:: Aham Prema ::

I've always been a people watcher.  As a young girl, I openly looked at everyone I came in contact with, wondering who was the happiest?  It was a little disheartening during my exploration to uncover that it seemed that almost everyone had a significant amount of unhappiness and troubles in life.  I guess I wanted to live a fairy tale.  Some people, however, had a great time with life, even through its challenges. I noticed that those who were overall most happiest usually had a sense of humor about their experience.  They weren't richer, more beautiful, or better off.  They were just happy with what was and were strong in rolling with it.  Everyone goes through hard times. Being truly happy is not by getting somewhere or accomplishing something.  It is a part of who you are .  It is your character, your essential being, the fabric of you.  Children are often born with a knowing of it, but many of us lose touch with this understand...

Gratitude is the easiest way to really be happy. We’ve been taught this so much that we don’t value it anymore. However, giving thanks not only improves your living, it heals feelings, and allows joy to be a regular force in your life. Sure it sounds easy. But so many of us are numb to the feeling of being thankful. We take for granted the soft pillow that comforts our head and the clean water we have for a bath. Small things - sure, yet huge conveniences and benefits. We’d definitely notice if they were gone! Not until my own personal experience with this lesson, did I know it so well myself. About a year ago my mom’s house was in one of the California wildfire areas. She got her favorite items and animals and evacuated her home. The firemen decided it was too dangerous to protect the canyon where her home is. They let the fire go free in the whole canyon. My mom was devastated. I was stuck at work and longed to be there to support her...

“Reach for the stars.  If you fall, you’ll land on the clouds.” The laws of attraction prove that you attract whatever it is that you invest your energy into.   So basically if you think from a place of lack, you experience lack.   If you spend a lot of time worrying about things that won’t work, things won’t work.   If you instead focus your energy and attention on what you want to have – as if you already have it – you attract it to happen.   Rather than focusing on what you fear or feeling like you’re “so close” to having what you want, you have got to feel that you have it already and act as if it is true right now.   As you do this, things fall into place in miraculous ways.   We’ve all experienced glimpses of it.   Some of us experience it daily.   Honestly, w e can’t even perceive the infinite ways the universe can give us something that we want.   Why limit our avenues of reception by attempting to perceive that we kno...

Having a tough time lately? Are you feeling extremely challenged? It seems, for many of us (me included), to be a time of great consistent challenges (with a few rewards in between). I know at times it is hard to remember, but CHALLENGES ARE A GOOD THING! Our greatest challenges are also our greatest opportunities . It is those challenges that are most personally trying that later become our greatest strengths. Just as authors write the books they needed to read, you will become the best teacher in the areas that are most challenging to you. A shift of perspective may reveal an invisible line that connects the dots in your puzzle. 1. Get into the habit of changing your perspective to see the opportunity. When you feel the frustration, irritation, and stress: Pause. Turn inward. Create space to focus on the opportunity being presented. Sometimes it helps to get out to get a fresh perspective. Other times it helps to settle in and open up a journal to jot...

We all have ups and downs to life. How do you deal with the downs? Do you numb yourself and avoid them? Or do you find the hidden gift held within them?   Each time a painful emotion is felt, it provides an opportunity. Pain gives us the gift of growth in a hidden package. Something is shouting out for a change. If we pause and open this gift, a great secret of freedom and love can be revealed. Sometimes when the pain is large enough, we have no choice but to look at it anyway. My largest pains have helped to open the greatest growths in my life. Hey, it’s worth a shot, right? Finding a healthy way to vent can even help to relieve anxiety, something more and more of us are suffering from in these times. Those who don’t find a healthy way of venting often stuff it inside until they explode one day or get into the habit of finding ways to numb themselves, such as eating. Venting can help to truly relieve stress, which is known to cause many ailments and “dis-eases” in our bod...

Perfection in Every Moment Everyone is around you for some reason.  From the person behind you in line to your mother-in-law.  If you are open, you can find a lesson in anything.  And as a bonus, you can find the value of these relationships that bother you.  Those ones that irritate you the most.  Maybe so much that you can release the need for them to be.  We can make the most of all of our relationships with some basic understanding. Relationships are the keys to growth. They are temples of today. Each moment in itself is Perfect.  Not like perfectly enjoyable, but perfectly what we need to continue in our growth. Aspects are set up exactly to mirror your patterns to you.  You are in each situation in order to learn something that you have not mastered yet.  If you become conscious of this, you feel more in sync with your life by realizing the opportunities within it.  You lose the "victim" of circumstances attitude and l...

How do you usually start your day? Are you the type to take the least amount of time possible and rush out the door? Are you the type that likes to wake up early and go for a run?  We all have our own preferences. Are you living your mornings in your ideal way?   Starting your day well helps to have a better day, all day. Beginning with a few morning rituals can create a whole different energy for your day. If you make yourself a priority and take time to replenish, cleanse, nourish, and fuel your body, you can feel much more connected and open to the flow of your day.  When you are grounded in the fresh energy of the morning with a connection and openness, the world becomes your oyster. You can find the hidden treasures available to you throughout your day more often than when you have rushed out the door. When you’ve taken care of yourself, you naturally have a better attitude and bring a different energy to all you do. When you truly feel on it, you...

A Collection of Great Quotes These are some of the quotes that have hit me so strongly in times past. Clearing out some old things and wanted to make sure this is in the archives!  *"Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love." ~Rumi *"Life is a flower of which love is the honey." ~Victor Hugo *"In the sweetness of friendship; let there be laughter and the sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed." ~Kahlil Gilbran *"Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, Deep-burning and unquenchable." ~Bruce Lee *"If a person loves only one other person and is indifferent to the rest of his fellow men, his love is not love but a symbiotic attachment, or an enlarged egotism." ~Erich...