Planets in Retrograde -- The Basics
By
Rebecca Brents

Astrology Coaching
Live Your Life by Divine Design

Astrology Coaching puts YOU in control of the life you were born to live!!

Take a journey through your birth chart as never before.

Real Astrology ...
for people who take
their lives seriously.

Enroll in
Astrology Coaching
TODAY!!

More Kind Words
from the Mailbox

I've been looking forward to sending you this email for years. I really wanted to let you know this, because your reading, advice and support meant so much to me as I was living through that life-changing time.

A Premium Member

Real People
Real Lives
Real Ambitions
Real Questions

Our Premium Members
Get
Real Answers
Real Direction
Real Information
Real Advantages

Become a
Premium Member
today!!

Recommended Book from Amazon

Alive and Well With Pluto: Transits of Power and Renewal
By
Bil Tierney

Sometimes getting the right answer means asking the right question.

Life is full of hints, signs, and advice ... if you know where to look and what you're looking for.

Astrology and Tarot are tools that blend free will and useful information into new dimensions of thought ... so you can discover your best options. But the choice to act is always yours.

Work with all your possibilities.

Join our
Astrology and Tarot
Premium Membership
TODAY!!

The Key to Your Character ... hear the lecture in The Auditorium

	The Continuing Experience of Enchantment Get Ready for Practice, Practice, Practice! by Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein The Enchanted Self
Astrology, Tarot, and Self Improvement for the New Age.

    Email This Page to a Friend    

The Continuing Experience of Enchantment
Get Ready for Practice, Practice, Practice!
by Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein

Because There is Unity
in the Universe ...

You are not who you are
because of when you were born.

You were born when you were
because you are who you are.

Order a
Natal Chart Reading
today!!

Time continues to increase my conviction that the old adage "Practice, practice, practice" is as necessary to experiencing a state of enchantment as anything else. Unfortunately, I am convinced, in general, we work much harder than we realize to stay in state of disenchantment rather than to let ourselves enjoy moments of enchantment.

We seem to practice staying in a bad mood and seeing our faults and weaknesses rather than our strengths. Do we really feel that worry will help a situation, rather than patiently figuring out appropriate, more positive action? The ultimate solution is often simple, though the road to a permanent state of well-being requires practice and continual awareness and work.

The truth is: most of us get in the way of our good mental health. We may experience a lonely or sad emptiness inside, suffer a sense of disconnection from ourselves, or have repetitive occurrences of bad moods or self-generating negative messages.

We constantly interrupt our potential for achieving positive states by permitting fears or the counting of our woes to take away potentially precious moments. Many of us lack a sense of comfort about being with ourselves in our own mental space, and within our own body. We forget how to recognize and emphasize our blessings.

My clients remind me every day of how we can get in our own way. I remind myself too, as I strive to maintain the wonderful sense of oneness with myself and the world that I call THE ENCHANTED SELF.

This "oneness," if examined, is a reflection of and a daring to use in new ways suitable for the present moment, our own unique talents, interests, potentials and individual life experiences.

More and more I realize that maintaining enchantment is not a trivial activity. It involves more than positive self-regard, yet it has no psychic power without the foundation of positive self-regard.

It involves more than merely meeting one's basic needs, it also involves valuing one's basic needs. Yet it cannot be activated and maintained without certain negotiating skills. It also involves valuing one's own Positive Fingerprints and Shadow Prints of the mind.

Positive Fingerprints are actual memories were we have intentionally gone by and gleaned positive feelings and/or knowledge. Shadow Prints are more vague, but also contain within them are positive feelings and impressions from the past.

Without these unique memories and impressions that create a pathway to building a positive self-narrative, these positive building blocks of our uniqueness are lost to others and, more sadly, to ourselves.

We need our Positive Fingerprints and Shadow Prints of the mind so that our present and future will be able to reflect our talents, interests and potential. For if I deny the beauty and specialness of my own uniqueness, I am again locked out of the real experience of enchantment.

Personal enchantment is not a group activity. It remains a private exercise ... leading to a sense of integrity and wholeness. Only the person herself knows if she is in a state of enchantment or disenchantment. Here is an activity to get you started, geared to emphasizing positive self-regard.

A Play Date with Your Own Enchantment!

1. Please write down five positive comments about yourself. For example, "You are a most courteous and helpful person." "You are always there for me." "I can always trust you." You can make these statements in the first person or the third person, whichever is one comfortable for you.

For example, you could state, "I'm a courageous person who tries to help others out, even at great cost to myself." Or you could say, "You are a most courageous person who is willing to help others out, even at great cost to yourself."

After you have made your list of five positive remarks you'd like to hear about yourself, put this piece of paper in your wallet or pocketbook. Read it to yourself at least once a day for one week.

You may think of other positive statements you'd like to add, or you may get tired of certain ones and delete them. That's fine. Just keep the number around five.

2. After a week, answer the following questions:

(a) How did you feel reading these remarks?
(b) Were there remarks you wished you could have made but honestly felt you didn't deserve? If so, what do you think are some of the things you might need to work on before you can legitimately make a particular statement?

Jot down some of those things. Try to be objective. Is your list realistic? Too perfectionistic? If it is perfectionistic, try to make it more realistic.

Remember that incorporating positive self-regard requires practice and repetition just as incorporating negative self-statements required repetition. If you find this exercise uncomfortable at this time, return to it later.

* This article--with minor changes throughout--came from my book, THE ENCHANTED SELF, A Positive Therapy. The body of the article can be found on pages 184-l85 and the exercise on page 104.

Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein is the originator of The Enchanted Self. She has been a positive psychologist in private practice and licensed in the states of New Jersey and Massachusetts since 1981. Her book, The Enchanted Self: A Positive Therapy, was published in 1997 by Harwood Academic Publishers and is now in its second printing. She has just published her second book on the concept of enchantment: Recipes for Enchantment, The Secret Ingredient is YOU!

Dr. Holstein speaks regularly on radio programs around the country, and appears on television in New York and New Jersey. Her inspiring audio files can be found on the web at Ladybug Live. She also gives lectures, seminars, and retreats on the concepts of enchantment and is currently in private practice in Long Branch, New Jersey with her husband, Dr. Russell M. Holstein. You may find more about Dr. Holstein and her work at: The Enchanted Self

No one rises so high as he who knows not whither he is going.
~ Oliver Cromwell ~
Born April 25, 1599

Please click on the titles to visit these fine areas of Enchanted Spirit

---

	PO Box 1080 Sandia Park · NM · 87047

Enchanted Spirit is a non-denominational spiritual center of healing, support, self-improvement, personal guidance, education and writing. We publish multi-media works of New Age thought and information to encourage serenity and growth in individual life choices, advance the universal search for life's meaning, and promote tolerance for positive ideas from all philosophies and religious traditions, believing as we do that truth is where you find it.

---

This site is hosted and maintained for Enchanted Spirit by

Catweasel Ink

Copyright © 1999 - 2008 by Enchanted Spirit and Catweasel Ink.
Contributed works copyright by their respective authors. All rights reserved.
Unauthorized reproduction specifically prohibited.

Last updated April 29th, 2004

Rebecca is not available
right now.


Please check back
later
CLICK HERE FOR
MORE INFO

Cut through the confusion.

See clearly

Think better

Make informed choices

Discover why the Tarot has intrigued, informed, and interested spiritual seekers for centuries.

What is your life''s biggest question?

Get a reading on Your Situation

Join our
Astrology and Tarot
Premium Membership
TODAY!!

Our Premium Members get

Readings ~ Classes

Lectures ~ Articles

Ezines ~ Oracles

And More!!

For people who take
their lives seriously.

Join our
Premium Membership
TODAY!!

Alive and Well With Neptune: Transits of Heart and Soul
By
Bil Tierney