In ‘The secret’ I found a technique to become mindful that is worth exploring.
They claim two things, and I agree on neither :-), but I think what they say is worth exploring.

1)It is impossible to monitor all of ones thoughts.

This one is obviously false. The argument goes that we have thousand of thoughts every day and that it is impossible to monitor them all. I already stated in my previous post that many Buddhist monks do this every day. Off course, we are no Buddhist monk, but it proves that it can be done. And when you read the books in the tradition of ‘Being in the present moment’ (for example by Eckhar Tolle), they essentially say the same (actually, there is no real difference between ‘mindfulness’ and ‘being in the now’, except for the naming). So it is more than possible, albeit not easy to do.

2)All emotions stem from a thought

This is a tricky one. My personal experience tells me that this is very often the case that an emotion has a precursor thought, but not always. But maybe I am not fast enough to always see the thought.
On the other side, in the gnostic tradition (see gnosticweb and gnosticteachings) tells us that emotions can be separated. As I am a student of this tradition and I value their teachers very highly, I will believe them (for now).

In conclusion, they say, watch your emotions and you will know your thoughts. And emotions are not as quickly bypassing as thoughts, so you have a better chance at seeing them. Here I can relate.
So with hem, I would recommend an extra mindfulness practice: regularly check your emotional state!
If done persistently, you will see that it becomes a habit and finally it will become effortless.

This should improve the practice of mindfulness greatly, but also has the advantage of learning you a lot about your habitual emotional state. As it is often not easy to discover your habitual emotional state as you are so identified with it, this little practice should show the way.
You might be surprised to discover what you are thinking of mostly, I know I did.

Be well. Be rich. Be great.

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I’m am the kind of person that likes to read several books at the same time. And this moment is no exception. I am reading ‘Think and grow rich’ from Napoleon Hill together with ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne.

It is this last book that I’d like to review, although I did not complete it yet.

As many books in this category of self-help, it has a lot of material inside. And by this I mean a lot. It is packed with good examples and inspirational stories. This is a side of the book that I particularly like.
Also the many quotes from ‘the teachers’ and their personal stories are very inspirational. I must agree that after reading a few paragraphs and thinking them over, I really have a good feeling and feel like I am on a high.

This part of the book is really awesome.

But at the same time, the book lacks what many similar books also lack: a clear and determined system. All the information needed to correctly apply the law of attraction in your life is present, but you need to figure out a practical system for yourself.
I agree that one anyway needs to take action, but in the slipstream of ‘The Secret’, I saw many workbooks appearing. I did not read any of them, but I can see why they exists. Because if people are somewhat like myself, they read through the material, practice one or two exercises (the ones they are reading) and then forget about the whole thing. Just out of lack of habit. That is off course why Napoleon Hill emphasizes persistence. And he is right.

But how to cultivate persistence? For this one needs a rigid scheme. And one needs to follow it. Preferably in a scheme with daily or weekly exercises. At the end of the day, we need to check whether we did the exercises. Else we will get nowhere.

So my conclusion is: buy ‘The Secret’. It is written in a style that is very appealing for a modern reader and contains just enough repetition to pass on the message without getting boring. Unfortunately, no comprehensive system is given, so you will either have to make one yourself or buy one of the books made just for this.

Be well. Be rich. Be great.

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I found two amazing blogs. One lists a lot of contests that can freely be entered (usually blog specific) and the other lists all kinds of coupons.

Well, the money does not stream in, we can at least stop it from leaking out

Blog contest site
Coupons site

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