"A goal is a dream with a deadline." Napoleon Hill

Every year, I set my New Year's resolutions early and work with them for weeks.  I annoy my friends and family by asking them about their resolutions and find it very hard to accept that some people simply will not make them - no matter how many times I ask.

Who can resist a fresh start?  A new opportunity?  A wide open future?  

Certainly not me.  To my mind, the new year just isn't the new year without a resolution.  And according to a University of Scranton study 45% of people agree.  Sadly, out of that 45% (who always set a resolution) only 8% will succeed. But all is not discouraging. 

The same study goes on to report that those who "explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals" than those of us who don't. Or, in other words, specific resolutions work, while vague ones often don't.

And this is the difference, I suppose, between a resolution and a goal.  

Unlike the average resolution, goals include specific and realistic targets - complete with numbers, dates and deadlines.  Setting these quantifiable, number specific targets help make our intentions real, moving them out of our minds and into the material world - where they belong.

So if you're feeling shaky about your New Year's resolutions, take a few minutes to write them out.  Now look them over. Are they vague or specific?  Do they have numbers?  When do they end?

Answer these questions, in writing, and read through what you have written at least once a day.  In doing so you can find yourself among the 8% who succeed - effective December 31st 2015 or before!

*Stats courtesy of StatisticBrain.com.

I'm very excited to announce that I will be starting Robert Bruce's five week online astral projection course (The Practical Astral Projection Intensive) this week!  

So I'll posting more on the Astral Dynamics course, Bruce's method, the practice of astral projection (or out of body experience / OBE), and my own experience with the material.

My own (possible) out-of-body experience to date has originated in the dream state.  I believe that I've experienced other realities and met with family and friends who have passed in my dreams.  According Bruce, this is not unusual. 

Robert Bruce maintains that we all access the out-of-body state during dreams but that recalling these inter-dimensional experience is difficult due to what he terms the "mind-split effect."

The mind-split theory, as described in Bruce's book Astral Dynamics: The Complete Book of Out-of-Body Experiences, describes a process of splitting or replicated our consciousness, creating a sort of energetic double which is free to travel the astral dimension.  The other part of our consciousness, or master copy, remains with our physical body. 

While the mind-split effect may sound fantastic, I find it an interesting explanation for our tendency to forget our dreams.  I often have a sense of reintegration when waking up from a dream.  For a few magical moments, my dream experience hovers on the edge of my awareness.  If I don't get to my dream journal fast enough, I can actually feel the memory of my dream dissolving into thin air. 

For me, these dream memories are fundamentally different than ordinarymemory.  Ordinary memories may get lost (or misfiled) but once retrieved they are quite stable.  They don't hover, in my experience, and I have never had one dissolve just beyond the edge of waking consciousness. 

Bruce calls such memories shadow memory, remarking that they are subtle and easily overridden by waking consciousness.  If not "downloaded" to physical memory, usually within a few moments of waking, they are, often irretrievably, lost.

My spiritual (or nonphysical experiences) so feels fundamentally different from ordinary experience.  Dreams and other nonphysical / spiritual experience are subtle, fragile, mutable.  So it isn't surprising to me, that the mental processes that occur in this state would take on these same characteristics.

According to Bruce, where most of us "fail" in our deliberate out of body exploration is at the point of re-entry when we may drift into sleep without downloading our memories into the long-term (or relatively stable) storage of our of physical mind.

To me this is encouraging.  Astral exploration is not, per Robert Bruce, a pinnacle attainable to a select few but a place we all frequent, albeit unknowingly, and one which we are all capable of bringing into our conscious awareness.  This week I'll be working on improving my dream recall using the affirmations and shadow-memory trigger phrases mentioned in Astral Dynamics, as well as working on increasing my awareness (and recall) of the hypnogogic imagery I routinely see as I drift off to sleep.

The information I've shared in this post is only part of Bruce's approach and the Practical Astral Projection Intensive which I am beginning.  The major focus of Astral Dynamics is the energy work which helps to strengthen the energy body (or double) and promote the awareness of this other self which makes conscious OBE possible.  And the course explores all of this and more.

I'll be sharing more on my experience with the material as I progress through the course.  And do please keep in mind that this course start tomorrow and that enrollment is still open at:  Practical Astral Projection Intensive!  Would love to see you there <3

There is no getting around it - here in the northeast, winter is our darkest season. The days are short and the nights are long and our precious daylight hours are often dimmed by overcast skies or falling snow.

This is why cultures all around the world choose the midpoint of the season to remember and celebrate the light.  We're drawn to these celebrations because there is something about the light shining in the darkness that speaks to us deep within our soul.

Now, for most of us, our seasonal celebrations are drawing to close.  And it's not unusual to feel a drop in energy (and optimism) when this time comes.

This week, as I put away my decorations, I'm opening my curtains, burning my holiday candles and thinking of new and different ways of honoring the light. And it occurs to me that a hearth fire would be the perfect thing.  I don't have a fireplace in this house but I do have an idea.

When my son and I built the shelves in the living room we left a place for a TV.  Over time however we realized that having a TV in the den was enough for us and that listening to music is a better living room activity.  So we moved the TV out.

I tried to fill the space with a few crystals and candles but it didn't really work.  So my idea is to make this spot my "hearth" creating a focal point of light and warmth that will reflect the energy of fire into my interior space.

I'll be doing this with a large mirror (donated by my son) and all the candles I can find.  A bit of green would be nice, too.

Hopefully I'll have pics of  my new honoring the light "hearth" by the end of the weekend - so please do check back.  Until then, remember that, just like the moon flower, the seeds of summer have taken root and will soon began to bloom  <3

Everyone loves a cozy winter night gathered around the fireplace or bundled up in an afghan in the warm glow of candle or Christmas lights.  Warmth is comfort at this time of year and many of us take extra steps to keep out the cold by weatherizing doors and windows.

When it comes to our heating bills these steps make sense.  But there is a flip side to creating barriers against the season.  Weather tight homes don't "breath" leading to stale indoor energy and that familiar closed in feeling called cabin fever.

This winter I'm working hard to break up stale energy and open the channels that allow environmental energies to flow by clearing, cleaning and organizing my space. 

In the days leading up to New Year's Eve, I worked hard on my bedroom and kitchen.  When I was done with the bedroom, I hung the wind chime (left) from the inside corner of my bed to help move and clear any stagnant energies - and honor the element of air.

Wind chimes are a classic Feng Shui fix and they really do work.  Another thing I love, whenever I turn over in bed I hear a delicate tinkling chime!

I do have more to do but I feel that I'm off to a good start for 2015.  Now to work on my resolutions :)