Dive Into Your Imagination

Reach out and touch someone was a slogan created by AT&T to get people to make more long distance phone calls and position the image of the company a part of everyday American life.  Millions of dollars was spent on this and it was so great that a few years ago they resurrected it.  But the way you are going to survive in 2009 is not be continuing to reach out to others, no.  You need to pull your energy back in and reach deep inside and be connected to yourself.  

Most of us go through life on auto pilot with our brains programmed, until we have a crash.  I have a computer that I rely on for everything.  How many of you have a computer?  So you can relate.  Well recently, I had a computer crash, hard drive loss and a website go down with the back up.  Now let me tell you, I was on my knees crying and praying and wondering why.  Why?  Why would I lose the back-up of the back-up what is the message?  And somewhere deep inside of me, I heard this voice, none of it matters.  You are not defined by your computer, your website or your business.  And suddenly I realized all the pain and suffering I was experiencing was the thought about my future and that of my past. 

 

Every morning when I wake up the very first thought that pops into my head is, thank you God.  I used to roll over and hit snooze, but now I meditate for three minutes, give gratitude and open myself up to receiving.  Three minutes, that is all it takes for me to start my day.  Just think about your morning routine for a minute.  What do you do?  Do you hit snooze and wish for more sleep or jump right out fully charged?  I have heard that "coincidences are just God's way of remaining anonymous," and after meeting Jeff at the last Les Brown Platinum Speaker training, I believe on a whole new level.  Meeting Jeff has changed the way I think of my life every single morning.  He is an unsung hero walking our planet dedicated to living a healthy life.  In his heart, mind, body and soul Jeff wants to spread the word that we must take care of ourselves from the inside out.  "Without your health Annie, you have absolutely nothing."  And for Jeff, health is first and everything else is secondary.  You see, Jeff cannot just simply roll over and get out of bed every morning, he spends his life in a wheelchair.  Jeff is a quadriplegic, and it takes him 3 to 4 hours everyday to get out of bed.  Yes, 3 to 4 hours every morning, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  He cannot move his body from the neck down.  For the past 20 years this man has been dedicated to finding the purpose of his life.  

 

 

***Come visit Annie this weekend at Booth #130 at Our World Underwater in Chicago!

 

Cubs.  Bears.  Bulls.  Blackhawks.  Was I in a zoo?  Nope, I was in Sweet Home Chicago and simply reading the t-shirts and sweatshirts of all the people in my audience.  You would think that sports were the favorite past time, but after my motivational talks, I know that sports (and Pretty Kitty) have nothing compared to their new found love for our Ocean.  The 5^th and 6^th graders in Downers Grove were more Ocean Literate than the marine biology students at Columbia College and The Art Institute.  I am humbled every time I return to Chicago to speak as I wonder how this girl from the city has become a mermaid and continues to explore the underwater world.  

 

I had to take a photograph with one young boy.  He came up after the presentation to ask me all about dolphins as he was doing a special project and had just shy of a dozen questions on dolphin communication.  I had a hard time keeping my laughter in because he wore this t-shirt, Chicks Dig Pink. I could not help but wonder if his mom or dad bought him that t-shirt.  I could not believe how complete and self-assured he was at 12 not only because of his shirt, but because he was not asking about ‘sharks,’ he was enquiring about dolphins!

 

During the past week I have found boundless amounts of energy, as everything just seems to be falling into place.  When you feel like you are fighting and driving uphill in life, there is something wrong!  

I looked at the calendar today and laughed, Friday the 13th! I think of all the superstitions and old paradigms we live our daily lives by and do not even realize that we make them all up! About 100 years ago the Greeks made up a phobia and fear surrounding Friday the 13 and called it paraskavedekatriaphobia! How many fears from your past do you have lurking around your mind?

Today we are in the recording studio laying down the audio track to a film we will be premiering at The Our World Underwater Film Festival next Saturday night and I am so grateful to be able to use my creativity combined with electronics to do this! During the past eight months, we have had five computer or hard drive crashes and a website lose everything. I could teach classes about what to do in computer emergencies when you think you have lost everything! For awhile, I kept thinking my lesson was, “Back it up!” Yet, I now know this story is not about computers crashing, it is about shattering paradigms.

Find pleasure in the empty space.
Let it go, you will never walk alone.
Let go.  Let it go.  GO!  Let it.
Emptiness is not loneliness.
Clear the past (intrusions).

Allow space for clearing.
Allow healing.
Empty yourself.
You are Divine Light, call it in.

This too will pass.  
The pain and suffering you feel is only a feeling.  
You need to remember, this too will pass.  
If you abuse your body or mind you are only disrespecting your self within your own heart.

Open yourself to emptiness.
Open yourself to nothingness.
In nothing there is everything.
Be the tool of Divine being you were created to be.

Do nothing.
Be nothing.
Practice Patience.
There is no wanting.
There is no needing.
These do not exist.
Want for nothing.  Need for nothing.
Let it go.
Seek emptiness.

I am in the process of letting go the idea I had of myself of my future.  After all, when I look at my life presently it is nothing I ever really imagined, dreamed, wished it would be.  I am not saying to not use your imagination, for I believe it is a tool we need to use daily in our lives, but I am no longer hooked on the outcome of my life.  I am free of the past and not trying to control the future.  

And as I read, Dancing With Life by Phillip Moffitt last night he quotes T.S. Eliot: