Wayne’s Blog
I hope you’ll be taking a vacation this year — and I don’t necessarily mean a long journey to a distant land. The word vacation comes from a Latin root meaning “freedom or release from something.”
On vacation, you are free from your regular routine; your time is empty or vacant and you can fill it with something new that will heal and inspire you. A great way to move forward in your life is to use your vacation or release time to practice facing your habitual fears and the limiting behaviors they create.
You can take a vacation anywhere — to a new neighborhood, a new city, or a new country — and simply be a new you who is flexible and flowing and tries new things. Take a vacation without any guarantees — just go, and let yourself be guided by your instincts rather than a detailed itinerary.
- Eat at a restaurant that serves food you are unfamiliar with,
- attend a ballet or a soccer game,
- visit a mosque,
- take a yoga class,
- go on a nature hike,
- or do anything else that you may have been afraid of.
Decide to outgrow the excuses you’ve employed, and adopt a philosophy of having a mind that’s open to everything and attached to nothing.
Affirm:I choose the less-traveled path and resist seeking out familiarity and an illusion of security.
Namaste,
Wayne
Always keep your eyes open for the thoughts and ideas that will inspire and empower you. When I was just about to start writing Excuses Begone!, I got a tip on a great new book from Hay House president Reid Tracy. He told me he was sending me a copy of Dr. Bruce Lipton’s Biology of Belief with the promise that I was really going to like it. He was right. What I found in Bruce’s book was a fascinating science-based discussion of concepts that dovetailed perfectly with the premise of Excuses Begone!—that our self-limiting beliefs stand in the way of our higher, healthier, and happier life. In my book, I talk about working our way out of the collection of unexamined excuses we have for why our life isn’t working. Bruce’s work revolves around the mistaken notion that people can’t change because of their DNA—their genes make them who they are, give them illnesses, keep them stuck. In The Biology of Belief, Bruce describes the stunning research that demonstrates why we are not limited by our genes but by our beliefs. Literally, our beliefs can change the read-out of our genes. That makes one less excuse for not being all we can be, doesn’t it?
Namaste,
Wayne
While visiting downtown San Diego last spring, I took a walk on the waterfront to watch the ships sailing on the bay. A bicycle bell sounded behind me and I looked around to see the smiling face of a “cabbie.” This enterprising young man was offering me a free ride in his pedicab, the modern-day version of a rickshaw. With no set fee for the ride to any particular hotel or store or restaurant destination, his income depended on the good will of his customers—who most likely would give him a tip suitable to the value of the trip. This is enterprise—offer a service that people want and need and let the income you require flow to you. Remember the old saying, “If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to it”? You can give the Universe a chance to support your hopes and dreams by putting your best efforts into them. Many years ago, I set out across the country with a carload of a book called Your Erroneous Zones, determined to make a market for my work. I needed an opportunity to reach my dreams and so I set off to make one—one bookstore, radio station, and newspaper office at a time. Be a swimmer in the vast and welcoming sea of opportunity!
Namaste,
Wayne
I hope everyone has a chance to see The Shift , my new movie from Hay House.
It’s about the shift that happens in every life when we realize that we want to be something more. That’s be something in the spiritual sense when we examine ourselves to see if we are realizing our potential, singing our song, giving the world what we came here to contribute. It’s when we begin looking for opportunities to help, to serve, and to create. My favorite character in the movie is a guy named Joe. He’s a quiet, in-the-background sort of guy, but as the movie progresses you realize that he has been around quite a bit, interacting with all the major characters. Watch for him—reaching out, serving, caring, noticing the little things. You assume he must be the handyman, the gardener, the room service attendant.
Eventually, you learn more about him and find yourself amazed at how little you noticed his presence, but how important his presence is to the experience of the movie. He’s one who has made the shift and through his loving service, his happiness, he helps others move in the direction they are called to go.
Look for Joe in the movie—and in the world around you—he’s there.
Namaste,
Wayne
“Isn’t it hard to follow the Tao and try to be independent of the good opinion of others?” people ask. Actually, it’s much harder to struggle with either seeking approval or trying to shake off disapproval. If everything you do must be measured against the good opinion of everyone else, what happens to your good opinion of yourself? Who’s looking out for the soul that is your connection to the Divine? You have to decide what your passion, your bliss, is calling you to do. When you’re following that call, your feelings of joy, contentment, and peace will be strong enough to keep you from worrying about pleasing all the people all the time—as if that is even possible. For example, after a seminar not long ago, I received a letter from an audience member who told me the workshop “did not live up to her expectations.” An audience of a thousand people will probably have a thousand different sets of expectations. How could I possibly meet completely all of those varied and intimate and unique sets of expectations? I have to dance to the music I hear and I invite you to do the same. Honor the Divine within you by going to a quiet place this week and tuning in to the sacred melody.
Namaste,
Wayne
If you ever feel like you are trying too hard, you probably are! Who said that effort and striving are the keys to success? I think the Beatles were on to something in their classic song when they advised that we simply “Let It Be.” Verse 47 of the Tao Te Ching suggests that effort and striving, along with the struggling, worrying, stressing, fretting and agonizing that we can’t seem to resist, are behaviors that actually keep us from experiencing the harmony and sense of completion that are part of our connection to the Divine Order. What if we learned to live by being rather than trying? “Without going out the door, know the world. Without looking out the window, you may see the ways of heaven,” says the Tao. For example, consider how the beating of your heart, the inhaling and exhaling of your breath, and a myriad of other life functions take place without effort from you, even as you are reading these words. You are a single beat in the one heart that is humanity. The Divine is at work within you, moving you toward your life purpose. Let yourself be guided and see what happens when you simply “let it be.”
Namaste,
Wayne
Henry David Thoreau said, “If a man loses pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured, or far away.” Not only is this great advice for dealing gently with what other people want to do, say, or think, but these words are also about our own self-reliance. Be sure you’re stepping to the music you hear—no matter what other people think. My understanding of the13th verse of the Tao Te Ching is this: it’s crucial to remain independent of both the positive and negative opinions of other people. If you gain their approval, you’ll become a slave to outside words of praise. If you gain disfavor, you’ll spend your life trying to change other people’s minds about you. Either way, you lose your selfhood. If you want to follow your passion, be independent of the good opinion of others. Give yourself permission to two-step, march, waltz, or boogie to your own beat.
Namaste,
Wayne
In 1992 when the time came to write a dedication for my book Real Magic, I decided to recognize three special people—my dear daughter Saje, my spiritual brother Deepak Chopra, and my friend pop superstar Michael Jackson. I wanted to recognize Michael “whose words, music, and love remind us that it is only through giving that we are saving our own lives.” Michael Jackson had a special relationship with the principles of Real Magic, the idea of “creating miracles in everyday life.” With his enormous musical talent, he created a body of work that brought joy to millions. My children and I spent five very happy days with him at Neverland in 1991. He wanted to talk to me about “real magic,” but the truth is, he already had the magic—the power he needed to dream and create and give. Michael was dedicated to ending world hunger and helped create the 1985 “We Are the World” celebrity sing-along that brought together some of the biggest names in popular music to raise funds for famine relief in Africa. I didn’t have to explain “real magic” to Michael because he was already a spiritual being, already kind, loving, and ready to use his musical gift to create miracles. Along with millions of people around the world, I say, thank you, Michael, for sharing your amazing talent to lift our spirits. I’ll remember you as a beautiful human being with a heart as big as the sky.
Namaste,
Wayne
I’ve always had a knowing that whatever I’ve found interesting or exciting or passionate or moving or motivating there’s a way to make a living at it. It doesn’t make any difference what it is. My son, Sands, age 21, is passionate about surfing. He’s in college at the University of Central Florida and doing fine, but his whole life is about surfing. He gets up in the morning and checks where the waves are all over the world. I tell him he doesn’t have to get a business degree now; he doesn’t have to go to college in his 20’s. He talks endlessly about surfing—the feeling of being on a surfboard, riding that wave, being at one with the ocean.
I tell him there’s a way to make a living while following his passion. Imagine yourself there—teaching people to surf, working in a surf shop, starting a surf shop, making surfboards, studying oceanography, being a boat captain who takes people to surfing locations. There are endless ways to be connected to your dream, to follow your bliss. And it doesn’t matter how old you are or how long you’ve been doing something. Men in their 40’s and 50’s tell me, “I can’t change professions now. I’ve been doing it for 25 years.” I ask, “Who decided you would be an engineer or a doctor or a lawyer?” “I decided when I was 18.” “And now you’re 50? Would you go to an 18-year-old for advice on what you should be doing with your life?” Not unless that youngster tells you to listen to your bliss! I think it’s a really important lesson for us all.
Namaste,
Wayne
If you could have any job in the world what would it be?
Here’s how I have handled the getting of jobs and how I have advised others to go about it.
First, get a really sharp, clear vision of what you would like to see yourself doing. Then go to a quiet place in meditation and make conscious contact with God. The beauty of meditation is that you begin to get answers. Instead of asking for something for yourself, put all of your energy and attention into visualizing yourself in a capacity of serving, offering, or creating. It’s then that doors begin to open for you.
Lao-tzu says that doors don’t open while we have attachment to physical things for ourselves. What he calls the angelic guides or Source energy doesn’t enter our lives until we take the focus off “what’s in it for me?” or “what kind of job am I going to get?” or “how much money am I going to make?” and instead focus on “how may I serve?”
Get that inner picture of yourself serving in the capacity of your choice and then be at peace with it. Take the focus off scarcity and lack and visualize service. That’s how Spirit works—when we’re letting go, when we’re not trying, not chasing.
“Let yourself be lived by it,” says Lao-tzu. Go within and trust Divine timing. That’s how it’s always worked for me and I’ve always had more work than I could handle.
Namaste,
Wayne
Dr. Wayne W Dyer spent 2006 immersed in the ancient teachings of Lao-tzu, studying his monumental tome, the Tao Te Ching. He read, meditated, lived, and then wrote an essay on each of the 81 verses of the Tao, which many have called the wisest book ever written. That collection of essays is titled Change Your Thoughts–Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao. He learned, and to this day practices, what to think through all that Lao-tzu taught him in that year.
Excuses Begone, was also influenced by that eminent master Lao-tzu. Since the Tao Te Ching taught him what kind of thinking harmonized with our higher selves, he asked Lao-tzu for advice on how to change long established habits of thought. Wayne realized that knowing what to think does not necessarily clarify how to go about changing a lifetime of habitual thinking. He has drawn on Lao-tzu’s wisdom by contemplating his teachings and asking for his guidance on what it takes to bring about a change in the long held habits of thought that manifest as excuses.
In this tour, Wayne will take you through the seven questions that constitute the Excuses Begone paradigm and show you how this paradigm worked on himself and how it can work for you. By examining the support system that a person has erected over a long period of time, often going back to early childhood, and putting these time worn thoughts through the seven steps in this paradigm, excuses begin to fade away, and are replaced with thoughts that speak fervently, almost shouting, Yes, you can change any excuse pattern, no matter how long or how pervasive has been the conditioning process.
Wayne has seen people give up a lifetime of being overweight or addicted to all manner of substances by simply applying the principles that are inherent in the Excuses Begone approach to life.
If you are truly serious about changing any long established habits of thought that have led you to use excuses as your rationale for staying the same, then I encourage you to follow the principles and practices presented in this lecture!
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer presents live lectures in major cities across the US. Please click here for locations and details.
Dr. Wayne Dyer is now a featured author on the recently launched HealYourLife.com a new site by Hay House Publishers. In addition to a featured column, the site hosts the Dr. Wayne Dyer blog and Daily Inspiration. The interactive site also allows members to share and save articles and favorites to the MyLife section of the site. Featuring your favorite Hay House authors, the site aims to help users improve the quality of their lives.
At HealYourLife.com, you will meet the world’s foremost best-selling authors and leading experts who will share their secrets, their experience, their personal stories, and their wisdom so you can start to live the life you have always dreamed of–now!
HealYourLife.com is the fastest growing personal growth and self-help Web site and is part of Hay House, Inc., the world-renowned publishing company founded in 1984 by Louise L. Hay as a way to produce her first two books, Heal Your Body and You Can Heal Your Life. Both have become international bestsellers (You Can Heal Your Life has sold more than 35 million copies worldwide) and have established Louise as a leader in the transformational movement. Visit the site at http://www.healyourlife.com.