Lady Victoria Eclectic Pagan's blog: "Ralph Marston"

From this moment, there is a path that leads toward victory and another path that leads toward defeat. Which path is your awareness focused upon? Each pathway is equally valid, equally realistic, and equally accessible. Which path have you chosen to follow? The particular circumstances of this moment don't really matter that much. What matters is what you decide to do with what you have right now. Know, without a doubt, that there is a very real path that goes from where you are now to where you would most like to be. Know it and you will surely see it. Always, there is hope, for always you can take a step forward. Step by step, you can work your way to any place you choose. Get yourself on the path that leads to victory, to accomplishment and fulfillment of your most deeply held purposes. That path is surely here right now, ready for you to take the next step.

This day is not happening to you. It is happening through you. The way you see the world does not merely affect what you think and feel about all that is going on. The way you see the world determines how the world will be. Your thoughts are not just momentary flashes that disappear once you are finished with them. They are powerful forces that give energy and direction to life. The events and situations that come your way are not just random occurrences. There is a reason why you have put yourself in a position to experience them. The things that are possible are the things that you imagine and expect to be possible. Raise your imagination and your expectations to new levels, and the world follows right along. This day is happening because you are here to live it. Make it truly grand and exquisitely beautiful, just because you can.

Think of this moment as your greatest blessing. For this moment connects you to, and surrounds you with, all your many other blessings. The sights, the sounds, the textures and feelings in this moment provide endless levels of richness for you to explore and experience. The thoughts you have in this moment can carry you to any place, any time and any possibility you dare to imagine. Whatever fulfillment you seek begins in this moment. All the goodness you have known is alive with you right here and now. This moment is ripe with opportunity. It is the magical stage upon which you can act to truly make a difference. The whole of the universe in its unimaginable vastness comes together in this moment. And you are now here to focus that value, through your thoughts and actions, toward beautiful positive purpose. Here is this moment, a great gift that is now being born all around you. You know what to do.

You will definitely succeed at something today. What exactly will it be? Whatever you most sincerely believe and expect, you will succeed in creating. Whatever you focus your thoughts and energy upon cannot help but become real for you. There is no doubt that you will succeed today at making a difference in the world. The question is, what difference will you choose to make? Perhaps the choices you have made in the past have not brought you any degree of satisfaction of fulfillment. But that doesn't mean you must settle for a life that's dismal and unfulfilling. Because you are free and able right now to set new priorities, to make different, more positive choices. Instead of being successful at failure, you can choose to be successful at success. Every moment of every day, you succeed at creating the reality in which you live. Choose now to use that power in a positive, meaningful, fulfilling way.

When you consider it to be a beautiful day, it is. When you believe that you are happy, you are. Expect to find an answer, and you will. Know that something is possible for you, and it surely comes about. Your perceptions do not merely reflect an objective, unresponsive reality over which you have no control. Your perceptions shape the reality that you experience. The way you see your life has a great influence on the way your life unfolds. How are you choosing to see your life? Your perceptions shine a light upon the world around you. The world that you actually experience depends on how and where you shine that light. How do you most sincerely wish for this day, this life, this world to be? What you choose to see is what you will cause to be.

Everything in your life has an influence and an interaction with everything else. Make an improvement in one area of your life, and many other areas will benefit. Everything in your world is interconnected. Create value in one place, and that value casts its light in additional places as well. Your positive thoughts and actions often have immediate and direct results. They also have indirect results that can continue far beyond the obvious. A small kindness offered to just one person can end up benefiting countless others. The love you give will always, in ways that you may never even realize, come back to you. Success and fulfillment do not occur in isolation. You'll receive no great benefit from being positive about only a few things if you take a negative approach in other areas. Instead, focus all your awareness and intention in a positive, fulfilling direction. Then, all the many connections will organize in such a way as to move you quickly forward. -- Ralph Marston

What assumptions have you already made about today, and why? Consider that some of those assumptions may no longer be accurate, and may very well be holding you back. It's comfortable and convenient to assume you can't do something. Yet such an assumption quickly turns into a continuing limitation that you place on yourself. Things that were true for you many years ago may no longer have any validity. By holding on to those old assumptions, you prevent yourself from making the most of the new opportunities that come your way. Think of how dramatically the world has changed in the last ten or twenty years. Have your assumptions about your own possibilities kept pace? You may be carrying assumptions that were placed in your mind by people who no longer play a role in your life. Take a close look at the choices and decisions you make, at the goals and aspirations you hold, and examine the assumptions behind them. Make it a point to regularly question your assumptions. By so doing, you're sure to find much value that you've been hiding from yourself. -- Ralph Marston

What is the image you have of yourself? Who and what do you think you are? If your self-image is in conflict with your goals, the self-image will win out and the goals will fall by the wayside. Yet when your image of yourself is in agreement with your goals, those goals will be achieved in ways that seem almost effortless. Who you think you are has a tremendous impact on the person you actually become. And fortunately, you can choose precisely who you think you are. Others will often try to tell you who you are, but you don't need to pay any attention to them. Instead, decide to see yourself as the person you would most truly like to be. The way you choose to see yourself exerts a steady and substantial influence on all the other choices you make. And those choices add together to build the reality of your life. Truly see yourself as the person who can live the life you most sincerely desire to live. Who you think you are is precisely who you will come to be. -- Ralph Marston

There is great joy within you. Yet all too often your thoughts can keep that joy hidden away. Most of the judgments to which you devote your thoughts do not serve any useful purpose. Worries, resentments, and angry thinking will bring you nothing of real value, and will push joy further away from your awareness. Let go of those toxic thoughts and allow the joy that's hiding underneath them to shine through. Let go of the need to judge and to strive, and make room in your awareness for joy. Joy is easy and natural and not something you must struggle for or force. It has been there all along, and will flow easily from you when you allow it. Let your thoughts benefit from joy instead of using those thoughts to cover up that joy. Allow your actions to be more focused and effective by allowing your own unique joy to be expressed through them. Set free the joy in your life by letting go of the negativity that you don't need anyway. Set your joy free and let it fill your world. -- Ralph Marston

What a joy it is to be alive. What an extraordinary opportunity it is to be aware and able to interact with all that surrounds you. How wonderful it can be to feel weary after a fulfilling day's work. What a blessing it is to awaken to the unique possibilities of a new day. It is such a delight to discover something new and interesting. It is so fulfilling to make a difference in the lives of others. For every single difficulty there are a hundred blessings. How sweet it can be when you open your eyes to them all. What a special experience it is to create something valuable and original. How enriching it can be to see the beauty that is in the magnificent vistas as well as the small details. Certainly life has its difficulties. Yet even the difficulties help to make the overwhelming goodness of life that much more worth living. -- Ralph Marston