Editor's Note: The following is a guest post written by a goal setting expert Gary Ryan Blair.

Think for just a moment of all the things that require practice: grammar, arithmetic, cooking, and even the guitar. Practice is probably something you think you’re done with when you leave school or give up music lessons. But, have you ever thought of practicing the fine art of gratitude?

The simplicity of gratitude and the powerful effect it has on our lives is unequaled by any other practice of its kind.  There is a special kind of magic in gratitude for it raises our consciousness, recharges our energy, enhances our self-worth, and strengthens our spirit. Gratitude counts.

It’s quite possible to attain great wealth, the best education, and an exceptional quality of life and still be unhappy. This occurs when people live with an absence of gratitude. Success is a process that includes both peaks and valleys, but the one constant in a truly successful life is gratitude.

A successful life requires ongoing growth, and gratitude ensures growth. Gratitude heightens awareness and expands your interaction with the world. Once gratitude becomes part of your nature you begin to see the connections between your success and creature comforts, and the talents and contributions of others.

The farmer plants, waters, fertilizes and harvests the tomatoes you enjoy.
The truck driver delivers the food to the market that will soon feed your family.
The baker kneads and bakes the bread for the sandwich you’ll eat for lunch.
The engineer and architect design the bridge that allows you to get to work.
The furniture maker’s handiwork creates the furniture in your living room.
The plumber fixes your leak, clears your drain and plunges your toilet.
The teacher educates and inspires your children to be the best they can be.
The customer provides the support that enables everyone to receive wages.
The performer engages the imagination and entertains your senses.
The seamstress sews the beautiful clothes that make you look great.
The physician and nurse help to bring your beautiful baby into the world.

Pause for a moment and begin to think of the connections between people and you will immediately understand how important a role gratitude plays in the creation of a happy, productive life. We live in a world where we have much to be grateful for if we would just stop and look around.

It’s quite humbling to think of all the roles that complete strangers play in our daily existence. The sheer ingenuity and effort required of others is one of the most compelling reasons why we must make gratitude a daily practice. Humility is a virtue integral to gratitude. We cannot recognize the need for gratitude without it.

You may be tempted to believe that success and happiness is the result of karma, fate, design, destiny or pure luck but gratitude offers the best guarantee of success. As you practice the fine art of gratitude you automatically enhance your peace of mind and overall quality of life.

Finding something good in each and every day harnesses the power of gratitude. Do you light a candle or curse the darkness? Do you bless each and everything that comes your way, trusting that its meaning will become clear—even if you can't possibly see how in the moment?

One of the best ways to cultivate gratefulness is to count your blessings by thinking of all the good in your life as well acknowledging the contributions of others. This is important for three reasons:

Positioning. By focusing on the positive things in each and every day, you position gratitude so that it has top of mind awareness.

Perspective. By looking for goodness and nobility in yourself and others, you are reminded that there are lots of good people with good intentions in the world.

Power. By being appreciative for challenging lessons and adverse situations you are demonstrating grace under fire. That grace results in greater personal power, self-confidence, momentum, and energy.

Practicing the fine art of gratitude is not only among our most important positive emotions, but one that links directly to physical and mental well-being. It’s in our self-interest to feel gratitude because it makes us better people. When we consciously practice grateful living, happiness follows along with an ability to withstand negative events. An attitude of gratitude provides immunity to anger, envy, resentment, and depression.

While forgiveness heals the heart of old hurts, gratitude opens it to present love. Gratitude bestows many benefits. It dissolves negative feelings: anger and jealousy melt in its embrace, fear and defensiveness shrink. Gratitude deflates the barriers to love.

Gratitude also evokes happiness, which is itself a powerfully healing and beneficial emotion. When we are happy, we like to make others happy, and this fosters kindness and generosity.

Like other attitudes, gratitude can be cultivated. We don't have to wait for someone to shower us with gifts before feeling thankful. We can develop gratitude by reflecting on the gifts that are already ours. This reflection can be done for a minute, a day, or throughout a lifetime.

Most people celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and holidays, but those who cultivate gratitude celebrate and rejoice every day. We can be grateful because we are happy, but we can also be happy because we are grateful.

We tend to forget how very different the laws that govern the mind are from the laws that operate in the physical world. In the physical world, if we give something thing to another person, whether it be a toy, a book, or a diamond, we lose possession.

Yet in the mind, the opposite is true. Whatever we intend for another person we first experience ourselves, whatever we give we gain, whatever we offer flowers in our own mind. If you feel hatred toward someone, that hate boomerangs back and scorches your own mind.

On the other hand, if you offer love and gratitude to someone, that love and gratitude first fills and heals your mind. The words "As you give so shall you receive" are profound statements about the way our minds work.

Enjoy every moment with gratitude and the next time you are eating fruit, remember to gives thanks to the person who planted the tree. That’s making gratitude count!

About Gary

Gary Ryan Blair is a highly regarded speaker, consultant, strategic planner, and coach to leading companies throughout the globe. He helps business owners, corporate executives and sales professionals manage their time, set their priorities, and stay focused so that they can achieve their goals, grow their business, and sustain a lasting competitive advantage.

He's also offering advanced coaching on setting your personal goals -- and getting the results, find out how to make your personal strategic plan.

At the 2008 Serious Play Conference, Tim Brown, the CEO of the “innovation and design” firm IDEO, asked the audience to take the piece of paper they had been given and quickly draw the person sitting beside them. After their 30 seconds was up, the group was giggling, embarrassed and apologizing to their neighbors.

Tim then contrasted this experience with doing the same exercise with young children. Children don’t laugh, get shy or apologize, he explained. Instead they’re simply excited to take on the exercise and show off their work when they’re done.

Why the difference between the adults and the children?

As adults, we fear the judgment of our peers. We also fear not being right and executing a task poorly. Young children don’t worry about this. They simply get on with their creative vision. Tim explains that this judgment, this need to be right, stifles creativity and leads to conservative thinking.

Tim, being the CEO of IDEO, a firm on a mission to fuse design, business and social life to help companies re-think their business or product, needs fearless, creative types around him 24/7.

Tim believes that play in the workplace is essential if you want your group to generate big, fresh ideas.

But, in order for someone to feel comfortable enough to play, they have to feel secure, so it’s about creating an environment that is relaxed and fun.

It’s even about friendship, because it’s more fun to play, create and build with people who you genuinely enjoy spending time with. The whole process of work (if you want to call it that) actually evolves into something that more closely resembles play.

Check out Tim Brown’s talk at 2008 Serious Play Conference. Let us know what you think!

Hello again! We’re back with Part 8 in our 19-Part FinerMinds series on Becoming Just Awesome. This week we’re going to cover something almost everyone struggles with every now and then: Negative Self-Talk.

What is negative self-talk, you ask. It’s that nagging voice in your head that pours you a negative cocktail of half-truths, poor logic and distortions of reality. It’s your mind interpreting events and circumstances (whether external or internal) through a lens of pessimism and self-loathing. Overall, it’s a big problem, and far too many people struggle with it.

Most of us don’t even realize how bad our negative self-talk is. When it comes to ourselves and how we perceive the world, we tear ourselves down and adopt a ‘glass half empty’ approach to life. We do this so often, it becomes a habit or a set pattern of thinking. Far too often we get ourselves into these negative thought spirals. Unfortunately, it’s extremely damaging.

I want you to meet Elizabeth. To most observers, Liz has ‘got it all’. Liz is a doctor. She’s 34 years old. She’s attractive; runs half marathons; is funny, outgoing and smart; and has a great circle of family and friends who love her to bits. She also has a kind and handsome fiancé who would do almost anything for her.

Now let’s get inside Liz’s head. What does Liz think about herself? You’d think with all she has going for her she’d be the happiest person on the planet, right? Wrong.

Liz suffers from some serious negative self-talk. She beats herself up because she thinks she’s not as intelligent and accomplished as other doctors because she’s just a general practitioner and not a specialist. She gets down on herself because she isn’t a real marathon runner; she just runs half-marathons. She loses sleep over the fact that she’s 34 and doesn’t have children yet. She worries incessantly that she’s not young enough or attractive enough for her fiancé because he is just so amazing (she secretly thinks “why would he want to be with me?”). All this negative self-talk often leaves Liz feeling anxious, depressed and exhausted, though she tries not to let it show.

It’s completely absurd for Liz to think and feel this way, but she continues to do so. At this point, it’s automatic for her. Actually, she doesn’t even know she does it. And neither do you, I imagine.

How often do you monitor your thoughts? Probably not very often, if you’re like most people. Spend a day simply observing what you think about. Observe what your mind is expressing about you and the world. Is it going: “You’re awesome! You can do it! Life rocks!”?  Or is it going: “Don’t even bother. You don’t stand a chance. The world is against you.” If you’ve got the latter going on, you need help. Continuous negative self-talk will make you miserable and bitter.

But there are steps you can take to manage and minimize negative self-talk.

• Simply becoming aware of your negative self-talk is the first step.
• Understanding the origin of your negative self-talk and the mechanisms behind it is the second part.
• Finally, it is important to practice exercises that will slowly re-program you to process information in a positive light.

When we’re in a bad mood, most of us can say why we’re in a bad mood. We can identify the ‘trigger’, whether it was our boss yelling at us or not being able to fit into our pants because we gained five pounds. What we fail to consider is the role our thoughts play in all this. We just look at the trigger and mood and see a direct relationship.

We fail to take responsibility for the fact that how we process an event is what leads us down the path to feeling angry and upset. We think the trigger is the cause. WRONG. How we process the event is the cause. We need to take responsibility and learn how to process information differently, in a more positive light.

I highly recommend watching the video below. Dr. Darryl Cross, an Executive and Personal Coach as well as a clinical psychologist, elegantly explains how we get ourselves into this negative self-talk mess.

He’s even going to show you an exercise to get you thinking positively in two weeks.

Enjoy! And let me know how the exercise works for you!

Do you remember that first spark of hope you felt when you watched The Secret? I clearly remember the desire that filled my heart, knowing that... Yes, I can make my dreams come true -- FINALLY!

But how many of you soon saw that hope dwindle into frustration? How many of you (and be honest now) started muttering things like:

• "It seems to work for other people, but I just can't get it right."
• "I'm frustrated that sometimes I can get it to work, but sometimes I can't. What's the trick?"
• "Why am I having so much trouble?"
• "I think the Universe is against me."
• "I'm trying very, VERY hard but still nothing is happening!"

Don't worry, you're not alone. About 97% of people also couldn't make the Law of Attraction work for them the first time round. Think about it, just like anything else, you have to practice many times before you see success. A child doesn't learn to walk without falling over a couple of times, right?

But in practice, everything is easier said than done. When you're frustrated, it's hard to stay positive. And it's especially harder to stay positive when the evidence all around you screams negativity, like the unstable economy or senseless acts of violence such as those recently seen in Mumbai.

And do you know what happens when you fail to stay positive? That's right! You start attracting negative things in to your life.

So how can you make the Law of Attraction work for you -- without getting frustrated? How do those who successfully implement the Law of Attraction do it with such confidence and finesse?

Well, here's three quick tips so you will never feel frustrated or tired of begging from the Universe, because you know how to start manifesting like a pro.

1. Allow yourself to receive

Just like a lost child who approaches a police officer and asks, "Excuse me sir, can you tell me how to go to the post office? Can you? Can you? Can you? Can you? Can you?" Well, if the child goes on and on asking, the police officer can't even give an answer, right?

Well, it's the same thing with your mind. If the only thing your mind is doing is transmit, transmit, transmit, the Universe--which is trying to respond--can't give you a single thing because you're not allowing yourself to receive!

So, have the confidence in yourself and stop exhausting yourself by running around person to person begging for riches, and then wondering why nobody is dropping a penny in your cup. (Hint: It's because you're running away too fast for them before they can even reach for their wallets).

Just think of your desires and leave it out there, go away, and trust that your cup will be filled with gold coins (or whatever it is you asked for) when the time is right.

2. Be patient with yourself

Receiving takes time.

Sadly, many people give up just a couple of steps before the finish line because they've decided that if it's not working by now, it's never going to work at all. Worse still are those who throw in more and more energy because they think that with more resources, the results will come faster.

This is as ridiculous as expecting 9 mothers to conceive and deliver a baby in 1 month. You also can't expect to bake perfect cookies in half the time by doubling the temperature. You'll incinerate those cookies to ashes!

In simple terms: Everything in this world has a natural development time, and this fact will not change no matter what resources you throw at it.

So relax and be patient. Remember that you too, as part of the Universe, are also governed by the laws of the Universe, and you cannot change the natural development time.

If you remember this, you will less likely work yourself up into frustration, or worse, push yourself into a downward negative spiral.

3. Support and educate yourself

Like the child who is learning how to walk, you need support. You also need guidance on how to do it, and the role models to look up to.

Many people give up because they think that "The Secret" is the "be all and end all" solution. Well, it's NOT. "The Secret" is just a small portion. It was never intended, and has never been, the whole answer.

Coming to the conclusion that the Law of Attraction doesn't work when all you ever did to educate yourself was watch "The Secret" 19 times (without looking at changing the habits of other areas of your life) is like coming to the conclusion that exercising is not an effective way to lose weight because all you did is run on the treadmill for 2 hours a day (but you're still stuffing yourself with fried foods and cheesecakes).

So seek and be hungry for new knowledge. Also, make an effort to be amongst people or communities where you can support each other, learn from each other, and also share new knowledge that you have found.

While the Law of Attraction is not an overnight delivery service, it will indeed deliver, if you do your part too!

PS: If you want to know more about how you can do your part to make the Law of Attraction work for you, check out The 11 Forgotten Laws.

It is intended to help those who are struggling with the Law of Attraction by exposing all 11 Universal laws that The Secret did not cover. Click here to learn more.

Welcome back everyone! Prepare yourself for Part 7 in our 19-part FinerMinds series on Becoming Just Awesome. Today we’re going to cover comfort – in particular, your comfort zone. When most people think about comfort they think positive thoughts. Words like ‘soothing’, ‘calming’ and ‘secure’ pop into their minds.

There’s actually a dark side to comfort.

Remember that your mind is desperately trying to keep you as safe as possible. It doesn’t want you to experience anything new to rock the status quo. So, you basically do the same things every day – you eat the same food, you watch TV at the same time, you drive the same route, you chat to the same friends, you do the same activities. You’re living in a comfort bubble, AND YOU’RE NOT GROWING!

And there’s a very easy method to determine whether you’re outside of your comfort zone. Do you feel any fear? Feeling the fear every now and then is a very good thing. It means you’re onto something new. It means you’re challenging yourself. It means you’re growing. The trick is to keep doing this particular thing until the fear subsides, and you’ve achieved a certain level of mastery. Then it’s time to move onto the next project.

T. Harv Eker goes so far as to call your comfort zone your cage.

He explains beautifully the idea of how, as you expand your comfort zone, you actually grow as a person to fill out these new boundaries. It makes sense. If you have a larger comfort zone, and continue to push the edges of it out, you really do grow as an individual – you have more experiences, more learning, and more wisdom.

You also need to be aware that it is YOU who created the bars of your comfort cage. No one else. It’s time to take responsibility and start bending, and even removing, the bars to the cage.

DO THE FOLLOWING EXCERISES TO EXPAND YOUR COMFORT ZONE:

1. Do the Unexpected

Take a minute to think about who you are--specifically focus on your personality. Are you generally quiet and rather shy? Or are you the extrovert who loves a constant crowd? The exercise is to do something out of character. What would raise your friends’ eyebrows and make them say, “No way. ______ did that!” (In a good way, of course!). If you’re a quiet mouse, host a dinner party. For some this would be the easiest task in the world. For a limelight avoider this might be pure terror. Do it anyway! If you’re a gregarious creature and the idea of a blank social calendar causes your pulse to race, perhaps you should try going to a silent meditation retreat on your own.

2. Travel

There is no better way to shake things up in your world than to take a trip that makes you a little bit nervous. Understand that I’m not referring to the same comfortable vacation routine that you’ve become accustomed over the last decade. I’m talking about plopping yourself down in a place where you’re confronted with a new language, foods, climate, practices, etc. You’ll soon understand how predictable your daily routine truly is. I’ve been lucky enough to travel to India three times for work, and once I get off that plane, I’m forced to surrender my previous way of life. I’m challenged to learn how to go with the flow. A cage-expanding experience.

3. Eat Something Different

When it comes to food, most of us are on autopilot. We cook the same meals week after week. Even when we visit restaurants (usually the same restaurants), we order the same things. (Both my husband and I recently recognized we’re guilty of this.) This is an easy exercise: try something new! This tiny act will break up your routine. And there are other small routine-breakers you can try: take a different route to work, have lunch with a different group once and a while, take a break from TV for a week.

4. Tackle a Fear

This is probably the hardest exercise on the list. Many of you have fears. It could be anything: flying, public speaking, sharing your feelings, swimming. You’ve actually become comfortable with this fear. This fear has become a part of your identity. You fail to challenge this fear anymore. This isn’t good. Irrational fears make you weak. So, the challenge is to isolate the fear and chip away at it until you can manage it and it doesn’t manage you. Consciously confront it. If you’re petrified of public speaking, throw yourself in the ring and join Toastmasters. My brother, who’s in his final year of law school, is taking a practical course where he has to actually defend people in the courtroom. It’s real. Being a bit nervous of public speaking, he joined Toastmasters to combat his speaking nerves. Every week he’s getting more and more comfortable in the courtroom (and he’s won his last three cases against seasoned lawyers).

5. Learn Something New

You’ve probably been doing the same activities for years. That’s lovely, but why not add something new to the mix? You’re not learning and growing if you’ve been doing something for so long you can practically accomplish it in your sleep. There are so many interesting things out there to learn: pottery, languages, knitting, singing, ballet, poetry, carpentry, reflexology, poetry, cooking, karate, etc. And no, you’re not too old. My father, who’s in his late 60s, started taking Japanese lessons after he retired as well as teaching judo, a sport he learned in his youth. Moreover, when you take a class, you’ll meet a circle of likeminded souls: curious, fun individuals eager to learn something new. An added bonus!

And remember, I’m not saying to discard your old way of life, the things you truly enjoy. It’s about adding to and expanding what you already have going on to ensure growth continues.

So, what are you doing to expand your comfort cage?

We all know that exercise is gold for the body – it improves cardiovascular function; reduces the risk of certain cancers; helps people maintain a healthy weight; and builds and maintains muscles, bones and joints.

If this isn’t enough to get you moving, new evidence suggests that exercise can also help you keep your mind young. And this doesn’t mean you have to start training for a triathlon. Taking three brisk 50-minute walks a week will do the trick. 

This news is coming out of the University of Melbourne in Australia, where it was found that exercise helps to treat memory problems in adults. Participants in the study had memory problems, but didn’t yet meet the criteria for dementia.

The study looked at 138 people age 50 and older who had an increased risk for dementia. They were randomly assigned to either the 24-week physical activity program or to receive their regular care. Findings showed that a 24-week home-based physical activity program led to improvements in cognitive function.

The participants in the exercise group were encouraged to do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week in three 50-minute sessions. The exercise group ended up doing an average of 142 minutes more physical activity per week than those individuals in the regular care group.

Over 18 months, those in the exercise group had better Alzheimer Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-Cog) scores and delayed recall, and lower Clinical Dementia Rating scores, than those in the usual care group. The findings were published in the Sept. 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Exercise and other lifestyle factors may benefit older adults at risk for Alzheimer's disease, Dr. Eric B. Larson, of the Group Health Center for Health Studies in Seattle, wrote in an accompanying editorial in the journal.

"Health advances of the past century have led to more individuals surviving to extreme old age, when their risk of Alzheimer disease and related dementias increases substantially," Larson added. "Exercise -- and possibly other lifestyle factors -- appears to affect vascular risk and late-life brain health."

Similar findings were also reported in the first part of this video, a Dan Rather news report on the mind.

Update: Helene Hadsell's Book and DVD have now Launched. Please visit TheWinningSage.com

We had over 9,500 people sign up for a recent interview with Helene Hadsell. Starting from the moment that the first few people got a chance to listen to Helene's interview, her phone has been ringing off the hook and her inbox has been flooded with emails. I spoke to her this morning and she told me that she still had 350 emails to reply to.

Pic Above: Vishen, Melissa and Mike with Helene Hadsell

I don't know where Helene, who is 84 years old (a correction, in our last post we mentioned she was 83), gets all of that energy from!

I first heard about Helene Hadsell through my friend Kate Roberts. She told me about an out-of-print book Helene had wrote decades ago, and showed me a blog post on her by Joe Vitale. I was intrigued, so I Googled her name to find out everything I could about her life. Somehow I stumbled upon her email address and wrote to her to ask if I could interview her for FinerMinds.

She replied within 24 hours.

That first interview blew me away. Helene's stories mesmerized me. What was supposed to be a one hour interview turned into two solid hours. I decided I had to meet this lady.

Pic Above: Helene at Home

Coincidentally, it turned out Helene lived in Alvarado, Texas. And I was actually going to be in Whitney, Texas in 4 weeks for a charity fundraiser. Whitney and Alvarado are only 35 minutes apart.

And so on a beautiful summer day in September, Mike, our friend Melissa, and I drove to visit Helene. We planned on spending 6 hours with her before flying out to LA.

Helene was not happy to hear this. She was under the impression that we were going to stay the night. She had prepared her guesthouse for us and cooked a nice meal. "It's nice to have company," she said.

And then another coincidence struck. Our plans to LA got changed.

Turned out we were spending the night!

We spent all day filming Helene. We shot over 8 hours of footage and our encounter with Helene left us completely transformed. Helene's wisdom and knowledge are so profound and yet so simple and easy to apply to your own life, I was completely stunned.

In between the filming, Mike, Melissa and I each had private sessions with Helene where she told us things about our lives and who we are that only a close friend could have known.

Pic Above: Melissa interviews Helene for the film

She told me things about my son, my career, my way of doing business that were spot on. It was slightly eerie, yet amazing.

We left at 5am the next morning to catch our flights. Helene shakes up your view of "reality". She's an amazingly joyful, loving person. And after you've met her - you never feel the same again. During the trip, Helene shared some of her goals with me. She no longer needs to win contests. Now she's working on a play she wants to get on the Hallmark channel, a new bestselling book she wants to get into Borders, and she's aiming to get on the David Letterman show.

I decided to help her with her book.

The footage we took is going to be turned into a documentary.  And we'll be bundling this with her book and some CDs to create a product based on Helene's teachings. She can no longer do seminars. It's too tiring for her. But being able to spread her light via DVD, book and CD is the next best thing.

Pic Above: Mike interviewing Helene

Pic Above: Melissa and Helene

Dec 22 Update: Helene Hadsell's Book and DVD have now Launched. Please visit TheWinningSage.com.

Gerald O'Donnell, who coined the term "Remote Influencing," is a former remote viewer for several European Intelligence agencies. Gerald now lives in Florida where he writes, meditates and shares his knowledge with the world. Gerald claims that we live in an "illusion" and that we all have the ability to influence this "illusion." He teaches people how to deepen their awareness and manifest their dreams.

When Gerald does an interview, it's always a hit. His last two interviews had over 11,000 listeners online. Very soon we'll be sharing an interview with Gerald. But until then, we wanted to give you a taste of what he teaches.

In this article, Gerald shares three techniques to get you started on your path towards greater happiness. He believes that these techniques should be an integral part of our daily lives, for they dissolve many old, pre-programmed patterns of thought that fail to serve us.

Techniques to Help You Enter the Gateway to Happiness

By Gerald O'Donnell

The next three exercises are intended to be done on a regular basis. They will open up a new level of awareness and prepare you for advanced personal and spiritual development.

Exercise 1: A New Way of Being

This first exercise is a pleasurable and powerful life-changing tool. The effects of daily stress associated with materialistic obsession (and its by-products: anxiety, isolation, frustration, fear, anger and depression) can be dissolved by this technique. It is, at the same time, simple and profound. It increases greatly the vibratory rate of your non-physical Higher Self. Its premise is “smile at the world and the world will smile back at you.”

As you go about your daily activities, from the moment you get up in the morning up to the the time that you go back to sleep, constantly imagine that you are smiling inwardly at your outer reality as you go about your daily activities. Imagine that you are smiling from the deepest recesses of your mind and chambers of your heart, and that you are projecting this happiness and smile outward through your eyes and expression. No matter what the circumstances are, you will increasingly find that your eyes will be smiling and so will your mouth.

At the same time, imagine that your heart constantly expresses a great inward smile filled with pure joy of being alive.

After two weeks or so, you will notice significant changes. Not only in the way you interact with the ‘outside’ world, but also in how the world acts and projects its reality toward you. Your fears will begin to abate and an inner feeling of peace and love will emerge. Notice how people seek your presence and ‘Inner Love'.

Exercise 2: The Witness

Set aside 5 minutes and close your eyes. Turn your attention inward. Move from being a 'thinking' human being to viewing your thoughts as an independent observer in a detached remote manner. Treat your thoughts as if they are 'things' or a spectacle to watch. Notice the train of your thoughts and images, the succession of often unrelated thoughts that appear to you. Don’t analyze anything.

Learn to switch from the state of being 'in' your thoughts to withdrawing from them and becoming the detached, totally passive observer of them. Get the feeling for the mental shift that occurs when doing so. Go within the thoughts and then withdraw to a more detached level. After a while of repeating this exercise you will notice that your thoughts become more isolated and that your inner mind starts taking a break.

For this exercise, keep increasing by 2-3 minutes every other day until you reach 20 minutes.

Here is the next part of the exercise: As you observe your train of thoughts, pick up one particular thought that you find interesting and “plunge into it” with full concentration. Remain focused on that thought to the exclusion of the others for as long as possible. If other thoughts interfere, do not push them away, but watch them pass by as if they were foreign ‘things’ in your consciousness. At first, you might only be able to do this for maybe 1 minute or less. Slowly increase it up to 7 minutes.

The last part of the exercise consists of blanking your thoughts out. This is done by deciding to concentrate on perceptual dark nothingness. If a thought comes in, imagine throwing white light on it. Imagine that the light dissolves that thought and that the screen then goes back to nothingness. Try to maintain that state up to 5 minutes. Start with 1-2 minutes.

Exercise 3: The Movies

This exercise is the “going in and out of movies” exercise. The first step is to choose a film and go and watch it, preferably on a big screen. Allow yourself to get immersed in the captivating story (make sure you choose a film that you can 'get into').

As you forget about your identity and start going ‘into’ the plot, suddenly withdraw your awareness from the big screen and become the observer of reality again. Now slowly reconnect to the plot, but this time allow yourself to remain with the awareness of being yourself watching, as a spectator (observer). Keep this dual awareness for a moment and then let go and plunge within the movie, forgetting your real inner self again. And then repeat the exercise over and over.

Keep on doing this exercise of mental withdrawal and then plunging in again, until you get to know intimately the feeling of diving into the movie and withdrawing into reality. Easy isn’t it? This simple technique is very powerful.

As you get the knack of it try the same system as you go about your daily life. Use the same 'mental trick' when engaged in your daily activities, especially the ones that cause you fear and stress. Soon you will become aware at all times of being the ‘observer’ (inner self) observing the observed (reality and outer self). This exercise will deepen your awareness and allow you to become more calm and relaxed.

P.S. Gerald O'Donnell will soon be giving a Free Teleseminar about the positive trends in the world that are going to impact everyone. An excellent complement these exercises. We will keep you posted!

Burt Goldman, “The American Monk”, is a most remarkable man. Burt is over 80-years-old, and when most people his age are alone, sick and miserable (or dead), he’s going through a renaissance period in his life, and he’s showing no sign of slowing down.

For the last 50 years, Burt has been on a journey. He has been traveling the world and meeting and studying spiritual masters from every corner of the earth. He was once a disciple of the great Yogananda, the legendary teacher who introduced Yoga to the West. He was also a protégé of Jose Silva, the Mexican-American who introduced dynamic meditation to the Western World

Burt has learned how to focus his mind in such a way that he’s able to slow down aging, pick up new skills at will, and maintain perfect health.

Always keep in mind that Burt is over 80 years old. Now take a look at what Burt has done in the last few years:

• Published a book
• Took up photography
• Got his photographs in the International Photography Hall of Fame
• Took up painting and set up an art website
• Taught himself to sing and released a CD
• Set up a new business

But what I want to narrow in on, in particular, is Burt’s remarkable ability to pick up skills, especially later in life, when most people consider their ‘learning window’ slammed shut.

In 1988, Burt was teaching a class and he was talking about the ability to learn new skills. His class decided to challenge him to learn a new skill. Someone shouted out “photography.” The class gave Burt one week to learn.

Burt took up the challenge, bought a camera and used meditation techniques to accelerate his learning and crack open his creative potential.

Please watch this video of Burt recounting his tale of going from picking up a camera to having his photos hanging in the International Photography Hall of Fame, just six months later.

A Selection of Burt’s Beautiful, Original Photographs

More About How Burt Goldman Actually Did This…

You need to keep an open mind for what I’m about to tell you. It’s a technique Burt uses, and it’s quite, well, out there… In Burt’s own words: “It’s a bit wacky.” It’s a meditation technique on the cutting edge that harnesses some of the latest information coming out of the field of physics today.

Quantum physicists believe that particles exist in more than one place at one time. By this logic, humans (who are made of particles too) also exist in more than one place at one time. In essence, there are multiple Universes. In fact, there are an infinite number of Universes, and we exist an infinite number of times. Seems crazy, right? Well, once upon a time the idea of the world being round was deemed to be an insane proposition.

These ideas that Burt and many physicists around the world are exploring will forever change the way we see “reality” in the century to come. So, who are these scientists that Burt studies? There is Neil Turok, Professor of Physics at Princeton University, who worked with Stephen Hawking. Other scholars include Michio Kaku, protégé of Edward Teller and holder of a Professorship in theoretical physics at City University of New York, as well as Alan Guth, professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and winner of the Medal of the International Center for Theoretical Physics. And this is just the short list.

So, how did Burt create a meditation technique to accelerate his ability learn from the knowledge he gleaned from these eminent scientists?

Building on the idea of parallel, infinite Universes, Burt explains that you exist an infinite number of times at this very moment. Right now, you are going through anything and everything you can think of. You are the wealthiest person on the planet. You are also homeless. You are a professor at Oxford. You are a high school dropout. You are the happiest, most enlightened person on the earth. You are a cruel, angry person. You get the picture. See, I told you it would require a leap of faith to wrap your head around this concept!

Burt’s meditation work in this area, which he’s been investigating for over 30 years, aims to tap into these parallel selves to improve the life of the self doing the meditating. If you want to learn a new skill, there is actually a you that currently exists in a parallel Universe that already has this skill or ability. Burt’s meditation technique connects you with this other self, so a transfer of knowledge, energy and inspiration can occur.

Burt relied on this technique to become a world-class photographer in six months. He knew he was already an expert photographer in another dimension. All he had to do was connect with this other self. And this technique works for more than just skills, it also works for other areas such as health, wealth and emotional well-being.

Many people feel stuck – in their life, in their body, in their reality. This technique, which Burt calls “Quantum Jumping,” allows you to jump into another dimension and draw on and absorb the best that you already are. Stay tuned, as Burt will be sharing more about this technique in the near future.

PS: More than 1500 people were listening to his free live teleseminar, which replay has been now made available. Check out how Burt is doing this in his free teleseminar on Quantum Jumping.

Update: Helene Hadsell's Book and DVD have now Launched. Please visit TheWinningSage.com

Over the past couple of weeks on FinerMinds we’ve introduced you to a remarkable woman: Helene Hadsell. She’s the 83-year-old “Winning Sage” from Alvarado, Texas who literally wins everything she wants in life through contests. Helene is the Law of Attraction in action, and she’s been doing it for 50 years.

In our last piece about Helene we guided you through her life-long winning streak. Today, we want to share with you the story of Carolyn Wilman, “The Contest Queen”, who has learned a tremendous amount from Helene Hadsell.

Carolyn’s approach to entering contests changed radically after she met Helene, and so did her ability to win! Right now Carolyn just got back from enjoying a romantic trip in London with her husband (which she won in a contest, of course!).

Here is Carolyn Wilman’s story, in her own words, of meeting Helene and the how this meeting changed her life:

Hi,

I have studied many motivational, inspirational and spiritual teachers over the past 20 years. I first read about Helene Hadsell, author of The Name It & Claim It Game on Joe Vitale’s blog in the summer of 2007. He talked about how she used her mind to focus her energy and win every contest she ever entered. WOW! As a fellow contest hobbyist and author of You Can’t Win If You Don’t Enter, I wanted to know exactly how she did that. I win a lot, but not every promotion I enter. I began writing an email to her, but for some reason it sat in my Drafts folder for months. While cleaning out my email in June of 2008 I finally completed it and sent that email to Helene. She immediately wrote me back and included her phone number. I rang her. We spoke for over an hour. I felt as if I had met a kindred soul.

During our conversation Helene agreed to be a guest on my online radio show. She was my guest on the August 4th 2008 edition of “From the Contest Queen.” (I include the date as it shows how fast you can manifest your goals, dreams, desires, and wishes into your life if you focus enough energy on them.)
During the show we talked about her entry method versus mine. She would select a prize, find a contest giving away that prize, enter, focus on it, and win. I focused on winning, but entered hundreds of contests on a daily basis. I asked her why I had not yet won a car yet. Helene said, “Dear, why do you disperse your energy over so many contests? Focus on what you really want to win and you will.”

The next day I created a new vision board, wrote up 3x5s with my new goals that I could focus on (I even hung one on the shower door) and changed my entire contest entering system.

The things I decided I wanted most in my life were:

• To own a very profitable business
• To be a guest on the Ellen DeGeneres Show
• To win a new car
• To win a week long romantic trip for two to London UK
• To win a week long family trip for four to Walt Disney World
• To win a home makeover
• To win a backyard makeover
• To win an big screen LCD HDTV
• To win a Wii
• To win a BlackBerry

I focused on each of these goals several times a day for a few weeks.  For the month of September, I still won my usual 5-15 prizes that month (apparently, I cannot, not win), but they were very small prizes in both size and dollar value. Where were the big prizes that Helene spoke of?  Little Miss Impatient (me) gave up. I missed entering heaps of contests. The hobby wasn’t as fun for me anymore. So I went back to entering heaps of contests every day. I began to have fun again. At the same time, I reassessed my goals. I was entering a lot of contests that offered trips as prizes, so I changed my goal of a trip to London to a romantic trip anywhere. I figured if the Universe saw fit to send me to the Caribbean, who am I to argue? I also stopped focusing on my goals every day.

On November 7th, almost three months to the day of setting my goals, I was notified I was the Grand Prize winner of the Smart Set “Meet Duffy in London” Contest!!  I was ecstatic.

The prize included:

• A chance to meet Duffy and two tickets to her show
• $500 spending money
• Roundtrip airfare for two
• 4 nights hotel accommodation
• $500 Smart Set gift card
• A copy of Duffy’s Rockferry CD

Two thoughts also went through my head: 1) WOW! This stuff really works and 2) Oh My Gosh, all the other goals I set for myself are on their way!

Hold on! Didn’t I ask for a weeklong trip? This was only 4 nights/5 days. I thought, “Close enough!”, and merrily made travel plans. Well, while making all the travel arrangements with the contest sponsors, Universal Music and Transat Holidays, I was informed we would be flying out December 4th and returning on December 11th. Wait, wasn’t that 6 nights/7 days? Yes. They chose to extend the trip by 2 days. So I got my week after all. I was amazed how well Helene’s SPEC Method (Select it, Project it, Expect it, and Collect it) actually worked! (Also, did you notice? I asked the Universe for what I wanted and it arrived via Universal. COOL!)

The adventure isn’t over yet!

As the information for the trip went back and forth, I realized we were not flying into Heathrow airport, but into Gatwick. (If you have never been to London, Heathrow is close to the city connected by the Underground. Gatwick is fairly far and one must take the train into the city, then changing to the Underground.) I thought OH NO! Not that I minded flying to an airport further out of the city, or even having to take the train, but our luggage is old (I bought it in 1990) and it wouldn’t be very easy to haul on and off trains. I said to my husband, we need new luggage. He started to shop around. In the meantime, I got the final travel documents. I realized Transat Holidays had included transfers to and from the airport to our hotel by car. I told my husband, since we are being chauffeured and with Christmas just around the corner, I thought we could manage another trip with our old luggage and purchase a new set in the New Year. He agreed.

Then on November 30th I got a call from Zellers. I had entered a contest way back in May and I had won. Could I come down to the store today and pick-up my brand new set of luggage? They apologized for taking so long to call me, but they had to wait for the two smaller pieces of luggage to arrive from the other contest sponsor. Incredible! That goal wasn’t even on the original list. The wish for new luggage was an afterthought and it manifested almost immediately.

I have since begun focusing on all the other goals again several times a day. Now, I wonder when my new car will arrive.
As you can well imagine, I highly recommend Helene’s book The Name It & Claim It Game to anyone who is interested in achieving their goals quickly and easily. Although the subject of the book may be based on contests, Helene’s techniques can be applied to any goal you may have: health, wealth, love, etc.

Enjoy!

Carolyn Wilman

NOW YOU CAN ACCESS AN INTERVIEW WITH THE WINNING SAGE, HELENE HADSELL.

» Click Here To Access The Interview

Update: Helene Hadsell's Book and DVD have now Launched. Please visit TheWinningSage.com