Confidence

How confident are you?  Say, on a scale of 1 to 10?

It is important to maintain confidence for a couple of very good reasons.

Firstly, if you lack self confidence this will be very noticeable to those around you.  Perhaps not consciously, but unconsciously they will quickly recognize this state in you.  Some will then use this knowledge to take advantage of you, and that is not a situation you want to be in!  Others will not exploit your weakness, but they may still not wish to be associated with you or with any ideas you are trying to introduce.  Sales people know both of this results all too well.  If they go into a sales situation lacking confidence the other party will either reject them completely or will be able to negotiate a far better deal for themselves than they are really entitled to.  But it is not just in sales situations that you will have these problems.  It will be just as problematic in, for example, personal relationships.

When people around you react in this way it will easily turn into a vicious circle.  You will know you are being rejected.  You will know people are taking advantage of you.  And this will cause you to lose even more self confidence.

Secondly, a lack of confidence will send the wrong message to the universe.  You will find you are using the Law of Attraction not to attract to you what you want and need but instead to take things away from you.  The Law of Attraction is a double edged sword.  It is a very powerful universal force and it can just as easily lead you into misery as it can into joy and fulfilment.

Imagine, for example, that you would like to date a prospective romantic partner.  Now imagine that before you approach this person you start to worry.  You worry that you are not good enough for them, that there are lots of far better people around they would find more suitable than you.  You approach this person with all those worries and concerns in your mind and then you pop the question.  What do you think is most likely to happen?  Almost certainly they will reject you.  They may not even know why they are rejecting you, but they do so anyway simply because they have picked up those negative vibes from you.  When you get that rejection it will confirm your worst feelings.  It will "prove" that you are not good enough, that you don't deserve to be with someone as good as this.  All this means that the next time you try to approach someone you will have even less confidence, and it is even more likely they will reject you.  At the same time you will be sending out a message to the universe that you should not be given the joy of forming a relationship with a lovely person.  Guess what?  The universe will act on this message.

Think of self confidence as a kind of muscle.  In many people it is a vastly under-used muscle.  This means it is very weak.

The answer, of course, is to begin exercising this muscle.  And just as with exercising your body you shouldn't wait until you really need it before you start exercising it.  If you wait until you really need it you are leaving it far too late.  Just as you wouldn't think of entering a marathon and doing no exercise to prepare for it, on the basis that the marathon itself will be enough exercise!

How should you exercise your self confidence?

Set aside some time each day to practice.  Just as many people do with physical exercise.  Use affirmations telling yourself how confident you are, how great you are etc.  Combine this with an exercise I have referred to in a number of other blogs - move your mind up into the Light you feel is above you, the Light of the Universe.  Merge with it, then slowly come back down into your body bringing that Light with you.  Feel the power of the Universe inside you, expanding way beyond your body.  Experience how good that feels!  Then use your affirmations.

Don't worry if the first time you do this it feels a bit strange, and maybe even you feel a bit silly.  That is quite normal.  Don't expect to obtain great results immediately either.  It may take several sessions before you feel it is really having any effect.  Again that is quite normal.  Just as you should not be surprised if you don't feel your muscles are stronger immediately after your first work out for many years.

Keep practising like this every day and you will start to notice the difference.  So will the people around you.  As your self confidence grows you will find people are no longer taking advantage of you.  They are not rejecting you.  You are starting to get good results.  Don't assume that you will always get what you are going after, as it might not be right for you (or for others).  But you will certainly find you are gaining a lot more than you did before.  And the successes you have will make you feel even more confident the next time, making it even more likely you will achieve what you hope for.

Mental Fields

If you are like most people you probably believe your mind is in your brain.  But is that really the case?  Many people (myself NOT included) believe the mind is simply a result of electrical activity in the brain.  If this is the case, then it is logical to assume it is centred in and around the brain.  Notice, though, my inclusion of the word "around".  Think of it more like a magnetic field, which expands beyond the physical magnet itself - sometimes well beyond.  My own belief is that as the mind is not a physical state at all there is no reason why it should be limited to a particular physical location at all, although I accept that much of the time we will tend to focus our "mental field" around our brain, if only because this is what we are conditioned to do.

Once you accept even the limited expansion of "around the brain" rather than "in the brain" this opens up many interesting possibilities.

Consider telepathy.

This is an ability which is often scorned by those who have not studied it deeply.  They believe it is completely unscientific to propose an ability to read someone else's mind.  I agree we do not yet have scientific proof that this ability exists, and perhaps we never will.  But that is very different from suggesting it is not possible for it to exist.  If the mind is like a magnetic field, extending beyond the brain, then it is not at all illogical to imagine the intersection of two such mental fields allowing an exchange of information between the two minds.

Have you ever felt your skin crawl and then turned to see someone staring at you?  Or stared at a sleeping pet that immediately opens its eyes and stares back at you?  Could these incidents perhaps be explained by the intersection of the two mental fields?

Or how about telekinesis?

Again, if the mind is like a magnetic field and extends beyond your body, why should it not be possible for it to have the power to move objects just as a magnet can do.  And as we are talking here of a "mental field" rather than a "magnetic field" there is no reason why this ability should be limited to magnetisable objects.

Telekinesis is, of course, rather a trivial power.  The mind has much more relevant powers than a party trick like this.

The power to connect with Universal power for example.  Check out my earlier article on healing for one way in which this can be used.  But the power is not, of course, limited to healing.  The idea of linking with Universal power and using it to achieve goals you have set yourself or simply to become a better person is, in my view, perfectly sound, and the method (moving your mind out of your body to merge with the Light of the Universe) quite naturally falls in line with this "mental field" concept.

Astral travelling is another concept that makes a lot of sense once you can accept that your mental field is not limited to one narrow physical space.

Acknowledging your mind is not limited physically can be a real paradigm shift.  Open up your mind today and see where this takes you!

Jihad

What is Jihad?

Bear with me for this.  Soon you will see why I am writing about Jihad in a personal development blog.  And you will also see this is very relevant whether or not you are a Muslim.  But first I need to clear up some gross misconceptions about the meaning of Jihad.

If you are a true Muslim you should know the answer.  I say "should", as there are many Muslims who have completely the wrong idea about what Jihad is, just as the vast majority of non-Muslims do.

Here are some of the things Jihad is NOT:

• It is NOT a holy war.  There is nothing in Islamic doctrine about holy war, which is a concept created not by Islam but by Christian Crusaders nearly 1,000 years ago.  War is vile and can never be holy, even if it is believed to be necessary.
• It is not about blowing yourself up.  That is a sin in Islam just as it is in most religions.  According to the Hadith, the Prophet, peace be upon him, said "A man was inflicted with wounds and he committed suicide, and so Allah said: My slave has caused death on himself hurriedly, so I forbid Paradise for him."  Certainly no suggestion here of many virgins waiting in paradise for a suicide bomber!
• It is not about killing innocent people.  That is a sin in Islam just as it is for people of other beliefs.
• It is certainly not about killing people simply because their faith is different from yours.  Christians and Muslims may have done this throughout history, but there is nothing in either religion that condones, let alone commands, it.

The greater Jihad (Jihad al-Akbar) is all about inner struggle.  Not fighting others, but fighting the demons within.  The inner fight of good against evil.

This struggle is almost certainly the greatest and most important struggle you will ever have.  It is a struggle that is ordained for all Muslims (Quran 2:216).  But it is also a struggle we all need to undertake, whether or not we believe in the teachings of Islam.

As Gandhi said, "You must be the change you want to see in the world."  Change yourself and you will change the world.  Make yourself a better person and you will make this world a better world.  Do not believe that you are too small or insignificant to make a real change in the world - you are not!  Work on improving yourself not just because you want things to be better for you, but because you want things to be better for others.  The Christian mystic John Donne knew this when he penned "No Man is an Island".

Change does not come easily.  There is a good reason Jihad is called "struggle".  It is a constant struggle.  There will always be voices inside telling you that it is too difficult, that there is no reason to do it, that it would be much better to sit and watch the latest soap on TV.  You must struggle against those voices and work your Jihad within.

I cannot tell you here what you must do for your own personal development.  How to work the greater Jihad will be different for each of us.  But don't give up at the first hurdle using the excuse that you do not know what to do.  Doing ANYTHING to improve yourself is far better than doing nothing.  So resolve now to begin that struggle by doing something, anything!

If you are stuck and simply cannot think of how to start your own personal Jihad, then go to http://www.beallican.com/, where you will be able to download 4 free e-books and to sign up to a regular newsletter which will help you develop yourself.  If you are seeking Muslim teachings you will be disappointed, as I am not a Muslim myself.  But whether or not you are a Muslim, this path will be the first step in your personal Jihad and give you many ways to improve yourself and thereby improve the world around you.

Serendipity or Synchronicity

Do you believe in serendipity?

My Oxford dictionary defines serendipity as "the occurence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way".  Clearly, just by the laws of chance, such events will occur, and they will occur quite frequently.

Carl Jung referred in his research to "synchronicity", which is very similar.  The definition of synchronicity is "the simultaneous occurence of events which appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection".  In Jung's research the linked events were generally not serendipitous.  They were not specifically "happy or beneficial".

Taking a leaf from Shakespeare's book, I am going to invent a new word by combining the two.  I believe in "synchrondipity".  My definition of synchrondipity is "the simultaneous occurence and development of significantly related events, with no discernable causal connection, in a happy or beneficial way".  I believe synchrondipity can occur other than by chance.  I believe this is one of the ways things are purposely arranged by "the Universe", or "God", "Allah" or whatever/whoever else you believe is in control.  I will refer to "the Universe" in the rest of this article, as I don't want to keep repeating "or God, or Allah", but if you are more comfortable using a different word, simply replace "Universe" with that word in your own mind.

This links closely to the Law of Attraction and is one of the main ways in which this Law works.  Many people think that the Law of Attraction is simply that you must project a belief that something will happen and then it magically will.  For example, you want to become very wealthy, so you visualize a million dollars in your bank account, and then just sit back and wait for the million dollars to appear.  If this is how you apply the Law of Attraction you will probably be waiting a very long time!  Not because a million dollars is too much for the Universe to provide.  Far from it!  Such a task is well within the capability of the infinite Universe.  The problem is that you are not ready to receive that million dollars.  The Universe will attempt to deliver it, probably in many small deliveries, but when it knocks on your door to deliver the package you don't answer the door!  It will attempt the deliveries through synchrondipity.

Events will arise which are intended to lead you to your desired outcome.  But you have to be open to the leading of the Universe and see those events for what they are - steps towards your goal.  Take advantage of those events by taking action.  It is the action you take that will lead you closer to your goal.  When you eventually receive your reward it will seem to all around you that there was nothing magical about it at all - it was the inevitable result of the actions you took.  They will admire you for having the courage to take some of those actions, and they will also probably feel you were particularly lucky to be in the right place at the right time.  But what they will not realize is that you were simply taking delivery of the packages the Universe sent you in response to your invocation of the Law of Attraction.

Think back through some of the things that have happened in your life and I am sure you will see many examples of synchrondipity.  At the time you probably did not recognize them for what they were, but you did take advantage and you did gain useful results.

Recognize that synchrondipity is a real and powerful force, and train yourself to recognize it so you can take full advantage.  Listen to that small, still voice inside you, which some people call intuition, and you will see and be able to take more advantage of more and more synchrondipitous events.  Do this and you will be well placed to realize your dreams and achieve your goals.

Goals and Dreams

Do you have any goals?  Not just dreams, but real goals?

You should actually have both.  As Napoleon Hill said, a goal is a dream with a deadline.  The starting point is therefore a dream.  You must always dream, or eventually you will run out of goals.

Some people feel that dreaming is a waste of time and energy.  The term "daydream" is used more often than not as a criticism.  But dreaming is most definitely NOT a waste of time and energy, it is something you must keep doing.  Not all the time, of course!  You don't want to spend all your time just dreaming, or you will never achieve anything.  But make sure you spend enough time dreaming to have a good supply of goals to achieve, or you will again never achieve anything.  You need to have the right balance between the two.

In my experience far too many people leave out this first step.  As a result they find they have no real goals, and wonder why life seems to have become more of a "grind" than a joyful experience.

Having dreams is a creative activity.  Turning those dreams into goals is a practical activity.  To use "Right Brain - Left Brain" terminology, the start of the process, having dreams, is a "Right Brain" activity and turning dreams into goals is a "Left Brain" activity.  You should be aware, though, that the concept of your right and left hemispheres of your brain having radically different functions is regarded by psychologists as a myth.  Psychologists say that both hemispheres work together to achieve most tasks. But perhaps another way of looking at that is the same as I am saying here - you NEED both hemispheres to be working together; you NEED both the creativity and practicality.

If you sometimes find life a bit boring I suggest you start by checking to see if you have forgotten to keep dreaming.  If you have, that is your problem.  Start creating those dreams again.  Don't worry about the fact that you cannot yet see how some of those dreams will be achieved.  Give the Universe more credit than that.  It has enormous power and that power can be harnessed to turn your dreams into reality - but only if you have those dreams in the first place!

Getting in touch with your inner child that wants to keep dreaming is therefore an extremely important step.  Don't allow the adult in your to squash that inner child!

Once you have made sure the flow of dreams is there you can move on to the next step - turning some of them into goals.  Notice I have said "some of them".  Do not try to turn them all into goals!  That is actually one way of eventually turning off the flow of dreams.  You will find many dreams cannot yet be turned into goals, and unless you watch what is happening carefully the "adult" in you will react by telling the "child" in you to stop producing dreams it cannot turn into reality.  The "child" will then follow those instructions, and the wonderful flow of dreams will diminish and eventually stop altogether.  But some of them MUST be turned into goals if you are ever going to achieve anything.  Turn them into goals by selecting the ones that most resonate with you and try to create some deadlines.  Those deadlines may be far in the future.  If they are, break down the dreams into smaller tasks which lead to achieving the ultimate dream, and apply deadlines for the first steps.

There is plenty of help online which you can tap into in order to follow both of these principles - dream more, and create more goals.  Make sure you DO tap into it, and your life will be far more exciting and far more productive.