The Breathing Prosperity blog

First, a question: do you even know what your dreams are anymore?

I’ll bet you had lots of them when you were a kid. We all did…and then, somewhere along the way, we let go of them because we learned (read: were told by silly other people) that they had no value, were impossible or impractical, or that we had to do other, more important things with our lives. But what could be more important than our dreams? What is life without dreams?

Just to be clear, by dreams I mean those activities and pursuits that call to your heart, that make you smile when you think about them and some of which may even scare you a little – in a good way – because they are so big.

The beautiful thing about dreams is that they are unique to each of us, and if you think about it even for a moment, you may agree that this world would be an amazingly creative and diverse place if everyone followed their unique dreams. If we all followed our hearts and talents and expressed ourselves creatively by giving life to our grandest dreams and ambitions, what a magical place this would be!

Of course, it’s already magical, but isn’t it people who passionately pursued their dreams that gave us some of our more memorable books and art, man made landmarks, programs and companies, and so much more? How about putting people on the moon, or building libraries, incredible buildings, bridges and universities, or being the first black  president of the United States? Don’t these feats inspire us, bring us pleasure or help out many fellow humans?

I am currently attending personal development blogger Steve Pavlina’s first live workshop, and I’m enjoying every moment of it. The trip itself is fulfilling many of my personal dreams, including the intention to always work on refining and achieving my dreams themselves.

Here is a small snippet I shared yesterday with a law of attraction group I am part of:

May I say first that I have already made many, MANY of my dreams come true, and that is super-exciting for me. As a tiny example in my larger picture, a few years ago I was in Las Vegas walking around the Studio Walk at the MGM Grand…my honey and I got to this ‘secret passageway’ that had a key entry and when some people came out we peeked in curiously and saw a moving walkway leading…somewhere. We were not part of that crowd, so to speak — didn’t and couldn’t get past that door. I felt…longing. Longing to be part of that secret and to be someone who warranted ‘belonging’ behind that door. I later found out that it was the Signature section of the MGM, a condo and hotel in behind that is a little more exclusive and is quiet, elegant and has its own gated entry, concierge, valet parking, etc.. Right up my alley, but at the time I allowed that to make me feel less than – like I wasn’t good enough, or rich enough, to get in and be a part of that world.

I am thrilled to say that I am writing this from my beautiful suite in the Signature, overlooking the strip and the MGM Grand proper, and enjoying every moment of it. I have a gorgeous bathroom with jacuzzi, every amenity I could ask for and 24 hour room service – just my style. The suite is absolutely perfect for me in every way, in every touch of the décor. Last night my honey drove me here from LA, we enjoyed the valet parking and private check-in, and most of all, we enjoyed walking later from the MGM Grand through that door and into the private walkway. It made my week – nay, my decade. A small symbol of how far I’ve come in a few short years and I’m thrilled – thrilled! – to be here.

I don’t think there is a single person in this workshop who hasn’t changed the fabric of their lives in significant ways already, and who will not be inspired to further pursue/create their personal, unique dreams when this is through.

It’s fantastic to be in a room with so many articulate, intelligent, conscious and thoughtful people…for me, it’s like drinking a huge glass of fresh sweet water. I will be sorry when it’s over, but at the same time the connections and ideas flowing are part of the process of defining, refining and achieving one’s dreams, and this is the subject I’m passionate about.

YOU can do this too, and it’s never too late. Today, give some thought to what your dreams may look like, and remember that you can refine them as you go, but that won’t work if you don’t start somewhere.

P.S. I just posted a new video that gels nicely with this – you can see it under ‘JOY-LOVE-PEACE’ on the Inspiring Videos page. Enjoy!

You ARE, you know…

You realize that, right?

There is a bizarre human tendency I’ve been becoming more and more aware of lately, kind of like there’s a big secret we all keep and don’t even acknowledge to ourselves.

If one were to look from, say, outer space, at the way we humans live and interact and deal with both life and death, I’ll bet it would look very odd indeed. Picture it:

We all walk around knowing that humans, as individuals, die. We watch the cycle of life play out in myriad ways all around us every day and each moment: from humans to other animals to plant life even to the life cycle of stars if we’re curious about the Universe around us. We see babies born and we watch them grow (playing a little Louis Armstrong in my head…), and conversely we experience the death of family pets or animals we may accidentally run over, for instance. As we grow older, we see that people around us die. More and more as we grow through life, we witness people dying around us, and yet, somehow, most of us manage to believe that it won’t happen to us, or at least not for such a very long time that we needn’t worry about it.

Depending upon where we live, and on what our cultural and religious and societal influences are, we may experience death as a very commonplace phenomenon (such as in war-torn countries) or even as a reward (such as in certain religious sects). Even so, it is the rare individual who contemplates their own death, and often such individuals are considered morbid or perhaps even mentally ill. In typical ‘western’ countries, someone who is challenged with life-threatening pain and illness and wants to end their suffering is often thought of as wrong. In many ‘eastern’ and more esoteric belief systems death is acknowledged as a part of life, but even then many do not face that inevitability fully when it comes to themselves.

This article is meant not to debate nor even discuss the morals or righteousness of any particular way of thinking, except in the very largest sense, as I think we – mankind – are doing ourselves a great disfavour. By denying our own natural life cycle, by being so afraid our of own ends that we won’t even consciously face the possibility, we live like a race of crazy creatures with our proverbial heads in the sand. Even when faced with grave evidence (no pun intended) of our inevitable demise – at least in this form – such as the death of a parent or someone else very close to us, we somehow manage to separate ourselves from the knowledge that we, too, shall face such an end. Because, by nature, we don’t KNOW what lies afterwards (if anything), we feel abject fear at the prospect.

I submit that we are missing the passion and ‘now’-ness available to us as our birthright. Whether we employ any religious or spiritual beliefs or not, were we as a race to accept, consciously and with open hearts and minds, that death is a natural part of our own cycles, we would be impelled to enjoy our moments more. If we all knew and acknowledged as a matter of course that our time here is limited, I suspect we’d be more conscious, and would make more of our lives. There would be no settling, no long tedious days, no years spent doing things we hate or making others’ lives and joys more important than our own (unless we wanted to!). We would all be more creative, more joyous and more understanding, because we would behave in a more authentic manner.

Here is an analogy: Imagine, if you will, that you’ve been able to book an exciting, very exclusive and expensive 12-hour journey which is very precious to you. Imagine that on this journey you will be able to spend a limited period with people you adore and then your time will be up. Also, there will be valued opportunities for seeing the most beautiful sights your eyes can behold, and to experience fulfilling activities that have deep meaning for you. Because your time will be extremely limited and because you’ve paid a very large amount of money for this experience, you will want to stay awake and drink in every moment, to enjoy each second with all your senses, and ensure you get the most value out of it. You wouldn’t fall asleep, and you certainly would not take anything for granted.

Now, surely the parallel above to our lives here on earth is very obvious. Is it because our lives seem long that they are treated as less precious? Even our kids become commonplace at some point, don’t they? When we first have a new child, it seems like such an incredible miracle. We watch our babies as they sleep at night and gaze in awe at the little person we’re blessed to care for. Then, somehow we end up yelling at our cranky kids in the grocery store and forgetting entirely that we wanted our lives to be about fun, about miracles, about enjoying every precious moment. Of course, overall, these grumpy moments do not speak of how deeply we love our children and are just momentary reactions, but could there be a different, more satisfying and fulfilling way to BE human?

Perhaps our lives do seem too ‘long’ for us to feel open ecstasy each day, each moment. Is it possible or even healthy to do so? I don’t know. I’m not sure. What I DO believe, what I’m more convinced of every day, is that we would live very differently if we all spoke our secret – if we told our kids that their lives are limited but their possibilities are not – ‘You will see that we all die, and your day will come and you never know when. Do what you love, feed and feel your passion, go and explore your world and give to it your best, most magnificent self, every day.’

Let’s embrace the life force that flows in us, while it still flows. This does not have to be a depressing or morbid thought. If our beautiful life cycle was fully acknowledged as a part of our heritage and destiny, I believe our lives and the legacies we leave, the connections we forge and the experiences we’d create, would all be very much richer. We would revere the elderly as we once did, instead of making old age somehow mean irrelevance. We would find more meaning in relationships and we would fight less, if at all. If it is true that it is human nature to place value on things that are limited or will be taken from us, then isn’t our LIFE the most precious and valuable thing of all?