Category Archives: Writing Musings

Musings from author Denise Turney on writing, including freelance, marketing, self-help, nonfiction and journal writing. Here you will find book marketing tips as well as advice on places where you can go to sharpen your craft and network with other writers, including novelists. You’ll also find places where you can network with readers, editors, publishers and literary agents.

How To Make The Most Of Writer Conferences

Posted on by

By African American Book Writer Denise Turney

person holding book while browsing at writer conference
Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Pexels.com

Writer conferences, whether virtual or in-person, are among the best places to introduce new, classic and backlist books to book buyers. As an author, just make sure that writer conferences you go to have a spot on the agenda for authors to sell and autograph their books. In addition to introducing titles to new readers, here are practical ways to make the most out of writer conferences.

Writer Conference Strategy Tips

  • Bring samples of your writings – Edit and sharpen your best writings. Bring these writings with you to writer conferences you attend, especially if there’s an option to share your manuscripts with literary agents, editors and book publishers.
  • Attend three or more conference events – Many writer conferences have events that writers can attend. To get the most out of writer conferences, attend three or more events. For example, you could attend a panel discussion with authors who have written New York Times best sellers. Even more, you could attend a writer’s critique event and a book marketing discussion.
  • Meet book editors – Find out the names of book editors attending writer conferences. Introduce yourself to two or more editors that specialize in editing the genre of books that you write.
  • Share works with literary agents – Place your writings in a SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope) and share the works with literary agents. Also, ensure that the works are copyrighted.

More Ways to Make the Most of Literary Conferences

  • Giveaway free writing excerpts – Treat book buyers who attend writer conferences to free excerpts from your poems, short stories, novels and other books that you are working on. But don’t just give out free writing excerpts. Add your writer website URL to each page of the excerpt. That way conference attendees can keep in touch with you and maybe even buy your books.
  • Network – Introduce yourself to other writers attending the conferences. Consider exchanging website URLs and email addresses. Why? Writers you meet at the conferences could keep you aware of upcoming writer events, places where you could sell more books.
  • Blend with book festivals – Aim for writer conferences that have book festivals at the end of the conferences. If not, attend a mix of writer conferences and book festivals throughout the year.
  • Newsletter signups – Ask conference attendees to sign up to receive your free weekly or monthly literary newsletter.
  • Meet book buyers – Don’t just sell your works. Ask book buyers questions, getting to know these readers. It’s a good way to build relationships.

Beauty Of Writer Conferences

It’s possible to sell 10 to 50 or more copies of your books at a well marketed writers conference, especially if the conference has a strong brand. The National Black Writers Conference, New York City Writers Conference, International Dublin Writers Conference and Kauai Writers Conference are conferences that have been supporting writers, editors, publishers and readers for years.

Local and regional writers attend these conferences. Because of this, the conferences are great networking opportunities. Take advantage of these networking opportunities. Get up and say “hello” to other writers attending the conferences. Who knows? This is where you might develop relationships with other writers, the types of relationships that find you and these writers sharing book marketing, book promotion and book writing tips.

In addition, you might land a book deal with a book publisher. That, or you might strike a contract with a literary agent who has editor and publisher connections to secure you a book deal. But first you need to take the right actions to make the most out of writer conferences.

Emotional Stories Readers Love To Connect With

Posted on by

By Books Writer Denise Turney

pensive woman resting at home with emotional stories in a book
Photo by Sam Lion on Pexels.com

Good books touch emotional cores. It’s these emotional stories, written by emerging writers and established authors that resonate with readers. Even more, readers love stories that fuel them with emotion and transport them away from their everyday lives. But novelists can’t just transport readers, they have to create characters, dialogue and plots that dig up deep emotion. In fact, emotion may be the key difference that separates average books from top sellers.

Characters Drive Storytelling

Another benefit readers look for in storytelling is for characters to take surprising risks. They also seek tension, the type of suspense that creates an emotional connection between characters and readers. Now, here’s a key.

To achieve great storytelling, dialogue, character development and a tense, believable plot aren’t enough. Readers must be able to get inside the minds of your books characters. They need to feel like they know the characters personally. Even more, readers need to understand character motivations, fears and strengths.

Elements In Best Books To Read

One way to do this is to have a character make a vow she does not intend to keep. For example, a real estate manager could vow to her team that she loves her job and plans to continue managing at the real estate firm after she completes her psychology master’s degree when, in actuality, what she really wants is to retire and start a nonprofit counseling agency in order to avoid facing a financial scandal that’s on the verge of being exposed at the real estate firm.

But writers can’t just spring the contrast on readers. Instead, they have to build tension and reveal the struggle between what characters say and do. It’s this slow build of tension that’s found in the best books to read. And it can take years of fiction writing for authors to acquire this skill.

Also, whether it’s an autobiography or work of fiction, writers need to take readers to places that readers haven’t been before. It’s easy to do this with science fiction books, not as easy with contemporary fiction.

Classic Emotional Stories

This is where the mental workings of characters helps to strengthen stories. Ralph Ellison pulls this off in Invisible Man. Ellison masterfully takes readers inside the mind of the book’s main character, an African American man who leaves the South and relocates to New York. The move doesn’t bring the man what he’d expected it to. It’s from here that Ellison takes the man into a basement where the tautness, the powerful emotion of the storytelling takes over.

Invisible Man left an imprint on me when I read the book. Ralph Ellison’s writing skill blessed my soul. His writing took me into that basement with the book’s main character. Before I knew it, I was pulling, literally rooting, for that man to do what it took to win, to get back on his feet and rise.

Knowing this, it’s highly recommended that writers who want their stories to become among the best books to read, invest the time to actually read powerful books. Surprisingly an autobiography could help writers spot ways to sharpen their characters.

After all, when you think about it, don’t the best books of all time have such deeply developed characters that the characters feel like real people? But don’t just read books until you unconsciously spot the elements of great characterization, keep writing to develop your own voice, your own powerful writing style.

How to Gain Victory While Passing Through Life Storms

Posted on by

By Books Writer Denise Turney

person standing using red umbrella in rain like life storms
Photo by Aline Nadai on Pexels.com

Gaining victory while passing through life storms can feel so difficult until just the thought of taking a forward step could generate feelings of frustration, fatigue, hopelessness and exhaustion. While passing through life storms, a success mindset may not always produce a reward. In fact, the harder you push for success, the more roadblocks you might face.

Inner Storms

Because storms in your life are times of great change, you may experience stress, anxiety and other emotional and psychological issues. For example, if you feel like “the storm is raging in my life,” you might experience depression, struggle to get and stay asleep, gain or lose weight and have trouble focusing.

The New Zealand Health Promotion Agency shares that you may feel like your brain won’t stop, won’t rest. Also, you might feel numb, low on energy or restless. Other signs that you’re facing the storms of life include:

  • Becoming easily agitated
  • Wanting to be alone instead of with other people
  • Nervousness
  • Sadness
  • Troubling dreams
  • Feeling disconnected
  • Thinking that life has no meaning

Outer Life Storms

These are inner signs that storms in your life may be becoming overwhelming. Outer signs that facing the storms of life may be too much include:

  • Trouble making decisions
  • Staying up late at night
  • Bodily pains that seemingly have no cause
  • Starting fights
  • Not talking with other people
  • No longer participating in enjoyable events

So, how do you gain victory as you pass through life storms? On the road to success, be honest about what you are experiencing, including how you are feeling. Talk with a trustworthy friend. Definitely stay connected to family and friends.

This latter point cannot be stressed enough. When you’re in a storm, it is so important to stay connected to others. The deeper you go into a storm, the more tempted you might be to isolate. If you make visiting, playing, dining and traveling with people you trust a part of your daily or weekly routine, it might be easier to steer clear of isolation should a storm show up.

Ways to Pass Through Life Storms

Also, rest when you feel overwhelmed. For instance, you could take a break from watching the news, step away from social media and steer clear of discussing heavy topics with friends. Of course, seek professional help if you continue to feel overwhelmed as you deal with storms in your life.

Here are other ways to keep advancing. As tough as it may be, remember that perseverance is the key to success. Assistance to persevere may come to you as you read or listen to other people’s success stories.

Encourage yourself by reading about the habits of successful people who have come through severe life storms. Reading success stories of people who have overcome near impossible odds can prove tremendously empowering. So too could reading spiritual books that value all life, books that focus on love rather than judgment and shame.

Achieving Victory

And again – don’t overdo work. Victory while passing through life storms requires patience. You need to be patient with yourself. But you also need to keep going however slowly. If you’re in the habit of practicing awareness due to meditation, practiced honesty or daily body and emotion scans, you should notice when you feel more energized, when you’re starting to heal. Depending on the storm that you’re going through, it could take months to start to feel energized and as if your life has a remarkable and glorious unfolding ahead.

Once you catch your wind, this may be the time to push forward, recognizing the power of success. Eventually, you’ll pass through storms in your life. Yet, in this world, new storms, new challenges, will crop up. So, celebrate success each time you experience it. Each victory can serve as evidence, as a real-life witness, that you have what it takes to achieve victory even as you’re facing the storms of life. So, keep advancing, one victory at a time.

Let Love Relationships Change the World

Posted on by

By Books Author Denise Turney

hands forming heart love for the world
Photo by ATC Comm Photo on Pexels.com

Love relationships change everything in the world because, thankfully, all that is true is connected in love. That’s possible because you’re nonphysical. Once you see the connectedness in all that is real or true, you may perceive how your thoughts, beliefs and actions impact all that is. In that alone, you can receive an experience that the ego continuously searches for but never finds – evidence of your unlimited power, evidence that you are love.

Power of Love to Change Your Life

You have the power to change your life and impact the people around you. Even more, your love relationships may yield greater results than you imagine. Also, these love relationships include romantic relationships, colleague relationships, family relationships and friendships. They also include people you try to avoid or deem unworthy of your kindness, love and care.

However, it’s easy to only consider romantic relationships when you think about love relationships that you nurture and invest in. Here’s the thing. If you’re following a decades-old romantic relationship path, you might be searching for someone you deem to be “special”.

That means that you don’t think about getting closer with family, friends, colleagues, neighbors and anyone else in communication, social engagements, challenging discussions and fun in ways that forces you to reexamine old beliefs you may have held onto for far too long. You’re just on a hunt for this “special” person. In fact, you might have already created this “special” person in your imagination, going so far as to give this person a height, weight, smile, personality, job and financial makeup.

Exciting New Love Relationships

Good news is that you could meet someone who seemingly fits the bill of the “idol” that you created. Even better, the start of this “love” relationship could charge you with feelings of excitement, aliveness, fun, safety, peace and acceptance. Right off the dribble, you might even decide that this “special” person is worth sacrificing for.

Signs that you’ve made this judgment (or decision) include:

  • Sacrificing or reducing the time you spend with family and friends
  • Participating in sex acts you don’t enjoy in effort to make this “special” person happy
  • Visiting places (e.g. golf course, spa, mall, worship centers) that you have no interest in or don’t believe in – again, all for the person you judged or decided is “special”
  • Investing money in the “special” person (again, this is someone who you decided is “special”)
  • Preaching to yourself that what the “special” person wants is more important than what you want

Also, you might think that God will be especially pleased with you if you sacrifice for the “special” person. Clearly, you would have set yourself up for an impossible task. Why? Admittedly, it may take time in the relationship or several experiences you have with this person. But eventually you’re going to see that not only is this person not “special” – if you’re fortunate, you’ll also see that there are no “special” people anywhere.

Don’t Give Up On Healthy Love Relationships

Don’t give up. Despite the temptation, don’t toss in the towel on the relationship if it’s healthy. This means, there’s no physical, verbal, financial or emotional violence in the relationship. A key reason not to give up on the relationship is the fact that, if you do quit on the relationship, you will likely merely start searching for another “special” person.

But remember that there are no “special” people. So, if you sever the relationship, the best you could do is find another illusion of a “special” person. And it may be at the point of discontent (when you realize that the person isn’t “special”) that your love relationship could truly change for the better!

This is when the love relationship could really deepen, helping both your partner and you to awaken more and more to real love, truth, peace and joy. Furthermore, it’s at these levels in a love relationship where your relationship could start to change the world. And again, this can be done with relatives, friends, neighbors, colleagues, spouses or anyone. You just have to decide to only love.

True Love Changes World

Keep in mind all that is true is connected. Can you see how entering into real love, a love that transcends the body, could have a profound impact? For starters, you’d not only be teaching and learning patience. You’d be teaching and learning the value of patience (not tolerance – patience). Because you have to be patient with yourself to stick with and learn these new love lessons. And, you certainly have to be patient with yourself long enough to see real love work.

Choose and practice only love and you’d be teaching and learning trust, honesty, freedom and the fact that what you really are (far more than a body) can never be hurt. And, you’d be teaching and learning that joining in love, even as it regards communication, with another offers rewards that keeping separate from others never will.

You might not notice it at first. But you’d also come to see that you’re lovable as others return love to you. After all, if you’re being loved, you have to be lovable. Another benefit is that you’d see that you can and do love. Watch what happens then. Love relationships, including the love relationship that you have with yourself, really do change the world. But first you have to commit to love.

When It Doesn’t Feel like Love Is Enough

Posted on by

By Freelance Writer and Books Author Denise Turney

frozen wave against sunlight in love is enough shape
Photo by Hernan Pauccara on Pexels.com

Love holds all that lives together. In fact, it is so vast that it’s impossible to describe. Talking and singing about it doesn’t bring it more fully into your awareness. It has to be shared, experienced. When you realize that love is enough, you’re encouraged, inspired and invigorated. You also tap into the vision and courage to live the life you came here to enjoy.

When Questions Keep Surfacing

But is love always enough?

It sure doesn’t feel like it’s enough when you’ve endured a traumatic childhood. If you spent the first 12 years of your life being told that you aren’t enough, that you’re less than others and that you don’t belong, as sweet as they may sound to you as an adult, all the sweet messages, quotes and songs about love won’t be enough.

Why? You’ve probably come to believe that you aren’t worthy of love. In fact, you might even be afraid of love. This is the crossroads that Raymond Clarke finds himself facing in the book, Love Pour Over Me. His mother abandoned him when he was only two years old. On top of that, his father has untreated alcoholism. And his father is mean – real mean to young Raymond.

Yet, the only person who can demonstrate love to Raymond is his father. Although Raymond’s story is a fictional account of childhood trauma and its far-reaching effects, the story, unfortunately, mirrors the real-life experiences of millions of children, teens and adults around the world. It might even mirror your own life.

Signs You’re Struggling to Believe Love Is Enough

But how do you know you’re running from the very thing you swear you want? Pay attention to how you feel when people talk about their relationships. Do you think people are lying or exaggerating when they say they are happy and thankful for the healthy relationship they are in?

Here are more signs that you might not believe the source of life is enough:

  • Close relationships scare you
  • You pull away from people when you start to feel emotionally close to them
  • Excuses for why you can’t attend social gatherings are generally how you respond to requests to have fun and be vulnerable
  • Keeping in touch with friends isn’t in the top three on your priority list
  • Living alone, not just at home, but in life feel safer than letting other people in

Love And Friendship

It’s this type of childhood trauma that can leave you accepting mistreatment from people who show you an ounce of kindness, even from men and women who ultimately intend to cause you more harm. Let this vicious cycle start turning and you may spend the rest of your time in this world convinced that love simply is not enough.

Fortunately, there is a path out of this vicious cycle. It starts with telling yourself that you are loved, worthy to receive love and created as an extension of love. You may have to do this for months, perhaps years, before you start to believe it, especially if you’ve spent years hearing and believing the opposite.

And, you have to demonstrate to yourself that you’re worthy of love. Do this while you choose people to allow into your life. For starters and in safety, bid farewell to people who traumatize or abuse you. Do it safely. But start making decisions that find you surrounded by people who truly care about you.

Love Is Enough

Yes. It would have been good if your parents and elders had demonstrated for you that love is enough. But, if they didn’t, you’re going to have to do this for yourself. Also, pray for loving people to come into your life. Ask for guidance to know who these people are. This starts to happen for Raymond at college.

As more loving people enter your life, you’ll start to change. You’ll start to blossom. And you’ll know genuine love messages when you hear them.

Perhaps most of all, you’ll start allowing yourself to receive and give true love. It can take hard inner work to get there. You might even have to go into psychotherapy, meditate, read books on love and more. But, along the way, you should come to know that love is enough. Love really is enough.

Achieve Book Marketing Success from Home

Posted on by

By African American Books Author Denise Turney

woman in brown shirt holding buy books quote board
Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

Book marketing is work. In fact, marketing books is so much work that authors can easily spend 90% or more time solely on marketing after they publish new books. Fortunately, there are no-cost to low-cost ways to get the word out about your books without leaving home.

Book Marketing Festivals

For example, The Everywhere Book Fest, the Miami Book, FLIP, Hay Festival of Literature and Arts, Brooklyn Book Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Harlem Book Fair pull in hundreds, some of the events attract thousands, of book lovers and book buyers. For instance, in 2018 more than 250,000 people attended the Miami Book Fair.

Clearly, book festivals are great places to implement author marketing strategies like distributing postcards, handing out brochures, flyers and free book excepts. Also, large book festivals are great places for authors to talk with book lovers and book buyers face to face.

Authors who ask visitors who stop by their festival booth to sign up for their digital newsletter, could send festival visitors holiday greetings, birthday greetings and other book marketing messages post festival. After all, a key benefit of marketing books is relationship building. As an author, if you want to expand your readership and increase book sales, make developing and deepening relationships with readers a priority.

Ways to Market Your Books from Home

But what if you’re an author who’s unable to attend book festivals to market your books? There are ways to connect with readers online and start developing new, rewarding reader relationships. These are genuine relationships, not communication pathways to saturate readers with “buy my book” messages.

Below are ebook marketing, Kindle marketing and other novel marketing actions that you could complete to introduce new readers to your books from home:

  • Social media marketing books – Schedule social media posts using automated systems like HootSuite, Buffer, etc. But don’t just post book excerpts, answer questions, respond to book polls and like and comment on other authors’ and readers’ social media posts.
  • Amazon Ads – With the right keywords, authors could increase book sales by running Amazon automatic and sponsored ads. Consider taking free Amazon ad webinars to learn how to market your book on Amazon. Before running campaigns to market your books. Also, review ad reports, looking for effective keywords, twice a month. Be open to making campaign changes until book sales increase and your ad spend costs drops. The goal is to turn a profit, so watch your ad reports and make adjustments as needed.
  • Virtual readings – To market your books, you can host virtual book readings on platforms like YouTube and Facebook Live.
  • Digital newsletters – Create and distribute digital newsletters. Add newsletter sign-up forms to your official author website. There are email marketing systems like MailChimp and Constant Contact that you could use to manage digital newsletters.
  • Press releases – Write and send press releases to media.
  • Postcards – Design electronic postcards and send to book club presidents and book lovers.
  • Private group discussions – Hold discussions about your books at private social media groups.
  • Virtual book festivals – Attend virtual book festivals.
  • Blog – Start a book blog and link it to your website. Use Google Keyword Planner to find effective keywords to add to your blog articles.

Building Reader Relationships

EBook marketing isn’t the only book marketing strategy that’s a good fit for authors who market their books from home. Tools like social media, electronic postcards, brochures and digital flyers have made it easier to market print books from home.

However, authors who truly gain from book marketing, focus on developing reader relationships. They may send readers a birthday card, holiday greetings or attend book club events, places where they might not sell a single book. Yet, as readers start to feel that authors sincerely value reader-author connections and strive to create the best stories for them to enjoy, those readers may turn into an author’s regular book buyers.

And it’s that reader and author connection that’s often the biggest reward. Little surpasses the reward of hearing a book buyer share how much she enjoyed reading your novel.  Even better is hearing a reader share how deeply your book touched him, perhaps inspiring him to make a good life change. The good news is that authors can make these reader connections from home or abroad.

Harnessing the Power of Accepting Truths

Posted on by

By African American Books Author Denise Turney

accepting truthsaccomplishment action adventure power challenge
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Power of accepting truths is real. After all, truth is the gateway to freedom. Yet, it’s the idea of deep truths that we love. For example, we love the idea that all humans are created equal. But we compete, compare and search for differences then tell ourselves and each other that we aren’t, in fact, created equal.

Add in the fact that humans don’t like being wrong and it’s easy to see how we point to evidence that our beliefs and our biases are right. After this cycle gets started, it could take us years to pause long enough to examine what we’re doing. It could take us years to accept the truth, or could there be a shortcut to accepting truths?

Want To Know The Truth

I’ve caught myself doing this numerous times. For me, there’s often an element of magical thinking at work when I turn away from the power of accepting truths. When I pushed myself too hard and felt near burnout, I told myself that it would all be better after a night of sleep (magical thinking). Truth was that I had to acknowledge what I was doing to myself and insert healthy change into my day, which (thankfully) I eventually did.

But magical thinking isn’t the only thing that might stop you from accepting truth. Refusal to look at what you’re thinking, believing or doing can also prevent you from accepting truth. The downside is that you wouldn’t be free. You’d also have to try to shelter in thought defense systems in effort to keep good truths out of your awareness.

Finding and Accepting the Truth

To thicken these self-imposed barricades, you might seek people to agree with you, to share your erroneous thoughts or ideas. Yet, that doesn’t change the truth. However, if you keep defending and repeating and/or acting out your erroneous beliefs, you could start to think that these thought errors are, in fact, the truth.

Don’t ignore the power of the mind. It has the power to accept or block inner truth and universal truth. In fact, there may be no more powerful tool anywhere, which brings back the starting point. There is power in accepting truth. Start small if you feel that turning away from erroneous thoughts you have used to feel safe for years will place you in emotional danger.

As an example, if you struggle with a food or beverage addiction, you could study what the food or beverage does to the human body. Or you could visit a facility where the food or beverage is made.

A friend did this with pork. After seeing for himself how hot dogs were made, he never ate pork again.

Desire for Deep Truths

The more you see how erroneous thoughts are keeping you from accepting truth (the gateway to freedom), the more you may desire the truth. But be advised. Your mind might fight against accepting truths, especially if you feel unloved, uncared for and unsafe.

Yet, there’s very good news. Even if you endured an abusive childhood and/or abusive adult relationships, you could always start learning to love yourself. When you love you, you’ll always be loved.

Power of Accepting Truths Leads to Freedom

As you feel mentally safer, your desire for truth may expand, deepen and strengthen. Then, you may start to spot erroneous mental patterns and ask for help to release those patterns, replacing them with good truths.

But please be warned that if you look at what others are doing and feel you’re being slighted if another person continues in thought defense systems and erroneous thinking, you could feel anger. And you might feel as if your accepting and living in truth won’t change the world, improve the world or make another person better. You also might decide to stop accepting truth. Yet, that won’t change the fact that truth is the gateway to freedom.

So, keep accepting the truth, one experience after the other. At the very least, you’ll be free.

Surrender Your Expectations to Gain a Better Life

Posted on by

By Books Author Denise Turney

person underwater with hands up on air ready to surrender
Photo by Patrick Porto on Pexels.com

Surrender your expectations to enjoy the life you want. It’s not as hard as it seems. Generally, it starts at the beginning of whatever it is you’re pursuing.

If you look back, you’ll see that much of what you’ve done felt exhilarating at the beginning. Starts are exciting, full of hope, trust and surprise. They rarely require surrender. Instead, you might have to pump the brakes and slow yourself down. You’re so ready to step into something new.

There may be no better time when you don’t need convincing that a relationship, project or travel plan will absolutely turn out fabulously. Then, you get to the middle of a relationship, work at the same company for two years or are six months into a year-long international nature trip.

Surrender Your Expectations at the Start

As fun as your nature trip has been, there have been bumps. Imagine this. While in Italy, on a winding country road, you get lost. But you keep driving, figuring that you’ll find your way back to your hotel. Five minutes don’t pass before a tire on your rental car pops then flattens. It’s night. All you feel that you can do is curse and bang the steering wheel. Yet, that won’t get you to the hotel.

Then, there’s the food that you ate while visiting Brazil a day ago that your stomach is still angry with you about. When it comes to work, you’ve been on the job long enough to get to know the different personalities. You get along with nearly everyone. But the strong-willed executive assistant is rubbing your nerves real thin. And one of your managers just won’t stop challenging your every decision.  It wasn’t that way when you started. There was nothing to surrender to then.

In fact, on your first day at the job, the entire team treated you to breakfast, hugs and the most delightful conversation. Oh, and that used-to-be-new relationship. There are things about your partner that are starting to annoy you. It’s only happened twice. But you’ve started to wonder if you picked the right partner.

Welcome to the Middle – Time to Surrender Your Expectations

You’re in the middle, the place where struggle can occur and the only way out is through surrender. Better, you can’t go back and you know it. If you stay, you’ll have to set a new goal for the relationship, job or trip.

For example, instead of staying in the relationship so you can prove to your family and friends that you married the right person or staying together so that your kids can grow up with both their parents living in the same house, the new goal for your relationship might be to have a blast exploring the world together, starting two businesses that thrive for generations and, more importantly, helping each other to awaken spiritually.

Even with the changed goal, it’s going to take focus and commitment. Why? You’re going to want to quit. Now that your goal has shifted, to succeed, you need to do two more things. You need to surrender and trust.

Surrender to your true Self. And, surrender to the Creator. Then, trust that the Creator and your true Self know the way that you should go. Sound easy? Only if it was.

Resisting the Aim of Surrendering

Ego is going to put up a fierce battle to keep you under its guidance. You may be enticed to return to old addictions (e.g. soda addiction, food addiction, exercise addiction, gossip addiction, alcohol addiction). Also, you might be tempted to return to old relationships. Who knows? You might even start to think sidestepping surrendering and going back to a former job is the way that you should go.

But why do you want to go back? You’ve already spent time in the past. Certainly, you know what’s back there. If you don’t surrender and go back now, boredom, low energy and lack of engagement could await.

Surrender to Gain a Better Life

So, are you feeling afraid about what could lay ahead?

And what part of you is feeling afraid?

To surrender, you need to have faith. You absolutely need to trust the very Source that created you. And why not? You trusted Source while you were being created. Certainly, you can trust now.

Surrender. Pray. Meditate. Explore. Ask questions. Stay curious. Live open. Practice patience. Love yourself. Practice awareness. Be honest with yourself. Allow yourself to make mistakes. Let yourself learn. Accept the best visions for your life. Walk in faith. Love at all times. Tap into your core. Follow inner guidance. Take smart actions. Keep advancing.

How to Open Yourself to More Miracles

Posted on by

By Books Author Denise Turney

colorful rainbow surrounded by cliffs, waterfall and rainbow miracles
Photo by Svanur Gabriele on Pexels.com

Miracles are all around you. In simplest form, miracles remove what appears to keep you from being aware of love. Also, God phenomenon or real-life spiritual wonders are described as an experience that occurs outside of natural or scientific laws. It’s due to how these experiences occur that they are considered God wonders.

You Don’t Have to Be Religious to Receive Miracles

Better yet, religious affiliation nor religious beliefs are required to receive miracles. But whether you’re offering prayers for financial help or another prayer for a blessing right now, to receive or to see miracles and to experience miracles firsthand, you need to do more than expect goodness.

You need to open yourself to miracles. And, here’s a key, a very important key.

To receive miracles, give the miracle of forgiveness. A Course In Miracles is a book dedicated solely to forgiveness. Before you read the book, it may prove beneficial to study projection. You could also practice awareness and try to catch yourself projecting.

If you’re like me, you’re going to resist accepting that you engage in projection. And, who could fault you? After all, it’s hard to see how your thoughts could influence your experiences, including how others perceive you and treat you. Just a hard sell. But, that doesn’t mean that you aren’t projecting.

Projection and Real-Life Miracles

Here’s an easy way to look at projection, especially as it regards real life miracles. Think about a projector, the equipment used to project or show an image that’s placed on a machine out onto a wall or screen so that more people can see the image.

With experiences, the mind is the projector and thoughts are the image. The world is the wall or the screen that your thoughts are projected onto. You have no idea how much I fought this. But experiences showed me that it is so.

For example, when I focused on one to three traits to appreciate about someone who I was struggling to get along with, the way that the person responded to me actually changed. This I have experienced many times.

Miracle Of Forgiveness

In other words, my thoughts about the person changed. Then, what I projected or saw in the world regarding the person changed. These experiences are like real life miracles.

So, to open yourself to real life miracles, look for the link between your thoughts and what you’re seeing in the world. Be honest. Be aware. You can always change your thoughts. In fact, changing your thoughts is a first step to open yourself to miracles.

Blessings Come with Forgiveness

The second way to open yourself to miracles is to forgive. Sounds simple. But, the miracle of forgiveness is powerful. A tip to forgive is to start writing one to three actions, talents, etc. that you appreciate about the person you feel the emotions of anger, fear or sadness around. Do this every day until you witness a shift.

For instance, after you practice forgiveness, that person might smile and speak to you or you might stop feeling angry or afraid when you hear the person’s name or are in the person’s presence. Those are signs that something has shifted.

Let Go of Control

Another way to experience the miracle of forgiveness is to spend one to two uninterrupted hours speaking out loud, “I love you” followed by the name of the person you’re at odds with. Watch what happens the next time you see the person. I did this with someone who I thought would hate me forever. In one week, the person treated me with kindness.

Don’t use this practice as a way to manipulate someone. After all, you’re trying to see how a miracle works. You’re not trying to control anyone or anything, which brings up the third way to open yourself to miracles.

To experience real life miracles, let go. Accept that you cannot (nor probably would even want to) control everything. Avoid trying to control how miracles play out. Attempting to control miracles could leave you feeling frustrated, angry, afraid and even blind to miracles that are around you right now.

Expect Miracles

In fact, it would be shocking if real life miracles played out exactly the way you want them to. So, if you’re sending up miracle prayers for financial help, you might not get the salary increase that you want. Instead, you might receive a promotion that puts you in line for three times the bonus you’d received a year ago.

Or you might win a financial award, win a settlement or receive an unexpected financial gift – none which are related to a salary increase. But all which are forms of financial help. Therefore, stay open, forgive (this includes forgiving yourself), love yourself and others, settle into appreciation and don’t try to control outcomes. Oh, and expect miracles.