There is Zen in Fire

This is from "You Can Heal Your Life" by Louise Hay. Her company, Hay House Publishing, took a gamble on Jerry and Esther Hicks and published "The Law of Attraction". Esther Hicks was then asked to be in the popular movie, "The Secret".

While "The Secret" focused heavily on prosperity and abundance in terms of money, Louise talks a lot more about creating the prosperous thoughts that create a truly happier life.

I share this for anyone out there who isn't happy with some aspect of their life. Like so many of us, I was frustrated with my cycle of repeating one bad relationship after another.

Now with children involved and each failed relationship being more devastating, I felt one more heartache and my heart would literally break, leaving me a broken man. That was if I wasn't already. My greatest source of strength was/is also my greatest weakness, an open and never-ending heart.

When I gave myself I gave it all, being completely vulnerable. I was OK with being this way (and hope to be again) until I realized that the women I was attracting were using this vulnerability to hurt me when they weren't happy. So kind and wonderful in the beginning, they became so ugly by the end with their chronic criticizing, complaining and condemning.

I experienced this on such an abusive level, putting up with it "in the name of love" long after I should have put a stop to it. I kept thinking if I just kept loving enough, things would change. At 35 I had a heart attack, working three jobs while working on my masters and sleeping two nights a week, being a husband trying to make his wife happy, and being a committed father to five children (hers, mine and ours).

Fortunately, after four days in the hospital and several tests, the doctors told me I had no permanent damage and was healthier than they were. They were perplexed, and concluded I had been given a very big warning that I was to take VERY seriously.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), now when I encounter a complaining and criticizing person, I run from them like the plague. I immediately shut down from them emotionally, keeping as much distance from them as possible so I don't get infected.

I didn't know what I was doing wrong to attract these people but knew I had to find out for my own health and happiness and my children's. So for 2007 I resolved to not get serious with anyone for at least a year, and instead spend that time healing and improving myself. Focusing on what was wrong with others wasn't improving my life, and I didn't want to bring my own garbage into anyone else's life.

I would deal with it and clean it up, and give the next relationship a healthier person, hoping it would be with a healthier person ("I attract only healthy relationships" - great line from Louise's CD).

"You Can Heal Your Life" opened my eyes to a lot about myself. But it took opening my ears and mind, A LOT! From January 1st and into March I would listen to her CD anywhere from 1.5 - 4.5 hours a day. I don't know how I did it, I just knew I found a way to incorporate it into my life. It would be the first thing I heard in the morning and last thing at night, and anywhere in between I could fit it in.

I wanted the pain to stop and simply took the pains to fill my head with more intelligent thinking than what I had been doing. The more I did this, the more peace and hope I began to feel, and realized that there is Zen in Fire.

Great results take great intent. Change CAN and DOES happen to average people like you and me everyday; as soon as we get rid of our average thinking and stop limiting ourselves. Good things DO happen to good (thinking) people. Just for fun, I'm going to see if GREAT things can happen GREAT thinking people.

Here are some of her thoughts that helped me, and are helping me still. I put them in first-person to make them more powerful. Today is my parent's 42nd wedding anniversary. Congratulations Mom and Dad. Thanks for being good role models. It gives me the courage to keep believing.

It is Louise's desire that each and every person learns how to use affirmations to create love, peace, joy, prosperity and a sense of well-being for themselves.

Today is a new day. Today is the day for me to begin creating a joyous, fulfilling life. Today is the day I begin to release all my limitations. Today is the day, for me to learn the secrets of life. (This is a published picture of Camargue's horses - I feel like I'm looking into Heaven when I see this.)

I CAN change my life for the better. I already have the tools within me to do this. These tools are my thoughts and beliefs.


An affirmation is anything I say or think. A lot of what I used to normally say and think was quite negative, and did not create good experiences for me. I am retraining my thinking and speaking in positive patterns and I AM CHANGING MY LIFE!

An affirmation opens the way and is the beginning point of change. In essence I am saying to my subconscious mind: I am taking responsibility. I am aware that there is something I CAN DO to change.

Doing an affirmation is consciously choosing words that will help eliminate something from my life or help create something new in my life. *EVERY thought I think and EVERY word I speak is an affirmation.

All of my self talk is a stream of affirmations. I am using affirmations every moment, whether I know it or not. I am creating and affirming my life experiences with every word and every thought.

My beliefs are merely habitual thinking patterns that I learned as a child. Many of them work very well for me. Other beliefs may be limiting my ability to create the very things I say I want in my life.

**What I want and what I believe I deserve may be very different. I need to pay attention to my thoughts so I can begin eliminating the ones that are creating experiences that I do not want in my life.

Every complaint is an affirmation of something I think I don’t want in my life. Every time I get angry I am affirming I want more anger in my life. Every time I feel like a victim I am affirming that I want to continue feeling like a victim.


If I feel that life does not give me what I want in my world, then it is certain I will never get the good things life is giving to others, until I change the way I think and talk. (TBC)

Let's Fly!

Each one of us is of great value to all those who enter our world, either directly or indirectly. Every thing we do, every word we speak, and even every thought we think has an effect. Not only in our lives, but also in the lives of all we touch.

We truly are creators with everything we need available to us.

But if we do not know this, or choose not to believe this, then our lives become nothing more than fallen leaves adrift in a river flowing to a destination we don't know. Although we have unconsciously made this happen, it feels as if we have no control of our lives. And we feel bad or worthless by the "bad" choices we have made.

And as we beat ourselves up, we begin to see our dreams as foolish, and we settle in a stagnant pool of poor self-appreciation. We remember our younger years as the happiest times of our lives, and long for their return. Moments of joy become fewer and fewer, usually coming temporarily in the form of a good weekend or our favorite sports team winning a game.

We wonder why we're even here, why life is so hard, and if things wouldn't have turned out better had we just made better choices in our past.

And then there's the problem. We decide to make better choices but feel powerless to do so because we haven't forgiven ourselves and others for the things that have "gone wrong". We have forgotten that we are remarkable beings, able to change our lives by changing our thoughts and feelings.

And that is exactly how it does start to change; by reclaiming our own power of the self-creation of our own worlds.

Just for today,

think ONLY about what you want your life to be like

see ONLY what you want your life to be like

and expect ONLY what you want your life to be like to happen

It's time to toughen up and retake control over our own lives. It's time to fight for control over our own minds and feelings for just one minute longer. It's time to trust that this fight doesn't involve great struggle and resistance, but an allowance of the flow we feel inside of us.

It's time to feel brave again, like we did when we were young and unstoppable.

Because we were, until we learned to fear "falling" and getting hurt. Just because we fell and got hurt learning to walk didn't mean we gave up. We kept trying and learning from our falls UNTIL we were able to walk.....and then we began to run

I say let's fly


Let's Fly Slide Show

Live a Life Free of Blame

This is a very good enlightening piece from my friends at Daily OM. A lot of us have read/seen The Secret, Law of Attraction, Louise Hay and What the %$*&# Do We Know.

It's an appropriate next-step in the area of past pain and associated blame. Enjoy and Illuminate.

There's Zen in Fire.




June 25, 2007
Burdensome Feelings
Blaming Others

As we begin to truly understand that the world outside of us is a reflection of the world inside of us, we may feel confused about who is to blame for the problems in our lives. If we had a difficult childhood, we may wonder how we can take responsibility for that, and in our current relationships, the same question arises. We all know that blaming others is the opposite of taking responsibility, but we may not understand how to take responsibility for things that we don’t truly feel responsible for. We may blame our parents for our low self-esteem, and we may blame our current partner for exacerbating it with their unconscious behavior. Objectively, this seems to make sense. After all, it is not our fault if our parents were irresponsible or unkind, and we are not to blame for our partner’s bad behavior.

Perhaps the problem lies with the activity of blaming. Whether we blame others or blame ourselves, there is something aggressive and unkind about it. It sets up a situation in which it becomes difficult to move forward under the burdensome feelings of shame and guilt that arise. It also puts the resolution of our pain in the hands of someone other than us. Ultimately, we cannot insist that someone else take responsibility for their actions; only they can make that choice when they are ready. In the meantime, if we want to move forward with our lives instead of waiting around for something that may or may not happen, we begin to see the wisdom of taking the situation into our own hands.

We do this by forgiving our parents, even if they have not asked for our forgiveness, so that we can be free. We end the abusive relationship with our partner, who may never admit to any wrongdoing, because we are willing to take responsibility for how we are treated. In short, we love ourselves as we want to be loved and create the life we know we deserve. We leave the resolution of the wrongs committed against us in the hands of the universe, releasing ourselves to live a life free of blame.

Changing Unwanted Things Without Force

I don't know about you, but the end of the school year is anything but peaceful. The fruit of your efforts all year as a student, parent or teacher is finally revealed. As a teacher, students are seen for the last time and for the first time, the immense amount of end-of-year paperwork is really seen.

Just for fun, it seems that no matter what you do for a living, when that living gets super stressful, the universe is going to throw just one thing at you to make it seem unbearable. Your car will break down, important paperwork will become lost, someone will yell at you for something you didn't do, etc.

My God (and yours too if you believe in Him or Her), it's almost as if when we're in this non-peaceful state we attract more non-peace into our lives. The Law of Attraction at work......

And such it is with yours truly. Even with outstanding results from the big state FCAT test, I'm seeing less of what I like and more of what I don't.

When I woke up this morning from another night of "let's see how long I can survive on less than 100 minutes of sleep" and saw this meditation (from DailyOM), I felt like it was talking directly to me.

And because I value you, I wanted to share in case you need it too. Be sure to reread the part I highlighted a few times. Peace, Love and Joy


Looking Deeply
The Good In All

Sometimes we find it difficult to see the good in people, places, or situations that aren't to our liking. We focus on the things we don't like in our lives as a way of fueling our efforts to create change. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, and it is one way we make progress. However, if we get too caught up in this way of looking at the world, we lose touch with our ability to sit back and simply say yes to everything on our plates, which is the true starting point for all successful activity. Sometimes what we really need is to encourage ourselves to look deeply into all things in our lives to see the inherent goodness at the heart of everything.

At the core of this inquiry is the practice of unconditional acceptance, which can be scary because we feel as if we are being asked not to change the things we don't like. But when we think this way, we are still operating on the surface of our lives. In order to feel the beauty and warmth of full acceptance, we have to be willing to sink deeper into the stratum underlying the external manifestation of our lives. This deeper place of being is the origin of all lasting change, yet its paradox is that when we are in it, we often don't feel the need to change anything. From this place, we experience the pure beauty of the process of being alive, and we see that all things change in their own time. We don�t need to force anything. If there are things that we do need to change, from this place of serenity we create the shift easily, our hands guided by an energy that resides at the very center of our hearts.

In our active, goal-oriented culture, we learn to distrust stillness and to engage in busywork on the surface of life. This tendency can blind us to the good that lies at the heart of all things. But all we have to do to see again is stop for a moment, let go of our preconceptions and our agendas, and settle into the very center of our hearts, remembering that it is only from here that we can truly see.

What if They Don't Want Me to Succeed?

I came upon this while reading from the book "The Law of Attraction":

"Jerry: Is it possible to create effectively when we're in the company of people who strongly oppose what we want?

Abraham: By focusing upon what you desire, you could ignore their opposition. If you oppose their opposition, however, then you would not be focused upon what you want , and your creation would be affected. It is easier to walk away....in order to stay focused upon your desire.

Removing yourself from opposition is not necessary. Just focus upon what you want, and by the power of your own clarity, you will be able to positively create under any circumstances."

From my experience, while some people celebrate others' success, there are others that act as crabs, trying to pull the ones getting out of the trap back in.

"No one ever kicks a dead dog." I read this years ago from a Dale Carnegie book and it's always stayed with me, probably because it took so long for me to truly understand it. If you're not striving for and achieving success, the average person does not seem to mind, maybe because you're seen as "one of them".

It's only when you have the courage to continue dreaming, fighting for and achieving dreams that the average man has given up on within himself, that you attract attention. And some unhappy people can't stand seeing others happy, and try to kick you or knock you down.

I teach in an unusual way, and encounter every year a few who criticize me because of this. They rarely do this to me of course, but talk about me behind my back. Had I let myself focus on their limited thinking, there is no way I could have maintained the energy it took to produce expanded thinking in my students. And as a teacher, I work for my students, and no one else.

Yesterday my class received the results of the hardest county reading test of the year. They averaged an "A". I'm working on a post for them on their site called "This Only Happens in the Movies".

We have a choice. You and I can focus on those who oppose our success, and fail. Or we can focus ONLY ON what we want to happen, and allow that to become our reality, and succeed.

Happy Jack

This is the latest book in the "My Name is Jack" series. It's up-tempo, and meant to be read in a sing-song way. If you have kids, read it to them and see what kind of rhythm and dance is created from your two personalitites.

This book is a perfect example of how our thoughts create our world (paraphrasing enlightened souls from Buddha to Ben (Franklin) to the modern day phenom "The Secret" and "Law of Attraction". I started writing it on the airplane as a counting book using body parts. I kept a picture of Jack in my head and just wrote how I saw him react. I saw him kinda dancing, so I added the sing-song rhyme.

Then a mother and her three sons got on the connecting flight in Charlotte (This is my mother with one of her two sons; the really, really good son (me) who shaved his ugly old goatee because his mother asked him to).

One of the boys, named "Jack", sat directly in front of me. He was more lively than the previous seat owner from Orlando to Charlotte, and instead of letting it distract me, I allowed it to interest me, and lines such as ....."Stompin' to the beat, With my two feet, Clappin' hands together and Shakin' in my seat....." were born.

Hopefully I've been able to plant the seed that one can get themselves out of their own "grumpy" state (good message for children AND adults), as well as, and I really took my time on this last stanza, the idea of a forever, eternal and unconditional love existing between a parent and child.

Here it is................

HAPPY JACK

Ten tiny toes

One button nose

A couple of fists

And two elbows

One bright smile

A grin worthwhile

Showin' all my teeth

Just like a crocodile

Wigglin' my ears

And gettin' rid of all my fears

Creatin' happy music

Snappin' my fingers

Stompin' to the beat

With my two feet

Clappin' hands together

And a shakin' in my seat

Jumpin' up and down

Body turnin' all around

Got my hands raised up

Gettin' rid of all my frowns

Eyes shinin' bright

Reflectin' from the light

Feeling good inside

Everything is allright

Songs of joy and laughter

Just a bouncin' in my heart

So much love I'm feelin'

In my happy, happy heart

Cover me in kisses

And make this dance complete

From my knibbly-knobbly knees

To my pinchy-winchy cheeks

Cover me in kisses

And make this dance complete

From my knuckly little knuckles

To the tickles on my feet

Cover me in kisses

And look me in the eye

Tell me that you love me

And you will for all time

Copyright © 2007 by Adam Stuart
All Rights Reserved

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

This is a post I did today for my students over on their "Stuart's Spectacular Students" site. There is an amazing amount of learning we can do as adults by watching children who haven't been taught to be limited by their fears. What is the "Big Bad Wolf" we're allowing us to stop us as adults?

Thank you Bridget, and to each and every one of my students who remind me to Live Out Loud (click to read). My own children are depending on me to show them that IT CAN BE DONE, in "real life". That it's not just another line in a childrens' fairy tale rhyme. (Bella made these clay dolls of me and her. We were "dancing")

WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD WOLF?


IT'S NOT BRIDGET! When the school news asked for applicants for the TV show, I asked you all to raise your hands if you were afraid of applying; either because you were afraid you wouldn't be chosen, or you were afraid you would be.

When the ones who did raised your hands, I suggested you apply anyway. If you didn't "FACE YOUR FEARS" now, it would only get harder to do it as you grew up. I passed along learning I've gained from great people like Plato and Eleanor Roosevelt, and passed it along to you all in hopes of helping you become the greatness I see inside of you. Bridget, you said you would, but only wanted to work behind the camera.

You were chosen, and for the past three mornings have been ON the news, IN FRONT of the camera. I don't know where you got your courage from, but I'm glad you chose to focus on your courage versus fear.

Not only are you becoming more each day by doing this, you are HAVING FUN doing it. You can see it in your smile and your energy literally comes through the camera to everyone watching, making us want to hear what you have to say.


You reminded me of the importance of choosing to be happy, to just "go with it", even when you might be scared to death of what you are doing. Now I think of Plato, Roosevelt, and Frost when speaking on having courage.

Why do I get the strong feeling that Robert Frost, the poet and writer, won't be the only Frost people remember?

And that goes for ALL of you. You can't control your life if you don't control your thoughts.


Remember what the structure was that we came up with together this morning: In your comments include:

1. What you INTENDED to learn.
2. THE WAY you intended to learn it.
3. Have you constructed new learning because of this day and can honestly say, I AM MORE than when the day began? (some may even feel like half the globe is in, or on, their head)

Don't forget to include the resources you used throughout the day. Here Sandeep's Hammer and The Mighty Malcom have to move beyond the limits of their textbook and access resources outside the classroom via the internet. This is also reading, and expanding your mind.

"The size of your world is the size of your heart and mind." - Me. I said that! Yes. Me! (imitating King Julian from Madagascar)

Boys, and you know who you are, I want to know how you felt about me "barking" at you when I caught you playing but not learning. Work hard. Play Hard. There's time for both. There's a way to combine both. But you gotta be strong, man. You gotta be strong to do this, man! (I think I see why my mother said I should be training marines and not kids)

Now everybody be quiet. Shhhh! Who keeps making that noise? Oh, it's me again.






Copyright © 2007 by Adam Stuart
All Rights Reserved