Law of Attraction and Abraham

Law of attraction (LOA) and manifesting have been common topics lately with friends and work colleagues. I’m surprised that so few people know about Abraham although I understand that the DVD version of the film of The Secret (which has made these topics more mainstream)  excluded the Abraham information for contractual reasons. 

I first came across Abraham and Esther Hicks on the Iasos website during 1996 or 97 while I was searching for  more books and information about Seth and Jane Roberts who I had been reading about since the mid 1980s. Abrahams’ principles struck me as being so sensible and logical. Over the years, I’ve read lots of their books, listened to their tapes and CDs, and watched their DVDs.  The law of attraction principles are so simple but I have found them  hard to ‘get’ when I’m concentrating on what I don’t want, i.e. giving my attention to the problem(s) I am  facing at the time. I have to keep reminding myself to reach for a better feeling and then ‘allowing’  what I do want to manifest.

Trying to explain Abrahams’ teachings to others has been a lot easier since The Secret. Before that, people would role their eyes and talk about coincidence, etc. ”Abraham” is a collective name for entities channeled through Esther Hicks. This in itself is a huge barrier to the information for some people. If anyone is interested in pursuing LOA as a means of reaching their goals or making life easier, then I recommend the following resources:Introducing Abraham…  a 2 disk DVD set that is a great introduction to Abraham –  from the beginning.

Although there were earlier books, Ask and it is Given was the first book to put most of the principles, as well as useful instructions, together in one volume.

The Master Course audio of 11 CDs was recorded on a cruise where the producers of The Secret were filming Esther. It has been described as the most comprehensive and in-depth presentation on the teachings of Abraham. I tend to agree.

The Live in Australia DVD is one of the best recordings of an Art of Allowing workshop. It was filmed in Sydney; the audience asked a wide range of interesting questions; and there seemed to be less editing between speakers.

The Iasos website has a concentrated version of the teachings of Abraham and the Abraham- Hicks website has all the Abraham resources including some short video clips.

It has only been in the last 12 months that I have really started to live more by these principles and reap more rewards. I hope you find this useful, or at least interesting enough to investigate further.

Time to Declutter

Well it’s the beginning of a New Year – the year of the Tiger! It is therefore time to clear out all the stuff that is no longer serving me including all the clutter that screams for my attention. I have purchased a few more books on clearing clutter (yes, I can see the irony) and found a few good websites that offer helpful advice.

Bless Your Mess and Create a Home that Feels Fabulous was a recent Amazon purchase. It deals with the ‘why’ of our clutter and the huge energy drain that steals your time which = huge chunks of your life. I gained a few tips from Peter Walsh’s new DVD based on his earlier book It’s All Too Much but it was all too short – I wished he’d thrown in another hour of content. Organising for Life: Declutter Your Mind to Declutter your World by Sandra Felton provided an enlightening view of the mind set of a ‘messie’ person but greater detail on the ‘how to’ is in another of her publications. 

I still like reading Brook’s Palmer’s Clutter Busting blog – the specific examples of problems faced by his clients are quite helpful. My new favourite decluttering sites are Zen Habits by Leo Babauta  (it is a Top 100 Blog and his articles are well organised) and The Unclutterer by Erin Rooney Doland (it has lots of photos and video links). Now all I have to do is put all this wonderful advice into practice……..

Interior Style

I have just found a wonderful interior design book. As soon as I felt the embossed cover, I knew I was going to buy it and love it. Etcetera: creating beautiful interiors with the things you love by Sibella Court.

What I like about the book:
Gorgeous photographs – lots of detail,
Variety of text, including some typewriter, some rubber stamped,
Scapbook style arrangement,
Old textiles used as part of the page design,
The feel of the pages – some are made of modern vellum.What I like about the interior design style:
Exotic elements from far off places,
Modern stuff mixed with antiques and flea market finds,
The look requires a little effort but apparently not much money,
It inspires the reader to consider their own style signature,

And then of course, there was the use of ephemera (a designer after my own heart!)
Another source of interior design inspiration is a website called The Selby- people in their spaces by Todd Selby theselby.com

It shows photographs of the interiors of homes and workspaces of some very artistic and creative people. You can see what sort of environment they have created for themselves whether it be in Europe, USA, Tokyo or Australia. Well worth a look.

The Web 2.0 Experience

I have recently completed a fabulous course on Web 2.0 technologies. The hands-on workshops and the online information were particularly helpful. I have had the most fun blogging although I’m quite shy about leaving comments on other participants’ blogs and I still seem to get lost on my own dashboard!

Gmail is great – I just have to remember to check an extra mailbox now. Library Thing was a real treat. Finding other people with similar tastes in books has lead to a vast new reading list for me.   Wikis have a lot of potential for work as does Delicious although I have only recently got into the habit of using Delicious to tag my bookmarks. I have not been comfortable with Social Networking although I admit that without Twitter I may not have found Project Natal – Milo Demo , mentioned in Stephen Fry’s recent tweet, so soon. Short podcasts and vodcasts  are an effective way to get across a short piece of information for training or current awareness purposes. I talked about my experience with gaming in my last post. Project Natal technology will no doubt take interactive games and learning to a whole new level. 

The other things that I got to work with such as Flickr, image generators, RSS feeds, etc were all very interesting and useful. I realise that I have to keep using them so that I don’t forget how easy they really are to incorporate into my work and my life.

The other great thing about the course was having a knowlegable and helpful presenter.  I also had  the opportunity to read the wonderful blogs of my fellow participants and benefit from their generous assistance throughout the course.

Time for Games

That’s the problem, there doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to get things done let alone play games online.  I looked at a few games as a final part of a web 2.0 course and I was curious to see what many students were doing with their spare time. I started with an action shooting game that, on reflection, was quite disturbing considering that the object of the game was to kill things! I then moved onto the very popular  Bloons. I really enjoyed the strategic nature of the game and I actually found it hard to stop playing.  The other free game I tried was Youda Sushi Chef . It was fun and challenging so I can see why it has a such high rating with gamers. It requires quick thinking and is probably great for keeping your brain active. I would like to try some of the simulations available – if I ever find the time!

Zoos

I love visiting good zoos. They are doing so much towards conservation, education  and research. Many zoos have in-situ conservation projects underway in developing counties. Bad zoos are still out there. They concentrate on recreation and entertainment for visitors at the expense of the well being of the animals. The long term goal of a good zoo is to work towards never having to have the need for a zoo at all.

I spent a day at the Bronx Zoo while I was visiting New York City a few months ago. It is a wonderful zoo with lots of conservation and research projects underway. The zoo actively educates visitors with each exhibit. Here are about eight photos from my zoo visit.

Old Ephemera

I love collecting old ephemera. I realise that this doesn’t help my clutter problem! Markets and garage sales are great places to find these treasures. I particularly like paper items such as postcards, discarded diaries and school notebooks, office ledgers, tickets, invitations, handwritten letters, postage stamps, children’s boardgames and bookmarks. Old things say so much about times gone by.

I was lucky enough to find an author with similar interests. Barbara Hodgson, a Canadian author and book designer has been described as a ‘globe-trotting pack rat’. One of her books, Trading in Memories talks about her wanderings through the flea markets of Europe, North Africa and North America.It is a great read! The book is arranged a bit like a scrapbook with photos of some of her amazing finds. Other pages show sketchess from her travel journals.

Barbara has used papers collected at these markets to  illustrate many of her books, both fiction and nonfiction.

Recently, I was shown some wonderful old place name tags from the early part of the 20th Century. They had belonged to the late aunt of one of my friends.The birds were made from real feathers and the name paper could be changed as required. The amazing thing was that they were still in their original little box from Aspery of London!This is a good example of the paper ephemera that I love. I was so excited when I saw them that I had to take photographs immediately.

Clutter Busting

I started clearing out the clutter from my house, car and office area about two months ago. The task seems never ending. It doesn’t help that I keep dragging more books and papers into my home. I now have a small library of clutter clearing books which, of course, is actually clutter in itself! One of my best finds has been Brooks Palmer’s Clutter Busting: letting go of what’s holding you back.

He also has a wonderful blog that he updates about five times a week with stories about his clutter clearing sessions with clients. Brooks looks at the underlying reason for each clutter problem. He then asks questions that help clients make the best decision about whether to keep or toss an item. I’m trying to ask myself the same questions.

Where to go next?

All my friends and work colleagues seem to be traveling and it seems a good time to plan the next big trip. Where to go in 2010? Europe is calling. Some of my friends have booked a river cruise on the Rhine. I’m thinking more about Paris although I have been three times already. Paris is a magic city that you just have to keep going back to.

Perhaps something a bit more exotic. I saw this wonderful promotion about Transylvania.

I’ve never actually been east of Vienna so this might be the direction to take.

Bookshops

I just LOVE bookshops! When I went out for a coffee with friends last night, I gravitated towards a late night bookshop before heading towards the cafe. I’m fortunate to have friends who are very understanding about my bibliophile tendencies. Despite seeing a new range of art and design titles, I ended up buying a copy of The Time Traveler’s Wife. I’m told that I have to read the book before I see the  newly released film of the book.

I visited some wonderful bookshops while I was in New York City. Barnes and Noble at Union Square was huge.  I mean really HUGE!  It had every ‘in print’ book and CD on my shopping list. The building has a lot of architectural character and it was a joy to roam around. (See the link for more photos.)  The cafe had a mural of famous writers and there was a large space set aside for talks by visiting authors.

Cafe in Barnes and Noble Bookstore at Union Square

For ‘out of print books you cannot go past the Strand Bookstore on the corner of 12 St and Broadway. It has been operating for more than 80 years and claims to  have 18 miles of books (new, used and rare). I found an ‘out of print’ copy of one of artist, Anne Truitt’s journals and I couldn’t believe the large range of art books they had.

The multistorey Strand Bookstore in NYC