The Power is Ronda Byrne’s follow up book to The Secret, the hugely successful self-help book on the Law of Attraction released in 2006. In The Power, Byrne reframes the Law of Attraction as the Law of Love. By giving love you are fulfilling your deepest purpose in the world, according to Byrne. By giving love you will get everything you want. The universe will submit to your every whim. Flowers will fly out your ass. Cherubs will sing. You get the picture. The universe revolves around you.

Now, to be fair, I like the idea that giving love is our reason for being. I am totally on board with it, in fact. I guess I just don’t like the way this book presents it. It’s incredibly long, drawn out, and repetitive. At 250 pages, I kind of expected a bit more. I kept thinking that it could have been 1/3 the size. Take As a Man Thinketh, by James Allan as an example of the brevity I am talking about. 100 pages. It’s all you need for a simple idea.

Another major complaint that I have about this book, and new thought material in general, is the propagation of the belief that, “if we can all just get along, everything will be fine”. I wish it were true. But the simple fact is that there are people out there who don’t give a crap about everyone getting along. The world could burn, and as long as these monsters are safe from it, they wouldn’t care. There are terrorists and serial killers, people with almost zero morality. We will never ever “just get along”. But that isn’t reason to give up. In fact, the realization of that fact can inspire one to action for positive change. It will never be perfect here, but the pursuit of a better world is an ideal worth acting on. “If only everyone could get along”, however is a perspective detached from action. It’s delusional, and The Power is rife with this kind of delusion. Anyway…

So, let’s dig into the big idea of the book. What is the Law of Love? Here’s what Byrne says on the subject. “Love is the positive force of life! Love is the cause of everything positive and good. There are not a hundred different positive forces in life; there is only one”. Skip to the end. Byrne is stating that our greatest gift is our capacity for giving love. A quote in the book from Mother Teresa sums it up quite nicely. “It’s not how much we give, but how much love we put into giving”.

Okay, so what does that mean? Why is our greatest gift our ability to give love? Well, according to Byrne, love is the thing us humans most want. Every single one of us wants to be loved…more than anything. But most people have a fear of giving love without first receiving it. This means that everyone is walking around really wanting to be loved but scared of giving it first. Those rare individuals, who are brave enough to step out and give love before they get it, end up being rewarded for their courage. They tend to attract everything they want in return. Byrne says, “The beauty of life is that when you put love first, all the money you need to live a full life comes to you”. There you have it.

Bottom Line

If the book is lying around and you have nothing better to do, give it a read. However, I suggest just skipping to the end of each chapter where the “points of power” sum up the preceding section. You can pretty much get the “point” of “the power” from there, and it will take you a fraction of the time to get through. Put simply; rich idea, poor presentation.

The Shadow Effect was developed by Debbie Ford and stars Deepak Chopra, Mark Victor Hansen, Marianne Williamson and others. The movie introduces the subject of shadow work, a psychological technique for uncovering and re-integrating disowned or neglected parts of the self. According to Ford, we all have these disowned parts or “shadows”, and when we become aware of them we can unlock our full potential.

The concept of the shadow is pretty simple. In fact, The Shadow Effect stretches on a bit longer than it needs to. Once the idea of the shadow is firmly explored, the film-makers explore it some more…and some more. I kept expecting the film to get to the part where I learn how to explore my own shadow, but it never got there. I got the wrong DVD version, I later found out.

Get the interactive version of the movie. That’s important. It is exactly like the regular version, except there is added footage where Debbie Ford guides the viewer in exploring her own shadow self. That’s really where the value is.

If you take the interactive journey, you’ll find there are some surprising and inevitably emotional parts to the process. You might even have a few revelations about your shadow, as I did in going through the process.

Bottom Line
The Shadow Effect is the perfect product for introducing and getting familiar with the parts of your self that you are unconscious of. Get the special interactive edition, set aside a few hours, and dive in. It’s a movie guaranteed to uncover many psychological jewels that have been buried in your mind for some time. And who doesn’t like jewels?

Note: There are some other products out there that explore the subject of shadow work. One that I really love is the Integral Life Practice Starter Kit. It’s damn good but horribly expensive. If you want to have your mind blown and can afford it, get that. However, if you want to dip your feet into the dark waters of your own psyche one toe at a time, the Shadow Effect is the best bet. It’s geared toward a more mainstream audience and significantly less debt inducing.

Is Esther Hicks talking to some non-physical group consciousness, or is she just accessing some deep level of her own consciousness? I don’t care. There really is no way to know, so in my opinion, it isn’t worth focusing on. What I will focus on in this review, however, is the message that is touched upon in the Getting Into the Vortex DVD.

The movie is really quite enlightening. I came across the Vortex book first, and that was pretty good. But this DVD really gets to the heart of the matter. What is the Vortex? How does it work? How does it relate to the Law of Attraction? By the end of the DVD I felt like I had solid answers to these questions and more.

What is the Vortex? The Vortex is potential. It is the culmination of all your desires you have ever sent out into the universe. All of those “rockets of desire” as Hicks calls them are gathered together in this swirling vortex of attraction. This vortex is pulling you towards it like a magnet. In fact the more contrast you see in your life between your current situation and this storehouse of potential, the more you will be attracted to it. Put most simply, the vortex is the self within that is waiting to be realized.

So how does the vortex work? Well, it’s pretty simple really. Say, for example, I am in a dead end job. I hate my boss, and I barely make enough money to pay my rent. If this experience is painful for me, which it undoubtedly will be, that pain will cause me to imagine myself in a better situation. I might have a fantasy about quitting and starting my own business, where I am my own boss and where my financial success is in my own hands. Well, the teachings of Abraham suggest that these idle thoughts are adding up to something. They are creating a contrast between where I am and where I want to be. That contrast is creating an intense desire to make that fantasy a reality.

Once a desire has entered my mind, it will never go away. I may be distracted from it for a bit, but as long as my current situation is still painful, that fantasy will have a magnetic pull on me. The longer I resist moving toward that fantasy, the more painful it will be to me. Finally, I will reach a threshold and act. I will step out and move toward that potential I want so intensely.

Since I can’t possibly do something greater without being someone greater, to reach for my desire I must grow. The continuous attraction of higher unrealized potential is what Abraham celebrates. It’s all about growth. It’s all about the thrill of the ride, the joy and bliss of an ever expanding sense of self.

So, how does the vortex relate to the Law of Attraction? If the vortex is pure potential, and that potential is stored in non-physical consciousness, and if all consciousness is one, then our desires are connected to infinite intelligence. Thought is essentially a direct line to the mind of God. Anything you want will be given, as long as you are willing to receive it.

Receiving something the universe offers is a challenge. This is because most of us are under the false impression that we need to get rid of contrast in our lives. We think that the ideal life would be one where everything is rosy and bright and nothing bad ever happens. We need to realize that the painful things in life are there to incite growth. The suffering is there to encourage us to want more. It’s that creation of a better future that is so joyful, not the realization of that future. Heaven isn’t a destination. Heaven is a journey.

Bottom Line
If you are interested in the Law of Attraction, personal development, or conscious living please check out Getting into the Vortex. It’s a fabulous movie, and one hell of a fun ride. Oh, and if channeling seems a bit too woo woo and new agey for you, don’t worry. The elves at the center of the earth tell me this DVD is all backed up by hard science.

What is the cure for resistance? It’s all about making a clear decision to change, and then sticking to that decision. If you are like me, though, you have made decisions to change many times and given up on them. So how do you make sure that change sticks?

Most people are operating under the false impression that change is a superficial thing, that to change they simply adopt some behavior and add it on top of everything else they do. This assumption is based on a misunderstanding of change at a base level. In order to understand what change really is you first have to look at the self. The self is what you are changing, after all.

So what is the self? If you really explore the subject, you find that our sense of self is made up of conditioning. Our self is nothing but a mental construct, a collection of notions, habits, and patterns about who we are. So to change our life we have to actually change the structure of our self…we have to give up that old pattern, completely let it go and form a new sense of self that includes the new habit. For instance, we don’t just give up the physical action of smoking to stop the habit. We give up the identification with being a smoker, we give up our self as a smoker…then stopping is easy.

Changing habits is all about adopting a sense of self that the desired habit fits with. Tony Robbins says it beautifully with, “The most powerful force in the human psychology is the need to remain consistent with how we define ourselves”. We have to change how we define ourselves a fundamental level, and the habits that fit that identity naturally become our own. To change a habit, we have to change ourselves.

Emotional Clearing is based on the idea that we all have emotions that have been pent up and blocked for days, months and even years. These repressed emotions can manifest in the body as pain. Think of it this way. If I am blocking an emotion that is energetically centered in my gut, all that emotional energy is causing tension and stress that will turn into physical pain in my gut if not dealt with. If this goes on long term the pain can create even worse problems. The solution is to release that energy so that it can begin to flow smoothly and naturally again.

Why do we block energy from flowing? When we have an experience where we don’t allow ourselves to express an emotion that we feel, that emotional charge is held in the body. We can even develop beliefs that certain emotions are bad or not appropriate. This can lead to long term blocking of emotions.

The act of blocking emotions takes a lot of energy to do. If we have a whole bunch of emotions throughout our lifetime that have been blocked it can take a huge toll on our energy reserves. Instead of having excess energy, we end up with a lack of energy because it’s all being used up to block all these things we don’t believe we should let out.

The simple fact is that emotions are meant to be expressed. Every emotion that we feel has a place and needs to get out. However, there are healthy and unhealthy ways to let those emotions out. For instance, it goes without saying that beating your wife because of frustration is a horrible way to release emotions. The reason the man does it is because he hasn’t found a healthier way to release those emotions.

Emotional Clearing is one of the healthiest ways for a person to get back in touch with their emotions and get the energy flowing freely. So, let me show you how to do it.

First, lie down on the floor or on a bed. Assume a very relaxed position and support your head with a pillow if necessary. Also, Emotional Clearing really should be done alone. If you are alone you can be free to let anything come up without fear or embarrassment. When you feel comfortable, begin to let your body relax. As you lie there start to feel into your body. Get really sensitive to all the sensations you can. Feel your blood pulsing. Watch your breathing. As you start feeling more in tune with your body begin to pay attention to your emotional state. Really open up to it. On a superficial level you will feel a certain way. Go deeper, though. Search for an emotion that you feel might be calling to get out. This part might be hard, but keep looking. Allow yourself to feel it. That is really important. Since you have been blocking it for a while, you will have to give yourself permission to go there, to feel it. As you embrace the emotion, maybe it’s rage or fear. Whatever it is, just let it come through. Let your body move with the emotion and let the feeling pour out of your throat. Scream, cry, quiver, shake…do whatever you feel is appropriate to get inside that emotion and experience it. As you start to feel the emotion you will notice that in expressing it you “get over it”. Your desire to feel it will subside. When the emotion subsides, rest again and wait for the next feeling to come to the surface. Don’t express it longer than you need to. You will feel the length that is genuine, and just move onto how you feel in each moment. As you do this you will move in and out of emotional states. The session may last a short time and it may last over an hour. The most important thing about Emotional Clearing is that you let your present emotional impulse guide you and flow naturally from one emotion to the next going as long as feels comfortable.

When you get to a point where you feel clear, lay for a bit and enjoy the feeling of expansion and freedom. Slowly get up and go about your day.

I hope you find Emotional Clearing as amazing as I have. If so, pass it on. Thank you.

Top 4 practices to overcome fear

1. Goal setting
By breaking big goals down into small achievable tasks the objective ends up looking much less daunting. We love instant gratification. Why not take advantage of this fact and turn our goals into a series of small successes. The whole process of achieving becomes a blissful flow.

2. Visualization
The subconscious mind can’t tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined. If you do something in your mind first, when you do it in reality it will be the same as doing it the second time and you will feel much less fear. Also, if you practice doing it perfectly in your mind, you will be conditioned to perfection and naturally respond that way when called to action. Olympic gymnasts, astronauts and professional athletes use this technique all the time. Why not you?

3. Auto-suggestion
If you repeat a phrase enough times you start to believe it. Beliefs cause actions, and actions produce results. Therefore, ask yourself exactly what kind of results you want and stop telling yourself things that move you away from that ideal. Program your mind with the beliefs that empower you and attract the results you want.

4. Slow Breathing
Quick shallow breaths induce a fearful reactionary state of mind. To overcome fear and access the rational mind, slow deep breathing is vital.

Tony Robbins has a great quote that I love. “The quality of your life is directly proportional to the amount of uncertainty you can comfortably live with”. If that’s the case, which I believe it is, we all need powerful tools to overcome the inevitable fear that comes with that uncertainty. The good news is there are proven ways to overcome fear. We just have to use them.

By the way, the key with the 4 tools outlined in this article is to stack them. The instinctual brain needs to be overwhelmed. Use them all and use them often.

Why do we do it? When nearly everyone else is operating reactively, that becomes the paradigm that is programmed into us all through our lives. Everywhere we go and everyone we talk to re-enforces the idea that reaction is the appropriate way of dealing with life. The idea never crosses our minds to act differently because we take it for granted that reactionary living is normal. It is normal, but by no means is it optimal.

Most people are following the programming their parents gave them. It doesn’t stop there, though. They are operating based on conditioning that has been passed on for generations, going back hundreds if not thousands of years. So not only are they living in a reactionary way, they are reacting to a world that no longer exists. Think about when someone is in a situation where they don’t have enough money. Most people would look at that situation and decide to cut back on spending. Why? Because that’s what you do when money is short if you live in medieval times. You could very well die of starvation back then. But that decision is the worst possible thing someone can do in our modern world. Instead of cutting back on spending, make more money! It’s just a matter of deciding to move forward instead of back. The normal reaction in most instances will lead back into perceived safety and powerlessness. That is madness!

The shift in perspective that I am pointing at in this series is about moving from that feeling based processing style to one based on ideas. When a person acts from ideas, they form a clear image of what they want and then consistently put in the effort to move that image into the subconscious mind, which is the feeling mind. Put simply, the shift is about learning how to act based on your thoughts and dreams rather than your impulses and feelings.

How does someone act on their thoughts and dreams without the subconscious fear constantly setting them back? The simple answer is any and every way possible. We are attempting to re-program thousands of years of very deep conditioning. This is why it is a high price to pay to enjoy abundance.

In a future article, I will explore the idea of acting on your dreams in more depth and give some practical tools for making the shift. It is a radical shift to make, and astonishing as you begin to notice the changes it makes in all areas of your life.

Success in anything comes from acting off of your dreams rather than acting off of your present reality.

That sounds pretty simple, but applying it is quite a task indeed. It means reconditioning your entire sense of self to operate at a higher vibration. It is such a massive shift in perspective that for most people the price is too high. This is why people buy a book, listen to a program, attend a seminar, etc but still don’t follow through. The follow through is just too much work. So, the question to ask yourself is, “Is the price I will pay in effort worth the reward of abundance”?

If you are willing to pay the price in effort, I will show you exactly what you need to do to make it happen. It won’t be easy. It won’t be quick. But it will happen.

The next few articles will explore this subject in more detail, so keep reading. It’s going to be exciting.

In simple language, here’s how development works. When we are born we start at square one. We have a small undeveloped sense of self. But as we are exposed to more things in life, and if we are open to them, we grow through stages or waves of cognitive development.

One simple model of this development goes like this:

Egocentric Stage – Sense of care for self and immediate family (culturally this stage was dominant 10000 – 5000 years ago with tribes and small villages).

Ethnocentric Stage- Sense of care for my country, my religion, etc. (culturally this stage emerged around 5000 – 500 years ago. Think of organized religion up to the renaissance. “Good people go to heaven, bad people go to hell”).

Worldcentric Stage- Sense of care for all people regardless of what country they are in or what religion the have. Care for all animals, belief in equal rights for minorities, etc. (Culturally this emerged around 300 years ago with the scientific revolution but exploded in the last century with woman’s rights, the eco movement, PETA, etc. i.e.: “Give peace a chance”)

Cosmocentic Stage- Care for everything including the process of life itself. This stage is currently the leading edge of awareness and it only just started to emerge 50 years ago.

Notice how each stage is more loving, more good. We are progressively evolving to embrace more. Evolution is not a chaotic, random, uncaring process. It is moving in a clear and obvious direction….expanding in love.

From this new stage we see the answer to the worldcentric question of why people don’t give peace a chance? The answer is that because people in our culture are not all at the highest stage. 70% of the world’s population is at the ethnocentric stage or lower! So, although we culturally have access to these higher, more loving, more good stages, most people haven’t got there yet on a personal level, but they can.

The world is genuinely a good place and only getting better (we don’t have ritual sacrifice anymore, or slavery, thank God). In fact, a lot of the major atrocities of our time are from lower level people getting their hands on higher level technology. This is why it is really, really up to us, people operating at these higher levels, to spread the good. We are creating the future and the evolution of our cultural consciousness is up to us, quite literally.

I feel empowered that the positive difference I can make in people’s lives, even if it is just one person, makes an impact on the future of all mankind. Helping people to evolve their perspective will literally make the world a better place…and that makes me feel really, really good about the world and my place in it.

Soon after that time I got a job painting animation at a local studio in Vancouver. I took the tape with me to work and listened to it all day long in the background as I worked. The job was so repetitive that I could divide my attention easily between the two things. The constant stream of positive affirmations elevated my state of mind. I felt really good about myself for the first time in a long time.

A few months later, I happened upon a contest that was being held by the Vancouver Art Gallery. There were two prizes being awarded. The one was a $500 shopping spree at a local art store, and the grand prize was a $10,000 trip for two to France. The winner would get the chance to spend 3 weeks painting and drawing in the French countryside. It was literally my dream. I couldn’t think of anything on earth I would rather do at the time. I made it clear that I was going to win that contest. Robbins had affected something in me. I was on fire.

Before work the next day I rushed to the information desk where applications were being given for the contest. I took one and read it carefully. The conditions for entry were that you needed to submit one drawing with the application. It was a random draw, not based on the quality of the artwork submitted. Plus, you could enter as many times as you wanted.

I sat down that night to work on a drawing to enter. It took me about 8 hours to complete, and when I was done I took it back to where I got the application. As I was leaving I saw a bunch of the other drawing entries hanging on a wall near the information desk. It was disheartening. There were so many. I didn’t stand a chance of winning with just one entry.

I knew that listening to Tony Robbins had affected me in some way, but at that moment it became clear just how. A voice popped into my mind saying, “You’ve got to make it a must”. I turned around and went back to the information desk. I took 5 more applications with me, and went home to complete them. The next day I brought them in, and that voice popped back up. “You’ve got to make it a must to win”. Then it hit me. If I could enter as many times as I wanted, and the only thing I needed to enter was a drawing, I could take all my old drawings and use them to enter the contest with. I turned around and went back to the desk. This time I walked away with 50 applications. I was full of energy.

I went through old sketchbooks and cut out 50 drawings and filled out the 50 applications. I took them in and went to work. As I was sitting there at my desk, I realized that this was my chance. This was an amazing opportunity sitting right in my lap. 50 entries were not nearly enough. I had to win!

The next day I walked up to the information desk. “I’d like 500 applications please”, I said. The woman behind the desk looked at me with a stern look. “I can’t do that”.
“Why not?”, I asked.
“I just can’t”, she replied.
There was a small stack of application forms sitting right on the desk in front of her. I turned the top one to face me and read the line about entering as many times as I like.
She begrudgingly reached under the desk, unlocked it and pulled out a stack of applications. As I was walking away with my stack of 400 applications, the most she would give me at a time, I heard the guy that had been behind me say, “I’d like one, please”.

Over the course of the next four days I was filling out applications every second that I wasn’t doing something else. I even encouraged my girlfriend, Inha, to help me with it. I had a couple life drawing pads from film school that were filled with sketches that I used to accompany the applications. The drawings were something I had been holding onto because I used them for my portfolio for looking for work. In the end, I had no art to use for my portfolio. ‘God, I had better win this thing’, I thought.

I had put so much in it, that by the day the draw date came, I was burning with anticipation. About an hour after the draw, I called in to ask for the results. They weren’t in yet. But what they could tell me was that there were about 800 entries. I had over half the entries. I had effectively made my odds about 50/50. I put down the phone and waited.

About 2 hours later I got a call. I looked at the screen of my cell. It was a number I didn’t recognize. My heart exploded in my chest. I picked up the phone. “Hello”.
“Is this Michael Mueller?”
“Yes.”
I can’t quite remember what was said after that, but I had won the grand prize. I hung up the phone a few minutes later and ran around my room screaming with delight. I won. I had actually done it. I won.

I ran to Inha’s place. We both screamed with delight for a bit and then went out for lunch to talk about our upcoming trip to France.

Winning this contest was a massive lesson for me. The only reason I entered as many times as I did is because I was literally programmed by Tony Robbins to believe I could do anything. I know my old programming. I would have entered once, maybe. But the way I handled this was a radically new way of thinking that would change everything for me from then on. Winning this contest solidified the idea that I could do anything. I had proven it.

It’s interesting that up until the draw date I told everyone I worked with about the contest. They all knew what I was up to, and not one of them entered. They were artists. They could have done what I did. Anyone could have. But most people believe that incredible things don’t happen. Even when the opportunity is right there, people ignore it. We are programmed by popular culture to believe life is boring and nothing amazing happens. But if we can step out of that way of thinking, amazing opportunities are all around us.

A few months later, Inha and I went to France for 3 weeks for free. It was incredible.