Higher Ground Living Podcast

In this episode Shane takes us through the words of Jesus about this topic. Whether you are a Christian or not, what Jesus says about the way we think is highly beneficial.  This episode is highly beneficial to anyone who is tired of feeling anxious and worried. This content will put you on the right path towards building an unshakeable mental health.  We look at Bible scripture from: Mathew 6:19-34 Luke 12:13-34 For more content like this go to our blog @ www.highergroundliving.blog

In this episode of the Higher Ground Living Podcast we continue our in depth look at the concept of storing up treasure in heaven. As always we are looking for tangible ways to create a calm, peaceful and strong mental health that fills our lives with clarity and purpose. Often we think of treasure in heaven from the perspective of storing up the fruit from good deeds for the next life we are to live in an afterlife called heaven. We like to take it a step further and realise we can live with that treasure here and now in this current life. We do this by developing our mental health to a state where nothing can knock us down. Where the power of peace and wellbeing is the main treasure we hold onto.  We hold this treasure in our mind. Higher Ground Living is about developing the mindset that can stand firm in peace even in the greatest storm. That is real treasure. We do this by focusing upon real, lasting treasure which is inner peace. Our material things will come and go. There is no lasting life in the objects of our desire. Our jobs, our titles, our houses, our money, our fame, our beautiful bodies etc. The only lasting life is in what we hold inside our consciousness.  So why do we spend so much effort, and create so much stress and fear around holding onto the things we accumulate? Even the body we see in the mirror will one day be gone. One day our marriages and families will be gone. So all we really have is our consciousness. That is the real treasure that Jesus is talking about when he gives this wisdom.  In this episode we start to break down specific keys we can use to develop our inner peace.  First we define Treasure in Heaven as the combined elements of: Mental strength Connection Faith Love An abiding sense of wellbeing Quality Relationships Self Love Then we start to look at how we can develop these mindsets and habits. We look at the power of Gratitude and Self Awareness.  In Part Three we will be diving deeper into the list of how we can actively build these qualities into our lives.  Hope you enjoy this one, look forward to providing the next installment soon. Blessings, Shane and Nikki    

In this episode we begin to explore what it means to build a life of inner peace by accumulating "Treasure In Heaven".  Treasure in heaven speaks of consciously developing inner peace. Our modern, busy world doesn't leave much space for cultivating inner peace. Which is why we see such a rise in mental health issues. Including anxiety, depression, fear, overwhelm, confusion and frustration. Which lead to the growing sense of disconnection and stress which we like to fill with all manner of material panacea. Only to find that the more things we accumulate and the more food, alcohol, prescription drugs, TV and entertainment we consume we do not achieve the wellbeing we are searching for.  Is it because we are too focused upon worldly treasure and not making time to build peace and strength into our inner world of the mind and spirit? For the next few weeks HGL Podcast will be exploring this topic and offering practical ways that we can all develop our inner peace. So that we can find peace and wellbeing even in the storms of life. Higher Ground Living is all about raising our awareness above the fleeting pleasures of the material world and establishing ourselves upon the higher ground of the spirit, where we find lasting peace, abundance and wisdom.  By doing this we begin to store up "treasure in heaven" in our inner world, which gives us a solid foundation to build our outward, earthly lives.  Blessings Shane and Nikki      

Maintaining a peaceful mindset is a skill. It is developed and maintained by practicing conscious relaxation. Conscious relaxation is when we consciously choose to take time regularly to practice relaxation. The product of this practice is a residing peace of mind. In this episode Shane and Nikki explores the importance of having a daily peace practice. It is easy to neglect the practice of relaxation in our busy lives. It is easy to fall into long stretches of time in our lifestyle where we experience very little real relaxation and peace. Most people are waiting for peace and relaxation to just "happen" in their lives. The reality is that we must choose to make relaxation a part of our daily schedule or else we will often miss out. Which leads to stress and overwhelm.  The good news is that it doesn't take a massive effort to start feeling the benefits of conscious relaxation. The HGL Ten2Relax online course teaches us how to develop an effective peace and relaxation practice.  A free sample of the course is available at: www.hgl-training-academy.teachable.com As a podcast listener you can receive 50% off the full price of the Ten2Relax Course by using the coupon code "HGLPodcast". Access is found at the website listed above. 

Is there an area of your life where you are struggling to get a breakthrough?  Your trying as hard as you can but things just wont change.  We came across this simple formula that reminds us to make sure we are not leaving any room for negative energy to keep us from our desired breakthrough.  The formula is: See It - Feel It - Believe It - Do It See It: Speaks of the initial idea plus deeper visualisation of the outcome.  Feel It: Take time to focus on the dream and develop the feeling of having this outcome in your life.  Believe It: Search your thoughts and beliefs to find any limiting beliefs you have about your ability and worthiness to have this desire in your life.  Do It: Take positive action towards attaining the outcome you desire. By honestly looking at our journey and working through these four points we can reveal where we might be getting stuck. Therefore, limiting our progress towards attaining the desired outcome.  HGL Links www.hgltrainingacademy.teachable.com Ten2Relax Online Course Half Price Code: HGLPodcast www.highergroundliving.blog www.hgltrainingacademy.com  

In this episode we look at six aspects of the human ego. We take a deep look at why an out of control ego damages our well being. Gaining control over the human ego brings peace and wellbeing into our lives.  If we are operating with an egocentric mindset we will be experiencing stress, disconnection, separation, fear, anxiety, and dis-ease in our lives.  In this discussion we look at how the modern world is driven by an egocentric mindset. We also look at what we can do to get our ego under control.  The six aspects of the human ego came from an interview Dr Wayne Dyer had with Oprah. The six aspects are: 1. I am what I have 2. I am what I do 3. I am what other people think of me 4. I am separate 5. I am separate from what is missing in my life 6. I am separate from God Links mentioned in this podcast: HGL Blog Article: Read it here HGL Training Academy Website

In this episode we explore the wisdom I received from a hike I took in a mountain forest. The lessons were so inspiring to me that I had to do a podcast about them. I hope you get as much out of it as I have. Below you can read the full blog article I wrote on this topic. Make sure you check out the full version with photos on our blog site. To see HGL Guided Relaxations/ Meditations find us on Youtube Visit HGL Training Academy for Ten2Relax A few days ago I went on a ten km mountain/forest hike in the Lamington National Park about 45 minutes from where I live in Australia. As is my custom, I walk alone to be totally focused upon my surroundings and get connected with nature. It was a beautiful sunny, winters day as I set out on the five km trail that leads to the base of Ballunjui Falls. Along the journey I came across multiple lookouts that stare down the length of Numinbah Valley at a height of around 800 metres. It is a magnificent sight and feeling to stand on the edge of the mountain and take in the vision and energy of this beautiful valley. The trail meanders through the forest with awe inspiring giant trees, birds constantly calling out and creative rock formations. It is such a blessing to be present in that environment with a quiet mind, totally disconnected from the reality of modern life. My intention on these walks is always to empty my mind and listen only to the sounds of the forest and focus on my breathing. As I walked and allowed my mind to marvel at the beauty surrounding me, I became aware of what I could describe as the forest talking to me. Not in words, but in ideas.  By the end of my hike I had received five specific lessons that I would love to share with your here. Each lesson has a positive impact on my mental health and I am sure will be of value to many other people. There is nothing new or overly profound here. Just five reminders of good quality thinking and action that will build strength into our mental health and wellbeing. 1.The forest is full of authenticity and purpose. Everything in the forest is living exactly as it should be. There is no identity confusion in the forest. Unlike us humans, the trees don't question their purpose in life. We don't hear trees talking to each other complaining about how big, or how small they are. Or judging each other for the colour of their bark and leaves. One tree isn't jealous of another. There is no anxiety about where they are growing. A tree isn't freaking out because it is growing too close to the edge of the cliff. As I walked on, I let the authenticity of the forest flow through my mind and I allowed myself to feel my own authenticity. I allowed myself to believe in myself, to love myself, to be proud of myself for who I am and what I have experienced in my life so far. I took the pressure off myself and just believed that all things are possible for me. That I am abundant no matter what mistakes I have made or what weaknesses I have. And it felt good... And it still feels good as I recall the experience. And that is the lesson here. We need to believe in our own authenticity. Many of us are all caught up in a false identity that has been programmed into us by the culture we live in. When we are secure in who and what we are, we are not concerned with the actions and opinions of others to the point of creating anxiety. Obviously humans are far more complex than trees. We have an awareness that is far superior than any other living thing on the planet. This is why we need to take this lesson from the forest that we must focus upon our own authenticity and use that to release fear and anxiety about our position in this world. Like the trees, we are mean't to be here. We are here for a reason. We are here to learn and grow from our experiences to impact and empower others. We each have a purpose even if we are unsure of what it is. The best way to become aware of our purpose is to believe we have one. From here we will start to see the signs of what it is. Remember, just because we don't think we have a purpose doesn't mean we have no purpose. It just means we are out of touch with our authentic self. To get in touch with your authentic self, spend time in quiet places like the forest, and just listen to your surroundings. This will allow your mind to get quiet enough to express your true self. Our modern world is so busy and noisy that its no wonder we can't perceive our own voice and purpose in life. If you get quiet enough for long enough you will begin to hear the direction you should go in. There is wisdom built into every one of us that comes from this authentic self. It is a still soft voice that is waiting for us to slow down for long enough to hear it. For me, the forest is a great place to experience this level of focus. 2. The only fear present in the forest is our own. Any fear I felt in the forest was being generated by me. The animals, plants, insects and all the other living things are not living in fear. We don't see anxious and stressed out birds, wallabies, snakes, trees etc. Walking around dazed and confused questioning their worth and building limiting beliefs about who and what they are capable of. These creatures are actually in danger of being eaten by other creatures too. So they actually have the right to be a bit stressed. But lucky for them its not build into their mental capacity to operate like this. Once again thats our domain. We like to stress for the sake of stressing. Because thats just what we do, and have always done. But do we have to? Can we make a new habit of not stressing about every little thing that doesn't provide pleasure? We absolutely can. The opportunity for stress is inevitable and we are never going to get away from that. However our reaction to these situations is our choice. The lesson from the forest here is that we need to learn to make better choices around what we are fearful about. Stress comes from our fears. If we have no fear over something then we have no stress about it. We are calm and unfazed by the situation. But when we are fearful that we might lose something we are attached too, we tend to generate stress. The forest reveals that even in the midst of actual danger we don't need to freak out. The forest is relaxed and sure of itself. What a great way to live. As I walked through that forest I was reminded that this state of being is available to me too. I can be relaxed and sure of myself no matter what situation I find myself in. It is just a choice, not always an easy one. But a choice all the same. It takes practice and diligence to build this habit but it is absolutely available to all of us if we choose to use it. 3. Look at magnificent things. During my walk I was blown away by the majesty of the largest trees and by incredible view of the valley stretching out from various lookouts. At the end of the trail was a beautiful waterfall. It was not flowing in its full capacity but it was still and amazing sight. After seeing these great things I had the thought appear in my mind that looking at magnificent things is very beneficial for our mental wellbeing. It builds wonder and gratitude into our mind and that reduces fear and stress. Looking at and appreciating these magnificent creations takes our focus away from ourselves. It builds peace into our mindset by reminding us that we live in a wonderful world. That what we see on the news and around our cities is not all that is available for us. So much of our anxiety comes from focusing our attention on the creations of man. We are influenced greatly by all the negative information we get thrown at us each day and night by news outlets. This serves to form an unbalanced view of the world. Therefore we create beliefs around what is right and wrong, good or bad based upon this unbalanced information. If we don't get ourselves out of this environment of negative information on a regular basis then we will develop an unrealistic view of the world. This effects how we treat each other, how we treat ourselves and what we believe we are capable of. Which all adds up to cause fear which produces stress and anxiety. Taking time out to go into nature and focus on magnificent things not created by humans gives us that balanced perspective. What we have created is not all that this life has to offer. In fact what we have created is greatly surpassed by the abundance and beauty of nature. Allowing ourselves to be influenced by that abundance and beauty is highly beneficial to our mental health and well being. 4. If we have nothing to overcome, we do not grow. Even though I was not focusing on the challenges I am facing in my life, I had this thought flow into my mind. "If you have nothing to overcome then you will not grow'. It was a very comforting way to look at the challenges in my life. It reminded me of the quote: Life is happening for you, not to you. It gives me a better perspective to look at the hard things in life. We can choose to be in fear and stress about certain situations and experiences or we can choose to perceive these circumstances as obstacles to move around and problems to solve. In moving around the obstacle and solving the problem we grow stronger and closer to where life wants us to go. I believe that life is always calling us forward to great things. It is our fear that holds us back. It is our fear that we use to justify our weakness. In reality, there are no failures, because there is always another chance to try. It might not be the same chance we had first time but we can continue on. There are always many roads to where we need to be. The only failure is when we give up and don't try anymore. We see ourselves as failures sometimes, but that is just one persons opinion. It is not factual or real. We must gain a higher perspective when it comes to achieving our goals. Just because we fall short a few times doesn't mean we are hopeless and unable to succeed. It just means we were not ready to succeed yet. That we have more to learn. The so called failure is really just part of the process to make us strong enough to achieve the goal. Ask any "successful" person about their road to success and it will be lined with "failures" that would have stopped many other people. These people chose to keep going. To find a way around the obstacle and find a solution to the problem. Give yourself a break and stop holding yourself back by the experiences you see as failures in your life. If you get up and keep trying, then that "failure" ceases to exist. It is just a stepping stone on your journey to success. 5. We are all being challenged in ways that will lead us to our purpose. This is a challenging one. It requires the humility to accept that there is a greater intelligence in control of our world than our own. The way I see it, we are in partnership with this greater intelligence which we can call God, the universe or life. And this intelligence is constantly working with us to push us forward on our purposeful journey. The struggle we have, is that we are not very patient and this intelligence is incredibly patient. So we get frustrated very easily with the time it takes to achieve great things. We also get easily overwhelmed with the pain it takes to expand our minds and lives, to the point where we can receive the success we are looking for. I go through this every week. Some days are great and it all seams to flow as I push towards the goals I desire to achieve. Other days I wake up surrounded by fear and anxiety about what is happening and what isn't happening. It is on the tough days that I must remind myself that all these challenges are designed to grow me into the person I need to be to achieve these goals. To become the person I know i'm called to be. Like a tennis player who wants to be the best they can be. That will never happen if they don't challenge themselves against the best players in the world. In doing so, they sometimes get blown off the court by the better player. It is all part of the journey. We have to pick ourselves up and keep going no matter what happens along the way. By taking on this mindset, that life is challenging us only to make us stronger so we can reach our goals, we find peace and a way to reset our mind when we are feeling overwhelmed. Even when we don't have goals, life is calling us forward. Because life has goals for us. Life has plans for us. We are very important in this vast creation. Just because we don't think so, is irrelevant. Look at all the things we have achieved in our lives so far. Much of it took great perseverance and times of struggle. We can draw faith from these times and remind ourselves that we can get through our current challenges too. We just have to hold on, stay as faithful as we can, and not let fear and stress consume our lives. Then before long we will come out the other side and look back to see how those tough times served us to get us to where we are today. At the end of the day, it is a choice. We can live in fear and anxiety with self loathing and feel defeated. Or we can choose to fight and grow into the people life is calling us to be. So there you have it. Five mental health lessons from the forrest. Why not take some time out from your normal routine and get out into nature to reset your mind? To find peace, we need to practice peace. There is no better place to practice and experience peace than to get into nature and just be still. Be still and let the sounds and scenery occupy your mind. This gives your mind a break from the constant flow of noise we get from our modern culture. Give it a try, you wont be disappointed. Hope this was beneficial to you, to find more information about Higher Ground Living check out our Training Academy. Blessings Shane L Taylor        

What is the deal with self sabotage? Why would anyone "sabotage" their own success? It doesn't make sense that we would ever do such a strange thing. Yet we do it all the time. Not only do we do it all the time, most of the time we don't even know we are doing it. We can struggle for years trying to breakthrough in a particular area of life and not even notice that we are making the same mistakes over and over. People around us can see it but we don't always notice it ourselves. To better understand self sabotage lets answer these three questions: What is self sabotage and does it exist? Why do we do it? What does it cost us? 1. What is self sabotage and does it exist? One way to explain it would be to reach out for something with one hand and push it away with the other. It is when we desire something for our life but something in us creates barriers and obstacles along our path to the point where we cannot follow through and receive the object of our desire. Therefore with one hand we are reaching out for our desire but our other hand pushes it away. Its when we say we want a loving relationship but create all sorts of drama to destroy it. Or we say we want financial success but never put ourselves in the right environment to receive it. We want close relationships with our children but we can't stop criticising them. Or we want to create a healthy body but make multiple excuses for why we can't make the changes necessary. Self sabotage is 100% real. I know because I do it to myself all the time. I have learned to watch out for it and identify it when it takes over. It is where comments like "why does this always happen to me?" and "I don't deserve it, God doesn't like me much", come from. It is where victim mentality comes from. Where everything is someone else's fault. The truth is, that it is our own fault. We are responsible for the quality of our lives and if we want to take our lives higher then we better start making the changes necessary to do it. Identifying the areas where we are sabotaging our own success is a great place to start. 2. Why do we do it? We create self sabotage when our conscious thinking doesn't line up with our subconscious beliefs. It is like being double minded. Having two minds operating and fighting against each other. Our mind works in two parts, the conscious and subconscious. The conscious mind is the creative thinking we develop in the present moment. This is where we find inspiration and creativity. Where we come up with new ideas and learn new things. The subconscious mind is where our core programs exist. These programs have been developed over the course of our lives by all of the experiences we have been exposed to. Especially from birth to around seven years old. This time of development is when the brain is forming its beliefs about the environment you live in. It is downloading information from your parents, friends, extended family, school, television etc. Whatever we are interacting with has an impact on our mind. From all of this input we develop our core belief systems. These are the beliefs we have about who we are and what the world is around us. We all form our own unique set of beliefs that stay with us for most of our lives. A lot of what we believe comes straight from other people, like our parents or the government. If we search our own beliefs we will find that there are beliefs in there that we never really thought through. We just accepted the dominant cultural beliefs around this topic. We can see that working with racism. Where children of racist parents don't even know why they hate another culture, they just do. Its because thats the environmental norm for where they grew up so they adopted that thinking. We don't all become robotic followers of our environment either. Many people grow up to despise the beliefs of their culture and move their lives in a different direction. It is an amazing system that we have going on in our brain. One that we must learn to utilise much better. Can you see how our core beliefs work like programs? These are our habitual programs that have created the lifestyle we are each living now in the present moment. The challenge comes when we try to change that lifestyle. Because if the subconscious belief does not support the conscious desire for change then there will be self sabotage. 3. What does it cost us? Which leads us to this question. What does it cost us. Self sabotage costs us many of our conscious desires. Sometimes it is a good thing and saves us from trouble. Other times it is keeping us in trouble. Self sabotage keeps us locked into our comfort zones. Even when our comfort zone is not very comfortable. Self sabotage is our subconscious minds way of keeping the status quo in our lives. Keeping us safe and operating in predictable ways that are familiar. We are creatures of habit and these habits come from our subconscious mind.  Without it the human race probably would not have survived this long. Imagine life without our subconscious operating programs for walking, hunting, building things, language, driving, playing music, writing etc. Life would be very different if we had to relearn these things all the time. The challenge is, that we create negative programs too and the subconscious mind will fight to keep these operating until we learn to override them.  Therefore, self sabotage costs us much of our progress and creativity. Much of the modern society we live in is being driven by this sort of thinking. Notice how we all get up each morning and follow the same old routine, drive the same way to work, talk to the same people, eat the same food, complain about the same things, enjoy the same things, drive home the same way and follow the same old night routine then get up the next morning and do it all over again.  It is this boring existence that is driving many of us to depression and anxiety as we look into a future with not much to look forward to. Life doesn't have to be like this. We have the ability to reprogram our habitual thinking. We have the ability to create the life we dream of living. Even though it feels impossible to change, it is not impossible. It takes a lot of effort and focus but it can be done. We just have to develop the skills to make it happen.  Three Points of Power to overcome self sabotage.  Now, lets look at three points of power to overcome self sabotage.  Self Awareness Remove Resistance Stand In Your Power 1. Self awareness: Step one in overcoming self sabotage is to be aware that we are doing it. This can be tricky because self sabotage occurs in our subconscious thinking. The good news is that if we spend time and energy focusing our conscious mind on watching out for self sabotage then our Reticular Activating System will  begin to look out for this behaviour.  By reading articles like this one, listening to podcasts and reading books on this topic will cause your RAS to be on the look out for anything related to this topic. You will begin to see sabotage happening in other people and you will become aware of when your doing it to yourself.  Becoming aware of how you are operating in the various departments of your life will set you on an exciting journey towards mastering the flow of your life. Make no mistake, it is not easy and it takes humility to admit that your doing things wrong. But if we can develop this skill of watching ourselves then we have the opportunity to take our lives forward to exactly where we want to go.  2. Remove resistance: Once we expose our limiting thinking and the patterns of behaviour we have around these areas of life, then we can make conscious choices to think differently. We will be confronted by a situation where we usually pull back and retreat and now because we are aware of our behaviour we can stop ourselves from making those limiting decisions. We can choose to move in a different direction.  Sounds simple doesn't it? It is not always so easy. Remember we are dealing with the subconscious mind. So many of our decisions will happen automatically. The important thing to remember is that it takes time and just because we fail doesn't mean we are failures. We become aware of the mistake and start moving forward again.  We fall short in life because we have resistance to achieving success in these areas. When we can consciously make different choices around this resistance then we can move forward. If we don't then we will continue to make the same decisions and therefore continue to live the same lifestyle. 3. Stand in your power: Finally we learn to stand in our power. We stay focused and relaxed in the new version of ourselves. Even when we fall and make mistakes we pull ourselves back to our power. We develop a clear vision of who and what we are and stand in that vision. Focusing the mind on what we want to be not what we have been in the past.  By doing this we are continuing to reprogram or renew the mind. We are consciously overriding old programs and creating new beliefs about who and what we are. To have these beliefs grow deep roots in our subconscious we need to stand in that power, stand in that version of ourselves.  In the past we have stood in the version of ourselves we didn't want to be. We stood in fear, in anxiety and in stress. We stood in weakness to the point where it became the dominant force in many areas of our life. We operated in fear so long that it became our standard program. Then it started to operate subconsciously beyond our conscious control. It became a permanent part of our lives.  To overcome and breakthrough into the lifestyle we desire we just have to do the opposite. Choose new thoughts and surround ourselves with the energy that will take us to where we want to be. This will slowly overcome our self sabotage and we will see our lives moving towards better things. It all happens in the mind. Our thinking is driving our lives. If we want to drive our lives along a better journey then we must learn to deal with self sabotage. 

Is it true? Are we really the product of the five people we hang around the most? In this episode we take a deep dive into this topic to look at why this idea has a lot of merit.  Association is a powerful tool for growth in our lives. It can also be a powerful reason why we stay locked in our comfort zone. Often, our closest friends can hold us back from growing to our true potential.  This is not to say we should ditch all our friends and start fresh with "better" people. However, maybe we can be a bit more strategic and find some people to spend time with who challenge and inspire us to grow.     

Part 2 of our conversation with school teacher and instagram vlogger Josiah Hein.  Josiah lives every moment to inspire and uplift others. Always looking for beauty and inspiration everywhere. This energy is infectious as we continue our interview with Josiah.  We explore topics such as: Making life work one step at a time. Climbing our mountains by setting goals and focusing on each individual step to reach the goal. Jacaranda Tree hunting adventures. How to appreciate life and enjoy the journey.

School teacher and Instagram Vloger Josiah Hein joins Shane and Nikki for a powerful conversation.  At 13 years old Josiah's best friend died of Leukemia. It rocked Josiah's world and sent him on a destructive journey. It was his best friends dream to come to Australia so after much turmoil and soul searching Josiah decided to ease his grief and make the journey for his friend. Once in Australia, through a sequence of encounters with some very compassionate and loving people Josiah turned his life around.  Josiah is an out of the box high school teacher who has a massive impact on teenagers. His love and joy for life is infectious and the students he comes in contact with are blessed and inspired by his energy. The education system would be a brighter place if there were more teachers with the energy and compassion of this man. On the advise of some friends and students Josiah began vloging on instagram and in less than a year attracted over 10 000 followers who love his hilarious videos about travel, food and life. Josiah has rebuilt his life on the conscious choice to be grateful everyday. Finding joy in everything and spreading as much love and inspiration as he can. Enjoy this uplifting conversation  

Does your identity match your dream? Is the person you identify as, the person who can lay hold of your dream life?  Can we change our identity?  We explore these questions and more as we go deep into a discussion on the power of our personal identity. 

This episode is all about exploring seven keys to help us overcome overwhelm. Feeling overwhelmed is a very easy state to fall into these days. With so much going on and so many voices seeking our attention its a wonder we don't just explode.  We have compiled a tidy list of seven actionable steps we can all take to decrease or even eradicate overwhelm in our lives.  Build gratitude into our daily thinking Refuel and replenish your mental and physical energy Remove resistance and fear Have goals, purpose and direction Get organised, be prepared Fuel yourself with good nutrition Get regular exercise Join us for this relaxed discussion about these seven keys that can dramatically relieve stress in our lives and keep us from that awful mindset we call overwhelm.  

When we learn to love and accept ourselves in spite of our weaknesses we can unlock greater peace in our lives. By loving and accepting ourselves we lay a strong foundation to love and accept others.  Self loathing gets us nowhere when we are trying to move forward towards our goals. In this episode we discuss how we can switch our focus from self loathing to love and acceptance.  When we build ourselves we can better serve the people who need us.   

In this episode we discuss the power of being. What we are "being" in our heart and mind determines so much more in our life than what we are doing. We can be doing all the right things but if we are not "being" in the energy of our desired outcome we often miss the mark and achieve average results.  To take our lives to the highest level we must be "being" the outcome we desire to manifest. If we want to win we have to feel ourselves winning. If we want to expand and grow we must feel ourselves expanding and growing. Whatever we want to manifest we must take time to practice and focus our hearts and minds on feeling the energy of being what we desire.   

In this episode we discuss the need to make the conscious decision to choose our thoughts. We all fall into the trap of letting our thoughts control our lives. When we become conscious that we don't have to follow the leading of our out of control thoughts, we can begin to direct our lives in the direction we desire to go.  Don't matter the mind, don't let the mind control you. Take control of your mind. Choose what you want to think and be diligent to choose these sorts of thoughts. We can't control our first thought but we can control the second one. We can control our reactions. Just say "no, i'm not thinking that way today". And choose the thoughts you want to have. Its not always easy, but with continued practice the results will come.  We are far more than our thoughts. We are the consciousness that sits above our thoughts. We can control our mind or we can be controlled by it. It's our choice. It takes practice, but it is our natural state to be in control over our mind. 

In this Shane & Nikki episode, we explore the power of having a journey mindset. Fact is, we are all on the journey of life. Yet we can get caught up in being too destination focused. Which can give rise to great dissatisfaction and frustration when we don't have the life conditions we desire. It is easy to fall into the trap of believing "i'll be happy when......." Isn't it much better to be on the journey in happiness? Fueling the journey with happiness.  To create this happiness it is important to celebrate the journey we are on. Celebrate each step of the journey as we move forwards towards our goal. This way when we reach the goal we have guaranteed happiness because we had it all along.  Life is a constant journey, ever changing and evolving. Why not enjoy it and celebrate along the way.   

After attending a house concert with Country Music Artist Chalkie White, we couldn't resist the opportunity to interview Chalkie on the podcast.  Chalkie has an amazing story of overcoming multiple challenges that could have easily sidelined him and let his dreams fade away. In the midst of his battle with cancer, Chalkie found the inspiration to build the self belief necessary to get serious about his music career. Which has now gained some solid momentum with radio and iTunes chart success.  Chalkie tells the story of waiting 27 years as a musician to find the belief necessary to take a chance on his own music.  Life has thrown Chalkie a number of speed bumps. These days Chalkie doesn't see them as reasons to slow down, he accelerates to see how much air time he can get off the back of them. In this inspiring conversation we learn that it is important that we don't let self doubt and fear hold us back from having a shot at our dreams. We certainly should not wait until its almost too late and life has to scare us into action with something as serious as cancer.  Learn more about Chalkie and his music at www.chalkiewhite.net.          

In this, Shane and Nikki episode, we take an in depth look at the difference between "having" something and "wanting" it. The difference between a "having" mindset and a "wanting" mindset is vast. Each produces its own distinct emotions and outcomes.  This week we focus on what it takes to change a "wanting" mindset into a "having" mindset. The having mindset sees the outcome long before it is fully manifest. Allowing us to dwell in peace and confidence.  By developing a "having" mindset we are aligning ourselves with the successful outcome. Not hoping and wishing, but knowing and having. From this mindset we can overcome all of life's challenges and grow into the people we were born to become. You can read our article on this topic HERE. Thank you so much for listening and taking the time to make yourself stronger.   

In this episode we sit down with 15 year old Seagull Milk Sunscreen entrepreneur, Josh Apitz, for a look inside what makes a teenager believe he can start a product business. Josh gives us all a lesson in developing the mindset needed to take us beyond our comfort zones and into the unknown.  During a workshop for teen entrepreneurs, Josh perceives a need for a non toxic, non slip sunscreen. An avid surfer, Josh finds regular sunscreen to be slippery on surfboards and on top of that, toxic to the skin and ocean. Well aware of the harmful effects the sun can have on our skin, (Josh's Father and Grandfather both had skin cancer) Josh set about developing a sunscreen that meets higher standards for human use and ecological sustainability.  Still in its production faze, Seagull Milk is on its way to provide a more conscious choice for sun protection.  Josh talks about overcoming the fear of failure, how he views success and his random Seagull Milk beach conversation with two times world surfing champion John John Florence. To check out Seagull Milk go to www.seagullmilk.com

In 2001 Carol Taylor and her husband Robert were involved in a car accident that severed Carol’s spinal cord leaving her a high level quadriplegic. Today Carol lives on the Gold Coast in Australia with her husband Robert and their 11 year old son. Carol and Robert operate a successful law practice while dealing with the daily obstacles that come with being paralyzed from the neck down. Shane and Nikki sit down with Carol for an in depth conversation about her journey. Carol talks about: How you rebuild a life: “ With the struggles i’ve been through, you don’t get back to your old life. You build another life. My former life is like a book i have read and put back on the shelf in the library. Now i’m writing another book.” Overcoming adversity: “We don’t realize the strength we have until we need it. We are vastly more resilient and powerful than we realize. Adversity gives you the gift of resilience.” “To overcome adversity you have to find a routine. Start small and grow over time, soon you build a new normal.” Building a breakthrough mindset: “A wonderful lady that I knew during the first four years helped me a lot. One of the things she said to me was “ Carol, where do you see yourself in five years time? You are not going to be in this place where you are right now. Your body will never be the same, you will have to adapt but it will get stronger”. “The thing that has gotten the strongest for me since my injury is my mind. Know that if you set your mind to something you can build the mindset you need to achieve it. Focus on where do you want to be in five years time”. Why continue: Someone somewhere needs you to get through this. Someone is waiting for your story to inspire them. If your down, if your broken, build a routine and start living day by day. For a focused look at the wisdom that has led Carol along this journey, read our blog article - Carol Taylor: Overcoming Adversity  See Carols paintings here. On instagram @ carol.taylor.artist Find Carols lawyer practice @ Taylor Law and Conveyancing  www.tlclaw.com.au

International model, fashion designer and entertainment industry mentor Tania Smith sits down with Shane and Nikki for an in depth discussion on the importance of a purpose driven mindset in creating happiness and a successful life. “Don't think maybe you could be...know that you are”. Tania Smith From humble beginnings in 1970”s New Zealand. 7 year old Tania, the youngest of four sisters is sent away to foster care. Where she has no contact with her family until her sisters find her 5 years later. Tania moves back home and continues to have problems fitting in with her mother so she makes a life changing decision. Instead of going to school one day, she goes to the airport and catches a flight to Zurich. Within no time Tania is earning good money as a fashion model. Leaving behind a drama filled childhood and making her mark on the world. To this day Tania exudes the same determined, purpose driven mindset in everything she does. Read our article "5 Takeaways From Our Interview With Tania Smith". How to develop the mindset that causes you to win.

Its review time on episode 20 of The Higher Ground Living Podcast. Where every 10 episodes we take the time to celebrate the previous 9 episodes.  This batch were relationship wisdom heavy. In fact there are 9 keys for building better relationships presented here. In brief here they are: Be Conscious: Truth No.1 from our three truths system for manifesting your best life. Here we ran marriage through the "be conscious" framework and learned to become more aware of our own behaviour in the relationship. We learned to not put all the blame on our partner while making all sorts of mistakes ourselves. We learned to make the choice to "be the change we want to see in the relationship". Remove Resistance: Truth No.2 Drop the resistance you have towards building the relationship you "wish" you had. Often our own resistance beliefs are the real reason why we don't have the relationship we desire. We unconsciously sabotage our relationships by holding onto old habits and beliefs built on past experiences.  Allow Success: Truth No.3 Build the mindset you need to create the relationship you desire. It is up to us to bring success into our lives. Stop blaming other people  , circumstances and situations. Consciously build the beliefs that form the strong positive mindset that create the life and relationships that you want. There are no fairytales: Relationships take work. No one meets their partner, fall in love and live happily ever after in perfect relationship bliss.  Mothers Day Special: 12 Hot tips for parenting teenagers. Excellent wisdom to become the conscious parent that can successfully mentor your teenager through the tough times of adolesence.  Happiness is a choice: Recorded live at a ladies lunch function. The path to happiness is in making the conscious choice to be happy regardless of your circumstances and situations.  Do you have a breakthrough or breakdown mindset?: Tips and tools to build a mindset that breaks through barriers and obstacles. Are your stories holding you back?: We all tell stories to ourselves to justify where we are in life. Change your stories, change your life. Manifest U 2018: Its time to manifest your best self . Your best life. The most authentic version of you, this year in 2018. A great, insightful episode looking back at these episodes. Celebrating where we have come from and now looking forward to the next 9 shows. Blessings and remember, your best is yet to come.

On episode 19 of the Higher Ground Living Podcast we take a fresh look at Manifest U 2018. Manifest U 2018 is our headline and deliberate focus for this year. Where we are focusing our faith on creating our most authentic lives. Creating the lives we believe we are born to live. Taking all our dreams and desires, bringing them to the front of our awareness and making a deliberate decision to go after them. Life presents us with many choices and directions to go. Where do you find yourself today? Are you building a life that represents the true you? Or are you a slave to what life throws you? Are you playing the victim or the victor? Whatever we are, we have chosen to be. Wherever we are we have walked the path to get there. Life is the sum total of the decisions we have made. In this year, 2018, it is time to reset the journey. It’s time to give yourself permission to become your true self. Where you are in life today is where you have given yourself permission to be. Life can happen to you or life can happen for you. Which path will you take? You may feel and believe that life controls you. That your life is beyond your control but that’s just what you have allowed to happen. That’s the total of the decisions you have made so far. You have let the hard times wear you down. You have let the negative situations dictate the direction of your life. You have let fear get control over your faith. It’s time to regain the faith that will create the life you deserve to live. It’s time to give yourself permission to be the real you. Who is the real you? The real you is a powerful creative being that has the capacity to move mountains with faith. The real you is that person you dreamed of being when you were a child. The real you is that person you see when you dream of a better life. When you put down your fear for a moment and just dream. You catch a glimpse of a version of yourself that has happiness and strength. Doing and creating a life of significance for yourself and those around you. One way or the other we are all manifesting a life. We are all responsible for the decisions we are choosing to make. Yes it’s complicated, yes it’s hard and yes life can throw us some really tough situations but reality is, the choices we make are our own. Those choices are giving us the life we have today. Where is your faith? “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen”. Faith creates, faith manifests. Wherever we direct our faith we create. So, where is your faith? Is your faith focused on building the life you dream of? Is it creating happiness, love, joy and peace? Or is you faith filled with fear? Are you focused on the false evidence that appears real and worrying about tomorrow? Has your life become a struggle, filled with uncertainty and frustration? Faith creates and faith manifests. Where is your faith today? Where is it right now? Here in this moment? Look at yourself and ask, what am I manifesting this year? Is it the same old frustrated life that you have always had or is it a life full of faith and possibility? Is it that life that jumps hurdles like world champion hurdler Sally Pearson? Do you glide over each hurdle with practiced precision or do you crash awkwardly into each hurdle hurting and damaging yourself until you walk away from the race altogether, hiding yourself away waiting for someone to rescue you? Wherever you find yourself at this moment, it is time to change. It is time to get up, get back in the race and continue to build the life you were born to have. It is time to stop waiting for someone else to give you permission to thrive and take it for yourself. The only real permission available is the permission you give yourself. It’s time to build the mindset you need to succeed. Step by step, inch by inch, build a powerful breakthrough mindset that will manifest the life you desire. You can start right now, this is your year. This is the year it all began to change because you made the decision to change. You began to create a new mindset, a breakthrough mindset. A strong, healthy, faith filled mindset. Manifest U 2018. What could you achieve if you really believed in yourself? See you at Higher Ground Living.  

Are the stories you tell yourself holding you back from making change and progress in your life? What stories are you telling yourself to justify your negative thinking and behaviour? We all have stories we hold onto about why we can't change. We often hold onto stories about our past so we can justify our victim status and have an excuse for our weakness and failures.  We tell ourselves stories about why we can't find success in areas like: Finances Health and Weight Loss Career and Business Relationships In this Podcast we explore what these stories are and where they come from. Why they hold us back and how we can change the direction of our lives by changing the stories.  Higher Ground Quotes: *Our problems are designed to shoot us forward, not hold us back.  *When we step out of our comfort bubble problems arise to see if we are ready. *The mindset we use to start an endeavour is not the mindset we need to succeed in the endeavour. Our mindset has to evolve and grow.  *If your not making mistakes your not trying hard enough. *If your not living on the edge your taking up too much space.

When confronted with a serious issue, do you breakthrough or breakdown? Wouldn't it be great to have the mindset that breaks through every obstacle? The mindset that has the strength to stand up to any situation and find a way through.  We all have areas in our life where our ability to breakthrough is strong and we all have those couple of areas where we tend to breakdown and shy away, or flat-out run away from the challenge.  Why do we have these breakdown areas? It all comes back to our beliefs. Our beliefs about who we are and how we operate in the world. We all have many positive beliefs and we all have many limiting beliefs. It is the limiting beliefs that cause the breakdowns. When we are confronted with a situation that presses on these limiting beliefs, we act according to what our beliefs say about our ability to respond is.  When we have a limiting belief about our ability to respond to the situation, we get vulnerable and scared and usually look for ways out of the situation. Often we turn and run the other way back to our comfort zone where we feel safe. Which results in the breakdown mindset. Causing us to fail in moving forward in that area of our lives.  So how do we strengthen these weak points? What follows is an overview of the Breakthrough Mindset System from Higher Ground Living.blog. This is a system designed to take us through what is called the Three Truths, which build our breakthrough mindset. The Three Truths are: Be Conscious: Through conscious thought and daily analysis of our beliefs and actions. We become aware of what we believe about ourselves and the world. Because our beliefs are mostly sub conscious we are not very aware of what we really believe in certain areas of our life. What we find is that in areas of our life where we have good success and satisfaction, there are strong healthy beliefs about our ability to achieve this status. However, in areas of our life where we breakdown and struggle we have limiting beliefs that cause us to make poor decisions and not commit to the challenge.  Becoming consciously aware of these beliefs is step one in building a new strong breakthrough mindset.  Remove Resistance: These limiting beliefs are providing resistance to our desires. Where we have a limiting belief about our ability to achieve, or our worthiness to achieve a goal, we always create personal resistance to winning. We sabotage our success in this area because we make poor choices that ultimately lead us to failure.  If we can remove this resistance then we will have a much better chance of creating the success we desire. Resistance is found in those areas of your life where we try again and again to breakthrough to a new level but "something" holds us back. That "something" is our resistance created by our limiting beliefs. When we become consciously aware of our beliefs in this area and make the decision to remove the resistance that belief creates, we can move forward with fewer obstacles to find the success we desire. Allow Success: With a clearer pathway due to being aware of and removing our resistance to our success, we can now allow ourselves to create the success we desire. By consciously building the mindset necessary to achieve our goal. When we are free from resistance we can choose how we want to operate, rather than being operated by our limiting beliefs.  From here we build the new beliefs necessary to create the life we desire.  This is never a one time deal. As life continues we all need to grow our beliefs about who we are and what we can achieve as life expands and grows. I like this hurdling analogy. Just because someones gets good at jumping the hurdles in athletics, it doesn't mean the hurdles get taken away. The hurdles are always there, the hurdler gets more skilled at gliding over the hurdles. We must become the same. Rather than praying for all the hurdles to be taken away. Lets pray for the ability to become more skill full at jumping the hurdles.  Reality is, that's life. If we wait for all the hurdles to disappear we will be waiting in vain. The hurdles of life are not going anywhere. The good news is, we can get better at jumping them. By building a "breakthrough mindset" where we have had a "breakdown mindset".

This episode is a live recording of an event we did for a ladies lunch on the Gold Coast in Australia. As always we speak about the power of mindset and belief. How mindset and belief drive the quality of our lives. How mindset and belief are ultimately choices we are making in the present or have made in the past.  Building happy, successful lives comes down to how we choose to think. It’s not always easy to overcome negative thinking because we are dealing with some very old, well established beliefs we have held onto since childhood. When these beliefs are triggered to become active in our thinking processes,  we can manifest some real negative energy and make some decisions we shouldn’t. At Higher Ground Living we teach a Breakthrough Mindset System which contains Three Truths to achieve a breakthrough mindset. The Three Truths are : Be Conscious Remove Resistance Allow success In this episode we explain the theory behind these truths in front of a live audience. As usual we check in with Manifest U at the beginning of the episode. To remind everyone to be pushing forward towards creating your best selves and best lives this year in 2018. Enjoy, Shane and Nikki

Melissa Taylor (Shane's wife) joins Nikki and Shane in a super fun discussion on how we have navigated our way through parenting our teenage girls.  We get right into topics such as: Building a network of like minded parents Encouraging your teens passions Being prepared to listen to them without judgement Finding good mentors Fostering a welcoming environment for them and their friends Guiding them through negative influences Learning about your teens beliefs Always be building the relationship Celebrating their wins Growing up with them: as they grow we need to grow Don't hide your weaknesses from them.  Be conscious and present Such a fun episode. With great content. Hope you really enjoy this one and get some helpful insight into parenting your teen successfully.

In this episode we take a close look at the fact that the idea of meeting your partner, falling in love and living happily ever after in blissful harmony, is just impossible. A good marriage takes a lot of work. A good marriage is a journey through many tests and trials.  A good marriage has some scars and thats what makes it good. Its in overcoming and breaking through obstacles that we build the good things in life.  While its good to have a list of what you want in your potential partner, its wise to realise that not everything will go to plan. Marriage is an ever changing and evolving journey through life. 

In part three of "Your Million Dollar Marriage", we break down what it takes to consciously "allow success into your marriage". The key being that once you have exposed your resistance, (limiting beliefs, see EP 12) you can now allow the success you truly desire to flow down the clear pathway into your life.  We all have areas of our lives where we have beliefs that hold us back. By becoming conscious of them, we can make better decisions around them and consciously create new power beliefs that take our lives in the direction we want to go. We also discuss the need to have a vision and plan for your marriage. Which is a way to invest into your relationship, allowing you to grow together creating the life you desire.

With anything we work at in our lives, we create resistance to success due to limiting beliefs we have around particular issues in our lives. Our marriages are no exception. In part 2 of the "Your Million Dollar Marriage Series", Shane and Nikki go deeper into what makes marriages work and what makes marriages fail.  We look into how we can expose the obstacles that are providing the most resistance to our success. As we learned from part 1 in this series. Getting consciously aware of the "real" issues in your marriage can make a huge difference to the quality of your relationship. Are you hitting the same obstacles over and over? Are you wanting more from your relationship but you just cant seem to breakthrough? Are you wanting your partner to change to satisfy your needs? Shane and Nikki cover all these topics in this great episode of The Higher Ground Living Podcast.  

Your Million Dollar Marriage Part 1   In Australia we have a saying that if you look really good someone might say “Wow you look a million dollars”. Imagine your marriage could elicit the same response from people in your world. We all know that a million dollar marriage doesn’t just happen. Certain people aren't just more blessed than others. It takes work and perseverance. In fact it takes all the personal and spiritual skills we can acquire along the way. A million dollar marriage is a journey not a destination. The quality of your marriage is a gift to the world. Especially to your children and others around you. By striving to create and maintain a strong loving marriage we are sending positive inspiration out to anyone observing our lives. What better gift to give your children than setting an example of what marriage should look like? As the saying goes “happy wife happy life”. How about we create a new one, “ happy husband life is abundant”. Thought i’d compose that one to cover both sides of the marriage equation. So how do we get on the journey to a Million Dollar Marriage? Step one, is to become conscious of what is going on in your marriage. With the dominant focus on what “you” are doing in the marriage. A trap we all fall into is trying and hoping to get our partners to change. How many know that is a recipe for disaster? The key to change, lies within ourselves. The changes must first be made in us. There is no point spending all that energy trying to get your partner to change when you are still producing negative behaviour. “But my behaviour is fine”. Oh please, the only reason we believe our behaviour is fine is because that's our belief. Our beliefs are not always right and beneficial. That is why we need to get conscious of our beliefs and behaviour so we know what and where to change. Once we make the effort to sort ourselves out we will find that a lot of problems within the marriage will begin to change too. The plan is to inspire your partner by doing the work on yourself first. The same thing goes for inspiring teens and children to do better. We all know that telling teenagers what to do is not the best course of action. Try inspiring them to change and make better choices. It's not always going to work but it is way better than fighting over the issue. Getting more consciously aware is step one in the Higher Ground Living: Three Truths To Manifesting Your Best Life. How can we expect to make the changes in our lives if we don’t know what we are doing wrong? Going back to what we are saying above, the path has to begin within you. Not in blaming the external circumstances around us in our relationships, community or country. Your mindset is where your life is at. The quality of your marriage is in direct proportion to what is going on in your beliefs about who you are and what the world around you is. It is your mindset that is driving your happiness and success. If you are struggling to find success in your marriage and any other area of your life. It is time to get consciously aware of what you are doing to create these problems. It takes humility and vulnerability to do this but it will be so worth it when your life begins to blossom. Here is what you need to do: Start watching your thoughts. What are you thinking about when conflict arises? Why are you thinking this way? Is it beneficial to your goals to think this way? Are you thinking this way because this is how you always think in this situation? Are you right or just needing to be right? Could you develop a different perspective? One that creates a better outcome? If you could react in a different way, what would that look like? Write your answers down. If you just keep it in your head you will create an uncataloged confusion as the answers swirl around in your mind. Getting it down on paper captures the thoughts outside your head so you can see them for what they are. You have a better chance of finding truth and solutions if you capture the thoughts and beliefs on paper. This is step one. Becoming consciously aware of what is happening. What you really believe and where the pain points are. In part two we will explore step two “Removing Resistance”. That is all about removing the resistance that we are exposing by becoming conscious of our own behaviour. In Part three we will explore “Allowing Success”, which is what happens when we have removed the resistance beliefs and behaviours we have that are holding us back. So go and hunt those negative thoughts and beliefs down, get them on paper and we will deal with those in part two. See you then.  

Its episode 10 of the Higher Ground Living Podcast and we have decided to do a review of the past 9 episodes. Everything we have covered so far in our short history has been about becoming aware of keys that build authenticity into our lives. Becoming conscious of all aspects of our behaviour is a central theme at Higher Ground Living. Being more aware of our affirming and limiting beliefs sets us up for a more prosperous journey as we can now choose to overcome where we need to and maintain where we need to. It is near impossible to overcome limiting behaviour that we are not aware of. We continue to react in the same limiting ways to the same issues in our lives which produces the same outcomes. Resulting in our own personal groundhog day of mediocrity. So please enjoy the following overview of the Higher Ground Living Podcast’s first nine episodes. EP 1. Fuel your journey to success with happiness. In this episode we analyse the quote “There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.” When looking at this quote and holding it up to our own lives we can see that there are no “happiness” destinations. There is no magical place in life that you reach or attain that will remove all negativity and problems so you can live happily ever after. If we are expecting to only find happiness when we reach some future destination such as a dream job, house or relationship. Then we will be sadly disappointed when we get there and find we have a whole new set of issues to deal with and therefore while excited with our new place in life, many of the same problems we always had and some new ones will meet us there too. Therefore “Happiness is the way”. Fuel your journey with happiness. Forget about reaching destinations. Focus on a life long journey which you can be excited about. Which will bring you happiness as you travel. Set goals with an associated journey. Be aware that happiness is a choice even in the face of great challenges. We can choose happiness over sadness as our default setting each day. Therefore no matter what happens on our journey we are having a successful life along the way. EP 2. What are we taking for granted? (Where is our focus?) Are we more focused on the negative issues in our lives and taking the great things for granted? We all have problems. Problems come and go, it's part of life. The saddest and most limiting thing we can do is get so caught up in the problems that we neglect feeling good over the great things in our lives. This is where we need “Gratitude”. Gratitude for the good things, for the successes we have achieved. Many of us are so miserable about the problems that we have chosen to let them control our whole lives. Even while great and wonderful things are happening all around us. Remember, where focus goes energy flows. Ever wonder why the same problems keep happening to you all the time? Well, check where your focus is. Are you spending most of your focus on the problems? Therefore your energy goes forth and attracts more of the same. Creating a cycle of pain and suffering all of our own making. So spend time to become consciously aware of the good things in your life. Spend time focusing on those good things and limit unnecessary focus on the problems. Many problems have a way of working themselves out. Stressing over them usually doesn't solve anything. EP 3. The Resistance - Are you resisting the success you desire? So often we are reaching out for a desire with one hand and pushing it away with the other. We call this, resistance. When we become more conscious of the way we think and operate we can begin to see where we are sabotaging our success in life. We all have subconscious beliefs that are like computer programs that determine 95% of our daily action. Sounds excessive doesn’t it? When we have a real think about it, we can see how most of our reactions and decisions are our usual reactions and decisions. Pre programed somewhere deep in our brain. These are the habitual behaviour that we have stored over the course of our lives so far. Especially in the first 7-9 years of childhood. As each new opportunity flows through our senses into our brains, it is held up against our pre designated beliefs to determine how we will react. More often than not the usual response is the one that comes out. Therefore once again we continue to create the same life we have over and over. This is where we find ourselves reaching out for something with one level of thought and then pushing it away with the subconscious beliefs we have. Becoming frustrated and dissatisfied because the life we want seams so far away. When we become conscious of the resistance beliefs we have, we can expose them and begin to change them by forming new habits. Through conscious thought and positive decisions. Once again it is impossible to change something we don’t know we are doing. EP 4. The 80:20 Rule: Break through fear and negative thoughts In this episode we apply the 80:20 rule to the success we are trying to achieve in our lives. We learn that success in any endeavor is 80% mindset and 20% action. At first this seems a little heavy on the mindset end but a closer look reveals that it's right. How many things have we tried to achieve but failed because we couldn't get it right. Was it the fault of not enough action or was it more to do with how we were thinking about the situation? Our mindset is so important as it is the driving force behind any success. We can all learn how to do things if we believe we can but it takes that belief to push through. Mindset is what keeps us going or makes us quit. In sports psychology it is often the elite athlete with the superior mindset that wins. All players have incredible skill but the stand out champions are always the ones with superior mental ability to handle pressure in big moments. We can develop the same prowess if we spend time developing and strengthening our mindset each day. Strengthen your mindset and you will see greater breakthroughs in your job, business and relationships. EP 5 Finding Peace In The Storm: Develop a new perspective on your problems Like Jesus asleep in the boat as the disciples are frantically trying to survive the storm which has come up on the sea of Galilee. We can develop the ability to remain peaceful even in the midst of great problems. How? By changing our perspective on the situation. Once again we are developing a conscious awareness of the problem and our reactions. Seeing the problem from a perspective that causes you to react from a position of strength will allow you to remain in peace. However, going into our usual programed frantic response will only cause trouble and stress. Perceiving problems as opportunities for growth is a great mindset to have. Solve the problem, grow your ability and you will find that problem won't be back for a long time. On the other hand, run and hide, let the problem push you backwards and you will find that same problem waiting for you in the near future. Problems are only stressful if we let them be. Seeing problems as opportunities to grow will propel you quickly towards your goals. Also sometimes we just blow problems out of proportion with our habitual stress response and fear. Many times a level headed assessment of the situation reveals that the storm was not very dangerous to begin with. If we learn to stand up and say “Peace, be still” many of our storms will die down quickly when not fueled by our fear and panic response. EP 6. Are You A Storm Chaser? Get free from victim mentality Do you attract problems over and over? Is your life always filled with drama after drama? If so, you are a storm chaser. We are not victims, cursed and under attack from external forces. Most of our issues come from within. It's our own storm chasing expectations that attract constant turmoil in our lives. “This always happens to me” is the mantra of the storm chaser. It is coming from your core beliefs about who you are and how you fit into the world. These need to be exposed through conscious assessment of your reactions to problems. The more we react negatively the more we will attract the same problems. It's just how life works. We must develop new responses to habitual problems. Root out our habitual negative fear based reactions and begin to react in faith and confidence. It's a matter of developing a new mindset. Develop your new mindset by surrounding yourself with uplifting positive wisdom through podcasts, books, good movies and good people. Do this and you will begin to see a drop in the amount and strength of the storms in your life. EP 7. How To Deal With Responsibility The word responsibility can be broken into two parts Response and Ability. Therefore a great way to look at responsibility is to see it as your ability to respond. How is your ability to respond to tough situations? Do you respond well to the storms of life? Or Do you crumble and fall apart? Many of the tough issues we face in life come as a result of our responsibilities. Like family, marriage, work, health etc. We often struggle to keep up with all the demands being made of us therefore our ability to respond to our responsibilities can be weak. How do we strengthen our response-ability? Once again it comes down to being more conscious of our reactions, thoughts and actions. It is important to be aware of how we are operating. Is it with the same old programed responses we always use? Or are we adapting to the situation with fresh wisdom?  When we become aware of our responses we can see what works and what makes things worse. We can see where we are resisting success with limiting beliefs. Where needed we can then find out what we need to learn and give new plans a go. Most often our frustration and unhappiness comes from using the same failing responses to the same problems that keep coming around. Hence why we keep running into the same problems over and over. EP 8. Why do I attract the same crap all the time? The Reticular Activating System Part 1 Did you know that we all have our very own human search engine? It is a function of the brain called the Reticular Activating System. This amazing system acts as a filter for all of the sensory data that flows into the brain via the five senses. As you can imagine, if all the data we are exposed to in a given moment was to be acted upon we would be overwhelmed. The brain has to decide what is important to you and filter out what is not. The RAS does this job.  It filters the random information flowing through your senses by knowing what's important to you due to what you are emotionally attached to and what data comes from your core beliefs. For example, we believe that we are capable and worthy of doing and having a certain job. The RAS causes us to notice opportunities. When we are seriously considering a new car to buy, we will begin to see that car everywhere. When previous we didn’t notice them much. Whatever we set our minds to we can attract it to us through the RAS. However, there is a catch. The RAS does not discern between right and wrong and do and don't. It searches your core beliefs for this. Therefore, we can find ourselves thinking we want something with our conscious mind but subconsciously our core belief is we don't deserve it. Have you ever experienced this? You say you want to live in a luxurious house and raise the the level of your income but deep down you don't feel like you deserve it. You say you want it when your inspired but you also have the thought “who am I to have such success?” It's all part of the resistance beliefs that we talked about earlier. Maybe you want a great intimate relationship but your other thoughts are “but who would love me?” This is the problem. We need to get these two parts of the brain working together then we will be unstoppable. EP 9. Manifest The Life You Want. The Reticular Activating System Part 2 So how do we use this search engine to give us the life we want? It comes down to our thinking. Where focus goes energy flows and so does the RAS. We must get consciously aware of what we truly want in life and get focused upon it using techniques like visualization, meditation, prayer, learning, hanging around people who have what we want etc. we need to program ourselves, renew our minds to what we want to achieve and have faith that the RAS will be on the lookout for opportunities. It's not enough to lazily wish for what you want. We have to get emotionally involved in the desire. The RAS works best when fueled with emotion. Hence why negativity is so easy to find. It's so easy to get annoyed and angry at what we don't want. Therefore we attract more of what we don't want all the time. We must do the same with positive happy emotion towards the good life we desire. Then the RAS will take the desire seriously and find opportunity.   So there it is. An overview of The Higher Ground Living Podcasts first nine episodes. It's been a super fun ride and we can't wait for the next nine.

Don’t you wish you had the life of your dreams? Why do you have the life you have? And why is is it so hard to manifest better things? A lot of it comes down to your Reticular Activating System. This tiny part of the brain that filters all the stimuli entering through your five senses and decides, based upon your core beliefs and dominant emotional thinking, what information is to go through to your brain. For a deeper analysis of the Reticular Activating System see our previous podcast Ep 8 “Why do I attract the same crap all the time?” In part one of this topic we discussed how the Reticular Activating System helps to keep our life in homeostasis. Being that general level of comfort that we are used to. Our comfort zone, even when its not very comfortable is the state that we have grown used to and therefore the brain works at keeping us in that state. After defining what the RAS is we asked the question “How do we raise the level of our homeostasis?” Or, how do we manifest the life we want? Consciously designing the life we want, rather than just accepting what we are given. In our Podcast on this topic we looked at these 7 keys: In no order of importance, they are all essential keys.   Ask yourself the right questions: Stop asking questions with negative emotion. Such as “Why does this always happen to me?” The RAS feeds off the emotion attached to the question therefore it reacts to “always happen” and focuses on finding more of the same situation so it “always happens” to you. The better question to ask in the same situation is “How can I overcome these challenges?” With positive emotion, adding an expectation that a solution is close by. See the difference? With these small changes the RAS will be activated in a different direction looking for answers rather than more of the same. Don’t react negative all the time: If it's your habit to spontaneously react negative in certain situations, begin to stop yourself. It’s not easy to cut off negative reaction habits but when you become consciously aware that your doing it, you will be able to identify when you fall into it. It takes time but we can gradually change the way we react by simply realizing we are doing it. That is a huge manifesting principle. We do so many things that are just subconscious habits and we don't realize what we are doing. By becoming aware of your negative reactions to specific situations you can activate the RAS by asking the right questions or just choosing to let the situation go. This way we aren’t activating the RAS with more of the same negative emotion which sets it off looking for more opportunity for that negative emotion. Find the positive in everything: Every situation has a negative and positive angle. It’s up to us to choose which side we are on. While a situation may at first seem disastrous, often with a little time we can see the benefit that was hiding behind it. We all have these situations in our lives. Why not develop a mindset that sees the bigger picture. A mindset that chooses not to freak out but wait patiently for the positive side to reveal it self. This will have a dramatic effect on the RAS, manifesting a totally different view of the world. Practice gratitude: Being grateful equals happiness. Spend small amounts of time everyday choosing to think with gratitude. Gratitude for all the good things in your life and gratitude for all the challenging things in your life. The challenging things in your life are the things that are really teaching you something. We learn much more from problems and challenges than we do from comfort and winning. By practicing gratitude we can totally change the state of our mindset. We can go from negative to positive very quickly. Which is a great way to activate the RAS in the direction you want to go. Be grateful in advance for the things you are dreaming of. Be grateful in advance for the life you desire as if you already have it. This produces positive emotion in that direction, which stimulates the RAS to be on the lookout for that life and make it happen. Get clear and precise about what you want: If you can't see it, you can't do it. What is it that you want? Most people are very unclear about what they want therefore they end up with whatever comes along. Get focused on what it is you want to achieve in your life. Have the pictures in your mind as a billboard for the RAS to work off. Don't be wishy washy about your dream life. Most people are like that, when asked what they want they reply “ I just want more”. More of what? “I don’t know, just something different”. Can you see how directionless that is? Can you see how the RAS would respond to that? It’s got nothing to respond to, so it will stick to the same old path. But a clear precise picture of what you desire coupled with positive emotions will activate the RAS to seek out ways to bring it into your life. It takes time but it can happen if we persist. Visualise your desire: Once your clear about what you want, practice visualising it daily. Tell your RAS ”This is where we are going, find the solutions now”. Take control of your direction. Get excited about where you’re going. Don’t get miserable about what you don’t have. Get excited about what you will have. Follow the direction that the RAS creates and soon you will be living that dream life you desire. Remove resistance: This is very important. As we begin to implement these keys we will encounter resistance. Like Neo in the Matrix had to fight Mr Smith and Mr Brown, we will have to fight many negative habits. This old habitual thinking will not want to disappear. They will rise up again and again. Just remember, every time you get knocked down, get up again. If you keep getting up time after time you will eventually break through. We are creating new habits with these keys and it takes time and persistence. It's a lifestyle not a quick fix. The only way to truly change the direction of your life is to make change your lifestyle. We need to prove to the RAS that we are serious about these changes. That we are manifesting this new life no matter what.   Implementing these keys will cause the homeostasis level of your life to rise to new places. If we remain consistent in our development of new reactions and thinking, we will establish a new base line for where our life sits. Good luck and go for it. Be the person who shows everyone else how its done.

Why do I attract the same crap all the time?   When it comes to changing the direction of your life it is important to understand that our brain has its own search engine. It is a part of the brain called the Reticular Activating System. It is located at the base of the brain at the top of the spinal column. Ever wonder why when we decide on a new car to buy we start seeing them everywhere, when just yesterday we didn’t notice any? That’s the RAS in action. Ever wonder why you keep attracting the same problems over and over? That’s the RAS in action too. This amazing piece of human equipment filters all of the data that flows in through the five senses. The reticular activating system processes this barrage of info moment by moment and decides which information is most important to go through to our perception. How does it decide which information is important or not? The RAS decides what’s important by reading what’s important to us. It works off our core beliefs and dominant thoughts to seek out stimuli to match what we are most focused on. The RAS does not discern between good and bad , right or wrong. It only works off our core beliefs. Whatever our core beliefs are saying about a situation the RAS will comply. Therefore if you want to score hard drugs then The RAS will start looking for opportunity to find them. If we are looking for someone to cheat on our partners with, then it will be on the lookout to find someone. However it will only follow through if our core beliefs say its ok to do these things. On the surface we may consciously think we want these things but if deep down we truly believe its wrong then the RAS will not take it too seriously. Another great example is we think about making lots of money but our core beliefs are that we don’t deserve it. Therefore, for all our wishing we get nothing. On the positive side if we are focused on job or business opportunities and our belief is that we are worthy of something great then the search is on. However we may be wanting a good opportunity but we may also have a core belief that we don’t deserve it or are not good enough for good things then the RAS will act accordingly and only notice average opportunities. So when we set intention towards something the RAS reads that intention and contacts the subconscious beliefs department to decide what’s truly important about this intention. Then with that conscious and subconscious information it goes about finding or attracting what it believes you really want. Therefore where focus goes energy flows. Take a look at your life. Can you find situations when you desired a certain thing or outcome and it came true? And can you find a situation where you keep attracting the same trouble over and over? Take note of these situations we will need them later when we take control of this system. Another powerful system of the mind is Homeostasis. Ever notice how your life generally hovers around the same level? Maybe you go up sometimes and maybe you go down sometimes but you always seem to float back to the same sort of life. That’s the RAS working to keep your life in Homeostasis. Keeping you safe in the box you have created for yourself. So there it is. Your very own search engine giving you exactly what you want based on your true beliefs. So what do we do if we need to change what we are attracting? Good question and that is exactly what we explore in part 2. See you there…..

How to deal with responsibility   Do you get overwhelmed with responsibilities?   When your trying to get something new done, trying to create a better life or just trying to rest. Do you get frustrated and overwhelmed with all the “responsibilities” in your life?   I know I do. The endless demands of parenthood, marriage and work sometimes take every moment of everyday and there is just nothing left for you. Your trying to learn new things to manifest a better lifestyle but the responsibilities of your existing life crush all your dreams. Therefore you end up getting frustrated thinking “how am I going to manifest a better life if all I ever have time for is this existing life?”.   As frustrating as this can be, reality is that these responsibilities are not going away anytime soon so we are going to have to learn to deal with it and still manifest our dreams.   A great place to start is to look at the work responsibility in a new way.   Break the word down: Response-Ability: Our Ability to Respond.   The key to getting over the frustration of responsibilities is to grow in our ability to respond. Realise that your ability to respond in all situations can grow. There is no point getting stuck in frustration. That does not get us closer to our goals. We must look at ways we can respond better. In our family life, marriage and work we can really move forward if we take time to grow our abilities.   Growing your ability to respond just takes some conscious effort to seek out teaching and mentorship on the areas you are struggling with. Just ask doctor Google and you’ll be on your way. Better still, listen to the Higher Ground Living Podcast for great content to help you grow.   Look, it's easy to say “just get over it and make the changes” but I know it's not so simple to break free of the frustrated, defeated mindset. One way that has helped me greatly came from a friend I was talking to about some long term issues that I was having. He gave me this great piece of wisdom.   Think back to the times when these issues were creating trouble in your life. How did it feel then? My response was “it felt like i would never get past it. That it was impossible.” To which he said “Well look where you are today, you're still here. From this vantage point how hard does that problem look now?” My response “well, not so bad”.   Yes it was hard and yes i'm tired of the same issues coming up but reality is I'm still here. I made it through. Life moved on and good things happened. We make these giant mountains out of situations that really just need a better response from us. Remember, the problem is not the problem. We are the problem. Our ability to respond is the problem.   This is where we need to break down another word to expand our thinking.   Impossible = I’m-Possible   We need this mindset that “I am possible”. When things look bad and it's time to respond. Believe that “i’m possible” That yes I can do this. I've been through tough things before and I'm still here. I'll get through this too and soon i'll be looking back thinking “I remember that, it wasn't so bad”.   It's all in our perspective and ability to respond. We need to let go of our frustrations and limitations and believe in our abilities. If we don't have great abilities in certain areas then ask for help. Seek help from people who do know. Don’t suffer in your own little self imposed prison.   Remember Newton's Third Law of Physics   “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”.   Imagine if we could use that in our troubled times. Knowing that for every problem there is a solution waiting to be found. Imagine we could take time when confronted with a problem and seek the solution rather than freak out.   Thats real Response-Ability. Knowing that no matter what the problem is there is a solution and i’m going to find it. I’m not going to give into frustration and the desire to run away. I’m going to face this and let the solution come to me.   The great thing is that each time we confront our problems head on with confidence, then we grow stronger in our ability to respond in the future.

Topic: Are You a Storm Chaser   What is a “storm chaser”?   A storm chaser is someone who manifests problem after problem, drama after drama in their life. A constant victim who feels attacked from all sides.   We all have a little storm chaser in us. We all go through periods of time when nothing seems to go right and the world is against us. In this episode of the Higher Ground Living Podcast Shane and Nikki look into what the cause of this phenomenon could be.   Could we be creating these constant problems with the quality of our thinking? Look at sports psychology, when a team is winning games they can easily go on a roll winning multiple games because their belief is high and they are expecting to win. Professional teams spend millions of dollars in programs to get their players thinking like winners.   On the other hand, teams that are on a losing streak can find it very hard to get that winning feeling back. Which keeps them in the expectation that they are going to lose.   The same applies for our everyday lives, our business and relationships. It's interesting that most of us fail to see the connection between our thinking and the drama in our lives.   Internal Drama = External Drama   Real storm chasers are those people who are in constant drama. They seem to attract trouble at every turn. They can’t live without problems. They are unaware that they are creating the issues with their expectation for drama and most often they believe they are victims.   When you believe you are a victim then your going to to be victimized. There is going to be trouble all the time to justify the belief that you are a victim. The quickest way to break out of the cycle of storm chasing is to alter your belief. Make the shift from victim to responsibility. Take responsibility that your negative thinking is manifesting the constant flow of problems. That the drama is flowing from your expectation for drama.   In the episode Shane tells this story:   A few months ago I had a prolonged period of high frustration that really got me down. While I was aware that I was not a victim of outside forces I was super frustrated at myself for not being able to manifest the life I desired. I was busy working seven days a week in my service business, plus doing live gigs on weekend nights. Working like crazy and trying to find time to start this Podcast with Nikki.   I kept trying to schedule times to record but had to constantly cancel due to things coming up and getting in the way. This led to massive frustration as all the things I didn’t want to be doing were manifesting and the good things I wanted to do, I could not get started. So I grew more and more depressed and defeated.   Until one day I was working listening to Podcasts, as I always do. When I heard this: often the cause of great frustration in your life is that your swimming against the flow of where life is trying to take you!   In that moment I realized the mistake I was making. I was pushing too hard, trying too hard to grind out my own path when I needed to use the momentum that my life already had to propel me towards my goal. I needed to get into the flow of my life, stop resisting and fighting and allow life to take me on the journey. In that moment I let go of all my frustration and anger and surrendered myself to the faith that life is taking me to where I need to be.   I instantly felt great and fresh again. Within weeks we were podcasting weekly and everything has been falling into place ever since.   What I learnt from this situation was that we are creating peace, turmoil, success and failure with the quality of our thinking. If you feel like storms are constantly coming your way. Take some time to audit your thinking. Are you expecting the worst? Are you feeling like a victim? That the world hates you? That your cursed?   It’s not true. If you can start to develop brighter, more positive beliefs about yourself you will see your life start to turn around. Expect good things, start to believe that good things are going to happen. Stop saying frases like “ this always happens to me” and “nothing ever works out right for me”. Instead say “ My life is flowing towards good things”. “ My dreams are coming true”. Even if you don’t really believe it based on your life experience just say it anyway. Because the more you can program that new focus into your beliefs about yourself the more you will start to see good things happening for you.   So stop swimming against the current. Stop fighting against your life. Choose to believe that life, God and the universe have your back. The truth is they do. They are working for you not against you. Get into that flow and watch the magic happen.  

Topic: Finding Peace In The Storm Is it possible to have peace of mind within a personal storm? In case you haven't heard of the metaphor, storm = problem. We believe it is not only possible to have peace in your storm but its beneficial towards finding solutions. It is also beneficial in moving your life forward towards your goals. For if we can't stay calm in the storms we experience now, how will we endure the storms to come as we grow in stature towards our dreams. If our dream is anything of significance, there will be storms. Bigger and bigger storms as we grow. We do not need to be afraid of this fact. In order to reach our goals we need to develop the ability to remain calm and focused through the storms that come. As an example, in this weeks podcast we discuss the types of storms that a person like Sir Richard Branson must endure. We laugh how the sort of storm that barely ruffles his curtains would annihilate our whole house. Reason being that he has so much experience dealing with the storms that surround his huge business organisation. All that experience can't be gained except for going through the storms and learning from the mistakes and successes. Therefore for us to develop our best selves we need to stop being scared and crippled by the storms of life and start developing practices that manifest peace and wisdom to diffuse the storm and learn from it. If we continue to be rattled by the same problems in our lives then we will just stay the same and never get to our dream life. Its fear that holds us back. When these storms rise up in our lives we often react in the same way we have always reacted. Its a habit, and often we are unconscious of it. We turn and run, later we wonder why we still have the same problems we have always had. Why things don't seam to change for us. Perspective One way to look at changing your reaction to storms is changing your perspective. How are you seeing the problem? From your fear or faith? In the bible we see Jesus asleep in a boat with the disciples, when a vicious storm rises up. Jesus remains relaxed and asleep while the disciples panic believing they are going to die. They wake Jesus up and cry to him "don't you care that we are going to die?" To which Jesus rises and calms the storm with the wave of his hand. Then asks the disciples " Where is your faith?" This is a great demonstration of the difference between fear and faith. Fear and faith are both different perspectives on the same situation. Two opportunities rising from the one problem. In order to know where our perspective is on a given situation we need to take a pause to contemplate what is really going on. If we want to get stronger and overcome more obstacles we must learn to perceive our own perspective on the problem. Its hard to grow if we don't know we have a problem. I believe we are often bumbling through life unaware that we are being pushed back and forth by storms. Unconsciously being kept safe in the little lives we have created for ourselves. Yet we desire so much more. Another way to see life is like a video game with levels to be achieved. When we are feeling frustrated and bored by our current circumstances its like being stuck on a level not knowing that you can jump to the next one. But first you have to overcome some issues and pass some challenges. In order to become the person who can inhabit the next level. The Take Away When a storm rises in your life, pause yourself in the storm and evaluate the situation. Don't freak out just because you always do. Evaluate and get a plan of attack. Sometimes, just pausing to choose peace instead of panic is enough to take a lot of power off the storm. Think of all the storms you have endured in your life and realise you are still here. You persevered and overcame them. It might not have been pretty but you made it. And I bet you learned something along the way. Imagine what you could achieve if you left fear out of it and moved with peace and faith that everything is going to be alright. Even if you don't know how just yet. Have faith that the solutions will show up. Be peaceful even if you don't know what to do…yet. It takes practice, don't expect all your stress responses to go away over night. It will take a constant effort of winning and failing for many years because your dealing with some very old and well established behaviours. Just take it one storm at a time, don't get overwhelmed. Take it one challenge at a time and before too long you will start to see a new pattern of living emerge. Remember, with each new storm we can get stronger or more fearful. The choice is ours. Peace, your best is yet to come.

Topic The 80:20 Rule In this episode we discuss the 80:20 Rule. This concept suggests that any endeavour we undertake will be more successful if we can approach it with 80% Psychology (mindset or thinking) and 20 % Action. This can seam quite unbalanced but when we break it down its easy to see that its our thoughts that have the most effect on an endeavour. Our action towards our goal works so much smoother if we have our mental strength working for us. A person with a strong mindset will achieve so much more than a person working with a weak mind. Think about the things you've done well, verses the things you've done poorly. The things you've done well have had a strong mindset working for you. Rather than the fearful mindset that caused you to fail at other things. We discuss the fact that the only "real' obstacles in your way are thoughts. Those big issues that slow us down and get us off track are only products of our thinking. We let fear and weakness hold us back all the time. What if we could develop great mental strength and push through our fears and weaknesses? Where would our lives be then? Wouldn't it be amazing? Many of these road block thoughts come from our subconscious habitual thinking, which we have built up over many years, due to our experiences in life. The subconscious forms these boundaries designed to keep you safe. However, these boundaries hold us back from manifesting the life we really want. The crazy thing is, when we are on our journey and we come up against a trigger situation which our subconscious has set up as a fear, we turn and run in the opposite direction so as not to get hurt. The problem is that often we don't even know we are doing it. We believe its the situation that is an impenetrable road block but in reality its just our own thoughts designed to keep us in our comfort zone. Even if the comfort zone isn't very comfortable. Therefore the 80:20 rule shows us that if we can raise our mental strength to be less fearful and have more courage, we will find our lives moving quickly towards our desires. If our thinking is working with us and not against us, we will be unstoppable. The Take Away Think of an endeavour you have been trying to undertake without much success. Could be a business, a relationship, health or weight loss etc. Spend some time really being honest about why you can't get past certain obstacles. Is it fear? Is it laziness? Is it trying too hard? What is it that trips you up? Expose it and write it down. Examine it, become conscious of it, find out why its there.  Work on building courage to confront this fear. If its a big deal then seek help to work through it. If its not a big deal then lets go. Move forward on your journey ready to confront these negative thoughts head on. Work through the fears you have, because on the other side of your fear could be the success you have always wanted. You deserve to have the successful life you desire. Don't let these thoughts hold you back. Manifest u 2018 This year we are focused on manifesting our authentic selves and getting on the journey to our true desires. Its about embracing your authentic voice and releasing it to the world.  No one has the same voice as you, your experiences and skills are unique to you, no one has a voice identical to you. So if your thinking "why me" or "I'm not good enough". Remember your true voice is unique and will attract a certain amount of people to follow you. Your voice will be beneficial to many people who need to hear what you have to say. Therefore this year its all about finding that true voice and starting your authentic journey. This is the year to start designing your life. Not just accepting the one you've been given. Blessings and remember your best is yet to come!

Episode Topic The Resistance Are you resisting the success you desire?   Do you know that what you think and believe is creating your life? Consider the classic quote: If you think you can , or you think you can't your right. It has been proven through scientific and spiritual/religious studies that we can change the journey of our life by the quality of our thoughts. Have you ever had a goal or a vision that you desired to a part of your life that has been a real struggle to manifest? Think about the sort of thoughts you have, when dreaming about this goal. Actually, check out the thoughts that come after the dreaming. When "reality" sets in. What are those thoughts? This is where we can find the "resistance" we have towards manifesting success. Often we fall into "resistance" thought patterns with negative thoughts such as: "Who am I to achieve that?" "I don't deserve it?" "Other people will be way better than me at that." Sound familiar? Of course it does, we all do it. We desire something with one hand and push it away with the other. Then wonder why we don't lay hold of our dreams. The hard part is we don't even realise we are doing this. Because it happens at a subconscious level. Subconscious being the part of our brains that is like a hard drive of all the habits we have created over our lives. Especially when we were children. If we have had some negative experiences or had a person we trusted tell us we can never "make it", then often we can create beliefs in our subconscious that limit us when dreaming about what we really want for our lives.   I want it …..But I don't deserve it…..   In this episode we expose how the sub conscious mind is making most of your decisions each day and keeping you locked it the box you have created for yourself. Manifest U 2018 As always we take time to focus on our annual campaign Manifest U 2018. Where we are focused on manifesting the best, most authentic versions of ourselves in 2018. For our benefit, and for the benefit of all the people around us. Nikki gives us the great analogy of a harbour full of boats. When the tide rises all the boats go up. Similarly, when your mindset begins to change it has a powerful effect on the people around you.   The Take Away   1. Set yourself a period of time, (10, 20, 30 minutes). In that time frame, purpose yourself to only think positive thoughts towards your dreams. Remove all resistance for this period of time. If you have thoughts of unworthiness, spend this time feeling worthy of your dream. Feel it and believe you can achieve it. By practicing this regularly you will begin to build new thoughts that will start to take you closer to your dreams.   2. Also this will help you to reveal what your resistance thought are. Write them down, get them on paper and expose them. By doing so and becoming aware of them you have a much better chance of changing them to positive thoughts.   3. Make a list of all the things you have dreamed of having and have come true. This is a powerful exercise to see the power of your thoughts in action. Even if there is only a few items, thats great. You can think about what it was that made those things come true. You will see that your expectation and lack of resistance played a powerful part. Now begin to do that in your thoughts towards the things you want now.   Blessings and remember where ever you are in life….   Your best is yet to come!

Manifest U 2018 This year join with us as we go on the journey to create the best version of ourselves. Manifesting the best life we could live. Everything we do this year is about fuelling our lives with positive energy to maintain happiness. See your challenges as opportunities to grow. Opportunities to expand your capacity towards manifesting your dream life. Episode topic: What do we take for granted? (Where is our focus?) In this episode we explore the fact that we are all taking amazing things for granted. In our day to day lives there are a multitude of miracles going on that we have become blind to. We talk about how we need to re-open our eyes to see and experience these amazing things. We look at what we are conscious of. Are we more conscious of all the things we don't have rather than all the great things we do have? If we can become more grateful for the wonderful gifts we have received, we will certainly gain more wonderful things. However if we remain focused on the things we lack, then we often continue to live in that same cycle. Higher Ground Living is all about breaking out of that cycle and manifesting better things for a more fulfilling, peaceful life. A Higher Ground life is one that maintains a steady flow of happiness and peace with occasional peaks of bliss and ecstasy. As opposed to an ordinary life with a steady flow of general happiness with valleys of desperation and despair. We can take our lives higher if we just become more consciously aware of all the good things in our life, like: your children your transport your job/business your health faith the house you live in people who love and accept you safety the sunshine the stars and moon the ocean, trees, birds etc etc etc All these simple things are daily miracles happening all around us. We take these for granted everyday because we are so caught up in what we don't have, or in feeling stressed by things we have to do. The Take Away: Practice finding things in your surroundings to be grateful for. Be consciously aware of beautiful good things happening all around you. As you train your mind to notice beauty, you will begin to see beauty everywhere. Also take some time to make a list of all the great things you take for granted. Little things like food, water, air, showers, shelter etc. Take time to feel good about what you do have, choose to feel happy about these things and congratulate yourself for achieving these little things. Celebrate the beautiful warm feeling of the sun. Celebrate the safety you feel in your home. Always remember that wherever you are in the so called levels of life, you are living someone else's dream. What you are dissatisfied with is another persons paradise. Therefore lets not take the success we have achieved for granted. We believe in you… Your best is yet to come.

Welcome to HGL. The place to be, to manifest the best possible you in 2018.   Manifest U 2018 Our cry for this whole year is "Manifest U 2018".   "Manifest U" means working to improve the quality of our thinking so that we begin to manifest the best version of ourselves. That is the focus of the HGL Podcast and Blog. To equip us with effective tools that will take our lives higher. Filling us with increased happiness and peace consistently throughout all seasons of life. It is our belief and experience that we all have opportunity to choose happiness over sadness, faith over fear and peace over stress. Its not always easy and it does take work but the fact remains that peace is often a choice. The more we practice and fill our minds with Higher Ground Thinking the more we will manifest Higher Ground Lives.   Choose Happiness   In this episode we discuss how 2018 is a blank canvas. Ready for what we choose to make it. Its our focus to make this year great. By expecting great things and thinking quality positive thoughts. This year we are choosing happiness. We are watching our thoughts and emotions and consciously deciding to switch negative thinking into positive action.   This is the year we get our dreams and visions off the ground. We get started on our desires, we stop just hoping and we get doing. When our old life sneaks in and fades our inspiration we get up and keep going. No shame, no guilt and no pressure.   Nikki gives a great tip of setting easy goals at first in order to get some positive momentum. As we tick off a few actions we celebrate those small wins and move forward confidently to bigger and better things.   Our feature topic for this week is the quote:   "There is no way to happiness,      Happiness is the way."   From this quote we extract that we must fuel our journeys with happiness from the start. Its not wise to only expect happiness when we achieve a destination. By the time we arrive at a desired goal or destination there is no guarantee of happiness or peace. As the destination may not be all you thought it would be and even if it is, it won't last forever. We all know from experience that good times don't last forever. At some stage we have to move on and leave the party. Therefore if we are thinking "I'll only be happy when I achieve my goal". Then we are making the journey harder and ultimately setting ourselves up to fail long term, because the destination will change and we will return to frustration.   So move along your journey with happiness and gratitude. Be thankful for all the aspects of your life. Even the uncomfortable stuff. For it is the uncomfortable stuff that is most likely propelling you forward.   We delve into the fact that Nikki is the queen of happiness. For the approx 18 years that I've known Nikki I have always known her to be happy at work. If I ring her and she's at work, she always comments on how great it is to be at work.   We discuss how Nikki actively chooses to be happy when others are miserable. This attitude of gratitude is infectious and Nikki is known all around our city as being "happy". People love to hang out with her and be inspired and infected with her positive vibes. Nikki proves that happiness is a choice. The more we choose to get happy and stay happy the easier it gets.   The Weekly "Take Away" is: Practice choosing happy thoughts when confronted with the situations that would normally trigger a stress response from you. In the car driving is a great place to practice. At home with kids and partner. At the office or place of work. Begin to be consciously aware of your state of mind through out the day and when a stress response is triggered, take a breath, pause and ask yourself if its really necessary to elicit your usual stressful reaction. In doing so, you now have the opportunity to choose happiness and peace.   It may be hard at first but as we practice more the easier it will become. This is a great step on the journey to manifesting the best version of yourself.   Final Note   As a final note we discussed how we are not talking about running around all super excited and in everyones face. Thats just annoying. We need to keep it real. We are talking about developing peace of mind. Learning to be well balanced and graceful in all situations. Again it takes time and practice. Don't be discouraged if it takes a lot of time and effort. We are all about moving forward slowly but surely, towards a better future for us all.   Hope you enjoy the Podcast. Please leave us some comments we would love to hear your feedback. It helps us to grow into our best selves too.   Remember, your best is yet to come. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram @highergroungliving