Living an Inspired Life Read online

  Be gentle and forgiving with yourself, abandon any and all shame, and refuse to engage in any self-repudiation. Instead, learn from Leo Tolstoy, who said that “the most difficult thing—but an essential one—is to love Life, to love it even while one suffers, because Life is all. Life is God, and to love Life means to love God.”

  So love every moment of life, especially your blunder-filled past.

  Some Suggestions for Putting the Ideas in This Chapter to Work for You

  — When you see people you’re used to judging as less than perfect, stop in midthought and remember that they share the same God-force as you. Replace judgments of grossly overweight, dirty, slovenly, disfigured, or whatever terminology you normally use, with a nonjudgmental thought of pure love, remembering that no one is unappealing to God. Look for opportunities to replace scornful thoughts with loving ones. Trust me—every time you extend love to those who usually receive anything but is a seed of inspiration.

  — Forgiving yourself for everything you’ve felt shame about is highly important. Whatever happened was necessary, so let go of regret and replace your negative feelings with gratitude for what you’ve learned. If your objective is to be inspired, then you must eradicate your resistance to that magnificent state of being.

  After you’ve forgiven yourself, extend the same courtesy to everyone who you feel mistreated you. There are three people in my life whom I once felt so much anger and hatred toward that I’d get sick to my stomach whenever I thought of them. However, since I’ve extended love to these individuals, all manner of great things have flowed to me from the world of Spirit.

  Practice forgiveness every day. The most difficult or impossible situations are the most essential!

  — Keep a list of everything that interests and excites you, no matter how insignificant. Remind yourself that these are indicators or clues that within and around you lie both the talent and the necessary Spirit assistance to bring them into your reality.

  — How about taking the time to give the temple in which you reside the ultimate love and respect? Your physical body is sacred space—it’s Divine, beautiful, and perfect—yet you can certainly choose to bestow upon it whatever improvements you wish. There are lots of beneficial housekeeping choices you can make: Firm it up, eliminate toxins, even redecorate it, but keep the awareness of your blessed, Divine, perfect body that’s capable of anything you desire from the place of being in-Spirit.

  — Here’s an inspiring thought to keep close to your heart: Just as you’ll never find light by analyzing the darkness, you’ll never find your magnificence by analyzing what you believe to be undistinguished about yourself. Look for opportunities to verify your greatness, and expand your view of yourself as a splendid creation. Whenever a thought of ordinariness pops into your mind, put the brakes on immediately and affirm something like: I’m a Divine being, a distinct portion of the essence of God. This silent reminder will do more for your inspiration than a thousand books and a hundred seminars.

  Dr. Abraham Maslow, perhaps the most influential person in my life many years ago, is quoted at the beginning of this chapter as saying: “What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.” Consider how you might want to follow his advice. You can never be mediocre because you are magnificent in every way. So seek ways to change your awareness of yourself so that you’re fully aware of your magnificence and can become receptive to inspiration, your ultimate calling.

  CHAPTER 8

  INSPIRATION IS SIMPLE

  “I have lived long enough to learn how much there is I can really do without. . . . He is nearest to God who needs the fewest things.”

  — SOCRATES

  FOR A MOMENT, LET’S IMAGINE what it would be like to be fully alive without a physical shell or any of the stuff we need and desire for maintaining life on Earth. We’d have a mental energy that allowed us to move forward or backward, up or down, instantly creating whatever we desired. We’d be free to wallow in an exquisite existence without time or space as we know it. We’d be in a state of pure bliss, in love with everything and everyone. We’d have no duties or bills to tend to, no fear of losing anything, no one judging us, no possessions to insure, no demands on our time, and no goals to achieve.

  What we’re envisioning is actually the world of Spirit, which we experienced before we came here and will return to when we shed our body (or as William Butler Yeats poetically called it, our “tattered coat upon a stick”).

  Remember that a central premise of this book is that inspiration is a state of being here now in this material world, while at the same time reconnecting to our spiritual origins. In order to be receptive to inspiration, we need to eliminate the ego clutter that accumulates all too easily for most of us—after all, if we’re preoccupied with events and activities that have nothing to do with inspiration, we’re unlikely to notice its summons. So in order to achieve a reunion with our ultimate calling, we need to emulate the clear, uncomplicated world of Spirit.

  Three Keys to Keeping Life Simple

  While the theme of this chapter is that inspiration is simple, this doesn’t mean that we should sit around doing nothing, awaiting Spirit’s arrival; instead, it means having faith that our spiritual connection flourishes in a life dedicated to joy, love, and peace. If our daily activities are so overwhelming that we don’t make these three things our priority, then we’re disregarding the value of living a simple life.

  Let’s now look at each “simple key” in more detail.

  Joy

  A hectic schedule crammed with nonpurposeful activities precludes an experience of inspiration. For example, when we accept obligatory committee assignments or board appointments, requests to write on subjects that don’t inspire us, or invitations to gatherings we don’t want to attend, we feel joy draining from our body and spirit.

  Our life must be open to Spirit’s guidance in order for us to feel inspired. When the calendar becomes frenzied, full of unnecessary turbulence because we’ve failed to simplify, we won’t be able to hear those long-distance calls from our Source . . . and we’ll slip into stress, anguish, and even depression. So whatever it takes to feel joy, we simply must act upon it.

  Regardless of our current station in life, we have a spiritual contract to make joy our constant companion—so we must learn to make a conscious choice to say no to anything that takes us away from an inspired life. This can be done gently, while clearly showing others that this is how we choose to live. We can start by turning down requests that involve actions that don’t correspond with our inner knowing about why we’re here.

  Even at work, we can find ways to keep ourselves on an inspirational agenda. For example, during my years as a college professor, I recall being asked over and over to partake in activities that didn’t correspond with my own inspiration. So I devised a simple solution: I took on more teaching assignments, and in exchange, my colleagues attended curriculum meetings, served on research committees, and wrote building-improvement reports. I consistently listened to my heart, which always demanded joy.

  Keep in mind that it’s only difficult or impossible to accomplish joy when we engage in resistant vibrational thinking. If we know that we don’t have to live a life stuffed with nonjoyful activities, then we can choose the way of inspiration. Opting for joy involves giving ourselves time for play instead of scheduling a workaholic nightmare. We deserve to feel joy—it’s our spiritual calling. By giving ourselves free time to read, meditate, exercise, and walk in nature, we’re inviting the guidance that’s waiting patiently to come calling with inspirational messages.

  There’s also no law requiring us to be at the continual beck and call of our family members. I see no reason to feel anything but joy when we know it’s right to choose to do what we’re called to do, even when it interferes with another family member’s calling. In fact, children benefit by knowing that the business of parenting is to teach them how not to lean on their parents. Raising independent kids to fi
nd their own inspiration and look for their own joy is important for everyone—we want them to be doing what they’re called to do, ultimately for themselves, not for us. We can take great joy in attending their soccer games and recitals and in being with them and their friends—and when we’re inspired, we actually enjoy their activities. But let’s help them to live their joy, and be able to do it with or without us there to cheer them on.

  The bottom line is that we can simplify life by cutting down on the busywork that keeps us off purpose. We must curtail such activities and listen to Spirit, staying aware of joy and how simple it is to access.

  Love

  Thoughts or actions that aren’t tuned to love will prevent inspiration from getting through to us—we need to remember that we come from a Source of pure love, so a simple life means incorporating that love as one of the three mainstays of our material existence.

  This little four-line poem from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, written approximately 1,000 years ago, says so much about staying focused on love:

  Ah, love! could thou and I with fate conspire

  To grasp this sorry scheme of things entire,

  Would not we shatter it to bits—and then

  Re-mould it nearer to the heart’s desire!

  On the fateful day of September 11, 2001, what stuck in my mind were the cell-phone calls made by the people on the ill-fated planes. Every single call was made to a loved one, to connect back in love or to express final words of love. No one called the office or asked their stockbroker for a final appraisal of their financial status, as relationships that weren’t love based didn’t enter the thoughts of those who knew they were leaving this physical world. Their top priority was to be certain to close out their lives in love: “Tell the kids that I love them.” “I love you!” “Give Mom and Dad my love.”

  Just as love is the priority in the final moments of life, so it must be as we simplify life now. We can go toward a clearer life by examining and purifying our relationships with those we love, with ourselves, and with God. What we’re looking for are connections that keep us in an energy of love, which is the highest and fastest energy in the Universe.

  Love is also incredibly healing, which reminds me of an article I recently read. Called “The Rescuing Hug,” it detailed the first week in the life of a set of twins, one of whom wasn’t expected to live. The babies were in two separate incubators, but nurse Gayle Kasparian fought hospital rules to place them together in one. When Gayle did so, the healthier of the twins threw an arm over her sister in an endearing embrace—at which point, the weaker baby’s heart rate stabilized and her temperature rose to normal.

  Even as tiny infants, our spiritually based instincts tell us to love one another. It’s such a simple message, yet it’s so powerful. If we organize our life around love—for God, for ourselves, for family and friends, for all humankind, and for the environment—we’ll remove a lot of the chaos and disorder that defines our life. This is a way to simplify our life, but more than that, it’s a way to attract inspiration.

  Peace

  Isn’t our all-time highest priority to live in peace? We come from a place of peace, yet we’ve somehow gotten farther and farther away from these origins. When we hooked up with ego, we opted for chaos, even though peace was right there for us. And inspiration and being peaceful go hand in hand.

  I know that having inner and outer peace is simply crucial for me. I eschew turmoil, conflict, and agitation and remove myself from these noninspiring elements at every opportunity. After all, I can’t be the spiritual being I desire to be or live in God-realization when I’m engaged in any form of bedlam.

  Somehow I’ve been directed to maintain the peacefulness I crave by having those “dormant forces” Patanjali spoke about earlier in the book work for me throughout my career. Many people who have a similar semi-celebrity status as myself are surrounded by a long list of people who orchestrate virtually every aspect of their lives. I, however, have chosen a simpler route, and the Universe has responded by sending me a very few individuals who’ve supported my desire for peace. I’d like to spend the rest of this section discussing each one of them so that you’ll have some clear illustrations of how these wonderful people have helped me stay in-Spirit.

  — Years ago I realized that I needed help in managing the affairs of my growing enterprise, yet the idea of agents, business managers, advisors, attorneys, accountants, mediators, personal trainers, bodyguards, and any number of people to represent me seemed beyond my tolerance level. Many of those who do what I do even on a smaller scale have a large entourage of attendants for all manner of duties and activities. And I’ve had these contemporaries complain to me about being burdened with all of their representatives and spending more than they take in to support the services of all these individuals.

  This is not my way—in fact, I have one person who handles almost all of my requirements. One day while running a training session for a marathon, God sent me the perfect person to handle so many of my upcoming unforeseen pressures and requirements, in the form of a woman who’d left high school in a foreign country to come to America with her two daughters. She doesn’t have any fancy degrees or specialized skills, but what she does have is a heart as big as the sky, fierce loyalty, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to learn with on-the-job training.

  Originally from Finland (but now a U.S. citizen), Maya Labos is the ultimate definition of a multitasker. In four decades, she’s never said, “I can’t do that; it’s not my job.” She manages every request, answers my mail, books all of my talks and my appearances with the media, takes me to and from airports, maintains my personal privacy by deflecting low-energy requests, and deals with the hundreds of appeals I get for endorsements and writing requests. Yet she also handles innumerable tasks, including grocery shopping, vitamin purchasing, office tidying, or bringing clothes to the cleaners—I can count on her to take care of everything and anything I need.

  When I met Maya almost 40 years ago, she was completely broke; today she owns her own home by the ocean and is my best friend, confidante, and associate. You see, when we’re open to matching up our desire for peace and simplicity with the peace and simplicity from which we originated, God sends what we need. In my case, I got an “entourage of one” to handle what myriad “specialists” can’t do for so many of my contemporaries.

  — Every writer needs an editor. Almost 30 years ago, God saw this and sent one to me in the form of the enormously well-read and competent Joanna Pyle. She’s been my one and only editorial person for the dozens of books I’ve written; I don’t submit to editorial boards. Joanna does for me what many writers ask for from their team of editors, editorial assistants, line editors, rewriters, revisers, amenders, annotators, and so on. I want to keep it simple, and Joanna knows how I write. She’s also the only person who can read my scribbles, since I write in longhand.

  As the computer age dawned on the publishing world, Joanna trained herself to meet these newly emerging technological requirements—she didn’t ask me to write on a computer or to change anything. She knows my desire for simplicity and peace, and she accommodates me perfectly. When I finish a chapter, I send it to Joanna with complete trust that she’ll edit it in such a manner that it will be consistent with my original intent. She transcribes it, types it, reorganizes it, and computerizes it—all with a smile and genuine gratitude for being able to fulfill her purpose. Joanna is me; I am Joanna. Once I was able to convince her to leave her nonfulfilling employment as a flight attendant and pursue her bliss as an editor full-time, she was finally able to feel the joy and peace that comes from matching up her energy with her desires. She lives inspiration, and she allows me to do the same.

  — I only employ one individual who handles any and all matters related to the complexities of taxes, particularly where foreign royalties are concerned. I don’t use a team of legal experts who charge by the hour, or tax consultants who receive as much as what I owe the government. One man,
Bob Adelson, knows my desire for peace by keeping it simple, so he organizes everything for me. He works diligently and thoroughly, doing what he loves, and I treasure his presence in my life.

  — In 1976, after Your Erroneous Zones was published, I decided to move from New York to Florida. I knew absolutely no one in my new hometown, yet I needed an investment person whom I could trust to help me with the bonuses I’d received from the success of my first book. Having been a teacher and university professor before this point, with no experience in (or money for) investing, I knew practically nothing about this world. While contemplating how to start an investment portfolio, I pulled into a gas station, filled my tank, and drove away without realizing that my wallet, which contained $800 in cash, had fallen out of the car and was lying next to the pump.

  Just a few hours later, a man called to tell me that he’d found my wallet—including the cash. I went to meet John Darling, who was my angel sent from God to take care of all of my investments for the next 30-odd years (and he continues to be one of my very best friends and confidants). When I needed someone I could trust, the Universe sent me a stranger who returned my $800 . . . and I’ve never had a moment of nonpeace regarding investments in the past three decades. John has managed it all for me—always keeping in mind how I like things to be simple, risk free, and uncomplicated—knowing what my ultimate investment objectives were and what I desired for my family.

  — I left a large, prestigious New York publishing firm to work with Hay House, mainly because everything in the Big Apple was becoming way too complex. My former publisher employed wonderful people, but the company was too big—it had too many tentacles, too many unkept promises, and too many departments that weren’t in harmony with each other (or with me). I felt that too often I was being told, “It’s not our fault. The fault is over there in finance or over there in marketing or over there in distribution.” It was like a 20-headed monster.