Candy Paull

Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.
Edmund Burke

A conversation with a friend (and my own life experience) prompted these thoughts.

Do you wrestle with doubt? Do you feel as if your life just doesn’t measure up? I honestly want to live my life according to my highest values. Yet so often it feels like I’m falling short of my ideals—or even failing altogether. I look at the gap between where I am and where I want to be, and wonder how I will ever get from here to there.

I think we tend to believe that to live by our highest values means turning our lives upside down, or that we have to get everything in our lives "perfect," as if we cannot begin where we are. I cannot honestly say that I live by my highest values 100% of the time. I wrestle with my own indecision, fears, doubts, mistakes, and misbeliefs. But it is always possible to take baby steps in the right direction by doing one or two simple, self-empowering things each day.

I have found setting aside time for meditation—the sit down and quiet your busy judgmental mind kind of meditation—to be particularly helpful and empowering, especially in the midst of crisis. I have been doing mindfulness meditation in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk. I highly recommend his books, as they offer a simple introduction to this practice. Mindfulness meditation is not only good for the mind, it is also healing to the body. I have become healthier and calmer since I began a serious meditation practice.

Here are three practical books that offer insight on the benefits and practice of meditation, and on the way the mind/ego works. These authors offer simple instructions for beginners as well as advanced insights for experienced meditations.
• Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life by John Kabat Zinn is a great intro to mindfulness meditation.
• The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle offers another practical perspective on how the mind works and how our thoughts will empower or defeat us.
• The Miracle of Mindfulness: A Manual on Meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh is a small classic, offering a Zen master’s method of meditation, concentration, and relaxation.

If you are wondering how you can live by and express your highest values, you have already started a journey that will take you far beyond the limits of old ways of living. Starting with a small action, like taking a few minutes of meditation to start and end the day, will open your heart and mind to the greater wholeness that lives within.

Give yourself grace and space, and remember that when a toddler is learning to walk, she doesn't let falling stop her. She may cry or get angry. But she just keeps getting up and eventually she learns to do what she was born to do: walk! She grows in her skills until she can run and dance and play. Those first steps may not be a climb to the top of Mt. Everest, but no one climbs to the top of anything without learning to take baby steps first!

So take baby steps toward a life lived in the light of your fondest hopes, deepest dreams, and highest values. Here are a few suggestions:
• Spend ten minutes sitting quietly with your eyes closed, following your breath.
• Get out of the house or office. Go for a gentle walk in woods or down a neighborhood street, taking in the sights and sounds.
• Plant some herbs in a garden and use them to make delicious dishes. I love fresh marjoram in potato, onion, and celery soup (with or without milk/cream).
• Speak a positive or kind word when you are tempted to criticize.
• Forgive others (and yourself) instead of wallowing in blame and anger.
• Make room for a new story by choosing to no long tell the old story of victimhood or blame.
• Buy yourself an affordable bouquet of flowers. Better yet, share part of the bouquet with a friend.
• Keep your mouth shut when you are tempted to gossip or complain. Don’t even let your mind start down the self-pitying path, because you know that’s a dead end.
• Be gentle on yourself. Notice those times of day when you seem to sink into discouragement. Take a break. Close your eyes and rest or say some affirmations, or even eat a snack or take a nap. Then you can come back to your day refreshed.

Applaud your victories, no matter how small they seem. One victory leads to other victories, and each is important. Small victories that help you live life by your highest values, even if your life is not yet all you wish it could be.

A strong positive attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug.
Patricia Neal

Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.
Mother Teresa

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life.
John Homer Miller

Beware of despairing about yourself; you are commanded to put your trust in God, and not in yourself.
Saint Augustine

Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.
Galatians 6:5 THE MESSAGE

Trust God for great things; with your five loaves and two fishes, He will show you a way to feed thousands.
Horace Bushnell


Affirmative prayer

There is one life and that life is God, and that life is my life now. Every day I learn and grow and expand my consciousness. I make positive choices that empower me to become love in action. Each small step taken in the direction of my dreams is a victory to celebrate. I thank God for the eternal good that flows in, through, and for me, and for the blessings I can then share with others freely and generously, because I am generously provided for. God is my Source, and my right thinking keeps me connected to my Source and creates a life I love to live. And so it is.


The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own.
--Benjamin Disraeli

Introducing an inspiring friend (or in this case, re-introducing a friend with a great new product):

Do you want to build your own business? I highly recommend Chris Guillebeau’s Empire Building Kit. I bought EBK (as I fondly call it) on the first launch, and it’s been worth every penny. There’s so much great information here, and I receive an encouraging and practical email every day that helps me take it one baby step at a time.

Chris shows you how to take the first few steps to build your own online empire—from the ground up. The Empire Building Kit shows how you can build a sustainable lifestyle business doing what you love—for customers who love you right back.

The Kit includes 15 integrated case studies in several media formats, additional modules of instruction, and a series of emails—one a day for a year. The videos are ready whenever you are. You can download them for later viewing on a Mac or a PC.

The Empire Building Kit helps you answer these questions:
• Which business ideas are most likely to succeed? (How do you know when to trust your gut?)
• What are the most important steps to take in building an empire -- and which ones can you stop worrying about?
• How can you dramatically increase profits in an existing business?
• How can you create a soft-sell environment where eager customers can't wait to buy your next offering? (No highlighter required.)
• Most importantly... how can you do all of this without killing yourself? (Sure, you’re willing to work as hard as it takes—but never on the wrong things.)

To further equip you in your empire building journey, Chris will send everyone who gets the Hail Caesar or Alexander the Great kits his personal 43-Step Product Launch Checklist. Not every step is required, but if you follow at least 30 of the steps in your own product launch, you'll see MUCH greater results than if you went it alone.

One of these steps helps bring in an additional $2,000 for every launch. Another one ensures that 35% of customers buy another product right after their first order, thereby increasing the average yearly revenue by $15,000. You'll get this bonus right after your purchase, along with the case studies, additional instruction, 365-day email signup, and everything else.

I believe in this product, and in Chris, so much that I am an affiliate (that’s to let you know I get a piece of the action if you click through from my website—and Chris is, so far, the only affiliate I carry, because his work has helped change my life and I know he can help change yours for the better).

If you want to explore the possibilities, the link to his online AONC store is in the quick links section on the right hand side of my website pages. Click the button and see if you want to join us in building a thriving business empire today.

A practitioner of spiritual mind healing is continually confronted with the fog of fear, superstition, and doubt; otherwise, there would be no occasion for his practice. He will either get lost in the fog, or see through it. Though the fog is there, the sun is always shining—this is what he clings to.
rnest Holmes

Change. You do your best, but sometimes it's two steps forward, one step back. Stuff happens. Your tide of good fortune and perfect timing comes together and brings a flood of blessings. Or the dark clouds of financial distress or a health crisis or an unexpected loss come together in a deluge of discomfort and sadness. (more…)

I will restore to you the years
which the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
my great army, which I sent among you.
You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
and praise the name of the Lord your God,
who has dealt wondrously with you.
And my people shall never again be put to shame.
Joel 2:25-26 RSV

Take your business as it is, child, and praise Divine Love that there is a strong, wise way out of your dilemma.
Emma Curtis Hopkins

In these turbulent times, it’s easy to identify with the farmer whose crops have been consumed by a horde of hungry locusts. (more…)

The Heart of Abundance is now published and available at: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/11119. It's a "best of" compilation available at Smashwords.com. I'm also in the process of preparing my other Artful Living books for e-book publication, and all of my books will eventually be available in print-on-demand format. (more…)

Whether we are young or old, whether our dreams are public or private, we are always evolving toward either a smaller and more fearful self, or a larger and more loving self.
Marianne Williamson

We now know that matter is not “dead” but is instead concentrated energy. Life force takes the energy of matter and gives it something more: the breath of life, the movement from static particle to wave, the becoming out of pure potentiality into material form because of mind’s purpose. Human beings are the conscious frontier between idea and materialization, particle and wave. (more…)

Meditation as Medicine

To meditate does not mean to fight with a problem.
To meditate means to observe.
Your smile proves it.
It proves that you are being gentle with yourself,
that the sun of awareness is shining in you,
that you have control of your situation.
You are yourself,
and you have acquired some peace.
— Thich Nhat Hanh

It is our nature to harmonize with the natural rhythms of the universe, yet we have for the most part forgotten how to do this. In a world in crisis, it is vitally important to regain this lost art, and to attune our lives to the silent pulse that lies beneath all forms and manifestations. (more…)

As we move into a new year and a new decade, here is a story that has had great resonance for me through the years, (more…)

I am simply conscious of the forces I am using and I am driven on by an idea that I really only grasp as it grows with the picture.
Henri Matisse

I attended a painting demonstration on Sunday, October 11, at the Lieper’s Creek Gallery in Lieper’s Fork, just outside of Nashville. (more…)

I am so excited that my book, Inner Abundance: Affirmations for Confidence, Creativity, and Higher Consciousness, was published (more…)

I have been working like mad on my first e-book, Inner Abundance, and it’s in the final edit and formatting stage. It’s been a long and heavy pregnancy with this book baby. There has been lot of wrestling with fear and doubt, especially because of the new e-book format. It hasn’t felt as “real” as a physical book with an established publisher. (more…)