“You have the right to work, but never to the fruit of work. You should never engage in action for the sake of reward, nor should you long for inaction. Perform work in this world, Arjuna, as a man established within himself—without selfish attachments, and alike in success and defeat. For yoga is perfect evenness of mind.”

The 192′ luxury yacht the Universe provided

—Krishna in Bhagavad-Gita

Yoga is more than bending and stretching in a class.  The lesson from Krishna (above) was driven home deeply to me one night when I arrived in Raleigh to teach at a holistic center.  On this night, their mailing list “workshopped out,” I walked into a very small turnout:  One solitary soul.

The student and center director asked if I wanted to cancel the class. I could have gone to the movies instead, but an inner voice said stay.  I figured out why by the end of the class.  My lone student learned volumes in her 2-hour private workshop on relationships.  For that, she thanked me profusely; the guy who cleans up popcorn and gunk from the movie theater’s floors wouldn’t have been so effusive.

What I realized quite deeply was that my job is to show up, whether it’s for one person or for one thousand people, as occurred just two weeks later when I delivered the keynote address at a convention in Atlanta.  When you’re a teacher and a coach, you teach and coach.  The Universe takes care of the results of those actions.

Oh, and about the Universe taking care of the fruits…the following night, I received an email from a mega-rich buddy in Australia.  In it, he invited my wife and me to be guests of his on a 2-week Caribbean cruise on a chartered private 192-foot yacht.  Since my job is to show up, I showed up on a luxury liner even though, on board, there were only a few people, just like I showed up for a class for one.

 If you have debt, it’s essential to discover whether you spend more money than you bring in monthly. If you’re debt-free, and would like to create–or add to–an investment portfolio, it’s essential to know how much more you bring in monthly than you spend.  In either case, this much is certain: recording your expenses for 30 days is the first step of the journey to financial enlightenment.

Congratulations…you’re about to go from unconsciousness to consciousness.  We all need help along the way–Dorothy had the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion.  You’ll need your mind vigilant, your heart compassionate (without judging your spending), and your spirit courageous (to discover your financial Truth).  Two more allies are a notebook (or pad) and pen. Think of them the way you might have once thought about your American Express Card…don’t leave home without it. If you buy a newspaper, a cafe latte at Starbuck’s, or juice for the kids, write it down.  Do this for a month. A big reason people have debt is that they don’t want to know how much they spend, so they’d rather head for the hills than record every purchase for a month.  So stay vigilant.  The impulse to go unconscious is so insidious you’ll probably “forget” before even knowing you have.

One other thing: you’re noting your purchases, not judging them. It’s not necessary to change spending habits during the month you observe them. At month’s end, after you’ve gone over the numbers, you can decide how to change your spending patterns.

This recordkeeping month is your Money Yoga, your Zen of Finances, and parallels the lunar cycle.  There’s spiritual significance to accounting for your spending; you’re becoming conscious of what was mostly unconscious. Each day review the spending of your daily bread, and make sure you’ve covered each expense.

      During your record-keeping month, review a year’s credit card and checking statements for unusual or seasonal expenses that didn’t show up in your monthly vigil. This discovers what it costs for vacations, insurance premiums, car repairs, and holiday gifts and birthday presents, etc.  For expenses that show up once a year, divide by 12 and assign an appropriate monthly number.  If they appear twice a year, divide by 6.  If they happen every other year, divide by 24.

      When the numbers are tabulated, lift your spirits before sharpening your pencil or downloading your Quicken software.  Meditate or take a walk in a park, then put your expenses into categories and make appropriate decisions about how you want to spend or invest your money.

$ $ $

A picture (of yourself enthusiastic) is worth a thousand dollars.

Many 20th Century giants had more adventures with the mirror than Lewis Carroll’s Alice. Foster Hibbard, one of my most inspired teachers, said that Napoleon Hill, his teacher of 13 years, said that many of the leaders he met through a 20-year mentoring by Andrew Carnegie, derived great results from their work in front of the glass. Hill studied with Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, Winston Churchill, Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, among others.

The process involves looking into the mirror when you’re by yourself and saying “Enthusiasm!”  (Don’t mind the responses that go through your head as you implore your reflection to be enthusiastic.)   Consider its etymology: Our English word enthusiasm comes from the Greek “entheos.” The Greek root “theo” is familiar to us as theology, the study of the divine. Entheos is the divine lively within you.

This technique works immediately and amazingly. Just before introducing it in my workshops, I ask students to evaluate their own level of enthusiasm on a scale of zero to 10.   (Zero stands for the depression of one ready to call it quits and jump off a bridge; 10 is the euphoric state when you’ve just been told you won $50 million in your state’s mega lottery.) Then I tell students that after 30 seconds of the Enthusiasm technique, their rating will increase.  In all the years I’ve taught this technique, nobody has ever disproved my assertion.

A caveat before beginning the “Enthusiasm” technique: It’s natural to feel foolish when you start doing it.  In time, that self-consciousness gives way to a more confident, excited consciousness, a magnetic personality. It’s that enthusiasm in your being, that higher vibration, that will attract more people to you. And that means more clients, customers and favorable opportunities. It’s said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Perhaps the image of yourself all turned on might also be worth a thousand dollars.

Every cloud has a silver lining

If you listen to TV news, you know about people losing jobs. Politicians place creation of jobs as among their most frequent promises in stump speeches.  But all that glitters with regard to jobs is not gold.

When I grew up, a job meant cradle-to-grave security. But with outsourcing of jobs overseas, American workers discovered that no longer applies.  Reliable biweekly paychecks with health insurance coverage is what most U.S. families desire, despite the fact that more than two million jobs were lost in the economy in 2008.

A dark cloud hangs over every home where someone has lost a job, but there’s also a silver lining that’s rarely discussed.  That’s because being an employee seems to be as American as apple pie, even though many people swear off the sugar in such pie.  What’s more, many apple pies were baked by self-employed entrepreneurs.

Ironically a majority of Americans don’t like what they do for a living.  A 2005 Conference Board study found that only 14 percent are “very satisfied” with what they do for pay.  If people liked their work, there wouldn’t be a TGI Friday’s which, as of November 2007, boasted more than 600 U.S. units, and another 303 in 57 other countries, while ringing up sales in excess of $2.1 billion.  That’s a lot of people who can’t wait until Friday.

People don’t like what they do for money because they’re trying to force their round pegs into the square holes of a pre-existing job.  What might happen, on the other hand, if they looked to create income not from the outside (like a job created by some entity outside themselves), but from the inside (from within their own Being)?  In my “Spirit & Money: Prospering by doing what you Love” workshop, mini-book, and CD, I say that the former creates a livelihood; the latter, a lovelihood.

Your parents taught you to have something to fall back on.   Imagine if you were told that you could use your God-given talents as your ticket through life.  Imagine if you took the gifts that are second nature to you and used them to share with the world.  When you bring your gifts into the world, you enrich the world, enrich yourself from within, and enrich your pocketbook, as well.  This is the opportunity that millions of newly-unemployed Americans have been given by the Universe if they could just see it, and have the courage to act upon. And with unemployment insurance stretching to about a year and a half, they could be partially subsidized by the government while they turn inward and craft their talents into goods and services that enrich society while simultaneously giving them the chance to develop that lovelihood.  When they do just that and the weekend ends, they can look in the mirror in the morning and say to themselves, “Thank God, it’s Monday.”

If you grew up in a dysfunctional home where a parent drank or raged, chances are you thought it was your job to become a peacemaker to make others feel good.  (It wasn’t.)  This behavior calmed the battle around you for a while, but it robbed you of your integrity.  It also attracted angry people to heal this pattern.  If this is your pattern, you’ve lacked the knowledge that it’s not your responsibility to make everyone happy.  Especially since it comes at the high price of your own peace and happiness.

Adding a vitamin to your diet makes up for a nutritional deficiency; adding an affirmation to your mental diet overcomes errors in thinking.  Here are three for boundary deficiency:

I am responsible for my feelings and emotions and everyone else is responsible for his.

I create the pleasure and pain in my life and others do the same in theirs.

I can support others without taking on their problems.

The money follows

Last year, a friend, fed up with her job, had read Marsha Sinetar’s Do What You Love, the Money will Follow, http://www.marshasinetar.com/ and saw it as a sign to quit and pursue her bliss–painting.  After nine months, however, the money didn’t follow.  She’s been living off eroding savings.  She asked what to do.

I said if you do what you love the money will follow, but–the time it takes for each person’s money to follow differs.

Christ said if we had faith and asked the mountain to move, it would. Few have such faith; fewer still such bulldozing skills. So, if you do what you love so money will follow, take care of three things first.

1. Save at least six months of living expenses.

This provides a cushion if the money follows slowly.

2. Keep your heart pure.

Money miracles happen to pure hearts.  If you’re angry with others, forgive them.  Open room for unexpected income to flow.

3. Overhaul your mind.

Your consciousness must be prepared to receive the money that follows.  It’s one thing to consciously believe if you do what you love the money will follow; quite another if you believe when you do what you love, the bankruptcy will follow.  A study done among Canadian lottery winners  found that, within five years, the vast majority went broke. Governments dumped fortunes into their laps, but didn’t show them how to handle them.

Affirmations prepare consciousness so money can follow. Here’s one I recommend: “When I do the work I love, the world is enriched and so am I, as money flows to me quickly and easily.” At the left of the page, write the affirmation as 1A.  Below, write, as 1B, the response that arises that disagrees with it. Suppose it’s “If I do what I love nobody will care.”   Below, as 1C, create a new affirmation to treat that response.  A good one for the resistance above is “Spirit supports me when I do the work I love.”

This process releases your unconscious resistance. Write this affirmation 10 minutes a day until its truth manifests in your life.

“He who has no undue fondness towards anything, who neither exults nor recoils on gaining what is good or bad, his intellect is established.”

—Krishna, The Bhagavad-Gita

I’ve taught hundreds of people how to meditate as Krishna taught in The Bhagavad-Gita.  I’ve even taught others how to teach meditation and lose their worldly attachments.  So I must confess, as game 7 of the NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics is just hours away, that I sometimes wrestle with one major lifetime attachment: I’ve loved the

The blogger, in Laker gear, about to block a shot by Shaquille O’Neal

Lakers since I was eight, and recoil when they lose a playoff game.  http://lakersblog.latimes.com/lakersblog/2010/06/caught-in-the-web-reactions-to-lakers-8967-game-6-victory-over-boston-celtics.html

Confession #2: In game 5 of a Western Conference semi-finals playoff game some years back Tim Duncan made a nearly-impossible shot with less than a second left.  When it seemed he stole a victory, knocking the air out of the Lakers, I screamed in anger.  Screamed! I can hear yogis turning over in their caves.

Confession #3: When Lakers guard Derek Fisher followed with a prayer of a jumper shot with four tenths of a second left that won the game, I jumped off my couch absolutely delirious with joy.  This is what Krishna called undue fondness and exulting.

Good News #1: Several years ago, I gave up my equally-long New York Mets attachment.  Occasionally, I’ll watch them with interest, but with no attachment.

Good News #2: When I watch the Lakers while I’m awake in my higher Self—that silence in me that witnesses life’s play of ups and downs– I enjoy the games much more.  The reason?  There’s no attachment to the outcome.  I become a fan in the zone.

Speaking of fans (as in fanatics), I’ve seen many give away their power, marriages and lives to their teams.  Fortunately, I have family, friends, and a life, so it’s clear the Lakers are the next attachment to go.  A wise yogi once said, “Love without attachment is light.”  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

What’s the one attachment you’d like to let go of in your life?   Let it go—and you’ll be free to enjoy it with even more pleasure and peace.

     Relaxation from things like meditation, naps, and massage enhances creativity.  There are no ifs, and, or buts about it.  Why should there be when even your butt itself gets massaged? And relaxation stimulates inspiration: a relaxed mind in a rested body is more receptive to the creative impulses than a worried mind in a tense body.

Many of the world’s great scientific insights and artistic conceptions occured in a restful state rather than a restless one?  The famed “a ha” experience of eureka that can make you laugh in a delightful “ha-ha,” happens when you’re most relaxed, not when you’re most worried.

  German chemist Friedrich Kekule discovered the benzene ring in a “waking dream” while riding in a London bus. Isaac Newton’s discovery of the Law of Gravitation came while relaxing under a tree and observing an apple falling to the ground. Albert Einstein intuited vital parts of his Relativity Theory while sitting patiently on a non-moving train as a nearby train left the station.

  For Romantic poet William Wordsworth calmness was the means. The former Poet Laureate of England wrote that, “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.” Calmness, tranquility, relaxation are keys to enhancing your creative output.

     While receiving an Indonesian massage on a luxury yacht off the coast of Thailand, this non-scientist gained inspiration for this column.  During other massages and meditation sessions, I’ve received ideas for other columns, for new workshops, and for new books that I would write.

Bob Hope, one of the greatest comedians ever, used to get a massage every single day.  No doubt, it kept his body rested and his comic mind sharp and able to ad-lib in his inimitable way.

The next time you get creatively stuck, try lathering up your face or legs with shaving cream, as Einstein did.  A nick in your skin may be a small price to pay if it comes in the nick of time to stimulate your creative juices.  Or better yet, call a massage therapist and have her lather you up with oil.  Creative inspiration may be just a phone call away.

If you grew up in a dysfunctional home where a parent drank or raged, chances are you thought it was your job to become a peacemaker to make others feel good.  (It wasn’t.)  This behavior calmed the battle around you for a while, but it robbed you of your integrity.  It also attracted angry people to heal this pattern.  If this is your pattern, you’ve lacked the knowledge that it’s not your responsibility to make everyone happy.  Especially since it comes at the high price of your own peace and happiness.

Adding a vitamin to your diet makes up for a nutritional deficiency; adding an affirmation to your mental diet overcomes errors in thinking.  Here are three for boundary deficiency:
I am responsible for my feelings and emotions and everyone else is responsible for his.   
I create the pleasure and pain in my life and others do the same in theirs.
I can support others without taking on their problems.

“You’ve got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mister In-between.”—Johnny Mercer

What was true in the hey-day of Broadway’s Tin Pan Alley is as true today in the new millennium.  If you want a transformation in, say, your finances, remove the resistance to prosperity that festers in your Unconscious from 20,000 meals you ate growing up at home.  A powerful way to transform your mind is by accentuating the positive, as the songwriter wrote, and latching on to the affirmative.
Here’s an extremely good one to latch onto: “My mind is a money magnet.”  Write the affirmation, then the resistance that comes up from your subconscious mind; suppose it’s: “My mind is lazy and uncreative.”  Writing the response releases it from your being.  Next step: create a new affirmation to treat this resistance; a good one is: “My connection to the Higher Power of the Universe energizes my mind with creative ideas and attracts opportunities to me.”   What’s powerful about this technique is that you’re releasing everything that stands in the way of the affirmation manifesting. Do this affirmation process daily for at least 10 minutes a day until it becomes your reality.