Have you ever limited yourself with what you thought was a power at the time you started it? Sometimes you can do something that takes you twenty years before you begin to suspect that it's a limitation and not a power. You think to yourself, "I'm really going to empower myself by getting an education, because when I have that new education, I'll have the approval I want, I'll feel accepted, a...

We each live -- moment to moment -- in a world the size of our understanding. This means many encouraging things, beginning with this important discovery: When we feel small, of no consequence, or emotionally powerless to rise above some pressing pain, it's because we are living in and from unconscious parts of ourselves that are, in themselves, narrow and cut off from the bright and broad f...

How many times have you found yourself thinking you'd like to develop a new skill or sharpen an old one? Maybe you've wanted to learn another language or play a musical instrument; further your education; or get up out of your easy chair and do some catch-up on that correspondence you've been putting off for weeks! But in each, or at least most, of these instances, before you can even get sta...

In order to have a sunny life on a moment-to-moment basis, you must be willing to let something new happen to you. No one sincerely asks for a new life until they are thoroughly dissatisfied with the old one. Letting go of the old ideas is the only way to really invite something new. This is what we are learning to do with the help of these higher ideas. Let's look at one example of how our...

Wouldn't you agree that no real friend of yours would ever want you to hurt yourself? And wouldn't you also agree that if you did have a trusted friend that you later found out had lied to you, you wouldn't trust him again -- at least not the third, fourth, or fifth time? You know the saying: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me! For the sake of our studies, let me add one mo...

One of the ways that we push away the real lessons behind our recurring painful life experiences is by telling ourselves, "Well.. this is just something I have to go through." Please don't misunderstand me. You see, the fact of the matter is, it is something you have to go through. But the other unseen fact of life is that you're not supposed to go through the same thing 50,000 times! It is...

How do we normally develop a new skill? For example, how do we learn to high jump? We listen to instruction, and perhaps we watch someone else; but for the most part, we learn by doing; by trying it ourselves. Generally, with our first attempts we end up crashing into rather than clearing the bar, and when we do, there's no denying it. We can see, and feel, that we've come up short. Our coll...

There is one incorruptible law, a cornerstone truth in the foundation of all relationships, that must be realized as being true for each of us if we wish to help ourselves and others grow in what is good for all. And since this law represents principle, there is no escaping its perfect justice. The wise person comes to love this law because through it he is granted freedom from wanting to hurt...

You have always believed that the better people feel about you, the better you can feel about yourself. However, you may have never really considered that the opposite of this belief must hold equally and unhappily true, and that is: The less you are approved by others, the more alone and uncertain you feel. This helps to explain why you think you have to please people as well as why you resen...

Seeking and receiving approval from others is like sitting down hungry to an imaginary meal. You're invited to eat all you want, but no matter how much imaginary food is served, you can never get your fill. Your hunger remains. No fictional feast ever satisfies. But this fact isn't so apparent when it comes to our appetite for approval. We still look to others for our sense of self even thou...

The true spiritual path begins and ends with what you already are. Use these 10 insights to tell the world you've lost interest in being you.

Your conscious participation in inner exercises, such as these five practices, is the only way to awaken the will you need so that one day you never have to answer to any anxiety again!...