Last month, we discussed how exercising compassion could transcend our fears, guilt, and suffering; allowing us to move onwards. So, how do we succeed at bringing more joy and harmony into our lives?

Soon, most of us will be thinking about our summer holidays. Which brings me to my question to you: where are you planning to go? The spiritual path towards success and achieving your goals in life is similar to planning a much-needed holiday.

If you are planning to go to Spain, you don’t board a plane heading to Moscow. Instead, you would plan your journey, set dates, buy tickets, shop for what you need; and then duly head towards the airline and the flight that takes you to that destination.

To avoid disappointment, you are likely to plan well before investing your money, time and energy. In fact, how well you enjoy your holiday probably depends on how well you plan it. Apply the same principles to your personal journey - your life.

Spiritual Practices as Tools for Success:

• Identify Your Intentions (goal-setting).

‘Energy flows where intention goes’. What are your intentions, goals and aspirations? Consider setting performance goals rather than result goals. Stating "I will lose a stone in two weeks" is a result goal. There are many factors here beyond your conscious control. You may do everything in your power and still not achieve it. It is wiser to state specific performance goals, and allow the results to unfold, for example, “I will stick with my eating plan and go for long brisk walks every other day for the next three weeks."

·        Write them down!
Of all the bits of ‘homework’ this seems the hardest task for many of my clients to do. I cannot emphasise enough the power of actually writing some thing down- and not keeping it in your head. Free intuitive writing puts you in touch with the present, often on a very deep level using both halves of the brain. It’s almost like sending your subconscious an email.

Tip:    State your written goals out loud as affirmations in the present tense. This enforces your commitment; clarifies your thoughts, and gets the energy moving to manifest them into the physical reality.

• Start with You (others will learn by example).
  Each of us is a work-in-progress. This tool challenges us to become all we are meant to be. We are co-creators of the Great Work of the universe. By attuning ourselves to ‘the image of God’, or the higher self, we are able to fulfil our mission in life. Be true to yourself before expecting others to do so.

Tip:    While we create what we want, we can't control what others do or want for themselves. Instead of trying to get our lover to come back, we'd be wiser to focus on creating the perfect romantic relationship for us. Not even "magic" can ethically force others to act, as we'd like them to.

·        Be in the ‘here and now’.
This is a potent practice. Recognize that God/all that is, is here now moving through our everyday activities, no matter how trivial they might seem. Zen Buddhism especially is known for its emphasis on "being in the now." Hindu, Taoist, Jewish, Moslem, Christian, and other teachers urge us to make the most of every day as an opportunity that will not come to us again. How you feel and act now is your own choice.

Tip:    Pema Chödrön, author of When Things Fall Apart, says: “Now is the only time. How we relate to it creates the future… What we do accumulates; the future is the result of what we do right now.”

• Identify your gifts and talents.
  Cherish what is distinctive about you. In The Soul's Code, James Hillman contends that every person has a unique character and destiny that cannot be stilled by genetic makeup, environmental factors, or parental influence.
  
  Your special gifts are what you are naturally good at. Your talents or skills you have developed are what you have chosen to improve. Both are clues to your calling- or ‘God's will’ for you.

Tip:    How well are you fulfilling your own destiny? Have you developed your personal gifts and talents?

• Use your Imagination
  I call it “don’t analyse, visualise”! Put the power of your imagination to work. Thought is creative energy, if you imagine what you desire here now, it will be.

Tip:    Recall a past experience when you FELT exhilarated. Now, feel it again- physically in your body! The more you can fully recreate that feeling, the greater the fuel for your future success.

Next month, we’ll discuss co-creating a loving partnership.
Till then, love, light and healing.

 Sahar Huneidi, 2004
www.psychicsahar.com , please visit my online www.ps-magazine.com