
Only by paying attention to and focusing on the positives, and coming up with positive solutions like energy shields and practical countermeasures, will you ever manifest the safety, happiness, and energy cleanliness that you deserve.
How To Set Up An Energy Firewall That Shields You
This doesn’t mean that you are trying to block the spiritual world out of your life – not at all. On the contrary, mystics and psychics set up these precautionary devices in order to LET good people and things into their life – while keeping out the nonsense.
This is a SOUND strategy.
A simple and effective way to do this is to literally imagine a giant, thick, steel-plated box around your body that is designed to be impregnable to negativity, but while also inviting and attracting the flow of positive energies. This shield will grow stronger every day you reinforce it.
When you create such a shield, a magical thing happens: You find that you generally become a happier, more trusting and confident person, while the negative people, energy vampires and emotional train wrecks, simply CANNOT relate to you anymore. So they stop draining you and go elsewhere.
For step-by-step guidance in raising your self esteem and being open to positive growth in a way that will change your life, I want you to read my eBook, “Evolution: What You Need To Know About How To Be Successful With Spirituality”.
I learned about all this the hard way. But once I learned and started putting these principles into practice, that’s when my natural psychic intuition JUMP-STARTED – my astral projection skills SKYROCKETED – and I began writing book after book after book full of creative thoughts and new ideas based on real life experience.
I put my eBook together to share with you all the lessons I have learned on my journey to now. It contains everything you need to get started…to help you feel confident about your energy health and mental integrity. And it will immediately improve your self-confidence, your relationships, and your state of mind.
You don’t have to live with worry, fear and insecurity any longer when it comes to negative energies and entities. Download “Evolution” right now. When you start to apply the Tools in my eBook in your own life, you’ll start to experience shifts in your attitude and your natural shielding will make you feel INVINCIBLE.
The Dali Lama, when asked about what suprised him the most about Humanity, he replied..
Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future, that he does not enjoy the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and the dies having never really lived.
Have you ever wished you could go back in time and have a conversation with one of the greatest minds in history? Well, you can’t sorry, they’re dead. Unless of course you’re clairaudient, be my guest. But for the rest of us, we can still refer to the words they left behind.
Even though these great teachers have passed on, their words still live, and in them their wisdom. I’ve made a list of seven what I believe are some of the greatest teachings by the world’s greatest minds.
1. Realizing Your Dreams
“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”
– Lawrence J. Peter
In order for us to achieve our dreams, we must have a vision of our goals. Writing down our dreams and creating a list of actions helps us stick to our plan. As it’s said “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”. When we turn our goals into measurable actions, we gain clarity and are able to see the necessary steps we must take in order to achieve them.
Action: Visualize a life of your wildest dreams. What did you dream of doing when you were a child? What would you do if you had a million dollars? Create a vision for your goals and start breaking them down into small actions that you can take on a day by day basis.
2. Overcoming Fear
“It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, “Always do what you are afraid to do.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
The best way to learn something is to dive right in to it. When we overcome our fear of failure, we learn that only those who are asleep make no mistakes. Fear is the only thing keeping us from experiencing a life of love and fulfillment. If we make a commitment to an uncompromisable quest for truth, we will realize that as we grow more into the truth, our fears start to disappear.
Action: You must define your fears in order to conquer them. Create a list of everything you’re afraid of and start facing them one at a time. Make a commitment to yourself now to not let fear rule your life.
3. Intention and Desire
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.”– Guatama Buddha
Our thoughts determine our reality. When we stop thinking about what we don’t and begin thinking about what we do want, our lives begin to transform. Instead of working against our desires and intentions, we move into alignment with them.
Action: Create a list of your intentions and desires. Wherever you go, take this list with you. Read it when you wake up and before you go to sleep.
4. Happiness
“Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances.”
– Benjamin Franklin
Happiness comes from an inner peace, understanding and acceptance of life; a perspective of truth that opens your eyes to the beauty of life all around us. Happiness cannot be achieved by external status, it must be an internal state that we realize when we see our innate perfection.
Action: Realize that happiness is a choice. In every decision you make ask yourself “how can I respond to make myself happy and fulfilled?”
5. Self Acceptance
“If a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” – Jesus
When we stop trying to be what we are not, we realize our authenticity. Before we had knowledge, we were completely authentic. We learn to use knowledge to measure and judge, which is a powerful tool we have as humans. However we create an image of perfection in our mind of what we should be, but are not. We confuse knowledge for nature. We believe in the lie of our imperfection. When we realize this we can reclaim the truth of our perfection and live in love and acceptance.
Action: Make a commitment to never go against yourself. Practice non-judgment and realize that the same part of your mind that condemns you is the same voice that caused you to take the action in the first place. We don’t even have to believe what we say to ourselves.
6. Appreciation and Gratitude
“So much has been given to me, I have not time to ponder over that which has been denied.”
– Helen Keller
How many times do we count our misfortunes rather than our blessings? When we take time to open our eyes to the miracle of life we can see the many gifts that have been given to us. Remembering all the beautiful aspects of life and all the reasons you are blessed can immediately shift our mood. We can move from sorrow and despair to appreciation and hope.
Action: Each time you find yourself complaining about something, re-direct your focus to something you are grateful for. Make a habit of transforming your awareness of troubles into an awareness of abundance.
7. The Art of Simplicity
“I made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it short.”
– Blaise Pascal
Perfection is not when there is nothing to add, but when there is nothing more to take away. As Bruce Lee once said “the height of cultivation always runs to simplicity.” True mastery of our lives is realizing the simple joys of life, removing distractions and clutter from our lives.
Action: The art of simplicity is knowing what to take away. Practice recognizing when you’re spending your time on unimportant tasks and re-focus on the important.
This list is by no means exhaustive. There are other many great teachings that I did not include here because I felt like they were already expounded on thoroughly elsewhere, such as Einstein and Gandhi’s timeless classics. There are also great teachings to be found from our parents or friends.
We spend our lives being seduced by the outside world, believing without question that happiness and suffering come from “out there.” In reality, Buddhist teachings explain that they come from the way we perceive and interpret things, not the things themselves.
This deeply held misconception is at the root of our dissatisfaction, self-doubt, anger, depression, anxiety, and the rest. But our minds can change. By becoming deeply familiar with the workings of our own cognitive processes through introspection and learning to deconstruct them – truly, being our own therapists – we can loosen the grip of these neuroses and grow our marvelous potential for contentment, clarity, and courage, which are at the core of our being.
Speaker: Venerable Robina Courtin
A Tibetan Buddhist nun for 30 years, beloved teacher and power-house personality, Ven. Robina Courtin is Executive Director of Liberation Prison Project, based in San Francisco. (LiberationPrisonProject.org)
