My Favorite Self-Help Stuff

When you’re stressed and things look hopeless, remember there’s always a way. And in tough times, prayer can be a powerful tool for hope, renewed faith, and yes, stress relief.

Here’s how prayer works to give strength and hope in the darkest of times.

Whatever your belief system may be – if you believe in God or a Higher Power of any name, praying will help.

Here is the phone number of a prayer hotline that I highly recommend (Unity):

1-800-NOW-PRAY

It’s free, the people who will pray with you are wonderfully calming and reassuring, and they’ll even send you an encouraging letter afterwards. Meanwhile, your name will be held in prayer for 30 days after your call. You’re not alone.

Another wonderful Prayer Line is staffed by Science of Mind practitioners. It too is free, and you can call them around the clock at 1-800-421-9600.

Of course, you can also pray by yourself. In fact, that’s a very good idea.

Here are my two favorite books that have helped me learn how to pray more effectively:

Adventures in Prayer – Sharon Connors

Handle with Prayer – Alan Cohen

Both of them have their spiritual roots in Unity, which isn’t exactly a religion but more of a non-denominational spiritual movement of seekers, with strong emphasis on inclusiveness, and very compatible with The Secret and Abraham-Hicks teachings. I find it very life-affirming. No matter which religious background, if any, you come from, you will likely get some peace of mind from prayer.

In terms of how to pray: “Please help!” is always appropriate. Of course, “Please help me out by bringing that $10,000 I need to pay my Amex bill right now!” may not be the best approach, especially if you don’t believe it’s actually possible. However, “Please give me guidance on what to do at each step of the journey, and please give me the strength to handle whatever comes my way, and the faith and trust that everything will turn out for the best” may help a lot.

Even more importantly: Give thanks for the blessings already received and for those you anticipate. Pray as if you had already received them, as if you knew that the best outcome for all concerned (including you) were just around the corner and had already been provided: “Thank you for your divine guidance, and for keeping me safe.”

Feel free to pray to your guardian angel as well (provided that it fits with your faith). Or to other deities. It all depends on your beliefs. Ganesh, a Hindu deity, known as the destroyer of obstacles, for example, is very popular for obvious reasons.

Ready to let go of all that extra stress? You’re invited to download my FREE Easy Intro to EFT and get started right away. Why EFT? It’s an extremely powerful tool for stress relief!

Note: I just submitted this article to Ezinearticles.com, but thought, why not post it on my blog first? In fact, I ought to be doing this more often.

And so that’s why there are so many posts appearing all at once right now — becauseI want them here before they get published at EZA.

Enjoy!

Sometimes it’s easy to get discouraged. When there’s too much to do, or the situation seems challenging or even hopeless, you may want to give up. Yet there’s always hope. Read on for nine inspirational quotes that will help you keep the faith and put things in perspective.

“Chance is the pseudonym God uses when He does not want to sign His name.”

--Anatole France

Praying helps. And the help that then appears may often seem like a coincidence. But we know better…

And if we feel hopeless and envy everyone else for their easier lives, just take a look at those magazines at the checkout lines in the supermarket. The people in those magazines are millionaires, mega stars, and most of them are gorgeous too. Yet look at the kind of trauma many of them are dealing with. Their lives aren’t easier. Who would you really want to switch with? Are you sure? Do you know everything that’s going on in their lives?

Here’s a quote to put our sometimes less than perfect lives into perspective:

“No one has it ‘all together.’ That’s like trying to eat ‘once and for all.’”

–Marilyn Grey

And if we’re only too aware of our fears, here’s a cool quote for that:

“Our deepest fears are like dragons guarding our deepest treasure.”

–Rainer Maria Rilke

And here’s a quote that reminds you that fears are overrated:

“There are no wrong choices; there are only different choices.”

–Susan Jeffers

Of course, Susan Jeffers is the person who wrote Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway. That’s one of the most powerful books I’ve ever come across. If you haven’t read that, I highly recommend that you do. And yes, do it anyway.

And if you’re still afraid, take courage because…

“Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared.”

–Eddie Rickenbacker

If that sounds like taking medicine, so be it. Then again, maybe it’s also a way to make life more adventurous. Alan Cohen put it very nicely:

“The purpose of life is not to arrive safely at death.”

– Alan Cohen

We weren’t meant to play it safe, but to take chances, to face and overcome challenges. And yes, to follow our bliss, as Joseph Campbell said. And that’s definitely not playing it safe, not for most of us anyway. In fact…

“Leap, and the net will appear.”

– Julia Cameron

Or in a related image (there’s a theme here, isn’t there?):

“First you jump off the cliff and you build your wings on the way down.”

–Ray Bradbury

Will those wings grow fast enough? Surprisingly, they usually do. And as these inspirational quotes remind us, there’s treasure to be found in having courage because…

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”

–Anais Nin

Enjoy!

Elisabeth Kuhn

Life can be a challenge. Yet if we view those challenges as stepping stones to where we want to go, they actually contribute to our growth. On the other hand, if we let them discourage us, we lose out. Read on for seven short inspirational quotes that will help you put things in perspective when the going gets tough.

“Eighty percent of success is showing up.”

-- Woody Allen

Doesn’t that take off the pressure? Sometimes just being in the right place at the right time is all it takes. If you’re feeling a sudden impulse to go somewhere, go.

Many years ago, I once won a medal in a karate sparring competition — because I showed up. Unlike some of my competitors, who chickened out at the last minute. I stepped forward, got beaten up in the one fight I did end up fighting, and yet I ended up with a medal! I didn’t get into sports until college, so this was the only sports medal I ever acquired and felt like an amazing achievement. Me, the anti-jock, won a medal in karate! And I still have that medal to this day.

So even if things don’t work quite the way you have hoped for, take heart. Edison said that that he found 999 ways the light bulb did NOT work. Or something along those lines. What a great positive spin on having tried something a thousand times until it finally worked.

But if you’re still feeling discouraged, consider this:

“It is wise to keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final.”

– Roger Babson

Indeed. And Robert Frost has found an even cooler way to put it:

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on.”

– Robert Frost

It does indeed. And every day we get another chance to make a new start. In fact, every moment, but it does seem to work better after a good night’s sleep.

And if anyone ever picks on you for your perceived lack of success, remember what Bill Cosby had to say about that one:

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”

– Bill Cosby

Another one of my favorites, Albert Einstein, found another way to put it in perspective:

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

-- Albert Einstein

One of my favorites is on a coffee mug I acquired while I went through breast cancer treatments — and it really helped me gain perspective:

“Don’t take life too seriously. It’s not permanent.”

– On a coffee mug by Oz

And so, instead of focusing too hard on what everybody else wants us to do, or achieving success at any price, why not go with Joseph Campbell and follow our bliss:

“Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”

– Joseph Campbell

I always try to remember that one whenever I’m tempted to get discouraged. And keep looking for the doors, which keep turning up in the most surprising places.

Inspiration from a blog post on being broke? You bet.

If you don’t know Ed Dale, he’s the guy who brought us the 30-Day challenge — an outstanding program that helps people make their first money online.

He just posted a very cool blog post here:

Ed Dale “On being broke”

It’s about what to do if you’re too broke to afford a seminar you think would help you. He’s sharing his own story on when that happened to him — and what he did to turn things around.

And there are tons of comments (I just added my own), and they are highly inspirational as well (as is Ed Dale’s blog post, of course).

So what’s the solution? Action! Consistent action in the right direction.

Ed says, even if you just put in 30 minutes or maybe 2 hours, day after day, you’ll get somewhere.

I mean, you could set up a website or a blog where you promote something, then write an article a day, comment on relevant blogs, go to forums and comment, and you’ll start getting traffic.

(For FREE tips on how to set up a blog, go FREE Blogging Tips)

Then get that traffic to sign up for your list and send them useful information and great offers, and you’re off to the races.

Overnight? Nope.

But there are actually ways to make that income happen a whole lot faster, by offering your services for example.

Way back, when I was a student in Frankfurt, this piece of graffiti was sprayed all over the student center building: “Nur die Action bring Satisfaction” (spelling was a bit Germanified, but I don’t want to attempt to reconstruct that).

It means that only action brings satisfaction. And that’s the key. Sure, prayer and meditation help, but ultimately, there’s usually some action involved. Prayer and meditation are particularly helpful with guiding us to the right action, to inspired action…

My favorite spiritual joke is about that guy during a big flood, who was so counting on God to help him that he didn’t accept help from any earthly source. So at first, he was offered a ride by boat, twice, and he said, “No thanks. God will save me!”

As he was sitting on the roof of his house, surrounded by ever rising flood water, a helicopter came by to rescue him, and again, he said, “No thanks. God will save me!”

And soon after that, he was washed away in the flood…

When he met his maker after drowning, he said, “Why didn’t you rescue me? I was counting on you.”

And God said, “I sent you two boats AND a helicopter!”

With apologies to anyone who might find this a bit sacrilegious, I really love the message in this joke. You’ve got to DO something, and use the tools you’re given to help yourself.

And that’s Ed Dale’s message too.

Here’s a free book I’m offering that gives you some pointers for how to make money — legitimately — from home, by using the internet. The techniques I mention in there are almost all ones I’m using myself.

Make Money in your Jammies FREE book

And if you want the REAL scoop, a detailed manual with more than a dozen ways to make money from home, legitimately, oh yeah, and a full-time one too if you want, and it’s all explained well enough so you can get started today with some of them, click here:

Make $100 a day — legitimately — and from your home

This book is for real. I know several of the authors personally, and I know lots of others who have used techniques explained in that very book to make part of their living. Of course, there are no guarantees, and it will not work unless you actually — take action!

And yes, if you buy that book, I will get an affiliate commission. That’s one of the legitimate income streams mentioned in it (and in my FREE book too), and if you buy it, you too will have access to that (it’s practically a business in a box, for the price of a few lattes). Read my Free book to find out a bit more about how it works.

And then pick something and take action (if you want to increase your cash flow, that is), and leave a comment below to let us all know what you did and how’s it going, or if you’ve had similar experiences, or have also been inspired by Ed’s blog, etc.

Remember too that the 1,000 mile journey begins with the first step, as the famous Chinese proverb points out. (or was it Confucius?).

Elisabeth

Nam-myoho renge kyo, Ohm, or Christmas carols. Is mixing spiritual traditions sacreledge or a sign of new spiritual openness?

It’s Christmas season, with Santas in the malls and in store window displays. It’s also the season of Hanukkah and Kwanza, plus there are other spiritual traditions that celebrate this part of the year.

I was just thinking about that because I’ve been mixing some traditions myself and I used to feel a bit guilty…

As I mentioned before, I often chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo ever since I learned about it, and I also learned that chanting is supposed to be done in multiples of 108.

Of course, that’s where prayer beads come in. I don’t always count… sometimes I just feel inspired to chant and do it without keeping track, just letting myself be guided from some place within.

But when I thought about acquiring prayer beads, not too long after I found out about the significance of 108, I suddenly realized something. A rosary has 54 beads, not counting the five that are on that extra short bit that ends in the cross. So I figured — two rosaries make 108 beads, right?

And I started using a rosary for chanting. No thunder has struck me yet, but then I have told hardly anybody about that. It works great, but I still felt a bit guilty.

Apparently, I shouldn’t have. I just Googled “rosaries and chanting” and came up with this site:

http://www.healingsindia.com/rosaries.asp

And praying the rosary is much like chanting anyway, except the prayers are from the Catholic tradition. I had the rosary handy because a few years back I re-discovered that praying the rosary really supported me during very stressful times. Yet clearly, the rosary has a much broader tradition than I had realized.

And so does Christmas, which actually has some of its roots in Pagan traditions.

And at Unity, the church were I’ve found my spiritual home base, all faiths are welcome, and as the year goes on, a number of traditions are highlighted and invited to participate in the service.

After all, why not share celebrations with each other and enrich everyone’s life?

Okay, so the fireworks have come and gone, but the spirit of July 4 is still with me.

It will always be very special to me — as an immigrant I sometimes still have to pinch myself. I’m really here. I really do get to live in this amazing country!

When I came here as a graduate student, I was absolutely blown away by that sense of “can do” spirit, and the idea that achievement is something everybody was not only allowed but expected to go after.

That kind of attitude didn’t fit in quite as well where I grew up — I was supposed to be a lot more modest in my goals than I was, and stick to my place so to speak.

Here, though, it’s “Be all you can be” and it’s not just a slogan for the army but people really believe it. I love it.

So here I am, striving to be all I can be. And celebrating that I’m in a country where this is appreciated and even expected. Sure, there can be a lot of pressure at times, but the rewards are great as well.

And yes, getting that Green Card wasn’t easy. For years I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to get one. But I did, and when I drove myself across the country in a huge Hertz truck to get to my new job, I was suddenly finding myself driving past cities and towns that I had read about in my youth back in Germany. It was a major goosebumps moment when I realized that. How’d that happen!

So as I was watching the Fourth of July fireworks the other day, as I do every year, I got seriously choked up, as I do every year as well.

I hope you had a great July 4th too.

Thank you.

Elisabeth

Looks like at the moment my self help blog is focusing in on the time management theme.  And the interesting thing is that once you think about something, you come across a lot of related things.

And so I came across Jonathan Mead’s blog, which you should check out:

http://zenhabits.net/2009/04/seven-productivity-tips-for-people-that-hate-gtd/comment-page-2/#comment-65802

I’m not going to repeat all his seven tips here, but just a few notes to whet your appetite:

Create a list of things you should stop!  And related to this point, stop caring about things that don’t matter.

Go through your daily to do list and think about which of these things you either hate doing or simply don’t have to do.  Find a way to get them out of your life.

And he also has a very interesting answer to perfectionism! 

Isn’t perfectionism responsible for so much procrastination? If I find myself with writer’s block, that’s what’s usually at its core.

In fact, Anne Lamott came up with a great term that probably helped generations of students overcome the fear of the blank sheet of paper:

“Shitty first drafts”  — yep, that’s exactly how she called it.

The whole idea is to get stuff on the paper and not worry about whether it’s any good.  Once it’s there, you can make it better.  But before it’s there, what are you gonna do?  Stare at your blank sheet of paper?  Or, these days, your blank screen?

And that applies to just about everything.  Sure, we won’t always be really good when we do something for the first time, but once we start doing it, we may be surprised.  And if not, and if it turns out we hate it, there’s always that list about things you should stop!

Of course, his article isn’t all about stopping things.  He also has a few points about how to turbo-charge the way you do the things you actually do — the things that matter!

Anyway, I’ve got some stuff to do

Comments?  I’d love to know what you think.

Elisabeth

P.S.:  guess where I found out about this article?  Twitter!

Wanna follow me?  http://twitter.com/ElisabethKuhn

And here’s a related blog post on abraham-hicks and time management.

Discovering the Law of Attraction can be life-changing, but it can also be frustrating.  Keeping up your spirits can be hard, especially when things aren’t quite coming into our reality as fast as we’d like, and especially in the face of all those naysayers in our lives…

Have you ever tried to explain to your boss that you work with the Law of Attraction and Allowing and the way he or she wanted you to do things just didn’t fit?  I don’t think it’s even worth trying…

And I just came across an article that captures that sense of temporary discouragement perfectly and made me feel soooo much better.

Ann-Marie Caffrey on her Smart-Attractor Blog has a brilliant post up right now:

http://amcaffrey.com/how-heavy-is-this-glass-of-water/

Check it out.

Of course it all comes back to that sometimes elusive “allowing,” that is necessary for the Law of Attraction to be able to work properly.

After slacking off for quite a while, I’ve recommitted myself to my daily practice of meditation, but not just any meditation — no, I’m doing the Quantum Touch Body/Mind/Spirit Integration Meditation (described in the Super-Charging book).

And the coolest thing…

As I wrote in an article quite a while ago, miraculous things started happening as soon as I started meditating (okay, within a few days of that), and now too, things start picking up after a few days of getting back to basics.

And as I read through my Supercharging book the other day, I finally understand just why this is so powerful (must have forgotten — I now remember that they did mention that during the workshop, but at the time manifestation and allowing were concepts I didn’t really understand too well and thought they were a bit beyond my capabilities).

Not so.  In fact, here’s an article I wrote more than a year ago:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Meditation-For-Prosperity-and-the-Art-of-Allowing—Confessions-of-a-Formerly-Reluctant-Meditator&id=905641

I wrote it after realizing the significance of that breakthrough in “getting” meditation, thanks to a comment on an Abraham-Hicks CD.

I used to think meditation was boring and didn’t have any use for it, but no more.  And the Quantum Touch Supercharging touch really, uhm, supercharges its effectiveness.

But it all comes down to allowing, which I finally understand much better, even though it’s still a challenge.  I have found, like Ann-Marie says in her article, that once I allow and don’t try to force it, no matter what it is I’m trying to get or accomplish, that things work out better, and sometimes come together almost miraculously.

Last year, around this time, I came across a saying, Miraculate in 2008.  Now it’s 2009, and I need to figure out something to rhyme with “9″ and so I’ve been thinking of things like, Prosperity is mine in 2009 (and yeah, I’m all for that), but here’s one that just popped into my head:

All will be fine in 2009!

Letting go and trusting that, yes, all will be fine if we just let it be.

Which reminds me of Mary Oliver’s poem “The Wild Geese” that goes something like…

You don’t have to be good…. you only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.

Here’s a link for a version of that poem set to music:

http://www.madagnes.com/worship/geese.html

Have a wonderful day! And remember:

“All will be fine in 2009″

Elisabeth

2009 is here, and January is already halfway over. Can’t believe how quickly this happened all of a sudden.  And I have a very apropos artlce and wanted to give you a resource list of some of my favorite self-help articles (and other useful ones) for easy reference (with quick annotation):

Another take on New Year’s resolutions:

How to stay calm (or calm down) under pressure:

http://tinyurl.com/calmnow

Get a Great Job in 2009!

http://tinyurl.com/greatjobreview

Use EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) to cope with job interview stress (or any other stress) (complete with step-by-step instructions):

EFT for Job Interview Stress

Sell Stuff on Amazon.com vs. Ebay and how to get the most buck for your stuff:

Sell Stuff on Amazon and make more money

Stress and the Law of Attraction, and how stress prevents you from getting what you really want:

Stress and LOA

Beat sugar addiction now that the holidays are over…

Beat Sugar Addiction

Job stress, health and consequences & what to do about it:

http://tinyurl.com/jobstresskillscareers

The ultimate (and probably controversial) stress management technique

http://tinyurl.com/BeBadSooner

And here’s a big vibration lifter:

http://tinyurl.com/gratitudearticle

Better than a sleeping pill:

Write yourself to sleep

Enjoy!

P.S.: I just counted and it looks like there are 11 of them…  The last one is a bonus!

I just decided to start a several times a week series of inspirational quotes and stress tips (and other tips) on Twitter, and while I was at it, I figured out, why not put them on Facebook too!

If you follow me on Twitter, where my ID is ElisabethKuhn, you’ll get them right to your Twitter inbox.

Here’s the link:  http://www.twitter.com/ElisabethKuhn

And if you’re on Facebook, please be my friend

My name is Elisabeth Kuhn, as you might have guessed or already know if you get my newsletter.

Today’s quote was by the late Roger Mellott, one of my all-time favorite stress management experts:

“Do what you say you value.”

Just think about it.

I’ll feed my favorite quotes to you over time, and maybe I’ll make some up too.  And then there’ll be stress tips, and maybe other tips as well.  We’ll see.  I’ll have some fun with this, but I also wanted to make a useful contribution to my Twitter community!

Same goes for Facebook

By the way, I’m really excited. My downloadable book on how to sell stuff on Amazon.com Marketplace, with all the tricks and streamlining strategies I’ve developed over the last several years that I’ve been selling my excess books over there seems to be finding its audience!

If you want to check it out, just go to http://www.sellyourstuffatamazon.com and you’ll find more information about it there.  If you want to make a bit of extra holiday cash and have books, CDs, DVDs and other such stuff lying around that you no longer need, you’ll find it really useful

It’s even on Sale right now.  Just click on the link and you’ll see the “real” price.

Meanwhile, it’s Friday evening, and I’m off to a dinner party!

Have a great evening and weekend, and see you on Twitter!

Elisabeth

P.S.: I also published an article on stress-reducing quotes.  You can it here:  stress quotes article.

P.P.S.:  I still have coaching slots available. For more info check out the tab “Coaching” above. It’s still under development, but over the weekend I’ll add more information (info about me, services, what kinds of things I like to help people with, and so on).