Question: Why do I punish myself over and over for things I did in the past that were inappropriate or stupid? How can I let them go once and for all so I don’t cringe every time they come into my mind and still find myself continuing to feel bad years later?

Answer: The things you worry over are so small and unimportant that nobody thinks of them but you. It is impossible to go back and change them so you must let them go. It is too late to rewrite the past. Wipe the slate clean and write the future. Haven’t you done things to outshine the faux pas since then?

You’ve done so many bigger things both good and bad since then. Why hold on to that particular incident? Embarrassment? Ego? You’re dealing with ego again and its need for drama. It’s time to grow and move beyond the power of ego to control your life, and allow yourself to spend time in the vibrational place where you want to be.

So many people love and admire you. Why waste time on events and people who diminish the beauty of that? Stay in the now. Live in the now. Love and appreciate the now. It’s all you have, and it’s wonderful. Let go of the past. Let go of what you can’t change or control. Life is beautiful and so are you. The past has helped to create the person you are now, and now will shape your future. This is the past you will remember before long. Live it. Love it. Make it a past that will fill you with joy and pride.

Why not stay in the now and focus only on things that make you happy. Let everything else go. Having a successful, peaceful, happy life is all about feeling good inside.

This is a good place to begin to use positive affirmations that will help you to let go of the past mistakes and negativity. For example, if you haven’t already, begin today to say, “I love myself, I forgive myself, I approve of myself.”

Add to it another affirmation such as, “I am willing to let go of the past. I am ready to live happily in the now.” Say it every morning, every night and as often in between as you can. In the beginning it may not feel true to you, but if you are faithful to saying it, you will very shortly see the things in the past that you feel bad about disappear from your memory.

Affirmations are truly miracle workers. Let them work miracles for you.

Question: Can you give me some simple, real, practical advice to help me stay in a positive, happy place when those closest to me talk and act in ways that I don’t like or approve of? I love these people and don’t want to remove them from my life but I have great difficulty maintaining a harmonious relationship with them and living the life of peace, joy and abundance that means so much to me.

Answer: You say you want real practical advice. You want to be shown the way to a happy life that doesn’t involve living in isolation. Let me begin by saying that it is not helpful to blame others for your state of mind. It is not really what they are doing, but rather your attention to it, that is causing you anxiety. Much internal conflict comes from the need to change the behavior of others.

Regarding your children, let go of the need to control or fix their lives. Their lives and their decisions are theirs alone. You don’t need to approve of or suffer for the decisions they make. When their lives become too painful, they will be motivated to change the things they are doing. Find a way to visualize them healthy and happy and living the life of their dreams and let go. Give unconditional love instead of criticism and advice. You will do more for them that way.

Look at what are they doing right. Put your attention on that. It is almost impossible to eliminate all the things you don’t like from your life. But you can eliminate them from your field of attention by focusing instead on the things you do like and appreciate.

But I think you already know this. Keep your attention on the things in others and in your life that you enjoy. Do not judge the actions and decisions of others. Make an agreement with yourself that you will first perfect yourself, and only then set about judging and perfecting the rest of the world.

Trying to change another is a waste of your precious time and totally unproductive. Let other people live life the way they choose. If their behavior doesn’t work for you and is causing you anxiety, simply get away from them. It is not necessary for you to pretend to approve or agree with their behavior. Why not be honest and say, “This doesn’t work for me” and remove yourself or set boundaries and compromises that allow you to enjoy the part of them that works for you and let the rest go. Be honest about your feelings without being judgmental or unkind. In that way you can enjoy your life.

Take responsibility for only one person – YOU. Let the rest do it their way. If they come to you with complaints, simply say, “I can see how that would not work for you. But I’m sure you’ll find a way to change or fix it. I have confidence in you.” Don’t get involved, and don’t make it your problem. If you are able to master this, living harmoniously with others will become easier and you will all be much happier.

Question: I understand that perfect health is my natural state. I love and appreciate my perfect health. Is there something I should know about maintaining my health beyond the basics that I am aware of such as eat well, exercise, and reduce stress?

Answer: Be a channel of peace. Peace of mind transfers to the body. Every cell vibrates with energy. Peaceful energy brings perfect alignment and perfect health. Doing the right things physically is important. But living peace every day is so much more important. Living peace allows you to feel and appreciate the joy and beauty that surrounds you. Joy and beauty bring happiness and happiness in turn creates a physical environment where perfect health can flourish.

To create this life where peace is your natural way of being, you must first love yourself unconditionally. Self love is more rare than you would think. Most people are unaware that they harbor inside them a tremendous amount of anger, resentment, self loathing, and insecurity. They are filled with doubt about their value, worth, and even whether they are deserving of love. In virtually all cases this is the result of the way they were treated by those around them in their early years, most particularly those that they looked up to.

Do you love yourself? A simple way to find out is to look in the mirror and say the words, “I love you and I accept you just the way you are.” This method created by Louise Hay and discussed in her book “You Can Heal Your Life”, is a quick and simple way to discover how you really feel about yourself. Very few people are comfortable looking themselves in the eye and saying the words, “I love you and accept you just the way you are.” If you find it difficult to do this, it would be a good idea to get a copy of Louise’s book. It can change your life and help you cure your present health problems and prevent future illness. It is a wonderful book, filled with life-changing information.

Of all the gifts you are blessed with, perhaps none is more important than perfect health. Yet it is the one that is most taken for granted. Having an attitude of gratitude is one way to attract more of the good things of life and this applies equally to your health. Give thanks often. Learn to love yourself. Create and use a few simple affirmations every day to help you remove any resistance you may have and increase the flow of perfect health to and through you.

*Note: One of my favorite affirmations, one that I love, is this: “I love myself. I forgive myself. I approve of myself.” This is such a simple thing to remember and say and it has changed my life. Why not give it a try and see what it can do for you.

Question: I want to be successful and prosperous. What am I not seeing that I can do or use to create wealth from my knowledge and abilities? Is there an idea that I can make use of to create the successful career I dream of. Help me to be open to hearing and using the answer.

Answer: If you knew that your world would literally end on a specific day, say in December 2012, so-called Doomsday, what would you do? How would your priorities change? What would become foremost in your mind? Would you want, above all else, to become rich and famous?

It is the belief of many scholars that the predictions of the Aztecs, the Egyptians, and Nostradamus, were that the world will end in December 2012. Whether or not this is your belief, I would like for you to assume for a while that it is in fact true. With this in mind, sit quietly, relaxed, eyes closed and think carefully of how this would affect your beliefs about your life and your priorities. Would those things that you now consider important still hold the same attraction? What would you want to do with the rest of your life? How would you like to spend it?

Your first thoughts may be frivolous, but allow yourself to sit long enough for your mind to move through and beyond the superficial to what you really hold important. It may surprise you that many of the things you now hold important lose their significance for you. Many people who now take your time and attention will fade into the background to be replaced by others who connect with you on a whole other level.

Before anything else can come together, you need to feel good. We say it all the time because it is so important. Don’t try to chase and catch your dreams. Sit quietly and connect with Source. The Universe knows what you want and what you have to offer. Nothing will come together for you until you are in alignment with your dream. Put your attention on feeling good. See all that is in your life that is good and beautiful and makes you happy. Give thanks for all of that all the time and the rest will follow. Don’t be impatient. Know that the Universe has perfect timing and your job is to ask, believe and then let it happen.

Can you feel your connection to Source. See what you want, feel it, and align closely with Source, feeling the peace and joy of that, and you will know for sure that your prayer has already been answered, all you have to do is wait just a little while for the physical manifestation to appear. If there is anything you physically need to do, any action you should take, it will be shown to you clearly. You will be motivated do it and shown the way. Until then, how you think and feel is what is important. There is no power like the Power of Now. Live now, love now, laugh now. Know your dream is already reality and just waiting to physically manifest. Relax, enjoy life.

Happiness is already yours. Love unconditionally everyone and everything that blesses your life. Look for the blessing and you surely will find it. Trust in your dream and it will become the reality of your life. Give thanks often. It will bring more to be thankful for. Everything you need to be the successful, prosperous person you want to be will be given to you. Follow your intuition and your heart. Do the things you are inspired to do. Everything else will take care of itself.

Question: What can I do to help me shift from feeling irritated or annoyed to feeling good quickly and easily? I find that I sometimes have a problem letting go of the negative feelings or thoughts and I am spending much more time than I would like feeling negative. It’s as if I am reluctant to let go and move on to a happier state of mind. Why am I doing this and how can I change it?

Answer: When you are in a negative place, Law of Attraction brings you more of the same kind of thoughts. That makes it easy to maintain that state of mind. A simple thing you can do is interrupt your negative train of thought with the thought, “I want to feel good. I intend to feel good. I expect to feel good.” Or “Bless me Lord and grant me peace.” When you are feeling bad, or irritated or annoyed, your ego wants the rush that turmoil brings and encourages you to stay in that place, and it is often imperative that you deliberately sabotage ego’s needs and plans by introducing something else into the mix. To go from very negative to positive thoughts and feelings can be difficult and uncomfortable, but the slight shift of introducing a positive prayer or mantra can make it much easier. Once you do this, Law of Attraction will take over and bring more thoughts that match it.

It takes a little deliberate effort on your part but the effect is almost instant relief and, as the relief takes over, feeling good and thinking good thoughts is not far behind.

Question: I am still having great difficulty being non-judgmental to all others and feeling good feelings for others’ success. I feel pangs of jealousy when I see them with the life I want for me or my family. I dislike myself when I am feeling this way because it is not the person I want to be. Tell me some things I can do to shift my way of thinking so that I can truly wish others well and send them only unconditional love?

Answer: Your dreams have not come true, YET! Ask, BELIEVE and allow. While you are focused on what is lacking your life, you have to attract more of the lack because that is where your thoughts are predominantly. Consequently you are sending that message to the Universe. What you put out comes back to you in some form.

Jealousy is an emotion of lack and fear. It will bring only more to be jealous about. While you are focused on your dreams, living them in detail in your mind every day, feeling the feelings of already having what you want, you will be in a place, vibrationally speaking, where jealousy can’t exist.

There is enough of everything for you to have your share. Just ask, believe and let it happen. Don’t try too hard to make it happen. That can lead to negativity and even desperation if things don’t appear fast enough.

Pay less attention to what others are having or doing. Keep your attention on your dreams. Look back and make a list of dreams of yours that have come true. This will help you to know that other dreams of yours will also come true. Look at the manner in which they come true. Was there a time lapse? Did it happen as you expected? The universe works in mysterious ways. But it does deliver, in its own time, in its own way, if you just believe and get out of the way.

Question: Why is it that although I know what I want, I have written it down, visualized, felt the feelings and all those things but I am having great difficulty manifesting much of it specifically things that involve having money in large amounts?

Answer: Feel good. You have been given the answer. Stop and think about it. Stop running. Stop trying to catch your dreams. Dreams are like butterflies. You can catch them if you run after them, but it is difficult. If you are very quiet and peaceful you will allow them to come to you. There is just something in trying that creates resistance. Let your intention be to feel good as much as possible.

It is important to know what you want, but when a dream is non-negotiable, there is the danger that you will trade your joy today for the dreamed of tomorrow. Your life is happening now, today. If you can live now, feel good now, and at the same time hold the picture of your dream clearly and consistently without letting the fact that it has not yet arrived interfere with your joy today, you can have it all.

When thinking of your dream makes you feel bad, you are pushing it away. If this happens, you can use a number of things, for example a focus wheel, to take you back to the place where you are once more feeling good. Having your dream come true, particularly if it is a material thing, will raise your happiness level only temporarily. Then you will return to the level of happiness that you now have. So it is monumentally important to focus on being happier first and acquiring other things second. That is the best way to ensure lasting happiness.

If you really believe that your dreams will manifest, you will relax and enjoy the time in between. When you do, everyday is a dream come true and your life will be a magical experience all the way. Let go of the details, the “hows”. They will be taken care of for you when you know what you want, believe you will have it, and just go about the business of being happy now with what you already are and have.

Question: I am surrounded by people who want to lean on me with life’s problems. This happens on a very regular basis and there are so many of them that it is hard for me to stay in a positive, peaceful vibration much of the time. What do I need to learn from this? How can I handle the stress without cutting off the flow of unconditional love to them?

Answer: That you are attracting this. You want to offer help to the world and so it is natural that you would attract people to you who want help. When you reach a place of peace yourself, you will not attract so many who are not peaceful.

Focus your attention on all that is good and beautiful in your world and you will attract more of the good and beautiful. More and more people who are happy and grateful, rather than needy, will show up. Even those who are a big part of your life, for example, your family, will be raised up by your higher energy and will not come to you so much with negativity.

Continue to pray for miracles and manifestations for others and you will help them to attract what they really would like to have and be. You can’t fix their lives, all you can do is pray, intend, and see them the way they would like to be.

It takes courage to change your life, see the courageous being inside each of them. Gratitude brings more to be grateful for, be grateful yourself and encourage gratitude in others. Take your attention away from what is wrong in your interactions with them and focus on that which is good, nurturing and helpful to you and them.

Stop judging anything about them and your relationship with them. Just let it be whatever it is. Give unconditional love to them and to yourself. Don’t look to others to raise you up or make you feel good. All you need is inside of you. Never forget that nobody can make you feel bad unless you let them. Your joy lies within you and so does the source of your peace. Don’t look to the world outside or those in it to give you love or joy or peace. If you do, and it is a very common practice for humans, your happiness and peace will be fleeting. The world is full of so much and people can be so fickle that when you look to outside of you all you see is uncertainty and change. What is real never changes and it lies inside of you.

Don’t blame others for the stress in your life. Just accept them, bless them and give only what you can.

The best thing you can do is lead by example and know that you are responsible for only yourself and your happiness. So just love them and know that they too will find their way.

Question: How can I make all the people in my life – my friends, family, acquaintances – feel the unconditional love that is flowing through me? I would like it to be so powerful that when they think of me, they can feel its warmth.

Answer: Relax. You cannot flow unconditional love while you have resistance that is caused by feeling bad or sad or not enough. When you think of the person or see them, whether in person or in your mind, visualize the river of love flowing through you. Feel its warmth and peace. Feel the force of it flowing faster and faster and see yourself letting it flow unimpeded. See the other person glow with pleasure as they bask in the joy and peace that comes with unconditional love.

They may not know what is causing the good feelings, but it will raise them up and they will feel that somehow you are the cause of its presence in their life. Nothing is more beautiful than being the recipient of the powerful flow of unconditional love, and it is the greatest gift you can ever give to another human being.

Question: How do I give unconditional love? It is hard for me to do.

Answer: To give and live unconditional love is not hard, it is simple. That is because this unconditional love does not come from you, it only flows through you. You, as with every other man and woman on earth, have access to all the love in the universe. All you need to do is let it flow through you. In other words, don’t put up any resistance to allowing it to flow and it will, of its own accord, flow to you and through you. All you need to do is ask for peace and love. A good way to do this is to use the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi – “Make me a channel of your peace.” If you make this your daily prayer, you will be filled with peace and unconditional love.

This peace and unconditional love will take nothing from you as it passes, but rather will leave joy and peace within you as it travels to others. When you see it as a gift rather than a burden, you will have no difficulty giving this unconditional love to all those in your life. You will see that each and every one of them is a blessing to you and sharing God’s love will become a wonder and a joy. Giving unconditional love is just part of going with the flow of your life.

When you make it your intention to give unconditional love, you will have the life of your dreams. This is because what you put out into the world comes back to you. It will not be very long before you begin to notice that love is flowing to you in direct proportion to that which you are sharing. How good is that!