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Coming Together to Love, Heal & Empower

Inspiring Stories of Love, Healing, & Empowerment

Inspirations

September 2007
Issue Number 38

Welcome to Inspirations! Global Community For All sends out this e-zine filled with short, inspiring stories of love, healing, and empowerment once every three months. We share these wonderfully inspiring stories to encourage and inspire each other to be the best we can be each day of our lives. Thanks for joining us, and may these words inspire us to ever deepen our commitment to love, heal, and empower; to open to divine guidance; and to choose what's best for all.

The four inspiring stories for this issue are:

Instructions For Life – Jr. H. Jackson Brown
Three Little Words
– Author Unknown
Accessing Expanded States of Being Together – Fred Burks
Simple Steps to Healing: I'm Sorry, I Love You – Joe Vitale


Instructions For Life – Jr. H. Jackson Brown
Excerpts from his book Life's Little Instruction Book

  1. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
  2. Never laugh at anyone's dreams.
  3. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.
  4. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
  5. Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; Responsibility for all your actions.
  6. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
  7. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
  8. In disagreements with loved ones, deal with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.
  9. Remember that your character is your destiny.
  10. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
  11. Spend some time alone every day.
  12. Remember that the best relationship is one where your love for each other is greater than your need for each other.
  13. Pray. There's immeasurable power in it.
  14. At least once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
  15. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a stroke of luck.
  16. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
  17. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
  18. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

Three Little Words – Author Unknown

One evening I was parked in front of the mall wiping off my car. I had just come from the car wash and was waiting for my wife to finish work.

Coming my way from across the parking lot, was what society would consider a bum. From the looks of him he had no car, no home, no clean clothes and no money. There are times when you feel generous, but there are times that you just don't want to be bothered. This was one of the don't-want-to-be-bothered times!

"Hope he doesn't ask me for money," I thought.

He didn't. He came and sat on the curb in front of the bus stop and he didn't look like he could have enough money to even ride the bus.

After a few minutes he spoke. "That's a very nice car," he said. He was ragged, but had an air of dignity around him.

I said "Thanks," and continued wiping off my car.

He sat there quietly as I worked. The expected plea for money never came. As the silence between us widened, something inside said, "Ask him if he needs any help." I was sure that he would say yes, but I held true to the inner voice.

"Do you need any help?" I asked.

He answered in three simple, but profound, words that I shall never forget. We often look for wisdom in great accomplishments. I expect it from those of higher learning and accomplishments. I expected nothing here but an outstretched grimy hand.

Then, he spoke three words that shook me. "Don't we all?" he said.

I needed help. Maybe not for bus fare or a place to sleep, but I needed help. I reached in my wallet and gave him not only enough for bus fare but enough to get a warm meal and shelter for the day.

Those three little words still ring true. No matter how much you have, no matter how much you have accomplished, we all need help.

No matter how little you have, no matter how loaded you are with problems, even without money or a place to sleep, you can GIVE help. Even if it's just a compliment, you can give that!

You never know when you may see someone that appears to have it all, yet in actuality they need you to give them what they don't have – a different perspective on life, a glimpse of something beautiful, a respite from daily chaos – that only you, through a torn world can see.

Maybe the man was just a homeless stranger wandering the streets. Maybe he was more than that. Maybe he was sent by a power that is great and wise to minister to a soul too comfortable in himself.

Maybe someone looked down, called an angel, dressed him like a bum, and then said, "Go minister to that man cleaning the car; that man needs help."

Don't we all?


Accessing Expanded States of Being Together – Fred Burks

I had a powerfully inspiring dream a short while ago after exploring at bedtime the infinite question, "Why am I here?" In the dream, I was sitting with a number of wonderful friends opening to a deeper way of being together. I thought you might enjoy the words and expressions that came to me, which I've attempted to capture in the paragraph below:

"As the 'I that is me' surrenders and opens fully to the expanded presence of the 'I that is we,' an energy greater than me is invited in. As those around me join in opening to this expansive 'us that is we' energy, with all its seeming contradictions, a place of deep acceptance and honoring of the 'I that is me' within each of us expands into the sacred collective presence of the 'us that is we.' This expansive, vibrant state naturally envelopes all who join in opening to this sacred presence that illuminates the divine essence in each one of us and in all of us. Together, our collective expression of this expanded essence transforms our presence in and experience of both the internal and external worlds."

Just a few days later in my nightly dream school session, I found myself slowing down into a state of deep meditation. Once I slowed my consciousness down to a certain point, I found myself flowing in a limitless sea of energy. In this state, I could see that this vast sea in which my awareness now swam was made up of the combined core essence of all beings. Any negative judgments I might have had about anything simple faded away in this infinite, flowing interconnectedness of all beings. I now know that whenever I'm feeling disconnected, I have only to go inside and slow down enough to allow myself to open once again to this state of pure beingness in this grand sea of collective awareness.


Simple Steps to Healing: I'm Sorry, I Love You Dr. Joe Vitale

Two years ago, I heard about a therapist in Hawaii who cured a complete ward of criminally insane patients – without ever seeing any of them. The psychologist would study an inmate's chart and then look within himself to see how he created that person's illness. As he improved himself, the patient improved.

When I first heard this story, I thought it was an urban legend. How could anyone heal anyone else by healing himself? How could even the best self-improvement master cure the criminally insane?

It didn't make any sense. It wasn't logical, so I dismissed the story.

However, I heard it again a year later. I heard that the therapist had used a Hawaiian healing process called ho 'oponopono. I had never heard of it, yet I couldn't let it leave my mind. If the story was at all true, I had to know more.

I had always understood "total responsibility" to mean that I am responsible for what I think and do. Beyond that, it's out of my hands. I think that most people think of total responsibility that way. We're responsible for what we do, not what anyone else does. The Hawaiian therapist who healed those mentally ill people would teach me an advanced new perspective about total responsibility.

His name is Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len. We probably spent an hour talking on our first phone call. I asked him to tell me the complete story of his work as a therapist. He explained that he worked at Hawaii State Hospital for four years. That ward where they kept the criminally insane was dangerous. Psychologists quit on a monthly basis. The staff called in sick a lot or simply quit. People would walk through that ward with their backs against the wall, afraid of being attacked by patients. It was not a pleasant place to live, work, or visit.

Dr. Len told me that he never saw patients. He agreed to have an office and to review their files. While he looked at those files, he would work on himself. As he worked on himself, patients began to heal.

"After a few months, patients that had to be shackled were being allowed to walk freely," he told me. "Others who had to be heavily medicated were getting off their medications. And those who had no chance of ever being released were being freed."

I was in awe.

"Not only that," he went on, "but the staff began to enjoy coming to work. Absenteeism and turnover disappeared. We ended up with more staff than we needed because patients were being released, and all the staff was showing up to work. Today, that ward is closed."

This is where I had to ask the million dollar question: "What were you doing within yourself that caused those people to change?"

"I was simply healing the part of me that created them," he said.

I didn't understand.

Dr. Len explained that total responsibility for your life means that everything in your life – simply because it is in your life – is your responsibility. In a literal sense the entire world is your creation.

Whew. This is tough to swallow. Being responsible for what I say or do is one thing. Being responsible for what everyone in my life says or does is quite another. Yet, the truth is this: if you take complete responsibility for your life, then everything you see, hear, taste, touch, or in any way experience is your responsibility because it is in your life.

This means that terrorist activity, the president, the economy – anything you experience and don't like – is up for you to heal. They don't exist, in a manner of speaking, except as projections from inside you. The problem isn't with them, it's with you, and to change them, you have to change you.

I know this is tough to grasp, let alone accept or actually live. Blame is far easier than total responsibility, but as I spoke with Dr. Len, I began to realize that healing for him and in ho 'oponopono means loving yourself. If you want to improve your life, you have to heal your life. If you want to cure anyone – even a mentally ill criminal – you do it by healing you.

I asked Dr. Len how he went about healing himself. What was he doing, exactly, when he looked at those patients' files?

"I just kept saying, 'I'm sorry' and 'I love you' over and over again," he explained.

That's it?

That's it.

Turns out that loving yourself is the greatest way to improve yourself, and as you improve yourself, you improve your world. Let me give you a quick example of how this works: one day, someone sent me an email that upset me. In the past I would have handled it by working on my emotional hot buttons or by trying to reason with the person who sent the nasty message. This time, I decided to try Dr. Len's method. I kept silently saying, "I'm sorry" and "I love you." I didn't say it to anyone in particular. I was simply evoking the spirit of love to heal within me what was creating the outer circumstance.

Within an hour I got an e-mail from the same person. He apologized for his previous message. Keep in mind that I didn't take any outward action to get that apology. I didn't even write him back. Yet, by saying "I love you," I somehow healed within me what was creating him.

I later attended a ho 'oponopono workshop run by Dr. Len. He's now 70 years old, considered a grandfatherly man, and is somewhat reclusive. He praised my book, The Attractor Factor. He told me that as I improve myself, my book's vibration will raise, and everyone will feel it when they read it. In short, as I improve, my readers will improve.

"What about the books that are already sold and out there?" I asked.

"They aren't out there," he explained, once again blowing my mind with his mystic wisdom. "They are still in you."

In short, there is no out there.

It would take a whole book to explain this advanced technique with the depth it deserves. Suffice it to say that whenever you want to improve anything in your life, there's only one place to look: inside you.

"When you look, do it with love."


Note: This article is from the book Zero Limits by Dr. Joe Vitale and Dr. Len. You can listen to Joe talk about his experience with Dr. Len and his involvement with the inspiring movie, The Secret, by clicking here. He starts talking about Dr. Len at minute 17:30 in this highly engaging one-hour interview.

Dr. Len's message may be quite hard to believe, yet it's amazingly simple. He states that we are all responsible for everything that we see in our world. By taking full personal responsibility and then healing the wounded places within ourselves, we can literally heal ourselves and our world. As related by Joe in the radio interview, Dr. Len suggests a four-stage process for this work. Whenever a place for healing presents itself in your life, open to the place where the hurt resides within you, and say and feel as much as possible the below four sentences:

  • I love you.
  • I'm sorry.
  • Please forgive me.
  • Thank you.

For several inspiring articles on this process from Dr. Len's website, click on the "Articles" tag at his website, http://hooponopono.org. Even if you are skeptical, consider experimenting with this simple healing method and see what happens. Many have found it to be an incredibly profound practice. Thanks for taking the time to read this story and may your life be continually blessed with healing and miracles.


“If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn


All the darkness of the world cannot put out the light of a single candle.


Thanks for sharing in these inspiring stories with us. We wish you lots of love, inspiration, and all the very best in the months ahead.


Explore the mind and heart expanding websites managed by the nonprofit PEERS network:
www.peerservice.org - PEERS websites: Spreading inspiration, education, & empowerment
www.momentoflove.org - Every person in the world has a heart
www.personalgrowthcourses.net - Dynamic online courses powerfully expand your horizons
www.WantToKnow.info - Reliable, verifiable information on major cover-ups
www.weboflove.org - Strengthening the Web of Love that interconnects us all


Inspiring Stories: Instructions for Life, Steps for Healing

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