Benefits of Prosperity

Of course, prosperity is beneficial.

But what kinds of prosperity are there?

Well, money, of course.

But what else?

My study of prosperity started as a spiritual alert after I rolled my jeep and walked away and lived.

Since that time, I have been discovering the true nature of prosperity.

Prosperity is everywhere.

In Nature, there is a perfect balance.

Whatever is needed in every climate and geology, there is appropriate plant and animal life sustaining itself in perfect balance, changing with the seasons.

In businesses, there are people with ideas to serve other people by providing solutions.

In families, there are commitments to take care of each other.

Each of these systems illustrate prosperity.

By turning away from fear of limitation, we, too, can live a life in balance in every season, look for and find solutions to help serve others, and practice a commitment to take care of others.

This allows us to live a life of prosperity.

By drawing on inner resources, we can practice balance, service and commitment.

Our inner awareness leads us to solutions.

Taking the steps outwardly, which are provided by our inner listening, builds up a practice of prosperity.

© 2016 Kathryn Hardage

www.inspiredPractices.com

Enough

Americans are taught to think they don’t have enough.

We have recently downsized form a 2800 square foot suburban house where we raised five of our seven children.

We are now living in a 240 square foot cabin off-grid.

What a wonderful release of stuff and new-found freedom!

As I read Yunus’ book, “Creating a World Without Poverty”, I am struck by how the steps which created his concept of micro-credit have continued to expand to meet the needs of millions of people all over the world.

This is truly an insight into the infinite nature of the Universe.

My own thinking has been transformed as I find I have plenty in my little cabin.

 As we add to our skills, we become more and more comfortable.

A 5’ x 6’ window made us more comfortable.

Small windows for cross breezes made us more comfortable.

Insulation made us more comfortable.

An indoor shower made us more comfortable in cold weather.

A garden shower made us more comfortable in warm weather.

A wood stove has made us more comfortable.

A level brick step has made us more comfortable.

We have enough.

We have plenty.

In fact, there is so much abundance all around us, I can’t take it all in.

I did not feel like that while living in our urban surroundings and being told we did not have enough.

Now, with much less stuff and surrounded by Nature, I feel overwhelmingly abundant.

In fact, I have so much joy to share, it keeps coming back to me in increasing measure.

I am so grateful we took the steps which have led to more and more freedom and abundance for us.

We truly have enough.

© 2016 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Extinction Burst

Extinction Burst is a term from behavior psychology, originating with Dr. B.F. Skinner.

It refers to the phenomenon of a type of behavior hitting an extreme high right before it is discontinued and exterminated.

For example, a child may have gotten results by throwing tantrums in the past, but when his parents learn not to reward the tantrums, they may continue and even get worse before the child realizes there will be no more reward for bad behavior and stops throwing tantrums.

Our culture may be at this point in its evolution.

We are seeing the worst of racism, which has hidden underground for many years since the Civil Rights Act.

We are seeing the worst economic divide, with Wall St. taking advantage of the newest generation of students.

We are seeing the 1% manipulate politics as well as commerce.

We are seeing self-interest to an extreme.

And we are also seeing world awareness on a scale never possible before internet communications and news reports could be made immediately.

Good behavior in the form of stewarding the planet, its resources and its people is going on in many places.

Good practice in honoring systems which really work needs more attention.

We are certainly in the middle of interesting and challenging times.

We will see what this “extinction burst” brings us.

© 2016 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Micro Credit

I am reading “Creating a World Without Poverty” by Muhammad Yunus, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

http://www.amazon.com/Creating-World-Without-Poverty-Capitalism/dp/B00CB5V3PI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1451277838&sr=8-2&keywords=Creating+A+World+Without+Poverty

I am astounded at the depth and simplicity of the ideas for creating a bank for microcredit and microloans.

His move from teaching economics at a university in Tennessee to teaching in his native country of Bangladesh to visiting a poor village led to observations and practical steps for helping the poor.

The system which evolved honors women, as they spend their money in the community and on educating their children.

It has a 98% payback rate where traditional banks have a 70% payback rate.

There are community support systems which have evolved.

It is based on micro-preneurism, tiny businesses which have taken hundreds of thousands of families out of poverty in the two decades of operation.

The Sixteen Principles which the bankers practice encourage education of children as soon as possible.

There are even micro loans for beggars, 100,000 loans and 10,000 people are no longer beggars as a result.

During the floods which affected two-thirds of Bangladesh, it took five months for people to resume their loan payments as they were rebuilding.  Grameen Bank worked with them so they could get additional funds for rebuilding.

There have been other offshoots reaching into the communities of poor people, businesses which Dr. Yunus calls “social businesses” whose purpose is to improve the lives of their clients.

These “social businesses” are run like a business to pay all the expenses of the business and to make a profit, but the main purpose is what the business does for its’ clients.

I am only eighty pages into this book but I have already ordered two more by this author.

It was interesting to compare the steps of public policy in the US to what I am learning about in this book.

Entrepreneurs on the micro level seem like a very powerful concept which is documented to be working all over the world.

© 2015 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Respect for the Soul's Deep Longing

It is never a loving gesture or requirement to overrule someone’s sense of direction or identity.

Each person has an individual spiritual identity.

It wants to be expressed.

It will keep trying because it is an inexorable fact of that person’s existence.

Where it does come through to expression, the person is happy productive and fulfilled.

Where it is prevented from coming through to expression, there is unhappiness, frustration, and perhaps, even violence.

We must listen not only to our own soul, but also respect the guidance our children and students are receiving and honor it.

We must encourage the social justice and equality that will translate to utilize all our resources, both spiritual and manifested, to uplift all of society.

Then we will see happiness, productivity and fulfillment on an unimagined scale which will be self-perpetuating as long as we honor and respect the fact and right of the soul’s deep longing to be expressed.

This approach will create the tools of expression both for individuals and for all of society.

© 2015 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Help Share the Good Things

How much of good do we need?

There is unlimited good for each and everyone of us when we know how to look for it.

Focusing on our Unlimited Source helps bring good things, people and circumstances into our life.

Still, the self-justification of greed on the scale of Congress and those who seek to dodge their gratitude and responsibility for the good in their lives and businesses is shocking and ridiculous.

Be grateful!

Be responsible!

Pay the taxes that enable everyone to participate more and more fully in their own freedom to develop more and more good ideas for all of us.

This is not naive.  It is inclusive because it respects and values everyone.

Grow up and grow out of greed.

Find better and more unselfish, generous and respectful ways to express your wealth!

© 2015 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

God-Governed

Everyone, without exception, is God-governed.

We all have harmonious biological systems which carry us around from place to place.

We all have language for communication.

We act in harmony in so many ways.

There are buildings, institutions, transportation, orders of study, systems of business and education, which are all aimed at growth and improvement.

Harmonious and loving relationships are the goal and achievement of many.

Contributions through invention, imagination, arts, business, economics, engineering, agriculture all lift us higher in our expression.

We all have so many gifts to share.

We all compliment one another in how all our gifts fit together to form a society and culture.

We individualize this Master-plan as we grow and define our own unlimited roles and help others to do so as well.

Every idea which helps break through limitations is assured of success by the Law of Infinite Return.

An Infinite ROI, Return On Investment.

Living in an Infinite Universe, we are all able to bless each other in every way.

We do not allow anyone to be left out.

We are all so precious and loved, cherished and adored.

This feeling within ourselves, communicates and joins together with others of like mind, and we achieve a harmonious neighborhood, country and planet.

© 2015 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

A New Economy

If our economy is based on outside factors which are controlled by people of varying motives, we are on shaky ground.

But if it is based on our ability, which comes from within, we have a solid foundation.

By our very nature, once we learn to look within for all our resources, we are infinite.

Whatever we need to live, we have in abundance.

Life takes on another dimension.

If we base our economy on what we have to give, we are empowered and supplied immensely.

By laying the groundwork of our personal economy on a foundation of giving, we can see it expand outward and upward.

I love listening to the ideas which come to me from within, taking action on them and seeing them manifest.

I love contributing to the economy in this way.

Imagine if our economy were to be built on what we can do for others, what we can give.

It is entirely possible to start living in that economy now.

© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

We Are Creating Our New World

I did not know I could live in a world of my own creating, until I realized that what I am currently doing is merely echoing the world of someone else’s creating.

With our power of imagination and feeling the deep sincerity of what we love to do, we are consciously creating the world we want to live in.

We are doing this and it is countering the tendencies of today’s patterns of uniformity and legalism, which are not the same as universal law.

Universal law is always in effect and it is always blessing and uplifting all of us.

When we tune into that law and live according to it, it creates a different world for us.

As a world, we are tuning into social justice and taking action to create it.

We are coming up against entrenched legal, although not moral, entities which attempt to continue down their destructive paths.

But morality and the the Universe’s love for all of us is becoming stronger in all of us, so that in some unanticipated way, the true delightful interests of all people, everywhere all over the world, are becoming the most powerful force of all.

When we think in terms of worldwide harmony, there is enough for all, there is abundance for all, there is good living for us all.

The grassroots movements which have no other resources other than this conviction are moving forward and gaining people who want to live a life-practice this way.

They are creating their own resources as people join onto an idea and simply desire to express it together.

Each of us who wants to bless the earth with our healing and uplifting presence is contributing to the growth and progress of this idea.

It is simply moving forward as its own healing entity with an uplifting purpose.

It is having the effect of overpowering the present situation which is already imploding from its own lack of infinite resources.

Blessing everyone is a purpose which has unlimited infinite resources.

It is gaining even more credibility as more and more people join together in their desires and actions.

© 2015 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Changing the World

What if all our actions were peace?

What if we never reacted in fear?

What if we put aside anger and judgement

and acted with confidence here?

What if we trusted instead of protected?

What if we reached out instead of turned inward?

What if we looked upon others as people who

had circumstances that could not be overcome?

What if we took little steps to include them?

What if we took little steps to meet their needs?

What if we took steps to enrich their lives?

We would find our lives become that much richer.

What are the actions which will bless all of us?

What are the actions which will enrich all of us?

What are the actions which will take care of all of us?

What actions show where we live in our hearts?

What will it look like when heart-living is our way?

What will it look like when all are important?

What will it feel like when all know they are included?

What will it feel like for all to be safe?

© 2015 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Hope and Light

Where do our resources come from?

They are within.

These resources are always available and unlimited.

The power based on deceit and manipulation will yield only a limited kind of support.

It will run out.

When it meets an obstacle based on hope and light, it knows it is doomed.

Hope leads to thoughts of solutions, community, individuality, value.

We all know who we are deeply, inside.

When we listen to that feeling, we are guided to act on the things that bring hope and light.

Because the deep identity is always there, nothing can ever take it away.

It exists, we exist.

We naturally express that identity and its light.

We learn to take action when it becomes intolerable to be anything else.

We are drawn to those who know that feeling and know its power.

That is how we change our world.

© 2015 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Shutting Out Our Emotions

I am reading Gary Zukav’s book, The Seat of the Soul.  He talks about our culture’s admiration for the “hard-nosed” businessman and how we lose our compassion and empathy when we deny our emotions.

I feel that this is one of the turning points approaching our Western culture.  The advantages of lobbyists and insider stock market tips have swayed the benefits of living in our country beyond recognition.  Perpetual warfare and the practice of rewarding corporations through the “business of war” at the expense of all the world’s people including our own are unacceptable.  Secret policies and abusive practices outside of the international rule of law are likewise have no part in how American people want to embrace our place in the world.

Because we all grew up with the ideals of equality and the rule of law, we are stunned as we see our American ideals perverted and eroded.

Now that we are becoming conscious once again of our feelings toward the lives of every American citizen, and the rights and privileges of being able to vote, I think we are looking even beyond those rights of law to the rights within each heart.

Because we are seeing the extreme of corruption through greed, we are becoming empowered through our awareness.

As we feel empathy and compassion toward everyone on the planet and in our country, we will be empowered to take the appropriate steps to ensure the rights to living in harmony and prosperity while removing the access to excessive advantage for a selfish misguided few.

We feel deeply in our hearts what is right and good, and we naturally want it for everyone.

We have even seen the example of South Africa, with its population of fifty-three million,  as it worked through its program of “forgiveness and reconciliation” to dismantle apartheid, one of the most repressive racial practices in the world.

With our population of three hundred thirty million, we can surely emphasize the good examples around us of unselfishness, goodness, caring and sharing.  We can find the leadership which is willing to honor the actions which we take when our hearts are directing us.   We will surely find another way to support all of our citizens and to restore and extend the rights of all to create a truly free and unselfish life for citizens.

Then, our improved practices at home will naturally be expressed to those peoples who live in all the other countries of our common world.

© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

The Greatest Wealth

The greatest wealth is to cause wealth for the greatest number of people.

I am part of that goal.

I have read and studied some of Napoleon Hill’s amazing, moral and freeing works.

He, truly, made more wealthy people than the individual industrial leaders of his time.

And he, too, built quite a wealthy financial legacy.

Our true wealth comes from within.

When we read something or take a workshop which resonates deeply within us, we know we are connecting with a deep truth for ourselves.

We, too, have great wealth, within, waiting for us to recognize and share it.

© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

In the Force

In the force of the flow of uplifting ideas and compassion, we are led to join others of like-mind.

The wonderful thing about limited minds and means is that they really do run out.

The beautiful thing about unlimited ideas is that generosity and kindness do not run out.

Since we can always express them under any and all circumstances, they are the real power, the real force.

Focusing our minds and concentrating our efforts on consideration, upliftment unselfishness and productivity redirects effort and sustains us in new ways.

Compassion always ives on and does the beautiful work of which it is capable.

The real force flows within each of us and joins us together to live well, all of us.

© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

J.A.R.

No judgement.

No attachment.

No resistance.

This is the way I understand Eckert Tolle’s description of conscious awareness in his book A New Earth.  http://www.amazon.com/New-Earth-Awakening-Purpose-Selection/dp/0452289963

He describes how this leads to a perception of “Inner Space”.

He compares the distances within our body of atoms to the scale of astronomical distances.

In this “Inner Space” we have not thoughts, only “Presence”.

In meditating on non-judgement, non-attachment and non-resistance, I found myself relieved of a never-ending story regarding an incident of unhappiness grief, and frustration.

The bodily processes that follow it were anything but calm.

I do not enjoy having my body as the battleground between old and new thought-processes.

However, I am glad to be learning how to let my life be shaped and directed in a new way.

© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Personality

In meeting someone new, it is always interesting to discover the person within.

I was introduced to “Jim” during casual conversation between him and a mutual acquaintance.

Later, as our conversation developed, I learned about his background and approach to life.

Although he is dealing with some of the effects of aging, (he is 74), he is involved in developing his talents (playing the banjo), service to others (helping repair a car), and is unfailingly polite.

His upbeat attitude and humorous approach to life make him an engaging conversationalist.

I would have guessed him to be twenty years younger with his enthusiasm.

It is a lift to talk to him.

© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Our New Earth

I am the manifestation of infinite divine power.

I draw all those to me who are ready to do divine work.

All those who are ready to be blessed and to take up the work hear my call.

With willing hands and willing minds and hearts, we begin the transformation.

Building a new community, we follow those before us.

Valuing each person, recognizing inner worth, we take the practical steps to provide for all of us.

Community by community all feel welcome, useful, privileged.

Harmoniously, we blend, we exchange, we share, we receive, we overflow.

We sing, we dance, we create art, we celebrate.

We live in a new earth.

© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

The End of Growth

I have been reading The End of Growth, by Richard Heinberg.  

http://www.amazon.com/The-End-Growth-Adapting-Economic/dp/0865716951

He has described the physical, political, geographical, industrial world as it has progressed through its historic stages.

The present stage cannot continue the way it has in the past.

As I read his analysis with increasing dismay, I realized that we are actually in transition to a new kind of growth.

As we shift our practice to what is deeply within each of us, we find our true purpose.

Within, are unlimited resources for unlimited spiritual growth.

All the little steps we have taken to help uplift one another point to this kind of growth.

We are entering a new kind of stage, no longer one where we can keep living outward, because those kinds of resources are limited.

The new inner lives we all have the privilege of developing will lead us to different ways of supporting one another.

We will lift each other up by our sense of divine purpose, and we will continue finding the unlimited spiritual resources to do so.

This is only the end of one kind of growth.

We are evolving into another kind.

© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com