Queercents

It’s the New Year, and many of us are making resolutions for 2010. My 2010 goals are very similar to last year, but I’ve added some new goals, too:

• Track all my expenses
• Spend $350 a month or less on food
• Put $200 a month in savings
• Try one new recipe each week
• Write every day
• Read every day
• Meet my goal weight of 165
• Practice daily spirituality

The goal of putting more money into savings is going to be a challenge, but it’s a challenge that I am excited to meet.  It will mean slashing our entertainment expenses and keeping our utility costs in check, but I would much rather see our money going into savings than into the coffers of the electric company.

The first book that I am reading for the new year is Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol. The book has a lot of information in it about the belief that your thoughts can literally effect the outcome of events. Although the book is fictional, it has a basis in reality. A few years ago the film “The Secret” enjoyed a wave of popularity, and many people, Oprah included, were turned onto the idea of sending positive intentions out in to the universe in order to attract abundance into their lives.

The basic premise is that our thoughts are like magnets that have the ability to attract actual matter. It’s simply a question of switching your mindset and the way that you think about your life. For example, if you constantly think about all the debt that you have, you are going to be attracting more debt, because that is the energy that you are sending out into the universe. However, if you flip the script and start expressing gratitude for your ability to meet your needs, you will start attracting more prosperity. Read the rest of this entry »

“Happiness is self-contentedness.” – Aristotle

Recently, I’ve been jazzed about The Secret. I suspect a lot of you are saying, “Oh, jeez!” But hear me out. I haven’t read the book or seen the movie but I downloaded the audio version from iTunes about a month ago and it has made my morning run more enjoyable. I’m training for a half marathon in October, so it feels like I’m running a lot these days and the ideas that make up The Secret have been motivating me along the way. Some people are spurred on by music. As Elizabeth noted in her roundup below, I gravitate to podcasts and audiobooks on iTunes U.

The Secret isn’t really a secret. It’s an anecdotal book blending self-help, pop psychology and motivational theory. The secret is “The Law of Attraction” and the author and her “experts” believe that what we think creates what we feel. If our feelings are positive, then positive energy and experiences flow back to us. Like attracts like. We are our thoughts.

There certainly are plenty of skeptics. At the other extreme, there are die-hard devotees. I’m somewhere in the middle. I regard the principles metaphorically, not literally… much in the same way that I’d choose to appreciate the Bible or other sacred texts. Does it really matter if it’s nothing more than pseudo-scientific twaddle? Can’t I glean a few truths about positive thinking and goal setting and call it a day. For me personally, I find this to be motivating. I find it inspiring. And listening to it makes six miles feel like three. I’m hoping in another month it will make 13 miles feel like 6. Read the rest of this entry »