oh, brenna!

Everyone has a purpose in life… a unique gift or special talent to give to others.

And when we blend this unique talent with service to others, we experience the ecstasy and exultation of our own spirit, which is the ultimate goal of all goals.

I will put the Law of Dharma into effect by making a commitment to take the following steps:

(1) Today I will lovingly nurture the god or goddess in embryo that lies deep within my soul. I will pay attention to the spirit within me that animates both my body and my mind. I will awaken myself to this deep stillness within my heart. I will carry the consciousness of timeless, eternal Being i the midst of time-bound experience.

(2) I will make a list of my unique talents. Then I will list all the things that I love to do while expressing my unique talents. When I express my unique talents and use them in the service of humanity, I lose track of time and create abundance in my life as well as in the lives of others.

(3) I will ask myself daily, “How can I serve?” and “How can I help?” The answers to these questions will allow me to help and serve my fellow human beings with love.

In detachment lies the wisdom of uncertainty… in the wisdom of uncertainty lies the freedom from our past, from the known, which is the prison of past conditioning.

And in our willingness to step into the unknown, the field of all possibilities, we surrender ourselves to the creative mind that orchestrates the dance of the universe.

I will put the Law of Detachment into effect by making a commitment to take the following steps:

(1) Today I will commit myself to detachment. I will allow myself and those around me the freedom to be as they are. I will not rigidly impose my idea of how things should be. I will not force solutions on problems, thereby creating new problems. I will participate in everything with detached involvement.

(2) Today I will factor in uncertainty as an essential ingredient of my experience. In my willingness to accept uncertainty, solutions will spontaneously emerge out of the problem, out of the confusion, disorder, and chaos. The more uncertain things seem to be, the more secure I will feel, because uncertainty is my path to freedom. Through the wisdom of uncertainty, I will find my security.

(3) I will step into the field of all possibilities and anticipate the excitement that can occur when I remain open to an infinity of choices. When I step into the field of all possibilities, I will experience all the fun, adventure, magic, and mystery of life. 

Inherent in every intention and desire is the mechanics for its fulfillment… intention and desire in the field of pure potentiality have infinite organizing power.

And when we introduce and intention in the fertile ground of pure potentiality, we put this infinite organizing power to work for us.

I will put the Law of Intention and Desire into effect by making a commitment to take the following steps:

(1) I will make a list of all my desires. I will carry this list with me wherever I go. I will look at the list before I go into my silence and meditation. I will look at it before I go to sleep at night. I will look at it when I wake up in the morning.

(2) I will release this list of my desires and surrender it to the womb of creation, trusting that when things don’t seem to go my way, there is a reason, and that the cosmic plan has designs for me much grander than even those that I have conceived.

(3) I will remind myself to practice present-moment awareness in all my actions. I will refuse to allow obstacles to consume and dissipate the quality of my attention in the present moment. I will accept the present as it is, and manifest the future through my deepest, most cherished intentions and desires. 

Nature’s intelligence functions with effortless ease… with carefreeness, harmony, and love.

And when we harness the forces of harmony, joy, and love, we create success and good fortune with effortless ease.

I will put the Law of Least Effort into effect by making a commitment to take the following steps:

(1) I will practice Acceptance. Today I will accept people, situations, circumstances, and events as they occur. I will know that this moment is as it should be, because the whole universe is as it should be. I will not struggle against the whole universe by struggling against this moment. My acceptance is total and complete. I accept things as they are this moment, not as I wish they were.

(2) Having accepted things as they are, I will take Responsibility for my situation and for all those events I see as problems. I know that taking responsibility means not blaming anyone or anything for my situation (and this includes myself). I also know that every problem is an opportunity in disguise, and this alertness to opportunities allows me to take this moment and transform it into a greater benefit.

(3) Today my awareness will remain established in Defenselessness. I will relinquish the need to defend my point of view. I will feel no need to convince or persuade others to accept my point of view. I will remain open to all points of view and not be rigidly attached to any one of them. 

Every action generates a force of energy that returns to us in like kind… what we sow is what we reap.

And when we choose actions that bring happiness and success to others, the fruit of our karma is happiness and success.

I will put the Law of Karma into effect by making a commitment to take the following steps:

(1) Today I will witness the choices I make in each moment. And in the mere witnessing of these choices, I will bring them to my conscious awareness. I will know that the best way to prepare for any moment in the future is to be fully conscious in the present.

(2) Whenever I make a choice, I will ask myself two questions: “What are the consequences of this choice that I’m making?” and “Will this choice bring fulfillment and happiness to me and also to those who are affected by this choice?”

(3) I will then ask my heart for guidance and be guided by its message of comfort or discomfort. If the choice feels comfortable, I will plunge ahead with abandon. If the choice feels uncomfortable, I will pause and see the consequences of my action with my inner vision. This guidance will enable me to make spontaneously correct choices for myself and for all those around me.

The universe operates through dynamic exchange…giving and receiving are different aspects of the flow of energy in the universe.

And in our willingness to give that which we seek, we keep the abundance of the universe circulating in our lives.

I will put the Law of Giving into effect by making a commitment to take the following steps:

(1) Wherever I go, and whoever I encounter, I will bring them a gift. The gift may be a compliment, a flower, or a prayer. Today, I will give something to everyone I come into contact with, and so I will begin the process of circulating joy, wealth, and affluence in my life and in the lives of others.

(2) Today I will gratefully receive all the gifts that life has to offer me. I will receive the gifts of nature: sunlight and the sound of birds singing, or spring showers or the first snow of winter. I will also be open to receiving from others, whether it be in the form of a material gift, money, a compliment, or a prayer.

(3) I will make a commitment to keep wealth circulating in my life by giving and receiving life’s most precious gifts: the gifts of caring, affection, appreciation, and love. Each time I meet someone, I will silently wish them happiness, joy, and laughter.

The source of all creation is pure consciousness … pure potentiality seeking expression from the unmanifest to the manifest.

And when we realize that our true Self is one of pure potentiality, we align with the power that manifests everything in the universe.

I will put the Law of Pure Potentiality into effect by making a commitment to take the following steps:

(1) I will get in touch with the field of pure potentiality by taking time each day to be silent, to just Be.  I will also sit alone in silent meditation at least twice a day for approximately thirty minutes in the morning and thirty minutes in the evening.

(2) I will take time each day to commune with nature and to silently witness the intelligence within every living thing. I will sit silently and watch a sunset, or listen to the sound of the ocean or a stream, or simply smell the scent of a flower. In the ecstasy of my own silence, and by communing with nature, I will enjoy the life throb of ages, the field of pre potentiality and unbounded creativity.

(3) I will practice non-judgment. I will begin my day with the statement, “Today, I shall judge nothing that occurs,” and throughout the day I will remind myself not to judge. 

1. The Law of Pure Potentiality
2. The Law of Giving
3. The Law of “Karma” or Cause and Effect
4. The Law of Least Effort
5. The Law of Intention and Desire
6. The Law of Detachment
7. The Law of “Dharma” or Purpose in Life

I consider myself to be an incredibly spiritual person.

I have never found a religion that suits me, but instead I choose to believe that every religion’s deepest truth is the same… and that Truth is what I believe in.
I tend to credit this belief to all of the different people I know, from different cultures, backgrounds, and religions. Since I strive to be continuously open-minded, non-judgmental, and accepting, it is practically impossibly to choose one religion over another.  

Deepak Chopra’s The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success is the closest explanation of my beliefs that I have come across. So in honor of the new year, my sister and I decided to put The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success into practice. Conveniently enough, 2012 started on a Sunday, there are 7 days in a week, and there are 7 Spiritual Laws… so it only made sense that we focus on one Law every day, rotating through all 7 every week. Our hopes are that by dedicating each day to one Law, we will be able to make these practices a habit, eventually changing our entire way of life.

After practicing the 7 Laws for a month, I have decided that I need to work a bit harder to make these Laws more of a priority… so I am going to post each Law every day this week. Maybe you will be able to practice with me :) 

I spent New Years Eve with my sister in Albuquerque—watching 2012 documentaries and reading The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success—and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. We were so relaxed about the entire evening that I’m actually quite surprised we didn’t miss the countdown to the new year! We noticed that midnight was approaching with just enough time to rush into the window-filled entryway where we could see fireworks going off from some other much-more-on-top-of-it partiers. The actual moment when it changed from 2011 to 2012 was fairly blurry to me this year… Being in Albuquerque, I felt as though I was watching the world slowly revolve into the New Year, with some help from facebook. First, friends in New Zealand were wishing everyone a happy 2012. A few hours later, my friends in Europe were celebrating. Soon, Argentines were clinking their champagne glasses and posting “Prospero Año”s. Then the ball dropped in New York, my friends in Oklahoma and Kansas sent me the typical “Happy New Year!” texts, and THEN, after everyone else I know had been celebrating for any amount of hours (up to almost an entire day earlier in New Zealand), it turned into 2012 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The line between years, between hours, between moments, seemed so… non-existant, that I couldn’t help but look at the New Year in an entirely different light. The idea of New Year’s Resolutions always seemed equally appealing and intimidating to me. I’ve had a love/hate relationship with resolutions over the years. I’m hopeful enough to always want to take the opportunity the New Year always brings to start afresh, but just the date on the calendar changing a few numbers was never enough incentive for me to make drastic changes. I could never say “well, it’s now XXXZ instead of XXXY, I obviously have to behave differently!” It just never made sense to me. This year, I think I now understand why that reason was never enough: Time is gradual. In the same way that change is gradual. The only important moment is the present moment, and the only way to change anything about yourself is to focus on being your best self in every present moment… No matter what year it is, or where on the Earth you stand, or when that tiny patch of Earth you are standing on rotates into the “New Year.” And since change is gradual, I’m not going to give up on all of my resolutions if I mess up one moment, or one day. I will put my errors behind me and embrace the new moment—the only important one.

“The past is history, the future is a mystery, and this moment is a gift. That is why they call it the present.”

Happy New Moment, everyone :)