Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Guest Post by Edward Viljoen: Maybe I'm Not That Interesting?

Word-of-Mouth

The truth is that word-of-mouth is quite powerful because we seem to be very interested in each other's opinion.  We seem to have more confidence in the opinion of others than we do in the vast amount of information that comes to us through advertising.  That is why word-of-mouth is an important indicator of a movie's success. 

A friend who used to work in the advertising industry told me that world-of-mouth, in a way of thinking, is more valuable than just about any other kind of advertising.  The way he explained it is that we are likely to change our mind about seeing a movie, even after deciding not to see it, if a friend gives it a favorable report. So what you think, and what you say about a product really does matter.

I Want To Know What You Think

I know that I definitely pay more attention to what friends are interested in and I'm more likely to read a book that a friend recommends than if I read an advertisement for one.  If you've read a book recently that fascinated you, I'd love to know what it is and why you enjoyed it so much. 

Sometimes Randall Friesen, the editor of Newt List gender neutral, updated New Thought classics will call me very excited about a new text he is working on.  At first I may not be interested in the book but quickly his enthusiasm for some new kernel of metaphysical wisdom he discovered infects my thinking and I find myself wanting to read the e-book too.

I Thought I Had To Buy It

Recently I received the best review of my new book, The Power of Meditation, from a friend who called me up to say that he thought he "had to" buy my book being that he is a good friend.  It seemed the appropriate and supportive thing to do but he had no intention to read it.  Then while waiting for a trip to begin he cracked the book open and began to read it.  He called me up enthusiastically to say that he was thrilled with what he was learning from the book. I thought the story was rather humorous and told it to another friend, who, based on the excitement, bought the book too. 

Now this second friend had heard of the book, been around it and around me for ages, yet it wasn't until she heard of friend number one's reaction did she become motivated to pick it up.

You really are THAT interesting.


Edward Viljoen, author of The Power of Meditation, graduated as a Sonoma County Law Enforcement Chaplain in April 1999, received a Doctorate of Divinity from Centers for Spiritual Living and was awarded the much-respected Ernest Holmes Award for exemplary demonstration of the teachings of Dr. Ernest Holmes.

Among his passions as a minister is helping other ministers and has served the Ongoing Ministers Education Conference for 10 years. Other passions include music, cats, essential oils, science fiction and leading people on tours to places in the world to experience new cultures and new ways of understanding the Divine.

http://tinyurl.com/powerofmeditation


Thursday, March 20, 2014

What If You Don't Have Zest For Life? Passion and Success

The main thing I've learned is...

Through working on New Thought classics in public domain, I've seen a thread that runs through the messages of several New Thought authors.  There are definite, consistent ideas that many of them address.  I'm guessing these are the important ideas to focus on.  For example, there is a thread about the importance of your passion for life and how it relates to being successful. That's an interesting and frequent idea.

But what if you don't have passion for life.  What if you don't have zest for living?  Then you have to figure out how to get it.  In one way or the other New Thought authors say in one way or another that you have to be engaged and interested in life if we want to be successful.  And, if you don't have that passion, it can be acquired.  That's another repeated thought: you and I can regain our zest for living through spiritual practice.

Repetition is my friend

Practice means the thing you and I do regularly to express our spirituality.  Practice means repeat, repeat, repeat. With repetition comes improvement.  Through repeating new habits, you can change existing habits, for example through the use of spiritual tools such as affirmations to recondition your thinking.  Basically, to me the message I encounter over and over again in public domain New Thought texts goes something like this: talk your self into being passionate and do it over and over again.  Repetition helps in this regard.  It means presenting something to your mind repeatedly, so as to become familiar with it, as if you are trying it on until it feels normal.  I think that is what is meant by changing your mind, practicing something until it becomes normal. Personally, when I've done this, after a while of repeating a new idea I notice sometimes my habits have changed.  Almost always I feel better and more passionate about life.

Where to start

Of the book NewtList has published in gender neutral updated language the ones I think will be most helpful to someone wanting to establish different habits are:

Dynamic Thought
Pathway of Roses

Available for Kindle on Amazon
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Don't have a Kindle?  Read this!

Why is this book so important?

Never Been Seen Before

This book, The Basics of Spiritual Mind Healing, has never been published before.  That's important.  It's a comprehensive book about healing, using prayer, or spiritual mind treatment.  It is written for professional prayer practitioners, but is wonderfully accessible to anyone who is interested in the history and application of spiritual healing.

How You Can Use It

It talks about the idea of metaphysics, the spiritual world and how it all works. Then he funnels it down to affirmative prayer, connecting it all with lessons in the second half of the book where he pin points topics and applications in a beautiful way.

Get inspired, learn and use it

It's like a self-contained mini seminar all in one book.  It clear, fresh and was never published.  It is inspiring about the ideas of spirituality, and an education too.  That's satisfying

Who is this book for?

This is a great book for people who are studying spiritual mind healing, but it is also for regular people like you and me.  I'm not a practitioner of spiritual mind healing, but I was engaged by the book and enjoyed it very much.  Personally, I learned from reading this book for the first time the WHY affirmative prayer is such an effective method.

Newt List

On Kindle From Amazon

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