Archive for April, 2009

Dawn shared this article that I loved so much I wanted to post here! 

It’s a spotlight (written by Judit Kawaguchi) on 97 year old physician and author Shigeaki Hinohara.  As you read his life perspectives, I think you’ll see why he earned a spot on our Good Vibe Blog! 

Here’s the excerpt from The Japan Times online (my favorite parts highlighted):

At the age of 97 years and 4 months, Shigeaki Hinohara is one of the world’s longest-serving physicians and educators. Hinohara’s magic touch is legendary: Since 1941 he has been healing patients at St. Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo and teaching at St. Luke’s College of Nursing. After World War II, he envisioned a world-class hospital and college springing from the ruins of Tokyo; thanks to his pioneering spirit and business savvy, the doctor turned these institutions into the nation’s top medical facility and nursing school. Always willing to try new things, he has published around 150 books since his 75th birthday, including one “Living Long, Living Good” that has sold more than 1.2 million copies. As the founder of the New Elderly Movement, Hinohara encourages others to live a long and happy life, a quest in which no role model is better than the doctor himself.

Energy comes from feeling good, not from eating well or sleeping a lot. We all remember how as children, when we were having fun, we often forgot to eat or sleep. I believe that we can keep that attitude as adults, too. It’s best not to tire the body with too many rules such as lunchtime and bedtime.

All people who live long — regardless of nationality, race or gender — share one thing in common: None are overweight. For breakfast I drink coffee, a glass of milk and some orange juice with a tablespoon of olive oil in it. Olive oil is great for the arteries and keeps my skin healthy. Lunch is milk and a few cookies, or nothing when I am too busy to eat. I never get hungry because I focus on my work. Dinner is veggies, a bit of fish and rice, and, twice a week, 100 grams of lean meat.

Always plan ahead. My schedule book is already full until 2014, with lectures and my usual hospital work. In 2016 I’ll have some fun, though: I plan to attend the Tokyo Olympics!

There is no need to ever retire, but if one must, it should be a lot later than 65. The current retirement age was set at 65 half a century ago, when the average life-expectancy in Japan was 68 years and only 125 Japanese were over 100 years old. Today, Japanese women live to be around 86 and men 80.

Share what you know. I give 150 lectures a year, some for 100 elementary-school children, others for 4,500 business people. I usually speak for 60 to 90 minutes, standing, to stay strong.

When a doctor recommends you take a test or have some surgery, ask whether the doctor would suggest that his or her spouse or children go through such a procedure. Contrary to popular belief, doctors can’t cure everyone. So why cause unnecessary pain with surgery? I think music and animal therapy can help more than most doctors imagine.

To stay healthy, always take the stairs and carry your own stuff. I take two stairs at a time, to get my muscles moving.

My inspiration is Robert Browning’s poem “Abt Vogler.” My father used to read it to me. It encourages us to make big art, not small scribbles. It says to try to draw a circle so huge that there is no way we can finish it while we are alive. All we see is an arch; the rest is beyond our vision but it is there in the distance.

Pain is mysterious, and having fun is the best way to forget it. If a child has a toothache, and you start playing a game together, he or she immediately forgets the pain. Hospitals must cater to the basic need of patients: We all want to have fun. At St. Luke’s we have music and animal therapies, and art classes.

Don’t be crazy about amassing material things. Remember: You don’t know when your number is up, and you can’t take it with you to the next place.

Science alone can’t cure or help people. Science lumps us all together, but illness is individual. Each person is unique, and diseases are connected to their hearts. To know the illness and help people, we need liberal and visual arts, not just medical ones.

Life is filled with incidents. On March 31, 1970, when I was 59 years old, I boarded the Yodogo, a flight from Tokyo to Fukuoka. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and as Mount Fuji came into sight, the plane was hijacked by the Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction. I spent the next four days handcuffed to my seat in 40-degree heat. As a doctor, I looked at it all as an experiment and was amazed at how the body slowed down in a crisis.

Find a role model and aim to achieve even more than they could ever do. My father went to the United States in 1900 to study at Duke University in North Carolina. He was a pioneer and one of my heroes. Later I found a few more life guides, and when I am stuck, I ask myself how they would deal with the problem.

It’s wonderful to live long. Until one is 60 years old, it is easy to work for one’s family and to achieve one’s goals. But in our later years, we should strive to contribute to society. Since the age of 65, I have worked as a volunteer. I still put in 18 hours seven days a week and love every minute of it.

Written by: Judit Kawaguchi loves to listen. She is a volunteer counselor and a TV reporter on NHK’s “Out & About.” Learn more at: http://juditfan.blog58.fc2.com/

What an inspiration!  If my health care system had doctors like this, I would probably carry health insurance because I know it would actually help if I needed it! 

Thanks, Dawn, for passing this along.

ShareThis

In the April 28 ezine issue of Get What You Want, we explored the challenges of feeling (and releasing) need. 

Here’s a quick reprint in order to facilitate discussion around it, as well as expanded coverage about why some people seem to manifest better when they get desperate:

From a law of attraction perspective, you know what it means to need something really bad, right?  

In case you haven’t already figured it out through personal experience, it basically means you’re S.O.L. (as my dear mom would say).

All you get is more “Need.” 

So what does an LOA savvy creator do when they find themselves needing something bad, whether it’s $650 by Friday, good test results, a green light, this dress to fit, or whatever else you may be feeling desperately needy about?

Here are a few tips to help unload the Need so you can finally get what you want:

1) Take a deep breath.  Seriously, just a good dose of oxygen will help recalibrate your vibe and start to shake up that “need” feeling you’ve been entertaining. 

Byron Katie’s Work can be helpful when we’re believing something that causes negative feelings.  Is it true?  Can you know that it’s true?  How does that thought make you feel?  How would you feel if you couldn’t think that thought?  And then a golden turnaround.  There’s never been a time these questions haven’t offered me at least SOME relief.

4) Satisfy the need now.  How would you feel when you get this thing/person you need?  Find a way to feel that way now.  That takes this thing (or person) off the hook for making you feel better and also puts you in immediate vibrational alignment.

It’s from that place of alignment (and no longer needing it in order to feel better) that lets it manifest in your experience. 

So, this is all well and good, but how do we explain those people who report consistently getting what they want only after they reach their darkest hour?

You know who I’m talking about, right?  Maybe you’ve even experienced it yourself … like when you’re down to your last nickel and your intention for $1,000 finally makes its appearance in reality.  Or maybe when you’re on the verge of getting evicted that you finally manifest the job you’ve been after for months.

How is it that sometimes it seems like getting especially desperate is what makes the Universe give in?

A variety of things could be at work here.  I think sometimes this situation has to do with the “set points” we each hold as to how good and how bad we’re willing to let it get.    Some of us tolerate more struggle than others, but once we hit that trigger point, we bounce back from it.   

Or sometimes it’s that once things look especially bleak, we throw in the towel which releases the last of the resistance we were flowing.  Which opens the door for good news from the Universe.

I’ve personally experienced it where getting to that point is what makes me put my foot down once and for all – inspiring a sort of demanding, authoritative tone with Universe which seems to generate results, too.

And, if I’ve learned anything by now, it’s that YOU ALL have insightful perspectives to the best questions!  So I’m opening it up for comments … what are your thoughts and experiences when it comes to Need and Successful Manifesting? 

Would love to hear from you!

ShareThis

Last Monday I was in a total funk. As I mentioned in my greeting, it’s easy for me to get overwhelmed with all that is unfolding within and around me and my business right now. So, I was really looking forward to my monthly mastermind call with an invaluable group of colleagues whom I love and trust.

When it came time for me to check-in, my overwhelm was apparent… as I jokingly asked if my colleagues knew how to create more than 24 hours in a day? After we all chuckled (because everyone could relate) one of my colleagues said, “Listen, Christine. You’ve hit the million dollar mark in your business already, so when is enough going to be ENOUGH? Why do you feel like you have to keep doing more?” He said it with a lot of energized love and care for me and I felt it. It was a really good question.

I answered him. First by saying, “Well, a million dollars really isn’t a million dollars. It’s not like I’m rolling in money and don’t have to think about it anymore.” Then, I continued to say, “You know, I’m not sitting on a million dollars in the bank or anything, I’ve still got to pay attention to cash flow and the continued growth of my business.”

I proceeded to share with my colleagues how the numbers were calculated for me to receive the million-dollar entrepreneur award and what was left after determining how much it COST me to generate those kinds of numbers.

For the purpose of the award, the income calculation was based on all of my 2008 revenue plus total SALES in January 2009 (the month of my Freedom Formula Experience in Los Angeles.) Notice I didn’t say revenue that came in January, I said sales… some of those sales were paid in full and counted as January revenue but many of them were for programs that had 12-month payment plans. So, rather than having all that money in hand, I had account receivables for 2009 totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Then, I explained what my expenses were to reach the million dollar level of revenue, and they quickly began to see that “a million really isn’t a million.” Yes, according to how the award was calculated I hit that mark. But, now that I’m a few months out from of all the celebration, intensity and attention; I’ve been much more grounded in what that million-dollar number really looks like for me and my business. And, the truth is, it’s not enough money for me to have as much of an impact as I want to have in changing the face of business in the United States and around the world.

My colleagues now understand why I “do” a lot, and why I have multiple projects underway simultaneously… and also why sometimes I’d like more than 24 hours in a day. I still need, and more importantly WANT, to grow my business and explore new and improved ways to make a difference to entrepreneurs who believe in a conscious approach to business. And, I trust my sharing this with you is an example of what conscious business looks like.

It’s important to me that you have a clear understanding of who I am and not an inflated view of me as a million-dollar entrepreneur. So, I felt that if my mastermind colleague would ask me a question about “the million”, that some of you may have had the same question in your own mind.

I’m so grateful this question was asked; it brought light to something everyone in the mastermind related to. Now as a result, at our next meeting we’ve agreed to bring our profit and loss statements and review them together so we can all get a true barometer of the financial health of our business, and what it’ll take to continue to expand our business and message. Is this a vulnerable thing to do? Absolutely! I can’t think of anything more vulnerable in a business than revealing your profit and loss statements… it’s like being naked. But, isn’t that the path of a conscious entrepreneur? Yes, indeed it is.

Stay tuned next week as I share the second part of my answer to this question.

© 2009 Christine Kloser

Would you like to use this article? You may as long as you include the following information along with the article: Christine Kloser, author of The Freedom Formula, helps entrepreneurs put soul in their business and money in the bank. If you want to thrive in your purpose-driven, profitable business (while enjoying a soul-satisfying life), send for my special report, How to Avoid the 3 Massive Mistakes Made by Most Conscious Entrepreneurs and my audio, 7 Strategies Entrepreneurial Authors Need to Know… Before Writing a Word, both of which you get (at no charge) when you request my Conscious Business Success Kit at www.LoveYourLife.com.

Oh boy, everyone - it’s official:

YOU ARE IN HIGH DEMAND!

Since the last Q&A post on getting a relationship where you responded with amazingly insightful, wise and compassionate support, I’ve been inundated with others wanting you to answer their questions as well!

Are you up for it again?!  I hope so!

This one comes from Tracy, who I fell in love with the first time I read her short note asking if she could ask a question.  She’s not just a sweetheart through and through, she’s also a law of attraction savvy creator who asks a (couple of) common and important manifesting questions.

Here’s Tracy:

Using the Law of Attraction you can be, do or have anything you want; and I believe that.  But I have a few questions. Here’s a little background.   

  

What I want is for my husband to love me again.  We’ve been together 23 years, 2 kids.  Last August he told me he didn’t love me anymore.  I know I manifested this situation—I was totally out of alignment for about 6 months due to sickness and I was surrounded by 7 couples who were ending their marriage or at least thinking about it.  I spoke with these people all the time and talked about it with my husband.  So I know how I got to this place.  But I thought Abraham said that if we manifest something we don’t want we can undo it.  However, I’ve also heard them say (and others) that you can’t make someone feel something they don’t want to feel; that the Law of Attraction only works on yourself.

 

For the last 8 months I’ve been believing, expecting and visualizing that we’re together, very happy and in love.  I’ve been doing the 68 seconds, and the positive aspects and the affirmations.  And I must be in alignment because the overwhelming feeling of joy I feel during these times is something I’ve never felt before, it’s incredible and wonderful.  I can feel this way for days and days at a time.  But nothing.  And I’m not asking for him to instantly love me again, I’d be good with him just liking me for now.  I know there is no time limit that you can put on something that you want.  But Abraham says that once you’re in alignment with yourself and what you desire (which I believe I am because I can’t imagine feeling any better than what I feel right now.  It’s an incredible natural high) that these things will start to rush in.

 

I don’t know what to do, I’m afraid to give up because it could be right there just about ready to manifest but at what point do I know that wanting this is not serving me?  But what I want feels right and I’m so grateful for the pure state of joy I feel about everything in my life.

 

So here are my questions:

 

1.   Can the Universe, Source or God override what you are wanting?  That they decide what is in your best interest, and how would you know? 

2.   When do you know to let go of what you’re wanting?

3.   Explain alignment.  How long do you have to be in alignment for something to happen?  And when you aren’t in alignment, how far does it set you back, is it like starting over?  And does my husband need to be in alignment for this is to happen?

 

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Okay, Good Vibe Community … let’s hear your input for Tracy!  What words of wisdom, experiences or resources do you have to share? 

Thanks in advance, and I’ll see you in the comments!

ShareThis