Transformation in Action: Breaking Through Limiting Beliefs to Live the Life of Your Dreams

Copyright © 2014 Sonja Ams and Dr. Alisa Cooper.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

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ISBN: 978-1-4525-8547-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-8549-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-8548-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013953613

Balboa Press rev. date: 10/28/2014

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

A Thought Becomes Reality

Sonja’s Journey

Introduction

Everything Is Energy

Vibrational Energy and Pathways

PART I: Thought Transformation

CHAPTER 1 History of the Mind

The Pioneers

Prentice Mulford

Dr. Sigmund Freud

Dr. Ivan Pavlov

Earl Nightingale

Dr. Thurman Fleet

Bandler and Grinder

Anthony Robbins

CHAPTER 2 The Mind of Today

Dreams: The Seedlings of Reality

Programmed from Birth

Is Your Mind Nourished?

Reprogramming the Mind

Clearing Techniques

Part II: II: Attitude Transformation

Chapter 3 Attitude Is Everything

A Reflection of You

When Successful People Fail

Overcoming Circumstance

You Get What You See

Attitude Determines Outcomes

Patience: What’s on the Other Side?

Attitudes Are Creative

Chapter 4 Gratitude Is a Way of Life

Cultivating Gratitude

Ways to Be Grateful

Chapter 5 Love Heals All

Center of Love

Forgiveness

Self-Love

Mystical Aspects of Love

Buddhist Philosophy

Inner Peace

Unconditional Love

Love in Action

Part III: Universal Laws in Action

Chapter 6 Principles of Universal Laws

Law of Attraction

Law of Gravitation

Start Them Young

Get Out of Your Children’s Way

Desires

Overcoming Obstacles

Law of Deliberate Creation

Art of Allowing

Chapter 7 Law of Attraction in Action

Visualization

Exercise: Life Cycle Plan

Affirmations

The Power of Positive Thinking

Eliminate Negative Thinking Now

Exercise: Creating Affirmations

Goal Setting

CHAPTER 8 Spiritual Entrepreneurs Speak

Part IV: Health Transformation in Action

Chapter 9 Philosophies of Healing

Yin and Yang

Tao (Way of Life)

Microcosmic Orbit

The Six Healing Sounds

Five Elemental Energies

Chakras

Chapter 10 The Chinese Perspective

East Meets West

The Three Treasures

Seven Emotions

Traditional Chinese Medicine

A Practitioner Speaks

CHAPTER 11 Ways to Heal

Love Really Heals All

The Reality of Placebo

Transform through Self-Healing Modalities

Meditation

Tai Chi

Kundalini Yoga

Chiropractic

Massage

The Power of Sound

Telepathic Healing

Past-Life Regression (PLR)

Magnetism

Far-Infrared

CHAPTER 12 The Wellness Home

Nutrition Made Easy

Food Sense 101

Is Sugar Evil?

Worth the Effort

Food–Stress Connection

Water

How Much Is Enough?

Quality Counts

Proper pH

Sleep

Tossing and Turning

Safe and Sound

Air

What Can We Do About It?

Is Air Filtration Necessary?

Negative Ions Are Good for You!

Fitness

The Potential of a Wellness Home

Get into Action

CHAPTER 13 Becoming the Best You Can Be

Being On Purpose

Resources

Sources

Credit Line & Permissions

About the Authors

Transformation in Action will lead you on a journey from mediocrity to extraordinary success by teaching you to live consciously, improve your attitude, and enrich your life through the Law of Attraction. With the Five Pillars of Health®—healthy mind, body, family, society, and finances—as its structural framework, this book will help you achieve the balance necessary to create abundance and prosperity.

Discover how traditional psychology sets the stage for the increasingly popular Law of Attraction. Learn how to be rid of negative thinking forever while realizing that forgiveness and self-love are well within your reach. Share in the inspirational stories and candid interviews of some of today’s most financially successful and spiritually evolved people.

Literally transform your health by incorporating ancient Eastern philosophies as well as today’s cutting-edge healing modalities. Most important, embrace your higher self and allow your true potential to unfold before your very eyes.

Acknowledgments

I would like thank and acknowledge my dear friend, Dr. Alisa Cooper, for inspiring me to share transformational ways of turning limiting physical, emotional, and spiritual beliefs into opportunities for living an abundant, positive and successful life. Thank you so much for having faith in me and for encouraging me to write this book. It has been a fun, creative and collaborative project! Thanks for your amazing editing and writing skills and for being so much like a sister to me.

Much Love and Gratitude

Sonja

* * *

A special acknowledgement goes to Isamu Masuda for creating magnetic technology as part of fulfilling his dream and vision of healing the world.

A special word of thanks goes to Mr. Masaru Emoto for imparting his knowledge of how water affects our bodies and for allowing us to share some of the highlights of his research in this book.

A special thank you goes to Karen Drucker for sharing her spiritual lyrics in this book. These are lyrics that have dramatically impacted Sonja’s life.

A special thanks to Roger Drummer; Anthony Bove; Darren Weissman, DC; Bradley Nelson, DC; Mandara Cromwell; Ben Serpas; Peter Goldberg, MD; Gurutej Kaur; and Dorothy Neddermeyer, PhD, for taking time from their incredibly busy schedules to contribute to this book. Their expertise, time, and talent are greatly appreciated.

Thank you to Denis Waitley, Dawn Fobbs, Dr. Darren Weissman, Natasha Abudarham, Bob Doyle, Bo Tanas, Anisa Aven, Michael Murdock, Sherry Anshara, Jewels Johnson, Bob Crawford, Lynn Ahearn, and Sandy Forster for sharing their personal challenges, insights, and breakthroughs in their interviews.

A special thanks to Erin Wilson for her contributions to the beautiful art design, and to Mark Parisi for his wonderfully imaginative cartoons. Thank you to Dr. Fleet, now departed, for the use of his concept-therapy drawings; Michael Losier for permission to use the Art of Allowing game; and to Dennis Williams for graciously allowing us to use the oranges-soaked in PiMag® water photograph.

A very special thank you goes to Jeff Koch for sharing his funny, heartwarming, and profound Rob stories.

In addition, thank you to everyone for the inspiration and encouragement while this book was being written. Your support was appreciated.

Lastly, much gratitude goes out to those of you reading this book. Best wishes for your personal success and well-being as you embark on this transformational journey.

With infinite love and gratitude,

Sonja & Dr. Alisa

Faith is taking the first step when you don’t see the whole staircase.

—Martin Luther King Jr.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

—Lao Tzu

Preface

A Thought Becomes Reality

One day out of the blue, my friend, Dr. Alisa Cooper, said, If you write a book, I will edit it! I must admit that at first I thought, Who, me? Then I realized that thought was a limiting belief, and I corrected my thinking immediately. The rest is history!

I became so inspired that I started visualizing the title, cover, and even the acknowledgment with which I would honor my friend. The project became so real, and I became so enthralled with the idea, that my adrenaline soared, and I fervently started collecting my ideas and thoughts to share with you. This book is meant to inspire you to transform your attitude, have gratitude, and break through limiting beliefs. It is in breaking through these limiting beliefs that you will be able to attain your goals and dreams. By living a balanced lifestyle based on the Five Pillars of Health®—healthy mind, body, family, society, and finances—you can enjoy a positive, successful life.

Success is mentioned throughout this book; however, we must first understand exactly what success is. The dictionary defines success as the achievement of something desired. Earl Nightingale says that success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or idea. Our definition aligns with those, but it expands on them to include the Five Pillars of Health®. Imagine all five pillars being optimally balanced in your own life! Spirituality—which is to the soul what water is to thirst—is the thread that ties the pillars together.

This book takes you on a journey toward a holistic kind of success and a spiritual life, and it does so by keeping spirituality in the foreground. Transformation in Action begins with an exploration of ways of thinking, acting, and living that are congruent with your dreams. It goes on to provide you with the tools for bringing those dreams to fruition. It concludes with a discussion of ancient healing philosophies and some of the best of today’s healing modalities to help attune your body and mind for extraordinary health and well-being. Now, that is our kind of success! If you want that for yourself, then it is no coincidence that this book has found its way into your possession.

Sonja’s Journey

Like most people, I grew up believing certain set things about life’s circumstances. For many of us, our ideas about money, health, relationships, and religion were impressed upon our subconscious minds by our parents, as those same ideas were impressed upon them by their parents, and so on. Is that good? It can be; however, most people hold limiting beliefs, such as, I could never do that, or I am not good enough. It’s almost as if we have been mandated to accept certain beliefs and principles. I believe we need to acquire our own beliefs and principles. How? By examining our values, exploring our minds, and transforming our attitudes. Once that is accomplished, we can learn to create our own success, as well.

I grew up with loving parents in a supportive and encouraging environment. Over time, however, I came to realize that, like so many of us, I had been exposed to limiting and negative beliefs, which had become instilled in my subconscious mind. Knowing what I now know about attitude, the Law of Attraction, and everything else discussed in this book, I have been able to break through those old negative and limiting beliefs to attain my goals and dreams.

I grew up as an introvert. After attending college in Tennessee, I decided to break away to Scottsdale, Arizona, where I now reside. After earning a degree in electroneurodiagnostics, I went on to pursue a career in massage therapy. It was through the study of Eastern modalities that my eyes were opened to a brand-new way of thinking and of healing the body. The more I became intrigued with this whole concept, the more I wanted to learn. I began reading numerous books and watching movies like The Secret and What the Bleep Do We Know!? I gained an appreciation of how our minds think and how their powers can be harnessed, primarily by putting the principles of the Law of Attraction into action. Once I truly understood that we can manifest and create our own lives, I could not get enough of books such as Think and Grow Rich; Law of Attraction; The Strangest Secret; and many other motivational and inspirational works.

Soon, I started using visualization techniques as well as developing a life cycle plan, often referred to as a vision board, to help me manifest my goals and dreams. Before long, I was creating and repeating positive affirmations over and over, in an effort to program—or, I should say, reprogram—my subconscious mind. That which began as an exploration for me has become, in fact, a lifestyle. It is a lifestyle that allows me to be free to live the life I desire, require, and deserve.

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you is tiny compared to what lies within you.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

—Benjamin Franklin

The energy of the mind is the essence of life.

—Aristotle

Out of need springs desire, and out of desire springs the energy and the will to win.

—Denis Waitley

Introduction

Everything Is Energy

What is energy? The fact is no one knows exactly! We can mathematically express what it can do and how it behaves, but like gravity, it’s a bit mysterious. In the famous equation E = MC², Einstein illustrated that everything is composed of vibrational energy fields and frequencies. As kids in school, we learned that energy is the ability to do work. We also learned about potential energy, another seemingly ambiguous concept, at least to a fifth grader. Dave Watson, mechanical engineer, writer, and educator, defines energy as a property or characteristic of matter that makes things happen, or, in the case of stored or potential energy, has the ‘potential’ to make things happen.¹ We like that! By make things happen, we mean that something will change, such as temperature, density, shape, or volume. Without energy, nothing could or would ever change. According to a very intuitive grade school teacher, Energy is the ultimate agent of change.² Human beings are pure energy; therefore, we do change—and, more importantly, we have the potential to change, or transform.

Everything we give thought to is expressed energetically. These thoughts manifest in the physical body and create our well-being or lack thereof. In this way, Einstein gave us the foundation for understanding that, at its root, energy affects our overall health, encompassing the body, mind, and spirit.

Our physical body is surrounded by an energy field known as the aura. This energy field contains vibrational copies of internal and external experiences, both positive and negative. These experiences, and the emotions they conjure, are incorporated into the programming of our cells to aid or hinder the development of our biological systems. These emotional energies are derived from past-life experiences, childhood memories, traumatic experiences, belief systems, and our prevailing attitudes. Carolyn Myss, author and medical intuitive, states, Transmitting energy into the past by dwelling on the painful events drains power from your present-day body and can lead to illness.³ Emotions are energy in motion, and sometimes they need to be put to rest! Good or bad, energy plays a major role in our health via our emotions.

Vibrational Energy and Pathways

By studying and performing a Japanese massage technique, Sonja has become familiar with the meridian lines, or energy pathways, in our bodies. Along with the meridians are the chakras, or energy centers. The word chakra is Sanskrit for wheel, which helps us to understand that energy enters and exits the body in a wheel-like vortex action.

Chakras can also be thought of as levels of consciousness affected by our mental states. Our attitudes and chakras are intertwined; because this is so, chakras can be disrupted by negative emotions. In her book Chakra Foods for Optimum Health, Deanna M. Minich, PhD, CN, states, When the chakras get overloaded with a negative message, the chakra may get blocked, and eventually the energy flow will be impeded in this area, causing symptoms or a disease in the organs that chakra is responsible for.⁴

When all chakras, or energy channels, are in alignment with each other as well as with our thoughts, we attract success into our lives. As you will see throughout this book, we manifest that to which we give our energy. Be very careful to give energy only to what you are seeking.

The body is composed of two energetic systems, the etheric body and the physical body. In Esoteric Healing, Alice Bailey says, The etheric body is a body composed entirely of lines of force and of points where these lines of force cross each other and thus form (in crossing) centers of energy.⁵These centers of energy she refers to are the chakras. Moreover, the etheric body functions within the higher self, while the physical body functions within the lower self (see chapters 5 and 9 for more detail). When there are energetic disturbances to the etheric body, physical symptoms begin to appear. To create vibrant health from the cellular level on up, it is important to keep both energy systems flowing freely.

In his book Vibrational Medicine, Richard Gerber says, Our subtle-energy bodies play a major role in maintaining our health. Energy disturbances in the etheric body precede the manifestation of abnormal patterns of cellular organization and growth.⁶ Dr. Gerber goes on to explain that energy healers are often able to restore people back to normal physiology and health by manipulating their energy fields. It is vitally important to protect and nourish our energy fields by limiting our exposure to negative environments, negative people, and our own negative thoughts and attitudes.

The only place where your dream becomes impossible is in your own thinking.

—Robert H. Schuller

Have you ever wanted to do, have, be, or accomplish something very badly, but a friend or relative spoke negatively about you ever achieving it? You trust and love your friends and family, but when they don’t support your goals, some inner, and perhaps even outer, conflict may arise. Since we are energy, this conflict can cause chaos within our energy system. It can also affect how we might feel about what we can or cannot accomplish, and this, in turn, affects our enthusiasm to pursue our goals and dreams.

Understanding the effects of negative energy on our outcomes elucidates why we must cultivate positive thinking as well as engage in appropriate conflict resolution. While conflict resolution falls outside the scope of this book, you will learn unequivocally how to transform your thoughts from negative to positive. In the process, your attitude, and ultimately your health, will be transformed. When you put transformation into action, you set yourself on the direct path to a successful life.

PART I

Thought Transformation

You are what you are and where you are because of what has gone into your mind. You can change what you are and where you are by changing what goes into your mind.

—Zig Ziglar

It is only through your conscious mind that you can reach the subconscious. Your conscious mind is the porter at the door, the watchman at the gate. It is to the conscious mind that the subconscious looks for all its impressions.

—Robert Collier

CHAPTER 1

History of the Mind

Through the years, mind research has brought us a great deal of insight into how we think, act, feel, and believe. Like climbing Mount Everest or reaching the moon, understanding the complexities of the mind has been a daunting task. Thankfully, a long line of psychologists, scientists, researchers, and energy healers have contributed to unraveling the mystery.

The Pioneers

There are a few outstanding individuals who have made major contributions to our understanding of how the mind works. These pioneers laid the groundwork for the Law of Attraction and other of today’s methods of getting from where you are to where you want to be in life. So, before moving forward, it’s important to take a quick look back.

Prentice Mulford

Prentice Mulford (1834–1891), in his book Thoughts Are Things, mentioned both a higher self and a lower self. He referred to the higher self as the spiritual mind and the lower self as the material mind. Mulford recognized that the lower self was the source of living within limitations or believing in the way things have always been, as if no other way exists. He theorized that the higher self, on the other hand, was capable of both seeing beyond limitations and seeking freedom from them.⁷ The higher self, according to Mulford, provides the type of thinking that allows one to strive toward the achievement of his or her goals. Prentice Mulford was truly a pioneer in that he put forth ideas about the mind that influenced many others of his time as well as those who followed. Look again at the name of his book: Thoughts Are Things. Talk about manifesting your dreams and desires! Mulford was spreading the good word about it way back in the 1800s!

Dr. Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), the famous Austrian psychiatrist, made the most noteworthy contribution to psychiatry by showing the importance of the unconscious mind (better known as the subconscious mind) to our understanding conscious thoughts and behaviors. He was responsible for popularizing the terms conscious and subconscious.

According to Freud, the conscious mind is that of which we are aware at any particular moment when we perceive, think,