Change Your Mind; Change Your World!

Change Your Mind; Change Your World!

Editing your thoughts sounds like something only an editor of twenty years would come up with. But, trust me, even one of the apostles said to “take every thought into cavity.” By that, I believe the apostle Paul knew that your thoughts deeply effect what transpires in your daily life.

I come from a family of six children. My brother and I are as diverse as an apple is from an orange. We both were brought up by the same parents, shared the same room, and even went to some of the same schools. Yet, he turned to drugs and alcohol very early in life and was in jail the first time at eighteen. I often think, what made the difference in us?

I believe it was our thought process. I had a winning belief system because of an older married couple who lived next door. He had a gang of bad boys consistently goading him to do more and more detrimental behavior and a mean and angry father.

           

Mary and Emil Krovich took me in like I was a son. They couldn’t have children of their own, but they loved me like I was theirs. As I write this, tears fill my eyes just thinking about the amount of love that came from Mary, especially. She would wait by her side door, which was right across from our front door, until I came home. I’d see her peek out from the door, so none of the other children would see. Her small, chubby finger would curl up to indicate that she wanted me to come and visit. I’d throw down my book bag and run over to her house almost every day, especially after my mother left my father, eagerly waiting for some amazing treat she would have made me.

She was my salvation. She taught me to believe in myself. She helped me understand that what went on in my home was an anomaly, and that I was special, despite how I was treated. So, I kept up the school studies and made straight A’s, because I knew I wanted out from the line of pain that had befallen me.

Mark, my brother, on the other hand, didn’t have any savior. He was an altar boy, and even God, he rejected, when the priests mistreated him.

(To Read the rest of this Blog, please click on this link. I appreciate you helping me out with this new format. The objective is to get people to the actual blog site and hopefully get you signed up for blog emails, trackbacks, comments, and truly get you involved in life change. Of course, you don’t have to do that to just read the blog. But my hope is some of you will step forward and begin to take part. www.blog2grow4spirit.com )

Revelations

Revelations?

Lots of theologians believe that we are in the midst of what the Christian bible calls “Revelations,” referring to the last book of the New Testament. This book defines the end times of our human existence as we know it now, and gives us signs to know what to expect when these times are upon us.

During times like we are in when a perfect storm devastates major parts of our country, the Middle East war continues and Israel’s function in it is central, and there is a rise in drugs and gang related deaths, you’d have to wonder if we aren’t in some kind of AWAKENING, if not a time when some strong negative presence is looming over the world. 

Everything that goes on around us, including things like 9-11, draw all of us in to one single consciousness. We define ourselves differently because of it.

Tonight as I watched television, I could feel the sentiment and compassion of the world focusing it’s love and care on all the people in harm’s way. How important is it that we recognize this tremendous world power we have to come together and change the course of history? Can our prayers change the direction of a storm? Can our compassionate thoughts cumulatively pave pathways of safety for those we love?

You tell me. Why are you praying, if you don’t believe prayer has power? Why are you reaching out, if you don’t believe your thoughts and compassion can somehow relieve some of the pain that is going on? Or if you do believe, then how far does your belief go? Can you believe in a miracle in the midst of the chaos?

The truth is: “Where two or more are gathered, there I AM in their midst.” This is a quote from Jesus, who suggested that if one person prays, that’s wonderful. But when more than one prays for the same thing, their prayers exponentially multiple.

But what does a prayer do, actually?

By my definition, it is opening up communication spiritually with a higher source. If we all tap into that higher source (no matter what we choose to call it), can the will of that higher source be changed?

(To Read the rest of this Blog, please click on this link. I appreciate you helping me out with this new format. The objective is to get people to the actual blog site and hopefully get you signed up for blog emails, trackbacks, comments, and truly get you involved in life change. Of course, you don’t have to do that to just read the blog. But my hope is some of you will step forward and begin to take part. www.blog2grow4spirit.com )

LIving By Faith

Walk by Faith

I wonder how Moses felt when armies were coming for his people and he led them to the sea with no boat to carry them or no bridge to cross. Did Moses see beforehand that God would do a miracle? Or did Moses simply do what he felt to do in his heart—moment by moment—and expect a miracle would happen?

The unction in my heart is that Moses had no idea what God would do next. Moses was simply led by the Spirit to do the next best thing for his people as any human leader would do. Can you imagine what it felt like to be the leader of a nation and be cornered on all sides by adversity? The only thing left to do in Moses’ case, would be to expect a miracle.

I wonder if President Obama felt the same when he was left with the mess he had to clean up when he took office. He was cornered on all sides, desperate to make a decision to help his people, and all he could do was take it one day at a time, ferreting out problems as they arose, and weighing which would be the one that could cause the most damage first. He was probably hoping for a miracle.

But an interesting thing happened—a miracle didn’t happen for Americans. Because a miracle didn’t happen, the people lost faith in their leader. They figured, had he been the chosen one, a miracle would have happened. Right? Is that what had happened in the heart of Americans? Or did we really lose faith in God. And because we were afraid to blame our condition on God, we blamed it on a man—an easier target? 

(To Read the rest of this Blog, please click on this link. I appreciate you helping me out with this new format. The objective is to get people to the actual blog site and hopefully get you signed up for blog emails, trackbacks, comments, and truly get you involved in life change. Of course, you don’t have to do that to just read the blog. But my hope is some of you will step forward and begin to take part. www.blog2grow4spirit.com )

The Herald

The Herald

The dictionary defines herald as a messenger bringing official news. Today I am your herald. I bring you the news that you are officially prosperous, wonderful, made in the image of perfection, and ready to step out on faith today to take the world by storm!

Now, if an official messenger, say CNN, said that the presidency had been officially won by a candidate, you would be apt to believe such news. What keeps your from believing the news that I bring for you personally?

I’ll tell you. We truly don’t believe we deserve the best of everything. We innately feel that there should be struggle to get our good. We should always strive for happiness. Joy is right outside of our reach, but unattainable.

We have not been taught by anyone that what we are and what we have been made of is God. If we have been made in the image and likeness of the Creator, we must be made of some amazingly awesome attributes! We must have power to create good. We must have wisdom. We must have unlimited prosperity. We must be whole and divine.

Have you ever considered that?

If you take your place as a child of the Creator, you take hold of the big “Who” you really are. He or she is someone that is much greater than a person who can barely make his/her rent, car payment, or feed the family. A Son or Daughter of God is unlimited in prosperity.

You may say, “Yes, but I am where I am, and I can’t change things.”

I’m not asking you to change the exterior, right now. I’m asking you to begin to think with unlimited thoughts. Don’t ask for small things or for just enough….

(To Read the rest of this Blog, please click on this link. I appreciate you helping me out with this new format. The objective is to get people to the actual blog site and hopefully get you signed up for blog emails, trackbacks, comments, and truly get you involved in life change. Of course, you don’t have to do that to just read the blog. But my hope is some of you will step forward and begin to take part. www.blog2grow4spirit.com )

Dust in the Wind

Dust in the Wind

One of the sayings that changed my life forever is from a book called  “What Happy People Know,” by Dr. Dan Baker. He quotes one of his dying patients who had struggling through a bout of cancer only to find another small growth: She says about the meaning of life:

“Every moment that’s ever been, or ever will be, is gone the instant it’s begun. So life is loss.  And the secret of happiness is to learn to love the moment more than you mourn the loss.”

Notice she doesn’t say, “But the secret of happiness...”

She says, “And the secret of happiness is...”

“And the secret of happiness is to learn to love the moment more than you mourn the loss.”

The truth is we don’t know what today or tomorrow or even the next moment will bring to our lives. We don’t know if it will bring something wonderful or something tragic. But the secret to happiness is to learn to love the moment that you are in, more than the loss of it, whether good or bad.

This concept completely changed my way of thinking. I don’t get up in the morning thinking that I have to change the world. I get up in the morning knowing that every moment I am conscious of the present, I am changing the world because I am conscious.

Can you grasp the concept? It’s huge.

The songwriter wrote: “All we are is dust in the wind. Same old song. Just a drop of water in an endless sea. All we do crumbles to the ground though we refuse to see. Dust in the wind. All we are is dust in the wind.”

We can look at this song with a fatalistic, realistic point of view and get very sad. But when we see the truth in it, we recognize that we can’t stop change, growth or death. If this is the case, then why are we living in the past 90% of the time? Why are we not stepping forward into life 100% of the time with vitality and love and generosity and compassion? …

(To Read the rest of this Blog, please click on this link. I appreciate you helping me out with this new format. The objective is to get people to the actual blog site and hopefully get you signed up for blog emails, trackbacks, comments, and truly get you involved in life change. Of course, you don’t have to do that to just read the blog. But my hope is some of you will step forward and begin to take part. www.blog2grow4spirit.com )

Boy, Did I make a Mistake

Boy, Did I Make a Mistake

My passion has been to write for a long time. Writing this blog has fulfilled a great deal of that passion. But, as you know, I’ve written a few novels, a couple nonfiction books, a cookbook, a vocal praxis, and ghost wrote a fitness book and a couple gift books too. 

Sometimes one needs to get paid for their passions to make a living. Singers love singing, painters love painting, writers love writing books, but the ultimate goal is to get the work of the beloved art into the hands of someone who will actually pay for what you love doing. Make no mistake about it, that is the goal for most artists. And that is not a bad goal at all.

I hope someday this blog can turn into another book for me. But tomorrow and the next day, I write without consequence or treating for that effect.

Today I discovered that my blog is camped out in a garage where it can’t go anywhere but there. It is by blogger’s standard a kind of misfit “quick blog template.” If it were to go radical and millions of people visit it, there would be no way to reap a return on my work. Why? Because of one small word: Wordpress.

So, today I tried to wrap my mind around this little known fact and see how to change my blog to a Wordpress Blog, which is why some of you, midday, haven’t been able to reach me like you normally do to have your daily fix (and thank you for that).

My blog, by today’s standards, is doing really well. This month it will have gotten about 100,000 hits. I believe that is the most I have ever gotten in a month. That’s pretty damn good. And most of you are responsible for spreading the word. Thank you again for your loving and wonderful support. You make me a happy man everyday when I read your comments and emails.

The problem today happened when my host company, GoDaddy, told me that they didn’t support Wordpress, and that I had to start a new account with Wordpress, and basically start from square one, redesigning, and republishing every post I have ever written. This would mean having to copy 550 posts one by one into this new blog.

I really wasn’t up for the task. I believed there had to be an easier way. There was a way to import from almost every where else that used blogs, but GoDaddy. Go figure.

So, I get half-way through the task of setting up the Wordpress account and get stuck. I call GoDaddy and find out that, indeed, they do have a Blog support staff that is dedicated directly to Wordpress. This was much to my dismay, since I had just spent $$$ on setting up a new Wordpress account.

So, today this account has been jockeyed from one hub to another until it is now apparently stuck in cyber Netherland. I hear it could take up to 48 hours to come back to life. I’m not sure if I really should care. I can reach most of my readers in other ways: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Stumbleupon, Google+, to name a few. This dude is hooked up and serious.

I say all this because I think that I may have made a big mistake. For now, I’m going to stay with Godaddy at blog2grow4spirit.com. Even if it switches to Wordpress, the name will continue to be the same, but my .com address will not appear in your window. Just wanted to keep you updated.

Love to you all.

* * *

I am trying to spread the word about my blog and I need your help. Please let your friends know it exists, if it gives you hope and blesses you each day. Your connection to me blesses me in everyway possible. And I would be greatly pleased for you to share anything that you read by clicking the share button in Facebook.com/bo.sebastian, or add it to your Twitter at BoSebastian; or LinkedIN at Bosebastian5@gmail.com; or find me at www.bosebastian.com. Any of my books can be found on Amazon, just by typing my name in the header.

FRIENDS: CLICK ON THE <<MORE>> BUTTON TO VOTE, LIKE, COMMENT OR SHARE… Thanks, Bo.

Are You LIstening

Are You Listening?

I was a vegetarian for 22 years when my stomach started to rebel against my spiritual decision to not eat meat. I tried every doctor, every holistic way to treat my stomach, but even the holistic doctors said, “Bo, you really have to start to eat meat.”

What do you do when everything in your mind says no and everything in your physical body says yes?

The answer is: you listen to your body. Your body is like a baby crying in the middle of the night. You listen to see if the baby needs to be fed or if she’s just fussing. But you listen. If there is something drastically wrong, you will know by the crying or by the ways the baby functions or doesn’t function.

Your body speaks to you in nonverbal ways all the time. Your shoulders and neck ache when you have looked at the computer for too long. Your lower back growls at you when you have spent the day lifting heavy things to help your friend move. You get a headache when you have too much anxiety for one person to handle.

All these are signs that the body needs your attention. It needs you to stop what you are doing to it and rest. It needs for you to attend to the needs of the physical part of you. After all, the body is the house of your mind and spirit. It is an important part of your existence here on earth. Without it, you would be dead and useless to your family, friends, and the world.

So, I listened to my body after much struggle. I decided that despite my desire to not kill animals to survive, I would pray that my mind could wrap itself around the idea of eating something that had died for my life. I became thankful for the sacrifice of the animal, and began to try small pieces of meat. It took about two months before I became comfortable with eating meat, but I did adjust. I didn’t cook it or buy it for a long time, because that felt too close to the sacrifice, but I did listen to the advice of the doctors and practitioners and eat meat.

They were right. I immediately began to feel better and more vibrant. My stomach stopped feeling terrible all the time. I was very thankful, but at the same time a little confused with God. I thought my choice to be a vegetarian was a spiritual one. Apparently, God had a different lesson for me to learn—an even harder one.

I think this lesson prepared me for the biggest lesson of my life: GETTING OLDER. We think we can gracefully make our way into our elderly years, but the truth is, aches and pains and arthritis and disease sneak in to cramp our style right around 40-50. It’s no fun.  But if you’re not listening to your body, it’s even less fun.

I’ll give you the perfect example…

(To Read the rest of this Blog, please click on this link. I appreciate you helping me out with this new format. The objective is to get people to the actual blog site and hopefully get you signed up for blog emails, trackbacks, comments, and truly get you involved in life change. Of course, you don’t have to do that to just read the blog. But my hope is some of you will step forward and begin to take part. www.blog2grow4spirit.com )

When I thought I Failed!

When I Thought I Failed!

Every once in a while, I’ll convince myself that I didn’t do my best. I say to myself that I could have done better at reaching someone who needed me or who was in pain. During those times, I beat myself up and wish I had all the answers.

The truth is: none of us have all the answers. We have what Spirit allows us to have in that moment. That is enough. If more would have been needed, I would have been given more.

With this client, I felt as if I had taken the wrong tact, had no insight into her true problem, and when I asked questions, she was argumentative and obstructive to the process. The process didn’t mesh like 99% of my clients.

With this woman, I seriously thought I had failed desperately. Even so, I encouraged myself: “This isn’t so bad. I did the best I could. I used all the tools in my toolbox to help. My heart was open to being compassionate and helpful. If what I had to offer wasn’t enough for her, perhaps a refund would be in order.”

Fortunately, I got to see the client one last time before I made the decision to tell her my truth. When she came in to my office, she had on a happy smile and was completely changed. She told me that she was 99% free of all of what she had come in to my office for and felt the other 1% was a good way to keep her on her toes when struggles came along.

To tell you the truth, I was relieved and happy at the same time. “What made the difference between the last three sessions and this session?” I asked her…

(To Read the rest of this Blog, please click on this link. I appreciate you helping me out with this new format. The objective is to get people to the actual blog site and hopefully get you signed up for blog emails, trackbacks, comments, and truly get you involved in life change. Of course, you don’t have to do that to just read the blog. But my hope is some of you will step forward and begin to take part. www.blog2grow4spirit.com )

A Long and Winding Road

A Long and Winding Road

We may not all remember the Beetles song, “The Long and Winding Road,” because some of you are so young. So, here is the first verse:

The Long and Winding Road

That Leads Me to Your Door

Will Never Disappear

I’ve Seen that Road Before

It Always Leads Me Here

Lead Me to Your door…

This—to me—is the metaphor of spiritual life.

The prodigal son leaves to go on a journey far away from the protection of his father’s money and love to find that separation from home isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Empty handed and beaten down, he returns home.

The husband leaves his wife for the sexy secretary only to find that she is needy, wants a father not a partner, and is completely codependent. The husband begs for the forginess of the wife to return to true love.

The child leaves school to marry his young love and get a minimum wage job, only to find that responsibility and being a young father is much harder than he could have ever imagined. He goes back to his parents and asks for their support until he can go back to school and do what they intended for him.

These hard lessons metaphorically all lead us back to the door of God.

The problem is most of us, once we have made mistakes and have left religion or a spiritual walk, are afraid to knock at God’s door. But I tell you, the scriptures couldn’t make it clearer in the story of the prodigal son, that God is always waiting with His/Her arms open for you to come home into the love that never left you. Don’t waste your time in self-flagellations and remorse, return to love.

I’m probably one of the few people who I know who have never had a falling away from the God experience. No matter how much I did that may have looked like it was outside the realm of spirituality, I never stopped believing that God was right by my side. So, to tell you the truth, I can’t even imagine what it would feel like to be in the dark without God. That thought scares the BeJesus out of me. (For you nonsoutherners, BeJesus is a southern heightened slang for Jesus.)

I meet people, however, who have told me stories of leaving religion behind because of being rejected from church and pastors because they were gay or had caused some unpardonable sin like divorce. They were treated like cast aways. It’s no wonder they projected that this was God throwing them into the fires of an angry world…

(To Read the rest of this Blog, please click on this link. I appreciate you helping me out with this new format. The objective is to get people to the actual blog site and hopefully get you signed up for blog emails, trackbacks, comments, and truly get you involved in life change. Of course, you don’t have to do that to just read the blog. But my hope is some of you will step forward and begin to take part. www.blog2grow4spirit.com )

Winning in the Long Jump

Winning in the Long Jump

His legs were short. He walked with a limp. He wasn’t too smart—not smart enough to know that the long jump was a sport for guys different than him. Yet he pursued.

She was overweight. Her feet weren’t so flexible. Her shoulders a little slumped over. Yet, her desire to be a ballet dancer outweighed all of the above. She pursued her dream.

He was told at 15 that he would never become anything. He spent all of his time at the computer playing games and becoming a wizard at them. At 17 he began to develop computer games that made him a millionaire. He pursued his passion.

So many times in my life I put aside what I hungered for in my heart to live a life that took less courage and tenacity. I wonder if I continued in my pursuit of acting, singing, writing, and recording, if I would have made something great of myself. But I never stretched beyond myself to feel the pain of struggle or knew what ignoring rejection meant.

I suppose that rejection of what it took came from a deep-seated knowing that I had struggled enough as a child. I never wanted to go hungry again. I had been rejected by my own mother, when she left my father, and I didn’t see her again for the next six years. I suppose that following a path like theater and writing and recording, where rejection is paramount, was just a little too much for me to fathom after a time.

So, the two things that bring greatness to the surface, deep passion great enough to overcome rejection and the consistent pursuit despite the times when there is no money to live were not in the cards for me. So, does that mean…

(To Read the rest of this Blog, please click on this link. I appreciate you helping me out with this new format. The objective is to get people to the actual blog site and hopefully get you signed up for blog emails, trackbacks, comments, and truly get you involved in life change. Of course, you don’t have to do that to just read the blog. But my hope is some of you will step forward and begin to take part. www.blog2grow4spirit.com )

 win