Diana's Blog: Quirky Words and Book Reviews

October 25th, 2008
Magic is happening. It happens when we break down those self-limiting beliefs, and when we take the charge out of emotional situations that teach us key concepts about how the world works.
And some of those are patently false. For example, a man who came into my home when I was around five taught me, beginning at that tender age, that I was a good girl when I engaged in sex acts with him. I ended up with twisted beliefs related to self-worth. A lot of therapy, interviewing dozens of authors on various topics -- many on Law of Attraction -- and EMDR, which is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, as well as reading books like FEEL IT REAL have helped me to Transform the Trauma and reprogram my mind. I feel passionately about sharing any information I find to ease you into your best life possible.
Earlier this summer I tossed an advance review copy of FEEL IT REAL!: A GUIDED APPROACH TO BRINGING THE LAW OF ATTRACTION INTO YOUR LIFE into my tote-sized purple, sparkly bag to pull out whenever I had time to do the next game. She calls the exercises Games. (I prefer to keep my precious books as clean as possible, and I wanted to fill in all the blanks that author Denise Coates presented. Hence, I appreciate using the little paper version of the book that pubbed in June.)
One of the key frustrations I've heard expressed about the Law of Attraction is loosely "I really, really wanted that, but it didn't happen! I followed all the rules. Why didn't I get it?" I've said it myself.
We inadvertently block the blessings. We say we want to be millionaires, for example, but secretly, maybe subconsciously, we don't feel worthy. Coates' book works those subtleties. Right from the top, she states the definition of desire "As long as it does not harm yourself or others to have the desire, then it is of love." She clarifies the difference between addictions and love. Then, probably the most powerful exercise in the book -- she reframes what you are unhappy about, using a game of opposites.
Later in FEEL IT REAL! there are more fun games to play. One of my favorites is to create a powerful vision board -- it's an idea that's been around for awhile -- and I did so beginning on New Years Eve, and finishing it up on New Years Day. Then I got my vision board laminated. For months, I had it propped up behind my stereo, and it began to fold over itself. One day I looked at the crumpled-over vision board with new eyes, and I thought "what kind of message am I sending the universe!" So I tacked it up, and it is in a place where I pass by probably dozens of times every day. Every time I walk past, I caress a section of the board, speaking the words of that picture aloud, and feeling very grateful.
Something curious happened. I had put a picture of a passport on the board, but had forgotten about it until I straightened out the board. A few weeks ago, really days after I tacked the vision board up, I was given an all-expense paid trip to do a radio show -- in Barcelona! I haven't used my passport in so long, I had to pull the passport out to be sure it was still good.
It is, and I'm going.
I have other magical stories to share with you, and I will in this place over the next few weeks. I will say there is a direct correlation between my work to free myself of screwed-up beliefs, and the goodness that comes into my life.
And I am so grateful!

Labels: Denise Coates, FEEL IT REAL-A GUIDED APPROACH TO BRINGING THE LAW OF ATTRACTION INTO YOUR LIFE, healing, transcending the trauma, vision board.

October 12, 2008
I was eleven. Built more like a slim young boy with short, wavy brown hair, than a sixth-grade girl with the shoulder-length flowing hair I would have preferred. The next year, I would be cast as Tiny Tim in our school play. So you have the picture.
We were in groups of five, the goal, to be an anchor team. Women didn't have roles like that in those days, so I don't recall aspiring to what I would become. But, I do recall that I was charged with reading a poem -- the close of the "news" program. It was a show-stopper.
This comes to mind, because I opened the OXFORD DICTIONARY OF MODERN QUOTATIONS at random to this very poem.
It was written by Dorothy Parker. I didn't know how to pronounce the title Resume back then, but I fully felt the words I was reading:

Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.

I finished the poem, and looked up. There was dead silence in the classroom. Mr. D cleared his throat, and asked me the title of the poem. I fumbled.
I looked at him expectantly.
I was eleven years old, for heaven's sake, and trapped in a violent home life. At the time, my mother was just attempting the slow suicide -- with the bottle -- only beginning to dabble in razors and pills. I completely identified with Dorothy Parker's poem. You might as well live.
What baffles me then as now, why didn't Mr. D persist until he understood why I chose that poem? Why didn't he rescue that little girl?
Because, for reasons I was too young to know, my life was designed this way. It has been a dramatically amazing path -- surviving, seeing angels, healing, interviewing compassionate teachers along the way, growing my hair to my shoulders and tinting it auburn, thriving, falling in love with a world without limits, gratitude.
You might as well live.

Labels: Dorothy Parker poem Resume, gratitude, healing, poetry, seeing angels., teacher, transcending the trauma

September 2, 2008
Two of my favorite author-friends have events tonight, and I'm not going to either. I awoke with a raging sore threat that threatens to take away my voice. I cannot afford to lose my voice, so I won't be seeing Chelsea Cain read from her latest book SWEETHEART, and I won't be going to hear Jennie Shortridge's talk on the ten most common rules for writers. There's still time for you -- go! See them! Chelsea and Jennie are awesome, wry and funny, and very smart.
We all know the greatest antidote to ill health is humor. So, I will try funny along with taking the truly nasty medicine my naturopathic physician gave me.
Music, too. I have music on.
Sarah Vowell's new book THE WORDY SHIPMATES has arrived, and her quirky voice pops into my head. Our interview a few years ago was about her book ASSASSINATION VACATION. She tells how she takes her nephew along when she does her research, much of the time in cemetaries. Sarah says her nephew calls cemetaries "Halloween parks." I use that actuality and several other actualities in my media training, because she is so clever and so Sarah. Point being, be yourself -- as you as you can possibly be.
I begin reading Sarah's new book and find that this time her research is gleaned -- in part -- from sit-com watching, since nearly every sit-com from the Brady Bunch to the Fonz to The Simpsons has done an episode involving the Pilgrims, and that's not counting all the elementary school plays we did. "Greet-e-the-mundo," Sarah quotes the Fonz.
Starting to feel better. Now my voice sounds like I've been smoking cigarettes and swilling Scotch -- neither of which pass my lips. Ever.
I pick up CLOTHING OPTIONAL by Alan Zweibel, and crackle as I read the introduction -- purportedly written by Alan's high school English teacher -- who flunked him, and ranks Alan becoming a professional writer as surpassing phenomena such as the cure for polio, the man on the moon, the fall of Communist Russia. LOL Funny stories, including "Letters From an Annoying Man," a fan who alternately turns vicious and pleasant, depending on whether he wants Alan to send him autographed books or read his 247-page unpublished manuscript -- or sue Alan for plagiarizing his manuscript.
But now I want to know how long I will feel crappy and I find the most beautiful cards by artist Jessica Galbreth -- called ENCHANTED ORACLE. I shuffle, and two cards fly out of the deck. Gothique is first -- her message is that I fear something, and must face that fear. Yes, I fear not getting my voice back in record time. The other card is Jewel of the Sea -- she is beautiful. And that is the message -- to recognize the beauty in myself and in others. You know how when you don't feel healthy, you really don't feel beautiful...? Earlier today, without prompting, a guy friend of mine told me I am beautiful. Several times. I couldn't accept the compliment. But, Jewel's larger message is "leave beauty and magic behind you wherever you go."
Go see Chelsea and Jennie -- they are beautiful, and the night will be magical!

Labels: ASSASSINATION VACATION, beautiful, Chelsea Cain, CLOTHING OPTIONAL, ENCHANTED ORACLE, healing, Jennie Shortridge, Sarah Vowell, THE WORDY SHIPMATES