John Salley

I suggest everybody go to John Salley's website. It is full of great tips for life and how to improve yourself financially, spiritually, and your overall health. This is one of my favorite posts from his site, I just thought I'd share it, it's definitely worth reading.....

"Imagine life as a spiritual video game. You begin on level one. On level one there are good guys and bad guys. You shout and yell at the bad guys and they go away. You say things like, "God is in control of my life and evil must leave." On this level everything is very black and white, good and evil, right and wrong. You see the duality and it is 'real' to you. You are a victim of your circumstances, the victim of chaos. Level one's motto is: "I am nothing and God is everything." Here you fear God, as a matter of fact, you fear many things on this level. Many religious people live on this level and it appears to work for them. On this level, you believe and accept all that you have been taught. Then, you Awaken!

One day, you are reminded of who you are and you move to level two. On level two the pendulum must swing the other way. Many of you reject religion all together. Level two's motto is: "I am everything. I am God!" Things still look black and white, good and evil, right and wrong, yet there is a little more gray. On this level, you question things you were taught. Now you say, "I am in control of my life and evil must leave." You believe that you create it all, you are no longer a victim. You are in charge of your life and make order out of the chaos. You begin to 'Intend' everything from money to love to a front row parking place, and it works! You begin learning that your thoughts are things. You realize your power. You study everything you can get your hands on. This is an amazing time in your awakening process. Then, you Awaken!

Then you move to level three of the video game. On level three everything you did on levels one and two doesn't work anymore. The rules are very different here. Your affirmations and intentions don't work anymore. This is a confusing place to be. You feel lost. You no longer see things as black and white. The whole world begins to look gray. Your judgments about yourself and others are disappearing more and more. You are realizing that it is not just about you anymore. The motto on this level is: "I am the Co-Creator of my universe." You understand that there is a bigger picture than you ever thought. You begin to see that the only way to move through this level is with your Heart. You cannot think yourself through this level, you must Love your way through. You are beginning to practice being in the Now moment. You see past the chaos. The chaos is becoming smaller and less important. Then, you Awaken!

On level four you are in the Now moment and the doorway to full divinity opens up. You are no longer searching or doing. You are just BEING. You are in the World but not of the World. You see life for the illusion that it is. You see the divine comedy. You are a true Master. You understand that all is a paradox. BEING is everything and you are BEING. You are truly fully human and fully divine. The divine human walking on the Earth. You know that, "I am God, and I am nothing without God." It is like you are in a bubble of love and peace no matter what is happening outside of you. You see the connection of all things. You remember that you are still at HOME. You see that everything on earth is the mirror reflection of truth. You recognize all of the hints that you left for yourselves, by yourselves, to assist you in waking up. Remember the saying, "As above so below," it's true in more ways than you ever realized. You now have Heaven on Earth, within yourself. Chaos is still happening around you and you now are at peace. True inner joy and inner peace."

Happiness.

Its not about fame and fortune, its about believing and believing in yourself, and understanding that this life is life, its liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and happiness isnt about getting what you want all the time, its about loving what you have. - Asher Roth.

Inner Child.

"Reality is catching up with me, taking my inner child, I'm fighting for custody!"

That is from Kanye West's new song, Power. It just made me think, we can't let our inner child go! Don't ever grow up completely. Yes, we should all be mature, but don't lose the ability to have fun in that. Be able to laugh and enjoy life to the fullest. Don't let anybody take that away from you. :)

You.

You. Each one of us has potential within ourselves, the amounts may very, that type of potential may vary, but we all have some. There is power in you. Power to make a change, to be a threat to the system, to change lives, to become great. I'd say most people will go their whole lives never finding this power, finding who they are and what they are supposed to do, so we have to challenge ourselves to not be in that group of people, we need to be in the group that sees the power within and can use that power to get what we want. I don't mean this in a spiritual sense, as humans we create. We create buildings, relationships, music, art, movies, words, we create what it is we need and want. This creation can be done by any of us, often people assume that only the elite in our society can do such things, but the potential is in all of us. If you don't like how something is done, change it! Meditate and connect with your higher consciousness if that's what you need to do, but do something to become you. Others will stand in your way, it's natural to fear those that have something you do not, they are a threat, but when you have the power that you found in yourself, you can knock through the obstacles effortlessly. This is about finding out who you are. This is about doing what you want to do. This is about the power within all of us. This is about you.

Bruno Mars - Count on Me

If you ever find yourself stuck in the middle of the sea,
I'll sail the world to find you
If you ever find yourself lost in the dark and you can't see,
I'll be the light to guide you

Find out what we're made of
What we are called to help our friends in need

You can count on me like 1 2 3
I'll be there
And I know when I need it I can count on you like 4 3 2
And you'll be there
Cause that's what friends are supposed to do, oh yeah
Wooooh, Wooooh,Yeah,Yeah

If you toss and you turn and you just can't fall asleep
I'll sing a song beside you
And if you ever forget how much you really mean to me
Everyday I will, remind you
Ooohhh

Find out what we're made of
What we are called to help our friends in need

You can count on me like 1 2 3
I'll be there
And I know when I need it I can count on you like 4 3 2
And you'll be there
Cause that's what friends are supposed to do, oh yeah
Wooooh, Wooooh,Yeah,Yeah

You'll always have my shoulder when you cry
I'll never let go
Never say goodbye
You know
You can count on me like 1 2 3
I'll be there
And I know when I need it I can count on you like 4 3 2
And you'll be there
Cause that's what frïends are supposed to do, oh yeah
Wooooh, Wooooh,Yeah,Yeah

You can count on me cause I can count on you

Life.

What is life? Some would say it's a series of random events leading up to the conclusion, death. But there has to be more to it. Life is the connections we make with the people around us. The feelings of love and hate, the friendships, the enemies, the lovers...we can describe our life through these connections. Why do we walk around worrying about what people think of us? Why do we try to please others by changing ourselves? I believe that we should be who we are, and show compassion and love to the countless of people around us, it's this compassion and love that will allow us to form connections that can never be broken. Our world is full of fighting and hate, but we need each other if we are going to move forward and survive into the future. Our live are based on the relationships we have with the people around us. We look to those people to help us, as they look to us to help them. Once we learn to rely on each other and put our faith into our relationships, in a sense, we will become free. The people in our lives will carry us further than any object or amount of money can. Through others we can reach a state of peace. But this also means we have to work on ourselves so that others can rely on us as well. Hopefully the world will realize how much we need each other soon, it's the only way we will ever be able to work together and solve the problems that have divided us. We are all artists, we compose and create lives, so do we choose to create a beautiful masterpiece or will our life become scribbles on a page?