These journal prompts will quickly get you in alignment with what you truly want, not just with what you think you want.

I first got introduced to journaling from the book The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. In it he spoke about doing SAVERS daily…

• S – Silence – Sitting in silence or meditating
• A – Affirmations – Saying affirmations
• V – Visualizations – Visualizing yourself receiving/achieving what you want
• E – Exercise – Exercising
• R – Reading – Reading books toward what you want to learn
• S – Scribing – Journaling

I had experience with all of the above except journaling. I knew how the others were helpful so it made it easier to trust the recommendation to add journaling to my repertoire.

So I “borrowed” a notebook from my then job’s supply cabinet and got ready to journal.

The only problem was, I didn’t know what to write.

I probably actually wrote, “I don’t know what to write in here.” next to that day’s date.

Yet this is a new day. With more experience and knowledge around the subject, I’m here to provide you with the journal prompts that will help serve you the most.

Journal Prompts You Should Be Using

1. What can I do today (or tomorrow) that will make me super happy?
2. What do I love about my life?
3. What’s something that sucks and is there a way of looking at it where I no longer think it’s sucky?
4. If money was never an issue, how would I spend my day?
5. Make a list of people that have wronged me and explain why I’m scared to forgive them.
6. What does God want me to do that I’m avoiding?
7. It’s been said that … “How you do anything is how you do everything.” … How does that make me feel about my life?

What journal prompts do you use that are the most transformative?

The post You Are What You Journal: The Only Journal Prompts That Actually Matter appeared first on JClay.

Focus on the good. This seems like great advice. Since what you focus on expands, all you have to do is focus on the good to increase it, right?

Not so much.

There’s a fatal flaw in this logic. This flaw will be the basis of this article. The “good” thing is that by the end of it, you’ll have a better understanding of what is stopping you from being happy all the time.

Focusing on the good is a decent starting point in turning things around in your life, but I want you to be totally happy and remain that way no matter what.

So let’s get into it.

What’s Good?

Take a moment to think about what’s good in your life.

Feel free to grab a journal or open a text document and list out everything you can think of.

Just so you won’t take the easy way out, list at least 20 things.

You will be happy you did. Most people don’t realize that there are so many things in the world they are grateful for.

This exercise is your chance to see them all in one place.

It could be something as simple as popcorn or something like a rapper that made a classic healing album. Yes, that was a shameless plug. But focus.

Make your list.

With your list made, pay attention to how you feel right now.

That is genuine gratitude that you are feeling. See, you have more reasons to be happy about than you realize.

So how could focusing on these things ever be bad?

What Happens When You Focus On The Good Only

Look at your list again now think about each item’s opposite, if applicable.

For example, you may have on your list that all your bills are paid for this month. Its opposite would be, you have bills that you are unable to pay.

Another example would be that you’re thankful for a loved one in your life. Its opposite would be that the loved one is no longer in your life.

Would you consider these opposites bad?

Most would.

The problem is that by focusing on what you consider good, you’ve created the exact circumstances that will make you unhappy.

If your list has opposites, then if one or more of the opposites were to occur, you would no longer be in a gracious state.

This is because your faith lies in what’s on your list and many other things that exist outside of you.

What To Do Instead of Focusing Only on What’s Good

Since you are the one that continuously gives power to these things, then this power is yours to remove or give to something else.

Certain questions come to mind.

1. How did I give power to these things and how do I stop?
2. Where does this source of power even come from?
3. What should I give this power to?

Let’s answer each of these.

1. How did I give power to these things and how do I stop?

In short, it’s based on your judgments. By judging something as good, you’ve inadvertently judged the opposite as bad. Else there would be no reason to judge it is good. It would just be.

I go into much more detail about the mistakes of judging in these articles:

• Why It’s Hard To Make Friends As An Adult, The Math
• Law of Attraction Mistakes That Undo Your Progress
• The Painting: A Modern-Day Parable

The important thing to remember is that you shouldn’t judge anything. In order to accurately judge something, you would have to know EVERYTHING about it including its past and future.

For example, a person may have judged that it’s hard to make a lot of money. Another may have judged that’s it’s easy to make a lot of money. Who’s right when they both are successfully making money according to how they choose to work?

They both are correct. Each one is bound to the rules he or she has set through judgment.

Yet another person may have not judged anything about this at all. He or she is free to make money or not make money, work hard or not work hard. Regardless, this person will remain at peace about what he or she is doing.

2. Where does this source of power even come from?

This is an excellent question. Before we answer together, you should try to answer yourself.

Where does your power come from?

Possible answers you may have said are yourself, God, the food you eat, the exercise that you do, all of the above, etc.

Which answers are the truth, if any?

First, let’s determine if any of these power sources are limited in any way.

Food is obviously limited. It has to be grown or prepared, which depends on many outside factors.

We should be able to agree that exercise is limited as well because nobody exercises 24 hours a day every day.

What about God?

There’s a lot of debate about who or what God is. So let’s come back to this later.

What about yourself?

Those that believe in themselves seem to be pretty confident and happy. Those that do not believe in themselves seem to either be sad at, mad at, or scared of the world.

We can almost conclude that the source of your power is yourself or the belief in yourself.

There’s just one problem, you didn’t create yourself. Or did you?

“JClay, this is getting too deep. I’m not ready for this.” Stick with me, even though I don’t know where this is going either.

We’re taught that our parents made us and that their parents made them. Well, who or what made our parent’s parent’s parent’s parent’s parent’ssssssss?

Some may say science, but science does not create. Science attempts to explain what already happened.

So we’re brought back to God. Well, who is God? Who created God? Did He create Himself? If so, does that mean another God can create Him or Herself at any moment?

These are a lot of tough questions that won’t be answered right now in this article.

One question for you that can be answered is that if you can’t answer the above, how can you know with all certainty what is good and what is not?

It’s best to leave the judging to whatever force did the supposed creating, because He, She, or It obviously knows more than you.

And this brings us to our last question.

3. What should I give this power to?

Life is giving and so is your identity.

You are the thoughts you give/share with others. For example, if you’re always speaking about music, you see yourself as a musician or a music lover.

It’s the same with the stories you share of your perception of your past. These are the things you are currently giving power to and identifying as.

Humans are very reciprocatory beings.

Give people compliments and they’ll respond with one of their own or even a smile-inducing smile. On the other hand, give people a harsh criticism and they’ll give a painful look or another criticism in return.

You are only giving power to the things outside of yourself that you think give you power (you’re reciprocating).

This is why some really focus on what they eat while others may focus on what they read. The possibilities are endless.

Yet the original question answers itself.

If what you give power to seems to be limited, yet you seem to always have more power to give even when you change the object of what you’ve given power to, then you must be powerful.

*please read that sentence again*

How else could you consistently receive power from what’s limited while endlessly giving it away?

You can’t unless you’re already full of power.

But again, you acknowledge that you don’t believe you created yourself. You also acknowledge that your parents don’t seem to be unlimited.

Then there must be something else supplying your power that you can return the favor to.

Let me know in the comments who or what that is for you.

The Important Things To Remember

The first thing to remember is don’t make any new judgments.

Every judgment creates a split in reality where only half of it will make you happy.

Why have half happiness when you can have complete happiness?

The second thing to remember is to forgive all of your previous judgments.

This opens your world and allows you to experience peace and happiness despite what seems to be happening in the world.

When you stop giving your power/focus away to other people and things, it remains with you. You then get to be a reflection of power to others so that they may do the same.

You may also enjoy: Make Your Words So Powerful That They Manifest Instantly.

The post Don’t Just Focus On The Good If You Want To Be Happy appeared first on JClay.

Lie – an intentionally false statement.

No lie, you are being lied to as many as 200 times a day.^[1] You will also contribute an average of 2 lies per day to the world, assuming you are truthful about it.^[2]

Whether you tell a lie to protect another or to be more agreeable, each lie told will uniquely affect your mind. It will create conflict between the lie and the truth you hold to keep the lie in place. And since the mind controls the body, conflict within the mind will eventually manifest as conflict within the body.

Whew, this got deep really fast.

What if “the truth will set you free” is not just one of those catchy sayings to get a liar to suddenly become truthful? What if this phrase is a blueprint to healing your body?

This truth is what we will uncover in this article. By the end, you will know if you have been sabotaging yourself with lies, incorporating wishful thinking, or trapped so deep in a world where the truth and the lies are indistinguishable.

How The Brain Processes Lies

In 2016, Nature Neuroscience published a study showing that whenever people utter words of dishonesty, there is a burst of activity in their amygdala. The amygdala is responsible for producing anxiety, fear, and feelings of guilt within the body. Very interesting.

So if lies do this much damage, then why do people keep telling them?

The answer lies within the same study.

The scientists had the participants play a game where they would win money by being deceptive. What was fascinating is that in this scenario, the emotional responses in the amygdala decreased.

However, the effects remained present in the body.

So why lie?

Why People Lie

To understand if lying has any benefits, you first need to recognize why you lie at all.

All the lies ever told can be fit into four categories as outlined by this article by National Geographic.

1. Promoting Yourself (44%)
   1. For a financial benefit (16%)
   2. For a non-financial benefit (15%)
   3. Creating a better self-image (8%)
   4. Appearing humorous (5%)
2. Protecting Yourself (36%)
   1. Covering a mistake or misdeed (22%)
   2. Avoiding others (14%)
3. Impacting Others (11%)
   1. Helping others (5%)
   2. Hurting others (4%)
   3. Being polite (2%)
4. Unclear (9%)
   1. Don’t even know why you’re lying while lying (7%)
   2. Are deemed as a pathological liar (2%)

Let’s break these down.

What does this all mean?

Looking at the first two on the list, 80% of the lies you tell come from believing one of two things. Either that you are not enough as you are or what you are can be lost.

There would be no purpose in promoting yourself or protecting yourself otherwise.

As one who is promoting himself, even within this article, this is a helpful reminder.

See also The 5 Ways Your Mind Betrays You.

Telling lies for any of these reasons reinforces your belief in your inadequacy, creating the circumstances for you to continue to lie.

Each one feeds itself in a perfect loop. You feel inadequate because you lie, yet you lie because you feel inadequate.

Another 11% of lies comes from wanting to impact others.

If you can impact others, then others can impact you. So the truths or lies you tell may not be of your own doing. They may have been pressed upon you by others.

The last 9% states that the reasons are unclear.

Since repeated actions become automatic over time, perhaps these lies are told out of habit.

What exactly is the truth and what is a lie?

Here is where it gets a little complicated. Your mind does not always know the difference between the truth and a lie.

Two opposing thoughts or statements can have the same effect on you. For example, look at the following phrases:

• People are awesome.
• People suck.

You have probably said both of these at one point. And both times, you meant it.

Yet neither declaration can be classified as the truth or a lie.

One causes you to be comfortable around people, and the other leads to you keeping your distance.

You were affected by both as if both were true.

No longer does validity matter. What matters is if the statement aligns with what you are and who you want to be.

By knowingly telling a lie, you are inviting conflict into your body.

Will unknowingly telling a lie do the same?

Healing the body with words

For hundreds of years, maybe more, patients have healed as a result of the placebo effect. The placebo effect is when a fake treatment is given to a patient, and this treatment leads to the patient’s healing.

One could argue that lies heal patients.

French psychologist Émile Coué introduced popular psychotherapy now called autosuggestion.

Autosuggestion is a self-induced suggestion (affirmation) in which you guide your own thoughts, feelings, or behavior. Instead of being affected by the words of others, you consciously pre-determine what to think.

For example, Émile Coué had his patients repeat many times a day, “Every day in every way I am getting better and better.”

Notice the careful wording of the above phrase. It prompts your mind to search for and find ways that you are getting better and better.

Naturally, the body follows what the mind tells it.

Since this is not a lie, there is no conflict. Or so it would seem.

If your previous thoughts were aligned with getting worse and worse each day, this new belief would oppose it.

There would be conflict, but only for a short time until your thoughts are singular in purpose.

Once the idea of health is fully accepted for yourself, you will be healthy.

So now truthfulness becomes an entirely different thing. No longer does it look upon a statement’s validity, truthfulness becomes how true you are to what you want in life.

Some examples would be:

• If you want health, but you are worried about and focused on ill-health, germs, diseases, etc.
• If you want to be pain-free, yet you disagree openly with others and verbally attack those with opposing views.

Any opposing thought will attempt to undo what the same mind created.

How To Accept Truthfulness For Yourself

I will point out 3 ways to go about this.

The first and easiest is using autosuggestion.

Set up your environment so that:

1. Nothing reflects the life you don’t want
2. Everything reflects the life you do want

This includes the websites you visit and the music you listen to.

Don’t worry about removing people from your life right now. That would just create more conflict.

Another way is to quiet your thoughts so that you don’t think them as much.

This is contrary to popular belief. Many believe that thinking is both healthy and needed.

It is not. When your thoughts aren’t present to distort reality, you will see things as they truly are, instead of how you’ve imagined them.

What is special about my album IAMNOBODY, IAMSOMEONE is that it does both for you.

It helps you to undo the illusionary thoughts that are present in your mind and it fills your mind with true, conflict-free ones. You could go from depressed to overjoyed in a matter of minutes with little effort on your part.

Order IAMNOBODY, IAMSOMEONE now!

The third way to accept truthfulness for yourself is to share the thoughts you want with everyone you come in contact with. The more people that share your thoughts with, the more these thoughts will be reflected everywhere you look.

When your thoughts and vision are not in competition with one another, you will know a peace so deep that it could heal the world.

The post How Telling the Truth Will Heal Your Body appeared first on JClay.

I’ll admit, I’m late on this. I never placed great value on telling a person Happy Birthday. My thinking has been along the lines of … “Every day is special. Let’s celebrate all the days.”

I still agree with that, but I’ve come around to understand the extra magic that surrounds celebrating birthdays.

Besides, “Happy birthday” is a positive affirmation and today is my actual birthday.

So for a limited time, I’m accepting gifts.

Here are a few suggestions for great gifts:

• Merch – $$-$$$ – you get something fly that reminds you to be your true self and it helps me to keep making great content that you love
• Follow me on my social accounts (links in the footer) – FREE – you will get positivity reminders throughout the day
• Donate – $-$$$$$ – you’ll feel all tingly inside and you’ll be helping me to extend this message of love to more people that need it
• Share your favorite song/post of mine – FREE – you’ll be directly enriching the lives of those that see your shares
• Do all of the above – PRICELESS – you’ll be recognized as an awesome person that loves life and the people in it

The Realization

Before a couple of years ago, I never really bothered telling people other than close friends and family “Happy birthday!” I always thought that they are already getting bombarded with text messages and phone calls that they don’t need another.

Well, I was wrong. I noticed two birthdays ago that every time a person said it to me, I felt good inside. It was weird. I even questioned this as I do all things. Why does this make me feel good and loved? The only answer I received from within was, “Don’t question it; just accept it.” Accept it I did.

From then on, I decided to tell everyone I knew Happy Birthday on his or her actual birthday. It’s a simple gesture that has a chance of adding joy to one’s day.

However, this wasn’t as easy as it seemed … at first.

I didn’t really know people’s birthdays. And since my birthday is so easy to remember considering that it falls on Christmas Eve, I used it as an excuse to not remember others’ birthdays like…”How dare they not have an easy-to-remember birthday?” Trust me, I know how this sounds.

Finding the birthdays

I used a few tools to make this process easier: Facebook, an app called hip, and Google. On Facebook, I have my notifications turned off. There are just too many and it’s easier for me to go on at free intervals and interact. So I’m not sure if Facebook notifies you of birthdays or not.

I started with my close friends whose birthdays I didn’t know. The easier way would be to just ask them but remember, I’m supposed to have already known this because they are my close friends. So I would look at their Facebook profile.

Then there are those friends that have hidden their birthday on Facebook. If that’s you, undo it. You’re missing out on hundreds of great messages on your day.

For these friends, I had to get help from good ol’ Google.

I live in TX and in TX your info is everywhere for free. I can type “Jelani Clay birthday” and a few sites would pop up claiming to know my information. The other information isn’t always true, but my birthday is.

I’m not really worried about my information being used maliciously, because I believe everything happens for our highest good. Plus if I really wanted to, I could opt out of all of these sites.

Anyway, I can usually find most friends’ birthdays via this method.

There were still a few friends that have managed to keep their birthdays hidden publicly everywhere. For that, I would contact a mutual friend and say something like, “Hey, when is Person’s birthday again. I always forget to wish him/her a happy birthday, but they always wish me one. I wanna be ready this year.”

Just make sure that the person you ask is a person that you’ve already been telling Happy Birthday to. If not, that could be awkwardddd.

After I found their birthdays, I saved them to the hip app. This app lets you get birthday reminders the day of or days before. You can customize per contact/group and be notified of anniversaries as well.

The Birthday Experiment

With an app full of birthdays, I was ready to proceed with my experiment. The experiment was to see the effects of telling everyone I know Happy Birthday for a year.

The first thing I did was set a phone notification to pop up at 7 am that says, “Tell friends Happy Birthday.” I also have the hip notifications pop up at 7 am.

For friends I have more of a relationship with, I will either call or text to wish them a happy birthday.

For those that I may not know too well yet, I’ll go to the birthday tab on Facebook and wish them one as well.

Pro tip: This is a great way to clean out your Facebook friends. If I go to a person’s page where they haven’t posted in over two years and I don’t remember who they are, I’ll just unfriend. If they haven’t been on there in over 2 years, chances are they won’t see your birthday message.

I’ve done this for a full year now. I’ve only missed a couple of days, in which case I’ll just say, “Happy belated birthday!”

The Birthday Results

I see why so many businesses will tell you Happy Birthday.

This experiment has led to renewed relationships, me feeling connected to each person, and overall gratitude.

I will definitely continue doing this.

Because you aren’t asking for anything, it seems weird to receive gratitude by telling someone else happy birthday. Yet, the feeling is there.

This serves as another example of how giving and receiving are one, and brings new meaning to being “selfish”. By wanting to receive joy for yourself, you can give joy to all and ensure it.

Give the freest, simplest, easiest gift you can give to your loved ones. Tell them Happy Birthday.

P.S. Don’t forget, I’m accepting gifts!

The post The Magic of Acknowledging Someone’s Birthday appeared first on JClay.

Understanding how to pray and how to manifest are one and the same. One cannot exist without the other similar to that of giving & receiving, teaching & learning, and forgiving & forgetting.

To be able to truly learn a subject, you must know it well enough to teach. In order to truly teach a subject, you must have learned all about it.

The same relationship exists between prayer and its manifestations. In order to know how to manifest properly, you must pray in the correct way. In order to know how to pray in the correct manner, you must master how to manifest.

This is not to say that you can’t manifest without knowing how to pray, and you can’t pray without knowing how to manifest. This is to say that in order to do it consciously and effectively, you must understand the relationship between both.

The Law of Attraction

We’ve all heard of the law of attraction. The law of attraction centers around the idea that whatever you focus on expands within your life.

For example, if you spend most of your time writing music, listening to music, and performing music, you are likely to attract other musicians, supporters of your music, and a deeper understanding of music into your life.

What’s special about the law of attraction is that it appears to be constant. By thinking any thought at any time, you start to attract its physical counterpart.

This realizing (manifesting) can be instant or it can take many years. It all depends on how focused the mind is that thinks the thought.

This explains why it’s important to keep your mind clear and fill it with thoughts aligned with the lifestyle you want.

The law of attraction is always at work. The more aligned your thoughts are, the quicker it is to attract or manifest that which you want.

How To Pray

Prayer is the first step to manifesting.

It comes from a French word preiere that means to ask sincerely or earnestly.

Prayer starts with a question. The answering (manifestation) of that question depends on:

• who the question is directed toward
• how capable you feel the directed source is at answering the question
• if you feel the question can even be answered
• why you think it hasn’t been answered already.

That’s a lot to “think” about.

Let’s break this down with some examples.

Example 1 – How can I be rich?

First, who is this question directed toward? Possible answers could be God, Jesus, Google, quora, yourself, a person that seems to have achieved the goal you want, or a person that hasn’t achieved this goal.

Second, how capable is this source at answering your question? Do you fully trust Google’s answer? Do you fully trust God? This can only be answered by the amount of faith you place in the source you’ve chosen.

Third, do you truly believe this question can be answered? If you do, it can be. If you don’t, there will never be an answer that satisfies you.

Fourth, why don’t you believe you’re rich already? This contains so many answers in itself. You’ve just created the separation between you and the object of your desire.

All of these questions come into play because they reveal the things that split your focus. The more singular your focus, the more time it saves in bringing you what you want.

Referring to the 4 items above, to ask a question of a source that you don’t have total faith in is to ask unanswerable questions. An unanswerable question is as purposeless as hateful love or peaceful war. These are all things that cannot be because they make no sense.

To ask an unanswerable question is to be in a state of purposelessness. Since everything that exists has a purpose and you are choosing not to have one at that moment, you’re contradicting the nature of your own existence in a way.

This is a source of great pain for many. So the question of how to pray is a question of how to manifest.

How to manifest

Many don’t realize (real eyes), but all thoughts are prayers, and all prayers are thoughts. You’re praying all day.

The flaw in thinking is that it’s the opposite of knowledge. What you know, you don’t have to think about. It’s instant and automatic.

Yet if you must pray, do it purposefully toward truth.

Example 2 – How do I realize my wealth?

This question is a more honest and answerable question than before. In it lies its answer; a fact that all questions share.

To even ask this, you are recognizing that you are of value even though you may not be conscious of it at this moment. And aligning with that value is easier than having to find and possess it, as the case with the previous question.

Yet the person you ask this question to is in a position to succeed at answering because they will also see you as valuable.

Learning how to manifest is more about learning to pray better, or ask better questions.

How To Pray & Manifest Better

There is a step beyond asking better questions.

As was stated above, “thinking” is the opposite of knowledge.

But what if your questions contained knowledge? This renders the question useless because its answer is no longer needed. You will have aligned with truth.

You now go from being a questioner to being an answerer, or from being a person that prays to a person that manifests.

These are still one and the same, except for a small shift in focus.

Naturally what follows is that you help others in their manifesting because that is your new focus. The more you help others, the more you realize your own ability to do the same for yourself.

This knowledge of ability affects how you pray. No longer will you pray from a place of separateness, you will pray from a place of belief in whom you pray to because you also believe in your self.

If you haven’t noticed by now, knowledge is total. It’s impossible to believe in another without first having belief in yourself. You are the one that gives the power (belief) to all.

Common Mistakes When Praying & Trying to Manifest

There are two common mistakes that people make when learning how to pray and how to manifest.

Contradicting Prayers

The first is contradicting prayer requests. For example, you may pray for another to “get what he or she deserves” meant in a negative way.

Remember, all things are total. To wish harm on another is to accept harm for yourself. You are giving harm power over others so it begins having power over you. Harm then becomes something for you to look out for. By looking out for it, you are focusing on it. And whatever you focus on will expand in your world.

This small action of wishing harm on another will result in you attracting harm to yourself by way of the law of attraction.

A better prayer would be to pray that this person gets the love that he or she wants. In doing so, you will too. You may even get it from each other.

Not Giving When Asked

The second common mistake people make when trying to manifest is that they don’t give when asked.

Why is this important?

Miracles and blessings don’t happen alone. There are always others involved. “Think” about it. Would you really want to have all the money in the world if you were the only person on earth? No, because it wouldn’t matter.

Everything seems to matter only because of others.

With this in mind, whenever someone asks something of you, this is your chance to be this person’s savior. You can be the answer to his or her earnest request.

I’m not saying that you have to comply each time. Just at least consider it.

Each time you give others what they ask, you believe more and more that asking will always lead to receiving.

This is great because whenever you ask for something from anyone, you will know without a doubt that your request will be fulfilled. A prayer manifested will be as sure as a prayer asked, which is how you should properly pray.

Pray without any doubt. Know that it will be answered in the way it should every time.

The Absence of Prayer

There is a higher level beyond prayer and manifestation, the absence of it.

You’re probably like … “What?”

Again, the truth is total. Praying is the same as manifesting (answering prayers).

Yet for you to focus on what was once not there and then make it real (realize), you must exist beyond what you realized.

By tapping into your self that exists beyond all things, you will remember that you were never without anything. There is no need for praying or manifesting. You have all and you are all.

Would a happy person go around telling everyone that he’s happy? Would he go around asking for happiness?

No.

He is happiness. It would be apparent. No words would be needed to see and experience his happiness.

Whatever you feel you are without, be it. Don’t pray for it and don’t try to manifest it. Be it right now.

The post How To Pray & Manifest Effectively appeared first on JClay.

Truthfully, many adults never learn these life lessons no matter what age they are. I threw the age of 40 out there just to get your attention.

When life lessons aren’t properly learned, the self-defined hurtful circumstances surrounding them continue to repeat.

Don’t be trapped by these beliefs all your life. Learn the lesson and transform the quality of your life.

In this article, I will outline the 7 most important life lessons that you can begin learning now.

Don’t worry if you don’t agree or aren’t ready to shift your perception. All is unfolding as it should. The fact that you are being exposed to this right now means you’re welcoming amazing things into your life.

Are you ready? Then let’s proceed.

1> The importance of letting go

Followers of my music know how much I speak about letting go, but many may not fully understand the reasons why.

Currently, you may feel weighed down by the heavy burdens you choose to carry.

In the simplest terms, letting go allows you to feel light.

When you feel light, you are like a leaf rolling down the street. You feel free as if you are part of the wind. No matter where you land, you land softly because you are light.

There is no coincidence that the word light in terms of weight is the same as light in terms of that which helps you to see.

When you let go, you can see clearer. What seemed like a dark, scary figure was just a shadow that could have no effect on you.

Whether it’s a grudge, bad news, fear, ideas of who you think you are, or any number of unwanting things … let them all go.

Try it now. There’s something that’s bothering you. Let it go. It’s as easy as dropping your phone. The only reason you wouldn’t let go of your phone is if you valued it.

Why value this heavy burden? Let go.

2> You keep what you share with others

You may have been taught or witnessed the relationship that exists between giving and taking.

The give-and-take relationship says that with any transaction, one person gives and the other takes. Yet there’s more at play here.

“Taking” has more of a negative connotation to it. It implies that you must lay claim to what was never yours.

This thinking introduces the idea that there are things that you lack. The idea germinates and you start to focus on what else you lack. So you begin a cycle of taking.

Taking can be of force, through careful planning, or even through means of deception. It also contradicts giving.

By accepting that you must “take” to live properly, you have already created a disadvantage for yourself. You are telling yourself that you are inadequate as is and that you must “take” control of all. In addition, you are making real the belief that all can be “taken” from you at any moment.

This belief makes it even harder to give because now you want to control the gift even when it’s no longer in your possession. Your giving comes with conditions.

So give-and-take isn’t actually a thing. It would be accurately described as take-and-try-to-keep. To take is to try to keep, and to try to keep is to take. There is no contradiction here.

2.1> Let’s compare give-and-take to give-and-receive

Give-and-receive is similar to take-and-try-to-keep in that there is no contradiction. What is given is received and what is received is given. It also passes the truth test.

Don’t worry, I’ll explain.

When you give unconditionally, you have no need to control the gift. You are showing with your actions that you believe it is ok to give freely.

This belief allows you to receive freely. You won’t feel bad about receiving gifts because you know by your own actions that gifts are not a form of indebtedness.

And I’m sure you’ve gotten helped in many ways over the years in such a way that you could not possibly begin to repay, nor would the gift-givers want you to repay.

To demonstrate this relationship of giving and receiving, give someone a huge smile. Once you see their reaction, your smile will grow even bigger because you would have received back what you gave.

Now do the same thing in reverse. Give a person a mean look. Chances are you won’t like what you receive back from it.

2.2> The role that sharing plays in this

Sharing is another form of giving. You may not realize it, but you share often.

At any moment, you share your thoughts, emotions, mannerisms, way of being, loves, etc.

As you can see, you can only share what you have to share.

So when you lash out at another, complain, or share your disgusts, it’s because you have those things. You have accepted them as part of yourself.

The reason you would openly share these things is that you believe it’s a way to get rid of them. But as we’ve learned, this is not true. Giving and receiving are one.

You actually strengthen in yourself what you share with others.

The proper way to rid yourself of what you don’t want is again to simply let it go.

When something is not a part of you, you have no need to speak about it. It’s not even in your mental space to even be thought to speak about.

3> Forgiveness is a strength

A lot of people still see forgiveness as a weakness. Why else would they not forgive?

There is still a huge misconception when it comes to forgiving. Many believe that to forgive means that, “I know you did me wrong, but I’m going to prove that I’m better than you by forgiving you.”

This does not pass the truth test.

Forgiveness is similar to the following, “I know you think you did me wrong, but you only did yourself a disservice by believing you could cause pain or discomfort. You have strengthened your belief in was is not real. In reality, you can never hurt me. I forgive you, not for what you thought you did, but for your belief in what is not of you.”

To put this another way, it’s like the famous quote of Jesus that if someone slaps you, turn to give them the other cheek to slap.

The reason this is an accurate depiction is that it doesn’t give a false representation of what you are. You are not a body nor what it represents. You are not fragile and susceptible to death.

To fight for the body’s weakness is to recognize that you are weak, even though you are not weak.

This leads us to the next life lesson, but I’ll say this one last thing first. Getting is another word for receiving. And since giving and getting are one, so are forgiving and forgetting (for-giving and for-getting).

To forgive is to forget. Why would you remember and continue to be limited by what is not? You are what is.

4> Having enemies makes you weak

This life lesson is very similar to what we were speaking about above.

When you acknowledge someone as your enemy, you have assigned them to be your superior. You believe that they have power over you, because why else would you regard them as your enemy?

If a 3-year-old said that he was going to beat you up, you wouldn’t call him your enemy. You would say, “Allll, you’re so cute. Where’s yo mama?” lol.

Well, adults are just tall kids. Treat them the same way.

Hate tries to make more hate, but it is always inferior to love. It cannot exist where love exists.

On the other hand, love creates more love and it is inferior to nothing.

Create loved ones instead of trying to make enemies.

5> If the promise of money is the only reason you’re doing something, you shouldn’t be doing it

Chasing money is often a sign of fear. You feel that having money allows you to be safe. By doing this you are again giving power to something outside of yourself and you are also giving it power over you.

You are also making real the belief that safety is needed. Safety would only be needed if you identify with what is temporary.

A common thing amongst those that grew up in poverty is that they never knew they were in poverty until someone showed them differently. For years they were happy with life, but because someone said they should value money over happiness, they entered a cycle where they become a slave to money.

Money is just a tool for cooperation. You want people to cooperate with you and many are willing for the right price whether they want to or not.

But why would you ever do what you don’t want to do? It’s because of fear of the unknown.

What is even more absurd is how can you be afraid of the unknown? It’s unknown!

Instead, openly cooperate with others. You won’t need money ever again. This is not to say that you won’t use money ever again or that you won’t have access to it, you just won’t “need” it.

6> The past is a trap

The past only exists in your mind. It’s not real and it’s not here, but you always visit it every chance you get.

A lot may argue that you can learn from the past. True, but what do you really learn?

You learn that you would rather be nowhere than here. In addition, you learn untrue lessons because you learned them by being in a place that is untrue.

6.1> The fabricated lessons learned from the past

The past has taught you about pain, which is an illusion, and it’s taught you about death, which goes against what you are because you could not exist if you were death.

One of the main things that focusing on the past does is give you a team to root for. You take on the persona of that team that you identify with by way of its story. His story. History.

History attempts to make division real. If you believe you are of a certain sex, you are more likely to take on the behaviors and baggage you think that sex carries. You even attempt to enforce these behaviors with others that don’t behave in a similar manner.

It’s the same for race, culture, religion, affiliations, territory, education, job titles, etc.

People even start there sentences like this:

• As someone that grew up in Chicago…
• As an award-winning artist…
• As someone with ADD…
• As a cancer survivor…
• As a gunshot victim…
• As a church goer…
• As a grown man…
• As a mother…
• As a victim…

What would happen if you shed those definitions (limitations)?

It may look something like this:

• As a perfect creation from a Perfect Creator…
• As an unlimited being…
• As a creator of time…
• As all there is…
• As life itself…

In fact, you won’t even need the pretense to speak.

Let go of the past and focus on right now. I recommend this book by Eckhart Tolle called The Power of Now.

7> Your mind controls your body

Everyone agrees with this one, but nobody agrees with this one.

I understand how that sounds.

You tell your body to raise it’s arm and it does. You tell your body to hold your pee so that you can make it to a bathroom, and so it does (most times ).

The power your mind has over your body is total.

But even within that power, your mind has the power to give that power away to illusion. It can say, “Let’s allow sickness to control this body.”

“Let’s let chance determine what happens to this body.”

And so it does.

Your physical body is a representation of who you think you are. If you change who you think you are, your body will change accordingly, naturally.

Everything your mind tells your body to do allows it to become more efficient the more you do it.

If you work out all the time, your body will become more efficient at helping you to work out by way of muscles and loss of fat. The same for if you sat down in one spot the whole day. Your body would become more efficient at that.

And if you do a combination of both, who knows?

My point is that your mind controls your body. You don’t have to go to another body to find out what’s wrong with yours. There is only a mis-thought that’s causing all of your body-related troubles.

You can let that go as well. Let go of all limitations. You may even end up being able to walk on water.

One thing is certain. As long as you believe you won’t be able to walk on water, you won’t be able to.

Recap

Here are those 7 lessons again:

1. The importance of letting go
2. You keep what you share with others
3. Forgiveness is a strength
4. Having enemies makes you weak
5. If the promise of money is the only reason you’re doing something, you shouldn’t be doing it
6. The past is a trap
7. Your mind controls your body

Learn these lessons and have fun in the process. In fact, have fun always!

If you find this article helpful, share it. Remember, what you share with others, you strengthen in yourself.

The post 7 Life Lessons People Still Haven’t Learned By the Age of 40 appeared first on JClay.