Tips to Get the Most from Personal Growth Conferences When You’re Bombarded by Wisdom–Today’s New Tech Tools Help!

So you’re intent on finding better ways to live and expanding your consciousness, but you’re easily overwhelmed by the all that fabulous wisdom coming at you in one big dose when attending a conference…what to do and how to retain it? 

With Hay House publishing’s extraordinary I Can Do It! conferences in San Jose in March and Atlanta in April–chock full of luminaries and emerging leaders, and attended by thousands–it’s a good time to examine what works and what doesn’t. 

And fortunately, some of the new technologies that are changing our lives are helping us to retain much of this content. 

So here are some tips for soaking it all in and fostering growth: 

• Where it was impractical to take notes with a laptop in previous years given space restrictions and limited battery power, today’s tablets are the perfect easy and rechargeable way to keep tabs on the important concepts you want to preserve. They are so self contained you can indeed use them regardless of your seating conditions. But don’t try to take photographs as these are almost always forbidden during such speaker conferences. 
   
• Don’t have a tablet? Use your smart phone. You may well have a “filing cabinet” to contain information, but it may not have a lot of memory, so just hit the high points.
   
• Tweet those memorable lines! That will not only share the wisdom with your followers, it’ll give you a record you can go back and retrieve.
   
• When all else fails, take notes the old fashioned way! With pen/pencil and notebook.
      
• Focus your note-taking on the speakers who are the most important to you so you don’t come home overloaded with so much content you are discouraged from even returning to it.
   
• Or simply record just the headline concepts across the board—those key phrases or concepts with which you truly resonate and which create a “shift” for you.
   
• If you are a book buyer, either get the books at the conference, or (if you don’t want to carry them), buy and download them to an ereader quickly, so the information is fresh. And if your ereader allows you, highlight the critical concepts. 
   
• And the last step is the most important—list the actions you will take to implement what you’ve just learned, and then act on the list! There’s no short- cut to that part. You’ll simply have to do the work!   

And should you be in the mood for a little wisdom, personal growth, motivation and inspiration, look no further than the I Can Do It! conferences March 17-18 in San Jose and April 14-15 in Atlanta, to use these new skills! You’ll learn from such luminaries as Dr. Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay, Marianne Williamson, Doreen Virtue, Carolyn Myss, Cheryl Richardson, Brian Weiss, Gregg Braden and other emerging leaders!

For info, go to http://www.hayhouse.com/tour_details.php?tour_id=109.

Join me at the Conscious Life Expo at the LAX Hilton, I’ll be signing books this Saturday, Feb. 11 at 10-11:30 a.m in the Findhorn Press booth. Bring a friend…hope to see you there!

Recently my physical trainer gave me an ultimatum: only one “I can’t” during a session. The second one earns me extra repetitions! When you are lifting huge weights and you are fatigued, you really have to think twice about uttering that “C” word. By nature, people are self-limiting. We seem never to have enough faith or lack of fear to push beyond the point that we envision for ourselves. As my trainer Jack has shown me, I can do more than I think I can if I just do it slowly and carefully, increasing a bit each time.

So I challenge you to go 30 days without saying “I can’t.” And set a consequence for each time you do. I guarantee this will make you think twice about limiting yourself and it will open up new horizons and new self-confidence. Most of all, it will make you a more positive high frequency person!

Morning is rebirth, renewal and re-ignition! It is a beautiful time to engage your connection with the divine, set your intentions for the day and step fully into your empowerment as a heart-centered light-being on the planet.

Each morning you can leave behind what was, what you did before, who did what to you in the past and how you did things previously. It’s a new day! But we often tend to slip backward if we don’t deliberately and consciously create separation from the past. Morning Rituals are a wonderful way to create that divide, and remind us of our brilliant power for reinvention of ourselves…a power that is indeed supported by our supreme Source.

I use my Morning Ritual to make a deliberate connection to God each day, to establish my gratitude, to ground myself, to consciously choose to come from a place of love, to set my intentions for the day and to infuse myself with the essence of spiritual light for that which I wish to manifest in myself.

You can create or build your Morning Rituals around whatever purposes you deem most empowering in your life. So here are some that you can mix and match to create the ideal Morning Ritual for you.

• Grounding—Oftentimes we are very much in our heads or “have our heads in the clouds.” This is especially true for people who exist more in their spiritual or intellectual world than the practical world. But even for those who are savvy at negotiating the “real world,” it is important to first ground yourself each day. Plant your feet shoulder-length apart, and see roots coming from your feed embedded into the Earth. You can also see yourself connected by a string of golden light coming down from above through your meridian and then into the ground. Another way to ground is to wrap your arms around a tree.

• Opening to Source, Connecting to Source—Deliberately open the portal between you and Source, allowing energy, wisdom and guidance to flow into you. Personally, I sweep my arms up and around in a welcoming or opening gesture and say, “I am in the flow” to ensure that I am aligning with the Universe.

• Setting General Intentions—Each morning I set my intention to have a day filled with joy, love and prosperity, and to be of service to others. I ask for ease and effortlessness in all things. I seek to be more in my heart than acting from my head. I set my intention to trust the Universe and listen to guidance. My newest intention is to find wonder and beauty everywhere. What intentions can you set for yourself?

I’ll let Rita Roberts, my dear friend and colleague, share with you what she does for her Morning Ritual intentions: “When I wake up in the morning, before my feet touch the floor I set my intentions and align myself with them (important to do both). I say: ‘Today is a great day and EVERYTHING I need is in my path.’ I make a commitment to stay true to what’s in my heart and follow those desires because this is the path that’s lined with answers and provision. I pray that God opens my eyes to see the answers that He’s already provided. I remind myself that I too will be an answer for someone today. I also remind myself that I am well loved and provided for. I set an intention to give my best, appreciate myself and see the best in others and to be of assistance to others. I am then poised for love, progress and adventure at every turn. With all of this in mind, I set my feet on the floor beside my bed and take my first step of the day into purpose and provision. ”

• Setting Specific Intensions for or Consciously Create Your The Day—Create, review, construct specific intentions for that particularly day…what would you desire to see happen, with who would you like to have peaceful, successful and collaborative meetings, how will you care for your health, what will you see yourself accomplishing, how do you see your relationship unfolding…etc.

• Infusing Spiritual Light—Select the light that you would like to infuse in your body for protection, for change, for enlightenment, for manifestation or for personal growth. Here are the ones I use daily: golden light for empowering Source energy, a mix of sparkling silver and gold for manifestation, sparking pink for love, sparkling peach for joy, yellow for wisdom, green for health, blue for calmness and serenity, purple for spirituality. There are a number of books in our ManifestBooks.com inventory which provide guidance on the various colors.

• Expressing Gratitude—Beginning your day with an expression of gratitude helps clear out negativity and raises your frequency. You can write or recite lists of things for which you are grateful or just allow your heart to express what inspires it that day. I always begin my Morning Ritual with “Thank you for the blessings of this beautiful day.” And often conclude with the statement: “Thank you for all the blessings I have now and all that are yet to come.”

• Being Love, Flowing Love—It is always my desire to be more loving and compassionate, to continue to open my heart. If this is also your desire, than put yourself in a state of love when you do your Ritual. Be love, see it flow from your heart throughout your body, or up from the ground through every pour or down from the heavens into your crown chakra. Then stay for a minute in that state before flowing your love out to the world.

• Clearing Chakras—It is often pleasant to do a little energetic housecleaning to start the day. This means doing a short meditation to clear your chakras of all blockages and expunge the dark unwanted energy that clogs up the free flow.

• Meditating/Guided Meditations—Your Morning Ritual can include a period of meditation to create inner peace and to allow for guidance to come through. You can do this on your own or with a guided meditation on CD or iPod.

• Going to the 5th Dimension—Imagine you are in the fifth dimension where all dimensions are connected by a grid of light. See yourself as you desire to be. Then ask to see all those individuals who can assist you with whatever you may need that day. Imagine them lighting up on the grid and then once identified, connecting to you by a beam of light, heart to heart.

• Affirmations—Speak any affirmations that you have created for yourself that inspire you to become what you desire and who you desire to be.

• Doing Yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gong or other slow-movement spiritually-strengthening exercise—Many people like to add a physical component to their day. General exercise is great, but these types of intentional slow-movement spiritual practices are very compatible with a daily Morning Ritual.

• Asking Questions…Ask questions that can open guidance, wisdom and opportunity for you. For example, “How can I experience love today, How can I serve, How can I have a day of grace-filled ease and effortlessness, How can I be in wonder?”

• Burning Candles, Incense—These types of sensory aids can also help open the door for morning spiritual inspiration and anchoring intention.

• Listening to or Dancing to Inspiring Music—You can set the mood with music or start your day with body movement to music that inspires you and opens your soul to joy.

• Singing, Chanting—Whether you sing in the shower, sing praises to God, sing Buddhist chants, or just sing whatever is in your heart, uplifting your voice in song is a wonderful way to enhance a Morning Ritual.

• Journaling or Writing Lists—Grab that pen and starting writing. You can put your intentions in writing, pour out whatever is in your mind and heart or write lists of affirmations. Writing is a way to deepen your connection with God and create alignment.

So go forth and create or refine your Morning Ritual so that it serves to manifest your highest soul purpose and greatest joy!

It is only through facing our fears and difficulties that we can find creative and effective solutions.

by Shakti Gawain, ”The Path of Transformation” 

“To have abundance, we need only to consciously receive what has already been given.” – Sufi saying

I’ll be signing copies of my latest book ”Practical Conscious Creation: Daily Techniques to Manifest Your Desires” at the following locations.

Saturday, December 10, 1-3pm – The Hummingbird and the Honey Bee 1414 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd, Suite 103, Thousand Oaks, CA (805) 495-5824

Sunday, December 11, 3pm -The Bodhi Tree Bookstore 8585 Melrose Ave, West Hollywood, CA 310-659-1733

I look forward to seeing you there!