by Gregory Drambour

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A theme that continues to come up on Sedona Retreats is the idea that you can allow the path to serenity to be easy. We all have a tendency to want to make it complicated. During a session with a client, I asked, “Could you allow how you discover what you are looking for to be easy?” She was struck by this simple question; it seemed to really penetrate her. It surprised me too. I thought this is the essence of what gets in the way of clients crossing from an intellectual spirituality to a knowing–they aren’t aware that there is a thought inside them that knows finding serenity is easy!

Let me write that again! There is a thought inside you that knows it’s simple! That’s what I call a “default thought”. How do you access positive default thoughts? How do you give them life? Two ways: one, have faith they are inside you; and two, quiet your negative thoughts—just allow them to float by and without you even trying—those powerful empowering default thoughts will rise up in you. They are the default and will lead to incredible beautiful feelings. Remember you will always have a thought before you have a feeling.

For me, I had to be a student of history. All the enlightened people from the beginning of time consistently say two things: “Go within”, and “It was much simpler that I thought.” So, if they continue to say the same thing, maybe there is to something to it! For me this created faith. Or it sparked me to take a leap of faith and experiment.

Here is the trick: You can’t understand or receive “simple” thru the personal mind! The mind will automatically reject simple! It’s only programmed for complicated. But if you learn to listen thru your heart, to listen for a feeling, you will be able to receive “simple”. I bet you’re asking, “What does that mean, listen for a feeling?” Have you been in a bad mood and a little child smiles at you and you suddenly feel better? What got communicated in that moment was a feeling, a feeling of love. It raised your level of consciousness and you suddenly saw your bad mood for what it is.

Stop trying to figure out how to get enlightened through your head! One thing you can conclude, like I did, is that this process hasn’t seemed to work! So let’s try something else! When you quiet your thoughts you naturally listen deeply or listen for a feeling. That’s why I am always going on about listening! I truly believe it’s the key to enlightenment. That kind of listening will open the door to moments of touching your own wisdom.

When I am in the office with clients, I sometimes ask, “What feeling do you see me projecting right now?” They will reply, “Excitement, hope, humor, enjoyment…” Then I tell them, that’s what you want to listen for! That will open the door to an insight. They reply,” But, Greg that doesn’t make sense!!!” I say, “I know because you are trying to figure it out what I just said with your head!”

Brothers and sisters, there are powerful positive thoughts inside you; you don’t have to go out and find them, you don’t have to try and think positively. They are already there waiting for you to give them life, that’s the great and awesome gift you received—the gift of free will and choice. Believe in that healthy part of you, have faith in it! Use it! You can do it!

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Gregrory Drambour

Gregory Drambour is the author of The Woodstock Bridge the well-acclaimed book about Native American Spirituality. He is the owner of Sedona Sacred Journeys, a spiritual retreat center in Sedona, Arizona

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by Shelia Norling

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We all have information for each other that can help to improve the quality of our lives. Clarifying what we need and communicating it to a receptive community can make the difference between a comfortable prosperous life and a struggle to keep up.

I once hosted a small gathering where a group of six women met and networked. Although the group was small and no one knew each other, it was amazing how many needs were fulfilled. Here is an actual sampling of what happened.

One woman was an accountant. She was looking for more clients and she was looking to house-sit for someone because she had sold her house and her new house wasn’t ready yet. Another woman there had a friend who was looking for a house sitter while she was gone for a couple of months to care for her daughter. The two exchanged in-formation and an arrangement was made.

One woman had started a catering business and was looking for weddings and large parties to cater. She was also looking for an accountant but had been putting it off because she didn’t want to just hire someone from the phone book. She and the accountant struck up a conversation and began a business relationship. Another suggested that she might also consider large corporate meetings as a source of catering clients and that perhaps her husband could use her services at his firm. Another said that her daughter-in-law was in the wedding business and was always looking for good caterers and that she could put them in touch.

One was looking for a job as an administrative assistant and another’s husband was interviewing for an administrative assistant in the same area.

One woman seemed a bit hesitant to ask but saw that everyone was getting what they needed. She shared that she had been experiencing a great deal of pain in her arm for months and had seen several doctors but they couldn’t find the problem. I told her that I could show her a simple technique to remove the pain and would be glad to show her at the end of the evening. I did and her pain was completely gone when she left.

Months later we met again and I learned that the pain had never returned.

So many needs were being fulfilled that everyone started thinking of other people’s needs.

One said her dentist was looking for a dental hygienist but couldn’t find one in his remote area and another said she had just met a lady working at the grocery store who was a dental hygienist who couldn’t find work and was even willing to relocate.

One needed her fence repaired and another had a son who was a handyman.

One needed an auto mechanic she could trust and another knew of one.

One said her teenage daughter was looking for summer work and another was looking for a babysitter she could count on.

All of this in a small group in the span of a couple of hours. So what’s different between this and how we often experience networking? Networking can provide this type of result but often doesn’t because the emphasis is so often on selling what you offer to the group instead of giving what you have or know to the group.

This small setting worked this way for a number of reasons. Before sharing needs, we created a comfortable environment and set the tone with a brief discussion about the possibilities that community can offer. We took turns briefly telling what we needed and gave the speaker our attention. The emphasis of the evening was on fulfilling each other’s needs.

If you belong to a networking or social group, try making this suggestion to your group. Suggest that for one event (and probably leading to more) instead of everyone briefly introducing themselves and saying what products or services they offer, have everyone briefly introduce themselves and say what they need or what they are looking for. It can be helpful to preface this with everyone taking a moment to write down 3 to 4 things they need. These “needs” can be for any aspect of life (i.e. business, family, finances, health, gardening, home improvements, etc.). Give examples to the group (such as the ones in this article) to help everyone get the idea.

What we are looking for is often more customers and clients. I don’t mean to suggest that these needs are excluded. The intention is to change the way we communicate what we are looking for. It can be very helpful to define clearly your perfect client or customer and then share this description when you network. For example, my perfect client is someone who wants to create a life they love through a simple and fun process.

It’s human nature to be more on the defensive when you feel someone is trying to sell you something (i.e. this is what I have to offer) than when someone is asking for your help (i.e. this is what I need). People tend to go out of their way more to help someone when they know what they need. It feels good to fulfill someone else’s need. In fact, it can be quite addictive!

The best way to get your needs met… is to let people know what they are.

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Shelia Norling has been exploring the mechanics of reality for over two decades. Visit her online at www.BeDoHaveMore.com where she explores greater possibilities that lead to a life you love. Download her free Special Report You Can Decide – What Do I REALLY Want? to help you clarify your needs and wants.

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by Sharon McErlane

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Little did I know one September day in 1996 while walking my dog beside the beach near my home, that my life would forever be changed. Appearing to me literally from out of the blue, was a group of women of all cultures and dress—regal, loving, wise, and NOT like anything I’d ever before seen in Laguna Beach! Although their appearance was startling, in their presence, I felt power and compassion, and as they spoke I heard wisdom, but most importantly, they spoke Truth. They called themselves the Great Council of the Grandmothers.

At one and the same time, two very different worlds seemed to intersect. Here I was standing in the middle of the pathway walking my dog, waving to my neighbors as they walked by; while at the same time these beings, the Grandmothers, were encircling me. It was surreal, and yet so very real I could not deny it was happening. Then I began to feel something come over me like a garment of light—but with heft to it. They said it was a “caul,” which would reawaken me to the power of yin, the energy of the feminine principle of creation. “We have come at this time in history to save planet Earth,” they said, “to bring the energies of yin and yang back into harmony.”

I came home that day, full of wonder, more filled with peace and contentment than I could ever remember—a changed woman. I was happy but also bewildered. Who were these old women and why had they come to me? Although I tried to find them again and waited for them to return, they didn’t.

Not knowing what I could do to find the Grandmothers, I began to pray for someone who could help me. I pounded hard on heaven’s door and it wasn’t long before I was led to a shaman who taught me a method for reaching the Grandmothers. From that point on, an amazing journey began and for me. And life would never be the same.

I became the Grandmothers’ student and they became my teachers. In lesson after lesson, they placed me in situations that were foreign to me, shocking my mind, shaking up my view of life and forcing me to learn something new. I had lived a pretty tame life before the Grandmothers appeared. I had been and continue to be a simple woman who never expected her life to be so disrupted and so gloriously altered by a group of old women. But the Grandmothers were master teachers and as I said before. They were on a mission. They thrilled and captivated me from the first moment I met them.

They say, “Today yang, the masculine, active principal of energy, is dangerously over extended while yin, the steady holding of the feminine principle, is depleted.” Yin and yang are out of alignment, and this is what is causing the present imbalance in our world, from the dissolution of the family, to the abuse of the helpless, to addictions of every sort, to a horrifying escalation of violence everywhere. This imbalance has reached such proportions that today yang is running wild while yin grows ever weaker and more depleted.

One day the Grandmothers showed me how the run-away energy of yang actually looks. Taking me to the edge of a cliff, they pointed into the distance and told me ,“Look!” I looked to where they were pointing, but all I could see was a moving cloud of dust. As the Grandmothers brought me in closer, I saw an animal that was creating the dust. Racing back and forth, a bull threw up a cloud as it ran in a frenzy, straining to break free of the tether that held it. Slobbering and snorting while the steam rose from its back, the bull’s eyes were wild. Crazed with the frantic effort to free itself, it flung its body from side to side. Frightened, I jumped behind the Grandmothers as the bull thundered past. The rawhide tether that held it looked ready to snap.

“What we are showing you,” the Grandmothers said, as I stared at the frenzied beast, “is the energy of yang as it is on Earth today. Wild, increasingly frantic and run to the end of its tether, the energy of yang is unable to stop itself. Without the intervention of the steady, holding energy of yin, yang is now out of control.” As I watched the red-eyed, snorting bull I saw what they meant. The animal could not calm or restrain itself. All it could do was charge back and forth in panic.

The Grandmothers say that at this time in history all forms of life—women, men, animals, plants and minerals—are suffering. Everything is out of synch, out of harmony with everything else. There is no one to blame for the disharmony and chaos on our planet; energy is simply out of balance. But although no one is to blame for this critical state, the first step toward correcting the imbalance of yin and yang on Earth belongs to women. “It can be no other way,” the Grandmothers declare; “for women are the natural reservoirs of yin.” The Grandmothers have come at this crucial time to awaken the presence of the deep feminine, to bring men and women and all life back into harmony.

I hadn’t worked with the Grandmothers very long when they directed me to call women together. I was to pass their empowerment on to others. The energy of yin needed to be infused into the Earth. The Grandmothers would call those who were ready to receive this gift, and I needn’t worry about whom to invite or how many to expect. I was to leave everything to Them. Eleven women came to that first Grandmothers’ Empowerment Ceremony. From that time on, women told one another about the Grandmothers’ Empowerment, and whenever I scheduled a ceremony people simply showed up. Although I didn’t advertise the Grandmothers’ work, and didn’t charge a fee for it, when I stopped counting, over 1,500 women had received the Grandmothers’ Empowerment. After the Grandmothers’ book, “A Call to Power: the Grandmothers Speak” was published, women in different parts of the world began to form Grandmothers’ groups, passing on the empowerment to their sisters.

The Net of Light is one of the Grandmothers’ pivotal teachings. “The Net of light,” they say, “will hold the Earth together” during the upcoming times of radical change. As the energy of yin and yang shifts and then comes back into balance, the Net will provide a loving structure of support for the planet, holding the earth and all life, steady. The Grandmothers say, “The Net is lit by the jewel of the heart. It is held primarily by women.” All people are welcome to the Grandmothers’ work but the Grandmothers explain that it is mostly women who will hear Their message, understand the importance of the Net of Light and use it to help others. “The first step toward restoring balance on Earth belongs to women,” the Grandmothers say. “It can be no other way.”

Today planet Earth and the life it sustains are in jeopardy; the energy of yin and yang is and has been out of balance for several centuries. As this imbalance increases, fear and violence hold sway, horror escalates and loving sensitive souls find themselves depleted and running on empty.

Desperate times call for something new. As humans stand at the edge of the precipice, the winds of change blasting our backs, the universe throws us a lifeline. Help has appeared before us in the form of wise old women, the Great Council of the Grandmothers. “The present imbalance of energy on Earth has placed all life in danger,” the Grandmothers declare. “It is time to return to balance, and for this, WOMEN MUST LEAD. Women must be empowered. This is why we have come.”

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Sharon McErlane is a psychotherapist from Laguna Beach, Ca. who in 1996 received a vision that changed her life. Sharon has been sharing the Grandmothers’ message ever since. She speaks at churches, conferences, and travels the world spreading the Grandmothers’ message. To find out more about the Grandmothers’ message and where there is a group near you, contact Sharon at www.grandmothersspeak.com.

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excerpted from a book by Debbie Gisonni.

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If life were a pair of DKNY jeans, what would yours look like? Would they be worn and faded, thinning in spots, soft to the touch with the hem unraveling? Or would they be crisp and clean with perfect creases and the tags still on them? If my mother had her way, mine would be the latter. I was raised with what I call a “life-saver” mentality. No, not the candy but the kind of environment where couch cushions were covered in plastic and never touched by human flesh, where bathroom towels were only for show or company, where money was saved and only spent on necessities, where new clothes were never worn right after you bought them, where entire rooms in the house were not used, and where the only lit candles were on birthday cakes or in church.

Many women in my mother’s generation saved and collected a lot of things they never used. Nothing too expensive—maybe a series of decorative plates you see on late-night TV or a porcelain doll advertised in Reader’s Digest, complete with the birth certificate.

When my aunt died, we found dozens of limited-edition plates depicting everything from Elvis movie scenes to Chinese children playing—all in their original boxes with protective coverings and sales receipts, tucked away in drawers and closets, never displayed, never used, never enjoyed. Why spend the money just to hide them? Too often we save things in life for the wrong reasons. Besides material goods, we save our emotions because we don’t want to be hurt, our appearance because we don’t want to look old, or our flaws because we don’t want to be anything less than the perfect woman. All this saving prevents us from fully participating in the journey of life. We become bystanders watching our lives go by instead of participating in new experiences.

Today, make a point of lighting all the candles in your house and allowing them to burn instead of collecting dust. Although some prefer to stoke a log or two in the fireplace, I prefer to line up about a dozen candles in my fireplace—all different sizes, colors, fragrances, and shapes—and light them while becoming mesmerized by the dancing flames that look as if they’re playing a well-orchestrated piece of silent music. Just like the unique direction each life takes, and the variety of experiences that await us, no two candles melt the same way—some drip slowly like sap on a tree; some widen their walls like the mouth of a cave, exposing their shimmering light; and some collapse inward, engulfing their flame like molten lava. You’ll never know how yours will burn unless you light it. A half-melted candle is like a wise middle-aged woman who has enjoyed and savored life—a goddess who is not afraid to continue to ignite the flame of life until there is nothing left but a tiny piece of metal that once held the cord to that life’s existence.

Allow the flame of life to entrance you, burn you, titillate your senses, soften you. Participate in life and you’ll have more fun than you ever imagined!

Five Ways to Participate in Your Life:

• When you have a rainy day, use what you saved for it.
• Don’t hold back your feelings, especially those of love and
  compassion.
• Try something new—a sport, an adventure, love, a hat, or a hairstyle.
• Once in awhile, jump up and down on the bed with your kids (or even by yourself ).
• Use and share your belongings; you can’t take them with you when you’re gone.

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Debbie Gisonni, aka The Goddess of Happiness™, is an author, speaker, happiness expert and columnist. She makes life easier and happier for women by helping them connect their inner power with everyday life challenges.

Contact: www.goddessofhappiness.com

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