3 Wishes for You

3 Wishes for You
"3 Wishes for You," a digitized scanogram by Mary Gow

Happy Holidays! Here’s another of my series of images created on my scanner and then manipulated with PhotoShop. Ironically I heard a talk later that same day that mentioned the sacred vesica piscis shape and its importance. The shape is formed when two circles overlap to create a shape similar to an eye or fish. I will write more about this sacred shape in a future post. Meanwhile, happy holidays to you. And cheers to your creativity, productivity, and the artist’s spirit in you!

One Thing to Manifest in the Summer of 2012

“We are one people. One tribe. One tribe. One planet… connecting, uniting…”

I saw the release of this video tonight brought by one of the attendees at a meeting at the Red Vic Peace Center. The topic was the Summer of Peace 2012.

We agree there are things we are discontented about. Shall we visualize what we want to manifest together in the summer of 2012? What are we for?

This flashmob of 100 people converged on Occupy San Francisco on November 19, 2011. The dance was produced and directed by Magalie Bonneau-Marcil of DancingWithoutBorders.org. Video directed and edited by Ben Flanigan, You can get more information on their Facebook page.

Change Your Life in 7 Days

Light Reading After Thanksgiving
Light Reading After Thanksgiving

Here we are, headed for Christmas. I am feeling appreciative of life and little things that really are big things, like hot water. I LOVE hot water!

According to Water.org, half of all the hospital beds in the world are occupied by patients suffering from ailments related to unsanitary water. How blessed are we to have clean air, clean water, and a working toilet? There’s probably a link between freedom to create and every day utilities functioning.

Now I’m reading my third book by hypnotist and best selling author, Paul McKenna, Ph.D. He’s sold three million books in the last three years! I hadn’t heard of him until a few months ago when a friend showed me two of his books and told me he’s the Dr. Phil of the United Kingdom. So I’ve read I Can Make You Sleep and I Can Make You Thin. Both of those books come with a CD.

Now, I’m reading Change Your Life in 7 Days. Get a free download of an MP3 that goes with this book and put yourself in a trance of confidence! You will have to give your name and email address.

Here’s my summary of the seven days:

Day 1: Who are you? You are who you pretend to be, who you are afraid to be and who you truly are. “The better you feel on the inside, the better your life will become.” – p. 37

Day 2: Emotional Intelligence: master how you picture things in your mind and learn to replay the biggest successes in your life. Vividly imagine the confident you.

Day 3: Reframe: our perspective is often the product of the questions we ask ourselves. You get what you focus on.

Day 4: Identify your goals: find out what you really want to accomplish in your lifetime and map out some goals to achieve them.

Day 5: Health: fine tune your spiritual, physical and mental well-being.

Day 6: Prosperity: create your financial abundance plan.

Day 7: Happiness: McKenna discusses the 8 triggers to happiness from studies by Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s research:
1. Clear Goals – have a stated purpose, a clear goal.
2. Immediate feedback – we need continual feedback to know we’re on track).
3. Ability to Concentrate on the Task at Hand – focus on one thing at a time.
4. The Possibility of Successful Completion – preparation and baby steps toward a goal help.
5. Total Involvement – doing something for the sheer joy of doing it.
6. Loss of Self-Consciousness – ability to return to that flow feeling before we were around 5 years old and started judging ourselves.
7. A Sense of Control – feeling like we have a say in the direction of our lives.
8. Time Distortion – time seems to pass a lot quicker or slower than usual.
Learn to replay times when you’ve felt like you were in a state of flow. Blow up those pictures in your mind so they are huge, bright, with punched up colors.

A summary of day 7 is that a happy person does at least one difficult thing every day.

After seven days rinse and repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat. Be mindful of the software you run your brain with.

OK, Mr. McKenna, will there be an I Can Make You Creative?

3 Things to Thank First

Creativity is born of a sense of freedom nurtured by the stability of a comforting environment. Comfort comes from our basic needs being met – food, clothing and shelter. Without food we wouldn’t exist. Which makes water one of our most important and basic needs of all.

I attended the Social Change Film Festival’s Symposium on the Global Water Crisis in November 2011. I found out a few alarming realities about water:

-1 in 8 people on this planet does not have access to drinkable water.

-Water is being fought over in places where it is scarce. Violent confrontations are taking place.

-In developing countries women are responsible for the getting of water and cooking. They leave their villages early in the morning and spend much of their day seeking water to bring home and drink and clean with.

What are three things to thank first?
1) running water
2) sanitary water
3) hot water

Want to make a difference? Check out Neetal Parekh’s blog at www.innov8social.com for tools to become an agent of positive social change.

Here’s a short video about what Water.org, founded by Gary White and Matt Damon, are doing about the crisis that affects us all.