Ancient Souls and the Great Connection

What is a soul? That is the first question that I must answer. My understanding of the soul is that it is consciousness. It is that part of us that thinks and feels and understands. Consciousness is the part of us that calculates and analyzes everything.

“Consciousness is regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one's environment. It is a subject of much research in philosophy of mind, psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science.” - http://en.wikipedia.org/

The true question for this article is: What is an ancient soul? An ancient soul is not necessarily a soul that has lived on earth time and time again. It is a deep understanding of life and the relationship between yourself and the environment. The soul that understands cause and affect, life and love, connectivity and consciousness defines an ancient soul. If it is true that we live over and over again on earth, weather by choice or by force, it is a matter of understanding. Most times, people associate old soul or ancient souls with reincarnation. That is not necessarily true.

My belief is that the subconscious has a deep rooted connection to the universal nature of everything. The communication between the conscious and the subconscious is the key to the ancient understanding of everything. In order to have an “old soul” or “ancient mentality”, you much bridge the connection between the two. This, for me, has taken many years of study and thought. It may be quite a bit easier, for some, to connect to the ancient information.

Given the nature of humanity, we all need to have this connection before we do irreparable damage to this planet. We are close to that now. Many cultures understand this including Native Americans, monks, shamans, Buddhists, Hindus, and many others. We all have to access our ancient information and connect with one another to make quality changes.

Stock Market Bad news and why we should not be too concerned

Today has been a rocky ride for the global markets. Many of the overseas markets fell as much as 5% in overnight trading as fears of US recession looms in the balance. The US Dow future already shows a 531 point drop at the opening bell singnaling a rough day for the US. Some say that the Bush tax cut is partially to blame by bringing fear into the markets. Personally, this is something that I have know was coming for more than a year. I have been waiting for the markets to recorrect for some time. Big corps have been way overbought and now we see the sell offs.

It is no time to panic though. We are not at some breaking point yet. I believe that the markets are just making huge corrections that were much needed. You can see gas prices and oil per barrel is falling which is good for the consumer. Gold is coming down which indicated a little more strengh for the US Dollar. The stock market will have some rough times, but I do believe we can pull out and end the quarter flat or just a shade below flat line. Then there is nowhere to go but up. February might be the last month of hard times.

Make sure that your portfolio is diverse. Do not imbed all your money into one thing. If we have learned one thing, it is that no one investment is secure. We are better off having many different investments. Good luck today and say a prayer that the traders do not panic too much. Lets give them strengh to make sound, rational decisions.

The art of thinking and the universe

When we are alone, it is easy to have bad thoughts. It is that time that we reflect on our lives. We know that there are billions of people on the earth. Each one has a different mind set and a different look. Sometimes I think about someone else's life. What would it be life to live that life? Would I like my house? Would I like the car or the wife? Truth is, when we do that we are confirming that something is wrong with our own lives. For our minds, it is easier to imagine a better life than it is to make your life right.

So what is in your life that isn’t right? Is it the house, car, wife, or money? What makes you happy? These are the questions that you have to ask so that you know what to go after to make it happen. What we think and dream, we make reality. It is a two edge sword. When we think bad thoughts and have bad feeling, we manifest those feeling into reality. When you’re in a bad mood, you want others to be sympathetic and feel the same way as you do. So you make your environment stressful for others and bring them down. It is just us being humans and not wanting to be alone. It is normal and natural to bring others on our journey, even if that journey is not a good one.

The first big step to thinking like an ancient is to be grateful. Being grateful will shift your perceptions of life. I am grateful for my kids, house, wife, eyes, love, and life and so on. You do this each and every morning first thing. With this you can begin to focus and think about things in your life that you want. If you are not happy, then you cannot share love and happiness with others.

The second step is to imagine your life the exact way that you want it to be. Do you want to a journeyman, or do you want to own a big house and fancy car? These things will help guide you to getting what you want. Admittedly, I do not go after the fancy house or car because my dreams are different. I go after helping others. I want to teach though knowledge and experiences. I want to show people the secret to “their” universe and how to change it. Hence, you are reading this.

The last step is to focus one what you want and go and get it. Nothing can stop you if you believe hard enough. Remember, the mind will not like big changes right off the bat. So it may take some time to straiten out your thought. It took my about six months to turn my life around and now it’s exactly where I want to be. I will continue to grow and teach and learn and love. My life is becoming my dream.

Now you saying, as I did, “Wait, you didn’t tell me what to do in order to make that money!” This is true. I can not tell you how. The universe has a funny way of making options available when you want something. Think of it like this. When you want a new car, do you look for one or just think about it? When you go after that car, you have to figure out if you can afford it. You hand a picture of it on the wall. Imagine that you’re driving it. Look in the classifieds for a cheaper one. This is focusing on what you want and eventually you will find the deal for the right price. Now apply this to everything that you want. Sooner or later, it will find a way to find you. You can find more writings at www.ancientminds.com

The art of beating depression

The art of beating depression

A new beginning

Depression is one of the toughest things in life to overcome. It is generally caused by stress and unwanted thoughts. I know from experience that it is no fun. I am 31 and just now came out of the worst depression of my life. The biggest part of my depression was that I felt like a failure. I started a business and it wasn’t going so good. I wasn’t hitting my goals, and life was getting hard. It was causing my wife and me with a lot of undo stress. It’s hard to explain the thoughts that go though your head during depression. You know what is wrong with your life, and you know how to fix it. It’s just that you don’t care. When you don’t care about anything, you’re not able to be rational about anything. That is the mind set that I had at the low point. However, I found the light at the end of the tunnel.

I was lying in bed when the most amazing thought crossed my mind. I was thinking about my life and all the things that I didn’t do. It was then that I realized that I have not accomplished any of the things I wanted to do in life. Moreover, I didn’t even know who I was any more. I had tried to change my whole life to fit that of others. I had molded myself to a life that was not mine and my mind could not handle it. It knew better. Too bad the conscious and the sub-conscious could not have had better communication!

I know that you can’t just change your life in minutes. However, you can make that realization that you have made a mistake and at that moment, the changes can begin to be made. I watched a movie called “The Secret”. Now this movie talks about life and our perceptions of it. What we think, be manifest. I thought about this for days and decided that I would no longer manifest thoughts of failure, but success. Even though I had not found it, I still had the feeling that I was a success. Then I got out a piece of paper and began to write down all the things that I was great full for. As they say, once you hit the bottom, there is nowhere to go but up. And so I go up!

Step 1: Understand and love yourself.

I cannot stress this enough. You must love being you. There is no one like you and you have to accept and love who you are or you will never be happy. That is the simple truth. There is no other way to put it. This was my first and biggest mistake. I didn’t love me and so I could not love life or others.

Step 2: You cannot change people

The only way that a person can change is through their own actions. It has to be a choice that they make. You cannot make it for them. When you will your mind on others, you create resistance. The human mind hates resistance. It fights it like a disease. You don’t have to accept or even condone the actions of others, but understand that you cannot change them. You can help guide and influence them but that is all. In the end, they must make the choice.

Step 3: Follow your heart.

You heart is your guide. When you are not doing what you know is right, your heart tells you. When you ignore it, your heart tells your mind and your mind begins to break down the body. It’s not to punish you. Rather, it is to show you that something is wrong with your life. It is trying to get your attention. Cancer, disease, sickness, and stress are all causes of your mind trying to tell you something. You have to be willing to listen and make the changes in your life to cure the body.

Step 4: Go forth and repair your life.

This, by far, is the hardest step to take. This is the step that has all the cost. If it is your job that is wrong, you have to get a different one. If it is your spouse that is wrong, you have to do something about it. For me, it was more than one thing. It was my spouse, my job, my house, my this, my that and all of these things had to change. It was my entire mindset. I felt as though nothing in my life was right. When you have kids, you have to be strong for them. How can you be strong when everything is wrong? So I changed the way I looked at life.

First I changed the way I thought about myself. Instead of being unworthy, I started thinking that I was more than worthy of anything this life could offer. Second, I started believing and feeling that I was successful. I started feeling as though money would come frequently and easily. Third, I began to focus on the things in life that I was grateful for. When I started to do all of this, I began to see those things manifest in my life. I started making more money. I was spending more quality time with the kids. I began to fix up the house and take pride in what I had earned. As I continued to do this, the feeling of success and love began to grow like a virus. No matter what happens in life, there is always and answer. That answer is perception. For what you believe, so it is true. The universe has a funny way of answering you even when you’re not paying attention.

Step 5: Continue to be grateful.

I cannot stress this enough. When things in our life are good, it is easy to forget to be grateful. That is one of the corks of life. We neglect the little things so often that they become big things. We must continue to focus on the good of life and never the negative. I keep a gratitude rock in my pocket at all times. When I watched the movie “The Secret”, a man kept a rock with him. This rock would remind him to be thankful for everything he had. Every morning, he would hold the rock and list the things that he was thankful for. Then in the evening when he pulled out the rock, again he would list the things he was thankful for. It was such a good idea that I adopted it and use it each and every day. It does not have to be a rock. It can be anything that is special to you. A ring or a button also work fine.

Step 6: Bless others as you are blessed.

You have to share your success with others. It is one of the fundamental rules of humanity. List one person in the world that shares their wealth with others freely and without repayment. Wealth is not just having a lot of money. It is money, love, happiness, success and the like. If your wealth is writing, then share it with the world. This is what I like to do. I don’t have a ton of money, but I have a ton of knowledge. This knowledge is worth much more to me that any amount of money can ever be. So I share it freely with the world. I do not expect to change the world. I would like to think that I could help change the perception of just one person. If I can do that, then I am far more successful than a rich man that hordes his money.

In summery, you are who you believe yourself to be and nothing more. Remember to be grateful and love yourself. Once you do that, the world is your playground. Share your wealth with everyone that you run across.

The art of beating depression

The art of beating depression

Life after the beginning

Once you have decided to begin a new, now it is time to focus on what you want. Want seems like a selfish word, but it is the key to living a full life. Human beings have to have three things in order to live.

1. Goal
2. Reward for getting the goal.
3. Punishment for missing the goal.

It’s the universal law of man that we have to have a purpose. We have free will, so we choose our goals. A goal usually has some reward when achieved. It can be a new car, a better job, or the perfect soul mate. No matter what goal we choose, there has to be a reward and a punishment. Generally those things come with reward and punishment but you can make it more fun by setting rewards and punishments yourself. Let’s say I want to get an A in a college class. I would set my reward as a new computer for myself. Then I set the punishment as giving away my television to good will. Now I don’t want to loose my tv so I am going to make sure to hit my goal. Not only that, but I can get a new laptop for myself if I do it. Now I have a purpose and a goal. It can be as rewarding as I make it. I don’t want to miss it because it will cost me. So now I have motivation to do the work and get the A. You can use this technique with your children too. It works great.

Leonardo Da Vinci

My newest project is the Leonardo Da Vinci Project. I am going to spend a great deal of time investing in a search for all things Da Vinci. I want to dive into his life and find the ancient things that he knew and loved. Come join me on this quest here.

Leonardo Da Vinci is becoming one of my favorite ancient minds. In a lot of ways, I am like him. He is a artist, inventor, and mathematician. These are all aspects of my life that I love. Not only that, but he is a procrastinator. That is me in a nut shell. Like Da Vinci, I too start many artistic projects and leave them unresolved for one reason or another. Usually, it is a mental issue that blocks my ability to do good works.

Ancient Uniqueness -

There are not many people in the world that can match the likeness of Leonardo Da Vinci. He had the mind to invent, paint the most amazing pictures, and write about life and love. He also was way ahead when it came to anatomy and human understanding. He was a pioneer of the Renaissance era. Leonardo Da Vinci is still one of the most admired and famous people to have lived on the planet Earth. It is an honor to study him.

Ancient art of raising children

There was a time in history that people raised their children in such a way that when they were teenagers, they were well on their way to independence. Those days are long gone for most. I have always believed that through proper teaching and guidance, my children could be ready for the real world by their teens. It’s not an easy task.

The first thing that you must do as a parent is understand that people do not like to be told what to do. It’s the worst thing that you can do with your children. Many people will disagree with me and that is ok. Understanding the nature of the human being and what drives us is the key to unlocking the minds of our children.

Rule one: Always give your children a choice.

It doesn't matter what the condition is, always give them options. Here is an example. My son knows what I expect of him on a day to day basis. He has choices. If he chooses to be bad, there is a cost for that behavior. The same goes with good behavior. Choices allow your children to feel special. They want to feel as though they have a part in the decisions that affect their lives. We all want a vote in the actions that are taken in all aspects of our lives. This is true for even the youngest of people.

Rule two: Always have a cost and a reward for all tasks. There is one major philosophy in life that must be adhered to. For everything we do there must be a reward for completion and a cost for failure. This is the driving for all of mankind. We have to have our eyes on something if we are going to put any effort into anything. Look back at history and tell me that we did anything that didn't come with some kind of reward. And most certainly, every failure has a cost. Even if that cost is time. Give you children a goal or let them choose a goal rather. It’s the easiest way to get them on the right path. Why fight with them when you can use your mind to get them to do it on their own. That’s what I do.

Rule three: Follow through with all cost and rewards. Failure to do this is devastating. Do not promise something that you cannot provide. It’s the crutch that can turn your children against you. Remember that they are smart and they will remember what you do. As you reinforce these behaviors, they will begin to make better choices on their own. It’s the greatest feeling in the world when you children correct you on your behavior. Then you know that you are doing something right.

Rule four: Give them space. As a parent it is hard sometimes to give you children the space they need to make the decisions that your trying to teach them. I know that I want to jump in and make changes all the time. However, I have learned that they don't need me to correct them. They will learn the lessons on their own. My son and daughter like to fight over who gets to do what first. It’s one of the oldest traditions among siblings that there ever was. I have learned how to beat it. By using choices and teaching my son what it means to be a big brother, I have taught him to make the right choices to set a good example with his sister.

Rule five: Nothing is off limits. If we want to treat our children as adults, then we cannot hold back for any reason. There are many issues that I have faced with my own kids that make me question everything. Our understanding of people and their behavior is way off. My children, though they are young, are brilliant. They can learn so fast. Once you start teaching them the ways of adulthood, there is no stopping them. For instance, my son thought that it would be cute to curse in my presence. Now for most parents this is a bad thing. However, I took a different approach to this. First, I explained that those words were made up by people over time with meaning that didn't represent good things. Let's take the s word for instance. If you actually took the time to find out where it came from and what it meant, you would find that its ridicules. I will let you do the work on that one. But for the sake of argument, it’s not a good word in our society. I simply explained to my son that if he were to use those words in school or around his sister, he would be setting a bad example. Here is the kicker. I explained that if used in school, I could get into trouble. First I told him that social services would be called. Then they would come to my house and talk with me and his mother about how we raise him. Then I told him that he could be taken from us if the offences were bad enough. Let me tell you something, he never used any of the words again. He made the choice (on his own, mind you) to not use them. He told me that he had to do the right thing for his sister and set the example. How wonderful is that! Now, every action that he does around his sister is one that shows her the right things in life. These are all choices that he makes.

Rule six: Know when to step in and how to do it. There are going to be many times that you will need to jump in and make corrections with your children. When I say "make corrections", that is exactly what I mean. Do not punish your children for bad behavior. Make them pay for it. My way of doing it is through conversation and loss of privileges. This is a most effective way to handle them. Spanking is good when they are too young to understand. When they get older, it only traumatized them into submission. We do not want that. We need to convince them that they have the power to make the right choices for themselves. Once they start doing that, its all over. They soon begin to question actions they think about and decide if it’s good or not on their own. My son will ask questions from time to time about the validity of a choice, and I will advise his as I would do. That’s about it.

Rule seven: Communication breaks down and now their defiant. I have to admit, the only reason that me and my son or daughter have a communication breakdown is when we become stubborn. Weather they are or I am; it’s always one of us. As a parent, I have to stop and think before I take critical action. I have to ask myself if the communication breakdown is my fault. It’s important to know. When you ask yourself, really mean it. Evaluate what you are thinking and then put yourself in their shoes. What would you want? Sometimes kids can be difficult, but often times the problem is laziness on your part. No offense to any parents out there. Here is an example. You promised your child you would take them to the park this week and its Thursday. You haven't done it yet and they are starting to get frustrated and take it out on you. They start yelling and getting out of control. Now the first thing you want to do is so "fine, we are not going because your not behaving!". This is not the right answer. Stop now and think about it in their shoes. You would want the park too. Instead of punishing them for bad behavior, talk to them about why you have not gone to the park and reassure them that it is still your intention to take them. Find them something to do for the time being to get their minds off the park. Don't just give in and take them either. This is teaching them to misbehave to get their way. Instead, take them out to do some shopping and then swing by the park on your way home. You didn't give in and they got what they wanted. Or simply talk to them and make sure that they know your not going because of the behavior, but because you WANT to take them.

Rule eight: Children are often mini versions of you. Know that when they exert certain behaviors, chances are it’s also your own behavior. Make sure that you’re not punishing your children for something that you do or would do. Try instead to explain that you try not to do that thing yourself and would like to see them also try. I have a tendency not to finish projects. Sometimes I get bored with them and just drop them. So when my son does it, its not his actions that make me upset, it is my actions in him that make me upset. So by understanding this, I can be a better teacher and teach him. I can explain to him my behavior and why I don't want to see that behavior in him.

Rule nine: There is no limit to the teaching that you can do. It’s up to you how much to teach them. My son is 11 now and knows how to take care of himself. He can clean his room, make his own means, balance a checkbook, run a small business and much more. Ask me how I do it? It is easy as pie. It’s all a part of keeping the mind working. I chose to teach him how to start and run a small woodshop business. It involved planning, money, cost, budgets, craft, time management, and dedication. His task was to start the shop with one hundred dollars (monopoly money). He then paid me for wood and his expenses such as electricity. He had to balance his budget and figure out costs. I had to help with much of it, but it was a learning experience. Experience he uses in many aspects of his life. He had to keep receipts that I gave him for the wood and bills to account for the money. These are all things that build their character. He also had to draw and make the final product (with some help). We then created a website to market the item. It was a great way to teach him about the real world and what he could expect from it. Now that he is getting older, I can see some of those lessons come out. He has a club with his friends. They have the rule book and many of the rules reflect that of the real world. I am so proud of him.

Rule ten: Don't force your children to learn a trade they want nothing to do with. This will make them run from you. It’s always been the tradition that the son follows the father. From birth, they learn about what you do through conversation and so by default, many believe that is what they should do. My father is an engineer. Though I know much about it, it is not my passion. Writing and studying ancient ways are. He did try to encourage me to study the art and I did. It just wasn't for me and fortunately, he didn't force me to continue. However, there are many people that do. This is a good way to loose your kids' favor. Let them explore and learn a trade they want. Talk to them. They know what they want. Try to encourage them to better themselves all the time. Set the example yourself and continue to better yourself. Be the leader though example.