JOYOUS, SPARKLING CONFIDENCE AND SELF-ESTEEM: MAGICAL AFFIRMATIONS AND VISUALIZATIONS

News from Denise and Summerhill Ranch:

After discovering that Denise wasn’t happy about him hanging around in the house, and after an unsuccessful attempt to hang out with the dogs, Mork, Denise’s resident rooster has finally found his “people” on the ranch – the goats!!  He goes walking with them in the morning and doesn’t mind that they nibble on his feathers.

What is visualization and what is an affirmation:

· An affirmation is something that you say, think or write over and over again, that affirms something you desire. 

· A visualization is where you use your imagination to literally visualize, to literally imagine, that truth or dream that you desire, as if it were so.

Why would you want to do visualizations:

· According to research done, mental practices of eg. a sport has the same value as the physical practice – simply visualizing it can develop the skill almost as much as doing it.  Studies regarding this include: 

· The same brain patterns in weight lifters who were actually lifting weights and those weight lifters who visualized themselves lifting weights

· An exercise psychologist from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio compared to groups of people – one group that went to the gym and the other group that visualized themselves exercising.  Both groups experienced increase in muscle strength and the latter group’s muscle strength remained for 3 months after the mental training! 

· In other studies, it has been shown that one can increase the blood flow to a particular part of the body simply by visualizing it.

· A man in prison for 9 years visualized himself playing a chess game in spite of the fact that he didn’t have a chess set or an opponent to play against.  Eventually, after he got out of prison, he beat the world chess champion!!

Using visualizations and affirmations together:

· When you use an affirmation together with the visualization, it deepens your ability to impact your body and your consciousness. 

· If you’re dealing with health issues, here is an affirmation – Denise uses it:  “I have legendary healing abilities!” 

· Visualizations and affirmations can increase your immune system. 

· But it’s not enough just to say it – your subconscious mind will not register it as a truth unless you feel it to be so.

Tips to step more into joyous, sparkling confidence:

· Start with an affirmation – think it, speak it and write it down.  Use an affirmation that works:  it has to be something that’s real and that your subconscious believes, eg. if your affirmation is “I’m a millionaire”, your subconscious doesn’t find that believable and sabotages you.  Instead of saying:  “I’m a confident person”, say:  “I’m becoming more and more confident”.  So you’re activating something that’s occurring now – whatever your confidence level, you’re becoming more and more confident.  Then think it, speak it and write it down.

· Be present with the affirmation every time you say it – you do this by changing the emphasis each time you say it, eg:

“I am becoming more and more confident.”

“I am becoming more and more confident.”

“I am becoming more and more confident.”

· Imagine it to be so; feel it to be so.  How would you hold your body if that were so?  How would you sit if you were really confident?  Scan your past – when in your life did you feel really confident?  Find that time, activate that memory.  Do the affirmation over and over, but really feel it each time.  It’s as if you’re creating a new path through the grasses of your mind and whenever your mind wants to go back to the old path, you’ve got to make this new path through the grasses of your mind, over and over – and let the grasses grow over the old path.

· Say the affirmation in the present tense, not in the future tense – the future never comes, it’s always in the future!  Use the present continuous tense:  “I am becoming more and more confident.” 

· Visualize what your life would look like if you were more confident.

· Use your emotions – there has to be an intensity to your affirmations; feel it!  Feel confident – feel how exciting it is to feel confident.

· If you apply all these techniques together, it works!

Denise’s Wisdom of the Week:

About goal-setting:  “Shift the focus from what you want to do to what you want to be; how you want to feel.  When you focus on how you want to be, how you want to feel, and how you want to experience life around you, the things you want to do and have start to flow out of that much more easily.  The more joy you activate, the easier it is to create the life you desire.”

Join the fun:

Denise has an additional Facebook page called:  Fabulous fun, funky factoids – join the Fun Factoid Family and share some fun factoids if you know some!!

The link is:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Denise-Linn-Fabulous-Fun-Funky-Factoids/323311001034897?sk=wall

Miracle Box for a New Year

News from Denise and Summerhill Ranch:

The goat platform, a.k.a. goat tree house, that David (Denise’s husband) is building her for Christmas is almost complete!  After researching on the internet, Denise found that she is not the only person who has a goat tree house, nor is she the only person who is passionate about goats – there are 25 “goats in trees” calendars on Amazon with rave reviews by customers!!

The magic of 2012:

So many people view 2012 as a pivotal year that whether or not it is astrologically “pivotal”, there is a powerful collective unconsciousness focusing on 2012 – that alone will make it a pivotal year.  So get ready for it; prepare for it.  In doing so, you are creating a vitality and an energy for the coming 12 months.  Hold the intention that this year is your year – that this is the time when all those challenges turn around and things change for you.  You can create the space for this to occur, part of this is to clutter clear and also create a miracle box and a God box.

Clutter Clearing:

· If you want to set the energy in place for 2012, clutter clearing is modern day alchemy – go through your stuff.  In no small way, your stuff is defining your destiny!! 

· If you do not love it or use it, get rid of it.  If for some reason you can’t get rid of it, put it in storage, otherwise if you haven’t needed it in a year, get rid of it.  Find a home for it.  If you want the memories, take a photo of it – you don’t need to keep the thing.  By doing this, life begins to change in almost magical ways. 

· Look at the reasons that you’re keeping something – if it is to please a relative who gave it to you, ask yourself if it is worth it to keep something in your space for days/weeks/years when you do not love it.  If the relative is deeply connected to your soul, she’ll understand.  Take a stand for your own bliss!  Take a stand for your own future and your own destiny.

· If you’re keeping something because you think you’ll need it some day, that’s a negative affirmation and you’re affirming lack in the future – throw it out.

· If “they don’t make it like this anymore”, think of having balance – is it worth keeping something for that reason if you don’t love it or use it?  It’s pulling down your energy.

· Start clearing the drawers in your bedroom.  Hold the intention that you are clearing space for the New Year – “I am doing this with the intent that I am creating the space for an AWESOME, INCREDIBLE 2012!!!”  Where intention goes, energy flows.

Creating Miracle Boxes:

· A miracle box gives form to the formless – you are giving form to your dreams and desires.

· Get a box – it can be a shoe box, a wooden box, a box from the craft store, or any sturdy box.

· Take some time to first focus and become still.  Ask:  why am I doing this?  What is my intent?  Connect to the deeper, underlying energy.   Your intent could be for an incredible 2012.

· Decorate the box inside and out.  Before decorating the outside of the box, write on all 4 sides, on top of and underneath the box:  “Thank you”.  Then decorate on top of that.  So underneath the decoration, there is this feeling of gratitude .  When you come from a place of gratitude, that works like a spiritual magnet to pull even more to you.  So as you write “thank you”, really feel a sense of gratitude to God/Source/Creator for the immense blessings in your life.

· You can decorate the box in any way you want.  Denise uses cards that people send her – she likes the artwork and the energy of the cards which have come with love.  You can use paint, ribbons, stick on gems with a glue gun, fabric – anything that makes your heart sing.

· On the inside cover of the miracle box, write:  “All that is in this box is so.”

· Decorate the inside of the box too.  Denise uses images that are intimate and hallowed.

· Then take a moment to be still, hold it to your heart and fill it with your heart energy; fill it with your love (love of the connection you have to Spirit, love of the goodness of the Universe); fill it with your passion and gratitude – let this energy radiate from your heart into this box.

· Cut little strips of paper.  Write a desire on each strip – don’t write it as if you’re asking, write as if it already IS.  Eg.  if you’re having trouble with your neighbour, write:  “all my relationships with my neighbours are strong, beautiful, loving and well”.  If you have a challenge with your child, write: “my relationship with …… is excellent and every day we’re making great strides to becoming even closer”. Write as if you’re already feeling satisfaction – if you want to buy a new car, write “thank you for my new car/I’m so grateful for my new car”.

· Roll up each strip of paper and tie it up like a little parchment scroll, then put it into the box.  If you’d like to, you can put crystals in your box as Denise does.

· Close the box, hold the box up over your head and offer it to Spirit, saying:  “Thank you, Creator.”

· Then put your box away and don’t think about it or open it for 4 months.  When you do open it, you’ll be amazed at what has come true.  In some cases, those things that haven’t come true are the things that you no longer desire.

God Boxes:

· A God Box contains the issues that you want to turn over to the Creator – those challenges which you’ve worked on and tried every strategy you know, but nothing seems to have worked. 

· Write down the challenge and write that you’re turning this situation over to God/Creator/Source – use whatever words work for you.  Communicate as if you were talking directly to God/Source/Creator.

· Put the strips of paper in the box and close it.  Do this with the energy that you’re really just handing this over to God.  You may want to put the God box (and even your miracle box) on your altar.

· Periodically go through this box – you will be amazed at how these seemingly impossible challenges are resolved.  That’s the power of surrender.

· The Creator dwells within you – you are handing this over to that place inside of you that is infinite, immortal, eternal, universal, that place of infinite love and infinite wisdom.  You’re not giving it to something outside of yourself – you are surrendering to that hallowed, holy place within you.

Denise’s Wisdom of the Week:

· “If you want to set the energy in place for 2012, clutter clearing is modern day alchemy – go through your stuff.  In no small way, your stuff is defining your destiny!!” 

· “What really creates miracles is when you feel it as if it were already so – when you can feel it emotionally, feel it in your body.  Feel it as if it were already so.  It is at that point where miracles start to happen.”

Affirmations for the New Year:

· “I love deeply and fully and I receive love deeply and fully.”

· “My ability to manifest my desires expands exponentially.”

· “My ability to make a difference in the lives of others, to give deeply and fully and to make the world a more beautiful place, expands exponentially this year.”

Vision Seed for a New Year

News from Denise and Summerhill Ranch

Denise is finally getting her “goat tree house”!!  David is constructing it for her.

Strategies to put yourself in the best possible place for this year:

a.  Collaging

· Collaging is a way of creating a visible form for your desires and passions and putting it in your home so that you can absorb it into your subconscious. 

· Do it with the intention of energizing 2012!  Denise collaged to find the person she wanted to spend her life with and 2 weeks later, she was married!! 

· Collaging can act as a sacred key to open that gateway to Spirit so that it’s so much easier to manifest your heart’s desire. 

· When you create that collage, you absorb that energy into your auric field, and then you begin to radiate it out from you.  It acts like a magnet – it will pull people and experiences and situations to you.  It works! 

· When you create a collage, put into it the feeling that you want.

How to collage:

· Get very clear on the reason for the collage.

· Think about if that were to come to fruition – if you were to get what you wanted, what is the feeling it would give you?

· Open your heart and pray – call on the Creator, angels, guides, ancestors to support you.  Creating the collage is a sacred act of power – address it as such.

· Get pictures and words from old magazines or use Google to get images.

· Cut out anything that creates the feeling you’d have if you were to get what you want. Don’t think about it too much – get your mind out of the way and open your heart. 

· Now arrange the pictures – don’t think about it too much, just move them around.

· Breathe deeply while you’re doing this.

· Go with the feeling – when it feels right, paste them down.  Denise likes using rubber cement and then she frames her collage to make it look more substantial.

· Put your collage up in your bedroom where you can absorb it even while you’re sleeping.

· You can then do a ceremony that blesses your collage.  You can put it out in the sun and say:  “May the Spirit of the sun illuminate this collage; may the Creator within all things illuminate this collage.”  You can put crystals over it or you can pray over it – anything that honours what it is – it is a key to a sacred inner doorway.

· Also ask yourself:  “If there was one word to describe this or to describe the feeling of this, what might it be?”  And “if someone else were looking at this, what might they think/feel?”

· Prop up the collage in front of you, close your eyes, become relaxed and imagine you’re going in an inner journey – it becomes a dimension that you’re entering into; a multi-dimensional universe, and you become really tiny and enter into it and move around in it.  This deepens the connection between you and the images/feeling.

· Just let it go – “this or something better in accordance with Highest Good comes to me”

· Whatever you want for 2012, visualize it and then surround it in a beautiful orb/sphere of pink light. The sphere gets tinier until you can hold it in one hand.  You can send love to it from your heart, down your arm and cup your hand into it – energise it with love.  Then toss it up so high that you can’t see it anymore – you’re giving it to the Universe so that it can absorb all the energy it needs for fruition…let it go.

b.  De-cluttering

· De-clutter!  Clear out as much of the old as you can.  Start with the drawers, start in your bedroom – start small and limit yourself to a certain amount of time.

· Ask yourself:  do I love it?  Do I use it?  Have I used it in the last 3 years?  If not, get rid of it or put it in storage.

· Let go of what does not serve you.  Don’t hold onto it because you might need it someday – this is like affirming that although you have enough now, you might not have enough in the future.

Denise’s Wisdom of the Week:

· “Whatever your belief about 2012, there is a collective unconsciousness around this particular year.  When millions of people are focusing on a particular event, a particular time or time period, it creates a reality in the astral plane, which actually speaks to the point that this is going to be a special year.”

· “Often, wanting something so much pushes it away, because you’re coming from a fear that it’s not going to happen.  And the fear keeps it from happening.  So you just have to let it go.”

· “When you create a collage, part of you begins to believe it is a reality – it begins to affirm within you that it is real; it can and will happen; it is happening.”

Profound Messages: How to listen to water

PROFOUND MESSAGES:  HOW TO LISTEN TO WATER

News from Denise and Summerhill Ranch

Thanksgiving was celebrated in the U.S. and this is Denise’s favourite holiday.  For Denise, it’s about gratitude.  One of the things that she is especially grateful for is all her listeners and she thanks them for joining her - “In this moment, beyond time and space, we are connected…there is this deep profound connection.  And it’s something that I look forward to every week and it’s something that I’m so grateful for.”

Getting messages from water throughout history:

· In Native American tradition, people look to the water for messages – messages in the swirls and colour of the water (in streams, rivers, waterfalls).  There are messages from Spirit, messages about the future and messages from those who have passed on.  Spirit can communicate with you through the water because of its fluidity.  Looking at moving water almost puts you in an alternative state of consciousness, which also enables you to get messages more easily.

· In Ancient Germany, the wise women would look into the streams and rivers.  They looked at the source of the river, its colour and swirls, and the direction in which it flowed and from all of this, they received profound messages to share with the village.

· In Ancient Persia, people would engage in hydromancing (looking into a bowl of water to get messages).

· The Bible mentions the Pool of Bethesda – a pool of water, and looking into it, one was able to foretell afflictions and remedies.

· The Ancient Italians used fountains to get information from Spirit.  Also, the sacred lake around the Temple of Venus was used by people who would put offerings in the lake – if the offering sank immediately, it meant that times were good, but if the offering floated a little it was a sign that some things needed to be changed or that bad times were coming.

· So the use of water for divination is an ancient art.

· Reading tea leaves at the bottom of a cup (once the cup is empty and looking at their pattern at the bottom of the cup) has been a way of getting messages too.  This cannot be done with a teabag – only tea leaves will work.

Getting messages from still water:

· If you can get to still water outdoors where it might be easier to receive the signs (lake, pool, etc.), sit quietly and start looking at the surface of the water.

· First notice the reflections in the water eg.  clouds being reflected – look at their shapes.  What do they look like and what are they telling you?  If you knew what they were telling you, what might it be?

· Sometimes the message is obvious, but at other times you have to work with it.

· Then look at the surface of the water – if there are ripples, what do they seem to be telling you?  Are they large or small ripples?  What direction are they going in (there is energy in each of the directions – If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, the East is the place of beginnings, the West is the place of endings, the North is the place of consolidation, and the South is the place of expansion)?  If you knew, what direction would it be?

· Now look beneath the surface of the water:  shapes, colours, messages.

· This exercise can elicit profound wisdom.

· If you live in an area with no pond, lake, etc:  get a bowl of water and do the above exercise.  You may want to light some candles as opposed to using artificial electrical lights.

· You can drop a stone into the water (as they used to do in ancient times) and observe the ripples and their direction.  Or you could drop 3 stones into the water consecutively and look at how the ripples each stone made, interface with those from the other stones.

Getting messages from moving water:

· If you can get to the ocean, sit where the waves are coming straight towards you. 

· Still your mind and listen to the sound – often you can begin to hear voices in the sound of the sea.  At first they may sound like murmurs, but as you listen more closely, the voices can become more articulated.

· Look deep into those waves – there is something hypnotic about them and this helps to get you into that deeper place inside of you.

· Ask yourself:  if I knew what the message was, what would it be?  Be in the energy where you’re thinking:  I know what the message is and right now the message is being revealed to me.

· If you’re near a stream, there is power in the sound of the stream – every stream has different sounds.

· If you make home fountains, work with the sound and not just with the way it looks – the sound can be a purveyor of messages and Spiritual energy from the sound.  Make sure the sound is one that really resonates with your soul.

· Look into the water and allow the sound and images to fill you.  Ask a question if you want to eg.  I’m not sure whether to take this job or not, what’s the message?  Listen, sense and feel, and tune into the physical sensations of your body to help you get the answer.

· If you don’t have access to a stream, fountain or ocean, you can download/buy the sounds of the sea/stream.  Simply listening to the sound of water can often allow you to catapult into Spirit and bring those messages to you – this can happen just by playing the sound of water in the background.

· Because of the fluidity of water, you can call Spirit into the water.  Water absorbs energy.  You can be still and say:  “I call upon the Spirit of all that is beautiful and wonderful”; or “I call upon the Spirit of my angels/the Creator to fill this water with Spirit”.  If you do this, get still water bottled at source.  And if this is not affordable, use regular water, but put it out under the stars and moonlight and allow it to absorb the energy of the Heavens, so that the water is energized before you call Spirit into it.  You can put crystals (that have been cleansed) into the water.  When you look into this water, the messages will be clear because of the energy put into that water ahead of time.

NB:  If you can go into water (eg. into a stream/river/lake) and immerse yourself in water, ask the Spirit of the water:  what is your message for me?  There is a Consciousness in water and doing this is very powerful.

Additional Info:

• Scrying is a form of divination - you can look deep into the water for messages.
• Snow is a way to get messages, and snow is made up of billions of crystals, and when the sun shines on the snow, if you want to purify your auric field, stand out in that snow.

Denise’s Wisdom of the Week:

“It is my belief that powerful, profound results can occur even in a short amount of time.”