Author: Yanni Maniates

If you haven’t already, please go back and read parts 1-4 of this series. The lessons are short, but please do not rush through them. Use them as an opportunity for contemplation, growth and healing.

Why would you believe that the solutions to the challenges you face are in what you’ve already thought of or in what somebody else has suggested? They’re not. The answers lie deep within you at the core of who you really are. With your intuition, you can find them.

Whether you know it or not, deep down inside you, you know why you chose to incarnate on this planet at this time. You know why you are in the situations you are in now. You know why these challenges are good for you. All is in divine order and divine timing. You know it’s all leading you to a deeper sense of your Self, of awakening, of healing, and of growth.

So why try to use the mind to understand all this? It’s stuck in a box of limiting beliefs and rigid, controlling expectations. Shift out of that place and enter the land of your soul and there you will know who you are, why you are where you are and where you are going. 

Intuition opens you up to the big picture rather than to the little, narrow-minded, myopic picture of your ego. The ego thinks, “I’m suffering, woe is me!” But your Soul or intuition helps you understand, “No, at the moment, I am learning. And this is what I am learning and this is where it it’s all going and why.”

How do you make sense of the things that happen to you in your life? What do you use as your source for perspective, understanding, meaning, and purpose in your life? Do you go within? Do you believe that there is a purpose and a meaning for everything that happens? Do you realize that you can be a master of your life and not a victim?

Quiet your mind for a moment now and then bring up an issue in your life that is a challenge. Focus on an image or feeling about this challenge for a minute or so and then sit back and “see” what insights, inspirations or images you get. Don’t think; just trust and feel into what you get.

The more often you practice this, the better you will get at accessing the wisdom within you. That wisdom is waiting to reveal itself to you.

If you haven’t already, please go back and read parts 1-3 of this series. The lessons are short, but please do not rush through them. Use them as an opportunity for contemplation, growth and healing.

Where is your reference point? Is it within you or outside of you? Who do you use as your authority—yourself or another?

Do you use your Self as your sole reference point or do you use others? In other words, do you check in with your Self first or do you always go without (i.e. you trust the opinion of others more than your own) in making decisions, big and small?

In order to access your intuition and access your Self, you must “quiet your mind and open your heart.”  There is no other way. And when you do this, you experience the silence that is left when all your relentless thinking and emoting quiets down. It is in this silence that you can hear your Self. 

By learning how to shift into this internal space—this intuitive space—you are not only accessing your intuition, but are also learning how to be true to your Self; thus, you end up hearing and listening to your Self and to no one else. You begin to use your Self as your internal reference point. There is no other true reference point but You— inside You; you now recognize and listen to your own voice. You become the author and authority of your life.

In other words, intuition isn’t just simply being able to say, “Wow, I see my guides,” or “I was King Tut in my last lifetime,” or whatever other kind of woo woo thing you might think it is. It’s actually an opportunity to come to know You—to come to know Thou—the Divine that is You—the essence that is You, and to be “True to Thy Self.”

If you follow any one other than your Self, you will surely get lost.

We’ll continue next week with part 5 of this 8-part series.

If you haven’t already, please go back and read parts 1 and 2 of this series. The lessons are short, but don’t rush through them. Use them as an opportunity for contemplation, growth, and healing.

Your programmed ego mind is basically useless—that’s why I consider it a vestigial organ—on some level at least. To access the intuitive, soul level part of yourself, you must quiet the external mind—the ego mind. As you quiet that mind and slip in between all your incessant thoughts and emotions, you then can begin to eavesdrop on your own soul, on your higher Self—that is, your intuitive Self, and on God/Goddess

Cease trying to work things out with your mind. It will get you nowhere. Let your whole life be led by intuition and inspiration. Let your whole life be a revelation.—Eileen Caddy

The mind knows only what it has been programmed to know, much like a computer. On the other hand, your heart/Soul accesses the infinite “knowing” of the Universe and therefore, can and does “know all things.”

With the ego mind quiet, you can sense or “tune into” the subtle energies and realms. It’s really that simple and everyone can do it.

Do you rely on your mind too much? In other words, on what you already know and believe rather than on the possibility of being inspired with new insights about yourself and others? Do you think too much? Take a moment to really reflect on these questions.

I’ll continue next week with part 4.

What is intuition? It is seeing or listening with your heart and not with your head. It is “going within.”

This is part 2 of an eight-part series. If you haven’t already, please go back and read part 1. The lessons are short; please don’t rush through them. Use them as an opportunity for contemplation, growth, and healing.

I want to touch on what it means to “go within,” for when you “go within” you see/listen with your heart or your feeling senses and not with your head. By “going within” you become one with your object of attention because you place it inside of you—i.e., inside your heart.

When you only use your head/mind, you only see/sense a small percentage of your object of attention because you are only using your logical mind to analyze, measure, categorize, and judge it. In effect, you are just scanning the surface of it. When you “go within,” on the other hand, you learn how to “identify” with it—to “feel into” it—to “embrace” it.  And by doing this, you allow yourself to become “one with” whatever you’re focused on and see the whole picture from the inside out.

In other words, when you look at something from the outside, i.e. with your mind, you only see a small part of it. You are truly just skimming the surface. But when you allow yourself to become a part of it internally, you you see and perceive much more.  

If you don’t go within, you go without.
—Neale Donald Walsch

What I am suggesting is very different from the way most people gather information about a person or thing or situation.  By interacting intuitively, you gather information with your heart and not your head. The mind does not truly understand anything; it just analyzes and measures. It is the heart that really knows.

“For primitive people the presence of energy and power is the starting point of their analysis and understanding of the natural world…primitive people felt power, but did not measure it. Today we are able to measure power, but do not feel it.” — Vine Deloria, a Native American scholar.

“Sometimes the measurable drives out the most important.”
—Rene Dubos

What do you think about what I have suggested? Do you think it is possible for you to use your heart as your primary way to gather information?

Close your eyes now and take a moment to focus on a person you care about. Instead of thinking about them, just softly focus on an image/feeling of them and see what you “feel” about them rather than what you think about them. Then spontaneously jot down a few notes about what you felt. Do the same with someone you recently met or don’t know that well.

As you keep practicing this, you will be surprised to see how much you pick up on about a person. Practice this simple technique, and over time you will get to know a lot more about a person than you would if you just used your mind.

This is part 2 of an 8-part series.

Live your life from the “inside out” and have the “inside edge” in everything you do.

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
—Albert Einstein

This post is part 1 of an 8-part mini course on intuition, a journey into the land of your soul. You will learn how to honor and use your intuition to empower your life and live authentically. The lessons are short, but please do not rush through them. Use them as an opportunity for contemplation, growth, and healing.

Intuition the best and most empowering tool for coming to know:

1. Who you are.
2. Where you are in your life right now.
3. Where you are going.
4. Why you are going there.
5. What to do next.

So, as well as being a metaphysical tool to explore the inner realms and spirit world, intuition is also very very practical. 

Why do you want to learn how to “connect” intuitively? Is it to connect with your higher Self, other people, your guides, your ancestors, etc.? Is it to help you make better decisions in your life, to feel good about yourself, to impress others, and so on? 

Take a few minutes to really reflect on this. It will help you set your intentions for this mini-course, which will help you get the most out of it.

Next week, in Part 2, we’ll begin exploring how to develop and deepen your intuition.

When I spent the summer before I entered college in Greece, my ancestral home, I was smitten by the Classical Greek culture I encountered there, and decided to become an archaeologist. I earned a B.A. in Classical Languages – Greek and Latin. Instead of archaeology, though, I went on to earn a Masters in Rare Book Librarianship and landed a position at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. After some years at Yale, I was set to attend Oxford University for my DPhil (Ph.D) until, a few months before I was due to leave for England, a prescient dream changed everything.

In the dream I saw myself all alone as a skeleton covered and surrounded by cobwebs in a dingy, dark little closet in the tower of an ancient library surrounded by moldy old books. It was creepy and a very visceral message to me to not pursue these studies anymore.

Instead, I chose to discover once and for all whether or not God exists. So I traveled far and wide, internally and externally, only to find that God was, in fact, within me – not anywhere “out there.”

Ever since I was a child I’ve been fascinated with the inner, deeper meaning of words. Somewhere in my early 20’s I was writing poetry and it dawned on me to find out the etymology of the word “poem” or “poetry.” In an abridged Classical Greek Lexicon I found that the root for poem/poetry is ποιεω. And that ποιεω means to make, do, or create. That meaning seemed a bit pedestrian and superficial to me, so I dug deeper into a non-abridged Classical Greek Lexicon and found that in the earliest uses of the word ποιεω, the word means to do, make, bring into existence or create something holy. Now that really resonated with me. Actually, in Hesiod’s Theogony, the oldest extant piece of literature in the Western world, the Creator is referred to as O ποιων. i.e., The Maker, The Doer, The Creator…The Poet.

I decided at that point that I wanted to be a “poet” and make my life a “poem.” In other words, I wanted my life and actions to create something holy/sacred and I wanted to become someone who experienced the holiness and sacredness of life.

I am still working on it; a work of art-in-progress is often rough around the edges, but still beautiful within. It’s been a very worthwhile journey.

A further reflection in this regard: Whatever we create with love is everlasting and holy. All the rest is ephemeral.

We are eternal beings. This life is one chapter in our eternal Book of Life. How well will we write this chapter? Will it be a classic or a best-seller? Actually, the only review that matters is this: Did you write/live a “Love Story” – a life so filled with love, with sacred service, and with beauty that it will be re-membered and reverberate evermore throughout all of eternity for all to enjoy?

No matter what we face, let’s find the beauty, the holiness, and the love in it all and celebrate with others. Let’s live moment-to-moment with an open heart and a quiet mind and a desire to gently create love on earth. Let’s sing, dance, pray, do ceremony, and care for each other – having so much fun that that our laughter and joy can be heard in the ethers for eternity – celebrating the joy, the beauty, the love of life that we came in to create this time around and every time.

This is part 5 of a five-part blog post. If you haven’t already, please go back and read parts 1 to 4.

Here are more phrases, thoughts, and understandings that I’ve used over the years to create peace, joy, and empowerment in my life.

8) Go within over and over again and open to the experience of the God presence and thus you will be free of your suffering. This is how you can attain “perfection over the illusion.”

Take time to regularly sit in meditation and there in that silence, where the ego mind is still and your heart is open, you will be filled with the presence of God/Goddess. There you will know who you really are and without a doubt you will know deep within you that you have eternal everlasting value. You will also know that that value is inherent in you and in every living creature. 

There is nothing you need to do or become or possess in this lifetime in order to realize your value. You are already THAT. You are God/Goddess in finite form who has taken on a temporary personality in this lifetime in order to manifest, experience, give, receive, and embody love. Period.

That’s why you are here. It’s not complicated. By realizing this, you attain “perfection over the illusion” and you know your eternal value.

It’s not about what we do with our lives that matters the most; it all about who we become. So, open your heart and quiet your mind regularly and consistently and you will then come to truly “know and become Thy Self.”

But to attain this awareness you must take the time to go within over and over again so that you can touch in with “reality,” that is, with God/Goddess. Otherwise the world of illusion will drag and beat you down and you will forget who you really ARE and how much power, potential, love, and wisdom resides in you.

9) Will a different reality

What you expect, you receive and experience. Whatever you are looking for or looking at is what you see. Use the power of your mind to see the best in all and in yourself and you will experience the best. Keep your thoughts clear, pure, loving, intentional, and purposeful by using your will and you will create a new reality. Be clear and you will have clarity.

You are not a victim. Look at your thoughts and the predominant emotions that you have and if any of them are of a low quality, change them. You and only you have the strength and power to change them, and you can.

You are a powerful creator. You created what you don’t want. What makes you think you can’t create what you do want?

You create your reality.
You create your experiences.
You give them meaning.
You get to choose.
You are a Master of your Life!

I hope that these reflections have been helpful to you. 

We really do create our reality and give meaning to our lives and experiences by the way we choose to interpret them and the perspective we choose to bring to bear upon them. Our happiness does not arise from anything we do, but by virtue of what we believe and think. 

Do you live by choosing to experience your life through the eyes, heart, and light of your soul? Or do you choose to live by sulking in the shadows of your ego?

Take the time to reflect on these things. You’ll be very grateful you did. You will gain perfection over the illusion and will, thus, claim and embody the mastery that is your birthright.

This is part 4 of a five-part blog post. If you haven’t already, please go back and read parts 1, 2, and 3.

Here are more phrases, thoughts, and understandings that I’ve used over the years to master my mind and thus master my life. They have helped me create a life full of peace, joy, and empowerment.

4) There is no insufficiency in me. I will get past this. This will all work out for me. I am a master, not a victim.

When you feel down and out and disempowered, you basically feel inadequate and unworthy deep down at your core. You also feel that there isn’t anything that you can do to bring yourself out of it. But, in fact, you are never given a challenge that you can’t overcome. It’s only your thinking about your situation that makes you feel stuck or helpless. 

You are not a victim. You are a Master. “I am not a victim; I AM a Master.” Keep repeating this to yourself because it is absolutely true. This is what being a master is really all about. When you believe all things are possible and then allow yourself to calm down, take a few breaths, and quiet your mind, inspirations and new perspectives come to you. Consequently, you are moved to take “right actions.”

5) When I awaken tomorrow, no matter what comes my way, I am more than adequate to handle it. I will find all of the solutions through my objectivity and my own inner spiritual power.

You are a very powerful spiritual being who has come forth to embody the gifts and strengths that are who you really are. Claim your divinity and your strength. Know without out a doubt that you are a master of your life and a powerful, creative soul. By stepping back from the fears and insecurities of your ego mind and witnessing them objectively rather than getting all caught up in their drama, you can, in that objective place of silence and meditation, find solutions to all your “problems” and reclaim your power. You are a powerful, empowered, and empowering soul.

6) I am a divine spirit.  I have everything that is needed.

You truly are a divine spirit having a human experience. You are here to learn love, give love, receive love, and become love.  Within you, you have all the wisdom and resources to create the best possible life for yourself.

You are made in His/Her Image. You are a co-creator with God/Goddess of your reality. God/Goddess is infinite potential and all He/She asks of you to believe in and listen to your eternal, infinite, ever-resourceful Self. By doing so you can then embody and manifest all the potential that is within you. Everything is possible, if you believe that to be so.

You are a chip off the old holographic block called God/Goddess. Why not begin to fully claim your birthright and become who you really are—a creator of goodness and god-ness?

7) Know without a doubt that your fears and insecurities are not your true self. Your true self is totally integrated and totally capable of handling everything over time in the right way and at the right time. With enough patience you can accomplish all that you came to accomplish.

When you feel inadequate, fearful, disconnected, or like a victim, you are identifying with your “little self,” that part of you that has forgotten who it really is and what you are really capable of. Everything is possible for you. You can do it. You can truly know what you came to fulfill and then accomplish it all in this lifetime.

To be continued in Part 5….

Raise your energies, raise your thoughts

This is part 3 of a five-part blog post. If you haven’t already, please go back and read parts 1 and 2.

Be a master of mind rather than mastered by your mind.
Zen saying

I’d like to begin by sharing with you a number of phrases, thoughts, and understandings that I have used over the years. They have created a great deal of peace, joy, and empowerment in my life. I will also share what they mean to me and how I use them.

1) Today I am going to create a day of peace and harmony.

You get to set the tone for your day. If you wake up grumpy and unfocused, you will attract more of the same. But if, when you wake up, you set a clear intention that you are looking to create peace and harmony in your day, guess what? Peace and harmony are what you will mostly experience.

So upon awakening, rather than allowing for random thoughts and feelings to enter, instead, clearly focus on peace and harmony and then think, feel, and imagine that the events coming up in your day are filled with peace and harmony. As well, during the day create periodic reminders that help you remember that above all other things, peace and harmony are what you want to experience this day.

The more you do this, the easier it gets and the better and more intentional your life becomes.

2) I can look at these things going on in my life now and say, “I am in charge here and can be in a place of profound peace.”

No matter what you are experiencing, know that you are not a “victim of circumstances,” but a master of your life. You get to make the “best” of any and every situation you are in and you get to choose how you feel about what you are experiencing. You can make lemonade out of lemons. You can see the highest good and the divine plan in it all. You are a master.

3) Don’t fall out of agreement with what is happening in your life, because when you do, you create a lot of emotional turmoil and resistance.

What you resist persists! 

Embracing who you are and where you are in your life presently is the quickest cure for tension and anxiety and for resolving those very issues that you wish were not in your life. 

Where you are is where you are.

To deny it or try to push it away only creates more of it. As you honestly face and then embrace the situation you have created, you can then let go of it enough to step back from it to see the bigger picture and get a broader perspective.

By stepping back in this way and giving some “space” to the situation, you can and will be inspired to take the right action that will lead to the highest good for all involved. This will help you to transmute the energies of what you don’t want into what you do want. In other words, by doing this you will see “outside the box” and thus be led to empowered solutions.

As Albert Einstein said, “you can’t solve a problem at the level it was created.”  You must see the bigger picture by seeing the situation with the eyes and heart of your Soul. You must quiet the fearful ego mind and all the drama it creates and instead listen to your grounded, wise Soul.

I’ll continue this list in my next post, Part 4 of this series.

Master your mind, master your life

This is part 2 of a five-part blog. If you haven’t already, please go back and read part 1.

So, let’s begin with the following questions:

• What creates your reality?
• What creates your experiences?
• Who or what gives them meaning?

Answer: You and only you do! If you resolve to have a different reality, you will experience a different reality.

So, how do you resolve to have a different reality? 

You do so by observing the thoughts and understandings you have about yourself, your life, and your experiences and then you consciously and intentionally choose thoughts and interpretations that place everything in the best light. You seek to see the highest good in every situation. You seek to see yourself and the events in your life from a God/Goddess perspective.

As well, you very carefully, lovingly, and honestly observe what your beliefs about life are and what you expect from life. And if any of that is anything less than what you ideally want, you change it.

In other words, get quiet for a minute or so now and sincerely ask yourself: Is the Universe a friendly and supportive place or a neutral and heartless one, or is it “out to get me?”  What do you really believe?  

This is really worth taking a few minutes to sit quietly with and meditate on. It can and will make a world of a difference for you if you honestly and lovingly look at what you feel. So, please do so before reading on.

Your underlying core belief about what kind of a Universe you live in has a huge impact on what you experience in your life. Usually this question is unexamined, but I can assure you that it is extremely important to consider.

Over the years I have come up with numerous phrases, thoughts, and understandings that have helped me to raise my thoughts/energies around everything that happens in my life. They have a world of a difference in my experience.

What I would like to do now is share some of these with you. These are ways I use to see the highest good in all situations and to do my best to see everything from a divine perspective.

You and only you get to give meaning or an interpretation to the experiences you have. What someone else thinks or believes about your experiences or about you doesn’t matter at all. All that matters is what you think or believe about yourself or your experiences. 

And, yes, you get to choose how to “see” the things that happen in your life. For myself, knowing that I get to choose how I interpret events is one of the most important lessons I have learned. Because of this awareness I have created a great deal of peace, joy, and empowerment in my life.

In my next blog post, Part 3, I will share a number of the phrases, thoughts, and understandings I have used over the years. I will also offer some commentary on what they mean to me and how I use them.