7 Steps to Find Your Master Key to a Better Life

We spend so much time seeking answers to questions that rule our life. Why are there so many keys to missing locks of hidden doors that contain THE perfect answer?  

There is an easy way to find the answer, key, lock and door.  

Above the entrance to the ancient Oracle at Delphi the phrase, “Know Thyself” was inscribed in stone—a key to life.

That key is an answer. But, do you know the question? What good is a key without a  lock? What good is the answer, if you do not know the question? You need both, especially during crisis. The real answer may be the question, “Who Are You?”

Here are seven steps to help you find the key to answers you seek in life.

Step 1: Self-discovery; Baptism by fire….

A crisis is a decisive moment in life. It can be an emotionally, physically or psychologically significant event or a radical change in a person’s status. Webster’s dictionary defines it as an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs whose outcome will make a decisive difference for better or worse.

Crisis can be a blessing in disguise that takes you to the heights of your human potential where only true perfection exists. Imperfection is not our true nature. We naturally return to perfection. Cut your finger. Watch it heal. Perfection in action.

Step 2: Anytime healing takes place there is change. Change is the flow of life and an opportunity for emotional growth. Look for your silver lining.

 

Change happens during life challenges or enlightenments; Ah-ha moments. The depth of the change reflects the emotional reform. The challenge can be divorce, illness, bereavement, financial loss, and spiritual and emotional shifts. These require healing.

Healing is a job. Thriving is a career move. If you are reading this article, welcome to the first day of the rest of your career. Here is a key to your success. It is up to you to figure out how to unlock the door to your future. But, here is a hint: Know yourself.

Let me also introduce you to a couple of your corporate directors who will be with you every step of the way; Ms. and Mr. Life and Death.

 

Life and Death go together like inhaling and exhaling. They are celestial fraternal twins. In order to fully celebrate life, we must embrace death as a friend because someday that friend will come for us. That is the law.  

Step 3: Realign your perspectives. What does death mean to you? How does it affect your life?

 Dare to live because worrying about Mr. Death is a waste of time and energy. Celebrate each moment with Ms. Life.

Step 4: Follow the sound of your angel’s voices as they whisper to you from your heart.

Crisis, like a nightmare, is only as bad as it is perceived to be and often contains important life-saving information presented in a manner that is impossible to ignore. These are pearls of wisdom from the sands of time that worked their way beneath the layers of life. Wear your pearls with pride. They are a commodity.

 My favorite mantra is, “Mind over matter.”  If you don’t mind it (embrace it in consciousness) then it won’t matter (manifest). Perception directly affects the outcome of a life challenge. We do not see things as they are, but rather as we are. My life challenge and Ah-ha moment all rolled up into one big Wake-up call was overcoming breast cancer three times.   

According to the United States Cancer Statistics (USCS) the number of adults who have ever been diagnosed with cancer is 18.6 million and currently 2.6 million women are living beyond breast cancer. Many are Thrivers who recognize death but choose to celebrate life.

Although breast cancer can be the vehicle to deliver a message of thriving, any personal pearl of wisdom can help to overcome your life crisis.

People eager to be helpful can offer their keys as answers.  They may be right.  But, for whose question?  Having a key is only half the solution. Finding the correct lock to the corresponding door is a big step.

The perfect Master Key that fits all your locked doors is closer than you may imagine. So, who are you!

Step 5: Look in the mirror. Reconnect through the windows of your soul; your eyes.

Mirror therapy can help you discover and embrace yourself. No one knows you better than you know yourself. You have all the questions and all the answers you will ever need.  Access them through dreams, prayers and meditations. Connect with your inner-selves; your Physician-within and your Eternal Teacher-within. You are made up of more than id, ego and super-ego. Your Eternal Teacher exists beyond the physical body.

Our Eternal Teacher (ET) contains innate information that allows us to connect with Guardian Angels and Spirit Guides during times of strife. Dreams are the phone line by which our ET phones home. Someone always answers the call. Do you listen? A dream journal can help.

Step 6: A dream journal beside your bed can help you connect with yourself and your guided information.

The ancient writing of the Talmud from the 2^nd -3^rd century BC states, “A dream not interpreted is like a letter to the self unread.” Ding, ding! You have mail.

Step 7: Know Thyself.

Yes! Discover yourself and find your answer. You are the key and the lock you seek. Open your door to endless information.

About the author- Kathleen (Kat) O’Keefe-Kanavos is an author, inspirational speaker, Radio Host, and three-time breast cancer survivor who penned SURVIVING CANCERLAND: The Intuitive Aspects of Healing http://www.survivingcancerland.com/    http://accessyourinnerguide.com/  She is represented by  Steve Allen Media and is part of WakeUpWomen www.wakeupwomen.com  

7 Lessons to Survive Your Crisis--A Blessing in Disguise!

Have you ever had a gut instinct that disagreed with scientific facts, and then found that you were correct and the facts wrong? You have inner guidance.  

 

Cancer is humbling.  Like any life crisis, it is guaranteed to knock you down with its series of emotional and physical trauma, beginning with discovery and continuing through treatment, often with no end in sight.  Upon hearing a cancer diagnosis, many people feel devastated, confused and alone.  Nothing could be farther from the truth. Here are seven lessons to help you survive life-crisis.

 

The first and most important one is: Even in your darkest hour—you are never alone!

 

I know because I am a three-time, thirteen and ten year breast cancer survivor who found out the hard way that not all cancers are discovered by conventional medical tests.

 

·         Intuition can play an important part in diagnosis and survival.

 

Intuition is defined as instinctively knowing without conscious reasoning. Take care of your spirit and it will take care of you.

 

 

·         Have you ever wished you had listened to yourself rather than to someone else?

 

No matter what stage of treatment or life crisis someone is in, they and their families should listen to their innate intuition when it doesn’t jive with the expert’s advice.  It’s time to let that inner voice guide you, then use modern evaluations for validation.  Listen, then validate!  Your inner voice may save your life, relationships, and financial future.

 

·         We all have Spirit Guides and Guardian Angels. We are their job and they take their job seriously.

 

How often do you pray but miss the answers in your dreams? Your dreams are the way your Eternal Teacher (ET) phones home to heaven for help during crisis. Your Higher Power always answers!

 

·         But, do you believe the answer you hear in your prayers, meditations and dreams? Watch for the validation in everyday life. Validation is indisputable information.

 

 

What I seek to achieve by writing this article is an alternative to ignoring our intuition in favor of science or ignoring science in favor of inner guidance.  The best way to survive any health crisis is to mix intuition and science and then cross-check them against each other for answers that are indisputably correct. Be a part of your health and life team because no one knows you better than you know yourself. Listen to yourself.

 

• Our bodies have been speaking to us since the beginning of humanity.

 

Your body uses signs, symbols and symptoms to communicate. Dreams, meditations and prayers are the phone lines to inner-information. Dr. Freud and Dr. Jung used the universal archetypes in dreams to treat patients because they understood connecting with the inner-self during times of crisis. If you ask for guidance you will get it.  

 

 It’s time to rediscover your inner-guidance. In order to effectively battle illness, you must get in touch with your inner-selves and work together toward the goal of survival by using everything available to you. By searching within yourself through dreams, meditation or prayer, you will find your own set of answers to any challenge. Become bi-lingual. Learn your personal dream language for a more fulfilled life.

 

 

 

 The first time I was diagnosed, I did not believe the test results that came back “negative for cancer,” suggesting that the lump I had discovered months earlier in my breast was just in my head. I summoned the courage to use everything available in this world and the next to save my life.  The physicians and tests had missed the 2.1cm tumor that was Stage-Two cancer—aggressive invasive ductal carcinoma—that had already infected one lymph node. Five years later they missed the second breast cancer that was stage-four invasive lobular carcinoma and a year later the beginning of another lobular cancer in the other breast. Finding the life-saving information in dreams was as lucky as winning the lottery three times in a row. Luck had little to do with it. Divine Intervention did.  

 

 

 My crisis was a wake-up call to change my life, and trust in a Higher Power. Science goes so far and then comes God.  Another challenge was deciding whom to trust—my doctors or my Guardian Angels.  I listened to both and cross-checked them against each other. That information came to bear on me in ways I never imagined as I ran the race of life against time.

 

I remember my exact moment of dream validation…

 

 “Pathology didn’t like what they saw when they cut the tumor open,” my surgeon said after closing the privacy curtain behind him. Fear replaced my nausea.

 

“So, is it cancer?” I asked, while holding fast to the hospital gurney; bracing myself for the answer I already suspected and feared.

 

“Yes, I’m sorry. I’ll refer you to someone else now, a specialist.”

 Thus began my Alice in Wonderland’s steady decent down the dark rabbit hole of Cancerland!

 

So my dreams had been right. The doctors and tests were wrong.  With my surgeon’s words, the first shot of my ensuing battle had been fired, and it was not a warning across my bow. It was point-blank into my breast. I glanced down at my painful wound and wept with grief and joy. God was with me.

 

(From SURVIVING CANCERLAND: The Intuitive Aspects of Healing)

 

 

As an R.A. Bloch Cancer Foundation Hotline Phone Counselor, Question and Answer Columnist for Cape Women Online Magazine and a three time cancer survivor, I have learned seven important lessons to overcome any crisis.

 

1. You are not alone! You are born with inner-guidance but like any innate skill, such as language, it must be perfected.  Practice makes perfect. Perfect your dream language and inner-communication skills.

 

2. Believe but validate.  Inner-guidance does not want you to “blindly believe.”  Validation will present itself; more proof that you are not alone. 

 

3. Ask and you will receive. (Whiners get nothing.) Remember to also give thanks.

 

4. Crisis is a wake-up call. So Wake Up! Make changes. Live a more fulfilled and joyful life. What life-lesson did you learn from your life-crisis? Don’t waste this blessing in disguise. It is a golden opportunity to grow with spiritual guidance.

 

5. We all have a Life Purpose. Despite what may have happened in the back seat of that old Chevy, no one is an accident.  Accidently is really “accidently on purpose.” If you are alive you are on the path (Life Destiny) to fulfill your Life Purpose. What “guided” you to read this article?

 

6. Life is full of crisis within circles of crisis. Embrace them as lessons for life. Dance in the rain and sing in the wind with your Inner Guide and Guardian Angel.  Nothing is permanent, including crisis, so enjoy the storm. You will turn negative power into positive outcome.  The storm will leave you in a fresher world.

 

7. Out of crisis comes order. 

 

Dreams, prayers and meditation can lead us through the dark tunnel of crisis and into the light of inner-order and prosperity.

 

 

About the author- Kathleen (Kat) O’Keefe-Kanavos is an author, inspirational speaker, Radio Host, and three-time breast cancer survivor who penned SURVIVING CANCERLAND: The Intuitive Aspects of Healing http://www.survivingcancerland.com/    http://accessyourinnerguide.com/  She is represented by  Steve Allen Media and is part of WakeUpWomen www.wakeupwomen.com   

The Ethics of Trust: Part II

 

 

I am so pleased to welcome back my guest blogger Marcy Maslov who shares Part II of her insights on business ethics and  trust in the workplace. The office is a jungle. Make sure you are armed with integrity or the e-Factor Game.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 by Marcy J Maslov

One of the very first ethical decisions we make in business (and in life) is whether or not we can trust someone.  In this process of deciding to trust or not, we sum up a person’s character and then create a label according to our own experience, background, and beliefs.  After we create the label we then determine how we will interact with that person: Will we share information or withhold it?  Will we collaborate or do the work on our own?  Will we accept that person’s work or point fingers if mistakes are made? The decision to trust or not determines how much or how little we share about ourselves and engage with others.

 

We do all of this so quickly that most times we don’t even realize we are doing it.  Once our own judgment is made, it is very difficult for us to change our opinion.  We don’t look beneath the labels we’ve assigned to see a person’s true strengths, weaknesses, or hidden talents.  We rarely give second chances for people to change our opinion of them, and we seem to be surprised when we learn about a skill or talent that was not originally apparent or consistent.

Uncomfortable with this discussion?  You're not alone.  As we work with clients, colleagues and workshops participants we are constantly amazed at the "aha" moment of learning about the people we’ve “known” for years and thought we understood.  And what was the "aha" lesson?  That a person’s label “determines” our perception of his or her capabilities!  That our ability to trust a person depends on the label we assign subconsciously.  That the way we perceive a person depends on how they portray themselves and we pick up on that energy without even realizing it. 

Now I’m not going to point fingers and ask you whether you’re guilty of labeling people.  Instead, my question is this:  What hidden talents are You hiding from others that might benefit your organization or yourself?  Take a moment to think about that... and find someone you’re comfortable sharing this “aha” moment with!

 

For information on creating a fun, safe practice arena for resolving real-life ethical dilemmas, contact me at marcy@e-Factorgame.com or visit our website at www.e-factorgame.com.

 

 About the author:

 After watching companies and clients struggle with ethical dilemmas, Marcy J. Maslov invented a business ethics board game to provide a practice arena for solving real-life ethical dilemmas. Marcy is founder and CEO of Empowerment Unlimited Coaching, LLC, a business coaching practice devoted to building strong, ethical leaders and entrepreneurs. She has extensive Fortune 500 and entrepreneurial background that includes facilitating corporate ethics courses, coaching professionals to define and achieve their own success and teaching business owners how to read and understand their own financial statements. Marcy has lived or worked in over 20 countries, including France, Mexico and Canada. She is a Certified Professional Coactive Coach and CPA and has earned her MBA from Duke University. Write to Marcy at marcy@e-Factorgame.com and visit her websites www.coacheuc.com and  www.e-Factorgame.com for special coaching and ethics program offers.

 About the author- Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos is a three- time breast cancer survivor who penned SURVIVING CANCERLAND. www.survivingcancerland.com , Radio Co-host, keynote & high paid speaker, www.WakeUpWomen.com member & is represented by  Steve Allen PR Media. Follow her on her social media links and blogs from her websites & enjoy her free download  @ www.AccessYourInnerGuide.com