2012. The world was supposed to end, some said. (We knew better.) But things were supposed to change–the energy was supposed to change, at least.  A whole week has gone by. We are being flooded now with the light of the first full moon of this pivotal year, which is supposed to affect our consciousness on every level. Something is supposed to be changing. Or it should be getting easier to create change, right?

I wrote my vision and my goals. I created a vision map or board. I set out with good intentions. Nothing. Same ol’, same ol’.

I could blame it on the fact that my daughter is here visiting. That clients called. I had things that got in the way..projects, the need to learn to podcast, interviews to conduct, old work to get handled and out of the way, bills to pay, shopping to do, emails to answer, social media to attend to, etc., etc., etc.

It felt l like 2012 came in with a rush, driving me forward at breakneck speed. That’s how 2011 went out. Why would the new year be any different? I don’t seem to have brakes on this car I’m in. I’m not sure I’m driving. I’m trying to get control.

Here’s the fact: In the first eight days of 2012, I  didn’t keep to the schedule I set as part of my plan. I didn’t do even one of the things I said I would do. Well…I take that back. I did do one thing. I took a bit of time off to spend with my daughter. I relaxed with family. That is on my vision map and in my goals–to find balance in my life between work and personal.

Yay! I made one change. I made it consciously.

Changing habits can prove difficult. Yet, to achieve some new degree of success we must change our old habits. They’ve only gotten us the degree of success we enjoy right now.

Anything can get in the way and become an excuse. For me, getting up early to complete my client work first is a new goal, a new habit, I’d like to form. It’s easy to say I went to bed too late and simply not get up early. It’s easy to answer the phone when it rings during that time period, or to schedule an activity anyway (like walking with a friend, since that’s a goal, too), and to say that’s why I couldn’t meet my goal, make the change, create a new habit.

I find myself saying all too often I just don’t have the time to change, the energy to change. I’ll do it tomorrow or next week.

Well, a week has gone by of this new year…this year that everyone said would be one of such awesome change…when we could affect change in ways heretofore not possible. I, for one, have not found this year much different. It still remains up to me to make the change. (I hear the refrain of some song…I can’t quite put my finger on it…)

Ah, well…the Kabbalists must right. We are simply in transition. We have a long way to go before the predicted time of peace on Earth or the World to Come. (They say not until the year 6,000 on the Hebrew calendar.) Actually, many other people also say we are simply in a time of transition. And it’s likely our consciousness is changing. We can affect change and do so faster, more effectively if we do it in a conscious and focused manner. We don’t need a new year, a new era, a new anything for that.

The trick is to put that lesson–an old one really (and no “secret” either) to use now to create the desired change. For me, I’m starting small–in my life, with my habits. This helps me achieve what I need to achieve and then has a ripple affect, allowing me to affect others through my work.

I’ll go back and focus again on my vision, my goals, my vision board. I’ll work every day to keep on track, making those little changes that end up in new habits formed. By year’s end, I may have achieved a new level of success based upon those new habits.

What about you? How’s it going after the first week of the New Year? Does the energy of 2012 seem to be supporting you? Is change happening in your life or around you?

Do you ever question your beliefs about Your religion? Do you question God’s word, the value of the commandments, the teachings of the forefathers, the meaning of the rituals and prayers?

They say the Jewish people are God wrestlers. We don’t always accept God’s word or anything to do with our religion without questions, without wanting to understand why, without pondering the value, the validity, the truth of what we are told or asked to do.

Yet, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or some other religion, sometimes we get stuck in fear—fear that if we don’t listen to God’s word, believe every single word we hear and do as those words command—something bad might happen. We might be struck down by lightning, fall from grace, not live another year, not receive God’s goodness. Then we stop wrestling with God.

It takes a lot to move out of that fear and to begin questioning again, wrestling again.

I was pleased this week to find a current example of someone who moved through that fear and began God wrestling—and did so in the public eye. I read in a JTA article that Chassidic reggae musician and singer Matisyahu publicly shaved off his beard and peyes and uploaded a picture of himself clean shaven on Twitter on December 13. Along with it, he posted this message:

“This morning I posted a photo of myself on Twitter.

“No more Chassidic reggae superstar.

“Sorry folks, all you get is me…no alias. When I started becoming religious 10 years ago it was a very natural and organic process. It was my choice. My journey to discover my roots and explore Jewish spirituality—not through books but through real life. At a certain point I felt the need to submit to a higher level of religiosity…to move away from my intuition and to accept an ultimate truth. I felt that in order to become a good person I needed rules—lots of them—or else I would somehow fall apart. I am reclaiming myself. Trusting my goodness and my divine mission.”

The next day, December 14, the JTA ran another story. In it he explained this decision in more detail during an interview WNYC’s Soundcheck. He began growing his beard when he became religious. The decision not to shave was based on a teaching from Kabbalah that the beard is a manifestation of the 13 divine attributes of mercy, he explained. (Learn about the 13 Attributes here.) He feared that if he were to shave the beard, he would no longer be privy to those blessings of mercy.

Recently, however, he asked himself, “How can [God’s mercy] possibly be connected to me shaving or not? And I began, over the last few weeks, I went through a pretty major transformation, probably bigger than any in my life, due to several things, but a lot of revelations and a lot of realizations started coming clear to me, and I realized just like these fears that I have, the idea that God’s mercy is connected to whether I shave or not is ludicrous. And I just need to trust myself, and that if I’m deserving of God’s mercy, I’ll get it regardless.”

That’s a big jump…to trust your own goodness and to trust God to be merciful whether you follow His commandments or not. Orthodox, or observant, Jews, live within the confines of God’s laws, God’s mitzvot. They offer structure. They offer a way of life. They offer a means by which to be a good Jew, a mensch.

Yet, here we see someone coming out of that world and saying, “I think I can be a mensch, I think I can be a good person, a spiritual and religious person deserving of God’s grace and mercy without observing every single mitzvah—every commandment.”

And haven’t those of us who are not that religious wondered what would happen—in the reverse—if I suddenly became more observant? Would God be more gracious, more merciful? Would my prayers be answered?

But maybe it’s simply about being a good person, about being deserving—beard or no beard.

What about you? Do you wrestle with God? Do you question your beliefs? And do you occasionally shave  (or have you ever shaved) your beard—metaphorical or real—to see what might happen?

I’ve been getting emails all week about events related today’s auspicious date: 11-11-11. Sure, it’s cool that the date consists of all ones, but what does this really mean? We all want it to mean something…just like we want the end of the Mayan calendar on December 31, 2011 to mean something…significant.

I don’t think anyone really knows what 11-11-11 truly means. That said, I think we can derive a bit of meaning from some of the research that has been done on the occurrence of the number 11 and 11-11 historically. I found a great compilation of data and some analysis of it by none other than Jewish paranormalist Uri Geller. (You can read it here.) He says the number appears as a wake up call, and that when we see it we should take note.

So what should we be taking note of right now? Should we be remembering that the year is coming to a close and it’s time to start reviewing the last year? Or should we being remembering that we as a people very likely are heading toward a major transformation of some sort?

Of course, if we consider the approach of the year 2012 and the fact that many have predicted that the New Year will bring with it a huge change in consciousness that coordinates with the end of the Mayan calendar, which ends then, I begin to think about what new type of world we will discover, what new word will be created–or we will create, at that time.

The Kabbalists would say that we have been in transition and will continue to be in transition for some time to come. The change of consciousness is, indeed, happening, but the major change expected after January 1 is actually a long time off. The Hebrew date of Cheshvan 14, 5772, or November 11, 2011, is 228 years from the time the Kabbalists expect drastic changes in consciousness.  But maybe today is the day the change begins to be felt, the day we begin to truly see the new world, what Jews call the World to Come  and Christians call Heaven on Earth, beginning to take shape.

Why do I say this? Reportedly, Hebrew Scriptures place September 11, 1999 as the 6,000th anniversary of Adam’s creation and year 1 on the Hebrew calendar. If this is true, maybe today is the day a new human being is created and the new calendar actually begins–not on January 1. Could this be true, at least on a spiritual level? It’s worth considering.

It’s worth considering at least for 11 seconds at exactly 11:11 a.m. on 11-11-11 and again at 11:11 p.m. on 11-11-11. Don’t you think?

Or maybe it’s just the day that you create a new you, that you take on a new consciousness, that you begin to prepare for the new year if not for a new age. That, too, too might be worth considering at least for 11 seconds at exactly 11:11 a.m. on 11-11-11 and again at 11:11 p.m. on 11-11-11. Don’t you think?

Geller says 11:11 is a positive sign whenever we see it–on a clock radio, a hotel door, the odometer of your car, the columns in front of your house. See today’s date as just that–a positive sign that it’s time to wake up. Have you been sleeping, sleep walking through life? Just becoming more awake will change your perspective, your consciousness. That’s also worth considering at least for 11 seconds at exactly 11:11 a.m. on 11-11-11 and again at 11:11 p.m. on 11-11-11. Don’t you think?

Not surprisingly, from a Kabbalistic standpoint, the numerology of today’s date also points to the beginning of the new age: the arrival of the World to Come or Heaven on Earth. If you add up all those ones (1+1+1+1+1+1), you come up with the number 6. Six equates to Tiferet on the tree of life. Tiferet is the domain of beauty, harmony, artistry, gracefulness, synergy, peace, blessing, and balance.  It can be best described as many voices blending together in beautiful harmony; it’s the opposite of discord. Sounds a bit like peace on earth, no? A bit like heaven?

That’s something to think about, to pray about, for at least 11 seconds at exactly 11:11 a.m. on 11-11-11 and again at 11:11 p.m. on 11-11-11. Don’t you think?

“And the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying: Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city…”

How often in your life have you heard God’s voice? Ever? Once? Many times?

For me…It’s a still small voice…very small…I have to listen hard. I hear it if I pay close attention.

When the whisper, the Still Small Voice, calls your name, do you run, like Jonah? Do you ignore the call? Do you do what you want instead?

Or when God calls upon you and ask you to be a messenger, like Isaiah, do you say, “Here I am, God! Send me. Heinini. Shalchayni.”

Me? Well…I don’t always like what I hear. Sometimes the task I’m given feels hard…too hard. I’m a writer and speaker. I’ve been asked to be a messenger, but sometimes I don’t feel up to the task.

God calls, we don’t always listen. We don’t always step up. Sometimes nothing happens. Things just stay the same…not great, not bad. Sometimes, though, when we don’t listen “bad” things can happen. We have to learn to survive in not-so-nice conditions – in storms, in the stomach of a whale.

Maybe we have to work at a job we hate…or we get fired.

Maybe we end up in a relationship that isn’t healthy…our significant other leaves us alone.

Maybe we end up living in a place that doesn’t suit us, or we’re forced to move.

Maybe we don’t make enough money….or we end up in debt.

Our life feels stormy…it feels darky, slimy, scary.

I’ve known this feeling and wondered whether things might be different had I followed through on that one project—that one I felt so inspired to write. Have you ever wondered if things would be different if you’d followed that inspiration you had? That sense of mission…that Still Small Voice that sounded…well…a bit like…you?

The Kabbalists say the Book of Jonah is the story of our lives life. You are Jonah. I’m Jonah, too.

Why? Because Jonah represents your soul. Your soul comes to earth to take a journey—kind of like a ride on a ship—that has a purpose, a mission—only it’s not supposed to be away from God. It’s supposed to be a journey with two navigators, a Captain and a co-captain moving closer together and toward a destination—the fulfillment of your purpose.

The problem is that we forget that purpose, the destination. When God, the Captain, tries to remind us, we often don’t hear, don’t listen or ignore the message. Or we run away from the job we were given. We stop steering the boat, steer in a different direction or jump ship.

All of these actions result in us traveling away from God…and away from ourselves, from that spark within us that has an agreement with God. This leaves us feeling alone in a strange place and often in a bad situation.

Eventually we must begin to heed the call. To listen…Sh’ma.

We have to remember our purpose, our mission…the journey we initially set out upon. A voice must stir from within…or is it from outside of us? Like Jonah being asked,” What is your occupation?” it asks, “What do you do? What have you done? What have you done with your life? Why are you here? Why were you sent? Do you remember? And did you heed the call? “

Take a moment. Can you hear the Captain calling to you? “Arise!”

Sh’ma….listen. Do you hear God calling? Are you being sent? Are you a messenger? Is that your life’s purpose…or is it something else? Will you go and fulfill it.

Shalchayni. Send me. I’m ready.

I am very proud to announce that I have finally updated my short book, Navigating the Narrow Bridge: 7 Steps for Moving Forward Courageously Even When the Life Seems Most Precarious, and released it as an e-book available in most e-b0ok formats. (It will be available at Amazon hopefully by the end of the week.) You can purchase it in all formats, including Kindle format, for the low cost of $2.99 from Smashwords by clicking here. You can sample some pages as well.

The printed booklet (old version) is still available from my website, as is the pdf version.

Here’s some information on Navigating the Narrow Bridge:

6.3 million American have some specific fear. If you feel imprisoned by fear, this book offers tools for breaking out of jail and moving freely, confidently and joyously through life and towards your goals. Discover 7 steps drawn from metaphysical and spiritual principles and the teachings of Rebbe Nachman to help you move from where you are to where you want to be despite your fear. Learn to live with faith, courage and the joy that comes from see the miracle of life itself.

No matter how much or how little fear you feel – or for what reason, that fear stops you from living your life fully and creating the life you desire. Fear prevents you from achieving your highest potential and immobilizes you on the path to your dreams.

Do you want to learn to move through your fear so you can achieve your highest potential and achieve your dreams? To find out how, click here.

According to Rebbe Nachman, who lived from 1772-1840, we need to know one thing: “A person walks in life on a narrow bridge. The most important thing is not to make ourselves afraid.”

The goal of this short book is to help you move freely, confidently and joyously through life and towards your fullest potential. To accomplish this, you’ll learn how to:
• live in the moment
• turn fear of death into awe for life
• find and communicate with God
• use thoughts creatively
• cultivate an attitude of gratitude
• use meditation and visualization to feel safe
• and make affirmations of action

To help you navigate across the narrow bridges in your life, you’ll learn how to take 7 steps to a fear-free life:
Step #1: Traversing the Spectrum of Emotion
Step #2: Utilizing the Power of Thought
Step #3: Reaching Out for God’s Hand
Step #4: Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude
Step #5: Using Meditation as a Link to Life
Step #6: Connecting with Commandments
Step #7: Making Affirmations of Action

Navigating the Narrow Bridge draws on Jewish wisdom—in particular the teachings of Rebbe Nachman, metaphysical and quantum physics principles, spiritual wisdom, and human potential techniques. Thus, it is pertinent to anyone from any religious or spiritual background or tradition. Indeed, it’s appropriate for anyone who simply wants to walk courageously through life.

It’s possible to feel safe in this moment, balanced and poised for your next step, and to move forward courageously with a lust for life and an unstoppable desire to fulfill your potential no matter what you find along your path.

To find out how, click here.

One of the major premises in my work, both my writing and teaching, revolves around the need to give as well as to receive. The two are integrally connected. Indeed, when we give, we open ourselves to receiving. Yet, we don’t want to give in order to receive.

When we give, we make room to receive, for something else to move into the space we have created. In the Kabbalistic story of creation, God contracting to make space for all of Creation. In the void that was created, God sent a beam of Divine light or energy. From that, everything we know of as the world in which we live–including ourselves–come into being. Each time we create space by giving, Divine light and energy in all its many forms fills the void we create as well. This becomes a constant flow of giving, receiving, giving, receiving, giving, and so on.

In my current work writing The Kabbalah of Conscious Creation in its full length, I have been trying to fully understand the true nature of giving – at least as put forth by Rabbi Yehuda Lev Ashlag. Relying on In the Shadow of the Ladder, a wonderful book on his teachings, as my primary source, I’d like to grapple a bit with this idea here and to ask you to try and implement the concept of giving on a deeper level in your life.

Today, I will give you one part of the equation:

God is the Giver, We are the Receivers

Let’s begin with the idea the God’s nature is to give. The Creator is a Giver and we were created as receivers. Typically, our will has us focused on receiving for ourselves alone. I know that sounds terrible, but it’s true. Most of us are focused on our own desires, and with good reason. First of all, it’s our nature as pure receivers to desire things for ourselves, and in this physical word we often feel we have unfulfilled needs. We need to receive more.

Our goal, however, lies in becoming not only a receiver, but a giver. As I said, giving opens us up to receiving. Ah, the ego, says, “That’s great. I can get more.” However, we want to aim for a more spiritual reason to give. Yes, we want to get more, but not necessarily more material things. We want more spiritual things. You see, as long as you are a receiver and God is a Giver, a separation, albeit possible a perceived separation, exists between you and God. Most people – at least those on a spiritual path – would like to draw closer to God. What we actually want to get from giving is a connection to our Creator.

Giving for the Sake of Giving

So, we begin to place restrictions on how we use our will to receive. Even though it is our nature to receive for ourselves alone, we try simply to give instead of to receive.  We give for the sake of giving. We receive in order to give to others.  This makes us givers. And if we are givers, we are like God. We achieve something called “affinity of form” with God, and the separation between us and our Creator diminishes or disappears. Thus, we feel our Divine connection, and we receive what we desire – a relationship and a connection to our Creator.

However, there’s one problem with this scenario. We aren’t fulfilling our end of the cosmic bargain. God created humans for the purpose of giving us pleasure. Pleasure comes in the form of receiving Divine gifts. (That’s right, the fulfillment of our desires.) God was supposed to give, and we were supposed to receive. If we only give, we can’t receive. If we don’t receive, God receives no “pleasure.”

For today, just consider this concept. Think about how you give and how you receive. Consider if you give more than you receive or if you receive more than you give. Think about the idea that you are born to receive. How does that make you feel?

Tomorrow we will go on to part 2.

For those of you who know nothing about The Kabbalah of Conscious Creation, or the coaching programs I offer in conjunction with this booklet, I’ve decided to begin offering a monthly audio coaching tip here. This gives you a chance to experience what Kabbalistic conscious creation coaching is all about.

This month we will start at the beginning. This coaching tip discusses why discovering your soul’s purpose is important to manifesting your physical and spiritual desires. It also touches on the need to share what you create. These are two steps not include in most other Law of Attraction tools or models. This also allows for spiritual manifestation–getting close to God.

To listen to your Kabbalistic Conscious Creation audio coaching tip, just click on this link:  Kabbalistic Conscious Creation Coaching Tip#1

For more information on Kabbalistic Conscious Creation Coaching, click here. To read the book, The Kabbalah of Conscious Creation, 7 Steps to Mystically Manifesting Your Physical and Spiritual Desires, click here.

While it is all well and good to want “things” in the physical world, and it is part of our nature as physical beings to want and to need material stuff, the Kabbalists teach that such desires — and even the fulfillment of those desires — will never make us happy.  Additionally, they will never open us to the flow of goodness and pleasure that God is waiting to give to us.

Thus, we must change what we want.  First, we must want a new attitude or way of approaching life and all it gives us — or doesn’t give us.  We need to find a way to simply be okay with our current situation.  This doesn’t mean we don’t want to change it for the better or take action to accomplish this. Until we manifest this desire, however, we choose not to suffer. We learn to be in the now, in the moment, okay with what is, with what we have. We learn to see what we have in a different light — with gratitude.  We must feel good where we are while acknowledging that we want to be somewhere else, we want to receive something different.

Secondly, we must develop a desire for something different. We must want a new desire.  We have to want to manifest a desire to receive not for ourselves alone but for the sake of giving unconditionally to others.  In affect, the Kabablists tell us that what we should desire is a new consciousness.  Only when we manifest this new consciousness will we truly be happy.  And only then can we open ourselves fully to the flow of Infinite goodness and pleasure.

If these concepts interest you, you can learn more here and here.

When you feel the desire to judge someone, remember that on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, the sefirot of gevurah (judgment) lies opposite chesed (loving-kindness), so that these can balance each other. Thus, we never judge someone without tempering that judgement with love and kindness and we don’t offer love and kindness without the some perspective offered by judgment or discernment.

If you’ve never looked at the Tree of Life or the sefirot, you might want to do so. They are very interesting and provide great insight into many aspects of ourselves and how we are supposed to approach life.

Supposedly the Tree of Life constitutes a blueprint for all of creation. The sefirot represent Divine characteristics, yet we also contain these aspects since the blueprint lies within us as well.

We must strive to find a balance between the sefirot—to express them in just the right amount. In this case, we want to have not too much judgment and not too much loving kindness. Too much of either one becomes a character flaw. We want balance. Life is about balance.

Today I had the chance to speak about my Kabbalistic conscious creation process on Europe’s Secret to Success Internet radio show. (You can listen to the show here.) While I spoke with the show’s host, Natasha Abudarham, I began thinking about how important it really is to begin any project with a desire to fulfill your soul’s purpose.

You see, no matter whether your project entails manifesting a new car, finding a new job, writing a book, improving a relationship, losing weight, or getting out of debt, you must begin by asking yourself how doing or accomplishing these things allows your soul to do what it came to this Earth to do. Every soul has a job here. Each person has a unique talent or gift. Everyone is good at something or especially suited to some task. We each feel passionate about something–when we do that something our heart sings. That’s what we are supposed to be doing. And when you or I understand how what we want or need–the project we want to undertake–serves that purpose, we’ll have an easier time meeting our goal or manifesting our desires.

That’s why the first step in my conscious creation process asks people to get in touch with what the Kabbalists called “Adam Kadmon,” the blueprint of all creation or, what I call the repository of your soul’s purpose. I want you to discover your unique talent or gift and how you are going to bring that into the world. I want you to create from a place that is in touch with your soul’s purpose–with the reason you are here. When you create things that help you fulfill your soul’s purpose, you manifest those desires more easily. They fit into the Divine plan and, therefore, you find them taking physical form almost miraculously when you set your mind, emotions, and actions to creating them. Additionally, you will want to share them as a way of fulfilling your soul’s purpose and completing the conscious creation process as I outline it.

I think overall we manifest things more quickly and easily when they fit into the Divine Plan…not into some human plan. If you aren’t just manifesting more “stuff” but things that help you fulfill your soul’s purpose–things that help you do what you are meant to accomplish in this lifetime, you’ll have more success with your conscious creation efforts.

Remember, this is a co-creation process after all. You and the Ultimate Creator are creating together.

If you don’t have any idea what your soul’s purpose might be, you might find this post helpful.

For more information on Kabbalistic conscious creation and the Law of Attraction, check out my booklet, the Kabbalah of Conscious Creation, or the articles here.