I could feel there would be some activity. I hoped it would be a call from the casting agents, asking me in to meet the producers.

It wasn’t.

It was the announcement of the eight finalists who received the most votes during the voting part of the contest.

One of them will be on the reality show part of the contest.

Thirty-five more will get call-backs to meet with producers and nine of them will be on the reality show.

I want to be one of the nine.

In the past, I’ve been able to manifest many things and experiences I’ve really wanted.  Now, I’m going to publicly share my manifesting strategy with you and put it into action, right here.

1) Get clear on what you want and tell the story of it – in words or pictures.

Before graduating first in my class from Georgetown, I saw it in my mind’s eye.  I knew I’d have two kids before I was 30.  I visioned my house on the beach in Hermosa for years before I lived in it.

There’s more, but this gives you an idea of how manifestation has worked for me in the past.

I’ve always known I’d be on a reality show and have my own show on television helping people to resolve conflict.  (Wow, it’s hard to do this manifesting thing publicy; brings up all kinds of fear about it not working and looking like an idiot – I think this fear of feeling dumb is what keeps people from using law of attraction principles.)

Written as clearly as it can be then, the experience I want is  to be chosen as one of the contestants to participate in OWN Network “Your Own Show” reality show.

2) Now, feel what it will feel like when it happens.

Lots of people stop with the vision board or the written description and think that’s all it takes to manifest, but that’s far from the end of the process.

After getting clear about what you want and writing it or drawing it or speaking it out loud, you need to take it a step forward and actually feel the reality of what you want as much as you can in your body.

Put yourself into the experience of what it will feel like when you experience that thing you want.

As I do this, my mind immediately wants to focus in on the details, the obstacles, the discomfort.  My mind is afraid for me to feel what I truly want.

It wants to protect me from the disappointment of not getting what I want.  It wants to convince me I don’t really want it or that it’ll never happen and not to get my hopes up.

Instead, I bypass my mind and feel the energy, excitement, run around the house screaming intensity of getting that call from the producers. I allow the feeling of that yes to swell up inside of me and I allow the tears to spill across my face.  Because no doubt I would cry.

I feel the fear that will surely hit shortly within after that when I realize the “reality” of what’s to come.

I experience the discomfort of competing for my own show and seeing all my shortcomings so publicly broadcast for everyone to see.

I bring compassion to that fear and discomfort and make the commitment to stay true to myself, no matter what.

3) Then, let go of the outcome and trust.

This is the hardest part.  To want something so much and at the same time let go of it.  It’s the ultimate balancing act.

I practice trusting in something bigger than myself, the divine order of everything.  I practice knowing that all is well and that whatever happens will be just right.

This is the hardest part, trusting, allowing, letting go.

4) Last, take some action that is within your control

It’s easy to get stuck in the fantasy and the daydreaming parts of manifestation and not take any action.  This is a big mistake and why many people say the law of attraction doesn’t work – it’s not that it doesn’t work, it’s that they aren’t working for it.

From the space of trusting that all is well, ask yourself what, if any, action you can take that could bring you closer to the reality of that which you want.

Nothing happens without action.

While my mind wants to tell me this contest is completely out of my hands and there’s no action I can take, I know that’s not true.  There’s something I can do.  It’s just scary and uncomfortable.

I can write a letter to Oprah and Mark, right here on my blog, about why they should choose me. Then, I can do everything possible to make sure they see it.

So this is my letter to Oprah, Mark and the Universe about why I should be chosen for the Your OWN Show contest:

=======================

Dear Oprah, Mark and the Universe,

Choose me to be on Oprah’s Your OWN Show because:

1) The Catalyst is needed in the world. This show, about resolving conflict from the inside out, will provide a much needed antidote to the traditional Judge/Court shows that reinforce the ideas of blame, victimization and entitlement.  So many people are sitting on their couches watching TV, wondering what happened to their lives – how their lives got so out of control and unhappy.  The catalyst will help them see that resolving conflicts is the path to joy and freedom.

2) The Catalyst will help people with real legal issues. I’ve worked inside the big law firm, built my own firm and seen where the legal system is broken.   Most people simply do not have the resources to navigate the system and others are abusing it.  The Catalyst will direct people to become their own advocates without getting sucked into our over-taxed legal system unless that truly is the best route.  I simplify difficult concepts and tell it like it is so everyone watching will not only be entertained by the everyday conflicts brought through the questions from viewers, but educated as well by the answers I provide.  Edu-tainment.

3) There’s a big market for the Catalyst. We love conflict and drama, as proven by the years of the People’s Court, Judge Judy and the rest of the television court shows.  They also love to ask about their own legal issues and watch/listen as others have theirs answered.  Bill Handel has been on the radio for years, 3 hours every Saturday, and is the #1 listened to radio show in many markets providing, as he says “marginal legal advice.”  The format is proven, the show is not expensive to make, and millions of people will watch it.

4) Sponsors will love the show. The Catalyst will be sponsored by insurance companies, lawyers, legal document preparation companies, financial service firms, debt consolidation and restructuring firms, tax service companies and more.

5) I would be a great reality show contestant. I’m open, and willing to share it all. The stress of being a single mom, co-parenting and managing my own conflicts with my ex, and running my businesses while being on the show.  There’s sure to be several breakdowns and breakthroughs, all of which would be a lot of fun to watch.

6) My life is nutty.  My ex-husband lives with us, I c0-sleep with my kids in our family bed, go to Burning Man,  travel frequently to speak at events, host eclectic workshops at my home, run three businesses virtually, just bought a farm, juggle it all with dating and have some very interesting friends (from unschoolers with no income or permanent housing to multi-million dollar entrepreneurs and everything in between).

I’m excited to show people what it’s really like to live this non-conventional life.

Bottom line, it’s time to add a fresh voice to the marketplace that brings a new and unique perspective about what to do with their legal issues … my voice is that voice.

I’ve seen conflict from every angle and I know what happens to us when we resolve it from the inside out.

Oprah, Mark, Universe … I trust this show will be made one way or another.  There is no better home for it that I can imagine than the Oprah Winfrey Network, OWN.

With your help, we will move one step closer to world peace by helping your audience see that if we want peace, it must begin right here with each of us.

The Catalyst will be the catalyst for that peace for millions of people who want it, but don’t yet have the tools or knowledge to make it a reality in the face of their circumstances.

With gratitude,

Alexis

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So, that’s my manifestation process, laid out in all its glory.  Next stop, getting my letter to Oprah and Mark, so if you’ve got an in with them, please make sure they see it.  I’ll be looking for other routes as well.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about manifestation, the law of attraction and whether you have any other processes you love for creating the life you want on your terms.

My twitter friend said I came across as too perfect, as if I’ve never had problems.

Boy, is that far from the truth.

My show concept for the Catalyst comes from the reality of my own life.  My own divorce, conflicts with employees and business partners.  My kids’ conflicts with each other.  My extended family’s conflicts after deaths in the family.

In fact, now that I think about it, it really all started with my parent’s divorce.

I remember feeling like a ping pong in the middle of their bickering.  Neither of them could see I was the last one who should be helping them work through their issues.

Maybe that’s because it was all part of the bigger picture – I was in early training for what was to come later … this show, the Catalyst.

The Catalyst is about seeing that all conflict is the greatest opportunity to be more of who you are.  Conflict isn’t something to be avoided.  It’s to be confronted.  With love and an open heart.

We need the tools for this.  It’s not the norm in our world.  But, it can be.

It’s not easy, by any means.  It could be though, with the right tools.  All it takes is a new perspective.  A shift in awareness.  Seeing what you could not previously see.

So no, definitely not perfect.  But, I do believe thanks to my experiences perfectly suited to host this show and make an impact in this way.

And it’s also why I think the reality show aspect of Oprah’s Your Own Show contest is so right for me.  I need work to make my show as great as it can possibly as be – and I believe it begins with allowing more of my authentic, true, anything but perfect self to shine through.

If I truly believe that all conflict is your greatest opportunity to be more of who you are, what better way to experience that than with a reality show/contest where conflict is almost certain to be a given.

Up until then, I owned and operated a traditional bricks & mortar business – a boutique estate and business planning law practice.  While I loved having my own business, I did not love having to get up, shower, get dressed and leave my house to go into the office everyday.

I wanted to be more present for my kids.  By that point, I was a single mom and working away from home 6-7 days  a week, running my own business, was putting a huge strain on me and my family.

So I was mightily intrigued by what I began to see as an alternative – moving part or all of my business online.

If you’ve explored the online business world at all, you’ve probably noticed it can be like dropping down into a rabbit hole.

What’s real?  What’s not?  Who can you trust?  Who is full of it?

I get ya.  And I’ve spent the past 5 years figuring it out.

I’ve invested hundreds of thousands in my education.  I’ve hired coaches, consultants, coachsultants.  I’ve joined high end masterminds.  Low end masterminds.  Thrown together masterminds.

And I’ve seen what’s real and what’s not.

So, I’m starting a series here I think you will like a lot.  It’s called Real Online Business Models and I’m featuring people and businesses like:

Sticker Giant:  a traditional Sticker Printing company with a 500-year old business model that is considered a technology start-up because of the online business strategies they are using to dominate the marketplace.

Brian Clark: a recovering attorney turned online mogul (he laughs when I call him this) who has one of the most visited sites on the web by people looking to build their own online businesses, which he has leveraged into millions of dollars of cha-ching.

Laura Roeder: a 20-something gal who has become a stand-out social media consultant in a VERY crowded marketplace thanks to her real online business model.

Dave Navarro: thanks to the real online business model he built, he quit his day job completely and now makes a nice six-figure revenue working from home helping people sell more online and gets to spend a lot of time on Twitter.

Dave Dee:  he’s been in the world of information marketing since the late 1990s when he released his first product on a set of cassette tapes and he’s an expert at bringing offline businesses online.  He was the first consultant I hired who turned out to be the real deal in helping me and my business make the leap.

And there will be a whole lot more.

If you’ve been wondering what’s real, what’s not, who you can trust and who is full of it, you are in the right place.  This series will take you behind the scenes.

Be sure to let me know if there is someone you think I should interview for the real online business model series.

The Oprah Show Host contest is taunting me.  At least 10 people have emailed me, tweeted me, facebook’d me or otherwise told me about the thing.

Yes, I’ve talked about having a show for years.  Yes, this would be a great opportunity to get out there and allow it to happen.  Yes, yes, yes.

But, the timing really sucks.

I have 100% devoted myself to the deconstruction and reconstruction of my company so I can bring love to the legal process in a big way by training lawyers on a massive scale and designating some of them as lawyers you can really love.

The deconstruction/reconstruction means I have very little creative energy remaining for anything else.

As you can tell, I’ve barely been writing on the bloggity and what I have written has been pretty surface.  Don’t think I haven’t known it.

But, it’s what’s been happening.  The focus on this business and the work I’m doing is utilizing almost every ounce of creative energy I have.

Focus has always been difficult for me because of this.  My creative energy is HUGE and doesn’t always feel fully expressed when focusing on one thing.

What’s interesting is that when I saw my dear friend Baeth Davis (the Hand Analyst) recently, she grabbed my hands, looked at them for a brief second (don’t ask her to do this for you without paying her, she gets beaucoup bucks for a reading) and said something along the lines of …

“Wow, you have a very intense ability to focus. You need to focus on big, huge problems or your mind will create them all around you.”

Ummhmm, yep.  That’s true.

Anyway, that means that even though I’m exceedingly focused on my business training lawyers you love, my mind is wanting to engage in a lot of mental activity about all the other things there are for me to do in the world.

I’ve been good at ignoring this chatter for the past couple of months.  Less time on Twitter, less focused on my other businesses.

Head down, devotion to the lawyers.

And then Oprah showed up with her contest.  A contest I am so resistant to enter it must be exactly what I’m supposed to do next to move forward with my OWN evolution.

Did I ever mention that I met with the folks at OWN 12-18 months ago about my show concept?  I just knew it was supposed to be there.  The perfect fit.

In person, they loved me. They loved the concept for the show.  Then, we got into the treatment and notes and I gave away my power.

I didn’t hold firm to my vision. I let others take it over and it got muddied.  I wasn’t ready.

They passed.

I was so disappointed. I don’t know if I ever really acknowledged that before now, but I was.

And now I’m scared to try again.

What if I try (so publicly!) and don’t get it. Again.

I’m scared it would be the end of my dream.  I’d never be able to try again.  And I know this show is supposed to be a reality.

What if I’m still not ready?

I know these thoughts and this fear is not the truth.  I also know that success is a series of tryings again and again.  And, yet, it’s so hard to take the action necessary to keep trying.

But, when  I think about the possibility for the world of this show, I know I have to push through the fear and the resistance.

And then the voice comes that says I’m full of shit and my show isn’t that special.  It’s trying to protect me, that voice.  It really does have my best interest at heart and doesn’t want to see me hurt.

My opportunity is to hear that voice, be aware of it and bring love to it.  Pay attention to it and recognize it as a protective part of me, a thought I don’t have to believe.

As I do this, my body relaxes and I remember how important this show is.  To the world.

(It makes me not be able to breathe to say that and at the same time, I can feel the truth of it so deeply.)

And to the lawyers I train.  This show is important to them too.  They want to be loved.  They deserve to be loved.  This show will help with that.

Here’s what it’s about:

Conflict is the order of the day in almost everyone’s life.

We don’t talk about it publicly (for the most part), but it’s a constant beneath the surface.

We’ve become so used to conflict that we think it’s normal.

Normal to fight with our spouses.
Normal to fight with our parents.
Normal to fight with our siblings.
Normal to fight with our neighbors.
Normal to fight with our co-workers.

It’s time for a new normal.

This show that wants to emerge through me will help people see there is a clear path to happiness and everything else you ever wanted in life.

Take this path and  you will naturally lose weight, your face will look ten years younger (at least!), you will live longer.

Take this path and finally feel what it feels like to feel free, free at the deepest core of your being.  Free.

With this show, I intend to take us down the path to the ultimate in internal resolution.

This show will show people how to stop fighting.

Yep, that’s it.  Stop fighting.

We want world peace?  Let’s start with peace in our own homes, in our own lives, in our own psyches.

It’s both that simple and that difficult.

Our friends and family egg us on, as if it’s normal – “take him for all he’s worth” or “don’t let her get away with that” or a myriad of other statements that support conflict escalation.

Our legal system is incentivized to escalate conflict.

Even during my “collaborative” divorce, my husband’s lawyer was urging him to keep arguing over a $1,000 item near the end of our divorce process.

And that was a lawyer trained to be “collaborative.”

Fighting, conflict, escalation is so ingrained in our world.

It’s the ultimate physical manifestation of our unconscious behavior.  And we think it’s okay.

This show will help us all see a new reality.  A reality that is free of fighting, conflict, guilt, shame and fear.

Imagine that.

Imagine a world in which we all knew the truth about conflict.  A world in which we could see that all conflict is an opportunity for personal healing and transformation at the deepest level.

Heal your conflict and watch the weight drop off.  Forgive and watch the wrinkles melt away.  Give love and watch the aches and pains disappear.

This show is the anti-Judge Judy and People’s Court.  Not that I don’t love those shows, I do.  Deeply.  The drama, the conflict, the intensity.

I might not have become a lawyer were it not for the People’s Court.

But what if we could have just as much excitement and drama and at the same time heal the world from the inside out?

I can feel it.  We can do it.  This show is part of the path.

I’m scared that I can’t do it. That I will fail in my mission. That I will not get the show. That I will not be able to be clear enough about the vision.

Or that I will get the show and then I will not be able to hold the space for the truth to be seen.

That I will give away my power, like I did last time I got in front of OWN.

But, how can I not do this?

This vision is too important and God gave it to me for a reason.

As an evolutionary entrepreneur, I must keep growing, keep expanding through the fear.

So I told God I would do it, but only if it can be fun and serve my lawyers because I am dedicated to the reconstruction of this company right now.

And I see the Universe conspiring to make it happen.

First, recommendation after recommendation to read Steven Pressfield’s book the War of Art.  A book I had never heard of before now that I’ve now seen at least 10 times in the past two days, even though it came out in 2002.

It’s guiding me to see the truth about the resistance.  And why I must do this. And why I must also reconstruct the company.  That I can do both.

Then, the perfect producer showed up.  A woman I helped resolve a conflict New Year’s weekend 2009.  She gets my work because she experienced it first-hand.  She loves it and she’s full of love and fun.

So I am moving through the resistance.  Doing my part to allow this to happen.  Being willing to put myself out there and try again, even though I’m scared to death to do it and to do it so publicly.

Your support is so welcome.  A word.  A thought.  A vote once I get the video posted. Anything you’ve got to help me see this through is welcome.

I’m going to do it.  How can I not?

I recently ended a very important relationship in exactly the wrong way. Because of fear.

Fear of being hurt. Fear that something would be taken from me. Fear of the unknown.

The experience showed me everything about myself I didn’t want to see.

Brought me to my knees.

I didn’t know what was real. What was truth. What was not.  I do now.  Love is real.

Just not the way I thought.

It’s what you give.  Period.  Love, sweet love.

Thank you Universe for showing me the way.  My prayers were answered.

With love.

Today, I got to talk with an awesome lawyer who is (by her own words) more out there than me.

Her name is J. Kim Wright and she just came out with a book every lawyer needs to read called Lawyers As Peacemakers: Practicing Holistic, Problem-Solving Law.

One of the things we talked about was how the right questions can open up incredible awareness, possibility and potential.

After our talk, a question popped into my mind that could shift things for you.

I’m sure you’ve heard the question asked – what would you do if you knew you could not fail?

Well, I want to ask you a slightly different version of that.  Take this in and sit with it …

What Would You Do If You Had Nothing Left to Lose?

Be willing to do that now.

Who would you be?  How would you be?

Be it now.

I’ve been having a bit of a rough time lately. Not really with anything in particular and with everything at the same time.

One of my companies is in what Seth Godin calls The Dip, my 10 year old daughter is cranky and moody, my son broke his arm, and I’ve had limited time for my spiritual practice.

It might sound odd to hear this, but even with all that, I’m thrilled with my life. Pretty much.

The pretty much comes from a part of me that is not happy with my life and is not getting it’s needs met.

It’s my girl. The one inside who I don’t let out often enough.  The dreadlocked, tattooed, skirt-wearing, hippie girl.

She’s not too happy with the situation going on over here.

She wants a whole lot more freedom. To twirl and dance. To party all the time.

She wants to laugh. And feel.

She doesn’t care about the big house, flying first class and eating at fancy restaurants. She wants to run and jump and play. She wants to be outside and do art. And paddle-board. She definitely wants to paddle-board. In Hawaii.

And since she’s not getting any of that right now, she’s punishing me with negative behaviors, primarily in the form of whining and complaining.

I contain it and manage her, but she’s becoming unmanageable.

Hm, no wonder my daughter is whining and complaining as if she has PMS at only 10 years old.

Everything we experience is an out-picturing of our inner consciousness. She’s merely reflecting my girl back to me. Which is fitting since she is, well, my girl.

Did you ever notice that?

If a part of you is cranky and tired and whining, that will be projected on someone around you.

And when you are feeling resolved inside and have addressed the needs of all of your parts, everyone else around you seems more at peace as well?

Well, thank God for girlfriends because I’ve been struggling with an internal “what’s wrong” for a few weeks now and I couldn’t understand it because while there are a few hard things happening, overall so much is going so right:

• new CEO coming into company to help us through the Dip (what Les Mckeown calls Whitewater)
• clients are having huge successes (one of our Personal Family Lawyers began her firm in January and she engaged 9 new clients this month and already has 5 on the books for April)
• I’m meeting my daughter’s needs even though she is a crankypants without raising my voice or getting angry and my son’s broken arm is healing without surgery
• we are about to close on a farm about 20 minutes away from my house where we are going to have an organic farm, and
• despite that I don’t have marketing energy people are lining up to hear about the money map to freedom, which means my money map is working.

But, it took a lazy Sunday afternoon conversation with my girlfriend Sandy Grason to see “what’s wrong” and what I could do to fix it.

More focus on my personal spiritual practice.

I’ve given my business all my spiritual practice time over the last several months.

Putting LIFT in place in my own business, getting my money map running, seeing what I wasn’t seeing.

Those have been my spiritual practices in the recent months.

It’s time for me to take back some of my time and come home to me. When I do, I’ll rediscover the gratitude and truly be able to serve at the deepest level.

It’s time to rediscover my own personal spiritual practice.

Sandy’s began with journaling and she wrote a book about it – Journalution.

While I want writing to be enough of a regular spiritual practice for me, it’s really not.

My practice is something that must combine my body and breath and bring me out of my intellect and in connection with that part of me that is not being heard, my girl.

Ariana Hall, another girlfriend of mine, helped me recently understand more about these various parts of myself.

My awareness after working with her  is that whenever something is “wrong” it’s because I’m missing a communication from one of these parts of myself.

So, my practice will give my girl time and attention to be heard and felt.

As I understand more about what it looks like on a daily basis, I’ll let you know.

In the meantime, what’s your spiritual practice? Our natural state is joy, freedom and lightness.

If that’s not YOUR natural state, inquire into that.

And consider the possibility that all you need to get “better” is practice.

Several months ago, I heard Marianne Williamson speak at an event.

I asked her about the idea of combining spirituality with the business side of business.  The legal, insurance, financial and tax parts of business.

Her response was “Do Your Work.”

At the time, I thought she meant that I needed to re-immerse myself in my own spiritual practice.

Looking back now with the benefit of all that has happened since then I realize that the work she was talking about was not what I thought at all.

It wasn’t about more meditation.

The “work” I had to do was my work, the work of LIFT (my signature system for getting the business of your business on a solid foundation) in my own life and business.

I had to start looking at what I wasn’t looking at.  My messy books.  My lack of legal agreements.  Having no business insurance.  Unclear job descriptions.

Little did I know at the time that looking at those things would or could be a spiritual practice.  That doing my own work on my own business would bring up all my old patterns and fears.  It would show me what I really believed, underneath all the words, thoughts and actions.

And it would starkly show me where I wasn’t being true.

As I created my LIFT Foundation System and began to take the steps to do the LIFT work in my own business, a major shift began to happen.

I began to see what I hadn’t been seeing.  I saw exactly why I had given up on the dream and it wasn’t at all what I thought.

I began to see where I was holding back (and holding on too tightly) because of the fear that I didn’t really have what it took.  And I saw that when it came to the business parts of my business (the LIFT parts), I didn’t.

Sure, I had a great business from the outside.  It made lots of money and helped a lot of people.  But peek behind the curtain and there were a lot of shadows.  Drama.  Tears.  A company culture I wasn’t proud of.

As I’ve done my own work on my own business, the dream I had once let go of has been re-ignited and along with it the resources to make it a reality.

Just this week, I brought a CEO into my company.

I chose him as opposed to others I spoke with because he is committed to creating a company culture based on congruence, open communication, and community.  All things I stand for and believe in, but wasn’t really living in my own business.

I didn’t know how.  I was taught to manage and lead from the example of the law firm partners I grew up under.  Poor role models to say the least.

But, I didn’t know any other way to be.  The patterned behavior so ingrained.

It took a commitment to LIFT my business and do my own work on myself and my business to see the truth of what was needed and to admit that it was beyond my own capacity to bring forth.

Hitch will run the day to day operations of the company, lead the team,  carry out the initiatives and cultivate the company culture.

That means I’ll get to do what I do best – dream, create, innovate.  Appear in the media.  Write books.  Teach.  And not spend so much time on the business part of my business – the parts that do not bring me energy and joy.

But, here’s the big secret that so many of us miss.

Before I could attract this level of help, I had to admit I needed it.  I had to face and do those things I didn’t want to look at and didn’t want to do – the LIFT things.

I had to be willing to get the basics in place so he could see I was serious about this business.  And once I became willing to do my own work, it made space for him to show up.

The process we went through to document the agreement governing our relationship alone was eye-opening.  Our line by line open-hearted discussion of the agreement told me he was the right one.

Someone of his caliber, experience and possibility never would have been attracted to come on-board if my books hadn’t been ready, if I hadn’t had a semblance of foundation in place.  My personal expenses completely separate from the business.  My three businesses all with their own entities, balance sheets, bank accounts, and projections.

I wonder … does this apply to you as well?

Not the part about LIFT.  I KNOW that does. You NEED to face the business of your business from a place of empowerment, not fear, head on. (And I can help you do it and make it a whole lot easier.)

I mean the part about needing to do your own work on yourself?  Do you want to help others, but find yourself not serving at the level you wish you were?  It could be because you need to help yourself first.

Maybe you are a marketing consultant/coach without a clear marketing plan.  Or perhaps you are a communications expert with a fuzzy message.  Or a spiritual teacher without a personal practice.

Do your work on yourself and watch what happens.

Several years ago, when I first discovered it was my purpose to shine the light, I was a lawyer who had just started my own law practice.

Shine the light?!?  What the fuck am I supposed to do with that?”

So, I started reading.

One of the first books I read was by Neale Donald Walsch. Bringers of the Light.

On the first page, he writes “It is falling together, you know. It may not look like it, but it is. Usually when your life looks like it’s falling apart, it’s really falling together. Often, for the first time.”

I’ve returned to this quote many times since then. Now, I offer it to you with my love, gratitude, humility, and, yes, my light.

After I wrote my last post about my next book (which still makes me quite queasy to think about), I realized that there may be some question regarding what I mean when I talk about freedom.

So I thought it might help if I got a bit more specific.

The road to freedom I’ll write about isn’t for everyone.  It can be a difficult path to travel.  It requires giving up the bonds and beliefs and security blankets we’ve clung to our whole lives.  The expectations and obligations that keep us in from being free.

Oftentimes it can feel like flying without a safety net, which can be totally exhilarating or bring up mortal fear.  It is life on the razor’s edge.

The rewards are immense.

Finding freedom can happen as simply as taking your next breath with complete awareness, focus or presence.  Or it may require you to fight your way through massive resistance, drama and suffering.  Or both.

The road itself will appear differently for each of us.

Imagine being totally present in each moment.  Not worried about the future or obsessing about the past.  Not thinking incessantly about whether you should or shouldn’t do something.  Or about what other people think or feel about what you are doing.

Imagine being grounded in the reality that exactly what you are doing in every moment IS the exactly right thing.  Without question.

That’s freedom.

You may not have all the money you’d like to have, but it doesn’t matter because you are exactly where you are supposed to be.

You may not look as hot as you’d like to look, but you are perfectly satisfied and content exactly where you are.

And guess what?  As soon as you are, you’ll find yourself wealthier and better looking than you ever have before.  It’s like magic.

Freedom via acceptance of exactly where you are doesn’t mean settling or that you aren’t interested in improving or taking action toward improvement.

But, you are no longer driven toward that improvement by fear, pain or suffering.  You’ve evolved to another state of being.

Your motivation is intrinsic.  Once free, you are pulled by love and desire instead of being constantly pushed by impatience, internal whippings and the terror that you are missing out.

Your mind is no longer harassing you constantly about what you could have or should have done.  It rests in the knowing that everything is exactly as it should be.

That’s freedom.  Are you ready?