Reaching For the Sky

Today’s post is about ways of thinking and feeling about our own future, about what we’d like to change, what else we’d like to achieve, and how we would like to live, if only we could.. You know the old adage by James Allen: As a man thinketh in his heart, so shall he be. And the Buddha put it slightly differently: We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.

Consider those two quotes and recognize that if you are not reaching and stretching, you may never reach the sky. And one of the ways to reach and stretch is by lifting your thoughts to other places than those which are your usual places. Where do your thoughts normally go? How do you normally think?

What do you say when someone asks you how you are? Or how things are going? Do you say the truth when things are not going well? Or do you pretend they are OK?

Here’s the thing: if you pretend they are OK, you leave no room for talking about the truth, but if you tell the truth, you must be very careful how you word it. This is not about the person to whom you are talking, but about yourself … what words are being engraved in your mind, heart and soul as you speak?

• Things are tough right now at my office, they’re laying people off left and right
• I've had a flu for weeks and can’t seem to get over it
• Everyone has had to take pay cuts in my department, and since my wife was laid off from her job last summer, we've been having trouble making ends meet
• I've been trying to get an exhibition together, but I can’t find a sponsor (or I am having a hard time being inspired in my painting)
• My husband and I have been seeing a therapist but our marriage really seems doomed

Clearly, all of these statements may be spot on for your particular situation, but you see, when you phrase your predicament in those kinds of terms, you are setting – so to speak – the current situation in stone. You leave no room for improvement in the way you phrase your answers. And hence – perhaps – you limit the room for improvement in your mind.

Here are some alternatives to the above sentences and before you call me a Pollyanna, or falsely positive thinker, give me a chance to offer you my thoughts please:

• Due to the current climate in the workforce, I've been taking some free online courses to prepare myself for a horizontal move in my field, should the need arise. I've had a careful look at my CV and I've been networking and meeting a lot of very interesting contacts
• I've been researching on the internet to see if there are some alternative methods available that might help me get over this flu that has been hanging on, and for the past few days I've seen a marked improvement thanks to this remedy that involves orange juice and cayenne pepper
• My wife and I have been looking into selling organic produce from our garden at the local farmer’s market. I help her on the actual sale days on weekends, and she takes care of the gardening because she has extra free time right now due to getting laid off. Things are tight, but we are getting along fine
• I've been attending free lectures at the local community college as an auditing student to find new inspiration for paintings for the exhibition I want to organize, and not only am I finding myself coming up with some great new ideas, but I've also met a professor whose wife owns a local gallery and we’re going to get together for coffee next week to see if the exhibition could be held there
• My wife and I have been seeing a therapist about our problems, and nothing much was happening, but one day talking about it, we both realized we had been pretending to ourselves that therapy wasn't working, when what was really happening, was that we weren't actually implementing any of the suggestions the therapist was offering, so since then, we've been working on that and although we aren't out of the woods, we are beginning to see that maybe there is hope for us after all

So I’m confident that you can see the difference in the two types of phrasing, and yet both are essentially about the same issue … it’s just that in the second set of phrases, the way the problem is expressed leaves room for improvement, solutions, and success in your mind.

The story you tell yourself – about anything at all – has a great deal to do with the eventual outcome. This is totally in your hands. You choose your stories. But in order to come up with stories that form part of the second set of phrases, you must be conscious and aware. You must have assumed responsibility for your own well-being. And so, at the beginning of this new year, we come full circle: make a priority of yourself. Find inner freedom by reaching for the sky, by remaining conscious and by willingly taking on responsibility for absolutely everything you think, feel, say and do.

For more about how planting your self-talk and your thoughts can move you to greater awareness, inner peace, well-being, success, and joy, have a look at my book Rewiring the Soul: Finding the Possible Self (paperback or Kindle).

To download the first chapter, click here
To see the Table of Contents click here

Reviews From the Back Cover:

"The masterwork of a profoundly gifted healer of the soul. Dazzling, challenging, wondrously useful." Peggy Rubin, Director, Center for Sacred Theatre, Ashland, Oregon; author: To Be and How To Be, Transforming Your Life Through Sacred Theatre

"Rewiring the Soul is one the best introductions to the spiritual life I've ever read. Not esoteric but real-world & practical. The implications are profound." Peter Shepherd; Founder Trans4mind.com; author: Daring To Be Yourself 

"The human being's directory to the soul. A breakthrough for those seeking practical assistance, those of a more mystical bent & every soul awaiting discovery." Toni Petrinovich, Ph.D.; author: The Call: Awakening the Angelic Human

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The Tao of Spiritual Partnership: Background Music in Daily Life That Can Enhance Your Growth


The Tao of Spiritual Partnership is also available in print and Kindle formats.

To download the first chapter, click here
To see the Table of Contents click here

From the Description on Amazon: More exciting than any other kind of relationship you have ever known, spiritual partnership is a path, a Tao, available to you so that you may transform your life. Spiritual partnership becomes background music to daily life allowing you to enhance the process of your growth and evolution.

This ground-breaking book addresses:

• relationship patterns that hold you back from a truly fulfilled life
• the strong connection between sexuality and spiritual partnership
• communication leading to true connection & lasting transformation of your relationship

It is precisely at the problematic crossroads so often encountered in relationships that we are offered the opportunity to create a new foundation based on mutual complementarity rather than need; a free relationship between two people who want to be together, rather than two people who need to be together. Needing another, we are told, is the measure of love, but for a fully conscious individual nothing could be further from the truth. And therein lies part of the secret and healing power of spiritual partnerships. 

Praise for The Tao of Spiritual Partnership 

“All humans seek the illusive touch of another's Soul, which opens us to the sense of belonging to something bigger than the self. Dr. Kortsch has given us the true "tao" of relationship in this brilliant exploration of emotional tapestry. We will be grateful for this illumination of spiritual partnership for generations to come." 
Chris Griscom: Spiritual Leader, Author 

“Eloquently and comprehensive, showing how your primary love relationship may be a sacred vessel that transports you and your partner to a place of mutual healing and expansion.” 
Robert Schwartz: Author of Your Soul’s Gift: The Healing Power of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born 

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The Power of Your Heart: Loving the Self

My new book: The Power of Your Heart: Loving the Self, is due out later this year. Here is a brief excerpt from the Introduction:

It is your right to live a life of love. It is your right to understand that loving yourself first is not a selfish way of behavior, but one that allows you to live that life of love. However, it's highly probable that you never got the instruction manual explaining exactly how to accomplish this. Possibly your family - and it may have been a loving family - considered loving the self an act of selfishness. Or perhaps the members of your family simply didn't practice loving the self, and of course, what you didn't see - what was not shown to you - while you were growing up, meant that you just didn't learn how to apply it to yourself. The closer you are able to move towards loving yourself, the closer you will be to living a life of love - quite independently of whether you are in a love relationship or not. A life of love can be lived with or without a partnership, because a life of love implies that you know that it all begins with you by loving the self. The more clearly you understand how to love yourself, the more clearly you will see that it is very hard - if not impossible - to love others in ways that are unrelated to fulfilling any of your needs. Loving yourself first is - for so many of us - one of the hardest things we will ever learn how to do. But know this: the benefits affect you in every particle of your being - body, mind, and soul - and are greater than you will ever be able to imagine.

Note: If you are wondering why this blog is now only appearing on alternate days (excluding Sat/Sun), it is because I also post on my other blog on the others days. That other blog is The Tao of Spiritual Partnership, so named for my new book. Click here to visit the blog and/or to sign up for the feed.