I've found the best thing to do is to really be loving, kind, forgiving and compassionate with yourself. There are some wonderful practices for that which I talk about in Love For No Reason.
Marci ShimoffThere are fourteen keys to experiencing greater love and with each key, I offer what I believe to be the most effective tool out there. So this is a time when, if we're awake to it, we have an amazing opportunity to start living a different life. By that I mean the life that our souls came here to live. We're all being propelled forward and it's not always easy, but through supporting one another we can do it.
Marci ShimoffDump โEm is the non-confrontationalistโs dream. With her easy-to-follow scripts and step-by-step plans, Jodyne Speyer provides a clear roadmap for ending even the most difficult relationships.
Marci ShimoffHeartMath found that five minutes of feeling love and care can strengthen your immune system for up to six hours, whereas five minutes of feeling angry can weaken and suppress the immune system for six hours. Love releases very powerful, beneficial chemicals into the body.
Marci ShimoffWhen we're feeling fully alive, we're able to fully feel love. This doorway also relates to feeling our feelings fully. Not suppressing our feelings of anger, sadness or grief but allowing them to be felt. What's amazing is that when those feelings are felt, they actually dissolve into love.
Marci ShimoffI wanted to know if we could live in that state of love, not just every so often, but as an ongoing reality. The answer is YES. There are people who are doing just that, and I wanted to share with the world how they're consistently living in a state of love.
Marci ShimoffLove is your job description - no matter what you do for a living. If you ever feel unsure of what you're supposed to do in a situation, here's a good rule of thumb: always do what leads to greater love.
Marci ShimoffThe only difference between people who live in this way, who live in the magic of life, and those who don't, is that the people who live in the magic of life have habituated ways of being. They have habituated this process, and magic happens with them wherever they go. Because they remember and they do it all the time. Not just as a one time event.
Marci ShimoffI truly believe that forgiveness is the fast track to greater love and it's the path that can really heal all. We all have areas of our own lives where we have a hard time forgiving, whether it's with ourselves, or others, but when we can practice forgiveness, many of our self-destructive habits will begin to fade away.
Marci ShimoffThe fifth doorway to experiencing Love for No Reason is the Doorway of Communication, which corresponds to the energy center located in the throat area. This doorway relates to speaking and listening with compassion, rather than judgment. There are some wonderful tools and techniques available to help us speak and listen with compassion that I've included in this chapter.
Marci ShimoffThe study of love is an emerging field. Perhaps the leaders in the field are a group called The Institute of HeartMath who have found that we have many physiological, psychological, and social benefits when we're living with greater love, care, and compassion.
Marci ShimoffI seem to have come out of the womb with existential angst and wasn't a happy kid, so I've been on a lifelong search trying to discover how to live the best life possible. I committed my life to doing what I could to experience greater happiness, which ultimately led me to write a book on the subject called Happy for No Reason.
Marci ShimoffSo if you have over-indulged during the holidays, for example, please don't beat yourself up, but rather have compassion and forgiveness and perhaps, even try the Ho'oponono technique.
Marci ShimoffWhen people are deeply happy they bring a sense of purpose with them wherever they go, whatever circumstances they are in. So if they're changing the oil in the car, they bring a sense of joyful purpose even to that.
Marci ShimoffGo for the sense of inner joy, of inner peace, of inner vision first and then all the other things from the outside appear.
Marci ShimoffEverything we think and feel is creating our future. If you're worried or in fear, then you're bringing more of that into your life throughout the day.
Marci ShimoffSo the difference between most books about love and Love For No Reason is that traditional love books focus on love as a stream of energy between two people, whereas this book focuses on love as a deep state of being that you can live in no matter what's going on in your life.
Marci ShimoffThe problem for most of us is that the cup has holes, so love goes out just as easily as it goes in. What happens when people are living in the unconditional state of love, however, is that they recognize they are the ocean of love; they know it's their essence. And they naturally overflow in this love. So instead of being love beggars, they become love philanthropists.
Marci ShimoffThe third doorway is the Doorway of Unconditional Self-love, which corresponds to the energy center located in the solar plexus area. As I said earlier, the key to feeling love and living in love is having self-love. I mean real unconditional self-love, not "I love myself because I'm a good wife" or "I love myself because I do a good job at work" or "I love myself because I look a particular way." It's because I love myself no matter what. That's where our real power lies, in the ability to love ourselves unconditionally.
Marci ShimoffAnd finally, there's the seventh doorway, the Doorway of Oneness, which corresponds to the crown center, located at the top of the head. This doorway has to do with feeling whole and connected to all of life, connected to spirit
Marci ShimoffJonas' music is inspiring, energizing, and spiritually uplifting. A brilliant songwriter, he writes music that reaches deep into the soul and awakens the best and highest in all of us. And Jonas delivers his songs with a power, joy, and grace that last long after the last note is played. The world needs this music!
Marci ShimoffMany people in Western culture are striving for success. They want the home, they want the great business. They want all of these outer things. But what we found in our research is that having those things, certainly doesn't guarantee what we really want, which is happiness. And that's when all those outer things come. They don't come from going after them first to get the happiness, it's backwards; you go for the sense of inner joy, of inner peace, of inner vision first and then all of the other things from the outside appear.
Marci ShimoffThe sixth doorway is the Doorway of Vision. This relates to seeing with the eyes of love and corresponds to the energy center located in the third eye area of our forehead. When this doorway is open, we're more able to see life through love instead of differences.
Marci ShimoffWhen you're Happy for No Reason, you bring happiness to your outer experiences rather than trying to extract happiness from them. You don't need to manipulate the world around you to try to make yourself happy. You live from happiness, rather than for happiness.
Marci ShimoffOnce you begin to understand and truly master your thoughts and feelings, that's when you see how you create your own reality. That's where your freedom is, that's where all your power is. That's when you see how you can become a deliberate creator of your life. And when you are a deliberate creator of your life, and you use this law of attraction, you will have a life that is beyond what you can possibly imagine right now.
Marci ShimoffTaking ownership of your happiness has two aspects: Accepting that being happy is up to you and that you have the ability and power to be happier by changing your habits. Taking "response-ability": responding to all the events in your life in a way that supports your happiness.
Marci ShimoffThe concept (of happiness) is universal. In Buddhism, it is called causeless joy, in Christianity, the kingdom of heaven within, and in Judaism it is called ashrei, an inner sense of holiness and health. Is Islam it is called falah, happiness and well-being, and in Hinduism it is called ananda, or pure bliss.
Marci ShimoffIf you're having a hard time being compassionate to or forgiving of yourself or others, you repeat these four phrases directed to yourself or the other person: "I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you." And just by saying and feeling those phrases, you will find your heart starts to melt.
Marci ShimoffBut i couldn't. Was nowhere near ready for a committed relationship, and it wouldn't be fair. I needed time - to become the right man for a woman like you.
Marci ShimoffOnce you begin to understand and truly master your thoughts and feelings, that's when you see how you create your own reality.
Marci ShimoffThe first doorway (or chakra) is what I call in the book, the Doorway of Safety. This doorway relates to feeling safe in life and being present in the here and now. It's only when we are really grounded and safe that we're able to relax and open up our hearts.
Marci ShimoffThe challenges we've had personally and globally have been the catalysts needed to let go of old ways of being that aren't the vibration of love.
Marci ShimoffWe're all here to live a fabulous life... a life of love, truth, and joy.We have the power to wake up to that. We have the power to say "I'm not just here to survive, I'm here to live the greatest life that can be lived".
Marci ShimoffWhen you forgive, you heal your own anger and hurt and are able to let love lead again. It's like spring cleaning for your heart.
Marci ShimoffI've come to see that I have two choices in how I approach change: I can either resist change or be open to what's ahead and feel the peace that "all is well in the universe." When I lean into the latter, I feel excited about the future.
Marci ShimoffI interviewed 100 happy people - I call them my Happy 100 - and I learned amazing ideas and techniques from them that I began integrating into my life. I put them into practice - and they worked! I went from a D+ in happiness to an A-.
Marci ShimoffThe fourth doorway is the Doorway of Openness located in our heart center. It has to do with being open to both giving and receiving love. It's not just about being able to give, but it's also about the ability to be open to receive. There's a certain vulnerability in receiving. When we truly take in and appreciate all of the gifts of life, then our hearts are truly open in love.
Marci ShimoffMost people think of love as an energy between two people, which it is, but it's not only that. When we think of love in those limited terms, we become what I call "love beggars." We walk around looking for love outside of ourselves. We'll go up to people as though we have a beggar's cup in our hands and look to them to fill up our cup.
Marci ShimoffEasy to read, yet filled with wisdom that will penetrate your heart, this book puts the power back in your hands. Itโs a must have.
Marci ShimoffOne of the things that happens when we're feeling more love and care is that we go into what's called "heart rhythm coherence," which you can actually measure and monitor on a computer screen. It's also possible to train yourself to go into heart rhythm coherence at will.
Marci ShimoffSo, in life we have a one question final exam - and it's not the kind of exam you can cram for at the very end. One of the main reasons we're alive is to expand our capacity to love.
Marci ShimoffThe basis of all love is self-love and we certainly suffer a lot in our society from lack of self-love. When we don't take care of ourselves, it's really just a symptom of not loving ourselves. So the worst thing that we can do is to beat ourselves up for how we've already treated ourselves.
Marci ShimoffItโs impossible to monitor every thought we have. Researchers tell us that we have about sixty thousand thoughts a day. Can you imagine how exhausted youโd feel trying to control all sixty thousand of those thoughts? Fortunately thereโs an easier way and itโs our feelings. Our feelings let us know what weโre thinking.
Marci ShimoffThere's a beautiful forgiveness practice I love which is quite simple. It's called "Ho'oponopono" (pronounced: ho-o-pono-pono) and it's a lot easier to do than it is to say. It's a Kahuna Hawaiian technique, which involves repeating four phrases internally toward yourself or the person whom you're having a hard time forgiving.
Marci Shimoff