December 21^st brings the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, and also  a kind of fulcrum, called a point of highest culmination, on which an important, natural shift happens as we  head into longer days moving toward spring.

This idea of “point of highest culmination” can be described through the concept of yin and yang. In Chinese medicine, we see everything in life as a continuum of yin and yang – the light moving toward dark, and the dark toward light. It is a cycle, like everything in our world. This day is a pinnacle, the highest point of culmination, and a shift begins to happen as we move toward more light.

Think of a ball that is pushed up to the top of a mountain. When it gets to the top, momentum moves it down the other side of the hill. As the ball rolls down the mountainside, its momentum will move it partway up the next hill. This constant shifting – in this case between the momentum of the ball speeding down and its movement back up again –is like the shift from yin to yang, and yang to yin.

So what do we do with this type of “energy?” This is the perfect time to go into the “darkness” or seek your answers within. Darkness is not bad. It is simply dark. It is the opposite of light and part of the law of polarity — everything has an equal and exact opposite. The dark is the inward yin that balances the outward yang of light.

We go inside seeking our own true knowing – for we all carry that thread that connects us to each other, and to the divine.  If you are connected to the divine, then you have the wisdom you need inside of you. But, because we’ve been trained from birth to look outside of ourselves for information and learning (and of course, we do need that, too), we stop trusting our own knowing.

Here’s a great ritual to dive deeply into your own inner wisdom to set you up for the next phase of movement, forward into 2014. What’s cool about this is – you don’t need to make this into a performance piece, or worry if you’re doing it right. It’s just an exploration. Trust yourself. You’ll figure it out!

• Light a candle. Get quiet. Close your eyes.
• Take a few deep breaths in and out focusing only on your breath, until you feel your body begin to relax and unwind.
• Ask yourself the following question (it’s coming!) without needing to know the answer. That is the trick – just ask it, stay quiet and watch, like you’re waiting for a movie to start. Let the answers start to float forward. They might come in pictures, in words, in sensations, without words.
• This exploration within might take you a minute, or 15; it doesn’t matter. Just sit with it, and let the answers bubble to the surface, trusting you know what those are – or at least some of them.
• Here’s your question: What do I need to know right now?
• Just watch that question go deep into your place of knowing. (You don’t even need to know what that means, because it might be different for every one of us). Let it continue to develop. If strange concepts or words come up, just let them. You’re just observing, not engaged. Don’t try to figure it out…just be with it.
• When you feel you are complete (whatever that feels like to you, you’ll know) open your eyes.
• Walk over to your desk or writing table, and begin writing about what came up for you. Write until you feel as if you have an understanding or feel complete.
• If you’d like to take this further as you plan your 2014, continue, and answer the following:

• While we understand that all in the universe is designed for more life, no matter if it’s seemingly destructive (think compost): What in 2013 worked or do you see as good? Make a list.
• What in 2013 did not work out as you’d intended or wanted?
• What lessons did you learn?
• What, based on what you remember and “got” in your meditation, and what you learned in these questions, will be your main focus for 2014? It could be a phrase or a word. This is going to be my year of ________________.

When you do an exercise like this, it’s pretty fascinating what comes up. Then, when you have your word or phrase, you have something to apply to every decision you need to make in 2014. Will this bring me closer to my goal during this year of  __________ ? It should be a pretty clear yes or no answer most of the time!

Enjoy the process and share it with your friends and colleagues. They might be quite appreciative!

“Desire is the effort of the unexpressed possibility within, seeking expression without through your action.”  Wallace Wattles

We all have dreams. Desires. How does the desire come to be realized?

The answer is always this: When behavior matches desire.

What does that mean? You have to live as if what you want is coming to you, and it is coming to you now. It is not enough to just wish for something. When you have a desire, you have to ask yourself what behaviors need to occur in order to achieve the desire? How do you need to BE in order to achieve what you want?

This is a question I ask myself regularly: “Is this how a successful and confident business owner would act?”  I answer my own question and then act accordingly.

As much as we’d love to believe that simply visualizing is enough—it isn’t. Visualizing is important, but you must also behave according to your desire. Think of it as if you are living “from” the goal – not to it.  That means that you behave as if the achievement of your desire is already set in motion. When you live to the goal, it means there is a gap from where you are now to where you want to be. That feels frustrating. We spend too much time looking at the gap (or at what we don’t have or can’t achieve) that we stay focused on that lack. Remember, what you focus on you get! You are putting the energy into what you don’t have. The result of doing that is the universe is answering you, based on your actions which are based on your thoughts.

Instead, give yourself the experience of winning – even if just a little bit at a time. Create winning situations, go out on a limb and do something that assumes what you want will come true. Example: doing something that scares you a little. .  Be daring, be bold. Step out of your habitual patterns and act as if your desire is moving toward you, right now, in this moment.

I can hear a lot of internal dialogue going on right now: “I’m not good enough, worthy enough, young/old enough, thin enough.” And then there’s this: “What if I fail? What will they think of me – if I fail OR succeed?”  I know this voice, because I’ve heard it in my own head.  It is  the “I’m not worthy” voice.

That thought process needs to change, and it needs to change NOW. I’ll say this again: Spirit did not create any of us more deserving than another. If you have the desire, you have the ability to create whatever it is you want. Spirit doesn’t say you are not worthy and someone else is.

You know, the interesting thing about the universe is that it actually doesn’t really care whether you are a good person or a bad person. It has laws governing it that exist regardless of how nice you are. For example, if you step off a building, you will fall no matter how nice you are. It is the law of gravity.

Universal laws exist because they are laws. They don’t have a conscience, they simply are. The Law of Polarity states that if there’s a negative, there’s a positive. If there’s an up, there’s a down. If there’s a negative cash flow, there has to be a positive cash flow. It’s there. And when your behavior demonstrates that you know it’s there, it starts moving toward you faster and faster.

So, your behavior needs to keep pace with your desire. Ask yourself what does your behavior tell you. Are you acting like a successful business owner? Are you acting as a woman who commands respect in her relationship? Are you behaving like you’re expecting what you want to come forward?

Remember, life mirrors what’s going on inside. You have to BE the person who invests in herself in a program to take you to the next level, who takes the risk of calling that guy you’ve been wanting to go out with, takes the job you’re scared of taking, or raises your fees so that they are commensurate with the value you are providing your client.

Remember, all creations come first as a desire in the mind and heart: the lightbulb, the airplane, the computer and the cell phone were all just once someone’s desire.  When you recognize the desire within yourself, it points the way. And then you have to maintain that vision. Feed it every day with emotionally charged, positive thoughts. The emotions amp up the power of your thoughts and send your desire out to the universe in a super-charged way!

Lastly, you will only find what you want when you look for it and expect it. Henry Ford said, “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”

So what do you think?