Consciousness Known by Rhonda O'Brien

Chapter taken from Light, channeled by Rhonda O'Brien

We were all placed on this planet for a reason: in some way or another we are all benefiting from being here right here and now. There are no coincidences here. By the same token we can, all, also benefit the Earth by being here right here and now. We (each and every one of us) can help to change the seemingly dire plight of our mother Earth. The only problem lies in each and every one of us realizing just how important our role in this mission is and, most importantly, how important we are (plain and simple.)

We are all healers. Let me repeat: we are all healers. (Yes, even you.) People, like you and me, have been healing ourselves not by the magic of some pill, not by the magic of one person’s knowledge, but by our faith that we could find the cure or the solution to our own problem for hundreds upon thousands of years. We can heal ourselves of anything and everything, without books, without pills, without doctors, without anything other than ourselves and our belief. We are self-sufficient packages that CAN care for and help ourselves without any additives. We have just been relying on our professionals and our magic pills for so long that we don’t think otherwise.

We are powerful beyond measure. We can heal ourselves, we can heal each other and we can heal this planet Earth, but first we must first heal ourselves. I cannot emphasize enough how important this primary step is. For in all actuality this Earth is a direct reflection of us. We are hurting; therefore, the precious Earth that we live on and rely on so heavily is hurting as well. Since we are the source of all of this suffering, healing the wound evidenced on the Earth without healing the source would only prove to be a temporary solution. And much like cancer the tumor and the turmoil will surface once again until the source of the illness is healed.

Now I cannot say for certain what all of us are suffering from. In most cases I can say for certain that we all lack a sense of purpose. We are milling around looking for something, anything to do, because truly, many of us have not taken the time to look inside ourselves for any substantial amount of time. We are too easily distracted by all of the activity going on around us: the drama, the excitement, and the play. We are, in fact, overworked, over-tired and overwhelmed, because we just plain are doing too much at once and we are not able to do it all with much success. We simply do not have the time or the energy to put our all into any one thing making us feel like we are just barely floating above water, not really excelling or accomplishing much.

Much more could and would be done if we just slloooooowwwweeed doooooownnn. We can all do this, I promise, even those of you that put in 80+ hours a week at the office. You might benefit the most from this sort of restructuring of your time frame. Just think, if you just adjusted your clocks, allowed things to happen on their own schedule, things, most of the things that really needed to be done would be completed with a bit more thoroughness rather than being rushed through. Now, of course, maybe we couldn’t finish everything on our list, and some of the less important tasks could drop to the wayside as they naturally, sometimes, do.

Some of you might find that with less on your mind, less pressure to complete a million tasks you work more consciously creating better products in less time. I would be willing to bet that so much of our energy is being diverted in so many directions that many of us can hardly focus on one task long enough to finish one project in one sitting. So much energy is wasted in transitioning from one activity to another. It takes time and energy to move back and forth and back again between projects and all that does go on in our lives that it is amazing that any of us are able to accomplish anything at all.

“So how do we get there from here?” I hear many of us asking. Our “to do” lists are already sky high and piling up higher and higher, how do we determine what is worth our energy and what is not? Well that, really, is up to you. What I recommend doing is looking through these lists and then making two separate lists from the existing lists or starting a new list-making procedure in which there is one column for the absolute essential work and then another column containing things that you can do, if you want, after the first list is completed. Now what many of you will find is that you cannot separate your two lists, because everything seems necessary. Now let’s highlight the things that we think that we must do to please others. Some of us might have a lot of highlighted items and some of us might have a few. But, undoubtedly, we all have a few items that fall under this category, because, no matter who or what you are, we all have a need to please others.

Now with this list of highlighted items I want you to ask yourself whom this pleases and why you think that you need to please this person. Now, at this point, many of us are crossing some things off of our list, for it really does seem silly that we try so hard to please others often times sacrificing our own happiness time and time again. The fact is that we are all right and the people that truly like us for who and what we are like us regardless of what we do for them. And if people only like us for the things that we do for them then they really are not true friends or your relationship with them is tenuous to begin with and nothing you do will please them or win you the acceptance that you are seeking.

If you want true acceptance then the only person that you need to look to is yourself. Once you begin to love and accept yourself all instantly becomes much, much easier. Instead of beating yourself up constantly, (which we all do entirely too much of) you are able to support and nurture yourself and all of the marvelous things that you do. Really it makes a world of difference. So let’s all stop beating ourselves up and, instead, acknowledge the greatness in all of us from time to time. You will be surprised at how much of a difference this simple change can make in your life.

Also, it is important to note that life is a process and realize that we can and do make mistakes and, hopefully, we learn from these mistakes only to do better next time. And even if we don’t learn and do better next time then there will be the next time and the next time after that. We can and do make mistakes, but that does not mean that we are wrong or bad or stupid. Luckily we do make mistakes because sometimes mistakes are the greatest opportunities to learn in life.

And that is a major point that I would like to leave this portion of the book with: we are all here to learn. If we were not here to learn then we would be somewhere else doing something else. This is a planet in which much can and will be learned by the individuals who chose to come here. I will not get into much depth here, but in other planes and on other planets, beings might be teaching more than learning or mastering more than learning, but here we have all chosen, in one way or another, to learn. So as active, anxious learners, we should be able to embrace this life and all of its opportunities for growth and learning even if that does mean embracing the hardest times in our lives.

Copyright © 2010 Rhonda O'Brien. All Rights Reserved.

We have yet to decide

Chapter taken from Light, channeled by Rhonda O'Brien.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, please just take this as a warning and not an absolute prophecy, as our present and future is constantly changing depending on the attitudes that we adapt in our day to-day lives. In fact, we are not victims of these prophecies or gloom and doom predictions unless we believe them to be true and do nothing to change the outlook of our future. In other words, what I am about to say will not necessarily happen unless we believe it to be true and do nothing from this day forward to change the future.

What I see happening here on Earth, in the future, if nothing is done today to change this pattern of dissemination, is destruction. I see rivers overflowing killing all in its path. I see rainstorms of tremendous weight nearly knocking out whole civilizations. I see people running and screaming for help hindering and hurting those around him/her just for his/her mere survival. I see that those that survive are destined for a more hellish existence than those that die instantly. I see mass destruction, first at the hands of nature, and then at the hands of those that remain on Earth. Imagine all of the horrible stories shared about people traveling the Oregon Trail and surviving off of the tragedies of others, imagine this multiplying itself and one story becomes millions of stories of cannibalism, rape and pillaging. In this instance, this life here on Earth will become hell, a raging and singeing fire encompassing all.

I do not know how to make this any clearer. I don’t want to scare people, but maybe that is what it will take. Maybe Mother Nature will pump out one more scare that will really make us think seriously about how we are treating ourselves and each other. Maybe Mother Nature will convince us of her awesome power and humble us into feeling some reverence for her strengths. She is awesome and beautiful and powerful and she could just as easily be something that we feared and hated. For instance, fire is an awesome tool of destruction wreaking havoc on many beings, beasts and living things. At the same time, it also breeds life by rejuvenating fields, foliage and grasses and it brings heat and light by which we cook, keep warm and read. Fortunately for us, many of us have a deep reverence for the incredible force called fire. Let’s start having the same reverence for all of life.

So enough of the gloom and doom prophesies. I am done with that. It is certainly not something that I like to mention or talk about or even think about, but let’s face it denial has never done much to remedy the problem. And, unfortunately, we do not have much time before us, before things get to the point that they will start looking grim and then grimmer and then before you know it there is not much that we can do except for survive our impending future. But let me assert this one last time, this WILL happen UNLESS something is done now, right now, to prevent it.

Let’s move on now to how feasible it is to make change and the fact that all change must happen on a personal, relatively small basis rather than on a grand scale in order for true and lasting change to prevail. We are all responsible, in one way or another, for what has happened and will happen to the wonderful planet that we call Earth. We are all responsible because we all part of the Earth. Some people may care more or less than others, but the fact remains that if this ship goes down we are all sinking. Some may not like that analogy, but let’s face it we are all dependent on our mother Earth and no matter what scientists say we are not going to create the technology to convince mother nature that she is in good health. She knows better and we all know better as we gaze across our pollution-laden sky; drink our chemically pregnant waters and our processed, toxic foods. We are hurting.

Perhaps it is too hard for us to see, but please just see what is before you and know that you can change the future for the better and you can start to make these changes today and this does not entail some grand gesture on your part. It merely takes the effort. So what I ask you to do is to ask yourself what it is that you can do today to make this Earth a better place to live in tomorrow. Many of us might start with, “Well I can join the Peace Corps and help the starving nations,” or, “I can chain myself to trees or I can start a recycling group at work or I can do this or that.” I ask you one thing, “Can you for sure do this the next day and the next?” If you answer, “No,” then reconsider your solution.

I want you to think of something that you can do today and tomorrow and the next day and then I want to ask you if you are willing to do this same thing, day after day after day. Only when you answer, “Yes,” will I say then this is the answer, because we do not need some sort of grand gesture or quick fix, we need concrete, long-term change.

So, many of you might find that you can turn off the faucet more than you turn it on or you might find that you are able to recycle and make an effort to collect recyclable goods at work (if they aren’t already being collected), or you might find that composting the piles of natural matter is not so difficult after all, or you might find that you enjoy commuting by public transportation better than bearing the rush hour traffic. You might find that making a change is not so difficult and you might find that your small effort begins to make a great big difference in the long run. For instance, if you could just collect all of the unnecessary water coming from the faucet you might find that you have a whole bathtub full of saved water in just one day. You might find that after a month your whole car would be filled up with recycled matter and you might find that a year of composting adds up to 5 refrigerators full of food that is now processed into precious, life-giving matter. Who says that a little change doesn’t go a long way? In fact, lasting and permanent change, no matter how small on the onset, adds up and it adds up quickly. By your one small act, multiplied over and over you might make as much of an impact as a millionaire donor who makes a platinum contribution to a well-known environmentalist group. Unfortunately, you might not get the “thank you” letters or gifts, but you will know that you are making a difference and changing the Earth for the better and that eventually this will pay off.

The scary part is that if we don’t act soon these relatively small gestures will not be enough no matter how many of us act. We are running short on time and we cannot borrow time or money to remedy the problems that we are about to face. Wake up! It is time to act NOW not later. I do not tease when I talk of such matters and yet I apologize because it seems that I say the same thing over and over again. If I did not persist you might ignore me, but you still might ignore me and I realize this, but you will probably get my point in some way or another even if it means that you put down this book for good.

I am willing to take this risk because there are many who will listen and take heed from this day forward and know that each day that we have here on Earth is sort of borrowed time. Time is precious and it could some day run out. This is not a threat just a reality and, unfortunately, not many of us see it this way. We are fortunate to be here, lucky to be thriving as we are and lucky that our resources have not run out up to this point. However, we are also forewarned that all of these blessings may some day run out and that this is the time to make some serious and conscientious changes for the future of our country, our nation, our people, our beings and all of life here on Earth.

Now this is not to say that we are all going to perish some terribly awful way. Some will die, some will remain, but existence will certainly be a lot more challenging for all. There is good and bad in all, of course. Life will remain and people will learn to live and survive under these dire circumstances and, eventually, all will be forced to respect all life. This being a necessary lesson in order for all to live in peace and prosperity. By the same token, death is not such a terrible end, as it is quite inevitable for all. Death is quite a natural process in all of life. When it comes down to the final, Earthly moments many of us will find that death is quite a beautiful thing, something to rejoice about rather than mourn and that up to this moment there are few experiences quite as nice. Of course, that is for us all to see in our own time and manner. But please just note that death, no matter how atrocious we see it to be, is quite necessary and natural phase of life.

So if we do all suffer because of our abuses on nature, all will still be okay. It is not as if we have angered the Gods and will forever be punished at the hands of vengeful spirits. No, rather, it is that there is a cause and effect relationship at hand: we have not taken care of our gentle Earth mother and now she can no longer take care of us as well as she once had.

I must promptly point out, however, that there is no negative without the positive, ever. And note that no matter what happens all is well. Through our experiences, no matter what they may be, we always, or hopefully always, learn from our experiences. From these experiences we have a good grasp on the next step that we may take and so we are constantly working, with the past in mind, in the present to create the future. And so know that no matter how bad things may get all is okay.

There is a reason for every and all challenges in life; therefore, the impact on us, personally, is not as grave as it is on this beautiful planet. It will take years upon years upon years for this wonderful place to host as many inhabitants as comfortably, as it once had. It will go through some very dry, lean years, in which the fruits of the Earth will be few and far between. Also, the soils will be ravaged by the tremendous strength of the storm systems that will be moving through its ground at record-breaking strength. Still she will prevail.

There will be people, many different beings from many, different places who will survive. These will be the more transient, earth-friendly peoples who already live directly off of the land or have not lost their ability or knowledge to do so. These people will survive and grow in population, although, very slowly, for peoples and land need to be in balance and when you are living directly off of the land, as they will be, you must maintain this balance else famine and illness prevail. Nature has its own monitoring system: death eliminates all imbalance(s).

So we shall not worry about the earth or the survival of all peoples; what we must worry about is ourselves. We will survive in one way or another. Either we will physically survive this great travesty or we will perish only to be reborn into a new life form. What we must worry about is that we will learn, as learning is a major part of this lifetime. However, will we learn what is necessary so that we will not have to endure such torment over and over again? Or are we going to learn before the learning gets tough or tougher?

Basically are we going to get it? Are we going to see the innate structure to all that is? Are we going to see that we are all intricately connected beings who cannot as much as think without moving this liquid thing called life and all others involved?

OK, enough said. I hope that we get it before the price of the message is too, too costly.

Copyright © 2010 Rhonda O'Brien. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter taken from Light, channeled by Rhonda O'Brien.

There is no difference between us and those beings that we revere highly. We are those gods and goddesses and beings of omnipotent power.

The problem lies not in ridding ourselves of those habits, behaviors, thoughts and feelings that differentiate us from the great. Rather, the problem lies in seeing that we are this world, the universe that surrounds and awes and inspires us. We are that world, we are its equals, we are as immense and wonderful and beautiful as it all and we cannot stop being that unless we chose, or inadvertently chose, to do so. And we are choosing each and every day to do just that. We choose to be less than all of the perfection that we see outside of ourselves and we choose so through the way that we think, act, see, perceive, interpret, experience and are in this universe.

We start to think that we are inferior from about the day that we are born, not that we do so by our own choosing, but because that is the way that our parents and those that surround us feel. We feel that we are inferior and less than perfect because those that preceded us have thought this way because those that preceded them thought that way because those that preceded them thought that way and so on and so forth.

We think that we are less than perfect because that is the way that we, as a whole, have thought about human beings for a very long time. It is almost as though we have all inherited this belief and no one has really de-mystified this myth since its original induction into the conscious and unconscious minds of human beings. We are all victim to this one ludicrous mind or idea that plagued one, maybe few individuals and eventually crept into the hearts and minds of all.

It is time that this myth ends. It is time for us to all rejoice in our own perfection and know that this is one thing that we cannot change about ourselves no matter how hard we try. We are perfect and everything that we say, do, feel and think is a direct reflection of this innate perfection.

The only thing that prevents us from shining is our belief that we are not perfect. Unfortunately, this is something that we all must battle at some point or another. We must all stand up and proclaim our perfection, our greatness, claim what is innately ours even though the rhythm and flow of life would lead us to believe otherwise. It is not that there are a few individuals that have run askew and destroyed our rain forests, ozone layers, oceans, water reserves, land, crops, and overall environment. No, for the most part, we have all contributed, consciously or unconsciously, to the destruction of our life force called Earth. Not that we have all actively contributed, but we have all tolerated pollution, exploitation and over-use of Earth for years and years and years. Now it is coming to a point of crisis. We all must stand up and out and fight against the crimes that we contribute to on a daily basis. We contribute by not recycling, by buying into companies that don’t cooperate and recycle and abuse the natural resources and by tolerating politicians who are more concerned about being reelected to office than the pressing matters of the environment.

The point is not to lay blame: we are all responsible. The point is to draw your attention to an increasingly pressing matter. Our environment is in very bad shape. If we continue as we have up to this date, we will not be able to support our daily water and nutritional needs, not to mention that many of us will not be able to get enough fuel to start a fire to cook one’s daily meals. It will be bad, (there is no denying) if we do not do something and soon. Believe me, I wish that these words were not true. I wish that what I was saying was some sort of myth that the radical, leftist groups have supposedly been making up for years upon years. This is no lie. Action must be taken soon to reverse years upon years of neglect, misunderstanding and abuse.

We are all responsible for our lives. We are by no means victims of ANYTHING. We are all constantly creating our own reality. We might see things in this way because it is much easier for us to see it the way that we do. The fact of the matter is that we would feel pretty stupid if we admitted that we had to enter a really troublesome relationship in order to learn to respect ourselves a bit more. The fact of the matter is that we would feel stupid if we admitted that we throw all of our money down the drain so that we might learn a bit of humility.

The fact of the matter is that the whole lesson is the point of every single experience, no matter how stupid or ridiculous or violent or what. The point is that we are here on Earth to learn and sometimes we have to learn things the hard way, but that is fine. Because regardless of how we all do manage to learn.

So the next time that you want to go, run and point the finger at this person, or company or incident, consider what it is that you have to gain from this experience. Learn the lesson and learn it well so that you don’t have to go through another troubling experience to learn it all over again. We are here to learn and learn we must: for some it is the easy way, but for most it is the hard way. That is okay as long as we learn.

Coming back to my main point the only thing stopping you from being better, from overcoming any and all obstacles is you. Blaming others does nothing to propel you forward. Start today. Start making an example, through your life, of how all beings are direct reflections of the God/Goddesses within. Try it...you will not believe the difference that it makes in your day-to-day existence.

Copyright © 2010 Rhonda O'Brien. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter taken from Light, channeled by Rhonda O'Brien.

We start this dialog with a mere reminder of our purpose in this lifetime. Our lives are a mere succession of different life spans in which we set up different circumstances and challenges which will eventually or not so eventually lead us to enlightenment. In other words, we are constantly learning and moving to a state in which we can see more clearly.

We are set before or rather we choose to be set before a number of challenges in each lifetime. As you set yourself up for each of these challenges, you know that you will some day successfully overcome all that is blocking you. You are assured success, even if it does take you awhile. At the same time, these challenges are just so that they can make you stretch just a little bit more than you have previously stretched yourself before. After all, how interesting would it be to put together the same puzzle over and over again?

We are assured success because innately we know everything that I am writing in these pages and every lesson that is out there to be learned. Well you may be asking why are we learning the same lessons all over again? Well the answer is simple in that we are all of one mind and every piece of advice, knowledge or wisdom is just as easily accessed as a thought, feeling or emotion. Just as we can evoke tears, we can evoke wisdom. It is all out there for the taking if only we make ourselves aware of such a bank of incredible wisdom, believe that we can possess and hold and utilize this wisdom, and listen when wisdom is whispered, spelled out or demonstrated in our everyday lives.

Many of us are witnesses to enlightenment every moment of our lives. The process of life and death is incredible and, if one were perceptive enough, one would learn something new or re-experience something wonderful with each breath that we inhale or exhale each and every moment of this lifetime. We are not perceptive enough only because we are not in the habit of being so. Many of us lost this ability soon after birth when we learned other, non-telepathic ways of communicating to those that surrounded us. It is a shame that most of us have lost this ability, however, the good news is that, with practice, we can all easily regain this very special skill. It certainly would make our lives a lot simpler. Imagine how easy it would be to communicate without the sticky, technicality we call language. Language, race, religion, gender and creed would no longer leave confusion and misunderstanding amongst people. We would instantly know what others were thinking without all of the guesswork. I would imagine that all peoples would get along a lot better than they currently are.

The beauty of this all is that every being has the potential to teach these lessons throughout his/her lifetime. One may teach a lesson by example. Either his/her light will teach and inspire or his/her actions will teach and show others how not to live or that certain beliefs and patterns do not work. Martin Luther King Jr. taught us that love, peace and faith could lead to tremendous change. Whereas, leaders like Stalin taught us that force, unfeeling and overall negativity breeds nothing but suffering and unhappiness. I am sure that everyone can find examples of people who have inspired them through their examples whether these examples taught them what works or their actions taught others what does not work. In this way all of our lives are sacred. We all have the ability to teach others even if that is not what we set out to do.

Copyright © 2010 Rhonda O'Brien. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter taken from Light, channeled by Rhonda O'Brien.

Let me just begin by saying that this is not me, these are not my words. I could never have created such brilliance or marvelous light to shine upon the universe. I am merely a vessel, a pole, a union between human beings and other sources of wisdom or knowledge. I cannot directly link myself with this work. I can, however, say that my hands typed out these words as best as they could when the words came to me.

Now many will wonder, “Did she talk to spirits?” The answer is, “Yes.” The answer is also “No.” You see these messages, thoughts, theories, whatever you want to call them traveled through another being, but the original source is somewhat more ambiguous. This manuscript is the product of all of our thoughts. I am tapping into the “collective unconscious” of several people from many different places, therefore, this is a collaborative piece created by many.

The intent of the creators is not to offend, although many of you might find the messages offensive. Sometimes, in order to move and to change, we must hear the not-so-kind messages of our friends, relatives or others so that we might sit down and ponder our situation and then, hopefully, act to change. This is the intent and the meaning of this book: it is merely meant to be a vehicle for change.

So if you are angered by what you see or hear or feel coming from this book then, yes, maybe you should be angry. But who should you be angry at? The fact that someone or something is pointing this out or that there is great injustice in this great universe? You tell me, but please, please consider the message and please, please consider change. Yes, each of us must consider change, as we are all part of this great big, vast entity called life. And our suffering leads to the suffering of all. We are all connected and as you all now see, we are all suffering. Yet, at the same time we are all desperately grasping for something, anything to heal us and within these pages you will see that healing is possible. Yes complete healing is possible and very likely. However, at this point in time we are chasing down the clock: this healing could, indeed, happen too late. That is, too late to avoid more dramatic and huge amounts of suffering by all.

Well, please enjoy and take what you can from the following pages. It is what you allow it to be. If you want to get angry, get angry. If you want to get sad, get sad. If you want to move to change, then move to change. Feel what you must and act accordingly. Whatever your reaction, it is the right and proper reaction for you. Feel it.

Copyright © 2010 Rhonda O'Brien. All Rights Reserved.

"There are Five 'Haves'-Five things that all must know in order to have complete and total bliss at some portion of one's lifetime, even if it is at the conclusion:

Excerpt taken from His Words, channeled by Rhonda O'Brien.

Copyright © 2010 Rhonda O'Brien. All Rights Reserved.

You cannot solve a problem with the same consciousness that created it.

So I returned from my annual 6 am Black Friday shopping venture feeling really rotten. In retrospect I have a few observations to share.

I think that the notion that Americans have to spend money in order to “save” our economy is part of the problem.

We are suffering, financially, because people, countries, banks, companies cannot pay back money that they have borrowed.

I have a feeling that a lot of the people making purchases on “Black Friday” or any given day are buying on credit. I have to tell you that that doesn’t make me more comfortable about our future as my money sometimes pays for bailing out individuals who cannot pay back their debt.

How about stay at home and bake cookies with your kids, draw, paint, laugh, play Scrabble, tell someone you love them, be present, call a long lost friend, write a note and paste it on your children’s bathroom mirror. Love is not things. If you think that someone will not think that you love them if you don’t get them an “Easy Bake Oven” you are wrong.

What I remember the most about my parents is the one on one time that they gave me. I don’t really even remember the toys, gifts and/or the money. I remember my mom drawing me stick figures, my dad playing sports with me endlessly, my dad watching me at my swim team practice at 6 am, my grandma making a ribbon box with me, etc.

Spend some quality time with the ones that you love instead of plunging deeper into debt. Spending quality time with your loved ones is a louder expression of love than any material item that you can find on the store shelves this winter season or any season.

I first heard about “Shopping Guides” from several of Sonia Choquette’s books. We all have guides, we all have access to special guides like these “Shopping Guides” that help you find bargains.

Although I learned about “Shopping Guides” from Choquette I have been using the gracious services of these guides for years. I always get the best deals on items because I listen when I am prompted to go to a store and I am usually rewarded by either a great deal or a great find.

Here are a few of my most recent “Shopping Guide” finds:


1. I am constantly hunting for bargains. I wanted new outdoor furniture and knew that the end of the summer was when these items would be on super sale. One Sunday I got the feeling that I should go to Kmart. I went and found a single wicker chair with a matching stool which was discounted 75%. I wanted the matching chair to complete the set. I then got the feeling that I should drive an additional 30 min to check out a local store. I didn't find what I was looking for, and was prompted to travel another 15 min to another store.

At this last Kmart I found a beautiful, vintage, wrought iron Martha Stewart bench which was exactly what I was looking for (discounted 75%). I am glad that I kept listening otherwise I would have missed out on this find.

2. I was then looking for the perfect outdoor pillows to match the cute, red, wrought iron bench and was told to go to Home Depot. I went and the perfect red and tan patterned pillows that I got for 50% off.

3. I was told to go to Walgreens where I found the notebooks that I had been looking for for ½ off.

These shopping excursions are more the norm than the exception in my life. Here are few hints on how to hone in your "Shopping Guides" and find the deals out there; there are a lot of deals especially this time of year and given our economic condition.

1. Decide on what you are looking for (be specific if you can); then ask your guides to help you find this/these items.

2. Be open to any feelings, senses, advice, signs that might be guidance as to where these items might be found. For example, if you get the feeling that you should go into a store go into the store and look for the items that you asked to find.

3. Act immediately.

4. Thank your guides for the advice.

5. Continue with step 1; the more often you follow through, act on and show appreciation the more that your guides will help you find the deals.

This is just a small sampling of all the help that I get from my guides. I have been getting similar deals with the help of my guides for years. I have always been a bargain shopper who knew that the deals were out there if you are willing to search for the bargains. I save a lot of effort by not having to do all of the “looking” for deals myself. Thank you “Shopping Guides;” I love you!

Copyright © 2010 Rhonda O'Brien. All Rights Reserved.

I am seeing that 2009, for many, is a year of getting rid of the old or what is not working and making room for what does work. Once you realize this it tends to make the shedding process a little bit easier. It is much like a snake shedding its old, out-moded skin.

I have included this meditation/cleansing exercise that I have channeled to help you through this process.

Take approximately 15 min/week to do this meditation to ease your transition into a newer, brighter you.
· Notice how you are feeling before and after this meditation.
· While focusing on how you feel create a bubble around yourself.
· Inhale d-e-e-p-l-y and exhale d-e-e-p-l-y into the bubble until you feel “empty.”
· When you feel empty ask yourself to be drawn to a part of the bubble that draws your attention.
· Focus on how you feel when near this area of the bubble. Inhale d-e-e-p-l-y and exhale fully expanding the way you feel (i.e. exaggerate that feeling as much as you can).
· Continue to d-e-e-p-l-y inhale and exhale d-e-e-p-l-y making sure to really exaggerate the way that you feel on the exhale. Do this until you feel empty (a sense of calm, peace or nothingness).
· Fill your bubble with a color, any color. Focus on how it feels to be surrounded by this color or ray of light energy. Throughout the day remember to remind yourself that you are surrounded by this ray of light energy, focusing on the color and how you feel surrounded by this bubble.
Copyright © 2010 Rhonda O'Brien. All Rights Reserved.

I believe that we all have access to intuition and that the more attention you pay to your sixth sense the larger it grows. Here are some tips to help you grow your sixth sense:
1. Give gratitude daily (and as often as possible).
2. Meditate 10 minutes a day.
3. If you get an intuitive nudge act on it. The sooner the better.
4. Breathe. When we don’t breath we are cut off from life.
5. Trust.
6. Psychic information comes from the heart so try to remain open-hearted.
7. Practice. Guess the next commercial, what time it is, what someone is about to say, what mail will be in the mailbox, who the letter is from before you look, etc.
8. Write down your dreams. ~ “Dreams are answers to tomorrow’s questions.” Edgar Cayce
9. Ask for signs.
10. Know that you are constantly surrounded by spirit guides that love you and want to help you. Call on them for help often and be ready to hear their answers.

Supplies:
15” round foam wreath form
~12 yards of 1” ribbon to cover the wreath
~5 yards of accent 1” ribbon
~4 yards of accent ¼” ribbon
~4 yards of accent ¼” ribbon
Cranberry Garland
Sewing Pins




Wrap wreath form with base coat of ribbon then accent the base ribbon with your accent ribbons pinning the ribbon to secure. Wrap the wreath with the cranberry garland using the twist tie that come with the packaging to secure. Hang and enjoy your modern, funky and colorful wreath.

I have been trying to save money lately (aren’t we all?) and I was noticing that I wanted a few items in my home: a bookshelf, some curtains and a holiday wreath. I was thinking about how I was going to purchase these items as I am trying not to spend any money at all.

What I came up with was: I had a bookshelf on my porch that I could paint with paint that I already had, I have some curtains that I could sew together that would make a great shabby chic pair of curtains that would go with the whole floral theme of my bedroom and I made my own holiday wreath. Please see instructions on how to make the wreath (since I used some ribbon and a strand of cranberries that I already had it only cost $13 to make).

This brought up the thought that we have abundance around us all of the time sometimes we to look for it in order to find it. Whenever I think that I need more money I think of a story that my friend told me about how she asked had the universe for more money and then in the middle of the night she remembered that her pay washing machine and dryer probably had quarters from the renters who used it to do their laundry. When she checked it in the morning she found $15 that she had but she didn’t know she had.

My friend was telling me that she needed more money and I told her this story and told her to check her coat pockets. She did and she found $11.

Although $15 or $11 doesn’t really increase our bottom line these stories remind me that I do have abundance I just have to see my abundance. A lot of times I just have to appreciate the abundance that already abounds in my life just like I had to see that I already had what I needed. In this case I already had a perfectly beautiful, green bookshelf, hand-crafted curtains and a $13 modern, funky wreath (that people are already commenting on, by the way).

Looks to me like I had a very successful, inexpensive "shopping" venture and came out with some great finds and had a great time discovering, re-inventing and inventing them.

My focus for this month is on gratitude as we approach two holidays of gratitude, giving and family. The first is Thanksgiving, of course. Take yourself back to the first American Thanksgiving meal. Half of the original New England population died in the winter of 1620. Following this tragedy the pilgrims forged a relationship with the Wampanoag tribe who taught them to fish, plant and hunt. By the autumn of 1621 the community had gathered enough food to get them through the winter. In celebration of their bounty they invited the Wampanoag tribe to feast with them for three days.

How would you feel at that moment as you sat down at the table with your bounty surrounded by friends, family and neighbors who were resonating at that same degree of gratitude? Imagine the magnitude of that first “thanks giving.” (I get chills when I think about it).

Now take yourself back to a moment that you might have had that same level of gratitude. It might have been that moment that you realized that your love relationship was “love,” the moment that your lost puppy was found, or it may have been that moment that you reached a major landmark in your own life.

Feel that gratitude as you inhale and as you exhale exaggerate that feeling of gratitude as far as you can. Imagine it expanding out of your body and beyond. Now inhale that gratitude and exhale the gratitude exaggerating the level of gratitude beyond your body and beyond. Now one more time.

Feel your gratitude. Now inhale that gratitude and imagine exhaling it into a bubble. Inhale that gratitude and exhale it into the bubble two more times. Now send that bubble to someone, something or to some situation.

You can do this as many times as you like; feel free to extend the gratitude bubble to as many people/things/situations as you like.

Remember you are love.

Copyright © 2010 Rhonda O'Brien. All Rights Reserved.

Here I am up at 4 am with a lot on my mind. Without divulging the details of my life let me summarize and say that I probably have a situation, at hand, that I will not know exactly how to react to whatever occurs and some decision making might be involved.

In situations like these I battle between my rational, thinking mind and my intuition. I know enough to pay attention to my “gut,” but then there is the complication of making sure that your desires do not get in the way of your intuition. It is so difficult being psychic sometimes ;).

So I have decided to navigate my way through this situation as follows: I have gotten my intuitive nudge so I am going to ask the universe to tell me if my intuition is right by asking for signs and then I will act accordingly.

The next step is then to listen closely to the world around me and wait patiently for those signs. I have created a short list of what can possibly be construed as a sign. Let me point out two things that might help you in determining what a sign is. Number one: sometimes we expect the signs to be quarters that appear underneath our feet when signs can sometimes be pennies under bushes. In other words, signs are sometimes subtle hints from the universe not loud, screaming and obvious announcements (like we want them to be). Number two: if you think it is a sign it probably is. Believe or not, our spirit guides are constantly trying to communicate with us.

Here is a list of some of the few signs to look for (NOTE: this is not a comprehensive list; please feel free to contribute to my list).
1. If two people tell you the same thing…listen. A lot of times you will hear the exact same phrase repeated over and over again.
2. Do words pop out to you from: license plates, signs on the road, on the internet, emails, etc. If these words have particular meaning to you then they are probably signs.
3. Songs that play in your head: listen and write them down. Often times the lyrics speak directly to your life and/or life situation(s).
4. Look to the clouds and watch for what shapes form out of the clouds. The Hawaiians always looked to the clouds for signs. This works time and time again if you are patient and don’t try to force it.5. Synchronicities occur; for instance:
· You meet a person from a certain place that you are considering moving to and they tell you how great it is.
· You meet someone studying the particular discipline that you were considering studying and they give you positive feedback.
· You run into the same person time and time again.

***The key is to ask the universe for answers and then be willing to see the answers. Look everywhere for the answers, pay attention, listen and act on the response(s) that you are given.

Copyright © 2010 Rhonda O'Brien. All Rights Reserved.

I read the following story after following a link on Twitter (see article). I must admit that I have not stopped thinking about it since.

I have started changing the way that I think about my life and using the principles of healing myself in order to heal the situations in my life. In less than a week this is what has shifted in my life: I have been focusing on mending a relationship with a person and that person texted me this morning after about 7 mos of no communication. I have also been focusing on mending a once good relationship with my boss; we are now getting along better than we have in ~6 mos.

The next part of this story answers one of the long-standing questions that I have had about three of the past life readings that I have done. I have seen three Egyptian past lives in which there was a figure sitting on the side of a cliff above a crowd of people healing the crowd as the crowd sent the healer its problems.

Incidentally one of these readings occured days after I read Joe Vitale's story (see story below). This young lady was female and one of these healers in 3rd century B.C. Egypt (she lived somewhere between the three major monuments-the Sphinx, Great Pyramid, etc). Through her lifetime I saw that she apprenticed to do this job and that in her lifetime she was disappointed because as her career progressed her post healer was not as revered as it had been by previous generations. In fact she was one of the last healers of this kind.

Although I did not get the intimate details of how she healed I think that Ho'oponopono and this form of healing could be linked.

I have studied Hawaiian mysticism and teach a form of Hawaiian energy work (see www.rhondaobrien.com) and know that there was a group of Egyptians that migrated to Molok’ai (one of the Hawaiian islands). It makes perfect sense to me that both Hawaii and Egypt share beliefs and/or practices one of which could be this belief that by healing yourself you can heal others.

I am empowered by this story and see that these once powerful healers could once again set up "shop" and help others, many others to heal. It gives me great hope for the future.

Please enjoy the story below; I certainly did. I think that it will be awhile before I stop thinking about it. Hopefully it will continue to impact me from this day forward:

HO’OPONOPONO by Joe Vitale

Two years ago, I heard about a therapist in Hawaii who cured a complete ward of criminally insane patients--without ever seeing any of them. The psychologist would study an inmate"s chart and then look within himself to see how he created that person’s illness. As he improved himself, the patient improved.

When I first heard this story, I thought it was an urban legend. How could anyone heal anyone else by healing himself? How could even the best self-improvement master cure the criminally insane? It didn"t make any sense. It wasn’t logical, so I dismissed the story.

However, I heard it again a year later. I heard that the therapist had used a Hawaiian healing process called ho ‘oponopono. I had never heard of it, yet I couldn"t let it leave my mind. If the story was at all true, I had to know more. I had always understood "total responsibility" to mean that I am responsible for what I think and do. Beyond that, it’s out of my hands. I think that most people think of total responsibility that way. We"re responsible for what we do, not what anyone else does--but that’s wrong.

The Hawaiian therapist who healed those mentally ill people would teach me an advanced new perspective about total responsibility. His name is Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len. We probably spent an hour talking on our first phone call. I asked him to tell me the complete story of his work as a therapist.He explained that he worked at Hawaii State Hospital for four years. That ward where they kept the criminally insane was dangerous.

Psychologists quit on a monthly basis. The staff called in sick a lot or simply quit. People would walk through that ward with their backs against the wall, afraid of being attacked by patients. It was not a pleasant place to live, work, or visit.

Dr. Len told me that he never saw patients. He agreed to have an office and to review their files. While he looked at those files, he would work on himself. As he worked on himself, patients began to heal."After a few months, patients that had to be shackled were being allowed to walk freely,” he told me. "Others who had to be heavily medicated were getting off their medications. And those who had no chance of ever being released were being freed." I was in awe. "Not only that," he went on, "but the staff began to enjoy coming to work.

Absenteeism and turnover disappeared. We ended up with more staff than we needed because patients were being released, and all the staff was showing up to work. Today, that ward is closed."

This is where I had to ask the million dollar question: "What were you doing within yourself that caused those people to change?"

"I was simply healing the part of me that created them,” he said. I didn’t understand. Dr. Len explained that total responsibility for your life means that everything in your life--simply because it is in your life--is your responsibility. In a literal sense the entire world is your creation.

Whew. This is tough to swallow. Being responsible for what I say or do is one thing. Being responsible for what everyone in my life says or does is quite another. Yet, the truth is this: if you take complete responsibility for your life, then everything you see, hear, taste, touch, or in any way experience is your responsibility because it is in your life. This means that terrorist activity, the president, the economy or anything you experience and don’t like--is up for you to heal. They don’t exist, in a manner of speaking, except as projections from inside you. The problem isn’t with them, it’s with you, and to change them, you have to change you.

I know this is tough to grasp, let alone accept or actually live. Blame is far easier than total responsibility, but as I spoke with Dr. Len, I began to realize that healing for him and in ho ‘oponopono means loving yourself.If you want to improve your life, you have to heal your life. If you want to cure anyone, even a mentally ill criminal you do it by healing you.

I asked Dr. Len how he went about healing himself. What was he doing, exactly, when he looked at those patients" files?"I just kept saying, ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘I love you’ over and over again,” he explained.

"That’s it?”

"That’s it.”

Turns out that loving yourself is the greatest way to improve yourself, and as you improve yourself, you improve your world. Let me give you a quick example of how this works: one day, someone sent me an email that upset me. In the past I would have handled it by working on my emotional hot buttons or by trying to reason with the person who sent the nasty message.This time, I decided to try Dr. Len’s method. I kept silently saying, "I’m sorry" and "I love you," I didn’t say it to anyone in particular. I was simply evoking the spirit of love to heal within me what was creating the outer circumstance.

Within an hour I got an e-mail from the same person. He apologized for his previous message. Keep in mind that I didn’t take any outward action to get that apology. I didn’t even write him back. Yet, by saying "I love you," I somehow healed within me what was creating him.

I later attended a ho ‘oponopono workshop run by Dr. Len. He’s now 70 years old, considered a grandfatherly shaman, and is somewhat reclusive.He praised my book, The Attractor Factor. He told me that as I improve myself, my book’s vibration will raise, and everyone will feel it when they read it. In short, as I improve, my readers will improve.

"What about the books that are already sold and out there?" I asked.

"They aren’t out there," he explained, once again blowing my mind with his mystic wisdom. "They are still in you." In short, there is no out there. It would take a whole book to explain this advanced technique with the depth it deserves."

Suffice it to say that whenever you want to improve anything in your life, there’s only one place to look: inside you. When you look, do it with love.

"The words of Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len:" Ho'oponopono is really very simple. For the ancient Hawaiians, all problems begin as thought. But having a thought is not the problem. So what's the problem? The problem is that all our thoughts are imbued with painful memories, memories of persons, places, or things. The intellect working alone can't solve these problems, because the intellect only manages. Managing things is no way to solve problems. You want to let them go! When you do Ho'oponopono, what happens is that the Divinity takes the painful thought and neutralizes or purifies it. You don't purify the person, place, or thing. You neutralize the energy you associate with that person, place, or thing. So the first stage of Ho'oponopono is the purification of that energy. Now something wonderful happens. Not only does that energy get neutralized; it also gets released, so there's a brand new slate. Buddhists call it the Void. The final step is that you allow the Divinity to come in and fill the void with light.

To do Ho'oponopono, you don't have to know what the problem or error is. All you have to do is notice any problem you are experiencing physically, mentally, emotionally, whatever. Once you notice, your responsibility is to immediately begin to clean, to say, "I'm sorry. Please forgive me."

The holidays are a time of watching my money and my waistline. No matter how much I try I always spend too much and eat too much leaving me with a “over-indulgence” hangover for much of January and February. I found this great, low cost, “clean” recipe for those watching their waist and bottom lines. Enjoy!

Eat Clean Protein Bars
2 cups instant oatmeal
1 cup almond butter (any nut butter would work)
4 scoops whey protein (natural/unflavored)
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
1 cup water
1-2 teaspoons of agave nectar and/or 1-2 small scoops of powdered stevia
*Optional: add dried fruit, chopped nuts, chocolate chips and/or a layer of nut butter to dress it up to your liking.

Mix and knead all of the ingredients. Place in a wax paper lined 8 x 8 pan and place in the freezer for 30 min. Cut and serve.

I believe that we all have access to intuition. I also believe that if we do not practice using it that this gift is not as strong; it is like a muscle the more that you use and stretch it the stronger it becomes.

My life has become a daily practice of using/flexing this muscle. I must admit that I have not worked on it as hard as I have as late. I was, recently, humbled by an experience in which I saw what I wanted to see out of a situation not what was really happening. It made me stop and ask myself why, as a psychic, I couldn’t really see what was going on. Since I have taken greater lengths to stretch and use my intuition as much as possible, as often as possible.

I have included my daily regime* which I think helps me keep my psychic ability strong and agile:
• ~6:30 am: wake up and write down my dreams (if I remember them), then a quick meditation. My favorite meditation tool is the following You Tube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBrocj_s-wE. It tends to get me into a meditative state very quickly. If I have time I try to channel a few sentences so that I get started with my day with a few words of wisdom.
• ~5:30 pm: Exercise. I try to exercise at least 4 days/week. I have recently become a big fan of exercising outside (weather permitting). I get the best guidance from the animals (especially birds). Sonia Choquette talks about birds being “messengers.” I can truly attest to the fact that birds are great messengers. I even pick up feathers and get messages from them. As a side note Sonia Choquette talks about how some of her “best guidance has occurred to her while biking or walking” (from Trust Your Vibes).
• ~7:00 pm: I try to meditate again for at least 10 minutes. At some point I also try to do an exercise that I borrowed from Sonia Choquette’s Ask Your Guides. I basically ask for my spirit guide to sit next to me and to project useful information on a screen for me to view. This exercise only takes a couple of minutes and provides great insight and an instant way to connect with spirit. It is my new favorite exercise. Thank you Sonia!
• ~10:00 pm: I listen to Kelly Howell’s The Secret Universal Mind Meditation while thinking of all that I have to be grateful for. If I have time and am not too tired I will try to meditate for a few minutes before going to bed.
Throughout the day:
• I ground myself especially before meditating.
• I try to eat as healthy as I can (I eat mostly low fat protein, fruits and vegetables and drink a lot of water) while trying to avoid sugars, flours and anything artificial. I would like to say that I try to avoid caffeine, but I am a caffeine addict (and at this point in my life I know better than to think that I am going to give it up). It is important to keep my energy high; this is a high energy job.
• I have Sonia Choquette to thank again for this great tool that I have recently started using on a regular basis. I have purchased two, small notebooks so that I have a notebook with me at all times to record intuitive thoughts, coincidences, songs that play in my mind, signs and/or anything that can be construed as spirit trying to speak to me through my life. I love this new exercise. It has made me more aware than ever of how we are constantly surrounded by our guidance system if only we listen, pay attention and act on the advice given. I included act on the advice given because it has been my experience that if you do not act on the advice given then your guides tend to be more silent…because you don’t listen. Act on the advice given and you will receive more advice.
• I try to be as positive as possible and focus on appreciating what I do have and creating, through the Law of Attraction, the life of my dreams.
*Please note that this is the ideal day. Sometimes life happens and I deviate from this schedule. I also believe that it is important to have fun and enjoy life so I also go out with friends, eat junk food and drink (sometimes too much).
Feel free to share any of your daily rituals that help you flex and use your intuition.

In retrospect I can see that I have been intuitive all of my life. Of course this is probably like color blindness; you don’t realize that you see things differently because that is how you have always viewed the world. I played guess the next commercial as a kid, I was at the horse races with my grandma and told her the order of the first five placers in a horse race, guessed what gifts people were going to give me, etc.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until I got pretty sick at the age of 21 and couldn’t really eat for a month. People talk about the “cleansing” affects of fasting; I think that my non-voluntary fast opened me up perhaps too fast, who knows.

I remember feeling as though I had walked through a vortex and that my life experience(s) had forever changed. I was instantly aware that there were spirits around me and I could see their energy in a way that I could not describe to others, but I could see that they were around me (it is much like an energy pattern). I was intrigued and, at the same time, scared.

I started to meditate and had visions of all sorts. The most profound vision that I had was of an eagle eating my heart out. This experience was so real: I actually felt the eagle sweep down out of the sky and felt the physical pain of having my heart eaten out by an eagle. Yeah…I was a little bit freaked out about this experience.

Luckily I was taking a Native American Religions class at the time and knew that this was not out of the ordinary for shamans. I immediately checked out about 11 books on shamans just to verify that this was not an experience unique to me.

I don’t know if it calmed my nerves about the situation or not, but at least I knew that I was not the only person to experience this.

At this point I had the choice to accept or reject my experiences and I chose to reject them. I could not overcome the intense fear that I was crazy and/or going crazy.I remember lying awake, in the fetal position, fearing/seeing myself being carried away in a straight jacket. I just did not find the support that I needed at this age to really see that what I was experiencing could be a gift.

To avoid having to deal with the fact that I might be crazy or psychic or both I started smoking a lot of pot in order to mask the influx of intuition and blame it all on being “high.”

They say that when you run from who you your life becomes chaos; mine was chaos at the point that I finally decided to surrender and come to terms with the fact that I was psychic. At the point that I awakened and accepted and started using my gift(s) I was 27 and in a dead-end job, dead-end relationship and high 24/7.

At that point, I had no choice but to surrender; I had no direction to go but up. Thank goodness for the intervention that took place. My parents became Reiki Masters and were anxious to share their new gift with any and all. I was the first (and only) person that they attuned to Reiki (level one). That was the first step of many that I have taken to reclaim who I am and what I came here to do and be.

I continued to become a Reiki Master and embrace my intuition. I use it every day and it has lightened and enlightened my path.
I would never re-take that step or any of the other steps that I have taken in my life. Although I regret the fact that I ran so hard and so fast from being who I am; I do not regret the path that I have taken because although the path was a long and winding road I ended up here.

Please share your story. I feel that the more that people share their stories the more, young (or old) budding psychics will not run in fear (as I have) and, hopefully, embrace their gifts.