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Guy Finley - EzineArticles.com Expert Author
Best-selling "Letting Go" author Guy Finley's encouraging and accessible message is one of the true bright lights in our world today. His ideas cut straight to the heart of our most important personal and social issues -- relationships, success, addiction, stress, peace, happiness, freedom -- and lead the way to a higher life.
Finley is the acclaimed author of The Secret of Letting Go and more than 35 other books and audio programs that have ... [More]
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- Letting Love Lead You Home to Her
[Relationships:Love] The search for enlightenment, fulfillment, happiness, even success- it is all inspired by one driving need: the longing for love. The most potent motivator of all is the longing for Divine Love, for this is the source of all other loves.
- Four Ways to Teach the Truths That Transform the World
[Self-Improvement:Techniques] We human beings are born with an indefinable longing to grow beyond ourselves, to penetrate and illuminate the mysterious depths of our own heart. The ideal and pursuit of perfection is literally seeded into our soul; it pervades our very being.
- Free Yourself From the Captivity of the False Self
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] If we want to know the course of an uncharted river, or map a region of an unknown forest, we must enter into and explore that new world. We would think it foolish for two people to argue about the nature of a remote valley -- what life forms it holds, sustains, or denies -- if these two people live near its entrance but never dared to explore it! Yet this is much of the way things are today when it comes to the hidden heart of higher spiritual consciousness.
- Three Revelations and Three Bright New Actions That Lead to the Fearless Life
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Within each of us lives something Light, Bright, and Timeless that wants to grant us our true wish. And what is this wish? In a word, it is to have a life that is free, uncluttered by self-compromising acts, and full of love. But the secret heart of this wish, upon which all of our other hopes depend, is to live without fear.
- 10 Steps to Detect and Stop Secret Self-Sabotage
[Self-Improvement:Attraction] It's a little known - yet much denied fact - that people treat you the way you secretly ask to be treated. Your unspoken request that determines how others behave toward you is extended to -and received by - everyone you meet.
- Put Yourself in Charge of All Outer Circumstances
[Self-Improvement:Techniques] Barring those moments when we find ourselves in real physical danger, conditions of themselves have absolutely no authority over us. It's true. No event or circumstance has any power to make us feel one way or another. The only command any condition may have over us is that which we unconsciously surrender to it. And what we've given away we can take back.
- Die to the False "I" and Find Real Life
[Self-Improvement:Techniques] Virtually everyone will admit they want a spiritual life; for starters this just sounds like something that one should have! But probe a bit deeper and by default, in stages, you will hear various declarations that run the gamut from a belief in some incarnation as a source of their salvation, to the belief that they are, themselves, the living light - demigods on their way to Godhood.
- Welcome Truth When it Knocks at Your Door
[Self-Improvement:Attraction] Imagine someone who, while having his morning coffee and toast, suddenly realizes that the next day he must remember to do something he had forgotten all about: something quite important for himself and his overall well-being. But even as he relishes this vital idea streaming through his mind - and that he has managed to remember it in a timely fashion - he is beset by other flashes of inspiration: Should he use the marmalade or apple butter on his last slice of toast?
- How the Light Wins Every Battle For You
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] The true spiritual battle occurs in the "dark" of us, a contest between the light of our wish to be better than the bitterness in us, or higher than some heartache or hatred dragging us down. Whatever its nature, this struggle is between forces that are dark and denying and those light and affirming. The ground fought upon is for possession of our interior; to the victor go the spoils.
- The New Knowledge You Need to Create a New You
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] On the first of January each year, it is safe to say that billions of people make New Year's resolutions. Perhaps you are one of these individuals who long to take control of their destiny: to be more kind, less lazy, better disciplined, or to not be as selfish and self-centered.
- How You Can Be the Light of the World
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] It always seems that in the face of any crisis the best and the worst of humanity is revealed for all to see. On one hand there are thousands who suddenly become aware (perhaps for the first time) of the pain and loss others feel and, foregoing personal interest, dive into the challenging waters of self-sacrifice and other charitable works of selflessness.
- How to Develop a New Attitude and a New Altitude in Life
[Self-Improvement:Techniques] A young woman once decided that her best chance of getting hired by a company doing geological survey work in the Alaskan wilderness was to earn a private license to fly twin-engine planes. A few days later she began taking lessons from a wise old bush pilot, highly respected throughout the region for his cool and collected ways of dealing with the worst possible situations.
- Solving the Puzzle of Pleasure and Pain
[Self-Improvement:Happiness] It is impossible to overstate the importance of being totally honest with ourselves about our lives. Spiritual progress is impossible for anyone unwilling to be truthful about him- or herself. The reasons for this fact of the Path should be obvious, but for one thing, we cannot touch Higher Realities if the ground we stand upon and reach from is imaginary!
- The Secret to Help Heal the Suffering of the World
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Have you ever noticed that whenever a secret is circulating among your close friends you will do almost anything to learn its undisclosed nature? Or, if you think someone knows something that you don't, you won't rest until you too are "in the know"? All of this is to say we seem to love secrets!
- Seven Insights Into True Silence
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] We all have within us a vantage point -- a very special part of ourselves within which we may be at peace regardless of what goes on around us. This yet-to-be realized state of ourselves may be called conscious self-awareness.
- 15 Stepping Stones Toward Self-Freedom
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Ponder the following small set of truths until you can see their promise of new ways to empower your wish to be spiritually free. Do this and soon their power will be a part of your newly won freedom.
- The Wisdom To Walk Away From Painful Desires
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] I would like to shed some light on a subtle but significant idea concerning what I call the "circle of self." We will examine the secret mechanism in us that drives us through certain unconscious life cycles where, in moments of crisis, we think we are making wise choices, only to realize we have chosen against ourselves once again.
- The True Nature Of Peace
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] There can be no true Freedom for us without knowing true Peace, even though these sublime states are basically two wings on the same dove. Nevertheless, as we shall see, before we can enjoy the spiritual freedom for which we are intended, and whose heart already beats within us, this Peace we speak of must be realized. A moment's reflection shows us the truth of this eternal order.
- Self-Correction Is Self-Elevation
[Self-Improvement:Techniques] We are a peculiar race of beings. On one hand, each of us professes to be concerned with growing and self-developing while, on the other hand, none of us ever wants to be wrong. This is a paralyzing contradiction. If we are always right, or at least afraid of being wrong, what have we to learn? Couched in our hidden attitude is the belief that we already know everything. This is a serious problem if we are at all serious in our quest for self-liberation, since this Higher Freedom comes to us in direct proportion to what we are willing to learn about ourselves.
- Using Your Relationships To Realize Real Life
[Self-Improvement:Techniques] The greatest, most abundant resource on planet Earth is also its least understood and utilized. Its unlimited supply is found virtually everywhere, anytime, and under all circumstances, even though few recognize its real value. What is this most precious collective resource? It is our relationships.
- Reap the Power in the "Invisible Eternals"
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Seen or not, everyone everywhere is looking for his or her "heaven." Watch people closely and this search becomes terribly evident. The man seated at his desk dreaming of when he will have his life to himself; the woman at the luncheon counter trying to resolve some relationship issue in her mind. From the more than obvious to the totally unexpected, one thing is clear: All of us, moment to moment, are looking for a little peace, a little happiness of our own.
- Heal Your Life With Higher Self-Correction
[Self-Improvement:Techniques] Two men who have worked for the same company for years, and who share an office, are having a conversation over lunch. They are in the company cafeteria with other workers around them also eating their meals. Bob watches his friend Joe reach into his briefcase and pull out a small bright blue bottle that he has seen a number of times now over the last ten days or so.
- Learn How to Take Yourself to a Higher, Happier Life Level
[Self-Improvement:Happiness] Human beings are a unique creation in the cosmic scheme of things. Unlike the untold billions of other life forms teaming on the Earth -- whose nature is an open and shut case -- human nature is not fixed. What does this mean to you? Only everything!
- New Powers to Help You Perfect Your Relationships
[Relationships] "Since what others may do to us is not in our power to change, we need only concern ourselves with what we do to ourselves... for this is in our power." There is always a moment before a problem starts with another human being where we realize that what we want is not going to happen. Ordinarily we'll say the other person is about to "ruin my day." But there is, for those of us who want to understand, not only a way for our day not to be ruined, but a way for us to elevate both ourselves and the other person, or at least give them the opportunity to change their lives as well our own.
- The Spiritual Alternative to Tolerance
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] Deep spiritual work reveals the truth that hellish things on earth manifest as they do because their dark cause dwells hidden somewhere in us. We are about to look into this interior abyss and shine into its unseen corners a beautiful light of understanding. We will illuminate the center of the earth where dark forces are always celebrating some victory over unconscious human beings.
- The One Secret That Defeats Discouragement
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] There are times when it feels as though dark states of discouragement dog us, following us around as if just waiting for us fall down, never to rise again. On these days our own lackluster emotions are hounded by thoughts barking at us that nothing is right with our lives. Sound familiar? Clearly, discouragement is a punishing state.
- Live in Harmony with Reality
[Self-Improvement:Happiness] How do we normally develop a new skill? For example, how do we learn to high jump? We listen to instruction, and perhaps we watch someone else; but for the most part, we learn by doing; by trying it ourselves.
- The Path to Real Contentment
[Self-Improvement:Happiness] It is no stretch of the imagination to say that many days most people wrestle with some form of discontentment about their lot in life. Add to this an equal if not greater amount of time spent searching for the solution they think will "cure" this confliction, and it might surprise us how pervasive runs this human pastime of trying to dodge these feelings of being discontent.
- Sure Steps to a Brighter Life
[Self-Improvement:Happiness] "In the long run, our attitude towards life's lessons - and the direction our life takes in life - are one and the same; show me someone who resists the Light of Life's correction in the course of his or her soul, and I will show you someone whose destiny is the darkness of total self-enclosure." Even though the Truth is never further away from us than our wish for its awakening and self-healing insight, there are distinct moments in life when it comes closer to us than others.
- Learn Life's Great Lesson
[Self-Improvement:Techniques] Our life on Earth is a spiritual path. Our life is our path. There is no other. The path to the perfected life, to fulfilling the promise of our True Self, must be found and traveled within.
- Find Personal Freedom in the Principles of Invisible Justice
[Self-Improvement:Techniques] The heart of our inner work and its purpose is to bring about, within each of us, ever-higher states of Freedom. If we were able to honestly address our own captive state (that is, how we continue to do those things we don't want to do, and wouldn't do, if we only had a conscious choice before these decisions were made), a New Need would awaken within us. We would realize, unalterably, the need to become fully aware of the extent of our present captivity. This view is the exact opposite of our present one.
- Choose The True You
[Self-Improvement:Attraction] It is good to speak of Real things and how - using what is real - we may each work to realize Real Life. Through these explorations we can shed light on the real circumstances of our life here on earth. Then, with these truths firmly in hand it becomes possible to awaken to ourselves and consciously enter into Higher Life.
- Cancel Self-Wrecking Resentments
[Self-Improvement:Happiness] What's a dark inner dialogue? Just what it sounds like: A negative tug-of-war in the unseen recesses of your mind where you're the only one pulling on both ends of the rope. Still more to the point, being in a dark inner dialogue is finding yourself losing a heated argument when there's no one else in the room with you!
- Remember The Truth of Yourself
[Self-Improvement:Happiness] One of the least understood powers we each possess in our struggle to awaken to ourselves, is our ability to remember the Truth of ourselves in the face of everything in us that would rather we forget it. For instance, when we are in the wrong state internally and don't want to see ourselves in this light, we can learn to treasure the Light that reveals our wrongness to us more than we resist the darkness this light seems to cast us in. Try to see the difference between these two distinct inner actions. Much depends upon it.
- Ten Causes of Needless Heartaches
[Self-Improvement:Techniques] Our lives are meant to be bright, noble, and ever ascending. This promise of our True Potential is made good in us by the fulfillment of our possibilities, and not through the interminable struggle of trying to do what is impossible. Most of our sorrows are the offspring of trying to be something we have no real need to be, in trying to do what cannot - and need not - be done.
- Harness The Transformational Power in Self-Reliance
[Self-Improvement:Success] Let us investigate what is required of us - what it takes to become New in mind and heart. This true self-transformation requires a new kind of courage to search out and to "stand" in a new place within ourselves.
- How To Stop Being A Captive of Your Own Unawakened Consciousness
[Self-Improvement:Happiness] Whenever you discuss matters of a spiritual nature with people you will invariably run into two distinct groups. There are those who claim to know the Truth, but who express their great certainty by attacking anyone who doesn't see God as they do. And then there is the other group that comprises the majority of seekers: spiritual speculators who believe that their ability to argue over what may or may not be true of the spiritual Path is the same as having walked it.
- Forty Ways To Determine Your Level Of Inner Freedom
[Self-Improvement:Techniques] Want to know how free you really are? Good! You're about to be presented with a unique opportunity to learn all about your individual level of inner liberty.
- Eleven Laws That Lift You To The Next Life Level
[Self-Improvement:Techniques] If we want to grow inwardly we must find new ways to learn about ourselves. These higher discoveries call for higher learning. Think of each of the following eleven laws as individual magic strands of a flying carpet. Make it your aim to weave them together in your mind. Then watch how these lessons combine to effortlessly lift you to a higher and happier life level.
- The Power That Defeats Defeat
[Self-Improvement:Techniques] You possess a potential power that is superior to any difficulty that life may ever present. This immense inner capability enables anyone who will claim it to instantly rise above his challenge. It makes no difference what form the challenge may assume or how huge it looms. This latent power of yours can render it harmless and ultimately make it disappear. This friendly force that can turn your life into a series of victories is the power to question defeat.
- Let the World Inside of You Go By
[Self-Improvement:Techniques] A man once awakened to find himself riding through what appeared to be a haunted house. He didn't know exactly where he was. All he did know was that it was very dark and that he was moving along with no choice as to the direction. And if that wasn't bad enough, around almost every twisting corner he knew that something out of his worst dreams was ready to leap out at him. He was about to jump out of the car and run for help when he thought he heard a strong quiet voice speaking directly to him.
- The Realization That Leads to Genuine Letting Go
[Self-Improvement:Techniques] We all know exactly what it is like to be certain we have let go of something sorrowful or worrisome, only to find ourselves in a similar sad situation moments later. Dropping this person and picking up that person doesn't end the loneliness that drives us into dead-end relationships. This isn't letting go. We have only managed to put the emptiness on hold.
- The Secret Of Having Everything You Want
[Self-Improvement:Success] Everyone wonders whether or not there is one great secret for truly successful living. There is. And it is not a secret. It has been quietly, steadily telling itself right in front of us all along. We just couldn't hear it over the clatter and chatter of our own secret demands. Listen quietly for a moment. Everything can change right now. Learning to hear this supreme secret is no more difficult than choosing whether to swim against a current or to let it carry you safely to the shore.
- How to Change the Life You're Giving Yourself
[Self-Improvement:Techniques] We meet life, with all of its complex relationships, through what we know. Each daily event, with its dozens of unsuspected twists and turns, challenges us to come up with our best answers. Once our most suitable answer is at hand, we launch it and ourselves into action and watch to see what happens. With each situation this challenge and response process is repeated over and over again, until the condition resolves itself for us, either favorably or not.
- The Sure Way to Raise Your Life Level
[Self-Improvement:Techniques] Almost every kind of unhappy feeling is the result of mistaking the partial for the whole. What this means is that when we don't see the whole picture, we are likely to act in a way that is self-defeating.
- Let Go of Loneliness and Discontentment
[Self-Improvement:Techniques] Nothing is more discontented than our lower nature, the false self. It is always unhappy with one thing or another. If there is one weed in a field of roses, you can bet that is what it will see. Since it has no real life of its own, it must endlessly create stimulating thoughts and feelings of one kind or another in order to give it the sensations of being alive.
- Harness The Power That Defeats Defeat
[Self-Improvement:Techniques] You possess a potential power that is superior to any difficulty that life may ever present. This immense inner capability enables anyone who will claim it to instantly rise above his challenger. It makes no difference what form the challenge may assume or how huge it looms. This latent power of yours can render it harmless and ultimately make it disappear.
- Letting Go - The Key to Getting What You Really Want
[Self-Improvement:Success] Each time we see the need to let go of something -- a bad habit that drags us down, an unsatisfactory relationship, a career choice that can't complete us in the way we dreamed it would, or maybe unrealistic expectations of ours about others that eventually spoil our partnerships with them -- whatever it may be: what is it that's actually happened in these moments of honest self-examination? See if this simple answer doesn't describe our situation:
- The Secret To Letting Go Of Every Fear
[Self-Improvement:Success] Are you afraid of some condition in your life? Here's a life-transforming secret: that seemingly scary condition, whatever it may be, is not the problem. It is your reaction that is fearful. This is why if you will become conscious of your condition instead of afraid of it, you will change forever your relationship with fear.
- Awaken Higher Awareness Through Self-Observation
[Self-Improvement:Success] I'm sure that we can all agree that no intelligent, conscious man or woman would ever intentionally hurt him or herself. It is important that we are in agreement about this precept. No one would choose to ache. Yet the fact remains that all of us do hurt ourselves every day with bursts of anger or fits of depression or anxiety. Even at the simplest level there can be no doubt: fear and worry take an immeasurable toll on our health and well-being.
- Learn to Step Beyond Your Self
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Here is an amazing higher instruction that can help you step beyond yourself: "Walk away from the mental 'how' into the spiritual Now."
- The Freedom in Discovering You Are Not Who You Think You Are
[Self-Improvement:Happiness] Do you ever wonder why you are so easily upset by the unexpected? To answer this question, you must start by clearing up the initial mental mistake that is at the root of your problem:
- Unmask the Three Thieves of Peace
[Self-Improvement:Anger-Management] Following is a list for special Self-study to help get you started up the path of spiritual freedom. After a careful review of these peace stealing conditions, take time to make a list of your own. Keep it simple. Use casual observations of yourself and others around you to be a spiritual detective.
- How to Find the Peace That Already Dwells Within You
[Self-Improvement:Attraction] I would like to introduce you to some new ideas intended to help us transform these disturbing times on earth into something of great spiritual benefit. If one has any sensitivity, then one must ask: Why is there so much hatred everywhere? What has happened that human beings are so willing to destroy each other, and at the same time feel so justified for the terror they champion? How is it that fear rules the day and drives the world to an edge that it manages to extend with each passing hour? Why can't there be peace on earth?
- How to Win New Spiritual Strength
[Self-Improvement:Anger-Management] If we were to see someone trying to warm himself on a winter's night by snuggling up to a color photo of a fireplace, we would easily recognize this person as being deluded. We know that the glossy paper image which he clings to for life-sustaining heat is powerless to do anything but mock his obviously oblivious mind.
- The Secret Path to Peace Through True Silence
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] What is required of us to realize the peace of mind for which we all long? No one can come upon this Real Silence without understanding certain truths about its' nature. Concerning peace of mind, one thing should be clear: Either we are at peace wherever we are - because this peace goes with us - or what we call our peace is a product of one of the following two possibilities: First, either by choice or by accident we have entered into some pleasing, and therefore peaceable condition, or, second, the peace we enjoy at hand is the child of a particular condition over which we have attained some kind of temporary command.
- How to be a Friend of Truth
[Self-Improvement:Happiness] Let us look at what it means to be a Friend of Truth. This kind of Friendship makes all things possible. Without it, a Real Life is impossible. We'll begin with some preliminary thinking toward the whole idea of "friendship." What we are about to discover is that being friendly to everything that wants to befriend us is not always in our best interests. But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. We must begin at the beginning.
- The Power to Leave Painful Thoughts and Feelings Behind You
[Self-Improvement:Happiness] Just as a storm in the atmosphere of the earth is born of conflicting fronts of different temperatures colliding with one another, so too must there be conflicting forces within us in order to form a mental or emotional storm. Our task is to become conscious of these unseen forces that dwell in the unenlightened parts of us. As we grow to realize that no disturbance can remain within us without our granting it the force it needs to sustain its fury, we realize that we have at our disposal two great powers. We are empowered to dismiss storms when they appear in our psychic system and, with time and practice, we can learn to dismiss these disturbances before they begin!
- Seven Simple Exercises to Invite the Extraordinary Life
[Self-Improvement:Happiness] I can think of no greater encouragement than the self-evident Truth that there dwells in each of us the opportunity to explore and know the Extraordinary Life. The meaning of Extraordinary I wish to convey points to the immutable and inexhaustible source that is the secret center of each of us: a timeless resource open and available to anyone who would seek this Life that sits behind life as we know it. Will we spend our lives in mere dreams of winning a limitless life, or will we do the inner- work of awakening from this dream? Choosing the Extraordinary Life begins with our conscious work to realize it, which the following special practices help to ensure.
- Uncover the Fountain of Fresh Starts Hidden in You
[Self-Improvement:Happiness] We tell ourselves that we want a new life, in our minds we see ourselves reclaiming our right to live without limitations. We see ourselves walking away from destructive relationships and letting go of negative thoughts and feelings. And this is the very problem. We talk to ourselves about a fresh start and even plan the path we will take when things get right... but that's it. We think, but rarely act. We dream, but won't awaken to the one fact we must face if we would make a fresh start - The new beginning we long for is now or never.
- You Can Change The World
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] A great secret rests inside the heart of every human being: Each of us is created with the power to change the whole world!
- Secrets about True Success
[Self-Improvement:Success] Contrary to popular opinion, real success is not measured by the amount of our possessions. Simply stated, the truth is that real success -- ultimately the only success -- is determined by how much we are in actual possession of ourselves.
- Secret of Harmonious Relationships
[Relationships] Many times the very thing we want from the person we are with - for example, respect, patience, kindness, love - is the very thing that we ourselves either lack at the moment or otherwise somehow are withholding from them.
- Success Without Stress
[Self-Improvement:Success] The voice of intuition tells us that striving toward success is not supposed to be a drag - it's supposed to be light, bright, happy and fun! This voice is trying to reveal the beautiful truth that success without stress is possible. The only problem is that we have ceased to listen to its wise counsel because we've been conditioned by society to place our attention on the objects of success, instead of on the principle of success itself. When we realize this simple misdirection that has taken place, we take the first step in learning to attract everything our heart desires. And that's the main point of this article: It is possible for us to learn to attract success, instead of trying to chase it down though years of toil, disappointment, and heartache!
- Attract What's Light - Bright - and Beautiful
[Self-Improvement:Attraction] As you begin to refuse to consort with what is dark, you'll find that you begin to attract with what is light, bright, and cheerful. Your relationships will deepen, your professional life will take on new vigor and freshness, and the whole of your days will begin to resemble the radiant Life that you have deliberately chosen as your conscious companion.
- From Codependent to Independent
[Self-Improvement:Addictions] All of us have made - or have struggled to make - hundreds of changes in our lives only to realize that nothing real has changed in our lives except our own rising levels of frustration over what we want changed. Yet, as strange as it seems, it is just this realization of our not having progressed anywhere that is a required leg in our journey to real self-change. Why must this disappointment come to us and seem to darken our lives? The surprising answer is that this unwanted darkness is really a messenger of Light.
- Find Peace in Your Everyday Life
[Self-Improvement:Happiness] Let's look into one of the most fundamental of these empowering principles taught by every great teacher: We reap what we sow. In these so-called progressive times, this all but forgotten principle is as simple as it is prophetic. Share this simple fact with someone who hates his life, and he will hate you for the truth you tell about why he feels as he does!
- Get Over Your Anger: Step Up and Away from Punishing Feelings
[Self-Improvement:Anger-Management] No one really wants to talk about it, but the truth is there is a kind of evil spell hanging over each of us and our world as well. In fact, part of this global spell is our denial of its existence. It is called suffering. Everyone does it - believing that their suffering somehow benefits them. That's how the spell works. Why else would anyone punish himself with unhappy feelings unless he had been tricked into somehow perceiving self-hurt as self-help?
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