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8 Ways to Optimize Your Life.

June 28, 2011
By Aine Belton
 
1. Do more of what you love & enJOY yourself!

Obvious as is, how often do you really allow yourself to a) have a good ponder on what it is you really LOVE, or would love, to do, and b) schedule that into your diary.

Make a ‘joy-list’ of all that brings you joy, including the little things, be that your favorite breakfast, favorite flowers or spot in nature, and start adding more of those things into your life. (Obviously if your favorite breakfast is a huge greasy fry up, it might be best to avoid making that a daily habit!) ;)

Doing more of what you love and that which makes your heart sing will raise your vibration naturally, and through that alone, help you attract happier, more positive successful realities and opportunities into your life.

Make joy a priority and get creative about ways to experience it. As you commit to joy and make that intention, the universe will respond. Be open to joyful opportunities coming your way, and of course, get about creating them!

Fun and joy are antidotes to stress, struggle, sacrifice, tediousness and seriousness.

When you experience the playful celebration of life you actively give both to yourself and others and are open to sharing more of who you are and riding the current of spontaneity and joy.

Don’t wait for joy or put it out there in your future. Bring it into your now! Joy is so much of the success your heart is seeking.

    If you don’t enjoy the journey, chances are you won’t enjoy the destination. Start having fun NOW!”

Beyond ‘doing’, joy comes out of your state of being – it is your true nature! When you let go of more of what you’re not – negative self-beliefs, constricting emotions and un-serving patterns and stories – you experience more of the fountain of joy you truly are!

2. Giving and Receiving

Giving is one of the most rewarding experiences in life, and opens you to greater receiving, for both are inextricably linked. Each gives birth to the other; if you don’t receive, for example, you deny someone their giving.

Some of the greatest gifts are giving of WHO YOU ARE – your love, light, joy, presence, energy, attention, well wishes, inspiration, support, and listening, for example. Just being happy in itself can be a wonderful gift to people in your life!

Start your day asking and intending to be of service in some way. I am not talking about sacrificing yourself or being a martyr, or acting out of obligation, but to genuinely hold the intention of ‘how may I serve today in a way that is for the highest good of all’. Perhaps it is to smile at a stranger, listen more, call a  friend, or express more care and acts of kindness.

Receiving, the other side of the coin, is a powerful ally for manifesting ANYTHING in your life!

Receiving acts as a gateway through which the universe can bless your life with more love, synchronicities, serendipities and opportunities. The more you allow yourself to receive, the more bountiful your attraction and reality becomes.

People can have blocks around receiving due to a lot of miss-connotations, beliefs, and fears, some of which are akin to those around love.

I’m not referring to receiving physical gifts here so much, but to emotional and mental ones – gifts of love, appreciation, caring, opportunities that come your way, joy, compliments, and so on. Do you really allow yourself to let these gifts in from others? And to let in the gift of life itself – it’s wonder, beauty, and magic? Gifts from others go to waste when they are not received (I’ll cover more on receiving shortly).

I offer a free ebook on receiving as part of the ‘Love Pack’ you can receive at this page on this site, called “The Magic of Receiving” if you want to experience more of this energy in your daily life.

Consciously open to receive. Make it your intention. Affirm it as a choice. Imagine your desires flowing to you. Imagine yourself receiving the love, success, abundance, joy, fun, and happiness you desire.

Practice receiving in all areas of your life, whether it’s compliments, gifts, the experience of another, the beauty of nature. When you appreciate something and are grateful for it, you allow it in, you receive it.

Life doesn’t have to be a struggle. Ask for help when you need it. Choose partnership. Be courageous enough to be vulnerable, to receive, to be open. When you try to do everything on your own, you will burn out and become exhausted.

Ask the universe for help regularly and be open to receive that in whatever form it takes.

3. Meditation

Meditating daily, even for just 5 or 10 minutes in the morning or evening, has numerous benefits, many of which are now scientifically proven, from reduced stress to anti-aging benefits.

Even more profound are the mental, emotional and spiritual benefits of meditation, and it is these that I believe filter down resulting in physically observed health shifts.

Creating the space to still your mind and open to more of your truer self – the magnificent spiritual being that you are beyond your personality self, allows more love, light and higher wisdom to be integrated into your being.

Meditation is a gateway between worlds and allows you to experiences expanded states of consciousness beyond the limits of your conscious mind and everyday awareness.

Meditation and deep relaxation also enable a natural clearing and aligning your energy. Lower frequency energies dissipate and are washed away as higher vibrations imbue your being, which equate to positive thought-feeling states.

There are many different meditation techniques, from guided visualizations, to basic breathing meditations, shamanic journeys, hypnotherapy meditations, and Buddhist meditation practices, for example.

Intend on finding one most suited to you at this time. You might want to explore and try a few.

If you’re unsure where to start, the Buddhist Loving Kindness Meditation, also known as Metta Bhavana, is a beautiful, simple yet powerful meditation to harness loving energy towards positive outcomes for yourself, others and the world.

In short, it involves directing loving, kind feelings fist towards yourself, then to loved ones, acquaintances, strangers, people you may be ‘at odds’ with (e.g. difficult person), and finally, all beings.

I’ll be sharing more on this in a future issue, but if interested, you can search online and find details for now.

4. Visualization

Spending a few minutes putting yourself in the shoes of your brightest future on waking and before sleeping (perhaps as part of your meditation routine), can help to align your energy to your dreams which is key to manifesting them. It will also shift the orientation of your focus and mental and emotional states, raise your vibration, and help to positively ‘re-wire’ your brain.

This daily manifesting routine can be integrated or added along-side your daily meditation.

What’s important with this exercise is not just imagining the sights, sounds, and occurrences that bright future you will be experiencing, but the wonderful, high energy states, and feelings of happiness, joy, love, peace, confidence, freedom, and so on. In this sense, you can think of it essentially as more of a ‘feel-ization’ exercise than a visualization one.

Allow the experience of whatever thoughts and feelings occur and are conjured through the process of imagining yourself in the shoes of your bright future self – the you that has achieved your heart’s desires, not just with regards to physical goals, but the mental and emotional states of being you desire also.

Accessing the energies of these positive thought and feelings states on a regular basis will not only positively transform your energy, but your reality accordingly, for they hold an energetic resonance, a frequency pattern of vibration, that will start attracting equated realities by law of resonance (a.k.a. the Law of Attraction in action).

You might also want to read the post “How to Change Anything In An Instant!” at this link that talks about the power of Future Causation.

5. Love and accept yourself

“No amount of self-improvement will make up for a lack of self-acceptance”. ~ Robert Holden.

The more you accept yourself as you are, the more you let go of what you’re not!

Stop self-criticism, self-punishment, and condemnation. Forgive yourself and say no to traps of guilt, for guilt has no redeeming features and serves no one.

You are not your failings, limitations or mistakes. Who you TRULY are is wholly innocent. Let go of negative self-concepts and limiting self-beliefs and come home to the truth of who you are – your goodness, beauty and worth.

Start being more kind and compassionate with yourself. You deserve your love, respect and care. Value yourself and be your own best friend :)

6. Gratitude

Allow yourself to feel grateful for at least 5 things each morning, and at night before sleeping – either things in general, or specific things that may have happened that day.

Gratitude aligns your energy to that which you love and appreciate and is positive and beautiful in your life, and in such, enhances your mental and emotional state, and magically attracts more of the same into your life. Gratitude also raises your vibration in general which will enables you to attract brighter realities per se, beyond the specific things you feel grateful for.

It’s always good to remember the power of gratitude engage any time your energy drops or you feel stuck in a negative state. Stop and feel gratitude. Experience it as an energy that fills your heart and emanates from you, blessing you and your world.

Gratitude will ALWAYS lift your mood and is a generating energy that attracts more of that which is good and true into your life.

In appreciating and feeling grateful for something or someone, you essentially receive it (the very essence you feel grateful for), as well as give to it from your heart, which effectively aligns your vibration to it, and directs your focus and attention towards it, assisting you in manifesting it.

Gratitude is the sweet song of appreciation and turns an experience, person or event into a gift that is received, for when you appreciate and feel grateful, you literally let the experience/quality in, and you also give to it from your heart. It is a wonderful simultaneous exchange of positive energies.

Whatever you focus on grows, so when you appreciate something, see its value and beauty and feel grateful for it, those qualities expand in your life. Simply put, what you appreciate, appreciates!

When you focus on everything in your life you have to feel grateful for, and all the wonderful things, experiences and people you appreciate, the universe hands you more of the same. It’s a fantastic abundance expanding experience.

You might like to also keep a gratitude journal and write down at the end of each day 10 things you feel grateful for over the last 24 hours to assist you in experiencing more of this wondrous, generative, heart-opening energy of gratitude!

7. Be yourself

Be yourself – it’s why you’re here; there’s only one you! And that you makes more of a difference than you may ever know.

When you go trying to be someone else, you starve the world of who you are – YOU are amazing, whether you realize that or not!

You matter. You are important. You are a vital piece in the beautiful dance of this world. Don’t compromise or lose yourself trying to conform, please or mould yourself into how you think you should or ought to be.

You have come into this life with unique energies, gifts, talents, and potential. People will attract you into their life for a reason, and that reason is about you being who you are.

Be courageous enough to be yourself. It will not only set you on path to truer success in your life, but is the best way you can serve others and your world. Don’t hide yourself or your gifts, or your heart-centered thoughts and feelings.

No, you’re not perfect, and you’re not supposed to be. There are gifts in your imperfections too, so be yourself, you’re the only one qualified :)

Dare to be unique, dare to be you, dare to shine your colors, beautiful and true!

8. Love <3 Love <3 Love

Love yourself and others. There may be times this is easier than others, but make it your overriding intention. Love lies at the heart of all that you seek, and separation from it at the root of your trouble and pain.

Let love be a guiding light in your life that will steer your ship ever to the shore of happiness and joy. We all love to love and be loved. It doesn’t get better than that!

Love is the highest vibration in the universe. The more you love yourself and others, the happier, brighter and more successful your life will become.

Love yourself and loving others becomes easier, as well as receiving that love from others.

And know you are loved. You are loved by people in your world, and totally and unconditionally by your Higher Self (see blog post “Who You Really Are!” at this link), and the source of creation, whatever name you hold for that.

There is nothing you need do to win that love and nothing you can do to lose it. Becoming aware of this truth connects you to your inherent value, increases your sense of worth and deserving, heals pain of separation and loneliness and opens you to the love that is there for you in every moment.

~~ Closing Notes ~~

Many of the above may not be new to you and more serve as a reminder and encouragement. Of course, there are so many ways you can optimize your daily life, and this article shares just a summary of a handful.

I’d love to hear YOUR thoughts and suggestions?

Which of the above do you particularly resonate with or already abide by or try to practice?

And what other things do you find optimize your day? Do share! :)

Love and joy,
Aine Belton
Posted in Motivation
 The Intuitionzone.com  

Arthritis Aide - Gin Soaked Rasins

Image via WikipediaBy Carol Eustice, About.com Guide

Updated July 10, 2006

Question: Can Gin-Soaked Raisins Really Help Arthritis?
It may sound silly the first time you hear it. Eating gin-soaked raisins for arthritis is often touted by its faithful as a natural "cure" or an effective folk remedy for arthritis pain. But, can gin-soaked raisins really help arthritis?
Answer:

Gin-Soaked Raisins for Arthritis: What is it?

The consumption of homemade gin-soaked raisins has become a popular folk remedy for arthritis, destined to take its place among other unproven arthritis folk remedies such as copper bracelets, bee stings, certo fruit pectin and magnets. When most hear of this practice, their response tends to be something like "are you serious?". Some are serious and swear that the gin and raisins remedy helps relieve their arthritis pain.
Gin-Soaked Raisins for Arthritis: What is the Recipe?

Although there are several versions and variations of the gin-soaked raisin remedy, the general recipe seems to go something like this:
# take a box of golden raisins. (note: they must be the golden variety, sometimes called white raisins, not ordinary black raisins).
# place the raisins in a shallow container.
# cover the raisins with gin.
# let the raisins soak in the gin for a few weeks until the gin evaporates.
# you then eat nine of these drunken raisins a day to help your arthritis. (note: nine a day is the number you see most often, but you'll find many variations of the number).
Gin-Soaked Raisins for Arthritis: What is the Background?

Where and when did this remedy start? Since this is a folk remedy, it's hard to say just when and where it got its start. Purportedly the remedy got its first real boost in the 1990's when radio icon Paul Harvey mentioned the remedy during one of his popular broadcasts.

After the remedy got press, it made its way into media outlets across the country. Several versions of the recipe, including many convincing testimonials on its effectiveness, have now been included in several books about home and folk remedies.

More recently, according to a report in the New York Daily News, on the 2004 presidential campaign trail, Teresa Heinz Kerry (wife of democratic presidential candidate John Kerry) ended a Nevada visit to discuss health care with a discussion on what she called “a highly effective” remedy for arthritis that drew laughter and some skepticism from the audience. She was reported to have said, "You get some gin and get some white raisins - and only white raisins - and soak them in the gin for two weeks. Then eat nine of the raisins a day." Needless to say, the political bloggers had a heyday with her comments, which only added to her quirky image.
Gin-Soaked Raisins for Arthritis: Does it really work?
# To date, there have been no placebo-controlled double-blind studies to prove the efficacy of the remedy. However, many "theories" do exist as to why this remedy might have some value. Some think it's the sulfur or sulphides used in the process of making the "white" or golden raisins. However, according to the Raisin Administrative Committee, "In much of the world, including the USA, the golden raisin is also referred to as a "bleached raisin." This is an incorrect term, as the dark raisin is not bleached. Rather, the enzymatic browning that normally occurs in a fresh grape is slowed down by treatment of sulfur dioxide gas. The raisin is preserved in a glimmering golden color. In the USA we call this a "golden" raisin."
# Some think it's the juniper berries used in gin. According to Barry Lazar from montrealfood.com, "The flavour of gin comes from juniper berries. These come from conifer plants, evergreens common in Europe and North America. New berries appear in the fall and can take two or three years to ripen. They are rich in vitamin C and terpenes, the essential oil which, in large quantities is manufactured into turpentine. During the Middle Ages the berries were kept in nosegays to help block the scent of the plague. For centuries, medicinal usage favoured using them in anti-inflammatory prescriptions."
# Some think it's the raisins. As stated in the Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook on Mother Nature.com, "If you benefit from gin-steeped raisins, the raisins probably do you more good than the gin. Grapes and raisins contain many pain relieving, anti-arthritic and anti-inflammatory chemicals."
# Some think it's the placebo effect. It is known that when people believe strongly in a treatment their endorphins and natural pain mediators are enhanced. Also, arthritis characteristically has periods of flares and remissions. You may attribute feeling better to the gin and raisins when it's truly due to a remission.
Gin-Soaked Raisins for Arthritis: The Bottom Line

Never begin any new treatment without first consulting your doctor. If you are considering this remedy, you should discuss it with your doctor. There could be negative interactions with your current treatment. As a guideline, when home remedies are considered, they should be "in addition to" rather than "instead of" current medical treatment.

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