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Letter from The Editor

New Year’s is naturally a time to look at our lives and set new goals for the coming year.  We sit down and write out our resolutions of what we want, how we want to better ourselves, and/or what we want to accomplish.  The writing down of our hopes, dreams, and goals is a good practice at the new year.  It creates a pre-intention of our year.  It can help us focus our intentions and actions on those things.  But too often we just write down the same things year after year. 

 

Look back at your lists from prior years, how many items are on your list for this year that was on last year’s list or the year before, or even the year before that?  How many years have you had the goal to “loose x pounds”, etc.?  And have you?  How many things on your list do you really, really desire versus those that you think you should do or have in your life? 

 

I recently came to the realization that we all have a core area in our lives in which we need to thrive before we can feel like we’re thriving in the other areas.  Just like we have physical survival needs such as food, clothing, and shelter, we have emotional survival needs that must be met before thrival can be achieved.  Our core area is where our individual primary emotional survival needs live.

 

There are eight basic areas of our life:  work/career, finances, family, relationships, activity/creativity, health/wellbeing, community, and spirituality.  These can be condensed into four quadrants to form a matrix:  work/career and finances, family and relationships, activity and health, community and spirituality.

 

Ideally, we want to be balanced and thriving in each of these four quadrants.  However, most of us are stronger or more comfortable in one or two.  They are where we spend most of our time, energy, and thoughts.  We naturally gravitate to our core area.  It is the one which is our strongest, most comfortable area.  It is also the one which creates the most angst, anguish, worry, and concern when we our needs in this area aren’t being fulfilled. 

My core area is work and finances.  If I’m not doing work I find fulfilling and gives meaning to my life, and making a good living from it, I am not thriving.  I am full of anguish and worry.  As much as creativity, spirituality, friendships, etc mean to me, if my work isn’t providing a sense of thriving, it is difficult for me to even be in these other quadrants.  But if I’m thriving in this area, all the others just seem to flow.

 

Before you write out your yearly resolutions and goals, take a few minutes to contemplate which life quadrant area is your core area.  What do you need in this area to feel like you are thriving?  Are those needs being met?  What is missing?  Start your list with these missing items.  Then in prayer and meditation let your heart prioritize these into the most important.  For the item that is top of your list, let your mind expand and come up with ways you can begin to bring it into your life.  Try to come up with at least one action step that you can take immediately.  At this point, you don’t need to know every detail of how to accomplish your goal – just one step.  Taking this step will lead to the next and that will lead to the next and so on.  Sometimes if we try to come up with all the steps we need to take, we become overwhelmed and can’t see how we can do it all.  So we don’t do anything.  By taking one step at a time, we are only focused on that small piece which can be accomplished.  Succeeding in this step, gives us strength and courage to take the next step.

 

At regular intervals during the year, look at your list of goals and resolutions.  What has been accomplished?  Celebrate and acknowledge these accomplishments.  What hasn’t been accomplished yet?  Before beating yourself up, are your priorities still the same?  How many of the items on your list no longer apply to your life now?  Cross these off your list.  Now ask yourself, in prayer and meditation, which of the remaining items is now your top priority?  Follow the same procedure above to come up with one action step for this new priority goal.  At the end of the year, take inventory of how many things you have accomplished this year.  Celebrate and acknowledge your accomplishments! 

 

I wish you great success in the accomplishment of your goals and dreams during this coming year.  May you thrive, and Live In Thrival!

 

With Much Love and Many Blessings,

 

Tora Moon,

The Thrival Guide

NEW FOCUS AND SERVICES FOR LIVING IN THRIVAL

I have recently changed the focus and related services for Living In Thrival.  My focus and mission is to guide, inspire, and encourage women’s self-empowerment through the principles of Thrival and connecting to the Feminine Divine.  I believe women empowering themselves to be their full, feminine, loving, nurturing, sharing, beautiful selves with the innate powers of balance, harmony and community is what will bring about the needed changes in our world.  It is not through the tearing down of men or taking away from them that gender balance and harmony will occur.  It is through women becoming self-empowered, finding personal power then economic and political power that equality will occur. 

 

The principles of Living in Thrival bring forth our self-empowerment, our ability to be in control of our own lives and destinies.  And in turn, being self-empowered brings forth an even greater sense of Thrival and thriving.  The basis of Living In Thrival is going deeper into self-knowledge and self-love to discover what is in YOUR inner truth for you to desire and manifest so that YOU are in Thrival. 

 

The benefits of Thrival are:  self-love, self-knowledge, self-confidence, self-assurance, self-worth.  All of which lead to self-empowerment, the power that comes from within.  Benefits of these are:  happiness, wholeness, balance, nurturing from a place of wholeness, caring, kindness, giving, receiving, and inner and outer harmony.  Women need the self-empowerment benefits of Thrival more than men as more women are in situations of survival and non-empowerment than men.  

 

Watch for new programs being offered to Guide, Inspire, and Encourage Women’s Self-Empowerment using the Principles of Thrival.  I am The Thrival Guide!  I guide you to empower yourself to move from just surviving to thriving!

 

My passion is to share this message of women’s self-empowerment and Thrival.  If you have a group or have contacts with a group seeking speakers, please let me know.  I’m looking for speaking engagements.

                     

Want vs Desire

 

In the process of moving from being in survival to being in thrival one of the first things you need to do is find out what it is you desire.  It is from your desires, joys, hopes, and dreams that Thrival for you has meaning.  What do you desire in your life?  What makes you happy?  What fills your soul with joy?  What does a thriving life look like and mean to you?  What thrival means to me is going to be vastly different than what it means to you. 

 

I’m deliberately not using the word “want” and using “desire” instead.  The energy and meaning of want and desire are different.   

 

The dictionary definition of want (according to Webster’s New World Dictionary) is:

1)  to have too little of; be deficient in; lack; 2)  to feel the need of; 3)  long for; crave.  As a noun, it means:  1)  the state or fact of lacking, or having too little of, something needed or desired; scarcity; shortage; lack; 2)  a lack of the necessities of life; poverty; destitution

 

Whereas, the definition of desire is:

1)  to wish or long for; crave; covet; 2)  to ask for; request; 3)  to want sexually.  As a noun, it means:  1)  a strong wish or craving; 2) sexual appetite; lust; 3)  an asking for something; request; and 4)  a thing or person desired.

 

We most often think and use the word “want” when we feel our lives are lacking or are deficient of the object.  When I use want in throughout this book, I’m referring to those things that we feel we need in our lives.   Most people think “want” as definition 3 – longing for or craving.  This, as you can see above, is the main meaning of “desire” without any connections to lack.  The language we use is very important.  Dr. Emoto’s work with water has shown words have great effect on water.  The word “love” creates a beautiful snowflake-like crystal, whereas, the word “hate” creates a dirty, deformed mess – from the same sample of water.  Our bodies are approximately 70% water, therefore, whatever we say or think affects the water in our bodies.   So for our purposes, rethink the language you use.  Do you desire something, as in appreciate it, or do you want something because you lack it or need it?

 

Energetically, to want is coming from a state of lack – you don’t have it so therefore you feel you need it to fill your sense of something missing.  To desire, is coming from a state of appreciation – you see it, like it, appreciate it and would like it in your life to add depth to your life. 

 

Another way to look at the difference is to consider your dreams.  Your dreams are what you desire from your heart.  They are your hopes.  When you are present and connected to your Higher Self, it helps give you greater clarity and focus on your dreams.  It helps bring to light those dreams which are in your truth and allow those that are not to fall away.  Take a few moments to remember what you dreamed about as a child.  What did you daydream you were doing?  What do you dream about or wish for now?  Let yourself drift into daydreaming.  What did you dream?

 

Finding out what you Desire

 

Many people are so busy in their day-to-day lives they only think of the next task in front of them.  They haven’t thought of what they desire in their lives or even what makes them happy or who they are.  My daughter has recently been in this situation.  She graduated from college and for the first time in her life, isn’t a student.  All of her time, attention, and focus are no longer on getting good grades, and completing papers and assignments, but instead they are on living her life.  She has been at a loss of what to do.  She doesn’t know who she is or what she desires.  I’ve gone through this in my life as well.  My questing for that answer was the genesis of finding the principles and concepts of Living in Thrival.  I followed the teachings of Abraham-Hicks and asked my Higher Self over and over:  “What do I desire?”  “What does Thrival mean to me?”  I asked this in my journals, in my prayers and meditations, then listened for the answers as they came to me.

 

One thing you can do to generate the answers for the question, “What do I desire?” is to make a Treasure Board, a type of treasure map.  On a piece of poster board or on a bulletin board write the words: “What do I desire?”  Then throughout your day pay attention to those things you see that you think or say, “Ooh – I like that!  I’d like that in my life!”  These can include the type of car you’d like to drive, the work you’d like to do, the type of foods you like to eat, the type and quality of people you’d like in your life, events you’d like to experience.  When I use the term, “Things” I mean more than just physical objects, it is also the intangible parts of your life.  Things can also be the community you’d like to belong to, the type of spirituality or religion which speak to you, the qualities of the relationship you’d like to be in, and your creative expressions.  Pay close attention to all the things that give you that “OOH!” reaction.  It helps to keep a notebook with you so you can make notes of what caught your attention and brought you a sense of joy.  Find a representation of those things, pictures off the internet or in magazines, even a clip-art picture, and put them up on your Treasure Board. 

 

You’re making a collage of things you desire.  The subconscious communicates and understands images.  The collage of pictures speaks directly to your subconscious mind letting it know what it is you desire in your life.  Put this up where you can see it frequently.  Your very powerful subconscious mind will begin to work for you in manifesting these into your physical reality.  Whenever possible, try to do things that encourages the subconscious to help you rather than to sabotage your desires.

 

While doing this exercise, notice those things which you find you don’t like or don’t desire, make a note of these as well.  Sometimes it is easier for us to get clarity on what we don’t like or desire than what we do.  That’s okay.  If you are noticing more things you don’t like, the Universe is giving you contrast for the things which you do.  Think about the opposite or contrasting item of what you don’t like, it will give you clues to what you do like and desire. 

 

Why are you desiring?

 

Our desires can come from our hearts or from our mind/egos.  Those which come from our hearts are expressions of our truth.  Whereas, those which come from our egos are statements of lack or things we think we should have or want.  To determine which one our desire is flowing from, ask these questions: “Am I desiring this to make me happy? If I had what I desire, then I’d happy?”  If the answer is, “No, I am happy now.  What I desire is an extension of my happiness.”  Then the desire is coming from your heart and is an expression of your truth. 

 

Another way to determine whether what it is you desire is coming from your heart and Higher Self and not your ego is to examine how you feel about it.  Our egos want all sorts of things and they may not be in our highest good to have them manifest in our lives.  How you feel about your desire, or anything else for that matter, will indicate where it is coming from.  If it is coming from your heart and Higher Self, your body and whole being will feel joy.  It will feel good.  If it is coming from your ego, there will be doubt and fear and it won’t feel good.  As Abraham-Hicks says, the best indicator of what is right for us is how we feel.  Getting in touch with our feelings (not emotions), more of how our body feels, will give us access to our inner wisdom which knows what is in our highest and best good.  If we feel good about something, it is usually good for us.  If it doesn’t, then it isn’t.

 

Appreciation and Gratitude

 

Start getting into the habit of feeling and expressing appreciation and gratitude.  It is from this place of appreciation that manifestation and thrival occurs.  Begin to look for the things in your life you can appreciate and be grateful for, today, this moment.  Even if it is as simple as, “I’m grateful it rained today (or didn’t – depending on where you live),” or, “I’m grateful for having clean water to drink,” or, “I appreciate having my daughter in my life.”  Find something to appreciate and be grateful for right now.

 

The Law of Attraction states “like attracts unto like.”  You are energetically a magnet.  What you focus your attention on and how you are feeling attracts the events, circumstances, opportunities and people into your life.  You can re-attune your magnet based on what you focus your attention.  Energy flows where attention goes, is a maxim of the workings of energy.  This is why focusing on what you desire begins to bring you examples of it into your life.  You are now focused on and attracting what you desire.  This is the beginning of creating deliberately and consciously. 

 

When we just let anything come to us without the focus of our desire, we are creating by default.  In this state, we have a tendency to snatch at something rather than having nothing.  Then we wonder why we aren’t satisfied with it or it doesn’t bring us the joy we thought it would.  It usually wasn’t what we desired.  We just settled for what came to us.

By beginning to attune your powerful magnet to what you appreciate and have gratitude for, you will attract more and more of that into your life.  And this is the beginning of Living in Thrival.

 

Transformational Prayers

Guidance

I've developed a method which transforms your life, bringing to you such qualities as Trust, Stillness, and Abundance.  I call this method, Transformational Prayers.  This method engages the mind, incorporates visioning, feeling, alignment of energy, affirmations, and the power of sound.  It activates all 3 of the steps of the Law of Attraction; clarity, attention, and allowance.  It aligns our energy with the aspects we desire to bring into our lives with focused intention.  This will transform your life.

Each month I share with you a mudra and mantra set for you to try.  If you want to experience them more, they are included on my forthcoming CD Transformational Prayers, which includes a booklet of descriptions along with full-color pictures of the mudra and the mantra.  The music of the mantras is beautiful, full of interesting instruments and percussion.  Each piece is different.

 To pre-order your CD click here.

This month, the Transformational Prayer I’m sharing with you is Guidance.  As we begin to answer the question, “what do I desire” we can receive guidance from our Inner Beings and from the Divine on what is our heart and soul’s desire.  This meditation and prayer will help you connect to your Inner Being and the Divine within to show you what is in your highest and best good.  This prayer can be used for anything you need specific guidance on or for general guidance on living your best life and in Thrival.  Knowing what we desire is a good step in our finding our self-empowerment. 

Guidance

There are times in our lives when we need guidance from Spirit on what to do, what course of action is right for us, or where we need to go.  We can seek this counsel by asking and praying about what we need help on and then taking the time to listen to the answers.  The answers are within, all we need to do sometimes is to ask. 

 

Guidance may come in many different forms; notice what begins to come into your life after asking for help.  What sayings, songs, numbers, even road signs catch your attention?  These could be clues to your answers.  Do you feel you need to go someplace, do something a bit out of the ordinary for you?  Follow your intuition.  These are ways Spirit communicates to you and gives you the answers you have asked for.  The following mudra and mantra takes you into a receptive state of being where Spirit can speak to you and you can hear It.

 

Take a few moments to focus on and pray about what you need guidance on while breathing deeply before starting the mantra.  Be sure to sit still for several moments after chanting, listening for the counsel you seek.

Mudra

Cup the hands together, sides of the palms and little fingers touching.  Leave a small opening between your palms.  Gently touch the tips of the ring fingers.  Lift your hands in front of your chest, in front of your heart.  Direct your gaze into your palms for a few moments before gently closing your eyes.

 

The palms are receptors for energy and blessings.  We are asking for guidance and this mudra opens us to receive that guidance.

Mantra

Om Namo Naraynaya  (OHM NAH-MOH NAH-RAH-YAH-NAI-YA)

Om is the name of Narayana, the flame of truth.

{Click here for sample}

Narayana is said to be the eternal flame located in our sacred hearts.  It connects us the Divine Beloved and visitations of our ideal are known to occur with devoted chanting of this mantra.  This could be a Goddess, Jesus, Krishna, or any other Divine Being we are devoutly worship.  Great spiritual truths can be revealed and spiritual questions answered with the chanting of this mantra.  It is also known for taking the chanter to the spiritual realms.

Sample Affirmations

I am open and receptive to the guidance of Spirit.

I receive guidance in an understandable way for me.

I receive answers to my questions and prayers.

The answers and guidance I need are within me.