ustained, however, such stress creates wear and
tear on the body. According to researcher Hans
Selye (1907–1982), 75 percent of all illnesses are
stress-related. He argued that interrupting the
pattern of stress provides a break in the routine,
thereby resolving the wear-and-tear effect of
continuous stress. Hand and foot reflexology
work taps into this relationship, interrupting
stress, and helping to reset the body’s overall
tension level. As the hands and feet respond to
the new sensory experiences of reflexology’s
pressure techniques, the work interrupts
patterns of stress and prompts a general
relaxation response in the whole body. If practiced sufficiently often, reflexology
work not only interrupts stress but also
conditions an improved response to it. how reflexes work
Imagine stepping on a tack. In response to the
challenge to the sole of the foot, a reflexive
action occurs throughout the body−muscular
action withdraws the foot from the tack and the
body experiences an adrenaline surge as well as
changes in balance and internal organ function. The body acts as a whole to protect itself from
this injury. In general, reflexive responses take
place with every footstep and hand gesture. Reflexology works on the same principles−it
all happens reflexively throughout the nervous “Continuing use of reflexology results
in improved response to the stresses
of the day.” how reflexology works 21It is this information gathering and preset
response that makes possible a reflexology
influence on the whole body. The demands of
walking call for an automatic, unconscious
response to the ground underfoot. Changes in
terrain call for changes in the reflexive response
by the foot and the internal organs that fuel
movement. For example, walking up a hill creates
additional demands, such as extra oxygen and
nutrients for working muscles.. Reflexology techniques provide stimulus to
pressure sensors of the hands and feet,
prompting a reflexive response throughout the
taking a few moments
to relax the hands and feet
keeps them flexible and
helps them function better.body, including the internal organs. A reflex
effect occurs as the body automatically and
unconsciously resets its stress mechanism. When reflexology techniques are applied to a
specific part of the hand or foot, a specific
relaxation response occurs in a corresponding
body part: reflexology maps of the hands (see
pp30-31) and feet (see pp26-29) show how this
relationship works. Continuing use of reflexology
technique results in an improved response to all
the stresses of the day.. Reflexology work affects the body in three
main ways: a general relaxation response, a
specific reflex effect, and a rejuvenation of the
hands and feet. It also improves the flexibility
of the hands and feet and helps to develop
awareness, thus lessening possibility of injury
occurring. In sum, reflexology works as a stress-
reducer in the nervous system, prompting an
effect on the whole body.“Reflexology works as a stress
reducer in the nervous system,
promoting beneficial effects on
the whole body.“ 22 the principles of reflexologyReflexology and zones
The theory underlying reflexology is called zone theory. This theory is
similar to the idea of meridians in acupuncture. Just as meridians link one part
of the body with another, so a combination of zone charts and maps connects
the hands and feet to the organs and structures of the body. In zone theory, the body is divided into ten
zones, one representing each finger and toe. Applying pressure to one part of a zone creates
an effect along the zone. For example, pressure
applied to the index finger creates a reaction, a
relaxation  response, along zone 2 anywhere in the
body. Lateral markers further link the body and
the hand or foot (see right). For example, to
affect a body part at the waistline in zone 1,
pressure is applied to the hand or foot at the
waistline lateral marker and zone 1 (see opposite
and p24). This system is further refined to create
reflexology maps, see pp26–33. using zones and maps
Reflexologists use zones and maps to locate an
area on the hand or foot that corresponds to a
specific part of the body, in order to focus work
on areas of localized stress. For example, a client,
Twyllah, attended the emergency room with her
daughter, who was in great pain. Twyllah used
her reflexology and zone knowledge to find the
part of her daughter’s hand that reflected the
pain, which she successfully relieved during
diagnosis and preparation for an appendectomy. Reflexologists use maps and zone charts in
order to plan their strategy: where to apply
technique, how much to apply, and for how
long to apply it are key questions for a focused
approach to prompting a response. reflexologists use zone charts similar to the one below to
help them locate areas on the hands and feet that
correspond to different parts of the body. the body is divided into ten zones and four lateral zones. the lateral
markers are: base of the neck, diaphragm (base of the
ribcage), the waistline, and base of the pelvis.Zone charts
left side of
the bodyright side of
the body
5
4
3
2
15
4
3
2
1Base of
neck
diaphragm
Waistline
Base
of pelvisreflexology and zones 23top of left footbottom of
right footbottom of left foot
top of right foot5 4 3 2 1
Base of neck
diaphragm
Waistline
Base of pelvisBase of neck
diaphragm
Waistline1 2 3 4 5
1 2345
123451 2 3
4
51 2 34
5
1 234
5
12345
Base of pelvis
Base of neck
diaphragmBase of neck
diaphragm
Base of pelvis1 2 3 4 5 5 4 3 2 1
1 2
3
4
5
12 34
5123
4
5
1 23
4
5
Base of pelvis24 the principles of reflexologyleft palm right palm
top of right hand top of left handBase of neck
diaphragm
Waistline
Base of pelvis
Base of
neck
diaphragm
Waistline
Base of
pelvisBase of
neck
diaphragm
Base of
pelvis5 4 3 2 1
Base of neck
diaphragm
Waistline
Base of pelvis1 2 3 4 5
1
1
122
23
3
34
4
45
5
55554
4
43
32
2
21
1
1
1
1
12
2
23
3
34
4
45
5
55432
1 5
54
43
32
21
1Waistline3reflexology and zones 25referral areas
Referral areas link one limb or joint of the body
to another through the zones. Referral areas are
utilized to block pain and speed recovery of
other injuries to the limbs and joints. To see this
relationship, compare your right arm and leg to
the illustrations. The arm is a reflection of the leg. The fingers correspond to the toes, the hand to
the foot, the wrist to the ankle, the forearm to the
calf, the elbow to the knee, the upper arm to the
thigh, and the shoulder to the hip. Referral areas are used when work to a part
of the foot or hand must be avoided entirely
because of an injury. For example, Anna’s
daughter had injured her ankle and was to be
excluded from her school soccer final. Work was
done with the referral area, the wrist, and she
learned how to apply technique herself. Her
ankle improved and she was able to play. The referral areas are further divided by zones. Since an injured little finger, for example, lies in
the same zone as a little toe, technique is applied
to the little toe to speed its recovery. referral areas in practice
Referral areas are used by first matching the
painful area with its referral counterpart. If any
part of the leg is bruised, for example, the
corresponding part of the arm can be worked. Match the location between ankle and knee to a
similar location between wrist and ankle. Now,
consider the location of the bruised area in a
straight line to the toe. Matching the third toe,
for example, to the third finger, run a line up the
arm and meet the location between wrist and
elbow. Apply thumb-walking to the area. In
order to diminish pain, follow the same locating
procedure before applying direct pressure. direct pressure  applied to the forearm
is linked to blocking pain and/or speeding
recovery of injury to the lower leg.26 the principles of reflexologyReflexology maps
Reflexologists use pressure applied to
reflex areas on the sole of the foot to
communicate with corresponding
parts of the body via the
central nervous system,
helping them to function
as well as they can. right sole
This map has reflex areas that


 wet ingredients in another bowl. Form a well in
the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Stir the batter
just until the dry ingredients are thoroughly moistened; it will seem very
thin, but it will thicken. Let the batter rest for 15 minutes (spelt flour takes a little longer to
absorb liquids). If you can’ t wait, your pancakes won’ t be as crisp. After the
batter has rested, fold in the blueberries. Cook according to directions for
E2 Basics Pancakes (see page 158). Mighty Muffins
These are the brainchild of my friend Bridget’ s brother, Michael. An
amazing cook and a Buddhist, Michael travels internationally as a chef for
his teacher and others in the Buddhist community. Once cooled, these muf fins keep well in the refrigerator for a week. Eat
them cold or warm them briefly in the oven. Makes 6 lar ge muffins or 1 enormous loaf
3 cups oat bran
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons sweetener
Juice of 1 lemon
1 large apple, grated
6 brown bananas, lightly mashed (leave some chunks)
¼ cup walnuts, chopped or halved
¼ cup raisins
¾ cup water
Preheat oven to 375º. Combine the dry ingredients in a lar ge bowl. Squeeze the juice of the lemon onto the combined apple and bananas. Add
walnuts, raisins, and water. Combine the wet and dry ingredients into one
bowl. Pour into sprayed muf fin tins and bake for 45 minutes or until golden
brown on top. Variations:Bake the batter in a loaf pan, and enjoy hearty slices instead of muf fins. Add three thinly sliced pears or 1 cup of 70 percent pure cocoa chips to
the batter. Quick Bran Muffins
Yes, these come out of a box, but that’ s okay. There’ s no harm in relying on
great products made by quality food companies—especially when they are
quick and delicious. Makes 6 small muffins or 2 small loaves
7-ounce box bran muf fin mix (we like Hodgson Mill or Bob’ s Red Mill)
2 ripe bananas, mashed
½ cup water
Preheat oven to 375º. Mix the ingredients together. Spoon the batter into
a nonstick muf fin tin or mini–loaf pans. Bake for 25 minutes or until a
toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Variations:
Add extras to the batter. Consider:
1 teaspoon Ener -G egg replacer mixed with 1 tablespoon water (this will
make a taller muf fin)
1 diced apple or pear
6 ounces blueberries or raspberries
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup raisins
 Make a double batch of these muffins and fr eeze half of them
for a quick, on-the-go br eakfast or a healthy snack. E2 Fruit and Toast
I’m going to harp on this until I’m blue in the face. I always want you to
use 100 percent whole grain toast, bagels, or English muf fins. I particularly
like the Ezekiel brand whole wheat bread, which you can keep in thefreezer. Simply throw a couple slices into the toaster while you’re getting
out the jam or nut butter, or slicing up some fruit to place on top. Pull the
toast out of the toaster, add your toppings, and head out the door. PB and Banana
Serves 2
4 slices whole grain bread
1 tablespoon peanut butter (see E2-approved Foods)
2 bananas, sliced
Toast the bread. Spread slices thinly with peanut butter. Top with sliced
bananas or the fruit of your choice. Variations:
Substitute bagels or English muf fins for bread. Use any E2-approved nut
butter in place of peanut butter. Add E2-approved jam or preserves. Use any
sliced fresh fruit in place of bananas. Fresh Fruit Extravaganza with Mint
Go to town. Use cantaloupe, honeydew, grapes, grapefruit, kiwi,
strawberries, oranges, mangoes, watermelon, or blueberries. Serves 2 to 4
1 bunch mint leaves, chopped
Every fruit you consider edible in your kitchen, sliced, diced, or chopped
Zest of 1 lime with juice of ½ lime
Juice of 1 grapefruit or orange, including sections
Remove the mint leaves from their stems, and chop the leaves. Toss the
fruit in a bowl with zest, juices, and mint. For a surprisingly zingy pleasur e, try a squeeze of lemon on
your fruit—especially on slices of watermelon. E2 EASY  LUNCHES. One day Austin firefighter Brad Mendenhaul from Station 8 traveled to
Station 2. “Just because,” he said, “I’m dying to eat some of your healthy
vegetarian cuisine. ”
The battalion chief, who overheard him, said, “W ell, then, all you have
to do is go out into the front yard, pick up some twigs and leaves, throw
them in the skillet with some oil, and you’re set. ”
The battalion chief is not an E2er. I replied that we wouldn’ t be using any oil. The chief then called me a
freak. I told Brad to ignore the peanut gallery and introduced him to several
Engine 2 favorite lunches that are especially easy to prepare. E2 Sandwiches
Each shift in the Austin Fire Department lasts twenty-four hours. At
Engine 2, we’re called the C shift, which means either coming to work at
twelve noon one day to relieve the B shifters, or getting of f at noon the next
day and waiting for the A shifters to relieve us. As hectic as lunchtime can be, what with all shifts joining in, the meal
has to tide us over until dinner, when we can sit down to a solid, three-
course, plant-based feast. Derick Zwerneman, 35
Firefighter
My first day at Station 2, I got up early and made blueberry muf fins. They smelled great, but when everyone else came down to the
kitchen, they said, “Huh, lot of calories in those. ”
I thought, “Who are you jerks. ” No one had told me about how
healthy Engine 2 ate. At the time my menu planning was simple—I used to see what
meat was for sale and then my wife and I would plan our meals
around that. If pork chops were on sale, then it was pork chops for
dinner. Now that we eat a plant-based diet, we’re more creative. And
our palates have changed, too. I used to love chicken. Today the smell
of it makes me kind of sick. E2 Basics Open-Faced Sandwich
Years ago, when we were short on time, we’d run to a nearby sub shop and
order the number 1 1 without the cheese and mayo, and ask them to double
up on all the vegetables. Eventually, we’d just say, “An Engine 2. ” But a
new owner took over about a year ago and rescinded the half-price discount
for firefighters and police of ficers. So we now make the Engine 2 at Engine
2. Serves 2
4 slices whole grain bread, toasted
E2 spread of choice
1 cucumber with skin on, scrubbed and sliced into thin rounds
1 large tomato, sliced
½ bunch arugula or cilantro
1 cup alfalfa sprouts
Lemon pepper to taste (we like the Mrs. Dash brand)
Lemon or lime juice
Spread each side of bread thickly with E2 spread of choice. Top with
arugula, vegetables, and sprouts. Season with lemon pepper and a squeeze
of lemon or lime juice. Variations:
Top the sandwich with chopped cilantro, green onions, salad greens,
avocados, shredded raw beets, or carrots. Ann’ s Panini with Hummus, Mushr ooms, and Spinach
At the firehouse we have great old iron skillets that weigh as much as
concrete bricks. They come in handy because the key to making a fantastic
panini is to get a hefty amount of weight on top of the sandwich as it cooks. You can prepare this in one of two ways: Place an iron skillet (or other
heavy object) on top to smush the sandwich, or be decadent and purchase a
panini maker and use as directed. I got one for Christmas. It sears perfect
lines on top of the bread. You’ll know it’ s ready when the hummus drips
over the sides like melted cheese, the outside is crispy, the inside soft. This dynamite recipe comes from my mother, Ann. And by the way, for
those of you who don’ t know, panini is an Italian sandwich. Serves 2 (or one ravenous fir efighter)
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
Tamari or Bragg Liquid Aminos to taste
4 slices whole grain bread
Healthy Homemade Hummus (see page 236)
4 green onions, chopped into rounds
½ cup chopped cilantro
3 handfuls baby spinach
Sauté the mushrooms on medium heat in a nonstick skillet for about 5
minutes or until soft. Season lightly with tamari or Bragg’ s. Spread all 4
bread slices thickly with hummus. Sprinkle two pieces of the bread with
green onions and cilantro and reserve the other two pieces as sandwich tops


 Learning to grow out of
this pattern is a common trait of people who live their own love stories. They can give on all levels. It has become a truism that to receive love we must give love. This
reciprocal action keeps the flow of love alive. Without it love would
stagnate. Learni ng to give runs contrary to some very deep conditioning
that we all carry around inside, however. We have all learned to hold on to a
good thing. Letting go of anything precious is hard. Loving people have
taught themselv es that holding on is possessiveness. Anyone who has ever
been trapped in a possessive relationship knows its smotherin g effect. It
isn’t love when another person cannot give you the space to live your own
life. Giving space isn’t simple. You must be willing to allow another person
their whole being. You must give permission for someone else’s ideas,
feelings, reactio ns, and will to be expressed freely. People who have taught
themselves to give on all levels have discovered a critical ingredient of
living their love stories. They don’ t expect anything in r eturn for being good. We all make a connection between love and goodness. Attraction is based
on the assumpti on that another person has something good to bring into
your life. Our definition of this goodness may be shallow or deep. Some
men will always  believe that a woman is good as long as she is beautiful
and compliant. Some women will overlook a dozen things about a man that
might spell disaster in a relationship as long as he is dependable and brings
in a good incom e. It takes inner growth to appreciate goodness  as a deeper
value. Ultimately people are good because of who they are; good ness is a
quality of being. Once we have made this discovery, we stop measuring
people by their achievements. We expect goodness as part of their essence,
and of ours. When this happens, we no longer expect a reward for doing
good. We no longer bestow love when people are good to us and withdraw
it when they are bad. Instead love becomes a constant in our lives. It just is.People who have reached this stage are in true possession of their love
stories. They don’ t judge or live in fear of judgment. Judgment is whatever tells you that there is something wrong with
yourself or someone else. Because we all have secrets, we all have some
tendency to live in fear of judgment. A voice inside warns us that other
people will judge our transgr essions as harshly as we do. This self-
condemnation has another face—to make ourselves feel safer from being
judged, we look for faults in others first. Loving people have taught
themselves the falseness of this process. You will never feel better about
yourself by making others look worse. Engaging in the habit of criticism
only postpones the day when your own secret judgments come to light. Bringing to light whatever you think is wrong about yourself  is the only
way to diffuse guilt and shame. In reality there is nothing wron g with you
or anyone else: this is what the voice of love truly says. Inner growth
consists of learning to hear this voice and heed it, a process essential to
living your own love story. They do not expect others to make them feel loved. Love is experienced in relation ship. Without someone to love you, the
feelings of love—the warmth in a mother ’s heart, the gladness of
friendship, the excitement of intimacy—have no stimulus. That is why the
commonest image for being unloved is being alone. When you are alone,
there seems to be no relationship. People who find themselves alone rarely
feel any incentive to explore love. They await contact with another person
or run out to seek it. Thus we become dependent on other people to make us
feel totally and permanently loved. This expectation  will, however, always be defeated, and although we
blame those who failed to respo nd to us, who responded but then left, who
stayed but then changed their minds, none of them is finally the cause of
our problem. The cause is our inability to develop an unshakeable
relationship with ourselves. The Self is the source of love. Peop le who live
their own love stories have learned this lesson above all.IN THE  ABSENCE OF  LOVE
The absence of love is as devas tating as its presence is beneficial. We will
have to assume,  unfortunately, that most people are not living a love story
right now. Even those who say they are the most deeply in love may be
deluding themselves, at least in part. The word love applies to so many
situations—from intimate affection to abuse, from dependency to control,
from lust to ecstasy—that asking if someone feels loved is unreliable. Lack of love is less elusive, however, so we can more reliably  describe
what that state feels like. The following are common features of people who
are not living their love stories. They feel numb and traumatized. Once it has grown to fullness, a love based on spirit has no fear of being
wounded. Imperfect forms of love are much more vulnerable. Almost
everyone has asked for love and received rejection instead. We have taken
our frail self-images into situat ions where they got battered, where hope
died and our worst imaginings came true. The effect of rejection, failure,
humiliation, and other traumas is to numb one’s feelings. Love requires
sensitivity. It must have openn ess. Whatever has numbed you makes it
much harder for you to feel love. Therefore people who are numb at the
emotional level cannot live their love stories. They feel valued for what they do, not for who they ar e.
To value yourself is to love yourself. It is really from here that your love
for other s comes. Value is like currency you can draw from a bank account
—if you value yourself a great deal, you actually have something to give to
others. If you do not value yourself, you have nothing to draw upon. So
what is there to value? If you look at yourself and ask, “What would
another person love about me?”  the only enduring answer is “Myself.” The
only people who can give this answer put a value on who they are, not what
they do. Everyone’ s list of accomplishments is finite. Our good deeds end
somewhere. The things about us that society approves of are often
outweighed in our own minds by blemishes best kept out of other people’ ssight. If we value ourselves by what we do—by accomplishments, good
deeds, social acceptance—the scope of our love gets limited. People who
value themselves almost entirely for what they do will not have love stories
of their own. They live on distorted beliefs. The love you have in your life can only be as valuable as you perceive it
to be, and the key to perception is belief. There are no neutral  encounters. We always see others in the light of our beliefs; we always feel seen in the
light of their beliefs. I’ve known people who walk into a room full of
strangers and believe that a wave of hostility greets them. Other people
walk into a room and immediately feel welcome. The differenc e is entirely
one of perceptio n, since this judgment comes before any external evidence. I would say that the first people  believe they are not wanted in this world
while the other group believe they are. Any belief that attacks our ability to value ourselves is a distortion. In
essence the Self is of highest value; it deserves love without exception. People who cannot live their love stories harbor distorted beliefs that
disguise the reality of their infinite worth. They have failed at love and ar e too tir ed to try again. When you are faced with a losing enterprise, it’s only natural to give up
eventually. When we were younger all of us could pursue love with a
certain amount of hope and optim ism, backed by energy, and it takes energy
to carry out any passion. For some people the energy has run out. They say
they have no time for love. They feel they do not need it in their lives. What
they are actually experiencing is lack of energy, the loss of enthusiasm that
follows repeated failure. But energy is a self-renewing commodity. Like water from a spring, its
flow isn’t diminished by how much you take away. People who cannot live
their love stories have not found a way to renew their energy, to tap into
their source of passion. These various factors don’ t all apply to any one person. Some of them apply
in some  degree to all of us. But we can certainly perceive some commonunderlying causes at work—ignorance of the path to love, how to enter it,
how to walk it, even what it is. Our materialistic worldview has reduced love to a haphazard flow of
hormones coupl ed to psychological fantasies. The spiritual truth is very
different. Once the walls fall down we discover that our real problem is that
there is too much  love around us, not too little. Love is eternal and
unbounded; it is only we who take tiny sips from its infinite ocean. Rumi
states this most natural and yet most secret of mysteries  with utter
simplicity:
I look in your inmost self and see the universe not yet created. The mystery of love hasn’ t changed across the centuries, we have only
fallen short of it. Whenever a person’ s heart


. All of our chakras are within the realms of the psyche. Sahasrara acts
through nothing while at the same time acting through everything. It is the
centre of super consciousness, where all polarities integrate, thus passing
beyond the ever-changing samsara. The opening of this chakra leads to a
state of transcendence and hence may be called the attainment of
Buddhahood. Sahasrara is associated with the seventh layer, the ketheric template. Located at the top of the cranium or cerebral plexus, sahasrara synchronises
all colours (hence it is white light) and encompasses all senses and their
functions; it has all-pervading power. When kundalini is raised up to the
sahasrara chakra the yogi becomes realised and the illusion of the individual
self is dissolv ed. Sahasrara is the culmination of the progressive ascension of kundalini
(consciousness) through different chakras. Up to the sixth chakra the yogi
may enter a trance in which activity or form still remains within this
consciousness; however, in the sahasrara chakra the prana moves upwards
and reaches the highest point and the mind establishes itself in a pure void or
sunya (zero), the space between the two hemispher es. While meditating the
focus should be at the crown chakra, visualising the white light enveloping
your body. At this point all activities of the mind — feelings, emotions and
desires — are dissolved and the yogi attains a state of true bliss or sat-chit-
ananda (truth being bliss). As long as the yogi stays in this physical body he
retains non-dual consciousness. Imbalances and the tools to heal them
The sahasrara chakra is the point of transformation, from the mind/bod y
trap and moving beyond sense consciousness. We live in a sensory world,
with sense consciousness perceiving the world and constantly producing
uncontrolled thoughts. A person can be a great scientist, artist, thinker,
educator or healer, but until the time ‘I’-ness is present this chakra will
remain blocked. At times there may be a feeling of lightheadedness, a sense
of disconnection with the world; this is also a sign of an imbalanced crown
chakra and indica tes a need to be g rounded. The most important tool for crown chakra healing and balancing is to
practise dhyana (meditation); through dhyana we are able to awaken the
guru within. Dhyana can be achieved by concentra ting on the universal form
of God; when this concentra tion reaches the phase of non-dual consciousness
all thoughts and distractions stop and the yogi is able to establish a
connection with the higher self. While meditating the focus should be on the
top of the head, the sea t of the cr own chakra. The best crystals for the crown chakra healing are amethyst, sugilite and
clear quartz. When lightheaded or disconnected it is better to use grounding
crystals similar to those used f or the muladhara (base r oot) chakra. In Ayurvedic aromatherapy, when crown chakra balancing and
grounding is required we use essential oils representing the earth element
such as patchouli, valerian root, angelica root or jatamansi. Other useful oils
include brahmi, lavender, holy basil, blue or white lotus, ylang ylang and
rosemary. OceanofPDF. com9
Chakra healing
The holistic approach to health fully acknowledges the integration of mind
and body; the well-being of one depends on the good health of the other. Disease is an imbalance of the energies manifesting in the physical body. Chakras are the barometers of our health, and an imbalance of a chakra is
an indication of the e xistence of a disease in an y of the or gans associa ted with
the imbalanced chakra. Disease first affects our energy body before
manifesting in the physical body, therefore we feel out of sorts before we fall
sick. Chakra healing is preventative, as we can avoid a potential disease
manifesting in the ph ysical bod y by balancing the c hakras. There are devices and tools that can measure the energy field, take
chakra/aura pictures and check chakra health and vibrations through bio-
feedback. Energy is universal, and we shape it with our thoughts and
feelings. We can help balance the chakras and alter our state of mind using
several modalities. Different cultures have a variety of energy healing tools,
so we have options available to us for balancing our energies and managing
our mental and emotional str ess. Tantra encompasses yoga and Ayurveda. Ayurveda is based on the
science of life and longevity using plants and minerals for healing the body,
while yoga is described as the union of mind, body and spirit. Ashtanga yoga
encompasses eight aspects of life and offers practices to help balance our
energies. The principles established in yoga are universal, providing overall
development and the evolution of consciousness. Various practices in hatha
yoga and pranayama help us become centred and quieten the mind, therebyhelping balance chakra energies. There are many other systems of healing
that have been developed by different cultur es to balance ener gies. Chakras respond very well to energy work that is mainly intuitive, and we
also have tools such as crystals, aromatherapy essential oils, colour therapy
and sound therapy. Some use the term ‘alternative therapies’,  whereas we
call them ‘complementar y therapies’ as we can use more than one modality
and integrate them to get a desired healing effect. We like to integrate
aromatherapy with lymph drainage alongside using crystals and wands. Some of the complementar y modalities ar e explained in this c hapter. Yoga
The basic nature of yoga was well defined in four words by Patanjali in Yoga
Sutra 2: Samadhi Pada: ‘Yogas chitta-vritti-nir odh’ (yoga is the inhibition of the
modifications of the mind). Yoga has been practised for thousands of years as an effective tool to
improve physical, mental and spiritual health. The word ‘yoga’ is derived
from the Sanskrit word yuj, meaning to ‘unite’ or ‘join’; it represents the
union of the mind, body and spirit and the union of the individual
consciousness and cosmic consciousness. Yoga encompas ses the elementar y training of the body to promote
normal healthy and peaceful human activities. Patanjali called yoga soma-
psychic, or mind over body. The aim of yogic discipline is not so much to
cultivate the body for physical strength, quick reflexes or develop muscles but
to create a mental make-up through poise, balance and mental endurance. It
provides the practitioner with an ability to control the modification of the
mind. Health practitioner s today consider the intrinsic health of a human being
along with the outer development of the body. The importanc e of this was
realised thousands of years ago by ancient Indian yogis. Yoga and meditation
treat a person not merely as a mass of flesh and blood, but as a being with a
soul. Health practitioner s have come to recognise that the practice of yoga
and meditation can provide patients with greater solace and promote better
recovery. As soon as a person takes up yoga and meditation their life pattern,
personality and diet change. Dr Mimi Guarneri wrote in her book The Heart
Speaks about the health benefits of integrating an holistic approach to healthwith yoga, meditation and lifestyle changes to prevent and control
cardiovascular diseases. Some of our clients reported great benefits of
breathwork, yoga and meditations for their heart conditions, to the extent
they could giv e up traditional medicines. Yoga helps generate positive, spontaneous energy, and the practitioner
attains a balance of mind, body and spirit and is more in control of self. Yogi
tend to become puritans (sattvic) and are able to develop willpower to
prevent them from smoking, drinking and consuming non-vegetarian food. Yoga is ‘a combination of psychoanalysis, psychiatry and physiotherap y’, and
it directly affects the hypothalam us or the area of the brain that controls
endocrine activity. The practice of yoga has a substantial foundation in science. Yoga asanas
(postures) accelerate blood circulation in the body, while pranayama (breath
control) abates carbon dioxide content, ensuring better health. There are
various types of yoga that incorporate dhyana yoga, bhakti yoga, karma
yoga, laya yoga, swar yoga, tantra yoga, hatha yoga and kriya yoga. Out of
these, hatha yoga, which involves light physical exercises or postures, is often
thought to be the only form of yoga to follow and practise. Patanjali
enumerated ashtanga (eight aspects) yoga, involving an eightfold path: yama,
niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi,
which are practised f or the upliftment of bod y, mind and spirit. Yama concerns the rules to be followed by the practitioner living in a
society. As a social being living in a society we need to follow the


 his life by turning to
cocaine. The same mixture of danger, thrills, and rage that he had
felt driving a race car now became much sharper edged. The compulsion to stay on cocaine was immense. Nick had
reached the point where keeping up the facade of normality, which
he had been so good at when  he was ve, became nearly impossible
now that he was thirty-ve. Despite his intense eorts to channel his
energies into productive outlets—he ran ve miles a day, swam two
more miles in the pool, worked out at the gym, and kept up a large
circle of sympathetic friends—he found that despair and rage
inexorably crept into his mind, tingeing every other impulse. His
buried secrets were claiming their revenge. Nick broke out of his addiction by slow stages, but at each stage
the common theme was his expansion of awareness. What gives any
form of mental torment its sinister power is that people have a
mistaken notion about themselves. We think that we are being
tortured by grief, depression, fear, and despair as if some foreign
enemy were attacking from within. Yet there are no enemies within. There is only mind-stu. Like a kind of universal modelin g clay, thisinvisible subst ance molds itself into all our thoughts, feelings, and
desires. The problem is that mind-stu can enact dramas in which  it plays
opposite roles. It can play victim and torturer at the same time. Nick
told me that he was staying  in a Jamaican hotel a few years ago,
spending a week scuba divin g. He was temporarily o all drugs and
had never been in better shape physically. As he stepped into the
shower one morning, he suddenly found himself dropping to his
knees, crying, totally beside himself. A wave of despair welled up
from some dark recess. “God,” he cried out loud, “why is this
happening to me? Should I kill myself? Do you exist? Please, please,
if you are God, take my torment away!”
He related this terrifying moment, as ever, in a controlled,
pleasant voice,  but I was brushed by the emptiness he had felt. “Do
you think God heard you?” I asked after a moment. “I don’t  know,”  he said. “I can’t say that God is real to me. I could
have been crying out to fate or to the void.”
“So as far as you’re concerne d, your voice didn’t reach anyone?” I
asked. “I don’t know,” he repeated. “But at least we know someone who heard it,” I said. “We do?”
“You were heard by you,” I said. “Why not begin there? Instead of
wondering if there is some almighty agency who can save you from
suering, at least we can begin with your need to understand
yourself, to truly listen and know who you are. “Whenever we cry out, our voices reach ourselves. When we are
afraid, it is ourselves making us afraid; if we start to tear apart
inside, the same mind is doing the tearing and being torn. Experiencing just one side leads to suering, no matter whether you
identify with the actor or the one being acted upon. In reality, there
is no actor separate from the acted upon. It is all just you.”
Thinking about the pointless  suering that ensues, I saw a sad,
bemused look on Nick’s face, too. But we weren’t meeting  to discuss
sorrow. The latest phase of Nick’s life has been the happiest,
because he has realized that he can nd a way out of the cruel self-splitting that shaped him in childhood. He realized that if he was
ever going to live at peace with himself, he had to dismantle the
haunting threats from his past. He was fortunate to nd a
sympathetic, experienced therapist whom he began to see several
times a week. At rst Nick’s anger toward his father was too violent
to deal with. “When I uncorked my revenge fantasies and started
talking about killing my father, I sounded so convincing that my
therapist said he would have to call my parents to warn them that
they were in danger. It took that strong a threat to curb me.” It was
also necessary to check Nick into drug detox centers o and on; he
went through various rehabilitation programs a total of nine times. Eventually, the turbulence of his inner world began to subside. He
no longer feared the sudden eruption of his black rage; he did not
wake up at midnight, as he had ever since adolescence, sweating in
the grip of a panic attack. The surface Nick—the good little boy who
wanted to please—began to realize that the other Nick, seemingly so
wild and self-destructive, was in fact a sobbing child whose
emotions of grief and terror were legitimate. They did not deserve
to be condemned or feared. They deserved to be healed. A year ago, as he was terminating his therapy, Nick began to
meditate. It came as a revelatory experience, because all at once he
recovered the clarity that had been lost twenty years earlier, the last
time he was by himself in the Vermont woods. Even though his
experiences of inner silence were brief, when he came out he felt as
if he had contacted a source of deep fulllment. It was his rst
experience of a whole self in many years, and also the rst
satisfaction that rendered his shame, guilt, and self-loathing totally
irrelevant. “I have had a recurring image of myself as a swimmer caught out
alone in the middle of the ocean,” Nick said. “I am thrashing
around, while  shadowy monsters are rising up toward me from
below. But the rst time I meditated, this sinister image changed. It
dawned upon me that I was the swimmer but also the sea, and the
monsters were nothing but me, too.”
After a long pause, he unexpectedly began to tell me a story: “I
had been searching for my real mother for thirteen years. It becameextremely important for me to nd her. I thought that maybe my
addiction was related to my bloodline; I also just want ed to look
into a face that might be like mine. All kinds of reasons  motivated
me. But nothing happened. Years went by; I spent a fortune on investigators, some of whom
were outright charlatans. “Soon after I began to meditate, I turned on the radio and heard a
woman saying  that she could track down the parents of adopted
children in six weeks. She would not disclose her meth ods, but I
immediately sent her my name. Just as she promised, six weeks
later I received the name of my real mother in the mail.”
It sounded like a story some writer had carefully contrived: Nick’s
biological mother actually turned out to be a gypsy, just as he had
imagined in the fairy tale he told himself as a child. She had
threatened to steal him back when he was rst adopted. She
continued to hound Nick’s parents for several years, attempting to
squeeze more money from them (they have not revealed how
successful she was). “All at once, my whole life began to hang together. The
impersonal, random world disappeared, and I waked into a world
that had mean ing. I can’t really tell you exactly when this new sense
of meaningfuln ess dawned on me, but once it did, I felt incredibly
free. All I wanted to do was to contact my real mother and tell her
that everything was all right. No matter what she had done, I
forgave her and my adopted parents, everybody.”
“But this woman sold you and then tried to practice extortion,” I
pointed out. “I was so thrilled to nd her,” he said, “how could I not forgive
her? When I rst called up, I was extremely nervous. The woman
who had tracked my mother  down said to write a letter rst, but I
had to telepho ne her. Her name is Eva Z——, and I pretended to be
a distan t relation. After a while she became suspicious and asked me
how I knew so much about the Z——family without ever showing
up at their gatherings. “I came right out and asked her, ‘Did you ever have a son?’
Without hesita tion she said no. We fenced around a bit, and then Ipushed her harder. ‘Did you give birth to a baby boy on August 5,
1953, and give him up for adoption to a wealthy couple in Glen
Rock, New Jersey?’ Sounding twice as suspicious now, Eva again
demanded to know who I was. ‘I’m your son,’ I blurted out. “She didn’t even pause. ‘You may never believe this,’ she said,
‘but I love you.’ All at once my heart melted. We both broke down
crying. She wanted to see me immediately but I stalled. I needed
time to soak in the fact that I had really found her after thirteen
years of searching. “Two weeks later we met, and it was wonderful. Eva looks like
me; her two daughters look like me. She has a beautiful laugh. Once, she


 cleaned up fr om the past, and be now who we wer e
not then. The ego is that which both sets you up to do the wrong thing  and then
punishes you viciously for having done so. It lures you into doingsomething stupid, and then woul d have you believe that you’re the dumbest,
most irresponsible human being alive for having made such a mistake! Now, it ar gues, everything is terrible and will only be getting worse! Yet the ego lies. It lied when it convinced you to do something stupid; and
it also lies when it tells you that you’re a terrible person for whom there is
no hope, now that you’ve done such a terrible thing. Guilt is savage, and it never lets you off the hook. It leads to obsession,
self-hatred, self-punishment, and a shattered sense of self. Yet we must always remember: guilt is untrue, for you were created as an
innocent child of God, and His reality is changeless. That is why it is built
into the nature of the universe that you can compensate for past errors and
begin again. SOMETIMES WHEN WE’VE  made a mistak e, well-meaning  people will try to
console us by saying things like, “It happened for a reason,” when we know
in our hearts, “Yes, it happened for a reason, and I’ll tell you what it was: I
made a dumb mistake! ” Sometimes we need to face the harsh reality that we
did make a mistake, and look at the fact with open eyes. This quote from the I Ching speaks powerfully to our need for brutal self-
honesty when we have made mistakes: “It is only when we have the
courage to face things exactly as they are, without any self-deception or
illusion, that a light will develop out of events, by which the path to success
may be recognized.”
We might need to feel the shame of knowing that we did something
stupid, and burn through the pain of that, but we’ll come out on the other
side of it a more  humble person, with greater integrity and groundedness. A
failure remains a failure only if we refuse to learn from it. Any situation that
teaches us greater humility, sobriety, wisdom about self and others,
responsibility, forgiveness, depth of reflection, and better decis ion-making
—teaching us what’ s truly important—is not an ultimate failure. Sometimes
what we deem a failure at the time it happens actually serves to foster a
change within us that creates an even greater success down the road. Great people are not those who have never fallen down. Great people are
those who, when they do fall down, dig deep within themselves and find the
strength to get back up. Someti mes that dark night of the soul teaches ussome very important things about ourselves—about who we’ve been, and
who we choose to be now; about where we got it right, and where we got it
wrong. Spiritually healthy peopl e are those who take responsibility for their
mistakes, atone for their errors, do what they can to make things right, and
allow for giveness and mercy to wash them clean. If you’re  like the rest of us, of course you’ve screwed up royally at one
point or another. But it doesn’ t serve you, or anyone else, for you to beat up
on yourself continually. Have appropriate remorse? Yes. Grow  from your
mistakes and make things right as best you can? Yes. But stay stuck in the
mire of self-hat red? Absolutely not. We may have made mistakes in our
past, but we’re not bound by those mistakes in the present—as long as
we’re willing to think now as we did not think then, act now as we did not
act then, clean up in the present what needs to be cleaned up from the past,
and be now who we were not then. WHEN WE TAKE full responsibility for the places where we know in our
hearts we underperformed in the past, or acted without integrity, or failed to
respect opportunities and abund ance that once were ours, we experience the
miracle of the Atonement. Atonement is a mental process throug h which we
correct our perceptions, thus changing the trajectory of probabilities that
unfold as a result. Atonement is like a spiritual reset button. It is a gift from God, providing
us the opportunity to clear the karma of past mistakes by owning them,
taking responsib ility for them, admitting them, making amends for them,
and doing whatever is possible to change the patterns of behavior that
created the situation that now causes us shame. We recognize past errors and pray, “I am willing to be different than I was
before. Please show me how.” The universe then corrects all limitations
caused by our wrong-minded thinking. Guilt dissolves from our mind as
thoughts of mercy and love replace it. Buddha described the Law of Karma, or Cause and Effect: for every
action there is a reaction. Therefore, if we acted without wisdom, suffering
is to be expected. Jesus, some five hundred years later, revealed the
alchemy of God’ s mercy, which  posits that in a moment of grace, all karma
is burned, and all debts are paid and forgiven. From Catholics at confession,to Jews on the Day of Atonement, to people taking their moral inventory at
a twelve -step meeting, the notion of the Atonement is part of the wisdom
teachings of all the major religious and spiritual systems of the world. Atonement can bring a profound level of humbling—as we sit before piles
of credit card bills and face the uncomfortable realization that we should
have been more responsible, or we think back on what got us fired and
know in our hearts that we ourselves were the problem. Perhaps we played
into the drunken maelstrom of financial headiness that characterized the last
few decades in our society. Perhaps we bought too much, saved too little, or
were otherwise cavalier about money or frivolous in how we dealt with it. Atonement gives us the power to forgive ourselves; it gives us back our
self-respect. We’ve done whatever we could to right our wrongs, and the
tenderness of a merciful universe opens up for us in ways we might never
have imagined. There is no mistake you’ve ever made that can’t be divinely corrected, as
long as you acknowledge whate ver mistaken thoughts led to the error and
surrender them to God. In A Cours e in Miracles,  we’re told to go back to the moment when the
error occurred, admit that we didn’t allow God’ s spirit to guide our decision
at the time, but remember that we can choose again now. And that is what
we do: we place  that moment in the hands of God and know that we need
not feel guilty, because “He will undo all consequences of our wrong
decision if we will let Him.”
Miracles transce nd the laws of time and space. In the miraculous present,
mistakes of the past are undone.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        The Law of
Divine Compensation
On Work, Money, and Miracles
Marianne Williamson
OceanofPDF. comE p i g r a p h
The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a
friendly or a hostile universe. —A LBER T EINSTEIN
OceanofPDF. comC o n t e n t s
Epigraph
Preface
Chapter 1 - The Law of Divine Compensation
Chapter 2 - The Power of Faith
Chapter 3 - Making Love the Bottom Line
Chapter 4 - Transforming a Negative Sense of Self
Chapter 5 - Releasing Anger
Chapter 6 - Beyond Guilt
Chapter 7 - Facing Our Prejudice
Chapter 8 - Spiritual Surrender
Chapter 9 - Transcending Fear
Chapter 10 - Positivity
Chapter 1 1 - Job vs. Calling
Chapter 12 - Embracing Abundance
Chapter 13 - Meditation
Chapter 14 - Prayer
Chapter 15 - Creating Wealth Through Purity of Heart
Chapter 16 - Working Miracles
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Books by Marianne Williamson
Back Ad
Credits
Copyright
About the PublisherOceanofPDF. comP r e f a c e
Few areas of our thinking, or our circumstances, can be more stressful than
work and money. The late actress Sophie Tucker is credited with having
said, “I’ve been  rich and I’ve been poor, and believe me, rich is better. ”
Most people would agree. At a time when the institutional  processes normally counted on to support
our finan cial good have gone south, if not completely haywire, many people
are looking for alternative route s to economic security. We want to work,
but can’t find work. We want to invest, but don’t feel we can do so safely. We want to have enough money  in the bank, and find ourselves terrified at
the thought that we might not. It is often at the moment when our way isn’t working anymo re that we
open our minds  to consider something new. Finance is just one of many
areas where an increasingly obsolete, materially based worldview is
proving inadequ ate to the chall enges of the times in which we live, and
more and more


because the loveless are focused  on not having  what they desir e, rather than
on what they already are. Furthermore, the loveless believe that they’re unworthy of the love they
desire, a nd guess what? They continue to attract more evidence of their
unworthiness. W ith the searchli ghts turned of f, and the one-person search
party giv en a permanent rest, you can turn your attention to ba lancing the
authentic means at your disposal for receiving abundant love. T his, then, is
the irony, summed up perfectl y in the poet’ s conclusion that “only the
loving find love, and they never have to seek for it.”Becoming the Love
As the title of t his chapter suggests, my definition of love goe s beyond
the adm ittedly delicious lust and excitement that you experience when you
first become infatuated. Ultimat ely these inflamed passions fade away, and
what rem ains is authentic love, o r the balance you’re seeking. A nd what is a
prime example of this? It is to l ove as God does—to extend the  caring that
defines your very creation outward, whenever and wherever possible. Love of this na ture leads you to for get about your own ego, and want
what you desire for yourself even more for another. This is how the act of
creation seems to work. Y our Creator doesn’ t ask anything f rom you in
exchange for giving you life— it’ s given freely and abundantly, and no one
is excluded. Y ou don’ t have to repay God for giving you this li fe or the air
you nee d in order to live or the water you drink for your very existence or
the s un t hat sust ains you. W ithout any of those freely given ingr edients, you
wouldn’ t continue to live. This is the love that God of fers you. T o bala nce your life with more lovingness, you need to match your
thoughts and behaviors with th ose of your Source, being love  in the way
that God  is. This means noticing when you’re inclined to judge yourself or
others as  though  you or they are unworthy of love. This means suspending
your nee d to be right in favor of  being kind toward yourself and  others, and
deliberately extending kindness everywhere. This means giving love to
yourself and others rather than demanding love. This means your loving
gesture o f kindness is heartfelt because you feel love flowing from within—
not because you want something in return. A tall order? Not really, unless
you believe that it’ s going to be dif ficult. Lovingness is a feature of your  natural state, and your ego isn’ t part of
that stat e. Ego dominates because you’ve separated yourself  from your
God-self, the loving self that came here from a place of perfe ctly Divine
unconditional love. Y ou’ve c arried this ego idea of your own self-
importance, you r need to be right, for so long that you’ve delud ed yourself
into believing that the ego-self is who you are. T alk about b eing out of
balance—you’ve opted for a belief in pure illusion! By al lowing thisillusion to be the dominant f orce, you’ve created, through your ego-
centered self, a heavy imbalance in your life. The result is that you want to feel love—the real thing, the love that is the
very ess ence of your being, the love that you are—but you fee l emptiness
instead o f lovin gness. Why is t his so? Because the emptiness can only be
filled with love by opening you r heart connection to the spirit of love that
originates you know not where,  but can be felt within you. It’ s your  empty
space; no one else’ s. Therefore, only you  can fill it. Y our objective is to ask
love within you to make its pres ence known, to have an awareness of being
so full of love that this is what you have to give away. That’ s all you have to
do—ask and receive. By doing just that, you’ll attract more of what you’re
giving away. You Can Only Give Away What You Have Inside
The rest oration of this imbalance is dependent upon your willingness to
reconnect to your Source of being and become an instrument of love. Y ou
must vo w, from this moment forward, to see yourself exclusive ly in loving
terms, a nd to invite love to acc ompany you 24/7. Here’ s an af firmation to
help keep you on this path: Holy Spirit, guide me now. This simple,
powerful statement aligns you with love. Self-contempt or self-rejection
cannot d istort y our balance; you only have love to give away. When you
give con tempt or rejection to yourself or others, you’re a vibrational match
to these ener gies, and they’ll continue to appear in your life. Many pe ople bl ame others (or a n unloving, uncaring world) for the lack
of love they’re receiving in comparison to what they desire. Any disparity
that exis ts between the love you  desire and what you actually receive is a
mirror im age, a reflection of what you’re thinking. Give away hate, and you
receive hate; give away love, and it has to come streaming into your life. Imagine a container the size of your heart. This container is the sole
source of all thoughts. Whenever you think something, you must go to this
container, selec t a thought, an d send it out into the world. Using thismetaphor, the real issue isn’ t  about simply selecting positive, loving
thoughts and having your world shift back into balance. The real issue is
what’ s in the container—that is, what’ s in the heart reservoi r you have
inside of you to  give to others. This container within is connected to an
endless supply of love; you need only turn your thoughts to that Source to
be filled with lo ve: love for you rself, love for the world, love for life, love
for all others, and most significantly, love for your Source of being. Then
this is all that you’ll have available to give away, and consequently, all that
returns to you. It’ s been said t hat the dif ference between all of us living at  ordinary
levels of  human  consciousness and those we call saints is that they never
for get G od even for a single  moment. They’re cheerful when life is
dif ficult, patient  when others are impatient, and loving when oth ers respond
with ha tred. Why? Because of that container. Ordinary people have a
container out of which they pluc k loving thoughts in certain circumstances. The saint has an  internal vessel that contains nothing else, out of which and
into which love flows freely. So rathe r than working on sim ply changing your thoughts in order to
become more peaceful and lovi ng, why not shoot for the moon and think
like the saint th at you are? F ocus on that container within. When you
continually say, Holy Spirit, guide me now,  you’ll see your container
overflowing with so many loving thoughts that it’ s impossible for negativity
in any form to alter the balance within. What Love Looks Like Through the Eyes of a Child
Here are  some jewels describin g what love is, from the perspective of a
group o f four - to eight-year -old s. As you work to reset the “l ove balance
beam” of your life, consider these refreshing thoughts on what love is. When someone loves you, the way they say your name is
differ ent. Y ou just know your name is safe in their mouth.Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of
your Fr ench fries without making them give you any of theirs. Love is when my daddy makes coffee for my mommy, and he
takes a sip befor e giving it to her to make sur e the taste is
okay. Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken. During my piano r ecital, I was onstage and I was scar ed. I
looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy
waving and smiling. He was the only one. I wasn’ t scar ed
anymor e.
And my favorite:
Love is what’ s in the r oom with you at Christmas if you stop
opening pr esents and listen. There y ou have  it. Look within  and around. Listen. Love is what’ s left
over when falling in love fades away because love is an endless source. Give it away. Share your French fries. Give someone the best piece of
chicken. W ave and smile to the U niverse, and you’ll soon know what V ictor
Hugo m eant when he observed, “Love is the reduction of the U niverse to a
single b eing.”Not only is love what’ s left over when falling in love fades
away, but love defines the Source from which we came. Elizabeth Barrett
Browning poetically describes the end of life as a return to pure love:
Guess now who holds thee?—
“Death,” I said. But there
The silver answer rang—
“Not Death, but Love.”


. T o my
late father, Patrick, who encouraged me to see things
dif ferently. And to my mother, T eresa; wife, Sinead; and
daughter, Lauren—thank you for your beautiful smiles. E p i g r a p h
It isn’ t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out;
it’ s the pebble in your shoe. —M UHAMMAD  A LIC o n t e n t s
Dedication
Epigraph
For ewor d by Dr. Joseph Mer cola
Introduction: Do More with Less
Part I: The Secr et of Br eath
  1. The Oxygen Paradox
  2. How Fit Are Y ou Really. The Body Oxygen Level T est (BOL T)
  3. Noses Are for Breathing, Mouths Are for Eating
  4. Breathe Light to Breathe Right
  5. Secrets of Ancient T ribes
Part II: The Secr et of Fitness
  6. Gaining the Edge—Naturally
  7. Bring the Mountain to Y ou
  8. Finding the Zone
Part III: The Secr et of Health
  9. Rapid W eight Loss W ithout Dieting
10. Reduce Physical Injury and Fatigue
11. Improve Oxygenation of Y our Heart
12. Eliminate Exercise-Induced Asthma
13. Athletic Endeavor—Nature or Nurture. 14. Exercise as if Y our Life Depends on It
Part IV : Y our Oxygen Advantage Pr ogram
Summary and General Program Based on BOL T Score and Health
Quick Reference Summary of the Oxygen Advantage ProgramOxygen Advantage Exercise Summary
Breathe Light to Breathe Right (Advanced Method)
General Program Based on BOL T and Health
Program for BOL T Score of Less Than 10 Seconds (or an Unh ealthy or
Older Person)
Program for BOL T Score of 10 to 20 Seconds
Program for BOL T Score of 20 to 30 Seconds
Program for BOL T Score of 30 Seconds Plus
Program for W eight Loss or Obesity (suitable for all BOL T scores)
Program for Children and T eenagers
Appendix: Upper Limits and Safety of Br eath Holding
Notes
Acknowledgments
About OxygenAdvantage. com
Index
About the Author
Also by Patrick McKeown
Copyright
About the PublisherS o m e  I m p o r t a n t  G u i d e l i n e s  B e f o r e  W e  B e g i n
A lthough the Oxygen Advantage  program is perfectly safe for the vast
majority of people, part of the program includes powerful exercises that
simulate high-altitude training and would be similar to perfor ming high-
intensity exercise. Just as high-intensity exercise is suite d only to
individuals with  reasonably good health and fitness, those with any medical
issues should refrain from pra cticing any of the exercises th at simulate
high-altitude training. (These exercises include the Nose Unblocking
Exercise and any that simulate high-altitude training. ) If you are pregnant, this program is not suitable. For those w ith high
blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, type 1 diabetes, kidney disease,
depression, or cancer, it is advisable to practice only nasal breathing and the
more gentle exercises, including “Breathing Recovery” and “Breathe Light
to B reathe Right,” during rest a nd physical activity until these conditions
are resolved. If yo u have any medical issues  then you should follow this program
only with the co nsent of your medical practitioner. For further i nformation,
please visit OxygenAdvantage. com. F o r e w o r d
by Dr. Joseph Mer cola
I t h as been well d ocumented that those who live at higher altitud es tend to
live longer. The precise mechanism behind this is not known and could be a
result of several factors. Howe ver, one of the leading candidates for this
explanation is a reduced pressure of oxygen at higher altitudes. Research is very clear that calorie restriction extends life span. But
another nutrient many of us do n’ t frequently consider is oxygen. Just as
excess calories can cause metabolic damage, excess oxyge n can also
prematurely damage your tissues through the generation of excess free
radicals. These are highly reac tive and destructive molecules  that cause
damage to the fats in your c ell membranes, proteins, and DNA. Free
radicals are generated by th e normal breakdown of oxygen during
metabolism. W e all create a certain amount of free radicals through the very
act o f br eathing, and incorporati ng breathing exercises designed  to maintain
a he althy breathing volume see ms to be an ef fective strategy to keep your
oxygen at an optimum level, and thus minimize free radical damage. Additionally, alt itude training is a tactic many elite endurance  athletes
use to gain a com petitive edge. One way of tapping into your bo dy’ s natural
resources is to purposefully expose yourself to reduced oxygen intake for a
short period of time. This wi ll improve your blood’ s oxygen-carrying
capacity and also increases the maximum volume of oxygen that an athlete
can use, known as your VO 2  max. Of cours e, most of us live our liv es close to sea level and do not achieve
this benefit. But there are simple strategies that will allow you to access the
benefits of living at a high altitude with reduced oxygen intake: keeping
your mouth closed while you are breathing and practicing the variousexercises outline d in this book. This is a challenge during intense exercise
due to air hunger, but this is w hen most of the benefit actual ly occurs. I
have personally  implemented the information in The Oxygen Advantage
during my high-intensity workouts. It took me several weeks to make the
transition to breathing through my nose the entire time, but once
accomplished, breathing became a far more ef ficient process for me. Many may know that I am a major fan of using simple, inexpensive
lifestyle changes to avoid expensive and dangerous medications and
sur gery. The strategies in The Oxygen Advantage  a re tools that I  believe
should be included in your health habit arsenal. There simply are no
downsides that I can identify, a nd there are massive upsides. I personally
use this program and would stro ngly encourage you to apply it  in your life
so you can reap the rewards. I N T R O D U C T I O N
D o  M o r e  w i t h  L e s s
W e c an live witho ut food for wee ks and water for days, but air for just a
few brief minutes. While we sp end a great deal of time and attention on
what we eat and  drink, we pay practically no attention to the air  we breathe. It is com mon kn owledge that our daily consumption of food and water must
be of a certain quality and quantity. T oo much or too little spells trouble. W e
also reco gnize the importance of breathing good-quality air, but what about
the quantity. How much air should we breathe for optimum health. W ouldn’ t it be fair to surmise that air, even more important t han food or
water for human survival, must also meet basic requirements. The quantity of the air you breathe has the potential to transform
everything you thought you kne w about your body, your health, and your
performance, wh ether you’re a “ pre-athlete” just trying to get of f the couch,
a w eekend warrior running an occasional 10K, or a profession al athlete in
need of a game-changing edge over your competition. Y ou ma y wonde r what I mean by quantity. After all, air isn’ t exactly
something you can binge on at  the kitchen table late at night, or take too
many swigs of over the weeken d. But what if, in a certain se nse, it was. What if healthy breathing habit s were just as important as healthy eating
habits in fostering maximum fitness—or, in fact, even more so. In this book you will discover  the fundamental relationship between
oxygen and the body. Improving fitness depends on enhancing the release
of oxyg en to your muscles, or gans, and tissues. Increased oxygenation is
not only  healthy; it also enabl es greater exercise intensity with reducedbreathlessness. In short, you will be able to discover better  health and
fitness as well as better performance. If you do compete, you’ll also enjoy your training and competition more
than eve r, becau se you’ll be ab le to achieve more with less ef fort. Overall
fitness and sports performance is usually limited by the lungs— not by the
legs, the arms, or even the mind. As anyone who engages in regular
exercise knows, the feeling of intense breathlessness during sporting
activity dictates exercise intensity far more than muscle fatigue. The
foundation of enjoying and improving physical exercise, therefore, is to
ensure that breathing is optimally ef ficient. Chr onic Overbr eathing
Scientific research, as well as the experience of thousands of people I have
worked with, has shown me the vital importance of learning how to breathe
correctly. The problem is that co rrect breathing, which should be everyone’ s
birthright, has become extremely challenging in our modern society.


 any case after three months on vitamins and an improved diet he no long
needed any medication, and was delighted to be free of their side effects. He
remained somewhat emotionally fragile for a few more months but he soonreturned to work, and has had no mental trouble from that time to this day. Thiswas the beginning of my interest in mental illness, and my first exposure to thelimitations of “modern” psychiatry. I always preferred self-discipline to being directed by others. So I took every
advantage of having a teacher for a mother and studied at home instead of beingbored silly in a classroom. In Canada of that era you didn’t have to go to highschool to enter university, you only had to pass the written government entranceexams. At age 16, never having spent a single day in high school, I passed theuniversity entrance exams with a grade of 97 percent. At that point in my life Ireally wanted to go to medical school and become a doctor, but I didn’t have thefinancial backing to embark on such a long and costly course of study, so I settledon a four year nursing course at the University of Alberta, with all my expensespaid in exchange for work at the university teaching hospital. At the start of my nurses training I was intensely curious about everything in the
hospital: birth, death, surgery, illness, etc. I found most births to be joyful, at leastwhen everything came out all right. Most people died very alone in the hospital,terrified if they were conscious, and all seemed totally unprepared for death,emotionally or spiritually. None of the hospital staff wanted to be with a dyingperson except me; most hospital staff were unable to confront death any morebravely than those who were dying. So I made it a point of being at the deathbed. The doctors and nurses found it extremely unpleasant to have to deal withthe preparation of the dead body for the morgue; this chore usually fell to me also.I did not mind dead bodies. They certainly did not mind me! I had the most difficulty accepting surgery. There were times when surgery was
clearly a life saving intervention, particularly when the person had incurred atraumatic injury, but there were many other cases when, though the knife was thetreatment of choice, the results were disastrous. Whenever I think of surgery, my recollections always go to a man with cancer
of the larynx. At that time the University of Alberta had the most respectedsurgeons and cancer specialists in the country. To treat cancer they invariably didsurgery, plus radiation and chemotherapy to eradicate all traces of canceroustissue in the body, but they seemed to forget there also was a human beingresiding in that very same cancerous body. This particularly unfortunate man cameinto our hospital as a whole human being, though sick with cancer. He could stillspeak, eat, swallow, and looked normal. But after surgery he had no larynx, noresophagus, nor tongue, and no lower jaw. The head surgeon, who, by the way, was considered to be a virtual god
amongst gods, came back from the operating room smiling from ear to ear,announcing proudly that he had ‘got all the cancer’. But when I saw the result Ithought he’d done a butcher’s job. The victim couldn’t speak at all, nor eatexcept through a tube, and he looked grotesque. Worst, he had lost all will to live.I thought the man would have been much better off to keep his body parts as longas he could, and die a whole person able to speak, eating if he felt like it, beingwith friends and family without inspiring a gasp of horror. I was sure there must be better ways of dealing with degenerative conditions
such as cancer, but I had no idea what they might be or how to find out. Therewas no literature on medical alternatives in the university library, and no one in themedical school ever hinted at the possibility except when the doctors took jabs atchiropractors. Since no one else viewed the situation as I did I started to think Imight be in the wrong profession. It also bothered me that patients were not respected, were not people; they
were considered a “case” or a “condition.” I was frequently reprimanded forwasting time talking to patients, trying to get acquainted. The only place in thehospital where human contact was acceptable was the psychiatric ward. So Ienjoyed the rotation to psychiatry for that reason, and decided that I would like tomake psychiatry or psychology my specialty. By the time I finished nursing school, it was clear that the hospital was not for
me. I especially didn’t like its rigid hierarchical system, where all bowed down tothe doctors. The very first week in school we were taught that when entering aelevator, make sure that the doctor entered first, then the intern, then the chargenurse. Followed by, in declining order of status: graduate nurses, third yearnurses, second year nurses, first year nurses, then nursing aids, then orderlies,then ward clerks, and only then, the cleaning staff. No matter what the doctorsaid, the nurse was supposed to do it immediately without question—a verymilitary sort of organization. Nursing school wasn’t all bad. I learned how to take care of all kinds of
people with every variety of illness. I demonstrated for myself that simple nursingcare could support a struggling body through its natural healing process. But thedoctor-gods tended to belittle and denigrate nurses. No wonder—so much ofnursing care consists of unpleasant chores like bed baths, giving enemas anddealing with other bodily functions. I also studied the state-of-the-art science concerning every conceivable
medical condition, its symptoms, and treatment. At the university hospital nurseswere required to take the same premed courses as the doctors—includinganatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and pharmacology. Consequently, I think it isessential for holistic healers to first ground themselves in the basic sciences of thebody’s physiological systems. There is also much valuable data in standardmedical texts about the digestion, assimilation, and elimination. To reallyunderstand illness, the alternative practitioner must be fully aware of the properfunctioning of the cardiovascular/pulmonary system, the autonomic and voluntarynervous system, the endocrine system, plus the mechanics and detailednomenclature of the skeleton, muscles, tendons and ligaments. Also it is helpful toknow the conventional medical models for treating various disorders, becausethey do appear to work well for some people, and should not be totallyinvalidated simply on the basis of one’s philosophical or religious viewpoints. Many otherwise well-meaning holistic practitioners, lacking an honest
grounding in science, sometimes express their understanding of the human body innon-scientific, metaphysical terms that can seem absurd to the well-instructed. Iam not denying here that there is a spiritual aspect to health and illness; I believethere are energy flows in and around the body that can effect physiologicalfunctioning. I am only suggesting that to discuss illness without hard science is likecalling oneself a abstract artist because the painter has no ability to even do asimple, accurate representational drawing of a human figure. Though hospital life had already become distasteful to me I was young and
poor when I graduated. So after nursing school I buckled down and worked justlong enough to save enough money to obtain a masters degree in ClinicalPsychology from the University of British Columbia. Then I started working atRiverview Hospital in Vancouver, B.C., doing diagnostic testing, and grouptherapy, mostly with psychotic people. At Riverview I had a three-year-longopportunity to observe the results of conventional psychiatric treatment. The first thing I noticed was the ‘revolving door’ phenomena. That is, people
go out, and then they’re back in, over and over again, demonstrating thatstandard treatment—drugs, electroshock and group therapy—had beenineffective. Worse, the treatments given at Riverside were dangerous, often withlong term side effects that were more damaging than the disease being treated. Itfelt like nursing school all over again; in the core of my being I somehow knewthere was a better way, a more effective way of helping people to regain theirmental health. Feeling like an outsider, I started investigating the hospital’s nooksand crannies. Much to my surprise, in a back ward, one not open to the public, Inoticed a number of people with bright purple skins. I asked the staff about this and every one of the psychiatrists denied these
patients existed. This outright and widely-agreed-upon lie really raised mycuriosity. Finally after pouring through the journals in the hospital library I found anarticle describing psychotropic drug-induced disruptions of melanin (the dark skin
pigment). Thorazine, a commonly used psychiatric drug, when taken in high doses
over a long period of time would do this. Excess melanin eventually wasdeposited in vital organs such as the heart and the liver, causing death. I found it especially upsetting to see patients receive electroshock treatments. These violent, physician-induced traumas did seem to disrupt dysfunctionalthought patterns such as an impulse to commit suicide, but afterwards the victimcouldn’t remember huge parts of their life or even recall who they were. Likemany other dangerous medical treatments, electroshock can save life but it canalso take life away by obliterating identity. According the Hippocratic Oath, the first criteria of a treatment is that it should
do no harm. Once again I found myself trapped in a system that made me feelsevere protest. Yet none of these specialists or university professors, or academiclibraries had any information about alternatives. Worse, none of these mind-doctor-gods were even looking for better treatments. Though unpleasant and profoundly disappointing


These compounds are found in the sap alone. Traditionally they are known as laxatives, and in high
concentration on their own, they can be toxic, but within the complex environment of the Aloe Vera plant
they are not. They are excellent analgesics, or pain killers, and they also possess powerful antibacterial, antifungal and virucidal activity. In order to obtain the painkilling benefit as well as the ability to enhance absorption from the gut, some
sap containing anthraquinones should be present in any Aloe drink. When present it is obvious, as
anthraquinones impart a bitter taste and add to the yellow or orange colour of the gel/sap mixture. Aloin
in high concentration is toxic to fibroblasts so too much Aloin in topical products would kill these cells in
the dermis and retard healing by lessening fibre production. However, they do have some beneficial skin
effects which will be described later. Chemistry of Anthraquinones

The main anthraquinone found in the sap, latex or resin in Aloe Vera is Barbaloin which is synonymous
with Aloin. There are also the derivatives which are anthrones and chromones. These form the phenolic fraction of the sap. Barbaloin is an anthrone - c - glycoside

After ingestion Aloin is converted by bacterial action in the large bowel to Aloe-emodin-9-anthrone. This is the active ingredient which causes an increase in water content of the large intestine by inhibiting
electrolyte absorption and stimulating electrolyte secretion. It may also stimulate peristalsis. Minerals

Calcium Magnesium
Sodium Zinc
Iron Manganese
Potassium Copper
Chromium

There are about thirty vitamins, minerals and trace elements which are essential for good health and
should be consumed on a regular basis. Many of them work together and depend on others in order to
function properly. I have listed the more important properties and functions below. Calcium

Primarily has a structural role in bones and teeth but it is also essential for cellular structure and nerve
transmission. It needs a balance of phosphorous and magnesium to work effectively and Vitamin D is
required for its absorption. Manganese

 This is a component of many enzymes and is necessary for the activation of other enzymes. These
substances are complex proteins which act as biochemical catalysts thereby speeding up the route of
clinical reaction in the plant. Sodium

This is a very important mineral, responsible for preventing body fluids from becoming too acid or too
alkaline. It is also involved in the electrical conductivity in muscles and nerves as well as the uptake of
nutrients by individual cells. Copper

Also a component of a number of enzymes and involved in enabling iron to operate as an oxygen carrier
in red blood cells. Magnesium

This is intimately involved in calcium metabolism during the formation of bone and is needed by nerves
and muscle membranes to allow them to conduct electrical impulses. Potassium

Like sodium, this is involved in the acid-base balance in the body and also electrical conductivity in
muscles and nerves. Zinc

Is involved in major metabolic pathways contributing to the metabolism of proteins, carbohydrates
(sugars) and fats. An inadequate intake would have an adverse effect on any tissue that dies and is
renewed rapidly such as skin, gut lining or the immune system. Recent studies have shown that the
desperate condition of schizophrenia may be associated with zinc deficiency. Chromium

This is necessary for the proper function of insulin, which in turn controls blood sugar levels, so all
diabetics require a good intake of chromium. Iron

It is the "haem" part of haemoglobin in red blood cells which enables the transport of oxygen around the
body as oxyhaemoglobin. Iron deficiency anaemia is very common in those with poor nutrition and in any
case where there is depletion through chronic blood loss e.g. excessive menstruation. The Vitamins

Vitamin B1 Vitamin B12 Folic Acid
Vitamin B2 Vitamin C (Vitamin C)*
 Vitamin B6 Beta Carotene (Vitamin A) (Vitamin E)*
Choline Niacinamide (Niacin)

*Extra vitamins are often added to the natural ones in the plant extract as they form part of the stabilisation process which ensures that the commercial product remains as near to the natural juice as
possible, and also acts as a preservative. Vitamins A, C and E

These are the important antioxidant vitamins, which are essential to fight the dangerous free radicals. They influence the immune system and Vitamin C, particularly, assists in wound healing whereas
Vitamin A is required to maintain normal and night vision. Free radicals are constantly being formed by normal body processes, but they are also produced by any form of combustion such as smoking, exhaust fumes, radiation and even the burning of food, such as on a
barbecue or in a frying pan. They will try to oxidise tissues and cause great damage triggering everything
from cancers to cataracts, arterial disease and premature ageing. Look what oxygen does to metal when it
oxidises it. It produces rust and eventually destroys it - powerful stuff. These oxidising free radicals must be neutralised by the antioxidants, (the main ones are Vitamins A, C
and E), but also by the mineral selenium and micro-nutrients called bioflavonoids, so I doubt whether you
can have too many antioxidants in your diet. The B Vitamins, including Choline

These are associated with the production of energy and with amino acid metabolism, so associated with developing muscle mass. Vitamin B 12

This is one of the few plant sources of this essential vitamin needed for making red blood cells, and deficiency will lead to anaemia. Folic Acid

Is very important in the development of blood cells as deficiency will cause anaemia. Amino Acids

The human body requires twenty-two amino acids for good health and all but eight can be made in the
body. The others, called essential amino acids, have to be taken in as food and together they form the building blocks of proteins from which we manufacture and repair muscle, etc. I will not list all the amino acids but suffice to say that Aloe Vera provides twenty of the twenty-two
required and seven of the eight essential ones. The missing amino acid is tryptophan, although Bill
Coates, an American pharmacist and Aloe expert, claims it has this one too. I am not so sure, but to get seven out of eight has to be pretty good anyway. The Acemannan Story

Acemannan is a B - (1,4) - linked acetylated mannan. It possesses three pharmacological actions:

a) primary anti-viral activity b) secondary immunomodulating activity
c) tertiary activity in reducing opportunistic infections

It also acts synergistically with other drugs such as Azidothymide (AZT) and Acyclovir. These
effects have been used in the treatment of an onchogenic retrovirus, the feline leukaemia virus, which causes a multi-syndrome disease in infected cats and has been recognised as an animal model
for human immunodeficiency virus infection. Enzymes

Many enzymes have been identified in Aloe Vera. Some of the most important include:

Peroxidase Cellulase
Aliiase Carboxypeptidase
Catalase Amylase
Lipase Alkaline Phosphatase

These enzymes help to break down food and therefore aid digestion. Some break down starch and sugars,
for example, amylase, while others catalyse reactions to break down fats, for example, lipase. The
nutrients in our food therefore, can be more efficiently absorbed. Sugars

Aloe Vera contains both monosaccharides such as glucose and fructose and polysaccharides of which
perhaps the most important are the polysaccharides. A most significant polysaccharide has been isolated
by Carrington Laboratories in the USA under the trade name 'Carrisyn'. This demands special attention in
relation to the immune system and will be discussed in a later chapter. This group of polysaccharides has been called gluco-mannans or polymannose because molecules of
mannose are linked to molecules of glucose but there are a few more of the mannose molecules. They
vary in size tremendously from a few hundred daltons (the unit of measurement) to four million daltons
and are very special sugars because of their mode of absorption from the gut. Most sugars are broken
down by enzymes, absorbed piecemeal and are then reconstituted, but the long chain gluco-mannans are absorbed whole by certain cells lining the digestive tract. This action is called pinocytosis, which results
in these sugars entering the blood stream in their original form. Different members of these compounds are thought to improve arthritis, hypertension and indigestion as
well as lower cholesterol, improve liver function and promote the healing of bone by increasing uptake of calcium and phosphate. In a concentrated form they have been shown to help the inflammatory bowel
conditions of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. In vitro acemannan has been shown to enhance the capacity of cytotoxic 'T' lymphocytes by almos t
50%. It has also been seen to activate macrophages (chicken) to produce nitric oxide. Nitric oxide
acts as cytotoxic and cytostatic effector in killing tumour cells and intracellular parasites. Drugssuch as Interferon can also induce nitric oxide production by macrophages. Nitric oxide may be a
n
important factor in mediating immune regulation and host defences in mammalian and avia n
species. The stimulation of


 even more for other people. They
take great pleasure in giving. Others may wonder how they ever accumulate
anything for themselves, yet their lives are filled with abundance, and they
seem to lack nothing that they desire. The secret to the power of intention,
they’ll tell you, is in thinking and acting the same as the all-providing
Source from which all originates. It’s always providing, and I choose to be a
provider, too. The more I give of myself and all that flows to me, the more I
see flowing back to me. Connectors are highly inspired people. They live more in spirit than in
form. Consequently, they’re inspired and inspiring, as opposed to informed
and filled with information. These are people who have a strong sense of
their own destiny. They know why they’re here, and they know that they’re
more than an encapsulated collection of bones, blood, and organs in a skin-
and hair-covered body. They’re all about living this purpose and choosing
to avoid being distracted by the demands of the ego. They have great
reverence for the world of Spirit, and by communing with this Source, they
stay inspired. Their level of energy is exceptionally high. It’s an energy that defines
them as connectors. It’s the energy of the Source, a fast vibrational
frequency that brings love to the presence of hatred and converts that hatred
to love. They bring a peaceful countenance to the presence of chaos and
disharmony, and convert the lower energies to the higher energy of peace. When you’re around those who dwell in the field of intention, you’ll feelenergized, cleansed, healthier, and inspired. They have a noticeable absence
of judgment toward others, and they aren’t immobilized by the thoughts or
actions of others. They often get labeled as aloof and distant because they
don’t gravitate toward small talk and gossip. They’ll tell you that it is the
Spirit that gives life, and that everyone on this planet has this Spirit within
them as an all-powerful force for good. They believe it, they live it, and
they inspire others. They’ll even go so far as to tell you that imbalances in the earth such as
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and extreme weather patterns are the result
of a collective imbalance in human consciousness. They’ll remind you that
our bodies are made up of the same materials as the earth, that the fluid that
comprises 98 percent of our blood was once ocean water, and that the
minerals in our bones were components of the finite supply of minerals in
the earth. They view themselves as one with the planet, and feel a
responsibility to stay in balanced harmony with the field of intention to help
to stabilize and harmonize the forces of the universe that can get out of
balance when we live from excessive ego. They’ll tell you that all thoughts,
feelings, and emotions are vibrations, and that the frequency of these
vibrations can create disturbances—not only in ourselves, but in everything
that’s made of the same materials. Connectors will encourage you to stay in vibrational harmony with
Source out of a sense of responsibility to the entire planet, and they regard
this as a vital function to emulate. This isn’t something they think about and
discuss from a purely intellectual perspective; it’s what they feel deeply
within themselves and live passionately every day. As you observe these connectors, you’ll note that they don’t dwell on
illness and disease. They move through their life as if their body is in
perfect health. They actually think and feel that any current disease pattern
has never been present, and they believe that they’re already healed. They
believe that they attract the new outcome, because they know that there are
many possible outcomes for any given condition, even for a condition that
may seem to others to be impossible to overcome. They’ll tell you that the
possibilities for healing outcomes are here and now, and the course that an
illness will take is a matter of their own perspective. Just as they believethat external turbulent systems become peaceful in the presence of our
peace, they see this as a possibility for internal turbulence. Ask them about
their healing capabilities and they’ll say, I’m already healed, and I think and
feel from only this perspective. You’ll often see your illnesses and physical complaints disappear when
you’re in the presence of exceptionally high-energy connectors. Why. Because their high spiritual energy nullifies and eradicates the lower
energies of illness. Just as being in the presence of connectors makes you
feel better because they exude and radiate joyful appreciative energy, so too
will your body heal by being in this kind of energy field. Connectors are aware of the need to avoid low energy. They’ll quietly
retreat from loud, bellicose, opinionated people, sending them a silent
blessing and unobtrusively moving along. They don’t spend time watching
violent TV shows or reading accounts of atrocities and war statistics. They
might appear docile or uninteresting to people who wallow in the horrors
being discussed and broadcast. Since connectors have no need to win, to be
right, or to dominate others, their power is the fact that they uplift others
with their presence. They communicate their views by being in harmony
with the creative energy of the Source. They’re never offended, because
their ego isn’t involved in their opinions. Connectors live their lives matched up vibrationally to the field of
intention. To them, everything is energy. They know that being hostile,
hateful, or even angry toward people who believe in and support low-
energy activities, which involve violence in any form, will only contribute
to that kind of debilitating activity in the world. The connectors live through higher/faster energy that allows them to
access their intuitive powers readily. They have an inner knowing about
what’s coming. If you ask them about it, they’ll tell you, I can’t explain it,
but I just know it because I feel it inside. Consequently, they’re seldom
confounded when the events they anticipate and intend to create. manifest. Rather than being surprised, they actually expect things to work
out. By staying so connected to Source energy, they’re able to activate their
intuition and have insight into what is possible and how to go about
achieving it. Their inner knowing allows them to be infinitely patient, andthey’re never dissatisfied with the speed or the manner in which their
intentions are manifesting. Connectors frequently mirror the seven faces of intention written about
throughout the pages of this book. You’ll see people who are extraordinarily
creative, who have no need to fit in or to do things the way others expect
them to. They apply their unique individuality to tasks, and they’ll tell you
that they can create anything that they place their attention and imagination
on. Connectors are exceptionally kind and loving people. They know that
harmonizing with Source energy is replicating the kindness from which
they originated. Yet it’s not an effort for connectors to be kind. They’re
always grateful for what comes to them, and they know that kindness
toward all of life and our planet is how to display gratitude. By being kind,
others want to return the favor and become allies in helping them achieve
their intentions. They associate with an unlimited number of people, all of
whom are full of love, kindness, and generosity—assisting each other in
fulfilling their desires. You’ll also notice how connectors see the beauty in our world. They
always find something to appreciate. They can get lost in the beauty of a
starry night or a frog on a lily pad. They see beauty in children, and they
find a natural radiance and splendor in the aged. They have no desire to
judge anyone in low-energy negative terms, and they know that the all-
creating Source brings only beauty into material form and so it is always
available. Connectors never know enough. They’re inquisitive about life, and
they’re attracted to every manner of activity. They find something to enjoy
in all fields of human and creative endeavors, and are always expanding
their own horizons. This openness to everything and all possibilities and
this quality of always expanding, characterizes their proficiency at
manifesting their desires. They never say no to the universe. Whatever life
sends them, they say, Thank you. What can I learn, and how can I grow
from what I’m receiving. They refuse to judge anyone or anything that the
Source offers them, and this always-expanding attitude is what ultimately
matches them up with Source energy and opens up their life to receiving allthat the Source is willing to provide. They’re an open door that’s never
closed to possibilities. This makes them totally receptive to the abundance
that’s always ceaselessly flowing. These attitudes that you see in connector people are precisely the reason
that these folks seem so lucky in life. When you’re around them, you feel
energized, purposeful, inspired, and unified. You’re seeing people whom
you want to hang around with because they energize you, and this brings
you a feeling of empowerment. When you feel empowered and energized,
you step into the flow of abundant Source energy yourself, and you
inadvertently invite others to do the same. The connection isn’t just to
Source energy, it’s to everyone else and everything in the universe. Connectors are aligned with the entire cosmos and every particle within the
cosmos. This connection makes the infinite power of intention possible and
available. These highly realized people think from the end, experiencing what they